Tony & Emma

Thanks everyone - Erny, you have a PM. We have been going to baby puppy class at Surrey Park, Victorian Obedience School. We missed the last two weeks due to Huck being ill the night before. We and him enjoyed it, we have gone from him being 8 weeks to 13 weeks old, (he's 15 weeks now). We just found that it was so busy, it got a bit much in the end. The had to split the room into three groups to do the heel & walking training, but it just meant that 2/3rds of the pups are sat around the edge of the room bored and distracting the other third that are trying to walk around the middle of the room - all the while tripping over the person in front, or being rear-ended by the person behind. It was great as a socialisation session, and we did learn how do train him at home. He is 4 months old now, so graduates to the outside class. I will call them this week to see what we will be covering in that. We will still be going to the Victorian obedience school, but I thought having a private session or two at home would be invaluable as the trainer can see how he is in his own environment, and can suggest where we may or may not be going wrong in how we handle his daily life. Cheers.

Thanks for the replies. I'll check out all those mentioned above. When I contacted Ausdogs, a guy called John called me back. Apparently he is one of the owners, he sounded like he knew his stuff and said he had been training dogs for 30 years. Cheers.

Tonymc - I have sent you a PM, cheers. Cosmolo - We are in Balwyn North. The chap that called me was John, who I understand is one of the founders/owners of Ausdogs? Cheers.

Hi all, We have a Great Dane pup, 15 weeks old, and he's a pretty chilled guy. In fact, I have been surprised at how good he is for a pup. We do have a few little issues though, in particular walking, but on the whole he is great. We are thinking of getting a private trainer in to make sure we are on the right track and not inadvertently teaching him bad habits that may come back to haunt us further down the line, and also to help us make walking enjoyable for him and us. I called Ausdogs, based in Melbourne, and liked what they had to say. I am on the verge of booking them but thought I would ask on here first for any first hand experience of them and their methods. I just wondered f anyone on here had used them, and had any comments, or recommendation's for similar companies? Thanks.

Thanks for the replies. Really, he is very good - and we're not bothered about having to use the tray longer due to not being able to be with him all day. We'll have a change round of his pen in the next week or so, as I nned to modify the main gate to it (he's getting so big he'll soon be over it). When we swap it aournd, we can start to move his tray toward the door. That's got to help. He was so tired at this morning 2:30am wake up call that he didn't make it to the lawn, and 'deposited' on the deck instead before trotting straight back to bed. This morning 5:30 call he couldn't even be arsed to get out of his crate so I left him there for Emma at 6:30. He is such a great little chap. Cheers.

He isn't a baby human- home and cozy isn't reeeeally what he needs, particularly as he grows. He will not be sleeping most of the day for a long time either.. by 4-5 months he will be alot more active, and bigger. IMO, as long as he is tought that it is ok to toilet inside, it is going to take him a long time to distinguish the difference between where inside is ok to pee and where inside is not. Teaching to toilet inside at all is going to make things difficult. It's a shame he can't spend time outside. We live in an area where there are a lot of working properties, and TBH, its not really what I would call a secure neighbourhood. We have a purebred Kelpie who would be worth alot to many people out here. But there is NO way I would keep her locked inside for her most of her day just because I was concerned about someone pinching her-which could be done easily through our side gate. She is a very active dog and needs to be outside with lots of space and things to explore. As it turns out, Halle only ever accidentally peed inside once when I hadn't taken her outside for a while and I left her in the room on her own for too long. Are you able to construct a fully enclosed pen outside? One that can be locked if you're concerned about security? From what I have learned about Danes though, is that they don't like to be outside on their own all day and they'd rather be in their 'home' chilling out, lounging around and sleeping (regardless of age) I agree he's not a baby, and he certainly isn't treat like one. He gets outside time with me and a football after work, but as soon as he tires (about 20 mins) he wanders back in and finds his favourite comfy spots and zonks for the next few hours.

Thanks for the replies. I don't like the idea of leaving him home alone outside - too many idiots around that could grab him, or harm him. We're in a decent area, so I doubt anything would happen, and the garden is secure, but I just wouldn't feel settled. Plus, as sleeps most of the day anyway, so it's nice to think he is home & cozy. He's not really one for the outside at the moment - he'd rather be indoors. We intend to always leave him indoors to be honest. We are building a nice big house, so when he's grown he will have stacks of room in the new place that he can be left alone in. The plan is hopefully to eventually have him well enough trained to be trusted with run of the house in the day. Pics & vids here:- www.mytb.org/tony---emma Cheers.

Hi all, We're after a bit of advice regarding toilet raining if anyone can help? Some background info:- We have a 9 week old male Great Dane pup called Huckleberry, he's great! We crate trained him from the outset and he took to it really well. He whimpered occasionally the first couple of nights, but loves his crate now he's into a routine. He sleeps in there all night, with one 'pit-stop' in the middle of the night when I take him out to pee. We have had no accidents in the crate for a week, (apart from the one night I slept through my 2:30 alarm and left the poor sausage all night). We work full time, so he is alone for 7 to 8 hours a day, this doesn't seem to bother him and from checking the webcam and watching him on weekends, he just seeps 95% of that time anyway. He has a large 'pen', which is basically half of the family room. His crate is in the corner of the pen. On a night he is shut in his crate, if we are out or at work his crate is open, but his pen is closed and when we are home his pen door is open so he has the whole family room with us. In the far corner of his pen, diagonally opposite his crate, is a large plastic tray which we put paper over for toileting in the day whilst we are at work. So, here's the 'problem'. Night time is fine, I take him out for toilets before I go to bed then shut him in his crate. I set my alarm for 2:30am each morning and come down to take him out again - which he does. He is then shut in back in his crate and sleeps until around 5:45, then I get up - take him for a toilet outside again and let him out in his pen where we play before work. Emma comes down, gives him brekkie and spends another hour or so playing - he then crashes asleep and Em heads off to work. When we are home, every 30 to 60 minutes we take him out to pee, after every meal or drink and after play sessions we take him out to pee. There is no problem there. During the day, when we are at work, we put the paper lined tray down in his pen. He has got this part down no problem, he always wees and poos on his tray when we are at work, and man can he pee - it's flooded when I ge home. Now here's the thing. Because he has access to the tray most of each day, he has not yet learned to tell us when he needs to toilet as he assumes it's ok to pee inside. When we come home, if we leave the tray in his pen and don't catch him in time to take him out he will go on the tray. If we remove the tray and don't catch him in time to take him out, he'll pee on the carpet. I know it's not the best scenario trying to train him two toilet areas and no one being in through the week to keep his toilet training up proper, but we're wondering what we might be able to do to get him to tell us when he needs to go. He kind of does, but he's back to front. If we don't catch the signs in time, he'll start go on the tray - then when we stop him he'll go to the back door as he knows we normally take him out to pee once we catch him. I'm thinking that whilst we are working full time, it may be an impossible task to try and train him properly until he can hold his bladder all day? The only thing I can think of at the moment is to move his pen around so we can put his tray in front of the back door. Then, when we come home, instead of putting his tray away we pop it outside where he can see it through the glass and we let him use that to toilet on each time instead of taking him down the garden? At least that way, he should realise that his tray is outside and may go to the door to tell us he wants out? Any other suggestions would be gratefully received. (I hope that lot makes sense.) Cheers.