Liza

Your photos are stunning! As for the biting advice, when Keeda was in her biting stage nothing worked as well as a spray bottle - same with her barking at night stage. Good luck!

We did something similar with out doggy door, but ours was clear. As others suggest, try replacing it with a clear bit of plastic or maybe thick clear rubbery-type stuff (I'm not sure what it's called). It only took Keeda a few minutes to learn how to use it because with the clear door, she could see us waving the flap back and forth and calling for her on the other side.

Yeah, I had no idea that jumping may have been dangerous at that time. But when I found out a while later and got really worried, I went on another forum and asked them - they said not to worry and if she's jumping on her own, she knows what she's doing better than I do. The jump command was rarely used after being taught anyway - I didn't want to encourage her

I'm confident in the strength of my relationship with Keeda for reasons that are too numerous to list all at once Coming when called while there's other dogs around is something we're working on and that definitely isn't perfect, but I don't feel that it diminishes my relationship with my dog. She and I will get through the difficulties together

Ah, I should've taught Keeda to 'come' before anything else. I was completely inexperienced dog-wise, and now come is the only thing she won't reliably do, at least not when theres other dogs in the area >.<

Keeda only has one disaster blow-up point - but it's a big one. Other dogs. I've tried everything I could think of with consistency and yet she insists on running at other dogs to try to play! And if they're smaller dogs and snap at her, she snaps back and that's NOT good. I'm not letting her off a long lead and am constantly practicing her recall, but I don't see any improvement at all >.< There are far too many dog approach disasters like this to list them all individually It baffles me how she can be so darn great at everything that is expected of her except for this one thing - and it just has to be a very BIG thing.

I was thinking about this today and did a search, but didn't find anything about the topic (unless I'm blind :/) What was the first command your dog learned when you got him or her? Let's rule out potty training. Actually, the first thing Keeda learned was 'Jump'! Wow, what a mess that could have become! I read about clicker training and she was my first dog, so I decided to give it a try and started clicking and treating every time she jumped up on her own, then associating the verbal command with it. It worked like a charm! She was about 1 and a half months old when I got her and this was the first thing I taught her, took a couple of hours in all. Thankfully, she now knows what 'No Jumping' means as well xD So, let's hear it - what was the first thing your pooch learned?

I just rang up the Success Veterinary Hospital about Titre Testing and they said that they do it, but the price for the needed tests adds up to about $221 as opposed to about $70 for vaccinating! I thought the tests weren't meant to be that expensive :S

I'm also getting a feeling that she just isn't hungry in the morning. She isn't the poor starving dog my mom thinks she is after she wakes up. I know for a fact that she eats chicken necks just fine - I just offered her 2 necks and it took her 15 minutes of coaxing to eat them! She hates eating dry food in the morning, I thought she just didn't like dry food, but then she also didn't eat a chicken wing, which I thought was because she wasn't used to them, but now she barely ate her chicken necks, which she's gladly had before! When I suggest this to my mom another argument will surely ensue >.<

As I found out, Keeda is only about 13kg, not 20 like I thought! We dug up the vet papers from last time we visited - she was already a bit overweight at the time of weighing, so we feed her 1 in the evening. I have no problem feeding her twice a day, but my mom insists on feeding her a substantial amount in the morning PLUS her recommended daily amount of the BARF patty.

Bubbly, we go to Success Veterinary Hospital on Hammond Road in Jandakot. We mainly started going there because it's no more than a 10 minute drive from my house, but he seems like a good vet from my limited vet experience. Keeda hasn't needed to go except for for her desexing and vaccinations (knocking on wood here), but he always takes care to explain things to us and is nothing but kind and patient with all the animals I've seen him with. As I said, though, my experience with him is limited to routine things such as vaccinations.

I'm wondering, how do you -pronounce- Titre tests? I want to call up the vet Keeda and I visit here in Perth and ask whether or not they offer Titre testing, but I have no idea how to pronounce the word! Is it Tee-ter or Tai-ter?

She's not super fit, but we often go to the nearby woods for long walks and such and she rarely runs out of energy when we're out. My boyfriend and I actually drove by the regional park I wanted to try going to - Beeliar Regional Park - but all the gates were shut! I wonder if regional parks are closed on holidays :/

Ugh I am just about ready to quit TAFE, get a full time job, and move out of this house as soon as humanly possible. My mom doesn't seem to understand that dogs don't NEED 2 meals a day - that I'm ALREADY adding the chicken wings/necks ON to the BARF patty amount that she's meant to have daily. Keeda didn't like her chicken wing today - when I'd rip up little pieces and feed her she'd be fine. But she hated actually breaking it apart and eating it herself so after half an hour of coaxing, feeding her little bits, holding it for her, etc., I decided that I've had enough and tossed the rest of the wing out (she ate about half of it). My mom went crazy. Something along the lines of: "I'm not letting you starve the dog to death! I'll feed her when you're not looking!" I tried to explain to her that the chicken wing is NOT meant to be another meal for her - her main meal is tonight. She'd hear none of it. ("Well the amounts on the box are WRONG. I know how much she SHOULD be getting." - exact quote) She always says: "Well when you were little WE didn't starve you and even now you eat what you want." I said: "Well then let's feed her chocolate - I ate a piece last night. Let's let her sit at the table, I'm allowed to sit at tables, so should she." Anyway, I'm now looking on Seek for full time jobs.

Keeda is a mix of Australian Cattle Dog, Kelpie, and Beagle. She's about 1 year and 10 months old and she hasn't been growing visibly as far as I can tell.