Sharna

I'm with you Portia - I'm already planning to dognap Tazer, want in? Hehehe!

Wouldn't it be hard to find a site with factual info from a vet as no matter how altruistic they may seem, the bottom line is $$? Why would they advocate a cotton ball when thousands of $ worth of surgery is at stake? Personally, my brother swallowed something sharp and metal as a kid (think it mighta been a bottle cap? Can't recall) and yes, fibre to bulk it up and pass it through was recommended and worked. This was outback Aus in the 70s. Poor Mum spent her time disecting poop with chopsticks! How is the lab? Has he recovered or passed the hook?

Does she wee in one particular spot on the tiles? If that's the case try putting her food dishes there. That was advice from our puppy trainer and it's really helping to stop our 12 week old Mini Foxie weeing in one particular spot of our hallway. We try to move his bowl around a bit too, popping them anywhere that he may have had an accident that day, we leave the empty dish / weater bowl there till the next feed and he seems to be getting the idea. If you are home / around her a fair bit you couldf go back to puppy style training (ie crating / watching her like a hawk) so thast you can catch her in the act.

We have had our puppy since Saturday, so almost a week, and as we live in an apartment with an outdoor enclosed balcony, we invested in a pet loo (an aussie invention - a specially grassed spot for puppy to go) and he loves it. We just have to get him there in time when he's inside with us! They have such limited control at that age that it's expected he'll try to go where is at the moment he needs to go! We crate him next to our bed at night which he adores - he actually toddles off to his crate when he's tired of us playing with him! And I crate him at night while I'm preparing dinner so he can be inside and chomping on a toy but not in danger of hurting himself / having an accident. I didn't want to crate (thought it was cruel) so only got the day after we brought him home and he LOVES it, the nervous shaking / sooking etc stopped as he has his own safe place (ours is a carrier) he even got in there when he was peeved about having a bath (his second in two days as he accidentally rolled in poop!). I read putting his nose in it was no good as dog's think that they should pee where they can smell their previous pee? We were also told to never let him see us cleaning his mess as it gives him the idea that a) we think what he left is a great gift and are lavishing attention on it and that b) we are just like his mum cleaning up after him.