cwm

I think our 13 month old ridgeback girl would have stopped jumping on friends when they arrive a whole lot sooner if the friends actually listened to what we asked... We get her to sit, she races around like a loony all excited, but until she sits, she gets no pat. From that she has learned..with us at least, and with some of our friends...with the others, we need to train our friends a bit better!

You poor thing. so sorry to hear of your loss, it's the hardest thing, but the kindest thing. Two years is not long enough. He will be happily romping around now, in no pain

dunno about the product, but I want a dog that sits there and offers you their paw to trim

You're right .... she is RR. Bless her cotton socks - she's no longer with me and although it has been a couple of years since she crossed the rainbow bridge, I miss her very much. She was my very special girl. But I am blessed now with Mandela - also a RR. A male puppy who is now 4 months old but thinks he's an adult . And he is very much a vocaliser. So I might be coming back in here to remind myself of my own advice at some stage in the future . You have to love a talkative puppy! Ridgebacks do hold a special place in your heart. They're just so damn gorgeous. Thanks again for your help - makes fantastic sense, and should be easy to follow. This is my beautiful one...

Wow. Thankyou so much! This is exactly why I didn't want him to go to a collar... surely she should bark at certain times at strangers coming to her property! Thanks again, I am going to send this over to him so he can think about it and put it into practice! I'm looking at Kal and thinking she's ridgeback too??

Not sure really how to approach this one. Our girl doesn't 'nuisance' bark as such, but when someone comes to the door she goes totally ballistic, and won't stop until they are well gone. My husband works from home, and gets lots of couriers, so .. he gets a little annoyed by it, but isn't sure the best way to approach it. Has anyone else had success in quietening down the territorial barker? The trouble is, our neighbours' dog has taught her this one... My husband is the 'quick fix' type..and of course wants to go to a collar.. i read that the citronella collars can cause allergies - and the thing is, she doesn't nuisance bark.. I would rather he try and 'train her'... Maybe I need to a/ train husband, then the dog will be fine?

Have you ever seen the Mr Woof ones ? Stunning.. Mr Woof

I would always get a second opinion if you're not really sure. It could well be delayed grieving for your other dog - maybe she still thought she was coming home and now she realises it's not happening. My old ridgeback grieved for 6 months when we had to put our older ridge x down - she was like a mother to him - it honestly took that long - and there was no wag, no smile, no enthusiasm.. it honestly broke your heart to watch this boy dragging himself around with all the cares of the world on his shoulders. Then he just picked back up again. (and we had introduced a new puppy too)

Hey Julie, with the 'slipping' out of the harmony harness issue, I found that having the leash attached to both of the front attachments (ie so it's not like a slip) works well for the bouncey one. I am about to try a Sporn Halter, which I bought today - I just can't control someone when she spots another person or dog in the distance... unfortunately we have spent the last several months walking in darkness at 6am when no other fool is out - so now, she spots someone..and it's soooooo exciting...WOOOOOOF...WOOOOOF...LEAP, somersault.... god...give me some strength!! so first stop is... Sporn, and I've asked Steve also for advice. But I digress... will be at dog training next sat 6 sep so you can check out the sporn too

RR's are Terrors? surely that's an understatement Aaah, yes...heeling beautifully one second..then...oooh..there's a butterfly hang on...I'm bored...can I play tug on your arm? hehe...enjoy... and I'm all for names with many syllables...never had a problem calling Jemima!

Just out of interest, how old is the bitch? I had my girl at a show and I know she's been going through a bit of a fear period - but she appeared quite scared of some men the other day. One breeder suggested she might be coming into heat - low and behold..she was! She's 10 months old now - so it must be a fairly common thing with heat cycles. No different I suppose to us being a bit overly hormonal too at that time of the month LOL.

LOL, randy Zola :D Well, Miss Jemima..(my babeeeeeeeee) has just come into her first heat - she has been extra sooky this week and now we know why! Anyhow, yesterday she snuck past my husband out the gate - straight to next door neighbour - who has an 'entire' male weimaraner... :p my husband was lamenting the loss of his little girl....saying she'll be bringing home boys, and sneaking out...then we realised she HAD snuck out!

A belated congratulations on your bundle of joy I still like Roger the Ridgy. My husband wants to call a boy Keith He sounds as though he has some similar ancestry to my miss Jemima (this of course is Zulu for WILD CHILD) Her litter were all named after famous records!! So she's Churingaloge SilkDegrees what a mouthful See how quickly they grow... from 13 weeks to 9 months!

Yes, fourpaws, it is the one the wild thing wears to training I swear it's the only thing I can keep some semblance of control of the 32kilos of wild puppy! Deelee - I just emailed or phoned Jenny to get my harness. I think they're around $25 or so for the harness and maybe another $15 for the double ended leash. There are two attachments - one from the front and one on the back, technically you can have an attachment on both ends and you are in total control. I've still found that I have to do the whole stop, wait, get her back, but now she's getting better at it all.

Hi, I have a 'harmony harness' which is pretty good - they are made by Jenny Ireland http://www.k9events.com/Harmony_Harness.htm which can be ordered via her website here Jenny Ireland

Julie, I have to say, Robert McDowell's stuff is excellent. I've only ever used so far on my horse(s) and so have my friends, and they all have had great results.

It sounds like you'll be fine once you return back to normal status!! You poor thing. It can be hard though, having a puppy around when you're not used to it, even if it's YOUR puppy - LOL. We had two geriatrics, who both passed away, then we were left alone, so it had been 12 years since we'd had a puppy (how hard can it be ?) so we were totally unprepared too, but... I have to say I'm surprised how easy it now is - every week appears to get better, so you'll get there - just be patient with him as I am sure you are, and keep persisting - quiet persistence i call it!

Hmm, all of my ridgebacks have been particularly interested in the comings and goings of the street...and in order to do that, they need to have their paws up on the window seat so they can just stretch up and see outside. That's just the way they are, but persephone gives a great suggestion to provide a little step that they can stand on to see out without having to have the paws up - although I am sure he may still have his paws on the windowsill regardless! Is it really that bad? Is he doing a lot of damage? The only way to stop them stealing things is to make sure you are really super vigilant about not leaving things around that they can steal, or restricting access to those rooms that they will be able to steal things from. We can pretty much leave ours (9mths) safely around now without worrying about what she might steal, but occasionally she will sneak in and grab something if she can. But that's our fault, not hers. Always make sure you've got their toys around that they can grab and play with - or even grab a kong and put some peanut butter in it for them to chase around & lick the PB out. Are you giving him plenty of short walks to keep him occupied?

;) Omigod... I stand corrected here I am working to protect my own company's brand from being 'genericised' and there I go and do the same thing

I have to say that I had never really heard of a Prong collar until DOL forums, and my drive training workshop at K9Force, but when I did hear of them I just thought..brilliant. My girl has been the most exuberant one that we've had to date - and all my previous trainers said, "Oh, you'll have to put her on a halti or gentle leader" - and seeing how my puppy reacted on walks I couldn't have disagreed more and point blank refused because my puppy would leap and cavort to such an extent I swear she would have done herself so much damage. I have been using a 'harmony harness' which has been perfect for her, but had that not been a great solution for, her, my next thought was the prong - provided I could get a private session with K9Force to use it! I think if I'd known about one earlier, I would have just gotten straight on to one to avoid any further issue. The thing that really bugs me is when people say that haltis etc have been used on horses for years. What the???? A halti or gentle leader is so different to a halter it's not funny! A halter noseband does not even come close to sitting or interfering with the horse's eyes - and that is another thing I don't like about the Haltis... But sorry...gone from Prong argument to anti Halti

Which puppy school are you going to? We went to Trevor at Balgownie Vets and he was really good. The funny thing was, Jemima's been the wildest most exuberant puppy we've ever had - and I bumped into one of the guys from preschool down at Dapto obedience on Sat morning a few weeks ago - he said he just thought I was going to have so much trouble with Jemima and just couldn't believe what a change had come over her.. she's still a wild child, but...getting more control. They're just individuals after all! So if your baby seems a little bit worse than the others at preschool, take heart - they do get there...some quicker than others...

Do you always intend for him to sleep in your room? We just found it really easy to put Jemima out in her crate (and then in a cordoned off area when she grew out of it) in our back room and never had a peep out of her. You have to do the 'tough' love thing though something I'm not so great at but it does work.

It's funny how you say Jemima was being lovely and calm, and there was I thinking (as she was in her 'I'm bored mode'...what can I do, Oh, I know, let's play tug with Mum's jacket, arm, leash...) everyone was thinking in their heads...what a crazy out of control puppy!! Give Jarrah hugs from us too - she's gorgeous. I'm sure you'll work things out in no time - it is early days with you and her getting to know each other, and at least you're booked in with Steve so I guarantee it'll be a thing of the distant past in no time! I tried getting Jemima into prey drive at home with her squeaky elephant - to no avail, so I've tried a few other toys and she's more interested in me then them... and the poor elephant now looks like a pig.. no trunk anymore!

My Miss Jemima (who met the lovely Wobbly at K9Force a few weeks ago!) is another who is easily distracted and carries on a bit around other dogs. I think with her, she's a little worried about them, and not really sure how she is supposed to behave - so she feels that she needs to quickly establish that she's friendly and just wants to play... Things have just started to fall into place for her though - she is now starting to FINALLY heel beautifully, and then... oh, there's a butterfly/leaf/dog/person who I must play with. What I am finding with Jemima is it's a boundary thing... I tried to ignore/keep walking/walk the other way... all to no avail - she's really listening to what I say now - so now I have just really been enforcing 'no' and 'heel' and I think it's kind of working. The bigger the distances at the moment from the other dog/person, the better - once I've established at a decent distance, then we can start closing the distance and keep trying... I had her heeling and watching me fabulously at obedience the other day - then the instructor told us to weave between the other dogs, which caused her a little consternation...but..small steps!!! I figure this will help us.

I would check what the Parvo situation is in your area too - when we first got our girl, there was a lot of stuff in the news about new outbreaks of parvo through Sydney/Wollongong, so we were not willing to take the risk. This was earlier this year. I lost two puppies from parvo many many years ago when it first was around, it is heartbreaking. I will never take that risk again.