Rascalmyshadow

I haven't read through every post but based on your description I would be looking into Airedales, I have groomed many over the years and quite a few of them lived with young kids and were fabulous, one of the more recent ones was even trained to go into the classrooms to help encourage kids to read. They are a nice size, easy to train, for a coated breed they are not hard to maintain and they will protect you. Their main downfall is being antisocial with other dogs particularly smaller ones but if your aware and do the right training as a pup it shouldn't be a huge issue. I noticed a few people recommending standard poodles, I would not recommend one at all in your situation, they are high intelligence, high maintenance, high drive and are not forgiving with mistakes, they also require a lot of mental stimulation and exercise even as grown adults. Some of them have such a high prey drive they will chase anything that moves.

My dogs naturally sleep all night and play on and off through the day, I've never had a dog that was the opposite and would be awake through the night, they prefer to follow their human pack.

Could you leave the open crate shut in the laundry or somewhere similar so there is room to move and not so confined.

Ok have crate set back up in bedroom for during the night, puppy pen back in the loungeroom for if we're out for a short time, huge crate set up in grooming room just need to organise the kennel outside. Definately going to give the belly bands a try, do they want to rip them straight off?

Maybe I'm being over precious, they have snooza trampoline beds on our decking by the backdoor, we have a solid timber kennel (our dogs have never used) might give it a paint and put that on the deck also and maybe leave their open crates in the grooming room with the door open. I wish I could put jumpers on but they are both naughty and would pull them off each other or get half tangled up.

I am in a bit of a difficult situation and not really sure where to turn. We are having huge issues with our 10month old toy poodle pup marking in the house. If it was just puppy accidents weeing on the floor I could cope with that but in the last 3-4 months he has started getting up onto the couch and occasionally my bed and lifting his leg. He will also do it on the clothes baskets if I leave them in the loungeroom. In the beginning he was such an easy puppy to housetrain always going on command and having few accidents, also happily sleeping in his crate all night without waking. Now I'm at my wits end, our back door is open 24/7 except at night when we are in the loungeroom supervising, I also take them out as soon as I get up, every couple of hours through the day and right before bed. Is he trying to establish dominance over one of the two older boys, is he marking to claim mine and my husbands stuff as his, is he asserting himself in the pack or is there another explanation why he is doing it? We've lived in a multi dog house for years and he's the first dog we've had to do this (besides one foster who stopped it once she was only living with one other dog) I'm almost 12 weeks pregnant and I am totally exhausted just trying to keep up with washing the stuff he's peeing on, not to mention the water and electricty bills ate through the roof from all the washing and drying. I'm worried if it doesn't stop I'm not going to cope after bub is born.

For those that leave their dogs outside how do you keep them warm (if not heavily coated)? For the first time in years I am considering locking our two youngest dogs (both under 12months) outside or maybe in my grooming room when we're not home and leaving the older three inside, mainly because of toilet training issues. I'm worried about the cold here since everyone is used to the heater running constantly although the younger two don't spend a lot of time in front of it.

I've been working from home for the last three years so the dogs are rarely left alone, but if we go out for the day they have access to the house and yard. If its cold we leave the heating on low and if it's hot the aircon is left on, we also always leave the tv going. Back when I worked in the vet clinic I would take my two oldest everyday and rotate any others we had at the time, if they were pups needing 3 feeds they would also come each day. The ones left at home would have run of house and yard. My dogs have always been my number one priority so I made sure I set up a life that is as close to ideal for them. As a kid I hated knowing that everyone was at school and work all day and the family dogs were left alone, it caused me quite a bit of anxiety, I made a promise to myself that wouldn't be the life my own dogs would lead.

It's a hard one we spent $2000 on our toy poodle pup, $1800 + flight from QLD, ended up having neither testicle descended he was desexed at 6 months without any issues, he also has an overly sensitive stomach and will vomit if he's fed anything different to his usual food. One thing I did notice (don't know if the undescended testicles played a part) he was cocking his leg by 12 weeks old and starting to mark stuff around the house, something I've never had in my boys before. Sounds like the breeder is at least being honest but i would go with your gut instinct. Edited to add: the difference in our boys castration to an ordinary one the wound was much like a female Spey and was a little more expensive.

Guess it's a real pro to being a dog groomer, my dogs have come to work with me for the last 20 years couldn't imagine having to leave them all day.

We had numerous problems with all our dogs when we were trying Black Hawk, ive never seen any of my dogs react to a food before, would never go near the stuff again!!! Pups are also more prone to ear problems/infections while they are teething.

Oh well give him enough rope..............!

Yep rabbits carry walking dandruff caused by fur mites. My angora rabbit had it when I adopted her from the RSPCA. Advocate is really good it's main ingredient is Moxidectin which is in the Ivermectin family, we also use Moxi to keep bird mites under control on the chooks. Unfortunately if there are that many wild rabbits around you will probably have to use the Advocate permanantly or the mites will be back. I would also be bug bombing the house. Oh another thing they seem to cause much more intense itching than fleas do, can you ask the vet for suitable antihistamines.

If you've never been in the situation you have no right to judge others! If someone decides to rehome a dog because they are pregnant the dog is likely to be better off anyway, people like that are the ones that neglect their dogs needs from day one.

Anyone that has never had kids should not be commenting about rehoming a dog once they come along. While I agree a dog should be for life and they are not throw away items I have seen many dogs that I've groomed over the years seriously neglected once children came along and would have been much better off in another home. I personally don't understand it since I've had three kids (the last two were c-sections and I had PND) my dogs were my saviours, however I am an extreemly high energy person so I was able to cope, I know many people where the dogs would have been too much especially since they were all poodles and needed a lot of grooming. I was however put in a position where my heart boy was PTS because he was too much of a risk to my kids and he couldn't be rehomed, broke my heart and still does, in all honesty I wish life was easier and I never had to make that choice, for a very long time it made me regret having kids. Unless you've been there don't jump and judge others until you know the full story, unless of course a dog is being neglected.

We use crates overnight mainly if there's a new puppy so toilet training is easier, if any of the adults start having accidents in the house over night then they will go into crates until problem is solved. The only other time they get used is for time out, Claudia if she's jumping all over us trying to take our dinner and Chloe if she has a moment of constant yapping, both generally settle in minutes and are let straight out. I think it's disgraceful that anyone would lock a dog in a crate for any length of time unless travelling, why on earth would two dogs be kept in the same house that hate each other to that extent? quite selfish IMO. We have lived with a pack (min 4 dogs) for the past 20 years including rescues coming in and out, only once did we have a dog that caused serious problems amongst everyone, she was rehomed ASAP and both her and everybody else were much happier, it amazes me how people can have such serious issues with only two dogs.

Foxie x crestie???

For me I would expect behavioural qualifications, suitable insurance, my dogs to never be put into a vehicle, knowledge of the local area, never to walk dogs together from separate houses, and the ability to follow my instructions no matter if you agree. Years ago when we had our two standard poodles I used a highly recommended dog walker with all the qualifications, the one instruction I specifically gave her apart from never let them off lead (they got their off lead times with us) was to walk them on a short lead in the heel position at all times, unless they were stopping for a sniff/wee, the reason because my girl was seriously DA and also took a dislike to quite a few humans especially ones on bikes/skateboards. I was told that's what was being done, I just happened to finish work early one day and I saw her walking my dogs long leads, both out front with not enough control if a person or dog suddenly appeared, recipe for disaster. She seemed to think it was mean not allowing them enough freedom on their leads. It was the last time anyone else except my husband walked the dogs.

I don't think the parents have done anything to put the baby at risk in this case. A bassinet is high up not low to the ground and if the baby and rest of the household was asleep then I would imagine unless the dog had already given warning signs the parents would have no reason to think the baby was at risk. Very sad situation all round, if it were my dog it would be PTS straight away.

Just keep in mind this will be a life time issue and will need careful management forever. One slip up could be very serious. I thought I was quite capable managing our girl but after almost 8years and her behaviour escalating she eventually wore me, my family and the other animals in the house down. Even though we all loved her it was a huge relief on everyone once she was gone (I know that might sound awful) our house has been relaxed since and I've now got free range rabbits and chooks that are all safe and happy, my cats play chasy through the garden and the small dogs can do their thing without worry.

Amazing what breeders/owners don't want to tell you, I've always stated on here for people to be careful bringing poodles into homes with smaller animals. They are the love of my life, I have owned many over the years all three sizes and have done a lot of private rescue, only a few of them were safe around other species and children, it is the main reason I now only have one and he is a very carefully researched toy, toys tend to have a lower prey drive although I've met many that still wouldn't be ok around kids, birds, rabbits etc. I also groom more poodles that bite their owners than any other breed.

Yep can be a serious problem in the standards and many minis, I had to give up all our rabbits and guinea pigs when I had my last standard and mini. Be careful because once they've had a taste for it they will often escalate, the last rabbit my standard girl got she tore apart the hutch and I came home to find my bunny in pieces all over the yard. After that incident she started chasing our cats and would hunt down the smaller dogs if they were in any open space. I later found out her mum (breeder lived on property) had to be muzzled when she went out to toilet at night, she started attacking wallabies, wombats etc. My mini girl even when she was blind and had both cruciates done would still scent and hunt small prey.

OMFG just when I thought it couldn't get worse, if that's where boarding dogs are sleeping???? He should be charged and his facility shut down, he quite clearly doesn't give a damn about any dog in general, they are obviously nothing but a source of income.

Have PM'ed you.

Haven't read through everyone else's posts but I personally would never have a pet on co-ownership, I have had a few grooming customers run into serious issues with this agreement, two of them lawyers ended up being involved. Also keeping an entire male can become a serious pain to live with, while not all boys will cause issues you will have to consider territorial marking, inappropriate humping and being unsociable with other males amongst other problematic behaviours.