kyliegirl

Great photos rav, lol at the attempts of still photos though haha, maybe you could tell astrid to sit and then take a pic that way? How old is Astrid, she looks alot smaller than echo! HOLD ONTO YOUR HORSES GUYS!! WE ARE GOING TO CHINA!!! we are halfway there!!!! Echo claims it will be the next subway tunnel!

omg fenstar cooper is absolutely adorable!!

I agree KTB and betsy, the areas we re trying to manage are serious ones though, he lunges at people excitedly, goes into complete focus/excited stage to the point he starts wailing in excitement and jumping about. He is getting worse with other dogs nearby where it becomes an obsession and his hackles raise and he almost strangles himself trying to get to the other dog, the clicker has no effect in these stages, I try to prevent him even reaching this stage but it happens very quickly. I want to get ontop of this before it progresses into something possibly worse. We had the demo today to see how it would go, if the training method would be worthwhile for him, mostly to test the waters. The trainer also brought out his dog to see Echo's behaviour with other dogs and he reacted the way he always does, lunging, choking, screaming and wailing in a frenzy. After introducing the collar he finally showed progress and then began to calm down and we were finally able to get him to calmly approach the other dog for a sniff and return and also stay lying down even when the other dog was running past and playing. This is an amazing achievement since its impossible for me to keep him in a sit when people or dogs pass us any other time. We actually have to cross the road at the moment the second any person is in range as he just cannot control himself, we have tried to clicker train this with no real success. He was pretty confident throughout the whole ordeal and showed no signs of stress during this session which is a good thing. OH agreed it may be a good thing to try as Echo showed a lot more confidence and awareness with us than he does with clicker training. I understand its not the be all end all, but I think it's a good option to do both clicker training and use the collar in areas where the clicker does not yield results.

Thanks ktb - It is amazing how fast they grow, we are also going to be using the same correctional collar for echo today, we realised that we cannot expect clicker training to fix everything so are trying different training methods to assist with other issues and then phase it out gradually. He is an extremely confident puppy so I doubt he would have any issues with the collar. Does anyone elses dogs dislike toe nail time? I have to tie echo's leash to something to stop him running off so i can clip his toe nails, he is getting better but yesterday he made sure to make a fuss at the start, before i even touched his claws he began to cry out murder and suffering, I wasn't even holding his foot hard (it was resting in my hand). After a few struggles and realising there was no escape he finally gave in and lied down to which i was able to reward him while clipping his nails. After that he enjoyed it, but god damn he made a big deal at the start. The neighbours probably thought i was abusing him. I forgot to mention we moved Echo's crate to the other bedroom, he now stays very quiet and no longer does the noisy yawn at 2 am. His crate is now situated in the art room which is directly next to the bedroom so I am still able to hear him if he needs to go. Echo now sleeps through the night and no longer needs to go out to pee, he is also good in that he will stay quiet until 8 am if we want to sleep in. this is how close he is to the bedroom, literally directly next to us.

Wizzle: I hear your pain, Echo tends to destroy everything, he squashes the bottles we fill with treats, he rips up any sponges nearby, he has gutted his bed! Max: cuuute photo!! lilli: I think your cat is taking ownership of the bed lol! rav: lovely photos ! I would really love to see a full body shot of astrid one day (of her sitting still lol!) minxy- beautiful! he is getting huuge! Echo is 19 weeks, we actually have a trainer coming over tomorrow morning to try and address some issues and work on organising things we may be able to do to work on these issues (biting, jumping and lunging excitedly at people and other dogs) here is some photos! enjoying a meaty icecream with lactise free milk and water fetching the kong, a nice pic of my two passionfruit vines too! frontal shot side shot I absolutely love this photo and a size comparison of him on his bed this was the same bed at 11.5 weeks

of all toys echo will work for to the point of infatuation, its a tennis ball i found on the way home.. go figure lol..

no hes been doing it ever since we had him at 10 weeks, at first it wasn't so noisy.. But he has been making his yawns louder and louder to the point now it wakes us up every time he yawns.

Thanks I will have to try that, as I said before he isn't stressed, it actually sounds like he is doing it just to get our attention "look at me I am yawning".

OK this might or might not be a strange problem but this is starting to get really annoying and ridiculous. Echo has this annoying habit of making a howling noise when he yawns, not now and then he does it every time he yawns. Its getting to the point it is driving me insane. He is not stressed, in-fact he shows no other signs of stress and is quite relaxed when he does it. The worst is when he does it at 4-5 am when we are asleep, this morning he did it at least 8 times with the constant howling within the hour, every-time waking us up. My OH said he was doing it since 3am, its really annoying and really disrupting. Its not a quiet yawn its the equivalent of a loud sneezer (the ones who sound like they want the world to know they are sneezing). He did not need to go out to pee either. How the hell can you stop a dog from making noise when yawning? I am stumped..

ok I have some time here now in regards to withholding water, I must be horrible then, at 10pm we go to bed, this is the last time until 5-6 am Echo gets water as he comes inside for bed. Most nights he sleeps all the way through, other nights he may need to go pee at 4am but he does not grab a drink when we go out to pee, he does not seem to phased, I dont stop him if he wants a drink but he literally ignores the water when we pass it. I also leave a collar on Echo, I understand the risk but our yard is pretty empty and I made sure to prevent the risk, we have no trees (thus why we built a makeshift shelter out of the cat run until we can get around to organising bigger shade) so he can't get caught on branches, we have 1.8m fencing and I lined the bottom of the fencing all the way with mesh 50cm deep and then 20cm inwards to prevent him digging under and getting caught under the fence, his water bowl is a handless bucket, his toys are rounded so cannot get caught to his collar and we remove any unusual objects that may appear in the yard or he finds (like the hand held garden claw thingy, that was quickly removed) we also block off any areas where he may get caught. We also blocked off the passionfruit vine with mulch panels (this also saves the plant from the wrath of echo who loves to pull its leaves off ) to stop him getting tangled in the vines. The chance is extremely low and like KTB said a freak accident case. I do not give echo free reign of the house, he stays on a lead or under strict supervision if we let him off lead (rare) I doubt I will let him ever be allowed to be left alone inside, I will only let him inside when I am around - there is just too many things which are tempting for him if I didn't watch him. ravenau- I am glad you are enjoying astrid and you are able to manage her energy, it sounds like she is much more energetic than mine. Echo does love to play but I noticed when i spent most of the day outside with him he was actually quite calm and settled, he would play for about half hr but once we stopped he would go placid and was happy to just wander about and chew his toys or suck on his cat bed. I have to admit I am glad Echo isnt overly active, its nice. Glad you like the vids Wizzle: OMG thats like me lol! ever since I got echo its more like his blog lol! KTB: thats great news, cute fella, needs a good feed but its awesome he has a loving home!

sorry a fly by - Echo has now moved to his next collar! also here is a training video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGTuJXQCz0c and his dinner ritual - it was his fav dinner tonight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xq4eyUIUzQ

He is growing so fast, its hard to believe he used to fit in the cat bed a few weeks ago. Thanks, the collar will soon change to bright blue, he is now growing out of the purple, one notch to go! Thanks for the compliments! I guess I have a statue dog, he will stand still quite alot to see what we are doing, he seems pretty casual actually, maybe we have just raised him to not be as active? lol! He doesn't like water much, he is like his dad when it comes to water, hates the hose, hates being sprayed, he will tolerate a bath and will tolerate rain and standing in the shell pool but I highly doubt we will ever see him actually lower himself into the pool to cool down, he would rather go somewhere dry to cool off. Echos walk went well today, I have been taking him further and trying to get him used to ignoring surrounding objects, I have started to cross the road at points I know dogs roam or are not contained, this has worked well as it seems the white dog missy who last time charged and barked at echo will not cross the road so we have been having very nice walks, he also sits and looks at me when we stop and will sit on command when we stop to cross. We have a compliment today, I heard a lady pipe up across the road "Look at that well behaved puppy!" this was right after I stopped and echo instantly turned to sit and look at me we did approx a 2km walk today, this appears to be sufficient for Echo as he comes home quite content and has a good drink and goes to play with something or take a nap sucking his bed.

KTB: I love it when photos of working dogs are shown, too often the hard work of dogs goes unnoticed. Minxy: good photo, surprised to see so many dogs, it would have been too damn hot for me to take echo, he really did not enjoy that day heat wise. Rav: goregous she looks like she is saying "wooo shiny!" Echo has finally learned drop on command, my only problem is, his lure drop is instant however his command drop he seems to take 5 seconds to lower himself to a drop. I am not sure how to work on this to increase the speed. I have been trying to encourage echo to use the other shell full of water, so today I spent alot of time relaxing with my feet in it and then making him snorkel for treats in the water, he isnt too keen on it atm lol he blows bubbles trying to sniff the treat some pics today, he is now 17 weeks, and a little wet as we decided to play "run as fast as you can from the splashing water" he seemed to enjoy it.

haha omg thats so cute!

How to go dog fishing 1. attach rope to broom 2. attach other end of rope to dogs fav toy 3. drag toy along ground by pulling broom and watch dog chase 4. FUN BEGINS I think Echo is tired now lol. He went awesome on his walk today, it was a completely different dog, not once did he pull about like crazy and kept a loose lead, he didnt go lunging head first into the grass to sniff and strode nicely along side me, he was still a bit too far ahead for my liking, but at least when i stopped he would hit the end, turn around and sit and look at me patiently and only when i said "ok sniff" would he check out the ground. Unfortunately I walked past a house with a known off leash dog (they have an open yard and the dog is never contained) who charged us so I had to stop because the dog wouldn't leave without a sniff, Echo's hair was all up down his neck, thankfully after a sniff the dog left and we went on our way with the walk with no negative results. I will have to walk him another way, it sucks either I walk one way which has that dog not contained and will refuse to stop barking or leave you alone until he sniffs your dog, or risk the other way where I might end up with the bloke with the offlead dog who has no recall whatsoever and will initiate play even when you try to leave. The only other direction is down the small bushland which is a risk from ticks, or the left at the end of the street where there is no foot path and your close to a busy road. Its hard when your trying to train your dog to not stop at every dog who approaches you in the street

I do go for socialisation, which is very good for echo but I do need somewhere where we can achieve the amount of socialisation I wish to allow him I am in no way hating on the puppy school, just that I have realised their methods of socialisation is not what I want or perceive as beneficial to him. To me socialisation is everything, from smells, sight and sound. I introduce him to many things, ladders, mowers, chairs, bubbles, the tv, music, unusual objects and much more, I think it can be risky to allow dogs to play especially off lead, a good example was in our session on Saturday, one puppy was being quite dominant and forcing other puppies to the ground by their throat and holding them there, in the second play session one puppy who was MUCH younger reacted to this and a fight broke out - I was very glad I kept Echo on lead when this happened because I am well aware of Echo's personality and I have no doubts he would have reacted the same way this 9 week puppy did to the 16 week. Echo has begun to show signs of fear and if I had let him play with the puppies that day it could have very well have ruined his view on other dogs, it is easier to let him sniff the other dog and leave on a good note where he sees the other dog as nothing too interesting but definitely nothing bad either. This is just my personal view, I am not saying everyone should be like this, by all means if you love to let your dogs play with others go ahead I just do not feel like it would provide any benefit to either me or Echo with the lifestyle we live. This said I would love to take Echo for walks with other dogs where we just walk, that would provide an excellent chance for echo to learn to walk nicely on lead and ignore distractions and be calm when walking past or near other dogs. I think I would enjoy obedience quite alot, but as you said KTB it sometimes takes a little shopping about for the right place and trainer ;)

Of course KTB I agree, I initially chose the school because they are pro clicker training, I will not say they are doing the wrongs things, just that I find that everything they want to do is not what I want Echo to do, for example the free for all puppy play is not something I want to do, I especially will not be allowing him to go to play with unknown dogs or go to dog parks in the future and I feel that because of this allowing him to play with them now will only make things harder in the long run. Another is the click to "keep going" in all the books I have read they specifically say "do not click to keep going" the click means reward, nothing more nothing less. So to continuously click to mean "keep going" eventually removes the value of the clicker as a marker. I do it as I click, he gets a reward, be it food, treats, pats, voice - If I want him to keep going I will gradually extend the time of the click or I continue to click/reward him for continuing and only when i release him when I think he is at the limit, he will now sit/stay and drop/stay in the house and yard even if I jump around or walk away or throw his toys and even if the cats come up. I do feel we need alot more, and I think this class is not enough and focuses too much on talk/puppy play than training and guidance. This said it IS puppy school, so it would be more educational to the others than myself as I already know exactly what I want with my puppy and I already know what to feed, how to entertain him etc. I want to go to learn obedience and guide us in the right direction of achieving reliable recalls and command response along with the opportunity to learn more and extending to canine freestyle and agility. I am all for puppy play, but I would rather the play be with me than other puppies, its personal preference and opinion.

KTB: I would say its a good mention from the instructor because it is in most cases the unfortunate truth. Great photos, cute as always, hoover is really turning out to be quite stunning. clastic: great photos as always, LLW is a challenge Echo still hasnt mastered it lol! But alot of way to go. Echo is now 16 weeks, Puppy school on Sat went better than ever, the difference was I didnt allow him to play with the other puppies and did not let him go offlead to play during puppy play, the result was a puppy with good attention and he did well on the focus, sit drop and come. The new lesson was stand, which is a progress for me and Echo anyway so it wasn't any different from what we were already doing at home. I wont be taking to Echo next week though, I do not agree with allowing other people to handle and train my dog when I myself still do not have full control on him, there is also a few things I disagree with on the methods of training due to personal opinion. I was thinking of changing schools to the Obedience school in oxley, anyone know if its any good? here is some pictures of Echo at 16 weeks.

it could also be narcolepsy? narcolepsy can also cause a similar effect. here is a good video example of it There is also a poodle video on youtube who also suffers from narcolepsy so it could very well be possible?

you mean its already been a year since you had elbie? wow, congrats but oh my god time goes fast! I remember his honking video (I love it!).. gosh... Adorable pictures ktb, I love the peanutbutter writing! amazing work, I dont think I could even muster words with peanut butter!

Rav: congrats on obedience school, I really hope it goes well for you lilli- thats cute, I had always thought dogs would hate to get their faces submerged but its surprising how many dogs love to snorkel and dive! ktb: aww hoover was merely keeping all the monsters at bay! clastic- thats hilarious, keep trying! maybe you could try to get them to shake and bring their paw closer to their face? great photo of the bow! thanks ktb, rav and clastic for reassuring me that my puppy isn't the only one who is hyper at puppy school- I am trying very hard to be patient, I just wish I could gain more value on myself and get him to pay attention. This said I started to play some games with echo today, encouraging him to follow me where i went by running away and then rewarding with treats and play, also every-time he lost focus I would go and hide and call him, sending him into a searching frenzy. Then my OH joined in and we were taking turns hiding and calling him, by the end of it he was constantly checking where I was standing to make sure I didn't go out of his sight, it was very fun and I would say it really increased his attention to me. His sit if very fluid now, and he is still dropping like a log when lured into the down position and I can do this with no treats, still no command on the drop. Working on spin, crawl and stand - He isn't getting stand, which is understandable I heard its hard to get a dog to "get" the stand.

Echo had another day of puppy school today, he was very confident today. He started off very well doing his sits and drops. But the second the first play session came he then lost all focus or interest on me and all he wanted to do the rest of the session was play. A little frustrating to see everyone elses puppy with focus and then looking at your own choking himself trying to get to the other puppies to play while you're shoving a piece of raw chicken up his nose in a failed attempt to get attention lol. Oh well. I doubt at this stage I will get any response, his second time at puppy school, and I have not trained him in high distractions - set up to fail really :/ . I guess its also hard being in such a small room with 6 or more other puppies, so there isn't really a way to just walk a good distance away to try to gain the attention needed or the room to move as you end up being under 2 feet away from another pair which just diverts Echo to focus on that puppy instead. I was constantly needing to hold his leash very short and pulling him away to stop him trying to play with the puppy next to us as we sat down during the speeches. He had way too much energy! I may need to really burn him next week before class to bring down his energy levels as I felt like I was holding onto a rocket..

ROFL KTB thats hilarious, I could totally see Hoover being dobby. Rav: adorable, looks like she wasnt impressed though lol! Wuffles: hard to say, with the head in the last pic I would risk saying some labrador in there. Maybe mixed with collie? Echo is outside when we arent home and we only let him in for certain amounts of time, unfortunately our lounge is small so its easy for him to go from the couch to the computers and back on his lead. We give him alot of attention though, esp when we are home, he also sleeps inside most nights in his crate, on a weekday I spend time with him in the morning before work, then when i get home I take him for a walk, then about an hr of play/training, then feeding, then about an hr or so after that we play for another hr or more, I constantly go out and play/train with him. On weekends he gets a tonne of attention, we dont go out so i am out with him alot, I tend to go inside for an hr, then outside for 30mins of play then repeat. I started training him to walk on the treadmill this week, we have now gotten to the stage he will happily trot on the treadmill! It will be good to use to burn off excess energy at the end of the day or for rainy days, he is actually starting to enjoy the treadmill and you can really see him focusing, no signs of stress, when it stops he looks about with a look saying "hey! why is it slowing down?" he will also leap onto the treadmill in position when we go to it Echo has really motivated me to move, I love it, I used to be very active when young so finally having an animal that challenges my own stamina is fun. I would say I absolutely love the challenge!

KTB- Good work training Elbie a new trick, I doubt food would even get that far atm with echo beautiful photos as always Ravenau- beautiful picture, love how calm Astrid is inside, Echo goes nuts, then again we only give him short times inside, never too much. Wuffles- gorgeous photo I think the background colours really bring her out! SammieS- what is the purple and blue thing in that photo? Great photos btw! Kuma- love the photo of the ball! Clastic- thats adorable, poor puppy only wants to be comfy! Echo is now 15 weeks today, getting big. Very big. I decided to try (and horribly failed) stacking him for a side shot, I have been worried about over feeding, but at the moment he is eating everything in sight, I am not sure cutting his meals is a good idea as he is still growing. He has now started to learn down and is doing great at it, his sits from a down are sometimes a little sloppy (he hunches to one side) but most times he downs in a very good position and sits in a nice tight sit. Still working on him keeping the down position I want as he tends to flop to the side after very short while. We also brought him two new treat toys, the cube and also a giant ball to keep him entertained through the day, I also got the puzzle bone which we tried one day and he loved it! horrible attempt at stacking - note I have never tried to stack him so he really didnt know what i wanted. OH was also not very good at pictures lol but at least he tried!

haha ktb he was actually looking at me like that because i interrupted his attempt to bury the ball ;) he is actually loving his dig spot as there was only small areas he could dig before due to the grass and now he has a huge spot to dig.