~Aimee~

Carla, we got ours from the gardening section. Not the nursery where the plants are but in the section that has the gardening equipment. It's called a compost bin. Are you planning on using one for your puppy? If you get two, you can join them together and make a big playpen but one is a nice size for a sleeping area. I think two would be good for more than one puppy They make a really good play pen for when you can't always supervise them ETA: They only cost $20 for one pen (4 panels) so super cheap!

I love the Bunnings compost bin too. We used ours as a sleep pen. When Ruby was toilet training she used to sleep in there at night. We only had the one and it was a perfect size to fit her bed. We've also bought a kids play tunnel from Bunnings for $20. They're kept in the kids outdoor & playground section, where you buy bits and pieces to build cubby houses etc. It has a caterpillar head on one end and caterpillar legs down the side. It's great to use at home for training when we're not at obedience

I was wondering if you could post your favourite dog food recipes? I have just discovered 4 legs dog food and I am wanting to make something similiar. Does anyone have any recipes they are willing to share?

Oh Carla, I still can't stop crying for you and your precious Lucy. I was thinking of her today and the song "Lucy in the sky of diamonds" came into my head. Lucy is now a star in heaven who will shine so brightly over you always. I will look out for Lucy's star in the sky. May Lucy run free in puppy heaven with all the other four-legged angels.

Our breeder gave our puppy her first vaccination at 7 weeks old. We then got her vaccinated again at 12 weeks using nobivac. If you vaccinate with nobivac you don't need to give the 16 week vaccination.

We have a 5 month old Cavalier called Ruby. So far she has been quite easy to train and she picked up sit, stay, down, shake & roll over quite quickly. At the moment we are still having trouble getting Ruby to walk nicely on a lead. She gets so excited on walks that she pulls like mad. It's worse at puppy obedience when she sees all the other dogs. All the other dogs in the class seem to be able to walk on a lead fairly well. Ruby's the only one who pulls all the time. She also jumps up on people and this is a habit I want to nip in the bud fast. When I get home, she gets so excited and jumps all over me and when someone new comes over she'll get all excited and jump all over them too. For example when my neices were here today she was jumping all over them and poor Miss 3 was screaming as she was getting scratched all over. She stopped jumping after the girls were outside for awhile. It's just the inital greeting that's the problem mostly. But she'll jump on them when she wants them to play too. Any suggestions on how to overcome this?

Bump!

I have had some very negative responses to threads elsewhere so please only reply if you have some helpful advice to give I am wanting advice on how to toilet train my puppy. She is 4 1/2 months old. At night she sleeps in a soft bed inside a puppy pen. We cover the floor with newspaper in case of accidents and she is usually pretty good. 50% of the time she will sleep through until about 6am and 50% of the time she will wake up once around 2-3am to go to the toilet. Occasionally she will have an accident on the newspaper if I'm not quick enough in getting up to her. During the day, I have to watch her all the time otherwise she'll have accidents in the house. Some times she will bark to get outside but most of the time she'll just wee wherever if I don't catch her in time. I am taking her out really frequently e.g. after she wakes up, after she eats, after she plays ect and this has been working well. It's only when I get distracted that she'll have an accident inside. When she has gone outside I have given her heaps of praise and then a treat. She responded to this really well and will now go on command whenever I say "Go do wees". I am wanting to get a doggie door installed soon but won't be able to get it done for a few weeks. How do I teach her to bark when she wants to go outside. She'll bark sometimes and other times she'll go to the door to go out but if the door is shut she'll just wee on the floor. I am not keen on crating (so please don't suggest this), any other suggestions? Thanks in advance

My puppy has a pink stripe on her nose and I want to give her kelp supplements to help darken the pigment. She is 4 1/2 months old and weighs 4.5kg. What is the recommended dosage for a puppy of her age/size? Is kelp best taken in a tablet or powder form?

At what age can I expect her to be reliable?

When we allowed her to sleep on the bed she had been reliably trained in her pen without any accidents for over 2 weeks. It was before that, that she was having some accidents occasionally. I thought after 2 weeks of no accidents that she had got the hang of it.

Thanks for your replies so far. Nothing has really changed in regards to walk/feed times/diet ect so I'm not sure why she has regressed. I will be putting her back in her pen tonight and will see how she goes. I expect she may still wee and poo in there but at least it will be easier to clean up. When we were training her using the pen early 80% of the time she'd wake us up when she needed to go buy crying but occasionaly she would have an accident in there also. I'm not sure how I can really prevent her from jumping off the bed, couch ect as she's so quick, she has jumped off before I can stop her. Do you think 4 1/2 months is too old to start using a crate? Trying to toss up whether or not it would be worth it buying one. Just a lot of money that's all! I've never really liked the idea of crates. They look too much like a cage to me but if it will benefit her in the long run it may be worth it? Just don't know if I'd really use it after the toilet training stage.

We have a 4 month old cav puppy and at first she was sleeping in a basket inside a wire puppy pen at night. We covered the floor with newspaper in case of any accidents but she became really good at holding on until morning. The last 2 weeks we used the pen she had no accidents at all so we started letting her sleep on our bed at night. She was really good until the last week or so. Instead of holding on until morning she'll jump off the bed in the middle of the night and go down the hall to do her business. I don't even know she needs to go until she is whining to get back up. It's driving me nuts having to clean up her accidents every morning. Why is she now going to the toilet at night when previously she was able to hold on? How do I get her back to being able to hold on during the night? I'd prefer not to use a crate as they are quite expensive and I'd only plan on using it until she is fully toilet trained anyway. After that, it would get no use so seems a waste of money to buy one.

We went to puppy preschool when Ruby was 8 weeks. It was held at our local vet. It was ok, it wasn't anything to rave about. It was mostly just sitting around and talking while our puppies played. Good information for first time puppy owners but I was hoping to learn some more obedience type skills. We only learnt to sit and lay down, and we only ever practiced once. In our class we had big dogs and small dogs. We had seperate play times for big and small so the big dogs didn't trample the little ones. They were off leash during this time and I thought it was really good as they got to really play with each other. Ruby loved playing with all the dogs. We got a really cool puppy file with a space for puppy's photo in the front and info on general puppy stuff e.g. desexing, vaccinations etc. There was a section to record all your puppy's info in the front which I found really handy and we keep all of Ruby's things in it together e.g. vaccination card, puppy school graduation certificate. We take the whole file along with us to the vets. We also got a bag on our last day with samples and a free toy. I would have enjoyed it more if it was more interactive and less just sitting around and watching the puppies play. We start a puppy progress class at my local obedience club in a couple of weeks. I am really looking forward to it so we can learn to teach Ruby some skills. I hope that helps. Feel free to ask more questions if you like.

We are starting our first obedience classes in two weeks and some of the things on our outline include; Rally Obedience Dog Orienteering Scentwork Obstacle courses (tunnels, weaving poles, A frames) In some of the more advanced classes they are doing flyball also. Can anyone give me a run down of was is involved in each of these?

I was wondering if anyone has had a dog or knows of one that has choked when eating chicken necks or other raw bones? This is my number one concern at the moment and I have only ever given chicken necks to my puppy on two occasions. Both times I was a nervous wreck and watched her like a hawk incase she choked. I am very hesistant to give her chicken necks again. I know that raw, meaty bones are excellent for dogs but I just don't know if the risks outweigh the benefits. Do chicken wings pose just as high a risk as chicken necks?

Ok so no good then. At the moment I feed Ruby Advance Puppy for breakfast and lunch and for dinner she has the advance mixed in with raw chicken mince and vegies.

What do you think of VIP pet foods in particular the pet rolls? I saw in the supermarket they have a puppy roll and was wondering if it would be good to feed to my puppy. Does anyone feed these?

Thanks. Yes, it is a weekly course. We go on Mondays so I might book her in on a Tuesday and then pick her up on the way home for work. I don't work on Wednesdays so I will be able to dedicate an entire day to her to make sure she is ok. How long do the stitches stay in for? Do they come home wearing one of those plastic cone collars?

We have a 15 week old cavalier puppy and will be getting her desexed at around 6 months. I was wondering what the recovery time is like after the operation? How long before she can resume normal activities such as going for a walk? We will be in the middle of a puppy obedience course and I was wondering how long it will need to be before she can start going back to classes?

Oh she is gorgeous! What's her name?

We have our 15 week old cavalier on Advance puppy food. Most of the time she eats it fine but doesn't really love it nor hate it. We chose this brand as this is what our breeder was feeding her and didn't really know much about dry foods or which brand/s were best. Is Advance an ok brand to feed? There are so many different brands on the market that it is very confusing. I have heard that Royal Canin is also meant to be good and was thinking of trying Ruby on that to see if she likes it better. When choosing a dog food what should I be looking for? I don't want to spend heaps on food so I am looking at buying something in the middle range in terms of costs. Can you buy sample bags of foods?

Hi Cally, Congratulations on your cavalier puppy. You must post some photos! I'm like Bellatrix, I let my 15 week old puppy have full access to the house too so not much help on that side of things. Do pop into the cav thread and say hello

Can you give dogs bananas? What other fruit can you give? What are the benefits of feeding yoghurt to dogs?

I have read that sardines are really good to feed to dogs but the smell really puts me off. Is tuna just as good and is it ok to feed to puppies? TIA