wuffles

And some random shots (photo overload) Satch and Kuma only made it into a few action shots each

Kyojin is getting so big! Cats wouldn't last long in my house... My two are exhausted after this morning and are fast asleep. I'm about to get the meat ready for the BBQ though so I'm sure that will wake them up... Here are a selection of photos... the rest are on FB. First of all... here are all our beautiful dogs :D Kuma Mars Pepper Elbie Hoover Satchmo Ava

You should see Ava when we get to obedience class She nearly rips my arm out sometimes. The best thing you can do is be consistent. Don't expect too much or he will feel your frustration which will make it worse. If you go to obedience classes, they will be able to help you My big boy walks alright on leash, he is 36kg and I have no problems controlling him. It just takes time... a lot of time

kyliegirl... my girl is almost ready for formal obedience trials yet she has only just mastered loose leash walking at 13 months old. I spent many, many walks almost in tears because Ava would just run on the end of the leash (now we joke, at least it filed her nails ). I took an hour to get 5 houses away once Don't stress! You will get there. Do you want to use purely positive training or would you be happy to use small corrections? A martingale collar can be helpful if you know how to use one, that's what helped Ava realise what I wanted her to do. I wouldn't use it until Echo is a bit older though.

Not much training lately I'm afraid... wedding appointment overload I think I'm going to go for the big guns and get the clicker out to try teach her. It's frustrating because she holds things in her mouth all the time - she always greets us with something in her mouth and wants to 'walk herself' with the leash when going for a jog. But she seems to think that picking up the dumbell then holding it for .5 seconds before throwing it at me as hard as she can is what works (And man that thing HURTS when it hits your foot) Yesterday when I got home there were no toys in sight so she grabbed one of my socks that was on the ground. She thought twice about it but couldn't resist. Then she held it really gently in her front teefies and brought it to me and wiggled her bum so hard her tail hit her head

Eugh, I frequently curse the stupidity of whoever it is who keeps putting tags on dog items. Not too hard to forsee that the dog will eat them, thus unravelling whatever so-called "sturdy" item they're attached to Especially on TOYS!!!! I always cut the tags off but the monsters still go straight for the stub, which usually unravels the stitching. Once there is a gap big enough for stuffing to get out, the toy gets confiscated because I am sick of snowy living rooms. This process usually takes about 2 minutes...

Are the Canberrites bringing the 'men' tomorrow? Trying to work out if I should get mine up early to come along or whether that will just make him grumpy. I'm assuming at least Mr Koala will be there, he is so dedicated... I'm thinking of trying the Black Hawk Holistic food that lots of people on DOL are raving about. It's cheaper than RC, technically has better ingredients and it would be nice just to feed the two dogs the same food (they're in a different weight range according to RC). I've emailed the supplier to see if I can get a bag. KTB, you could probably retrain a normal beg pretty easily. Just ditch the word 'beg' and start fresh. I know in a lot of the videos from the US, people use the command 'sit pretty' instead, so maybe you could try that The next thing I want to teach Ava is to bow (and hold it!). (Edit: Actually the next thing I want her to do is an obedience retrieve, but I can't get her to hold the dumbbell no matter how hard I try :D) Your thread about the weight of dogs was interesting I am paranoid about weight. Try having a dog like Ava with a long coat, eeeek, so hard to tell. She is very lean, OH wants me to feed her more but I'm undecided whether she needs it. Clastic and I were squishing and prodding our dogs like mad the other day to see how bony they were I also forgot to say earlier, Genevieve and the cord :D Satch nibbled a cord once as well, but he didn't make it the whole way through!!

I know people get defensive about it, but in my experience, a lot of people do take it on board if someone says their dog is overweight. I know a few people at the local dog park who have really slimmed down their dogs after seeing fit examples or having a chat about it with the other regulars. Peer pressure? Edit: In one case, a 'new' labrador started coming to the park who was lean and muscular and everyone oohed and aahed over him and said things like 'this is what labs should look like!' I think that gave some other owners a kick up the bum.. they wanted their dog to be complimented too

Most politicians don't live in Canberra. They have somewhere here to stay when parliament is in session and the rest of the time they spend in their family homes in Sydney, Brisbane, etc. It's still restrictive in terms of dog laws... it's just that there are some people out there who obviously think it's worthwhile having dog off leash areas. One thing I liked about Brisbane when I was up there was that there were heaps of fenced off leash areas. I know some people hate them, but one of my dogs has questionable recall at times so I visited a few in off peak times when we were the only ones there. He had fun rolling in the mud.

I think the ACT is pretty good in the scheme of things. Lots of offleash areas, not just fenced--local ovals, reserves, equestrian trails. From my house it's a 5 minute on leash walk to three different offleash areas. Can swim at certain spots in the lakes and rivers when they are clean enough. No BSL. A good network of volunteers, rescuers and foster carers. Our local cafes don't seem to have a problem with dogs. There are a few dog obedience clubs, whose members can use their grounds for free running.

HAHA. I laughed. I've only just taught Ava to beg classic-style

My parents live near Nudgee Beach, dad said he went there last week and it was still looking a bit feral. He did say there were lots of dogs on the beach with their owners checking out the debris. And he also said that the Riverwalk has ended up there ;)

The type of heat in an unventilated space is different from radiant heat from the sun. Outside in the sun, a dog's coat can deflect a lot of radiant heat (or absorb it), and its mouth is always keeping the dog adequately cooled with a powerful and efficient evaporative cooling system. In an unventilated space such as a car, the dog's own cooling system is useless, and the dog can very quickly overheat. Full cross-flow ventilation is required to keep a dog cool enough. I understand that, but my dogs have come in from outside way hotter than they have ever gotten being left in my car for 5 minutes (both my dogs have significant amounts of black on their coats). As I say though, I don't do it when it's hot. I hate seeing dogs in unattended cars when it's hot too.

I leave mine in the car sometimes when going into shops for 5 minutes. Of course I don't do it when it's hot, but they are always calm and happy when I get back. Then they go and fall asleep in full sunlight in the middle of the yard in summer

I don't be shocked Sure I have to do sometimes just like that as well, but I always feel bad about it :D But I have active Border Collies and they are used to have a lots of activities. They don't want to just spend time with use while we watch TV, they think it's boring. This is of course also matter of breed as well. Many breeds are happy with much lesser activites, but I have to chosen bc's and I go for at leas a one hour walk even it is raining hard or there is -15 degrees. Somethimes I do think how grazy that is :p Yes it's so hard to draw the line and it does depend a lot on individual dogs I do sometimes feel guilty when I go out without my dogs but they don't really seem to mind! One of mine is lazy, but the other is an Australian Shepherd. She's active, but still spends an awful lot of time sleeping in front of the TV ;) I do always take them for a walk before work, even if it's raining, and it gets cold here too (at least by Australian standards!!!), it is below 0 most mornings in winter ;)

If we are talking 15 minute walks then that's fine. I was thinking longer than that... my two love sleeping at our feet watching TV at night. Of course I do take them out some nights to training or for a walk or to the dog park, but when we get home they just want to spend time with us. Most of my friends don't have dogs. The ones that do, I met at dog club or on this forum ;) I think this is where attitudes are different between countries... I play sport (or I did before I injured my knee), I have hobbies, but I also think that I have enough time to have happy, healthy dogs They are walked every day before work, go to obedience training, socialise with other dogs regularly, go to the dog park, get trained at home. Occasionally they would be at home while we're at work, then we'd come home, give them a quick play and feed and go out to dinner or to sports training. I know that you will probably be shocked at that but people who have met my dogs can confirm that they are both happy, well socialised and adaptable... I have met dogs who get a lot less attention than mine who are also happy... so where do we draw the line between having enough time for them and not? :p We're not sure yet! We are hoping to be there around Christmas. Our wedding is in a few weeks time so I'll start organising the honeymoon after that :D

Mine are 5 years apart and to be honest, I'd probably leave less time than that if I had the choice again - 3 or 4 years. The puppy's energy level was just a bit too much for my older boy even though he was really good with her. I don't think I could do two puppies - put my girl with another dog her age and with a similar play style and she wouldn't stop all day. Not good for joints and bones, and probably noisy and destructive as well

I'd love to be able to take my dog/s to work. My colleagues would be disgusted And I'd love to live within walking distance of work too! We took our two dogs on holidays with us over Xmas, 15 hours drive each way, and they were really well behaved. But we rarely found anywhere to stop along the way where we could even have our dogs sit under the table while we ate... they were generally tethered outside the eating area so that we could still see them. We had lots of people admiring them and letting us know how well behaved they are (although they were tethered... not like they could get up to too much mischief anyway LOL) so I think at least some people would be happy to see more dogs around with their owners.

Mine are fine with cars but go a bit silly on walks over other dogs :p Ava is still jogging with OH some mornings but while he used to whinge that she would slow down and want to pee all the time, now he is complaining that she's too excitable and that she bounces around like an idiot, mouths the leash and lunges at other dogs He really doesn't have much patience for dog training. I tried giving him some advice but I'm not sure whether he'll take it or not :D Satch is an on leash dog (ummm... except occasionally in the local reserve or a fenced dog park). He has a similar attitude to life as Kuma Ava on the other hand is fine off leash, I wouldn't say her recall is 100% but it's pretty good. I don't walk her off leash near roads or anything, but ovals, reserves, fields, dirt tracks etc... she can be trusted. I still think Elbie and Hoover would have no issues in areas like that. They aren't the type of dogs to run away from you, unlike a certain black dog. Walking on leash actually tires my two out quite a bit. Anything over 45 minutes and Satch is dragging his feet along the ground. Ava would go forever, but is very calm after 45 minutes. I think an hour's on lead walk actually tires Ava out to similar levels as 45 minutes at the dog park... KA, you'll have to let me know what the kennels are like if you decide to use them. Still trying to decide what to do with ours when we go away ;) Happy to do BDOC on Wednesday although there are no guarantees that it will be empty. What time could everyone make it? Is 9am too early?

Sorry, getting a bit off topic here but... OH plays soccer over the cooler months, and I take the dogs to his games on weekends. We just sit on the sidelines but the dogs love getting out and about, getting pats from all the team members... and they also learn to sit still and wait calmly. Interestingly, we don't see many other dogs at the games, even though a lot of girlfriends/wives/kids/friends show up. People have actually asked me in a perplexed tone, "Why do you bring the dogs with you?" Ummm, why not? I like spending time with them, they like being there. So I think that the restrictions on where dogs can be taken in Australia has definitely helped create the attitude that dogs should just be at home in the backyard.

I do think it matters in a way, because mine would definitely need less formal exercise if we had a big backyard or acreage. But if you can meet their needs in regards to training and exercise, yard size isn't a big issue.

Do more people work fulltime in Australia than European countries? I wouldn't have a clue, just wondering if that could make a difference. I know about 90% of my friends work fulltime and have to in order to afford their mortgage/rent... walking a dog 3 or 4 times every day would be very difficult and prohibitive... before work, after work and after dinner? What if you played sport or went out to dinner or had friends over or had another hobby? We are hoping to spend our honeymoon in Finland and surrounding countries at the end of the year... so I'm sure it will be interesting :D

1 x large, 1 x medium. Our block size is about 365m², small house, so they have a small grassy area and a largish pergola. Both walked every day at least once mostly on lead. Get a big run at the dog park or reserve about twice a week. The younger one gets lots of training as well. Edit: I would love a larger yard for the dogs. They chase each other around, there is enough room to run up and down and chase a toy but that's about it. One day...

:birthday: When I volunteered at my club's obedience trial, I did spend a bit of time standing around wondering what I should be doing! Thankfully everyone was very helpful and it was much easier when I was accompanied by someone who knew what they were doing and were given specific tasks

:rolleyes: KTB, funerals are hard. I have been to way too many in my life. Here's to a happy and healthy 2011!