wuffles

My little girl is a strangely marked Aussie. We think she is a cryptic blue merle. Her colouring would be a disqualification as she has too much white. Lack of pigmentation on the ears and around the eyes can cause hearing and sight issues. Ava has partly pigmented ears and black eyeliner, and has normal sight and hearing. Aussies come in heaps of colours! The bi-colours are stunning. They also come in a lot of other non-standard colours including dilute, yellow and sable... see this site for pics Edited to add: Dun greyhounds are :D

Our fences are 1.5m and neither of ours have any interest in escaping... Considering firstly that Satch was handed into the pound for "escaping" (read: getting out through loose fence palings ) and secondly that he can stick his front paws and head over the side fence... he doesn't want to escape Just wondering... do you have any friends that would lend their dog for a sleepover? It might help give you an idea of how Max acts when another dog is around. Satch acts very differently with visitors than he does to Ava, but you still have to feed two, work out where they're sleeping, etc. Max is so cute :D

I would recommend a dermatologist as well, we never got to that stage but it was going to be our next step with our boy. If he ever gets the itchies again that's what I'll be doing. My boy had similar symptoms, hot spots on his rump, fur loss on his front legs and belly. Soooo itchy. We never got an official diagnosis but the consensus is that he is highly allergic to algae in our local lakes. His itchy spells had coincided with swims in the lake and he hasn't had any since (he hasn't been swimming in lakes since, either). There are sooo many things that could be causing it so I wish you luck Under the guidance of a vet we ruled out sarcoptic mange, used antihistamines daily and cortisone injections when he was so itchy he couldn't function. Dogs allergies also often appear or worsen as they get older.

Depends what you want space for. Because you want them to get exercise? Because you don't want them running into things? Another reason? Our block size is 360m2 which contains a small house, 2 hoomans, a 36kg dog and a 19kg dog As I said earlier, I'm sure they'd prefer larger and so would I, but that's our reality and we all do fine. I guess our main problem is they are tough on the yard with holes and turning the grass to mud, which wouldn't matter so much if it was spread across a bigger space.

I loaded two videos from this morning onto my Youtube channel... Turn the sound off to avoid my annoying voice and random comments!! This is the reserve at the back of our house and our local friendly group of dogs. Mine had so much fun in the wet grass, even got some play bowing and zoomies out of Satch, soooo cute. Big long response from me Max#1 How does it compare to having one dog? My situation is probably different to most here as Ava arrived when Satch was about 5 years old, so the age different changes things a bit. It is a lot of extra work but that's mainly because Ava is a young working breed, and Satch is, well... a bit of a lazy homebody, so we had it easy before Ava came along. I quite like the age difference for a few reasons... the first being Satch doesn't need too much attention in terms of training. He has helped her learn calm behaviour and how to behave around adult dogs. They only play occasionally and Satch ignores his little sister as much as possible... Ava LOVES her big bro and is always giving him kisses and curling up as close as possible to him without getting told off. He is protective of her around other dogs. What changed when you got your second dog? My older dog had to learn a lot of sharing. He has to share his personal space, his bed, his toys, his favourite sleeping spots, time with us, pats, walk time... it can be a bit hard on him... for example if we pat Ava, he will stare at us from his bed looking very forlorn... or sometimes she will take a toy from him and he makes no effort to get it back (like Elbie and Hoover) which is hard to watch for the humans but I think not as bad for the dogs as we think. Also, ours are more active and noisier when there are two of them. They keep each other awake, which can mean more noise and more mischief. They bark at each other when they're playing. Satch thinks it's his job to protect his little sister so he is more guardy at the fence than he used to be. This is part of the reason we are taking him back to obedience classes as he is getting a bit too big for his boots now that he has someone to boss around... How do you split obedience/other activities between them? (Though that one I kind of know from posts on here). We are pretty time poor in my house so it's hard. IMO it would be much easier if we didn't both work fulltime. We walk/jog them separately most weekday mornings, occasionally we will take them together. They play up when they are walked together and training is almost impossible. Sometimes of an afternoon I take both of them to the dog park, or sometimes one of them gets another walk with training thrown in. On weekends we take them out together to the dog park or for longer walks. Both go to obedience class, one on Thursday nights and one on Sunday mornings. Satch is happy just to lie on his bed and spend time with you whereas Ava prefers to go go go, so this makes it easier in a way. Neither of them play fetch so that makes it harder to exercise them How much space do you think you really need for two? We have a small yard and a small house. We have a no playing in the house rule unless it's bitey face which takes place lying down! As long as they have some kind of path they can run in the yard they're happy. Ours run from one side of the house, across the backyard, through the pergola and back again. Of course they would love a bigger area but I don't think they're deprived in any way as they get a lot of external stimulation through walks and training... Any thoughts (and of course photographic evidence! ha!) appreciated! Our dynamic is interesting because Satch is a very passive but dominant dog. He likes to be in control but won't start fights. Ava is submissive but not oversly so -- I would not like to leave Satch with another dominant male, nor would I like to leave Ava with another middle-of-the-range dog... I think you have to consider the levels of dominance when you live with more than one dog. Ava is regularly told off by Satch for getting in his personal space, being too boisterous or getting too close to a prized possession. This just involves a growl, a show of teeth or on a rare occasion, a pin to the ground. You see most of this behaviour if you frequent dog parks though so you'd probably know what to expect!

I used a cheapie "dog bed" I got from Homeart. It's in video around 20 seconds. I had to train the mat exercise completely separately to "go to bed" which she already knew but didn't generalise to the mat... once I did that I had no problem For Satch I use a polar fleece blanket because nothing else is big enough, but he just does NOT understand that exercise. I've tried so hard to teach him and he just has that blank look on his face One that's up on the bench or hidden in a cupboard

If he's got the same Aussie spirit as Ava he'll love that. Ava would jump all day if you let her.

I bathe Satch outside, tethered to the gate, with a few buckets of warm water. Ava gets bathed in the bathtub. Both of them probably get a bath about once every 2 months It's a bit like making the bed, it's just going to get messed up again, so sometimes I don't bother

dont tell me you haven't got a pure staffy? Hopefully they're not rejects. You should find 2 on either side of the face and one under the jaw, if not, complain to your dogs breeder. I found them, they don't stick out but they do have hair growing out of them Maybe mine is a staffy x!

How do I find these moles?

KTB ditch the pit stop I say! Ava was lasting through the night from 12 weeks. She woke us up once or twice in the first week then slept through 'til at least 5am

Hrmmmm, don't think we quite beat KumaAkita but here is the result of Satch's brush tonight....

Poor Satchy knew the thunder was coming. At the first hint of a grumble in the distance he was straight into a hidey spot (between the couch and the coffee table). Ava was unfazed until the big clap came, which woke her from a nap, and she was on high alert for a while. I played with her for a while so that hopefully she won't be too scared in the future. The last time we had a storm was when she was a little pup. If it's storming tomorrow morning for training I'm going to have to bring the Mo along and either leave him in the car or tether him during class... the poor boy doesn't like thunder at all.

Awww the puppyscrum is so cute! Seeing as everyone else was busy this morning, we went for a walk around the lake by ourselves this morning. It was HOT! I got burned and I think poor Ava's nose did as well. is what happens when I let them get near water of any description. Satch tries to pull me in, and Ava goes "uh, ew, that stuff is wet".Not a great pic, but here they are: And this is Ava now - she got into this position herself and is snoring.

Mum used to vacuum my childhood dog who was a CKCS. He just sat there with a disgusted look on his face. Can't vacuum my two as they are gone as soon as the vacuum gets within about a metre of them

Both of mine are from Pet Pamper and are great.

This is very true, Ava LOVES this 'game'... anything new she finds on the floor, she will put her front paws on. She's even done it to a piece of paper that fell off the table onto the floor :D I'm sure Mason will have a light bulb moment soon!

Do you thik this is stress related???? I don't think so, she is not a stressy dog and has been the same since she was a puppy. On walks, she prefers to do 4 little wees rather than one big one. She doesn't have a UTI. To be honest she doesn't do it often while training and when she does, it's when she's been released. Any tips gladly accepted though Soaks is a triple pee-er If she does it when released, have you tried not releasing her between exercises? So when the judge says 'end of exercise', heeling her back to the start peg and continuing straight to the next exercise without releasing? At the moment we're still working on duration with heeling so she needs the release, but as we get ready for trialling I'll see if I need to do something about it... I don't think it's an ingrained behaviour, it just seems like she's not even thinking about it. Even if we're at the dog park or oval she just seems to stop whatever she's doing, wee wherever she happens to be standing, then get right back into it! She has a very carefree attitude, loves everyone and everything, and we have joked that she reminds us of a small child skipping down the street singing "LA LA LA LA" and getting distracted by pretty flowers... Very different to my boy dog who strategically chooses his spots and is very easy to divert.

Do you thik this is stress related???? I don't think so, she is not a stressy dog and has been the same since she was a puppy. On walks, she prefers to do 4 little wees rather than one big one. She doesn't have a UTI. To be honest she doesn't do it often while training and when she does, it's when she's been released. Any tips gladly accepted though

I'm probably going to have a problem with this when we start trialling. We do have a verbal toilet cue, but it doesn't stop her squatting randomly in the middle of exercises You just gotta try and empty the tank We will certainly try!

I'm probably going to have a problem with this when we start trialling. We do have a verbal toilet cue, but it doesn't stop her squatting randomly in the middle of exercises

Same as us I am not in a hurry as my girl is still so young but it does get a bit frustrating! the other way round here, got my heelwork nice and focused and now our stays are broken, he drops in the sit stays and stands in the drop stays though the idea of competing is a little way off with only a thought of competeing in a trial by the end Maybe if we all get together and blend our dogs we could get one that does everything right

Same as us I am not in a hurry as my girl is still so young but it does get a bit frustrating!

I have to agree with this in general... my dog was lunged at, growled at and barked at in an aggressive manner by two different dogs last night at our group training classes and it's not a nice experience. He doesn't react as he is a placid boy, but I worry about the effect this may have on him in the future. It can have quite a profound effect on sensitive dogs, or those that do not like to be provoked. In saying this, I think that on occasion if the dog can be managed well by the trainer, owner and the club, it can work. We have one reactive dog that works at a distance from classes that he will not react, and any dogs that are used as part of his training are selected based on their temperament, sex, and owner's consent. No other dogs are affected as they work so far away from others.

I love that OH will willingly vacuum with the Dyson. Boys like to see all the disgusting dirt coming out of the carpet Dyson here as well, love it love it love it, the fur at our house ranges from fluffy black undercoat to long wispy white topcoat and it picks it all up no worries.