wuffles

Use a cheap car harness, or better yet, a good tracking harness. A good, soft tracking leash is essential. Believe it or not, he will learn to avoid tangles and so will you, it just takes a bit of practise and learning when to give it a bit of a tug or a flick to stop them happening. Thanks, don't know why I didn't think of using a harness I'm not convinced he will learn to avoid tangles though, he's not the brightest crayon in the box I think that will be my job.

Hrmm. Does anyone else have big problems with long lines tangling? Every time I take my big boy out on the long line he's managed to tangle it around his leg within 10 seconds. I find it really hard to practice recalls with it on him

Kyojin is sooooooooooo cute

She got a dirty nose from pushing a treat ball around I never see them digging and they usually have clean feet when I get home from work. Ava's fur is really self-cleaning, it's awesome. Sometimes they get caked on dirt on their nails but that's about it... if it's been a wet and muddy day so they are wet and dirty in general, they both come inside one by one, sit on the mat and I dry their feet with a towel Only once was Ava so dirty that she had to go straight in the bathtub, that was when she still had fluffy puppy fur! We are considering re-turfing the yard over Xmas when we are on holidays, and getting a friend to water it, that way it will have 2-3 weeks to establish itself before we let the monsters loose on it. Not sure how we'll discourage the digging though. I'm with KTB, we had a clam shell and Ava ate it. I'm thinking of getting another one for water this summer as it gets ridiculously hot sometimes and Satch LOVES water. Lucky you, Lord Satchmo has deemed you fit to give him pats

Oh KTB, don't feel bad about Hoover's digging until your yard looks like mine... :laugh: ;) That is one pretty puppy Primedogs

Mine prefer to be outside when it's hot. They know where the cool spots are and lay there all day.

I have a spethal dog as well...

I found $10 on the ground while walking Satch the other day Something to be said for a nice stroll of a morning

Me too She gets special treats in new or distracting environments and kibble at home or at the local oval. She loves kibble! My other dog always gets special treats because he won't work for kibble

My girl only gets 3/4 cup of kibble at dinner time so it doesn't take much training to use that much! I also use food containers to send her to get rewards so that uses up the kibble allowance pretty fast during training. Anyway, interesting. Thanks.

Me

Hrmmm... my dogs get their brekkie in the form of some training on their walks, some training in the house, some scattered kibble for them to find and in Kongs, depending on time and whim of the morning. No bowls. They get their dinner in a bowl most nights but not all -- if they've been to obedience training that night they don't get dinner as they get enough at training. Opinions? Edit: Sorry to continue the hijack KTB

Sorry, I can't remember what size the medium junior kibble is You can probably feel it in the bag though if you go to the shop. The medium adult kibble is quite large.

How do you think Hoover will react to all the other dogs? It will be interesting! And when does he get to meet Satch? Edit: There was a 12 week old ;) maltese/shih tzu at the Forde dog park the other day. Even Ava had a play with him, she was trying so hard to be gentle, and he was having a great time jumping on her. One of the BCs was scared of him, what a sight to see a fully grown dog being chased by a 1kg fluffball. He thought he was the King of the Park until he tried to steal a stick from Lord Satchmo who swiftly told him who's boss around these parts

I didn't really like the look of the RC ingredients at first, either, but the results seem to speak for themselves... I tried another brand that I thought had better ingredients, but there was an immediate decline in condition so I went straight back to RC.

IMO it will look more out of balance if it gets chopped off. My dog's head doesn't have long fur but I'm not going to trim the rest of her to that length so it matches, she'd look silly...

Just looks like 'pants' that some medium/long coated dogs have to me I brush my girl's pants every few days as they do tend to get quite tangled.

Could it be possible that Elbie didn't know where Hoover was? Ours have a bit of a freak-out if they're not sure where the other (or one of us) is. For example once Satch crawled into the crate, and even though Ava saw him do it, a few minutes later she got up from her bed all panicked, until Satch emerged at which time he got totally smothered in little sister kisses. Maybe Elbie had a bit of a moment and thought his little bro was still outside? ETA: Like you said, there could have just been a noise or something in the backyard as well. Satch is hyper-vigilant about things at night time and sometimes will sit bolt upright in his bed and race to the door to be let out. If we let him he'll usually run to one side of the house and let out a few woofs... sometimes it's a cat, sometimes people walking past and sometimes seems like nothing but I trust his intuition.

I think Ptolomy needs to write a book on the secrets of attentive heeling Pleeeeeeeeease?

Mine like RC but are both gutses so it probably doesn't count

Love the video of the antler thief... poor Elbie doesn't stick up for himself does he I'll have to try get one of my two. Satch guards his stuff, but Ava has worked out the best way to steal it anyway. She crawls up to him on her belly to see if she gets a reaction. If she gets the all clear, she rolls over on her back in front of his face. I SUBMIT, I SUBMIT. Then she'll sneakily try to grab the antler using the side of her mouth. Or, she waits until he isn't looking and makes a run for it. This backfired last time, as he noticed, and as she was grabbing it he put his big paws on it and her plan was foiled! I love how she looks so happy. Mine always look embarrassed if I dress them up.

Here is Ava... Slug 12 weeks 13 weeks 9 months 10 months

You are kind! ;) We still have a long way to go as well but I am very happy with my little girl. Focus during heeling is our big challenge. I'll have to take a new video soon but I can never find the time! Work + training two dogs + organising wedding + being sick = no time for video making With the four paws on the ground, trust me when I say Ava could NOT do that for quite a while :D I can't remember how old she was when it just clicked. Maybe 9 months, she hasn't been doing it for long? She still jumps up when she greets some people and often moves her front paws in her stand-stay but she is doing really well apart from that. I think sometimes we just have to remember that they are still puppies and young dogs and excitement is a lovely thing for them to have This morning my dogs were Monster Hounds. We walk them separately in the mornings, for a few reasons... firstly, they don't walk well together. They feed off each other's excitement and tend to get pully and overstimulated. Secondly, they need different things, Ava needs training and a longer walk. Anyway, OH left with Satch as usual and 5 minutes later I walked out the door with Ava... unfortunately OH had been accosted by another local dog walker to 'chat' (ugh) so they were still out the front of the house. Ava went mental, she was screaming and flipping on the end of the leash trying to get to Satch. Then of course Satch started whinging and lunging. I could NOT calm Ava down! We ended up having to go walking together and they were devil dogs for the first 5 minutes. Thankfully once Ava cleared her head enough to listen to me, the walk turned out ok. Now all I can think of is... OH is going away for work for 2 weeks and I will be forced to walk the nightmare dogs together the whole time I love watching dogs interact and play, I love how they just seem to 'get' each other. Humans don't have that kind of intuition and we also don't have that blatant lack of inhibition that pups have when they are playing Alas, I hardly ever see mine play, because they do most of that when we're not home. When they do play, they are ROUGH... it is not usually the cute play bowing and pawing and chasing... it is biting and pinning and body slamming

Our class is at 8am now so I will be free at 9am too KTB and Clastic Niques: Satch isn't interested in food or toys at training. He's also not particularly bright so he is NOT an easy dog to train... there are those of us out there that feel your pain :D They can be downright brats when they want to but we still love them, right? The other night at training when he wouldn't do the recall the trainer asked, "What food do you have?" "Um... steak..." "Oh. Hrmm."

Clastic: Poor Marsy, once he has recovered he can have another playdate with his girlfriend!! Although SHE will be the one feeling sorry for herself in a few weeks time... I think she's going to need a Cone of Shame as well as she cleans herself like a cat. ravenau1: I like Kandosii as well... keep working at it Love the little slug pictures, you'll look back on those pics in months and be amazed at how small and helpless they were! lilli_star: Weather doesn't bother me, I do live in Canberra after all I just think it's probably too remote for us, even though I like the thought... Oh, and I played percussion in high school and had a drum kit at home, so yes, I can play drums not too badly! Unfortunately I left the kit behind with a friend when I moved here, so it's been a while. Here are some pictures of my monsters taken this afternoon.