wuffles

I'd be too scared to give eggs to my two, they'd probably try swallowing them whole.

Ava still slept a lot when we brought her home and just gradually built energy from there... we will have to organise a play date when the little miss is old enough Oreo is so cute! He still looks so puppyish. Ava is looking more like an adult dog now. She is 6 months old today!!!

Oh a ball of energy, will she rival Ava do you think?

Thanks Nekhbet. My dogs do walk ahead, but I'm happy for them to do so. She's allowed to walk ahead when she's on her own as well, as long as she's not pulling. They're both on flat collars at the moment, I don't know the correct technique for corrective collars :p I'd like to do one person per dog but I've had knee surgery and can't walk them at the moment (OH's job). I will definitely try that when I'm out and about again.

Sorry, another pulling topic! We have two dogs, a 5 year old who is 37kg and a 6 month old puppy who is 17kg. Our older dog walks ok on leash, he walks in front but doesn't pull. When I walk the puppy by herself, she's great - always checks in, trots along beside me (still gets distracted but I can easily get her attention most of the time). We go to obedience classes where she breezes through the loose leash walking course. She can also heel for short distances by herself. As soon as we try to walk her with our other dog, she becomes a steam train! It seems like it is just the sheer excitement of walking with her pack, as she just adores our other dog. We have been trying "being a tree" but we don't seem to be getting anywhere. It really confuses our older dog stopping and starting all the time, and the puppy doesn't seem to be "getting it" even though she's a really intelligent little girl. She doesn't seem to want to be in front, if we walk her in front of him, she still pulls. At the moment we don't have much choice but to walk them together before work for a few reasons. They still get separate walking time, just not in the mornings. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to teach loose leash walking while another dog is around? :p

Our big boy went to the back door once and was whining. I was busy at the time so said "hang on, I'll be there in a second". A few minutes later I felt him nuzzle my hand and then start making those horrible noises like he was about to be sick! He only just made it outside before the spew, I felt horrible for ignoring him. I also feel bad when I get carried away and yell just that little bit loud or too much and the dogs shy away from me Then I spend ages giving them cuddles trying to convince them I'm not a bad mummy!!

Agree, my big boy would eat a bunny no matter who was holding it. He's a big softie but bunnies are completely different to people I've also seen plenty of owners bitten when they try to break up dog fights, it doesn't mean the dog is necessarily aggressive towards humans. If it actually attacked a human, that's different.

Great news! I just love beardies

Yep, Ava is a princess and doesn't like getting her paws wet. She'll go and wait at the door, we'll open it, and she just sits there and looks at me going "mum, it's raining! Help!" If I go outside and call her to me, then give her her toilet command, she will go... then run straight back inside

How scary! My gates are padlocked too. A lot of schoolkids walk past our hours morning and afternoon and I don't trust them at all!

As a dog owner who posts on internet forums and talks to other people about their dogs... you have to have tough skin :D Take all the advice you receive into consideration, but he's YOUR puppy and YOU have to live with your decisions. Ours are both outside all day while we're at work, Ava has been out there since she was 13 weeks old. I don't feel guilty, this is what works for us, and our dogs are happy and well-adjusted.

Ohhhh poor Brodie :D Best wishes for her recovery!!

Sounds cute Our older dog doesn't seem to be great friends with our pup at home, but he sure keeps an eye out for her when other dogs are around. Not protective as such, but similar to your boys, just diffusing situations that he isn't sure about.

Glad this topic came up Our Australian Shepherd is coming up on 6 months old and is hopefully going to be a performance dog (obedience, agility). I'm still undecided as to when I'll get her desexed. She does come from lines that have later seasons rather than earlier, but dealing with a season will be very hard on our part (we work full time, she is very very active and would not cope being inside all day, etc). Originally I was thinking at 8-9 months but have read things suggesting that this may be just as bad as very early desexing. Given she is a medium working breed, is 14 months minimum still recommended? Any suggestions about how to manage a season with full time workers, a crazy dog, and standard fencing?

Clastic What are you getting and when?! Ava still doesn't let us sleep in on weekends

We've met plenty of dogs that don't like puppies in their face and we have to remove our puppy from them. Sounds like your puppy might be similar, to ours. Ava doesn't want to accept that a dog may not like her and although she sends off submissive signals by crawling on her belly, we have had to remove her as some dogs just won't tolerate her silliness. Our older dog has pinned our pup to the ground with his mouth for a few seconds when she is being rude. She has gotten up, learned a lesson and come back to play with less intensity. It's hard to know what the older dog's intentions were in your case without seeing the situation.

Our older boy has always been great in the yard, the worst he did was dig an occasional hole. He left everything alone. You'd think he'd be a great role model for a younger dog. ........wrong :D If you put another dog in the yard with him you always come home to destruction. Our two think it's hilarious to chase each other around the yard with the most coveted thing they can find - the stake from a plant, half a brick they dug up, a garden gnome, a piece of wood from a fence paling... I think they have competitions on who can find the best thing to destroy for the day! (But the whole time they have big happy grins and greet me with happy wagging bums when I get home and they present the item to me). So... get another dog at your garden's peril, but if you need some extra entertainment go ahead :p

It depends on the dog, and also what you mean by unattended... while you're in another room? While you go out for an hour? While you go out for the whole day? Our older dog is 5, he doesn't need supervision while we are home or overnight. I only leave him inside while I go out for periods of an hour or two occasionally. He's happy to be outside unless the weather is horrible. Our puppy is nearly 6 months old, she doesn't need much supervision while we are home but if we haven't seen or heard from her in a while we still check. We've never had a playpen for her but watched her like a hawk for the first few weeks. She's still crated at night but is likely to graduate to free roam of the lounge/bedroom (like our older dog) in the next few weeks. I need to be sure that she won't chew things she's not meant to, jump on the couch, or encourage the other dog to play at 2am. I don't think we will EVER leave them together inside alone, they egg each other on way too much However, plenty of other people do just that with no problems whatsoever!

I use Interceptor Spectrum once a month for worms and heartworm

I think this is probably about the second time in the two years we've had him that Satchmo has picked up a ball He has no interest in them, except when they are being coveted by another dog, then they become a good prize. He always spits them out after a few seconds when he realises they're no fun Ava will chase a ball but much prefers chasing the doggies chasing the ball

Here are some quick pics of mine and their friends yesterday...

Awww, great pics, what a nice story! I find it amazing that they just form their own little packs with dogs they've only just met. Love seeing a bunch of friendly doggies having a good time together.

I feed them whenever I get around to it, which is usually before us. I have no problems with dominance, however, if I did, I would be feeding them after us.

My Aussie pup poops like a trooper too I have noticed that talking to friends, the more active dogs seem to poo more. Just an observation of mine. Our older dog poops twice a day. The puppy poops around 5-6 times a day. They're both on Royal Canin dry food, albeit different varieties.

We got our female puppy at 12 weeks, had about 4 accidents in total. We haven't had any accidents since 14 weeks and she's now nearly 6 months old. Our older boy came to us toilet trained (poor boy had a tough time in the pound not getting let out for wees often enough) so I'm not sure how long he took, but he'd rather have his eye poked out with a fork than have to "go" inside the house. He'd hold on for days.