Mini_M

We had one, but as Kayne's Mum said the grass stank really bad after a few days. Even washing it didn't help. We ended tossing out the grass and filling the tray with sand. That works great as its much easier to scoop out the poo with the sand, and about once every month we just replace the sand.

Are you at home with him all the time? You need to work out his 'pooping signal' and as soon as you see it scoop him up and take him outside. The idea is to not let him have any mistakes in the house, as this will just make it take longer to train him. If he is running off and pooping then try tethering him to you with a lead so you can always watch him. After he poops, then he can have a few hours of off-leash play time. Of course after he poops in the right place then he gets lots of praise, treats, playtime etc. It took about 2 weeks for our guy to get it, once we were able to catch him 99% of the time. bye!

Have you tried actually teaching her to bark on command? It's counterintuitive I know, but it worked for us. There is a thread on it here: http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?showtopic=9497 Basically you clicker train them to bark on a command and hand signal and ignore them if they bark any other time. Now our Milo knows only to bark when requested. Granted, he didn't really have a barking problem before, so your results may vary.

Does your breeder have a suggestion? Our breeder said not to get the new vaccine because she's heard of dogs having a bad reaction to it. Our vet assured us that she's probably being over-cautious, but was happy to give our Milo the traditional shots. That was the C3 vaccination at 6 weeks (before we got him), the C3 + kennel cough vacc at 12 weeks (I think this may be a C5?) , and then another C3 at 16 weeks.

After many false starts, we've just gotten our 16 week old pup to do exactly this. The secret was treats! Every time after we put him outside and he weed, we would jump up and down excitedly and then give him one of his favourite treats (cubes of frozen roast chicken). They were in the fridge inside, but if we kept the jumping around and praising going while we brought him in and opened the fridge to get the treats, he quickly understood he was being treated for the correct toilet. After only about 2 days of this, he started going to the back door and looking at us expectantly. If he was out of sight he'd start whining. Until we let him out for his toilet and then repeated the treating game. Try it like this. Ian Dunbar recommends treating after toilet as a way to get your dog trained, and it certainly worked for us. bye!

Have you tried giving her a pigs ear or something to chew on while you're brushing? Or treat her when she stays still for 5 seconds while brushing, then gradually increase the time.

We feed Milo, our 15 week old toy poodle, 2 meals a day of puppy kibble (Nutrience brand) and 1 of raw lamb. He only eats about 5-6 little pieces of kibble for those meals, and then wolfs down the meat in 20 seconds. We've tried not giving him meat for a few days, but then he hardly eats anything. We've also tried soaking the biscuits in water but he's still not very interested in them. We've also tried a different brand of food (Artemis) but he's not interested in that either. We've been told that his puppy kibble is important for him as it has the vitamins he needs, but it seems like he's not eating enough of it. Any suggestions? thanks

Our Milo was exactly like this when he first started walking, it took about 2 weeks but now he quite happily follows us pretty much anywhere. If he stops for a sniff or a sit all it takes is a slight tug with the lead and he's back trotting with us again. Not game enough to take him off lead at the park though, he's so small and quick we're afraid he might get spooked at something and bolt off. We walk him on an extendable lead which is kept short during the walk, and let out to 5 meters when we get to the park so he can romp around safely.

Hi Maximum, Our breeder said to ask our vet to pull Milo's remaining baby teeth at the time of desexing, all her poodles get this done. Our vet also said that he usually does this. Maybe Max being part poodle needs this as well?

Hi Maximum! Have you tried the vet clinic at Sydney Uni? We went to a vet we didn't like much near here, and are going to try Sydney Uni next, they have been highly recommended by a number of people. Though it does mean you'll have to cross the bridge !

We initially thought that but then our vet indicated that it should be ok to take him out 1 week after his second vaccination, just avoid taking him to places where many other dogs are e.g. a dog park. Our dog trainer said it was fine now, but only on sealed surfaces. This seems to be something that everyone has a different opinion on. Now we're a bit confused.

Hi all, We've just started taking our 14 week old toy poodle for short walks down the road. Initially he was a bit scared of everything, but now he comes along quite happily... but with one small issue. About every 20 meters or so he will just stop and plonk his bottom down and not move for about 30 seconds. He'll just sit there looking at us. During this time he wont be budged. After a short while he'll start up again and we're off down the road. Is this just him getting tired and wanting a rest? Or is he being stubborn and telling us to wait here until he wants to move off again. If he's tired then I'm happy to let him rest every short while, but I just want to know if this is a dominance issue that we should be trying to break early. thanks!

Just thought I'd let you know that Milo is coming along well with his socialisation. We've introduced him to a few other (calm) dogs during the week and he got along with them fine. He still gets a bit scared at loud barking, but that's to be expected at this age I guess. The other day he met a 1 yr old cattle dog who kept grabbing his lead and trying to drag him around the park. After a few initial scared responses he got used to it and was happy to sit quietly with this other dog holding him by the lead. Was very cute to watch. In puppy class last night he got along well with all the other puppies and played with them without fear. I'm meeting up with Maximum in a few days to introduce our puppies to each other.. if anyone else wants to come along to our next meetup, let us know!! bye

We are using a tray of sand for our puppy to toilet on. I've heard kitty litter can be bad for them if they decide to swallow it, but I think you can get special puppy litter. The sand works really well, its cheap and easy to scoop up, also doesn't smell.

When our guy (14 weeks old) does that we say "No!" very sternly and stuff one of his toys in his mouth, if he starts playing with that then we praise him. He's hardly doing it now, but occasionally has a relapse. We find that he mainly does it when there's a wind blowing and a corner of the paper flaps in the breeze. Is there any way you can weigh it down?