MP_

i love this idea!! i've always wanted to know how to do this!!! I lit a match in the background of this shot.

I just wanted to ask a quick question about my 8 month old maltese. She is constantly licking. She wants to lick my hands, my face, my feet. Sometimes she just looks at me and licks the air. While I don't mind too much, it's around other people that it gets a bit ewww. Any ideas about how to stop her doing this? Oh- and while I'm here, she loves to eat those raw hide stick things, how good are they for her? Should I be putting a stop to her knawing? Cheers, MP

is it too late for me to join in?

thanks for the advice, I was planning on putting her in the pool and teaching her where the steps are so that if she does fall in she can find her way out. I never even thought about the hose! What a terrible thought. Unfortunately I can't afford to get a fence at the moment, but I guess that's all I can do really. She does spend most of her time inside and only goes outside when I'm out there too, lucky for her I like to be outside a lot during summer I was thinking of blocking off part of the yard for her to be in, but it doesn't really fit in with my doggy door idea. As the back door is around the side of the house which is hard to block off, which means she couldn't come and go as she pleases. I guess she'll just have to stay inside when no one is home. Is keeping her inside all the time bad for her? I have no qualms with her staying inside but I always felt like dogs should spend as much time outside as they can enjoying smelling things and chasing birds?

Hi Everyone, I have just got a new maltese pup, she's 9 1/2 weeks old and I've had her home with me for almost 2 weeks. So far I haven't left her outside by herself, because I have an unsecured pool. As in, there's no fence around it, only my boundary fence, which is very secure. I was just wondering on ideas about leaving her outside alone. I presume it's better to teach her about the pool and where the steps are rather than teach her not to go near it? Would it just be better if I continue to leave her inside when I go out? I would eventually like to get a doggy door put in though, so she has more freedom? When I was little my parents had a dog in the same house and they never had any problems with the pool. He spent a lot of time outside alone. Any advice would be appreciated.