Bluefairy

About 30 years ago when I bought my Rotti, I had the choice of buying her without papers or with papers, which cost an extra $100. This is in SA. But now if you are buying from a registered breeder they all come with papers, either limited or main registered. BF

Nushie ~ I agree, NO ONE who has heard a pup cry, got anything on a PUG.....ghee they are loud and I compare it to having someone claw down a chalkboard, its the same feeling you get when you hear them. It took Zoe nearly 2-3 weeks of crying when I put her in the crate to settle. We ended up with her in the lounge one end of the house, our bedrooms are the other end. Then we replaced the door in the hallway, that we removed a year ago. This now deadens the sound somewhat. But Zoe now only cries in the mornings, never at night or during the night.....touch wood. Plus Jager is so cute, he looks like Zoe did when we first got her, so tiny. Now she isn't....in the last few days she seems to have stacked the weight and height on. I can't believe it, now when she wants to lay at the side of you in the recliner you have to inch all the way over to fit her on the chair..... I got Zoe's new food and water bowls today. I got the one from Deals Direct on an iron stand, with two SS bowls. Zoe seems to stretch out to get her food or water, so I thought having it a little higher might help her. It does and now she is going right up to the dish to drink or eat. BF

Hi Nic, I'm not sure about the yearly check ups, but some can and do cover vaccinations, microchipping, desexing etc. I guess this means you have to pay the excess.... Yes you pay anything over the limit amount. Most do it this way, some now they will pay directly to the vet. I did a lot of research on various pet insurances and the best one I found for all the coverage I wanted was PIA (Pet Insurance Australia). They were best value for money and the best recommended by other dog users. I have accident and illness cover for both my dog and cat with $100 excess, so I pay the first $100 up to my limit of $12,000 I think it is. BF

I so agree. My two oldest children are married and have children of their own. One lives too far away to get visits often, the other lives 20 minutes away and I hardly ever see them except when I go there ;) My last two remaining children are 13 and 20. Both still at home. They are two fighting cats most of the time and are always screaming at each other for something My OH has just retired, so I'm not sure how I feel about having him underfoot 24/7 But I can sit in my recliner, pick up Zoe and have her snuggle into me and fall asleep or try and lick me to death. It makes all the worries and upsets float away to have her there. If Zoe wasn't here I think I'd have run away by now....and joined the circus BF

Emery ~ Aww she is gorgeous. She certainly looks so contented in her crate and with her teddy Gus has a lovely colouring, I have a soft spot for brindles I'm glad Gus and Jane get on so well together. BF

Hi Tokkie ~ Congrats on the JRT puppy, which ever you choose. But by the sounds of it she looks to be the 'one' Tez ~ Zoe will be going in soon for her desexing.....I hate doing it but I don't fancy keeping her entire either. So the op is booked for just over a month away. As for your question....Mmmm I'm not sure, I have always made dogs sort out the pack order themselves. But reading or watching Cesar Milan (the Dog Whisperer) would be your best bet. You can either buy his books or get them from the library. What he does is amazing. Some people don't like him, but I swear by his training and I have tried some of it on my dogs and it works, it has solved every issue I have ever had. Good Luck. BF

I used to have that as my screen saver a few years ago. I love it, thanks. BF

Lily ~ I agree standing out on the crunchy frozen grass, in the ice cold at 6:30am is not my idea of fun ;) Zoe thank heavens doesn't like it either, so she does her business quick and runs inside to the warmth. I am extremely grateful for that :p Gayle ~ The eyes look a light colour in the picture, but then it could be the angle or the flash. Another dry night. I think I can honestly say she has mastered the art of holding on until morning at least I don't have to wash her blankets everyday anymore. Magstar ~ I also agree, its the pup that was meant to be. Congrats. BF

Hello everyone, Damo ~ I am so glad Jaws is finally home, now you can brag and understand what I have been saying about Zoe Gayle ~ Does your pup have blue eyes? They look blue in the pic but not sure as that can be deceiving. I love the fluffy look of puppies....so cute. Tez ~ I think we all go through the "What have I done" stage at sometime in the first few months. I have done it a few times myself. But then Zoe does something to make me smile and I remember why I got her I bought Zoe a round soft padded bed to go in her crate. She no longer has newspaper in there anymore.... I thought when I woke at 6:15am to take her outside I'd find the bed torn to shreds and urine all over the bed :D but nope its still smells great. So not bad for a pup to be TT at night at 17 weeks....I must admit she is the quickest learner in all the pups I have ever had. TT during the day is mostly great, you may get the odd accident, but Zoe is now getting my attention to get out....so another so nice. I have been wondering why I don't have pneumonia as its it so cold here, when I take Zoe out last thing at night I can hear the crunching of the grass as we walk on it. Plus she doesn't want to run and play anymore, its out do what she has to do and get back in poor thing. BF

I have had large breeds and now I think I could only cope with small breeds, so here goes my wish list. It will be shorter than 10 though. Another Pug French Bulldog British Bulldog Boston Terrier I said it would be short BF

Questions: How did you get them to sit so well for the camera? Is there a knack in training them to do this? I'll have a pup too please. It has to be a black girl though. Will it take long for them to mature? BF

Thanks Spottychick, I just bought them a cat tunnel, so while Zoe is playing inside with the hanging ball, the cat is dive bombing the dog from the outside, then she jumps back on the lounge, Zoe runs out to see who did that....then runs back inside the tunnel again so funny. They are certainly having a ball BF

Well I must have worded my posts wrong....its very hard to try and get into words what someone is trying to say. But I had to have a laugh.... at anyone thinking my cat is stressed, frightened or anxious about the dog that is just too funny for words. Sorry but you have got it sooo wrong, there is no chance in hell that this cat is anything but totally happy with what is happening in her life. If you could only see her and the dog PLAYING and I mean playing, not the cat trying to get away or afraid or anything but enjoying everything that they do together then you don't know how a cat (and I mean this one in particular) interacts. I woke this morning to a clean dry laundry and I watched the cat chase the dog today. They were both having a blast, and as the only issue was the urinating, which hopefully has cleared up, I'll leave this at that. I questioned any dominance issue when I was first told about it. I now believe it was never about dominance, I think it more about the cat trying to get a message through to the dog. What that message is I don't know, but as both the cat and dog are happy, playful and get along great, even sleeping near each other, I couldn't ask for more. But at the cat being upset, afraid or anything other than happy...you have it all wrong ;) Thanks for all the replies and for the help, but it appears to have sorted itself out. BF

Michelle ~ Thanks, I'll buy some Biozet today and start cleaning the kitchen and laundry floors. I agree great fun...NOT! Nic ~ Yes Zoe and Shadow play chasing games a lot, plus they are sleeping closer together now....Zoe will be asleep one side of one of my girls and Shadow will come and sleep the other side, while either Kim or Nic are laying on the lounge. Its great to see, I'll have to get my camera ready so I can get a picture. But will Shadow being a tease, and Zoe being hyper they both have a tough time being calm and staying that way Another dry night....this is getting good Emery ~ I have owned 3 Rotties, 2 males and a female. The female 'Faith' was my favourite. She was beaten as a pup before I bought her, and it took me 18 months to get her used to noises and to stop cowering when you wanted to pat her. She was an amazing dog. When she had puppies, and we had them outside in the sun, I used to put my nephew (about 10mths old) on the floor with them and Faith would go nuts if Sean had crawled away from the other pups, she'd cry until you picked him up and brought him back to the pack. Then she'd carry on happy just nudging the pups back into a small group....including Sean of course Faith lived to a ripe old age of a week shy of her 13th Birthday. BF

Thanks for the replies, I'm glad its not a dominance issue. I was worried about that, as they usually escalate into a battle. Shadow is fed in a separate room and her food and water is on top of the washing machine, her bed is on top of the chest freezer and her litter tray is on a cabinet the height of the chest freezer. So everything is out of Zoe's way, Zoe hardly ever goes into the laundry except to get outside, so Shadow pretty much has it to herself. Zoe has her food and water on the floor of the lounge, and Shadow is always going over to it to see what she has, or play in the water. Shadow has tons of high places she can get away from Zoe, I have always made sure cats have an escape area....Shadow has lots of these areas all over the house. Using a water gun on Shadow doesn't work, we have tried it in the past. She actually loves water, and will stand there while you spray her. When its hot we put water in the laundry sink and she has a ball playing and laying in the water. The spray might work on Zoe though. For the last 2 days Shadow has urinated on the floor next to the cabinet with the litter tray, the floor is clean when I put her to bed and urinated on when I get her out in the morning. So Shadow is not doing it out of fear of Zoe, frustration or anything other than just doing it. Her litter tray is emptied out everyday, sometimes several times, and it is thoroughly scrubbed and washed every week with new litter. We have tried different litter but she only likes and will use this one. Neither dog or cat get hurt, I always check when they 'play' and yes I get the impression it is play....well I did until I got told it was a dominance thing....I still didn't get it, as neither will cry out, and it just seems like harmless play. Shadow will sometimes tap Zoe on the head when she is sniffing Shadows feet, but never with her claws out, its just a tap she would do when playing with a toy. They can be very calm near each other, and often they will sleep either side of one of my daughters (13 and 20) when they are laying on the lounge. Zoe asleep one side of them, and Shadow on the other. When Shadow comes over to get in a position to sleep, Zoe will put her head up and watch, then as soon as Shadow has laid down, Zoe will go back to sleep. When I watch the two of them together, Zoe will hold back and watch for clues from Shadow....as soon as shadow is ready (and believe me Shadow has her eyes on Zoe all the time), Shadow will run and Zoe will chase. If Shadow just walks past Zoe, Zoe will walk with her calm as anything. It seems as though Shadow triggers the chasing game. They don't chase each other all the time, but most of it. Shadow always instigates the chase, Zoe will be happily playing, then when Shadow is in a mood to play, she will sit where Zoe can sniff her but not touch and flick her tail.....I have seen her move her body into a position where her tail is hanging down and she can gently flick it. If she is flicking it and Zoe can't reach it, she will turn round until she can still see Zoe but Zoe can touch her tail. She used to do this to encourage a kitten we used to have to play. If Zoe doesn't get the hint....Shadow will jump down from the lounge and jump right next to Zoe, then spring up back on the other chair. Zoe will get startled and run (of course she can't reach Shadow), then Shadow will continually run from floor to chair, to laundry, back to lounge, etc etc, all the while Zoe is running on the floor doing zoomies (pugs run really fast round and round furniture) watching the cat, put never catching her. Most times Zoe isn't even chasing the cat, she has got into zoomy mode and does her own thing. And yes Shadow has done this same thing to the other dogs we had, but she stayed away from them as they were a bigger dog. Zoe is smaller than the cat, and I think Shadow feels a little more able to play with her because of her size. I don't mind the playing together, and I am stopping Zoe from standing over her or jumping up at her, I'm hoping this gets less. But I am anxious to stop the cat peeing on the floor, this is really getting to me more than anything else. I don't think its a fear or frustration thing....as I have seen Zoe watch Shadow (and she knew Zoe was there) urinate on the floor, then she will try and cover it up.....if it was for the reasons mentioned, surely she wouldn't have Zoe watch her, she wouldn't wait around while she is 'covering it up' and then just walk away????? I feel its more a territorial thing, like "see this is my area" but why do it in her area in the first place when Zoe isn't there, hardly ever goes in there, and its Shadows anyway. There is nothing of Zoe's in the laundry, its all Shadows. BF

Saxonpup ~ Thanks for the suggestion. I have put a post in the Training thread, so hopefully I can get some tips on stopping this. Thank you heaps. BF

I have a 15 week female pug pup and a 4yr old DSH cat. Shadow the cat, is usually a laid back follower, with a few pups under her belt she gave in to. But.... ...since Zoe the Pug has been here about 6 weeks....there has been issues over who is dominant and no one wins.....I think. This is what happens in a typical day: Zoe wakes me at 6:30am, I put her harness on (the fences aren't finished yet) and take her through the laundry, where the cat sleeps (Zoe sleeps in the lounge in a crate), and I let the cat out and take Zoe outside, stopping her from jumping on the Shadow. When Zoe comes in she looks for Shadow, if she is on the back of the lounge chair she leaves her alone, if she is on the floor she chases her and the cat jumps on the chair. After Zoe and Shadow have breakfast, in separate rooms, the cat will either stay on the back of the lounge or sit on an old milk can or something else that high, and swish her tail so that Zoe will jump up for it, which usually means the cat gets bitten if Zoe catches it (not hard but enough to make the cat jump back on the lounge chair). If Zoe ignores the cat because she is busy playing with her toys, or preoccupied etc, the cat will jump down and swish her tail at her. If this doesn't work, she will go up to Zoe and lay on the floor.....all the while tense and ready to run. If Zoe decides to chase her, sometimes she catches Shadow and will stand on her, and I have seen her hump her while holding her ear, all the while the cat is not moving whether the ear is being held or not. Most times its just a chase and the cat always escapes. At first we believed the cat got what she deserved (to be chased I mean) because of the constant teasing of the dog. We have since been told its these two fighting to get dominance of the other.....using what ever method works.... The cat has now started to urinate on the lino floors, I was told this was part of the dominance issue too. Which is driving us insane, the dog I can understand as she is only a pup and is almost TT. The cat urinating has nothing to do with litter boxes, litter, UTI, etc etc, we've have checked all that, and its fine. We have been stopping or trying to stop Zoe chasing the cat, when we see her on top of the cat we pull her off....but all we seem to be doing is saying NO to Zoe all day Can someone help us before we go mad? BF

Nic ~ she has good eyesight (I checked that too), its only when she runs fast (doing the zoomies) she forgets to watch where she is going, plus I don't think she has mastered the brakes yet, and on lino she just slides if she tries anyway. Pugs are either running fast or asleep....not much happens in between Emery ~ How exciting, lots of photo's please. Another dry night :hug: How exciting....Zoe is almost TT, now we just have issues with the cat, as she is peeing everywhere.....its a dominance thing going on between them, and its driving me insane. The cat works the dog up, she chases the cat and stands over her, the cat will go pee somewhere..... I have been trying to stop Zoe from jumping up and chasing her, and Zoe ignores her now sometimes, but the cat just gets in her face until she she can't ignore it and chases her again..... :rofl: I am nearly ready to give up....I can't separate them, as there is nowhere for the cat to go other than the laundry but the dog needs to go through there to get outside. Any ideas? BF

Awww, here's Zoe who only weighs 3.8kg she is 15 weeks. You all have big heifers I think Sasha and Miley was from a BYB, the pups didn't come with papers, though they are definitely purebred, the breeder had both mother and father there. The vets have no idea what happened or what caused this to happen, unless they do an autopsy thing....which would be too expensive. Miley is moping around, but I told my daughter she will get used to not having her sister with her in a few weeks. Poor Miley. I told her to show her more play and hug time. Zoe's eye is back to being pink, so I have my fingers crossed it fades to white, and she doesn't do anything else to it. BF

Nic ~ No idea how to stop her, and no hints from the vet. I don't think they thought she would be doing it again. Other than crating her, which I don't want to do, I have been getting my girls and I to have her sit with them, so she rests and doesn't try and play.....there's not much else I can think of, besides padding the furniture Its scary now that we know the bad side of buying an unregistered BYB pup....so many people have no idea what they are getting into.... My oldest daughter has 2 Australian Terrier pups, both sisters. One was rushed to the vet last night with problems breathing, Sasha was making weird noises and was so lethargic, and her sister Miley wouldn't have a bar of her huh? The vet had no idea what was wrong, but thinking she may have been bitten or stung by something gave her a Antihistamine injection. My daughter brought her home and she was again rushed to the vets and they ended up putting her to sleep. Her trachea was likely perforated and was so swollen she wouldn't have lasted much longer.....she was only 6mths old. I think maybe Miley knew she was going to die and ignored her....poor thing. BF

Nic ~ I can believe that about the eye sight thing, Zoe is always bumping into things. She ran into the foot of the recliner last night and made the light pink of her eye go bright red again. This morning you can see it is getting a little lighter, so its slowly healing. She is getting so much better with 3 of us holding her down, she is so still now, I think it has more to do with the schmacko's she gets after than being good Love the pictures of Oreo and Georgia, so cute. BF

Lindainfa ~ OMG your puppy is gorgeous ;) Well poor Zoe was rushed to the vet yesterday, she had a bleed in her eye. The white part of her right eye, on the inside was brilliant red. All I could think about was she has damaged the eye and she might lose it.....I was so worried and so scared too. The vet checked her cornea, the back of the eye, and everywhere in between, but no damage. It seems likely she has banged her head (she does this a lot when she does the zoomies) and it burst the main blood vessel in the eye. The vet gave us some ointment AB's to apply twice a day just in case of infection, but she said it should start to get better in 2 days.....today is is pink, so the blood has started to disappear..... It took me, a vet nurse and the vet to hold Zoe down while she examined the eye, and it takes me and my two girls to hold her down while we put the ointment on, though I can get this done in seconds now. Then silly Zoe spends the next 5-10 minutes trying to lick it off.....her tongue is not quite that long, but you can't tell her off for trying If she does this again I will have to pad all the legs of the chairs and tables.....she just never concentrates when she runs, she will even run into us if we get up and get in her way. So now when she does the zoomies we stay perfectly still until it stops. She hasn't hit her head since.....I wonder if it knocked some sense into her :p probably not BF

Damo ~ I have a crate for Zoe to sleep in at night, and to get away from the grandkids when they get too much for her. But in the car I just use a harness and seatbelt attachment that buckles into the seatbelt. Usually I have one of the girls sitting in the back with her. If I have her on my own I use a cat carrier, a soft sided one, it is plenty big enough even for an adult pug. Those crates are too heavy to lug from the car to the house and too big to leave in the car as they take up too much room. Just a thought for you. BF

Emery ~ Your not allowed to just say "Is a little excited I should be getting my puppy soon going shopping today yippee" we need details, breed, age, are you picking the pup up or flying them in and especially photo's.....lots and lot's of photo's. BF

Magstar ~ There are heaps of different kongs out there, The Wubba is Zoe's favourite, it is a small kong with a fuzzy covering and legs....looks like an octopuss. I bought Zoe a Kong ball, its as strong and tough as a kong but a ball instead. You can get biscuits to go into kongs (they come in different sizes for different size kongs), you can also get a kong with a pressure pak of filler that you squirt into the kong. And you can get a kong that you add a long funny shaped cylindrical biscuit in the end. All of these are designed to amuse, occupy and last a long time. They are so worth the money. Nic ~ I'm not sure how strong a Pugs jaw is either, but Zoe has a light touch with her mouth. My last pup was an Aussie Bulldog and she could flatten out a Large kong when she was just chewing.....all you'd hear is this squelching noise as she pressed it together and let it go, over and over again. I tried doing it myself and even OH couldn't even get the kong to move. I'd of hated to have her bite someone, as she had an iron jaw. BF