Serket

We bought a dog door and just cut a dog door-sized hole out of the screen door and fitted it in - took maybe 15-20 minutes? Got one of THESE (linky)

Thats interesting- I was having to feed Honey 1.5 cups of Royan Canin (GR formula) twice a day- double what the packet recommended. A small bag doesn't last long that way. She kept losing weight too but I put this down to the fact I take her running every day and she was a little overweight to start. The GR formula mentions weight management (apparently Goldies need that ) so that probably wasnt appropriate for her really. Aside from that it is good but I'd rather pay more to feed her less. If you google, the website will come up for Artemis if you want more information. Also, if you search DOL there have been threads done before discussing it. I feed Gypsy 1.5 cups (200g) a day in 2 meals of 3/4 cup (+ treats when we're training of course but she only gets tiny little treats, so that would only be another 1/3 cup max.) Granted, she's not an adult yet and it will probably increase, but she's been on the same amount since 3 months and is now 6.5 months old and she's the perfect weight for her age. Feeding guidelines for Artemis are HERE and look pretty good to me - Gypsy is about 22-23kg and they recommend 1.5-2 cups per day. You might end up still feeding 3 cups a day, but it might suit her better so she doesn't lose weight

I feed Artemis and actually find it quite economical - a little bit goes a long way for us. I see people with very similar breeds of the same age and they feed twice as much Royal Canin as I do Artemis, for example. I admit that's something I didn't originally consider beyond reading that with premium brands you don't need to feed as much, but I didn't think about differences within premium brands Never had any issues with palatability, but then again, I've never had Gypsy refuse to eat anything, so maybe not the most discerning of taste buds

Gypsy will play with any dog that wants to play - she loves chasing, or wrestling, or just lying there biting faces , but she'll pick another golden retriever over anything else (well, out of anything else that's been on offer at the same time so far). ETA: Some of her favourite playmates to date include a kelpie, any golden retriever, a BC x, several Dalmatians and a tiny chi x

Nose bumps, with or without toys. Or, if she's feeling seriously neglected and prior to going mental with zoomies, she'll grab onto my pants and try to hump my leg (it's attention seeking)

Breed: Golden Retriever Age: 6.5 months Weight: 20kg Food: Artemis Amount: About 200g per day (almost 2 cups) Cost: $1.50 per day, so $10.50 a week + treats/bones/etc (random amounts so can't calculate)

It doesn't matter if your breed is rare or not. I've lost count of the number of people who've told me I've got a lovely male Labrador The people who guess Golden Retriever are in the minority, and I think only two people have correctly said female, despite her being a very feminine dog. Oh, or a long haired Labrador, I get that too. Maybe you have a long haired Whippet?

Gypsy attended two puppy schools (yes, two ) both of which did training broken up by short sessions of off-leash playing. For a while after that she clearly had a mental association of other dogs = PLAY TIME!!! and would try to get them to play with her as soon as she saw them. She still loves other dogs, but she's grown up enough now that if they don't want to play, she doesn't pester them, and while we're at obedience, she gives me 100% focus when I ask her to, but when we're sitting down waiting our turn and just talking etc, I let her play with her friends in the class (on-lead) they just play bitey face and wrestle on the spot. I think it's good as it stops the obedience classes from becoming too boring (which they would be for her otherwise). I did a lot of work at home on sit/stay/drop/recall/look at me/etc, and also at our first obedience classes we had a lot of space to work away from other dogs - so if your dog was too interested in other dogs, you could set up 10m away and work on getting your dogs focus there, and then move closer as they got better - that might be something you can try? Also, what are you walking Max with? Try one of those no-pull harnesses until you can get him to calm down when he sees other dogs - you don't want to run the risk of him pulling you over! (my 22kg puppy could pull me over if she catches me off balance/unexpectedly) Anyway, personally I do think the off-lead play was important, and that socialising with other dogs is important, as both my parents' dog and my in law's dog were never allowed to play with other dogs (despite attending obedience school with no play time), and are very anti-social towards other dogs now. Oh, one more thing - what training treats do you use? It's got to be something REALLY good in a high distraction environment. I use meat, bits of fruit (I've got a weird dog), cut up sausage, those 4legs dog food ball things cut into smaller pieces, etc.

Search the forum for threads on desexing - there are plenty, and they make for some interesting reading. It can be quite a heated topic. Personally, we've decided that our Gypsy won't be getting done until she's finished growing due to concern about growth plates and because I plan to do agility with her. She's just come into season now dead on 6 months (annoyingly), but most goldens seem to come in a bit later - 8 months onwards. She just wanted a longer holiday from formal training I think There are health benefits and drawbacks to relatively early desexing (bit hard to get most reproductive system cancers when those organs are no longer there), but there are issues with growth plates taking longer to close (a significant issue if you're planning to do dog sports/lots of active exercise). Of course it's easier for the owners to get them desexed early - no need to worry about the mess from seasons, or keeping them at home safe and the backyard secure from male dogs and escape attempts. Anyway, so far it hasn't been any trouble for us (touch wood) with her in season, despite having a fully carpeted house. No drips, no mess. Our backyard is as secure as it could possibly be, so, for us it isn't a problem so far, the most annoying part is just not being able to take her out for 3 weeks or so and having to miss training. My OH was very reluctant to wait to get her desexed, concerned about the mess and other things, but so far he hasn't even noticed she's in season (he doesn't take her out or walk her, so no mistakes are going to happen due to him not realising yet)

none in mine either

She's 2 now and still does it, but only at home or in our cars. My husband takes her to the tip with him cos she barks at the bloke on the gate and he waves them in for free. Then they go home via MacDonalds and she gets an icecream cone for doing tip duty. She went to dog shows, obedience club, beach, lake, lots of socialising right through that particular period when she started her protective barking, so it wasn't through lack of outings. But it's very, very typical of an Aussie. She's your best little wigglebum friend though, once she realises you're not there to steal our stuff! Gypsy has recently started barking at strangers when they come to the house (but not people she knows), and the builders working next door - she sounds quite savage actually for a breed people typically think of as cuddly and cute rather than guard dogs. I don't think it helped when my uncle jumped the back fence at Christmas and gave her a fright :D, after that she started barking at the builders next door when they arrive in the morning, since she's seen now that it's possible to jump over the fence and 'invade' the yard Anyway, I'm happy for her to bark to alert me to strange people nearby and strange noises, as long as she stops when I tell her it's ok. She's very social otherwise, and will be everyone's best friend if they'll let her - she's never been afraid of anything - storms, fireworks, loud noises, new people, dogs, etc.

I've always fed two meals a day too....I find it strange that people would object to feeding twice a day? Gypsy is 6 months old now and would still gladly eat lunch if she was given it - when we moved to two meals from three we just adjusted the amount accordingly, so she doesn't get fed less or more, it's just fewer meals. Given the speed at which she eats sometimes, I'd be worried about feeding her only one meal a day, and I'd also end up with a dog following me around the house constantly looking for things to eat.

Gypsy has recently mellowed out a bit more now at 6 months, but I think it's just a 'rest' before she goes mental. she normally has fantastic recall - I can call her off chasing birds, going to say hi to small children, etc at the beach or the oval and she'll turn on the spot and come tearing back to me. But at Christmas, idiot relatives left the front door open and she walked out, and just kept walking would turn around, look at me calling her and you could see her think "nope, no way" and keep going. Thankfully she didn't bolt, just wandered up the driveway and I caught her, she's also decided that 'stay' is an optional command sometimes

Haven't got a picture, but Gypsy's crate has her bed (snooza futon - which she loves), a small water bowl, and a stuffed toy in the vain hope that she'll chew on that for a while before she wakes me up in the morning.

I should have said too that we have a crate for Gypsy - we keep it next to the bed, and she sleeps in it at night (door closed) and often goes in there for a nap during the day. Every morning she 'grumbles' to wake me up and I take her out, and then leave her out while I go back to sleep sometimes. I don't crate her when OH & I are at work - but I do close the bedroom/office doors and used to block the lounge room off as well when she was younger, so there isn't anything she can damage, or hurt herself on while we're out. We've got a dog door, and have never come home to an accident of any kind (touch wood...). I think a crate is much nicer than being locked in a cold laundry or bathroom, which is the alternative if you don't want to wake up to a house full of 'accidents' when they're little.

Ignore her, when I looked in my local pet supply store at crates the two sales people there didn't even know what they were for ETA: Some people do crate their dogs for extended periods, mainly in America it seems, so I can see where she's coming from if that's the only use she's heard of - somewhere to lock your dog for 8 hours a day every day of the week.

I use OK as a release word (release to food in ToT, release from crate, release from stay, release from wait, etc. - can be release to food or toy for these things), and 'good girl' and/or a clicker as a marker when she does the right thing at other times (e.g. sit, drop, shake, roll over).

Insane is definitely right! That would be as boring at batpoop to a well trained dog and tedious to train, so as a measurement to pass an INTRODUCTORY obedience class, come on! Who is writing up the course guidelines here?! They need their head read! UD dogs aren't even required to do that. The longest length of a sit stay in competition is 3 minutes I believe?? (and down stay 7 minutes?) Someone correct me if I'm wrong. That's my 2 cents worth, anyway I went and checked out the UD requirements when I was told about the 10 minutes, and it just made it seem even more insane. I don't think we need to actually achieve a 10 minute stay to 'pass' overall, as our group's instructor said she failed it, but it's there, apparently. Actually, I just checked our 'list of tasks' for assessment, and the length of the stay isn't specified Maybe the instructor is wrong, although she's told me several times now. I certainly hope so. We do need to do 5 minutes tolerance to separation though, but that's not a stay. Given that the last week of the course says practice a 3 minute down stay, I can't imagine them leaping to 10 minutes the following week for the assessment. Sorry, I've derailed this thread a bit now

The breeder could tell you which variety it is (e.g. large breed puppy chicken and rice) - I'd imagine a few different varieties come in breeder bag sizes, so checking with the breeder for the details seems like the safest plan

I have to say I haven't built up a long duration specifically in Gypsy's stays yet, but she can probably do at least a minute. She did 40 seconds with the instructor running around her in circles at our end of class competition a month or so ago. I should time how long she can hold one now, and start working on it more. The idea of several minute long stays bores me to tears too, but apparently we need to do a 10 minute stay (!!!!) to pass the introductory level of obedience. So, I really should work on it more. I think it's insane though. (ETA: I have about 8 weeks to get to 10 minutes, thanks to a 6 week break in classes over Christmas and January...hmm. It's a very very long time for any dog, much less a 7 month old puppy [by that point]) I don't think you can make a stay interesting in itself (unless the dog finds it more interesting (rather than more distracting) with things to watch, i.e. not sitting in an empty room?), except maybe make the reward at the end super-exciting to make it worthwhile?

Gees you are doing well - my puppy is 5 1/2 months old and stay isn't in her vocab - its actually one of the last things I teach........ As for distraction - life is one big distraction - poor girl Good luck with your future training - do you have a video camera so you can tape some of what she is up to? Thanks. A lot of people say we're doing well, but I don't have a previous standard to compare to (except family dogs years ago who only knew 'sit' and then only sometimes), so I just see it as 'normal'. I can only dream of being as good as some of the dog/handler teams here on DOL though - it's great watching all the youtube videos to see how it should be done She's really very quick at picking things up but sometimes it works the wrong way - like the release word from her crate is 'ok', except apparently eye contact is also necessary because she won't come out of her crate if it's dark and she can't see me - still trying to fix that one. I started with stays pretty early on, because I read so much about people having issues with them I thought I'd get in early. She'll also stay with food in front of her when I'm out of sight too, I'm a mean mum, according to OH, for making her do that though. I differentiate between 'stay' and 'wait', with different hand signals for each - stay meaning don't move until I come back, and 'wait' meaning stay where you are until I say otherwise, could be release to food or a toy, or could be recall or something else. I don't know if it's made any difference, but her stays are pretty rock solid, although she had a week recently where she seemed to forget the meaning of the word entirely and would just get up and wander off I thought I'd broken her somehow. The only video camera I've got at the moment is the video function on our old digital camera, but I can try to set it up somewhere on a table or something, or borrow my sister's video camera (or convince OH that we need one...:D)

Gypsy is only 5 and a half months, and the first dog I've trained 'properly', but in our limited experience.... I do ToT with Gypsy, and I think that has helped with distractions, especially in stays, as she knows that even if there's food around, she doesn't get it until she's released to it. So, she's pretty good with food now, I can throw food in front of her, all around her, wave it in her face and she won't break a stay (while moving it might be a different story, but we're not there yet). I can throw toys past her, wave them in her face, etc and she'll hold a stay. I can also run around her in circles, run towards her and away again, etc, and she'll hold. Not sure about other people, haven't been able to test it much. She can be mid-zoomies running around or playing with her tug and then will sit and stay while I wave the same tug around and she won't go for it until told, and then she explodes trying to get it (trying to substitute toys for food more often now) Next is to start adding in food/toy/people distractions while moving, but first we need to do more practice with just a basic 'heel' with the normal distractions of being at training rather than home or an empty oval

My 5 and a half month old golden retriever likes to chew on rocks I don't know if she swallows them, I hope she doesn't. If I catch her I take them off her and she doesn't mind. She gets plenty of training and toys/things she's allowed to chew on, she just likes rocks for some reason. She digs in the garden and finds buried rocks so it's hard to stop it without digging up all the garden beds and sifting out the rocks

Thank you! I know what I'll be making for Christmas