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It's our evil plan….WORLD DOMINATION SPOTIFICATION! Such fun dogs although I should dig out some old stories to remind you why my DOL name is "The Spotted Devil" Yes please! I want Spotted Devil stories!!! Thanks for the info and the photos dotdashdot! Very insightful :) They do already have a ped Dal, so they are clued in with the diet thankfully. I love how Dals keep getting more at a over their first year or so of life, I would never have guessed! And where the spots are on the dog, is that random too? So hang on, Nala is your liver spot, and Cleo is the black spotted? They are both very beautiful :)

And a 'troubled' one at that - so dangerous and inconsiderate

We have an arrangement where we look after our friends's dog when they go away, and they look after ours :) For longer holidays Nana will look after them. I have used kennels in the past, but virtually every time I've had to take them to the vet afterwards as they have been sick.

Obviously we don't know the full story, but I agree with you Leah, that based just on what I can read there it doesn't make much sense to me that these dogs could not be rehomed separately, and that in actual fact it would be more beneficial than rehoming them together.

It is really good she can walk into the Vet's now With the muzzle, I can get Del to be ok with it when she has very low levels of arousal. When her arousal levels go up, she gets upset about it again. She has some funny skin sensitivities. I spent ages getting her used to a head halter (even though I use a martingale on her) I just thought it would be a good idea. Anyway, it took me ages and ages to do it; and I eventually got her to a point where I could take her for a walk in it. Then one day she pulled on it, and it tightened around her nose, and she had a major panic attack and pulled it off her head through sheer force and determination. So, yeah I get the feeling she just doesn't take to well to things on her face...

We introduced Del to a new dog last night and it went very well :) I just did it the way I've always done it, except when it came to actually coming in close we did it with them on either side of a neutral fence. I also had Del's muzzle on, for added security. Although honestly I think it created more hassles than it was worth! We introduced her to our friends' dog and she is very friendly. I wouldn't call her reactive, but she is very excited about other dogs. We walked them behind each other for a long time. Giving them an opportunity to smell each other's wees. From the very beginning it was clear that they both were dying to meet each other, but obviously it's still important to go slowly. Once they were a bit more habituated to each other's presence we walked them to the school where we could put them on opposite sides of the fence, and I put Del's muzzle on. Despite hours, upon hours of desensitisation I've done with the muzzle Del just loathes it. I have never, ever been able to desensitise her to anything over her face like that fully Still the meeting through the fence was ok. Del did jump a couple of times, a behaviour I unfortunately think I taught her inadvertently because she thinks that she won't get a chance to say hello, so she thinks the solution is to jump towards the dog before I can stop her. Which is certainly not ideal, because a dog of her size frightens the other dog when she jumps towards them like that obviously. So each time she did that, we went away and she was put in a 'time out'. But still we saw quite a few playful interactions between them, which was great! After the fence meeting we let them do bottom sniffing as they walked together. But when Del tried to smell Charli's bottom, she would accidentally hit (not forcefully) Charli in the bottom with the muzzle and Charli would get a fright and run forward. Del was totally fine with Charli sniffing her bottom. Then we came home, and I put Del in the crate, closed in our room and let Charli investigate our house. When Charli's owners came to pick her up, Del heard Charli and cried for her, and Charli cried for Del; it was all quite pathetic! So we let Del out, because Charli was on our front verandah, and Del was inside so they got to interact between the door (no muzzle on). And they were both very appropriate and friendly :) So overall, it was a very successful event. We'll be doing it again soon, and get it to the point where they are relaxed with each other in the confines of the house. As Charli will probably be a regular Thursday evening visitor :)

Ah that's interesting, I'd be interested to know how long they keep changing for. While I'm at it, I thought I'd check that BAER testing seems to be the standard for Dals? They don't need hip and elbow scoring for instance?

My friends are getting one, so I get to have baby dally cuddles

Ziggy is just lovely :) that's a good series of photos to see the evolution of Zig's spots. I know what you mean about the spotting almost creating a visual illusion, the same can happen with harlequin Danes :)

Wow that is interesting! I thought it would be a simple matter, but it sounds influenced by several things. Yes I can see how it could be harder to keep track of considering the pups often aren't fully spotted before they leave the breeder. Thanks for you answer TSD :)

I had a quick google and couldn't find what I was after... so I'm asking here :) In Dalmatians, is the heaviness/lightness of the spotting inherited, or is it random? i.e. if two heavily spotted Dals were bred, would most of those puppies also end up heavily spotted?

How very sad for you Persephone Farewell dear Douglas cat

oh he is very handsome! Its great that he is adjusting to sleeping inside For outside sleeping an old armchair could be a good (although daggy) solution to the problem.

look at that beautiful face :) Sorry for your loss, farewell Drake

Oh my goodness, they look like such characters! It's a terrific photo :)

Del has been a bit off her normal kibble. Often not eating admire than a mouthful of it at dinner times. So I think, this would make an excellent low-level distraction. But she found it really hard! We kept increasing the distance, but it made little difference really. On another note, we are tugging! I got the idea from that tug-sit-tug game where it says you can put some mushy food in a sock, and use that to tug with. I used sardines, and an thick woollen sock, and she was tugging instantly, and with great enthusiasm! I guess I'm going to have to look into how to transition her from a Sardiny sock to a proper tug toy now. I really like the cookie in the corner game too. I used a piece of kibble for this game, and she races toward that kibble. But if present her with a bowl or a kong wobbler of the same kibble she is like 'oh' But that tells me she must be really enjoying playing the games :)

Oh no; don't you hate those moments Was she in a long-line silentchild?

I am going ok LG, thanks for asking :), Just trying to get used to him not being around, and catching up on a lot of sleep that was lost in his final weeks. Its been good to come in here and read everyone's comments. Thanks everyone for your kind words Its really time for me to share the amazing and surreal thing that happened to Digby on his last day. We were at the park and he was having a rest. A group of people there thought Digby was magnificent (they called him 'your magnificent beast' :)) and they asked if they could kneel in front of him in worship. We were kind of surprised by this as you could imagine! And I said sure, and told them it was actually his last day as he had terminal cancer. So we left Digby on the bench, and they surrounded him and knelt down, and many of them were crying, and I was crying too. It was so strange. And I know it was probably just that they were doing some sort of challenge or treasure hunt, but it felt like the logical ending to my beautiful boy's life and his final 8 weeks where we spoiled him rotten. Anyway, I didn't want to post this before because I was too sad to look at photos and knew that this is not a story that could be told without the photo.

Awww these photos would cheer anyone up :)

Sounds like you did great Make sure you're consistent and just keep the walks really short for your own sanity while she is in the stage of learning not to pull :)

I've always taught a heel and a loose leash walk. When the dog is loose leash they are allowed to stop and sniff, and be in front of me or to the side of me, or behind me, and that sort of thing, just not allowed to pull. When they are heeling they are meant to walk by my side on a loose leash and be working with me. We transition between these two styles of walking throughout our walks. You have to make the transition very clear to them so they don't get confused. When i start teaching them this I always transition with a sit as it helps to make it clear to them. When you are teaching heel use a really high rate of reinforcement and make it like a really fun game using turns etc. just ask for a couple of steps and then release for your loose leash walking :) You can set up a really good training scenario in your house for her to learn the contingency. You do this by having something really special and yummy for her on the ground where she can see it. Have her on leash an walk towards it. When she pulls, or even the moment before she pulls you stop dead. Turn her around and start again. Just keep it up until she learns that she gets closer to the reward by not pulling. When she is quite close and not pulling release her to get the reward :)

I completely understand, it can be really hard to go to many new places. I never get Del into new places as much as I probably should. And not having a car definitely presents it's own challenges for sure! :) The best I've come up with for taking a matt with you for a big dog, is to take a bath matt. They fold up fairly small and fit pretty easily into a backpack and still provide a level of comfort for a big dog :) I'm sure you'll get there with her :) Digby was always very easy to train, and Del has always been much more challenging for me. Digby learnt loose leash walking very easily with just some food reinforcement and me stopping dead if he pulled on the leash. But with Del this was not enough. The only way to get it through to her was not to keep on with the walk, but to practice going past any distraction, over and over again until she would walk past with the leash loose. Didi might need that as well, or she might need it while she is going through her challenging adolescence phase ;)

I can see you've got some great advice here already Terri :) What does she do if you walk her on leash around your backyard and house? Give it a go, as it will highlight to you whether you primarily have an understanding problem or a distraction problem, or maybe a bit of both, as your house and yard should be a very low-distraction environment that enables her to perform at her best. What is your aim? Just loose leash, or loose leash and by your side? I would tackle the problem in the following ways: Firstly I would determine what function her pulling is achieving. It is likely that pulling is rewarding for her as it involves moving more quickly and possibly accessing reinforcement such as interesting smells. So then your job is to ensure that pulling never, ever results in these things. Make sure she never gets to move forward when she is pulling, or reach interesting smells (or whatever it is that she finds reinforcing). So I would focus on that, and not give corrections at all. Then you want to teach her that she can get these things that she wants by walking loose leash. So the moment she starts to pull you stop dead in your tracks. Wait for something polite from her, like looking at you, or a sit, then turn her around (walk in the direction you came from for a few metres) and attempt it again. Often dogs will pull at a certain point because they are interested in something, and they want to check it out. So you would keep stopping, then turning her around, until she can walk past whatever is distracting her on a loose leash. Then you tell her how amazing she is and let her check out what she was so interested in (or if that's not appropriate, give her some treats and lots of praise). When she is walking nicely, you can reward her by going faster, maybe even running. If she makes a mistake get her to practice until she gets it right. In regards to new environments, if you can manage it, try to take her to new places as much as possible. But instead of going to a new environment with the idea to walk in that new environment, go there to just hang out. So take a matt for her, and a kong, and just get her to chill out. Then when she is more confident in new places and has more ability to focus on you, then try going for walks.

Oh that is just wonderful He is really coming along isn't he? Sounds like he is really starting to understand he has a choice, that he doesn't have to blow his top around other dogs. Well done Jakey, you certainly earned those ears :)

Oh Kirty, I am so sorry, what a terrible shock for you Farewell Maisie