JudyG

I have two westies, one is 13, the other 2 (both female). Thy have tolerated each other quite well but in the last couple of weeks they have had a couple of nasty fights. Today they have had two witin half an hour of each. Unfortunately I haven't seen who started it or why - I suspect over food as they were both hanging around in the kitchen while dinner was being prepared. Even worse my eleven year old was in the way and got a nip on his leg. I am sure this was inadvertant by whichever dog it was but disturbing nonetheless. So any ideas why and what to do?

I have a 19 week old westie pup and an 11yr old westie. I am finding it is a bit of a nightmare of tangled leads etc when I take my dogs for a walk. My older girl is a lovely dog but was never the best for walking well on lead. Doesn't pull as such but keeps stopping and starting to please herself. I am taking my puppy to obedience classes but find the loose lead walking part is taking time to master and with all the people in the class it is a bit chaotic and because I have the other dog when we go out it is not so easy to practice properly. (I am doing some training just with the puppy on lead in the garden) What I thought might speed the process up would be if I got a trainer to come and give me specific tips to deal with my situation with the two dogs. Can anyone recommend someone that works in the western suburbs if Brisbane? Don't want to just pick someone from Yellow pages.

I am starting to wonder if my older dog is incontinent as I was sure I was watching puppy all the time last night!!

Thanks for the replies - I do have a dog door but it is in the laundry and I am currently restricting the puppy to the kitchen and family room. I thought it would be too much to teach her the way to the dog door in the laundry straight away because to get to it would mean having to allow her access to other areas of the house I don't want her in yet ( i.e too big an area to keep a watch on her!) i would rather not put another door in - I was waiting until she was fairly reliable then I was going to allow her more access to the house and train her to use the dog door in the laundry.

It is worth finding out from a local vet how prevalent it is in your area because you could be worrying unnneccesarily. My vet said he hadn't seen a case locally in years but knew of other areas in Brisbane that had lots. Often worse in low socio-economic areas where people are less likely to vaccinate their dogs. But don't make the mistake of not socialising your dog because you are worried about parvo. It is so important to get your dog out and about, but just be choosy where you take him.

My puppy sleeps in a crate by my bed - I put a fleece blanket in it but she didn't like it (also bit hot just now here for that!) Then I put in a towel but she pushes it to the side and sleeps on the bare base of the crate! You haven't mentioned if you are using a crate but I highly recommend it.

My puppy is almost 19 weeks old now and is 'almost' toilet trained! Only problem I have is that if the back door is open she has no accidents - if it is closed ( and sometimes it needs to be for the air-conditioning) she pees just at the door. I assume she knows she needs to go outside because she is peeing at the door. I am cleaning it up with water and vinegar. How can I get her to signal she needs to go? When I know the door is closed I try to keep an eye out where she is and last night I was sure I knew where she was all the time but still found a puddle when I went to let her out before bed (she had already peed outside at least twice during the evening)

One I read on here was playing hide and seek i.e go to a different room in the house and call for your puppy. Give a reward when they come to you (doesn't need to be food but probably works better if it is!!)

Can't really help but wanted to say my puppy (also just turned 4 months) is exactly the same. She is an angel at home then gets so excited at puppy class. We start the obedience class tonight after the xmas break so I will see how she goes. I think to a certain extent they will grow out of it a bit as the novelty of other dogs wears off??

I would say it depends on where you want the puppy to toilet in the long term. If it is outside then take him outside every hour and praise like mad. I had the same set up in a pen as you have but the toilet was only temporary when I was out or couldn't supervise. Now when I go out I leave her in the laundry which has a dog door. He may back track initially but you should be getting him used to the long term toilet right from the start as the longer you leave it, the more confused he will be. If you are going to use the indoor toilet in the long term then make sure he can access it when he is not in the pen.

I used Ian Dunbar's website www.dogstardaily.com It does advocate putting the puppy in the crate a lot during the day (but only after a play session etc) so I must admit I didn't crate my pup just as much as he daid but it is a very good reference sight with lots of other training info.

My puppy now 16 weeks has been on Advance Puppy as that was what the breeder was feeding. I am not sure if I want to go down the whole barf route making up recipes etc but I did want to substitute some raw chicken for at least one of her three meals. Part of my reluctance to change is due to not knowing how much I should feed as raw food doesn't come with instructions on the side of the packet!! Should I just swap one meal for a raw chicken wing or maybe just part of one - she is a 4kg westie and is currently eating about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of kibble at each meal

But the point is that it is more than that - while you're training your dog there are going to be mistakes. Commitment also means understanding that they will fail sometimes and you have to be there to pick up the pieces. Also at 16 weeks you may be in for some regression downt eh track. My boy was house-trained at 12 weeks and then a month later started peeing inside again. I was just about to say wait for the terrible teens! Of course I realise that the work isn't all done in the first few weeks - that is what I meant by commitment - to follow through with good and bad!

I have a 16 week old westie who is almost fully house-trained, sits, drops, stays, comes, doesn't chew apart from own toys (as long as we keep the shoes away from her!!) I think the point is it isn't the breed of dog as they all have pros and cons, it is the commitment of the owner. If you want a well socialised family pet they don't come off the shelf either from pet shop or a breeder.Any dog will be peeing inside and chewing if not directed to the correct place and given appropriate diversions.

I would never take my dogs to friends houses, apart from my puppy who I didn't want to leave for long periods. One time I thought we might be more than three hours so asked if I could take her but I set her pen up in the garden - would never assume she would be allowed inside. Similarily I wouldn't espcect my friends who have dogs to bring them here either.