princesszelda

I should have been more specific: after one in north/east Melbourne. (but thanks cosmolo!)

I'm also thinking of doggy day care to break up the week for our 8 month old Bernese. Anyone have any recommendations for one in Melbourne?

Bella loves her bubbling shark. It makes the best noise - like bubbles under the ocean - much nicer than those loud squeaks! The bubble noise-maker bit lasts forever (I think you can even put batteries in it!). Now we just have to find a plush toy that will endure Bella's constant chewing....

What about dogs that originally come from a cold climate? Surely they would eat snow without it killing them....?

Our dog loves it - will happlily chew away on as many ice cubes as we would give her!

It's been a while since vaccinations - she is almost 7 months old. The last needle she got was about 4 weeks ago (anti inflamitory for her shoulder ligament)

Hi everyone, The last month has been constant trips to the vets for us & our Bernese Bella. At Christmas she pulled a shoulder ligament. Two weeks ago, she ate half a box of chocolates, then two days later managed to find our spare key holder and chew it apart (took her to the vet to make sure she hadn't swallowed the keys!) Now the latest: sitting on the couch tonight patting her, and found a large lump just above her shoulder - about the size of a table tennis ball. It moves a bit and doesn't seem to be causing her any discomfort. As she doesn't seem out of sorts at all, we'll wait until tomorrow to take her to the vet - but in the meantime, any ideas of what it could be?

Thanks for the reassurance. After we got her settled down we took her to a nearby park that she is very used to & she had a great time (no foaming at the mouth). I think the worst bit of the experience was the look at some random guy gave us when she had foam on her chin...!

Since Bella hurt her shoulder on Xmas we haven't taken her out walking (on vets advice). We decided today to take her out to a new spot since she was doing so well. When we got there she was sooo excited - jumping up, wanting to go everywhere. She wouldn't sit and have a drink and we noticed she was frothing or foaming at the mouth. We freaked out cause we have never seen this before with Bella and had only heard of it happening with dogs with raibis ( sp?) got her back in the car, got her a drink and she calmed down right away. Should we take her to the vet or could she just have been overexcited?

Oh Newfsie - I'm so sorry to hear that & to hear that your little girl got hurt! It must have been very frightening for both you & her!

Hi Dyzney - Bella is enjoying her cool mat. The only problem is we had it inside the house today and she came in from outside & peed on it. Sigh. Still working on that whole toilet training thing. What should I do with the mat?

Well its been just over a week since i posted this question, and I'm happy to say that Bella has been doing great! (That is, we have been doing our job!) She has only had 1 accident inside all week! Of course, that nots counting all her little sprinkles when she gets excited to see us! Thanks, everyone, for your input & encouragement!

Quick question about the mat - after you soak it, do you let the water drip out of it, or squeeze it, or what? (sorry, brain dead at the end of a long week) Also, what happens if the dog chews it?

Thanks for the support & encouragement. The last few days have been very good in our house - no accidents! But, as most of you mentioned, that has more to do with us than with Bella!

Our cat is now refusing to drink out of his water bowl, and insists on only drinking out of the dog's now! Oh well, pup doesn't seem to mind...

Our Bernese (4 mths now) still loves cat food when she can get it! We moved the cat food into the laundry room (prior to puppy arriving) and put a cat door in the laundry room door, so the cat can come in & out, and have a bit of a safe spot if he wants to get away from the puppy. Bella (pup) can fit her head in the cat door, but thats about it! The only time Bella gets cat food now is when we forget to close the laundry door

We also used wooden pressure-fixed baby gates (bought them from Kmart for about $25 I think). Cat could fit through them, dog couldn't!

So, if we are going to click, click when Bella is finished weeing? We tried a couple of times yesterday to click while she was weeing, but it just made her stop cause she wanted the treat!

We should start a support group Beenie! We're lucky - Bella has only ever pooed inside once (when we first got her).

Ok, so the general concensous seems to be back to basics. Here is what we are planning to do - any comments or suggestions are welcome. 1. Take Bella outside after every play, sleep and eat (or every hour or so). 2. Reward with lots of praise/treats when she wees outside. 3. Clicker training? We did a bit of this, but weren't very consistant. Can someone please clarify if we are doing this in the right order: 1) Bella wees outside, 2) click (while weeing or after weeing?), 3) treat. Now, is the click is supposed to get associated with weeing or with getting the treat? Anything else? Do we continue to bring her outside after she wees inside? How can we encourage her to alert us when she needs to wee?

Bella, our 4 month old Bernese Mountain dog continues to wee inside the house. We decided not to crate train her, and besides this issue, everthing else seems to be working out ok. She wees inside about once a day on average (some days more, some days less). Admittedly, some of the times it is our fault for not taking her out often enough, but sometimes she'll do it even after we have just taken her out. Only occasionally does she alert us that she needs to go out the back by barking (but this is hard to differentiate from her "I want to play" bark). Since the weather got warmer, we have started to leave the back door open, but she still won't take herself out the back to wee. We always clean up the wee right away, and use a spray on it to get rid of the pee smell. She does not wee during the night (from about 11 - 6.30) so we know she can hold it that long... I've never had a dog before - my husband hasn't had to deal with a puppy before. What are we doing wrong? Are we expecting too much of her?

What is your ebay store called dyzney?

She is having a vaccination in a week & a half or so - do you think the vet would show us then?

Hi everyone! 2 quick questions Nail question: We have a 15 week old Bernese and the one nail on the inside of her palm (wrist? - its like her thumb) is driving us mental. It is soooooo sharp and painful when she catches us with it. Is it ok to clip it, or should we not? Do we need to get a special doggy nail clipper? Kong question: We just got her a Kong (not a puppy one, cause she would distroy that in about 10 minutes) but a normal size one. We have some of the puppy filler stuff (in the pressurised can) but it says to use only a small amount. She goes through that in no time. Does anyone have any recommendations on what to stuff the Kong with that will keep her entertained for a while? Thanks!

Since there seems to have been so much interest in this topic, I thought I would give a quick update. Bella is now 15 weeks old and so much better! She sleeps through the night (although she still gets up at 5.30!) and is actually content hanging out with us while we are relaxing. She still has her moments when she gets a "crazy dog" look in her eyes, but we just put her outside for a couple minutes or so, and she soon calms down. Thanks everyone for all your replys - it really normalised the whole new puppy experience for me! PZ