aussielover

No I personally wouldn't but I am sure people do. the party pack sounds like a nice idea. I gave my dog a big juicy bone and a pigs ear on her birthday and we also went for a really long walk all day.

How old is your puppy? I would ignore the sooking, especially if there are other people in the room! With the toilet training- what reward are you using for going in the right spot? I used food with my lab and found it wokred pretty quickly. Also if your puppy is under 10-12 weeks, he will probably need to go out at least every hour, possibly every half hour. I took my puppy out every 30 mins for the first two weeks and then every hour until she was about 4 months

I agree with you but people are going to react differently, some will take a step back and stop but some will just become more enraged and lash out. You can see with some of the dogs, the "tap" has the desired response, but in others it provokes the dog into attacking him. What worries me is that he doesn't seem to know when it is going to elicit a negative response (like attacking him) or he doesn't care, or he purposely wants the dog to have a go at him.

Advance wasn't good for my puppy intially. It gave her sloppy poos etc. Was she solid on pedigree? We were recommended to change our pup from advance to pedigree, and that helped firm up her poops. You should change your puppy back to a premium brand when they are a little older. My girl was fine with advance at around 6 months of age. If she was previously doing well on pedigree, maybe you should just leave her on it until she really settles down 3-4 months old???

Advance wasn't good for my puppy intially. It gave her sloppy poos etc. Was she solid on pedigree? We were recommended to change our pup from advance to pedigree, and that helped firm up her poops. You should change your puppy back to a premium brand when they are a little older. My girl was fine with advance at around 6 months of age. If she was previously doing well on pedigree, maybe you should just leave her on it until she really settles down 3-4 months old???

I think they mean easiest to train.... Which I pretty much agree with. The dogs listed are the more popular breeds that are commonly trained by people to do amazing things. When people say they want a smart dog, very few actually mean they want an intelligent dog that can problem solve and think for itself. Most people mean they want a dog that is easy to train. I've seen some disasters when novice owners actually do end up with a "smart" dog! Although I agree that terriers and spitzes are extremely smart, they require an understanding training approach in general.

I swim my labrador daily. she is in the water for around 30 mins to an hour. The key is to build up activity specific fitness(like any form of exercise). You couldn't just throw a dog in the water and expect it to swim for an hour, if it hasn't been built up to that level.

Children constantly pat my dog without checking with me or asking me if its ok, with the full approval of their parents. I guess that is the downside of having a popular breed with a reputation for loving kids! I don't tell them off, but I do speak to the kids (I personally think the adults are a lost cause) and ask them to be gentle and mention that although my dog doesn't mind being patted, some dogs get scared or are not friendly with other people. I've seen parents let their kids and even encourage/order them to go and pat large dogs that are tied up (with no owner present), which I think is an incredibly stupid thing to do, especially when you can tell the kids have more sense than the parents and are rightly, hesitant about doing it.

Maybe in Pugs but they are fine for bigger breeds. Maybe for BCs but we have found whole chicken necks on xray or when the dog vomited in breeds like labs and goldens that tend to be greedy and gulp their food. I would crush them if I was going to give them to a retriever.

Aussielover - it's just a day by day sequence of exercises. First day is a sit for 5 seconds, then 10 seconds. A sit while you take a step back, return and then 2 steps back. A sit for 10 seconds whilst you take 2 steps to the right and return; 2 steps to the left and return. It goes on and on for each day, each day expecting more of the dog and building the intensity gradually, until you are running around the dog; walking over the dog; going out of sight of the dog; humming (I tend to talk and sing - I want my dogs to learn to identify with the release command and not respond to me merely opening my mouth) and so on and so forth. Thanks Erny It sounds like what we did in manners classes (a more advanced version of puppy class). Although I thought the aim was to get a good sit/drop stay not for calming...

If it is flea allergy- then aloveen or resisoothe or an oatmeal based product could be quite soothing. As rappie said, there is no need for harsher shampoos like malaseb or pyohex unless there is evidence of infection. I have an atopic dog and our derm recommended aloveen and PAW conditioner. She hasn't had her intradermal testing yet though, so it might change after we get the results of that back

No, nothing else for her main diet. We gave her a quarter of a pigs ears to chew on occasionally. She was a gudie dog puppy and we had to be quite strict about sticking to her diet that they provided. She gets a more varied diet now though. Enjoy your puppy- lab puppies are the cutest!

Well other people, including myself might use dog park time or the beach or playing in the backyard for relaxation, I like to use the walk as training time and to exercise her mind (and my body lol). She has more than enough park time to smell the roses and other dogs bums etc. Apparently, I don't "do" relaxing walks- my friends are always complaining that I walk too fast!

Yes, my dog started eating dog poop when she was on it

just out of interest, can you tell me what it involves?

Initally i would go with the breeders recommendations. you don't want to suddenly change her diet as she may get an upset tummy. If you want to change the diet later, you can. The breeders diet sounds reasonable to me- what biscuits does she use? My labrador puppy was on 3/4 of a cup of dry advance puppy biscuits when she was 8 weeks.

I am lucky most of my friends and relatives are happy to have Mindy over. Some of them do require she stay outside, which is fine, I make sure I spend time with her outside and I'd much rather her be outside but still with me so I can check on her etc than at home by herself or in a boarding kennel. Mindy usually sleeps on my bed these days, but she adapts to sleeping outside just fine, in fact I think it does her good to occasionally have a night outside like a real dog lol. But yeah i understand how you would feel, I am another who would offer to look after Honey, she is a cutie! Judging by your posts, she sounds pretty well behaved. We took Mindy to my aunts place at xmas, but they apparently had "think about" whether she would be allowed to come. In the end they said she could come and stay outside, which was fine, but they asked what would have happened if they had said no- we told them one of us wouldn't have come and stayed back with mindy lol. They were pleasantly surprised at how good Mindy was and how little trouble she was and I think in the end they even liked having her, they certainly spent a lot of time fussing over her and making sure she was comfortable and had food and water and shade:)

I usually do around 5-6kms in an hour which includes 5-10 mins before the walk in the leash free park next to us. I haven't yet started jogging or cycling with my dog yet, she is only 12 months (large breed- Lab) so I don't want to risk heavy forced exercise with her at this stage. I will probably start jogging with her when she is 18 months.

I was thinking more along the lines of having a dog attached to a chair/couch/wall hook, by a lead indoors.I had not thought of the trainer meaning take the dog to the backyard and put it on a chain . When training Guide Dogs.. all puppies/dogs were taught this ..and it became second nature for them. When working, they were pretty much always on lead- and attached to a person/piece of furniture etc. Yes we were recommended to do this by both guide dog trainers and my dogs puppy school trainer. My puppy grew up accompanying me pretty much everywhere and adjusted to being tied up really quickly. She immediately relaxes and rests when she is tied up because she knows that's what has to happen. Here she is tied up at work- relaxed and happy: I don't think this looks particularly cruel.... I think you need to do it under supervision though. At least one person should always be in the room watching the dog or regularly checking on them. Adult dogs who aren't used to this can panic and injure themselves. I wouldn't stress about it too much, but if you find it too stressful, then don't do it Perhaps you could use a crate or something? I totally agree with the food- I would only ever leave the food down for a max of 30 mins.

You've only had him 2 months and probably been focussing a lot on manners, toilet training, nipping, training, trying to prevent destruction etc which makes it hard to appreciate the pups personality and bond with them. I bonded instantly with my first dog but I was much younger and she was my dream dog. Not having full responsibility also made it much less stressful. My current dog was quite a cheeky pup which made for stressful times. She is now my "one" and our bond is really strong, I am her person. I didn't really feel a strong connection with her until 5-6 months. During this time we had done a lot of training- puppy class, advanced puppy class and obedience as well as her specific guide dog training. We also did a lot of trick training which was a lot of fun and a very good way to bond with your dog. By 6 months she had changed from a little monster to a reasonably well behaved and settled dog. I would say that I have a stronger bond with her than either of my previous dogs, even though I bonded to them almost instantly and it took some time and a lot of work with her. Although I loved my previous dog a lot, I feel mindy is more devoted to me (clover was my mums heart dog i think).

I don't think it would harm them, but I don't see how it would improve their behaviour? Unless they are talking specifically about deprivation training where food is with held to increase the dogs drive for it and make them work harder to get it?

What types of dogs does he enjoy playing with? Does he even enjoy playing with dogs? Not all dogs like to have a playmate and some are quite happy to be Only Dog. Puppies can be very annoying for older dogs. Even my 12 month old gets fed up with really young puppies and will walk away from them after a short time (and she loves playing with other dogs generally). She likes dogs in a similar age group to herself around 6 months to 2-3 years (and all labs and GRs!).

No they are not worried about being bitten, i think they just don't want to put their hand right at the back of the throat and get it covered in saliva. My mum is a real softie and will give up if the dog starts struggling. she is really cheeky, she has never spat out her pill for me but she knows who she can get away with or without doings things for. Being a labrador, she is not suspicious of all food, but she can definitely smell the pill in the food ( I mean, if a customs beagle stopped me because I had an apple in my bag 3 days ago, she can surely smell a yucky pill in a piece of meat!). we are changing to the injection. Thanks for all those who advised though, there were some good tips for me to give clients

I think BMs are actually excelent family dogs when raised by responsible, knowledgable people. But no dog can be raised, solely by a 6 year old.

Orbit doesn't get what I refer to as pyodermas, ie manky localised hot spots. He gets more of a generalised staph infection all over, so pustules, red bumps, hair loss etc and gets a bit stinky and flaky. I've only used it once (when we had to use up the last of the bottle before it expired ) and his coat was probably the best I'd seen it within a couple of days. But yes, we have used it for dogs with bad hot spots, deep pyodermas etc with success. Hmm my dog gets Pyoderma, what is convenia? Convenia is a long acting antiobiotc injection. It lasts for 2 weeks.