Nic oh lah

Well i'm keeping Chase away from doggie communal areas until his 14-16wk shot anyway except for training but he'll be crated there away from other dogs and off the ground.

I have to say well done for picking up your dog and staying calm - as the owner of a GSD I get furious at people who let their little dogs inistigate rough play with Sophie - she's a big 38kg dog, but she doesn't know that and will play with your little one like they're the same size, and accidents happen, and so do doggy disagreements when one dog takes the play a step too far. Sophie will tell another dog to back off - a low growl or she walks away and these little terrors keep getting in her face, and i tell people to call their dog away and not allow a spat to happen, because it does. Sophie's not perfect, nor are anyone elses dogs, and i'd rather be safe than see rough play turn nasty. You did the right thing saxonpup. I've stopped taking Sophie to dog parks - i prefer to just take her on leashed walks until i know her recalls are 100% and then i'll probably take her again but at our last Brisbane DOL meet there were so many stupid people and horrid dogs I just got really put off by the whole thing. ETA - re the breed thing, Blue Heelers really stir Sophie up, no idea why.

Thought i'd post that my little boy Chase's Daddy is going over for the Nat's - he's Borregoperro First Mate AD JD SPD GD SD - beautiful blue Merle Border Collie. So be sure to cheer him on!

We got Chase at 10wks and he'd already learnt sit, drop and come and he's pretty good with those. We're going to start having training sessions asap with lots of play. Our obediance club is paddock bashing style but we're going to be doing things a bit differently and rather than an hour long class 8-9 we'll be doing one on one Training with Sophie 7.30 - 8, rest Soph and class training with Chase 8-8.30 - Class training wth Sophie 8.30-9. I think an hour is a long time for a dog especially when they're young, and our club isn't going to worry about us doing our own training. I look at those group training sessions as more of a beginners thing for people that just want a basically obediant dog, not to necessarily build drive and work towards trialling which is what we're wanting to do.

GAH! After our flea drama last week Chase has them again! He's been frontlined TWICE in A MONTH! Frontline is CRAP! I'm getting him some advantix today.

I'll be interested to hear what others think of the UA once their dogs have been on it a while -my GSD loves it, and my BC puppy is forever trying to get into it! And our Foster Greyhound loved it too and it really puts the weight on them! At the moment i'm giving Sophie probably 2/3 of the recommended daily amount and she's looking beautiful on it - the full amount they recommend is just too much and i'd end up with a fatty if I let that continue.

LOL - I was just thinking the same thing!!!! Just imagining being able to feed Sophie cheap as Supermarket Food - haha. But we feed her Uncle Albers which is really reasonably prices, 22kg for $35 - can't beat that. Chase gets Eukanuba Puppy Medium Breed - bloody expensive. My mum and dad's X-breed mutt from a pet store gets dog roll from coles and some Pal kibble, plus the occasional bone. She looks like Ridgie X GSD and is 11 this year and the healthiest bloody dog i've ever met. Other than puppy vacc's she's never been to the vet. Dogs when I was growing up on the farm always got supermarket dog roll and some dry kibble (Pal) and when we left New Zealand one was 8 (terrier X) and not rehomeable so PTS and the other (GSD X Huntaway) was 6 and healthy as anything - she lived till 16 and kibble and dog roll was all she ever got. Hmm.

I try with Sophie but she doesn't want to sleep with us! She'll come up for about 15mins for a tummy rub and a big cuddle -she spoons me, OH spoons her and we'll lay there like that talking at the end of the day and doze off like that, and within about 10mins she slips ever so gently down off the bed and sleeps on the floor, which i imagine is her putting herself where she feels she belongs if that pack-leadership stuff is to be belieived - about an hour later like clockwork I get up and put her outside and she always seems happy enough to go out there for the rest of the night Chase hasn't spent the night in our room - he's contained to the dining room and kitchen during the night on the tiles and with his crate - when he's big enough to comfortably spend the day outside without sophie eating him he'll come inside in the evening and be crated next to our bed and take out for a wee in the night but sleep inside and hopefully then Sophie will want to sleep inside too - eventually i'd like to have them both sleep on the bed with us. Especially as hubby will be starting shift work in July and i'd like to have my furkids to snuggle with - ideally they'll sleep with me in the bed and if hubby comes home in the night he can either put them out or just climb in if there's room - lol.

Family Portrait Fail - LOL the furkids and their daddy.

Sophie teaching Chase how to dig holes - how helpful of her. aWWWWWWWWWWWW shes so gorgeous

I got photo happy today with Sophie, Chase, Hubby and I so thought i'd post some here - Chase is now 12weeks and growing like a weed! Sophie will be 2 on May 1st - my babies are growing up!

Lol - yep the right food for the right dog will change everything! My girl gets cabanossi (just little bits) for her training treats and cheese is the "jackpot" she gets at the end of a really good session of work.

I only used it in the spare room where they seemed to be pretty well isolated but i'll be setting one off in the living areas this weekend to be sure they're gone - It says turn off the fridge so i would - we're going to put the dogs in the backyard, the cats in one of the back rooms with the windows open and turn everything off, set off the bomb and go out for lunch! I think you'd be ok turning off the fridge and freezer as long as you don't open them again until you've turned them on again - everything should be ok just for 2-3hours i'd think.

We got fleas for the first time this week and it spread to both cats and the puppy (inside cat's i'd never flea treated as they are inside only and get checked daily) and puppy is frontlined but still got them, poor little guy. Sophie was fine. Ended up discovering that the pets aren't responsible - a workmate lent me a foam mattress for hubby's brother to sleep on when they stayed 1 night last week and the mattress had fleas! Grr! So now it's cost me a fortune re-stocking the house with advantage, advantix and capstar and mortein flea bombs. I used one of the flea bombs last night - seems to have worked well.

I'd be expecting that AND some big $$$ to use her and her image on TV!

I feed Sophie at night anywhere in between 6-9pm and we'll often do training in this timeframe so i want her drive up there for focus so we do training with treats before she gets dinner, also helps reinforce NILIF. Puppy gets his Eukanuba morning and night, 1.5 cups in the morning, 2cups in the evening. He's growing mighty quick. I'm interested in this whole Bloat thing - what dog's are particularly prone to bloat? Honestly I dont know much about it.

They give you the treats? Hmm. I would totally recommend trying cabanossi or roast chicken or something, you'll be amazed at the difference it'd make. If you stuffed a muesli bar into my mouth while another kid next to me had chocolate i'd spit it out too.

Also consider what food you're using - i posted on here at some stage that Sophie wasn't food motivated or toys motivated, lol. After meeting Huski and her seeing me try to treat Sophie and her saying "what the hell is that?!?!" to my liver treats, i've found that Sophie will learn to hover over water like a helicopter for Cabanossi or cheese -lol. And toys, not interested until she met an i-squeak. Now it's game on!

Im pretty sure he thinks he's that important anyway! Someone bought a massive framed print of him from red bubble. He was wearing glasses, a shirt and a tie Who would want that on their wall???? I would love to know where it is. *tiptoes away sneakily to close the door to her Charch shrine *

We need Charch's autograph! Does he know he's going to be famous? We can now post about him in the thread about famous on-screen dogs!

Hell no! I volunteer at a shelter and have fostered a rescue dog and support them wholeheartedly but i've made the decision to own purebred pedigreed dogs - it's your decision what dogs you want to own as long as you're acting responsibly and going through a registered ethical breeder.

should have asked what he won ... Probably a best dressed in the Christmas Pageant. Like people that tell me their cross breed "have papers" - more like vaccination Certificates.

I think i'm going to err on the side of caution and keep him inside unless i'm supervising until he's a bit bigger - he'll be 12 weeks tomorrow and he's growing fast and looks like he's going to be a big boy! He's eating 2 cups of eukanuba in the morning and the same at night and growing like a weed - the first week we'd had him he put on 1.2kg and when we took him back to the breeder for his 10wk vacc (her mum's a vet) he was already towering over his sisters - it's amazing how fast he's growing, and he's got lovely big boofer paws, so i've got my hopes up to think he's going to be a BIG BOY, haha. I've not ever had a puppy which is why I have all these questions - we got Sophie at 18months and though she had a puppy brain still she was big enough to be in the yard all day and all night and be inside with us when we were home, and was toilet trained! So this all peeing, all crapping, all chewing little ball of fluff indicates to me that I don't want a puppy - lol, I want the dog he's going to be! So for at least a few more weeks i'll keep him inside unless under supervision.

OK cool - this is the kind of advice I want! Yes i'm leaving them for those few hours - Puppy has a full belly then with his breakfast so after he's toileted he tends to just go out there and climb under the shelf on the BBQ and sleep, and Sophie lays on the trampoline bed beside him and sleeps, and they seem to do that most the morning as puppy is normally still out there sleeping when i get home noon-ish, but if DOLers advise to be seperating them I'll keep him inside unless i'm home to supervise. If the size difference wasn't so massive i wouldn't be as concerned but if it got too rough he couldn't hold his own.

It's a rough start, and another reason why it's best not to purchase from a pet store again in the future - keep in mind that even though it may have seemed like you were saving him, buy paying any money for him you're getting money back to exploitive back yard breeders that bred him, and encouraging them to replace him in the shop with another poor puppy. That said, best of luck with him, and good on you for being a responsible owner with the desexing and everything, sounds like you'll take good care of him.