fiveplusone

Hugo is only 9 months old so this is his first winter He "discovered" mud today! Anyone else got mud loving furkid photos to share?

"I am leaning away from GSPs as a breed for me at this point" .....Hugo says PS was lovely meeting both of you......you still owe us puppy cuddles though, regardless of what breed you end up getting!

If its to go outside he'll just patiently wait by the door. If I don't get the hint he will come get me and walk me to the door. If he wants to play he will almost climb on my lap while I am working or pull my sleeve or bring his nose up under my arm and lift it off the keyboard so I can't type. Cheeky boy he is.

My GSP is a velcro dog.....he is with me constantly. The only time he goes off by himself is when he has a bone or if its nice and sunny outside he might go and forage in his pile of sticks/twigs/leaves and have wonderful fun pulling out small branches and dragging them around the garden (or running around with the door mat ). Other than that he is where ever we are.

Yep, saw it...... so where do they think the pet shops get their puppies from then!

Thank you all for your replies. I understand much better now!

phew, good I have probably also totally overlooked the fact that lots (?? most ??) registered breeders actually have other jobs outside of breeding that they would need to take time off from to attend to litters!

I didn't think it was specifically "bad" I just thought that with how much time, effort, money etc to have a litter that you would want to space them well apart, but you have both given me a better idea of why you would actually want two litters at similar times. Maybe I have worded my enquiry badly. Sorry, no offence intended.

Thank you for your reply. As I said, it wasn't a judgement or an accusation if was pure and simple honest question because I don't know anything about breeding. It came up in conversation and the person who spoke to me didn't know what to make of it so I thought I would just ask. What you have said about taking time of work etc makes perfect sense.

Hope you don't mind me posting here but this topic came up in discussion yesterday so thought rather than assuming I should come here and ask the experts.. I am not making any judgements or implying anything at all, its simply a honest enquiry from someone who has no idea about breeding practices etc Is it usual , common practice etc , for a registered breeder to have two litters at similar times, ie a currently a litter of 2 week old pups and a litter of six week old pups? I thought this would have been something not usually done so thought I should get a clear answer instead of just assuming. Thanks Edit....to try and word it better!

Hugo scared himself silly not long ago.....I happened to see him do a poo and as usual halfway through move to a different area to do the second half (why I don't know) but I could see something ....well.....hanging out :p and as he moved away it was still "attached" and he was running around the garden continuing to look back with an almost horrified look on his face at this "thing" that kept "following" him! I had visions of having to save him from this terrible "monster" that was hanging from his bum Thankfully after several attempts to dislodge the offending item it fell away and when I went to invesigate found several "deposits" strung together with a large piece of gladwrap! On a serious note though, I do hope the blanket piece passes without incident.

My boy is pretty good....except after a drink or if someone is eating something he wants and then it tends to just ooze out the side of his chops!

Mine does!

Hugo is my third GSP. I Love love love them! My kids grew up with GSP's, our first child was six months old when we got our first. They are all teenagers now and Hugo came into our lives 7 months ago and he has changed our family....for the better. Hugo is a lounge lizard, he really couldn't care less about having a walk or not.......as long as he is snuggled up with someone, either on the couch, or one of the kids beds....but he does know that come time for everyone to go to bed he happily goes into his crate to sleep. However most visitors to the house wouldn't know Hugo is a lounge lizard as once company arrives he is very excited about the extra company! Where are you in SA? I'm close to CBD if you want to come meet my gorgeous boy. ETA to add a pic of my boy in a typical pose!

Hugo used to be the biggest wimp in the rain. Thankfully he a matured a little......now when its raining he will bolt to our big tree so he has some shelter, will position himself so that he just manages to wee on the grass and not the pavers.....while trying to balance on one front paw and one back paw so that at least two of his feet aren't on wet grass!

+1 for www.happyhousesitters.com.au I have a wonderful retired couple staying at our house for 3 weeks looking after our beloved GSP. They are the perfect couple for us as they will be home during the day and evening giving our pup the care and company he needs.

Abrham Appollo Archie Armand Bailey x 3 Balou Bandit Banjo Bardigrub Bart Barton Baxter Bear x2 Benji Benny Benson Bertie Billy Bing Bluey Boss Boxer Brady Brock Brockie Brody Bronson Bruce Bud Bundy Caleb Caramel Carl Cash Champ Charlie x 4 Chevy Chip Coco Cobber Connor Cooper Cowan x 2 Cuba Danny Darcy x 3 Dashx2 Deakin Dean Declan Delgado Diablo Diesel Digby Digger Dinky Douglas Dumas Dylan Ebon Eddie Elijah Elliott Edge Esky FlashBazil Frank Franky J Holden Gandor Greedy Hail Harley Harrison Henry Hudson Hugo Ivan Jack x 1 Jake Jasper x 2 JayDee Jethro Jett Joe (cocker spaniel) Jordan Joshua Judd Juggie Kahn Kaiser Kasper Kaos Kiba Kei Kippy Kisho Kyzer Leroy Lestat Logan Luca Lughie Lukas MacKenzie Max x 3 Maxie Mel Merlot Merry Milky Milosh Minook Mistral Mogwai Mr Darcy Mungo Murray Nammu Napoleon Nelson Nigel Nipper Noah Nova Nudge Nugget Odin Onslow Oz Payton Piikki Porsha Punch Quick Raffy Ralph Rambo Randy Reeve Rex Riku Riley Ripley Rocks Rolly Rory Rove Rover Roy Jones Jnr Ruff Ryan Rupert Rusty Sam Scout Scrap Scratch Shadow x2 Silas Snitch Sonny Speed Spencer x 2 Spike Sport Spud Stanley Sterling Storm Swanky Tazz x 2 Ted Teddy Tey Dog Theo Thunder Tiger Tirra Toby Tub Tusca Tye Tyson Ulf Wade Wags Walker Walter Watson Weave Will Willy Woody Zac Zedley Zephyr Zeus

We took Hugo (GSP) on his first camping trip a few months ago, it was awesome. I am not a camping person at all but having him with us made all the difference. At night as we sat around the camp fire he would curl up in his crate and snooze, he was such a good boy. I just took all his toys with us so he had stuff to play with and also bought him a doggie coat as it was very cold at night. We also took a really long tether so that he could wander around the campsite with us but without being able to run off to where sheep were in the paddocks.

I've stopped my kids giving our GSP tennis balls because he just breaks them in to little pieces and I am also worried for the same reason. I now give him a ball which is a similar size but made of tough rubber which is hard to chew. he still gets to chase it around, bonus is it squeaks too!

Thanks for your replies. There is no back yard, the front yard is THE yard so no option for him to be anywhere else. He does use a soft crate at night and happily goes straight in there after his final toilet break but he only goes in during the day if he wants to so he wouldn't go in there on command but no reason why I couldn't train him to do that. Silly, I hadn't even thought of his crate for when people come to the door. Most school days he is either inside with me or we are on a walk but this week he just seems to have become quite a bit more vocal about passers by. Must be him being a teenager. He has also become a bit more cheeky this past week with stealing things and running off with them so I think he's testing his boundries. As if I didn't have enough touble with 3 human teenagers in the house!

Our garden is at the front of our house. Its surrounded by secure six foot colourbond fencing with a wrought iron gate that our 9 month old GSP can see through. He's an awesome dog and has really been very easy but the issue we are having with him at the moment is that if someone walks past the gate (or comes to our gate) he goes beserk barking and he won't stop when I tell him too. We live near a primary school so lots of kids walk past and he scares little kids! He is also doing this to some people who come to our side door. some people he calms down once he sees who it is, other people he just keeps barking at. When we know someone is coming we get treats out and make him seat etc but most people are unexpected. Whats the best way to deal with this? in some ways I don't want to stop him barking completely because he is a good warning device and has a nice deep bark to ward off any undesirable people....but I don't want to be known by kids at the school as that house with the scary dog!

I changed my GSP to Uncle Albers and almost straight away his breath was better (in fact he doesn't have "dogs breath" at all. My kids morning breath is worse than his!) and his stools firmer making pick up easier. His coat is glossy and feels like velvet!

Peanut butter, grated cheese, small cubes of fritz, top with another dob of peanut butter and put in freezer.

With more expensive food you usually have to feed them less of it because its got more good stuff in it and less fillers, so it can actually be quite cost effective because while the initial outlay might be lots it will last longer because you feed less. Having said that if you are looking for a cheaper option have a look at Uncle Albers and Great Barko. http://www.lauckemills.com.au/dogfood.html If you email them they will send you a sample pack of each.

This is UA (the GB was different to this but I can't remember if it was bigger or smaller). If you email the company that makes it they will post you two small sample packs of both UA and GB. ETA email for company to get samples http://www.lauckemills.com.au/enquiries43.html