KumaAkita

Clastic - how about we put them into work crews. We could do with a couple of trenches at our place, and then we can send Kuma over to yours for hole and drainage duty. KTB - That ain't much damage... I'll have to take piccies of Kuma's efforts. So far the only ones I have are blurry iPhone shots taken through the bedroom window: That's a hole about 40cm x 40cm x 30cm, exposing the ag drain we put in over Easter... cheeky bugger. The others are exposing pipes as well, we think it may have something to do with the sound of moving water.

ah yes... I know all about that! We finished building at the end of February and we still have dirt - we ran out of time to do anything before winter frosts hit. Kuma is very good at gardening... so good that we're planning on showing him where we want our trees planted and get him to dig the holes for us

Ok, 12 tennis balls and treats was a step too far ;)

I kept playing this last night with Kuma. It was so much fun! (I think I enjoyed it more than he did...) It depended on what treat was under the cup. If I put in the dried liver treats, he pushed the cup around - he scooted around the dining table and ended up getting it stuck under a chair (ok, I may have helped him out of that jam) but he kept pushing until he got it caught on the couch and it tipped over. Next try, he batted it with his nose and ate the treat! quick learner, my boy. I also put the muffin tin with treats covered by tennis balls down on the floor at random times just to see how long it took him to work out it was there. Not long usually! Off to buy more tennis balls on my way home tonight!

Charlie is one smart puppy... Step 1: Get Emmy to take towel Step 2: Eat food

Kuma was a bit unsure after that photo... tail down and weary of the OH. Niques - it was a bit of a challenge hoisting him up there... don't think it will happen again! Wow... KTB, the Bronze challenges sound tricky. I forsee Kuma and I repeating bronze (probably a couple of times ). Hopefully we have good dogs in our class, there were a couple of bounders in our beginners class which made it tricky to stay focussed! I will also be interested to see what class Judge the rottie goes into. He took a dislike to the boxer in our class last Sunday... all snarly and teeth. Very interesting dog is Judge. Think there are issues there.

So funny Huski... So Kuma found out how to move the cup pretty quickly... Tipped it over with his schnoz and munched the treats. Stepped it up a level... Stuck treats under tennis balls in a muffin tin (thanks to KoalatheBear for the tip). Kuma carefully picked up the first tennis ball and was about to take off with it, but he sensed that it was only part of the reward and came back for the treat... Repeated for the other ball. Need to up the game with a few more tennis balls!!

Kuma's favourite playmate at obedience is Merlin the Berner (about 5-6 months old, i think) and they LOVE to rumble together! It's so fun to watch the berner trying to tuck his bum in while running to avoid the playful chomps of my akita. Don't worry - Merlin gets his own back Merlin has the most plush puppy coat... just soooo soft.

I am going to have to try this when I get home! I'm not sure what Kuma will do... reports later

AWESOME! I couldn't imagine trying to pick up Kuma – he'd look at me as if I was a bug or something Road Trip to see my folks in Tamworth... Nope, Dupree has his very own place to move into. His last night with us on Wednesday before he's gone! WOOOOO HOOOO. Then we have more visitors arrive for a couple of days, then we're back to just us. Cannot wait for that. We got told on Sunday that all but one dog passed beginners, so *happy dance* Kuma is not a Dunce! (yet) This is the OH lifting Kuma onto his shoulders a few weeks ago (so - 40Kg ish worth of dog) - excuse the crappy phone quality photo, neither could keep still for long enough.

YAY!!! :D here's hoping that it is a permanent change. Must be great! We won't be at obedience on Sunday, we're off for the weekend. Kuma's longest car trip yet... a whopping 8 hours each way. Fingers crossed he settles and sleeps (ha! don't like my chances) I love the mention of puppy weights... Kuma's 10 months old and weighs 45kg. but he is a big cuddly bear. We stopped picking him up ages ago. Well I did, OH still tries it occasionally and it doesn't end well...

I think we may all need to enter Pedants Anonymous

lovely... I adore the orchids

Our 10 month old Akita, Kuma is currently being fed Advance Puppy Growth for Large Breeds. He also gets a tin of sardines once a week at the moment. He's also keen on yoghurt. We are thinking of adding a few extra bits to his food, but wondering if he is too big to eat chicken frames? I am worried about choking hazzards. What do you reckon??

PF.... Please don't think I'm stealing any of the wonderful business you have going here but I think I can help out with this one. Guaranteed non shedding, cheap to feed, very quiet, no training required etc etc etc Your lucky... He's on special for Xmas this year... $2890 one off payment. Tried that. They lacked animation.. did a hell of a sit stay though. Oh they fixed the lack of animation by crossing it with a remote control car and ended up with one of these: no poop, no shedding, comes with on/off switch.

Yep, you're right PF - we need Muffy's help to put Kuma back in his place - firmly at the bottom of the pack. Do you accept PayPal?

As you know, I'm dealing with a few rank issues in my pack and think it would benefit from adding another dog to add some stability. That way Kuma will have someone else to pick on and won't go for us... Got any good dogs that would be happy to be the whipping boy for a little while?? Small and submissive should work well I think.

Hey! Kuma does that! ok... yep... Kumie's a bit spethal

Thanks Lovemesideways - it is hard to make an admission on a forum like this that you think your dog has a problem. Most people hold their own dogs in such high esteem and there are some (not all...) that will cut people down for having a "bad dog". Kuma is a pretty good boy, with one or two issues... much like nearly every dog on this site, I'd wager. I had a few recorded episodes of The Dog Whisperer on our IQ and deliberately turned one on the other night when we were watching TV. Now, think what you will of Cesar Millan's methods, but it really struck a cord with Dupree and he has started to behave differently around Kuma - not challenging, but not backing down either. We discussed last night that Kuma was challenging him for rank and that there are a few steps we need to do. He's willing to help us work on those issues, and as a group we are having a go at balancing our pack. Look - I don't expect miracles... but the more we can do to make our pack stable and balanced, the better eh? But that being said, Dupree is going (thank God). We started proper crate training with Kuma last night and he was really getting the whole notion of owning his real estate. We still own his toys and the rest of the house though! The OH and I are committed to making this work. Also want to thank everyone for their suggestions and advice. I'm a big girl and can make up my own mind as to what I follow and what I ignore, but there has been some really constructive feedback that has made me reassess things.

I took the plunge and bought myself a new camera... well really it was a birthday present (my birthday is weeks away! ) Anyway, I bought a Panasonic Lumix G10. It's a hybrid camera, which is smaller than a full sized DSLR but has interchangable lenses and all the DSLR options (just doesn't use a mirror). My reading and talking to the experts led me to believe that it is as good as the entry-level DSLRs I was looking at, so decided to go for the less bulky option. I've only taken a few shots so far - mostly carpet, walls, objects around the house, just getting used to the features. I'll explore more on the weekend. The best photo so far:

ooooh... your not being nice folks. It's not there fault... ha ha ha - the your/you're and their/there/they're thing... high on my pedant list. I have also been known to change signs that incorrectly use an appostrophe. Embarrases my OH no end (Hi, my name is KumaAkita, and I have an addiction to fixing grammatical errors...)

It's just OH, me and Kuma tonight, Dupree has gone out. Where's Kuma? Sound asleep in his kennel!!! ;)

Awesome pics. She looks like she's having a ball

I asked Steve that question, and he advises that Dupree going is probably the best option, as it will remove the antagonist and allow us to focus fixing the issue. Dupree will be gone as of Thursday next week.

Thanks MM - There are some elements of Kuma's behaviour that are unacceptable, but there needs to be some blame on all sides. Us for not having the courage to give Dupree the boot, Dupree for overstaying his welcome and Kuma for getting a wee bit aggressive.