Niques

Oh, certainly not particularly vigorous play, but James has always had a lot of incidental contact with paving/concrete - he eats his bones on pavers, we train, play tug, etc., and just lots of contact around the yard. Probably a little hard for you though, if you've not got much pavement In which case it's a good thing you're getting used to him having them trimmed early!

Poor little Ava I hope she keeps improving today.

James is still on his breeder's recommended diet - Nutro Large Breed puppy for one meal, some form of bone for the other. Supplemented with fish oil daily and sardines and egg twice a week. I would chat with your breeder and see what she uses, given her experience with the breed

Oh, that "sulky" photo is much too cute As for toenails, I recommend letting him play on concrete or brick pavers James has black claws so when we had him at the vet for his third vax we thought we'd better check how to get them done properly so as to not hit the quick - the vet just looked a bit bewildered and pointed out that they were very short already. So he's never actually had it done I cannot get over how adorable Hugo is.

Congratulations are due to Master Hoover on his achieving vertical ears The second last photo is adorable. The flyball looks like so much fun! I love the flying swf - very cute

Look how proud she is! She could get away with murder with a face like that.

James only really visibly feels the heat after walks (obviously), and by that point his nose is sodden from drinking and he's normally lying on top of half an ice cube or two that he forgot to eat - I figure the fan's probably doing him some good. Probably not so much when the dog's completely dry. But then my dog always seems to be wet for one reason or another Can't wait til I can justify aircon use to myself. Probably a bit too early in the season yet.

Ever think you've got the wrong dog? I had an old Springer spaniel follow us home from the park this morning. Saw her coming a mile away and tried to evade her but halfway home she caught up with us and James found that he mysteriously could not keep going in a forward direction. I ended up needing to practically drag him the rest of the way. I found it exhausting. He, on the other hand, kept his face pressed to the glass, tail wagging, for the hour or so until her owner came to pick her up. I plonked myself down on the couch and she fell asleep at my feet. ...which of these two dogs do I prefer? Of course, that was after she whined at the door until I let her in and then proceeded to wee on the floor. But shhhh, I'm ignoring that Her lovely owner brought him a bone for putting up with the houseguest so he's finally gotten the intruder out of his mind. Isn't it sad that that's the day's great excitement for me? ;) Although, I nearly forgot, my boy cocked his leg for the first time today! I was oddly proud of him. And he immediately whirled around when he finished to check that his mark was high enough up the tree.

I freeze milk, juice, small coke bottles, etc. and he chews on those. Or just lies next to it. Does need some supervision for when he works out how to pull the lid off, although I don't worry too much about James anymore as he immediately chews it off and discards it so he can suck on the bottle Freezing treats in an yoghurt/icecream containers, as LS said, also works well.

I really hate being woken at 4 in the morning by the sound of a retching puppy. It scares the life out of me. He threw up yesterday morning after breakfast and it didn't fuss me at all - there's just something about mid-night vomitting that makes me think we should run off to the emergency vet. Yesterday I assumed he was just running around too much after having eaten, but now I'm not sure. He was crunching away on something this morning when re-eating his vomit before I let him out so I'm thinking there was a chunk of bone in his gut that was too big for him to digest. Except now he's re-eaten it I love the poor, deprived puppy photos Makes you wonder why we bother with the comfy beds and crates.

James turned off at 8 months. We were literally going backwards in obedience classes - achieving absolutely nothing and, I suspect, even cementing some of his brattiness. We've decided to ditch formal training until the New Year, at least. Fingers crossed he does actually turn back on at some point He's 10 1/2 months now and there have been recent moments of clarity where he's attentive and actually quite eager to please - very reassuring! In regards to the more "formal" aspects of obedience, we've been doing a lot more practice on our own, out and about, just to keep his mind going.

LS, dog first aid sounds really interesting. Is it a one-off class or an ongoing thing? Well done to Elbie for his "stand for pats" and recall! There's nothing like the warm, fuzzy feeling when they come racing back to you in a recall. James used to make everyone laugh with his. All the other dogs would leisurely trot over (one dog had the slowest amble I have ever seen - that was hilarious) whilst James would hunker down and sprint over as fast as he could. The trouble is braking him before he crashes into you. I've since learnt that one should not recall him at the base of an incline - the momentum just has him going so fast that he won't stop. Hoover is looking distinctly Yoda-ish with his ears in the 10 and 2 position. Very cute!

KTB, I've seen snakes around the yard a couple of times in the past. And a past gardener mentioned seeing them occasionally. We have a very dense, rainforesty type garden and are semi-rural, which doesn't help. Not to mention the animals - possums and native rats regularly set up camp in the ceiling, but thankfully they've not been around for a while now. And there was an odd bandicoot type thing living in the garden at one point :D I'm sure they all help attract the snakes. James certainly won't be allowed to swim in the local creek over Summer - the brush is absolutely packed with snakes. Poor Hoover! Hope it's not a serious infection. Lovely to hear from you, Wizzle! I hope you start to pick up and feel better Very cute signature, Minxy. How big is Kyojin now? I can only imagine how fast he'll grow. Betsy, I just use a point and shoot. But have had my Mum pick up a duty free DSLR on her way out of the country today so will have much nicer photos soon

KTB, I love Hoover guarding the bag of food They're so good with the tradesman! James tends not to be allowed inside when unknown people (i.e. tradies) are over unless he's on a leash as he tends to lose his head. Those roo tails look like a good treat - I might have to source some out, myself! No photos from me for this week, I'm afraid. My mother commandeered my camera to take to a conference in Spain after unsuccessfully jamming the SD card into her own camera the wrong way I have my doubts about whether it will return to me in one piece. Max#1, I go back and forth on the whole dominance thing. I can't decide whether there's some portion of his mind that thinks there's a vacancy in the position of "pack leader" or whether he's just plain naughty. Most of the time I think it's naughty, but sometimes I do wonder... I've been making a conscious effort to stop playing with him everytime he brings a toy over and expects to have it thrown/tugged with. I think she's fine. She still posts on facebook. I messaged her the other day and she said that some days were very tiring so she was resting a lot. Glad to hear she's well - I was just thinking of her the other day. James has finally noticed lizards. The dork of a dog has previously been entirely oblivious to blue tongues, even if they were on the wall right next to him. I tossed him out for his wee this morning and two seconds later he was barking like a mad dog. He and the blue tongue were in a Mexican standoff - the blue tongue on the wall, head out, valiantly hissing away whilst James just stood there barking; little bit unsure of what to do. Eventually he knocked it off the wall and started to ineptly toy with it (in actual fact, I think he just had no idea what to do) so I had to intervene. He was happy to calm down a little whilst I held on to him but still showed some interest in the area even after the lizard has scurried away, which is worrying for a potential snake encounter. He was growled at, in no uncertain terms, to back off and the fact that he did calm down gives me a little hope that he's still malleable in regards to how he treats reptiles.

Very comical. Those two could have their own television show.

Happy Birthday Kuma!! :D Ava and Satch look very happy! I love the wagging tails.

Looking forward to some new Ava photos when she's home, Wuffles When James was very small you could watch him grow based on his tail. His tail always grew first. Some mornings I would look at him and think that he had an abnormally long tail. A few days later it would be short again and you'd realise that the whole puppy had gotten a little bit bigger. The first Hoover photo is adorable - sleepy little boy. I contemplated on and off about whether to go down the show route. I'm a tiny bit too competitive for my own good so it appeals in that sense, but I'm also extremely lazy and it seems to be a ridiculous amount of effort to go to. Maybe when they start judging dogs in all their muddy, scruffy glory :D

Not a chance :D If I bent down to slightly adjust one leg I'm quite certain that the head would immediately twist around to ask, "What on earth are you doing back there?" and then the rest would just come tumbling down. I've been neglecting James photos lately. I'll have to start taking some more. From some angles (mainly from the rear) he looks quite dashing, but from various front angles his back looks weird when standing. I suspect because he's grown long before tall. He's so short Has anyone's male pup started cocking their leg yet? James has slowly, over the past few months, been discovering the joys of marking the neighbourhood. But still no leg-cocking. This past week or two he's taken to tucking himself in tight and then putting his bum as close to the ground as possible to attempt some degree of height to his stream. It's hilarious to watch Thankfully it's only out and about - plain ole normal wees at home, still

I've just used PricelessPets for the second time and am happy - very prompt. I get 6 months of Sentinel and tick control from them.

My favourite shot is my signature photo. In its entirety:

Gosh, I'm awful at keeping up with this thread this week. Sounds like a big storm you guys had! I was quite worried pre-puppy about the weather - so many people seem to have storm reactive dogs. But James is a Summer puppy and bred on the Sunshine Coast, no less. His first 8 weeks were spent in near constant rain. When we went to see them at 5 weeks we arrived in the midst of a huge thunder storm and the little chubsters played (and snored) through the whole thing. KA, I know exactly what you mean when it comes to obedience. I desperately wanted to go as far as possible with it, but the general class setup and environment is simply not right for James to learn. Until it got to the point where we really weren't getting anything out of it. We're going to revisit it next year when he's a bit more mature and after doing a lot more work on our own. Very pleased to hear Ruby's right back to her cheeky self :D Hopefully she's good with her stitches for you. Her (mutilated) bear is exceedingly cute. Hoover never seems too dopey to me. More deceptively adorable. Can't see past the gorgeous floppy ears to realise there's a ticking brain underneath Max#1, I'd love to see video of Max's flyball training. It sounds like great fun! The current threads have me interested in James' conformation. He has a very handsome Aust Ch. for a father but poor James still looks incredibly awkward at times. I'm hoping he's just going through his lanky phase. And will grow out of that long back You'd think there was a bit of Dachshund in him at present. ETA: Hope all goes smoothly for Ava

James does this, but I'd probably classify it as one of his worst habits. He's only allowed on oone couch so all the cushions are stored on the other. Occasionally when he's being a cheeky bugger he'll jump up onto the other couch. When I go to push him off or pick him up he flops over, completely limp. If it wasn't so incredibly annoying it would be adorable. One of the cutest things he does is sit like a person on the couch. He sits on his bum with his front legs up in the air so his belly can be rubbed whilst he stays upright :D The best thing he does though...is lie quietly next to me some afternoons while we share a piece of fruit. One bite for me. One piece for James (obviously, he's not actually biting the fruit). It's very sweet ;)

I used to worry he would just die. Especially back when he slept what, 20 hours a day. I was constantly hovering over him to make sure the little tummy was going up and down. And I may have been guilty of poking him awake a few times What he was going to die of, I have no idea. I just thought that he'd die.

I have to say, I'm the opposite. I'm not a big Kelpie person (the lovely Hoover excepted, of course :D ) but I am extremely taken with the solid brown fellow in the OP's second photo. And Kelpie'srule's Jasper. I've never really seen the solid coloured dogs but they are seriously beautiful

I love the new signature, KTB. Elbie's such a suave, distinguished looking fellow - I keep thinking you could pop a fedora on his head and he could go off and be Indiana Jones. Ziggy looks like he had a fulfilling day! Sounds like a lot of fun. Good luck to little Ruby! I'm sure she'll be just fine. It's probably for the best that her operation is happening over a busy weekend for you - the vets will be great at keeping her quiet and a bit less stress for you whilst you have other things on your mind