Niques

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjZzIckZsbo ^ There's a uh, highly stylised play dead :D I can't work out where I've stored the original video, but you get the gist. That was about a month ago - he doesn't need the hand movement so much now.

Elbie's play dead is absolutely adorable! And he can do it from standing as well! James does a pretty impressive dead (particularly when you get him on an awkward angle and he has to take a dive onto the ground) but can only do it from a sit or lying start. Does Elbie have a good "stay"? I started teaching it by just luring him into rolling onto his side and telling him to "stay", and then adding the rest when he knew what the end position was meant to be. He very quickly learnt that lying limply on his side = ecstatic praise I now occasionally get him rolling over and playing dead when I simply ask him to lie down. Although I'm really a fan of Elbie's dead cockroach approach - the videos are too cute. Next step is working out how to make him close his eyes

James is on a toy ban - I foolishly bought him some cheap dog toys with weak stitching and he now has a taste for blood I came home yesterday to find his tennis ball torn open - I've created a monster!! That squeaker pig looks so cool. Is it fairly solid and well made?

Pepe's a clever boy! Here's James' video from last month: Haven't taught him anything lately. He learnt "back up" for obedience school a few weeks ago, but nothing since. I've been intending to fix his "crawl" and "bow" as he's quite slack with them, but haven't gotten around to it.

:D I am so very jealous. I've not slept past 6:45am in 5 months. Although I am blessed with an early sleeper - he stuck his head under the coffee table to pull out a stray bone over 45 minutes ago and hasn't moved since - silly sod fell asleep mid-search

I would smile at the owner and pup and maybe make a comment, but I wouldn't make a beeline for a puppy to pat it. Particularly now that I actually have a dog - my puppy goes insane around other people and dogs and there is nothing more annoying than people slowing down, changing their path towards him or plain stopping in the middle of the footpath to talk to him when all I want is to teach him to be able to walk past people without expecting attention.

James has always been a sleepyhead. He normally falls asleep for the night by 7:30-8pm and I don't think he's ever managed to stay awake past 9pm. He used to always be awake by 5:30am at the latest but we've had a bit of respite for the past month or two. He's been waking up at 5:30-6ish and happily entertaining himself until 6-6:30ish. Until the last week, when he's been up and whining at 5-5:30ish every morning and it's driving me insane! I thought we'd made a sleeping breakthrough! I have no tips for resettling, I'm afraid. Back until last month or so he was a chronic morning barker until you'd get up to him. Quieting down just came with age. Now he makes a high pitch whine at 5am and I turf him outside onto his terrace in case he needs to wee and I'm just lying there ignoring him. But at least the early morning barking is no more.

I would just feed her what she can finish if she's only 8 weeks old. James didn't eat his full recommended meals for nearly 2 weeks after being brought home. I was convinced I had a labrador with no food interest....I was wrong It just took him a while to settle in. I can't remember exactly but I'm sure we were getting 5-6 poos a day as well. I wouldn't be concerned about her not finishing being due to overfeeding until you're sure that she's fully settled into her new environment and you can remove that as a cause. If you're interested, James' diet was: 3/4 cup dry food, palmful of mince and splodge of cottage cheese/yoghurt for breakfast, chicken wing for lunch and 3/4 cup of food and mince for dinner. Until 16 weeks, at which point lunch was dropped. But as I said, he wasn't capable of eating the full amount for a week or two after coming home. Give her a bit of time yet.

I would not have trusted my pup to stay on a table. It sounds very dangerous. Not to mention if yours are anything like our coffee tables, it would be slippery underpaw and he could just as easily fall off. We popped together a couple of Bunnings wire bins to form a playpen for James. We weren't particularly drawn to the whole crating business, but really, his pen has served the exact same purpose of a crate...just a bit bigger. It's useful for all the purposes you mentioned. He's only ever had two or three accidents in his pen and that has been when he's been a touch off colour and really couldn't hold his bowels so it helped very much in toilet training. If he was being frustrating and not going outside at a time when I was quite sure he would need to go any moment, he was put in his pen until he barked to let me know he was ready, thus preventing unneccesary accidents around the house. He's put in there to sleep to prevent him wandering around the house at night. And it's a safe place to confine him at times when I didn't want him in the way and underfoot. All in all, a very useful tool.

I love that you keep such a great video record of him. He looks like he really started to get the idea towards the end there! And he's such a cute fellow!

James in my life as shown me that I can be responsible. Friends and family are stunned at how organised and thorough I am when it comes to the dog as I have never shown any responsibility or commitment in other aspects of my life. They were only half-joking when they said the poor mutt will only last a week with me! He's made me more social and more likely to be proactive in all manner of things. And he's shown me just how brilliant and strong a connection with a dog can be. I am so lucky to have James. He is such a wonderful dog and I am beyond grateful that my first dog experience is so positive. Aside from the fact that he's just accidentally sliced my finger open whilst I sit here typing lovely things about him...

My mother will take him. If she cannot or will not keep him long term then she has been firmly instructed to work with his breeder to rehome him. But I know that, while that is happening (if need be), he will be loved and cared for in the meantime.

Elbie always sounds like quite the little character! What a charming guy! Re: bleeding, our vet warned that there might be a little bit of blood on his bones or soft toys but I never saw any. I did end up with slobbery blood streaked down my arm at one point when he thought he'd use me as a teething toy, but as he was in hyper/zoomie mode at the time I suspect he may have knocked a tooth which prompted the bleeding. I was glad when he finally started teething... but even happier when he finished! James was prone to crying and chewing on hands when his teeth hurt - his discomfort, although infrequent, was really quite sad to watch. Congratulations on all the other little breakthroughs! It's really wonderful when they move past certain trying habits and learn new things. I second the call for new photos!

When home, I now trust James anywhere. He's grown out of the need to grab absolutely anything he can find (with the exception of a potplant in one room and lace curtains in another). When alone, he's still cordoned off downstairs. I generally trust him, I just worry what would happen if he got bored. I can see the couch not faring too well Very soon he'll start being left upstairs for short periods of time (and hour or so)...maybe with someone peering in through the window I really just have a feeling that he'll do fine, though. Could prove foolish, but I'm confident (hopeful ). He's always been generally fine in the living areas. I occasionally feed him (piece by piece) part of his breakfast in the bedrooms and that's really helped to teach him to be calm in these areas and that there's more fun to be had than just stealing everything in sight.

I think J. and a neighbour's BC are the only purebreds in the street. I know one of the mutts is a rescue and there's a backyard bred labrador. I've no idea of the other dogs' origins. At one point I'm sure one house had a ridgeback that was rarely seen, but they may have moved.

I use Nutro large breed puppy, as recommended by his breeder.

Hips are all well and good, according the vet. He doesn't seem physically troubled, just not confident. He'll keep tentatively picking his feet up, as though contemplating taking the next step (literally and figuratively), but won't take the leap of faith. They're wooden stairs. Slipperiness is a worry and am on the search for some non-slip socks for him anyway as he keeps losing his paws on the tile floor, but there doesn't seem to be any give under his feet when we're practicising. Do you think it would be best to wait until we get socks so his feet are more firmly planted? Katie sounds adorable, practicing by herself James has made a few attempts in the past, just to take a peek down, but hasn't gotten further than putting his front paws on the first step. So making it to the third is progress!

James is 6 months old now and I want (need - he's a heavy lump!) him to start going downstairs. He's been going upstairs for a while now but will occasionally freeze on the staircase. Most of the time the appeal of food and giving him a few minutes is enough incentive to continue the journey up, so we're good with that direction. The problem is going down! The poor little sod can (slooowly) get his hind legs down onto the first step, with his front paws on the third, but then he panics and starts whining shrilly and tries to turn around. Any suggestions to make it easier for him?

God, where do I begin? I still have faint scars on my arms from when he started teething. And it was so hard to be cross with him as well because he sounded in such pain. He walks very, very closely to me and I currently have a large scratch and bruise down one leg where he got a claw stuck whilst following too close. He can't take a treat gently which is so much worse now that it's cold - that tiny nip hurts like hell! I came home from puppy school one evening with a gushing, bloodied thumb where he caught the gap down the side of the nail. He used to hit that spot a lot. He used to come and pounce on me when my back was turned, which takes the breath out of you. He did it when I was lying on the couch one day - just crept up behind and leapt on my head. Thankfully, he's (mostly) stopped this. He'll still pounce from the front though. And just the other day he slammed into my knee which was a lot of fun. He is like Elbie though - not at all food (I can easily grab a bone out of his mouth) or toy aggressive so I don't mind putting up with his other slight bad habits for the present. He's fundamentally a good dog :D

James is very extroverted and loves novel things. And thus isn't fussed when things don't happen to plan. The location of his bed, toys and water bowl in his pen move nearly everytime I clean it. He can be put to bed, woken up or walked at any time of day without a worry. Except, as I found out yesterday, for breakfast. He was vomitting during the night and I wasn't going to feed him breakfast until he threw an absolute tantrum when he realised the usual morning Kong was not forthcoming. Needless to say, puppy got breakfast. Dinner is normally at the same time each night but he's never bothered when it's late, even by several hours.

James isn't naturally a shredder, but I accidentally got into the habit of playing tug with his stuffed toys Inevitably, they split seams and were promptly disemboweled. His whale was the first to go and the funniest - he now just has a cloth whale with no innards. The elephant has the ends of its tusks shredded and lacks stuffing in his head. That was actually sad as he loves his elephant so much. Your patching jobs are excellent! I contemplated resewing J.'s toys but I'm sure they it would cause more harm than good/

J. doesn't get a whole lot of exposure to dogs. Any dog throws him into a spin - he loves them all. He adores the Labrador a few doors down, but then that could just be because she's the only dog he's allowed to full on play with. There's a couple of Ridgebacks at his puppy school and puppy obedience and he seems to show a slight preference for them. Hard to tell when he's trying to throw himself at every dog.

James prefers to lick the OUTSIDE of the dishwasher. And the fridge. The puppy likes whitegoods. When he was younger he simply was kept busy outside the kitchen when the dishwasher was being unpacked, primarily to keep him out of the open cupboards. Anyway to just keep her out of the way? J. has the idea now and rarely goes into the kitchen whilst dishes are being unpacked.

Oh, I forgot tissues. He can empty a tissue box in no time at all. But his favourites are the of the pre-snotted variety We've had a spate of colds in the family of late and he has had an absolute ball munching on snotty tissues. Absolute grot that he is

7-8 hours is the longest he's ever been left alone and that's been on a few occasions. I felt terribly guilty each time though. Very unreasonably - he spends about 3 weekdays by himself for 6 hours and that never bothers me, but I get anxious when it's that extra hour or two. It's probably more down to me missing him :D