Niques

The frog is the traditional flat-out sprawl on the floor that strongly resembles a bearskin rug - front paws out, head down and rear legs straight out, although a little off-kilter to give them the froggie look. I stalked James all afternoon waiting for him to do it so I could take a photo but alas, he did not oblige. Poor sensible Hoover Elbie does look the tiniest bit insane next to his practical brother. I love the nearly off-camera flailing of limbs ;) Never been game enough to teach James to beg - I'm worried that he'd topple over backwards. And knowing him, he so would! Although I lie, he does prop himself in the beg position when sitting on the couch sometimes. But I can never resist pushing him over for a bellyrub. In fact, I tend to push him over a lot when he's on the couch - the poor mutt can't even bend over to chew on his bum without being shoved over backwards for a bellyrub

Why? Just why? Some people... :D I love Ruby's determined playmate Gorgeous dog. Congratulations on her using the trampoline bed! James will occasionally sleep in his (expensive) dog bed at night when it's a little cooler, but otherwise he goes out of his way to avoid sleeping on lovely soft blankets/beds in favour of concrete, brick, tile, wooden decking...you name it ;) Ruby does a brilliant seal impression James has been working very hard on his frog look, of late. I'm loving the Dobe puppy photos - both Astrid and Echo are seriously adorable. And am amazed at Genevieve's destructive powers! What a deceptively sweet girl ;) I don't think you could stay mad too long at that face. James' days of sleeping came to an abrupt halt last week and he's since turned into an irritating turd of a dog again His new game is grabbing a cushion or the remote and bouncing off the couches like a fool until he's chased. Between the hot weather and the rain, we didn't get out to walk until Saturday and the week in the kennel did absolutely no favours to his loose leash walking. He was a maniac! To his credit, he calmed down a little on the return journey until he flopped over in a neighbour's front yard and refused to move. It was a 30 minute walks - tops! I don't know what he's complaining about

Oof, not a good start to the year, what with camera problems in Week 1 and no subject for Week 2. Nonetheless, better late than never (I hope!). Week 3 - James JWeek3 by Niquix, on Flickr With a most unfortunate eye booger Flick Mac, I can't stop laughing at both dog's expressions in Louie's photo - well captured!

What an interesting sounding book! Especially the information on breed development. What is the author's background with the breed? I agree! What a wonderful site. Thanks Dju for the link :D That will sort of save me a lot of money as I spend a lot of money Thirded. I've been looking for a cheap copy of a certain book all afternoon and voila, that site found it for me at less than half the price of the cheapest I'd found.

I have a lot to catch up on! Have been enjoying the photos from the last page or two - particularly Kuma with his dad I had a great trip down south and James is finally home. Quite a few houses on the kennel's street went under but thankfully, due to a hill, the kennel itself was untouched aside from being completely cut off from the road (and thus, most of the employees). Apparently James and his roomie (a lab x kelpie) were bff's and completely inseparable throughout the week. I had to bite back a, "Uh, whose dog is this?" when they brought him out. Sort of didn't recognise my boy I had to check his toenails (yeah, I can recognise my dog's toenails/feet but not his head ) and make him do a few tricks in the car before I was convinced. The poor fellow is completely exhausted and slept through most of yesterday and looks to be doing the same today. He's come back acting like a dog, strange as it sounds. He's just very doggish. And that's not to mention the smell - he reeks of dog. Nonetheless, very, very glad to have him home. And the stay seems to have done him a world of good. The eating problems seem all but gone. He's more inclined to drink water out of his bowl rather than the swimming pool. And he's just generally calmer. Very curious. Anyway, must backtrack through this thread now and catch up over the next few days!

Thanks, wuffles from what I can gather, I think both ends of Brookfield are blocked, though. Was trawling the news sites for photos but can't find any of the Moggill end - I've never seen that cut off before. Yeah, I know they'd call - have just worked myself up a little because I can't get through to them. I expect I'm overreacting a little.

We made it through but hold little hope for other family coming down later in the week. There was water on the Pacific Hwy when we crossed and it's now closed. MY g'parents live in the same suburb and made it out before they were trapped there (although our local vet is separated from his family due to creek crossings going over) and made it down a couple of hours after us just before the Pacific Hwy closed. They were held up by cattle being moved to higher ground though Seriously worried about James Can't get flood maps to show the 1974 levels but I'm pretty sure our house is safe. Know several people by the river who have evacuated though.

Hi guys, My dog is currently in a Brisbane kennel that I suspect to be flooded (the road's been closed since early yesterday and was fairly well-flooded when we dropped him off on Monday). I can't get hold of them by phone to see if all is well so I assume they're extremely stretched employee-wise. I know there are a couple of people here who run kennels - what generally happens in emergencies? Can the animals be evacuated and if so, to what sort of facilities? Just after a general idea - would love to know anything about the situation as I'm getting very worried and feel fairly useless at present

LS, half a BBQ chicken surely makes all a puppy's problems disappear Yeah, we're thankfully in a generally good area re: floods. Our local creek (http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/gallery-e6frer9f-1225983022068?page=8 - photos 19+20 also claim to be our creek but I'm fairly sure they're mistaken as it hasn't been that high) has only just gone over which is peculiar - it normally floods at the mere sight of rain so we've been waiting for it to happen for some days now. My biggest (irrational) concern is for James at the kennel - I'm sure they know exactly what they're doing but they are out further west from us and given the state of the road this morning, they're in for quite a bit more flooding this week. Really not happy to be away from my boy The photos and footage of elsewhere in Queensland are unbelievable though Very scary. We head off in the morning to NSW for my brother's wedding and navigating some of the flooded roads at the border is going to prove potentially problematic. Poor Ziggy! I'm quite certain the same thing will happen to James - although knowing him, playing with new people will be nearly as fun as playing with new dogs, so hopefully he'll bear it tolerably well.

James started getting too hot in his (soft) crate about a month ago. I tried removing all blankets but there was no change. So I put him back in his puppy pen (Bunning's wire compost bins) so he could sleep on the concrete in the garage which he very much prefers. He'll be transitioned back out of the garage and eventually into his crate again as it gets colder. Anyway you can secure an area on tiles/concrete for her?

Aww, poor Kuma. I hope he hasn't done himself a serious injury. Raven, I do believe that the midnight retch/vomit is one of the scariest sounds to wake up to. I tend to over-react and panic when it happens Good to hear that Little Astrid is right back to her usual self though. She is so cute! Ziggy is such a handsome devil! I love the first photo - it's so hopeful. "Please play?" Lilli_star, that's such a sad (and all too common) story about Lucky She is indeed lucky that your brother has found and will take such good care of her Poor little pup. I don't know how people can abandon their dogs or surrender them at the pound. I've just dropped my rascal off at just the boarding kennel and have been depressed all morning Of course, all feelings of guilt vanished when we actually got there and I didn't even get a backwards glance - he saw a wolfhound or deerhound as soon as we pulled into the carpark and was oblivious to everything except the dogs after that point Am a little worried about picking him up next week if this rain continues - the kennel's driveway is already under a lot of a water. A little more and I don't think we could've made it through. It's very quiet without him...

I second this. It's hard for me to vote as I look at things differently now that I have James. When looking for James (who the first and only dog I've ever owned) a website was important. Obviously not too important as we ended up with a breeder who didn't have one. But, nonetheless, a professional-looking, informative website does have a lot of impact. I couldn't say, in regards to the breed club. It makes no difference to me one way or another. Possibly because I don't understand the implications of breed club membership. And thirdly, with the first dog, I was looking to wait 1-3 months. In future dogs, depending on the breed, I would be willing to wait up to a year.

Regardless of the path we eventually choose to go down re: vaccinations, at this point in time he needs to be done by the book as, as mentioned, he's being boarded next week

Excellent - thanks very much

James has only had his puppy vaccinations thus far. His next should be due one year after the last vax, right? Not when the dog himself turns one? I'm sure I've seen the question asked before but can't find it so thought I'd check - the boy's booked into a kennel from Monday and I'd prefer not to find out that he should have already had his next shot whilst trying to check him in

Some of you may remember a post a month or so back about James not eating his dry food. He's since been vet checked and the opinion was that he was either indicating a need for fewer calories (i.e. reached his growth potential) or had suffered a very minor bout of pancreatitis. Neither of which I'm inclined to agree with, but anyway, moving on. What was confirmed was that there's nothing wrong with his mouth/teeth, which was my concern given his food selectiveness. He's still not showing a great deal of interest in his dry food, but what I have observed is that he's much more inclined to eat when I'm with him. If I put his treat ball down inside he'll bat it about, chase it and eat (albeit, still not as enthusiastically as in the past in regards to the latter). If I put his treat ball down outside it gets ignored. And thinking back, this is also what he was doing with a "recreational" bone (i.e. big bone, very little meat) back when I first mentioned the problem - it was left outside with him all morning while I was out and he didn't touch it, but when I came home and sat with him he happily tucked in. In addition, he has lately become unsettled when left outside alone. If he's left out on the deck he'll keep popping up at the window and climbing onto the outdoor furniture to peer in when previously he would sleep. If he's left in the yard proper, he whines or sits under the deck and sporadically barks, where previously he'd, again, just nap or check out interesting things in the garden and spy on the neighbours. The only time when he's really happy to both be left outside alone and eat is when he's put out with his evening meal of bones. If James had a first fear period I really didn't notice -- he's always been an extremely outgoing, confident pup -- so I'm not sure what I should be looking for. But I notice he's at the age (12 months) of a potential second period so I'm wondering if all of these behaviours could be considered a normal part of that? And if so, how do I manage it? Should I be keeping him inside more? He's getting put out for a couple of hours a day at the moment because I don't want him all of a sudden getting used to being around me all the time as I'll be back at uni soon. Thanks and well done if you've made it through all that Any advice is appreciated.

Lucky you don't have a James in the house, then! After long walks he likes to lie down with his whole head in the water bowl - because drinking whilst standing is just so hard Most of the water is immediately displaced onto the floor. Oh yes, that's how he achieves lift-off! He looks most un-labradorish with his propeller ears Wuffles, have a safe and easy journey home! James' cousin Lulu seems to be affected by this late Summer shedding as well - he kept walking away from her with yellow/white hairs all over him. I'm pretty sure James isn't shedding any more (nor any less, unfortunately!!) than usual, though ;) That is extremely cute. I think I missed reading it - how long is Ruby staying with them for? So we experienced our first dog attack today. An Aussie terrier came rushing out of an open garage just around the corner from us on our way home, growled at James and promptly lunged at his flank I distinctly saw his teeth land but it would seem that the little weasel's mouth was too small to make it through Pup's fur as there's not a mark on James. It then had the gall to start stalking him. I almost felt like laughing at that point - James could simply sit on the other dog and it would be squished. It's the first time I've ever seen James slightly taken aback by another dog's behaviour. He was quite confused for a while there ("why would anyone bite lovable me??" ;) ) but I don't think there's any lasting psychological damage, thankfully. Me, on the other hand, I am extremely pissed off And to end on a positive, I didn't get around to posting a pic of James' play with his cousin the other day. I love this shot:

(cont)

How can you not fall in love with Kyojin's face! So sweet. He and his feline chum look very content together. Hoover definitely has the right idea. Today was a thoroughly unpleasant day, in regards to temperature. Apologies in advance for the photo overload. There aren't too many brilliant shots (although I must say, Ava is unbelievably photogenic, even covered in mud!) and it was very hard to find photos that wouldn't fit the caption, "Satch. Satchmo. Satchmo! Play with me, Satch?" James' fawning is even more obvious on film. He had a ball on his labrador playdate this arvo, to the point of exhaustion. Upon which he found himself an incredibly foul pile of crud to lie in. The smell was awful!

Today a certain puppy turns one!! He had a great play with Wuffles' gang this morning (was totally obnoxious to poor Satch ) and will be out to visit his cousin Lulu this afternoon. Busy day for the little pup. Hopefully by his next birthday he will finally be free of the huge amount of mud he accumulated in his coat this morning ;) Thanks again for the meet-up, Wuffles! Will add photos later - am just sorting through them at the moment. Minxy, that must have been terrifying! I can't believe it took 40 minutes for one of your neighbours to offer assistance! What a lovely couple for doing so. Interesting to hear that they just keep running. For what purpose were they originally bred?

Ahh, I have neglected to post in this thread recently. Much to catch up on, although I have been lurking. I love all the Christmas photos and updates. Shall have to pull James' off the camera eventually. Very impressed to see Elbie and Hoover's killer whale still intact. I'm pretty sure James' lasted an hour...tops. Although the hollow, inside out fur hung around much longer. Speaking of shredded toy parts, I found an elephant ear (and Kong Wubba) behind the couch today :D James is exceedingly attached to his Christmas raccoon. He chewed its ears off on Christmas Day but now just joyfully carries it around. There's a tear in Mr Raccoon's arse and yet, a week later, the evil puppy has (miraculously) not pulled any stuffing out If that's not love, I don't know what is Wishing everyone a happy New Year!!

I'd love to do this as well! I think I've set the whole Flickr end of things up correctly: http://www.flickr.com/photos/57625936@N03/...57625577396301/ I will be using James.

We went through a period of regular daily walking but I realised I found it immensely boring. When we'd get to about the half hour mark I felt like we were trudging along for the sake of finishing the walk. I don't know if I just read what I wanted from James' behaviour but he seemed less excited to me as well after the initial "we're out and about" thrill. These days we're more inclined to hover around the local park (people park - not dog park). Do a couple of laps. Sprint like lunatics from one end to the other And just sit on a bench and watch all the other dogs and people. It's much more interesting for the both of us, I like to think. Although it's still not entirely regular - during holidays (i.e. right now) we don't go so often as there are too many other dogs about. James gets more over-excited than usual and, weighing things up, I think it's more damaging to put him in that situation than to lose the training opportunity through keeping him home.

We alternate between a Halti and flat collar when walking. The Halti was not bought for LLW, but rather to have much more control over him when we approach other dogs as he is prone to going nuts. We're making progress though and he will now nearly always settle on a flat collar when we see a dog in the distance. However, I still like the Halti on him for the times where I can see he's going to completely lose it as the dog gets closer. We're getting closer to completely weaning him off it. It's also useful to keep him moving when he spies a scrub turkey Tis mighty hard to pull his focus off them. I never see Haltis/harnesses being used around my area It's either flat collar or off-leash. And the off-leash dogs are always very friendly and generally well-behaved.

I'm only a minute into this one and am laughing so hard. Could someone enlighten the doofus - what's a buggerboo? ;)