Magstar

That was amazing! The dog must have so much strength in its back legs! I was also wondering whether it could possibly be damaging...

Our vet advised us to start taking heartworm tablets at about 12 weeks.

My husband and I are currently living with my parents because we gave up trying to find a pet friendly rental. I understand that there are a lot of irresponsible pet owners out there who let their pets trash the place, but it sucks for the rest of us!

Congratulations! He is soooo cute! I love the name too. We have had our goldie puppy for about 3 months now and he is such a delight! I am so glad that we decided to go with that breed. He is exactly what I wanted.

Hi Aussielover! Sounds like Mindy is going really well! I'm a bit scared to say anything in case I get jinxed again... :D but.... Oscar hasn't had an accident since that last thread you did on toilet training...whenever that was

I will be starting obedience training with Oscar in 2 weeks time and I am worried about the same sort of thing. He has never been around that many dogs before and so I am worried that he will freak out when we go.

I also use filtabac on my dog's pink nose.

Our last dog lived till 17 and he mostly ate Chum tinned food. He was always very active and had acreage to run around on.

I have had huge success using eucalyptus oil. I just paint a tiny bit on whatever he is wanting to chew and he never goes back. You don't need to use much at all. He never tastes it or anything. He gets up close, has a smell and then backs off.

That is just too cute!

Sorry, I didn't see that post from jacqui until after I had posted. There is a lot to think about...

Could someone please explain to me the potential risks of not waiting until the dog is fully grown? People have been saying that the testosterone helps with the growth etc, but what can actually go wrong with desexing earlier? Can it cause joint problems etc? I am asking because my vet reccomended that we get our male GR desexed at 6 months, so we were going to go along with that....

Maggie, my older dog, taps on the door if she wants to go out or come in. If she is asking for her dinner she looks at me and makes a howling/whining noise until I make a move to get her dinner. She'll bark at me if she wants me to play. She is a very vocal girl about most things. Oscar, my puppy, has also learned (Maggie must have taught him!) to tap on the door if he wants out or in. In the morning he wakes me up by hopping up with his front legs on the bed. For everything else he tends to just sit and stare at me.

Thanks everyone for your comments . I will definately take some more baby steps from now on. We actually only made it to the very edge of the markets. We should probably have stayed further away and just let him watch from a distance. I know I was being a bit too sensitive about that guy's comment, I guess I just don't like being judged! But thats life! He is generally a very well behaved puppy and has a very solid "sit" while at home. Just not when we are out and about!

We took Oscar to our local markets yesterday and he got super excited and wanted to say hello to absolutely everyone! He was jumping up while on the lead and whining because he couldnt go and say hello to people. He wasn't interested in treats and wouldn't listen to our commands at all. It was quite embarrassing. There was more people there than he would have seen in one place before. One guy walked past us and said that our puppy was crazy and needed training. That really really upset me so we didn't stay any longer, instead just went for a short walk around town where it was a bit quieter. I'm glad that he is friendly and likes people, but how do we stop that excited behaviour? I've been feeling really down about it. Especially because that guy criticized us.

My friend's dog used to always pull washing off the line. They ended up hanging out some old stockings with chilli in the end of them. One bite of that and they never touched the washing again!

At least the dogs went to her mum rather than the pound.... Lets just hope that her mum is ready to take on a husky as well in about 9 months time! I would find it hard to remain friends with her. How frustrating for you!

Woo! Go Elbie! It made me laugh when he was just bouncing around haha.

I live close, but I really have no idea how I could help. I can't bring the puppy back to my place, and I don't have the skills to give it an assessment.

I am really impressed with those owners that seem to be able to take their puppies on long-ish walks (I think 30 minutes is supposed to be the max for a six month puppy). Someone told me we should be walking Elbie (5months a bit) that we should be walking him at least 7 km a day and I almost laughed my head off. Once we get him to walk on a loose leash consistently then I'll consider it, until then it's just an endless round of pull/stop/pull/stop Like you, I can see a gradual improvement in my dog. This morning I was actually just having him sitting in the front yard and whenever a car whizzed past, I made him look at me. 7km??? Well at the rate we walk he would be fully grown by the time we got to the end! I usually only manage a few metres before we are stopping again. I was told that we should walk Oscar no more than 1km until he is 12 months age, but thats for a large breed. We are only doing very very short walks at the moment just to get him trained on the lead. It is definately testing my patience! But it is good to see the gradual results.

I've been having this problem with Oscar. He walks beautifully on the lead while we are in the yard, but as soon as we are out of the yard everything is waaay too interesting for him! I have been stopping each time he pulls and then making whatever silly noise is necessary to get his attention (if calling his name doesn't work). As soon as he turns his attention back to me I give him a treat and once he is next to me we start walking again. Its slow and frustrating, but I can already see the improvement.

Do you know why she would not be willing to take it to the vet?

My puppy had tear stains like that when we got him. I have had our vet give his eyes a thorough check (twice, because I'm a worry wort), and he said that his eyes are perfectly fine . He still gets the staining, but mostly after he has been playing in the dirt.

My 16 week puppy sleeps from about 10-7. We don't use a crate, but he will let us know when he wants to go out in the morning by tapping on the door. My older dog has been known to sleep in till midday (depending if we are doing anything exciting or not!).

Cuteness overload!