koalathebear

Wow - can we have photos of the destroyed kongs? I can't imagine Elbie being able to destroy any of his kongs. Even his plushies don't get totally destroyed - just a bit mauled and repairable with stitching I have never seen a destroyed kong!!

Thanks for all the suggestions! Andisa - I have been trying to get the dog gate you mentioned but it's clearly popular because I have now been outbid no less than three times I shall keep trying! Target is also having a sale so I'll see if Canberra Target has the baby gates. One of the reasons my OH is of two minds about agility for Elbie is that he's afraid it will teach him to jump fences ... At present he shows no kelpie-esque inclinations to fence jump or jail-break... I guess we can always use our baby gates (if I ever get some!) for training purposes

Sigh. I shouldn't need to explain but I will. There were reasons it was necessary to desex Elbie at that time - he'd just cut his foot and needed stitches for which anaesthesia was needed because he was a squirmy puppy who wouldn't keep still. They didn't want to put him under more often than absolutely necessary given his age so they suggested microchipping and desexing him at the same time. He was segregated from other animals, they took every precaution - it was after all their livelihood at stake. Elbie was otherwise extremely healthy apart from the ringworm and cut - the ringworm he picked up from his litter-mates, we saw it on one of his siblings. At that time he was desexed, he had already been on ringworm treatment for a while and the ringworm was almost completely gone. He would not have been allowed to attend puppy classes without a clean bill of health clearing him of any remaining ringworm - and we certainly wouldn't have taken him if there was any risk. Far from it being 'disgusting' conduct, I really believe that our vet had Elbie's best interests at heart and certainly would not have done anything to jeopardise the livelihood of any other animals in their care - although you of course are most welcome to your views, your choice of words and your tone. aussie3: didn't mean to hijack your thread. All the very best with Lili

Here is the update! http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandg...0/14772381.html

Thanks for all the tips. Our poor puppy is also teething now and it is upsetting to see the blood - he seems fine though! Nonetheless we do want to try to make him as comfy as we can so we have frozen one of his rope toys and a kong!

Good luck for tomorrow! I really hope that it turns out to not be ringworm! We were so stressed when the Elbie got it because if it didn't clear up before puppy classes he wasn't (of course) going to be allowed to attend. About a week or so before the first puppy class, he went in for desexing and microchipping and, and not only was the poor baby secluded like he was an outcast or leper, up on the whiteboard they also so circled his name in in red and and wrote RINGWORM in giant red letters. I was so worried that the other puppy parents attending the induction would see it and banish us. Fortunately his ringworm responded very well to treatment and cleared up quickly - it's now long gone. I made this for him at the time.

Ha thanks for playing with my mind! We will definitely be there on Sunday with our little monster. I am keen to try Elbie in the off leash area again as he did a little better last week despite being chased around the area by a Bernese mountain dog and a large scary looking dog named Mojo. See you then! Are you and Ava ready for bronze exams in two weeks' time? Elbie performs beautifully except when the instructor is looking at him!!!! Hi archerlove: Glad the information came in handy. You can start training your puppy straight away, I know a lot of people on this forum who have their puppies doing tricks at eight weeks. To be honest our first few weeks were a little bit of a blur with toilet training overload so we actually started doing training for tricks at around 10-11 weeks. I think we were too tired and preoccupied to start earlier than that. We also had a philosophical discussion about whether teaching Elbie tricks was for his benefit or our entertainment. It's actually more for him than for us, he's a very active little dog and the tricks keep him occupied. In the beginning they used to tire him out - not any more - these days they seem quite effortless for him In the beginning, we were only trying to get him to go to the toilet outside and on command. Then we started trying to slow him down a little bit at his mealtimes by are making him wait before starting on his food. He used to literally sit there and quiver with anticipation. After that we worked on drop for a long time. Weirdly enough the stay only came a lot later because he always wanted to follow us if we had food. Beg and hi-five were done at roughly the same time. You can see more of his tricks over here at the Elbie photos thread. Elbie's not sleeping outside yet. At present he sleeps indoors at night in his crate. Part of me wants him to learn how to sleep outside in case we ever wanted to go on a weekend trip to Sydney or Melbourne (he could stay in our yard while friends or relatives could stopp by to check on him and give him food and water) but at present Canberra is too cold to even think about leaving him outside at night. He is more willing to go into his kennel during the day after we put straw and a dog trampoline inside - we also have moved it right next to the back door. I suspect that we would have a hard time enjoying a holiday knowing that Elbie was missing us and we could never leave him at a professional kennel ... Hope that helps a little. I look forward to seeing video clips of your puppy, you will have seen above that wizzle has made great progress with her puppy Genevieve - possibly one of the cutest little cavs ever

How did the visit to the vet go, aussie3?

You are scaring me! *clings to you*

I think you have hit the nail on the head here PF. In the old days, it wasn't quite so easy to get so much info - these days, new puppy owners have access to a LOT of information, but sometimes the volume is daunting and not all of is consistent. We delayed giving Elbie a bone for so long because we'd heard so many horror stories but in the end decided to go for it and just keep an eye on him while he had it. Fortunately, he just seems to like licking it, scooping out the marrow and nibbling at it rather than actively chewing/gnawing on it. Same with pig ears, we read that they were great for keeping your puppy occupied but only one very farty and happy puppy later did we do further googling and realise how unhealthy they were!!! Absolutely. Post count is no guarantee of experience and it's sometimes hard to distinguish between: 1. experienced dog owner who has raised more than one dog, even better - different breeds of dog 2. person who had successfully raised one dog (luck may or may not have been involved) 3. person who is still in the course of raising a puppy/dog I'm in category #3 so whenever I offer comments, I try to make it clear that it's just based on what I've seen with Elbie (who is still a work in progress rather than making it advice that is applicable to anyone else's circumstances. I actually find category #3 advice helpful given that we are in the course of raising Elbie. As to category #2, these people can sound so persuasive The advice can be helpful but you never know if it's something that might be specific to their dog only There was a girl at work who was trying to assure me bones were totally safe. She got her Great Dane puppy from the breeder at 4 weeks - to be fair, the breeder apparently said: "take the pup now or I put it to sleep" - then her pup apparently ate a bone that was almost as big as the pup itself. It survived and is now a happy and well-adjusted middle aged dog but that sounded to me like sheer luck rather than bones being safe! Same with the tales of dogs that eat chocolate/onions/macadamias/cooked chicken bones etc without incident... There's no risk-free environment or food for a puppy and the Advice Obstacle Course can be confusing but I do read every single bit of advice I can find and then my OH and I try to make sure whatever we give Elbie is monitored closely so that it can be taken away if it starts to look like it could be problematic. While we are at work, we just have to hope he doesn't have a mishap

*laugh* Your advice is very welcome and I am sorry if my reply came out the wrong way (can I blame my awkward syntax on Tuesday's hand surgery? - just saying that it's always confusing to know who to listen to even on here

That sounds a lot like ringworm - Elbie had little skin scabs with hair attached, too. Are there any whiteish bald patches of skin? Just in case, make sure you wash your hands thoroughly immediately after touching Lili - ringworm is incredibly infectious. If it is ringworm the vet will probably tell you to give Lili an anti-fungal bath twice a week and apply anti-fungal ointment every day. We were a little bit unlucky with Elbie when we first brought him home because the first vet misdiagnosed his ringworm and said that it was probably just chafing as a result of lying on concrete. It was only the second vet that told us (a week later when we were concerned that it hadn't cleared up ) that it was ringworm - my OH caught a tiny patch although it was easily cured with ointment. We had to toss out a lot of Elbie's bedding and thoroughly wash other stuff. It was easily cured though I felt sorry for Elbie though because it was getting cold and the vet said to bathe him and make him run around the yard with the anti-fungal shampoo still in his fur for 10 minutes ...

wizzle, clastic + mm: Thanks very much for your well wishes. It's actually not as painful as I heard that it might be-there just very inconvenient. My OH is doing all the housework and dog duties right now - we normally share them. Typing with my left hand is really tedious and speech recognition software is incredibly frustrating say the least - so many crazy mis-recognised words aziah: I have found that it is almost impossible to get consensus among even the dog experts on DOL about what is safe and not safe. Chicken wings, chicken necks and chicken frames: some say these are great and some say they are a choking hazard Chicken eggs: some say these are to be avoided at all costs because raw eggs contain an enzyme that decreases the absorption of a B vitamin but others give them to their dogs every day and say that it leads to a shiny coat Apple: some people say these can only be given to your dog if you remove the seeds, yet others feed their dogs and a whole apple on a regular basis Tomatoes - some say yes, some say no .... Pigs ears - some say they're too fatty and others give them to their dogs regularly Bone marrow: some people say they are fatty and bad for your dog and others say that the marrow is the best part Marrow bones: some people say that these are good because they are too large to be a choking hazard, the others say that they are bad because they are too hard and can wear down your dog"s teeth Lamb flaps: some people say that these are very good for your dog others say that they are too fatty and are also a choking hazard Some people swear by bones and claim that they are good for a dog's teeth and general health. Others have horror stories to recount about who dogs who died after eating bones. Rawhide bones are considered no-nos by some people but are totally fine to others so long as given under supervision. Some people even say that kongs and rope chew toys can also be a choking hazard. Then there are others that say that a dog is a dog is a dog and that in the old days, dogs were just fed table scraps. All of the above can be pretty confusing for the new dog owner. The position that my OH and I have taken is that we will let Elbie have things up that he might enjoy but that we will also supervise him

Can anyone recommend a good baby gate/dog gate for a relatively wide doorway. Approx 160cm. Although the advertisements often contain the dimensions for the gates themselves, they do not give the measurements for the extensions so I am not sure if they will be long enough. If I could get some recommendations for brand names then I could do some Googling. Thanks very much in advance I am aware that because Elbie is a kelpie/border collie cross had he can jump up high, but at present we are using cardboard boxes and that is enough to let him know that he's not supposed to go into that room and he generally doesn't jump. The thing is, we would like to get rid of the cardboard boxes because they're quite unsightly and we are almost finished unpacking boxes in the new house ETA: apologies for talking like a caveman, since the CTR surgery, I have been trying out speech recognition on my computer with very limited success

Elbie had an accident this morning - wee'd at the front door as my mum was leaving!!! Jinxed!!!!!

Waving can be quite tricky. For instance, sometimes Elbie will get 'beg' mixed up with wave. Keeping Elbie in a drop in a position was also difficult in the beginning. I think we kept a treat in our fist and kept that on the ground. A warning - 'shy' took quite a while to learn. Partly because the sticky tape kept falling off. I can't wait to see Genevieve doing it because it will be very adorable. Sorry for such a short reply - have one arm in a sling post CTS-surgery

Hi We have been going to beginner classes with Elbie on Sunday. His test is in 2 weeks:) We'll do bronze after that

You can do it, MM! And post the videos here because I'd love to see more of little Marley. Also, if he's as hyperactive as Elbie, you'll find that learning all the tricks tires him out and makes him quiet - at least for a little bit

Gosh, I'm so sorry you had such a bad week! I have a story that might make you laugh ... our neighbour has a terrier that is constantly escaping from her house. Frequently it shows up in our front yard. It poops on our front yard and the neighbour never cleans it up! The dog has a real nerve because then when it sees me looking at it from our front window, it barks at me Yesterday, i went out with the intention of cleaning up the poop from the yard and couldn't find it - until I realised that not only had I inadvertently stepped in it - I had proceeded to walk it all over the front path and into the carport

Thanks. I KNOW I shouldn't give into manipulation and give him a bit of kibble when he gives me puppy eyes but he's so hard to resist Sooky Puppy Sleeping Puppy

Oh my goodness - she is soooooooooo cute and so focussed! I didn't know cavs could be that focussed - the two I've met are super-adorable but selectively deaf. How old is Genevieve now? She is doing so well! I'll bet she could master a crawl - little dogs look so cute when they do the crawl. We can't get Elbie to do it yet alas. I'm so impressed with her responsiveness and the intense concentration on her little face The cav in Elbie's class is so funny because his owner has to say: "Lookatmelookatmelookatme" when they do heel work Can't wait to see more Adventures of Genevieve. What a pity she and Elbie can't have a meet-up

Thanks heaps for replying. wuffles mentioned you'd had a play date there recently and said that one of your little ones was still small enough to probably not spook Elbie We'll probably stop by Thursday evening to ask for after hours access and try out one Saturday morning. I'm sure we'll all get to meet up soon - we should probably have an ACT DOLers meet-up in any case

Update: Some Small Successes for Puppy When my OH and I were living and working on Beijing, every morning we were woken by the sounds of noisy traffic, particularly the sound of the buses doors opening and closing and the automated voice telling people what the next stop was. After we moved back to Canberra last year, we were bemused by how quiet the mornings were and there was a real charm to being woken up by the sound of birds. My OH is Canadian so he didn't know any of the Aussie birds at first - we like the sound of magpies in the morning, not such a fan of galahs or cockatoos and we adore the monkey-sounds of the local kookaburras. This morning we were lying in bed and we heard a new bird sound in the distance. "Did you hear that?" he asked. "Yes. Is it a bird?" I asked. The bird sound sounded again ... then again ... then a longer sound ... Then we both realised that it wasn't a bird, it was our puppy squeaking away in his crate in the kitchen on his squeaky cow toy. Behold, Australia's latest bird - the Squeaky Puppy Toy Bird Also, Elbie has developed the worst but the cutest habit of coming and sitting beside my chair when I'm at the computer. He'll sit there expectantly, absolutely motionless for a bit. Then he'll put his head on my leg or knee. It's all in the hope of treats, but he's just so damned cute when he does it that he's hard to resist.

Is chicken frame basically the chicken bone carcass? I've been curious about that. Also, I wanted to give Elbie carrots, too but heard that they (like everything it seems!!?) had some shortcomings?

We're still struggling with walking Elbie. Sometimes he walks beautifully on a loose leash and all is wonderful. Then he remembers he's on a leash and he either: 1. pulls like crazy; 2. starts attacking the leash like a wild thing - inexorably chomping his way up the leash! For the pulling, we're countering it with treats and constant direction changes. For the biting, we are still working out a solution. Sometimes a 'look at me', 'let go' 'no biting' command works, depending how zoned out he is. He seems less inclined to attack the chain leash but the one we have is a little too short to use comfortably and we haven't been able to find a longer one yet. We love the BlackDog brand cloth leash we have and tried spraying bitter bite on it. Problem is, Elbie doesn't seem to mind the taste. Remember that scene at the end of the Fellowship of the Ring where Aragorn stabs Lurtz and Lurtz pulls out the knife and licks it while staring defiantly at Aragorn? The first time we sprayed the garbage bin with bitter bite, Elbie stood there licking it and staring up at us with defiant puppy eyes as if to say: "Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!" "Lay on Macduff!" and all that jazz. On the weekend, I tried sprinkling extra hot chilli powder on the leash but poor puppy got a tiny bit in his eye and was very reproachful so I immediately rinsed the leash down - although some diluted chilli powder presumably remains on the leash. During obedience class he chomped down on the leash a couple of times but rather than recoiling in horror he sort of licked his chops in a: "Hmm, very interesting" fashion My OH who was walking him at the time gave me a: "Now what do we do?" face. We're thinking we might try chilli oil now, even if it means getting oily hands :D