koalathebear

Heh heh. There are photos if you click ..

The new vacuum cleaner arrived at 1pm today. It arrived in very good condition, a little subdued after its epic, epic journey from up North but once in the car was very curious and remarkably well-behaved. It's a very quiet but playful vacuum cleaner. Elbie has not yet met the vacuum cleaner, but definitely knows something is afoot ... Photos below ...

I hope you're ok. I've been thinking about you and Puppy and hoping that you weren't toooooo sad. I guess you have Max to keep you cooing and laughing. Those photos of Max ... *melts* His eyes are sooooooooooo cute and expressive. Very, very sweet-faced. Not thinking of pursuing a dog-friendly career, although friends, family and colleagues think I'm a bit dog mad. I think I'm just dog-mad compared to non-dog people, compared to a lot of DOLers, I'm pretty moderate. Max#1 and Clastic: Good luck to Max and Mars. When we went to get Elbie, the vet's was talking to another couple that were thinking about getting their dog desexed. "The day of the operation, your dog might be a little bit groggy and lethergic." Another vet's nurse was just letting Elbie out of a crate so that he could be wee'd and as soon as she popped Elbie on the ground, he stated hurtling around like a maniac. The first vet's nurse looked at Elbie, cleared his throat and said: "That pup has just been desexed - you can see he's fine." We sectioned off the stairs in the yard with fencing stuff, Elbie then decided to jump down from the deck onto the third stair down. ;) Fortunately he was fine but he did have a bad habit of licking his stitches - but not to the point he needed a Cone of Shame. It would be so funny standing in obedience class with the instructor and your classmates staring at you quizzically as you use a live chicken to lure and treat your dog. It upset me a lot. People shouldn't regard dogs as disposable items but they do and the thought of dumping oldies when they know that no one else will want them instead of looking after them or at LEAST taking them to the vet themselves to have them PTS with a loved one beside them ... Sigh .. ;) Yeah ... and I hate how so many of the decisions are couched as: "The wrong decision will impair your poor dog's life for the rest of its life and cannot be rectified!" First of all, I taught him the touch command so that he touches things with his nose. Then I pop him in the middle of two items – I started with paper towels still wrapped in plastic and pointed to guide him. He went and touched his nose to the paper towels. One of the trainers here said I should switch to putting a towel on the ground but Elbie didn’t really like sitting on the towels, he just touched those with his nose. Then it was just pointing and guiding and then saying ‘left’ or ‘right’ as the case may be. Elbie’s 100% if I guide him – whether with a point, a jerk of the head etc but he isn’t so great at the word recognition yet. I think he’ll get there, though. Elbie’s default behaviour is “are you shy” or “wave”. He is very, very cute when he’s confused and will just keep delivering up those two tricks in the hope that they’re right. These days he is also hopping into the heel position and trying to look cute. Gosh I hope that there aren’t that many people that lurk in this post – it would make me quite nervous. The first line of this post made me a bit apprehensive but then again we generally DO confine our discussions to matters dog-ly and the non-dogly stuff is incidental. Deakin is soooooooooo cute. Lab eyes are so soulful and I love his dirty snout as well - he looks as unconscious of his guilty nose as Satch did. I have a vision of you coming home to a water-logged Akita who has soaked up enough water to fill up a dam. I am very impressed with the vacuum cleaner photo – I think everyone will be disappointed that our vacuum cleaner isn’t quite so high-tech or funky looking!!! :D dandybrush: I'd also love an instructional video of teaching the sneezing/nose wipe trick! We need more tricks that don't involve dancing/athletics from either OH or me. This is sooooooooooo cute. I wish I could have seen it Tests ... is little Ava ok???

Fleeting flyby post from me! Will answer all posts tomorrow! Am doing last minute vacuum cleaner preparations. Congratulations about the toileting on command. That is a huge achievement. I hated the days when I would have to stand outside waiting for yonks for my puppy to go to the toilet. I would be thinking: "This is a strange life I am leading .." Someone at Dog School was a bit horrified when she was talking about how it was frustrating to wait for her dog to go and I said: "Doesn't your dog go to the toilet on command?" She looked at me and said: "**I** don't go to the toilet on command." Whoops. Toileting on command and going to roughly the same spot in the yard are awesome. Elbie has a few Rebel Poos in the yard but not many - mostly he confines himself to Poo Corner. As to new tricks ... regrettably, right now silver seems to be about fine-tuning existing skills so we are working hard on getting Elbie's 'stand' right. It's a bit all over the place right now - steps left, steps forward, steps backward. He doesn't have the simple straight up stand motion he's supposed to have. Once he gets that perfected, I want to go back to working with him on 'left and right' because we never 'finished' that lesson. I also want to finetune the 'in the box' command because I want him to learn to distinguish different objects so that we can tell him which objects he is supposed to put in the box ... Most of all, I want him to learn how to be a Calm Doggie

A friend's shiba inu ate a squeaker once, leading to several days of Poo Monitoring so we were very careful to snatch the squeakers away once exposed. The Nina O brick was great but do you have a recommendation for a truly brain-teasing toy that will keep Elbie occupied for longer? It can't be one of the plushies because he's most likely to tear holes in that sort of puzzle before he solves it.

Well some might argue that once you've seen one vacuum cleaner you've seen them all. Elbie isn't a big fan of the vacuum cleaner. He doesn't bark but he runs away from it and goes to his crate. Same as when I use the electric mixer. The funny thing is that he's totally fine with the washing machine and the dryer even when they rattle and make crazy noises. The other day his mat was in front of the washing machine and he even dropped in front of it - which was odd. We attribute it to the fact that in the early days of his living with us, his crate was in the kitchen facing the laundry and he was very used to the sound of the washer and dryer. I find this intriguing. Rubber chicken? Whole raw chicken? BBQ chicken? Parts of a chicken? Live chicken???? That reminds me of something poodlefan once said to me when I was mentioning trying to join rescue. She said something along the lines of training to be an obedience instructor helps to keep dogs out of rescues - preventative measures etc. It is very sad how many people buy a dog the same way they buy something very disposable. When we were at the pet store the other day, one of the shop assistants said that she was at the pound the other day. A woman came in with their very old family pet. The pound said: "Your dog is really old - you do know that we're going to have to put it to sleep because no one will want it." The woman said fine. The young child with her was VERY upset but the woman said: "Don't worry, we'll get another dog on the way home." Those photos are so gorgeous. I love the shot of Satch and I also love their innocent expressions as they stand before those positively huge craters ... It's a combination of innocence and satisfaction as they survey their art ... I'd be worried about stepping in one of those holes and breaking my neck - I am very unco. lilli_star: love that photo of Ruby peeking out from under her dog bed like that. I also love this one: It's very "friends forever".

That is very kind of you but if you'd seen what the little monster has done to his beautiful 16 squeaker pig mat ... ... you'd be putting him in the Wagsalot dunce corner!!

I don't think it's that they are immune from aggression, it's just that when a Kelpie stares like that it's frequently not a sign of aggression. My Kelpie cross can stare solidly for about a minute without moving - he's waiting and seeing what will happen next. Sometimes he's waiting for a ball, sometimes he's being a bit defiant i.e. we've told him to sit and he is wanting to see if we'll back down before he plonks his butt down - he doesn't want to sit because he knows we're about to throw the ball and he wants to be standing so that he can get to it faster. I've seen Kelpies stare down a stray sheep so that it backs off and rejoins the flock. I have to be careful not to get into staring contests with my dog - they can last forever! ETA: I've said before that the way my dog's Kelpie Stare always reminds me of the quote about Paddington Bear and how he has a "very hard stare" that can disconcert people and how he always says "bears are good at staring".

Yup. Our dog is part weed - kelpie x border collie x weed. He was also desexed too young (long story) which makes them grow taller and lankier than usual. Tosca and spindle are adorable and I love her name. I saw a performance of Tosca in Beijing at The Egg and it was wonderful.

Not sure what the breed is, but regarding working dogs, I believe that there's an exemption from registration/microchipping in places like New South Wales where the dog is to be a working dog rather than a companion animal (of course there are certain conditions to be satisfied e.g. kept on rural land etc). Not sure about Queensland, though.

Also, wagsalot - Elbie's been having great fun with the latest Tuffy we bought from you. Video is . The squeaking is from the crazy squeaky Kong ball that OH bought him. And here is Elbie with the Tuffy after he's finished playing. So far it lives up to its promise of being tough enough for tigers.

Thanks! We definitely need a harder one for Elbie! He does a nose/paw push combo that gets all the kibble out too quickly. Also ... we buy far too much stuff from wagsalot.com.au ... You would think I would have mastered the ordering system by now.

As we need a photo quickly. A trip down Elborino memory lane ... i.e. Elbie before he became a long-snouted wedgehead. OH has just let me know that the new vaccuum cleaner will arrive in Canberra between 12-2pm tomorrow.

That's why OH and I are always happy that you're strict with Elbie and make him sit first before you pat him. At home he gets no pats until he sits. Some people will still play with the little monster even though he's bouncing around like a tennis ball. I think the difference is that some people don't mind dogs jumping - they like "paws up" dogs. It's hard to get the consistency of training though if some people will still pat my monster dog when he's jumping. He is getting a LOT better though - he'll plonk his butt on the ground and make an infuriated "pat me" honking noise.

Don't worry foxyboi - I hear it's a breed thing. The Shiba Inu pages I've read all say that the shiba isn't the greatest in terms of off-leash walking. They are independent and curious. ETA: I wonder what my chances are of teaching Elbie to walk on the backs of sheep. See the kelpie thread here. What an awesome talent!!!

VERY cute. 1 lab puppy is already intensely cute but multiply the number of labs and put them in a wheelbarrow and .... gah ...

That is awesome wuffles! We are NEVER going to trust Elbie off-lead in a public place. We just don't trust him ... it might be the border collie in him but when he sees cars, sometimes he lunges

As long as your pup is at least 12 weeks and is fully vaccinated, then he can come to class at BDOC. There's one shiba inu at BDOC named Nugget - so cute. Web page is here. Unfortunately you can't start enrolments for next year yet until they put the info up on the website. You'll find that beginners has pups of all levels - partially trained to no training whatsoever. All sizes and breeds, too. The first week is a briefing for owners so you don't bring your pup, pups join in the second week. ETA: Elbie started going to puppy classes at about 12 weeks. He was about 17 weeks when we started going to obedience class but we had started basic training with him at home from the time we got him - sitting, waiting for food, dropping etc. We don't have plans for him to become Wonder Dog or anything - just wanted him socialised, occupied etc and it was something to do with him apart from playing at home and taking him for a walk. wuffles is very impressive with Ava - she hasn't mentioned it but from what I could see, there were only two passes from silver last term and wuffles and Ava were one of the two. Last week, silver was divided into 'new' silvers and people who were repeating silver. There were a LOT of repeating silvers, so wuffles and Ava were extra impressive to have passed.

I would love to know what Cooper Jay is thinking, there. Such a baleful stare.

Wow, when I mentioned Wee Wizzle I wasn't expecting him/her to appear so soon! Congratulations, dearest I hope Lord Wizzle is pleased. The Tuffy toy is very useful and after Dog plays with it, Dog can use it for a pillow. Behold Sleeping Elborino and Tuffy Pillow

Wizzle, I am so sorry you were feeling poorly. Hope you're feeling better now! I have a tough toy recommendation. Elbie has been having great fun with his Tuffy. Video is . Please ignore the bit where he combines Tuffy with squeaky Kong ball... The squeakers in those kong balls are crazy! So far the Tuffy has proved very durable with inoffensive squeaking so we're going to get him some more.Elbie's current favourite game. His version of soccer. Video . He could play it for hours, OH and I are the ones that lose interest. ETA: With the dollar being good, I'm intending to put in a Tuffy order soon so if any Canberrans want to order a Tuffy, too - let me know and I'll throw it in with my order. - Oops, that Tuffy order is US only Oh well. Oh, I found a Canberra store. Free delivery in the ACT!

Happy Birthday, KumaAkita! That photo of the giftbox is a hoot - Kuma in the background looking on wistfully! ETA: Clastic also goes to BDOC in Mitchell but she goes to the Thursday evening sessions. Either session, you will bump into DOLers

Yes :p But the Elbster appears to be fine today - very chipper so hopefully it was just a one-off thing.

Thanks Persephone. Just to be safe, I just phoned our vet and had a chat. As he is not lethargic, is still bouncy and happy, is not off his food and seems fine, they said not to worry too much right now. They said if the same thing happens tonight, we should definitely bring him back tomorrow for a check-up.

Hi, I don't have any experience sorry but there was a recent post over here. If you also search on RiotACt, you will find posts like here. It's hard to get consensus on good kennels - some people love a place other people say that the place lost their cat. :D Hope you find somewhere suitable!