Sydoo

It's a bit bizarre isn't it? Whenever Elbie gets runny poo, my husband and I feed him rice, accompany him outside for his toileting and then report back to each other on colour and consistency :p How did our lives come to this? All the best with Ruby ... hopefully the blanket emerges soon. My friend's shiba inu swallowed a squeaker from a toy and freaked out and was on Poo Watch for several days. Weirdly enough it went through her dog's system faster than expected so she had go wading through several days worth of excreta to find it :p Haha good to know OH and I are not the only ones. We are used to it now but after the lightbulb incident I was texting my boss with an update after every poo (on his request)...whole new level of workplace relations. Fingers crossed Ruby is ok and passes the blanket quickly.

OH said the softish gloves I'm thinking of are the ones he wears riding in the bush (not proper racing motocross)- they are just to stop branches etc from shredding your knuckles and the back of your hands. Just a thought anyway. I hope it's a one-off accident, Aussienot. We had a kelpie x when I was a kid that would bite your hand to get the tug - a pattern emerged pretty quickly and he would bite well above the tug itself so we knew it wasn't accidental. He was trained out of it eventually.

Erny, have you looked at motorcycle gloves? OH's road gloves have a lot of knuckle protection which inhibits movement a bit but I think his motocross ones would be flexible enough. Relatively soft palm with thicker protection on fingers/back of hand. Never seen fingerless ones but I guess you could cut them.

Very cute! I think he did pretty darn well for his first go.

Billie is not much of a guard dog normally (I have had to climb over her slumbering form in bed to investigate noises) but whenever OH is away, she puts herself on duty. She will come to bed with me but sits bolt upright on my feet facing the doorway, ears pricked. Every noise is investigated promptly and then she rushes back to my feet again. I don't think she gets any sleep until I go to work the next morning.

Close friends of ours would take the doglet (and we would take theirs). If they decided not to keep her for whatever reason, my mother or brother would care for her. All of this is in my will (with financial provisions) and more instructions should all of the aforementioned care options be unavailable. My mother will not live on the station forever so I have to remember to update if she moves to an unsuitable residence. I have also specified what is to happen in case of temporary or permanent incapacity

` GoldenGirl we have been considering PADS for obedience however at this stage are unsure if we will progress to full blown dog sports. Would you still rec the class? OH thought it might be good to get started at a sports club in case we think our furry monster would enjoy agility later on.

Strawberry/mushroom punnets - put a treat inside, close it properly and she will play with it until it opens (and then some). Yoghurt containers are also popular here...and empty juice boxes/poppers (though these need to removed from my pup after a while as she will ingest the pieces). We have some small plastic bowls from Ikea that keep her going for a while - put a treat under a few on a flat floor and she pushes them around for ages (the bowl is just too big/rounded for her to grip properly in her mouth but small enough that it is hard to tip over). Now I only put a treat under one of three then move them around like a magic trick. Even though she sniffs out which one has the treat and works on it first, she always persists until she has upturned the others just in case. Umm I use a silicone muffin tray to make ice pucks - drop a small piece of meat in each muffin cup (heart/liver is easy). Cheap but messy. I have also used old work clothes or other suitable rags (heavy cotton drill, ripstop etc) to whip up some easy toys - throw a tennis ball, water bottle, or some other rags and a squeaker inside a section of pant leg or shirt arm and machine sew several times over each end. They seem to last as long as her store-bought toys and she certainly doesn't care that they aren't as cute. Mostly small ones but a few weeks back I used a whole leg to make a snake-like one that she loves - stitched to divide into several sections with different fillings in each one.

I've ordered from them several times without issue. Delivery has always been prompt.

Our seemingly neverending fence upgrade to be finished so doglet can spend more time outside! Another BC wouldn't go astray either

I guess it depends on the dog. Billie likes toys and she has quite a few. I will get another one when I see something different that I think she might like, when one dies or just for the hell of it sometimes. She also 'appropriates' common things for her toybox...strawberry punnets, buckets, pots, broomsticks, coke bottles etc. More toy chewing = less house chewing. Today she clearly didn't like her selection of toys and ate a lightbulb instead. God knows how she got the box off the shelf but I'm so glad I ducked home from work to get my laptop this morning. Could have been a lot worse if she'd had the whole day to munch on it.

Maybe he destroys more substantial beds and the towel is a last resort.

In their early unwed days, my now-SIL took our family kelpie x for a walk through town. She needed to run in to a shop for something so tied him to a clothes rack on display on the footpath (obviously not noticing it was a mobile rack). Dog was startled at some point and started to run...then kept running to get away from the noisy monster chasing him! Clothes were everywhere, in bushes, on the road, on cars, the rack hit several cars and it was just luck that the traffic was only moving slowly. After finally catching the dog, SIL spent the day collecting clothes to pay for and waiting nervously for the owners to return to parked cars so she could give her details. Small town means she will never live that down

Billie is not terribly keen on the bath experience but loves water and the beach. I am not 100% confident in her recall yet so I take her on long lead - she can swim, sniff and run around just fine. Eventually I hope we get a strong recall down pat so she can go free but in the meantime I won't take the risk. We were lucky when introducing her to the beach - a 'dog outing' was on and the helpful woman in charge sent her dogs in to the water after a play on the sand and Billie just followed without hesitation.

If your campervan/motorhome needs repair, you may find yourself with nowhere to sleep if it is with a mechanic overnight. If your car needs repair, you can still keep a caravan or trailer somewhere suitable for as long as necessary.

I've just spent the afternoon operating on toys. I even improved a couple by transplanting squeakers from the morgue to toys that never had squeakers - her face when the giant donkey squeaked for the first time was priceless. Some toys are just more durable, but I've noticed Billie treats some of her plushies differently to others. A duck she has had since day one is still in one piece and despite an obvious hole in his belly, he remains fully stuffed. Any other random plush toy would have had the stuffing swiftly removed through a hole like that. I guess duckie is special - she sat next to me with one paw on him the entire time I was stitching. I'll certainly keep an eye out for Skinneez.

We feed kibble for breakfast and raw for dinner. I usually something to her kibble - spoonful of natural yoghurt, sardines, mince, egg, a handful of Ziwipeak...or whatever else I have on hand that she might like. She eagerly devours anything that comes out of her treat ball or dog pyramid - plain kibble suddenly becomes a delicious treat.

Hopefully your OH will have it all cleaned up before you get home. Billie spends her days alone inside at the moment (doing work on our fence) and it has been trying on our poor house. Some days I come home to a happy pup and clean house...other days it is a happy pup sitting in a disaster zone. She often ignores obvious things (shoes, junk mail etc) and will eat something like a photo album from a shelf we thought was out of her reach. On the plus side we haven't had to put our recycling bin out for ages now as she eagerly reduces cardboard and plastic items to small pieces. Doing her bit for the environment, one box at a time.

Billie clearly prefers runners to mouthers - doesn't matter what breed as long at it plays her style. She hasn't seen many BCs so can't gauge her attraction to them. She doesn't seem to like labs in general at the moment and will avoid them when possible. Most dogs are decided on a case by case basis but lately she will move away from almost any lab she sees...something I need to look into further. Most of her park friends are smaller (the bigger visitors at our usual times like to play rough) so we're hoping to spend more fun time with med-large dogs in the future.

I get them from Woolies too...are you the reason my local was sold out today? Will try Jack Purcells when I get some more room in the freezer.

Billie loves that wombat too! She likes old westerns (runs back and forth in front of the tv when horses are on), some animal programs and the start sequence of Get Smart...doesn't matter what she is doing, if she hears the music she runs over and is completely transfixed by it. I've noticed lately that she will sit in front of the tv in the morning (I don't usually put it on) and look over her shoulder at me until it goes on. OH must have it on for her when he is home.

Billie loves anything even vaguely resembling a bone. She swallows chicken necks and small wings whole so I avoid those. Turkey wings, chicken drumsticks, various lamb bones and large chicken wings are the usual suspects. Brought home a turkey drumstick last weekend and her eyes nearly popped out. Chicken frames and roo tail are next on our list to try.

Ignoring worked for us. Our pup now follows us to the table then dashes off to sit in the far corner of the room. She will stay there in silence for the meal and then follow us back to the kitchen. We rewarded her for silence initially, then for being quiet and out of the way.

Our BC pup gets a bath about once a month (or two in winter). I use a damp cloth to wipe her face/tummy/paws etc if she has been messing about to avoid a full bath...had to do this almost daily as a young puppy but she cleans herself up pretty well now so I rarely have to intervene. Brushing definitely helps. We were given a Fuzzyard bath set that hasn't irritated her but have heard good things about Aloveen and plan to try that when we need more.

Sad news vicdrg Our pup ingested half a pack of of birth control pills last week but luckily that was all she ate and is ok (it seems she can open our vanity drawers...)