whiskedaway

Puppy for me too. I like being able to train a puppy to behave how I want it to - I do find though that I don't really bond with a puppy until they're a little older and passed the toilet training stage. With Akira, I was worried at the start that I just didn't love her, but by the time she was five months old, I realised that I loved her more and more every day. Halo has been easier, but there are still days where I worry I don't love her enough (such as today, where I've had three hours sleep thanks to her being unsettled overnight and ended up with her peeing on the beanbag when I took my eyes off her for two seconds). So like Poodlefan, I'd say I'm not really into baby puppies, but I want to make sure they're trained the way I want them trained.

We're also doing pre-agility classes with our Sibe - they basically just get them used to the equipment and being handled on the left/right. However at my club you HAVE to be at least in grade 1 obedience, so that your dog knows what a class situation is like. We started Akira at 9 months, and she loved the classes straight away. We had a few issues with adolescent mayhem at first but she's working better now at almost a year old. The jumps are at a height that Akira just steps over them, but they help us learn how to handle them with a jump and them learn how to do it properly, and our dog walk is just a plank of wood on the ground. It's all very controlled and they're not allowed to do anything that might damage their joints.

Have done for Akira, I don't really know Halo well enough to answer for her yet, but I know I would definitely answer a lot of things differently for her - I put that down to early socialisation though.

I have Sketchers. I bought them from the factory second store in DFO in Melbourne. Mine are slip-ons so they look good with a skirt.

We're the same, Akira has a really sensitive belly and she does well on ProPlan. She did really well on Supercoat before that as well.

My Husky has recently been changed over from ProPlan puppy chicken and rice to ProPlan adult chicken and rice. I don't think she likes it, because she's eating a LOT slower than normal and if she knows the puppy is being fed her old puppy food at the same time, she'll try and get inside to get the puppy's food instead of her own. Last night it took her twenty minutes to eat her dinner, and the dogs were fed at different times. Normally it would only take 5 minutes. I THINK that the reason she doesn't like it is because of the bigger pieces. We're thinking of changing her over to ProPlan Lamb and Rice to see if a taste change will make a difference, but I have a feeling it won't. Can anyone recommend an adult kibble that has smaller pieces?

Yup - that's where we are at - we have to wait for first shots and vet check until we come visit, then they don't go home until they've had their 12 wk shot. 12 weeks? I though pups were usually sent to their new owners at 8 weeks. From what I understand the 8 - 12 week period is really crucial for a pups development and they should be settling into their new home, meeting other people and other vaccinated puppies. Unless the breeder does all this socialization with the litter? I would die if I had to wait 12 weeks. ;) It really depends on the breeder. We got Akira at 10 weeks and Halo at 9, but there are other breeders who prefer them to have all of their shots before they leave. As long as they continue to be socialised, there's no problems with them staying with the breeder for a bit longer.

That's normal. We saw Halo at 5 weeks. Puppies are a lot more susceptible to viruses/things you can bring in on your shoes/etc. A lot don't let you visit until after they've had their first shot. And yes, as Naomi said, they don't really do much until about 4 weeks. They're just feeding little guineapigs any earlier. ;)

We were waiting for another breeder to come and have a look at the pups. We knew that we'd be getting one of the three girls, and we decided on the car ride home that it'd be between Halo and Ruby (the pup that our breeder kept). So a week later when the breeder had made her pic, we picked Halo. ;)

We stayed for a loooooooong time when we went to see Halo (I think we got there at about 3:30 and stayed until about 8:30). But we did come from interstate, and we'd been invited to stay for dinner. It really did go so fast though.

Happy Birthday, Charlie!!!

So cute!!! Looks like he's settling in super fast, SmoothieGirl!

Layers Tutorial: http://www.photoshopcafe.com/tutorials/layers/intro.htm That whole website is pretty good, though I've only had a quick look. Kirislin, with merging, I normally just don't. I create groups for my layers - Ctrl+G on Windows - which are like folders that you can drag your layers into. Keeps everything looking nice and neat, and you can close them so that you can't see all the layers. However if you really want to merge, only merge layers that you're completely happy with, because you can't change anything once you've merged them. The shortcut is Ctrl+E, and if you have no blending modes, start at the top and merge your way down.

I have a slightly different problem. My dogs don't drip the water all over the floor, they SPLASH it all over the floor. We have a doggy door so they just have to go outside to get a drink now. However, when I'm at work it's a problem because we fill up three - five bowls of water depending on how hot it is and they've splashed it everywhere by the time we get home and have probably had no water for three hours. Anyone have a suggestion of a non-splash water bowl?

Love it, TLC!

Love the last one, Kja, and the second one of you and Spence, Gila. Here's my favourite of me and Akira, I haven't taken one of me and Halo yet. Akira giving me kisses and me laughing.

Oh Atua, sooooooo cute! Congrats Nadine! Sid is GORGEOUS Huga! SmoothieGirl, tomorrow's the day! Can't wait to see photos! Here's a new pic of Miss Halo from this morning. She's now 11 weeks old.

Yes, I like that one too. She was very pleased of herself when she finally managed to get the toy off of Akira.

Some gorgeous pics this week! DogSportObsessed, love your Aussie week 4 shot, and your week 6 shot is gorgeous! Anniek, looks like fun! Akira loves the beach, though Halo hasn't been yet. We're heading there for a picnic with the girls on Valentine's Day. Gila, love the photo of Spencer! KA, have already said but great photo of Kuma. Zenith, I love the first one! Wuffles, Ava is so gorgeous! Flick_Mac, Banjo is really pretty. ClickingMad, love the photos of your guys, especially Chester. Better not show the OH that photo, otherwise he'll really be wishing we got a Dally... Poocow, great beach shots! Helen, love Chazer's posing guide! Great shots. Sarzc, sooooooo cute! Weibritty, what a gorgeous dog. I never realised how beautiful long-haired Weis are before I saw your shots. MTD, lovely shot! Okay, here's my week 6, featuring a guest appearance from Akira.

Beautiful photo of the beach, Kja! Some crap photos from me - the last few days have been busy and I've only managed a snap each day. 39: Pink 40: Pink (again) 41: Bronze 42: Black and White

Akira does this too. I had a trainer take her from me and she said that she was badly trained and undersocialised because she wouldn't work for her but she would for me. She works better for my OH than she does for me, which is the reason I do her obedience training, because hopefully she'll then get used to working with both of us.

I've taken Halo places in the city centre - she has only been carried though. But no one seemed to have a problem with her being there, but it's not really the done thing in the city. Around the suburbs though is completely fine as long as they're on lead, and during my research I've found that the Northern suburbs have the most dedicated off-leash areas.

I already spoke to Halo's breeder (and many other lappie breeders) on here, so I already knew a fair few different breeders. All other breeders I spoke to who weren't on here were also really good. We had a couple of choices of litters at the time, and we chose based on the lines in the end. Our breeder has been fantastic. With Sibes, I sent three registered breeders emails. I got a reply from one, was offered a dog from them but he wasn't what we wanted and turned it down. A friend of ours knew Akira's breeder, and knew that he had a female pup left. We rang him, and got Akira a few days later. Sadly a BYB, but we didn't really know better then - we just knew not to buy from a pet shop.

She's feeling better, but she needs to toilet fairly often at the moment. She's not crated tonight so she can take herself out whenever she needs to. Halo thinks it's rude that she has to be in her crate and Akira doesn't, and she's protested the injustice loudly.

Love the butterfly LL! And your vacuum cleaner is gorgeous, Huga. I have three photos to edit and upload. Sooo busy though, and I was going to do it tonight but I have a poor sick doggy.