whiskedaway

Does anyone here have artificial grass? We're considering it because our grass always looks crap thanks to Akira digging. I've read that it's completely dog safe and they can't dig through it. Is that true? I'd love to get some experiences from dog owners rather than just the opinion of the people who want to sell it.

Oh Fritz. I had it for one of her training sessions and she spent half her time trying to get treats rather than working because she loved them so much. I'll try and teach her to catch - I'm sure she'll find that a lot of fun. I think that's her problem too in that she gets too excited when we're training because normally she's a lot more gentle!

I normally use fairly small treats for training - at the moment I've got bite-sized liver pieces, though I have used carob buttons and chicken jerkey in the past. I'm currently teaching Akira to beg, but because the treats are so small, she keeps accidentally biting my fingers as she does the trick because I actually need to hold the treat rather than place it in my palm. Does anyone have some recommendations of a good training treat that I can easily get in Adelaide that is a little longer so my fingers won't get in the way?

Just looking at the flier and there's a comp for "Smoochiest Pooch". Akira could totally win that one (said as she's licking my hand as I type on the keyboard). There's also: Cutest Canine Mutts only a Mother Could Love Dog and Owner Lookalike (I reckon my neighbour should enter this!) Child's Best Friend Golden Oldies Best Trick Best Groomed Best Dressed Sounds like it should be a good day.

I was really worried about Akira going under anaesthetic on Monday for her desexing, and I rang OH about five times asking him to ring the vet and check she was okay. Lucky for me, he was a little less worried than me and didn't ring them until 4pm when they told him to, and of course she was fine. It's lucky I was at work because if I'd been the one who was home, I would have been in hysterics if they'd had to ring.

I'm from the Barossa, though I now live in town.

Agreed with you about size. And a dog that needs a lot of exercise doesn't really mean that it's a dog someone inexperienced shouldn't own. With a Sibe, you have to be the leader 100% of the time. No slacking off, because otherwise they take advantage of it, and that can be hard for inexperienced owners.

For those interested, I have enlisted the help of Akira to show you the camera comparisons between the iPhone 3G and iPhone 4. I haven't edited the photos AT ALL other than reducing the size. All photos were taken by holding the phones next to each other and taking the photo at the same time. Set 1: 3G: 4G: This was taken in fairly low light. The colour on the 4 is a bit weird, but it seems to be clearer. 4G file size was 1594kb, whereas 3G was 558kb. Set 2: 3G: 4G: Once again, 4G is clearer and it's removed the light from the window. Colour is much better this time. 4G file size was 1653kb, whereas 3G was 552kb. Set 3: 3G: 4G: This is where you can see just how much faster the 4G camera is at the 3G. As you can see, Akira decided to turn her head as I was taking the photo. The 4G captured her before she moved, the 3G got her with the move in progress. 4G file size was 2019kb, whereas 3G was 750kb. 4G photos have a resolution of 1936 x 2592 pixels, whereas 3G has 1200 x 1600 pixels. The file size on 4G photos is roughly triple that of the 3G photos. You can see the shaved spot on my poor puppy's leg.

Akira is from a BYB. We had already decided on a Husky, we had already been offered a male from a registered breeder in SA, but we really wanted a female, preferably black and white. Friends of ours knew someone who had a male and a female Husky that had just had puppies. So we rang him, and he told us about how the litter was an accident (someone let the male in with the female while the female was in season while he was overseas) and he had one black and white female left who he wanted to keep, but his wife wouldn't let him. So we went and met Akira and we met her parents, who were both beautiful, well-cared for pedigree Huskies, and we fell in love. He tried to do the best by the puppies - they were socialised with kids, but not so much with adults, but they had never been inside before. We had a few issues with her being scared of things that she'd never seen before and should have, and she still has a bit of an issue with bigger men, but she's perfect. And the vet said that she's perfectly healthy (a blood test when she was spayed on Monday confirmed that). Would I buy from a BYB again? No. I know better now, and Akira's issue with men should have been solved if she was socialised properly before we got her. But I definitely do not regret her. TBH, with the amount of times we've been told that "she could have been show quality if she'd been born on the right side of the blanket", we're actually very lucky that she DID come from a BYB, because we wouldn't have gotten her otherwise.

Thanks everyone. We had a bit of a sleepless night - she whined a bit and then finally settled at about midnight, until she decided that she had to be on the bed at 2am, and then decided she had to be off the bed at 5am. She got on okay, though I almost freaked out when I realised she'd jumped up there, but when she decided that she didn't want OH to lift her off the bed and scrambled away to jump off herself, she squealed in pain and we had to make sure she hadn't busted any stitches. However, she's back to her normal self today and has spent the day making OH watch her like a hawk because she keeps trying to run around and play. I think you were right and it was just her reaction to coming out of the anaesthetic, but it was hard watching her so distressed.

My puppy, Akira, was desexed today and she's been fairly quiet and groggy all evening. In the past half hour she's started whining in pain, and I'm wondering if there's something we can do for her. We weren't given pain killers by the vet. Any suggestions?

When my cat had to be PTS, she was so sick that we couldn't put her in her carrier because it caused too much undue stress on her. So we put her favourite blanket in a washing basket and tied two washing baskets together and made it into an impromtu cat carrier. The vet probably thought we were bad owners. Akira gets super excited whenever she goes to the vet and wants to meet all the other dogs, so I spend an awful lot of time holding her back. It makes paying really hard, so often the vet nurse will hold her for me. There are times when she gives me a huge jerk and goes over to meet another dog before I can stop her, though I try as hard as I can. Sometimes it doesn't matter how hard you try, you still can't stop your dog (especially a super excitable puppy) from bothering other dogs.

This is me and my sooky puppy last night. Perhaps she knew she was being desexed today?

Aww poor Dory. I hope she feels better soon.

I swore black and blue that I was returning Akira about two weeks ago. She went through a destructive patch - two pairs of OH's sneakers got the laces ripped out, two pairs of my slippers bit the dust, holes were dug, lawn was ruined, even her kennel was chewed. But I still love her to death.

I was excited to meet a Keeshond at obedience last week. Not exactly rare, but I'd never met one before. They were there this week as well. He's beautiful.

Week 31 Akira playing with my OH.

Like Magstar, I've heard eucalyptus oil is really good. We haven't needed it, because Akira has never chewed any furniture, but a friend used it for their puppy.

It will DEFINITELY make it harder. And that thread is always the first to get photos like that, and has seen those already. ETA: Every time I see Blondie, I really wish we had the time and room for another puppy, haha.

I don't have many muddy photos of Akira, because it normally has fallen off before I manage to get the camera out. But this is one of her digging in my parents' backyard. They don't have grass yet, so the whole yard is a bit like mud soup.

Haha, I'm the same. I've always LOVED Sammies (and OH and I were deciding between a Sammie and a Sibe when we got Akira) but since seeing the cream lappies, I think I'm in love. We're not ready for another dog right now, though. There will be skin babies first, I think.

We did both of these things. There's sand all the way through our house now, but it's so much easier to clean up than mud. We found that if you bury something stinky in the sand pit, it works the best - we buy pigs ears and cut them into fours (we had to use a grinder to do it, and be careful because they STINK!) and bury a couple of pieces. Akira makes a beeline for the sandpit whenever there's food in there, and even sometimes when there's not. They seem to leave their smell on the sand.

Thanks Huski. That's what I assumed and what I did, but I just wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing.

I have a question about rewarding the wrong behaviour when training. Akira has been learning "shy" the past week and (like she did with shake when she first learnt it) currently offers shy every time she wants food. This morning I was going through a refresher of "leave it" and I'd give the command and she would leave it, but she'd sit there doing shy in hope that she was about to get the food. Now do I click and treat that, because essentially she has left it alone, or do I wait until she stops moving completely so not to reward her for doing something I haven't asked for?

It really depends on the dog. My 5 month old pure Siberian Husky is shy and timid around new people - I think it was the way she was raised, as she only came into contact with the family in the first ten weeks of her life. She was nervous around us when we first got her and now she's a bit timid around many new people, most of them men. Kids she'll go up to straight away with no problems, though and once she knows someone she has no problem going up to them to say hi. The exception to that rule is the head trainer at obedience, who she still refuses to go up to at times. I think she knows he's going to make her get up on that table.