whiskedaway

We spent a long time researching breeds before we settled on what we wanted. OH wanted a dog that was "not too big and not too small", and we had a friend who has a Cocker Spaniel x poodle, so he wanted it to be that big or bigger, but not as big as a Malamute. I'd had Hungarian Vizslas as a kid, so they immediately went onto the list, as did labs, because OH loves them. After that, we started researching what breeds suited our lifestyles, and we added Huskies and Samoyeds to the list. After more reading, we crossed off the Vizsla and the lab, and were left with the Husky and Samoyed. OH liked the look of the Husky better (he reckons white dogs get dirty too easily and seeing how dirty Akira gets, he was probably right!) and so we went with a Husky. I think you really need to read everything you can about the breed your looking at. We got information from breeders about the breed even after we'd chosen a Husky, and that helped us to confirm that it was the perfect dog for us. And I'm certain that we'll always have some sort of Spitz breed.

They definitely are all cute, but there's something mischievous in the blue's eyes that makes me go "awww!!!" every time I see a photo of her.

Evolving, while I love your girl, I think the blue girl is my fave. I especially love the last photo.

Same here, Akira's breeder had two little girls, so she's good with kids and really loves them. Every time we go out somewhere where there's kids, she's a kid magnet (look at the cute little puppy that looks like the one from Snow Dogs!) so whenever I see a kid approach I get her to sit and she lets the kids pat her. I stay fairly close and hold her by her collar just in case she decides to jump and knock some poor kid over, but so far she never has.

I tend to think it's not boredom. She has so many toys, and they all get rotated, but in the past two weeks she's decided washings more fun. And it's not sheets, it's normally trackies or t-shirts, so I think she does it to be close to us when we're not there. I may just have to get a clothes horse. It won't be a problem in summer when everything dries in an hour, it just is at the moment because it's cold.

I second this. Both Cooper, our friend's Cocker Spaniel x Poodle, and Akira, our Siberian Husky, love the beanbag and will sit in it even when it's warm. And you probably don't even need to get one specially made for dogs. Ours is just a normal heavy duty beanbag.

Thanks for the warning. I was already told about this on Facebook, but never thought to post it on here. Edit: Ah, Persephone, I didn't realise it wasn't sold here. That's good to know.

A responsible pet owner makes certain that their pet is a part of their family, that any needs they have are not withheld (whether those needs be mental or physical) and makes certain that their pet is not a danger to any other person/animal or itself.

I completely second this. Akira will not beg for food with me or my OH (she'll hang around when we're eating breakfast, but that's about it) but when my sister was puppy-sitting when we first got her, the first thing she did was pinch a piece of pizza from her. Likewise, she'd never even think of chewing on my hands, but my OH gets chewed on all the time. She knows exactly who will let her get away with things.

The only injury my puppy has caused was when we first got her. We took her out the front for the first time to meet our neighbour's bulldog and we thought everything would be alright with the fence between them. Well it was - until Akira decided that she should try and get under the fence to see Cooper. (The fence is a white picket fence, but hard plastic had been put along the bottom so there was only a gap of about 8cm underneath it because someone in our housing group used to have a tiny dog that would play in our neighbour's yard). Well, she got stuck, and as I was trying to pull her out, I hurt her a little bit and she got scared and bit my finger. I thought it was nothing until a day later and it was super red, puffy and infected. I had to go to the doctor, and the doctor tried to tell me that I had an aggressive dog that should be PTS, even though she bit me in reaction to being scared. After that, we put bricks underneath the plastic, so she couldn't put her head under again. And now she's too big to do it anyway.

Has anyone else had the problem of their dog pulling washing off the line? Because it's been cold, the washing has been staying on the line longer and when by herself, Akira pulls the washing off the line. She doesn't destroy it, just leaves it on the floor, but I'm a bit worried that it'll get to that stage in the long run. Does any one have any advice to stopping it?

We walk in the rain. Akira adores it. If she's in the backyard when it's raining, she's normally sitting on the grass getting drenched until it gets through to the undercoat and she realises she's getting wet!

Oh I love that first photo! It looks like it could be an ad for VB.

Week 25:

Akira's favourite thing to play with funnily enough is a 2L coke bottle. We take off the paper and let her play. She never chews on it (if they do, you have to be careful because the plastic can be sharp) but if they're content on just chasing them like she is, they're the perfect toy because you never know which direction they're going to go in and VERY cheap. ;) Other than that, we have kongs and stuffed toys, which she loves but are easily destroyed.

TerraNik linked me to this video in the Spitz threads: It's pretty interesting and it's something that we're working with Akira on. Maybe give it a try?

How old is Akira at the moment whiskedaway? She's four months old. So only a pup, and I expect her to be scared of things as she goes through the fear periods. I just think it was more difficult for her because I'm pretty sure she'd never been inside a house when we got her at 10 weeks so everything was a bit strange.

Akira is afraid of a lot of things at the moment. Mostly it's the vacuum cleaner, washing machine and microwave, though it used to include the heater and dishwasher as well. She's slowly getting better with them though. TBH, when we first got her she was scared of us as well, so I don't think she was very well socialised and all of the things she's scared of are "occassional" things that don't necessarily happen every day.

We go to wherever my OH is playing, but his home ground is the Paddocks at Para Hills and that tends to be one of the best places to bring a dog. There's a trail that leads around the footy field/soccer ovals so when Akira gets rowdy I take her for a walk to settle her down. And I've been warned about dog parks on the weekend. I think during the week is the best time to go.

Too bad I'm working tomorrow and Marion's a little bit far, otherwise I'd definitely come down. My partner plays footy for the SAAFL league, so Akira comes to every second game now (I work every second Sat). She loves it, there's normally a lot of different dogs there and because it's a public place everyone picks up the dog poo. I'm just glad she's so well toilet trained - she's never once toiletted when she's been on a lead. :cool:

My pup loves stuffed toys - we're onto the third. First she had a stuffed bone. That had the squeaker pulled out and one of the sides of the bone pulled off and the stuffing removed. Second was a lady bug. That lost all of its legs and got dunked in the mud and my OH decided it was disgusting and threw it out. Yesterday, I took her to Pet Domain because they allow dogs to come in, and she picked out her own toy. It's brightly coloured, looks kind of like a bowling pin and has two squeakers in different sides. She won't let go of it, though the first thing she did when she got it home was dunk it in her water bowl.

I wouldn't dare trust my sibe inside by herself all day. You're a brave person! She has broken into the house before though. We have a doggy door that is always locked cos we were afraid she'd be too big for it, so she bashed against it all day and got into the house. She hadn't destroyed anything when OH got home, luckily.

My puppy loves dogs of any breed. However, she's only met one SWF that hasn't growled at her, because she's a big bouncy puppy who doesn't know how big she is and she scares them. She loves my neighbour's bulldog (he's so placid and he's so good at calming her down) and she met a Mal puppy who was a month older than her the other day who she quickly made friends with.

Not sure how it goes with dog food, but with most consumer goods, yes. </marketing geek>

My OH and I walked to his mum and dad's house on Sunday and to get there we walked through the quarry. I took some photos of him and Akira.