Genabee

Do you have any friends with dogs? Maybe invite them over with their pooches! How old is the pup? Depending on where it is vaccination wise, maybe try to get to the park when people are out walking their dogs... it is as much about neurtalising them to different environments as it is socialising them. Take puppy everywhere you can!

The idea behind the crate, is that it is like 'their room'. And it is small and cozy. I too have always had my dog in the laundry and after the second night, I didn't hear anything out of her (until much more recently, but we have established that is due to other issues, not separation). As someone who was a bit iffy about the crate concept to begin with, I would totally recommend it. It is so useful in so many ways. I believe (after have one non crate trained dog and one crate trained dog), they contribute to a far more secure, self reliant, obedient dog. You will probably find it will take a couple of weeks for him to form new habits and adjust to the new home. I found my dog would literally follow me around and sit on my feet and she wouldn't eat unless I was sitting next to her. I couldn't have a shower without her jumping in!!! Be consistent in your approach and if you decide you want something from your dog, make sure he does it. Don't give up half way because you will be doing that for everything. But yes, they may toilet more than twice in the night at that age.

I'm a bad Mum. My five month old puppy doesn't necessarily get walked everyday (usually every second), but we usually do about 45 mins when we do go. That is a bit of grass, bit of gravel, bit of foot path. And no, it doesn't normally wear her out! She comes home more fired up than when we left! We also do obedience classes once a week - that one hour really really really wears her out - she will sleep all day and night after that! It is all the concentrating she has to do when there are so many distractions and more fun things to be doing other than paying attention to Mummy! I find that doing training and trick work wears her out a more. Or giving her kibble to her in a container where she has to work to get it out - she runs around a fair bit trying to get it out. Are you actually trying to wear pup out or are you just enquiring as to how much exercise is enough?

:) ;) :rofl: ;) What a great topic! Where do I start!!!?? For the first four weeks I had her home, I was suffering badly from Post Puppy Depression. I was quite seriously ready to book myself into a mother-baby retreat! I was by myself as Hubby was away (which was really in hiensight, the core of my issues at the time) and I spent most evenings in tears on the phone to my mother in law. My quite little lap dog had far too much personality and was getting a bit big for her boots, right from the time we climbed in the car to bring her home! I mean... she barked AT me if I didn't do what she wanted!!! Have respect child! I used to threaten her, saying I would send her to the home for naughty dogs! Now she has been with us for over three months and yes, she still does my head in at times, but most of the time I wouldn't be without her. When she has me chasing her around the dining room table at 2 in the morning (and the subsequent scratching on the laundry door), I remind myself of the good little friend that she is, the puppy dreams she has in my lap, the games we play together and the things she does that make me laugh, like standing on the dining room table when while waiting for me to return to the room. Chewing my phone and laptop chargers in half wasn't one of them...

I was wondering if anyone knew of a good groomer in Melbourne, preferably the south eastern suburbs. I need to get Genevieve's claws clipped and just a general tidy up around the edges. I don't want her to come home looking like she has no fur, just tidy! Any suggestions?

Shower power (for showers, not carpets) is another good one to use. It lifts urine out of our carpet. You poor thing. My dog quite possibly would be lucky to be alive!

Hubby phoned me in the middle of the night from some strange place (he was away for work) and told me he was finally going to buy me a puppy!!!! I was sooooo excited (only took four years of nagging). So at about 3am, after that phone call, I jumped on the internet to start researching. I didn't sleep for about three days due to all the excitement! I knew I wanted a cav, but had to come up with the goods to convince hubby it was the breed for us. So I emailed hubby a whole lot of info on the breed and of course, as every good wife does, I got my way! (Now he is smitten with her and of course it was HIS idea to get a dog and HIS idea to get a cav!!). That same morning I stumbled on DOL and was looking through all the listings in VIC for pups available at the time we wanted (we were moving house, wanted to be in the new house before pup came home). I emailed about 10 breeders. A couple never got back to me. Some had sold them all. A couple emailed me back, but I found they didn't answer my questions or didn't get a good vibe. The breeder we got G from, emailed me back answering all my questions and offered to have us over the next week to have first pick from the two litters she had. She welcomed us into her home and we were able to meet and play with both the mums and dad, all the pups (they were three weeks old) and the other two grown up cavs she had. Straight away I liked her - her house was spotless, her dogs were all healthy, happy and very well behaved. We liked one bitch over the other, so that narrowed the choice down to one litter. We originally wanted a blem. but took a liking to the little tri-colour with a dot on her nose! Our breeder was fantastic. She emailed me pic updates twice a week from the time we visited to when we collected her. She answered my millions of questions and was all round very supportive, especially during the first few weeks when I bought her home. We still keep in contact now and if we ever decide to get another, I would be more than happy to go back to her.

We have a door scratcher. I agree, I wouldn't get into the habit of waking her. Like a child, if they get used to being woken up, they come to expect it and don't learn to sleep through the night. Then you will have a nocturnal dog on your hands.

Genevieve recently landed herself a new job as bird watcher. She sits in the front window and barks at the one magpie that insists on standing in the middle of the yard. And of course, I ignore it. Which means she keeps running into me to get me, to take action. I never so. I hate birds more than she does. So after listening to her bark for a bit, then run in and out of the lounge room in an attempt to get me to do something.... I open the door to let her outside... and she reverses out of the way!!!!! She won't even go outside to bark at the bloody magpie! She has a stop and a go button. She is either zonked out snoring her little head off, or she's on a mission. Apparently she hasn't heard of moving between the gears in order to get to 5th! There is no in between.

I really feel your pain. So much so, I am pretty sure I have post puppy depression, purely from the lack of sleep. I had a thread going recently and lots of people offered some great suggestions. We don't cry - we scratch the crap out of the doors and pace! I too, have pup in another room (the laundry). She has taken to waking up several times a night to play - she has her days and nights back to front. I don't want her in our room either, though I did try it for about 4 or 5 nights to no change - she went straight back into the laundry! I have managed to get her to sleep through to about 6.30am - 7am now by doing the following: - feeding her evening kibble meal out of a drink bottle (it takes her ages and helps to wear her out a bit) - spend about 15 minutes doing trick/obedience work. Even something as simple as putting the lead on and taking it off again while she sits still. She has to think sooooo hard! I also bought a trick book to try new ones on her. - we have started weekly obedience classes. Sundays are fan-bloody-tastic! She comes home exhausted and sleeps all day and all night! It's also good for giving new things to practice at home (and gives me time to clean the house!!!!). - she gets a hot water bottle when she goes to bed. If she stirs in the night to go to the toilet (occasionally happens), I make her another hot water bottle. I want her to associate the dark with night time and sleep and as far as I am concerned, if it is still dark at 6.30am, it is still sleep time! - try to keep her awake until I am ready to go to bed. If she has her way, she sleeps in my lap for an hour or so before going to bed. I usually just talk to her, or get up and walk around during the ad breaks! - make sure you toilet pup just before going to bed. It may also help to give pup something with your scent on it. Leading up to her coming home, I had a pile of polarfleece puppy blankets. I put one in our bed for about a week before she came home (just left it in there when I made the bed). That way it is something I could give her with our scent on it. There is always one in our bed - we get it before she does (after they have been washed!) - so she constantly has our scent on something in her crate. An old jumper or pair of jimmies will do the same thing. Another thing to try may be a little ticking clock... Good luck and I hope you get some sleep soon!

I looked into it when we got G, especially due to the known issues the breed ay encounter. But it worked out that we weren't going to be covered for the things I wanted coverage for, and to insure her was going to cost as much as it costs for my own health insurance. We decided we would cross that bridge if and when we come to it. As someone said - draw on the mortgage if we need to...

We have a cav pup. We joke that if we get the dog variety right, we might try for the human kind... but I don't really mean it. I've always wanted both. Thing is, I had a dog as a teen and wanted one now and I knew if we didn't get pup before kids came along, it wasn't going to happen. So hubby bought me a pooch... WHich is funny because he has never been a dog person, but anyone now would think he was the one pining for one all these years! He asks me every day while away at work "How's our little G?" and skypes me to see the dog!!! We bought all the books on how to raise the perfect dog, much like when you are expecting a baby. We researched the puppy classes we sent her to, as if it was private dog education! Ane we continue to do obedience with her now (finishing school for dogs!) because we feel that it is good for her development. When we were getting her and then bought her home, I'm not sure who was more excited - mean or the grand parents! My parents actually flew to Melbourne and came with us to pick her from the litter! (You should have seen my Dad - I thought the breeder was going to make two sales that day!!). My mother in law demands photo updates weekly and skypes every few days to talk to the dog!!! Both my Mum and his Mum (who live in Perth, we are in Melbourne) sent over parcels for the dog when she came home! This dog has everything: toys, blankets, collars, fancy dog biscuits, fancy leads, a carry bag, special dog hot water bottle, jumpers, drink bottle devices for when we walk... all colour coordinated of course! And I didn't buy any of it!!!! The funnier thing still, is that my brother in law and his wife (who don't live in Perth either) had their first born about the same time that we bough G home, and we got more attention than the first grand baby did!!! And every time I speak to one of them, first question with out fail is 'How is Genevieve?' (or usually one of the assortment of 'pet' names they have for her!). Don't worry about your daughter or anything!!! We are trying to start a family. And because that is very much in our minds, we make an effort to make sure we treat her like a dog. I don't let her in our room or the spare bedrooms, they are for the two legged types only. She is not allowed stuffed toys as I don't want baby and dog being confused about these things. She is very much at the bottom of the food chain in the house and when guests come, she is still at the bottom. That being said, she still gets to snuggle on my lap but only if she is invited. I don't want to set up habits now, that won't work with a baby or a toddler around. She is definitely very much loved though and having her has made my hubby very clucky for a baby (added bonus for me!). I hope for the sake of my children, I have more patience with them than the dog. My saving grace will be that I won't have to get up and go to work the next day (for a long while), so waking up in the night won't be quite so bad!!

That is just gorgeous! Stories like that make me get all clucky!

We purchased our pup from a local breeder at 8 weeks and she was not chipped. In answer to your question, I am not sure if she should have been or not. I took her to my vet the very next day, and despite being accused of being a bad doggy Mum, I had him chip her right then. They wanted to wait until I had her spayed (this is also what my breeder suggested to me), so they could do it while she was under. I wanted her to be chipped ready for puppy school. And didn't want to run the risk of her escaping and not being chipped... She let out a yelp but she was fine! I can still feel hers, so I am pretty sure it hasn't moved too much!

There are some funny stories in there! If I am sitting at the dinning room table, either eating or on the lappy (usually both), she will start out by sitting there nicely and waiting for me to pick her up. Often I don't want her on my lap (she is starting to get too long, so she slides off!), so I ignore her. Then she progresses to the pawing me... and when I continue to ignore that, occasionally she will bark, but mainly she shoves the chair next to me out, jumps up on it and tries to climb into my lap!! If I am on the couch, she pretty much does the same thing... she knows she is not supposed to come up without an invitation, so she sits there are makes these squeally winging noises, and moves from paw to paw. She just wants to be in my lap all the time. When she wants to play, she tries to nip my hands and won't let me pat her!

I haven't been able to watch the segment as I am still at work. But I agree with your comments. I would even go as far as to saying that we should apply for licenses to be a pet owner. I think we should have to prove that we have the means to look after an animal... And we should have to present this 'license' of sorts, upon purchase of the pet - from a person who should return the favour by flashing theirs. How many stories do we hear of dogs wandering the streets, escaping etc... ending up in the pound?! If nothing else, this might slow up those impulse purchases from pet shops. And obviously this needs to be enforced, which I think is the hard thing to do. The RSPCA, police or some other body needs to have authority to intervene where required. While I don't agree with puppy farms, I don't think they are entirely to blame. People who purchase any animal have a responsibility to it, like a child. You can't just walk away from it, regardless of the issues. If people chose to purchase a dog that is from a puppy farm, pet shop, BYB etc, they have to be willing to accept the possible ramifications (be it health or behavioural issues). You don't adopt a child and send it back if you decide a year later you don't like it!!! I guess what I am trying to say, is people need to start taking responsibility for themselves and their actions, instead of passing the blame. Ignorance is not a defense.

I went to K9 coach in Burwood. I found it very good. We addressed a lot of things that from what I have heard, aren't addressed at a lot of other puppy schools. And small enough classes that any questions you had were addressed etc. HIghly recommend.

The lady at the bank was telling me about this yesterday! She got one and reading between the lines I don't think she is the biggest dog lover... I haven't got one...

Go Poppy!! I love the name Poppy!

That is hilarious! :D

How long does it take to get there from Port Melbourne? We have school at from 10 to 11... so would it still be worth it?

This is the BEST idea! Do you use just an old coke/mineral water bottle with the label removed? Will have to try this with Poppy! Yeah, just a 600 ml water bottle, label off of course (otherwise she would eat that too!). The first time I gave it to her you should have seen the look of disgust she gave me!!! And she was chasing it around for nearly two hours (and there was only about 1/4 cup of kibble in there!), barking at it! She has worked out that she can put her paw on the top and it will flip the bottle up and kibble comes out, but she scares herself every time she does it!! ;) I introduced this more for the need to wear her out of an evening, than to slow down her eating, but I think that in itself is a good thing too.

That is so cool!!!

I would be interested to know of any responses to this too! Have you tried suspending a tennis ball (or any dog friendly ball really) in a thick stocking from the clothes line? This keeps Genevieve busy for a while...

Genevieve has done this since the day I bought her home. I too had a mini freak out. The vet has checked her out for it several times and everything is normal he reckons... Suggested that some dogs just 'do this'. I do notice she is does it no where near as often after I've bathed her - but when she is coming up due for one, it gets worse. So I imagine it could be dirt etc. irritating her (she likes to grovel around in the garden!).