Genabee

I love that Genevieve sits and waits to be invited on to the couch. She used to jump up uninvited, and she would be shooed off. Now, she just sits and looks at me, until she hears the magic word! Of late, because it has been cold (I work nights), I will come home from work and have a nap on the floor (where our heating ducts are). She will come and snuggle in with me and have a nap too, usually without annoying me first. I like that time

What is wrong with Advance?

A bit like survival of the fittest

Look on ebay?

When/if you ever go to put your dog in a boarding kennel, or enroll in obedience/juvenile classes, do they not require that the dog be fully vaccinated (presumably on a 12 monthly basis?)? Not that I am in a hurry to use those facilities, but you just never know.... Our local council also requires we provide up to date vaccination records for the dog, or they charge us a higher rate for council registration (which occurs every 12 months, I couldn't believe it!!!! Where I used to live it was once every three years). As such, I've always been led to believe there is virtually no choice but to vaccinate the pooch.

My thoughts are with you and your family. What a horrible time for you all.

Phew! Makes me feel better. Thank you for your advice! She is happy enough to meet others when on the lead, she tries to chase them and it is funny when some dogs just aren't interested. But when she does meet a new dog, she basically just sits there and let's them do all the work!!! I think there is one large social butterfly trapped inside this little dog! I try to encourage her meeting as many dogs as she can, unless they are unaccompanied (no owner in site) or if their own says they don't want their dogs interacting. Will she outgrow the need to dribble urine every time she meets a new dog friend? It is really embarrassing! I feel like I should be taking the shower power with me to the park!

I have a very similar problem with Genevieve. She goes mental!!! I have taken to stopping still every time she moves from where she is sitting.... it certainly drags out the process, but she works out that if I stop, I won't start moving again until she sits and waits. I might try the triangle of temptation myself!

We take walks often through the Gardiner's Creek, it is pretty. Sometimes we see other dogs, sometimes we don't (depends on what time of day we walk!). I am certainly no where near a point (not sure if I ever will be) where we are ready to let her off her lead. She would just run, and run, and run, and run and.... not in my direction! Is walking your dog and occasionally crossing paths with other dogs (might stop, have a bit of a sniff, but essentially keep walking), enough interaction for dogs to have with other dogs, for them to be well socialised with them? I feel as though she is being deprived of quality play time with other dogs....

Haha! The bell option is good for home, but what about when you are at someone else's house? Perhaps you're right, I will give it a go. And thank you for the heads up on the training/tricks forum, I will have a look there. We are in the habit of taking her out regularly, so we tend to not have many accidents inside. And she is pretty good at holding on when she is confined to one room. However, I have noticed in the last few days, while I have been at work, my husband has got slack and not been keeping such a watchful eye on her! Like a toddler, she fidgits and paces a bit and I know to take her outside. He hasn't quite worked that out yet! Sometimes I feel like I am training the OH more than I am her!

I tried it with Genevieve and she tried to catch the water in her mouth!!! So, as you can probably imagine it proved to be useless as a disciplinary tool! We used to do it with Aurora, our family dog. She would only have to see the bottle, and her little ears would go back and she would run to her basket. It has to be better than getting frustrated and hitting them, or saying 'No' several times over. If you are at a point where she just sees the bottle and she knows, I think that is great! It is like teaching a child that they have options and to be responsible for their behaviour - they can be well behaved (and generally get some kind of reward somewhere along the line for this), or they can be naughty and there will be consequences. In this case, a wet face!

It may sound like a silly question (especially if you have a yapper!), but how do you teach your dog to bark? I would like for Genevieve to bark when she wants to be let outside. At the moment she paces in front of the door, which is great if I am in the room to see her. Not so great if I'm not. The only time she barks at the moment, is occasionally when she is playing - she will look up at one of us, tilt her head back and let out this tiny (very cute - make you want to laugh) bark. Otherwise, she is quiet. Even when people come to the house or she hears something, she gets up to investigate it, but doesn't bark. I know that by nature, Cavvies aren't the barking type. But does that mean we can't teach her to bark as a form of saying 'please... let me outside'?

That is so funny!!!! He looks so happy too! I can't help you - my little dog is little! That bone would be bigger than she is!

Well reading these makes me feel a whole lot better! Little Genevieve is either in and out the back door with the runs or vomits (yes, on the carpet or in her house!). I thought it may have been that she was consuming too much in the day, so on the days I gave her a bone, I would either cut back or cut out the normal daily food. But that didn't seem to make a difference either. When I mentioned it to the vet, he told me 'I wasn't listening and feeding her the wrong kind of bones' (I was using chicken necks and chicken wings, as advised by the breeder). He told me to try large lamb bones.... we tried that and the vomiting started... After that, and a few other not so supportive comments, we decided to ditch the vet and we have found ourselves a new one. She gets lamb ears and rawhide bones. I find the pigs ears smell! They seem to take her forever to finish and her breathe doesn't smell too bad, so I figure so far, so good. Maybe when she is a bit older we might try the bones again. I am of the school of thought, that not all dogs can manage bones. I guess it is like us humans!

Does denco-rub work????? What a bloody good idea! Watch out chair legs, here I come!

I was all for the toys as I did not want my furniture being ruined! As it turns out, the furniture has survived but our clothes and shoes haven't! Needless to say, Genevieve has a few, but I keep them stashed in different areas of the house. That way when she moves into a new room or play area, she is re-united with a different toy! Her favourite (believe it or not) is actually a rubber door stopper, that she claimed for her own. We no longer use it to keep the door open, as she just pulls it out from beneath the door! Someone recommended to me that we rotate a whole bunch of toys, to prevent them from getting bored or being mutilated too soon. I can't say we have really done that, but I have found having different toys in different areas has kept her interested for the most part... I think I am the bad one - it is so easy to fall in love with a cute new toy every time you go to the supermarket or the pet shop! That being said, it didn't stop her from burying my croc slipper in the garden! We are tempted to buy her a little croc to play with, but somehow I don't think it will have the same smell!

Hello! Wow!!! It looks like so much fun! A country club for dogs - this is like a whole new world! It reminds me of one of those places I would like to live in when I am really rich and retire!! We can't attend this week (Genevieve had her operation yesterday, don't want her to get too excited and bust open her stitches!), but we will definitely be leaving it open for next month! It looks as thought there could be a few of us newbies there next month too!

Glen Iris is in between Camberwell and Burwood, south-east. Straight down Toorak road from the city. I seek solice in knowing I am not the only one who doesn't know where places are!

Our first family dog (who is now 8 and still going with my Parents), was removed from her mother and siblings way too early, we estimate it was at about five or six weeks. She is a beautiful, friendly dog, who just wants to lick you to death! But to this day, we have had issues socialising her with other dogs (despite doing both puppy school and juvenile obedience with her). She doesn't like them, doesn't seem to understand that she is one herself (thinks she is human). She doesn't bite them or anything like that, just tries to run away, almost scared of them. She also gets hyper excited when anyone comes to the door and you can't reason with or distract her. She also exhibits OCD behaviours, which the vet suggested could be because she was removed from her Mum and litter mates too soon. She has been much better in the last few years as she has matured, but she was a handful in her younger days! We collected Genevieve from the breeder just after seven weeks (she was the second to the leave the litter) and just like your breeder has suggested dwilds, apparently Genevieve's mum didn't have much to do with her litter from about seven weeks either. Almost all of the literature I have read, indicates that between seven and eight weeks is the ideal time for pups to go to their forever homes. I am no expert, but I couldn't imagine that three or four days would make a MAJOR difference... We did start puppy school straight away though, after having her home for only three days, so she kept up some interaction with other puppies, all be it less frequently. At this stage, she shows no signs like our last dog, so I am not at all concerned about her coming away from her Mum early. All that being said, I was not aware that there was a regulation relating to the age at which pups can be released to their new homes. I couldn't imagine such a regulation would exist if there wasn't a valid reason. Is this a national regulation or does it only apply to select states? I would be interested to know more about this. If you are really concerned, perhaps discuss it with your breeder, or just say you have a work commitment that week and you would prefer to wait until the following week. If they are a good, responsible breeder, I am sure they would be understanding and wouldn't mind, especially if they are going to still have the other pups there. What is one pup when you have 10 more? Trust your gut instincts and have faith in yourself. Would you bring your baby home from the hospital too early if you thought it still needed to be there?

Skitch - someone tried to pinch your dog???? That is our worst fear! You poor thing! I know the brand Drizabone do dog coats. (Which I think is sooo cool!). They are made with oiled cotton, to repel water. Some come with sheep skin lining, others just plain cotton. The down side to them is, that if you wash them, they need re-oiling. I guess it depends on how dirty it gets and how important the water-proofness is. They aren't the cheapest of dog coats, but I think it would be an investment purchase. They look as though it would take a fair bit of wear before it shredded! I don't know how a bigger dog would go with it on all day, by my old maltese used to have an entire wardrobe of coats and jumpers... she had a dressing gown and several party frocks too! She wore clothes more often than not and it never bothered her. I think it is like getting them used to their collar - it annoys them for a little while, but they get used to it. We haven't tried coats or jumpers on Genevieve yet, but I have recently bought a couple on ebay to try. We will invest in a drizabone for her once she is fully grown (and I trial the cheaper numbers on her first!).

I am not familiar with greater Melbourne/Victoria, as I have only lived here for a little over a year... Sometimes I feel like we may as well live in a foreign country! Is anyone near Glen Iris?

Hello! I would love for Genevieve to have a play date (or several)! We don't have any friends with dogs, so other than the brief interactions she has when we walk her, and the four weeks of puppy school (that she finished weeks ago), she doesn't get to spend much time with other dogs! I am keen to have her well socialised with both dogs and humans, I just feel is makes for a more well rounded pet. AND.... she is less likely to go feral when she sees another dog or person! The regular DOL meets look like fun, but are the puppies too little still? How do you know when they are ready to come along? I wouldn't want her to ruin it for the older, more well adjusted, dogs!!

Genevieve use to bark at the vacuum cleaner, then run to her house (crate). Now, she chases it around and I push her ball with the head as I am vacuuming. She runs after the ball and brings it back to me.... It is a big game for her! I actually left the vacuum cleaner lying on the floor for a couple of days (not being used and turned off, obviously), and she would have a good sniff and climb under it and over it and bark at it and pounce on it..... after that she was fine. She gets that it is here to stay. She isn't so keen on the broom though, I think mainly because she knocked it over once and it gave her a bit of a fright. She still isn't so keen on the washing machine when it is in its final spin.... I tried to do the same thing when it was off, I left it open for her to check out.... I caught her trying to jump into it: half in half out! I wish I had been able to get a picture of it, as it was definitely a kodak moment!

I thought I would ask all the seasoned puppy owners for their advice about travelling interstate by air, with their pups. Our family live in Perth and we are in Melbourne, so we travel a fair bit back to the West. I am due to go over next month for a few days and am contemplating taking our puppy (who by then will be about 22 weeks). My family have dogs too and have been at me to bring Genevieve home with me, to meet the rest of the family. I know that many puppies start their journey's to their new homes by air, as they are often sent interstate. However, this was not the case for Genevieve as she came from a local breeder. As she has never flown before, I am concerned about how she may travel and the subsequent recovery. Some people have suggested to me that if they fly frequently enough from a young enough age, they become used to it... A very good friend of mine travels for work a lot, and her dog goes everywhere with her without any worries. Yet other people have said their dogs have never been the same after such travel and would never do it again. The Australian Air Express gentleman who I spoke with, said that they put several dogs on planes every day and most of them go to sleep, and that I shouldn't be too concerned. I'm not sure what would be more traumatic for her, four hours on a plane or being left by herself at a boarding kennel. Any advice or suggestions?

I'm pretty sure Genevieve thinks fish and chips are on the way when I have sprayed vinegar! The citronella oil could be worth a try though! Does it ruin wood furniture or leather?