Max#1

And just for fun. That you-tube video of the talking bc saying 'hello' - my OH and I really found this endearing. So this morning I made my own . Not quite the same... he nearly gets it at the end. And yes he does have a little scratch on his nose - that's the white spot.

Yeah you can say that, but you don't have him watching you all day waiting for his next instruction! ETA: hope James goes okay! ETA as well: speaking of dogs wanting instruction - last night at the park the caption could've been 'what happens when you put herding/working dogs in suburbia'. We had Max, two bc's, a bc x and two kelpies, that in all fairness actually do come from a farm. They formed this thing - one bc was 'rounding up' the bc x, who was in the middle. The second bc was running circles around them (these three belong together and this is their usual 'thing' they do). One of the kelpies watching/following the first bc. Max was doing circles around this whole group (rounding them up?), radius of the circle Max was running was about 5 m, but running in the opposite direction to the second bc - and the second kelpie was rounding him up - giving him the look and stopping him, at which he'd turn and run the other way. We estimated Max probably ran about 2km.

Morning all! I'll add my bit! Max gets RC medium puppy food most days - still two meals a day - sometimes substituting one with a beef(?) bone with marrow in them (no pancreatitis as yet; and I've just graduated him to the full bone, rather than getting the butcher to chop them in half for me), or chicken wings or necks or lamb flaps (fat attached). For a treat on the weekends he gets a soft-boiled egg that he has to extract from the shell - he LOVES it. I also am a bad dog-owner and let him eat most things unsupervised, and he's still alive. I also give him kongs unsupervised - when we go out, that's what he gets, so much so its become a routine. Sometimes I buy a cooked chook and put the meat in there, some cheese (low fat), if we have devon from training treats, or anything else that's dog-friendly. Lilli_star are you sure you're packing the kong right? My OH has it down to a fine art, making sure there's a bit of cheese hanging out the top - but everything is crammed in there so tight it does take the little scavenger awhile to get to it all. For training treats again its just whatever I have handy. Maybe a bit of schmako strip, or if there's cooked chicken around, or some kibble if nothing else. He loves the skinless frankfurters - but now that he's becoming an elite flyball athlete (ha ha!) I try not to use so much devon/frankfurters. They do make him fat and farty. So this morning went for our usual constitutional to the park. I am not giving one inch this week with LLW - but we seem to have hit a wall. He knows he has to be beside me for me to move, but the furtherest I can get (while he is in a heightened state of excitement ie at obedience, or going to the park) is about eight steps. Coming home, no sweat - he's a lamb. How can I get him to realise he has to STAY beside me while I'm walking? I reckon its my timing? He knows 'heel', and its so funny when I stop he'll back up to be beside me again. If you could add sound effects there'd be the bleep bleep of a reversing truck. Some photos: 'Ready to go' 'Ready to play ball' 'Curious about why he can hear himself on the computer as I'm looking at the videos I took of him (which are all too dark, small, blurry - bloody black dog!)'

Glad to hear that this is not unique just to me and Max! The poor little monster passed out after settling down, but then woke up just as crazy as he was before he went to sleep??? Maybe he was dreaming of water-full gutters, head-swiping german shepherds, and roly poly labradors??? I forgot to say before - my new instructor has kelpies (this I find personally reassuring that she 'understands' Max to some extent - although this is based on my own personal experience of one other instructor...) - and she says Max 'drops' like a kelpie Ah KTB - I'm loathe to read much farther than this thread on here these days because ....{self edited}... but I am sure that many people out there are adopting dogs and enjoying their new best friends without any serious dramas. Some minor ones maybe, but nothing worth putting them off! In my experience, what's going on 'out there', is so much different than what goes on 'in here', and I have to stop reading or otherwise it does my head in!

Hello! Very cute photos of Ziggy, Echo and Hoover! Hoover's ears - my oh my! We had our first day back at obedience classes this morning. I still hadn't heard anything from them, so decided to take Max down and see what happened. We walked there - maybe a thirty minute walk? - nevertheless Max was still super-excited. I've been put into a different class with a different instructor - and so far so good. Max was a crazy little monster, but was much improved with his LLW and did his usual thing with all the positions (sit, drop etc). However. I noticed that as the hour went past he was 'building up', if that makes sense. By the end we were doing recalls in a cricket net enclosure. Max ran to me, but not directly, in a really 'inviting me to play' way, the sat in front of me, bounced in place, then bounced around the enclosure - even the instructor was laughing. Walking home he was going mad - there was water in the gutters from the rain and he was pulling to them, splashing in there, dancing around - then we get home and he's doing zoomies through the whole house, jumping over us like Bambie and whacking us with successive toys to get us to play. Does anybody else experience this post-training? ETA - KTB: heart-wrenching videos! Those poor puppies. I'm sure having the video really helps with people deciding to adopt them! Also ETA - of course he's dead to the world now! And thinking about it, I haven't done much with him over Christmas where he's had to be on-lead for extended periods of time ;) . Flyball is mostly off-lead, with socialising before and after. Its almost like he gets bored having to be on-lead for so long. Something else to work on I guess....

Unfortunately for Max, when I think of setting him up a 'bed' I usually just chuck an old sheet on the ground, so there's not too much for him to rip up... I will leave a bit of newspaper around though from time to time, just so he can rip it up and keep himself amused..... The things you do for your dogs.... (I also will give him an empty plastic bottle too - sometimes reading this thread I get the guilts, cause I hardly ever buy 'stuff' for Max. I don't often buy stuff for myself either! So at least its even!). KTB: I meant for Wuffles the hydrobath vacuum. Is that what you're talking about? Max is cool-as with our home vacuum cleaner (thought the robot sounds awful) - appliances that he does bark and get excited about so far include the food processor (especially when we pulse it), the whipper snipper and any brooms/mops. Wuffles it is cute. It brings out his eyes! I haven't heard anything from my obedience club. The first session is supposed to be this Sunday. There's noone there though except on Sunday mornings - so I can't even call and find out! Apparently they were going to let us know - we'll see.

I would recommend seeing if you can try both. Maybe its possible to go (even without your dog) to a training session for each and see what its about and what the atmosphere is like? I ended up doing flyball by default, because I met someone, and then got involved. Luckily enough though, my little guy seems to absolutely love it and has picked up the whole thing really quickly (that coming from someone who struggles a lot with general obedience classes). My experience of flyball 'training', was specifically a big emphasis on recall and socializing. Much much much more so than the obedience classes. And it was FUN! And I mean really FUN! Like I'm laughing and Max is laughing and we're giving each other high fives fun. I would though love to try agility as well. I think Max is a real thinker, and has a lot of energy and enthusiasm. I've never seen an agility training session though. As for politics, I'm pretty sure you'll get that wherever there's people grouped together for a so-called common purpose.

Hello everyone! Long time no post - and unfortunately no new photos. I will take some soon as tomorrow is my last day of work!!!! Yeeha! Then I have ten glorious days at home and then I start a new (much, much, much better) job (and I will have to spend at least some of that time buying some decent clothes to wear and stocking up on stockings....). Hmmmm. Scary times. I love the towel-head photos. But. Wuffles - why does Satch have a towel round his head? Is it to block out the noise of the vacuum? Maybe its something we could try with Max - as he didn't enjoy the hydrobath particularly, or at all. We didn't even attempt the vacuum in preservation of our clothes, arms, skins, eyeballs etc . So I missed the toxic thread, but can only imagine. Last night I was quite caught up with watching the cyclone in Nth Qld. I'm from there, and my family's from there. I was amused this morning by the reports, as after all the hype people seemed almost disappointed. But if anyone has been to Cardwell or Mission Beach, there's just not that many houses there to be destroyed! And then anyone that they could get on the phone was so typically NQ'er'ish - aw yeah mate, its not too bad, it was a pretty big cyclone - and I could just imagine they're probably in water up to their knees, with the roof next door blown off. Almost makes me "homesick" for that easy and relaxed approach to life. I'm enjoying reading about Genevieve's antics once again - and poor Mr Clastic and his finger! Sounds very painful. And love the tags for Astrid! (And hello to everyone else too!).

I know what you mean. And even though I've joined a club, I'm still not really 'in'. Just gotta hang round long enough I guess?

I don't know what Elbie's like with ball/frisbee, but for Max its really intense. I ask him if he wants to play ball, and he gets super focused and this look on his face - so much so I can rely on that at the park etc for distracting him from other things - dogs, cyclists, picnicers. So I imagine that doing flyball is like giving that an outlet? I'm just so glad I have a 'finished' command so that ball can end!!! (Although sometimes he doesn't believe me). When we're lining up to do a flyball run, a lot of the dogs are barking their heads off. Max is somewhat excited by this, but remains quiet. Then just before its his turn, I have him lined up, and I say to him really quietly 'wanna plaaaaayyyyy.... flyball?' He looks at me, cocks his head to the side to make sure he's heard me right, then usually someone standing at the box calls him with the ball, I say 'yessss', and he's off. Its pretty funny. Thankfully Max hasn't been too destructive in the garden. He's got a hankering to go to China though, and occasionally gives it a whirl. Either that or he's looking for gold (we actually had to sign a covenant when we bought out place from 1947, that we wouldn't mine the land.... ). Kuma the Japanese border collie! That made me snort in a mirthful non-work-appropriate way! The problem with these dog-sports is getting into them. I was lucky one of my first doggy-friends was a flyball club organiser. I've ran into a lady recently who has an agility club. Both the flyball club and the agility club start em young. They don't wait for obedience tests to be passed. The agility lady was saying that often as long as the dogs can be kept under 'effective control' (and I doubt she meant DOL standards) they can do it.

Woof woof! Yes! We've been to one training session! And Max remembered! He's up to the point where he can do a full run, but they put boards up around hte box to the first jump coming back, so they don't get distracted and run around the jumps. Still need to work up to perfecting his box technique, donig it without the boards, and doing it in the presence of other running dogs.... Our club even hosted a competition yesterday.... but I didn't go SIL and stuff.... Besides I feel like a bit of a fifth wheel sans dog. I'm there willing to help, but without a dog, I'm a bit lost... We can't compete til Max turns 1 (April 26th) and even then the next competition isn't til June. Max also likes to splash the water with his paws. I think its because he can see something in there...? I stand to be corrected though! Wow Kuma must be quite a big version of an Akita! They're really quite an impressive breed. Wuffles - my clamshell looks somewhat similar. I'm pretty sure the dirt makes the water tasty though... Okay bedtime if I'm going to get up early for walkies!

Hideho! Wow the trip to the park looked like so much fun! So jealous! And you guys should be proud of your good doggies! And doesn't it make you so so happy on the inside when you see them running around and playing together and having so much fun?! (good grief - and they're dogs, imagine if they were human babies.... Wizzle, you will have to let us know!). I couldn't take my eyes off Elbie. Especially after the adorableness of the begging video. While Ava may be the prettiest dog in the thread, Elbie is 'Dog of the Year 2011'. He looked so happy writhing around on the grass. And Hoover has definitely grown! And how big is Kuma? The Akita at the park is only 35 kg? She's big, but not huge. And I saw a Satch look-a-like tonight - he was also one happy boy! We've had the SIL come stay for the past few days. Max was a little terrorist. He had one purpose in his life during this time, and that was to lick her face. I swear he doesn't jump up on people, I swear he's very polite... but with her? No chance. I don't know. It didn't help that she didn't even want to touch him - just not a dog person. Maybe that was it. By the end, she would scratch his head a little, but then that would only encourage him and up he'd go. We spent the whole time doing 'off Max' 'down Max' 'look Max!' 'Maaaaaaxxxxxx!'. Thank goodness its over! I also have a clamshell outside for the warm days. So far though we haven't had any - but its going to get up there on Monday someone said? So far its been just filling up with rainwater... They do get dirty quite quickly though. Especially when puppy likes walking through it!

Lilli_star - some great photos! The last one is particularly hilarious. And Ruby sleeping in her crate - so funny! So cute! KTB - I still think eating domino's pizza is wrong. I'm sorry. But we only ever eat home-made pizzas, made with organic ingredients, sourced only from local shops. And we only ever eat two slices each, with low-fat vegan cheese. The dog, is only allowed to smell the pizza (note, we allow that thereby not diminishing our role as 'pack leader'), and is by no means allowed to have a piece, not even a crumb or morsel........ KTB and KA - you really think that you can't trust your dogs off-lead? I wish I could take you both for a walk with me. There's some nice places we could go that you can let the dogs off-lead, and its not a box fenced-park, so its a bit more interesting. At least Elbie and Kuma don't sound to be as energetic as Max. If his exercise requirements were to be met by me walking him on lead, I can tell you I would be walking ALL day....

On that front, I have some possibly out-of-date information about Germany at least. My OH and I were talking about it just last night. If you are a couple, both working, the second person gets taxed to the point its nearly not worth working. On the other hand, if you are a couple, and only one works, they actually pay less tax than they would if they were single. Add to that, if there are children, then you pay less tax again. Tax in Germany though makes up nearly 50% of income in the first place, with lots of compulsory insurances that you have to pay. Though a lot of things, like food, alcohol, going out to eat, are cheaper (though petrol/electricity are a lot more expensive). Anyway, that possibly influences how people work.

IMO - the sin here is actually the eating of dominos....

Nothing is more beautiful than -5 degree winter day with sunshine sparkling in the snow. As much I wanted to be one winter away from the cold climate, I really miss walking in the crystal white forest with my dogs during snowy winter days. I can only imagine. Like this? Maybe it is too dark....

Almost meter of snow, all roads icy and -25 degrees. If that is your idea of paradise, happy journey :rolleyes: Tell you the truth, only reason why people don't abandon their dogs, is because who could have a heart to abandon your dog in the middle of the horrible winter Well, summer is beautiful and it will be light whole night as well. I've been taken with the idea of putting Max in snow since reading that delightful blog/comic strip/cartoon about the two dogs that have to move across the country and find themselves in snow. I can't think of the name of it, but there's the 'simple' dog and the 'helper' dog. I can imagine Max would be absolutely delighted! I've done blitz ice, and seen snow sparkling blue, and it does seem kind of nice. You have to pay a price for culture (dog culture!).

Me!

Hey KTB - I can't even imagine. But hugs. It sounds beautiful and sad. It makes me sad to even think of being in the same situation, hugs again. Wuffles. Your Ava is without doubt the prettiest dog I have ever seen. Kyliegirl - sounds like you're doing all the right stuff ( even with the vegetable enthusiasm - ha!). We have tried our dog-gone hardest with Max - but one thing has let us down - and that is visitor's coming to the house. We just don't get enough of them to be able to establish a no jump rule. He will settle after a bit, but at the start he's just so happy to see new people in the house! When my Mum came to stay he nearly died. He loves my sister, but truly - a deep everlasting love. She can be here for three hours, and after that time all she has to do is look at him and he melts and waggily bums over to her. My Mum, it was love, but not quite as much - same deal with my Mother's sister. Very strange. But he was really sad when she wasn't there to go say hello to every morning! The other thing we haven't done right.... baths. So Max got it in his head at about 7.5 months that he doesn't like baths (we'd only do it once a month before that) - and we had a bit of a traumatic experience in the backyard. Poor dog got soaped up, then escaped, then we couldn't catch him to rinse him. Teeth were bared, dog was unhappy, and didn't want to know us for a couple of hours afterwards - with the end result being we left him to dry off soaped up and just took him to the lake the next day. Bad. I know. So today we tried something different and took him to a hydrobath. The poor poppet. Was so so so so so exciting - dogs and dogs and lots of bags of dog food. Then came the water. He screamed and screamed and wailed like a 2-year-old that's just had his ice-cream stolen. A man standing behind us said 'sounds like he doesn't like baths'. I was like 'no s(%t sherlock'. But we had success and gave him lots of treats and let him sniff all the dog food bags - and while he was a bit upset with us afterwards, I think we've found the winning way to bath the poor guy - with a free bath for us thrown in. And I can guarantee the shampoo doesn't sting when you get it in your eye. Poor little puppy. So our new Akita is going to come to the park as often as possible - which is great! I think Max and this Akita are quite taken wiht each other. Its because Max runs - so she can chase - and also because they both have the same greeting style - I think ie walk up to each other, sniff, sniff, swipe with the paw, take off. Its especially good that they're continuing to come because of a little incident that occurred. So our Brittany is quite shy. A princess. A few days ago the group was already in the park and she was approaching with owner, but she was off-lead. The Akita and Lab came up to say hello, she freaked out, and not getting any safer by hiding behind her owner's legs took off... out of the park... down the street... back to her house. Eeeeks! With the Akita in hot persuit! Eeeeeks! Not even near to having your dog shirk out of his collar and run amok at the obedience club Christmas party (can I ever go back?) - but close. All's well that ends well though. The Brittany was marched straight back to the park to be sure everything was okay, and the Akita is just being kept a little closer eye on. In other dog-related news, I saw in the flesh two Neopolitan mastiffs today. Yikes yikes yikes. They are so big, so so so so so big. They are huge. And they stunk. They truly stunk. There were two, they came over and walked straight into the lake, and the owner was joking saying 'its like National Geographic'. It truly was. I think they're almost a separate species to dogs - they seem closer to bears!

Interesting thread. I was in Germany recently. One thing that I'll never forget is being in a pub. At one table was a group of young people, drinking and smoking. At the next table was a family with young children eating dinner. At the next table was a man with his dog. All inside! Can you imagine! Although, and the fact it was winter may have had something to do with it, I don't remember seeing many dogs around generally. And apart from that, I don't really know anything about dog ownership in Germany.

Morning all! Kuma and Minxy: Last night there were two new dogs at the park and one of them was an Akita! I felt very knowledgeable as everyone was asking 'what's that?' as they were approaching and I was the only one who knew! (Its an Akira I told them all.... :) ). This Akita loved Max, particularly because he loves being chased, and this girl loved chasing! At one stage Max had an Akita, a Lab, a Wei (can I shorten it like that?), two Boxers and a Wei puppy (eeek! so cute!) chasing him around the park - he was LOVING it - with the princess Brittany watching on. It was quite a site. I'm also grateful for the puppy fix on here! The Wei puppy at the park is now five months old - and there's many coos as she's so lovely with her puppy-style-run across the park. I was particularly happy with the way Max played with her - he wanted to play with me, but she kept nipping him to entice him, and eventually he had to give in. But it wasn't bitey-face, more like he was nudging her with his nose while they were lying on the ground - then they'd both get up and take off in opposite directions thinking the other was chasing them. Very sweet. Betsy - you might be surprised by how focused Ziggy is on you off-lead! We're mostly off-lead for recalls, which are rewarded by games of tug. And where a dog would rather play with the other puppies, the instructors are very helpful with strategies. Its more 'real life' recall, than what happens in obedience classes I find.

And finally, the princess of all the dogs - a lovely brittany. She makes me want a brittany, just because she has such a beautiful nature - the photo doesn't do her justice. For ages her and Max were best friends. But now I'm afraid he's outgrown her a little. They knew each other, waited for each other, and always joyously greeted each other by stalking each other across the park. They still do it, but while she wants to play he's not so interested. Stupid dog. If I was him I'd make the most of every minute with her! Her owner is into retrieving and is training her for it. In the background is one very shy whippet. He's really come out of his shell since coming to the park, and will surprise you by coming up to you all of a sudden and play bowing, jumping from side to side, then scuttling back behind his owner. A sweet dog.

And with another one of his buddies - keeping guard. This is a lovely bc x kelpie - she has the sweetest eyes.

Okay back again. Late dinner eaten - was first flyball training for the year for me tonight. Max hasn't forgotten - woohoo! He's such a little star. But I find that my confidence in him makes a lot of difference. (And when he did a couple of complete flyball runs tonight, and I was wooping and jumping up and down for joy, he definitely knew he'd done something really really right). So yesterday when I walked him he was a dream, and off leash at the park recalled every time - even when there were other dogs barking. So I was feeling pretty good about tongiht. But then later someone asked me something, and then I lost it, and then he didn't come when he was called. I really wonder. Makes me wonder too about the loose lead walking KTB - does your mood make a difference? I'm pretty sure mine does - particularly at obedience lessons as well when I think back now. The first two lessons were great because I had so much confidence in him after he was such a champion at puppy pre-school, but after some comments from the instructor that left me feeling like I was doing it all wrong, it all went downhill. I'll have to remember that for the future. Niques - I'm also glad that James is safe and dry and back with you, even if slightly changed. Why was he different? Minxy - Max is also smelling like a pond so my sympathies. At the park where we go for our morning walk there's a mud puddle near a drain. He always makes a point of going and lying in it at least once - and I swear the mud is completely black. He laps at it while he's lying in it too, and I think its making his poos not quite right. Which leads me back to KTB and her poo-corner thread. I was going to make the suggestion to let them 'dry out' somewhat before picking up. Too gross for words, I know, but I find even the 'softer' poos go hard after a couple of hours, and therefore leave less residue. I know. Gross. So photos. Here's Max at his Christmas party that we had at the dog park on Christmas eve... With one of his buddies... ETA - this photo was able to be taken by quickly distracting them from a game of bitey face...

Hey hey! Clastic (nice, shiny new house!) I'm on a mac and wouldn't have the faintest on how to get an onscreen keyboard. But very nifty! Turns out (now that the OH is back at work and so I can actually log onto the computer) the thing remembers me when I'm on this page when I'm logged in! So many cute dobe puppies! Astrid looks very leggy! I remember every day when I'd come home from work and see Max and each time I'd notice a different part of him had grown - legs were long, head had gotten big, ears were gi-normas etc. He seems to have really slowed down with the growing, and at 9 months I reckon he's pretty close to being done. He never asks to go outside either - will sometimes knock on the door - but usually we take him out often enough to suffice. Its funny these habits you get into! I once read about how our dogs read us, and we read them, almost subconsciously after awhile....... Photos soon!