fuzzy82

Thanks, yes he is very cute:) He's had a really good start in life, he has been able to run around with other puppies in a big backyard, he has been socialised and handled by various people. All thanks to Riverina and District Animal Rescue Inc in Narrandera NSW. Also I had really good communication with them and they were really friendly, so just thought I would mention how great they are:) It doesn't show in the photos, but his legs are not quite in proportion to his body, they are a little bit too short, which is very very cute. Means he can't easily jump up on things tho (which is prolly a good thing anyway!)

Oh, and also wondering if I can start him on Revolution as a heartworm preventative now, or if he needs to be older? He is 13 weeks.

Just wondering if my puppy is protected after just one vaccine? He had his first at about 5 weeks old, and is due for his booster on Oct 23rd. I assumed he wouldn't be fully protected until he'd had the booster, but in puppy class they don't seem worried about this at all, seeing as they are all outdoors and in areas where other (unvaccinated) dogs could possibly have access.

I really hate the idea that a dog walking in front is a dominance thing. It's just what they do, because they can. My adult dog walks in front of me and slightly to the right, so I am teaching new puppy to walk on my left. So far he is walking very nicely right next to me, because he knows I have treats, but I don't expect him to stay that close to me once he gets a bit older and there is stuff to sniff on the ground.

I find that bum bags are more popular at my local agility club than especially made treat pouches. I got a treat pouch off ebay but ended up switcing to a doog bum bag from pet barn. It cost me $35, but it's really good, it has two pockets at the front, one of them has a zip (I use that one for treats) it also has one small pocket on each side, which are especially for the anti septic wipes and poo bags that come with it, but can be used for anything, and it also has a snap hook on one side which I use for the clicker (I think it's intended for a lead), and it has a different type of attachment thing on the other side which I use for the other clicker for the other dog (it's supposed to be for your phone, but I'm not sure how they intended it to work).

And another one.

Just thought I would post some photos of my new JRT x puppy. Have had him 8 days now, and only just named him today. His name is Cookie:) Anyone wanna guess what other breed is in him? His ears are half floppy when he's relaxed, but almost completely upright when he's alert, and at 13 weeks he is only about 1.5 kg... The foster carer didn't know what other breed is in there...

At the moment I try to focus more on basic obedience, such as sit, stay, down, come etc, but I teach them as if they are tricks, to keep them fun, and reinforce them with stuff that she loves. For example, the best way to work on a sit/stay is before her meals, as she looooooves her raw food, and will sit and not move AT ALL until I say 'go on'. It's like she's frozen, because she doesn't want to risk a wrong move and postpone her food:) It's quite funny actually. She also sits and waits to be released before exiting the front door when we go on walks. The only trick she does just for fun is high five, and that's because she's a natural pawer anyway, and one day she was on my lap and started pawing at my hand I just happened to have my clicker handy, and clicked her, and within a few minutes she had learnt high five. Other than the basic obedience stuff I would like to teach her some safety stuff. She does a rock solid 'wait', which is on walks to wait until I catch up and released her before moving. We use that for crossing the road when she is on her long rope lead. The other thing I would like to teach her is to get behind me on cue, for when big dogs approach and I feel the need to body block them. We have started on this by her learning to put her front paw on a mouse mat that I put on the floor. I haven't gotten to the point where I have put it behind me yet, but we are getting there. We will probably work on tricks once her basic obedience is pretty solid, just because I enjoy training her and to keep her mentally stimulated.

I just found one that sounds really good: http://www.dogtech.com.au/puppy-schools They just called and the guy told me which cues they teach, sit, drop, come, stay, on lead behaviour etc, and then I asked if any of it is off leash, and he went 'Oh yeah it's all off leash, otherwise it defeats the purpose' and then said something about the main imprinting period in a puppy's life etc. I told him some puppy schools do all their stuff on lead, and how some people think puppies shouldn't be allowed to interact off leash, and he thought that was quite ridiculous. So for anyone interested in off leash puppy classes, that's the place to go, and I have signed up for it. Thanks for your help.

Thanks, I am already a member there, and my adult dog does motivation and control there. I have emailed them about their puppy class, but haven't heard back yet. I think they might only do on leash work tho, not sure. I have signed him up to one puppy class that does off leash socialising, but I figured I would sign him up to another one, because socialising with other dogs one day a week as a young puppy doesn't seem enough to me. Obviously with an older well socialised dog you don't need to work that hard on socialising them.

I realised the comment might have been a bit harsh, so I removed it. It's just that a lot of the time when I ask questions in forums people try to talk me out of it, even tho I wasn't asking whether or not I should, I was asking where to find what I have already decided to do. So nothing personal, and I didn't want to be rude because your post was friendly, so I changed it.

I always thought the reason for showing was to find breeding stock to improve the breed. I only recently learnt that desexed animals can now be shown as well. I don't really see the point of showing desexed animals for looks (other than personal satisfaction that you have a 'pretty' dog), but showing for skills/work makes more sense.

Well, I'm a big fan of off leash classes, and I figure we might as well work on off leash control right from the start. And I also think it's a good idea to teach puppies how to play nicely with each other, which isn't going to happen if they are deliberately hindered from interacting with each other by being on leash. What happens when the dog grows up and has never played off leash with another dog? It won't know that it needs to be gentle and not be a bully etc.

Anyone know any really good puppy classes on the northside of Brisbane? I really like the Dunbar style puppy classes, where most of the class is off leash and the puppies are free to socialise, and where all the people in the class interact with all the puppies at some point (like collar grabs etc). I have asked around at a few places, and they are mostly on leash, or they don't allow clickers, or it's mostly about the skills and not so much about socialising etc etc. I already know how to teach basic obedience, so my main reason for wanting to find a class is to socialise. And the Dunbar team also recommend meeting at least 100 people in the first month after you get the puppy... How would you go about doing that? Just taking the puppy everywhere and sit outside supermarkets/shopping centres/cafes etc and trust that other people want to come up and say hi to the puppy?

So regarding Marley, he won't be desexed until Thursday, which means I can't get him until Oct 5:( Oh well...

My current, adult dog was in foster care when I adopted her, and I know she had been in foster care for at least one month when I got her. Yet when I got her she was crawling with fleas and also had an ear infection. I emailed the foster carer about it, and she claimed that the dog had been treated with frontline one week before I got her, which I know is a lie because I treated her with frontline myself and it killed all the fleas within 3 days. During the first vet check it also turned out that she has luxating patellas, the vet moved the kneecaps around while examining her, and said it will probably need surgery one day. This would also have been nice to know when I adopted the dog (I would still have adopted her, but still good to know that the dog will need expensive surgery when making the decision). 6 weeks after adopting her I still hadn't received any confirmation from the microchip company that the details had been changed (I filled out a form when I picked the dog up). I emailed the foster carer about this a couple of times, but she ignored both emails. I then went through my paperwork for the dog that had been handed to me, and found log in details for the microchip site. I logged in and found that the old owner's details were all still there. So if the dog had run off and been picked up, they wouldn't have been able to contact me. I actually volunteer for the shelter that this foster carer is associated with, and I know they are all decent people there and they all love the animals, but when I emailed management with my concerns about the foster carer, it seems they simply forwarded the email to the foster carer, because I never heard back from management, but the foster carer tried to call me a couple of days later (I wasn't home).

I read somewhere just the other day that wolves are actually very different from dogs. Even when the wolves are raised with humans and tame, they still behave differently from dogs that are raised the same way. The main difference being that when given a problem to solve, the wolves would completely ignore the humans, while the dogs looked to their humans for help to solve it.

We have 6 cats too, one of which was kind of dog aggressive (he was a rescue and he came from a house with a big dog and I suspect the dog was allowed to bully him). When we got our little poodle x (as an adult from a shelter) we kept them separate for the first night (enclosed backyard, so the cats stayed outside for the night). The next morning we let the dog see the cats through the glass doors, and she was undecided on them. She alternated between growling, whimpering, staring and hiding. The cats looked at her for about 2 minutes and then decided she was insignificant and ignored her. A little later in the day we took the dog out in the backyard to the cats, where she sat on my partner's lap while I patted the cats, so the dog could see that they weren't wild animals with no right to be in the backyard (she had no previous exposure to cats, so they must have seemed like a bunch of wild animals to her). She was still growling and whimpering and not sure what to do. Once she calmed down she was put on the ground on a leash, and the cats went up and sniffed her. She carefully avoided eye contact with them but let them sniff her and would sniff them as soon as they turned their backs on her. When we let her off the leash she stayed calm and just looked at the cats. She went up to sniff the DA cat at one point, he had his back turned, but when he noticed her he hissed and spat at her, and she ran across the yard screaming. I was sure the cat had taken her out out, but my partner who had seen the whole thing from a different angle told me that cat hadn't even touched her, so it was all quite funny really. Fast forward about a week and it was all good. The dog has always kept a respectful distance to the cats except one of them, also a rescue (who it turns out must have grown up with dogs, because she instantly treated the dog as if she had always been there) who she kept sniffing all over and tried to play with. The cat allowed it for a few days before putting the dog in her place, and after that the dog has kept her distance. She will go up and sniff the cats when they come in from the backyard, but after a quick sniff she backs off. She sometimes tries to play with one of the cats, which the cat tolerates grudgingly, but occasionally she hisses to let the dog know she doesn't want to play. So all in all we were really impressed at how quickly the cats tolerated the dog, and the dog has been absolutely great with the cats. She is unsupervised around them all day now. It probably also helps that she weighs about the same as all the cats too:)

There is a big dog park with lots of trees etc near here, and it also has a separate, fenced in area for small dogs. We haven't been yet because I only recently heard of it, but I have been told it's good. So that should be pretty safe for the small dogs, but of course that doesn't help the big aggressive dogs to run freely, or the people who take their big dogs to the park only to have them attacked by aggressive dogs...

So sorry to hear about the attack, I hope she will recover ok:( My little poodle x was attacked by a big dog a couple of weeks ago, altho some people question my use of the word 'attack' seeing as my dog wasn't injured. We were just walking down the street when this massive dog came around the corner, as soon as he saw my dog he ran straight for her towing the kid who was supposed to be walking him. I was able to pull him off my dog, and she was ok (had her checked by a vet) so the other dog was probably just being playful, but being that much bigger and out of control could still have seriously injured her. Happened 200 metres from our house. My dog was very upset for about 5 days afterwards, she refused to sleep on her own bed, where she normally settles down as soon as she sees us going to bed, so she had to sleep on our bed, and wouldn't do any training (as in sit, shake etc) all she wanted to do was to crawl onto my lap. But then after about 5 days she started to relax more and is now back to normal. She is very timid around big dogs tho. We went to a motivation and control class the other day, and there was a HUGE GSD in class as well, and the tiny woman at the other end of the lead had no chance at restraining him. He kept running up to my dog and scaring the cr** out of her, and she kept yelping and pulling on the lead every time he came near, and the owner still didn't understand that maybe she should keep her dog away from my dog. We stayed in a corner pretty much the whole class minding our own business, and this dog kept pulling his owner over to us. So even on lead it's not safe. Sometimes I wonder if I should be adopting a big dog rather than another small dog, so he can protect my little one if something ever happens on walks....

Ah yes, cute puppy syndrome:) I have already rejected a couple of other puppies. They were so sweet and it was so hard, but I am very determined to not end up with a dog that is all wrong for my lifestyle.

I have actually been emailing back and forth with the rescue person for several days, and we did discuss why I had problems with JRTs and she was very reassuring about them (considering she has personal experience with them). I had to fill out a form with a bunch of questions, and I did tell her I will be doing regular training with the puppy as well as socialising, puppy classes etc, and she thought that was really good. So she didn't just encourage cuddling and then let me go through with the adoption just like that. I realise that's what it might have sounded like from my original post, but the truth is I wasn't keen on the puppy at all to begin with, despite him being really cute. But after talking to the foster carer I have decided to go through with the adoption, and he will be desexed probably on Tuesday and hopefully will be good to go on Friday next week. Yay:) Thanks for your help:)

Thanks:) This is a photo of the litter, and another one of Marley, if that helps with guessing breeds at all...

Thanks for your replies. I am pretty reassured by all this:) I guess you are right, I will be able to deal with any problem behaviours before they become a difficult habit to break. How much time do you spend exercising your JRTs exactly? By "not highly intelligent" I think she was referring to my comment about JRTs being highly intelligent and therefore requiring tons of stimulation every single day. Her words were taken out of context. She also pointed out that my current dog being a poodle x is probably more intelligent than most JRTs anyway. She doesn't know what he's crossed with, but she said possibly papillon or a spaniel.

Hello, new here and have a question. It's about a mixed breed though, and it specifically says 'purebred forum' at the top, so excuse me if this is bad manners. I have one dog already, and am considering getting a second dog, a puppy from a shelter. I am home all day, and only work part time from home, so I have plenty of time to spend. My current dog gets at least 1.5 hours of exercise a day, and several short training session throughout the day (clicker training). She is very low maintenance and well behaved so she is perfectly happy with this. Anyway, on to the new puppy. I have been looking at a very cute 8-9 week old Jack Russell cross at a shelter. I originally looked at one of their other puppies, but it turns out it was spoken for, so they suggested the JRT x for me. I immediately told them that I have promised myself that I will never have a JRT in my house, after reading about their extreme exercise requirements and mental stimulation etc. I also don't want a yappy dog, because my partner is very intolerant of yapping. The rescue person assured me that her own JRT x is very placid and friendly, and this little puppy is her favourite out of the whole litter. In her own words he is "tiny, shy, submissive, not highly intelligent and just a cute bundle you want to cuddle". After filling out the application form I now have first pick of him, but I am still rather undecided. I will of course do puppy classes and obedience training, and socialise the hell out of him. I had decided to do that anyway, regardless of breed. Can anyone reassure me about the lack of JRT qualities in this pup? The foster carer told me she can't really tell how he will turn out due to his young age, but from her description of him he doesn't sound very JRT-like to me.... Anyone know what a typical JRT puppy is like, and what is the likelihood of this puppy suddenly becoming the devil incarnate on me? Or is this a really bad idea, considering my apprehension about the JRT in general?