fuzzy82

What's the problem with it? In European countries where tail docking is banned, you can't show a dog with a docked tail, even if it was imported and legally docked. If you're going to ban tail docking, banning the dogs from being shown makes sense too.

If he's slow and his attention is elsewhere, there is a motivation issue. Corrections don't fix a dog's lack of motivation. You need to up the rewards, more frequent and something he really enjoys.

When my puppy did this I put a leash on him and dragged him out on the grass. He immediately peed and as a reward we got out of the rain.

Most adults don't know how to treat dogs either, which is probably why they fail to teach their kids. One of my dogs is wary of strangers, he doesn't like anyone who normally comes to the house, and with good reason. A lot of them try to grab him to force-cuddle him, and when he shies away from them they comment on what a skittish dog he is. Others ignore all calming signals and do stuff he obviously doesn't like. It's gotten to the point where he completely avoids all of our regular visitors. But then I had my family over from Europe. As we all know, Europe is more dog friendly than Australia, and as a result, people learn how to behave around dogs. Suddenly, my dog was no only going up to people for cuddles and playing with them, he sat on their laps! He has never sat on anyone's lap except mine, ever. Aussies in general are clueless about dogs, or they think any animal should just accept anything a human wants to dish out with a smile on their face.

Even though teaching new tricks is fun, I wouldn't get too hung up on them. The most important thing for a young puppy is socialisation and basic manners. I would spend less time teaching him tricks, and spend more time out in the real world exposing him to many different environments and people, and spend a lot of time teaching him things that are useful. Such as impulse control (search for "it's yer choice" on youtube), leash walking, settling on his bed/crate. I would also establish good rewards so that he's easier to train later on, it's particularly important to maintain their interest in toys and tugging with you. Many people give their dogs treats because it's so quick and easy, and neglect playing with them, and as a result the dog loses interest in playing as it grows up. Of course there's nothing wrong with teaching a puppy tricks, but there's always going to be time to work on tricks, but there's only so much time to get the most out of socialisation. If you're going to do sports with him, I would teach tricks which also teach him body awareness and balance, such as backing up, backing up onto something, backing up on the wall so he has two back feet on the wall, targeting with individual paws (particularly the back paws), pivoting, sit pretty etc. But don't neglect the boring stuff, which is the basic stuff like sit and down. These aren't just behaviours that are finished in 5 minutes. When the dog knows the behaviour, you can push their understanding further by building duration and distractions, and I like to introduce impulse control to every behaviour my dogs know. Such as holding a position while I throw treats at them or drop treats on the floor around them. Have the dog sit pretty while you lower the treat to the floor. Have the dog change position when this means moving away from a reward (such as if the dog is lying down with treats on the floor in front of him, ask him to sit. Sitting means moving his head further from the treats). Recalls past a food bowl. Etc.

I don't see how it's ever too early. It's what they would eat in the wild (if there was such a thing as "in the wild" for dogs).

Another reason to keep your dog inside then.

Print screening? You know that computers now come with a snipping tool which is handy for taking screenshots? It's in Accessories.

So sorry to hear about Buddy, that is just tragic I wouldn't leave my dog if I couldn't have a look out the back. To have a solid wall blocking the area and then saying no visitors allowed doesn't inspire trust. It's not like I would want to go in and inspect the area, I would be happy standing in the door and just having a quick look. If they're not gonna allow that, then at least have a window you can look through to see the grooming area. Knowing that everyone can see the dogs being groomed would be reassuring. My old groomer at the local pet store has an open door and a window where you can watch, and I would usually just leave her there and go home. Unfortunately once the dogs were groomed they were left loose on the floor, often unsupervised, and after I found my little poodle x unsupervised in a room with a Golden, I stopped taking her there and started grooming her myself. (The Golden was perfectly friendly and placid and didn't bother her, but after being attacked by a big dog, my dog is scared of big dogs, so it would have been very stressful for her).

So sad. I think babies smell funny to dogs, and they're not considered "people". They also look funny and make funny noises. One time we had a friend with a baby visiting, the dogs were VERY sniffy, like they couldn't understand what it was. (They were closely supervised of course).

Don't hang clothes up when puppy is outside unsupervised, that way he doesn't form a bad habit in the first place. When you are supervising, work on impulse control around food and toys, and eventually around the washing line. Look up "it's yer choice" on youtube.

If money isn't a big issue, I would definitely try to save the eye.

If your partner cares about the dogs as much as you do, pays for half of the expenses and walks them and spends time with them, then I don't see how it's fair for you to take both. If you discuss it like adults and agree that you should take both, then fine. But to ask if it's fair is like asking if you're really entitled to take both, and whether you taking both is the obvious and logical thing. Which it isn't. I would think it's fair that you take one dog each, unless your partner works so much that he shouldn't have a dog at all.

The easiest solution is to keep the dogs inside while she's not home. This is the safest option if neighbours are complaining, as they might throw bait over the fence, steal them or let them out. It's not cruel to keep dogs inside during the day. This is commonly done in Europe and in countries where it's too cold for a dog to live outside. My dogs are kept inside when we're out as well, as they will fence fight with the neighbours' dogs. And also I know they're safe. I know if they do bark no one will hear them, no one can bait them and they won't accidentally get out. Such an easy solution that fixes so many things.

I bought Wahl clippers in a kit, was about $220, and came with two blades, some comb attachments (which I don't use), comb and scissors, as well as an instructional DVD. I thought that was pretty good. I then went and bought another pair of scissors and another blade. I use #4 on her body (poodle x maltese) and #10 around her bum and paw pads.

I just bought some clippers and did some googling and then just went for it. My dog did look a bit funny the first couple of times, and I still haven't figured out what to do with her face, but it grows back and it's no big deal if I mess it up. Youtube has loads of grooming videos...

Seems ridiculous to put a puppy on medication just because he's a bit overexcited around other dogs. Instead of reaching for the pills, just teach him proper interaction (with professional help if you need to). Medication for behavioural issues should only be used as a last resort for adult dogs. Not for puppies.

Yeah, no sound effects or music, and no flashing gifs either. Breed info isn't a must for me, as I've usually already looked up the breed and read all about it before I look at breeders, but I spose for the average dog owner this would be handy. I find breed standard kind of pointless though, the people who care would already know, and the ones who just want a pet won't care and won't read it. And if they do want that stuff, it's easy enough to look it up anyway.

Easy to navigate would be first thing. I've seen some horrible breeders websites where the nav is different on each page (the nav should be the same on all pages), and some make have a "puppy" page and a "litters" page as well as an "adult dogs for rehoming" page. I think it would be better if all available dogs were on the same page, or at least on subpages of the same page. Another thing I find annoying is when you mouse over "our girls" or "our boys" and then it just lists the names, and you have to click each name to see one dog, then go back and click another name to see another. I can't tell from their names whether or not I want to look at them, and making me search through all of them to see if I like the look of them is inefficient. A better way to do it is to have all the dogs of each gender listed on a page with basic details for each dog, then make them clickable. That way you can see them all and then decide which one you want to have a closer look at. Each dog should have stacked photos but also everyday photos, and not just titles, but a description of the dog's temperament and likes/dislikes would be nice. Not a must, but sometimes I see breeders websites where the dog seems like it's just breeding stock, not a valued member of the family. Also, I once saw a European breeders website where they had listed the titles and health scores of each dog's parents and siblings too (which weren't owned by the breeder), and for the siblings that hadn't been tested it said so. I liked that because it suggests that the breeder is keeping an eye on the line and cares a lot about breeding healthy dogs. Separate litters on separate subpages would be good, rather than listing them all on the same page. Photos of the parents are a must when listing litters. If there are galleries, each dog should have its own, or at least have it organised in some way with descriptions so you know what you're looking at. That's all I can think of right now. But overall the site should be easy to navigate, look nice (i.e. same design and font size/type on every page, not a different background colour on each page and whatever font they thought looked nice on each page) and volunteer more information than needed.

We got a cat shaped urn with a plaque on it, it says "{pet's name} - leaving paw prints on our hearts". When they picked up our cat after he died we got several brochures with the different urns we could choose as well as different plaques, or we could customise one if we wanted. They also cut a lock of his hair, got his paw prints and they gave us a certificate of cremation. It took about a week to get it back and it cost us about $400, but they were great. The urn is very decorative and it's on display on a shelf.

I did most of the steps at home. I found it good for improving their sit/stays around distractions, but not sure how it's going to help reactive dogs out in the real world. Even if you can get them to sit around other dogs, then what? The dog can't sit every time there's something scary around, or if he can, it will have fixed the problem only while he's sitting. Most dogs are more reactive when they're moving than when they're put in a stationary position. So I don't get how it's supposed to work (but that could just be me). I would use it for obedience work, but for a reactive dog I would be using desensitisation and BAT.

I would recommend you work with a trainer. 2 years of training without progress is a long time, and something must be wrong somewhere. And just curious, why would you breed a dog with fear issues?

I don't quite get the comment about not wanting to get a trainer for them because they're small...? I run my own dog training business, and I work with big dogs and small dogs, I probably get just as many small dogs as big dogs, and basic training is the same for all of them.

That's incredibly rude, and I wouldn't even try to argue with them. Just nod and smile and say "oh well". And of course make sure your dog doesn't interact with them, wash him and brush him before hand, sweep the floors etc, but it's your house so if they don't like dogs inside, tough titties.

And learn to walk without lifting your feet too much so you don't step on them :laugh: Yep, that an accepting that it will take twice as long to get anywhere inside the house due to the dogs in front of my feet :)