iBoz

I made my own as well, just out of black calico so it was pretty cheap - and I am definitely not a good sewer!

I would love o say that I trained my dog to do this but I really don't know. We always stopped the play when he got rough with other dogs when he was a puppy. So he probably understood that it wasn't acceptable. But my elkhound continues to surprise me. Sometime back we met a 10 year old bull terrier at the dog park. My dog did the play bow, gently coaxed her to play and within minutes they were playing with each other. My elkhound was very gentle with her. This bull terrier's owner got teary eyed and said his dog hasnt played for about 4 years and he was so happy that my elkhound could make her want to play. I can't take credit for that. That's so cute! :) What a sweetie your dog must be. I do find dog interactions sooo interesting...!

For those that say their dogs adjust their play styles to suit different playmates - is this something that you had a hand in teaching your dog or do they just seem to do it naturally? I ask because it's something mine doesn't always do naturally (e.g. this laying down and letting puppies all over them err, nope - haven't seen it here!) but I would love to teach him! :) He's quite good if a dog doesn't want to play at all but if they give off playful vibes then it's on - size no barrier! Obviously, I know it'll be about training but I was wondering whether someone has been able to teach their dog and then their dog monitors their own play for the most part even if they didn't do this previously :)

That is soooo fabulous! :laugh: What a cool way to show their amazingness!

Bozzie would love to go for a run too!

We're no training experts but we taught our whippet to speak pretty well. He practically never barks so we started off because we realised that he often barked if you blow right in his face. So we would say 'speak' then blow, he'd bark and we would praise and treat him. :-) Oh, we also did an action with our hand when we said speak. I think that helped him at the start to be clear on what we wanted so we didn't have to blow on his face for very long! :) I usually do say speak but sometimes I just do the hand command. People love it as a trick if you go "How much is that doggy in the window?" *hand signal" "Dog barks!" My partner really wanted to teach him speak just for fun but I said only on the condition that we teach him quiet! We haven't really had to coz he still barely ever barks (or I should say, we haven't had the opporunity to teach quiet, coz he barely ever barks!) but I have noticed that sometimes he will tend to bark very occasionally now if he wants attention, a toy that is stuck somewhere, or another dog to play with him. I think he is a tad confused why we aren't cheering for him being so clever in those situations :laugh: So, if had a more barky dog then I would be prepared to totally sort the quiet command! He does the cutest thing though sometimes where the first time you say speak, he does a little sneeze (or sometimes a yawn!) Like he is clearing his throat - so cute!

My childhood pet was called Dumbo. He was a whippet/jack russell and the story has it that he had giant ears as a puppy. As an adult dog though, his ears were very normal sized! Before that, my family also had a basenji called Keno. After the lottery game. The cat my 9 year old self named was called Fluffy. She was.... you guessed it, very fluffy! :laugh: I quite like animals named after food for some reason. Not really out there, but my dog is called Boston.. aka Boston Bun. But we often call him Boz or Bozzie

I was starting to think that about Bozzie too! He takes ages.. although it is a bit of a process. Give him pigs ear, he runs away with it and looks at it, licking delicately (2 mins). Then he will go off to hide it, spend a while looking for a prime spot (3 mins). Leave it there (2 hours). Get suspicious and go to move to a different spot (5 mins). Leave it there (3 days). Repeat process numerous times but adding in a bit of chewing in between. No wonder it takes so long!

I have to board my dog mid-year for 2 weeks so I've been looking them up lately and I must say that your planned kennel sounds fab. :-) All my top things are: - that the dog will be comfortable e.g air-con + heating, comfy beds - that the staff actually care about the dog (I think the report card thing sounds cool) - that it is safe and they won't get out, get an injury/illness When we boarded ours for a couple of days last year they put him in the 'quiet dog area'. It was all different sized dogs (e.g. there was also a greyhound and a super old smally fluffy dog in there) but they were just in a separate sort of area from all the other dogs. You could still hear the barking a bit but nowhere near as loud. I was happy with that place but they don't have heating/cooling hence why I am sussing out my options. When I called another kennel recently and mentioned the 'quiet dog area', they reacted like it was a bit of a nutter idea. So, even though that's not a total definite for me (kind of just a bonus), their reaction made me feel like they don't think about the dog's personalities/enjoyment at all and that did turn me off a bit.

Probably the weirdest thing that my dog will try to steal is earrings... As in, tiny little stud ones. I'm somewhat impressed that he can pick them up in his mouth without swallowing them (which luckily hasn't happened yet... that I know of!)

haha - you might feel a bit crazy but I actually think that's a really good way to go about it! It lets the other owner know what you're thinking without making a big deal about it and just focuses on the logical side of it "you're a bit big, he's a bit small". And in all honesty, dogs totally understand english anyway, right?!? :laugh: That's good that your park has some signs at least. I've only been to two before and they both had none which I think is really weird... Although I reckon you'd be right in saying that some people don't really want to learn.. sigh... but if we make it S.I.M.P.L.E then maybe more people will take notice...

:laugh: Oh, the poor postie! If ever a cliche was true... ;) I'm yet to meet someone my dog doesn't like.... I'd probably suss them out a bit more than usual if he didn't like someone though.. hehe.

donatella: ohh, I know. ahh..family, hey! It was actually ages ago coz since then I haven't taken my dog where theirs would be but they seemed to have the view that "oh, they'll sort it out and he'll let him know if he doesn't like it". Luckily, my dog is very gentle in that kind of scenario but I was like, err.. he's almost four times the size of your dog.. I don't think so! :laugh: the mind boggles... But really, I think that sort of thing happens every now and then, like in Odin-Genie's scenario, and in that situation the onus is put on the owner of the bigger dog instead of it being a mutual thing. My situation isn't really related but in terms of a dog park encounter, I really do think signage would be useful in enforcing the 'rules'. Do any councils actually have something like that? Like, council decided 'rules of etiquette' that are visible at the park?

:laugh: I think this is what I need to be like. When I first got my dog, I had never heard of a clicker and only knew of it through reading on this forum. I wish I'd used it from the get go because it makes thing sooo much easier. I want to get one for everywhere like you said so that I can use it ALL the time. The amount of times I go "oh, where's the clicker?!!?" doh. Was most concerned the other day when one side 'clicked in' and wouldn't click out again! :laugh: p.s. I only saw one of her youtube clips last week and they are verrry clear so I think i'll be watching many more :)

The dog park solution is simple do not allow your dog small/med/large to play with/approach unknown dogs. I have large dogs 35kg and I have small dogs so I have to manage the play and exercise needs of both sizes on a daily basis, my large dogs do not play rough games with the littlies nor do they intentionally slam or paw them. However when the large dogs are up for rough and tumble amongst the selves it would be easy for one of the smaller ones to be slammed, usually they are so disinterested they simply stay away. When we are playing ball, tug or encouraging other boisterous excitable games it is done separate to the littlies to avoid accidents. A simple unintentional collision at speed is dangerous and we work to avoid it. It would be foolish and irresponsible of me not to put in places rules to prevent such things, the same goes for interaction with other dogs and it is up to me again to safeguard my own dogs and those of others. Oh yes, I totally agree with what you've said and it sounds like you do a great job of managing having such a variation in sizes for your dogs. Not for the faint hearted, I don't think! Did your dogs automatically seem to 'know' that the tiny ones are fragile or is that something that you've taught them? When I said the problem of tiny dogs versus big dogs, I was more meaning the feeling that it an 'us' versus 'them' when it might be more productive if dog owners could negotiate the situation between themselves so that everyone is safe without either feeling put out. I actually really think dog parks should have lots of signs around to promote this sort of thing, along with rules at the gate (some probably already do that). I don't go that often, but sometimes people at the dog park seem to think I'm a bit strange if a tiny dog comes in and I either pop my dog on the lead or we go to the other side of the park. Maybe if there were signs with illustrations showing scenarios in a low key way that would promote the correct action. For example, an illustration showing a teeny dog in amongst huge dogs playing. Then a caption saying, "I might watch you guys from a distance because I'm too little for this!" (or something funny to make light of it). Then it would normalise that sort of separating behaviour without making the seperater seem like a nutter. :laugh: I know in an ideal world, you don't need this sort of thing (and hey, we probably shouldn't need 'no littering signs either')but realistically, not all dogs at the dog park are impeccably behaved and when negotiating public spaces together everyone has different ideas and sometimes it's tough to know who's idea should be number one! :)