deltoid

Thanks for the advice. She was from a breeder. We are going to remove the mats when we are home and just use containment / a close eye on her. I'm happy to say we are making some progress. She hasn't wee'd on the concrete outside since I started this thread. The tiny 50c pees have also stopped since I started the thread. I think they are more a mental thing with her than physical. That said if it happens again I will take her to the Vet for a checkup. She has gone from stuffing around for ages and then weeing when I take her out on a Lear to going straight away. We've gone from several accidents in a night to just one. So we will keep working on it and hopefully she will continue to make similar progress. As for access to outside, unfortunately our house is raised off the ground and the dogs still haven't mastered going down the stairs. So even with a doggy door they won't go downstairs. It is our intention to install a doggie door once they can master the stairs though

Taking her to the vet early next week. I've been taking her out on a lead and she is improving. Only one accident yesterday. We used mats for our other dog and he got the hang of things. Eventually he outgrew it though and prefers to hold it until we take him out As for nit using them. Do you think removing them when we are at home will help? She still can't hold it for a full work day (well she has done it once or twice) so I was thinking of putting them down for that. Just to be safe. I still leave a mat down for the other dog who uses it when he simply can't hold it any longer (usually this only rarely happens if something has upset his stomach)

* Regarding the puppy pads, she does know she is supposed to use them. She does use them a lot but she also goes on the floor (she probably goes 2/3 times on the mat and the rest on the floor). * I've been taking her out on a lead and hopefully she is catching on with that. * As for the dribbling. It isn't as though she doesn't know she is going. It is just that some times she goes and leaves a 50c piece size pee on the ground. * She was desexed about 3 weeks ago, I didn't mention the toilet training problems at the time, I figured it was just a puppy thing. Should I book her in for a checkup? * On the same topic, twice this week she has gone to the toilet in her bed. Once on Monday she wee'd in it. And then tonight she pooed in it. She has never done this before and we were home both times. I'm not sure what has suddenly triggered this. As for training, we contain her in a room of her own when we aren't home, also when we are home and are doing other things (like eating dinner, etc). So she gets a fair amount of time contained, depends on the day as to if she does all her mess on the mat or on the floor when she is contained.

We have a 6.5 metho old silky terrier female. She still isn't fully house trained. We use puppy pads and when we are home we take her out regularly. Problems: * Sometimes we will take her out, she will stuff around and eventually come back inside then pee straight away * we take her out and she pees then 15min later she pees inside and lets out a tiny little dribble * when we take het outside 80% or the time she will run off and pee on the concrete instead of the grass. Any ideas what to do? It seems to depend on her mood. When inside it is 50/50 as to whether she will use the puppy pad or just go where she pleases. I'm thinking of taking het out on a lead and treat her when she goes on the grass. I know she has the bladder control as some days she is great.

We have two silky terriers so I don't think it is companionship issue. That is a good point. His eyebrows are getting pretty long. I don't think they are long enough to get into the way of his vision though but I will try and give them a trim, being a little dog maybe they are getting in the way when looking up.

The barking at birds on the grass is actually pretty cute. Our younger one does this. She'll keep her distance from them but just sit there growling and letting out the occasional almost non-audible bark. Then she will build her courage and decide she can get closer to them and the bird will move and she will run back to where she started. I did raise the question with the trainer at puppy school if the dog is going to make the association that barking equals treats but he said so long as I get the dog to give me his attention, do a command and then click the dog will realise he is getting treats for listening to me. Not for barking. As for telling him off. To be honest we do not do this at all. We've been going down the positive re-enforcement path since we got him and it has worked well curbing all his other bad habits. Pretty much if he is doing something we don't like we ignore the behaviour. If it is something which is self fulfilling though (like chewing or barking) we distract him to do something else. I'll keep working on it and report back on if it improves.

To me ,( i may be wrong), this sounds like a " I can see something I'm not at all comfortable with .. I don't quite know what it is ..it may be unfriendly" vocalisation ..rather than 'warning you' .. Then when it comes closer and he can smell/see it's a human- he is all ready to be friendly I think you are on to something there. He does a similar thing with dogs. If they are at a distance and he can't get to them he growls and barks. But if he is allowed to get up close to them (even sniffing through a fence) he wags his tail a million miles an hour. I'm starting to notice some progress. Last night he heard a dog bark so he went to the door and let out a few barks then walked over to me and stared until I asked him to sit. So he seems to be associating that I want him to come over to me when he barks. I will read up on teaching him to speak/shush and start on that too. On the 'unsure of himself' topic. What can I do to help him with that? Is it a socialisation thing? Usually every weekend or every second weekend he gets to meet with another puppy either at puppy school (we take him to a post-pre-school course), dog park, play with a friend's dog or just who he meets on his walks. He also has another little silky at home with him who he gets on with like a house on fire (they are currently separated when we aren't home and we do training/walks/play separately with each of them. She is also very well behaved, she does not bark however except when there are birds on the grass in the backyard.

Breed: Silky Terrier Age: 8 months Training: He is very well behaved and we do daily training with him to which he responds well Problem: Barking when alerted by noises. Previously he'd bark in the yard when he heard the neighbourhood dogs barking. We'd go outside with a treat and lure him over to us and get him to do a few commands then take him inside. In the past week the barking has started to increase and is happening when he is inside as well. I want to get on top of this as soon as possible. The neighbours said they don't hear him during the day when we are at work. It seems as though he goes on high alert when we are at home as he feels a need to protect us. He is very good with strangers and visitors and loves to get pats from them. On occasion when out on a walk if he sees a stranger in the distance he will grow and let out one or two small barks to warn me. When they come closer though he will wag his tail excitedly wanting a pat.

I have a length of rope which I drag around and he will chase that and grab on and try and wrestle it away from me (he is very good with releasing it when I ask him to). So I usually run around with that or spin it in circles and he will run around me chasing it. In fact, he will play fetch outside most of the time if I throw the rope. Just being rope I can only throw it a couple of metres and even then he just trots over to it. He doesn't really run for it. I guess I will just keep trying with him.

I've got a 7mth old Silky Terrier. If I get a ball or toy and throw it around inside he will play fetch with me, even when I throw the ball off into another room he will trot off and go find it then prance back into the room proud as punch and give me the ball. However as soon as I take it outside he doesn't know what to do. I get him excited for the ball and just throw it a metre or two infront and he will usually go over to it. Sniff it and walk off. He is an inside dog so the backyard is a fun place when he gets to go out (when we are home we let him go out there as much as he wants) Do you have any tips? Would be good to be able to play fetch outside to give him a run around as the only way I can make him run around at the moment is to run around with him and sadly he has a greater energy reserve than I do.

Talk to you vet. That said, my dog developed a cough about 3 days after being desexed. He had a slight wheeze and would cough if he got excited or exerted himself too much) My vet said it would have been irritation caused by the tube they put down his throat and to just keep and eye on him. Within a couple of days it went away.

Have you talked to your neighbours yet? If not, do so. I was worried about the noise our pup was making and apologiesed to the neighbours in advance. They both told me they had never heard the noise (one didn't realise we had a dog). We are in a house though but the houses are close to the fence lines and thin walls. As for the rest. Do like others say, you have to work through it. Don't go to them when they cry, just make sure they are in a safe place where they can't hurt themselves if they fret. Things will improve. I had similar anxiety when we got our pup and it'd cry. I just started putting in my headphones and listening to music to drown out the cries. A week of tough love and the crying / whailing stopped

My dog doesn't really like interceptor. When he was on sentinel he would happily eat it but not the interceptor. When we first got him we used sentinel and if ever we found a flea on him we'd give him a capstar tablet

Thanks for the tips guys. I was previously using Sentinal Spectrum however changed to advantix / interceptor, I think because of the tick prevention. Talking to my vet though she said it is very rare that she sees any dogs in our area affected with ticks. Are there any other disadvantages using sentinal over a advantix/interceptor combo?

What flea treatment do you use? We were used to use Sentinal however the vet told us that it will not kill adult fleas, instead it just kills the eggs to stop the breeding cycle. So we bought something called Capsal (I am probably remembering that name wrong) and basically if we found an adult flea on our little guy we'd give him the tablet it'd kill any fleas on him within 24 hours. We've since changed to advantix as it kills the adult fleas as well as stopping the breeding cycle.

What do people use to control flea's / worms in their dogs. We have a Silky Terrier and use advantix & interceptor once a month. Just wondering what other people use and if there is a more cost effective solution (I need to get some more of both so was going to try and see if I could get it cheaper online).

Yeah, we've introduced him to the neighbours on a couple of occasions. Usually he will bark when they are doing something near the fence and he doesn't recognise the sound (like for example if they are gardening. Sometimes when I'm having trouble settling him down they will pop their head over and he will stop once he realises the sound was coming from them. There are two dogs across the street which always bark at him when I take him for walks. Now as a result, if he is outside and they start barking he will run over to the fence (he can't get into the front yard but he can still see the dogs through the fence and will bark at them. I'll keep walking on it. He won't come even if I use a treat to lure him when he starts barking.

Our 6 month old Silky Terrier puppy has recently started to bark at the neighbours. He doesn't do it all the time, just occasionally when they are doing something near the fence and making noises he is unfamiliar with. He doesn't do this much but just wondering what the correct approach should be to teach him it isn't right. I don't mind him having a bark or two to alert us but he needs to know when to stop. So far I try luring him away and give some commands but that only works 50% of the time. So I've changed to picking him up and taking him inside whenever he barks at them (he is an inside dog so he likes being outside, we leave the back door open when he is outside so if he wanted to come back inside he is able to so it isn't a boredom / separation issue).

When we got our little guy done. He had a bit of wheezing which we thought was just him whimpering because it was hurting (as he'd usually do it when we picked him up or he walked). But then when he started to feel better and started running around we noticed the wheezing getting worse and it causing him to cough when he got worked up. I talked to the vet and they said it was most likely caused by them incubating him for the surgery and sometimes it can cause irritation of the airways. After about a week it stopped. It didn't seem to affect his actions or temperament. Just something to be mindful about, I was pretty concerned when he started coughing.

glad to hear it is normal behaviour. I already do the training in the middle of the park so I will keep that and reward more when he ignores other people / dogs Thanks for the advice

Our Silky Terrier puppy is now a week shy of 5 months old and things have been going great with him. Couple of socialisation questions. 1. When people visit our house, he gets quite excited. He isn't much of a jumper so he doesn't jump up on people which is good but his tail wags at a million miles an hour, if he hasn't been to the bathroom in awhile sometimes he will let out a few drops of excitement wee and generally he will just not leave them alone for a few minutes. He doesn't really cause that much trouble to be honest and we tell people to ignore him until he settles down and usually he will calm down within a minute or two. Is there anything I can do to help him with the excitement peeing / being super excited when they first show up. Usually if I'm expecting someone I will take him out to pee before they come but when someone comes around unexpectedly I can't do that. 2. He likes to play chase. I don't play it with him as I assume I shouldn't be teaching him to chase people, however whenever kids come around they like to run around and he likes to chase them. Is there anything wrong with this (he just wants to play but I can see how it could be scary to a child or someone afraid of dogs)? What steps can I take to stop him doing it. My nephew (7) is fine with him and will usually run around a bit letting the puppy chase him, then will stop and issue a command to the puppy. Then will praise him and run around again. I supervise when the two of them are playing and the puppy doesn't get out of hand. He doesn't jump up or nip or show any signs of aggression and responds really well to my nephew's commands (even though he doesn't do the hand signals quite right all the time). 3. When meeting other dogs out on our walks he gets very excited and pulls on the lead. If we pass a house with other dogs, even when they are barking and being aggressive towards him he will ignore them (only once has he barked back). When approaching houses which I know have dogs which will bark at him I generally show him a lot of praise and give him treats for keeping in line. So he is good with that, however if someone else is out walking their dog and they pass within a couple of metres of us he will pull on the lead and usually jump up on his back legs (because the lead kind of pulls him up that way). He doesn't bark or show aggression but he really wants to get over to them and say hi. Not all owners want to stop and chat though and some other dogs I don't really want him meeting when he is that excited (being a little dog I don't want him being that excited when meeting a big breed in case he shows any disrespect and they take offence). For the times the other owner stops and the two dogs have a sniff of each other he is usually good at first but then he gets excited and lets out some barks (the same barks he does with me when we are playing and he wants me to throw a ball, etc). So I assume he is barking at the other dog to come play with him. What steps can I take to correct these behaviours. I always take a bunch of liver treats with me on our walks and treat him when he is doing things correctly / use them when I stop at the park and do training with him. Usually if we are passing on a footpath and he is getting too excited I will take him off to the side of the path and get him to sit down and by using treats attempt to get him to remain calm. This usually doesn't work though. 4. Pretty much the same thing as the last point, when out on walks and seeing other people he usually gets excited and pulls on the lead to go see them. He doesn't do it with everyone, usually he will mainly do it if there are children. Again he doesn't show signs of aggression. More just really excited to go meet them. However I usually try and avoid it as when he is on his lead he will pull on it which makes his front legs come off the ground and I can see that it could be scary to a small child so I generally avoid letting him meet children when out on our walks. Any ideas on correcting this one? Sorry for the mass of questions. I think they are all quite related to be honest, the problem being that he gets too excited when meeting other people / dogs. I assume someone is going to ask how much socialisation he gets. For his first 2 or so months with us we had lots of people meet him (I think my wife calculated something like 300 people he met within the first 3 months). Since then I take him on regular walks and we take him out with us quite a lot to get him used to sights and sounds. Often when my wife needs something from the shops I'll take him and just walk him around outside the shop so he gets to see lots of people, etc. He has also met other dogs at puppy preschool and also other family members dogs who he gets along well with. He has a little puppy friend as well who he plays really well with.

I'm looking into pet insurance at the moment. So far Medibank Private's Silver Paw plan seems pretty good for the price. Appears to cover all accidents and sickness and doesn't cost too much. Anybody had experience with them? Any other recommendations?

Haha, yeah when I say 'dragging' I don't mean literally. He is only a little guy, I don't want to hurt him. I gently apply pressure so he doesn't get a jolt and then gently pull along and he walks with it, I don't drag him along the ground :rolleyes:

You kinda also have to make that you're more fun and more interesting to follow too. So, yeah, talking to him, praising him what an awesome pup he is and how awesome he is walking along (he doesn't understand you but he understand your enjoyment)... when you stop, pat and praise him for doing an awesome job walking and then reward him for some "free" time. Yeah, I have noticed when I praise him he will look up at me with a happy look on his face like "YEAH, I'm doing it, I'm awesome" but then he gets distracted.

Ok, so dragging him away is fine? I've been doing this most of the time anyway then using the lure when he is really persistent. But he is a little dog and in a harness so I can easily pull him away I just wasn't sure if that was the right approach or not.