suziwong66

Wilbur and I had an impromptu meet and greet at PetStock with a Beagle named Kevin, the other day. Kev, was a lovely old boy and he was patient with our very excited young boy. Now, Kevin isn't a name i'd choose, but it suited this old boy.

Wilbur is 11 weeks old and we've had him for 3 weeks. He's still toilet training and i have no idea how long until he will be fully trained. I find it difficult to try and quantify a % of being toilet trained. ATM i'd consider our situation to be 'toilet timing'. I make sure i take him out to evacuate after he wakes, after he eats, after he drinks etc And we've still had a few accidents. On the other hand, he's developing good lengths of holding on when he's in his crate over night. he doesn't wake me per se; rather i wake up as he becomes restless (usually after 6 hr of sleep). I assume he needs to toilet and take him out; he always evacuates. Im not sure how he'd be if he were crated in another room and i didn't hear his restlessness. I don't have any expectations of when Wilbur will be toilet trained.

Wilbur was vaccinated at 6 weeks and then 10 weeks and his booster is due at 14 weeks. His breeder's vet did the 6 week vaccination and then had 12 weeks as the next vaccination due date. When i went for our arrival vet check we were advised to get him done at 10 weeks and then 14 weeks. I have no idea why the intervals changed.

i have an auger juicer that separates the juice from the pulp so that the pulp is totally dry. I mix them both together with mince that i have either bought or minced myself from chicken frames etc it's a wettish mix but not dripping with juice. I weight out the mix and put it in freezer bags that i flatten then freeze. hope this helps.

Wilbur was vaccinated with a c4 at 6 weeks. Then a c5 at 10 weeks (was 10.4 kg and we were told he needed to lose 500g; so we've cut back a little on food). He's due to have his 3rd and final shots at 14 weeks and then will be okay to go out and about two weeks later at 16 weeks The breeders vet had marked on our vaccination/health card that the 2nd shots should be at 14 weeks; not sure what that was about??

mine is black and grey too.

i ordered this book based on your recommendation a while back. :D Waiting patiently for it to arrive.

Wibur sleeps in his crate at night next to my bed. During the day, i'm home with him and only leave him in his crate (no more than 2 hrs) if i have to go out. He also sleeps in his crate during the day (in between being outside til he's tuckered out); it's situated in the lounge room. He also has a bed in the lounge room that he is allowed to sleep on during the day when his behaviour is calm. If he is having trouble settling down then he is crated for day sleeps. The house rule for behaviour is calm behaviour inside at all times and crazies and rough play are for outside. To encourage this, his softy toys are inside and all rough & tumble and exercise toys are outside for him to play with. ATM his crate is a PP40 travel crate. Soon we will replace that with a 42" wire crate on lockable wheels that will be situated in the kitchen. He will be crated at night for his entire life although when he's completely toilet trained the crate door will be left open and he will be trained to ring a bell at the back door to let us know to let him out.

my rule of thumb for our dogs has always been to have two syllable names (for easy calling); but it' purely personal choice. I like your name choices thus far Clementine shortens to Clemmy really well and Scarlet is a nice easy name to call out.

I smell like a wet dog in other news, Mr Smelly Pants now smells like oatmeal :D Makeover pics to come soon :D

I can't offer any suggestions regarding your first two problems. However for the third problem, i'd go with your suggestion of taking her out on a lead. We do this with Wilbur as he was born in winter in cold country Victoria and had lead an indoor life until he was 6 weeks old. Given the preference he'd toilet on our rocks rather than the grass. So we don't give him the preference and still put him on a lead to toilet outside (10 1/2 weeks). We'll continue toileting him on a lead until i feel confident that he will always go on the grassed area. Good luck

oh what a lovely tribute. Vale Jake

Hi Tara, Wilbur settled with us really well. No night time crying etc he was quiet for the first night after he got off the plane, but by the next morning Mr Naughty Pants had arrived Looking back Wilbur's settling in has been more about adjusting to all the new sights, sounds, tastes, rules etc which he's achieved really well. he had his first puppy school lesson today and was great....a little stressed till he settled down. Wilbur has had some difficulty adjusting to the car, but we're persevering. This week we're going to take him out in the car every day to help him develop confidence. Some time this week we're going to move his crate from beside my bed to the end of the bed I don't want to move him out of my bedroom til he can hold his bladder the whole night. While he's in my room, he wakes me when he becomes unsettled and needs to go out for a loo break. if i move him out of my room i won't hear his movement in the crate. That's good, I'm not sure what to expect, it's been a long time since I've had a pup. I'll have my L's on again for a while I think. If you don't mind me asking who was the breeder you get Wilbur off? I'm still waiting on my new black little girl, but would love a choccy one in the future as well. We chose Ruth Bone (Boskyrhomb) breeders of choc labs in Ballarat. I've got my 'Ls' on for the 3rd time it was 14 years between puppies for us and 10 years before that! I wouldn't hesitate to get a pup off Ruth again if i were looking for a chocolate. My OH says he'd like another lab in a year/18 months time and suggested a yellow like our last lab. Since i'm the primary puppy caregiver/trainer, we'll wait and see ;) I'd probably only have another puppy if i was at home again to train and care for it. I've been very lucky with all three of our puppies as I happen to be off work when each of them came home. I'm having a gap year this year, so the timing was great. Looking forward to seeing pics of your new black little girl soon :D

it sounds like you & puppy are making great progress. I don't always get a reliable sit from Wilbur when i open the crate door if he's asleep. He tends to roll on his back, stretch, yawn and just look at me But, in the morning when we do our crate training session he's really consistent. I'm doing a morning session with the crate every day. I open the crate, put my arm in high up into the right hand corner (the crate has a left side hinge opening). I figure, eventually he'll be consistent about getting up into a sit position every time i open the crate...patience is a virtue :D The Susan Garrett 'crate games' dvd didn't give any suggestions for puppies that don't always sit up when the door opens so i'm not sure what else to do other than keep practicing.

I'm not working on a schedule, but we've had Wilbur for 2 weeks now (10 weeks & 3 days old) and over the last two weeks we've been consistently working on: sitting at the door & waiting, car travel, down, toileting outside, giving toys on request, bite inhibition, going in the crate, sitting to be let out of crate, coming out of crate & sitting &, prolonged eye contact (we've started puppy school as well). Everything is at differing levels of competency. I personally don't think your pup is too young to begin developing the skills as long as the expectation of competency isn't too high. I don't think the skills (including self control) are learned in a linear fashion; perhaps more along the lines of two steps forward and one back. That's my take on it; for what it's worth

Hi Tara, Wilbur settled with us really well. No night time crying etc he was quiet for the first night after he got off the plane, but by the next morning Mr Naughty Pants had arrived Looking back Wilbur's settling in has been more about adjusting to all the new sights, sounds, tastes, rules etc which he's achieved really well. he had his first puppy school lesson today and was great....a little stressed till he settled down. Wilbur has had some difficulty adjusting to the car, but we're persevering. This week we're going to take him out in the car every day to help him develop confidence. Some time this week we're going to move his crate from beside my bed to the end of the bed I don't want to move him out of my bedroom til he can hold his bladder the whole night. While he's in my room, he wakes me when he becomes unsettled and needs to go out for a loo break. if i move him out of my room i won't hear his movement in the crate.

Vale Emma you were a shining star. Pretty Miss Emma, your pain is so raw and your love for Emma so deep. Thank you for sharing Emma's time with you; even the sad end.

I stand corrected. Looks like The Conversation . . . which published the article . . . is independent academic something-or-other, started through support from Founding Partners: ANU, Monash, Melbourne, UTS, UWA, plus CSIRO. Still looks like the bar has been set low for PhD research. There is no such "bar" that is set regarding a research question. Rather, researchers, Phd candidate or otherwise, usually only have to illustrate a gap in the current literature for their topic to add relevance to the current body of knowledge.

Oh gosh, such a sad sad day for you. Letting them pass in your loving arms is both a privilege and a curse. Vale Hamish

Thanks to everyone for their input. I have since found a vet that i'm comfortable with. Additionally his wife, who also works in the surgery, breeds chocolate labs so they're very in tune with us as lab owners. Had i not already paid and begun puppy classes with our original vet service, i would have taken puppy school with the new vet...On the upside, the new vet has a hydrotherapy pool & underwater treadmill so Wilbur will be swimming as soon as his vaccinations give him full protection :D The visit today was really successful. I wasn't: a) marketed to re dry food b) strongly encouraged to have Wilbur desexed asap c) strongly encouraged to submit Wilbur to having any unnecessary surgical procedures. I'd say that was a win win win Again, thank you all for your input.

A small video snipped taken today; Wilbur's 10th week birthday.

Im also getting pup in a weeks time have you found out which puppy is yours yet, Mason2009?

Have you been to the Jam Factory part of SALA yet? i'm aiming to get there this week sometime.

You’re kidding me, I thought lashton was spot on, the any new person that comes to this forum is guaranteed abuse. The anonymity of a forum allows weak people a certain strength that they otherwise would not be able to express. If I had listened to people on this forum before I got good advice from one member, I would have given up one of my two puppy female Staffy littermates. Who know's where she would have ended up, possibly abused, cold and scared rather than the warm loving home she shares with her sister now. I was given advice according to breeders "best practice" from people with no idea who I am or who my dogs are. I do understand why I was given this advice, but you need to think outside your own little worlds when giving advice. A classic example http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/129227-cant-wait/page__p__2469201__fromsearch__1#entry2469201 , scroll down to my post. Forcing people away from this forum will not reduce the number of rescue dogs it will increase it. If you educate one person through thoughtful and good advice, this will be passed on to others, if you alienate them the number of people getting the message is exponentially reduced. +1 especially the first two sentences.

such a sad sad loss for your and your daughter . Nala, clearly was a wonderful gal. Vale Nala