suziwong66

treats and a long line. Treat when the toys is returned but help the dog along with the return using the long line.

i have a high viz coat with a big "L" on the shoulder and then "please ignore - in training" i had to import it from the UK and to be honest, it doesn't stop people because they don't read it. It works to some degree but there's always one that either doesn't read it or ignores it.

i don't think the batteries support a full day of use, so aren't really suitable for the doggy nanny-cam set up; i get a little over an hour out of the battery in the GoPro

yes, you've got to tighten them quite a bit and i think if they get wet often they'll wear quite quickly and aren't replaceable. The quality of the harness could be better for the price imo

our 22 week old lab pup is 18kg and plays like a bomb with a 2yo 34kg Doberman! But out 3yo 32kg lab boy doesn't enjoy her rough as guts play style so i think it might be worth considering each scenario separately.

i don't keep toys in the crate as our labby girl will play not sleep: my only concession is a large cuddly stuffy or soft cuddly snuggle pillow to cuddle up and/or mouth

for beside your bed, i'd buy a smaller one and then upgrade when puppy grows out of it. A. because i don't have a lot of room in my bedroom for a full sized crate and b. you don't have to cordon off half the crate. some pups will evacuate in a larger crate. mine never did, but some do and to stop that, you must make the crate living area smaller. edited to add: can you borrow a travel crate from a friend till you purchase one? seriously, your life will be so much better when puppy sleeps next to you crated.

for my 3yo boy lab i've got their 42" crate on framed wheels and for my 21 week old girl i've got the next size down. if and when she grows out of it i'll get the next one on wheels; i really like the mobility of the ones on wheels. Additionally, i didn't start my two off in their big crates; they both started off in a pp40 travel crate. it got too hot for my girl so i moved her into the wire crate quite quickly. i put pet Snooza futons in the base of the wire crates because they're really easy to wash and dry in the dryer. Vebo delivery is usually about a week; not long at all and certainly less than a fortnight in my experience.

vebo pets; best and cheapest crates around. They're in Sydney but have an online shop an eBay shop and will freight anywhere in the country. I've bought all my crates and ex pens from them. they've got thicker wire on their crates; excellent quality.

i'm a raw feeder and i'd drop the dry if my pup refused it; as long as he's getting the appropriate ratio of bone/meat/offal etc You could try putting the kibble in a food dispenser toy. My youngest is still on a small amount of kibble and it's gratefully received when it comes in a bob-a-lot, Kong wobble, tug-a-jug, or a plain old Kong. I had to teach her to use each of these toys and even more so the Kong but now she's as happy as a lark when she knows there's something in there to get out.

The pocket rocket, Laiken had a big day out today; First i took her to Adelaide Dog to pick up food and she had a mighty rough and fun play with Vlad (2yo Doberman Pinscher) in the shop - they had a blast and i'm thrilled that we've finally found a dog that is well balanced and will play as rough as she does. Norty Brown Dawg Wilbur doesn't like to play as rough; he prefers the chasey games instead. Then i took her two shops up to the Groomers where, DOLer, GruffLife cut her nails. I've only been able to do it once, the second time we tried, she fought tooth and nail. So, while i'll continue training her to let me cut her nails, i'll take her every couple of weeks to GL to get it done. You wouldn't believe it; she barely put up any fight when Gruff did it in the Groomers Buddy harness! I thought she'd fight hard.

the best way to get some sleep and have a more quiet puppy at night is to crate in your room. Preferably beside your bed at bed height. I did this with my current two labbies for the first few months when they came home and rarely had an issue with crying. Later, when puppy is more settled and developed you can move the crate into the lounge room. I've only just moved our 21 week old labby girl into the lounge room, this week, to encourage her independence and the move was as smooth as silk. No crying, she just went to sleep.

in that pic they do like two adults, but when you see them side by side she still looks like a puppy. Training wise she's made leaps and bounds in terms of self regulation - something i work on quite a bit right from the start. She will now wait to be released at doors and for dinner. This week, i brought them to eat at the same location; previously she was fed at the back door and Wilbur was fed in front of his crate. I don't have a lead on her at meal times anymore; she can self regulate herself really well. She waits to be released (and i'm extending the time for wait); Wilbur gets released first and goes to his bowl next to hers and she waits for her release and then goes straight to her bowl. She usually finishes first and may attempt to nose into his bowl but she recalls away really well - no issues there. It looks quite funny, me with two chocky labbies sitting either side of me looking upward waiting for release. When i ask her to heel; she comes to the heel - i haven't done any real leash work with her yet. I started teaching her to heel when i noticed that she was pulling ahead after she'd been released through the door when we went out to the back yard. She seemed to need another step to help her regulate her behaviour of pulling ahead. She doesn't stay at the heel all the time; she doesn't have the concentration for that but asking her to heel helps her to settle down because she's got a job to do. The leash is still mostly to just keep control when she's around the house. She's great in the car; currently she's in the back seat (Wilbur is in the back of the x-trail). They don't share the back of the car yet; she's still learning to self regulate her behaviour around him and still bites his mouth and ears in play and he can't get away from her in the back of the car so she's on the back seat. when i ask her to drop or sit, she does. I'm about to do some more formal crate training; in and out on command. She drops from the sit and stand position, she sits from the drop and the stand. i'm about to start work on the stand from the drop and sit position. I've recently started to invite her to sit on the lounge in the evening with me; BUT she has to sit and wait to be invited. We walk in, i ask her to sit and wait, i sit down and then when i'm ready i invite her up. She's learning to do it quietly and calmly. Then last night i invited both dogs up; it took her a little longer to settle but she did really well. Wilbur's not thrilled about sharing with her though; mainly because she hogs all the space Her biggest weakness is barking at unknown dogs; we had two misfortunate events when out and about when she was younger. A rather aggressive barky dog behind a fence was quite a scary experience for her when we walked past. Another time a fellow approached us at a cafe with his large dog and refused to move away - of course she reacted to him right in her face. I have been working with her by taking her to visit a fellow DOLer who has a bomb proof dog that will appropriately correct her (Wilbur won't) for rude puppy behaviour and keep calm with her barky reactions. Training starts next month so she'll have much more exposure to strange dogs. I play lots of games to encourage her to come and she's still very receptive to coming without distraction. I'm still doing work with her to create a calm environment when she meets and greets people at home; she settles quite quickly when i throw food distraction on the floor so we're getting closer to her being calmer. When the door bell rings or she hears keys in the door she will run off if allowed; but since she's always on leash in the house, it's easy to control that unwanted behaviour. I ask her to sit and wait and when OH and Miss22 come home, they know to ignore her whether she's in her ex-pen or with me. Very early on i did mat work with her so i could take her to cafe's with me. She progressed really well and when we're out at cafe's now she'll automatically sit under my chair or in between my feet. I still like to take a thin mat with us so she knows where to sit just like i taught her at home. She has a problem with birds so we go down to the river where the swans and ducks are and get her to sit at the edge of the water on the pavement and they swim right up to her. As long as i'm talking to her she'll leave them alone; pigeons at the cafe are a problem that we will need to work on She and wilbur still have supervised play time - it used to be to keep her from annoying the crap out of him but more recently it's to reduce the intensity of their play. Earlier, she would constantly annoy him no end but play sessions have changed in dynamic more recently. Now, she's biting him less (i used to end play when she became bitey) and their play is really fast and rough chasey games. When the intensity becomes too high, i end the game or redirect it to a come session with distraction for Wilbur. This works really well, because Laiken is having 'come' modelled for her and she will nearly always follow him to me for a treat. I still take her out on leash to evacuate; this gives me an opportunity to reinforce toileting on command; she will pretty much pee and poop out in public when i ask. I don't profess to be a skilled dog trainer, but thus far she's developing really nicely. I think she's going to be a wonderful full grown dog.

A momentous night...We have both Norty Brown Dawg Wilbur and his sister the Pocket Rocket, Laiken on the sofa together and they are both calm and asleep...She's 21 weeks old and we still separate them; their play time together is still supervised. She gives him no peace: biting at his mouth, ears and tail and he won't correct her. We've been working toward them being together right from when she came home at 8 weeks. We, prior to her arrival, assumed that he'd be too excited around her - as it turned out she's the challenge I've been training them both separately and together and it's taken a lot of work to have two super crazy labbies together in the house with a good level of calm achieved; I'm super pleased. Wilbur has full house privileges but she's still on-lead and tethered to me when out of her ex pen in the kitchen.

I have an inside Vebo ex pen in the kitchen, a crate in my bedroom and another Vebo ex pen (ourdoor) in the backyard. Pup sleeps in the crate in my room at night, she lives in the ex pen during the day when we're inside and when we go outside she spends time in the outside ex pen. I have an older boy whom is submissive and won't correct our puppy so it's important that she has places where she can be outside, safe and not harassing our boy. If i go out, she's in the inside ex pen. I'm about to buy another outside ex pen to add to the existing one to make it bigger. Once puppy is no longer using the ex pen, i'll use it to cordon off grassy areas that i'm re-grassing; with two labbies there's always areas that need a rest from the pounding paws. I don't give puppies much freedom in the house until they earn it; so crates and pens are a necessity. Any freedom that our pups have, is always supervised, both inside and out of the house.

i love the pics with more than one dog families...i live in hope that SOON, i can get both of my labbies in the one picture frame...but the reality is getting them dressed up and in the same frame is going to be a monumental challenge this year. The puppy still likes to jump all over her brother

I desex my labbies between 18 months to two years old and boy have i had some pressure from vets and vet nurses to get it done early This time round, i had the same discussion with our newest vet. Pup had her final vacc's at 14 weeks and vet said, "i guess the next time we'll see you is at 6 months for desexing?" i said, no you'll see us at around 2 years for that and then explained my reasoning. For the first time ever I didn't get any 'tut-tutting' or scare mongering with disease stats or didactic stance of dog overpopulation etc. It was a sensible discussion based on facts and the pros and cons of leaving it later vs doing it earlier. Vet totally respected my choice and agreed with my justification

Laiken fancy's herself the driver!

Have a look at K9's youtube on them.... brilliant for playing. Where needed good for encouraging drive in dogs too. Kong have a version too; it has replaceable empty stuffies.

they are, aren't they?!! My two love their flirt pole; i also have a leather flirt rag and some leather tugs.

i just bit the bullet and ordered two dvd's; $20 postage *sigh*

Would you mind explaining what you do during the structured time? First we do 5-10 minutes of reinforcing what he already knows. Do each command 3 times ;sit/stay/cone/place/spin/roll over) Then we do 10 minutes on a new trick. Currently we are learning to sit/stay before going for the tennis ball. If he's not getting it, we break it down into smaller steps that he CAN get. We end it with 2 goes on a trick he does well so he's happy and feels like a smart boy. I usually end with 'go to your place' so it gets him where I want him for the evening. I've a list of things to teach him when he gets this new one - I bought '101 Dog Tricks' - it's broken down by difficulty and really good for inspiration. It's really important to throw a new trick in there to wear Ernie out. He's a cocky fellow and learns quickly so I need to ensure he's akways thinking. The next trick will be 'play dead' cos it looks like a hard one. i did the same with my 3yo labby boy and am currently doing the same with my 15week old labby girl; tricks have been a fabulous ways to add to the basic manners that we want from our dogs. I am very big on training for self regulation. Yesterday morning she started learning 'shake' and by the evening i had build in the verbal and hand cues because she got it so quickly. Today i decided i would do a little free shaping with an upside down round washing tub...just to see where it took us. Well, it ended up taking us to back end awareness and she was turning on the tub by the end of the day; i'm happy that this is where ended up because it will eventually be very useful for tight turns i obedience and/or rally o. That's just three to four 5 - 10 minute sessions with breaks for a bit of flirt rag play. After each session she was tired, so she went into her expen for a snooze. In the 7 weeks we've had her she's learned an incredible amount: coming in and out of ex-pen & crate & being leashed up before coming out; sit; drop, the beginnings of roll over, sitting under my chair when we're at cafe's; wait at the door and wait for dinner; release; sleep (trick); shake (trick); eye contact; doing LAT; toilet on command (i was a proud mamma last week when i took her into the CBD and then went down an alley to the gutter and asked her to evacuate and she did ); sitting/dropping nicely on back seat of the car; putting on her harness nicely. I didn't do much rear-end awareness work with Wilbur and it showed today when i introduced a hula hoop for him to jump through so that's what we're doing with him atm

A lot of the information that the breeder is asking you for, is what i gave in the course of an initial (long) phone conversation and then a series of email conversations between my breeder and me before the litter was born and during the first 8 weeks. I wanted an ongoing relationship with any breeder than i bought from; i think it's an important part of buying a pure bred dog. I wanted the breeder to know who i was, about our previous dogs, our lifestyle, our family situation, the physical environment of our current home, my training goals, how we'd care and love any dog they sold us etc I figured anyone worth their salt would want to know as much about me as i wanted to know about them. Ruth (our breeder) has been a wonderful (long distance) friend, mentor and advocate of our breed - we keep in touch via email, text and facebook regularly...and the latter has allowed us to 'meet' other families with dogs from her too. 3.5 years after bringing Wilbur home, we went right back to her to purchase his genetic half sister; Ruth was delighted to send another of her dogs to us. Perhaps, when you speak to breeders you can initiate the discussion and 'offer yourself' so to speak; that way the breeder doesn't have to give you the third degree and only ask questions in areas that you've missed.

The adult appearance (for my two male labbies) was between the second and third year - I now have a bitch puppy who wont' be neutered until she's about 18 months - 2 years and i'm wondering how she'll physically mature in comparison to the boys (one has passed on).

oh how i feel for you and identify with you... At the front door, before guests enter, i give them the 'low-down' on how i want them to interact with the dogs and give explanations regarding rewarding unwanted behaviours. The first thing i ask for is 'no bums on floor = no patting or attention' and move away if you have to disengage. Most people are really good BUT last night we had two doggie loving friends over for dinner. I briefed them at the door...to no avail. I asked them to ignore the puppy in the ex-pen in the kit/dining room where we were going to spend the evening; everything i had asked them to do was ignored. Again, when they wanted to go outside to meet Wilbur i briefed them that they should not give him any attention until bum was on the ground and as soon as bum came up; no attention. I think their ears were painted on They're lovely people but when it comes to dogs the brain switches off. For a short time while outside, i crated Wilbur...one of the guests went over to the crate and started talking to him I told them NOT to approach the ex-pen as we were trying to extinguish jumping...so what did they each do individually??? you guessed it. One even was gaining Laiken's attention from over the top of the pen Since they wouldn't do what i asked, i put my attention toward trying to teach them how to approach without sending her over threshold etc Next time this couple come over, i'm crating both dogs and making it very clear they are NOT to approach the crates. Out in public, i don't like people approaching with their dogs and if they don't comply i am no longer polite; i've had too many experiences where my dogs end up picking up unwanted behaviours. The last bloke who came too close with his dog when we were dining outdoors at a cafe with our two (stopped right in front of our table), was politely asked to move - twice. Of course, the pup went over threshold barking like a nutter because this asshat wouldn't move away. So i moved away and lost my temper and swore at him; the fool followed me so he got a mouthful. if there's a solution to these types of problems, i've yet to find it. Wearing a high viz training vest with 'please ignore' has helped with the puppy but you can guarantee there's always one asshat who will ignore the vest.