amw

Hi I've just completed your survey and provided some feedback on the form. Please see this. It highlights some things you need to fix in your early survey questions where there are some errors with the questions. Good luck with your studies. amw

Hi I agree with dancinbcs. We bought home an english springer at 12 weeks of age. For the first month, we tried to ensure he was never at home alone for more than 5 hours or so, but with my and my partners' work commitments, that was not a tenable long term solution. We also lived in in a townhouse at the time and the outside area was too confined and unsuitable. Large glass doors also meant a dog door was not possible, We crated our puppy overnight from the outset but preferred not to use that during the day despite so much advice about this om the forum. We used a dog pen brought from veto pets and set up an indoor toilet, bed and feeding area. We had this arrangement for about 4 months and, combined with diligent toilet training, found this worked well for us. He never really took to the indoor toilet and started learning to hold on very quickly. Towards the end, he was becoming too big and active to be confined in the pen and we gradually accustomed him to being free to move around a larger living area (ie our lounge, kitchen and dining area) for increasingly longer periods of time. During this time, we did not allow him upstairs unsupervised into the carpeted bedrooms etc. He proved himself very trustworthy in the larger space and it was at this time we to packed up the pen and reclaimed our lounge. He is now over a year old but we still have the crate though, I would like to remove that from our lounge also, but he clearly loves it and it means he sleeps in on weekend mornings (meaning i also get to sleep in on Saturdays and Sundays when I can delay him getting up and demanding attention, play and food to at least 8am in the dark winter months). We found these arrangements worked extremely well for us and will follow the same approach in future with any new dog. Good luck A.

Hi I previously posted elsewhere on the forum about our (show) ESS puppy. He is now coming up to 10 months and is becoming a beautiful young dog. He is my regular walking companion,, at the very least he gets 30 minutes twice a day, longer on weekends and when my husband or I are working from home. I usually include some obedience training and play time (wherever possible with some nearby doggies friends including a few ESS), he loves to run, sniff, chase and be chased. We are looking forward to having him as running companion also when he is a year or so. We do find that he becomes a little bored, hyperactive and mouthy if he has been home by himself all day and does not get an evening walk but I think that is understandable. http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/246138-new-puppy-ideas/page__st__15 This is our first ESS and we are hooked. I am not sure now that we could consider another breed (even though I love so many others, including the BCs, Australian shepherds and lots of others). If you have any particular questions, feel free to PM me. Good luck with your decision. amw

Hi Not too long ago I posted the following regarding Command dog training in Richmond. Command conduct puppy classes as well as basic obedience. http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/244725-puppy-school/page__p__6064792#entry6064792 A.

Hi I have pasted a previous posting below on this topic and command dog training in Richmond, so very close to Balwyn. 15 minutes perhaps. http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/244725-puppy-school/page__p__6064792#entry6064792 Good luck with your new puppy! amw

I'm going to vote for something very different, an English springer spaniel. I have to admit I have not done agility before and we have not started training ours yet as he is still a pup (7 months), so we are purely focused on general obedience for now. However,he loved going through the tunnels and over the (very very little) jumps at puppy school and I am looking forward to when he will be a little older and we can start training him for agility also. As a puppy he is beautifully behaved with my niece (4 years) and nephew (6 years) who are both rather timid around dogs. He adapts and modifies his behaviour around different people and dogs (my husband thinks he has great EQ). His breeder also has a one year daughter so he was exposed to children as part of his early socialisation. His temperament is gorgeous and loves being with his family. He is active and fun (without being overwhelming and demanding) and with lots of personality. He is very trainable, food motivated and eager to please. He is medium sized and his coat is very manageable. He is also sturdy and plays well with all sorts of dogs at the park (if they get too growly he can usually outrun them!) Good luck with making a decision. It sounds like you have lots of great choices.

Hi We use dog chic in south yarra near the como centre on toorak road. www.dogchic.com.au Our puppy has been going there for the last 3 to 4 months. He began at around 12 weeks of age. Our puppy loves spending days with Tim, the owner/operator and all his doggy friends. He is super super excited when we arrive each morning, scratching on the footpath outside the door in anticipation. We use dogchic once a week, so our dog also has 3 days a week at home. I checked out a couple of other day care places before finding Tim. I found the other places unpleasant and the dogs seemed stressed (so much so i was just considering engaging a dog walker instead) whereas Tim has a very relaxed, laid back style and relates so well with the dogs. Besides coming home super super tired, our puppy has also been washed and groomed, so he smells beautiful. No urine smells! Tim has strong views on the need to build a relationship with each dog and ensuring the dogs get along well together. Accordingly, he does not offer occasional daycare as such. It's necessary to buy a pack of 10 day passes. On reflection, we decided we like this aspect of dogchic and this relationship also means Tim is happy to take the dogs out for a long walk in the parks and streets around (anywhere between 2 to 4 hours). I know other places will not do this. Too much risk and, presumably, insurance implications. However, in meeting Tim and seeing how he handles the dogs we were happy to make the decision to go ahead with dogchic. I also liked the facilities. A converted house witha good play area along with doggy beds scattered around the balconies looking out onto the street (all behind very secure fences). This felt very different from converted factory/work sheds with lots of flexiplave which felt sterile, no natural light and had a negative atmosphere. Overall, I could not recommend dog chic highly enough based on our experience. Good luck. Hope you find somewhere that meets your requirements. amw

Oh and we gave ours the c5 vaccination the day after we got him, when we took him to get a vet check, so that a week later he could start puppy school.

Hi Our puppy is now 6 months old and we went with Command dog training. They are based in the eastern suburbs with a few different venues and times (Richmond, Blackburn and Mackinnon) so lots of flexibility. We went with the indoor option at Richmond with Lyn and found the course excellent. We combined this with the basic obedience course which we have recently completed and we are now going on to intermediate. http://www.dogtraining.com.au/ Lots of positive reinforcement and a carefully controlled environment. Lyn is a super experienced dog trainer and we found her to be a wealth of knowledge and practical advice for our puppy. We also found she was great at adapting what she was teaching to the different personalities and temperament of the puppies. The continuity across courses and levels of obedience training has been really helpful and it was for this reason that we decided to go with a professional dog trainer/school with an established training philosophy that we liked. On these forums I had found a few posts expressing some wariness or concern about puppy classes at a local vet. The experiences here suggest it can be a real mixed bag with some reporting success and others finding their puppies have found the experience intimidating and fearful especially off leash. I tried a local obedience club also. We completed the puppy classes and our little one (mostly) enjoyed it. I did it mostly for the socialisation benefits but disagreed with some of the training tools and philosophy. Some of the other puppies clearly found the experience very overwhelming and intimidating. Accordingly I really stuck with what we had learnt with Lyn. My take out from that was the need to research the different options, being very careful and knowing what is important to you when socialising and training. Good luck with your new puppy.