Lexi-Taj

She's 14 weeks old, she has had her 12 week vaccination (vet is recommending she have another one at 16weeks).

Hi guys! Can anyone recommend a great puppy pre-school in Canberra? Preferably one that runs on a Sunday. Somewhere that will teach socialization, basic commands (sit stay) and loose leash walking. Although we do training at home, I think it's important for my hubby to take our newest addition to puppy pre-school not only for socialization but so my hubby can learn to train our pup more effectively. (Plus it gives me and our older dog a break!). Any one recommend anywhere/anyone?

Thanks everyone for their advice and input I am learning quite a lot from the discussion :) I will be looking into Taj and Indie's diet and adding more meaty meats (although I did forget to mention taj gets roo meat). I like the freezing meat - tooth brush idea! I spoke to my vet who thought raw feeding was a good idea, but did say wait till Indie was 12 months old just so the balance is right during development stages since I wasn't confident.

Thanks for all the info guys! I appreciate it. I hope I didn't start a forum fight that was not my intention on posting this question. Sorry guys. Is there anything I should add to my list of foods? I have tried, freezing, lightly searing, chopping into tiny bits and mixing with mince, even blending and mixing it into his egg mixture.... But Taj wont touch organ.. I won't 'stuff it down his throat' as I want him to eat it not be traumatized by it :) Indie (puppy) did eat a little chicken kidney, Taj once again left his.. So it looks like Indy will maybe eat the organ hurrah. Interesting point about dry food and raw food digesting at different rates. I didn't know this. I assume it's a bad idea then to do it?

As I pointed out in another thread today, I just transitioned my baby puppy onto raw within a couple of days excluding the dry food. I would go slowly with the variety of cuts you are giving, but I would add a very small amount of offal so the pup gets a taste for it. Good luck Thank you :) hopefully she will take to the offal unlike her big brother :) if she doesn't is there any harm is feeding a kettle dry to make sure she doesn't miss out on anything vital?

We have a 5year old Lab kelpie cross, whom we feed a mostly Raw diet to. I say mostly Raw as we still give him his dry food 1-2 times a week. We now have a 12 week old puppy and we are hoping to do the same. The reason I still feed some dry food is that Taj (5) WON'T eat his organs or any vegetable matter (not much given) at all, we don't want him to be missing anything vital so figured the dry could possibly help give him what he's missing. With new pup I would like to mix raw and dry, again only because during this developmental stage I don't want to miss anything she may need. Is this alright? From the experienced people in the know am I able to do a mix of the two (raw one or two days, then dry, then raw) or is this just not going to work? So far Taj (5) gets chicken necks, frames, turkey necks, ox tail, beef tail, sardines, lamb heart, beef mince, red meaty bones, raw eggs, Greek yogurt, and his dry food. We are hoping to feed Indie similar but in a smaller ammount and I'd I can convince her liver/kidney if she'll eat it (Taj will not). Any suggestions? Any pointers, should I just stick to one or another or can the mix be ok so my babies don't become deficient in something vital?

Yes pupdates seemed to fit! My neighbor sent me a photo of them playing Chase in the yard so I'm feeling a little better! I'll try upload a photo when I get home (I don't know if I can do it from iPhone)

Thank you! It's been so good to hear other experiences from other people, and to know things worked out in the end!

So far in the past 3 hours I have called hubby 3 times for a Pupdate .... I am a dork. A work colleague said to me "if your this bad with the dogs, you'll be ridiculous if you have kids" ... its true! Will keep everyone posted.. Apparently although Indie has her bed, she is still trying to snuggle with Taj, he lets her for a bit, then gets spooked and growls.

I hope it will be alright, I know its only been 24 hours but still, i worry as I'm not there. I must sound like the biggest dork

Thank you! I know that i shouldn't expect them to be instant buddies, it was just such a crazy way everything came about and Taj is so special, Indie is too now she's ours

Thank you so much! He has every right to be cranky he really does poor thing, i understand that. He is used to me being away on a Tuesday its a work thing ;) so maybe me being away is alright as its his routine. I just want to help them both. Pup now has her OWN bed thankfully hopefully that will help. Is it something that will get better over time do you think?

Good evening everyone, Over the course of the last few months you have all been a wealth of knowledge (even whilst stalking the forums) and I need help from the knowledgeable. Yesterday we got a second dog a lovely little puppy indie whom in a 12 week old Lab X. We have had our boy Taj for 5 years, he is also a Lab X (kepie) and is beautiful, happy, friendly, loyal and well trained. We had been thinking of getting a second dog for a while, but had decided to wait. Unfortunately (or fortunately) last night the decision was taken out of our hands and my husband acquired a second dog. We were not expecting this, and due to circumstances had no time to prepare anything. Our new little one arrived at 9pm last night under stressful circumstances. Due to the fact we literally had NOTHING ready for little Indie, we had to think on out feet and let Indy use one of Taj's beds last night and this afternoon until hubby could get into town for supplies. They were sort of ok last night, Taj was a little funny but ok-ish considering. I left for a work trip early this AM, and hubby informs me Taj boy is apparently not happy with a new addition. He has snapped at her (not seriously just growled), he wouldn't really play with Indie outside just briefly then wanted to play fetch with hubby and ignored the pup and now wont go on any of his beds and is acting quite put out. I dont know if its just because we have had Indy for less than 24 hours, and I might be panicking a little as I am away and can't see whats going on but need some advice/reassurance. Have we ruined Taj and Indies chance at having a good relationship? Will my Taj boy be ok? Will Little Indie be ok? Is this normal and im just being dramatic (because of stress I tells ya)! Im just panicking slightly as when we were going to get another dog, we had it all planed out, and now POW puppy at a not good time or way! I didn't want to have Taj be so put out, but we had to save little indie. Will my babies be ok? Is this kind of normal? Please let me know if you have any advice to help (or just reassure me) - also if I have posted this in the correct section.

Thank you! I'll have a look at that also, I haven't heard of rose-hip vital before. I was looking online to find the approximate dosages of glucosamine, chondroitin, and MSM for dogs but can't find a difinative answer. More research is needed I think :)

Thanks for that! I'll have a look online to see what it says and how much to give my boy. It's such a minefield to know what to give as a preventitive!

Im looking for advice regarding supliments for joint health. I have a 4yr old Labrador/kelpie cross - Taj - he's extremely active and at this stage I am looking for something to help prevent joint issues as he ages. I have read that glucosamine, chondroiton (sp?) and MSM are supposed to be beneficial for joint health in dogs. Also that you are able to give them people versions of these products to help with costs as long as the glucosamine is HCL so it is absorbed better. Is this correct? Does anyone have experience with this at all, what (people) brands do you use? And dosage for required for dogs? (Taj is 30kg). Any help would be much appreciated :) Xx Lex

Thank you for everyone's responses... They have been very helpful, it's great to see other ideas for re-training/training and what to do regarding Taj's fetch obsession. I'm looking forward to having some training sessions where Taj can learn some new tricks/commands to exercise his brain, I'll step up the exercise also and do th 6.5k's twice a day morning and night. Funnily enough today when he dropped a ball at my feet (hanging out washing) I put it up on back deck and said 'no more', he repeated it with a peg, again I put it up with a 'no more' he stopped, looked at me and sat down.... For a whole 5 minutes!!!!!! Then he went and found a piece of bark *facepalm* and was his usual persistent self..... Although I didn't throw the bark, I did once finished hanging, play fetch for a little while. When done i said 'no more' and put the ball up again. Fingers crossed! I chose the 'no more' as it was the first thing that came to mind, does anyone else have a better suggestion? Also what tricks should I start teaching Taj?

Im really looking forward to watching the vid and getting some tips. Thank you for the suggestion, I cant wait to see how I can make Taj's motivation work for training

It is crazy. Fetch obsession. Your pug is so sweet. Taj is the same, you hide his toys and he will bring something else. He also isn't distracted by other dogs or treats. He can have another dog jumping all over him and he still drops things on you to play with. This is our Taj boy!

It is crazy. Fetch obsession. Your pug is so sweet. Taj is the same, you hide his toys and he will bring something else. He also isn't distracted by other dogs or treats. He can have another dog jumping all over him and he still drops things on you to play with. This is our Taj boy!

I have started to use the ball as a reward, if he sits outside and lets me brush him we play fetch, but it doesn't last long. I have tried the 'finished' technique, ill say "no more" put the ball/stick away..... then he goes to get something else..... another ball, stick, peg, rock, blade of grass... He truly is obsessed, and its not good when we have other people come over, or go to the park or some one else's house

We put the ball away, he finds a stick. We put the stick away, he finds a peg. We put the peg away, he finds some grass or a rock or a bit of paper.... It just keeps going :)

thanks for the welcome! Taj would love flyball, but we live out of town so getting him there is tricky. I dont mind playing fetch with him for 30mins or so, but he wont stop after that time! he just keeps wanting to play

We went to the vet recently (month ago) for a general check up and slightly mucky eye, Vet said eye was due to hay feaver/allergies and has now cleared up completely. Clean bill of health otherwise.