JackC

11 Week old update: Just Chilling, taking in the rays Hmm bones I hereby take possession of this yard with glee Its uncomfortable but I dont care, I have a toy Pweeeeze scratch me

Its tough being a daddy, we can get a little emotional with our boys :D

popped home for lunch again today as usual and koda was doing really well, he has redesigned the yard a little and will post some pics but he seems to be amusing himself well with toys and treats, also less whimper "i missed you" crying when i get home and more waggy tail "I wanna play" face which I think is good. Spent the time outdoors while the sun was out playing catch, tug and jump on daddy while he falls over :laugh: good times.

I am a complete amateur when it comes to cameras and I got a Sony A37 DSLR for my first camera as a tax prezzy to myself, so far I am utterly chuffed with it

Not my thing but I can respect the time taken to do it and the creativity, I'm sure the dogs love the attention.

nice photo persephone, remind me of when I was a kid and back on the farm dad used to let me ride the quad with his dogs on the bag, usually with there heads resting on my shoulders :)

just like humans :laugh:

Hi Lhok, I will post some more pics of Koda for you when I get home, the latest ones are on here: Koda Thread My thoughts are with you in this time of mourning, Raiden will be well taken care of over the bridge He will live a full life of joy and happiness and I am certain you two will meet up again in your next life.

I need to play more outside with Koda, its just %#$&%^ cold :laugh:

Great source of info, thanks for the link to your site

you could put the whole series of lassie on usb and have that playing in the background :laugh:

thats good, he may start though if left outside for longer periods, just keep an eye on it, koda only does it when he wants to hide a bones or find something he lost lol :laugh:

With Koda I was also worried as a first time owner, I did the rounds outside to make sure that to the best of my knowledge he was safe alone as I don't have indoor access for him, etc now its very routine for him and he is home alone from 7:30am till 12:30, then 1pm till 6pm unless my partner is only on one shift then she is home at 4pm, another month and we may increase that to 7:30 till 6pm. I do not feed him breakfast till I leave, this gives him a good hour of munching, playing and sleeping before he gets bored, my guy usually likes a nap after he eats for about 20min then usually plays with his toys for another 30min (or a walk if i'm home) so I used this to my advantage and feed him just as I leave so he occupies himself for a while. I do the same when I pop home at lunch time to check on him / give him a walk. I usually hide a bone in the yard before I leave, dig it under a few different places so he has something to search for, bugger has found them all so far so he's got a good nose. he has allot of toys but we only have 3-4 outside at a time and rotate them so he doesn't get bored of them, we also have a large plush dog out there which is his favourite toy, he plays with it, sleeps on it and uses it for company when we are not there. we have plants out there and he has destroyed 3 so far but I'm pretty happy with that considering there are quite a few out there he seems content with the toy rotation and bones he has a kennel and a nice large bono-fido bed under the alfresco table so he can sleep or relax if he needs in a few different places. I always leave the radio on inside the house at a medium/high volume so if he does get a little lonely he can hear noises in the house and doesn't fret as much the first week was hell for me, I could hear him moaning each time I got home from my car the other side of the house, but now most times I am home he is outside playing or resting and his fretting when I open the back door is significantly less than what it was at the start I am a sook and give him a good cuddle when I get home but its a boy cuddle with lots of stomach rubs and scratching, he loves his stomach rubbing First thing after a welcome home scratch is I get the pooper scooper out and clean the yard of anything he "deposited", been doing it since say one and I think it helps keep him healthy and my yard a nice play to play and be in. Change his water out there every time I go out, so once in the morning, once in the afternoon and again at night, the inside house water gets changed once a day food, he is fed brekky just as i leave for work, lunch just as i leave from seeing him at lunch time and dinner about an hour after i get home. Its been working well so far. Is Gus a digger Steph? check your fences and make sure you can't easily dig under then, I used bricks up against mine to create a small barrier so he digs against the bricks and not the fence, seems to be working well so far. JAck

I'm gonna give tuckertub a try.

Awesome Prag, thanks for the link, will bookmark that for when I take Koda out and about.

My sincerest condolences for this tragic time, Our thoughts and comfort are with you Lhok, if there is anything we can do please let us know

looks cool, the only issue I see with that one is the dog "rolling" over.

Play can be used as a reward. My preference isn't to do that though. My preference is for puppies to be socialised with appropriate adult dogs. I guess the two dramas you need to watch out for is, one, the puppy learning that other dogs are way more fun than you and two, the puppy thinking that boisterous OTT rudeness is how to interact with other dogs. So JackC if you keep in mind that what you want pup to learn is that you are the most fun thing in the world, and that he needs to have manners and be able to focus on you then you will be fine :) Edit for autocorrect As long as It's controlled play. Most puppy pre-schools aren't even done by dog trainers, so It's usually not very productive or positive. fair enough comment, the school my koda goes to is run by a wonderful trainer with over 16 years experience and there is controlled play time in that session :) You should be fine then :) Thanks raineth, that was somewhat my train of thought. sorry for hijacking the thread Steph NOW enough with the training talk, we are in the PHOTOS,PHOTOS,PHOTOS section of the forums. I wanna see more of Gus pwease :D :D :D

there is only so much you can do to puppy proof a yard Lhok, do not fret over this, do your best and go with that, the benefit to the dogs growth by having outside access is greater than the possible risks involved with being out there. I was and still am a little fretting over my boy who is outside during the day when I work, I pop home at lunch to check on him but I have to keep reminding myself that I did my best to ensure a safe environment and I just have to keep checking it to make sure its in a good order for him.

As long as It's controlled play. Most puppy pre-schools aren't even done by dog trainers, so It's usually not very productive or positive. fair enough comment, the school my koda goes to is run by a wonderful trainer with over 16 years experience and there is controlled play time in that session :)

but shouldn't the school allow the pups to have a controlled play time in the session so they can vent some excitement as well, I'm sure the school did focus and attention training within the same time so the pup knew when it had to be calm and when it could "play", I'm new to this as well

Sorry if my post seemed to indemnify the situation, was mean't to say something along those lines, that the school is there to teach a pup what real life is like and how to deal with those situations without going over the top and knowing when to stop and be calm, I agree to start how you mean to go on but you have to let a dog be a dog at some point so it knows when to stop right?

Sending good thoughts Lhok, i'm sure he will be fine and recover well :D

Steph, sounds great, that is the whole point of pup school, or should be, is to get the dogs out and about and meet other dogs and experience other things dogs need to experience, learn what goes on in our world so when he is older he knows all about it and when needed by us will ignore something that may be interesting cause we need his attention for what ever reason, its not about hard out training at this age, small training and working up of course, recalls and attention etc but letting the dog be a dog is what he needs right now and it sounds like he is excelling at it :D

Kirislin, where in VIC are you, you can have some off me to try if you want :D