dididog

Yeah she's a bit of a mountain goat on walks! She's surprisingly agile for how big and clunky she is, she can jump 1m from a standstill and will surprise me sometimes like when we're walking beside a retaining wall or something and all of a sudden she's walking along the top of it towering above me She's not very good at dismounts though and I usually have to awkwardly help her down while she clings to me pathetically

Thanks guys :) I know perse it's so weird to think it was only a year and a half since we got her and that she's still so young... it feels like much longer than that!

Been a while since I posted any Didi snaps! She's 19mths now, stopped growing a while ago and has reached a stage I'm pretty happy with conditioning wise (though a tiny part of me wants to get her really shredded ). Only have a few phone photos, mostly from our walks. and an bonus post-bath sooky Didi photo

Yes, we're well acquainted with the bum sit in this household

I haven't been here for a while (been reading though!) Glad some of you have been making in roads, sorry to hear Justice has regressed though Snook Didi is... Didi I think the best thing to ever happen to us was to drastically rearrange my expectations and what I want out of owning a dog, my dog is never going to be everyone's best buddy or the type of dog I can take anywhere but she is still enjoyable to own and we have plenty of fun without needing to interact with strangers. It was hard at first because Didi was such a friendly lovely dog with everybody and everything but as soon as she hit adolescence she just got so put off by a few (pretty minor experiences) and became a lot more protective/territorial. She's still like that, if she has a bad experience with something she DOES NOT FORGET. I cling to the fact she is still awesome with other dogs and try my best to make sure that never changes. Her reactivity/fear aggression is not that bad and very easily managed, we can take a walk down a very busy inner city street and unless someone were to do something really intense/threatening she is fine. Doesn't like it when people hold intense eye contact but she will deflect and slink closer to me rather than getting grumpy with them. She has come a long way with not hating bicycles, not that cyclists are at all helpful and love to sneak up on me on the footpath (which are for feet!) so I have no time or preparation to redirect her. But unless we get sneak attacked she is fine. Still hates all other wheels which is something I am slowly working on. When she's freaked out (because somebody has really loud shoes or a child is riding on their parents shoulders) she flicks to flight response pretty much every time. If she feels I am being threatened (approached in the dark or yelling) then she will flick to fight which isn't necessarily bad I suppose and its all just noise on her end. Properly introduced house visitors go over a treat and she loves most of my friends. At the dog park or at obedience training she will seek out pats and actively enjoys it but I still monitor her very strictly and don't let her offlead somewhere I've never been before or somewhere that has a lot going on. Being restrained by a stranger is definitely not a thing that will ever happen in the foreseeable future but that's fine, we can skip stand for exams at obedience training and on the odd occasion she goes to the vet she is muzzled. She's fine at the vet, in the waiting room and even being patted by the vet but as soon as the vet tries to use an implement on her she gets really distressed. So yeah we haven't made dramatic progress and I'm not sure we ever will BUT I am not as down about it as I used to be and being vigilant and managing her behaviour is second nature to me now and she is the best dog in all other aspects so I still love owning her. Not going to lie this experience has put me off rescue a bit, I know I probably wasn't perfect but I put a lot of work into her as a puppy and didn't monumentally screw her up so I think there's definitely a genetic element to her weak nerve (other pups in the litter have problems as welll).But I've learnt SO much from Didi and I'm sure will do a lot better with the next dog (who I will not be playing the genetics lottery with and getting from a breeder with rock solid dogs!)

My best friend growing up had a Boxer and he was such a great dog to grow up with (ridiculous but so much fun) but I'm not sure how much of the year they could keep up that running due to the short muzzle, so I guess if the you really really love the Boxer you need to evaluate if you're willing to lower your expectations on the running side of things. Most of Didi's regular dog playmates are either GSP's, Ridgebacks and a few Vizsla's and I'd say (with very little authority!) the GSP probably seems closer to a Boxer in temperament and seem a bit more 'unflappable' than the Vizsla's. Intense energy levels but obviously that will be taken care of with the running and all the ones I've met had outgoing temperaments, responded well to training and social with other dogs with a play style that doesn't put other dogs off (the Boxer play style on the other hand is quite polarising ). I did really want a Vizsla before I got my current dog but I kept coming back to their predisposition to not liking being left alone which put me off, even though somebody is home most of the time in my family, circumstances change and I didn't want to make a 12-15 year commitment to a breed that is more likely to struggle being left on its own than others. Not smooth coat but Standard Poodle's are the right size, very athletic and versatile dogs, super intelligent. You could keep it in a low maintenance clip, not sure how great they are with very young children but I grew up with a few, know a couple that are therapy dogs. Smaller and longer coats but ESS or Brittany's might be worth considering too?

Didi goes to an offlead reserve more or less everyday and has done since a puppy. I don't really go for the sake of doggy interaction, I have no yard and a big dog so I use it to let her have some freedom and stretch her legs but Didi is also a friendly dog that enjoys meeting other dogs so if we bump into another dog at the park I'm not too fussed if they say hello. The reserve is big enough to mind your own business and you can generally assume that if another owner is about to cross paths with you and aren't calling their dog close to them that they don't mind a brief hello between dogs. If someone is clearly trying to avoid us or the dog looks scared or a dog is on lead I tell Didi to ignore it and if the dog looks stressed or fixated on Didi I leash her just to be safe. But Didi is big enough that I don't worry about her getting hurt and she is not confrontational so this along with the general good behaviour of dogs and owners at my reserve plays a part in my reasoning. I keep her a lot closer and don't let her approach other dogs when we are somewhere unfamiliar. That sort of brief greeting is a lot different to a dog rudely charging across a park to jump on my dogs face to 'say hello' and is inappropriate behaviour that I don't like and don't let Didi do. I also don't like her playing with dogs I don't know because things can escalate too quickly when strange dogs get over aroused, I know plenty of dogs that she plays well with so I don't see the need to initiate play with an unknown dog. While I get the idea behind letting other dogs teach yours good manners, I know that my girl is very tolerant and has to be pushed pretty far to resort to telling a dog off and I don't see why my dog should have to be stressed out that much to do someone else a favor. I also don't want to ruin her lovely disposition with other dogs just because she keeps getting bombarded by rude dogs and thus starts getting narky before a dog has the chance to harassher. My dad has a bit of 'let them sort it out' mentality when Didi plays with other dogs but I don't see the point in letting it get that far. If another dog is harassing her and she is clearly uncomfortable but too nice to say so, I intervene so she doesn't have to make her own decisions about telling dogs off.

Didi on her first day home at 9 weeks And my little baby now at 1 year old eta. uploaded from my phone and pictures went a bit crazy..

Considering how often you are home and that he has access to the yard during this time I wouldn't really be concerned about your pup missing out on anything if kept inside when you are gone. Didi is kept inside when I'm out and she is a big dog more than capable of looking after herself but we don't live in the nicest of areas and someone has tried to climb our 8ft colour bond fence to break in before so I'd rather she be inside and out of harms way as a precaution. She gets more than enough sun and fresh air as it is and if she's left inside I know that's where she'll still be when I get home.

11/52 Not the best quality but I like the shot so might go back again with my camera.

Whoops got a bit behind! 8/52 Classic Didi ruining a photo with a gross eye booger. 9/52 Didi looking exactly how I feel after my first full week back at uni

I think Didi's size and appearance crosses the threshold of what even the most irresponsible of dog owners are willing to gamble with because I've never had a small dog approach us rudely on lead, most small dog owners cross roads or pick their dog up when they see us. One young couple screamed when they dropped the lead accidentally and their Lhasa pup bounded over to play with Didi I've definitely had a few straining at the leash and snarling but their owner has pulled them as far away as possible from Didi and I have moved away as well even though she just walks past but I'm not complaining, I'm glad they're cautious of her, even though she isn't confrontational and is great with small dogs she's also still a dog and I couldn't say with absolute certainty that she would never have a go back. And we all know who would be made out to be the bad guy in that situation.

Careful what you wish for, she's very smelly at the moment! *Off topic* I improved Novas fronts by miles by teaching him to target anything I ask (for fronts I use a DVD case cause that's about the right side for his feet). Then when I had that 100%, I could throw it anywhere he'd go find and pounch on it with both feet. I placed the target just under my toes, tried a recall and it clicked with him to finish with his feet on the target right in front. We are heaps better with fronts now, but I still bring the target back in every now and then to make sure he doesn't forget. Thanks for that Lisa! I'd watched a video for teaching front position using the targetting which is what I'm doing for teaching the actual command/position, the hallway was mainly to get her more willing to get that close to me and to not slow down on the recall (although I think I will regret that as she has a few times jumped on me in a flying leap which is painful!)At least there's less hesitation now. I taught her to target with her front feet for rear end awareness exercises using dog encyclopedias but now she will stand on any book left on the floor and wait expectantly for a treat.

Because I drilled it into her as a puppy to be respectful of personal space I've been finding it hard to get Didi's fronts nice and tight on the recall. But I've worked out if I stand at the end of our long and very narrow hallway with her in a stay at the other end and then call her that the momentum she gets from barreling down the hallway causes her to slide along the floor boards when she goes to stop in front of me and overshoot the space she'd normally keep between us and ends up smooshed right up to me.

Didi was pretty good as a pup but she did completely gut the insides of one of my boots (which was old anyway) and she also chewed the button hole of my favourite jeans so they can't be done up properly but those were both pretty minor offenses. She did however decide chewing the weatherboard paneling of our rented house was a good idea. She's done it 3 times and all those times she was only outside for around 20 minutes! She didn't go too crazy though, damage is fairly minor and she doesn't do it anymore but she couldn't have picked a worse thing to chew.

We also had a sort of bad vet visit this week Grumpette (though hers was because she hates the vet) hat does sound super frustrating though, I stopped going to our first vet because the waiting room was just way too small and felt like an accident waiting to happen. She's made a lot of progress compared to our last visit, she was comfortable and at ease in the exam room and let the vet approach and pet her and lift up her lips to look at her teeth and in her mouth. I think he could've touched her anywhere and she wouldn't have minded but as soon as he got out the stethoscope she stopped cooperating and tried to distance herself from him so the vet (who was really good with her) held out the stethoscope for her to sniff and I praised her for giving it a neutral reaction and he gave her a bit longer to get used to the idea but as soon as he went to use it she gave him a warning air snap (apart from another vet visit this is the only time she's resorted to going past a growl or bark). So we put the muzzle on which didn't make her freak out more like it did last time but she was still really hard to restrain as she wanted to get away from him. After he'd done his examination we spent about 15 minutes just talking about her and her symptoms and I took the muzzle off. Didi was really calm and fine with being in the exam room again since all the instruments had been put away, unlike our last visit where she continued to be extremely on edge for the rest of the consult. She just laid down at my feet more or less ignoring the vet and then got up to give the room a sniff, said hello to the vet and then laid down at my feet again. So what I'm getting from all of this is that its really the vet having an implement that freaks her out rather than the concept of the vet itself or being touched which make sense as the thing that really triggered her issues with strangers was a vet nurse trying to scan her microchip and our last visit she was fine with the vet touching and patting her until the vet tried to look in her ear with the magnifying tool thingy. So it's good to know what is triggering it but it's going to take a lot of counter conditioning and building trust with our vet to be able to make some progress but it helps that our vet is attached to the pet store where Didi did puppy school (so she has good associations and is comfortable there) and that the vet isn't very busy and was really encouraging of me coming in with her to just work on her problems. Other than that Didi's hooman issues have been pretty uneventful, it's easy to manage and I'm making a lot less mistakes with judging a situation than I used to!

Ahh Teekay that photo makes me so nostalgic! We had a timeshare at Tangalooma and went there twice a year every until I was about 12. So many great memories, the colour of that water is really making me really jealous

Thanks guys :) she's such a funny dog... loves resting her bum on things. The lighting was a bit odd, it's an attic roon so little windows and weird slanting ceilings going in different directions!

Lovely photos everyone! 7/52

I'm pretty sure even taking dogs to & from Tassie they have to stay in your car on the ship so couldn't see it happening from NZ to here I think on the spirit of tasmania they are actually in a kennel that you aren't allowed access to during the trip.

So so glad everything worked out for you and the pups SG!

don't worry I get what you mean! Mya has such a gorgeous happy face, never catch my grumpy guts looking that happy!

Great seeing another big doggy with good rear end awareness! Didi and I have only started working on it recently and she's gotten so much better about being tight on right about turns already :) At the moment I'm really trying to find a way to click with Didi more with our training. I don't think she has a strong prey drive... she might try and lunge at a bird while walking now and then but when offlead she will just trot through a flock of birds without paying them much attention. However she goes absolutely crazy for tug, is there another sort of drive she's satisfying through tug or is it just for prey drive? We are pretty good with engagement on the tug, she gets so psyched when we tug and if I were to let go she'd just ram back into me to keep going and she has a strong grip and gives me a good shaking but I think my problem is more not knowing how to properly use the tug in association with training because I really don't understand what it means to work in drive or anything and I still feel like I'm kind of just bribing her with the tug rather than building a desire to work for me???

Just in time for the end of week 6... I couldn't decide between these two (and yes I am yet to understand how to photograph a shiny black dog!). I swear Didi is actually a lot more fun than she looks in photos 6/52 Queen of the Couch

Lovely photos everyone! :) Nothing terribly exciting from me this week.. just a phone snap from down at the park. 5/52 Didi on the prowl!