Prydenjoy

You've gotta give some of these people points for trying, at least they've gone through the effort to find a registered breeder rather than picking up the nearest pup at a pet shop! ETA Perhaps it wouldn't hurt for breeders to have a "generic" email for people who really want a dog but are just clueless, with links to informative web sites etc. Not saying you should sell them a pup, but a little education might go a long way, and if it's a generic email at least you're not wasting your time replying to someone who wont read it anyway.

Yes of course I would check with the vet before I got it

Thanks, I think I'll get her some Advantage in that case.

That's what I thought Oakway, I got this free sample of some "premium" shampoo whilst at the Royal, I thought the ingredients were a little bizarre, hence why I asked here before using it

Thanks, I do have some sentinal and capstar in the cupboard, but wasn't sure about that. I have some tea tree, citronella and eucalyptus dog shampoo, would that be safe? She does have fleas, I visit mums with her frequently and mum doesn't de flea her pets so I think she picked them up from there, I noticed some flea dirt on her yesterday.

What do you use when you de flea a pregnant bitch? I've read that you should use a flea treatment before the puppies are born, but what is the safest? When is the best time to do this? Is milbemax (sp?) ok for worming? Anxious first time mid wife here

Thanks :D

Thanks Amanda, will look into it! Between Uni assignments, my breeders prefix exam, and pregnancy and whelping research, I've been a very busy girl lately! Can never learn too much though I say :D

Thank you all for your suggestions, I think I'll start with the puppy intensive care book and build my library from there!

I was wondering if everyone could share with me their favorite website for beginner breeders? And books, as well, I love books Nothing too basic, but I'd like information on pregnancy care, puppy delivery, what can go wrong etc. Papillon or toy breed specific would be great, but I'm sure there are a lot of great general websites as well. Thanks

No, they did it because the researchers were calm and assertive :D :rofl:

Cosmolo, what I said to Erny ^^

Erny I'd love to be in your class for a while and play some of your games

Thanks Aidan, good idea - I hadn't thought of that! I know she has something on free stacking which was a bit complicated and I thought "I'll read it later", but that was before Mango even arrived home. Thankfully all I've had to do is only click Mango when she's stacked nicely and she has learnt this one herself with no trouble at all. Ah I love that pup

They are "allowed" to, but some say it puts their front out, affecting their movement, I'd prefer her to walk on a loose lead and focus ahead. I think your girl would love flyball from what you've said I use the command "walk", signaled with my right hand for showing, and "heel" with my left hand for heeling. The leg wrapping I'm not sure how that came about, a quest to be really close to my leg I think, I should be able to work that out through shaping, I haven't really done that much heel work with her but it is something she simply LOVES to do and will always do given the chance, even on a walk sometimes (offlead), which I think is why she occasionally does it even to the "walk" command. Hmm we do have a group at our club that do show training, but I'll leave them to it for my own reasons that I wont go into here

That would be handy, if it weren't mostly my things they dragged under the bed ;) I can squeeze under the bed to get everything out myself... Although it isn't something that I enjoy doing Yes that is what I am doing. When she is heeling she is looking up at me and tends to swing her bum in towards me and walk sideways (it's hard to explain, it's like she's trying to wrap her body around me the little cutie) which is NOT what I want her doing in the show ring! I used the target stick in our last training session to move her away from me and getting her to look ahead, it worked beautifully, her body straightened out, she walked very nicely, but it was very fiddly and I wondered how to transfer this to walking with no target stick at all? Thanks everyone for all of your suggestions, there are some wonderful ideas here

Berri is neurotic at the best of times, I wouldn't want to do anything that would make him worse! It's a shame, the kids around here are real brats. If people would use things for what they are meant to be used for and not be silly things wouldn't need to be banned all of the time...

OK thanks for the input, I'll invest my money in a telescopic target stick instead, at the moment I am using a wooden spoon with the end painted red :rolleyes: Would you believe I was just driving home and there is a kid sitting on the corner with a laser shining it in peoples eyes. How ironic, that kid should get a life!

A game we used to play involved throwing a piece of food, the moment the dog looked back at you give the marker/click and throw the food again. I would always say "get it" before throwing the food, as my dogs are not supposed to eat food until they have my permission. This teaches the dog to keep checking back in on you, the sooner the better. It's simple and easy. A variation I play at home is a hand or target stick touch, then I throw the food away, they have to run and get it and then run back, touch again, run and get the food etc. You just have to be careful to only throw one piece of food, you don't want to reinforce them for NOT coming back to you straight away. Teaching tricks is also fun, and the possibilities are endless. As part of our old classes (before they changed to block heeling and stay's) we taught tricks. I had one dog that got a pillow and lay down with her head on the pillow, another that fetched a tissue from a tissue box when I sneezed. It was always lots of fun and got people thinking about how to get inside their dogs head to get them to perform things that weren't "taught" in a standard lesson.

For teaching them to pick up objects etc (such as under the bed after they've dragged them there :rolleyes: ) and for Mango with her show training to get her to look straight ahead while heeling rather than at me.

You sound like a great breeder, I wish there were many more out there like you! :rolleyes:

What are they and where do you get them? I thought they were those red lasers, but have been repeatedly told that they are banned. I need to get a target torch for my puppers for training.

How old are the pups? There are early neurological stimulation exercises that can help dogs adapt better to things when they are older, that you can perform on puppies I think up to 5 weeks old. Search on youtube (I'm over my download this month so can't do the search). Also, Hans, who runs this organisation is very helpful and may be able to point you in the right direction. Early socialisation is critical, as soon as you are able to carry the puppy to busy places like shopping centres. I've done this with many of my puppies, Mango came everywhere with me in my handbag until she was at least 3 months old. Now nothing will phase her. Just remember that this puppy is going to have to deal with a lot of "stuff" as it gets older, loud noises, crowded places, strange items like umbrella's etc. You can start socialising with these things at about 6 weeks old, before the pup even goes to its new home, and stress the importance of socialisation once it does go to its new home, particularly up until about 16 weeks.

No we only did the one trial so far, I try to limit my weekends away and find I fill them up with conformation showing. If I get further into obedience with Mango and I'm trailing both of them it would make travel more worthwhile. We do have 2 trials a year here so it's not too bad

And good mental exercise for dogs that don't know how to switch off! I do a little bit of obedience, fly ball, and agility with Berri, and a bit of obedience with Mango (I'll show her once or twice a month though). Training tricks is great to understand how dogs work etc, especially having to work out the steps you need to take etc to accomplish it and watching the dog nut it out is great. Berri's latest trick that I taught him yesterday is to push a toy trolley, next step is going to be to pack his toys into the trolley and push it around the house. Did I say I get bored sometimes?