piper

Stunning as usual. I just love your underwater photos!! :)

I think we might be a bit spread out. I am in Adelaide.

That is the line of thinking that I moved to. What is a bit of magic to me?? For some people it could be a stunning sunset/sunrise, a spectacular view, a special occassion, time spent with family/friends/loved ones....

With 6 week old puppies, that is basically all I have been taking photos of for 6 weeks. Jan 1 - exploring the big dog's yard Jan 4 - surviving the heat Jan 6 - evening play time (like mother, like daughter!)

No idea, I saw them at Homeart a few days ago but was a bit dubious given past history of cooling mats then SecretKei mentioned them in the training forum so I decided to give them a go. The little girl loves it, they have been outside for a run around and come back inside and she has crashed out on it again, even though I moved it to a different location.

I have 1 image done and know where I am going with the other 2, just need to get them setup.

I have never had any luck with cool mats. Bought the Homeart $40 1s this morning in the hope the puppies might like them. For $40 you get a 90cm x 50cm 1 and another about 1/3 the size. The little black girl has not moved since laying down on it over half an hour ago. The red boy found it about 15 minutes ago and also has not moved. I just put it on the tiles near where they often lay and left it to see what happened. They feel very different to other mats I have tried, not so squishy. Almost a memory foam type of feel.

I bought some this morning. I have the large 1 on the tiles and 1 puppy is asleep on it and their mother has her head on it and out of curiosity I am sitting on the small 1. They don't need water. I have to say I am surprised how cooling the small 1 is, it is actually very comfortable. Found a similar 1 online and this si the description "Yes it’s finally here, a dog/pet cooling mat that is Waterless! It consists of a gel that keeps your pets cool. This new cutting edge dog cooling mats works without refrigeration, electricity of water. All you need for this cooling mat to work is the weight of your dog or pet. That simple! The mat works on a concept called memory foam technology whereby the the gel in the mat absorbs the pets body heat and dissipates it into the environment. This process makes your pet feel cool on hot summer days. The dog cooling mat is weight or pressure activated. As soon as your dog friend lies down the cooling effect starts. It will last up to 3-4 hours of constant use and will last for years." ETA picture - she has been on there well over half an hour now without moving. He joined her probably 20 minutes ago.

I think I might pop over to the shops and get one this morning. Thinking for the puppies mostly. 6 week old puppies and a week of heat do not go well together.

Best trick I learnt to make it easier to blow was to attach a small length of aquarium tubing over the end. and hold that in your mouth and blow. It is definitely easier, you can leave the whistle kind of hanging in oyur mouth when you have the tubing and it is easy to bite down/tongue across the end to block it and then release to open up and blow again. Don;t forget though that you will need to condition the dogs to it, they won't automatically understand what it means.

SecretKei, I was looking at those a couple of days ago and wondered how effective they would be. The dogs don't mind them? If my guys don't like what is in their crate they will kick it to the back of crate and lay on the plastic tray.

Not using it yet, but hoping for it for a birthday present :) I think someone on here does use it though. Here is a gallery fo shots taken with it My link

This what I have done with my puppy room, only I went to a carpet supplier and got an end of roll/off cut type piece. It was better quality and cheaper than Bunnings and enough for the whole room. I do the radio as well, I even change stations each day so the types of music and sounds are different :)

Gee I wish I had thought of those dip type platters when I had my big litter! Feeding 2 is easy in comparison. I start with 1 meal a day for the first 4 or 5 days of mostly mince with a little goats milk in it.

I am currently looking at this lens as an affordable macro, it gets good reviews for it's price. macro lens (This may not be the best price but was first result when I googled it)

Frozen plastic water bottles and frozen hot water bottles are great. With my puppies the key sign was if they were unsettled. Every time in the first couple of weeks that they were particularly unsettled and whingey they were hot. If I put a frozen hot water bottle in there with a towel over it and placed them on it they would shut up sleep immediately.

Excellent news SLF but no fair on the daylight whelping, lol.

Definitely this! I was so organsied for my current litter, even had a box set up with blankets, newspaper, towels and a couple of empty hot water bottles ready to fill if needed. Off we went to the vets sometime around 11pm and needed up being a c-section. It was only when we went to leave that I realised the box was still sitting by the door of the whelping room. Next time I will have 2 - 1 by the whelping box in case we have to go part way through and 1 in the car in case we head to the vets and I forget to pick up the first 1 :) Luckily for me, I had a friend come with me to drive, it was only 2 puppies and the vet is less than half a km from home. LOL.

I would add crate games to that warning as well. I saw a few dogs recently at an agility clinic that found the crate more rewarding and after 1 sequence would turn and run full pelt back to their crate. If only they had the same enthusiasm for the equipment! I have also seen dogs where crates games was done well and it can be great :) Same as many things - the key to it is getting the right balance for your dog to keep them at the level that you want them to be.

My style of project. I have 2 x 5 week old puppies here at the moment so plenty of photos happening at the moment :)

Oh you just gave me a whole new idea. LOL.

I have my ideas now, just need to get the opportunity to get the pics. :)

Looks great kja! I am not experienced with blogs so will not offer to play with settings for fear of killing it. LOL Still stumped on the first theme.

Oh dear, make it hard right from the start!! LOL My understanding is we each put up 3 photos on the blog every fortnight relating to the theme that has been selected but we send kja one photo ASAP to go on the blog :)

Does anyone know if the Bickfords 1 is suitable? That is the only other good quality 1 I can think of. The webpage says all of their cordials contain up to 35% juice but doesn't give specifics for each 1. We had a bottle in the fridge right up until Christmas and when I looked in Woolies today they didn't have any raspberry for me to check and none of the others they stocked were high enough either.