Doglicious

feralpup How come you can't do obedience until Darcy is 6 months? Just curious...I know nothing!

Thanks to gandalfthegrey we will be starting obedience classes this coming Tuesday night. It's $5 an hour. We are going to go to the Tuesday evening session and the Saturday morning session plus we have two more weeks of puppy preschool on a Thursday night. We are really looking forward to the obedience classes. If your'e after obedience classes in your area, post something on here. There's such a diverse range of people on here, someone is bound to come up with something for you! Good Luck!

I don't even reply when people ask me what I feed my dog anymore (BTW its BARF). I am so tired of having to justify it and explain my reasons for doing it. As for 'spoiling' your dog by preparing and feeding BARF, I think you are 'spoiling' them by NOT giving it to them. So when people tell me how shiny his coat is, clear his eyes are, clean his teeth are etc I just say 'thankyou'. ....and kinda think to myself 'hmmmm, all things you CAN'T get out of a bloody can! There are just some people who can't be told or who don't want to know. A can of PAL? Yuk! Would rather cut up offal anyday than touch that cr*p!

Yeah, I'm with you. Ours is pretty crowded and we have to hold our pup too and he falls straight asleep on my lap. I dont think it's doing him any favours holding him either because he looks down on the bigger dogs on the ground and doesnt really interact with them. I'm finding it interesting looking at the dogs other people have chosen and finding out their reasons and I've come across some breeds that I've never seen or heard of, so from that point its pretty good. I'm just not sure what my boy is getting out of it. He's a really gentle boy and getting humped and play bitten by a boistrous lab isn't much fun for him *L*

Now, not that money is the issue...afterall we'd all give our last dollar for our fur babies but this one costs $80 for four weeks. Like I said, we will perservere with it as it probably is giving him some great socialisation but will be glad when its over. I think your'e right Shoemonster, I might have been expecting too much. Most of the things he learns there are stuff he already knows (drop,sit,stay, shake etc). We are both now looking forward to obedience classes! :p

Thanks so much Rob! The BARF diet must be good because we are having major hassles with him 're-eating' it if you know what I mean. He only does it when we're not home. Any ideas on how to stop him from doing this............anyone? We're desperate!!!

Hi Sheltiesrule, Thanks for your post...great to know I'm not alone. I really want my dog to be social with other dogs and well behaved but I think obedience would be better. Am looking into it today. Was really embarassed about the BARF thing.....makes me feel like a terrible mother! :p He's happy and healthy though so that's all I care about.

Well, its a few things but I suppose I'm being a bit of a whinger :p It's held in the waiting room of the vet surgery and the floor is tiled. Its really slippery and a lot of the puppies spend their time slipping and sliding all over the place. There's also some people there with very big 'puppies' who can get quite out of control. Suppose Iam just having a whine really. It's not that bad. I guess I was a bit put off when the girl taking the class admired my puppies shiny coat/ sparkly eyes etc. She then asked me what I was feeding him. I told her a barf diet and she made a big deal in front of everyone about how rarely people balance the diet correctly on that 'program' and that I should really give him a certain brand of dried food as its all he'll ever really need. I was really embarrassed and felt a bit on the spot if you know what I mean. Will perserve with it for him though but can't wait to take him to some proper obedience classes

Interested to hear others experiences. We're not really enjoying ours.

I have always thought that if a male dog was desexed at an early age he will never cock his leg. My friends boy was done early and he is now 7 and still squats Oh my god......I think you might have rabbits ...either that or your doggie thinks he's a hound!!

He's not doing it because he's bored. I'm on holidays at the moment and spend all day playing with him. Putting his own poo there might not work because he's been known to eat that at times.

Our 14 week old puppy is presently being toilet trained. We are picking him up and carrying him outside to the place where we want him to go (it's along the left side of the house). He's seems to be getting the hang of it but as soon as he's done, races around to the right side of the house and starts digging frantically at one particular spot. We recently took care of a friends cattle dog while she was away and after she collected her dog I scoured the backyard intensively for any bones she may have left behind. I found all of them (kept count!) so I figured he couldn't be digging up something she'd buried. The first few times he did it I wasn't too worried as I know dogs will dig and I'm not too worried about that, but now he does it all the time. Eventually my curiosity got the better of me and I had a dig too! Turns out it is some kind of poo buried there. It can't be his because he doesn't cover his (do dogs do that BTW or is it just cats?). Anyway, I dug it up and got rid of it but he still goes there religiously. He has his final booster shot next week against parvo and distemper so I'm a bit worried he could pick up parvo from cats getting into our yard. We have tried so hard to keep him quarantined until fully vaccinated and now this! Is there any way we can deter him from this spot? We've taken the dirt out and replaced it and we move him away as soon as he goes near it but he really thinks theres some kind of treasure there. Also, at what age do male dogs start to cock their legs? He's tried it once, lost his balance and fell over and hasn't tried it since. My mum has a staffy who is 3 and he never does it. She says its because he was rasied by her cattle dog from 4 weeks old (he was a rescue) and he's never had a rolemodel to learn it from so even now he still squats. Could this be true? Iwould have thought somewhere along the line something would 'click' into place and he'd get the hang of it! Any ideas / advice?

Our puppy is doing the same thing. We're a big fan of saying 'NO' in a very stern voice. He totally understands it. We hardly ever use a loud or stern voice with him and he seems to have picked up that no means no pretty quickly. They told us to imitate the littermates at puppy school and yelp etc but he just thinks this is a hilarious joke and a sign to do it more. Persist with the strict 'no'.

He really thrives on any kind of training and sees it all as a huge game. He was a bit cautious at puppy school last Thursday night but is getting much better. We took him to my parents place last weekend and they have two dogs. We didn't let him near the cattle dog because she's a bit neurotic and untrustworthy but we let mum and Dad's staffy near him. it was so funny because the staffy is scared and cats and wouldn't look at our boy because he thought he was a cat....kept trying to hide from him, which of course only made our boy bolder!! :rolleyes: He seems to have the sit and drop thing down pat although he can be a little over enthusiastic at times and pre-empts the behaviour or action I require. It's like he's saying 'C'mon, c'mon I already know this...we've been here before!!!

Thanks guys! They are great ideas. It's not so much that I think we are wasting time hanging out but I really want to be the best mum to him and teach him all I can........he's totally like a sponge at the moment. Its school hols here now so we spend all day together (which I am loving!!) Love the idea of finding treats and stuff though. Also like the idea of fetching. Will give both a go! THANKS!!