Elbie, Hoover, Dodge & Friends!

[kyliegirl]

Echo had his first day of puppy school today, he acted exactly the way I predicted - minimal attention, wanting to play with puppies but hide when puppies pay attention to him, hide under the chairs and benches and all out trying to go everywhere. So it went pretty well, he got to play with puppies at the end when there were less around and everyone was leaving, surprisingly he was rough with some but then when he met a little 9 week puppy he completely stopped and was very gentle with it. He was a bit too boisterous on some so will be working on that.

[Genabee]

Oh wizzle! That's fantastic news! I'm so happy for you and Mr Wizzle...as I was when you first announced WW of course, but since you secretly wanted a girl, and she is...well, you know what I mean! ;) :D Also, I the name and the spelling. That's actually on my "list" if ever my brothers find a husband for me :D

In news here, Roo's best dog friend next door completed the 'Tunnel of Love' under the fence and ended up in my backyard tonight! The two of them had been playing Bitey Face under the fence after Roo had finished her lamb shank, and I went off down the back to do poo patrol. I looked up, and he was more than 3/4 of the way under the fence, then he was in my yard! Of course the two crazy doglets then went mad chasing each other around the yard I tried to call out to my NDN, but they must have been in another part of their house. So I let them wrestle/play for 15 mins or so, then took him next door.

Methinks the tunnel may be filled in tomorrow. I don't mind them playing when I'm home and in the yard watching them, but I wouldn't want him in there when I was not home.

Naughty Miss Roo has been continuing her excavating skills with more holes today. I'm hoping it's just because it's so hot and she's trying to get cool, not that she's punishing me for being back at work Unfortunately, the RC Lab adult biscuits are too big to fall out of the Buster Cube easily, so I've been using Pal puppy biscuits (sssh!), but she's not interested I'm still not sure if I should have kept her on the RC Lab puppy biscuits a bit longer Might check out Petbarn tomorrow just in case...

ETA Cool pics Rav!

:D :D Tunnel of Love! ;) :) Bitey Face! :o

Thanks Lils! It has certainly taken the edge of the last few months, especially knowing she is healthy!

[Genabee]

Echo had his first day of puppy school today, he acted exactly the way I predicted - minimal attention, wanting to play with puppies but hide when puppies pay attention to him, hide under the chairs and benches and all out trying to go everywhere. So it went pretty well, he got to play with puppies at the end when there were less around and everyone was leaving, surprisingly he was rough with some but then when he met a little 9 week puppy he completely stopped and was very gentle with it. He was a bit too boisterous on some so will be working on that.

Aww.... how cute!! Treasure these moments... I remember someone saying that to me, but I was too busy tearing my hair out. Now I miss (some of) the puppy moments... Like her not being able to walk on the cork floors without sliding....

[betsy]

Congrats Wizzle on the news, I'm sure Miss G will love her little sister!

Lilli_star - do we get to see photos of this tunnel of love????? :eek:

A few photos post beach:

Had another great morning at the beach - now all the holiday makers have returned home!

Ziggy's recall was tested (and failed) due to an absolutely irresistable whippet flying along the beach. Boy whippets are fast! I finally caught up with the dog and its owners and managed to get Ziggy back. Otherwise he was pretty good, and there were some nice other dogs and owners there who didn't mind my boy having a play with their dogs.

[kyliegirl]

some fly by pics, Echo has been digging holes so we bought him a shell for a designated dig zone, the spare shell was turned into a little pool for him. It may end up being another dig zone depending.

[Kickss]

Hey Kylie!!

Glad to hear puppy went well Echo is a stunning little boy, I'll have my girl there next week so they can have a play after class

Have fun training this week!!

[koalathebear]

ravenau1: Great photos. Dogs in snow look like they have a lot of fun.

wuffles: thanks for the temperature information. OH saw it before I did and was quoting it to me ;)

wizzle: congratulations. The facebook photo was very cute but your explanation was definitely needed. I love the name Madeleline, too although my Madeleine friends have always ended up being Maddie, Madster and Mads which is not so pretty.

lilli_star: wow that is commitment! I'm impressed but I can see how that's alarming. I'd probably freak out if either of our dogs decided to dig out of our yard!

betsy: love the tongue-lick photo. So much enthusiasm and Doggy happiness

kyliegirl: OH thought that the first photo of Echo with the shell was funny - he looks so unimpressed at having his digging limited to one area like that

It was Hoover's first day in bronze today and his first official day at obedience class. He was soooooooooooooo excited - I've never seen him pull like that before! I'm happy with our class, we have cleoJ as an instructor and Clastic and Mars as class-mates. Hoover did pretty well for his first class - he was initially very distracted by a very happy dalmation but eventually settled down and did all of his exercises well. He wiggled his butt too much for sit for pats, but he knows cleoJ as a Friend and was very excited to see her. I'm not sure he understood what the whole thing was - it was lots of new sights, smells, dogs and experiences for him but what helped was his mat. As soon as the mat went down, he knew he was supposed to go to it and sit on it so that always provides a measure of structure in the midst of all the craziness

Mars performed very well - very placid for his pats! At first I thought our two doggies would be lunging at each other during class but they were mostly pretty well-behaved with Hoover being the naughtier one! Clastic - it's fine to bring the squeaky toy - Hoover needs to be 'proofed' against distractions. Today was so funny because when cleoJ gave her "example" of how to call your dog, she said: "Hoover come here!" and I could see the look on Hoover's face as he debated whether or not he was supposed to go running off. Thankfully he stayed put. We were all very soaked by the rain but at least we weren't hot.

[kyliegirl]

haha ktb he was actually looking at me like that because i interrupted his attempt to bury the ball ;) he is actually loving his dig spot as there was only small areas he could dig before due to the grass and now he has a huge spot to dig.

[koalathebear]

he is actually loving his dig spot as there was only small areas he could dig before due to the grass and now he has a huge spot to dig.

Lucky doggy - also a consummate actor if he can turn on the googoo eyes like that ;)

This is my spoilt brat of a Kelpie thinking he is a lap dog He's pretty big for a lap dog!

Note that he has already developed the Imperious Kelpie Stare: "Fan me, human!" Yes, that's my OH with the red and tan monster on his lap and yes OH is fanning the monster

Sometimes OH wants me to look at Hoover but doesn't want to catch Hoover's attention so he will say: "Look at the red and tan ..."

ETA: I've just completed 3 new rescue dog videos.

This is

.

This is

.

This is

. Such an expressive face! So far all the rescue dogs the subject of videos have found homes except

and

. Edited February 6, 2011 by koalathebear

[Max#1]

Hello!

Very cute photos of Ziggy, Echo and Hoover! Hoover's ears - my oh my!

We had our first day back at obedience classes this morning. I still hadn't heard anything from them, so decided to take Max down and see what happened. We walked there - maybe a thirty minute walk? - nevertheless Max was still super-excited. I've been put into a different class with a different instructor - and so far so good. Max was a crazy little monster, but was much improved with his LLW and did his usual thing with all the positions (sit, drop etc). However. I noticed that as the hour went past he was 'building up', if that makes sense. By the end we were doing recalls in a cricket net enclosure. Max ran to me, but not directly, in a really 'inviting me to play' way, the sat in front of me, bounced in place, then bounced around the enclosure - even the instructor was laughing. Walking home he was going mad - there was water in the gutters from the rain and he was pulling to them, splashing in there, dancing around - then we get home and he's doing zoomies through the whole house, jumping over us like Bambie and whacking us with successive toys to get us to play. Does anybody else experience this post-training?

ETA - KTB: heart-wrenching videos! Those poor puppies. I'm sure having the video really helps with people deciding to adopt them!

Also ETA - of course he's dead to the world now! And thinking about it, I haven't done much with him over Christmas where he's had to be on-lead for extended periods of time ;) . Flyball is mostly off-lead, with socialising before and after. Its almost like he gets bored having to be on-lead for so long. Something else to work on I guess....

Edited February 6, 2011 by Max#1

[wuffles]

First day of training for us too. Apart from Ava acting like she'd never heard the command "heel" before in her life, and me stuffing up some of my signals we did well. We did some stay distraction work where the instructor was doing things like crawling along the line of dogs and skipping past them with a cone on her head I saw Ava's tail wag when the lady was crawling in front of her so I gave her one extra stay command, otherwise she did so well!

Does anybody else experience this post-training?

Yes

And in other news, I saw KA's new haircut :D :D

[koalathebear]

Max#1: Funny account of the first day back at class. It was a bit crazy at the dog club today. Soooooooooooo many lunging/barking/happy/sniffing/jumping dogs around. I saw a very embarrassed owner hiding in the corner with her barking dog and I said: "Don't worry, I have a dog that's just the same," and she said: "That's not possible," but Elbie was by the fence with OH barking like a maniac because he wanted to go and play ;)

Max sounded like he was very funny at training OH said that Elbie's 'trick' fell flat because he was supposed to do 'drop dead' but every time he 'died', the dog next to him kept coming over to investigate as if to say; "Is everything ok here?" which of course made Elbie get up again

About the rescue dogs - I feel so bad for those poor dogs ;) I hear sooooooooooooo many stories though about people getting a rescue dog with Issues and then having considerable heartache as a result. It's such a dilemma and it's not the poor dog's fault and blah blah blah ... I am not sure I could ever take in a rescue dog with my high strung Elborino ... the best I can hope for is very short-term fosterings of puppies or something ...

And in other news, I saw KA's new haircut :D :D

In the _fleshhair??? KA - were you lurking around BDOC today without telling any of us?

[Cleo's Corgwyn]

Oops, sorry KTB, I didn't mean to confuse Hoover! He and Mars both did very well today. All the dogs were a bit overstimulated today, being first class back.

Wuffles, Ava, was looking good today. Her heeling is lovely, and I'm sure you'll do well when you give trialling a go.

Max #1, I wouldn't worry too much about it - I think the dogs do miss all the sights and smells of class, and find it exciting to go back. The triallers at my club kept training over Christmas, but tried out some different locations to do some proofing for the dogs. The first night we moved back to our club, you could almost see all the dogs sigh in relief to be back on familiar ground!

And to keep this in a photo frame, here's one that was taken yesterday at a fun training session/ coffee get together. And yes, those at BDOC should recognise all the dogs!

[koalathebear]

cleoJ - gorgeous photo. I love how alert all the doggies look - except for the one at the front who is looking the wrong way. Also, please don't apologise! It was good training for Hoover and I was pretty pleased with how he managed to stay put despite the temptation to run away. You could have ended up with a Kelpie to add to your dog collection

Also, OH used some boxes to form a tunnel to teach the doggies 'through'. Hoover went through without hesitation. Elbie hesitated but then went through. When they both realised that 'going through the tunnel' = treats, this is what happened:

Yes ... he seems to think that if he just stays put in the tunnel he'll get treats ...

[Clastic]

First day back at training, I think Mars did pretty well (more the trainer that has problems)- maybe this session we'll actually attempt to be assessed for Bronze level.

KTB - I'll bring some less 'noisy' toys for Mars next week, I didn't mean to distract Hoover with the squeaking.. sorry.

CleoJ - Thank you for a great 1st lesson back, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[koalathebear]

First day back at training, I think Mars did pretty well (more the trainer that has problems)- maybe this session we'll actually attempt to be assessed for Bronze level.

KTB - I'll bring some less 'noisy' toys for Mars next week, I didn't mean to distract Hoover with the squeaking.. sorry.

Nooooo please do bring squeakies! It's great training for the red and tan monster! I thought it was good for him to hear a squeaker nearby

[Clastic]

First day back at training, I think Mars did pretty well (more the trainer that has problems)- maybe this session we'll actually attempt to be assessed for Bronze level.

KTB - I'll bring some less 'noisy' toys for Mars next week, I didn't mean to distract Hoover with the squeaking.. sorry. :D

Nooooo please do bring squeakies! It's great training for the red and tan monster! I thought it was good for him to hear a squeaker nearby

Okay.... BUT, if at any stage the squeaking is annoying and we are distracting Hoover in anyway, please let me know..

[Max#1]

Glad to hear that this is not unique just to me and Max! The poor little monster passed out after settling down, but then woke up just as crazy as he was before he went to sleep??? Maybe he was dreaming of water-full gutters, head-swiping german shepherds, and roly poly labradors???

I forgot to say before - my new instructor has kelpies (this I find personally reassuring that she 'understands' Max to some extent - although this is based on my own personal experience of one other instructor...) - and she says Max 'drops' like a kelpie

Ah KTB - I'm loathe to read much farther than this thread on here these days because ....{self edited}... but I am sure that many people out there are adopting dogs and enjoying their new best friends without any serious dramas. Some minor ones maybe, but nothing worth putting them off! In my experience, what's going on 'out there', is so much different than what goes on 'in here', and I have to stop reading or otherwise it does my head in!

[lilli_star]

Cleo, that's a great photo

Glad to hear all your Canberrans had a good day back at "school" :D

Kylie, I'm glad Echo is digging in his clamshell- Ruby still prefers to dig in the yard I bought 2 new bags of sand at Bunnings yesterday since most of the original 2 bags worth of sand I put in Roo's clamshell seems to have vanished/blown away/ disintegrated, along with a new clamshell. Haven't put then in the yard yet though since last night we went to stay with my brother.

We had a family dinner for my older sister's birthday in town at a fancy restaurant (you know it's fancy when you can only choose from 4 things on the menu ) last night. We had just ordered our starters when the power went out during a storm. It became very hot and stuffy very quick, but there was a battery light still on, so we could see a bit. Then before our mains came out, THAT went out too, so we were sitting in the dark for most of the night! The staff coped very well though, especially with no exhaust fan so the kitchen was full of smoke and the detector kept going off! The power eventually came back on just before we had dessert, so we couldn't skip out without paying ;)

Roo had a great time at Mama Dog's house but she did give me a scare today

She had been munching on an old bone she found when it became lodged in the roof of her mouth! I was walking past her to put stuff in the car and she was trying to scratch at her muzzle. I thought she must have had an ant or something, but put my hand in her mouth to check and couldn't find anything. I watched her do it again, so put my hand in again and felt the bone on the roof of her mouth. It seemed like it took me ages to get it out! I had just started to panic and to call out to my niece to get her mum when I managed to get it unstuck. Not fun ;) Thankfully Ruby is fine. I gave her a bath when we came home because she'd had a lovely time at my brother's farm playing in the stinky puddles and in the rain ;)

Hope you've all had a great weekend- I did!

[koalathebear]

random note - I love

learning how to say "hello". He has such a cute look in his eyes ... Elbie gets that look sometimes when he's trying sooooooooo hard. Also, check out the tail - I'll bet the floor is clean now

I am also very impressed by

. Not only is she a beautiful-looking dog with gorgeous colouring, she's so clever.

OH is currently scouring youtube for new tricks to teach Elbie ...

ETA: Yoicks, lilli_star - just read your post about the bone. You must have posted the same time I did. I'm glad you were able to dislodge it. My old family dog Kitt had a similar issue and I also had to reach in and dislodge it. A lot of people get bitten when they do this but clearly we were lucky!! glad Roo is ok.

Edited February 6, 2011 by koalathebear