Puppy Advice (merged)

suki1964

picnic wrote: »

where i live there is no where enclosed that i can be dragged (lol) too... he's not keen on car travel so im stuck. and for the amount i paid for him, plus jabs & chip... i want i dog i can take out etc...

bit like having a posh car and not being able to drive,... no point.

i honestly feel me and my dog will be better for this experence he going to go through. and i hope that he will have much more of an active life.

Hey you are at least taking steps to get your dog trained, although doing it from day one would have helped a lot more.

Do you get to spend time aat the training sessions and get taught how to handle him?

sammy_kaye18

well my dog is almost there with recall (um...see a post form a few months ago) he wasnt the best (would come back but not always) and shot off from me to sniff around a big onlead akito thing - he ws only saying hello but when i mentioned it on the forum i got a bit of a rude awakening (in the nicest way) and have worked on it since.

My dog is a jack russell so is very hyper, wants to play with everyone, thing, toy, child etc that will give him the time of day. So we have been working on his recall and he is very good if its jsut the two of us on the field, but if there is kids playign with a ball etc then hes kept on a long but extendable lead so he can explore a bit but is still attached to me, but he is gettign better - plus he is making a few more doggy friends now too which is nice for him. His best friend is another dog called Boy who we recently met.

As for the dog with kids comment - I dont leave my jack with my son - even though the pair of them are as thick as theives and Bruno (the dog) knows that Ben would never hurt him and Ben has been around dogs all his life so knows to respect them - i would still never leave them entirely alone together for a period of time. I always nip out and back in the room or call the dog with me.

kaflinkle

I happen to believe that a dog should be on a lead at all times in public. No matter how good a recall is, the mind of a dog works differently to ours.

I had a Border Collie x Lab and this animal was very intelligent (she had more qualifications than me!) and her recall was excellent, when walking off a lead she would keep pace with me whether running or walking, keep with me whatever direction I turned, if I said 'stay' she would stay for ages until I called her. She would even wait for a command to eat her dinner.

But when she saw a cat, no command would stop her running after it. After this happened a few times, she remained on a lead when out in public as I didn't want her running under a car.

No one can have 100% control over an animal.

suki1964

kaflinkle wrote: »

I happen to believe that a dog should be on a lead at all times in public. No matter how good a recall is, the mind of a dog works differently to ours.

I had a Border Collie x Lab and this animal was very intelligent (she had more qualifications than me!) and her recall was excellent, when walking off a lead she would keep pace with me whether running or walking, keep with me whatever direction I turned, if I said 'stay' she would stay for ages until I called her. She would even wait for a command to eat her dinner.

But when she saw a cat, no command would stop her running after it. After this happened a few times, she remained on a lead when out in public as I didn't want her running under a car.

No one can have 100% control over an animal.

You can actually train dogs not to react to triggers such as cats and squirrels. Its hard work but it can be done, Working dogs are trained that way daily

Bromley86

We used to feed our girl Beta Large Puppy and she used to leave between 1/2 to 1/3 of her meal. We even had to leave her bowl down for longer than the 20 mins to get her to eat some.

Switched to Burns and she cleans her plate. Now, that's probably partly because of their lower feeding guide (IIRC when we switched we were feeding >650g/day of Beta and only 400g/day Burns), but Burns did pass repeated taste challenges with her.

Cost wise it is cheaper for us, although many people feed more than the Burns pack recommends. We have to stick to it because for health reasons we need to keep her skinny. Even if you don't stick to it, Burns can still be cheaper.

Whatever you feed extras that ours enjoys (aside from leftovers):
* homemade chicken/veg stock (no onions)
* pichards (tom sauce)
* tomato sauce
* heart/liver

The tomato sauce is to spare our garden, but I'm not sure if it works for boys. We've bought a cheap bottle for her for convenience, but do check for onions in the ingredients.

BTW, Raksha is spot-on, but we're just too weak .

Smickan

Absolutely !!!!ing furious.

We spoke to the woman and the time was changed as she was sorting some paperwork out at the new house - so half past four was fine by us.

We got a taxi down there [£5] and waited from 4ish just incase they got early to half past 5 and got a taxi home at 5.30 [£5].

No sign of them. No calls answered [and believed me, at one point I was so furious I was ringing continuously on a loop]

Went straight to bed when we got home cos my head was pounding and I was too angry to be rational, and got up just before EastEnders started. Rang again and finally they answered this time, was very rational and calm, explained waiting for an hour and half, explained spending a tenner getting out there cos it wasn't local for us either and about £3 in credit getting the answerphone when we called and asked what had happened.

She said she was sorry, it was her partner, who apparently wasn't there at the moment who had agreed to it and he'd been annoyed [He was annoyed!!!] at how much it would cost in petrol money and wouldn't bring her out. I told the truth that we would have put in petrol money to get her over and she basically had no answers, repeated how very sorry she was and said she'd get her partner to call back later but it had been him handling it.

I don't expect to hear from them again and I don't know if I'll have calmed down enough to let it drop or if I'll suggest us paying a tenner or so towards his petrol if he'd bring her out (though I doubt he would after all this) but eh.

Poor ole' Milly

trampyblonde

Thanks guys, we tried him with some rice with his dinner and he loved it!! I think I mite spice up his meals every now and again as a treat (not literally tho...now that could be messy!)

Off to look for some nice collars now!

Thanks again! :T

Froglet

Oh that is dreadful,no wonder you are so angry and upset.You have spent all this time asking advice,getting excited,making plans and then they have the nerve to p**s you about like that when you are doing THEM a favour.And it has ended up costing you time and money.
But as you say it is the dog you most feel sorry for.If this cannot be resolved there will always be a rescue centre if you have your heart set on a companion for your present dog.I remember when you first got him,so pleased to hear he is doing so well.
people like that do NOT deserve to have any animal.

picnic

suki1964 wrote: »

Hey you are at least taking steps to get your dog trained, although doing it from day one would have helped a lot more.

Do you get to spend time aat the training sessions and get taught how to handle him?

they prefer to train the dog first and then they train the owners....

lostinrates

kaflinkle wrote: »

I happen to believe that a dog should be on a lead at all times in public. No matter how good a recall is, the mind of a dog works differently to ours.

I had a Border Collie x Lab and this animal was very intelligent (she had more qualifications than me!) and her recall was excellent, when walking off a lead she would keep pace with me whether running or walking, keep with me whatever direction I turned, if I said 'stay' she would stay for ages until I called her. She would even wait for a command to eat her dinner.

But when she saw a cat, no command would stop her running after it. After this happened a few times, she remained on a lead when out in public as I didn't want her running under a car.

No one can have 100% control over an animal.

Part of the way a dog's mind works is the joy of freedom or running its rare to find a dog who doesn't like going out for a run, more common to find a person though.

You are right about no such thing as 100% control. I ride, and its the same there. We can only minimise risk and control through work and training.

My sight hounds have all learned not to chase cats. It has always been very difficuly, more so with the grey than with any of the others. I've now had over thrty (since a kid I had my own dogs of our family's to train and work with) and the greyhound has, understanably, been the hardest to switch the chase trigger off, but she now is great with the cats and pretty reliable with the chickens too. I'll never say 100% and she's just a year, so still mentally gowing up, but I'll give her 98%. She now walks to heel with no lead on our local lanes....she'll lurch forward for a dog bt come back when called. She's great round the horses too. BUT I have been lucky enough to have been able to spend all my time with her-no job, and the consistancy of that handling really helps.