-
All about the play bow innit. My wife is always worried about Scotty barreling through little dogs, he loves playing and is great with other dogs but has a tendency to run in and his favourite playing usually involves running around in big circles with a bit of fighting mixed in, he's like medium+ size, maybe large- and the little'ns sometimes just get charged over, especially if there's a few dogs about.
-
All the boys years ago had pitties, so there would be a pack of about 6 and cattle dogs and bitzas running a muck most weekends and on trips away. They all 99% of the time got on fine but if it ever did get over zealous with the PBs the only way to separate them was with a break stick or the only other thing I’ve seen work was not a finger but a hose up the arse and then turned on.
When hunting sometimes they could never get the the dogs off a kill so the dog still attached to the Roo would be thrown into the back of the Ute to follow the pack.
Never went on a hunt as it’s not my thing. But know of a couple of times when the Roos went down proper fighting.
Most notably was the time the dogs had chased some Roos into the bush and everyone chased, after awhile they could here the carnage and dogs yelping. When they came over the top they found a big Roo waist deep in a river sitting on its tail holding some dogs under the water with there strong limbs and ripping the others a new ahole with its massive claws.
Think they lost 3 dogs that day and I think that is what you call karma -
TL:dr version: We’ve had Willow about four days now and surviving. She is clearly smart and has no shortage of energy.
Long version. These things going well:
Training in general. She is really food driven and can laser focus. She quickly got sit, and ‘in’ (crate). She’s evolving mid lesson and we’re having to think on our feet.
Potty training. Yes we’ve had an accident or two, but last 48 hours have gone pretty well, of course we are setting timers etc to keep taking her out.
Crate. She’s happy to go in there, she’s sleeping and eating in it. She’s getting the hang of going in on command for a treat, even when not sleepy. Won’t stay in yet unless tired. Need a bigger one soon.
Cat and toddlers. No big dramas so far, our 18m.o. Human is a bit wary but 3 yo is fine, however see nipping below.
Things needing work:
Sleeping. We’ve done four nights with her downstairs on the futon with her crates. She’s done pretty well, sleeping for a few hours in between toilet breaks, and generally most of the night, she decides at some point in the small hours she wants to play and then it’s an hour to get her settled and back in the crate with the treat routine. Tonight we’re going to try leaving her alone... set alarms for Pre-emptive potty to try to stay one step ahead of her.
Biting, mouthing, nipping. All normal puppy behaviour I understand. Preferably distract with something she can chew. If she’s intent on going for us, gently close her mouth, calm her down. She’s generally soft mouthed but we want to iron it out early on. Our 3yo boy gets very excited with her of course and if they’re inside it can turn into a nip fest pretty quickly.
Being alone. When she’s awake, we generally go outside for some exercise (10-20 min depending how cold it is!) then inside for some play. She loves pulling on rope toys and suchlike. Or chewing an antler or dental stick. BUT we generally have to be in her ‘enclosure’ with her - if we potter around outside it, she whines and claws to get out. When this happens we are just waiting till she calms, rewarding her and then going back in for a bit. The plan is to gradually increase the length we leave her. I think part of the issue is our fully open-plan living space, of which she occupies a corner. Always something to be fomo of. I understand why people crate them in utility rooms and suchlike. We do have one, but it’s the cat’s domain, so we’d need a re-plan.
I wrote most of this post while she was contentedly chewing on my lap. Having never had one before, I’m getting the whole dog thing.
2 Attachments
-
-
RE: leaving her in her pen - we had to do the same as we have an oversized open plan lounge. We basically always reward leaving her with something high value. We used these natural treats called pizzle sticks / bully sticks which are hardcore for puppies to chew at as a distraction, they’re also really good as a distraction for biting hands / furniture.
We did the same with leaving her in the house alone for the first time, a good distraction treat means she doesn’t focus on us leaving and cry.
These are the type of sticks we used:
https://www.bellaandduke.com/product/pizzles-natural-dog-treats/
deleted
Olly398
mespilus
amac090
snottyotter
AlexD
ltc
user58572
kl
hats
Markyboy
mcmyk-
Post a reply
About
I want to get a dog but I have to work, how does everyone on broadway market do it ?
Posted by
Yes absolutely - I guess I’m talking about dogs that are relatively well matched, playing safely but boisterously together. It can look a bit alarming while still very much being dogs just playing happily.
Odie is pretty medium sized, so doesn’t present much of a danger to small dogs. I did call him off a daschund puppy the other week though. It was sooooo tiny and although they were playing nicely, I could tell the owner was nervous and I’d have hated for Odie to have hurt the tiny little dude. He really was a small dog!