DogPaddle

Well I hope she does ask - bet she doesn't come by and apologize when she finds out she's wrong though.

I soooo want a pool with hard tile edges - not a vinyl liner that the dogs can rip. Sounds like a great vet and a great time.

Sounds like a good plan. Let us know how it goes.

Wild dogs are excedingly resourceful - they would be hard to keep out. Still if I worked at the zoo I'd be pushing the city to take care of the problem and making some donations toward that end.

Gaurddog K to the rescue. Thanks for all your hard work, as usual.

[quote]Muffin, despite her size, is no pushover and relishes things like couch time, esp. with my husband who up until this started happening, let her get away with murder. Would it be better to enforce that?[/quote] If your going to go with no one having any rank but you I would continue with nilif and include Muffin in that. Maybe only let her on your laps when she has done her nilif and you invite her - this way perhaps Sasha will see you as the uberalpha have told Muffin to do something and Sasha just has no say in that. I think its a good choice to get the behaviourist in. You can talk over any choice you make with them and ask for advise on how to best impliment. Hopefully it will not come to segragation as that can be a bit of a downer but at least the option is open to you. Good for you for working so hard for your doggies and you have my very best wishes for success. I love rescue remedy and similar products. :D

Yes if you decide to go enforce/let Sasha be dominant to Muffin then Muffin may rarely be allowed to be on your lap, maybe never - it is a position of prestige. At least until you have things under control, you may be able to slowly reintroduce lap time for Muffin later but be careful.

Your Sasha does sound like she is coming into adulthood and establishing her place in the pack. She knows she is sub to the people and your elkhound but she has determined that your pom is sub to her. So anything is included in sub/aplph behaviour - food, best bed spots, toys, treats, attention from higher pack members - anything. With two dogs of similar size it is sometimes best to let them sort it out as interveneing prevents them from clearly establishing rank and usually they will not injure each other (you would of course intervene if they did.) With one big dog and one tiny it is definately more complicated. As I see it you have a few options but I'm no behaviourist or trainer so feel free to correct me or ignore me. 1. Enforce your own view of pack order: You decide what the pack order is and enforce it rigidly. This would meen feeding the dogs in order, giving more alpha dogs more attention and special privilidges and jumping all over anydog that decided to change the order you set. If you make the smaller dog more alpha it will save it being picked on and possibly injured IF you can gaurentee the other dog will follow your lead - if you can't you set the smaller dog up for some serious injury. If you make the larger dog more alpha and the smaller will not challenge and will accept the more restricted role with less perks this may work better but watch for pointless bullying. This is not a choice I would be eager to take - tricky. 2. Try to put them all on equal footing with no one having any rank but you: Jump all over any bullying - if one dog gets snarky with another because your petting both of them put the snarky dog in the kitchen and continue petting the well behaved one. Feed them all at same time in their own crates. Let none in the kitchen while you cook or eat. Basically continue doing what your already doing. 3. Get a behaviourist to actually work with the dogs in your own home: Opinions are one thing but you need someone to help maybe. It could be expensive but may be worth it. 4. Completely segragate the quarreling dogs: Large crate and xpen enclosure in another room or something. Each quarrelling dog gets equal free time with the rest of the family and any dogs it tolerates. Otherwise they are "in their room." 5. Medication - see a vet, this is pretty extreme. 6. Rehome one of the dogs using a breed rescue or private volunteer group that has you keep the dog until new home is found - takes time. Also pretty extrreme. You may have to wait a bit though. Your Pyr is not fully mature and may start challenging your other dog or may not. If it is just the little dog then it is easier to rehome the little dog - small dogs find homes easier and dogs needing to be the only dog in a household (as your Pyr would probably need to be listed for rehoming) is often quite difficult especially for a large dog. In any of these cases I would invest in some Rescue Remedy or some other herbal calmer while your working on it to make life easier for everyone. Here are some websites: [url]http://www.preciouspets.org/newsletters/articles/bach.htm[/url] [url]http://www.petfooddirect.com/store/dept.asp?dept%5Fid=173[/url]

Lovely doggers! And nice front yard, my boys would love it.

[quote]Ooooh, lovely. He does have Weim colouring. I'd take him in a second! [/quote] Well I guess that prooves it - my monitor is messed up - that dog looks so brown/tan on mine - I wonder how long its been messed and what colour all your dogs really are. :lol:

[quote]super cute he's got the color of fur that the Weim;s have[/quote] Maybe my monitor is displaying colours incorrectly but she looks more sandy beige than grey to me. But there is a sortof soft muted colouring that is similar to Weims. In any case it is a beautiful colouring - I love it.

Oooooh, somebody got into something when mum wasn't lookin'. Very cute, they even manage to look apologetic sorta.

:lol: :lol: :lol: The question is though . . .will your son stop eating on the couch now? Good that your pups are working with you to train your son, its good to involve all members of the family in training.

They both look lovely. Good luck, I'm sure whoever comes will look at how you love and care for Jackie and Maya and have no worries.

I've been trying to convince the roomies that a nice wood framed, full screen, door wouldn't look out of place between the living room and the stairs. Still no sale but I think it would be convenient. And as long as it would be one of those ones with the routered wooden, country-ish frames with screen on bottom and top I think it wouldn't look to bad. And it wouldn't impede air flow in the summer.

Perfect since you know the person who owns the dog will you post the link BOP, I can't find it. [size=2]Oh and maybe lay off on the smacked upside the head thing K?[/size] :D

You could break the does up and give one tab every 15-20 min and gage reaction?

Maybe when the vote finishes they will compile the No's to give a clearer picture. I do think the No arguments are important to see.

My boys have free run of the main floor minus the bathroom but only when it is my week to tidy the main floor. Kavik and Zaphod are good but there is only so much temptation they can resist and the roomies leave to much out. When the roomies have been "tidying" I leave the boys in the kitchen which, thankfully, usually remains clean and fairly temptation free. As for time the longest the boys were left was 12 hours once - there was a misunderstanding about who was going home to let them out. Generally they aren't alone any more than 6 hours - roomies do have their upsides.

[quote]DogPaddle did you get permission to post those images? If not, you may want to get permission before posting copywritten pictures such as the SBT's you posted. [/quote] Thanks, thought I had posted the link to credit them, I'll have to find that again and fix it shortly.

[quote]London has had city meetings to discuss the contract with the current service provider, the citizens were quite vocal. We are hopping that the contract will go to someone else with enough public pressure, when it next comes up for renewal/review.[/quote] Starfox - That is the point of the above mentioned city meetings. AC&C is paid for by the city by way of contract awarded to a company (in this case the lowest bidder I'm sure.) Citizens have been lobbying for a contract change for 6 months or so but the city will not do anything until the current contract comes up for renewal/review. We aren't boycotting per se we just can't use the service in good concience. AC&C doesn't could care less of course because they get the contract money whether people call them or not but there is NO WAY I could justify sending an animal there. We have been trying to point out to the city that the lowest bidder isn't a bargin if it is a service run so poorly that no one can use it. I thought their contract came up in the fall so hopefully we'll see some change soon - we desperately need it.

Sounds like you have a wayyy better AC&C. London has had city meetings to discuss the contract with the current service provider, the citizens were quite vocal. We are hopping that the contract will go to someone else with enough public pressure, when it next comes up for renewal/review.

Type of water does effect the colouring around eyes and mouth according to some of our other members so maybe your right in that being it.

If you are [b]very[/b] opposed to the chems you put on the dog you can try: 1. Bag all stuffed animals and pillows and other floofy things in thick garbage bags, put vacume on reverse and suck air out, seal with duct tape and leave for 2 days to a week. 2. Wash all washable items in water as warm as you can for the material type. 3. Vaccume everything - Lokipups idea sounds great. 4. Do the herbal remedies, garlic etc. 5. Get a flea comb and a good amount of loose lavender flowers and peppermint (insect repellents.) 6. Fill a deep tub with very warm, ever so slightly soapy water, throw in the lavender and peppermint. Immerse dog as deep as you can and leave like this for 1-5 min - if you can get them to sit still that long. Frequently dump water from bath over whatever part of dog is not submerged. Drain water but leave dog in tub. Rinse off excess peppermint and lavender. Have a seat, painstakingly go over every inch of dog with the flea comb (the peppermint and lavender stuck in the dogs coat will help you know where you have already brushed.) Put dog somewhere else. Strip and put your clothes in plastic bad for washing later, thorougly clean bath area to get rid of lingering fleas. 7. Use flea spray in any area of house you are comfortable with. 8. Repeat as often as weekly until problem is remedied. You have to be pretty opposed to chems or very determined to use this method but it will work eventually. Also it leaves the dog smelling nice and feeling soft. You may have to add oatmeal to the baths later on if you bath once a week or your dog may get dry skin. You can also do this as a temp fix if an infested animal show up at your house unexpectadly but you have to have peppermint and lavender on hand. ($2.50 of each is what we used for two kittens we have it in the house looseleaf as it makes a nice "tea" mixed 4:1 peppermint to lavender.)

MajiesMom - I love that website. It is excellent. I really like the Black and Silver Sables or any of the sables I guess. :iloveyou: This one soooo looks like your dog Kasi, except a bit lighter - its a black sable: [img]http://www.4gsd.net/files/KCBlack.jpg[/img] Here is an all black GSD: [img]http://www.4gsd.net/files/ccnyx.jpg[/img] And here are some of my :iloveyou: sables from the site listed above and this one [url]http://www.justshepherds.com/colors.htm:[/url] [img]http://www.4gsd.net/files/Tika2years10months.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.4gsd.net/files/Rayne17months.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.justshepherds.com/silver_rio.jpg[/img] And here is London from The Littlest Hobo fame: [img]http://www.poochpalace.com/movie/lobby/buddy05.jpg[/img]