Marble

[quote name='DogPaddle']I like the wire cause the dog can see what's going on, makes mine bark less.[/quote] me too, my dogs have always seemed happier when they could see what was going on, i've never had any of them get cut or caught on the metal but i would look at it carefully just to make sure. my dogs, three of which were labs and one of which is a serious escape artist would have destroyed plastic but if your breed of dog is not likely to be destructive maybe plastic it'd be okay......... i think they both have their advantages, i just like wire better.

THAT is some news we can all be happy about! Glad to hear it, hope she keeps on getting better :)

so you all are saying that the gentle leader closes the mouth and the halti does not? this may be what i need to train dresden out of freaking out and barking and growling at every dog we saw this weekend at the beach, it was nuts......every dog she got to actually meet she was fine with and just wanted to smell them and play and everthing was great. every dog she saw was like an electrical shock- aahhhhhhhh bark bark bark GROWL lunge- and if she did not get to meet them she scared the heck out of the owners because they thought she was some killer freak dog from you know where (especially the ones with the horribly trained small dogs who had no manners whatsoever and the owners were completely oblivious to the fact that their dogs were horrible-which really irritated me as i was obviously making a huge effort to train dresden and keep her in line, but that's another topic). she did fabulously well with all the children we met and i had tons of people tell me how sweet she was and how well i was doing with training her, so that was tremendously encouraging, it's just the other dog thing......if you all have any advice let me know, i maybe should have made this another topic.......

Has anyone found any useful techniques for training dogs to vacuum? I've just been vacuuming up huge fur balls and piles of gritty chunks of who knows what from where. The whole while I was thinking, there must be some way to teach them to use a vacuum. I mean, we have dogs that do some really amazing things, why can't we design a dog friendly vacuum? We could make millions (of dollars). Just imagine all the ecstatic dogs owners. Maybe in the shape of a really big kong, or even a tennis ball so it's non-threatening to our canine friends.

thanks for all your help and comments :) we got rained out so we're going to try next weekend.......rain rain go away........

[quote name='bk_blue']BK is not shy about being a sook. To get attention and pats he will do one or more of the following: whinge, bark, squeak, stamp his feet, , jump up, crash back down and thump all over the back verandah which SOUNDS painful but he doesn't feel a thing, nip your ankles/heels, run cirlcles around you, breathe all over you,[/quote] ditto all of these for dresden....they sound so much alike :o her most recent thing is that when i'm trying to work online, she comes up and drapes her whole front end and legs over my lap and then tries to climb up......which is not very effective since she's getting so much bigger. she also does this hysterical whining-groaning-moaning-yawn that is hilarious, usually when she wants out of her crate in the morning and she knows i'm watching her. she also has started politely (miraculously enough) resting her fuzzy muzzle on my leg or whatever she can reach to try to get me to pet her (it works :) ).......oh, and dresden comes up and pushes on you with any part of her body she can, her whole torso (or whatever it's called with dogs :)) or her rear end....lady is very polite and gentle, she comes up and stares with her gorgeous eyes and bumps your arm or does other nudging manuevers..... on the big dog leaning thing.......i am like a 110 pounds and once met this 200 lb english mastiff-one of my favorite breeds- and after petting him for a minute, he sat on my foot and leaned on me so hard i almost fell over :)

Wow, this is great, you all are giving me lots of good ideas :) I have my first partway scary looking dog ( I love the fact that her teeth are so huge and white) after having three labs and I have been considering ahead of time how to respond to people........This is too funny. Any other good lines ??? :) Rosebud- I really need to see some pictures of your dog :) I've always thought Rhodesians were georgeous and the few people I've known who have had them have loved them.

thank you for your help, i really appreciate it, and i'm sure dresden will too........:) hopefully she'll behave herself.... :scared:......that's her when i tell her to go to her crate...... :D

hey- thanks for the advice, i bought 200 baggies for poop scooping (i almost forgot to get them) and i'll remember what you all said about the new people thing. she won't be off her leash at all i don't think, unless she's at the beach and it's empty and she's behaving exceptionally well. i do have a long leash though so that should help.

hey- this is my probably silly question for the week and i'm sure you all are going to laugh :) like i said somewhere, i'm taking dresden to the beach and i was just thinking about salt water and wondering if it'll be a problem with her or anything....i know newfs were bred to be in it and what not, but do dogs need to be washed off after being in it so it doesn't bother their skin and cause any problems ? just curious, thanks for any help you can give :)

yeah, i thought i was all smart and read stuff in a lot of books about this testing, so i went to the pound and visited dresden........ha ha ha......you know the one where you drop a ring of keys by the puppy to see if they investigate it or if they get scared and run away? well, i thinking this was so ingenious, dropped a big set of keys right behind her and in about a split second she whipped around and grabbed them and tossed them in the air, all she wanted to do was play with them. no fright, no fear, no hesitation........and i got her anyway.......and have been working on her for the last seven months and she is just insane . i really do think those tests have a lot of validity and should be done very carefully and that you should watch the dogs reactions very carefully if you really want to know what you are getting into. you can see A LOT about how a dog will be and react to things using these. i also used the one where you hold them cradled on their back and she wiggled for forever.......should have known better but i was already stuck on her by then. :D

okay, i have to reply to this :) i tend to think that there are very definitely cat people and dog people, i also think however that there is a third more open accepting group of people who like both :) i also think a lot of it has to do with which animals you are raised with. i was raised with labs, i have always loved big dogs, now i have a largish dog and love my smaller one too. but back to cats, i have met only two cats in my whole life i felt like i could really trust to act fairly consistantyly. of course my older brother had this HUGE really really evil cat that was mean as a snake from the day they adopted him and never was even remotely nice to anyone but my brother and his wife, and at several points all i would have to do to provoke his eighteen pound self to attack me was walk by him in the hallway. one time he actually jumped on my leg (thank God i was wearing jeans) and dug every single claw he had into me and tried to bite the heck out of me......so maybe some of my disliking has to do with him but i don't think i'll ever want to own a cat. i won't tolerate anyone being mean to any animal though and even though i dislike cats i do respect them as another living creature. by the way, why are so many many more people allergic to cats than dogs ? just curious, i've heard many speculations.

hey bk- i wish you wisdom for rinny, i've been in that situation with three dogs so far and it's a very hard place to be in. there's nothing like the pain and there is nothing like the memories and the parting and the last little while. know that you have obviously been a great owner and he has been very loved and taken care of.

well this is interesting, i was going to post a question for you all about something very similar. i am taking dresden to the beach this weekend and we will be in more than a few crowded areas with a lot of people and also on the beach. do you all have any advice for me regarding this ? it's our first time to actually go somewhere new together for several days. i know she is really good with people but i'm going alone and personally i don't want everbody babytalking to her and all that crap. quite frankly, i don't know how people will react, you have almost alll seen pictures of her, anyone can see that she's very odd looking, she has that doberman air about her and the acd spots and she's almost as big as your average lab. so anyway, if you all have any advice i'd really appreciate anything you can tell me. courtnek- i love what you said to that woman, there are so many inbred bad dogs within breeds that people really do need to be cautious.

i just wanted to thank you all for the information, dresden has been a real pain on the leash. first it was a nice collar, then a choke chain, then pinch collar (which i still feel is more gentle than a choke chain if used properly), these all have been useful for a time but even with all the right turn, left turn, circle bit she still tries to pull way too much........i swear i'm doing my best but she is so stinking stubborn- and getting pretty big. somtimes it just seems like nothing works....... are all haltis the same ? any advice for buying one ? THANKS!

that's great, thanks for sharing it, it made me laugh finally.....:)

okay yellow, i'll get off your case now :) i was just really curious how she was......i know i was in for some serious shock when i brought dresden home, i'm glad to hear you're having a really good experience with sable :) feel free to post some more pictures of her and your new calf :)

so she shows us all these georgeous pictures of sable, and tells us all these amazing things about her and no update ? :D :D we need an update :)

hey- thanks for all the help, lady smells almost 100% better now.......the only thing that smells is her muzzle because i didn't want to get stuff in her eyes and nose.....her eyes aren't running today either so that's good. anyway, thanks very much!

yeah, it's that ''I'm really smart and cute so I'm going to try to get away with as much as I can" look, she is beautiful. bk, how's blitz doing ?

hey- if anyone has any good ideas on how to get rid of skunk fumes on lady please let me know. i let the dogs out and then went out to call them and immediately smelled skunk........then what do you know but the dogs came back and lady got herself sprayed really bad. the only good thing was that it is raining and she was wet so her fur probably did not absorb as much as it would have had she been dry. i drenched her in tomato juice and then shampooed her but if you have any other help please let me know as she still reeks. dogs.....gottta love them....at least dresden didn't get sprayed too.

you might want to check out the earlier post titled " crates and names" or something very close to that. there are a couple links there that have tons of names........enjoy your new dog.

they are really nice looking dogs, thanks for sharing the pictures :) i love seeing people's dogs.

yellow- congratulations on getting sable. she is absolutely georgeous !! i was really shocked when i saw the pictures, she and dresden look A LOT alike. it is disconcerting........she has that same grin and look in her eyes........eery.......enjoy her. it took lady a month or two to really start to enjoy having dresden around, just give winnie lots of attention and do some special things just with her without sable, so she knows you don't love her any less.

[quote name='alicat613 not logged in']Oh my gosh...I'm sorry but we have discussed the freaking grapes at this board like 20 times since I've been a member and that has not been long!! Grapes CAN be bad. Some believe that those dogs affected already had liver or kidney problems. Generally a grape or two is fine, in a healthy dog and keeping in mind the size of a dog. I have a 6 month old Great Dane who weighs about 90 lbs. I give him grapes. He's had about 7 grapes in his entire life. And he's fine.[/quote] sorry, i had not recalled seeing anything about grapes anywhere. did not mean to be a problem.