Dog Gone It!! :)

[Henrietta23]

My mom knit our big dog a coat. He's got a weather resistant jacket too. NOw that he is almost 13 he seems to really appreciate them! The pug has a few coats too. Can't wrestle him into a sweater though. His shoulders are too broad.
DS went through that, "The puppy likes you more than me" thing too. Again, he was too rough and wouldn't feed him. They're finally getting to be best buddies.

 

[Farmfresh]

YUP I highly recommend it and not laminate if you can possibly afford it. (Habitat for Humanity stores sell reclaimed hardwood).

I am NOT gentle with these old floors, because we always assumed that we would need to refinish them all when we sell. I whip out the Murphey's Oil Soap and just mop them like a vinyl floor. SOMETIMES I even take a scrub brush to them! A wood floor can get nice and clean - carpet seems to harbor every old sin.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Love this thread.

btw, I bell trained a pup. He learned within two days. It's easier if they WANT to go out. I don't think you could do it this way if it's a "have to" only. By just you ringing the bell, yes the pup may/should learn to associate the two. But what I did was to take my pup to the door and excitedly ask "you wanna go outside?" while tapping the door. Pup gets excited too, taps or bumps the bell, bell rings, I say "good dog!" and open the door. When outside is a playground, it only takes a few repetitions. LOL trouble was, dog started ringing the bell asking to go outside anytime he got bored and what he REALLY wanted was to go out and chase the freerange poultry. Backfired on me bigtime. I had to remove the bell, but he'd still nudge the door with his nose. At least it wasn't a constant jangle.

I love the big dogs on poop patrol. ALWAYS good to let the big dogs do your training for you. Right now my pup is useful to keep the cats INSIDE the house (the boy is always trying to sneak out). And he's working on learning to keep them out of the Christmas tree as well as not to scratch the new (to us) couch. He'll be a worthy "enforcer" someday, I hope.

Pappilons are pretty dogs. I guess I can see the kinda collie look a like thing. I'm not a small dog person either (especially not chihuahuas aka apple-headed rat-dogs) but I used to have a doxie that thought she was a big dog and attacked a great Dane once. If I was going to have a small dog, I'd want it to have a big-dog heart. Great that they are trainable too. I really can't get on board with the idea of a dog as a lap ornament only. I even want my cats to listen to me (and they do!).

I think puppy classes can be a great idea. I've never used them. I've always trained my own dogs. The pup I got last year though ... I made q mistake. He came from a BUSY home, lots of dogs, people, coming and going. Rode in a car like he was born there. Housebroke easily, and obedience trained easily (except a temporary mental block on "down" ... All I can figure is it had some great psychological meaning to him that he really resisted, but we're way past that). So I concentrated on getting him used to farm animals, noises, what goes on around here and how to behave on the farm. Forgetting that I essentially have ZERO visitors. Sooooo ... Now we have a situation with a very vigilant, very protective, 100 pound puppy who doesn't really think ANYone but me is supposed to be here. He will calm down around women and children, but I worry for a strange man's sake. Which means when I took him to the vet ... Let's just say the vet has his doubts about my training ability and yet it's not that I can't train a dog but that I made the HUGE mistake of forgetting to continue his well-begun human socialization after I got him in favor of farm animals ... Sigh. Despite all that, he's a great dog FOR ME. But I'm going to have to work on that.

And I'm in favor of the no dogs on carpet. I barricaded him when he was very young to stay on the tile/concrete of the living, dining rooms and kitchen. Now he stays there because he knows he's not supposed to enter hallway or bedrooms. And when we hit the big shed, I'm glad for not having to vaccuum twice a day.

I like my dogs indoors, but I like a dog-free space too now in my old(er) age.

 

[FarmerChick]

yea Ohio
they do have a "way" of creeping into un-dog areas

on Christmas day we went to Moms and bro Rich and family were down. took Bolt in a crate. he sure isn't allowed in moms house so he stayed in the mudroom in his crate.

mom checks
dog is gone

everyone is wondering, where is muttley....everyone searching


Yup, Rich had it in the living room on his lap sleeping. Goes to show...my bro the dog hater, had the pup....

 

[FarmerChick]

you said it Shiloh

people area--dog free area lol I sure agree on that one!

but somehow I am losing the battle
he seems to be everywhere lol

 

[Shiloh Acres]

you said it Shiloh

people area--dog free area lol I sure agree on that one!

but somehow I am losing the battle
he seems to be everywhere lol

Yeah, it doesn't help when other people keep bringing him where he's not supposed to be. But ... They DO clean up any "accidents" that result, right? And any future accidents in the same spot? Since one can lead to another? Don't suppose that rule would help enforce the other?

Good luck with it, either way. He's not in your bedroom yet, is he?

 

[Farmfresh]

We have to add 2 more wets to the pissing match.

One sneaked by on hubby while he was watching TV. The second occurred while I was tending the fire.

Pup came back from doing the deed and I saw the mess "No no no no NO" I rapid fired at him. Normally I have been showing the mess and saying that while shaking him by the scruff - then I pitch him out the back door. This time as soon as I started scolding he RAN to the back door and was scratching to get out. I think he is figuring out that peeing in the house is bad.

 

[FarmerChick]

LOL Shiloh ---no for the bedroom. He will never be on my bed! and I mean the exclamation on that one lol

Nicole wants him on her bed and I said no. Dogs stay on the floor.....yet in her tv room of course he was on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, leading a great dogs life and snoozing. I should be so lucky to have an afternoon like that

 

[FarmerChick]

yea FF I can picture your puppy responding to you like that cause mine does also. He had a pee on the kitchen floor which I stepped in after putting on my socks. I turned and looked at him and he started circling full speed with that puppy waggle and looking scared....lol

they know they shouldn't, they just can't help it just yet

rapid fire No No No---yup I am doing it also haha

 

[Farmfresh]

Dogs stay on the floor.....yet in her tv room of course he was on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, leading a great dogs life and snoozing. I should be so lucky to have an afternoon like that

When I was a little kid I had a Toy Fox Terrier named Jiminy Cricket. I was living at Grandma Nettie's house (remember her outside only Papillon with the insulated dog house?), so NO DOGS in the house!! Where there is a kid there is a way! First I would pretend to be playing with my dolls. (They should have known right then that I was up to something, because I NEVER played with dolls. ) I would get the little doll bed all set up and then wrap dolly in a blanket and take her outside to play for a while. At that point I would ditch the doll behind a bush and swaddle up poor Jiminy.

Into the house we would go. I would put him in the baby bed and play "dolls" with him. Evil child that I was I would keep a rolled up newspaper under the bed and beat him with it if he tried to get up or out of the blanket! Eventually he learned to just lay there and smile.

After a while I would take him out, replace the doll into the blanket and go back in. It had been working great for a good little while when one day Grandma Nettie decided to play with me. She pretended the baby was crying and went over to give it a pat.... when Jiminy moved a bit she started shrieking!! It was NOT a newspaper directed at MY hiney.

Funny thing ... she had the same reaction years later when I almost had my pony Dapper up the flight of concrete steps leading to the front door and halfway into her living room.