So puppy people, how are your dogs doing? I know we have a few the same age as Doc ... how's it going? Everyone housebroken?

Doc had an accident the other day, his first in ages. And he pees all over Eric whenever he comes over, but that's getting to be an Eric-specific problem.

He still eats the cat food, chews up my bras, and tries to get to the mail before we do. And as I've said, he's a monster on walks.

But I think he'll be okay.

-- Anonymous, September 03, 1999

Answers

Beth, I had a similar experience with Howard and his choke collar. I was nervous about getting it, and what it represented. And this was with Howard as a fully grown beast!

I already knew how to put on the collar, though it confuses some people because I walk Howard on my right side instead of on my left side. And I knew how to give a correction. But I had it in my head that chokes were for bad dogs or mean owners.

But Howard loves his choke collar. He responds much better on walks. He actually notices when he's tugging and stops. I hardly ever have to give an actual correction (usually it's when he's found something absolutely devastatingly tasty and is having a hard time registering the Drop It).

When I pick up the collar, he runs over, sits, and then waits for me to hold it out. At that point, I don't really have to put the collar on. He just kind of ducks his head into it. He even figured out that if he doesn't close his mouth he'll end up eating it.

So now the choke lives on the end of the leash, and Howard is a happier and better behaved dog on walks.

-- Anonymous, September 03, 1999

Hiya Beth...

I wanted to thank you for your help on the forum question I had.

About the puppy issue - I'd sent you a picture of my pup before - he is a red min pin and I've also got him enrolled in puppy classes. I took all my entries from what I'd written about my experience with the obedience classes and put them here.

I hope you enjoy what little tidbits I've gone through - some are humorous. I figured it would be the easiest to put them on one page for you to check out rather than have you sift through all my entries over the past month.

Hope you get a chuckle.

-- Anonymous, September 03, 1999

Well.....Jake's not a puppy anymore, but I can recall when I made the decision to get a prong collar (he's a huge dog, outweighs me by more than 50 pounds). I went to the pet store and put the prong collar around my thigh and yanked HARD. It didn't hurt at all, but exerted considerable pressure. That made up my mind. And what a difference it made on walks! One pull by Jake and he decided he'd pay attention to the other end of the leash. As someone else said, now I never have to correct him. My daughter still calls it the "death collar" though.

-- Anonymous, September 03, 1999

My Ginger is practically the same age as Doc and looks to be about the same size.

She's still not exactly house broken. She still goes in her crate during the day. She hasn't had a house accident in a while, even in the kitchen. She's been doing a bit of whining when she needs to go out and I try to be responsive to it. She does sleep through the night now and will answer to QUIET.

She'd stopped the nipping, but after a weekend at a kennel she's doing it again. We're correcting her and working on it.

She will sit on command, and come when called. She's not so good at stay yet, but we're working on it. She's also doing reasonably well with 'down'

I haven't enrolled her in puppy classes yet, mostly due to lack of time on my part. I am going to start walking her on a leash to try and teach her manners. I've been to obedience training with Mack, so I know what to do. She gets all the socialization she needs from the other two dogs and the neighborhood animals.

It sounds like Doc is doing better, and that's good!

-- Anonymous, September 03, 1999

My roommate and I used to be *horrified* by prong collars, until he did the same thing someone else mentioned: put one around his leg and pulled.

We work with Mastiffs, and "prong collar" is something we'd mumbled darkly with some of our more difficult dogs. We've got the most challenging foster dog we've ever had right now, and a prong collar has gone a long way towards helping him and us. The other thing that's helping is that we've boarded him indefinitely at a kennel that he loves and apparently never wants to leave. Sometimes you have to be creative with puppies, especially giant ones.

Anyone want a gigantic outdoor dog with separation anxiety? Best damn dog in the world, can't be left alone or crated inside.

A collar hint: we find the prong collars too dangerous to leave on while they're in the house (too easy to snag on something) and the choke chains tend to either slip off or jingle too loudly to stand. All our dogs wear Premiere collars, they are martingale collars, a nylon collar with a loop where tension can be taken up (hard to describe), similar to a choke collar so you can snap it for correction, but more secure and less likely to snag. They wear their tags on the martingale collars all the time, and we slip on the choke/prong collars when we're going somewhere with the leash. The Premiere collars can be ordered from KV Vet, Jeffers, and most other online shops and you can find them in most comprehensive pet stores. We discovered them when I got my greyhound, they need them because their heads are narrower than their necks and regular collars can be backed out of.

And my public service announcement for the day: please tag your dogs with a phone number tag! Our dogs wear tags with both our cellphone numbers and our vet's name and number. Right now, www.petopia.com is offering free engraved tags for every animal you register with them - take advantage of that or go to Petsmart or Walmart, most stores carry vending machines that give you a choice of tags and usually 4 lines of engraving for 5-7 dollars.

-- Anonymous, September 03, 1999

Okay, let's see if I can remember all of these -- this may take two posts.

Nita: I think Doc will get to that point eventually. He does come running when we bring out the choke collar, but he also tries to eat it. (He has new canines coming in. He's chewing on everything.)

Chrissy: That was the most hilarious thing I've ever read. Now I'm not going to feel like a dork for carrying a plastic bag in my pocket everywhere I go, because at least I'm not having to pantomine pooping to Jeremy.

Jody: That is one big dog. I just went to your site and checked out the photos. What a cutie.

Colleen: Totally unrelated to your post, but I think I'm in love with your dog Brandy. Also a serious cutie. (Not that there's anything less than adorable about Mack and Ginger, you understand.)

Never: (Am I almost done here?) Those tag machines at Petsmart and Walmart are so cool. Doc got a tag almost immediately, even before he was big enough to get downstairs. As my friend Eric put it, the machine is so cool you'll want to make ID tags for all your friends. I got some made for the cats, but they haven't worn collars in so long (inside cats) that all the elastic and breakaway tags had degraded. So I'm in the market for new cat collars so my kitties can wear their jewelry.

I emphatically agree about tagging dogs, too. We're going to have Doc microchipped, but that isn't enough -- that means if someone finds him running down the street, they're going to have to take him to the pound before anyone (hopefully) figures out where he came from. We find loose dogs all the time without tags. It's heartbreaking -- you don't even want to take them in if you think they're probably from the neighborhood and just wandered out, because without a tag it's a crap shoot about finding the owner.

And remember: PUT YOUR AREA CODE ON THE TAG. When we went camping over Memorial Day weekend, some people hiking near us lost their dog. He was a sweet little Husky, but very young. He ran back down the trail and didn't come when they called, and then a motorcycle came through and probably scared him into the bushes. They couldn't find him. He had a collar with a tag and their phone number, but just the local number -- no area code. They were from a different county, on vacation. I'm sure they never got their dog back, even though someone probably found him eventually.

-- Anonymous, September 04, 1999

Oh, I hope the others don't hear me type this, but Brandy is my favorite too. She's so funny looking that she's cute. I think what I love most about her is her eyes.

And she's my cuddle dog. She's about 50 pounds, but she curls up nice against me and keeps me company on the couch. Mack will lay with me, but he'll beat the crap out of you trying to get pet. He'll put his huge head under your arm over and over again till you give in. Brandy just wants to lay with me. And now the poor thing is the smallest dog in the house again.

How scary is that? My 50 pound dog is the smallest!

-- Anonymous, September 06, 1999

I'm about to beat you, Colleen, because my dog, Mr. Bones, born the same day as Doc, is only 11 lbs. Of course, Mr. Bones is a lhasa apso.

As far as training, I couldn't ask for a better animal. No accidents in the house since the second or third week that we've been his, and he plays with the kids most admirably: no nipping, no growling, even when they pull on his scraggly puppy beard or his tail.

I can't tell you how he behaves on walks, though, because I don't walk him. I don't do anything, in fact, which relates to animal waste at all.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 1999