Positively | Victoria Stilwell | Forum

You should not be lost - you should be proud of yourself.

if your dog is approaching something you don't want her to approach, blocking her access with your body and walking away is good, and praise when she is beside you away from the item of contention is right.

That's exactly right! Dogs need much more exercise than many people realise - they are designed to keep on the move for long distances, even little dogs like yours, and then sleep.

As they are eager for their walks and sleep afterwards, you have the recipe correct - well done you!

Yes, absolutely agree. Dogs don't change behaviour for nothing.

Meanwhile it is a very easy situation to manage. All you have to do is put up indoor gates so she doesn't have direct access to the door.

Tablets would certainly be easier to give.

You can get charcoal dog biscuits too :D Last year when our terrier jumped on the worktop and scarfed down half a bag of raisins, she had a pile of charcoal biscuits and I syringed a lot of olive oil into her mout afterwards. Luckily she's greedy so thought it was a treat. No harm done. Sounds like ...

Don't stand around - stick a lead on him and walk him. Walking gets everything going. He may be afraid to 'go' outside in the immediate vicinity of all those other odgs because peeing and pooing is more to dogs than it is to us. It says "Hey, this is me, smell all about me" and tells other...

Don't beat yourself up about it. It has happened, and I'm sure you now know that very small children, even supervised, can frighten a dog in a moment, and what a grown dog would shrug off can traumatise a pup. You are doing the right thing with the wrong timing, so you are nearly there. Continue the...

Happy Birthday Ellie


Only another year and you'll be through asbo time and Mummy will sooo quickly forget you were anything else but the perfect dog

So often, the answer lies in the question :D Feed her once or twice a day after exercise, never before. Trickle feeding equals trickle pooing. Once the digestion is working in the way a dog needs (they are not by design trickle feeders) you can anticipate the poo better. Dried food = lots of drinkin...

Let him sleep in your bedroom, maybe in a dog crate, until his fear has subsided enough to move him out in easy stages back to where you want him. Also take lots of time starting now to accustom him to the upheaval of having a baby in the house. Otherwise he'll just be settling and his world will fa...

Poor you, I'm sure none of this is what you wanted to hear, but I'm afraid we are too experienced to do less than say the truth. Know what I'd do? Return the dog to your friend, and leave it to her to find a home with nice experienced adults to enjoy this young dog. As she already has issues, she is...

Sounds a perfectly normal puppy to me :lol: she'll grow out of it, and until she does, make sure she has lots of things she can grab and chew to bits without upsetting you, walk her, play mentally stimulating games (see Emmabeth's pinned thread) and shut doors/use gates to keep her out of any place ...

Nothing at all with being a pitbull. I'd have said the same for any breed from a chihuahua to a great dane. There is a big difference between a 4 month and a 5 month puppy, similar to between a 5 year old and a 9 year old child. Not sure which yours is. But the critical socialisation period for a pu...

PIGPEN!!!!!!!!! Brilliant.

Everything crossed for Otis and MontyGrey.

You know, the people we need on board are the tabloid Press and the Soap scriptwriters. Do you have any journalistic links to either, Beverley?

I always get DogsToday so won't be asking for a free copy

Mattie one of mine gets in the sink as well - she's 25" high