Loose Lead Walking

We are trying to teach Buddy how to walk on a loose lead, so that he doesn't pull at the lead as he walks. He is pretty good at it and a quick learner.

One of the best thing about walking the dog is that he gets to socialize with other dogs and people. He is a friendly puppy, especially with people. He is getting much more confident with other dogs too.

Dog Toys

Making sure that Buddy had his own toys was a good idea. He has a little collection of about 6 things and we rotate which ones we leave out for him. Usually on any given day 5 toys will be lost under the couch. We also gave him a decoy shoe, an old sandal that belonged to the kids. But he prefers recently worn shoes, and can often be found asleep with his head inside an ugg boot.

We are encouraging the kids to play with toys with the dog, rather than play wrestling games, which can give dogs the wrong idea about acceptable ways of interacting with humans.

Buddy loves playing fetch, and will fetch a ball, his toy fire hydrant or his toy shoe. He is a very intelligent dog and learned to fetch and return in about 5 minutes! He also loves Mr Squeaky, and will sleep on his or play tug-of-war with him.

Toilet training (part 2)

Buddy is an inside dog (he is allowed on the couch) and toilet training was something we were a bit worried about. It was a lot easier that we thought! Dogs pretty much toilet train themselves because they have a natural instinct to want to keep their den clean. This means that they actually prefer to go outside to the toilet.

At this age (3 months in this photo) Buddy mainly had accidents when no one was home to let him out. Or sometimes when he was heading for the door but didn't quite get there on time.

PS at 4 months he was almost totally reliable with going outside. Now (at 6 months) he knocks at the door to be let out when he needs to go to the toilet. (smart dog!)

Training Buddy

The dog trainer at the Dog Training Club that we belong to says that every dog should have one good trick. Buddy's trick is to dance on his back legs. But in this photo he got a bit too excited by the training treats (bits of cheese) - he loves cheese so much that is actually air borne here!

These dogs are very smart. It took about half an hour to teach Buddy to fetch a ball and return it. It took him about 5 minutes to learn to sit. I have had other dogs that never learned to do these simple tasks.

So we think Buddy is a pure genius!

What kind of food do cavoodles like best?

A couple of weeks before we picked up Buddy, the breeder, Annie sent us a good summary of how to feed and care for our new puppy. This was a great help so that we could start buying in the supplies that we would need.

Annie uses the "Evolutionary Diet" or "BARF" diet with her dogs. Dr Ian Billinghurst developed this diet, believing that processed diets are just as bad for dogs as they are for people.

You can read the Barf Philosophy or Dr Billinghurt's website. We decided it was a good idea to follow this approach.

PS Buddy loves the Barf dog food, he also enjoys left-overs, especially roast dinners, but chicken necks are his very favorite. He wont eat canned dog food, probably because he is so clever he knows it isn't good for him.

Why get a "designer" or hybrid dog?

There was a great article in the Sydney Morning Herald recently about designer dogs, A Bit of Ruff , which says "Cute pet or unwelcome mongrel? The rise of the hybrid pooch has rocked the dog world."

A great article which debunks some of the arguments that have been put forward against designer dogs, also known as hybrid dogs or purpose-bred dogs. So yes, we do understand that a cavoodle isn't a real breed of dog, really it is just a glorified mutt.

However, in choosing a hybrid dog we were hoping for a pet that had the best qualities of two dog breeds, without some of the hereditary problems of a pure breed dog.

PS - 6 months later we are very happy to report that Buddy seems to be the ideal cross-breed, he has the gentle, loving nature of the cavalier, he is smart and he doesn't shed at all!