I want to get a dog but I have to work, how does everyone on broadway market do it ?

Cheers for this! We definitely do a lot of making a fuss, scratch-scratches and 'good-boys' as rewards. A lot of the time I'll give him a cue, he'll do it, then I'll make a fuss and offer him a treat which he'll then not bother with, presumably being content with the fuss instead. I've also been experimenting with pitch with recall - I can't actually do a very high-pitched 'come' but he seems to respond well to one that's a little lower than my normal one (doesn't carry across distance as well, mind). Squeaky toy is a good call. I have a small squeaky sheep he likes that is pocket-sized.

I'm happy generally using our 10m lead for now and letting him off occasionally - I imagine my confidence and his recall will build and he'll be off-lead more and more.

@MrSweary he's only 4 months, so I'll hopefully have a few months of decent behaviour before it all goes to shit again :-)

My last dog wasn't at all treat oriented, but loved the praise and affection. His recall was good, but where he was rock solid was stopping and sitting at a distance if he was about to chase after a cat/squirrel/other dog. He would stop in his tracks when given the command and it was a good compromise.

Yeah, if anything I'd imagine that's better than a watertight recall. Sometimes you don't want them to dart back to you - for instance if they find themselves on the other side of a busy road from you.

We're going through this at the moment, Phoebe is 7 months and being a rat bag obedience wise after having previously being quite good. I'm hoping some of it passes with time but we're retraining some stuff regardless

Our lad calmed down a bit soon after he had the snip but not sure that was the cause. What we were told is never stop training. Stupidly we didn't properly heed this advice until now.

The problem with poodles is they are eternal puppies and they love to take the piss when they're in the mood.

Here's Milo. We've had him since he was a puppy but this is the first time I have posted a photo of him on here. Schnauzer-poodle cross. I love him to bits, he is packed full of character but surprisingly well behaved.

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As I new dog owner with no previous experience, what is the protocol on uninvited human-on-dog attention?

Odie gets a lot of people in the street wanting to say hi, which is fine. It’s the people who just come straight up to him and start stroking him without even acknowledging me that I get a bit annoyed with. If someone did that to one of my children, I would do a little more than smile tolerantly tbh

I tend to say 'Watch, he'll have your arm off', which generally gets them to back off, even when we're talking about a 7 kilo bundle of friendliness.

Ha! Yeah I’m tempted to start saying something like that. Will be more effective when Odie is bigger and more wolf-like I guess.

Was chatting to some people I know in the park the other day whilst walking the dog. A young couple walked by and ours trotted up to the young lady, tail wagging, to say hello (as he does to everyone). She picked him up. She actually picked up my dog. I was too shocked to say anything.

She put him down and said someting about him being cute. All I could do was look at her blankly. Who picks up a stranger's dog?

Anyway - never been too bothered about people coming up to stroke him without asking but I probably should be. He's super cute and very gentle and the friendliest dog I've met. Also, quite often he will go up to people and lean on them as a hello so hes sort of stroking them without asking...

Have always taught the daughter to ask before petting a dog though- you just don't know.

Yeah we’ve got our daughters trained up to always ask and be cautious around dogs they don’t know.

I can’t believe they picked your dog up - that’s definitely beyond the line of what could be considered acceptable without asking.

I’d quite like someone to give it a go with Benny. Especially as he smells like a tramps sock at the moment..

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Ours chased the Fedex man, then a cat in short order last week. Thus proving the axiom that the only good Cattle dog is a tired Cattle dog. The delivery guy was pretty understanding about it after he calmed down...

What is it with everyone assume every dog is male?

Guessing wrongly is one thing, but I swear I have this conversation several times a week:
“He’s so cute. How old is he?”
“She’s six months”
“And what’s his name?”
“Her name is Emily”
“He’s gorgeous!”

Emily's a weird name for a boy though, why did you call him that?

Load of folk used to do the same with a friend of mine Spaniel.

“What’s his name?”

“Nell”

“Neil? Lovely”

I get the opposite, Murphy is always being called a girl.
TBF his bollocks haven't fully come in yet, but there is a nard sack clearly visible.

My daughter of 5 years old always makes a point of peering round at a dogs undercarriage and declaring it’s gender loudly.

“A girl dog. It’s a girl dog, daddy”

"it's a eunuch!"

“It’s a......dog?”

Scotty usually goes out with a dog walker once every week or two to socialise properly with a bunch of other dogs, he quite obviously loves her more than anyone at home. He went out today for the first time in a few weeks, just got this text off my wife.

Dog has an ice pack on his nob 😱 he was a little too excited to see his friends and now his penis won't retract!! If ice fails it's the vets!

He got his bollocks chopped off about a year ago so must have had a really fun time.

My penis never retracts. Should I go to the vet?

Don't leave your Viagra lying around where Scotty can get it

This melts my heart

Someone's off to the vets in a bit.