1. Brace yourself. It’s natural for your little bundle of joy to object to being left alone at night. She’s a pack animal and all her instincts will be telling her to squeal and carry on so she can rejoin the group – all baby mammals do this. The good news is that puppies have lived with humans for thousands of years and can learn to tolerate sleeping alone quite quickly. If you can, try to have your puppy arrive on a Friday night. Hopefully by Sunday your puppy will be letting you sleep the night through.
   

2. Prepare a bed for your puppy. A warm bed with high sides will do nicely as it will help your puppy feel safe. (A cardboard box lined with towels is ideal for a very young puppy as its so easy to clean.) Add a cuddle toy as a substitute “littermate” and, if you can, bury a ticking clock among the blankets – it supposed to mimic the sound of a mother dog’s heartbeat and, I don’t know why, but it seems to help. If it’s cold, you can even include a hot water bottle wrapped securely in blankets (don’t have it so hot the puppy can get burned if she chews through it). A stuffed Kong or a bone can also be a big help in keeping your puppy’s mind off being left alone.
3. Now here’s the golden rule – make sure the puppy’s bed is out of sight of the inside of the house. If your puppy can see into the house she’ll take a lot, lot, lot longer to settle, even if she can’t see you. A bathroom or laundry may be the best place for your puppy to sleep for the first few weeks.
4. Here’s the even more golden rule: Never, never, never, never, never, never, never visit or speak to your puppy when she’s crying. It’s natural for puppies to cry, and it’s natural for humans to want to go to the puppy and comfort her. But it’s only “rewarding” the puppy for crying by giving him your attention. Even scolding or calling out “QUIET!” is attention as far as the puppy is concerned. And in a puppy’s mind, even negative attention is better than none.
5. If the puppy still cries all night, try having little “practice” bedtime sessions for up to an hour during the day. (Your nerves will be stronger at three in the afternoon than three in the morning!) Follow these steps and your puppy should be sleeping blissfully through the night within three nights!

My fella Dave is a Designer. Yup. One of those guys with an inbuilt intolerance to all things that “offend the eye”. One of my friends has coined a phrase for people like Dave: Aesthetic Nazis.

Aesthetic Nazi’s (A.N’s) make even the most rudimentary domestic purchase a bewilderingly difficult task that includes measurements, colour charts and fabric swatches.

This also includes, as I’ve found over the past year, shopping for cat scratching posts.

I’m no A.N., but to be fair, after scouring pet shops big and small, it does appear 99.9% of what’s out there can be classified as “homely” at best and “pig ugly” at worst.

Imagine. You’ve spent months with your beloved A.N., discovering the “perfect couch” that meets the textural criteria required for your “perfect coffee table”. And you’ve wrestled for months over the “perfect antique white” for your “perfectly plastered walls”, only to wind up with a chipboard monstrosity stapled over with a carpet in a shade of beige any self respecting budget motel wouldn’t be caught dead with!

It’s not right.

But after scouring the internet, I’ve found a few scratching posts to help (Click on the pictures for pricing and info.)

For the AN Nature Lover:

When cats and nature meet in peace…

For the young at heart AN:


Dr Seuss has entered the house!

For the AN Uber Stylish Cat Lover

Sleek. Discreet. Elite.

For the Minimalist AN

More than meets the eye…

Picking up dog poo gives me the shudders, but the thought of all those dog-park doos encased in plastic bags until the next ice age is even more shuddersome. I was taking plastic bags and newspaper with me everywhere I went, and then emptying the paper into the bin, until one terrible day at the post office, when I’d forgotten that I couldn’t find a bin and I opened my backpack, thinking I’d pull out an innocent carton of cigarettes that a friend had left at my place in a fit of short-lived virtue (it’s a long story) when suddenly myself and the postmistress were hit in the face by the fresh ripe smell of…

I won’t go on. Let’s just say it was a memory too terrible to re-live.

Enter “Bags on Board”. It clips to your dog’s leash so you can’t vague out and forget it (hooray!) and dispenses environmentally-friendly plastic bags (double hooray!) It’s even available in a stylish leopardskin print! (TRIPLE HOORAY!!!)

Much to my surprise, I’ve found that it’s not as harrowing as I thought to just scoop Jack’s business with a plastic covered hand. I guess it’s the high smug factor from all that biodegradability that gets ya through.

RATING:
BUY IT: Australia / USA
COST: From AUD$9.95 (US $3.59)

Even though Jack flings himself into the tub every time he hears the bathroom tap running, the truth is that regular bathing is bad for dogs – even specially formulated puppy shampoo with 11 secret herbs and spices can give your pooch dry, itchy skin.

I’m on the hunt for a good dry shampoo ‘cos our little fella is a magnet for dirt and burs and leaps gleefully into any body of water he sees – the more stagnant and smelly, the better. Oh yes.

So this week’s Tightarse Tuesday might help your dog, as well as your wallet. While it’s true that you should buy the most expensive shampoo your budget will allow, you’ll be doing your dog a favour by using just a miserly squirt in a bowl of water for each bath. Lather once and then rinse ten times – it’s really important to get all the shampoo out so you don’t get a pup that comes to a dead stop every ten paces to scratch himself. The result? A dog you can live with and a bottle of shampoo that lasts for aeons.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

It’s shaping up to be a fine, icy cold winter down here in old Melbourne Town.

But while I’m busy bundling my body up in brightly coloured beanies, breeches and boots, my heart goes out to the naked, shivering pups I see waiting loyally for their two-legged parents outside Melbourne’s steamy cafes and pubs.

So in light of warm and fashionable dogs cavorting happily along chilly pavements or ambling through autumn leaves world-wide, I’ve put together a list of “fashionable winter woolies” for every possible puppy personality.

Tough Dogs:

Sporty Dogs:

Pretty pups:

Formal Hounds:

Hard Core Canines:

Geeky Dogs:

Retro Pooches:

What’s Hot in Dog Fashions 2007!

• Easy Wash
• Breathable fabrics
• Classic cuts
• Vintage items
• Doggy Comfort
• Durability

What’s Not!
• Princess Pink
• Velour tracksuits
• Names spelt out in diamantes on the back of an outfit
• Bling (SOOOOO over!)
• Highly flammable materials
• Frou Frou frills and nancy-bows
• T-shirts with embarrassing slogans ie: Dog this shirt make me look fat? I mean, C’mon!!!

Miss T’s Top Four Fabulous Dog Fashion Sites:

1. Posh Pawz
2. Animals Stars
3. Molly and June
4. Primp Doggy