Big Paws Only Dog Forums

Hi Terri!  Welcome to BPO.  My name's Amy and my fur family's listed in my signiture.  I just joined a few months ago, and now it's always my first stop when I turn on the computer.  Everyone here is so nice and helpful.  You're going to have so much fun with your dobie girl!  Congratulation s!

Hi Neicy!  Your pup is gorgeous!  I wouldn't worry too much about training a BC.  In my experience, BC'd don't need food rewards (at least mine wasn't very food motivated), they just seem to learn by being with you.   All they want is a pat on the head and they're happy as can be!  My old BC, Max, was so smart.  He seemed to know what I wanted from him before I even knew.  He was just amazing!   Good luck with Lucy!

    They're sooooo beautiful!!!  I wanna smell their puppy breath!  You're doing such a wonderful job with them.  I can't believe how much they've grown already! 

My favorite breed of all time is the border collie.  The rest of the list is in no particular order because I love them all for different reasons.  I love the smart soulful eyes of the wolfhound, and the soft velvety ears and carefree attitude of the bassett.  I like the way a borzoi moves and the way a golden just wants to please you.  Honestly, I could probably go on forever, so I'll just get on with the list...  


 1. Border Collie
 2. Irish Wolfhound
 3. Newfoundland
 4. Great Pyrenees
 5. Bassett Hound
 6. Borzoi
 7. Great Dane
 8. Golden Retreiver or GoldenDoodle
 9. English Springer Spaniel
10. Bernese Mountain Dog

Thanks for the advice.  I'm going to try to find a lead with the swivel latch and clamps already on it.  I just don't trust myself trying to tie some fancy fisherman's knot, ya know?  And maybe I won't go with 100 feet, but I want something long enough that they can get a good gallop going without me having to get pulled along!   They love to run, and I feel so guilty not giving them that simple pleasure.  They're still young, just over a year old, and they have so much puppy energy.  Walks help, but I think they'd enjoy the occasional "freedom" of a long lead.  The park hubby and I would take them to is more like an open field, so I wouldn't have to worry about them running anyone over or tripping them up with the rope. 

Oh, and it's SOOOO nice to see grass in the backyard finally. Funny story, we let the Scott's Lawn guy spray weed killer on the lawn last June, which as it turns out is a VERY bad idea when your lawn is 90% weeds!!!   And then add 2 pyrs who's main goal in life is to dig to China....  And there ya go!  Big Mud Pit!  But now it's more beautiful than ever, and the puppers will have much more supervision when they're finally allowed out back again.

We recently had our nice little fenced-in back yard landscaped, with lots of pretty new sod, but now Zeus and Apollo have no where to enjoy a good run.  (No foot traffic allowed until the roots are well established!)  We take 'em for walks and they have a small fenced-in side yard to play in, buy it's only big enough for jumping around and wrestling. 

So I was wondering if I could use a 100 foot rope from Lowe's to let them stretch their legs at the park safely.  (We don't have a doggie park nearby, so that's not an option.)  Anyone know how to attach such a rope to the collar without it coming loose?  I'm just a little nervous that my knots will come apart and they'll get loose.  With their history of being strays and my one experience of them getting out of my yard and taking off, I'm not naive enough to think they'll listen to me off lead!  Any advise will be greatly appreciated!

OMG! The photos are great!  Isn't it funny how the big paws take up about 90% of the couch and the humans are all squished to the edges?   Too funny!