Toys destroyed!!

untrained dogs are really untrained owners who cause all the trouble, leaving your friend the unenviable job of educating the dog-- much more difficult when they are bigger.
Letter in the local paper yeasterday complaining about a german shepherd barking and chasing her granchildren in the park ( they were terrified) the female owner just shouted dont worry he only playing!!! word fail me

It seems like our pets are a lot like children, aren't they? With love, teaching, guidance etc they can be wonderful things. It just seems to be too much hard work for some people (pet owners and parents!) You wouldn't want your kids running around growling at people (and pooping where they please!) so why should we let our pets do the same? It sounds like you're doing a wonderful job with Rocky, SK. I'm really enjoying keeping up with his progress, although I was a teeny bit disappointed to not see a pic of him on this blog because I love seeing his adorable face! I bet he's really big now, they grow up way too fast. Hope to read some more of Rocky's great progress soon - and lots of lovely pics :o))

I totally agree Busybee, your first four lines say it all.
Without discipline young animals or children don't have a clue about their boundaries, teach them these things and hey presto ..... a well brought up person/animal ..... without it - something that knows no respect and or boundaries.
Simple.

kongs are best toys and a training aid

I will post some pics of Rocky BusyBee!! He does have a kong Ladybug, and the best thing i bought is a stuffed toy pheasant its actually for training retreivers i think but it fits in his mouth nicely and hasn't come to bits for all his chewing!!! Was a bit dearer but well worth the money i feel, only thing is it quacks like a duck when squeezed was sat the other morning having a cuppa when i heard a noise and couldn't work out for the life of me what it was....of course it was Rocky chewing on the pheasant lol!!!

So true, remember well when we bought Fudge, crikey was it really 10 years ago, he'd been the pack leader so to speak, thought we'd never train him, he'd 'round' up the kids, snap at me, I remember those sharp little teeth so well, but with a lot of hard work he's the most gorgeous dog, wouldn't hurt a fly, all those little things like feeding him after you've had your meals and standing still every time he pulled on the lead(walks took ages,lol) all work.
We have a basket full of chewed toys too Sewingkilla, well mostly all over the floor,lol, 3 reindeers that he's had bought for christmas at different stages of disrepair,but all his favourite toys so daren't throw them, they love the squeeky ones don't they :-)

another tip i was given was to pretend to eat out of his bowl before i give it to him, pack leader always eats first!! he now sits as soon as we reach the kerb :) pulls a little if he sees something he wants to greet but he's only a baby and i just tug him back and make him sit till he calms down...can be a while lol!! Life is so much more fun now :o)

Aaah sounds like he's doing really well for a baby Sewingkilla, keep up the good work.
There is one habit we can't stop though, and thats pinching the tea towels off the radiator, he'll bring you all his toys wanting to be chased, but realises the sure way to get someone to chase him is to pinch something he shouldn't have, the tea towel, lol, just wouldn't be Fudge though without some naughtiness, he's been a bit ill recently and the tea towels stayed on the radiator, strange but I really missed him doing it, back to normal now though :-)

Lol Homebird :-)

Hee hee homebird!!!

If your dog likes ropes the best kind are not those plastic things (as we found out, ours ended up looking like yours) but real rope. We had one for Shadow & it probably lasted him 10 years until one day one of the kids threw it into the weed infested yard nextdoor.
Shadow liked to play tug of war with us with his rope & the plastic ones actually ended up cutting into his lips at the sides. We didn't have a problem with the real rope at all. We had a piece a few feet long, around 3/4 to an inch thickness & tied a couple of knots down the length of it ....he loved it.