Ice222

Waiting impatiently for the puppy arrive on Monday. I'm going to have to do a massive cleanup around in case if the breeder wants to check out the house before selling me one of her precious pup. The house still looks like a bomb shelter, except for the doggie room which is pristine, so I have my work cut out for me. Meanwhile I have gathered pretty much everything I'd need: Crate $35 Harness and leash $16.50 No spill water bowl $25 Crate mat x2 $30 (super dry) and $15.50 (normal) All weather dog bed $20 Baby barrier $70 Overall the essentials are superb quality at really awesome prices. The toys on the other hand... I went waaaay over budget on those :oops:. The only thing in the above list that disappointed me is the baby barrier, the handle has somehow jammed already :dunno:, so I'm gonna bring that back to the store. No food bowl since I will be using the method of feeding his regular food as 'treats' so that way I can train him heaps without over feeding him on junk.

lol, me or Squirt ? I used to find NCEA so annoying, esp since were were one of the first years to be using it and some teachers continued to mark by ABC or percentage. Now that I've been to uni I've found that the ABC system can actually be worse depending where you go and what papers you do. Different universities, different departments and different percentages convert to different ABC values which in turn do different things to your GPA. I have friends who did medicine, telling me that it seemed much harder to get A's in some Arts papers they tired. Even if the content is easier, since the marking it's so subjective to the marker, it can be difficult to get the higher marks. Now I kinda wish that the uni marking systems were as clear as NCEA about what your are getting marks on, now you don't even get assessment papers back unless if you pay to request them sent back, and even then you don't get the kind of feedback you'd have gotten in school.

NA= Not achieved N/A= Not Applicable or Not Assessed Unless if they changed something in recent years.

Guess that's why I'm waiting till I see the pup to decide on a name for sure . What if I name it Sherlock and it is the goofiest, mos uninquisitive lazy bum of a dog? Just would not be fitting.

Literally :slfg:

I don't really listen to music (blasphemy, I know :nilly:) but I've used Sennheiser headsets for gaming purposes and the sound quality both through the mic and the headset have been excellent even with the cheapest pair. As for proper headphones, my bf has had a few portable folding sets and the sound through them is amazing, the only thing is that the padding on those would wear down so they're not indestructible. Their proper headphones do look a lot sturdier though, and although Sennheiser can be expensive, you can get some really nice ones on sale. At the very least i can tell that the sound quality on them is excellent (better than the skullcandy that my friend had) and with beats by dre, I feel that you'd be paying a lot more for the looks and the branding than the actual sound quality. Not saying that they're not good, but just seems expensive for what it is. By the way I'm not sure if I saw someone mention phillips, but I'd stay well away from them. I've bought some before that look exactly the same as one of the Sennheiser headsets I have now, purchased them thinking they were the same thing. It had such terrible sound, it would have static and stopped working properly withing about 2 weeks, never had problems like that with the Sennheiser.

Planning to do some more gardening over the break, got some okra and basil sprouting at the moment and have a very nice raised planter near my front door that gets full sun that I could put several plants in. BUT big problem is the soil. It's got smallish bits of rock/broken tiles and other junk mixed in it. Plus it doesn't soak in water well at all. When I pour water on it, it just runs off the surface. I'm guessing it's too sandy. I want to replace the soil, or at least remove a decent portion of it so that I can mix in some decent soil or compost, but how do you dispose of soil and small rocks? In other news, my war against snails have been very successful! Last night was the first night, I caught about 30 odd snails (all within an area of about 1.5m squared...) and tonight I only found about 5 :happy1:. I do feel a bit mean, since some of the snails actually make a squeaking noise as I pick them up and dump them in the tub of salt water I had waiting for them. Thank god I had disposable chopsticks and am skilled enough to efficiently pick snails with them. I'm not keen to touch them with my hands at all. Bleh!

Well it's only 2 syllables to begin with , but if I'm to cutesify it I suppose I could call him Locki!

Thanks for the info. Really looking forward to this puppy. I haven't come across many dachshunds in Auckland, but from all the ones I've heard of or seen, they've all been good at barking to announce when people arrive, and tend to stick to one master. These are both things that I quite like in a dog. The only downsides are their long back (meaning you have to be careful with them) and they're supposedly quite hard to train. But considering that I am planning on raw feeding (which apparently works really well for maintaining their ideal weight) and I can always look up pretty specific advice/training tips over the net for any behavioral problems, I'm feeling fairly confident that I can do it . Dog will be getting neutered around 6 months, so hopefully I won't have to worry about him marking.

Getting it in two weeks, and most likely calling it Sherlock. Gonna wait till I get it to decide on any name with certainty though, since I'll probably know once I see it. The pic you linked is adorable btw! Also nice going with the breeding :thup: :thup: :thup: ! I really need to stop filling up all my tanks so quickly, and do up the big tank so I can start some breeding again . Baby fish are oh so cute

Trying to grow a little diachodra grassy area for my future dog, but snails are eating all the little leaves . Gotta go on a killing spree tonight, no using pellets either, don't want puppy eating those

Sounds like a variation of decapsulated brine shrimp?

The coolest thief chase I ever saw was in a shopping mall carpark as my dad was hunting for parking. The thief was miles ahead and being chased by 3 security guards, we saw him run past a small family who was about to get in their car and suddenly the thief went flying and hit the pavement. Turns out the man by the car, who was carrying a baby in his arms, inconspicuously stuck out his foot at the perfect timing to trip the thief over. Gave security enough time to catch and apprehend the thief.

Have you found out what they're dying from ?

Corgi pups are cute, and they seem like fairly nice dogs but their adult fur's not very soft. They kinda remind me of ottomans/footrests too, due to not just being long, but also very broad and muscular. Long hair dachshunds are silky smooth if you keep them properly groomed. When I was working last year, I helped a customer who had one (and let me play with it a little). I was already wanting a dachshund at that point, but when I petted it, I loved that it was very silky and I also liked that he dog was quite light and easy to pick up. Corgis weigh a ton, cause they are like pure muscle if you keep them well exercised.

Well you can see the pic on the auction, for me it would be the choc brown puppy, so the one in the last pic. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=417691280 Now for a name... I do have a few in mind, but my reasons for or against them are kinda odd. First is that I'm slightly leaning towards naming him a brand name, this is despite the fact that I think it's incredibly tacky and cliche to be an asian girl with a "handbag" sized dog named some brand eg. "gucci" :sick:. The thing is my late mother LOVED branded things and named our first pet Chanel, so we in turn named our 2nd cat Cartier (after another brand) as a bit of a continuation on that. It's become like a mini tribute to name pets this way really. Now how do I name a dog, a brand name while making it not a cliche? Well the two that I thought of were Louis, or Polo. Louis as in the LV brand, but I could tell people that it was named such after the french king (or several that share that name) making it less cliche. Originally I really liked this name cause I thought is sounded cute, but not too girly either, but then one of my med friends said that "louis" is used as medical slang for a STD, which would not normally be a big deal, except 90% of my close friends are in med and I don't want to make my dog a med joke :facepalm:. As for Polo (Ralph Lauren Polo), I could teach it to play Marco-Polo with me, plus polo is a sport, so it doesn't have to be immediately seen as a brand. On the down side, I think that name would suit a much bigger dog better. Lastly I guess I could break completely away from brand based names and name him after whatever I like, perhaps a game or book character I really like? In that case one that came to mind is Sherlock (aka. Holmes), but I'm sure there'd be more names if I think about it. My main concerns are: - it must be cute, but still boyish enough for a male dog - Should be 2 syllables. Commands are normally 1 syllable, so 2 syllables will make it easy to discern from commands while not making the name too long. - it must be very easy to say in quick conjunction (eg. i find "zero" or "miles" sounds weird when you try say it too much) - Best that it does not share the name with anyone I know Yea I'm one of 'those people' that actually put a lot of importance in a name . Think I may be leaning slightly to Sherlock at the moment, but still trying to come up with more names to see if anything really grabs at me. Might even just compile a list and pick one when I actually meet the pup and see what suits best.

Finaly managed to get in contact with dad: Me - "daaaad I finally found a sausage dog on trademe and it's cheaper than usual, could I maybe get it :< ?" Dad - "go ahead, as long as you think you'll be okay taking care of it :thup:" Me - "omg I'll take great care of it! [rant about all the plans I have of caring for it]" OMG yesssssssssss :love: !

I wouldn't leave home in a year. Maybe 2 years, when I finish my course. While I know it's much hard to find a place (rental/apartment) that allows pets, I've heard that a lot of people simply say 'no pets' to avoid the trouble, so if you can show them the pet and see that is is quiet, well trained, and won't make a mess there will be places. Wouldn't really go overseas either. I know his wife is not particularly into animals, but she's a somewhat old fashioned lady who puts dad first in everything and gives dad complete control over every decision. Except his health that is. When we throw out his expired food he used to have a fit at me and my sis, now she'll constantly throw out his expired food, and make him eat more veges and say "I don't care if you yell at me, we've got a huge age gap, you're not allowed to die before me, so you listen to me!" :sml1:. Awesome lady really . Although she's not really educated (she's bit gullible), and quite a few things we don't agree on due to our vastly different backgrounds, I've heard of so many people who hate their step parents, so I'm really glad we can get along :thup: .

I do think fireworks at home are entirely different and much more fun, maybe it would be good to have designated fireworks areas or hours though so that they won't just keep going all the time. I never watch public fireworks displays in newzealand only set them off at homes with friends. Apparently with pets, I heard that the less you try and comfort them in regards to scary things like thunderstorms and fireworks, the better they'll end up coping them. Apparently this is because to them, if they are getting comforted, it kinda enforces the idea that it must be something to be scared of, whereas if you ignore it and act like it's something normal, your pets might look and see that you aren't bothered by it and soon learn to ignore it too. That probably won't work for every scary thing and every pet, but the concept made sense to me when I first heard about it. Oh yea, here's an example I just found regarding dogs and fireworks: http://dogs.about.com/od/dogbehaviorproblems/a/fireworks-phobias-in-dogs.htm

My hopes are waaay up indeed, in a way I thought that if I had a plan, I could present a more convincing argument that I will be a good owner so it would be harder for him to say no. He won't miss me terribly, he's the independent sort . We talk on the phone less than once a month and it's not even to chat really, just to ask each other to do things!

My cat will stare when she hears a loud bang or two bang (so she does go into "danger alert" mode), but she doesn't seem to get upset by it and eventually she'll just ignore it. I just leave her alone, she'll come inside if she does get scared.

Oh yea, I run a mile from those. But at least they're not actually scams, just sales people who are really good at weaseling money out of you. I've you've ever been to shopping centers in asia, you do get more used to them and learn how to say no. They're probably all on commission based pay, hence why they're so in your face with every sale.

Since I don't really have much of a yard, the best thing is to have the dog stay indoors so a small one is better suited to my situation. Dachunds are small, but they've got the personality of a big dog, and they're not yappy, when they do bark, it sound like a propper "woof!". I used to want a husky, but they don't suit me, too big, and unless if I can give them hours and hours of exercise every day then it's not fair to them. With a small dog, on a rainy day, I could just do ball chucking and other games in the hallway to keep the dog entertained an exercised. Actually I exercise my cat in the hallways too, get her to chase me while I drag a long straw, she usually ends up getting so tired she starts panting like a dog. I'm gonna have to teach puppy not to roughhouse the cat, but kitty will probably be almost the same size as the dog's adult size, so she can hold her own (or just jump up on a table and chair and the doggie can't reach her)

Yea I've had them call me before. As soon as I pickup the phone they were like "OMGGGG! we are receiving huge amount of errors from your windows, we must help you troubleshoot right now!!!!", I'll admit I was somewhat gullible and thought for a few seconds that something did mess up, but then I realized the computers weren't even on how can they be getting any kind error spam from me? I told them the computers aren't even on, they say to turn it on "so we can fix it right now! it's killing your internetz and you will get hacked". At this point I was really suspicious, but just wen't with the convo anyway. Eventually they just kept evading the question of "what company do you even work for" when I finally got their answer (microsoft) I got bored with it and hung up. Next time I'd like to see how long I can keep them on the line for. I think the phone text scam is a lot worse though. The ones that tell you to enter your phone number to get IQ test results or something. My dad fell for it once. Basically in the fine print of the terms and conditions, it automatically opts you in to receive daily 'joke' texts that charge you like $5 each time. There's a helpline number, but when you call it will just always say the line is busy and put you on hold forever. Vodafone wouldn't do anything to stop them so they just kept charging for this 'service'. In the end I think my dad found the terms and conditions again, and found that he could text "STOP" to a certain number to cancel it. THe reason why I think this scam is way worse is that if someone was malicious, they could enter someone else's number eg. someone they don't like, and since there's no confirmation, the victim would not even know what the heck was happening. I really hate scams of any sort. The gypsie looking people that I've seen around some shopping centers asking for donations towards "world peace" seem to be scammers too. Real donation organisations would not be that unspecific about their cause, and usually wear badges, nametags, or carry sealed donation buckets. It's just such a shame that good honest people, especially the elderly are getting targeted and duped. Don't lose faith in helping others, but just gotta be careful really. Ask them as many questions as possible about what their organisation does, what exactly would the money be paying for and make sure that you can get a receipt or other confirmation before donating any money. If a homeless person is asking for money, offer to buy them the food rather than giving the money so that you won't just be giving them cash to feed whatever habit they might be on.

lol i've seen your pup ryan . it's like a soft toy, it's amazing the way it lets your kids carry it! Very well behaved. I used to think that all small dogs are constantly hyper. But now i realise a lot of them are only hyper in the first few mins of seeing new people/things. And sofia, IF I am allowed to get the puppy, then you may acost him all you like. Since I will be working this break to pay for it and my dad like animals, he shouldn't be too against a dog, esp since it's just a small one. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high (who am I kidding :love: ) while I'm, waiting for my dad to reply in the off chance that he's completely against it for some reason. I would not mind bringing doggie along to different places and meeting other animals as long as dogs are allowed. Always good to socialize them to as many different people and things right ?