A Red Toy Poodle Story

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Recently there was a video circulating online, it contained a short clip of a guy confronting 2 maids, who were supposed to be walking their employer’s dog. The intentions of the guy were clear - he was concerned that these dogs were not exercised as they should, instead they were just sitting and chatting throughout. He did receive a lot of negative feedback and I could also see why. As a dog owner myself who also had a share of experiences with maids in the past, I would like to share some tips and opinions on this matter. I’m not going to go into details on who’s right and wrong, but towards the welfare of dogs and if maids are suitable. Please note that like many of the articles in Amber Toy Poodle blog, this post shares my personal opinion on this matter, so if anyone can’t accept straightforward views then it is best not to read on. It is not uncommon for employers in Singapore to have maids taking care of their household dogs, this includes cleaning up their me...

Looking at this photo below, it may seem like nothing more than an owner walking her dog, but what lies beneath are potential risks that can actually endanger both the owner and dog’s lives. Owner is standing too close to the edge of the road, together with loose leash that is at least 1 meter long, this creates potential life threatening situation where the untrained dog can easily dash towards the road and get knocked down by incoming vehicles. Same thing for pathway, cyclist and e-scooters has higher chances to injure your dog if you do not practice proper leash handling. At times of panic, most dogs will tend to dash. With a short leash, you get more much control over your dog’s movement and can react much better in times of need. On top of the above points, staring at your mobile phone while crossing the road increases the chances of accidents happening at a much higher rate! This is a very common sight that I encounter regularly and I feel that owners should be more careful...

Even after Bubbles death, I was having dreams about her and found myself not ready to let go of this case, I was sure that there are many more victims like her and truly hoped no more puppies would suffer in the hands of this breeder. We decided to first share the breeder’s contact online, many started asking if we could show the breeder’s face but unfortunately, all deals were done at the void deck. All I could learn from the owner was that this breeder is a young chinese female in her 20-30s. We started with nothing but this My first attempt I WhatsApp the breeder asking if she was still breeding toy poodles. Got blue ticked (read) but no reply whatsoever. When I tried calling the phone was turned off. On the next day after sharing the above screenshot, I got a private message from a lady through our Facebook page, urging me to contact her mobile ASAP. After asking if it was linked to Bubbles, she started sharing her experience that she had also gotten a puppy from...

If you’ve been following our Facebook page, we recently shared a case on a toy poodle named Bubbles, who was euthanized as she contracted distemper. It got to her brain after failing to fight the illness for a couple of weeks.  Click here for the post For general knowledge, distemper is a highly contagious disease that kills 80% of puppies contracted with it, there are no cures available at the moment. Distemper can trick the dog believing that it is well for a couple of days, and then fall sick out of a sudden, this can go on until the dog is finally too weak to fight the illness, then fatality will occur. The way distemper work is so tricky that even vets themselves may get fooled into believing that the dog is recovering from a mild sickness. Most distemper cases come from bad breeding practices and pet farms. I first met Bubbles at a private training session, she was still 2 months then. The owner had just bought her from a home breeder and because she had not finish...

It’s been awhile since I’ve been to Thomson, I knew there were quite a few new pet stores set up there and curious to see for myself the condition and if it has improved ever since my last visit in 2013. On my first stop, I noticed one pet shop that had closed down and taken over by another pet business, they sold puppies so I went in right away. The whole shop was clean and bright with individual space to hold individual puppies, there were with no grills underneath their paws unlike what I’ve seen with the previous store. The condition of the puppies looked okay at first glance, but after awhile I started to notice a number mixed breeds being sold as well as weird labeling, price was also rather high, with some up to 2 times the market rate. Some examples - Toy poodles selling at $2600, Chi hua hua with bloated stomach and a Maltese being labeled as “Compact Maltese”. What does compact means? Maybe they were replacing the overly used Mini? Other than that, I honestly felt th...

Recently I stumbled onto a post with an owner sharing his experience about his dog being humped by a large dog at a grooming centre. After I commented on his post saying that this could cause his dog to be fearful, I was notified by Facebook whenever more comments were made on that thread. In those comments, I saw a few that caught my attention. Out of 10 comments, there were about 3 that were made by individual groomers themselves, whether they were the one handling this owner’s dog I do not know and wouldn’t assume, but they were extremely defensive in my opinion. If you are interested in the content, they were trying to explain that it is impossible to prevent other dogs from getting humped due to the fact that many owners will complain if their dogs were caged before and after grooming. After reading through more and more comments, I started to wonder, why wasn’t any groomers asking about his dog and how it was doing? Was it because these groomer wanted to help clear up misund...

Please note that this post is created to share our personal experience, if you are unable to accept honest and/or straightforward opinions then this blog may not be suitable for you. We always have the habit to bring Amber for yearly check up together with her vaccination. When Amber was 5 years old, the vet at Light of Life, which is also our regular and only trusted vet at that point of time, mentioned that Amber's teeth had accumulated plague but didn't require immediate attention. We decided to wait another year before sending her for dental scaling, which was just recently. The vet at LOL also mentioned that we could use a round object, for example coin to scrap off a bit of plague from her teeth for the time being, honestly i did not agree with this but kept my opinion to myself. By the end of 2017 Amber would be 6, i noticed her breath was getting worst with some tartar build up along her gum line, so the first thing I did was to do a check on different vets...

Click for link E-Collars, not to be confused with Elizabethan collars, are a type of training device that can send shock, vibration or even spray to the wearer. Many like to call them shock collars. image from google Shock collars were originally used the 60s to train hunting dogs, the amount of shock were rather strong, which was necessary in a way as people wanted to minimize the chance of the dogs not responding. For example, getting the dog to return, to stop chasing after the wrong target, to let go of prey and so on. As the years go by, shock collars were being redesigned to cater to regular dog owners that wish to have their pet dogs trained to listen. The size of the collars were reduced to fit smaller breeds, shock levels customizable, vibration and even sprays are being incorporated into shock collars these days. So, is it wrong to use shock collars?  Are they really good as those users like to claim, or actually bad as positive trainers li...

Just last year, Jonathan Tan Wei-De, the owner of Cuddles Cat Cafe at SCAPE was jailed 2 weeks for causing the death of 7 cats. Jonathan Tan Wei-De ( Cuddles Cat Cafe) "Jonathan Tan Wei-De was the owner of Cuddles Cat Café at *SCAPE, which was shut in December 2014 — less than four months after it opened. TODAY reported at the time that seven of the 30 cats bought for the cafe had died before the establishment was opened in mid-September." (source) Most would've thought that Jonathan had learned his lessons - to stop making money out of these poor animals as it was clear that he had no experience nor passion for them.  Well, not for Jonathan. After his jailterm, he went to Bangkok to start the same business all over again. If I was Jonathan and i really wanted to squeeze income out of animals again, i'd better play safe and start taking good care of them right?  Uh, not for Jonny! "A Thai netizen has now claimed that Tan fled Singapore with...

Please note that this post is created to share our personal experience, if you are unable to accept honest and/or straightforward opinions then this blog may not be suitable for you. The first time I met the director (or one of the directors) was a guy named Bernard. Bernard to me was one of the most down to earth groomer I've met, the reason to meeting him was to talk about Yorkshire Terriers as I was planning to get one in future. When I first met Bernard, he was still having his late lunch and had to finish it quickly to speak to me. I learned a lot from him on that day and I am still thankful even if it is already a year later. Since the shop had won awards and Bernard had been telling me to try out his service, i decided to try them to help Amber create a new style. During slot booking with Bernard, I shared the style i was interested in through photos and told him that he could suggest anything according to his experience, he then referred me to a senior groomer ...

(Image: RSPCA) Most of you should've heard the term Teacup. Teacup puppies are becoming very popular in the recent years due to media like facebook and instagram, this is becoming concerning as many owners are buying them on impulse without first understanding about their history and background. In this post we are going to share their history, how they are created, care tips and also pros & cons. Hopefully this article can help clear up all myths and misunderstandings about Teacups as well as bring awareness to owners/potential dog owners.

Hey guys how are you doing? I hope you are still learning new stuff from the blog, it's been a tiring year as I had been juggling between working and studying at the same time, as well as making plans for our new boarding facility. As you have probably learned from the title, I was studying to become a certified trainer! If you've followed the blog, you should know that I would never e ncou rage aspiring trainers to take on certification, reason being that  1) it doesn't reflect on a person's credibility when it comes to subjects like this,  and  2) certification can also be used as a shield to defend and/or p romote a trainer's reputation even if what he/he does is unethical.  Well in this post I am going to share my journey, the ups and downs and also my view on dog training certification after experiencing it in person.  As usual, I'm not going to be sharing names as this is not a post about reviews, but my personal journey. Why I decided to take on...

Hey Guys, sorry about the lack of updates. Time really flies, it felt like it was just a couple of months ago that I had just shared about Amber. Amber will be 6 years old this year, which also mean that we have officially been training dogs for more than 5 years now! For those that are new here - We blogged about Amber when she was younger and shared how she was trained, owners that needed help stumbled onto our guides and requested for demonstration in person, and that was how we became trainers :) Amber at this point of time is reaching middle age, her personality is more or less fixed and like all dogs, she has her good and bad points. I will start with the good points first, Amber is an extrovert in nature who loves exploring and meeting people, we brought her out a lot when she was younger - daily walks plus 1-2 outings per week. She loves humans especially and would not hesitate the shower them with kisses at first meet. Amber loves to share, of course not her favorite...

Do you allow your dog sleep in your room or your bed? Is this a good thing? What are the benefits and disadvantages? In this post I am going to share my experience and views in this area based on over 15 years experience in handling and studying animals. I will try my best to list out the pros and cons, also what you can do to make better decisions for your dog when it comes to sleeping at night.  First of all, we need to understand that dogs are social animals, meaning they do well and survive better in packs. So naturally, when you bring home a dog and spend some time with it, your dog should regard itself as part of your pack, or vice versa where you become part of its pack (lol). Now when it comes to sleeping, a pack of dogs will usually sleep together either in a den or comfortable space/territory, doing so can keep each other warm at night, develop better bond and it also serve as better protection. With this information should we assume that dogs...

It's been awhile since we decided to change Amber's food, this time from Stella Chewy to Honest Kitchen. Although Amber did really well on Stella Chewy, it did not last long and after about 4 months, her poo started to became soft again, more especially when treats (including Stella chewy treats) were given.  She is reaching middle age at 6 years old and not as active as before, I mean she is really active for her character but it's obvious that she is not as energetic as before. She doesn't play catch as much and even if she does it would not last long now. Could be that her current energy has contributed to her lack of tolerance on raw and high meat content food. So after doing some research, we decided to give Amber Honest Kitchen to try out. Honest kitchen is under the dehydrated food range, their food is dehydrated first, then grounded for easy consumption. FYI the series we chose - Honest kitchen embark had about 40% meat. So I did a search online to fin...

Recently a client sent me a few photos of a training school, he claimed that this was the trainer he had engaged previously and did not have good experience with him. I listened and thought that it would be good to share the story (he approved my request to share). So this trainer used negative reinforcement, he suggested flicking the dog's nose if it barked, and clamp the muzzle if barking continues. He also suggested to kick the dog if it doesn't walk, to have owner's head held high and drag the dog on the floor till it walks, he also encouraged his small dog to be on slip leash, which was compulsory to purchase. The worst part in his opinion was the lack of privacy, in which the trainer had a photographer and kept taking their photos throughout the program. For those that do not know, slip leash is a type of leash that tightens when the dog pull and create choke effect similarly to choke chains, difference is that the material is made of nylon. I am not going to go...

Thank you for the feedback that the new layout for our blog is now easier to read! I do noticed however that in some post the colors of headers/sub headers are not readable, this is due to the change of our blog background base, from dark brown to light pink now. I will do my best to have them changed to a darker and more prominent color, please give me some time as we are in the busy period :)

This is Boyboy's behavior when we accessed him yesterday, he was extremely fearful and aggressive. Background After discussion, we learned that Boyboy was so aggressive because of the ex trainer recommending choke chains to his family, who had just gotten their first dog and thought that it would benefit his growth to consult a trainer. Not soon after, Boyboy started to choke and even vomited, the trainer then said that it was perfectly normal for dogs to vomit while on the tool. Having doubts, Boyboy's owner stopped the course. But it was too late, he started getting very aggressive especially when the neck area is touched, then not long after he used the same aggression on every other things that he was afraid of, which led to paws, tail and ears. Boyboy had stayed with us for regular boarding previously and we managed to just work on his aggression towards paws. Now he is here for the full program and we will do our best to eliminate all other issues. I am not...

Today I came across an article on dog signaling, a soft debate on whether to let a dog know when they have done something wrong. For example if the dog is doing something right, the ideal way to enforce this behavior is usually by praising, affection or treats, sometimes together with a vocal command (eg. "Yes", "Good"). However if the dog is doing something wrong, would it be advisable to let it know that the particular action is wrong, by correcting together with vocal command (eg. "No", "Off")? So to explore further this author consulted a psychologist, the psychologist then used crossword as an example to explain the effects. When you fill in a crossword puzzle and succeed in completing, you naturally get a sense of fulfillment/fun, which equals reward. However if you fill in the wrong information and receive a negative signal to notify you for making a mistake, wouldn't it make the crossword puzzle less interesting? The psycholo...