Vehs

Princess Nub didn't come home last night. I found her across the road, less than an hour ago, dead. I don't really feel anything, I am crying, but I think I should feel more. I cried for 3 days when she was in hospital with kidney problems and now I'm just.... This afternoon I walked down the road calling her thinking she would scamper across the road, I walked up to her still body, "Princess Nub? Oh Nubby." My best bet is she was hit by a car, she is not a pretty sight and she is not my little Nubby anymore. She was just a body that I had to move. I don't doubt her last moments were painful, unless the driver moved her off the road, but I think she struggled her way across. I am relieved for myself, and I don't feel badly that I'm not thinking about her, because she is gone and I can't change that. I am relieved that I didn't have to make the decision for her (kidney issues). I am worried though, and maybe it is shock, worried that I approached her body with such nonchalance, such indifference. I didn't think I would be so cold, I didn't think she'd die this way. What kind of person am I that I can just get online and check my stupid ebay auction status? How can my life just go on? I will miss her tonight when I don't have to check all her bowls are filled with water, when I don't have her suckling on my lap, when she's not meowing at the front door and then walking away when you open it, when she's not snuggled up next to me in bed (whisker up my nose making me sneeze). I will miss you Nub, you couldn't let one holiday go by without making me cry, you are satan's bride. (taken a few days ago)

That is horrible and unexpected. Thinking of you Karen (and Axel, heartbreaking to hear how he is taking it) RIP Buddy

elisabethan collar is those cones around the dogs head, it prevents them from either scratching their ears or turning around and chewing stitches Generally it seems that boys recover from desexing better than girls, the procedure is less invasive. Dieter was fine the night of his desexing, but slept inside so I could keep an eye on him - he didn't have an elisabethan collar and wasn't too concerned about his stitches either. Common sense, don't let him run and stretch about to much for a few days - week after.

Vasectomy - snip the vas defrens (?) so that the semen cannot enter the penis. The dog will still have his testes, but like Kitkat said can't reproduce, but will still be affected by testosterone. The desexing D had was where they fully removed the testes, they slice open the scrotum and pull them out (poor little fella is looking at me with this scared look in his eye, but I think he is just begging for yoghurt drops) he still has his penis and a little bit of skin (covered with fur now) that was the little sack they were in... but it is shrunken

Perhaps you shouldn't fondle or play with the pup's ears, because I've heard this can 'break' the cartiledge. Is this an old wives tale? (I didn't take any chances... hehe)

Yeah marrow bones are harder and I only give them a recreational bone rather than a meal. I guess because generally they come from larger, older animals unlike the young chickens that I feed as a staple.

Love that photo, Katie! - and how economical of you too!

LOL Pebbles! :rolleyes: That is actually why I don't like big dogs - big ears to clean. I do my two little cats regularly - one has ear problems and the other is just plain filthy. Every so often I'll do D's as well -- takes so long, I feel I'm losing a hand instead of finger cleanins his big muffins

I give Dieter pig ears and raw hide - used to be every night when he was a teething (although he'd take a week to get through a pig ear when he was really little) - now it's really slacked off to about once a fortnight - I'll probably buy some tomorrow. He has had a little choking problem and he now sometimes has to cough it back up so I make sure he eats them when I'm around. It is the treat we hide around the house that he searches for and then does a little victory lap.

I also try and "mix by colour" For the fibreous veggies it is either pumpkin, sweet potatoe or broccoli Then he tends to get a lot of basic fruits like bananas, apple, pear, tomatoes and cucumber and celery he gets cooked mash potatoe and carrots a couple of times a week because those are usually the ones left over from our dinner ;)

Sorry to hear about your loss, 8 is fairly young poor fella What happened to the dogs front paws?

You do have to be careful you are not namby pambying her and turning her into a fussy eater, my boy had recently stopped eating his morning bones, but was eating his evening meal. I thought he was losing weight, but when I weighed him he was still his healthy 40kg. Instead of wasting food if she doesn't eat it, start giving smaller portions at her meal times. Possibly fasting her for a day (hesitant as she is still fairly young) and hopefully she will be hungry enough to eat. You can get appetite stimulants from the vet, I use Nutrigel for my cat. If she's not even interested in training treats and is losing condition then you may have to take her to the vet. Hope she starts eating soon!

I hope not! We've had Dieters since he was 10 weeks old! (but it is a sh!tty brand with no special ingredients) Maybe the special shampoo like Malesab (sp) will have a 'use by' on it because of the active ingrediants - anyone have a bottle handy?

Ohh this thread came a very good time for me, I'm looking for a new 'sport' to try out with Dieter Kinda hijack: FHR - where did you do tracking in Canberra? Through CDC? Is it generally a two person type of job or could I go out and practice by myself... with a dog

I was happy washing Dieter twice a year to help blow his coat and with quick washes if he went swimming. Once I started grooming I'm know what a clean coat feels like I tend to wash him monthly. He was washed about a week ago and 3 days after I could feel he was grubby - we don't have much lawn at the moment so he eats his bones on patch lawn and dirt, we also had renovations going on so there was a lot of dust - I had to wipe down my cats with sponges (one is too sick to put through the stress of a quick bath). If he doesn't have a bath he doesn't smell, but I tend not to like hugging and petting a dirty dog - I wash my hands enough as it is! I think there are varying degrees to when owners think their dog needs a bath

Human hair dryers are too hot for dogs and won't do much on a shepherd anyway. Groomers use high velocity blow dryers that .. uh use a lot of pressure and speed (I don't know how it works, but it definately gets the job done!) Don't worry if you can't afford it, it's not the end of the world if your dog is molting everywhere. A good brush out tends to quicken the process though - in the mean time just keep brushing, brushing.

You'll definately need a rake! As for having a bath last week - was it a home bath or did he have a mobile or goto a groomer? You definately want him to get blow dryed with a decent brushout and it is fun to watch as well because you see all this hair flying away that isn't getting stuck in your carpet. I think these are the combs Nadia mentioned I find I get heaps of undercoat from around the bottom and tail and a lot of guard hairs from underneath (on the belly - but you have to be a little more gentle in this area)

Hrm... maybe he is going through a molt/shed or losing some puppy coat. I can't remember how it went with Dieter at that age. Does it seem to be more undercoat or the guard hairs?

My friend's Bernese had her stomach pumped after gobbling down a mudcake ... I don't think she actually had anytime to show symptoms though.

Classical conditioning is where you take a unconditioned stimulus (food) and the unconditioned response (salivation) and then pair the uncondition stimulus with a conditioned stimulus (bell) to elicit a conditioned response (again salivation), then you can take away food and use only the bell to get salivation. Operant conditioning is where behaviour is controlled based on the consequences. In the Skinner box (yay Skinner!) pidgeons and rats will continously pull on a lever for food (reinforcer), however if the lever leads to a shock (punishment) they will stop. Dogs will sit for food if they sit and get smacked this decreases the chance they will do it again....

If Ted is 'ping' trained then Dieter is 'crinkling of chip packet trained'

Blast, well I guess you have to take the most gorgeous, perfect lines with a few minor imperfections (which I could tweeze out - JOKING)

I'd like to know too! My 2yr old has some grey very near his lips and I'm so vain about him -- perhaps I can say he looks 'distinguished' instead of 'old' Funnily enough someone came into work and asked if we could do anything about it on their Kelpie....

edit: 'doh

Mostly just a *bump* I don't compete, but I thought you could use whatever commands you wanted....