SkySoaringMagpie

I recommend reading Jean Donaldson's "Fight!". You can get it from Amazon or Dogwise. She sticks to dealing with behaviour as it presents, and has some good insights into the different reasons dogs fight. Also, you may need to accept that you will never be able to leave them together unsupervised. This is usually not a huge deal - two basic kennel runs might solve your issues if they are both to be outside dogs.

Might be just as well we weren't there if they do have an infection of some kind. If that is what it is I would hate to pass it on. I shall see what the vet says. If they have the all clear next weekend perhaps we can meet up then? Lucy does have a pre-existing condition yes, our vet is really great with sighthound anaesthesia. As for the ankle, it is steadily getting better thank god and I don't need the crutches anymore. I swear, if we can survive the last month, we can survive damn near anything. I'd say I'm looking forward to things calming down, but I probably shouldn't tempt the fates.

Thanks for the heads up, I've just been doing some Googling. That's quite scary if that is what it is but it is presenting more like an infection than an allergy. They haven't socialised with any other dogs in the last two weeks but perhaps one of them snuffled the wrong thing at the Yass Show last weekend and brought it home. Fortunately I'm not planning to breed this bitch so I hope I don't need to freak out too much. She's only entire because GAs are highly risky for her and the vet has recommended against spaying for this reason. If I could spay her, lord knows I would. Will call the vet tomorrow for a chat.

Actually maybe it's not OT! The only thing that has changed is the bitch being in season and two of them are definitely very overexcited about the whole thing. All my cleaning products are exactly the same as they've always been, no new plants, etc etc

So, a week ago our of our Saluki boys started doing these huge whooshing sneezes. We took him to the vet, no temperature, no discharge, and it seemed to be taking care of itself so the vet said just to watch him. He stopped sneezing. Then his brother started and stopped again after a few days. Now our Affie boy has started. I'm guessing it might be a mild infection? The bitch (who is in season) has not sneezed at all that I have noticed, but she is obviously not getting contact with the boys. Anyone seen this kind of thing? Should I be more worried? I'm in the Canberra region if anyone is au fait with what bugs are doing the rounds at the moment.

Rom has already answered this, but I think many of us have an experience of a parent getting rid of a pet for one reason or another when we were young. In my case, it was a cat, and the basic problem was that the cat was not suited to living in a house with three kids under 10 years of age. My parents decided it was "damaged in the head" but looking back now it just wasn't coping well with living with three very young kids with average to below average animal confidence. We got mixed messages about what happened to it at the time, it was only later as an adult that I found it had been given the green dream. I'm not that old (late 30's) and I know similar things must still be happening today, but back then community standards around pets were pretty different and people did not have the internet to turn to for information and support. It's one of the things I think is great about DOL. Run free Tina - that was a lovely tribute Rom.

I would talk to your OH, if he's not a morning person maybe you can take Chopper in the mornings and leave him with OH in the evenings while you walk the other dogs. A good way to have those conversations is "I have a problem with x, got any ideas on how we could solve it?" rather than starting with a solution. Maybe he'll offer to have the bad baby in a crate in your room. Another option would be to start playing crate games with Chopper at other times so that he's less freaky about his crate (google "crate games" to find them).

Bumping this thread to link to a LJ groomers community post with a link to a particularly scary "client instruction sheet". http://community.livejournal.com/groomers/233860.html

We're in the market for a new pair of clippers.

OK, I must be a complete nuffy because I have tried to do this and cannot find prices listed for prescription vet meds. Can someone give me an example of a site where I can do this?

No, it's just the meds. Sometimes they charge a $14 "dispensing fee", sometimes not.

I have had a sneaking suspicion for some time that we're being overcharged by our Vet on medication but Googling doesn't give me any answers. We have two animals on permanent meds, and one has recently been on ear drops. I picked up some Neomercazole for the cat yesterday and was charged $43. I don't recall it ever being that expensive, I've had cats on that medication for literally years and was expecting to pay around $20-$30 for it. We pay $200 for Vetmedin (100 tabs) and $91.15 for 14 tabs of Fortekor, and likewise I was sure they weren't that expensive when our dog first went on them. The Fortekor particularly is a killer because it's only a month's supply. Bear came home from a reconsult with another of our dogs over his ears and had a $75 bill for the resconsult and a bottle of Dermotic. That also seemed extreme to me. Are any of your dogs on these meds? How much do you pay? Let's do a little price comparison...

Update on our Affie boy - it appears he put his neck out somehow. The Xrays were not sinister and it's improved with rest and anti-inflammatories. He had a physical recheck today and the vet got him to do a full range of movement without any trouble. Thanks for all your help and well wishes everyone!

If there is anyone interested in attending a T-Touch workshop in Canberra on 23/24 May PM me with your email address and I'll email you the details. For those who aren't sure what T-Touch is: http://www.ttouchaustralia.com.au

Here's the linky: http://www.nerdbook.com/sophia/manners_minder/index.html

I think many pure-bred dogs are raised from a very early age to respond to the breeder saying "pup pup pup pup pup" in a light voice. So mine already came with a "command", but I actually prefer to describe this kind of stuff as a "cue" because I don't always use my voice First cue I taught the dogs myself: Lucy: Sit (hand signal) Jadir: Gait (hand signal)

Thanks heaps for that, that was interesting reading. For those not in the Affie thread, we took him to the vet yesterday, who took xrays. The vet found that what is causing it is a problem vetebra but she wasn't sure what was causing the abnormalities. The xrays are going to Sydney to be looked at by a specialist. We've got about a week to wait but having read your post, it sounds awfully similar.

No. Do you think it's a good idea to ask for one when we take him to the vet?

He turned 5 in February. Yes, he does sound startled.

Occasionally our Afghan will yelp. It seems to have something to do with his head as there is always some kind of connection with the head but nothing hard. We have thoroughly checked his ears, mouth and teeth. For good measure we have gone over his feet carefully as well including his dewclaws which are fine and not ingrowing or anything. He is brushed thoroughly every week. Otherwise he's fine, no problems eating, moving, drinking or doing his business. He is regularly seen by a chiro. It's a bit of a mystery. Yes, if we can't locate the problem we'll try the vet, but to be honest I'm not convinced they will find anything either without us to guide them about the source of the problem. When we go over him ourselves, and we've done so quite firmly, we don't get a yelp. Any other ideas of things we could try? I know Afghans can be princesses, but this is not the famous "call the rspca, they're cutting my toenails" Afghan scream, he seems genuinely hurt and surprised when it happens.

What method are you using to toilet train? Have you discussed the behaviour with its breeder? Without knowing much about your situation, if this were me I would institute a strict NILIF program. If you google NILIF, you'll find a range of resources.

We feed twice a day, and that's largely because we want to minimise the risk of bloat. The adults don't get a lot in the morning - either half a cup of kibble or a couple of greyhound bikkies. But it's enough to put something in their stomach. We also do bones in the evening so we can supervise.

This website is US based but looks like it could be a useful clearing house for information about toxic chemicals effect on pets: http://www.petsfortheenvironment.org Quote from the site: When I teamed up with Environmental Working Group to test the chemical body burden of pets, we didn’t really know what to expect. EWG has led the way in studies of human body burden, and we figured the results might look a lot alike since pets live and play in the same homes as humans. What the scientists actually found was that dogs and cats have much higher levels than humans of 43 different chemicals, and comparable levels of many, many others. We tested for 70 chemicals, and found 48. There were three groups of chemicals, though, that really stood out. For certain fire retardant chemicals, stain and grease resistant chemicals, and plastic chemicals called phthalates, dogs and cats had higher rates than 80-100% of all the humans that have been tested. These classes of chemicals have been associated with cancer, reproductive and developmental risks, birth defects and thyroid problems. Not surprisingly, dogs have much higher rates than humans of several kinds of cancer (including skin cancer, bone cancer, breast tumors and leukemia), and hyperthyroidism is a leading cause of illness in older cats. Some people say it’s genetic changes causing those problems, but animals just don’t evolve quickly enough to account for the rise in illness we’ve seen. Scientists think exposure to toxic chemicals may be to blame.

Let the Minister know what you think about this: The Hon Tony Burke MP, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Party: Australian Labor Party Parliament House Contact PO Box 6022 House of Representatives Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 Tel: (02) 6277 7520 Fax: (02) 6273 4120 Email: [email protected] Electorate Office Contact Kingsgrove Office: Location: Suite 204 1-5 Commercial Road Kingsgrove NSW 2208 Postal Address: PO Box 324 Kingsgrove NSW 1480 Tel: (02) 9554 3808 Fax: (02) 9554 3504

You cannot train certain breeds A biddable dog is a smart dog, an independent dog is a stupid dog If you let your dog sleep on the bed (couch, inside, whatever) he will dominate you In fact, I think all the dominance theorising that humans are so fond of would be a paper all by itself. Just about anything a dog does or doesn't do gets put down to dominance these days. I think leadership is important, but my dogs do not spend their entire lives plotting to take over my household. Also, check out the "spitting in a dog's mouth" thread in the puppy forum. There are some shockers in there, although one or two may not be printable for your paper.