Tilly

Swimming ... 30 minutes of swimming really gives my boys are good work out

Paople can fit through smaller doggy doors (or they use children) ... so anything big enough for the dog would definately be big enough for a person.

Some people say if you put a pot or something near the ramp or step it gives the dog something to swim too if they fall in ...

You can also buy devices that are designed to trigger an alarm, if for example, a child falls in the pool.

There is also devices that can be attached to the dog collar which will also sound an alarm if they get wet ...

I feed raw but I also noticed my youngest went off it a bit. Because he is rather thin I desperately wanted him to eat so I have tried him on grain free Canidae (he gets the runs on grains) which he absolutely loved ...

But the best way I found to get him to eat what he was given was ... I emptied his food into the bowl of other dog while he sat in his pen and watched ... he got very upset as our older dog wolfed down the food that he wasn't interested in 5 minutes before. I didn't offer him any other food that day and was prepared to repeat the next day ... but he decided he would rather eat it first.

5 hours isn't too long if the puppy can hold that long. My GSD puppy was going about every 4 hours initially so it was about 9-10 weeks before he could sleep the night through without needing toileting.

When he went outside during the day (when I returned to work) I provided extra shade on his side of the yard by securing a tarp over the top of the clothes line. He has a securely fenced grass area, about 5 different water supplies/containers, kennel and the extra shade from the tarp ... plus a range of toys that I changed daily.

Some dogs are people dogs and others are places dogs ... a friend has 2 dogs. One doesn't care where he is ... as long as he is with his owner ... while the other can't wait to "get home" and just isn't happy unless she is home regardless of who she is with.

Depends on your dog ... but I think in your situation it might be better to leave her with your parents.

I mainly use Cetrigen or Betadine ...

If the dog is elderly and this is a behaviour that is new - I would be suggesting it might be a medical issue. Rather then disliking or hating the dog I would be getting it to a vet for a thorough check-up

My dogs are fed raw - I was told it takes approximately 4 to 6 hours for the food to be processed fully - so it is at least 2 hrs after feeding before I consider exercising them.

I usually exercise them prior to feeding - so I normally wait until their breathing has returned to "normal" for at least 30 minutes before I consider feeding them.

When I broke my foot ... I had a friend come and run the dogs.

She is beautiful

I think you have some competition in the "vocal / nutty dog" Category .... that would have to be my GSD boy

Shampoo needs to be rinsed off but Permoxin doesn't ... so I would use it as a final rinse if you really wanted too otherwise just use a spray bottle and drench the dog later.

My boys are outside dogs. When we got out youngest as a little puppy I had him sleeping inside in a crate for the initial couple of weeks. He would be outside time during the day (yard was divided in half with a dog on either side) but I brought him back inside to his crate at night - I was worried about toads and stuff so it was less stress for me.

When I was sure he was about to sleep through the night without having to be toileted I started putting him outside in his "puppy pen" on the back veranda at night. He settle into the pen much like he did with his crate and it also gave our older dog an oportunity to get used to having the puppy around.

I brought 2 cookbooks ... but am still waiting for them to arrive

They are on their way Tilly I promise.

Im not sure how I missed yours and one other but its almost all better now.

Julie

Thank you ... mind you I don't actually cook but it is a new years resolution to start

I brought 2 cookbooks ... but am still waiting for them to arrive

The end is near ....

I had the same thing on one of my memory cards ... and I was never able to recover them

I am another for Vet Basix antiseptic fly repellent cream .... my guys had really bad fly strike last year and this was absolutely fantastic.

I had tried the Repel X on both dogs and my youngest had a reaction to it ... and neither dog liked having the cetrigen sprayed near their heads even though I find it great on their wounds on the rest of them.

This year I have started with the cream before they get bitten ... as well as using fly tape, automatic sprays around the veranda and fly traps around away from the house but it still hasn't stopped the sticky little buggers yet.

I tend to use "oi" or "ah" ...

We had a multifeast in our area earlier in 2010 where the pup broke his "puppy pen" trying to get out - I believed he was distressed due to the kids screaming (rides) but since there was also fireworks I wasn't absolutely 100% certain.

Last night the crackers/fireworks started around our place at about 9pm and then again at 11:45pm ... and he snored his way through them.

Does he guts his food down? Maybe he is eating too quickly Maybe try smaller more frequent meals ...

If it was my dog I would be seriously looking at a digestive issue or a food intolerance ...

Towards the end our rottie had some digestive issues where he wasn't processing his food properly - we used a product called "Thrive D". It is supposed to "increase the digestibility" of commercial foods.

My youngest will vomit if I don't feed him twice a day - but it isn't food he brings up. He processes his food quickly and is actually starving within a couple of hours of eating.

A fair while ago I was walking our elderly rottie (retired security dog at the time) along a dark section of the local bike track when he started growling and put himself across the front of me. It was around the time of a lot of assaults in parks - so I was immediately caution. I was a bit hesitant as I wasn't sure what he was growling at and was debating if I should take another path that lead me towards a bushy area … so I gave the dog permission to react (his nasty bark) and called out with: “Can you please stay where you are and we will go around you – I have a security dog with me and I didn’t bring his muzzle” … next minute 3 young men took off in the opposite direction. I don’t know what their intentions were and I was particularly glad I didn’t get to find out.

Not so long ago I was on my way home from walking our two GSD's (one dog nearing retirement and the new in-training security dog) when I had just come around the corner from the park and was heading up the street near the local school. As I was walking along a group of about 20+ youths appeared out of a side street. They were spread over both side of the road and were kicking over bins, kicking letter boxes etc as they came towards me. I didn’t want to go back towards the park as it was away from houses/people but I didn’t think I would be able to get into the gate leading to the school grounds to get away from the crowd. I decided to go up the embankment to the school fence and secured the leads of both dogs onto the fence, put them into a sit and grabbed them by the collars. Both dogs were beautifully behaved. They remained in the sit position and intently watched everyone and growled if anyone came too close. A couple of the guys mouth off a bit towards me but the dogs seemed to put enough fear into them that when I asked them to keep their distance as there were security dogs – they actually listened. I was shaking when they actually pasted and quickly took the boys home to an extra special treat.

When my older boy had something similar on his back at the top of his tail ... I found it was almost constantly wet so it was much easier to just shave the area (he has really really thick hair in that area) and spray the area with Cetrigen.

Poor baby looked funny like a bald and purple/pink bottom ...

My dogs are trained to protect us ... but when my now older boy was about 5 months old I had taken him to visit my parents. I had stopped off in town first to check the post office box and because I left the sleeping pup in the back seat I had left my window half way down. Being a quiet town I wasn't worried about locking up the car while I was still able to keep an eye on it.

I had just turned my back to put the key in the PO box when a scream made me turn around .... a young guy had reached through the drivers side to grab my handbag from the passenger seat and the young pup in the back seat launched himself at the guy and bit him on the arm.

The guy was stupid enough to then walk up to the police car which was parked about 4 metres in front of me and complain to the police office that my dog had bitten him. The officers (and about 5 people in the area) had watched him put his arm in the car to take my handbag (and they all knew the guy well) so he ended up being arrested for a couple of previous thefts.

I believe the police officers told him he was too stupid to be a thief ...

We have an older dog (who is slowing down) and a younger one (who is full of energy).

If it is just me then I take both to the off-leash park (when it is empty) and let them have a run around at their own pace.

If I have the help of a friend then I then take the older boy for a sedate walk around the park (at his pace) while a friend takes the younger one out for a 5/10km run.

Both dogs are used to doing things seperately ... while they don't particularly like being left home alone (because they think they are missing out on something) I find a juicy bone is enough to distract them.