Tilly

Our doys have a drizabone (sp?) coat but only every wear it if they are working while it is really cold and raining. I may put it on our older dog but only on really really cold nights - when his blankets are not enough.

When I was in school we had a little terrier. One Easter morning I woke up to find my box of easter eggs had been eaten (we used to have a box at the end of our beds for the easter eggs). Beside my bed on the mat was a sick little dog which still had chocolate around his mouth. He managed to clean up most of my two brothers eggs as well as mine. We carried him outside where he was sick. He slept for most of the day and didn't eat any dinner that day. The next day he was back to normal. At that stage I didn't know chocolate was bad for dogs but he didn't seem to have any side effects from the experience.

Try Omega 3 and/or Sardines - helps a dry itchy skin.

I have no idea about commands for the ring / agility as that is not something I am involved in. One experience I had with commands was when I took my GSD to obedience classes when he was little I got a big lecture about using his name as part of the command. As we have a number of dogs so we add their name as part of the command (eg fred drop, fred come, fred sit). I asked the guy who was running the class how was the dog going to know the command was for him and not for one of the other dogs - he said I should have different commands for each dog. I just ignored him and continued using my dogs name as part of the command. My boys have commands in english, german and hand signal - they response to all three.

My boys love their Eukanuba - we have tried changing but they wouldn't come to the party. It is Eukanuba or it is nothing.

I believe it is call "No Bark Collar". It is a black web collar with a little black box that sits on the throat. It has adjustable settings so you can have it up high or very low (not sure how many levels there are). After one day they put the setting at very low and most times they even leave it turned off - just wearing the collar stops the barking now. I have actually tried it on myself and it is like a little tingle - doesn't hurt at all. They also did some additional training - but this dog used to only bark when they were away (sometimes 3 to 9 hours non-stop). Another friend of mine has a similar collar but it has a remote control (only works if you are there). She mainly uses it in the car as her dog is a really bad barker when in the car - she gives the quiet command and then hits the remote if the dog continues barking.

Our neighbour has a no bark collar - they work great. The dog learnt almost immediately - no problems since. The now only put the collar on when they are going out - he knows the difference and that is enough - most times they don't even turn it on. I have heard bad things about the citronella ones.

I had my GSD pup at training one night after a very long day. The whole night he was pulling and pulling wanting to jump all over the other dogs. He would walk for 2 seconds and then starting trying to jump all over the dogs. I had a lot of difficulty getting his attention and the instructor was getting frustrated with him. I kept trying to pull him into line but I got frustrated and gave him a light smack on the bottom with the end of the lead - he didn't even seem to notice. The instructor then had a go at me for smacking him and I felt bad for getting frustrated at him and he was still pulling and pulling - so we went home.

Growing up - all our pet cats and dogs (male or female) were desexed at about 5 to 6 months of age.

Our boys get frozen chicken frames all the time - never had a problem. We were defrosting them at one stage but they seem to last one second longer when frozen

Take the pup and a sample to the vet ASAP - puppies can go down hill really quickly. It is best to get it checked out as soon as possible. - it may be nothing but it is much better to be safe then sorry.

Our GSD gets ear infections from time to time from our rotties licking his ears. We just take him to the vet on the first sign of trouble (shaking head and scratching) and they give him ear drops. Usually clears things up in a day or two. I don't like to leave it any length of time to fix itself as I know it can be uncomfortable and they can damage their ears by the constant scratching. We clean their ear regularly with and ear cleaner drops but the GSD doesn't like the drops so we use ear wipes on him.

I also lost my dear little girl (Tilly) recently so I know how you are feeling. I found it dreadful to walk past her empty cage every day - so I ended up buying a very sweet little baby boy (Toby). I know he will never replace her but he does fill a little bit of the hole.

Hydrobath - but we own ours.

Our boys tolerate the hydrobath. They will hop in, stand, turn, hold their paws up etc when asked but they just love the moment when they can get out and have a good shake - and then roll in the dirt .

Be careful you don't keep applying too many flea treatments on the pup - some of them stay in the system and can build up and poison the pup. Malaban / Malawash is very good for treating the environment but it needs to be done regularly to get the fleas that hatch later. In flea season we spray the yard weekly or fortnightly. You may also want to flea bomb the house (we used to treat the lot in one day - dog/cat, bedding, yard & house). We use a tick and flea wash on our dogs (they can be bathed in it or it can be sprayed on their coat) - weekly. Our neighbour had fleas on their dog (5 whole fleas :D ) - their vet recommended a flea collar rather then frontline or advantage - he said they work better (we always used flea collars on the cats and they worked great)... Also found cats are the worst carriers of fleas - they leave the yard, pick up a flea or two and bring them home, the flea hopes off and finds a new home. Good luck - fleas are such a pain.

I use Aloe Vera (fresh from the pot plant) and pawpaw ointment. Both are excellent.

I give our boys Pauls or any other "natural" yoghurt. I look for the ones which are firmer (not that runny stuff). They get a good dollop each.

We use cheerios - the boys love them. They are cheap and easy and our boys can smell them through any seal plastic container.

I see a definate pack structure in our dogs. The dogs are all strong, confident, dominate entire males but they clearly have a pecking order in the household and we respect that order (eg feeding and patting the top dogs first).

We get our chicken necks at a butchers in Sunnybank Hills and we pay $1.50 per kg - the cheapest and freshest we have found so far. We also get chicken frames from the same place for 95c per kg. We used to get our chicken necks home delivered from Bucket'O'Beef for $2 per kg (they were skin free and really good quality). We had lots of trouble finding turkey necks so we have just stuck to chicken necks (some of them are very large indeed).

We use Fido's Itch Free Rinse and their puppy/kitten shampoo (when needed). We mainly just wash the dogs in the hydrobath using the Rinse (don't use shampoo unless they are really smelly - maybe once a year).

We also use bones. Mainly chicken frames, chicken necks and brisket bones. Occassionally they get "Dentabone" but big fat bones are their favourite.

I agree with Rappie - definately look at treating the whole environment. Most "spot" flea treatments like Frontline work better on a "dirty" dog. Some vets are even recommending the use of a flea collar over the drops. A few flea bombs in the house is a good idea. I would also use "Malawash" to spray the yard and sleeping areas outside. I would probably continue spraying the yard/bedding for a few weeks - just to make sure you have broken the breeding cycle. You can even use this to wash the dog if you want and it is relatively inexpensive.

Our boys rarely have fleas - they are just not in our environment. We used to have fleas when we had cats but with 6 large dogs we just don't seem to have any cats around. If our boys never left our place we probably wouldn't use any form for flea control.