Diva

I use cheese all the time as a training treat, it's high value to my dogs and has caused no problems at all. Why is it supposed to be bad, the fat content? I have heard that it can cause constitpation, but it might have to be a lot of cheese as I've never seen that side effect.

Apple is eaten by one of mine and another likes strawberries, but they have been self-harvested, I don't feed it to them.

. Obviously though, a BARF diet is not low protein so there is argument there with people or breeders who successfully feed BARF to their pups and would report that they grow no quicker than their kibble fed counterparts!

A BARF diet isn't particularly high in protein I don't think - the commercial patties are around 10-13%, because natural moisture levels in real meat means moisture is about 70% of a BARF mix (which is a good thing). Dry weight the protein level would be maybe 30-35%, but as it's not dry fed it's not a very relevant measure.

I believe black poo is indicative of a high protein diet - so you can literally see you are getting your monies worth!

I don't know if black poo indicates a high protein diet, but black poo certainly is known as a sign of intestinal bleeding, high in the digestive tract. I'm not suggesting it is for your dogs but I'd hate someone else to read this and not realise black poo is often a very good reason for a trip to the vet.

Well done on your progress!

i think it was my mood also that help, i felt like i commanded their attention and their behaviour improved so much, (does that make sense)...

Yep, it makes perfect sense

Must say i will be now known as the crazy dog lady of (insert suburd here) as half way through our walked it started pouring with rain, but guess what it didn't faze me as i was having a ball, and i am sure the three girls were too...

Lol, welcome to the crazy dog lady club. I think a few of us are probably known as that! (only by people who don't understand, of course)

I walk two v. large young dogs together and the only way I could get it to work was to set a much higher standard of behaviour - eg you walk next to me, both on the left side, you don't walk in front at all, you don't swap sides, you don't play with each other along the way and you don't stop to sniff until we get to the park. Happily as soon as I got serious about those rules so did they, and they walk nicely on separate leads. I do insist they start off calm and I make them sit at the door, at the gate etc. If they bounce around or pull at the start we go back inside and try again in a few minutes, we've only had to do that twice and they got the message. One of them seems to enjoy the more structured walks more than the more lax ones, which suprised me.

:D Diva that would of been a lengthy recovery both times.

Yes it was. Sadly the outcome has been poor and she remains lame and in pain.

Good luck with your boy, you have all my best wishes.

your post caused me a lot of trouble, I went to the back of the bookcase you find my old books and the shelf collapsed on me!

I can't find the book I was looking for, I think Bulanda was the author. I have found the Sandy Bryson Search Dog Training book which is not bad. Go Find! (Davis) is more tracking, so is Scent (Pearsall and Verbruggen) and most of the others I have, except one by a US bloodhound handler, I'll keep looking for that one. I remember Glen Johnson as being not specificly trailing but very good too. There are accreditations, but if you want to be called out on searches it depends on the arrangements in the state you are in. WA's SES SAR dogs used to get called out by the police and SES a lot, but it varies from state to state I think on how much they call on non-police dogs.

I think DOLer 'centitout' trails bloodhounds, maybe PM her/him. You should also get the Syrotuck books if you're serious about SAR - they are about lost person behaviour rather than dog training but they are very useful.

As for where you go from here - I'd suggest longer, older, different surfaces and environments, hard surfaces, deep sand, different vegetation, windier, dryer, hotter, wetter, in the rain, subjects up trees and in creeks, subjects on the move, more complicated patterns, picking up a trail from the middle, etc. All the real life variations in reasonable steps.

Perhaps if we have to get the operation done I might have to ring around some reputable vets and get a better price???? But I don't know is the $4000 a standard cost of is this a little pricey for the operation involved?

One of my dogs had a carpal arthrodesis op, it was for a different sort of injury than the one you described but just to give feedback on cost, I think the op and pre-op blood tests and x-rays etc was about $3,500. She subsequently needed another to remove the metal plate, another $1,500 or so.

I'd also leave him be. It would be different if they were causing him discomfort, but as they aren't at his age I wouldn't put him through an op unless you really have to.

Does she know she's weeing? If it appears inadvertent there are effective medical options to treat it, this is how it was with my old girl and it was hormonal. If she knows she's doing it but doesn't make an effort to go outside, something may be astray with the signal mechanism that tells her she needs to go, until it's too late to get outside and she just has to - also medical. Or as GSDhandler suggests she may not want to go to the effort of getting up and out given her back and legs, which may mean retraining and rewarding going outside. I'd go with a vet check first though. It could also be related to dementia if she seems a bit dotty, there are drugs to help that but I don't know if they work well.

I'm sorry to hear you've had such a bad run and your pup is still not entirely well. Arriving with ticks horrifies me, I had a pup arrive by plane with fleas, which was bad enough. I doubt though that the breeder is obligated by law to refund your purchase price. I'm no expert but you'd probably have to return her which is not (very understandably) for you an option, or be able to prove the breeder knew of her problems when she sold her, or did not carry out health tests on the parents which could reasonably be expected to be carried out for that breed - which might be grounds for a legal case but I'd imagine it would be difficult.

Ethically, I'd like to think the breeder would refund based on your vet records, if the vet is clear that it's nothing you've done that has caused such serious health issues at such a young age. But I expect I'm being optimistic.

I hope your girl recovers well.

Well done Arnah, sounds like you're making real progress. There will probably be some more 'difficult' days with him to come, but if you're as committed as you sound you are going to end up with a lovely companion dog.

so very sorry that your search ended this way

I want to have that experience together with my lovely dog and feel the process (even it will takes a very long time).

I hope my final decision will be a perfect one for both of us.

Your dog is lucky to have a committed and thoughtful owner. An advantage of doing the training yourself is that you will learn along with her, enjoy the journey!

We get down on all fours and growl away at our puppy and she growls back

Uh,huh...and what do the neighbours think ? LOL

sorry, I just think it's funny...

I am a grumpy old sod who doesn't play with her dogs like this No offence.

Oh I do, they are puppies for such a short time I figure I may as well make the most of it, and the neighbours already know I'm mad.

My pup makes no noise when she plays with me, but when she plays with the adult dogs she makes a noise like a humpback whale in full song - weird but endearing.

I've had a dog with an ear infection, showing head tilting, unsteadiness and rapid eye movements. She recovered with treatment to having just a slight head tilt that eventually went away entirely. I've also had a quite elderly dog diagnosed with vestibular disease, it was much more severe. She couldn't walk without falling over and gave up trying, I managed to get her in and out to toilet with a towel like a sling under her tummy for support. She also recovered completely with treatment, but it was a much harder road and touch and go for a while re quality of life.

Good luck with it and thanks for coming back to update us.

I watched your thread last year and the awful abuse you copped, and then the abusive posts magically disappearing. It was quite an eye opener for me re the behaviour and ethics of some on this site.

Well they aren't really obligatory of course, we just like them! And baby deerhounds are so very sweet it would be selfish not to share.

My puppy (9 1/2 weeks) is getting the hiccups about twice a day. Is this anything sinister? Should I worry?

I've always been told it's just a puppy thing and nothing to be concerned about. They outgrow it.

Hi Deerhoundlover

Lots of pups carry on like this (well, maybe not the foot in the mouth at the same time bit, but the humping).

Just gently discourage him, maybe distract him with something else like a fav toy. It's nothing to worry about, but as pf said you don't want a grown dog doing it so don't let him get into the habit.

If he is a Deerie we DO expect photos to be posted in the sighthound thread in the breed sub-forums. It's compulsory that we get the chance to ooh and aaah over a cute 9 week old deerhound

I have heard that putting dog poo in socks or stockings and pegging them on the line helps to discourage pulling washing.

Now that may work, but I think I'd find the cure worse than the problem

The only way I have found to avoid this problem is not to have the washing out unsupervised when they are under 12 months, after that they seem to be OK but if they learn it as puppies they can take a looong time to outgrow it.

I do have dryer.

You don't have a lot of patterson's curse/salvation Jane weed around where you live do you? I had a dog come down with something very similar looking from the little hairs on that weed many years ago.

Thnaks for the article Aranyoz, it's great to get some solid info.

I saw that Dr B's have gone up to over $20 per 2.2 kg (think that was the weight, the normal size pack anyway) at my local place, too expensive for me now except as an emergency fall back. Maybe still OK for people with smaller dogs.

I agree Oakway it's horses for courses, mine do need a lot of fat/oil but in dry food especially I steer clear of protein levels any higher than real meat has particularly as I have young dogs - and most especially when the high protein is combined with high carb/grain levels. They mostly get a diet of meat with offal and RMB's as a consequence.

If frosty paws are made in Qld maybe they will make it to here, I'll keep a look out.

I think they are low in protien and fat.

If you are paying $5 a kilo I wount more for my money.

I think even lean beef is only about 22% protein, so by the time bone and veges are included it's got to come down from that. For my guys too high a protein % is a bigger concern than too little so they sound good to me, I wonder if they are made in WA which might mean that they won't get over here.

With my 15 week old pup, she goes on lead if in an active mood when the cat strolls past, and is rewarded for being calm around the cat. The cat is also praised for showing tolerance and being willing to stay near the pup. It's working well so far and the pup will mostly now just interact gently or ignore totally. If she is in a silly mood and insists on being overbearing in her attentions to puss she goes in a crate for a short time out.

It helps that I have two older dogs who model cat friendly behaviour and that the cat is used to large dogs (she hates small dogs though!). On the other hand they are all sighthounds so if it does go wrong with 3 sighthounds and a cat it could go terribly wrong, which is why I am very careful about the training at this age.