Jumabaar

Yup met a family that BYB maltese and they genuinely didn't/couldnt understand the dangers of bring a two week old pup for christmas photos, with its 'grandmother' who had pneumonia. I warned them that we could not guarantee all dogs who had visited had been vaccinated, but was told its fine our dogs are. I pointed to the pup and they completely missed the point about the pup not being vaccinated. I mentioned quarantining the pup and they didn't know what that meant. The pups all get weekly vet visits, but no actual health testing. The breeder couldn't actually understand the difference between a vet looking at the dog and doing any breed specific health tests..... They have 5 bitches that needed to whelp so they could do their christmas shopping I just walked away

I just thought I would add- be careful of dogs helping themselves to these 'treats' I the lead up to Christmas. My mums pup managed to get some Christmas pud from the table which was being prepared for a friend. With grapes and raisens it's best to get to the vet within an hr to induce vomiting. I did this with mums cheeky monkey and I decided to pop her on a drip for 12 hrs to ensure there was no kidney damage!! Jem thankfully didnt have any ill effects and is already home and bouncing.

Bull arab- can you please tell bluey it should only take 6-12 mths. Its been that long plus two years for him and he is still not quite there!! He is special though lol

Yes- to do anything not listed on the packet an owner needs informed consent

I agree with this. Yes a new smaller breed pup might not jump and knock the kids over, but they might have other habits that are difficult to train away from that may be equally or more annoying! Going for a slightly older dog will get you past this stage and you will have more idea of what you are getting into. There are plenty of ethical breed rescues who foster dogs for a few weeks prior to offering them for adoption Breeders do quite often have older dogs who have retired from their showing/breeding programme. These dogs are hidden gems as you know the dogs history but are beyond the bouncy puppy stage, they should be toilet trained and lead trained.

You will be entered?? Looks like we might get to meet up again

Very interesting stuff many thanks I spoke to my vet last night re this vaccination and he tells me it is more expensive and that a young puppy will require a seies of TWO vacinations to be adequately covered. And that the adult is okay with the three year vacs but not a puppy. Nope it is defiantly possible for pups to be vaccinated just once at 12 weeks. The holistic vet I use it always trying to convince me to just do the one at 12 weeks, but I like my pups out at 10 weeks. She has however done one shot with other pups and titre tested to ensure it works, and it does. That study is really interesting in the link- it would be interesting to read the actual paper so of to do my own detection work! Also I will now only be titre testing at 1year of age as most of my dogs and the dogs she treats still have good, measurable levels of immunity. Also no great difference in price, especially since you are not vaccinating as often so I think what was a $10 price difference one way is a big difference after that!

Was that an example of what you were trying to describe?

Aidan are you sure you mean hypoparathyroidism? I would have thought with increased calcium that she would be hyper not hypo. We had hoped (in a sense) for primary hyperparathyroidism, because then we would have a diagnosis for something treatable. Having spoken with the vet about this today, she is not hypo, just low (0.7 pmol/L). Her thyroid and lymph nodes are all normal to touch. Yes, and we tested for Addisons (at my insistence, it wasn't really at the top of the differentials, I guess I was just hoping). She is going in for a full CT scan on the 29th, then we will have to wait for a specialists report after New Years. In the meantime we've put her on Pred to keep her alive until then. Hopefully it will stimulate her appetite. Not sure if you have started the Pred but if you are looking at chemo as an option you may want to do some more research before starting. Link Thinking of you and I also recommend talking to someone about natural therapies. I have seen some amazing work with chinese medicine.

oh dear then I would fail :D OMG you CRIMINAL!!!!

Hi Jumabaar. No gold star today I'm afraid. I should point out clauses 6.1.1.5 and 7.1.1.5 respectively. Where a facility houses both dogs and cats, cat housing must be a sufficient distance or otherwise isolated from dog housing to minimise the stress created by the sound, sight or smell of dogs. Dogs and cats that may be distressed by the presence of other dogs and cats must be housed in a manner that prevents visual and minimises or reduces olfactory contact. I hope the cat doesn't smell. :D Px Does that mean I can go to my neighbour and ask them to keep their bloody cat inside and not meow outside my window at 3am!?!?! Well my other enrichment is my socks as soon as my shoes come off. They get whisked away before I know it. AND I can assure you they don't sleep with them so their bedding is almost hygenic (they leave them on my bed for me). They do however take a fair amount of sand back into their beds from the hole to china they are currently digging..... So that gives them enrichment but causes me to fail on the hygienic bedding code Although I fail on the bedding code as I refuse to buy them a queen bed for themselves so they don't all fit on my bed.... Clearly not enough soft bedding provided (the beds in their own crates are not soft enough for kelpies).

Well the neighbours cat sits and meows on the other side of the window...... Not sure if your neighbour has a cat so willing to enrich your dogs lives (and send the humans slowly insane).

Nawwwwwwwww

Desexing is cheap because vets offer it as a loss so people get their pets desexed. Thus they actually have to cover their costs elsewhere like the dog with the itchy skin etc. Even at that price the vet is probably still operating with no profit margin if they are giving fluids (which I hope so when you can't predict how long the dog will be under) and premed etc.

Perhaps suggest trying a different brand. as there are two broad categories. One contains a 'killed' virus, so to stimulate an immune response there are additives in the vaccine to make the body notice it. 'Live' modified viruses are able to stimulate an immune response by themselves so there are no additives. It is generally the additives that cause a reaction. Personally I would titre test in another two weeks and if she has a positive result then no need to finish off the course. If she hasn't then you can look at what brand/type of vaccine you used last time and discuss using a different one.

Some vets don't even realise this is an easy/affordable option these days. It depends how up to date they are.

I agree with this. I have always tried to organise people to come around feeding time but have had people come post feeding/playing and in all honesty my pups did whinge about being picked up because they had been zooming for an hr!! That being said- my bitch was throwing herself on the visitors because SHE wanted attention, and why were the little brown blobs being played with when she was around

http://www.topshotflyball.com/ This is where we get all our club equipment from. Great work and great customer service. The makers are both well known in the flyball community!!

Doesn't seem expensive to me. Its potentially a long abdominal surgery so that is rather cheap IMO It could take an hour to find it- turned out a dog I saw being operated on only had one testis but we still had to look everywhere for the second one.

There is no 'strength' when it comes to a vaccine. They all work by putting in a foreign body into the dogs blood stream and relies on the dogs immune system to recognize it and react to it causing it to 'remember' that foreign body and other foreign bodies that have similar properties (namely parvo). Its an all or nothing event- ether the dog reacts and forms immunity or it doesn't. I have happily used Nobivac for two litters without problem. I dont generally do the kennel cough component because they appear to be constantly exposed and so have developed natural immunity. In the situations where I have done it I have left a two week break before doing it to try and get a good immune response. Like people the immune system can miss things if they are being challenged by too many things at once.

Reward based training- proven to work with dogs AND humans......

See you all there!!! I can't believe the kelpies- almost as many as we had at our specialty

Not sure if this is relevant. But when I train my dog in any method I look at the feedback that I am getting from the dog- so if its stressed, engaged and generally if I seem to be getting results. I tend to change how I am doing things as the dog progresses because I will find a pattern that seems to work for that particular dog. The feedback I get from one of my other dogs when I start down the same method will be slightly different and so the cues, hints and rewards (and corrections) will be slightly different to that dog. I like to read research but like you I found that working out what was best for my dog was.... well the best for me. I find it interesting that you say EVERY Koehler trainer in Aus does it differently to the method Koehler actually set out. Now these trainers are also getting real world responses- so doesn't this say that they too have studied the dog and modified in order to achieve the best results based on the feedback that they have had. I actually find this to be the most profound argument against using such a prescribed method- that if even the core group of followers has had cause to make their own conscious and subconscious tweaks that relate to their own style as a trainer and the dogs that they are seeing. How can you say that those 11000 dogs were not all taught based on variations of the Koehler training rather than the set method? Surely if people struggle to get it 'right' now they were struggling back then as well?

I put my little ones on cooked chicken and rice rather than fasting them. 24hrs is probably a little too long for a pup this size to go without food.

I've just seen this (must of been typing at the same time) I'll read up on these cheers. She's a GSD. It should be fine but if your interested in researching I am not sure how prevalent MDR1 is in GDSs. MDR1 dogs are more sensitive to ivermectin.