DeltaCharlie

Delta creates her own double bunk LOL This is the most common sleeping position for her :)

We test all of ours, they only ever get their puppy shots. Every time we do it they always come back with the highest possible level of immunity >1:80 for both parvo and distemper. We have had all of ours tested through vetpath in WA with the exception of 1 who was tested by Jean Dodds as we were sending a thyroid sample anyway so it was easier. I have never paid more than $70 for a test, that is at 4 different vets (2 in Sydney, 1 in Canberra and 1 in Newcastle). Ours are out and about a lot at agility trials so would be in constant contact with low level viruses I suspect. I would expect a dog that doesn't get out as much to have much lower levels of immunity as their system is not being exposed to it as often. Some dogs just don't accept the vaccination very well and never end up with high levels irrespective of how often they are vaccinated. Then there are some dogs don't end up with protection at all even after a vaccination. I consider us pretty lucky with the results we consistently get back.

If someone offered me the chance to train all of my dogs with this I would jump at the opportunity. My dogs get a worse shock from me patting them while wearing parachute trackpants (I am having major static electricity issues in this humidity!). I would have no objection to it whatsoever.

We have some of those yellow ones and they are cr*p. Lose their shape easily, the threads inside come loose and tangle the dogs, and they don't cope very well with being left outside in the weather. Many clubs still have them as they are lightweight for frequent moving but they don't last that long and need replacing often. For that price you can get much better ones that don't need to be replaced. We have one of the tunnels from Jahzzy and they are awesome. Great quality and very hardwearing! There is also this place in victoria doing them, I saw one of the $310 ones on the weekend and they look really good too. Similar grip to the jahzzy suregrip one that we have. The company is trippe dog agility.

13 dogs on it,nobody smells like pee :)

Yep, ours all have a main colour and an "offset colour". Their collars are the main colour and the embroidered writing is the offset. Their leads (plaited fleece ) are made from both colours and either black or a patterned fabric that incorporates both colours. Brooks- purple/black Jaz- red/black Dash- green/orange Sweep- blue/orange Charlie- light blue/black Delta- pink/black Link- blue/green Whip- red/black Rush- blue/pink Fuze- fluoro green/black Shock- purple/green Boost- yellow/ blue Hype- black/silver

We have working border collies, a few of them are short-coated and we still won't walk in anything above about 20-22 degrees. We stupidly decided to walk them last night at about 8pm thinking it was nice and cool. They overheated badly on a 2km walk. Turns out it was 27 degrees. We ended up having to fill up the shell pool for them to have a splash and cool down when we got back home. Today we changed tact and went on multiple trips to the beach instead :)

You know what, she wasn't being walked much at all due to the hours I was away. I'm sure that had an impact as well! Can you feed dogs drumsticks? I though weight bearing bones were a no go? They are not considered weight bearing on poultry :) They are light enough to allow flight so definitely not too hard for a dog to crunch through. They are referring to the long bones of sheep, cattle, pigs etc

Ours get roo mince but we only pay $4 a kg for it so pretty affordable. It pays to ask around to find out who can do it for you. Rural places are easier to source meat from than cities :) Ours also get canned tuna once a week. We mix in their veggies etc with the mince. They also get lamb brisket, Turkey wings, chicken carcasses, roo tails, fish heads and beef bones but we only feed bone 3 days a week, sometimes 4 (but that's when they tend to get blocked up so we try to avoid it).

Ours get blocked up if we feed too much bone in a week, so I imagine 3 weeks would land us where you are. If it were me, I would go back to what you have fed for years and your dog has done well on. Just be careful not to feed so much bone again :)

If it were me, I wouldn't be allowing her to play with the others before training. She is there to work, not to socialise and at this point you are having issues with her being able to tell the difference between when she is allowed to play with them and when she is not. An hour is a very long time for her to be concentrating. Some BCs can do it and some can not. We have a 12 month old here who gets to come out for about 5mins at the start and 5mins at the end. Any more than that and it is too taxing on her brain and she cannot concentrate any longer. That's when the other behaviours will creep in (wanting to play with the others etc). Is it possible to only train her for the first half and then just watch and learn yourself for the second half? If she needs a play before training to get the "bugs" out, I would suggest taking her for a walk or having a big play with her before you arrive at the grounds. I also wouldn't be allowing her to interact with the other dogs on a walk at this point in time either. While it is not formal training, you are wanting a dog that will walk with you and not get overexcited every time she sees another dog. Allowing her to then play with that dog is only going to reinforce in her mind that dogs she sees on a walk are fun and she might get to meet them. By all means meet up with others and let her play with other friendly dogs if that is something you want her to do. But have it as a "play only" session. No expectation of leash-walking, no training, nothing but playing. Personally, I prefer my dogs to have no value for other dogs. I want to be the thing they want to play and interact with. They need to learn that other dogs exist in their world but I want them to just ignore that existance.

I think, like anything, it is up to the individual to do the research and weigh up the risks for them. Every product out there has its pros and cons and due to the large number of people using them worldwide, there are always going to be negative experiences associated with each of them. Thousands of puppies react negatively or even die from puppy shots, but I will always administer the puppy shots anyway (and then titre after that). There is a much greater chance that everything will be fine than there is of it ending badly. Views are skewed as the negative is always broadcast more than the positive. I was against this product for a long time (and may even have comments to that effect earlier in this thread, I haven't looked). The whole 4-months thing didn't sit well with me- what happened if the dog had a negative reaction? 4months+ is a long time for it to remain in their system with no way to get it out. I have sat back, watched with interest all the dog people I know who were prepared to try it, kept an eye on the results and summed it up for myself. I will never give Shock Bravecto due to her seizures. I know it is supposed to be safe for fitting dogs (unlike Nexgard which is a big no-no) but that is not a risk I am prepared to take. She copes fine with Scalibor collars so that is what she will continue to wear. We will not give Bravecto to our older boy with the bad heart. He is not in full health to begin with so we will not risk a new product on him. We will not give Bravecto to our older terrier mixes. They are both under 5kg and I believe it is more risky to test something out on such a small body, especially given their ages (14 and 16). We weighed up the risk for the other dogs, all active border collies in perfect health and decided it was worth trying on them. They all swim regularly (unlike the 4 mentioned in the previous paragraph) and when we move next month will likely swim daily. Too many times we have forgotten to put their scalibor collars back on them lately (we used to be really good at it) and some have started to eat them off. We worked out that one of them went 2 months without a collar and we hadn't realised. We just kept meaning to get her a new one and kept forgetting. The risk for those dogs is higher with the collars than it is with Bravecto. Most dog products are via prescription only in the US :) You can't just buy interceptor etc like we can over here, everything has to be prescribed by the vet. They have different regulations over there than what we have here, it has nothing to do with Bravecto itself. I give Shock Melatonin at night to help with her seizures, it is only available by prescription in Aus but can be bought online in the UK or US and sent here without issue. Different regulations for different products.

Petplan has always been great with Shock's seizures. I often send in claims for a few thousand dollars if she has required emergency hospitalisation. They have always paid promptly and I have a cheque in the mail within about a week of sending it (so that is with a few days postage each way).

The chances of them not being evenly split would be so slim that as far as I am concerned it isn't exactly a risky thing to do. I have never split vials as I am not talented enough to do that, but things like interceptor and bravecto are easy to cut in half. I had considered splitting the really big ones 3 ways but thought that was probably pushing my skills a little too far LOL The companies can't advise it though as not only will it cost them money if people start splitting them instead of buying 2 smaller, but they would also be liable if for whatever reason it wasn't evenly split.

We have just done this with our border collies. Ours are all 10-15kg so we bought the 20-40kg ones and cut them in half. Because there is no way of knowing if the active drug is spread evenly throughout the chew nobody in any official capacity will ever advise doing it (to cover themselves if your dog ended up with inadequate protection as you could go back at them if they did advise it). I spoke to many people who have done it themselves for a while now so decided it was worth the risk with our dogs.

Is she actually an old dog or are you going purely by her age? Dash is 13 and still competing in Masters level at agility and I know of plenty of BCs who are or have been at a similar age or older. They are a breed that are generally pretty active until death's door so you may find that she is still up for a lot of the same things your younger ones are :) Many BCs are now living into their late teens so 14 certainly isn't old yet!

We have sent bloods to her a few times for thyroid panels etc. We did the first lot ourselves through the local vet and I think all up it was about $300 per dog. Then we discovered our holistic vet in Canberra organises the whole thing and we were only out of pocket $230 for each dog. She had an account set up with Jean Dodds so that each test only cost her $50 instead of the $90 that Joe Public is charged. I enquired with the holistic vet in Newcastle after we moved and was quoted something similar. It might be worth asking around the different holistic vets, they all seem to do it fairly regularly and would know the best way to do it. They also seem to have the cheaper package prices :)

was on the right hand page, right hand bottom corner page 23? I think but it's already out in the recycle bin Thanks :) I was having a man's look :laugh:

To buy Shock's medications would cost me about $300 a month from the vet, so not as bad as yours but still pretty exxy. Instead, my vet writes me a script, I walk next door to the chemist and get it myself (or go to a discount pharmacy for even better savings) and it costs me about $100 a month instead. Definitely worth it :)

I don't see it in the catalogue

Working border collies- all the stupid comments from people. Are you sure its a border collie? What is it crossed with? Why doesn't it look like a border collie? Are you sure its not a kelpie x? I thought working dogs went mad at some point? (It never ceases to amaze me how many people think that aussie farmers are using dogs that just randomly go mad one day!) Border collies in general- the fact that they have basically conceded that they will never be able to find the genetic link for epilepsy in the breed and it is a genetic lottery every time you breed Pyrenean Shepherds- the intense dislike for strangers. I don't mind Hype ignoring people but you have to watch others like a hawk to make sure they don't try and pat him (even if he takes himself over to them and jumps up at them, it still doesn't give permission to pat apparently...) Terriers- they are into everything, always hunting for stuff, and have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to training

Just wondering if anyone has had any luck getting a rare breed recognised for pet insurance in Australia? 7 of ours are insured with Petplan and I have been trying for months to get Hype insured too. I have just heard back from them that only breeds on their list can be insured. Given that they have every oodle-doodle breed imaginable on their list I find this quite bizarre! We are looking at other pet insurers as I know they have a different underwriting company and Bow Wow Meow have already said they are willing to discuss it with me but ultimately Petplan offers the policy we want. If others have been able to get their breeds on the list I will continue trying to speak to someone who doesn't need to "consult with my underwriting supervisor". I suspect I am simply being fobbed off by some of them. But if nobody else has been able to either then I will give up and go with somebody else. I'm thinking of insuring him elsewhere for 12 months to buy me some time. If nothing bad happens in that time and Petplan come to the party I will switch him next year, if something does go wrong then at least he is covered by someone.

If one of these is the novice dog I am thinking of it turned a few heads at he FOA last weekend. Left the ring to rush aggressively at a passing dog, someone on the sideline and also the judge. It didn't return the second day. A muzzle would not help in that situation as the intent is still there and it doesn't address the problem of why the dog is rushing at people and dogs in the first place. The dog needs behaviourist help, not just private agility lessons. I used to train my Cody in a muzzle as he felt so much more comfortable and happy in it. He learnt quickly that wearing the muzzle meant people kept their space and he didn't feel in the position to make that decision to snap because he couldn't escape. He wasn't one to leave a course to chase a dog though so the club had no issues with him being there. My preference is for a working stock dog-type muzzle. They are designed for a dog to work in all day without restricting breathing, drinking etc and to reduce the risk of the dog catching itself on anything. They are basket type so easy to feed treats through. Not sure that they would fit a staffy face though.

We use scalibor collars for ticks and interceptor for worms/heartworm. Although through summer the fleas were bad so we switched the interceptor for advocate to get on top of the little buggers. In future we will probably use sentinel instead (same as interceptor but also does fleas). The advocate was the better choice at the time though given how bad our flea problem became, we were told sentinel is ok for prevention but advocate better for treating an existing problem. The scalibor collars work out very cost effective and have worked brilliantly for us. We get them for about $15 a collar and it lasts 3 months. Our dogs swim regularly and we just remove it for the duration of the swim and then pop it back on. Have never had an issue doing this (except remembering to put 13 collars back on LOL, sometimes we lose count).