DeltaCharlie

Im pretty sure it takes about a kilo to kill a large dog but I could be wrong. He is only a pup though so not sure. How long ago would he have eaten it? I imagine if it was going to make him sick it would do it before long. If I were you I would call the vet and ask them about it. Mine is good at answering all my questions in regards to stupid things the dogs have eaten (eg. permanent markers). Edited to ask: Was it dark, normal, or white chocolate? Dark is the worst as it has the most cocoa, while white isnt going to hurt him (although it still isnt healthy)

There was heaps the other day at my local store. Maybe Sydney people aren't as Mackeral-loving as they are down there

My dogs eat their dinner straight from the freezer but the cat is too much of a princess for that. I leave it out to reach room temperature and have never had any problems. She is finally accepting fridge temperature though so for me it is now easy enough to stick it in the fridge to defrost.

RIP Storm :rolleyes:. It was a shame about her previous life but Im sure you more than made up for it while she was with you.

Cody was a snapper and I was told by the groomer not to use the dryer on him anymore. She said that it emits a high pitch noise which actually causes a seizure in some dogs. There is a difference between that and just hating it though. Cody used to go mad, high pitch squealing bark, snapping constantly at it, frothed at the mouth- he looked like a wild animal and it was frightening to watch. He used to go funny if there was another dog being dried while he was in the bath. Delta hates the dryer and tries to bite it but she is nothing like he used to be so I am just persisting with her. Just a warning in case that sounds like what your pup is doing. ETA: Whether it was true or not, I didn't like seeing my dog like that it was easier to just dry him with the towels and give him a good brush once we got home. As for Delta and Charlie I can tell that they are just p'ed off about the whole thing so tough luck they will just have to get used to it.

Never really stopped to think about the variety before. We have a; Briard, westie, cattle dog, viszla, border collie, kelpie/cattle, cattle/?, jrt/cattle, kelpie/foxie, kelpie/?, gsd/?, kelpie/whippet, GR/poodle.

Well as an update (or possibly off on a tangent) I went round there the other day to borrow a foam mattress from mum and noticed she had attached chicken wire to the top of the fence. It seems Missy has realised she can clear the 6+ foot fence and visit the neighbours. Mum said that when she did it they took her over to my aunts property at Londonderry while they rigged something up. The little girl who has recently moved in next door was attacked by a dog a few years ago so Missy visiting them scared the living daylights out of her parents (the little girl was happily playing with Missy however). My aunt works in the dementia ward of one of the nursing homes around here and commented on how great her temperament was and how she walked into my uncle's room (just got out of hospital, stuck in bed for now) to find Missy sitting next to him licking his hand while he talked to her. She asked mum to consider training her as a therapy dog. The dogs that come to her work are trained through the Delta Society but thats about all I know. Does anyone know any more about the training involved? I know a few dogs that do therapy work through them but I wont see them again until feb and will probably forget by then. Yes, I was rather shocked by the opinions of alot of the trainers. I think I shocked them aswell when they saw how deadly serious and passionate about it I was. Im such an incredibly happy-go-lucky person that I don't think people thought I could get annoyed about anything. The first comment made took me back a bit but I was really shocked by the fact that she wouldn't budge at all and fought me on every single comment I made. By the end it was just getting ridiculous and I almost wanted to laugh at the responses she made to the points I raised. They weren't even well thought out, they were just put-downs like the comment about lazy handling. On another day I tried the approach of "if a labrador was kept in a cage all its life with minimal human contact, never allowed to see kids, and never allowed out of the yard without a lead and muzzle what do you think it would do when the chance presented itself for the dog to escape and run down the street, only to see a little person making high pitch noises and moving erratically?" Didn't work, and I was shot down for suggesting a labrador could be anything but friendly I think some people just aren't prepared to consider things with an open mind. One of the trainers does some sort of work for that department of the council (or something along those lines Im not 100% sure) so I can understand where her thinking has come from and it would be ingrained in there from her job. Some of the others have had bad experiences 20 years ago and held onto their feelings towards certain breeds. Others just don't seem to want to consider anything different. On a slightly more "on topic" note. I took Missy down to the park to see how much training she had retained in her few months of doing nothing. She was beautiful for me and was quite happy to work just for the attention. For a food loving dog, the fact that she ignored my VERY yummy treats for a pat was surprising. I took her down to the offleash area for a swim and to test her a little more. I kept a 15m tracking lead on her but I don't she ever made it far enough away from me to even pull it tight. She came flying in whenever I called her, no matter what she was investigating or chasing at the time so it looks promising. Ive still got a month before training resumes to turn her into a superstar! I plan on working with her around the distractions without actually being in a class until people get used to her anyway. We saw lots of people walking along the tracks and she was happy to sit for pats from everyone. Didn't see any dogs though.

I would never make him heel for a entire walk. It is meant to be for his enjoyment, not something that means work. So long as my dogs arent pulling on the lead I dont really care where they are walking. I have started throwing a few commands in to stop me being tangled up- "(dogs name) this side" means come over to the left side of me and "(dogs name) other side" means go and walk on my right. If we walk past some people I will tell them to heel and expect them to move into position, but any other time they can sniff what they like (within reason). I just tell them "leave it" if I see them going towards something I dont want them to sniff or "cmon" when I decide they have sniffed something for long enough.

Yes Yes Yes, for doGs sake, Yes!!! The last thing we need is more poorly bred labs running around the place. Who was his breeder? What do they think you should do? Well, firstly dogs don't hold grudges so he isn't going to be angry with you. If he was to be at angry at someone it would be the vet and Ive had to drag dogs out of the clinic after desexing because they didn't want to leave. I haven't noticed any behaviour changes after the surgery, they go straight back to running around like lunatics (although border collies are not exactly known for taking it easy). With males it is even easier than with females. It is not as invasive, there are not many stitches and mine have had dissolvable ones so you don't even have to go back to the vet to have them removed. The primary reason for desexing is one that you haven't even mentioned. To stop him producing puppies. Pay a visit to the local pound and have a look at all the faces behind the bars. Have a look in the rescue section of this site and see the never ending dogs coming through. Many of these dogs are in this position because people were not responsible enough to desex their animals. There are too many unwanted puppies in the world as it is, dont contribute to the number. You can be as careful as you like, dogs still have a way of getting out of the yard if they smell a bitch in season. Once they are mated prepare for a big change in your dog. Many will start marking in the house and housetraining goes out the window. I know a lady with an elderly dog that was desexed a few years ago once his breeding obligations were over. He marks absolutely everything in sight. She cant walk him through crowds or he pisses on peoples legs as they walk past. Training has reduced the behaviour but she knows it will never be completely gone and that there is still the chance he may do it. I know of plenty of people who had very well socialised dogs, put in a heap of effort with them as puppies, only to find that they hit the 9-10 month mark and suddenly started showing aggression towards other dogs. One particular lady is stuck because she cannot desex him as the breeder wants to use him in the future, but she cant really train him as he is overly aggressive towards the other dogs. Desexing at this age may also be soon enough to stop the "must mark every tree we walk past" behaviour which can drive you insane. Will also stop some of the humping behaviours and you wont need to give him his own humping pillow to stop him leaving stains on yours The longer a dog has his testicles the more higher the chance of him developing cancer. There are a lot of other health problems that could present in an entire dog, do a search on the net. Even breeders dogs are often desexed as soon as they are not needed anymore to reduce the chance of health problems. Im pretty sure that everyone who replies is going to say the same thing. Please, please, please desex him. Dogs should only be bred to improve the breed and Im assuming that if you have no connections to any breeders then he is not of exceptional conformation or anything. Generally the owners of the female do the searching around anyway, so if you were to breed you would have to wait until someone came to you because they saw what an unbelievably great specimen he was. Im guessing that isn't going to be happening in this case, so yes desex him as soon as possible.

There are 3 that I know of that hold trials around here but I am sure that there are more. ANKC, ADAA, and ADAC.

Maverick I know you will know who I am referring to but I really dont want to identify people as she is a lovely person she just doesn't like certain breeds. I would hate for this to get back to her as it would be taken the wrong way. Im very involved in the club and I know from numerous discussions that alot of people there are not educated enough to understand the AST issue, she is just the most outspoken one. There were a few trainers with AmStaffs but they are no longer there. One of the christmas cracker jokes at our obedience party: What has 4 legs and an arm? A happy pitbull They thought it was great and it led to a discussion about how AmStaffs should be banned aswell as essentially they are just a pitbull with a different name, it doesn't make them any less dangerous. I thought these people were supposed to like dogs? I spoke to Parramatta when I was at flyball tonight and they suggested doing my own private training while the classes are going on. I know enough to do the foundation work for her and it might be a good way to get her used to the distractions and allow others to get used to her being around. Apparently they have had a few bad experiences recently so many people are wary. It might be my best option at the moment. I don't want to force her upon anyone who isn't prepared to accept her but I still think she deserves the opportunity to train. I am happy to keep her onlead at a distance so that people can approach me if they are comfortable. Until 6 months ago Springwood was great. The new committee is not as inclusive unfortunately and I will admit that there were a few comments made when Montana was spotted on the list for our recent trial . As Missy is only a few weeks older than Delta I used to take both puppies up to agility every week for socialisation and nobody had a problem with her. A few eyebrows were raised when dad took her to obedience but they relaxed a little when they realised he was with me as they trust my judgement. Only a few would let her sniff their dogs though. Yet the dog I had until early this year had to be muzzled for agility and everyone still tried to bring their dogs over to play. Makes no sense to me. Especially since the only dogs he had no issues with right from the word go were Phoenix and a staffie x Amstaff from obedience. What does that say about these "aggressive dogs"? Its a shame because she really is the sweetest dog. I have said right from the start that I would take her personality and stick it any of my dogs without a moments hesitation at which people usually give me a strange look. My sister took her and her brother off a guy who had been trying to teach them to fight when they were about 11 weeks old. Her friend kept the male and Shai took the female. So not only were they poorly bred by some idiot they also have no pedigree papers to fall back on if there is ever an issue. Thats the other reason why I want to be so incredibly careful with her. The consequences are too high.

Ive got into a few arguments with her before deciding that it just wasn't worth it. Somehow a comment that Amerykus made one day was brought up "AmStaffs can have trouble because their chests are so deep they knock bars" and the reply was "well she should just teach the dogs how to jump over the bar then, thats just being a lazy handler". There is no doubt in my mind that Charlie has pitty in him but I will never refer to him as anything but a kelpie/cattle when Im around her. I forgot about Hawkesbury. I knew castle hill was Thursday nights, which happens to be our obedience night, but Wednesdays are a free night at the moment so I might look into that. Mums house would be on the way to hawkesbury from here (Im at Emu Plains and mum is at Werrington) so that might work out well.

Due to the abuse she cops whenever she takes Missy for a walk, my sister has given up taking her 14mnth old AmStaff out of the yard. I have been thinking lately about taking her out and doing some training with her. Dad did a basic obedience course with her but she really wasn't too keen on obedience and I would probably get frustrated with her (Ive been spoilt by Border Collies who just do it because it was asked of them). Im keen to try agility with her just for fun, I couldn't see her getting anywhere with it as she is just so gangly and uncoordinated but it would get her out of the house and give her something to do. This is where the problem comes in. I have been told many times by a trainer at Springwood that AmStaffs have no place in society and should all be destroyed so I really wouldn't enjoy training her there. I also train at Parramatta but there are issues there too. Are there any other places that are a bit more open minded? I mean who couldn't love this face (even if I did manage to chop off part of her ear)

Ive got no idea of the details. I just know she started taking her boxers there as that's where the breeder takes their dogs. Its gotta be in Sydney somewhere as she lives in the mountains.

I dont have cavaliers but I can tell you that using both the furminator and the coat king has been the best solution for Delta. I wouldn't do it every day though. She loves being brushed with the coat king but doesnt particularly like the furminator so I switch between the 2. I usually spend a few hours every couple of weekends removing a few bins full of fur and it stops it ending up elsewhere (unlike Charlie's fur- that stuff ends up in packets I haven't even opened yet!).

Frontline fortnightly for fleas/ticks and interceptor spectrum for the other stuff.

I was actually put onto it by a friend in Canada. I feed it over about a week which means that they get meat 4 days, bones 2 days, and organs 1 day. If I havent been to the butcher and only have meat left then thats what they get that week and I increase the other stuff the next week. The idea is that they are fed whole prey over a large period of time, the percentages dont have to work out daily (or you would drive yourself insane!) They get raw egg once a week and yoghurt once a week/fortnight. It is only a small amount of yoghurt usually mixed in with the liver or something, not fed as a meal on its own. It is supposed to be a great source of calcium and nutrients for the dogs. One of their meat meals is fish, usually canned tuna/salmon/mackeral/sardines from the supermarket or leftover bits from the smelly fish place (don't know the technical name- are they a deli?). I have this chart on my fridge so I can keep track of what I have fed them that week (b=beef, c=chicken, l=lamb, k=kangaroo, f=fish). There are alot of good websites around, I just need to find where I saved them :cool: I had them the other day when I was PMing Stella1 so they cant have gone too far.

My dogs are both fed a prey model diet which is 75% meat, 15% bones, and 10% organs (liver and kidney). They also get eggs and yoghurt regularly. I switched a few years ago and have never looked back. The dogs are incredibly healthy and everyone is always commenting on them, they have so much more energy (which is needed when you train 5 days a week lol) and they just seem happier. Once I got the hang of it I have found it is just as convenient as any commercial diet. Once a month I buy all the meat and it takes me about 30mins to portion it for the dogs and cat. Costs me about $20-$30 to feed 2 dogs and a cat for a month. Dogs are carnivores and do not need vegetables. Their bodies cannot even digest them without human interference (blender) which should tell you something about its importance to them. Basically the vegies just go straight through them and end up on your lawn. With the diet mine are fed there is hardly anything coming out the other end as it is all utilised by the body. I changed the diet 18mnths ago and have not done a poo run since. The diet of dogs is something I am incredibly passionate about and have researched at great length so if you have any questions feel free to PM me and I can offer some advice. Edited coz I cant spell

I use frontline and have never found any fleas or ticks on any of my dogs and we regularly go bush and with training 5 days a week they are in contact with heaps of dogs. My sister uses that red stuff from the supermarket and she has never found any on her dogs either. I was also using revolution for a bit with no issues. I haven't tried advantix as it is lethal to cats and I rather like having my cat around Most of the people I know around here use frontline and they have no problems with it. Maybe frontline has only stopped being effective in certain areas of Sydney. In western sydney it seems to be fine.

There are times when she is more interested in playing with other dogs than food that just shows what kind of positive value she has for playing. I just wanted to join another club where I have an opportunity to further proof her in different distractions and get her to work more consistantly around other dogs which is what I need to do if I want to advance her training. If you do any have ideas I may not be familiar with I'd appreciate and would be open to hearing them Sounds like my Charlie. I have to train him with a tennis ball as that is the only thing he puts high value on. Food works for some things but only if he knows he will get the ball thrown at the next available break (sometimes there is only time to throw it into his mouth once before we go back to heeling). You need to really build up the value of focusing on you. Try to find some sort of reward that is higher in her mind than other dogs. Whether it is a toy that only comes out for training, something really delicious, a really happy squeaky voice from you, lots of pats, the list is endless you just need to experiment. You will get much more out of her by making you a positive rather than making the other dogs a negative. Associating pain with other dogs could end up leading to aggression towards those other dogs (for making her neck hurt). Are the other dogs trying to play with her aswell or are they focussed on training? The lower classes are often full of dogs trying to play/kill each other and it can be really hard for some dogs to concentrate. If that is the case try speaking to one of the instructors about letting her train in a higher class with more settled dogs and see if it makes a difference. I did that with Delta and she quickly tired of the other dogs as they werent paying her any attention and focussed on me as that was where the attention and food was coming from. Now I can train her in the right class and she is very well behaved. If you explain how serious you are about trialling in the near future they may be able to help you out.

We were actually discussing this at a dinner tonight, although NSW laws may be different. Apparently in NSW it is illegal to use a prong collar except when training for schutzhund and only under a qualified instructor. One of the ladies was saying that she was told to use a prong on her dog by the schutzhund club she has joined but she refused. We hadn't even realised they were still allowed. Can't you just train her not to play with the other dogs and to remain focussed on you? Seems like that would be much easier than trying to find a club that will allow the collar, especially if she responds to food rewards. Im sure there are plenty of people who could offer advice if you decide to go down that path. If I wasn't so tired at 2.30am I could write some now, but bed is calling to me... message me if you are interested in some different training ideas to try.

Yeh thats what I was thinking. Are there any products around that do everything but heartworm? I dont really feel safe using supermarket brand stuff on him.

I got Charlie in June from the RSPCA where he had already been given a yearly heartworm injection (in early May). So I have been treating him with supermarket brand (exelpet) flea/tick stuff and quarterly intestinal worm stuff. I treat Delta monthly with Sentinel Spectrum and would really love to be able to do the same with Charlie but I wasn't sure about doubling up on the heartworm prevention. Would this be damaging to his system or cause it to be more susceptible to heartworm (kinda like taking antibiotics unnecessarily)? I already don't like the injections because it puts too much in their bodies all in one go so Im really hesitant to put any more in there.

I bought an XL one from a pet warehouse type store (it was either petbarn or pet direct) and it came with a free divider (the whole reason I got it... it was supposed to be the perfect size for my 2 to share while having their own compartment) Its now folded up somewhere and they have each have their own. Delta used to freak out in it and I couldnt give her things to chew because Charlie can be food aggressive and tried to get it through the divider. Its a K9 Keeper.

My club sells the standard ones (BlackDog brand) for $2. I bought an adjustable sound one (4 different volumes) with an exposed button for about $6 from Kmart. Certainly not something I would spend much money on, especially as I lose them so easily. I know I have about 10 of them somewhere but do you think I could find one to take to agility last night? I know I had one at training on Thursday and was using a different one on Tuesday so there have to be at least 2 of them not buried under huge piles of stuff but doG knows where.