Stitch

A small amount of crusty crud in the corner of the eyes is normal. It is the result of the eye cleaning out the dust that has accumulated in it. Creamy yellow gunk however is usually associated with infection so you need to monitor it incase you need to get antibiotics to clear it up. An old remedy was to get a used tea bag in warm water and just wipe the eye clean. This works for very mild cases but if the eye/s are infected you need to see a vet ASAP.

My Dobe boy has just limped up to me with a puncture wound to the top of his hind foot. It is a hole about 2cm that is oozing and it must be very sore as he won't put the foot on the ground. It wasn't there this morning so I presume he has stuck something into it in the last few hours. I am surprised that it is oozing & I am thinking that he must have been galloping around (as he does) and stuck a stick into it but it is strange to get an injury on top of the foot like that. Any suggestions on how to treat it would be appreciated as I don't often have to do first aide??

What Jigsaw said!

Sounds like you need to invest in a good book. There are lots on the market that take you through all the stages of puppy development and training including toilet training. You can also do a search on this forum for 'toilet training' and I am sure you will get lots of valuable information. If you have a particular aspect of your pups behaviour you wish to enquire about it is easier for DOLers to respond to than to a very broad question.

Yes, you can purchase dividers separately but not for all brands of wire crate. It is an item that many pet shops wouldn't automatically keep in stock but would be able to order in for you if they deal with the right importer. I use Savic crates and I can purchase dividers for them if I wish. Maybe Savic crate dividers will fit other brands, I don't know. My experience is that puppies in a crate seem to have a personal space (like us) and if they can poo outside of that personal space then they will initially. So a large crate probably wouldn't inhibit them from soiling inside the crate and may not encourage them to 'hold on'. After a while they don't seem to like having any poo in the crate at all no matter what size the crate is - but some puppies take a while to reach that realisation. I should think that toileting behaviour varies between breeds and sizes.

Welcome to the Forum Craigcom! You might try restricting the pup to an area like a play pen if you don't want to get accidents in the wrong place when he is inside. A pup's brain isn't fully developed until they are about 16weeks so you are dealing pretty much with basic instincts so you have to do all the 'thinking' for the pup. Don't get me wrong, they learn a lot at his age but are just not reliable and can easily learn what you don't want them to depending on how you manage the situation. Consistency and patience is what is needed. Aussies can be a bit difficult to toilet train but you are actually doing very well for a 9wk old pup.

I have used Heartguard Plus for quite a long time now and have never seen any adverse reaction to it however.... I am currently running on two puppies, they are 5mths old now, and I noticed that the first couple of times I gave them their chewable dose they seemed to go off their food the next day or so. This month I changed to Guardian chewables and they had no such reaction. They both have Ivermectin in common but are otherwise slightly different in conposition. Has anyone had any reactions like this to Heartguard or do you think it was just a coincidence?

I raised our Dobe puppy on approx. 80% minced chicken frames with offal included plus Vets All Natural mix. He showed no signs of calcium deficiency, growth spurts or any other signs of either over or under nutrition and has grown up to be a beautifully bodied 46kg boy. However, my smaller show dogs have had mixed results on this diet and I have identified problems with the high fat content, weight gain, colitis and also growth spurts. Unfortunately I have had to go back to commercial dogfood for them except for the occasional chicken neck for those who can tolerate them. My Dobe boy continues to do well on raw.

If you contact GT Laboratories they will send you a kit which you take along to your vet. The cost for DNA Profiling is $69.95 The cost for Clear by Parentage (disease only) is also $69.95. In the kit they also send a price list for all the other things they can test for by Breed. Their email address is: [email protected] or by phone 1800 822 999

Totally agree!! Talk to them first, explain how much time it takes and why, and then start your stopwatch when you start to groom!! The faster you go the more it tends to hurt the dog so take your time! As Poodlefan says, money talks!!

Your puppy is very cute and I can understand you want to feed her the right food. Have a look at this very informative website - www.dogfoodproject.com Sorry I can't provide an automatic link but it is a very good site and on it you can see there are many and varied foods that can be fed to dogs. Of course the pet shop that you bought your pup from will want you to continue to buy their brand of dogfood from them but you really need to feed what is BEST for your new pup. As Poodlefan said, you can do better than canned dogfood and don't be frightened of feeding raw, meaty bones.

This site has some really interesting info on dogfood, may be of use for you. www.dogfoodproject.com

Sometimes seniors don't need a lot of fat in their diet and bone marrow is fat. Also if they have gut problems they sometimes need a low residue diet so that their food is more easily digested. Have a wander through this link for all dogfood questions www.dogfoodproject.com Sorry link doesn't work automatically, you will just have to enter it in manually.

Green tree frogs are not poisonous like cane toads however they can have a very serious even fatal effect on some dogs. Frogs exude a repellant, just like toads - it is their only protection against predators - toads are very toxic, frogs less so. It doesn't have any effect on some dogs other than to taste nasty but some dogs can have a severe reaction to it. Best practice is to wipe your dogs mouth out with a wet washer (including gums, tongue and teeth) thoroughly to remove any frog/toad juices. Very best practice is to prevent the dog from getting the frog/toad in the first place!

I have had a few bitches desexed recently and some do better than others. Make sure the vet gives your girl some pain medication for the first 24-48 hrs after the op. I found that after they get over this initial pain after the op. they are back to almost normal but need to be kept quiet as others have said and also keep the wound dry. Remember to ask for your desexing certificate so you can get a discounted rate for council registration.

Interesting you should say that as I heard the other day that an oval which had its beginnings as land fill couldn't be used by any organisation that was intending to spend a reasonable amount of time on it ie. most of the day! You never know what you are walking on, do you!!

What suits one dog doesn't always suit another so you really need to try it and see. Eagle Pack seems to tick all the right boxes as it is slightly different than other premium dogfoods and has probiotics in it.

OK, I will try the happy voice a bit more. I did the long lead thing a while back, the penny never dropped - this pup is a bit of an 'airhead' and much more patience is required. I will try the long lead training again perhaps after it has had a bit of a run, to get rid of some of that energy first. Thanks for your replies.

I got all excited when the dog wipes first came out as they advertised they were a '60 second bath'. Tried them, and you might as well save your money and get baby wipes. The only difference between wipes of any brand is the smell and the amount of water they put in them. My last litter I had to raise myself as the mum was sick and wouldn't mother. I went through packs of wipes - so I am now a wipe expert!!

I have one dog that I put on a diet a few weeks ago and started feeding Eukanuba Weight Control dry food. I have just started to notice that she now has a waistline so it is definitely working. I put warm boiled chicken + juices over the dry and she loves it. Forgot to say that if you phone the Eukanuba phone number on the pack they will give you advice on how much to feed your particular dog.

I would think you should start to see some results in a few weeks. What do you feed?

When you say, didn't do well, can I ask exactly what was the problem?

Totally agree, you have to have confidence in your vet. I have been given some incredible diagnoses by young vets, in particular one that came into my old vets practice and is still there. I saw him when he was only new and he diagnosed a puppy of mine as being an extreme case of a 'swimmer' saying there was not much hope for it and it would have to be put down. It only took me about a week of putting the pup on its side, not on its belly, and it was as good as the other pups. It went on to be a fantastic dog with no problems at all. I tried to avoid him after that but had to see him another time and he again diagnosed a problem as being extremely serious. I was terribly worried and I made another appointment and saw my regular vet, the owner of the practice and it turned out to be just an infection that was easily treated with antibiotics. Needless to say the young vet doesn't like me very much and quite frankly I don't think much of him because I can't rely on his diagnosis.

Vets All Natural Dry Mix which is a mixture of dry grains, dehydrated veges. etc. concocted by Dr. Symes (vet) supposed to simulate the contents of the stomach of animals the ancestors of the domestic dog would have eaten in the wild, which is mixed with raw minced meat, raw minced chicken frames and raw offal and fed to dogs. You can also get it already mixed in with kangaroo meat (refrigerated line), which is what Dr Symes prefers to see VAN mixed with. My smaller dogs are not that keen on kangaroo meat and will not eat much of it at all. Regarding the burying of the bones, you are right about the weight bearing bones being hard to eat but he will bury all bones other than chicken frames, necks and lamb flaps and I have to watch him with lamb flaps.

That's interesting about the Eagle Pack. I feed that to my smaller dogs but haven't had any adverse reactions to it. I thought it was one of the better dry dog foods????? I fed VAN + to my smaller dogs for years and always had good results but recently I found that the puppies I am running on at the moment and some of the older dogs were continually getting stomach and gut problems so I decided to stop feeding raw. For several months now I have been feeding them Eagle Pack + boiled chicken and juices and they are doing so much better and have put on condition. Perhaps it was the VAN??? although I was blaming it on the raw minced chicken. I buy it from a butcher but I sometimes think that butchers don't really care much about meat that is destined for pets - may be wrong but thats how it appeared to me. The Dobe on the other hand has always had a caste iron stomach and rarely gets any gut problems. Regarding the protein source, I think I will just stick to chicken only for about 6 weeks with the Dobe and see what happens.