Stitch

I have been doing battle with toads for years. We also live in a rural area with a lot of toads. I use avian wire around all the dog exercise areas. This has a very small weave and will only let through the very tiny recently morphed toads. All the other sized wire the toads can squeeze through - toads are extremely good at getting through small openings. The other thing I do is to lightly spray suspect areas with disinfectant, usually Phenyl. I know that Dettol is widely recommended for this but it is also very expensive and when you have a very large area to monitor it is just not feasible to use. Phenyl is actually stronger, cheaper and much more effective. If you spray it very lightly it has the effect of bringing the toads out of their hiding places and making a run for it. Phenyl kills small toads on contact but the larger ones are best despatched by more direct methods.

You should use materials that will be strong enough to contain the adult dog that your puppy will eventually grow up to be. That is unless you want to do it all over again when the dog gets bigger. The materials should be installed properly so that the puppy/dog can't chew them off/up or knock them over and they should be safe enough that the puppy/dog can't hurt themselves on them when they do chew them. If you want to do it properly you dig a channel down about 10cm and fit a board under the fence then fill it back in again. If you are in a toad area then you should remove all objects that toads can hide under, come to think of it you should remove all loose items anyway as they may be dangerous if chewed by the puppy.

Crate training is the best however in my experience I have found if the crate is too big when they are puppies, they don't seem to learn that urinating in the crate is a bad thing asthey have just too much area to wander around in. Also I do not put water in the crate as it is usually upended by the puppy. I withhold water from about 6pm onwards. As far a socialising is concerned, it is never too early to socialise but because of their lack of vaccinations you have to be careful. I usually take my pups out at 6 weeks old on my lap and let them see cars, people, situations etc. without letting them walk or sniff on the ground. Puppy preschool usually starts at approx. 12 weeks onwards - very important! Good luck

If the pup is old enough, start to take them for walks together. This is an excellent way for them to start to bond especially if the walk is structured and the dogs are controlled by making them walk beside you instead of running out in front.

Malaseb is very good for skin problems. Vet recommendation is to bathe dog twice a week in it. I would suggest though that you try to take him to see a doggy skin specialist if your dog has a persistant skin problem. Did the vet take a scraping of the affected area and view it under the microscope to see if excessive bacteria were present? I know that you said that you had problems with BARF and so went back to feeding a dry dog food however it is a fact that many dogs with skin problems do get either partial or complete relief if they are fed on a raw all natural diet. I would also suggest that you at least have a look at the Vets All Natural website. My dogs never had any problems with sickness or 'detox' when I switched them over to VAN several years ago.

Akay, In my experience skin conditions can be a result of an immune system that is not functioning properly and/or they can be a bacterial infection. My Dobe boy is just getting over a bacterial infection which was initially caused by his skin immune system not being able to cope with the pollen etc. in the environment irritating him (allergy) and eventually a secondary bacterial infection set in. His has been on cortizone tablets (allergy) and also antibiotics (infection) for a week now and he is a lot better. His allergies are also evident in his diet. He can be allergic to things like artificial colourings, flavourings or preservatives in some prepared dogfoods. This was found to be so by means of an elimination diet. So raw all natural diets are considered the best, not only for allergic dogs but for all dogs for obvious reasons. My older girl has been battling with colitis on and off for a while now. It is known that fat in the diet can cause colitis, and bones have a lot of fat in them ie. marrow. In the short term, I have fed her Eukanuba Low Residue diet but I didn't want to continue that forever as it makes her very thirsty. I came across the Vets All Natural Skin & Coat mix when I was looking for something I could feed to my girl and it so happens that it is also good for colitis as it has a probiotic in it, etc. VAN recommend that you use only one meat in this case, so I will feed kangaroo and see how she goes. If you have queries about VAN you can email them and they will help you with the best diet for your dog. Hope this helps!

I notice from your previous posts that you started feeding a BARF diet. Are you still feeding it and is it improving anything? I have just found out that Vets All Natural have a new Skin & Coat Formula which includes Probiotics, Antioxidants and Immune Modulating Herbs. You can read about their products both wet & dry on their website - www.vetsallnatural.net I have been fine tuning their foods to suit one of my dogs that has colitis and came across this new product. They suggest that you add only one meat source - either kangaroo, rabbit or tripe. If your dog is still having problems with BARF perhaps it has the same difficulty as mine girl who cannot cope with having bones or fat in her diet, which is what I was feeding her previously and which BARF certainly contains.

I can't feed my older girl on the usual raw food anymore as she now has trouble with irritable bowel syndrome. Does anyone have a good natural recipe for a low residue diet suitable for her situation? I have done some research on IBS and I can't understand how it can be the correct diagnosis. IBS is supposed to be brought on by stress and the like. Vet did bloods after she had trouble over a few months with diahorrea, bloating with stomach cramps. She was obviously in pain. It has settled down since I have been feeding her the Eukanuba Low Residue Prescription diet however I didn't think she was stressed in the period preceeding the onset of the problems. Anyone have any experience in this kind of thing?

The rules for dogs on your bed are that it is YOUR bed not theirs. You must invite them to get up and they must get down when you tell them - first time. They just can't get up uninvited. The only other thing is that you don't want them to soil it, even accidentally and that they keep still when they are on it, so that means no games in/on the bed.

Cesar Millan has had quite a few tv shows featuring dogs that had lack of confidence issues. Have you read any of his books? They should give you a good idea of 'leadership'.

I don't know much about pancreatitis but can only suggest that you Google Canine Pancreatitis if you haven't already and see what comes up. That should give you the most recent publications. Good that your dog doesn't have to have an op. though!

What did you do when she exhibited this warning behaviour? Do you usually stop her from jumping on people? If so, exactly what do you do?

I have been training dogs for a long time now and I have seen many 'experts' and their 'revolutionary' methods come and go. I started training my own dogs with a club and then went on to instruct at a time when choker chains were what was used. I can remember being taught that you only used the choker when you were training so the dog knew that it was supposed to be working. Now I think that a dog should walk quietly beside you whenever it is walking and that every walk is a training or reinforcing session. Over the years I changed with the various correction methods the club pushed at the time and eventually started to use only martingale collars, half chain, half webbing even when they were saying that an ordinary collar should be used. I felt that martingale collars were very good and eventually the club changed and now that is what they push. They are certainly very suitable for a trained dog however I have now gone back to training my own pups on a choker chain, ensuring that the correction is quick, to the side and that after the correction is given the lead is loose. I believe that this gets the 'message' to the pup the quickest and reduces the amount of ineffective corrections that end up having to be given when using a martingale collar on a puppy. Because pups are so enthusiastic I find that the training lesson ends up being one continual pull feist which drives me up the wall and must really be uncomfortable for the pup. It is unfortunate that the current groundswell of opinion is so against using the choker chain. What is said is that a choker chain is cruel and I agree that in the wrong hands it could be. What I would like to see is new puppy owner/trainers being more thoroughly taught the correct method of using the choker chain and clubs being more aware that some dogs may do better on a choker than on other types of collar. Every dog is different and every handler is different. Is is important to use the best methods for your dog.

Mainly this is from dirt, etc. going into the eye and irritating the eye which then produces tears to clean itself. The dirt has to go somewhere so it gravitates to the corner of the eye. Dogs being physically closer to the dirt tend to accumulate more dust, etc. than we do. My puppies get lots of it because they are always rolling around on the grass playing. Sometimes dogs develop an allergy to pollen etc. and the eye can become infected. If the colour of the discharge turns yellowish then it is time to get it treated. If there are a lot of irritants this causes a greyish thick discharge you can always rinse out the eye with a saline solution. Otherwise just comb it away on a daily basis.

There you go, same as my girl - and same treatment!! However, from what I can see with my girl, it can reoccur. Anaerobic bacteria flourishes without air. I wonder what causes that? Did the vet say?

Lizzy06 what are you feeding to control the pancreatitis?

I have a 6yo bitch who was getting stomach upsets with accompanying diahorrea 'accidents' much the same as you are describing with your dog except her accidents were always placed as close to the back door as she could get, poor girl and were probably every 3 weeks or so. She was also losing a little bit of weight so I took her to the vet several times, to try and get an answer. After trying everything else he did bloods, etc. and nothing showed up as unusual. This problem continued on for a few more months with no diagnosis so he put her on a course of antibiotics, can't remember which ones unfortunately, but after that she settled right down. We presume it was a low grade infection, the exact cause we will never know. I now know that I can't give this dog too much to eat at one time as this seems to upset her. Also I have to keep the fat content low so one could suspect collitis from that but no definite diagnosis. Hope this helps but I would be interested to hear what your vet turns up.

In a way that is good isn't it - the VAN goes further that way!!

I have been feeding them VAN for several years now. I have gradually manipulated the % of VAN I use and now probably use a little bit less than they recommend on the pack. I have not noticed any reduction in the overall health of the dogs because of this and the amount of calcium they get is definitely sufficient. I use the added kangaroo meat because it is higher in calcium content. I phoned them and this is what they suggested to feed rather than all minced chicken frames and it works well.

I use VAN dry mix to feed all my dogs and they really love it. For the puppies I breed myself they start on VAN when they are 8 weeks old with no difficulties. Sometimes I buy in a pup or an adult dog and I have no problems transferring them over on to VAN either. It seems to be very readily accepted. I have also tried them on the refrigerated VAN meat mix and they love that too however, as you say, it is more expensive. I did try them on the BARF patties but I had several dogs that refuse it! It doesn't seem to be as well received as the VAN. I add minced chicken frames, kangaroo meat, sardines, eggs, or whatever to the dry mix. They are lining up at the door come dinner time and their bowls are always licked clean. They also maintain excellent condition. What I especially like is that it actually smells nice and it doesn't make the dogs want to rush to the water bowl after eating.

I am obviously missing something here. Why do you put a dog wormer on their skin???? Is there some new preparation that I haven't heard of? In my experience Flea/tick prevention goes on the outside - wormers are administered internally!

If it was me I would be gradually (over a period of say 5 days) be changing over to a better diet. Raw minced chicken frames, kangaroo meat, veges, raw eggs, sardines, etc. Of all the dogfoods my dogs have tried over the years, you are using the one that I had the worst results with. If you want to feed dryfood try Eagle Pack. It really is soooo much better.

The two pups I am running on at the moment went through that. They are now 15 weeks old and are not peeing anywhere near the same frequency as they were previously. Still it is worth getting a sample and taking it to the vet, maybe when you have your next immunisations. Also, the hotter they are the more they drink and what goes in one end comes out the other. Dry dog food or salty dogfood will also make them drink more.

What does the poo look like? Is it runny, mucousy or is it firm?

The usual answer to this question is for you to examine the dogs diet and take out everything that has any artificial colourings, flavourings and preservative - and that includes any treats or snacks and also the Eukanuba. You then feed an all natural diet and hope that the skin/immune system will respond positively and the itchiness etc. will subside. Even then you have to be sure the dog is not reacting to chicken,beef, lamb or roo meat by means of an elimination diet. Sometimes however the problem cannot be solved by diet and if it is bad enough it has to be controlled by medication. I feed a raw all natural diet to all my show dogs and they do not have any problems in that regard. I also have a Dobermann who gets the same diet as my other dogs and he suffers from skin/eye allergy problems especially at this time of year which raw all natural diet will not control. I should think that he would be much worse if I did feed him dry food or food with any artificial colours/flavours/preservatives in it though. As far as shampoos go, I suggest an antibacterial/antifungal shampoo eg. tea tree shampoo, triocil, etc.