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~*Shell*~

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Everything posted by ~*Shell*~

  1. Hmmm - sounds like an interesting puzzle. I would put in a phone call to the vet and see what they can recommend food wise (as long as it isn't the Hills Science Diet - every time i go in they recommend it for my dog grrr) - they might be able to recommend some supplements or some tasty treats the dog would eat on his own (zero's favourite is beef mince). The coat growth could be because of the weight loss but again, I would be checking to be sure. If all else fails - a second opinion could be a good start.
  2. I would suggest a chicken neck instead of the rice - it'll help his teeth stay clean but i would ckeck with your vet first to see if they can eat one (i'm not used to smaller dogs!) at that age!
  3. Haven't used them but let me know how they go - i'm in the market for a new set of clippers after this weekend! 3 and a half hours for a matted "spoodle" (now they know never to buy a dog from PP!) and even then i didn't do his face! Poor mite was too tired and started becoming aggressive so i played with him for a bit (so he's not scared of me next time) and I'll do the rest of him later! (luckily his face didn't have matts and he let me trim around his eyes)
  4. If he goes to bite you gently (so not to hurt him) but firmly give him a 3 finger poke in the neck to redirect his attention back to you and then take the pigs ear. If he goes for it while it's in your hands say no and take it anyway. If he's growling he thinks he's in charge of his food and if you nip it in the bud now it shouldn't be a problem later! Some people have a problem with a punishment when the dog is a puppy, but the reasoning that was given to me was that if you do it when they're little you don't have to do it later! We also started doing a "sit" "stay" "leave it" and "okay" command with dinner with zero so he knows that that food is mine, and he can only have some when i say so. This is a little too advanced for a puppy, but i would start doing it as soon as you think the puppy is able to learn it!
  5. got to agree with qashmir! If it's not a show dog and you don't have to spend time hand stripping, i would suggest a nice clean clip. If it's hot, then the dog doesn't have to deal with not only the length but the heaviness of the coat (especially in the humid weather!) and if it's really cold then schnauzers look gorgeous in little coats!
  6. I thankfully only groom for my friends! I don't think I could handle the pressure of grooming in a shop! A friend has a labrador and a mini-poodle X cocker spaniel (they got it before i could inform them of the DD issue and since then they have got the lab from a registered breeder for about $500 less than the "spoodle" cost) and they don't mind me clippng it in all kinds of crazy clips - my personal favourite is what Toby has now, a clip i like to call "ugg boots". His feet are so fluffy they look like ugg boots while the rest of him is shaved so he doesn't get his fur matted under his winter coats.
  7. I'm glad she's getting better - dogs in elizabethan collars are never happy chappies! Does she have trouble picking things up? Zero would try to sniff the ground and would drag the whole thig along the ground as he did! We were a little mean and called him Zero McBucketface or Bucket Dog for the couple of weeks he had the stitches from his (very invasive) desexing (stupid old abusive owners!)... I wish I'd gotten photos of him but every time I pulled out the camera, he was off up the back yard cowering (holding anything in your hands used to frighten him - but now he's all good)
  8. Good luck! Hope Occy gets a run of good luck now!
  9. Personally I use 2 commands for Zero - he has to "sit" at the road side, and look at me (so i have his full attention) - then we have a "cross" command when he's allowed to walk across the road. While I've never done this offlead (I've never met anyone who has been able to walk a husky offlead!) I've been told it worked with my godmother's cavies! Until you have both of these commands mastered on lead (as well as a recall, stay and heel command) - i would forget about letting the puppy off lead at any time!
  10. From what I've heard, dogs naturally only have 1 pack leader because otherwise it creates fights between the leaders (fortunately if your whole family is their "pack leader" then they seem to respond to that too) - everyone else is equal below them. Personally I would use the approach of getting 2 people to walk all the dogs with your dogs being walked up front and your foster behind them (with no pulling on the leash). Everytime you see the dog marking over the other dogs business I would correct the behaviour (personally i use a 3 finger poke in the neck, just hard enough to redirect their attention, but no where near hard enough to hurt) and reinforce that the foster in not above but equal to everyone else. I would also feed the other dogs before you feed the foster, and make the foster stand a distance away while the others eat, not to say that the other dogs are your favourites, but it'll show the foster that you're definitely in charge and that you decide when it eats! I hope this helps! This is what we did with my (formerly dominant aggressive) husky and while he's not completely submissive all the time, he's no longer aggressive and in our house, he's totally submissive both with us and other dogs (when he used to want to eat them)! ETA: I'm one of those people that thinks any form of dominance shouldn't be allowed. Apparently dominance escalates if left unchecked (I can see this happening with a friend's dog atm ) and with such a strong breed like the Amstaff you can never be too careful (especially when people have such misconceptions about them being agressive)! Btw, she's just beautiful! Is that colour a common one? I don't think i've ever seen an Amstaff quite that shade of brindle before!
  11. Our neighbours are used to it by now! When we get birds nests fall out of trees they're always made from sticks and Zero's fur so now we laugh about it with our neighbours (they have a rotti X dobe so they have no idea how we can put up with the hair everywhere!). Thanks for the advice everyone - I think i might spend the extra money. I'm sure Zero would appreciate the faster drying speed of the Airmax anyway!
  12. Thanks Cashew! Being a husky I would really like to have one that would dry him as fast as possible - we were told a story where a husky was left wet and outside over night and ended up getting so sick that the vet was recommending putting the dog to sleep - thankfully they didn't but it's made me quite hesitant to bath Zero during winter! I'll have a look into the ones you mentioned and see if i can find someone who has used both the Double K and the Metro Air!
  13. I'm looking to get a dryer for my husky and have been told that double K are the best low-priced ones. I don't know whether to get the $365 model (the challengeAir) or the $460 AirMax. Has anyone used both of them or are there any other dryer recommendations?
  14. When Zero had gastro, we did chicken and rice for a week and then put him back onto his normal diet. You can kind of tell when they're ready to go back to normal food because they start to have more energy and their poo goes back to normal. If you're unsure then i would leave her on it for another couple of days. A few extra days on it can't hurt when they're getting over an intestinal problem!
  15. It's a great thing to put in their kong - we do it with some kibble and he's happy to play with it all day!
  16. There are quite a few things that are - things like avocados, broccoli (though small amounts are okay), cherries, coffee/tea (and other drinks with caffine), cooked bones, mushrooms, nutmeg, tobacco, onion, grapes, raisins and prunes. I knew about a couple of these before and it wasn't until our vet gave us an information sheet with all the bad foods on them that we knew about things like broccoli!
  17. Hmm - looks like the ebook that told me i was training my husky the wrong way, therefore doing him damage, and that only that book would tell me how to train him effectively! It even started with that "dear friends" line and was written by the same guy.
  18. Carnivores who eat plant matter are omnivores. I don't think it matters how much meat or veges they eat to be called an omnivore. They become malnourished on a diet of strictly meat and need the nurtients and minerals out of vegetables to survive healthily... Edited to add: This came from our vet, not from my own research but I know that Zero came to us quite sick and the vet told us he had something along the lines of scurvy (not a vitamin c deficiency though). We had to feed him a lot of silverbeet, spinach and a little bit of broccoli to get him better.
  19. I've seen a couple of mobile places that look like they service our area but when you call them they don't do my suburb, or they only do to epping, not beyond (we're the next suburb over!) I think i might have to resort to taking him to a friends place for a bath! I just don't feel comfortable about washing him in cold water under the hose when it's so cold!
  20. Hi all! We're having our bathroom re-done so there will be no bath for my boy to bath in for the next few weeks. He's got some dirt trapped in his undercoat and he's not happy about me repeatedly brushing the same spot trying to remove it! Because we have the million paws walk on in a couple of weeks I would love to book Zero in for a hydrobath so he's all fluffy and clean for it but i don't know anything about the ones in my area. I'm not comfortable about leaving him in a grooming salon as he came back to me last time quite sick from the amount of treats they had given him (even after they were told he was on a diet!). Anyone know of a good mobile groomer who services the Epping area in sydney?
  21. Our friend has an old lab with the same problem - unfortunately Topsy had got to the stage where without the injections she just can't get up during the cold weather. The injections work wonders though - she's able to run a little at the moment. The heated bed they got her from the reject shop a few weeks ago helps too, but the vet didn't mention anything about glucosamine.
  22. Kennel cough for the most part will fix itself. When Zero left the pound when we adopted him, he had it and the vet told us that there were 2 types - Viral and bacterial. The one which a dog can catch from another dog is generally not as serious but it can become serious if not kept in check by a vet. The second, more serious one is what they vaccinate against. I'd have to go back over the information she gave us but she didn't seem to worry too much about Zero's - I hope your dog will recover quickly Amez. Keep us posted!
  23. Personally I use the furminator which has cut Zero's shedding down, and then i hit the excess with a comb and a sliker brush. Blow drying and baths can also help as they losen up the fur and blow it out of the coat. After 1 weekend of this, Zero has practically stopped shedding and he looks really good!
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