Dame Aussie

Thanks for the advice Erny, she is almost 5 months and we are starting obedience with her this week. She was at puppy preschool for a while before that too and is great with other dogs. I'll try what you've suggested and see how we go! Thanks again

Just a quick question… Took Lili for a walk this morning and as we got into the street our next door neighbour came out to put her bins out. Lili stopped dead and started to bark! She was wagging her tail, seemed like she wanted to play, and was and being her usual wiggle bum self, but was barking and wouldn’t go near the neighbour! She refused to move past until she had gone back inside. Then we saw a man weeding his nature strip and she let out a couple of woofs but nothing major. This is just really strange as whenever she’s encountered people she has either been a bit nervous or friendly as all get out, she’ll jump up for pats and lick people to death. She has begun to get more vocal over the last few weeks so maybe it’s just the age (she’ll be 5 months next week) but I’m just concerned and hope it’s not going to turn into any sort of aggression. :p Any ideas?

If that was my puppy I would not have let the vet give it a shot. I thought it was common knowledge that you shouldn't vaccinate a sick dog?? Why the first vets let it leave is beyond me, with parvo it really depends on how quickly you get the pup supportive treatment, this little guy would have been so dehydrated between vets. I for one would not be going near the vet that vaccinated him again. I hope he continues to improve the poor little tyke. Fingers crossed

We have the same problem with our 4.5 month aussie, she'll be playing with a toy and then evertying will go quiet and we'll look over to see her trying to eat the carpet We've been giving her frozen bones, frozen kongs and loads of toys but shes chewing like mad at the moment! I'm thinking I'll try the deep heat

We went to a puppy pre school at a vets, one of the vet nurses ran it. Basically there was about 8-10 puppies off lead running round like maniacs, there were a couple of aggressive little buggers but the girl running it insisted on introducing them to other puppies!! OH just sat there saying that they weren't coming anywhere near Lili It got to the point where a fight broke out, and only then did she take the offending pup away!! We were disappointed the first time but thought we'd give it another go, after the 2nd class was exactly the same we switched to another clinic, this one was also run by a nurse but she actually gave advice on everything from behaviour, training, diet, flea/worm treatments, desexing etc and she never plugged a certain type of food/medication, which the other one had!! We got little booklets at the start with information on our breed and the babies got a pigs ear on their first night too, it was really good, little bursts of play time followed by training and advice, a beautiful certificate on graduation night, a group photo, and they even have a Christmas party for all the past pre school classes. i thought it was personalised and nice.

We've been giving our puppy raw chicken and she's been fine. She's even come inside with an old bone she buried last week and chewing on it .... She'll be fine

I'll do that :rolleyes: I've only been doing one session a day so I'll do a few more and see how we go!

She's booked in for obedience training, we just couldn't start until next week, so I am hoping this will have an impact :rolleyes: I also want to do agility with her, not competitive but just to keep her fit and happy.

I’m just hoping for some opinions on how much exercise our puppy should be getting. At the moment she is 4.5 months old. She has soooo much energy it’s ridiculous. We recently started taking her for walks, usually about ten minutes long just up and down our street. Now she’s started going out she will just sit at the door waiting so we have started going to the park with her (on lead) and walking round and every now and then running along with her. This seems to tire her out a bit but she’s still crazy once we get home…… I take her for a short walk in the morning before I go to work and she is inside during the day with lots of toys. When I get home I take her to the park, plus play with her in the backyard and do some training, and on the weekends we take her somewhere where she can be off lead and play a bit of Frisbee with her. I’ve read a lot about puppies not getting too much exercise as it can damage their bones/joints, but Lili has so much energy and I don’t know how to tire her out! Even after all this she zooms round the house and will only settle down when we go to bed. Basically I want to know if this is too much exercise in peoples opinion, and if so, what else can we do to keep her satisfied??

IMHO any insurance is a scam. I have worked in insurance and absolutely despise it! The only reason I have ever purchased insurance is because a finance company required it. Because of my background I always make sure I read the entire PDS as there are so many exclusions and sometimes I’m honestly shocked at what is in there. I remember looking at travel insurance and this is what one section said….. Pg 2: “Paragliding is covered except in the circumstances listed on pg 31;” Pg 31: “Paragliding is exclusion in this policy” WTF??? Honestly I wouldn’t bother with pet insurance. Of course I’m sure it has been of great help to some people but not the great majority. I would rather put away the money you would spend on the policy and keep it in case anything happens.

We were so confused with all the conflicting information regarding puppy shots/socialization etc. I was on here asking the same questions Our girl ended up having the 3 shots but I told the vet at the final one that we didn’t want a C5 as in my mind its like us having a flu shot, loads of people have a shot but get a different strain of the flu, and since we don’t plan on boarding Lili I don’t think it’s needed. Lili attended pre school every week after got her second shot and a week after her third at 15 weeks she started going everywhere. A lot of people would say we kept her in too long but I work at a shelter and am too aware of parvo to take the risk. I guess it’s a risk either way and you need to decide which you would rather take. Not easy. With a smaller dog I would have carried it round with me but Lili was already 11.5 kg at 12 weeks and is a struggler so not much chance there Lili is great with people and other dogs so I’m lucky in that respect but if I got another puppy I would do it the same way.

Thanks for the advice.....I too think maybe she's just getting a bit older and trying to challenge everything. She's 4.5 months and already about 13-14 kgs so she's a handful. Up until now she's been an angel except for the normal puppy problems but I'll try the above and see how I go!

Well, my puppy went to sleep last night like a little angel………. and woke up as the devil itself… Lili is teething, its been going on for about 2 weeks but in the last few days they’ve been dropping out like crazy. The result….my puppy now resembles a snappy little alligator. We’re giving her frozen bones, ice blocks, loads of chew toys, regular walks and lots of games….. She is chewing on EVERYTHING. Her bed, our bed, the concrete, the carpet, the coffee table, phone point in the wall ;) , shoes and US! We were doing so well with the biting, she’d really improved but now she’ll just look at you and snap, at your hand, face leg, clothes….we usually put her in time out and she calms down a bit but my doG….. And while she normally is very well behaved on a walk the last day or two she’s impossible, she refuses to go where you want to go and pulled so hard on the lead last night it whipped onto my finger and ripped the nail off… Oh and might I add our place at the moment is Zoomie Central Just wondering if anyone has some tips on getting through teething……

Have they tested for Coronavirus? Same symptoms as Parvo but not as serious. Dogs (usually puppies) can still get very sick and as with Parvo there is only supportive treatment available.

Tell me about it.....at the moment there are chew marks on.....the couch, the table legs, the lino in the kitchen, the telephone point in the wall ( ), the curtains...... any new toy is destroyed in a 24 hour period... she will chew on the concrete and has stripped the bottom of one of the trees outside.....and this is a puppy who is taken for two walks a day plus play in the yard. Even when we're with her she wants to chew so it's not boredom. She has her new two top front teeth and two front bottom teeth, her ears look ridiculous and she's just a big ball of energy......but I love it

Yeah I would stay clear of them, the bones could splinter and get stuck in the dogs mouth. We just give our girl raw bones, she gets all kinds of chicken bones, lamb bones (she loves a lamb shank) beef bones and anything else we can find! As for pros and cons, raw bones don't have any cons as far as I'm concerned. As long as they are raw they shouldn't splinter and they're great for keeping teeth clean and giving your dog something to do besides ripping up the house The cons of the dried bones are that they can splinter and as you said they can cause a bit of runny poo. Our girl has firm poo that doesnt smell TOO bad and beautiful white teeth! Plus a bag of bones from your butcher is way cheaper than dried treats from a pet shop! We get a bag for $1

They don't seem to eat anything actually RAW raw. They are so damn picky!! I have no idea what to make them for raw food. I've looked at all the nutrients and food threads... Just they dont want to eat it! Thanks for your help - I might try bones I must admit sometimes we'll cook the meat first for our girl, usually she's fine with raw but if it's chicken breast she likes it sauteed....very spoilt!!! Yeah try the bones, it really keeps them occupied, they love it, good luck!

Have you given him bones? I don't really know much about stopping this behaviour but if you're trying to feed him raw bones will be good and keep him distracted while he's chewing away! We give our pup a bone and she couldn't care if an elephant was dancing in front of her You said you cooked his chicken....are you giving him any of the meat raw, it's better if you don't cook it, more nutrients. Sorry not much help I know but I would try giving him bones as it will keep him occupied ETA: Although our girl tried to ate some cat poo last night :shakehead:

Ditto to that botheration...really difficult decision!! But I think I'm going to leave it as well.....I mean when you think about it they need those hormones for development, same as we do, so it seems a better idea to wait until they're mature....

Yeah it's a bit of a worry, they didn't say anything about it I'm going to start using sentinel spectrum instead, I just hope there hasn't been any damage done. Thanks for the info

Of course, 100%

Excellent articles Leema, just read them both, thanks for that It's a really hard decision, I really would rather wait until Lili is mature and just keep her protected during her first season. I know about the overpopulation problems and definitely see the importance of desexing but I'm a little more than annoyed that vets neglect to mention any negative effects to do with desexing. Quite misleading me thinks....

Wow, I'm sold, I'll be keeping our advocate for when we get our new puppy who's not a collie breed. Again, why do the vets not know about this or not tell their customers? If a dog is affected by this are the symptoms shown straight away or later? We've treated Lili with Advocate twice as directed and I'm really worried now

Thanks for the info guys I think I'll just start using Sentinel Spectrum, I'm really starting to get annoyed at vets for not giving out this sort of information.

Hi guys, I've just been reading and have noticed that Ivermectin should not be given to Collie breeds incl Aussies, I was not aware of this and we have given our Aussie Advocate which doesn't contact Ivermectin but other products ending in -ectin. She has been fine but I don't even know what symptoms would be if she was sensitive! Can anyone give me some more information regarding this? Is it all dogs of this breed which are sensitive or only some? How dangerous is it and what can I use instead? Thanks ;)