raineth

Wow i've never seen anything like it!

well done toby! Isn't Toby the one who was frightened of bikes (or am I mixed up?) that's a very commendbale effor to for Toby if so :D geees! and lucky you emailed them or maybe it would never have been sent!

I have taken dogs on holidays before. Our holidays usually consist of visiting family. I had a family member insist on us holidaying and bringing our puppy; saying how they were bursting to meet him *blah blah blah* I regret it so much. When we got their we were told he must stay in one room because their dog would attack him if he ventured out of there. When they took their dog for a walk we let our dog out into the living area. He was so happy to be out of the room. Anyway he sniffed about and then layed on their dog's bed. They went feral about it! "how dare our dog sleep on their dog's bed!" that was only part of it; but needless to say it was a nightmare and we won't be doing that again! As for other sorts of holidays we prefer the freedom that comes with not having the dogs with us.

its my daughter spinning in a swinging chair Kirislin She wants me to take one of her flapping her arms so she looks like she's got wings. I'll do that next.

Well I am still very new to the world of slr. But I had some fun with exposure and took a few like this last night. I know they are far from amazing But thought I'd put this up and invite anyone else to put up their long exposure shots

cute! you know how crabs and spiders are all part of the arachnid family? well you can really see it with this little guy I think

wow! I do love his Marvin the Martian butt I have been taking photos of a spider that is building his web on our awning. I was taking pictures of him as he got bigger and his web got bigger - but yesterday I went to snap him and he's gone. I think he must have been eaten

I put the thundershort on her for a bit over an hour this morning. It definitely settled her down. When i took it off she went straight into zooming and playing wreatling with Digby. But I'll still watch out for an overall reduction in arousal throughout the day.

I own a demodex mange dog. my undesrtanding of this demodex mange is as follows: demodex in puppies is caused by a disorder of the immune system. Older dogs who develop demodex mange do so because they have a weakened immune system. All puppies contract mites from their mother in the first two weeks. At around 2 weeks their immune systems are strong enough, and they will reject any more mites from their mother (or any other dog). The mite population they carry is kept stable by their immune system and there are not enough mites to cause problems. Puppies who have the immune disorder are not able to prevent getting more and more mites from their mother and other dogs and they cannot keep their population of mites under control. This is why adult dogs with mange should not be bred from; because they can pass on their dodgy immune system to their puppies. A positive scraping means the dog has mange. But conversely a scraping that shows up nothing does not rule out mange. Revolution and Ivermectin can treat mange. Advocate is about to (or maybe already has) stopped claiming that it can treat mange because in certain tests it was found that it was found that it was not making any difference.

Yeah, that'd be great! Some people say dogs need to experience a Thundershirt a few times before it starts to work, but I didn't find that with Erik. I'd say if you go with the massage, do it until Delta lies down on her side and then a little bit more for good measure. That's usually what I do. I got some tryptophan supplement for Erik, thinking I would give that a go if at any point it looked like he consistently needed more help than I could give him. I told OH what it looked like and where I was storing it and he said that was good to know, because if he accidentally gave some to Kivi he would probably explode from the sheer calmness, and flowers and fluffy bunnies would rain down on the entire neighbourhood. love it I really do! can you imagine getting our dogs together. Erik and Delta can go manic together and Digby and Kivi can sit back and watch maybe I could try getting her used to the thundershirt a little bit tonight to see she needs to get accustomed to it. Hopefully that won't confound the experiment though. I will report back...

I'll give it a go with my two if you like Corvus. Well actually maybe just with Delta, because if Digby relaxes anymore he may stop breathing. I'll try to do it as similarly to what you do as I can. ETA: Corvus, I have a thundershirt. I haven't used it on Delta yet. But maybe I could start with the thundershirt for an hour in the morning. I'll see if that lowers her arousal during the day. If not, I'll try the massage.

that sounds sensible I agree with Poodlefan (and others) - You really just need a dog that looks the part. Most breeds that were bred to guard are more challenging to manage. And yes people are much more wary of black dogs, so that is definitely something to consider I have a big (well giant) black dog. He has no guarding instinct whatsoever, and is as meek and mild as they come. Yet people cross the road when they see us and make all sorts of ridiculous comments about how he'll probably eat their dog before eating them. Its actually quite annoying, but at any rate, it certainly illustrates what a detterrant he is ;)

my dogs are giants and we have a reasonable suburban sized yard. They can run and zoom around in it. They get walked every day and are taken to bigger places for off lead running a few times a week. One of them runs with the bike as well. They do self exercise, in that they wrestle strenuously once or twice a day - its a good workout, they are always puffed afterward.

I'm trying to just imagine what a fat whippet would look like! :D Every whippet I've seen has always been so svelte! I have, and its a funny sight o.k. I had a google search for overweaight whippet and came across this I hope its been photoshopped :D

thanks corvus, very helpful

Yeah I think they look in terrific condition KTB :D They have nice tucked up waists. I always find it hard to tell with my Digby dog. He is a chunky build and it can be a bit hard for me to know if he's getting a bit fat or not. Its different with my great Dane; it would be supremely obvious to me if she got even a tad fat. Because she is naturally so slender. Its like fat whippets - its really obvious

are you talking about a springer Parkeyre? our only took 5 working days, so maybe you should email them and ask. (we purchased from pets providore) thanks Abbiestart and boxagirl yes he does love it So nice to see him enjoying exercise! ETA: freundhund, we'd love to meet up but we're too far away. Digby gets distracted by other dogs too; so its something we need to work on as well.

Oberon is so handsome!!!

Dust Angel those shots are incredible!

well we got the springer working fine. And we tested it out just going uo the street and back and its working really well we booted Digby up and that worked perfectly; no damage at all to his toe. couple of photos

Corvus, could you describe a little more how you massage Erik please?

awwww they are just beautiful! I can't believe how massive the aussies look next to the MinPins! thanks for posting them

oh yeah, I can definitely see the similarity to Trojan! Its the same face and ears, just narrower!

My OH loves bike riding so he is doing all of it he thinks its a great excuse to get a mountain bike, as he only has the road bike. I think the road bike will be unhappy going over different terrain. its certainly a fantastic way to exercise your dog We took Digby swimming today as we still need to try to get him fit. Its hard, as he is possibly the laziest dog in the world.

Beagles = lovely lovely lovely!!! I don't really see why they wouldn't be suitable for a first time owner. I guess it depends on the owner's expectations of them. there is one that lives opposite us, (it does live with a maltese) and every couple of days they let them have an explore out the front of their house for about 15 minutes. The beagle comes back on the first call every time. I don't consider the owners to be really dopg savvy or anything. Maybe they don't klnow that typically beagles are known for having poor recall they just expec t it to come back and it does all the other ones I've met have had such a lovely nature. They do seem to be a bit noisy though