Axel

Axel had it, demodex is not contaigious (?SP), it didnt take long to overcome, and one application of advocate drops cleared it up.. hair is almost all back now... it wasnt an expensive experience at all!

it is common of dogs at about 6-16 months age to show signs of demodex, all dogs have it and it will sometimes show at this age or when immune system is weak. The signs are loss of hair and skin redness.... you can get a demodex wash to put on the area, be careful of the wash, dont use it too much, once a week is sufficient, as it has been known to burn the dogs skin. another thing that will clear mange is ivemec which is an ingredient in revolution, advocate and most spot on treatments.. i would go to the vets and get a scraping done to rule out any other nasties though.

afton; I DONT rent, dont even know where u got that from. I did say i have resorted to putting my dog in his run when i am not there to supervise him and the only reason i feel comfortable doing this is because he swims 40 minutes a day and goes on a 5km walk every night, therefore i dont feel guilty about him not getting exercise. not to mention that my dog goes everywhere with me, yes even to the pub to sit in the beer garden, yes even to the cafe when i go for coffee with friends (we sit on the sidewalk tables), to the nursing home when i visit my great grandma, to friends and relatives houses, to horse shows, the only places he doesnt come to are restaurants and shopping centres. so he is out and about quite a bit. If i didnt have the time to be doing these activities with him, i wouldnt be locking him in the run, i would be investing in a containment system. So let me get this straight; your dog is an escape artist; you put it in boarding kennels?? you move house??? if after you move house they are still escaping, you lock them away and only get them out when supervised, so if you worked a 9 til 5 job and had to leave for work at 7am, and didnt get home till say, 6:30pm (traffic) then cooked dinner, had a shower, housework, etc.. where would you be finding the time to fit supervising the dogs in?? then in all that other spare time, you will put the dogs on long leads, cos that will stop them from chasing the ducks next door, or the sheep down the road, cos when that prey drive kicks in when your sitting on the balcony watching your dogs in the backyard, they are gonna remember you on the end of the long lead last week teling them 'no' everytime they hit the end of the lead... and thats gonna knock them out of drive, and stop them from getting out and chasing the ducks.. uh huh.. ok i understand where you are coming from now... thats a great solution and a great answer as to why e-collars are so bad

Afton; Scenario for you, you have a fenced in yard,as 'dog proof' as you can possibly get it. but you have a dog that continually climbs the fencing, digs out, jumps..however it gets out it gets out, running out onto main roads or killing livestock or the like. what would you do to keep the dog in?

Axel has had an e-collar on him once before, and i must admit, when testing him to set the correct level on the collar, it was put up to well over half way, and the whole time he laid there, the first sign of reaction from the collar was, he looked up and turned his head to see if someone touched him. That was the setting it stayed on. Correctly used, the collar is not about ZAPPING the dog. its about giving the dog a stimulant, or feeling. the dog associates the feeling with unwanted behaviour and gets praised with wanted behaviour. It is good for ooflead training and doesnt need to be used for the rest of the dogs life. Containment systems, are a great this as well. I had electric fencing, but Axel learnt how to win with it. He barged through it, even though the fence was on, he knew how to beat it. and once he beat it once... he kept beating it. He would go next door and chase their ducks. Until one day the neighbours put him in a cage in their backyard and waited for me to come home i went to get him and they showed me the ducks he got... they said if he ever goes over there again they were gonna shoot him. SO into his kennel he went. Our fencing has always been adequate for all our dogs we have had in the past. However Axel has a high prey drive and will do what it takes to chase things. that includes climbing, jumping, digging. Although I dont have one yet, I can see why people would use containment systems, they are in no way cruel or harmful to the dog. The dog learns the warning beeps are followed by an unpleasant NOT painful stimuli and therefore stop at the warning beeps. I have seen dogs know not to go within the 1 metre distance of the fence, i have seen their balls, treats etc role into the containment area, and the dog not even bother attempting to get up and get them cos they know. its not like the dog will continually be stimulated by the sensation. Most dogs will feel it at most 3 times, before working it out and never feeling it again. Id rather my dog receive a few unpleasant (NOT PAINFUL) sensations than be run over, shot, or killing livestock and poultry. I have resorted to Axel being in his concrete run whilst no one is home to be outside with him whilst out. however he gets walked, swam and taken to offleash dog park everyday. for some people, they dont have the time to do that and i think it is more cruel keeping a dog that gets out of any fencing locked in a kenel than using a containment system. my two cents. AFTON: I have yet to read a constructive reason as to why you dont like them. It is perfectly fine that you dont like them, everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Just annoying when someone slams something when it is clear they know little about it, have not opened their mind to both sides before forming an opinion, and cannot give any valid reasons as to why they do not like it, do to of course the fact they dont know much about it at all. Sounds to me as though you have formed your opinion on this, based on what someone else has said to you. not your own thoughts. If RSPCA said all dogs are now to be thrown off bridges, would you do it?? not everything the RSPCA says, and not all their opinions are highly regarded and not al of them should be taken as gospel either. yes they do a good job protecting animals, but unfortunatley, like in the off topic thread about Hungry Jacks, there are too many do gooders in this world stuffing things up that have been around for years, and in fact have gotten safer, yet. some minority group will come along and say we dont like that, or a 1 in a million case goes wrong and before you know it its banned, or there is a law to go with its use. Karen.

My thoughts are with you, i cannot begin to imagine having to go through this one day with my dog. Karen Hedberg is brilliant and i dont think there is many people who would say otherwise.. Its good to know she is in good hands and is loved so much, the love on its own is enough to make the time she has left as comfortable as possible.. My thoughts are with you... Karen

In the GSDL magazine 'shepherd news' there is a write up on Shutzhund and the laws surrounding it.. (about 2.5 pages from memory) if you would like me to photocopy it or fax it to you, let me know and i can do it for ya jack...

I was always scared to let Axel off leash.. I always thought he would run away or take off after something and never come back.. but someone talked me into taking him offleash one day :D and to be honest.. he doesnt have much recall at all, and once under distraction 'come' means nothing and he doesnt listen. We are working on this problem, however when he is offleash and he goes to chase something, I give him the 'come' comand (which works when not under distraction) and if it doesnt work the first time, i simply turn around and walk in the oposite direction, ignoring him completely, giving him the feeling im walking off without him.. Or sometimes i run in the oposite direction, this seems to work faster. it works everytime, he comes running back after me. When walking him offleash (bush walks, hiking etc..) He never gets too far ahead and when he does realise hes out of sight, he comes back and checks in with me. - this is something he did naturally on his own. having said all this, i dont take him to places where there is alot of people and have him offleash, nor do i have him offleash near things that are dangerous for a dog who doesnt have good recall (ie: roads, busy dog parks) but there is plenty of places around which are quiet, big and fun for dogs where you can go and have them offlead and do a bit of recall training at. Like i said i am currently working on his recall with a trainer and i never let him offleash where it is unsafe for a dog who doesnt have great recall under distraction. Axel has been well socialised as a puppy and he pretty much comes everywhere with me, so not many situations are new to him or take him by suprise which i think helps a bit. Not long ago my boyfriend and i were walking him offleash at a HUGE park and a guy rode through the park on a push bike (something you wouldnt expect- someone riding a push bike across a football field -on the grass at 7:30pm), I didnt see him till Axel had already started running off toward him. He wasnt running in the sense of trying to catch the bike, i think he was just trying to 'chase' the bike off. because he wasnt running full pelt and he was stopping and starting. Both myself and my boyfriend tried calling him back but he wasnt listening, so i started running in the oposite direction. Boyfriend stood still in middle of park. Axel spun around and started running toward me as fast as i have ever seen him run before. I stopped, he kept coming straight into me! but he didnt leave my side for the rest of the time we were there (about 1 hour)... Anyway thats just my story and experiences with offleash.... Good Luck with it all

I know where ur comming from DA Axel did the same when he got excited as a puppy.. I was told to squeeze his lip over his tooth enough to cause discomfort when he went to play bite me... but he was a bit older than Jas so i dont know if it would have the same desired effect?? good puppy info here

here is a paragraph from this website :D

K9 Force comes highly recommended both here & by others.

My vet gave Axel the kennel caugh vaccine up the nose... she said she gave him a bit extra to compensate for the amount he will sneeze out, however he didnt sneeze, much to her suprise.. she said he was one of the very few that DIDNT sneeze, i wondered then as to why they wouldnt have used an injection type vaccine for kennel caugh if that was the case??!??

ooohhh the poor lil man! well at least u know now what the problem was and its fixed! glad to see he is eating now and is back on the mend! give him lotsa love and kisses from me and Axel

HI, have recieved different answers to this question from different vets, breeders and doggie owners, so i thought id put it to DOLers.. This sparked my interest when a breeder friend of mine who is also a vet nurse C7's all her dogs, and recommended i did the same, but told me that i may find it hard to find a vet in Sydney that stocks the C7 and it will probably cost extra to get the vaccine in. Also when i took Axel in for his vaccinations i had him vaccinated against kennel caugh as well. but when my aunty took her dog into the same vet she was told she didnt have to get kennel caugh vaccine and the only reason the vet recommended it to me was cos Axel goes to shows and is around other dogs.. I want to just clarify all this....?!?!?

I found Axel stunk when i got him home and i washed him a few times, when i realised the smell wasnt leaving.. I took him to a pooch parlour and got him cleaned professionally.. NO MORE SMELL! just a suggestion, it worked for me

Hey guys.. i am no expert but from the advise i have gotten off my vet etc.. about feeding my 6 month old GSD is that you will know when he is getting the right amount of food when 1. he sniffs around and looks for more when hes finished eating. 2. he maintaines a healthy/leaner weight and 3. he is happy and bouncy, willing to learn (makes it easier to use treats if you like to train)... so maybe it would be an idea to lessen the servings of food you give your Akita? if the puppy is telling you when it has had enough and not the other way around then perhaps you are feeding a bit too much?? I dont know like i said i am no expert, maybe someone who knows a bit more on what they are talking about could shed some more light? id be interested to know a bit more on this as well? because really, how DO you know how much to feed a puppy?? Like i said above, i feed my pup based on those 3 points, and have never had a prob with weight or condition..