whiskedaway

Well, Halo came into season this morning, so at the moment it looks like all her fussiness could have been due to that. Will be interesting to see how she goes when she's finished. We've switched to feeding her in the morning, and she seems to be much more inclined to eat earlier in the day, though she's still slow about it.

Have we met at Grange beach once? Spudd has been taken for walks since he was about 15 weeks old and never used to be scared of any thing, it's like his fear comes and goes.. I only noticed it a few weeks ago that he is scared of loud cars again.. Don't think so, I've never taken the dogs to Grange - only Semaphore and Port Clinton. Should take them down there some time though, because my cousins live there.

Akira had a slow start to socialisation, especially inside. Hence she's really scared of the microwave and buses (buses because she got a big fright thanks to one in her second fear period and still isn't over it). Everything else we've more or less gotten her over - the heater, the vacuum cleaner, the washing machine, men - though she still sometimes reverts to her old ways for a few minutes until she realises she doesn't have to be scared of it anymore. Halo only takes offence to Alaskan Malamutes. I think one scared her in her first fear period, and now she just doesn't like them. She barks and barks and barks until she's decided she's told them she's boss, then she's best friends with them. She's more than happy to play with the Malamute in her obedience class, but she has to tell him she's the boss first. I can't work out how to get her to stop it yet because we've done lots of desensitisation with friendly mallies, yet she still does it to start with.

Whereabouts are you located Suzi? I'm sure some of the other SA people can recommend good vets.

As a fellow husky owner I whole heartedly agree with Esky's comments. Sibes are beautiful dogs - for the right people and the right situation. Make sure you do your research and get onto training ASAP (as for any breed). Don't believe people when they say Sibes can't be trained...but find a good trainer to help. Sibes do wonderfully at training - they train humans to do what they want very well! :-) Just remember that Sibes generally won't do things 'because they love you' or 'because you want'. You need to work hard at making it worth while to them by making it super fun or using food. They are great problem solvers, so can do well with shaping (read anything by Susan Garrett if you aren't familar with this). Gorgeous pup - good luck! And a x3 from me. Sounds like you're going well. Make sure you're the pack leader and there's rules in place and a Husky will respect you more.

She's a dog that's always been prone to being underweight - she was extremely extremely thin as a baby puppy. She's also a very slow maturer and will not be finished growing until she's eighteen months old. So she does still need a fair bit of food. I've already cut out her breakfast and didn't increase her dinner to make up for it. The issue is, she's picking at her food from the first bite. She's not self-regulating - she doesn't want to eat AT ALL. For example - she just got her dinner about 10 minutes ago. She hasn't eaten a thing since this time yesterday. Gave her 3/4 cup of kibble soaked in beef stock (a tip from someone within my breed to try and convince her to eat) and a chicken wing. She sniffed it and walked away. Came back, ate one piece of kibble and sat down. Then ate another piece of kibble. Then licked the chicken wing. Walked away. Came back, took the chicken wing out of the bowl and slowly started eating it. By the time she had almost done with the wing, my Sibe had finished her dinner (1 cup kibble, one large lamb flap, so a bigger dinner than the lappie). Lappie finally finishes the wing, then goes back to picking at the kibble. She walked away at least four times before she finally finished the kibble. Everyone says "don't worry, she won't starve herself" but I just don't want her to go back to the way she was as a baby. I was already worried I ruined her then.

No redness in throat and she's been bombing around like an idiot this morning so don't think she's sick. No she hasn't lost any condition yet (can easily feel her ribs but she's always been a little on the slim side) but we are forcing her to eat and not letting her leave her bowl until it's almost all gone. Standing there for half an hour making sure she eats isn't exactly fun though!

Haven't checked her throat, but have checked her teeth and mouth and they're fine. Will see if I can see her throat tomorrow when she's awake. Would there be other signs? She doesn't seem sick.

My eight month old Lappie has been eating less and less for the last month. I thought she didn't like her kibble at first so changed it, then I thought she was being picky (though I've never facilitated that in the past because if they don't eat it, it gets taken away within 10 minutes), now I just don't know. It's a struggle to get her to eat anything at the moment - she picks at any different type of kibble we try, and she even picks at raw meat (she gets lamb flaps or chicken wings with her dinner). She has been showing signs of coming into season for a while, and I wasn't sure if maybe it was because she's close on coming into season? Has anyone had dogs that stop wanting to eat when coming into season and how long has it lasted for?

We had ours put down in October. There is a small hole in it where the puppy dug at it. The company would not fix it and said that it's not dog-proof. We have a small "plug" of fake grass in the hole now, so thankfully you can't see the hole. We were just lucky we had off-cuts.

I'm in the process of making cupcakes. And pinwheels. LOL. I might have made a bit too much food...

Just a reminder, the Lappie Picnic is on tomorrow.

Quick question, I'm assuming the answer is yes, but are show entry forms the same in all states or are there some slight differences between each state?

Same here.

Actually, Akira is there. Halo is not. Nevermind, Bjelkier added her.

Aww, my post got missed. Akita: Kyojin Cavalier King Charles Spaniel: Bree, Ingrid, Jersey, Lacey Finnish Lapphund: Vienna, Halo German Coolie: FlashBazil, Latte Golden Retriever: Onslow, Matilda-Rose Griffon Bruxellois: Mocha Siberian Husky: Akira

Finnish Lapphund: Halo German Coolie: FlashBazil, Latte Golden Retriever: Onslow, Matilda-Rose Griffon Bruxellois: Mocha Siberian Husky: Akira

It looks very much like Cooper, a friend's cross breed. Bad pic of him, but you can see what I mean:

Agreed. I wouldn't have a crossbred dog either, I've only ever had purebreds. That said, I have had crossbred cats, which doesn't bother me so much. I like knowing how my dogs are going to turn out and the breed traits they're likely to have.

There's no Baby of Breed in sweeps, all the different breeds go in together.

We went secondhand, but if we'd gone brand new we would have gone with Crusing Canines. Their trailers are lovely.

Weather forecast for Sunday is 17 and fine, so looks like it'll be a fantastic day for the picnic.

My boss asked me if I had a fluffy dog thanks to all the white dog hair all over my clothes. He'd met me in the carpark as I was coming into work, before I'd had time to get into my office and lint roller myself.

I'd probably stay no matter what, and I'd probably be in my same show clothes, cos I'm not normally smart enough to remember wet weather clothes!

Fantastic article. Have gone sledding once with my girl and she loved it. She just wanted to go go go and she was so excited as the other teams started and it got to our turn.