Huntia

My dogs up until now have always been "naked" but since we have moved to the farm they now wear collars. My reasoning was that if they did get out of the house yard they would be recognised as pets rather than wild dogs. There is a large wild dog population in the ridges behind the house and you can often hear them howling and sometimes see tracks around. But I think I will investigate these breakaway collars.....they might be a safer alternative.

I am a new exhibitor and new to my breed as well and this would be very useful! I believe this is how the JS is judged in Japan Kind of on the above topic, I would love to get more actual feedback from judges. One of the main reasons we show is to get a judge's opinion on our dog and how closely it meets the standard. Every now and again you come across a judge who will explain their reasoning for putting certain dogs up, or provide some feedback on your dog, but really it's not that often. Me too. I would love feedback from the judges!! I come from a background of showing cattle (at a school level) and the judge always gives a critique and reasons why he/she has picked their say top 4. I would love that in dog showing. At least than you could learn what you or your dog were doing wrong or right according to that particular judge. :D As a newbie to showing that would be wonderful :D At specialty shows they do critiques which are brilliant we mainly stick to the specialty show scene these days things are alot different Jinx... I had just edited to add that! :D Wouldn't it be nice if they could do this for at least the challenges of each breed. I know it would be time consuming...but welcome to us newbies :D

I would love to be able to show more often than I do currently. Unfortunately my husband does not enjoy the dog show world and with a 6 yr old and a 3 and 1/2 yr old, a farm to run and a job through the week most weekends are family time away from the ring. I have on occassion taken the 2 kids with me by myself, but it is not quite as relaxing with my 2 adorable munchkins with me. Generally I try to show at least once a month.

I am a new exhibitor and new to my breed as well and this would be very useful! I believe this is how the JS is judged in Japan Kind of on the above topic, I would love to get more actual feedback from judges. One of the main reasons we show is to get a judge's opinion on our dog and how closely it meets the standard. Every now and again you come across a judge who will explain their reasoning for putting certain dogs up, or provide some feedback on your dog, but really it's not that often. Me too. I would love feedback from the judges!! I come from a background of showing cattle (at a school level) and the judge always gives a critique and reasons why he/she has picked their say top 4. I would love that in dog showing. At least than you could learn what you or your dog were doing wrong or right according to that particular judge. :D As a newbie to showing that would be wonderful :D ETA I went to one specialty show last April and the judge critiqued each dog.....it was so nice to get some feedback

My Brother in law when I first met him had a deer hound. Her name was Flyte, she had a beautiful temperament and was a real sook, typical hound though loved to run, but equally loved to curl up and be with her humans. :D

Thanks Aussielover, I have thought of that too, and intend to ask next time we go in. I ducked in to return something at the vets at the end of last week and one of the other vets cornered me and suggested that we sedate him and inject the antibiotics straight into the anal sacs, as a treatment option. I am really hoping that I can achieve some relief for him through the dietary angle. :D I had a dog with the same issue. We went down the path of emptying the anal glands and instilling Baytril(The only drug the bug was sensitive too after culture etc) directly into the glands as well as him recieving it orally. We did the empty and instill daily for around 6 days from memory and I think the antibiotics was for 6 weeks (we had tried 2 week treatments previously). Fixed it never to return :)Thank goodness!!!! Glad to hear that you were able to get rid of the problem Ososwift. I will definitely keep this in mind when I next take him in to get checked.

:rofl:

Ditto the pet mesh from bunnings keeps my 2 RR's on the right side of the door, whichever it maybe at the time Previous to that my nearly 13 yr old rr would scratch, make a hole than walk straight through it, earning the nick name wombat And my 16 month old RR would claw it and make holes. But the pet mesh is standing up to both of them ETA Sorry I just read a couple of posts further on and saw that you have tried this I hope you can find an affordable method that works for you.

SO SAD.

Great photos everyone

2 rhodesian Ridgebacks. :D I grew up with boxers and a rotti. But I looooove Ridgebacks

Thanks to everyone for their advice. At present (because I have just opened a new bag) I will continue with the advance adult formula, but I am adding alot more extra fibre to it in the form of cooked brown rice, oat bran and tonight he got baked pumpkin added to the mix as well as some left over steamed carrots. Since changing his diet and finishing the course of antibiotics 1 and a half weeks ago I have noticed that at least one of the anal sacs seems to be releasing by itself. (I can see it around the anus). I guess only time will tell if the diet change will help fix this problem. In the meantime I will further investigate changing the brand of food fed. (it is for convenience that Advance is fed living in/near a small town the local vet sells Advance, and the only other dry food available is from the supermarket or the produce store) (if anyone can recommendend one of the supermarket or produce store brands I would investigate those as well). I will also look into taking him to a chiropractor. My husband had a question though " if I take him once to a chiro, does he need to go for the rest of his life?" (typical question from my OH!!) Thanks again to everyone who took the time to help me and my poor boy out :D

I hope you don't mind if I hijack your topic to ask about chiropractors in either Newcastle or Taree area. I live about 1 hour 10 minutes from Hillsborough, in Newcastle and 1 hour 15 min from Taree and a bit over an hour to Forster/Tuncurry.

How exciting for you!! I have been getting excited for you just reading these posts. I hope everthing works out for you :thumbsup: Safe travelling to and from Sydney. And Welcome to Australia!!

His movement in the ring is ok, so I am not sure if he has a problem with his hips and pelvis. But definitely something I will look into. And Road work, I think I would even benefit from more of that. Can it be off lead or should it be on lead? We live on a farm, so most of our walks are off lead.

hmmm he has caught 2 of the bunnies so far ( I suspect they were very unlucky to be caught bunnies lol), but I took them off him as he was just playing with them. There was no blood on them, he shakes them and snaps their necks I guess. How much psyllium husk should I add to the food?

Thanks for the advice. The poor boy has found manual emptying very painful, thus far. The screams, yes they are screams, of pain from him are quite horrible.(although I am sure if we can get the level of inflamation down he would let me do it with out to many problems). Other than the sniffing (and going around in circles while he does it) it doesn't seem to worry him though. I just had a look at the nutrition panels for Advance Adult and Advance weight control, and there is only 1% difference in the amount of fibre (5.5 g/400kcal for Adult and 7.3g/400 kcal for the weight control) is this enough to make a difference?

Hi Squinter, At the moment he gets 1 1/2 - 2 cups of dry food per day of Advance. How much do you need to feed of the weight control food, and how would it compare cost wise to Advance Adult all breeds? Would it be worth trying to swap the unopened bag of the Advance All breed for an Advance weight control?

Thanks Aussielover, I have thought of that too, and intend to ask next time we go in. I ducked in to return something at the vets at the end of last week and one of the other vets cornered me and suggested that we sedate him and inject the antibiotics straight into the anal sacs, as a treatment option. I am really hoping that I can achieve some relief for him through the dietary angle. :D

I tend to agree about the bones, he gets alot of bones 2-3 times a week ( he is a chronic chewer)His poos have always been quite firm, can be very dry and firm if he has had too many bones. He gets a fair bit of exercise, chasing bunnies in our yard which is 2.5 acres. (there are alot of bunnies). Enough exercise that he is asleep snoring his head off at the moment. He is a show dog so he is in "good show condition". How much Psyllium husk would you add, and would a product like metamucil work, and what dry food to add it too?

How funny

Hi. I have a 16 month old Rhodesian Ridgeback, who until late August this year had excellent health. It was in late August that he was diagnosed with severley inflamed/impacted and infected anal glands. He never scooted, just sniffed his bottom, so it wasn't until there was a small trickle of blood coming from his bottom that I realised that there was a problem. Since than he has had 2 lots of anti inflammatories and 3 courses of antibiotics, the last course went for 2 weeks. His anal sacs have improved to the point were the right one had gone down and was secreting normally, but the left was still inflamed, not as bad, but still a problem. The vet on his last visit was talking about removing his anal glands. I would like to try all avenues before I let a vet do this. Just before his last visit to the vet abit over a week ago, I read some posts on previous topics on problems with anal glands. I started to add a cup of cooked brown rice to his dry biscuits (Advance) and 1/2 a 400g tin of canned food, to increase the amount of fibre in his diet, to make the stool size larger. (sorry this is so long and waffly lol) Whilst at the vet I bought another bag of Advance, it is still unopened, and I read the front of the bag and it states that it will make stool sizes smaller. Thus I am looking for a different brand of premium dry food that will help to give my dog larger stools. Can anyone reccommend a dry food that will do this? :D

Hi. Recently I had someone mention to me that I might like to lease a dog (bitch) from them. What does leasing involve and how does it differ to outright ownership of the animal? Thank you

Thank you. I will pass it on :D

:D :rofl: