westielover

Oh gawd Kaz - so sorry for your loss - run free Xander

I have seen a lot of those 'dried chicken breast' treats and quite frankly I can't understand how anyone could think that something which is as bright orange as some of those treats are, could be natural or healthy for your dog. Then again, I have never been a fan of shmackos or rawhide either. Why not consider buying treats like dried kangaroo jerky or dried tuna or something that's made here locally rather than imported from China. Check out ebay for dried kangaroo jerky, dired tuna and the like. Perhaps google dried turkey or dried fish treats and see what you can fnd. A lot of of the more boutique type pet supply stores have terrific healthy treats. Pet Barn & Pet Stock need to catch up where pet treats are concerned. Those greenies things are supposed to be somewhat dangerous too - I think a choking hazard. Raw hide can alo be a choking hazard once it gets moist in the dogs mouth and doesn't quite slide down their throat. Think natural. You can't tell me that you can look at a schmacko and think it's looks like healthy nutritious treat ??? I am not having a go at anyone - I am just surprised I guess, as to what is perceived to be a natural looking treat. Are we sucked in by the big marketing campaigns of schmacko type maketing??

Oh how terribly sad. RIP Bobo Did the vet do one of those pre-anaesthetic blood tests prior to putting him under? Maybe something could have been picked up at that point if the test was done. Edited to add this: Castration is carried out under a general anaesthetic. It is worth noting that all anaesthetics and surgical procedures have an element of risk although castration is a routine and commonly performed procedure. A physical examination is carried out to ensure the patient is in good health and that the heart and lungs sound normal. While it is not commonly carried out on patients presented for castration a pre-anaesthetic blood test can be carried out to determine if the animals’ kidneys and liver are in good order. The dog is given a ‘premed’, which contains a sedative and an analgesic (painkiller). The premed reduces the amount of general anaesthetic that the dog requires. Once the premed has taken effect the dog is anaesthetised by an intravenous injection of anaesthetic (this involves clipping up a small amount of hair on the dogs foreleg). If something is found to be wrong with the dog during the tests then anaesthesia wouldn't go ahead.

I too have heard people say that their dogs are doing XYZ to please them, which is amusing but it's cute in a quirky kind of way because these people obviously think their dogs "love them to pieces" and that pleases the owner to no end. No harm in people believing this if they want to - not everyone is a canine behaviour expert - why shatter their world with reality when they are quite happy with the idea that their dog is pleasing them out of sheer love when no real harm is being done, as stated by Cosmolo. However - what gets me is when people blame the dog for bad behaviour! Eg. The dog is defacting indoors to spite me because I left him home alone all day !!! I think the word everyone is looking for is 'Opportunistic' - dog's don't do things to please others - dog's are opportunists! It's the 'what's in it for me' factor which drives a dog to do things for us isn't it? edited because I excluded a couple of relevant words!

Alternatively it could be a trainer who has done their training theory and needs to build up their practical hours

I consider a walk to be their time to do as they please. Mind you they are all pretty good on the lead. However, they are allowed to stop & sniff the flowers if they want to. I don't make them heel during this time. Of course we do follow regular dog ettiquette when walking past other dogs. Training is done seperate to their daily walk and is done on a one on one basis. I can't train 3 dogs at the same time!!

Interesting that you should say she uses it when the doggy door is propped up. Perhaps she doesn't like the dog door flap coming down and smacking her on the bum as she goes thru it .... it is worthwhile de-sensitising her to that? I found that a lot of my foster dogs didn't like using the dog door because of that reason. I ended up taking the flap out and replacing it with appropriately sized plastic shower curtains cut into strips - smiliar to those plastic strips at the entrance of the good old fashioned milk bar / fish & chip shop - know what I mean? Never had issues with the dog door after that! laugh:

I thought this link may be of interest to people who have dogs with lameness issues. Check out the motion captures as well as the video and don't forget to listen to the narration.

I recently read (I think it was Pat Miller's book 'Play with your Dog') that leg humping, in the context of your situation, is a response to a high state of excitement. My foster kelpie does it when I play tug/games with him - but it only happens when he gets to a certain level of excitement which is usually quite high.

Most obedience clubs will ask for it. However, if the obedience club holds their classes on an oval which is a public dog park/area - then it seems a bit silly wanting proof of vaccinations ....

Concerns me too :D Thanks Cosmolo - will pass that on. They ahve neighbours at home all the time who could monitor things for them. Gosh I wish you were in Sydney - that would be such a kind and helpful thing to do.

A great home came along for a rescue dog who's been in care for about 8 weeks. His name is Logan and he is a Border Collie cross perhaps Labrador and maybe a little bit of staffy too. He is about 8 months old - very smart - has learnt manners while in foster care and was in care with 2 other male dogs and 1 female - all working breeds ranginging from 1 year to 2 years old. There were no prolems with Logan and his canine foster buddies. Logan does have the type of persoanlity where he will react when challenged - he's not submissive. Logan has been rehomed with a 18 month old female border collie who is dog social and used to dogs coming to her home. She does seem to have a soft nature about her. The 2 dogs met on neutral territory and all was fine - then they went home together and all was fine for about 24 hours. Below is the new owners details of events from Monday thru to today: Logan certainly seems to be consistently asserting himself as Number 1. He is very pushy with Molly, Jumping on her constantly, taking toys from her, pushing her around the room etc. Sometimes this is fine, Molly seems to accept it and they play etc and Molly always seems to back down. On Monday afternoon there was a scuffle. I was outside for a while playing with the dogs and walked inside leaving the door open for them to come in. Logan pushed his way through and I turned around to see what the noise was and they were both jammed trying to get through the door (inside is obviously a VERY exciting place!!). Anyway, they both ran up to me and sat about 3 feet apart (after I told them to) and I put both hands out to give them a pat and Logan stood up and again tried to push Molly out of the way. She backed off quickly yet again. Then she turned full circle to try to come back (by this stage I was just standing upright watching them) and then they got funny. Hackles, staring, snarls etc. They both showed their teeth and I said "thats enough!" just as Logan lunged at Molly. She took off upstairs and hid under the bed. I put Logan outside immediately to separate them and went up to find Molly. I tried to call her but she wouldn't come out. She was up there for over 2 hours. Logan came back in after 20 or so minutes. This has been a regular occurrence ever since. As soon as I have just myself and the two of them together, Logan pushes inbetween myself and Molly (this behaviour goes unrewarded - I stop patting both of them/ignore them etc) and then they start with the snarling/barking/hackles before I separate them. I have also tried turning my back and walking away when they do it and telling them 'uh-uh' 'NO'. Every time it ends in Molly running away. As I said to you yesterday Molly was right in the back of her Kennel when I got home yesterday and she wouldn't come and greet me which broke my heart!! (I am a bit of a sook when it comes to things like that!). I let Logan go inside thinking his presence might be the issue and she stuck her head out to lick my hand but it took ages for her to come out (nearly and hour). And she was very sooky/timid all night. Today it was the same, she wouldn't even come out to play with the ball in the backyard. So they have just had their dinner outside and I went downstairs mid-way through this email to check on them as there was a lot of noise in the backyard and Molly was back in her kennel. I called them both inside as it is getting chilly out there and thought I could keep a good eye on them. Logan came flying in and Molly again stayed curled up in her kennel. After reading your email, not to 'molly coddle' Molly, I have decided to leave her outside and spend some more time with Logan on my own. He is a great little dog, but Molly's sudden sooky behaviour and almost fear that I am seeing in her is really bothering me. I don't want to condone Logan's pushy behaviour, and I won't allow their scuffles to get any worse. I will keep an eye on things, but if there is no change in the next few days,I might have to make the call to unfortunately send Logan back. I really wish I had every single day available to work with both of them and their relationship, but I do have to leave them alone at times in the day. I think Logan's pushiness is part of his boistrous, playful nature and with correct manners training it will calm down. But this is Molly's house too and I really don't want her hiding from both Logan and myself and I don't like seeing her get 'aggressive' either. So for the next few days I will keep going with: - not rewarding Molly's sooks with pats etc - Continuing with the 'uh-uh' when it starts in my presence - working on Logan's manners with more 'sit' and 'stays' (which he is VERY good at when in the right frame of mind!) - keeping a good eye on the situation I have loaned the new owner Patricia McConnells book 'Feeling Outnumbered' which she has already read and is trying to apply some of the techniques in the book. This scuffles only occur in the presence of the wife. It doesn't happen around the husband. They really want to try and work things out but I guess they don't really want to start spending a lot of money on behavourists (assumption on my part) while Logan is on trial. Molly is their first dog and she is their priority - Logan was supposed to be a friend for Molly. The last thing I want is for Molly to be adversly affected by having Logan in the house. Can anyone please offer some other advice which may assist with settling the situation down? Or is it a case of a relationship which is perhaps just not meant to be?

Oh Alix - deepest sympathies for your loss. What a beautiful boy. I'm sure the past 4.5 years were his fondest and those memories are the ones he took to the bridge with him. Run free Charlie

I have a fearful dog who is very, very sensitive to voice tones. I never use a firm or angry tone with him because his response is to run and hide / cower etc. I find what works best is to speak to him in a happy/exciteable tone but at a normal volume - he in turn gets excited and responds better because he seems to forget his fearful nature during times of excitement. Try to ignore fearful behaviour and reward confident/brave behaviour. If you accidentally reward fearful behaviour by patting her when shes showing fear then she will think she is being rewarded for that behaviour and will continue to behave that way. If you need to correct her on anything - try introducing a simple 'uh uh' in a calm but assertive tone and see how she responds to that. My dog responds well to 'uh uh' if I ever need to correct him on something. You just need to find a tone & volume which does the trick Try luring her outside in the morning with an happy/exciteable tone and then reward her with a treat when she's outside (you need to be outside with her - don't try just shoving her out) and see how that goes. It took months for my dog to walk past me when I held a door open. It also took months for him to accept a treat from me when outdoors. I always say that my pound dog was kept in a box in his previous life ..... it's like they are starting over and have never been expoed to the many things a normal dog in a normal household is exposed to. The big thing is to gain her trust and let her know that you will never hurt her. She will become braver in time.

High value treats - fried lambs fry chopped into reward size pieces - the dogs go mad for it! The other things my dogs go mad for is those 'walkies' treats - they are shaped like kit kats but i cut them into small reward size pieces and carry them in my pocket for every day rewards.

Do you feed your dogs fruit? I give them pieces of whatever fruit I am eating but don't really add it to their meals anymore. They only get leafy greens with their meals. If so, which fruit? cherries (seeds removed), watermelon, mango, apple cores, pear cores, sweet peaches, What do they love? watermelon & mango What is their favourite? They drool for scotch finger biscuits (I know that's noit a fruit but I can't even sneak a scotch finger busicuit into my mouth without the 3 of them appearing out of nowhere!!!) What is really good for them? I don't see any harm in giving them bits of fruit (except grapes) every now and then.

Bump! I have my seat booked and can't wait. I am surprised that more people aren't attending ..... aren't people concerned about the well being of their dogs and the over vaccination of them??

Hi there - contact Christine at Pet Resort Dural on 9651 1747 - she recently clipped my westies and did a brilliant job

Thnaks Kavik - much appreciated

I was wondering if anyone could recommend some trainers or trianing clubs around the North Sydney area ..... Cremorne/Mosman/North Sydney etc Some people have adopted a dog from me and would love to attend training classes/groups Thanks in advance.

I'm on a raw feeders yahoo group and these people have been feeding the prey model for years with great success. One of the things I noted from this group is that vegetables are minimal and only green leafy vegetables are fed (eg. spinach, chinese greens). They say that you should avoid 'sugary' veggies and fruit, as sugar feeds yeast, which in turn can cause skin problems. Just thought I'd mention it here.

What about this book - might be helpful: Schutzhund Obedience Training in Drive With Gottfried Dildei By Sheila Booth

Name: Winston Breed: West Highland White Terrier Age: 7.5 years Vaccinations C3 at 6 weeks, C5 at 10 weeks, C5 at 14 weeks, C5 at 12 months, C5 at 1 year, C5 at 2 years, C5 at 3 years, C5 at 4 years Titre test at 5 years: Parvo >/=1:80 Distemper >/=1:80 Titre test at 7 years: Parvo >/=1:80 Distemper >/=1:80 Name: Riley Breed: West Highland White Terrier Age: 6.5 years Vaccinations C3 at 6 weeks, C5 at 10 weeks, C5 at 14 weeks, C5 at 12 months, C5 at 1 year, C5 at 2 years, C5 at 3 years Titre test at 4 years: Parvo >/=1:80 Distemper >/=1:80 Titre test at 6 years: Parvo >/=1:20 Distemper >/=1:80 (Did not re-vaccinate) Name: Spencer Breed: Brittany x Border Collier Age: Approx 2.5 years Vaccinations C5 at approx 1 year (vaccs history unknown as he was adopted from pound) Titre test at approx 2 years: Parvo >/=1:80 Distemper >/=1:80

If she's smelly - she could have a yeast infection - what are her ears like? Please switch to a better quality food and stop washing her so frequently - especially in the flea shampoo. Perhaps look at getting some 'Aloveen' shampoo going forward. You shoudln't have to wash a dog more than once a month. Diet is a very important factor when it comes to skin conditions. Review her diet and get her on a better quality food (not supermarket grade). Feed lots of raw meaty bones and some tinned fish. Sentinel spectrum stops fleas from breeding - it also covers worms/heartworm - but it doesn't kill fleas on her. Ti kill fleas on her you need to use a spot flea treatment once a month in addition to SS - perhaps advantix or frontline. Please avoid any cortisone treatment as that won't fix it - it will only supress it!

I am so sorry for your loss Get Whippet Rest in Peace sweet Emma