WeimMe

My fave breed would probably be the Great Dane. They have the most beautiful nature - I've had a few Dane "friends" growing up and always thought I'd have one of my own as an adult. The only reason that we didn't get a GD when we bought our first dog was due to their short lifespan. Least favourite would be the Cattle Dog I'm afraid. I used to do a pamphlet run when I was a kid and there were two of them on my usual run that would sneak up behind me and nip me on the back of my legs every time I encountered them. I've been a bit scared of them ever since.

Glad to see that she is doing a little bit better. I'd be giving her all of her favourite things to eat if she is interested and if she can tolerate being touched, a nice massage morning and night to help her loosen up.

We definitely have them here in South West Brissie too. Lost my beloved Manx kitty 6 years ago - the tick was under her collar, the only place I didn't check. When she became ill she hid under the house and we didn't find her until she was very sick. The vet wasn't able to save her.

Poor baby So glad he was rescued. I wonder how he ended up IN the cactus...

It never ceases to amaze me that people are so ignorant as to not understand that guide dogs are allowed anywhere that their owner goes. I think that perhaps there needs to be some kind of education program/TV campaign run as this sort of thing is cropping up more and more frequently now. A lot of the incidences I have heard about are cultural issues - people need to learn that guide dogs are exempt from normal restrictions on domestic animals and they do not have the right to refuse entry. I agree - name and shame (and FINE!).

I would imagine that any kind of dry food or tinned food that you buy that's made for animal consumption is going to have some kind of extra ingredients in there to hold it all together, make it last (and probably, keep it cheap to make). Obviously if it was just fish with no additives or fillers, it would not keep too well in the bag on the shelf! If your vet is in agreeance and you are willing, maybe feeding actual fish might be the way to go until you have figured out what is triggering the allergies. Long term there may not be all the nutrients in there that he needs, but in the short term at least he might eat it and get some calories in him while you figure out what he can and can't tolerate. He must be losing condition fast if he isn't eating the special diet kibble.

Hopefully some medication and a snuggly warm coat/bed might help her a bit. It's a shame that your folks can't be a little bit more accomodating and allow her to be in the house now that she is older.

It's entirely possible. I tried bathing him with Aloveen and it seemed to give him some short term relief. I'll have to have a chat to the vet and see if we can work out what it is that is causing the problem.

He does have a noticably dryer coat than my other dog and I was thinking this might be an issue. I just hope that the heartworm preventer worked! That said, I have looked and looked and can't see any fleas on him, even though he scratches madly at night. I am beginning to suspect it may be allergies as he has a rash on his tummy (which I thought was from the phantom fleas). No Wandering Jew or anything like that in the garden. I really hope he's not allergic to grass or something really common.

OMG! Can you imagine poop smeared in crazy patterns all over the house! I'd want to smack the vacubot with a newspaper for that one!

I would also get a second opinion from a specialist before you do anything. I hate to say it, but vets are not infallible, and some are better than others. I once had one vet tell me I could pay $6000 for an op, or just put her to sleep as she most likely would not live longer than 6 weeks anyway. My own vet said it was worth a shot as she was young and otherwise healthy and did the op for $1800 and she's alive and well 4 years later. I'm so glad I got a second opinion!

Me too! And not without good reason, I think.

Maybe you could start getting him used to wearing a coat for when the cold really kicks in. As long as he has somewhere out of the wind to sleep and lots of comfy bedding etc I'm sure he'll be fine. BTW...are you sure he isn't whining while he's out there and that you just can't hear him indoors? You could always consider crate training him so he can be inside at night when the weather isn't good if you are worried - although it does mean a few whiney nights!

I've done his bed, but not the yard - maybe that's the problem. I might ask at the vet about when he can take Comfortis as he's only 5 months old and see about getting another spot on to use in a week or so. I'm not sure about using another dose of the Advocate as it has heartworm medication in there as well. Comfortis works really well for our other dog so I'll switch him to that as soon as I'm able.

I want one of these sooooo badly. Sadly, my husband thinks that they are stupid. But then again, he doesn't do the vacuuming or even understand why I feel it is necessary to run over the floors every day just to keep on top of all the hair from two dogs and two kitties. Maybe I'll get super lucky for Mother's Day?

Is it possible that fleas can build up a resistance to Advocate? I recently treated my pup with Advocate and it just has not seemed to work. I was careful not to bath him for a week beforehand, and 5 days later he has a few fleas on him again. I really don't want to dose him up again with another spot on until the recommended time between treatments has elapsed, but I don't feel that I can leave him without any relief as he is very itchy and uncomfortable. The vet thinks he may have a flea allergy as he has a rash on his belly. Any ideas of what I could use? Would a flea wash be overkill on top of the spot on?

My older dog wasn't crate trained, so is used to being outside if we are out (not at night though). Now that he's a bit older, I've been letting our beagle cross pup outside during the day if I go out as well and he seems to love it out there. He frequently goes out to play during the day for short periods while we are home now as well. I'm sure your Beagle will be fine as long as he's got respite from the weather and plenty of water and toys :)

A lot of people have no idea what a Weimaraner is. I tell them she looks a bit like a German Shorthaired Pointer, only grey. If I still get confused looks, I say she's the same breed as the dogs that talk on Sesame Street. And yes, her eyes are meant to be that colour!

He looks kind of happy to me. Perhaps he's excited by the thought of tasting the giant orange taco hat? :p

I don't use chemicals unless necessary- if I find a flea on one of the dogs or they even look itchy I pull out capstar and go into a cleaning frenzy. Fleas are too scared to even come within nibbling distance of my pooches!! I have seen flea infestations- hell I did have one 4 years ago myself and used spot ons but it wasn't until I vacuumed the house to within an inch of falling down and did crazy things like mowing then using flea powder and keeping dogs off it for 24hrs that the problem got sorted!! Fleas are horrid but don't automatically think that being anti-chemical means that they are going to let their dog suffer either. Heartworm preventatives are something I don't mess around with- 18th of every month like clockwork. I do think appropriate grooming is an important part of dog ownership- a dog so matted it can barely walk while the owners are doing renovations and 'forgot' about it?? You don't need to have it look amazing but not matted, clean and an appropriate length are musts!! I don't routinely use flea control chemicals either. If I see a flea on her, I'll treat her but otherwise I would rather that she wasn't coated in chemicals/ingesting chemicals if it's not required. As for responsible dog ownership, I think that in a nutshell we have a responsibility to meet the nutritional, medical, grooming, exercise, training and companionship needs of our chosen breed and to ensure that others are not negatively impacted by our dog in any way.

I would hope that they don't "live" in there...but the crates seem reasonably clean and the dogs look OK at a glance. I am a fan of crating for short periods or overnight, but I don't think that dogs should be spending the majority of their waking day in one. There must be more to the story than we are being told - or at least I hope so!

I taught "sit" in two days with a few minutes here and there several times a day and reinforce it by getting him to sit for his dinner, a treat, a game etc. I'm not a dog trainer though - maybe you could ask in the training section for more advice on structured training? I'm not sure what the overall opinion on kikopup's videos is here, but I personally find them very helpful.

When the owner hasn't seen either parent and the dog has no papers, there's really no way of knowing. I've seen some so called designer dogs at puppy school who really don't look much like either of their supposed parents yet their owners still insist on calling them a Maltese/Shih Ztu, Pom-oodle or whatever. I think there's some kind of deep seated need in humans to have accurate labels for everything. Plus when you have spent $900 on a puppy, you don't want to have to tell people that you actually have "some kind of crossbreed"!.

I know Nekhbet, my two hadn't been washed in about 3 months :laugh: My GSD only gets an Annual bath, each Summer. But lots and lots and lots of grooming. :) I wish I could get away with that! Mine doesn't get dirty as such, but her coat gets quite oily after about 3 weeks. If I don't keep her squeaky clean she leaves a mark on the rugs in her favorite spots!

I guess that you need to do some research first and find one that is in line with your beliefs about positive/negative reinforcement etc. The one that I went to was good in terms of watching how the dogs interacted (we had a boisterous Bull Arab cross and a tiny fragile Italian Greyhound in together!) and very strict with vaccinations. The only thing that I felt could be improved would perhaps be an outline of class etiquette for dogs and owners at the first lesson. I would have loved for the first thing we learned how to have been how to train our dogs to sit quietly without bothering people/dogs/barking etc so that we could focus on what was being said. This wasn't covered at all - consequently spent about 80% of the class trying to get my dog under some semblance of control while neighboring pups were on long leashes jumping all over him and me with no attempt to stop them by their owners. I missed a lot of info that way and found it incredibly annoying. There was also a lot of very obvious promotion for products sold at their store as well. The course was good though, and I'll be taking my dog back for the next level soon.