Erny

Hugh Wirth's little pearly expressions of 'wisdom' always leave me cynical enough to disbelieve them first, before I'd be game to believe them. He has a track history that's earnt him lack of credibility amongst many. If he turned around and said "PPCollars - aka prong collars - are great" I think I'd begin to question even my own belief of the good of that training aid .

Is the "Frankie" that has been mentioned? (YouTube)

Eg : You say "sit", she 'woofs'. Give NRM turn your back and walk away, ignoring her completely for the next little while (a couple of minutes should do). Repeat. Eg : You go to the door, she barks. Give NRM and walk away with a "all bets off" attitude and ignore her. Repeat. Eg : She starts barking at other dogs, increase her distance away from them. She's quiet, walk towards them. She barks, turn around and increase distance. Eg : Stop giving her a biscuit before bed. Randomise your patterns - this will help break-down her ability to anticipate. Obviously your goal is to catch a 'win' wherever and as soon as you can as often as you can, so you can begin to show her that it is the barking that is the unwanted component of her behaviour and that it is this behaviour that loses her reward. So if you do say "sit" and she begins the sit without a 'woof', mark it with "yes" and reward. Even if you've marked the sit a bit earlier than you would (eg. she hasn't quite sat), just for the sake of showing her the rewards come for the no barking. You could also practice "TOT" - this will help in working up her concentration and focus which in turn should assist with teaching her not to bark through/during commands. My boy has just begun the barking when I give a command - only when he's full-on excited. He's fairly advanced in his command obedience training, so I do multiples of position changes and continue with that a bit until he gives me one position compliance without a bark, then I'm releasing and rewarding.

+ 1

That's great, Nicole75, and how it should be. Regardless of where the trainers' education base lays, PPS is pretty much predominantly if not wholly 'positive' methods. If the trainer knows what they are doing and about in relation to puppy psych (and the usual developmental issues that accompanies that), and have good intelligence about how to structure their classes so that there is minimum stress on any of the pups (nor, hopefully, on the handlers) then all should be good. Continue to enjoy your pup and PPS .... in a blink of an eye, pup won't be so "puppy" anymore.

Means "short and square".

Photo directly side on would be helpful too. He doesn't look too bad by that photo, even though it's not completely looking straight down, but because of the angle I can't see if he has a waste. Can you feel his ribs when you firmly but lightly run your hands along his sides?

Wouldn't the 'tacking' of a pup's stomach to the abdominal wall be affected by growth? Probably a stupid question and the answer is probably "they do it and there's been no problems" but I'm just curious. Or is it about 'where' they tack it, that it is unaffected also by growth?

That's great, Tyler23. But what are you going to do to properly address the runny stools?

You're right, Staranais. I remember I had to send in 3 stool samples (one from each day) for the Vets to check for Giardia (my avatar girl, bless her cotton socks). It was confirmed positive. She had come to me with a huge infestation and we had to medicate over a period of time and send in periodic stool samples for checking, before we finally managed a zero count.

I wouldn't be administering any wormers or any other chemical if it were me. If it is not giardia or worms that is the cause of the problem, if it is a tummy bug, say ..... then you wouldn't be helping your dog's system by feeding drugs that are not necessary. They could even serve to irritate your dog's guts further. Just my opinion.

Similar to Caslero .... I put aloe vera on my boy's pads (the reason is another story) and he enjoys licking it off. So I put some on his muzzle/nose as well. That tends to distract him away from his feet and by the time he's finished licking his nose he's quite often forgotten about his feet. I agree with Caslero - try walking him out to see if that will distract him enough. But if that won't stop his tongue licking the stuff off, try putting something on (eg) his foreleg instead (I mean, something that you know is ok to lick). Perhaps it might serve to keep his tongue busy enough until he's forgotten about the stuff on his nose?

Best wishes from me and that out of this the news isn't as bad as you are expecting.

Thank you, Rat . Yes, it's "ears" week this week, LOL. He is so much better with it though and I can get it done in a trounce. There's still a bit of black gunk floating around and I try to cotton ball that away. He was doing a fair amount of head flapping yesterday and I think it's due to remaining gunk loosening up and coming away. His ears are certainly better than they were when I started. The last application is due on this coming Sunday morning and I'm hoping to be able to see them nice and clean by then. If they aren't quite as clean as I think they should be, I'll speak to the naturopath. I warmed up another bone last night and he had a fine time chewing on it. More teeth cleaning . Thanks for thinking of us and asking, Rat. What about yours? Is he still 'off' chicken wings? Or was that only temporary? (I think that was you, wasn't it? :D)

... Was going to say something else, but the hopelessness the Government and Councils cause a person just take the wind right out of my sails. So glad for this guy that he got his dog back. And in the interim of that, the dog's in the pound system stressing. Yeah .... that's really great for animal welfare. And not to even mention the stress and impact on the owner's health the whole fiasco would have caused him. Nice looking dog ;) Whoever that was, good on 'em :D and well done :cool: .

Yes there are, but IMO you'd be wise to have a professional diagnose and prescribe, rather than try things out yourself, for the fear of potentially upsetting even more. I didn't look to see where you are, but there is a naturopath that I take my boy to here in Melbourne, Victoria. I think I'd still be inclined to have a Vet look at a stool sample, at least to rule out something like (eg) parasite infestation though. You don't have to agree to the administration of drugs if that's what you're trying to avoid, but at least you might come away with knowing some idea of whether this is a tummy bug or something else. 'Having said that' (to coin a phrase that I use but am not fond of :D) I have heard that there is a tummy bug going around and about in the south-eastern suburbs Melbourne at the moment. Trouble is that if diarrhoea is not remedied promptly, it can irritate the stomach and bowel even further than it already is, potentially causing other problems, so you want to get on to this reasonably soon. Persistent diarrhoea, apart from being indicative that something is wrong (which can include even things such as the dog ingesting something he shouldn't have - parts of a toy/ball etc - not saying this is the case though), can also lead to anal gland problems. Giving a pro-biotic can be helpful in some cases, but don't spend too long experimenting. I would think that the smell of his stool in the crate would be more overpowering simply for the fact that it is in an enclosed space (ie a room) as opposed to outdoors. ETA: Just noted you're in NSW so I wouldn't be able to assist with referral recommendations.

You would most likely know that once you've seen the Vet. The part that is very odd is that you say that during the day his stools are normal (by that I presume you mean healthy looking). In the interim you might like to think about the "puppy pen attached to crate to make a yard" option that I mentioned. If he were in the room with you, perhaps you might have a better chance of hearing him move around (which of course he'd need to do to wake up and go to the toilet). The more often you leave this where he has no option other than to soil his crate, the higher the possibility is that he can become accustomed to doing so. Apart from that, it's not nice for the dog.

No, I definitely wouldn't do that either. I don't know why this would be occurring only at night time, but seeing as it is on-going I agree that it is probably time for a Vet check. Take a stool sample with you in case the Vet suggests he'd like (?) to examine it. Is his crate where he sleeps somewhere near you, where if he were making a noise to suggest he needed to 'go' there'd be a chance you'd wake up? Poor fella - he obviously abhors the fact that he's soiled his bedding .

I'm with you on that one, Staranais. I'm sure the Grandfather feels dreadful on all accounts. I don't understand how or why people have to have everything explained to them though. It should be common sense. It used to be. Where did it go? Ummm ... the point of fining the Grandfather for his dog being unregistered (other than revenue for the Council) being? I hope that whatever the Council decides to prosecute for, they donate the money back into the toddler's rehabilitation.

I second Staranais' comment - it is a nice write up and quite startling to see so many of the commonly understood recommendations being challenged as myth. Interesting, well written and you obviously put a fair amount of work into it, AtD.

Good luck PM. Hope she shows nothing particularly serious and recovers quickly .

Can I just debate/discuss a bit here, please? With the "3yo dog" who'd "only had the initial puppy shots" ..... I presume you would have no way of knowing whether or not he had sufficient antibodies from the sero-conversion (not sure if I'm using the right jargon in the right context - apologies if I'm not) we presume he would have got from the puppy shots? I mean, just because dogs are vaccinated doesn't mean they won't contract parvo. I guess the same goes for those dogs who you might consider to have "not completed" puppy vaccs (eg. 2 x vacc instead of 3 x vacc). How did the 3yo fair?

Did the Vet look at stool samples, checking for worm burden count, giardia, or the like? What did the Vet check for?

Yes - I noticed that 3AW was talking about the "parvo outbreak" yesterday. Don't exactly know what they said, only that Neil Mitchell kept saying the topic was "coming up". I arrived at an appointment just before it was about to come on. But my (cynical) thoughts did drift to it being a marketing opportunity being made the most of.

Just a question, but the news about the parvo outbreak (headlined and/or implied 'parvo on the increase' ) ..... could it be because of this "Disease Watchdog" that the stats are now able to be collected? What I mean is, perhaps parvo is not particularly more than what it might have been in the past (not to suggest that makes it no less alarming) but it appears to be more due to the gathering of the stats via Disease Watchdog?