cali

I've had vets tell me when my dogs are a good weight, and too thin...I have NEVER had a single vet say a word when one is chubby. heck my Aussies foster was a vet tech and she was trying to pack MORE pounds on her, she is a sausage, no waist whatsoever and no ribs to be found! she is on a diet lol. I have never had a vet not take note of weight, they just don't say anything when its too high...but always comment when I come back and I got the weight off but along the lines of "oh s/he has lost weight since last here..was that intentional? " "yup s/he was fat" "oh ok, excellent" and that's the end of it.

oh I still remember an old client at the kennel. she had an american cocker spaniel and that dog was FAT. he struggled to move and breath. she would tell people he eats "2 cups a day" that what she would write on her intake paperwork etc... she would then provide the "cup"....a big gulp slurpee cup. I measured it out out, each big gulp cup held SIX cups of kibble yup this lady was feeding a little american cocker 12 cups of kibble a day, PLUS unlimited treats AND according to her family members- bacon and eggs every morning for breakfast. that dog had health issues coming out of his ears, he was never not on a million medications for all his skin issues. every time the dog boarded we confiscated the big gulp cup and stuck an 8 oz measuring cup in her dogs food container lol. during a 3 month stay, her family members and neighbours(the fatness culprit was the lady, all the other family members knew the dog was fat and wanted him slimmed down) worked together and came to us to slim the dog down while they were away, he got exercise at the kennel plus neighbours took turns coming by and taking him for walks, his food was cut to 2 actual cups a day etc.. he was still fat when he left, but he had the ability to trot! I haven't seen the dog since, I am sure the lady wasn't happy with the collaboration, but I hope the family and neighbours managed to get through to her a little

unfortunately the type of people you describe don't give a hoot if their dogs weight affects their health. they consider ideal to be unhealthy and treat you like the devil for trying to tell them otherwise. I have this issue myself! I have a dog on trial right now and she is at LEAST 10lbs overweight, all the girls at work think her weight is perfect and that being able to find a dogs ribs is "disgusting". drives me nuts! I just go roundabout, I will give the fat dog rubs while cooing "aww, whos a little mc fatty pants" at the dog lol

I have clear breed bias' however when other dogs come up I am fine with straying from that. for example I am all about border collies so when I lost one I started looking specifically for another BC...and I am currently trying out an Aussie instead lol. I will always own BCs, I am very loyal to them, but I have no issue with having other breeds as well.

I have to say, vets don't really up sell to me... quite the opposite, they assume I have no money and only offer the cheapest option lol its actually kind of annoying because I do my research first and I want to follow a specific path, but they don't even offer it to me because it isn't the cheapest option so I have to talk it out of them..which I really hate because I am a very shy person! I was going back and forth between 2 vets for a while, and I have been slowly pushing all my stuff back to the first clinic I was using, I am just dropping that second clinic entirely after I lost Misty. the first clinic is NOT cheap, but they are great, they don't push anything, they suggest things that they think may HELP, but go through everything it would entail and don't talk down to me if its not an option for me. they know I prefer a holistic approach, and they know I do my own research first so they always ask me what I have already tried and what effect it had etc.. the second clinic is way cheaper and very convenient(its walk in) but they have 1. ignored my serious concerns in favour of the less serious ones(ie "he has diarrhoea, he is collapsing at random, and having seizures" "oh he has diarrhoea? ok, give him this enzyme" "uhhh what about the rest of it?" "ya ya, whatever, diarrhoea, he will OK") 2. told me it was critical my dog get $1000 surgery immediately, took her to vet #1 for a second opinion, was told she MIGHT need surgery but to try "this" first..it worked.(to be fair, the vet was not a holistic one, and the what I was told to try first by my preferred vet was a holistic approach) 3. kept my dog over night after surgery when she was doing better, refused to allow us to bring her home despite admitting nobody it at the clinic overnight, we finally gave in and she suffered a graft failure overnight while nobody was there.

not really, I work in a kennel, I get my dog fix all day every day lol

I don't mind to a point, but honestly people have held me up for OVER AN HOUR, I cant get away, people will quite literally follow me, turn around and chase me down..run out of their houses and across the street, stop their cars in the middle of streets, I was once ambushed by FIVE bus loads of kids outside a school, I was rescued by some teachers! I have tried to take my dogs for a quick run at a field 5 blocks away and taken over an hour to get there because of people stopping me for my dogs. and that is a benefit of Gypsy...she bites. so I don't keep that a secret, as soon as someone tries to talk to me I pull the "Gypsy card" and say "sorry, this one isn't friendly and I don't want anyone to get hurt" and I keep going. I still get weirdo's who chase me down, but playing the Gypsy Card still gets me out faster..except for one lady... I will take very bizarre routes to avoid passing her house because she runs out of her house and chases me down, and will follow me when I try to leave, she will hold me up for a good 30 min or so..usually when I am actually in a hurry lol

I put away $100/paycheck (2-3/month) but I have 8 dogs.. I also dont use it for general expenses, I use it for emergencies and training/trialling fees.

Rustys-newspaper (he marks in his crate) everyone else- either a bed or a big blanket no toys or anything....they are only locked in the crates if nobody is home (rare) otherwise they just chill in them whenever they choose. I will add that all but of my my crates is a plastic airline crate, so no covers. the one wire crate is not covered, its wire because its Gems and she freaks out in enclosed spaces.

ahem "Saskatchewan" lol sorry, pet peeve, I live there ;) I don't know a lot about LGD's either, sounds cool though lol. I can totally understand the need for that though, Saskatchewan is populated almost entirely in the the south, up north where this is, its pretty much wilderness with native reserves. there are packs of wolves and coyotes, as well as good size populations of bears, cougars, linx etc.. a whole lot of predators and very little human disturbance to keep them wary. down here in southern Sask. we have coyotes mostly and a small population(300)of cougars. Coyotes are the biggest threat. most of the farmers have Meremma, Pyr's or Kuvasz.

you may know already but their is actually ongoing research into EIC in BCs right now (known as BCC or border collie collapse) its been an ongoing study for a good year now. TBH I had never even heard of it until I saw the plea for samples for the study on the US working border collie club site lol

client at work-dog went home after 2 weeks having lost a little weight and had no food left- "I KNOW my dog, he has separation issues, he does NOT eat without me there so what did you do with his food? huh?" followed by some sweet talking "its OK if he didn't eat, I know my dog, I know he doesn't eat, I just want some honesty here" erm...he ATE his food, hate to break it to you dude, but your dog didn't miss you! he couldn't eat fast enough! yes your dog lost weight...your dog had free running and playing on an acre for 5 hours a day for 2 weeks and you refused extra food(which we recommend for this reason) because you "know your dog and he doesn't eat" lol what in the world would be the purpose of lying and stealing his food? like seriously why would be bother? lol

I dunno that seems like a long time to me, that wouldn't fly here.... the kennel I work at...we leave the dogs from 9pm to 6am(with cctv)and lots of people won't leave their dogs with us(despite preferring us for other services) because they consider that too long, so they go to small 24hr supervision kennels instead. I can't even imagine the kind of flack a kennel would get around here that left the dogs for 14 hours! I wouldn't be comfortable with it at all.

there is a reason I don't have pet insurance lol. everyone always says "just pop it on your credit card"....I dunno who all these folks are with such high credit limits, but my limit is $1000 and I was lucky to get that much given every single other cc company gave me an outright "forget it". apply for credit cards, see what you can get, but I suggest a savings account for emergencies as well.

-big -healthy-not prone to allergies, and join issues -extremely active -good with small animals -good with all dogs -reserved, 1 person dog, no lab type temperments -able to relax when not enganged, I can't stand boxer/vizla/weim types, full body contact sort of energy -tight lips, I despise drooly -coat short and thick, or if longer, shaveable without wrecking the coat really.. a giant border collie would be my dream dog lol

it gets really cold over here in the winter and these make fabulous training rewards in the cold, trying to fumble with regular treats with mitts on is kinda hard lol and without mitts you can't move your fingers. before these things came about we solved it by rewarding with PB on a wooden spoon but that would cause some dogs to stop all the time. lickity sticks are like the perfect alternative lol

I am Rusty's heart person..the feeling is not mutual lol. Rusty bounced around to a lot of different homes, and he had no problem just picking up and starting over just as in love with the new family and he was with the last, sometimes he would run away, find a new family and join them instead. then he found me...I never wanted him..heck he was he was the first stray/foster(he was a stray, found his owners, learned his history, but they ended up unable to keep him, and he became my foster) I took in that I DIDN'T want to keep. problem was, everytime I tried to re-home him, he came back to me within 8-10 hours. I dunno what happened to this "I'll take anyone" attitude he used to have, but he wont even run away anymore unless its to come to me. I've learned to love him, but I didn't chose him and would not have chosen him, I just gave up trying to get ride of him lol.

I cant see how moving on if they dont comply would teach the dog anything aside from "if I dont wanna, just ignore her" I wait for compliance(dog on leash so they cant just leave) when the know what the command means, I give the command and stare at them until they comply, the SECOND full compliance is achieved its a party. they learn soon enough that the faster they comply, the faster they get the reward.

I just taught a super solid down in general, treat the second she hits the deck and practice in general life, she's bouncing around playing? "down" she hits the deck she gets a treat then carries on playing, out for a walk? leisurely walk "down", reward and carry on with the walk, she is so hyper in-tuned with my down commands that she will hit the deck instantly at the slightest cue in any situation or exercise you could think up.

pit bulls can't even hold a candle to the number of cattle dogs and cattle dog mixes in rescue around here, like 1 pit for every 20 cattle dogs.

pretty rare here in western Canada, average person has never heard of them, and showline is totally noneexistant however there is actually quite a few working ones on ranches, they just hardly ever make it into other hands and when they do, they have no idea they own a kelpie lol

I would take a before pic, then groom it. that's what I have always done, and honestly that is exactly what my local shelter does, dog comes in desperately needing groomed, and they shave the dog upon intake..not WELL, but they shave it lol I have never had anyone upset that I groomed their dog, usually they are just embarrassed that they let their dog get in a condition in which a perfect stranger felt the need to groom the dog!

Mercy Hambidge... I think I would rather make something up from thin air lol

Rusty, Happy, Misty and Gypsy eat BARF(home made) at home and some kind of nutri source grain free kibble for meals at work, with the exception of Happy who eats something canned at work. why? they do extremely well on raw, the kibble/canned at work is for convenience purposes only. Baby dog eats Presidents choice grain free salmon and potato mixed with canned fish why? she has a million allergies, literally the only thing she can eat is fish(but no shellfish) and SOME veggies. and its not just the proteins of the animals she is allergic to either, she cant eat ANY part of the animal, she is 30lbs, I gave her treat the size of my thumb nail, very basic treats, made up of only stuff she could eat...except for chicken fat, but I figured "how much could there be in a treat that size? surly THAT wont be a problem" I was wrong...she spent the entire night gnawing her paws. ya, I don't feel comfortable trying to balance a raw diet with so few options, so I set out to find a kibble...and let me tell you, its NOT easy! everyone ruins it by adding chicken fat or eggs or a shellfish derived supplement to what would otherwise be perfect. this food is one of the very few options I have come across. Gem eats Orijen 6 fish mixed with canned fish why? like Baby dog, allergies. not as severe though, Gem just licks her paws if she eats too much of something else. I have tried lots of different things with her, this is the only thing she both doesn't lick her paws and has solid poo's on.

step In harness' for my dogs that didn't have one and a $120 vet bill for Baby dog (exam and allergy meds) :p