Christina

Not sure if you need to, make make no difference to some mishaps. I do it as I can't relax if I am not close by & wake up at the slightest squeak. Would feel awful if something happened, not sure what, & I was fast asleep & unaware. Depends on the breeders nature as much as the dog size really, mine are toy breed.

Coopex from fodder stores. Its a powder you dilute in water & spray on the ground. $10 a packet & it tells you on the packet the area it will cover. Cant remember but it wont cost hundreds or anything near to do 5 acres. Good stuff, very effective & wont make the dogs ill.

Clipping the coat off will have absolutely no effect on it growing back. It does not affect the hair follicles under the skin which make the coat grow. Kindest option. The only way to remove knots is to comb & brush through inch by inch. Matts have to be shaved off. An long ordeal for the dog & will hurt. Hope they clip it & have more sense in future caring for the coat.

Far too much intervention. Survival of the fittest is wise. Only one ceasarian here, desexed the dog. Any that are not free whelping, good mothers or have a problem with mating I don't breed from. AI is fine for use re distance problems but if a dog does not want to mate, given a choice of stud, as they may for some unknown reason just refuse some, it is usually for a good reason. Which we may not know. Sup feeding puppies that are struggling is another thing. It is very hard to just sit back & watch nature take its course, so I don't & help as much as I can. Also think there seems to be more info etc about it all now not because more goes wrong, its just easier with modern technology to share experiences & we so expect everything now to go perfectly & smoothly or get someone to fix it quick. They seemed more sort of stoic & matter of fact about it all years ago. Unlike me who remembers the vets number quicker than my sons number.

Your traumatic experience would have put me off too, very scary & understandable. I do it with passion. These breeds would die out if breeders did not breed. It has to be your thing really. Love & tolerance of animals, the births, joys & inevitable losses, which by the law of averages & nature will occur. Not many losses or much going wrong, apart from the minor, for me but if I lost a whole litter that may put me off. I have almost given up several times. Reasons are difficulty finding healthy breeding lines. Breeding cats too I have desexed so many after one litter. Know my poodle lines history much better. Finding homes is the other thing. So many weird/unsuitable enquiries/people. Many wonderful ones too who keep in touch & ask for another baby which helps heaps but I worry so much about how they are in life. The worst for me is letting them go. 2 bad experiences. A kitten I flew back to me, which I saw advertised on the net interstate & knew it was one of mine. Lucky I saw it & got it back. The other one was so upsetting but the cat is fine & by luck landed in the home of one of my vet nurses by amazing twist of fate. Was going to be PTS as the daughter wanted a rabbit They could have brought it back to me as I state in care sheet that I do a lifetime re home. This has put me right off & I have desexed the cats, my GR CH too, as I was getting the most stupid enquiries for this particular breed. Thought I could pick the unsuitable & turned 6 down for 1 cat, but shaken my faith that I got this one so wrong. Breeding, whelping, medical issues, the mess & fun are the easy parts for me its the responsibility of ensuring a good home thats the hard part. Many keep in touch for a long time but not all.

All puppies & kittens, as I breed cats & dogs, are desexed before they go to their new homes. Done by a vet experienced in early desexing this is such a simple operation at this age. Only knocked out for a very short time, one stitch & coming home like they have not had anything done at all. Much easier on them than at 6 months or more. Mine are done at a kilo minimum weight, vet wont do it under that. Usually around the 10 to 12 week mark. There are many varying opinions on the subject, one being that growth/muscle may be affected. For a toy breed this is hardly a matter for consideration. So your boy may, or not, grow taller, maybe half an inch. Will you notice ? Every entire male I have ever had has peed & marked their territory. Every desexed boy I have had has not done this. The choice is yours. I desex early for different reasons than you would however I would not do it if I considered it detrimental to their long term health. I doubt that my vet would either. The validity of pros & cons is not proven entirely either way. Cat breeders have been early desexing for many years & are all for it. Dog breeders are the opposite. I would wait until he is just over the kilo & around 11 or 12 weeks ( 8 weeks is too young) & go ahead. He will be absolutely fine.

I don't do it because quite simply I don't know how. Would not be happy learning from a video but would try if my vet showed me how & it was needed, which depends on the circumstances at the time really. I would be nervous but if it saves a viable life fine. Syringed & bottle fed a puppy which died at 17 days, never put weight on so something bad wrong but success with a kitten born at 50 grammes, sinking fast & no interest in food from mum. 2 others died & 2 were fine & fed. Fed hourly for 3 days 24/7 & then 2 hourly for 3 days 24/7 so knowing how to tube feed would have been less exhausting on us both I guess. Lack of sleep was awful. She is a beautiful 4 years old now, no health problems & lives with me. My precious girl was so worth it

If this is a life long problem for your dog I would get a bobcat in, have the whole garden ripped out & the surface removed down to a few inches. Weedkiller & start the whole garden again. Costly & drastic but so is your dog being on treatment & injections all its life. I had this done with 600 square metres at the back of my block that is fenced off. It had those giant cactus that are like lethal weapons, heaps of them. Cost $1,700 but was worth it. Not done garden there yet but the chickens love it.

How awful for you & your dog. I can only say that whatever you decide to do, do it before your baby is born. My friends daughter was in the same position with 2 large breed rescue dogs she had for about 5 years. Good with her, OH & adults but not children & never 100% trustworthy. Coming home with new baby & entering the house the dogs reacted very badly, full on attack, & were PTS shortly after. She suffered post natal depression & took the loss of the dogs, who were absolutely spoilt & loved, so badly. I am not suggesting your dog would react so drastically, probably wouldn't, & I hope things work out but what I mean is that birth messes with the hormones so much & when baby is here it gets confusing, so try & sort it out now. Best of luck for a happy outcome.

I think it is laziness. Would be with any of mine. Owners get a grooming instruction sheet, a big lecture, I mean talk,a demonstration if needed, an offer to teach to clip, home visit if problem, a pup that has been brushed daily from week 5, bathed weekly & had a couple of clips. Yes they do sometimes still kick up a bit for a while, others are really good. So For those who dont get all this info they should still realise you can't just leave it, even if they just brush it & give it a home haircut with the scissors & keep it tidy, or phone & ask someone how to do it. When little puppy is all over & growling, biting & being a pain in the butt do they think I will put it in the groomers & it will all be magic ? Some groomers with good handling skills & patience will manage & train. Some pups are not so brave out of their environment with owner absent & may be good, But some pups get hysterical & get a rough, cranky, impatient groomer who is time stressed & thinks they will make it behave, no matter how. Some get a terrible hard time, using methods that would not get RSPCA, or anyones, approval & stupid owner goes to collect a done puppy with a waggy tail, which is probably Thank god you are here & have saved me. Having no idea of the crap the dog has gone through. A dog that is used to grooming gets it better all round. People really need to think, Its not rocket science to figure out. Long hair, needs brushing & attention in some form. Find out. shouldn't look.

This whole subject just pisses me right off, a lot, I don't swear very often. Apart from the lies from DD sellers are people so focused on the cute factor that common sense does not tell them that if a dog has anything more than a short coat, pedigree or mutt, that it is going to need attention ? Don't they think ? Unless its a really big dog 5 or 10 minutes a day brushing, or alternate days & trimmed to a manageable length is all it takes. I have seen them so bad that blood runs from the flea infestation when they are in the bath. Matted so much they can't stretch the back legs properly. So bad you can't even tell what kind of a dog it is. Tails & ears indistinguishable from the body. Scruffy, filthy, miserable, smelly, sores & fleas & they don't even consider the stress on the dogs to sort this mess out. Why have a pretty, fluffy dog if you are going to let it look like this & can't be bothered with the short daily time to care for it. Cruel & stupid. Big rant over, just makes me so mad.

Yes you were. From your dog & the groomer. Your dog would have been very stressed. New environment, lots of dogs, owner absent, with a stranger doing things to it that it is not used to at all. Groomers may be lucky & the suprise/shock of all this & dog being unsure may make your dog more docile or it could go the other way, panic stricken. So what do you expect the groomer to do then ? The dog whisperer is a fantasy. They can only do so much & in a way be glad the dog came back the way it did. Think about this. Restraining & handling to the best of their ability is as much as they should do. If the dog behaved like an idiot & came back perfect one would have to wonder at the methods used to achieve this miracle. Training your dog to accept bathing/grooming etc is your responsibility the same as you would teach your children to accept bathing/ haircuts etc. Sorry for unsympathetic reply but its as I see it. You have work to do with your dog.

Great breed choice of puppy for your family. Photos soon please You will find a mountain of advice on dogs/ training/ problems etc. Remember that people have varying methods & expectations from their dogs so sift through & see what seems the most sensible to you & your needs. Also a method may work well on one dog & not suit another dog. So common sense & observation. Some people for instance don't allow dogs on furniture & beds which does not bother me at all, as long as they are 6 months + & won't injure themselves. Small breeds require more supervision re jumping. My only advice is Train your children. They are not used to having a dog so you will have to educate them & make sure puppy is safe when they have friends over. Small puppies can't run with the crowd.

Puppies should not be left with the runs more than 24 hours & need to see a vet as they can dehydrate very quickly. Chicken & boiled rice for 24 hours & if its not cleared. Vet. Sick pups should not be desexed. So maybe change that desexing appointment into a consult instead.

Go for it. You may love the look & the dog won't care about its hair style. If you don't like it it will grow back. Cutting or clipping hair does not ruin the coat. It does not affect the hair follicle from which the hair grows so it will grow back just fine if you don't like it. Nice quick baths & grooms for summer. Post a pic if you have it done

Yellow/brownish sounds the wrong colour. Take him for a vet check if it comes back again. I don't clip all the hair off the penis, don't think its a good idea, just trim any long dangly hair, but some groomers do. Maybe he was clipped a bit close ?

Awww, adorable. Made me

I wouldn't leave any animal out in this, its horrendous & the temperatures are only accurate right near the city. I am an hours drive from the city centre & it was 42 degrees in my garden yesterday & is 40 now. Also if he gets bitten by a snake, & they are rife & nasty at present, average time before death for a dog is 20 minutes. Leave him inside, bathroom, passageway, kitchen etc. Better to be cramped & make a bit of a mess & be safe & cooler. Adelaide summers are awful & getting worse.

Neither have mine. These chemicals can be extremely toxic & are absorbed into the bloodstream. Toy breeds do seem to have reactions more than larger dogs. One time when my new kitten arrived by plane from interstate we got her home & out of the carrier & gave her a cuddle. I immediately broke out in huge welts & my son had an asthma attack. I rang the breeder & found she had been sprayed with Frontline the morning of the flight. Guess that was the problem. A bath in a diluted solution of Martha Gardeners woolwash, a dry & a thorough inspection then a comb through with a nit comb, then an ear clean out in case they have crawled in their during the bath, is all I have ever done for rescues & it works fine. I do hope your poor dog recovers ok. You were doing what you thought was the right thing. More controls/testing needed over these things.

What on earth is the point of leaving a dog overnight in a strange place where there are no people to look after it ? Unless something goes amiss its a straightforward routine procedure where the dog is only knocked out for a very short time. All my puppies & kittens get desexed before they leave me & all my adult cats & dogs are desexed when I no longer breed from them. Never been asked to leave them overnight. Some of the older female cats suffer some discomfort & are much less stressed & happier coming home as soon as possible, where they are kept warm & quiet & the printed instructions re post op care from the vet are very clear. I would not leave my animals overnight unattended for anything.

Letting puppy sleep in your bed does not mean it will always want to. My tiny breed cant at first in case they injure themselves but later they can. Once the pup is settled at home he will sleep anywhere in the house without a fuss.

Lots of puppies cry when they 1st leave mum & the other pups. Foolproof cure is to let them sleep in your bed. Instant peace. If you dont want to do this sleep your puppy some where warm & comfortable. There are pillows you can buy with a heartbeat sound in them that is said to comfort them initially or put him close to you in a pen or large crate so you can comfort him, but that may make him worse & cry for your attention. Depends if you mind & how rigid you want to be. All normal for this to happen, usually stops after a few nights.

Vet checked generally means the puppy is taken to the vet & has eyes, ears, heart/lungs, mouth/teeth, temp, testicles on boys, patellas & a general feel all over the body etc. My vet does a printed list of what has been checked. Vet check does not mean specialist tests, its just a general health check. Eye clear certificate should be a piece of paper stating what has been tested for & the result.

Cute puppy you have there. It is not relevant what breed, where it came from, what age & the many other questions here. If you have a concern about your puppies health the vet is the person to go to. Whenever you get any new pet, stray, rescue, from a breeder or anywhere it is wise to go to your vet for a check up within a few days, whether there is a problem or not, & voice any concerns you may have if you have noticed anything amiss. For the price of a consult, which is not drastic, your pet will have heart, lungs, limbs, ears, mouth, eyes etc all checked over too. I hope your puppy is ok & the blood is a one off incident.

No one will ever convince me aggression is breed specific. It may often be the owners fault but sometimes it is not. I have owned a dalmation, a great dane, a doberman, several poodles & 2 chihuahuas. Only one of all of them had an aggression problem. The chihuahua. Despite experience, training & common sense & little problems with any other dog I have owned, he was a psycho little bugger no matter what. Turned & bit people once in a while despite being nice & having a fuss off them. No reason, no warning, Tried it with me but backed down, close though. He lived 16 years but only because he was so small & could be kept under reasonable control. If he had been a large dog it would have been goodbye for safety. Convinced me it is in the breeding not the breed, in some instances.