cowanbree

Roo as a breeder I would like to think I am considerably more careful in the placement of any puppy than a pet shot which ultimately is in the business for profit. Yes I require a questionnaire to be filled in and honestly it has saved many of my babies from going to totally unsuitable homes. My last litter for instance I had what sounded like a perfect home, farmlet, part time worker, previous shelties etc etc only to find that this person was actually a buyer for a pet shop. People lie and stretch the truth to get what they want and they are becoming increasingly sophisticated, even to the point of sending lovely families round to buy the pup when it is really being exported overseas. There are some nasty people out there and it is my job to do the best I can to ensure my babies don’t end up with one of them. I can only imagine that rescue people think exactly the same way and in actual fact I think I would be even fussier as in a lot of cases their dogs have already been let down by the human race

How old is he? All dogs desexed or not drop and my breed has a major drop at around 12mths, it grows back

It is coming more and more to light that what the bitches are fed does make a difference to the pups. I have a breeder friend who feeds all dogs Vit. C. Never had HD - in a breed which is not terribly prone to it, but there are quite a few incidences of it in the breed. . As I said previously I have had an entire litter that had HD. The dam of that litter was in whelp when I found out her entire previous litter was severely affected (and their sire wasn’t) I absolutely pumped the Vit C into that bitch and her resulting puppies and none of them have a score over the breed average. The bitch was later hip scored and had a huge score. The only other thing I changed was the first litter was partial BARF feed and the second litter was 95% dry fed.

I have to admit this is making me nervous. I am currently feeding Nutro lamb and rice and I am reading reports that Nutro dry is affected

The one time I encountered it I gave the pet people a full refund and as long as I was sure they hadn't done anything stupid like take the dog running from 6mths or feed rubbish food I would always refund. Having said that when I brought a bitch that had HD I didn't receive any refund

RE the fleas, I have used advantage on week old pups with no ill effect. If they were just newborn in a lot of cases you would only have to trrat Mum but in this case a wee dab each will sort out the fleas

Would it be any good for coated breeds such as shelties or would it cut the coat. I would love something for my oldies to strip out the dead undercoat but I wouldn't want to ruin the top coat

Firstly you would get a better response to this if you posted in the breeders section. When you say she doesn't have much milk how do you know? Are the puppies crying constantly? It takes 2 or 3 days for the milk to come in properly and until then they have the all important antibodies from mums first milk. Very important not to supplement unless you have to in those first days as they miss out on those antibodies and the puppies suckling is what stimulates the milk. I always weigh the puppies and if they are gaining weight just keep an eye on them, she won't have big udders like cows, in some cases mine have been flat as a pancake and fed 6 pups with no issues. Also unless your bitch is used to drinking milk I wouldn't feed it now as it tends to cause scouring. I have had more success with goats milk. There is a recipe to stimulate milk production but I can't quite remember it, am sure somebody else will shortly

The only time I have come close to losing my temper was when I was running Brody in test B obedience (2nd top test over here). We started the off lead and after I had walked a wee bit and was about to do a right turn I glanced down and Brody was still sitting at the start. After several extra commands he finally decided to come, lagged the entire round. He did the recall ok then when doing the dumbbell he went and lay down beside it and refused to move. he also broke his stays. He was a dog with a very determined personality and that particular day he had just decided no way. By the end of the day I was so furious with him I put him in the car and walked away until I calmed down. He provided considerable amusement for fellow exhibitors and the more they laughed the worse he played up At the time I was extremely angry but I now look back at that memory fondly and think yup that was my boy, when he was good he was very good but when he was bad he was really bad, no sense doing things by half. If things are not going well I tend to put the leads away and try again another days

As a breeder I stand behind my dogs 100% but I am afraid if I sold a dog that had a fall and injured her hip I would want proof it was a genetic disorder not just it may be. If the dog was fine at my house and you openly acknowledge she had an accident it sounds very suspicious as I am sure you can understand if you were looking at it from the other side

I did push her to far too fast, no doubt about it at all. It does sound like mine was a lot more frightened than yours. When the men began to feed her she was terrified but after a while she got better, same story for the men examining her. Looking back however I realise that she was getting used to that particular person rather than men in general and the next time I did it again she was no better. She is fine with men we know but strange men are very much a no no Honestly I have never struck anything like it. I have owned shelties for 20 years and never had issues like this before

I am not a trainer so I can only tell you what has happened in my case and the advice I have received after the fact. In my case Quest was utterly terrified of the men, although she was taking the food she was so frightened she was also wetting herself so although in reality nothing horrible happened it did in her mind. What I should have done was still take her with me but not place her in a situation where she is obviously stressed and not thinking. I should have waited until she was 100% comfortable being in the same room as strange men with them ignoring her, then get them to drop food by her still ignoring her, then feed her directly etc etc. Each time not placing her into a stressfull situation but taking it very slowly. I didn’t do that, I went from them feeding her directly to making her stand in the course of a fortnight as I wanted her back in the ring. Looking back I realize that if I had not rushed her for 6mths I wouldn’t have the issues I have now and believe me a “well” dog is a lot more important than missing a bit of showing. If I could go back and do it again I would run not walk to a professional trainer. Of course your dog may not be as bad as mine, Quest never had any issues prior to 9mths so this was all the result of a fear period handled wrongly

I failed to recognize that she was going through a fear period. This dog was a happy outgoing girl until 3 weeks prior to her first season when a judge whistled at her in the ring – no hint of any problem. What I should have done was pull her from the ring and leave her home, only socialise her in totally non stressful situation where people were ignoring her. I thought it was best to get her out and about. I spent hours approaching men asking them to feed her, at the time I thought this would make her associate men with positive rewards but in actual fact all it did was cement her fear. I then moved on to taking her to show training and making her stand, not nastily but insisting she stand and rewarding her for doing it. Her fear compounded from there, nothing nasty happened to her and there was no hint of any issues prior to 9mths. All I can say is that if I had left her home the fear would not have become a habit and once the hormones settled she would have forgotten her fright

I made my dog stand and basically did everything you have put in your e-mail and it made her 100 times worse. She is now male aggressive and will attack in the wrong situation. It started in the ring, I handled it totally wrong and it got a lot worse. I really would be talking to K9

I would advise you to contact K9. I had the exact same problem with my aussie just prior to her coming into season at 9mths. Apparently she was going through a fear period and I did everything wrong by taking her out and socializing her and attempting to make her stand. 2 years later she is now so terrified of males she will wet herself if I try make her stand and she is retired from the show ring. She was a happy outgoing girl prior to this. If I could go back I would spend the money and not muck round by myself until it was too late

I start with 1/4 tablet the night before for a 8kg sheltie but will go up to 1/2 tablet if that doesn't work. Dosage for an adult is 2, children 1

Sealegs is a human one. I have used it for years with no issues and I know plenty of other people who do too

Sealegs works wonder. 1/2 a tablet the night before and no issues, They do tend to grow out of it around 12-18mths

I am not a vet and do not take this advice as gospel but over the years coping with many dogs with heart issues I have not found any need to use anything other than Lasics (sp?) which removes the fluid from the heart and is dirt cheap. That has help tremendously and to be honest I have not found any of the other more expensive ones to make much difference. Certainly worth asking your vet if she really needs it, mine haven't been too bad just coughing and heart murmers

Would you take one that the vet has marked not due for vac for 3 years instead of annually

Obviously there are pros and cons to each option but in my reasonably extensive experience they tend to come back every time the dog recoats. My main issue with the operation is firstly there is a considerable time lag between when you first notice the eyelash and when it is operated on, the dogs is in pain the entire time, if you are plucking it out it takes 2 seconds. Secondly I can't justify putting the dog under anaesthetic for something like this. By plucking it out it will definately come back but once again quickly dealt with. I am not saying you have done the wrong thing by operating, I have heard of it working permanetly for some people

My experience with this has shown that the operations are seldom sucessful long term and you are far better off just plucking them out. Takes 2 seconds and is easily done

Me, had the cheap one but while it did the job it doesn't touch on the Dremel which takes about 1/4 the time. Make sure you go cordless, worth every cent

What is the vet saying? Does he think she has a good chance of recovery? I personally wouldn’t rush into anything unless the vet says there is no hope – time heals a lot of things. 6mths ago now I woke to find Kell, my 15year old lying down a ditch in the back yard totally out of it (she has a dog door). I rushed her to the vet absolutely sure she had a stroke and it would be the end to have the vet tell me it was a neurological thing and it would improve with time. To be honest I wanted her pts many times over the next few weeks as she was totally out of it but today she is 80% better. She still walks a bit funny and has her head tilted to the side but she has quality of life. She needs a bit of extra care and attention but with a little bit of metecam daily she is happy. At 10 your girl is probably reaching the stage where she is happy to potter round home anyhow . Kell is certainly long past going for walks and even rides in the car but as long as she is happy to potter round the garden, is eating well and is enjoying life I don’t have an issue with that, they can’t stay young forever. Personally I would give her some Metecam from the vet each day and see how it goes unless the vet advises otherwise. He is the best judge of whether she is in pain as he can see her and his judgment is not clouded by emotion

To my mind though the reward is far more important than the punishment, yes don’t feed him until he is quiet but the minute he is he should be fed so he associates the fact that he stopped whining with he got his tea. I had one dog in particular that this way a real challenge for so she was crated to be fed, I stood holding her tea ignoring her until she stopped barking and the minute she stopped and sat down she was rewarded with praise and her tea. She could choose to bark or be fed, she quickly made the association and tea is now mostly quiet. It just seems to me that you are not timing the reward appropriately, it has to be done the minute he stops not 10 minutes later