ellz

Noooo! Whoever told you that lie? *goes off to delete thread about her dogs escaping...* The day my first Shiba got his title was actually the first day he proved his catlike features and that he too had nine lives! He escaped from the yard just before we were ready to leave for the show. We discovered him on the main road, happily running down the centre, leaping the white lines end-to-end! He was absolutely oblivious to the chaos he was causing and luckily couldn't read my mind or he would have kept running!

I'm not one for grazing either, but it is essentially a personal choice as to how a person feeds their dog. I'm more concerned about the safety aspects of leaving a 10 week old puppy potentially "vulnerable" in a pack situation with older dogs.

You might find this link helpful too. http://www.dragonflyllama.com/%20DOGS/Writing/confstack.html

Yep, sadly some never come out on the "good side" of adolescence. Old Reginald Stafford remained juvenile until he was old enough to start going senile.

Steve's inbox is permanently full. She prefers email contact.

I have to say that I'm another who wouldn't be leaving a puppy unattended with older dogs. I worked at one of Australia's "largest" hound kennels for a while and witnessed first hand what a group of adult Whippets could do to a baby puppy and it wasn't very pleasant. I can understand that you don't want to leave the baby by itself, but perhaps you could set up a pen where it can still be close to the adults? Or choose one more laidback adult and run it with the baby? At 10 weeks, you could even leave it with mum, it won't have a lot of interest in the milkbar any more....if any.

My preference is Lefflers. They are a wholesaler as well as a retailer and supply many of the saddleries and leatherworkers in Australia.

I would contact the clubs first and ask them. They may have internal rules and regulations that cover this. I daresay most wouldn't mind, but you should check out of courtesy first.

Lefflers http://www.leffler.com.au/saddlery/saddler...CFYIvpAodJQ4uIw

Sorry Bub! I've just waited it out and reinforced the "niceties" in life such as housetraining, keeping a clean crate, walking nicely on the lead and not leaping all over everybody (man and beast) like a bloody lunatic! Not every dog does it. And admittedly, mine coincided with his first (stolen) sexual experience so I think his hormones may have invaded his brain for a while. But he's coming out of it now and I'm hoping he gets his brain back enough to get back into the ring to finish his title soon. At the moment, he's just too full-on and I can't be bothered with him!

Absolutely they can!! I've got one who was an absolute delight as a youngster. Biddable, obedient, cuddly, house and crate trained. Hit "teenagerhood" and turned into a right properly little shit!! Noisy, obnoxious, started forgetting his housetraining and had to be taken back to basics, really just incredibly revolting. He is only now starting to come out the other side again and I'm seeing glimpses of the sweet puppy again, he's nearly 17 months old.

Funniest sight in ages. My Stafford puppies (6 weeks old) are now outside in the "big dog" pen for the first time. The 10 week old American Cocker puppy is in there with them. She just realised how much room she had and took off....full-on zoomies....ears back, tail acting as a rudder, eyes all slitty and a HUGE grin on her face. As she was running, she was dive bombing each Stafford puppy in turn. They all decided to follow her, only their fat little legs don't go as quickly as hers and they definitely weren't going as quickly as the Stafford puppies thought they should be. They all got snarly with each other and the entire pen erupted in a fit of snarls and growls and ferocious acting out. Poor Bad Alice stopped dead and was looking at me as if to say "geeeeez, what did I do?"

I personally feel there is an issue with the timing of the production of the contract. It should have been one of the first things discussed in your "transaction". You don't go into a shop and agree to buy a fridge and then get told just as you're about to hand over your money that you can have the fridge, but can't put bacon or ham in it until you've had it serviced by XXX technician in XXX weeks. I sell my puppies on a "companion sales agreement" but it is given to the prospective purchaser prior to the puppy leaving home so that they can peruse it at their leisure and ask questions if they want to. For example, I have puppies due to leave home in 3 - 4 weeks and I have just started to send out the agreement to my puppy people now. All are aware from the beginning that they will be required to sign one and all are given the option of going elsewhere if they choose not to. I can understand the breeder wishing to ensure that the deed is done, but I'm sure if you were to mention your wish to delay it due to your concerns that there wouldn't be a problem. There shouldn't be. And certainly if one of my puppy people came to me and said that they had been researching and would prefer to delay desexing for xxxxx reasons, I would be more than happy with that. It shows that they care enough to do their own research. But I would of course maintain contact with them to ensure that the agreement is still upheld.

Pet Life by name, pet life by nature. I'm not a big believer in those types of brush. They aren't ergonomically sound for the groomer for a start. You'd be far better off with either the anti-static or porcupine brushes from Plush Puppy IMO if you MUST use a brush with bristles. I personally find that my basic American Cocker grooming kit largely consists of a good quality whippet comb, a pin brush and a Doggyman slicker. This is what I recommend to all of my puppy people as the basis for their kit, and you can then add and subract tools as you require them or decide you don't need them.

Mason Pearsons are VERY expensive!!!!!! Don't get a shock when you find out Jeanne! Some alternatives are Plush Puppy Porcupine brush, Metro Anti-Static brush or a discovery I made last year, a Lady Jayne nylon and bristle brush (very similar to the Mason Pearson) from the supermarket. About $70 less on the pricetag too! A very soft slicker (Doggyman for example) would be quite ok for a Papillon but only if used carefully. I use these on the American Cockers. I can highly recommend Plush Puppy Pin Brushes for a budget-friendly, excellent quality pin brush. You can get them in short or long pins. I like these so much I ended up purchasing some for my own hair.

mrs tornsocks, if the "mites" are Demodex (as I suspect they may be) they can become an issue at any time and may well not have been apparent at the time of the initial vet inspection. They are generally associated with a low immune system and can be exacerbated by stress or illness (perhaps even pain-related so maybe treating the tail could help with the mites too?). Glad there is a good diagnosis with a positive prognosis! On the subject of tails. I have an 8 year old Devon rex cat who has a fused tail at her sacrum and a really bad tail deformity further down as well (like a huge great knucklebone in the middle of her tail). Her back end is definitely affected by the fusion but she still has her tail. It doesn't do what a cat's tail would normally do by way of assisting balance etc so she does tend to be more clumsy than most Devons, and her poor old tail gets very cold at times but she's happy. My vet seems to think it could even be the pussycat version of human spina bifida.

Why don't you just get the template from Warley. You just fill in the details...save it and print them out. You don't need to buy entry forms that way and you don't have to waste time filling them in.

Another vote for Dogtainers ACT. If Linda, Andrew and Mel can't help, nobody can! Oh and as a "guesstimate", I'd say you would be looking at no more than around the $150 mark including crate hire, based upon quotes I have received to send puppies from Hobart to Melbourne, Sydney and Queensland.

Thanks Firestone....she loved meeting you and her Aunty Gsdzrul too! Bad Alice certainly had a blast! She thinks now that if being a lady means going to dog shows and playing with all the nice people (and dogs), then maybe it won't be sooooo bad to be one SOMETIMES!!! She met so many other dogs....played with Borzois, Basenjis, GSDs, an Akita, Whippets, a Border Terrier, a Harrier and even got a Sibe in a headlock! I was so impressed with her temperament....even the sudden light and sound show, whirly things blowing off roofs and other dogs going off their heads in the storm didn't phase her! She was one VERY tired little girl when we got to the car though....slept all the way to Mr Ellz' house. Managed to rouse herself for some cuteness to tell "Daddy" all about her big social outing and then flaked it on the bed and didn't even stir until get-up time on New Years' Day!

I have Staffordshire Bull Terriers and American Cocker Spaniels. They usually run together when I am at home, they are separated when I'm not. The only dogs which are actually run together are the Cockers (2 together - dog and bitch). Everybody else is either inside the house, crated or with me. The Stafford will not necessarily change temperament IF he is used at stud...but he might. It is safest to assume that he will and plan accordingly. Having said that, I've found my male Staffords have always been less toey when a girl is in season than other breeds. At one stage I had two boys together, adult males (3 and 4 years of age) who had never met prior to adulthood. They were both used at stud within the same week, had bitches living in the house who were in season, both bred a visiting bitch on the same day and there was not even a raised eyebrow let alone a cross word. On the other hand, when my two Cocker bitches were in season late last year, after my two Cocker boys were used, both were diabolical with the younger dog so full of his own self-importance he was stomping around the place growling at everybody who got in his path and guarding the bitch even after she wasn't in season any more. He was a shocker.

Bad Alice (American Cocker puppy) drinks with her front feet in the water bowl.....guess who will be drinking from a bunny waterer when she is ready to be shown! When she has finished drinking, she then SITS in the bowl so that the other puppies can't get any or she will happily dig all of the remaining water out and spread it everywhere. Koda Stafford prefers to drink from the horse troughs by sitting in them. Or she will drink out the dam, submerged so that only her head can be seen.

Wear jeans by all means, but as somebody who started out wearing jeans, you will probably find a pair of tailored pants or a knee length skirt more comfortable. And it will create a nicer background for your dog as well. A lighter coloured outfit behind a dog like a border collie creates a much better optical illusion and can provide a very nice frame to showcase your dogs outline. You don't have to go for the eye-splitting candy cane colours that abound now (or the Wiggles Suits as Mr Ellz calls them), but there are many nice options. I'm a bigger person and I tend to like to wear dark bottoms (pants or skirts) even with my black dogs. BUT, I invariably wear a nice light contrasting jacket or shirt because my dogs are also table dogs so how they look in front of the top half of my body is quite important and then when they are stacked on the ground, again you really only see my top half behind the topline of the dog because I'm down on my knees behind them. On the move, when I'm wearing a skirt, you can still see my dogs against my (lily white) legs and my dog tends to move out in front on the end of his lead anyway so wearing black pants isn't always an issue either. Ebay USA is one of my best friends!

I don't just watch to prevent mum from sitting on puppies, I'm also very concious of temperature changes too. And I also know of people who have had puppy mortality from bedding being rearranged on top of puppies which then suffocate. So much can go wrong in those first days/weeks before puppies can regulate their own temperatures and begin to move away from hazardous situations and it isn't always obvious things.

After watching my bitch repeatedly accept a pup who was clearly brain damaged (very odd posture), was growing colder by the moment and was on the way out I don't really trust maternal instinct 100%. She kept trying to get this pup to feed when it clearly was too weak and within an hour of dying. IT seemed to know it was dying and kept crawling away from the warmth of the other pups and the heat lamp. But see that's the difference, the puppy knew something was wrong, and by observing the puppy, you in turn could see that something was amiss and for me, that would have been enough of a cue to act. If a puppy is clearly brain damaged, then it would get its wings. And again, that's Mother Nature talking. Mothers have been known to be wrong, or we wouldn't lose puppies that we had worked hard to save. But all things being equal, if there were enough signs from the puppy, then that too is enough to make a decision. I would never bother even attempting to tube feed a puppy such as you have mentioned. It is an exercise doomed for failure. But again, that would be "my line in the sand". In the case of my puppy, she was fighting hard. She was doing her best to suckle, assisted by her mother. She was warm. She was pretty much doing everything she should have been by way of behaviour for a very young whelp (growling, defacting and urinating etc etc) and for the first 3 weeks really didn't look much different to her littermate, just smaller. It was only at 3 weeks when I pulled the pin and gave her her wings that it was apparent that she had, as the vet said, hit the wall. Yep I knew in my heart but held out hope that she'd be okay. I think two days of no sleep meant that I wasn't thinking clearly. I kept remembering that she'd passed a vet check only hours before and watching her mother try to get her to feed. I did bottle feed her but her suck was uncoordinated and weak. She died 11 hours after birth which was the best thing to happen. I think experience tells you when it's time to let go. This was my first litter and I just wanted every precioius puppy to live. Even as an experienced breeder, Ellz I think it would be terribly difficult to nuture a pup for 3 weeks and then have to PTS. I don't think the tube feeding argument is as black and white as some made out. It was heartbreaking Pblab. It doesn't matter how many litters you breed or how many tragedies or successes you have, the slate is wiped clean each and every time. Every puppy is a true gift and life is precious no matter what the circumstances. Every living thing deserves the right to life, it's just sometimes we have to make those awful judgement calls. And I guess what is clear in this thread is that each of us has our own limits. There is no right or wrong. We all have to be able to live with ourselves and our judgement calls. The important thing is that everybody should understand that not everybody would act the same as them and that doesn't make them any less a person or worse a breeder.

If you start her on heartworm medication without testing first, you could kill her. Definitely get her tested first.