sandgrubber

I made my bed this morning (well, pulled up the covers at least). Yoli didn't approve... The top blanket interferes with one of her favorite projects...pulling the stuffing out of the doona.

With 4 dogs, I think it's easier to clean the floor than 16 paws... Though I do hate it when they get on the bed.

Hmmm! That link gives me a video of a "Man Weave Transformation"

Depends. If you just want to get a litter of pups vaccinated or a failing oldie pts, or hundreds of other simple things, referrals are unnecessary, and there are advantages to home care.

Also explains why mobile vets are often relatively inexpensive. No major equipment other than the van. No rent. Often no vet nurses or practice managers.

What a dog CAN jump and what it WILL jump are quite different. I've known Goldies to be constrained by a 3 ft fence for years (I had a tenant who bred them).

There were quite a few Catahoulas around where I lived in Florida. Great farm and hunting dogs, IMO lovely to look at and watch. But not good house dogs (in rural Florida, the most common house dog is probably a pit bull type).

If a Goldie or Lab pup gets it into its mind that it can go over fences, it will require a high, secure fence. If it never gets the idea that fences are to climb, a three foot fence will usually do the trick. Digging under is another matter

I like the idea of pedigrees. A lot of desirable and undesirable dog traits have a strong genetic component - - be it health, temperament, or working ability. Being able to selectively breed for the good and away from the bad is great, not to mention being able to avoid inbreeding. It's so sad that 19th century notions of standardization, beauty and eugenics have gotten so entangled with the keeping of pedigree in the dog world. I'm a Labrador person. It grieves me that the white paw, ear, and chest markings on the St John's dog were arbitrarily excluded from the breed standard - apart from Bolo pads, which were accepted due to one legendary dog owned by a leading figure of the time. It pains me to see people getting riled by the silver labs debate, while ignoring the Labs who hate water or show traits, such as dog aggression, that should not be permitted in the breed. The recent, silly discussion of brindle pugs seems like more of the same. If pedigree breeding is to be respected, we need to be less fixated on color and superficial (or extreme) appearance as set forward in breed standards and more dedicated to health, temperament, and - for breeds that work - working ability. Sadly, I can't see that happening within the framework of the Canine Clubs.

https://slate.com/technology/2019/01/stop-buying-grain-free-food-for-your-pets.html

Fascinating article. Huge dataset used to seek DNA roots of behavioral traits as related to breed. Download the preprint for the good stuff. The tables at the end contain the breed comparisons.

IMO the breed clubs should be influencing breeders in this direction. I believe in keeping pedigrees... they are an important tool for controlling heredity disease, avoiding inbreeding, and promoting desirable traits. It's a shame that control of pedigree breeding has come under the thumb of "the fancy" with its tendency to promote extreme physical traits. At one time I would have loved to shift to breeding Bostons, or Frenchies, or pugs... Apart from health concerns, they seem like good options for people living in small spaces. I would have wanted to breed for health, lengthened muzzle, more natural tails, etc. Difficulties getting a pedigree bitch from health tested lines with low COI, put this scenario beyond reach.

Here's a decent article on food allergies http://vetnutrition.tufts.edu/2017/01/food-allergies/

Healthy, mature dogs are unharmed by salmonella. Very strong digestive juices and immune capabilities. Any carrots are fine, cooked or raw. Dogs and people both digest cooked carrots better, but I've never bothered cooking them. I used to buy horse carrots in a 10 kg bag when I was breeding labs. Plain yogurt, no sugar, any brand. Wet food is mostly water, thus expensive, and some think it's bad for the teeth. But IMO adding a little to get a fussy eater to eat isn't so bad.

Most heartworm meds are based on ivermectin. If you have a very nice vet, you may be able to get them to explain how to use the livestock version for your dog. The dog stuff is 10 times as expensive for the same stuff. The other worms need different meds. They can be bad, but aren't likely to kill. As for diet, I wouldn't worry much. Despite all the marketing hoohah, there's bugger all evidence that dogs fed the high price stuff are any healthier or live longer. Unless the dog has a diagnosed condition, like pancreatitis or beef allergy, plain cheap stuff like, say, Coprice, is fine. Adding eggs, yogurt, carrots and other fruit and veg, or raw bones is fine. Looks like your girl is slim... Avoiding overfeeding is the most important dietary trick.

I've seen zero evidence that glucosamine works as a preventative

Why, then, are f1 hybrid seeds so widely used? I haven't systematically looked at hybrid dogs (I kenneled many shih tzu Maltese crosses and from recall, they seem much of a muchness) but from what I learned in biology class, the f1 generation is quite predictable. Mendel's peas, mules, and all that.

Wish more bulldogs had it in them.

Puppies tend to puke when traveling on a full stomach (cars and probably train as well) . With my first litter as a breeder I ended out paying a fairly large vet bill for a puppy buyer who thought the pup was sick because it vomited in the car.

If I followed the recommendations on the bag, my Labbies would be beyond roly-poly. It's always better to go by how fat or thin the dog is... For example, how much rib is showing. You can easily find diagrams for this using Google. I like to see a little puppy fat at 9 weeks, but trim by 16 or 18 weeks. 7-8 kg sounds like a reasonable range (with young Lab pups, my rule of thumb was a tad under 1 kg per week; I was working with relatively big boned, deep chested lines) but a higher figure might be appropriate for a very robust pup, and under 7 kg would be OK for a pup with relatively small frame.

I just bury the stuff... Not real deep. Easy, simple, and it eventually joins the soil

More Bark Than Bite in Iran’s Ban on Walking Dogs https://nyti.ms/2Ux15QI

This is the only one I know of. I wish more dog oriented folks would create such places, but it's a big ask, what with land prices in populated areas and council regulations, etc. Wouldn't it just be wonderful if golf courses could be converted here and there

BTW, here's a web page for the dog park I was talking about https://www.dogwoodpark.com/index.html

IMO trying to solve the plastic problem by banning carry bags is as futile as trying to avoid the greenhouse problem by banning toasters. Yes, there's a problem. Piecemeal solutions aimed at minor parts of the problem won't work. The non-reusable load of plastic packaging remains huge after the much re-used carry bags are banned. Can anyone recommend a user-friendly reusable poo bag?