spottychick

No problem at all. I've done it with both my adult rescue dogs including the recent one Tango who is 8 years old. He was responding to his new name within minutes (and NEVER responded to his old one - I suspect they hardly ever used it). In fact, some dogs will have a bad reaction to their old names because they associate the word sound with bad things. It doesn't matter how old the dog is - if the new name is associated with good things he/she will learn it.

I use this stuff for a range of things for me and the dogs. I bought some from Melbourne Food Depot ages ago and recently ran out - but they don't sell stuff like that any more. Now I can't find anyone online who sells it. Does anyone have a clue where to buy it from?

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I think it can work the other way round. There may be nothing wrong with her leadership skills, sometimes it's more complex than that. With Tango, I was much better able to communicate with him and be the leader once I used the harness. It calmed everything down, made it easier for me and him and opened the way for Tango and I to bond etc. The key to me is to get rid of the stress on both sides - it's hard to achieve anything otherwise. And I should add that yesterday I took Tango for a walk without the harness (by accident - I simply forgot it) and just had him on a flat collar - he was absolutely fine. I couldn't have imagined this when I first got him and taking him for a walk was so stressful - until I got the harness. But a BIGGER example is the neglected, totally untrained, "straining" massive big dog down the road who used to pull everyone literally off their feet so NO-ONE was walking him. I got his owners to use an Easy Walk harness and he's been taken out with it on a few times. From the moment I first put it on him he walked like he'd been loose leash walking all his life. We were all shocked at the difference it made. AND he started listening to voice commands and focussing on the handler instead of trying to race off somewhere and being distracted by everything in the universe. His owner told me she took him for a walk the other day without the harness and - incredibly - he didn't pull!!!! Why??? My guess is he's learnt that he could have a great time going for walks without rushing at everything like a bull at a gate.

I just make up a pot of calendula tea, pop it in a spray bottle, add a little more water (and sometimes a dash of colloidal silver) and then spray it all over Pepper's coat/body and rub it in, when she has an allergic reaction. If I had a long-haired dog I'd probably just take her outside and pour it over her - perhaps as a rinse after washing her with whatever shampoo I usually use.

Ah I hope he's okay! I don't know what the chances are - fortunately every time I've had a dog eat snail bait I've been able to induce vomiting and get the stuff out of their system before it could go very far. I refuse to use any kind of poison because of episodes like this. The worst was with ratsack..... man that was not nice. But hopefully you got your sweetheart help in time!! Fingers crossed for you.

So glad to hear she's getting better. I can imagine how stressful that was to go through!

Thanks so much for all your suggestions guys/gals! Jed - I did wet him down with towels (he is terrified of hoses as he used to get beaten with one apparently) and I syringed water/lectade into his mouth and gave him honey (literally shovelled it into his mouth with my hand eeeuuww). I found info online about how to deal with heat stroke/stress etc - gotta love the interwebby thing!! ;) Thanks for the glucodin suggestion - I think it would be a good idea to get some in for him coz I'm sure it will happen again! Kamuzz/Anna - Eagle Pack are fantastic and if I buy kibble at all it's usually EP (and I recommend it to people all the time). I need to consult with the vet about which one - if any - he could have tho. But yes, if I can use EP for him I'd be more than happy! Anna - Unfortunately sardines are on the high purine list so no, he can't have them. There's so many things he can't have. I've also had some suggestions from the dally thread and they were great, as well as checking out links to specific sites about this condition. I've been feeding him suggested diets and he's doing okay on them but he's just not getting bigger. So it's just a matter of working out how to increase his weight without putting him at risk, which is a little trickier and I really don't expect anyone here to have the answer - but sure do appreciate all the thoughts and possible directions. Jules - I've heard of Phuds before and was reluctant to use it due to some of the ingredients so it's good to know they are flexible!!! I'll definitely check that one out. Juice - I did check out the Optimum when you suggested it a while back but for some reason I didn't follow up on it. LOL Cant remember why I'm so confuzzled with it all. But will have another look at it

Just suggest the basic people one - nutralife I think it's called - in powder form. Much easier to give than a tablet. My dog recovered from limping in three legs with arthritis with changing her diet to natural and adding this. Make sure not to get the ones with silly flavours tho - especially not citrus. It's also cheaper than some of the "dog" ones.

I agree with Christina and poodlefan 1 in 5 dogs are depressed!!! Really? Well that actually tells you more about the owners than the dogs. HOw about we tackle THE OWNERS behaviour instead and then just maybe the lives of the dogs will improve and they wont have to be zonked out on drugs while they live awful depressing lives. Tango was left to rot in a backyard, fed absolute rubbish, given sod-all attention and never EVER taken for walks etc so when he started acting crazy his stupid owners couldn't work out why!!! Gee gosh! What could it be? It couldn't be THEIR fault so it must be HIS, obviously he's just got some wierd mental issue. So we'll just put him on drugs rather than actually, you know, treat him decently, take him for a walk once in a while or give him the slightest bit of enjoyment or stimulation in his life. Sorry this crap makes me mad.

This gave me a beautiful mental picture! But that was a scary setback. All the best in sorting him out. It looks like you have done wonders to date. Keep up the good work. LOL Not from the same bowl :D :D

Hey jules - do you mean their Complete Mix? It's good stuff and I give that to my girl but it's got quite a lot of yeast in it so I'm reluctant to try it with Tango. But I do give him VANs skin and immunity supplement which has lots of goodies in it and I soak some plain oats for him and add rosehips to it.

Thanks for the ideas VC - he doesn't get biccys. I wouldn't know which dry food is safe for him (if any). I would be thrilled if anyone had any recommendations (and not the Hills stuff) Everyone round here has chooks so I'm buying fresh eggs for around $2 a doz - sometimes free. :D Just as well as between the two dogs and me we go through a lot of them! He always has lots of water in his food - the eggs are sort of poached and the yolk is runny so I can mix it in to the water. He also gets lots of veggies, miso, flax oil or similar and kelp. And a little chicken - both raw and Nature's Gift canned. Vegemite is yeast based so he can't have that - but I use Miso in the same way and he likes that. I also sometimes use honey and give him water with honey melted into it and I've been doing the milk in water thing occassionally since someone (you maybe???) suggested it in the dally thread! :D I don't understand why some dogs won't drink water LOL I've not come across it before - usually my dallys drink like elephants But yesterday Tango wouldn't drink no matter what I put in the water - he wouldn't even eat cheese or roast chicken pieces his favouritest food in the whole world!!! Thank goodness I have syringes on hand!

Not yet - he was pretty stressed at the vet so we dealt with the immediate issues (general health, eyes, ears and possible small tumor on his ear) and really had to stop poking and prodding him after a while. Next time I reckon he should get some tests done.

good point! I do feed raw but to help him with digestion for now I might look at cooking some of it. Meat, such as beef and pork, is one of the things I cant feed a stone-former - high in purines. chicken is moderately high so he gets a small amount of chicken. But he does have soft-cooked eggs.

Yes they can, we discussed malabsorption as a possibility and the vet didn't think it was that. He has no other symptoms and in Tangos case he simply hasn't been fed properly for several years so it's not a sudden unexplained weight loss - just a difficulty of building him back up. For example, I can't feed him satin balls because he can't have most of the ingredients I find in the recipes for them. It looks like his previous owners stopped feeding him much of anything in the last year or so while they were advertising to find a new home for him so he got very skinny very fast.

Normally he's fine in the car and loves going for drives, but that's the longest trop we've had. He hasn't seen a vet in several years so I agree, it was definitely stressful for him. That's interesting re Chloe and diahorrea (man I hate trying to spell that word LOL) - I guess it could be that he got dehydrated from the stress and runs first and then the heat on top of that made it worse. He is great today, running around as normal and greedy as ever. I just showed off to a neighbour how Tango has learnt to wait for his food so well. I put a piece of yummy organic date and walnut cake on the floor in front of me. Pepper was standing near me. But even so Tango sat about 2 metres away and stared into my eyes when I said "wait" until I said "Okay" and he knew he was allowed to eat his yummy treat. She was stunned! She said "That's incredible! And this from a dog who's owners said he was "untrainable"!!!"

Hey jules - I don't know if it's normal because I havent had him long and I'm pretty careful with the dogs around heat usually. I've not seen him do it before. But yes it was VERY dramatic/drastic. I was in tears and really thought he had done some serious damage - at best. Hmmm rice bran oil! I haven't heard of it before. Yes they can have oil and rice so I'll check it out.

Hey Loraine! Thanks for your thoughts. And that's NOT so out to left field at all. I considered it myself as I have some here - but unfortunately there's too many things in it he shouldn't have. BUT I have ordered some very high quality Whey protein from Bioceuticals instead. Iggy Mum - I hope so. I honestly thought I was going to lose him twice this week, he really is a fragile fella - so I'm feeling like I'm not doing enough. He seems to get seriously ill so quickly.... I also started giving him the Budwig diet today - it's usually a cancer protocol but I figured it might help his situation. He loved it anyway LOL I mixed banana, ground Flax seed (as well as the oil) and honey in with it and the three of us - me Pepper and Tango all shared it. There was barely enough to go round and Tango got the lions share so I think I'd better make a bigger batch next time.

awwww I'm so sorry to hear this. I know what you mean by that comment. When Tango was really sick the other day I suddenly wanted the annoying nagging lunatic back. It's so sad to see them like that and you feel so horribly helpless. Hope this gets sorted soon.

Okay, I took Tango to the vet yesterday because he's not really getting any fatter and his eye is getting worse and a couple of days ago he caught and ate a bird then spent several hours in a lot of discomfort and obviously ill. The nearest vet is about an hour or so away in St Helens so we went there. They found an "indolent ulcer" on his eye and also said that because he's clearly suffered a rapid weight loss in the last year or so he no longer has any fat deposits around his eyes, so they are very sunken and vulnerable to foreign objects and infection. We were startled to discover he weighs only 20 kilos - and that's having put on a little weight since I adopted him in January. According to his previous owners he weighed 25 kilos when they sent him to me - clearly this is not true - we think he probably weighed around 16/17 ks when he got here. So, over the past 6 months or so his body had used up a lot of it's reserves just to maintain itself and had even used up stuff that he needed. Now, with a slightly improved diet, his body has stopped drawing on its vital reserves but is still on a knife-edge. That's why we can't get weight on him. The vet is going to do some research to work out exactly what we can feed him to build him up without putting him at risk of stone formation. He was honest enough to acknowledge he has no experience in stone-forming dalmatians but wants to work on his case and find the best diet for him. Otherwise he's doing remarkably well for a dog who has been so thin and under-nourished - good coat, skin etc - So I was pleased about that. We put a muzzle on him just in case but he showed no signs of snapping etc and was actually very well behaved throughout the consultation. He was clearly frightened though. Unfortunately, while we were in St Helens, the weather took an unexpected turn and the temperature had climbed and ended up somewhere in the 30s. We didn't spend much time hanging around after seeing the vet but even so, by the time we were headed home, Tango had started vomiting and had diarrhea and was clearly distressed from the heat and the vet visit. I would never have taken the dogs to the vets if I'd known it was going to get that hot!!! I had waited for cool weather to make the trip so I was furious that it got so hot! I had all the windows open, air con blasting and drove like a maniac through the tricky St Mary's Pass trying to get home ASAP. Pepper was fine but Tango wasn't. When we got home he was staggering around, disorientated and wobbly. His back legs were particularly wierd and he didn't seem able to stand properly. Twice he stagger-ran away from me and headed down the back of our property and then collapsed in the hot sun. I dragged/carried him inside and wouldn't let him back out again. He wouldn't eat (unheard of with Tango) or drink. I was absolutely terrified for him. I syringed lectade water into his mouth and wiped honey onto his gums etc to try and help him. Every now and then he'd get up and stagger around the house trying to get outside. I was considering waiting till dark and then returning to St Helens for an emergency vet visit. Fortunately, two hours later he recovered enough to eat a light meal and started walking more normally, if still a little shakey. When he started following me everytime I went into the kitchen and sitting there doing his front feet tap-dance routine, I knew he was okay. Today he is absolutely fine. Again - I believe this was caused by the fact that he is so thin and has so few reserves that he became dehydrated and sick very fast. Is there anything I should check or look for to see if he's been effected by this episode? SHould I still be taking him back to the vet even tho today he's completely back to normal??? I should also add that over the last few weeks Tango has started to become much more affectionate and seems to be developing a bit of a crush on me LOL - and the feeling is mutual. He still occassionally has a go at Pepper, but they are harmless "attacks", more of a protest at her being overly affectionate or getting in his way. His eye problem may have something to do with that. I am really impressed with how much he has gained in self-confidence and with his ability to learn new commands etc.

Well that's a fine mess innit!! I wouldn't be giving any dog OR my money to the RSPCA - no matter what country they're in.

Ah I know iggy. In cases like these the nice pacifist in me just disappears into the ether and I imagine starving them for weeks on end, throwing them out the car AND leaving a rope attached so they are dragged for however many miles I feel like driving. Then maybe I'll drop them off at the Police station with an appropriate tatto affixed to forehead (eg "I'm a dog torturing w@nker") IF there's anything left to drop off. Sometimes I'm just not at all nice about things

Thanks for that. Is there any way to check on how she is while she's in the care of the RSPCA and all this "investigating" is going on???

The thing I like about the harness is that it's completely stress free. Sure I could try to get him walking with a flat collar by using a whole lot of training techniques and working hard at training him every time I take him walking. Or I could stick a head harness on him and battle through the head tossing, panic-stricken reactions. But I'd rather not thanks. The EW harness let me take him walking from day one with no effort and no need to push him to learn things he wasn't ready for yet. This has freed me up to just happily and calmly teach him things as I feel like it while we're walking along rather than make the whole thing a 'training exercise'. I don't come home with pulled muscles and a headache and he doesn't come home feeling uptight and stressed. And with a dog like Tango that's vital. As he'd never been walked before I wanted to focus on him feeling like going for walks was "normal", relaxing around all the distractions, meeting other dogs and socialising with people and animals etc and letting him follow Peppers lead (she is angelic on walks - on or off-lead LOL) so he could also learn from her. I don't know how well I've explained that but I just wanted to address the comment "it's not about the tool but the method". The right tool is important because it makes it easy/easier to apply the right method/s, I reckon.