westiemum

Hi All, Troy hope this is OK to post here. Meet Odie who is a beautiful big boy, just over ten months old, who's owners have made the heart-breaking decision that they can't provide what he needs and need to find him a new home. They have had him since 8 weeks of age. I'm a family friend and offered to help them through the process and to help them avoid the pitfalls. Please no judgements - I've done some preliminary background info work with Odie's Mum and they have done an incredible amount of work to try to make this work but just can't - and they genuinely want the best for him. Odie's Mum physically can't manage him even with training - he's simply grown too big now for her (they are the same weight) and she feels they are letting him down by not providing the quality of life he deserves. The training they have completed with him includes puppy, juvenile and advanced training and recent 2 weeks of intensive 'in-kennel' training. He is currently working on loose lead walking with his trainer. He is predominantly Bullmastiff with some Boxer and English bulldog - so big dog breeds with big strong personalities. He is an inside/outside dog, sleeps inside, is completely house-trained and will be desexed in 2 weeks time. He is healthy, loves children and other dogs. He is very patient with the families 5 year old but can forget his size and be too rough when playing. Now before someone jumps in, while this family love Odie they now realise in hindsight that their big dog choice was probably not the best for their circumstances and are doing their best to find Odie a suitable forever home - someone who can pack lead Odie and continue his training. Odie's breeder is also looking out for a home for him as well. They will keep him until they find him the perfect home. Odie is located on the Gold Coast but I'm sure could be re-located for the right home after the usual home checks. DOLers this is where you come in. Is there anyone who would like to offer Odie a forever home, know of someone suitable or a rescue service who is able to help? Possibly one on the Gold Coast who might be willing to list him on Pet Rescue?? My initial thoughts are that he should go to an experienced 'big dog' home but I would love the advice of DOLers with 'big dog' experience. If anyone is interested/ able to help if you PM me I'll send you the brilliant detailed info Odie's Mum sent me today then we can go from there. Odie's family is willing to give him to his forever family. (Yes I've warned them not to advertise him as FTGH) and yes they are sure this is what they want for Odie. TIA everyone. Open to other thoughts and advice.

In general, dogs coats need to turnover so you either go with a short shedding coat (eg Dalmatian, Labrador) which shed a lot and will need regular brushing or a longer low shedding coat such as a Westie, bichon, poodle and others. Longer coats will need de-prickling or keeping them very short. So either way the dog's coat will need maintenance. I check my westies regularly for prickles - I just do it in front if the telly at night and they seem to enjoy the attention so I don't find it a big deal - but your prickle problem sounds like it might be more severe.

Will do TSD - didn't see any ESS's on Friday morning - lots and lots of Aussies though... karen if I take the westies down the street with me I always allowed at least an hour for a half hour trip - so many people not only wanting to know about westies and getting the 'aren't they gorgeous' comments but also about puppy farms - so I never lose an opportunity to politely 'enlighten' them!

Thanks T, H and sujo. I still haven't stopped smiling just thinking about it - it was such a big deal for him - so next weekend we might head to the beach again. sujo I know I'm completely biased - but they really are a fantastic breed. Spunk, personality, not at all yappy with an occasional stubborn streak. My Sarah is the social butterfly of the westie world - the more people and puppies the better she likes it. She is genuinely the most smiley, waggy tail, happy girl I've ever met (and yes others say so!).

Great photo sparky - and I thought mine were spoiled!

My guys are the beneficiaries of my retail therapy the day after Mac died - can highly recommend Orvis - brilliant and the waterproof covering over the foam inserts is wonderful - but might be pretty 'spensive for such a big fella! The other 'closer to home' alternative is Henrie Hottie - my guys love them - they are fantastic beds - cool in sumer and warm in winter. And Michelle is really helpful and accomodating (even when I didn't realise (grief-pickled brain) the custom size I was asking for was so close to standard in hind-sight I wondered why I bothered! She must have thought I was crazy!).

Thank you DD .

Go Scottie!! Thanks SM - DOLers are so special that way we all celebrate our wins - little wins as they probably seem to others outside.

Yep denali I agree. And things don't have to be perfect - diet, coat, exercise... The thing most important to my westies is my company. (Thats that only thing I give myself a hard time about when I'm working).

Yep Thistle he sure does!! I imagine that that 4 - 5 metres was probably like an Olympic 1500m for my little man!! I'm still smiling just thinking about it!! And the adults on the sand bar all shouting encouragement at him must have looked like a crazy bunch!!

Perse 'little legs' is it!! He's a bit barrel-shaped at the best of times so yes he did look a bit funny with wet skinny little legs and his chunky body!!

DD keeping a tube on hand is a good idea. Sarah will be 15 in July and shows no signs of depressed appetite but she is getting older... And yes I think we are all getting to the stage of overthinking a lot about dog stuff - since when did you need a PhD to feed a dog well? I'm wondering if the 'cotton wool kids' syndrome is also extending to our dogs? (Sorry for being a bit off topic!).

That's a gorgeous story too karen! Well done Maxwell. Yes I know having a swim at the beach is a relatively non-event in most dogs lives, but for Andy, who was caged and had very little early experience of the beach for all those years, this was an event of Olympic proportions!! And you should have seen him! I'm sure I wasn't imagining the slight swagger in his step and puffed up chest afterwards! I think he was as proud of himself as I was!

Yesterday morning a group of 5 westies and an honorary westie (toy poodle) walked for kms along Semaphore beach here in Adelaide to celebrate the two younger westie birthdays. We had a wonderful morning, made even better by my courageous puppy farm rescue boy Andy taking his first swim!! A bit of background... my puppy farm rescue boys, Andy (and the late Mac) have never enjoyed the beach - they seemed to hate the feel of the sand on their paws and didn't like those 'enormous' waves having no early experience with the beach. (Sarah of course loves anything social! And yesterday she said hello to everyone with four legs along a 3 km stretch of sand!). The contrast between the rescue westies behaviour around water and the non-rescue westies is really stark. The non-rescues wade, play and swim in the water and race on the sand like lunatics - the rescues barely tolerate it and certainly don't swim!!! Anyway, under Sarah's tutelage, Andy seemed to decide yesterday maybe the beach wasn't so bad after all - ears up and trotting along seemingly quite happy. On the way home heading back down the beach, I waded out to a close-in sand-bar (about 4 or 5 metres away - so not far). The younger westies followed loving it all. My brave older little rescue man decided he was going to follow me come hell or high water and waded out and then started swimming across the short stretch of water! He turned back twice when he obviously got frightened but with the cheer squad on the sand bar shouting encouragement he twice turned back towards me and kept going until he reached the sand bar!! It was quite a sight!! All these lunatics shouting encouragement to him as they all realised what a big thing this was for him. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of his first swim but I couldn't be more proud of my 10 year old! Just had to share and I'm sure those of you with rescues will understand how thrilled I am for him. Go Andy!!!

Yes Nutrigel is marvellous stuff - we used to use a product of the same name with human swallowing patients years ago - so suspect it and its variants have probably been around for a long time.

Any news Yonjuro? What did your friends discover and decide if anything? Its a very interesting discussion that since my current two westies are getting older, I'd like to tuck away for future reference!

Willem where did I say it was harmless? I said it was 'not always toxic' which is true. Yet another example of your twisting others posts to suit your own black and white position. The world and this forum is not black and white. You usually have such good information to share yet do it in such a way and using a superior rude tone that puts people off your posts and discussion with you. And no I'm not going to argue with you (as no doubt your next post will prove my point). Most rational posters here will have followed the 'grey' my post introduced. Grey - learn it, live it, love it - and you'll have some wonderful discussions here.

Even chocolate in small quantities is not always toxic. According to my vet most dogs would need to eat a whole block of dark chocolate for them to become concerned. The first Christmas I had Mac he ate two packets of Paddington handmade chocolates I bought for gifts - milk chocolate - and the silly goofball was absolutely fine - just as the vet said he would be. So its not always black and white - just as mine have had accidentally had cooked onion and suffered no ill effects.

Thank you DD and B. Yes I find its when I finally slow down that I sit thinking about him and then the tears come. I just miss him so much. The grief is much harder than I ever thought it would be. And yes I know its only been four months but gee its tough. I think I'm now understanding how people say they still grieve for their heart dogs years down the track.

Take my word for it... 'Resistence is futile'

Well its a little over four months since Mac left... and its only marginally easier... I was looking at some photos tonight and I can still 'feel' his coat just looking at the photos... he had the most beautiful coat. I can't believe how much I miss him...

Mac could sniff out blue cheese at over 500 hundred paces.... he was a legend!!!

Yonjuro, without being an expert I immediately thought the best low sodium diet is probably a raw one - would they be willing to try that? Failing that I suppose they could try some of the specialist cardiac foods - for example I think Royal Canin does one. And <a href="http://http://vet.tufts.edu/wp-content/uploads/reduced_sodium_diet_for_dogs.pdf">here's</a> a list from one of the U.S. Vet schools - but be careful as it might be out of date. And the sodium values still looked quite high to me.<br>Personally, I'd go raw assumimg that meets the dogs other health needs - but I'm a biased raw feeder anyway! <br>Hope the helps to get it sorted. <img src="http://www.dolforums.com.au/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif">

Yep fabulous. And Devon is a spectacular Westie. No wonder his owner is so proud of him!