Lowchenlove

You rock Missy - just what I was thinking. Hate the sarcasm on some posts on dol - we all can have different opinions without being scorned or receiving snide comments.

So, so sorry . RIP liitle one.

so if it is not play/dominance then what do you think it is Kaz? I know with my dog it is not sexual and is more obsessive than play and knowing how she behaves when she is trying to dominate smaller dogs and it is identical behaviour.

I agree, it is probably a dominance thing and I would discourage it as it can become obsessive behaviour. Often dogs can fixate on one item in particular - remove the item and the behaviour can stop. For my oldest dog it is a certain type of dog bed - she was constantly humping it as if her life depended on it - got rid of the bed and behaviour stopped.

Promise I will post pics as soon as I can work out how too. Am waiting for OH to return from abroad and then give me an idiots guide to downloading pics - never even used a digital camera before (I am such a Luddite)

Thanks for that - had thought about giving cheese but not considered eggs and the oil is a new one on me. Guess I am always so concerned about my dogs putting on too much and am so used to not feeding high fat foods that this seems strange. Thank you both for responding - will follow your advice and see how it goes.

I have been thinking of fostering for a while but then lost my heart to a rescue girl and adopted her yesterday. She is a shetland collie/ mini poodle cross (honestly why do people keep experimenting with cross breeding - two great breeds combined to produce a dog with an unmanageable coat ). Anyway she is four years old and a very gentle soul - my other three have taken to her like she has always been with us She is about the size of a border collie but is seriously underweight - all of her ribs are showing and every bone is pronounced, her spine is showing and she really needs to be fattened up (makes a change from me always watching the others in case they put on too much!!) I have just spent the last 30minutes removing the poo from her bum and after I finished she very gently turned to me and gave me the nicest kiss What is the best way to be feeding her - any advice would be welcome as I have never had to do this before. Thanks in advance.

I got my job through sheer luck. I am a trained psychologist but have really had enough of working with people and their problems and decided to stop working for a while and spend lots of time with my dogs (and children). The day before I finished at work I was browsing through the local paper and saw a job advert for a trainee groomer. I had looked into changing to this prof. for a while but most work was either miles away and couldn`t quite settle on doing the tafe course. Anyway I went for an interview and am starting on 19th July. The salon owner is fantastic and her shop is 5minutes from where I live. Keep pinching myself to see if it is true!!

Apart from the tafe course (where you have to find your own work placement) the only place I am aware of that actually teaches grooming is the gentle clip dog grooming salon. They have three salons where training can be given. Rode Road, Clontarf and Scarborough. I haven`t done the course so this is not a recommendation (is that the correct spelling?). The course is split into different categories and progress through the levels is dependent on ability. Altogether I think it comes to something like $1000 but could be wrong. Simply google gentle clip Brisbane. I considered doing this course but am very lucky as I recently got a job in a salon and am being trained as I go. Good luck with this.

Am smiling as I write this because have recently gone throught the same situation. Tyke is now 9months old and after months of frustration, smelly carpets and generally wondering what I was doing wrong he has suddenly got it. I have never had a problem toilet training before and my other two dogs are absolutely wonderful in this area and think that just as human babies have different rates of development Tyke is just a slow learner. Barring any medical problems with your pup just keep up the positive reinforcement training and of course try not to get too stressed yourself (difficult I know). Good luck

HI, Sorry to hear about your little one. Something very similar happened to my 4 year old maltese x. Completely out of the blue she had a seizure. In her case there were no warning signs, she just suddenly arched her back and then it was as if she was completely paralysed. There was no foaming/character change/ frothing etc etc. I held her and then 60 secs later she got up and walked away as if nothing had happened. (leaving me in a complete state of panic) In her case it happened again two days later. I got her to the vets who ran blood tests etc etc. Whilst waiting for the results she had two more "seizures". The end result was that she was prescribed phenobarbitol tablets. She took them for 6 months has not had another episode and is now in the clear. There can be so many reasons why this happened - in my case the house was being re-tiled and although we were out all day I firmly believe it was the smell of the chemicals used to glue the tiles. Keep an eye on your dog and if it happens again definitely go back to the vets ( the reason being that the more frequently the seizures happen the deeper and easier the neural networks activate in the brain - or so my vet said) Good luck and fingers crossed - it is so worrying.

How exciting for you, My vote would also be for the Lowchen. Mine is wonderful - very calm and low energy and incredibly loyal. He protects the two smaller dogs and with little training gets everything right. However as important as the breed is the individual energy of the dog ie you can get a small dog with huge energy not typical of its breed. When choosing from the litter look out for the ones madly dashing around and see if there is one with a calm temperament. Good luck with whatever you choose - life is about to get better and more fun!!