samoyedman

My samoyed is 18 months old and in the peak of condition. He recently had a check up at the vet while getting his annual shot and got a glowing health report. Being a samoyed, of course I'm used to fur being everywhere. Ive noticed lately I can pull out large tufts of fur with my fingers, and with minimal ease (he hardly reacts or feels it). This particularly happens down around his thighs/side of legs, where his undercoat and outer guard hairs seem seperate (he looks like only undercoat in this area). Just reach in and I can lightly pull out tufts of thick fur. Is this just his way of shedding in summer and regulating coat growth? While walking on Friday I pulled out a HUGE handful...I brush him once a week and get a shopping bag full out of him. He still has lots of fur and there's no bare patches or anything.

He's 16 months and still doing this whenever we see another dog on a leash. He'll pull like crazy and if he gets close, goes into hyper-play mode and want to jump all over them and play. Its not a dominance thing; he hasn't got an aggressive bone in his body. Funny thing is he can walk straight past dogs behind gates/fences without even blinking at them. Ive tried both stick and candy methods to curtail this behaviour but with no success. I've also socialised him as best I could, taking him to puppy kindergarten and off leash parks fairly regularly to meet new dogs. Thoughts?

There's sooooo many online pet shops. I was wondering if someone could help me expedite this process by giving me a link for Sentinel Spectrum (Large Dog) at a good price? Thanks in advance

I hate cross-posters!!

This ones a little unusual. Hope Troy doesn't mind if I put it here. Here's what I'm thinking. Once a week I'd drop my samoyed to your house before work (about 8.30am). He would stay until about 5.30pm when I pick him up. I live at Blakehurst and work in Bankstown so somewhere between these areas is preferable. I'd like to get him well-brushed (a real challenge with his breed!) and once a month washed as well. A really long walk would be part of the deal. Preferably you would have a dog that he could play with. The idea is to give him a change of scene once a week! No food required. Re my dog; he is 14 months old, desexed, vaccinated and still very puppyish but not hyper. He's extremely placid and has literally never growled in his life. Obviously I'd pay (please PM me if interested) and I'd meet up first to make sure your dog and mine get along okay.

Its the body shake like when dogs first wake up. Lately my 11.5 month old Samoyed has been doing it much more regularly; during walks etc. Tonight for example he did it 4 or 5 times during his walk (he didn't stop he shook his body while walking). This has been going on for days. He'll shake outside in the yard, inside the house etc. Its not chronic as in non-stop shaking but it is happening noticeably often. It's not an ear problem. I inspected them closely with a torch tonight. They're pink and clean and there's no smell. He's protected monthly from fleas with Advantage and Sentinel Spectrum. He's also not scratching or gnawing at anything or showing any signs of irritation on his body anywhere. Is this anything to worry about? I'm wondering why he seems to be shaking his body much more often.

are there any other "super premium" kibbles besides Nutro and Eagle Pack?

The Nutro/EP were one-offs. Thought Id try the Eukanuba because its much easier for me to get.

Coming off Nutro and then Eagle Pack, maybe he's been spoiled and eating Eukanuba is beneath him? lol Anyone else tried Eukanuba and whats the feedback? My pup is on Large Puppy variety.

My 9.5 month old samoyed puppy started on 3 meals a day up until 6 months. Since then he's been on 2 meals a day and at a year old I'm advised to feed him one meal a day. 2 questions. 1) I hear 2 meals a day is better than 1 a day? Its better for the dog to split the meal rather than one big meal? 2) My samoyed pup doesnt seem interested in breakfast. More often than not he leaves it and seems content with one meal a day. Should I be worried about this and looking at changing his brekky to make it more appetising or as long as he's happy/healthy go with one meal a day? I hasten to add every 2nd morning or so I'll give him a lamb shank or sardines or a light biscuit/egg breakfast if I went with one meal a day.

I have returned from the vet and she has given me Metrogyl in case he has an infection/blockage and put him on boiled rice/chicken for a week. I forgot to mention before he is doing stop-start poos now. He will do a little bit then stop, move, then try and squeeze out more etc. But he isn't in any pain or anything and is as high-energy as ever. I dont know if its relevant but lately he's taken to chewing and eating sticks.

He does a lot of prayer stretches...and what I call "burps" as well. Its when he looks like he is about to throw up something but stops. About 2-3 weeks ago I started him on beef mince. But that stopped 5 days ago. If he is allergic to beef, he wouldn't still be doing mushies now would he? I don't think its the chicken mince. He's always had that in the past.

at a friends. cant.

Yes! there was this morning. The mushy part had a mucous membrane around it.

For the last week or 2 my puppy has been doing mushy poos and I don't know why. He has Nutro biscuits for breakfast (boiled water to make as mush) and for dinner has dry Nutro combined with carrots and chicken or beef mince. This has been pretty-much his diet all along since I got him 6 months ago. The only thing Ive changed recently was to soften his Nutro breakfast biscuits but surely that wouldn't cause this? I don't feed him any el-cheapo tinned food and he seems to like his Nutro biscuits. I do give him on average one schmacko a day as part of his rewards for training. His poos are like thick pumpkin soup. Most are light brown in colour (chicken-based diet). It's not diarrhea, but nor are they compact stools like he used to always do. This morning he did one tidy stool and next to it as part of the same poo was a mushy part. Weird! I apologise for the graphic descritpions. Hopefully someone may know whats causing this.

Steer clear of ANY plastic/pvc toys. There's been threads about how dogs can get cancer and die from these. http://forums.dogzonline.com.au/index.php?showtopic=96925

Mine did that and still does occasionally. At the dog park he will stick BOTH legs in the big plastic buckets and stand there and cool down :-) For home, buy one of those big heavy water bowls with a high side. He's never done it since I bought mine. I only clean/empty it once a week (I use Dog Rocks so I top up all the time instead of changing water) and yes its heavy but its better than him being thirsty because he has "dug" all of his water out of his bowl.

My pup is 5.5 months and only started teething in the last week or so.

welcome to puppy "zoomies"

Yep usually early evening with the zoomies and sometimes on walks too which is really annoying.

How do you find shedding combs as compared to regular combs? Ive been told about (here at DOL by a Sibe owner) a double-row rotating pin comb that supposedly is all you need to use to groom your dog. The brand is Evolution. Does anyone know where these can be bought in a Sydney shop? Here's the link: http://www.pet-shop.net/html/comb.html and here is what they look like:

ok, see what you mean re the rake. I find the teeth on my rake are fairly wide apart so while it grabs some undercoat a lot slips through and is later picked up by the slicker (no doubt this is the way its meant to happen). I also have a rake with sharp edges on one side of the teeth (see image). I presume this is for seperating heavy matting? And is brushing basically just for decorative purposes and removing some hair? I've pretty much found brushes to be useless which is ironic considering they are probably the most-used grooming tool. Lastly, I'm thinking of purchasing one of these: Any feedback on this implement? Supposedly they are great for removing loose hairs...something my Samoyed has in spades!

Out of curiosity what can a rake do that a slicker can't? Don't they both remove dead hair and undercoat, only the slicker removes a heap more?

ok, so a lot probably depends on whether you have a long or short hair breed. For those of us with long haired breeds, which type of grooming brushes/combs/rakes etc. do you find the most useful, and which ones do you never use and think are gimmicky? Yesterday I learned a valuable lesson. While brushes are good for buffing up and styling a coat, they don't remove much hair. I forgot to comb my Samoyed after brushing him and all the loose hair the brush brought up was on the surface and he was leaving fur all over clothes and carpets! When at a recent dog show at Castle Hill, I was fascinated to watch the President of the NSW Samoyed club give me a demonstration on using a comb ONLY (never uses slickers, brushes etc.) on his Samoyed once a week for about half an hour (more often in shedding season). It makes you wonder how many of these implements on the market are truly necessary! Several people have mentioned to me a dual 2-line comb is the way to go with long haired breeds and its pretty much all you need. I hope this is true because it would be great for us long-haired breed owners if there was only one type of implement needed to groom our dogs! So far I haven't found a shop that sells any.

The breeder is in Melbourne. I know the way to brush; the fact is he doesn't like being brushed. In accordance with previous advice in this thread I bought a grooming table. To make matters worse he HATES being on it and always tries to jump off. I'm trying to feed him a meal and schmackos on it to encourage him to like it but still no dice. lol, I shall persist.