Sonic

The only issue he has is that the neck of his bladder has stretched. The medication he is currently on is to try to help the neck of the bladder return to normal size although it is not always successful in males. With females they use a hormone treatment but isn't suitable for males.

My 13-1/2 y.o. entire male has become incontinent. He is on medication but so far it isn't working. Has anyone else had this problem and what did you do to fix the problem?

I had the same problem. My bitch was attacked in the park by a small, white fluffy when she was young and is now quite unforgiving of small dogs she doesn't know. She will charge them like she is the queen of the park - if they get scared and take flight she will chase (she never touches them, just scares the hell out of them), if they hold their ground she becomes their best friend. If she meets the same dog again on another day she doesn't give them a second glance. I am fortunate that she is very prey driven so have been able to redirect her with a training dummy. When she spots a small dog now that she doesn't know and goes into the stalk I only have to say "are you ready?" and she totally forgets the other dog and we have a great game of fetch. The other dog can even join in if he wants and she won't pay it the slightest attention.

A friend is looking to buy a pup and went out to see the breeder. She was surprised at just how many dogs they had on the property. There were a few whelping bitches, a couple of litters already on the ground and then a very large indoor complex that housed pups of various ages as well as adult dogs. The set up was very clean and the dogs looked healthy. All dogs on the property were of the same breed. My query is would you be happy to purchase a pup from this sort of environment or would you prefer a pup from a single litter raised in a home where they may get more individual one-on-one attention?

No, Labradors don't have to be fat. This is the correct size.

I have to agree with Sardog on this. My 13 y.o. has spondylosis of the spine and has been on anti-inflammatories for quite some time. I desperately wanted to get him off the anti-inflams if possible so tried a course of acupuncture which did absolutely nothing for him. I then took him to see Barry and he has now been off the anti-inflams for well over a month and is looking fantastic. As mentioned, my dog is 13 and had a chronic back problem but Barry couldn't have been more gentle with him. He treated with with the respect he deserved and my boy is now moving and jumping around like a spring chicken. Erny I do understand that one bad incident can sway your whole opinion on someone, I have been guilty of it myself, but in my opinion Barry is great. After taking my young bitch all around town to try and fix a sporadic limp (even saw some of the more popular orthopedic vets) it was Barry that diagnosed the problem, treated it and she has not limped since. The vets I saw couldn't even find a problem with her. He gets my vote.

Erny I'm not trying to get you to say anything. Just trying to understand the situation better.

Hi Erny Do you believe that entire males trying to mount bitches is also dominance and not sexually based?

I am wondering if the loss of testosterone has feminised him. Do male dogs have estrogen? If so, perhaps the complete lack of testosterone but presence of estrogen makes him more appealing than an entire bitch who will carry some testosterone in her system. Anyway, that's just my theory?!? He is not a submissive dog and does not take this mounting behaviour with good grace. The dogs that try mounting him pay no attention to my entire male or my entire bitch. I would have expected dominance behaviour to be more directed at my entire male.

My boy was neutered at the age of 4 so he wasn't a youngster. It's something I've noticed with my entire males in the past though, that they are overly interested in neutered males. I have him booked in to the vet tomorrow so will ask the question.

Does anyone know why this is? I find entire males are trying to mount him constantly, even going so far as to go past my entire female to get to him. He doesn't enjoy the attention.

There's an off leash beach at Mt Eliza, just around the corner from Toorak College. Dogs can be there before 9:00am and after 7:00pm.

When getting titre tests done how important do you think it is to be tested for Hepatitis? This test has to be done in Scotland whereas Parvo and Distemper are done in Western Australia. I've been quoted a cost of $252 plus consultation fee for all 3 tests which would put the total at over $300 which is really cost prohibitive. Do you think it's necessary to have the Hepatitis test?

My dog is currently having acupuncture with Anne Neville at South Road Animal Health in Moorabbin.

This is the email address I used and had a reply from Jean within half an hour. [email protected]

Ptolomy is there somewhere in Australia that sells the vaccinations singly? When my girl failed the Distemper titre I was told that there wasn't anywhere in Australia that you could get the vaccinations singly so she would have to have C3 as a minimum.

Hi Rexiam You can get the DNA test done through a couple of places now, the one I went through is Genetic Technologies: http://www.gtg.com.au/AnimalDNATesting/ind...?menuid=080.150 All you need is a swab from inside your dog's mouth - your vet can do this for you. What Lappiemum says about the glow in the dog's eyes is correct in my boy's case. If the area he is in is dark but there is light coming from somewhere else, say he is in the lounge with the light off but the kitchen light is on, his eyes have a green glow to them. At 6 years of age Razz is now night blind and has poor peripheral vision. He is still fine during daylight hours though and you would never know there was a problem. I expect in the next 12 to 18 months that will change significantly though. I hope this is not the problem with your dog but it doesn't hurt to be aware of the possibilities. From the age of your dog your breeder should definitely have had his parents DNA tested to make sure they were not carrying the PRA gene - both parents need to be carrying the gene to produce an affected pup. There is no excuse now for any Labrador to have PRA. Good luck and I hope it will all turn out to be nothing.

My Lab has PRA and he was certainly short sighted. I competed with him in retrieving trials and he was never able to see the dummies at a distance. We thought it was a learning problem that he was just not "looking" far enough. I never understood what the problem was until he had a DNA test which showed he had PRA. Rexiam please understand that at 6 months it is unlikely an ophthalmologist will pick up any signs of PRA - that doesn't mean your dog doesn't have it. If you are concerned about it you can get a DNA test, that will tell you definitely one way or another. My dog had clear eye certificates right up until the DNA test at age 4. Then I stopped getting him tested and had him neutered instead. Having said all of that, it could be nothing at all so don't think your dog is going to go blind, just get him tested if it is worrying you.

It cost me $246 - that included $56 for the consultation. Name: Ellie Breed: Labrador Vaccinated: Puppy shots plus booster at 15 months Current Age: 2-3/4 yrs Titre Results: Parvo >= 1:80, Distemper < 1:5 Because she came back with below optimal for Distemper the recommendation was to have her revaccinated and test again a month later. I have had her revaccinated but am hesitant to do the titre test again at $246. After all, she will either be covered by the new vaccination or not. If she's not covered straight after vaccinating then she probably never will be no matter how often she's vaccinated. If anyone can give me a reason I should spend the money on the new titre test please let me know because right now I'm not planning to.

My dog has had the implant twice as I don't want him to breed with my entire bitch. He has been very good around her when in season but still shows just a fraction more interest than my neutered boy who doesn't pay any attention to her at all. It does take a month for the implant to take effect so I'm wondering if grabonsam's friend had the implant put in too late.

Thanks for your replies. I sent the results to Dr Jean Dodds who answered my query almost immediately. She has suggested my girl might be a non responder, meaning she will never have immunity to distemper, but her email also suggested the revaccination with a titre test a month later to see how she responds. I will see if my vet has other strains of the vaccine but I do know that she will have to be vaccinated with C3 again as he doesn't carry the single vaccinations - does anyone in Australia have them singly?

I had titres done on my dog and it is showing that she has less than 1:5 for Distemper - 1:20 and above is best. It has been only around 15 months since she was last vaccinated and you would expect that she would still be showing good immunity to it - her Parvo result was very good - >= 1:80. Has anyone had this happen and, if so, what did you do? The recommendation has been to revaccinate her now and then run titres again in a month to see if she has been able to produce antibodies. If not then she apparently never will.

Just querying the height of 22 to 22.5 for dogs and 21.5 to 22 for bitches. I have always thought this was correct but was told by breeders recently that the max height had been increased. Can anyone confirm this.

Hi Kat1 There is a retrieving trial being held on 27/28 June in the Bendigo area. It is being run by the Labrador Club and if you'd like to go along you can contact the club for details. Otherwise visit this website australianworkingretrievercentral.org.au and check under Trial Schedules/Results for details of any trials coming up.

I did post this in the pinned Tick post above but haven't had any replies so was hoping I might get some here. Just had a girl from work say that her dog picked up a paralysis tick in the Loch Sport area of Victoria (Gippsland) 2 weeks ago. Some friends and I are travelling to Gippsland in a couple of weeks for one week with our dogs. What would you recommend we use on our dogs for a one week stay? Frontline Plus 48 hours prior to the trip has been recommended. Is this sufficient?