Sandra777

My 14-17kg dogs chew things like that once through the middle to bend it then give the swallowing whole a good old go. Bit like sword swallowing

Best contact your nearest Siberian and/or Malamute club. The one here in Qld does weight pull - and usually end up with more bull breeds than Sibes & Mals I didn't do any training as such, just turned up, borrowed a harness from the club, got Mouse used to wearing it (she didn't care), gave her a couple of practices with tyres the club had available, then off she went. She pulled 3 qualifications and was up to pulling 15 x her own body weight but as she only weighs 14kg it became a physical impossibility for her to overcome the inertia of the weight and get higher weights moving, but if you gave the trolley a nudge she could pull more weight. You can buy your own made-to-measure harness and certainly would need to do so to get more serious. I would have no hassles starting a young dog (8-9 months for a Stafford, other breeds would depend) just getting them used to the harness, pulling very light weights, encouraging them to pull a certain distance and getting them used to the idea that they have to move xxx distance before they get a reward. Mouse was 4, pretty fit and just got right on with the job.

Rawhide is technically untreated leather. However rawhide chews as sold for dogs, if from less than wonderful can have all sorts of chemicals and crud added to it. A lot of it is made from mashed up who-knows-what rolled and dried into shapes. Consider the "bones" made of rolled up sheets tied at each end - wet one, untie the knots and you have a flat sheet of soft material which a medium/large dog is perfectly capable of trying to swallow whole, but because it's soggy and floppy it's all too easy for it to get stuck half way and choke a dog. The chemicals, the fact it can be swallowed in large lumps and the fact it can kill a dog are big no nos to me

Mustard, hydrogen peroxide, salt and washing soda are all suggested (no not all together ) I wouldn't be using salt on a small dog or an older one. Maybe google the proportions and recommendations so next time you'll be able to save yourself $95 Glad he's OK!

How long ago was he fed? If within the last hour or so I would be making him vomit.

I wouldn't be spaying her so young but if this is the decision you have made, then having her spayed on a Friday so she has two days with you home (assuming you don't work weekends ) is generally quite sufficient. When I've had younger bitches spayed prior to rehoming they're back to normal within 12 hours - usually I don't have bitches spayed until they're 6 or 7 (after show and breeding career is done) and even the "older" ones are back to normal within 24-36 hours. My dogs are never out with the free run of the yard when we're not home, so if she has run of the yard when you go to work then perhaps an extra day or two supervision would be wise? Or confine her for a couple more days incase she gets in to her head to chase birds and climb the fence

I wouldn't say it was mainly "staffys" - I've had Staffords for over 30 years and never had a seriously allergic one. I have one who is mildly allergic to beef, which I think I caused because the litter she came out of was born just after we had a cattle beast knocked over and the pups were raised mainly on beef whereas before and after I've always made a point of mixing up what they get as pups. It does have a genetic component however and sadly there are so many thoughtlessly bred Staffords out there that vets do tend to see a lots of the breed who are just born to have allergy issues. Any breed which becomes popular and is subject to bad breeding practices tends to end up as being viewed as having "x problem" when in reality it's almost always the thoughtlessly bred ones which are prone to that problem. I would definitely see a dermatologist if you don't have the experience to do elimination testing yourself. It could be something really simple or it could be something very hard to solve, only very careful elimination testing can identify it - constantly masking the problem won't solve it.

Only thing you're missing is that a lot (most?) people haven't the first clue about training their own dog so don't recognise it when they see others doing it.

What sized dog are you talking about? Personally I wouldn't give those rawhide things more than as a very occasional treat - if ever - a lot of them come from very dodgy places and frankly if you buy them from Big W they're probably not the most expensively produced/carefully sourced product. Have you tried simply not feeding him his patty and giving him a meaty bone instead? Unless they have underlying health issues, dogs will not starve themselves. I have noticed that if my lot get a lot of easily swallowed food (chunks of meat, mince, scraps etc) they will just play with their meaty bones, obviously not hungry enough to put in any effort.

Bring him to my place - China will have him for lunch if he tries it with her No more off leash exciting situations for him until he has learned to respect you, your instructions for him to stop whatever he's doing and come back to you.

Personally I wouldn't think that was excessive for a Shetland Sheepdog puppy, but what advice did the breeder give on exercising? The puppy not getting tired is not really much of an indication, as you know What sort of surfaces do you walk him on? A leisurely stroll around a grassy park is a bit different to a 30 minute march on concrete paths.

What sort of puppy?

If Buster is showing no signs of losing it and getting dangerously nasty - which is unlikely but not impossible - I would leave him to correct Angel. Keep Missy out of it completely, there is a chance they will get over excited and accidentally hurt Angel if there's two adults involved. Sounds like Angel is used to being allowed to get away with things with Missy which Buster doesn't allow so she needs to learn a new set of rules for interacting with Buster. No biggy, pups are clever, they can remember which adult they can take liberties with and which they can't.

Ah! No idea - I vaguely remember something about a break down in the cells where the hair is formed. Everything with hair greys - including Elephants EFS

Oh, OK - thanks!

Not sure what you mean here No - ticking is a separate gene again and can be red or brindle (or both if you have a very special black and tan white ticked dog (have a good look at the next Fox Terrier clan you see, black ticks on the body red ticks on the legs is not uncommon) Skin ticking is common and AFAIK isn't genetically the same as coat ticking, nor are they related to coat colour, all colours can have skin ticking Coat ticking is a pain in the butt and if I remember correctly is recessive?

Are you not allocated benches then? Is it first in best dressed?????

"Black" Staffords are black brindle. The gene for Black as in Black Labrador does not exist in the breed, Staffords which appear to be black are actually black brindle and all of them IME have some brindling on them somewhere. SOME densely black Staffords are actually tan patterned (like Dobermanns) but instead of tan markings they have brindle markings. Some black-and-brindles have very bright brindle markings in the tan-pattern places (legs, cheeks, chest, eyebrows, under the tail) and it's really obvious what they are - others have dark dark brindle markings so may have only one or two flecks of colour on the tan-pattern places. If the flecks happen to be on the lower legs chances are most people would never even see it. Interesting thing is when these dogs start to go grey all is generally revealed What about them White is a different gene to pied and the definition is blurry. What even consititutes a pied as opposed to flashy white markings can cause lots of arguments too. White is an absence of colour, a masking gene which covers up the actual colour of the dog - underneath the dog is still brindle or red or blue and will reproduce these colours just like any other brindle or red or blue. Brindle and Black and Tan are patterns not a colour - they work with other genes to determine the pattern in which the dog's actual colour will be displayed. Not officially no. Because blue is so much more sale-able than grey. The blue the old-timers were referring to was dark steel blue like a good blue Great Dane. Unfortunately it seems it's easier to breed grey and muddy brown.

Everything else aside. Blues - could happen if dad carries the dilute gene which is a recessive. Reds - could happen if dad carries the "not brindle" gene which is a recessive. Blacks, well that can't happen cause Staffords don't come in *black* but as dad is black brindle there could certainly be black brindles in the litter.

Never been through this, but have had a bitch who gave birth to two stillborn pups (full term). I left her with the pups and she abandoned them after about 4 hours, went and curled up in another bed I had put nearby for her. She didn't produce milk and seemed to recover very quickly but each one is different.

Just because a dog eats something with enthusiasm it doesn't mean it's good for them so don't take that as any recommendation ;) Dry food that agrees with her and something she can chew would work for me. There's absolutely no harm in giving her an egg once or twice a week, some sardines, a few left overs but unless you're going to do raw food/home made properly IMO you should be basing her diet on a proper commercial food, at the very least until she is fully grown.

Definitely walk them separately so they learn to focus on you, you can't train two dogs at once unless you're incredibly experienced and skilled (and then I think you wouldn't try it too often ;))

I buy chicken mince from Lenards but some haven't had a very good experience with their mince ;) Beef/lamb mince I buy from the butcher or supermarket, but I don't feed a lot of mince, it's just for puppies around here. Most of the food is bought in bulk from a pet food distributor - not a pet shop because their prices can be pretty scary at times!

Thanks for that. Sooooooo it's take a cushion and sit on the bench. Hope we can nab a double, but with only one dog entered and a popular breed I think it could be difficult. Last benched show I went to was about 1985

Vitamin E cream will be fine on healing grazes. There's all sorts of oils and potions and remedies but I've always found Vitamin E works fine.