Sandra777

If you want to do dry, when she is about 3 or 4 weeks along get a premium food just for the pregnant bitch or a slightly lesser quality one and supplement it with sardines, eggs and meat on the bone. That said, no doubt thousands of bitches have whelped perfectly healthy litters on lesser diets than Coprice.

Inspection during opening hours I think is reasonable, inspection any time you like - no way! It is possible their staff are great with the dogs without necessarily being great with people, and since the owner is ultimately responsible for the welfareof your dog I think it is wise for them to insist on meeting new customers and discussing their dog's needs, temperament, tendencies etc.

If you honestly believe the entire issue here is the protection of the public then you are very deluded. Do you honestly believe that once the do-gooders and animal rights nutters have finished raving about the dangers of the bull breeds they're all going to go home and take up knitting? You do know that many governements are looking to bring in laws to prevent "deformed" breeds such as the Pug being permitted to continue in their current form? No I am not insinuating that your preference for a specific breed which is not affected by BSL at this point in time is contributing to the spread of BSL - however IMO if you fail to stand up for right of people to prefer their specific breed you lose your right to prefer your specific breed. Take off your blinkers and look at the real world. There are powerful groups out there who want to prevent people owning pet dogs. Period.

And it is that attitude, whether you mean it humorously or semi-seriously or not, that will sink everyone. I have Pugs so I don't care if they ban all those "big powerful nasty dogs that are born vicious" Oh no, now the law makers have decided my "hideously deformed Pugs" need to be banned too. What's that old saying about hanging together or we'll surely hang separately?

Dogs "turning" is largely a myth. The fact that the victim cannot identify the trigger for the attack doesn't mean there wasn't one. :D Which, to me, is fairly alarming. If someone's lived with a dog for 3 years, and, apparently, they know each other reasonably well, why can't they identify the trigger? Is it due, then, to the very nature of the dog? I have no answers; I'm just wondering. I would suggest it is because most people actually have no idea about the subtle signs dogs send. I have lost count of the number of "cute" videos shown on TV of "cute" dogs snarling and biting at people - all accompanied by laughter. And these are not subtle signals! If these people had half a brain cell between them they would understand that the dog is not being "cute" and a dog snarling and snapping isn't funny regardless of the size of the dog. I would assume that if the dogs concerned weren't fluffy, under 10kg and allegedly "harmless breeds" these videos would be on the news instead of on the entertainment shows. The number of photos you see on random sites of kids/adults "cuddling" dogs which are obviously saying "get me outta here!" is horrific. Generally speaking I think most people are scarily ignorant of dog "language" and do miss the signals their dog is desperately giving out.

No stupidity gene in brindles - around here the blacker the dog the dumber it is

Interesting question however I would have thought that nature in her infinite wisdom would have this sorted and the hormones surrounding whelping and producing colostrum would stimulate the immune system to produce of the required antibodies. Human mothers don't get boosters when/prior to pregnancy - perhaps there's been research into how maternal immunity works in humans that could be considered?

MMM, well there is one gene that will produce pitch black in Staffords, but not sure you actually want the pretty little tan fringes that come with it

So Valglo(UK) and Koendidda(Aust) Crossguns (Aust) to name a few are unethical breeders? They have all bred blues. Breeding for blue is unethical, the actual breeding of a blue is not a hanging offence. Oh yes, done it myself too a few times too.............sorry about that. In one instance daddy was a pied Cradbury from the UK, mummy was a red Australian & New Zealand Champion double grand daughter of Aust Ch Toptaurus Cincinnati (sire of 25+ champions).

Often the kink is a malformation of the bone, which is wedge shaped instead of flat on both sides, so the tail kinks to the side. These are definitely not fixable. Some kinks are caused by the ligaments being shorter on one side than the other - which may possibly be fixable by extensive surgery. Like lowenhart said, if the kink is in the joint it may be fixable, but I wouldn't be messing with it. In the case of the malformed bone a lot of people say "oh the puppy's tail must've been broken or jammed in a door" because when the pup is very small the kink is often not obvious, but as it grows the bone gets more wedged shaped and the kink becomes apparent. Depends on the breed obviously.

Just an update. Went to her place and went through the kitchen bin (unfortunately not quite so fanatically "filed" as the rest of the house) and found the packaging from the vet. It is the dog's medication, to be given twice a day. They aren't capsules but oval shaped pills which are a sort of pink/purple colour so perhaps her eyesight isn't so good any more. Thanks for all the help!

:rolleyes: ;) :mad ;)

Normal

An internet friend in the USA lost a dog after it's tongue got stuck in a kong. The dog was dead when she came home, the vet believes it may have choked to death, she was an older dog.

What does the breeder say? What sort of socialisation did the pup get before you bought it? Do you live by yourself, if not what people does the pup have to associate with on a daily basis? What sort and how many people are you introducing to the puppy as well as how is the introduction been done? For a dot of a pup like a baby min pin, if she's never met children before, she'd probably find the entire roll of the local preschool rushing towards her high on red cordial and chocolate bars fairly intimidating IMO friends should totally ignore the puppy and go about their business. Give the pup a safe place (play pen in a busy area would be good) so she doesn't have the chance to accidentally get stood on and doesn't get the chance to run away and hide. If she doesn't come right once she has settled in to the house get one quiet and sensible friend to come over. Don't feed the pup before the friend arrives, then get friend to sit on the floor with a tiny pieces of cooked chicken, cheese and/or cabana or chicken roll scattered around him/her (maybe 30-50cm away to start with). Ignore the puppy, even if it approaches to eat - no eye contact, nothing. Repeat endlessly with all sorts of friends. But if the pup has been properly raised and is a normal temperament, if you simply ignore her behaviour (unless it gets worse!) and allow her to make friends in her own time she'll probably be fine. It's really important that you don't protect her by rushing to pick her up and baby talking to her, just ignore her when she's acting like this. Cowering doesn't necessarily mean she has been or expects to be hit or hurt, people are really really big when compared to a tiny little min pin puppy - she is probably cowering to show she means no harm rather than in fear, but she could be genuinely afraid if her upbringing hasn't been good.

I would contact his breeder ASAP and try to get on to a vet who has experience with this problem. Unfortunately it's not always solvable, but I hope you have some success.

Thanks for all the good info.

No matter where I lived I wouldn't be mating a carrier to a carrier.

She takes EVERYTHING out of their packets and puts them in little jars all over the house. Probably should be grateful she hasn't already taken the dog's medication (if that's what it is!) out of the bubble packs and put them in jars. Don't ask for an aspirin, you might end up with a dog worm pill.

Thanks for that - I will go around and see her later to get a manufacturer's name & check out the other pills she's confused about. Does 500mg sound excessive for a dog that sort of size? Did to me, but then I'm not sure how bad this "cut" on the dog's leg is. I only met her because of her a dog, really sad to see her so alone and confused and the family doesn't seem to care or notice The dose rate is usually about 20-30mg/kg, so not really an excessive dose at all. Ah - OK. Thanks for that. Will take my calculator too. DOL is a great fount of all knowledge

Thanks for that - I will go around and see her later to get a manufacturer's name & check out the other pills she's confused about. Does 500mg sound excessive for a dog that sort of size? Did to me, but then I'm not sure how bad this "cut" on the dog's leg is. I only met her because of her a dog, really sad to see her so alone and confused and the family doesn't seem to care or notice

Just had a phone call from a dear old lady who wants to know if Cephalexin would be prescribed for dogs. Long story and a sad one, but she doesn't know which medication is hers and which is the dogs I got her to spell the drug name off the back of the bubble pack, apparently they're capsules and it says Cephalexin 500mg (which seems a heck of a lot for a dog) it's a Lab height cattle/lab/who knows, I'd guess she weighs 25/30kg? with a cut on her leg. Her vet is closed and it's all too confusing to expect her to phone a different vet, I will if no one here can give a definitive answer. No pills required until tonight.

It would be extremely unlikely for an adult dog and bitch to fight - however you need to introduce them properly and manage the situation sensibly - I assume she and the new dog would be living in the same house? - if so until now it's been HER house, so to open the gate and chuck a new dog into the yard would be asking for trouble Introductions in a neutral place/no toys, food left out for them to argue about/don't leave them alone unattended/don't favour one over the other. ETA: and to begin with DO NOT allow the children to play with the dogs when both dogs are there - the GSD may well think the new dog is a threat to "her" children.

No reason an older dog shouldn't fit in as well as a younger dog, and if they're from a decent owner the training issues are virtually nil too (huge bonus unless you love house training puppies ). My only hesitation would be buying an older dog is if you don't know the environment it's come from and it's not through a proper rescue which temperament tests, you do have the risk of ending up with something that might not be suitable for a family environment. If this dog has belonged to the breeder all his life and the breeder has a similar sort of home environment to you then I'd say it's a no brainer and go for it if you like the dog. If it's a rehome the breeder has taken back then you definitely need to know where he's come from (in terms of the type of home - family, couple, single woman, single guy etc) and why he's being rehomed. If you decide to buy him then make sure you get a trial period in case he turns out completely unsuitable - but no ethical breeder would let you take one of their adults without this anyway!

Have you had a fecal exam done to even suggest the dogs need intestinal worming so much? If so, or if you live in a an area with a high risk of feral animal poop passing on hook worm, then I'd just extend one dog's intestinal treatment by a month and shorten the other one by a month then next time by a fortnight each and the intestinal wormers are on the same day for both. Heartworm, again depends on the risk but doing one 5 days early and the other 6 days late wouldn't be an issue, so they could be evened up immediately. Not sure I'd want to give them heartworm medication and intestinal worm medication on the same day but if you're fine with this remember that the dosage suggested has a huge margin for error (unless one of the dogs is allergic/sensitive to the chemicals) so you don't have to be too freaked about the dosage for anything over a 10-15kg dog.