Anissa

Hi Tatsu, the best "diet" is to exercise him because if you simply reduce the calorie intake the metabolism will slow down and the diet is not very successfull. If you prepare the food for him (other then buying industrial food) I would stick to lean meat (for high quality protein) and veggies (not many fruits due to the high sugar content). To prevent him from being to hungry all the time, you can add more "fillers" (like potatoes, pumpkin or brown rice). I would also add some rosmary to the each meal, since it is good for activating the metabolism and reducing weight. I wouldnt' fast him too much but one day a week is usually fine if he getz more exercise on that day (to prevent the metabolism to slow down). Most dogs cope with the fasting but if he keeps vomiting maybe it's no good for him. If he eats a lot of grass, than you can add some to his normal food. It can be a sign that something is missing in his diet. If you reduce the amount of food it is very important to feed good quality food (I prefer selfmade, raw food with fresh meat, veggies and herbs) to make sure he gets all nutritiens he needs.

I do have a couple of stuff but it is all in German. This one is fantastic but it would take me a while to translate: Cancer and Food by Silvia Dierauer One of the main points is to feed NO CEREALS whatsoever and just fresh food with good quality proteins.

First of all there is no such thing as a homoeopathic vaccination. Secondly, homoeopathy never works as a preventive treatment and should only be used as a remedy for symptoms actually shown. I do treat my dogs a lot with homoeopathic medicine and know for sure it works very well. If you want to treat your dog with homoeopathy, please consult a homoeopath, someone who learned it properly. Otherwise go for the traditional methods because you actually CAN harm by simply giving (wrong) homoeopathic remedies (especially in such low potencies like C3,4 or 5 since these still contain a large amount of the original substance).

Hi, a homoeopathic therapy is a very complex and individual thing and requires a direct contact to a therapist. You CAN treat that sort of behaviour with homoeopathy but as a therapist you need the whole picture to find the right remedy for your individual dog. Especially when your dog is very senstitive anyway giving the wrong remedy could cause a severe first reaction (which is a common thing when using C and D potencies) and should probably be treated with a Q/LM potency which AGAIN requires close contact to the therapist! You shouldn't try a remedy by yourself or by recommendation of someone who is not an animal homoeopath since your dog can experience severe side effects from a wrong remedy! PLEASE, if you want to use homoeopathy: go to a classical homoeopathic therapist!!!! Don't try it on your own, you can definately worsen things and make it very difficult for a therapist to deal with a therapy afterwards. Cheers, Anissa

I have done "ski joering" with my dogs in the german winter, which is a bit similar to pulling the sled. I used nordic ski and had my waist belt with two leashes attached and my doggies were pulling me. like that: The dogs wear special pulling harnesses (to distinguish between "non pulling street harness" and "pulling ski harness"). :D

Hi all, I am an absolute clicker addict for over 10 years now. The dogs school I worked at back in Germany solely worked with clicker training and both of my dogs are trained with it. I bought most of my stuff back there (in german) but order new books at dogwise. They seem to be very reliable with the delivery. Here are another clicker page I really love: Clicker Solutions They even have a mailing list about clicker training. :D My doggies love to learn new tricks and are nice "service dogs" by now.

Mine has a snap hook at the and not a choke collar.

I use a "hands free" leash for my collie girl. It is one from a "hunting shop" in Germany and you wear it like a handbag over your shoulder/across you upper body (don't know how to describe it better, will try to find a picture :D ). I love to use it with her, she is extremely reliable with her loose leash walking and very well mannered. But as amhailte said before, when using something like that on a (big) dog that is not reliable, you can have bad accidents. I use a jogging belt with Manu (my greyhound cross) when I go running with him. But I have to admitt that I fell twice because he was going after a rabbit (which I haven't seen in the first place). (apart from that I love the belt, I run long distances with my dogs and Manu has to stay on the lead. So keeping a leash in my hand would give stiff shoulder muscles after a short while. he is quite reliable now but I am always careful. usually he is really good after running 15 k or so. at least the following 15 or 20 k are quite relaxed )

The dogs love to follow me anyway so why not heeling. I 've never thought of that option but I am sure they will love to have a new "job" in sticking to my knee.

Great idea, I've never thought of that before!

Me again! Some stuff I do for my dogs: - filling a kong with peanut butter and dry dog food/bickies (takes a while to get all that sticky stuff out) - I use the (cut off) legs of old jeans as toys and put a good smelling dog bickie in it an tie it - You can pack a parcel for your dog using a carton and loads of old newspaper (most dogs love to produce a mess ) and fill some treats inbetween so your dog needs to search for them. - You can hide treats for her in the whole house and she can look for them while you are away Cheers, Anissa

You can use any reward your dog actually sees as a reward. Since your dog seems to enjoy close body contact a simple pat might be a good reward. I use different food rewards: I have several different types of treat which have different "values" for my dogs. I use simple commercially available dog treats, selfmade liver-carot treats and their absolute highlight are these dog sausages (junk junk junk food!!!) Depending how difficult the lession was I give different types of treats. For my collie girl a play of fetch is a nice reward as well.

Hi Bret, it is very hard to give an exact tip what you shoul do without seeing you two work together but from your description I wonder if the problem might be that you are reinforcing the unwanted behaviour without wanting to. Obviously your dog can't distinguish between wanted behaviour and unwanted. IMO your dog is an "attention junkie" and every type of attention seems to reinforce her (for example bringing her back to her mat). IMO you should focus on sending clearer messages and unwanted behaviour has to be completely ignored. Cheers, Anissa

Good question!!! Luckily I have no probs with my back and do loads of sports anyway so the handling is not a problem for me. But I would recommend doing sports when you have back probs.

Congratulations! Obviously Lucy liked being back! :D