Toohey

Kaye, I don't know how to help ease your pain. I dread the days when my two will have to leave and can't even bear to imagine how I will cope without either of them, and recover from the loss. Maybe find a new doggy freind to love, and in the meantime allow yourself to cry and grieve for your beloved Maya. I wish they could live as long as we do

Oh Geez Sandy, now she won't come back and tell us about her investigations!

Just out of interest Haven, what is your idea of adequate socialisation for a pup that is not fully vaccinated? ;)

I was not talking about isolating pups. I was talking about not fully socialising them. As we have seen from the original poster in this thread, his dog was allowed to sniff dog poo at the park at 15 weeks of age. There is no way I would take a pup to a dog park before it was fully vaccinated and my breeder would skin me alive if I did. Pups can be socialised within reason via meetings with known safe dogs and puppy preschools. I think it is negligent to advise people to take pups to public places such as dog parks before they have their full course of vaccinations. Edit to add, I have known several pups who have not been out of the breeder's yard until several months old and they assimiliated in to the big dog world with no problems at all. Pups who are at home with other dogs are also unlikely to have problems.

Puppies who are not fully socialised prior to being fully vaccinated are highly unlikely to have unmanageable problems. It's the dogs who are never socialised at all that might have problems later on.

Thanks for clearing that up Greentea. Steve has an incredible wealth of accurate and enormously helpful knowledge that she never hesitates to share with us all. My dogs have benefited greatly from her knowledge, as has my breeder and her dogs. This thread has been very informative ;)

Hi Penygraig and welcome to DOL, I doubt that anyone would want to lampoon you. Are you in the UK? Was the pup with rage PTS? Can you tell us more about these investigations you have done?

I'm so sorry for your loss. My thoughts are with you.

Would a coat king be useful here? I know you don't get the same great results as with handstripping but they are a great and easy way to strip a coat. http://www.groomersmall.com/ck_results.htm

No, you used the term possession aggression and resource guarding to describe cockers in general, NOT the cocker in this post. Actually, although cockers and springers are the ones mostly spoken of for it, it has also been reported in the following breeds: American Cocker Spaniels, Bernese Mountain Dogs, Chesapeake Bay Retrievers, Dobermanns, English Bull Terriers, English Springer Spaniels, German Shepherds, Golden Retrievers, Pyrenean Mountain Dogs and St. Bernards Have you actually seen this in any cockers, or are you just going on hearsay and old wives tales? How many cockers have you personally known who exhibit resource guarding and possessive aggression? Are you saying this a breed trait and not a management issue?

There is a massive difference between true rage syndrome which is very rare, and possessive aggression behaviours which have been brought about by poor management. Please do not bring the term "cocker rage' into this discussion as it is obviously not the issue here.

I don't agree with this. Any dog can be capable of these behaviours if not managed properly from puppyhood. What do you base this information on?

Cockers are incredibly willing-to-please dogs, and can be very sensitive. You may be making the problems worse by punishing them. Best to ignore bad behaviour. I am sure the pup will settle as she matures. Just with my cockers, although they are adults, I find I get great results by giving them one on one attention, sitting down and looking into their eyes and stroke them gently, tell them what a good boy/girl they are. I talk to them a lot and make sure if I use a certain word I follow straight through with the matching action. As a result, my dogs have a huge vocabulary and it is easy to communicate with them. A good one for your Jess may be "settle" if she is over excited. Stand there with your arms crossed and keep saying it to her quietly until she calms down and sits, then tell her how good she is and give her a treat. She will soon learn that when she calms and sits she is rewarded. Cockers are terribly intelligent, learn quickly and respond badly to punishment with fear and nervousness. Jess is a pup don't forget, and pups chew and dig. Mine grew out of that at around 12 months. Do you do any obedience training with her? Might help also.

Have you been in touch with the breeder to discuss this? You must do so if not. Even if they won't accept any responsibility, they need to know for their breeding programme. Byott, this was discussed in great detail in your thread about buying a pedigree pup. I recall you wanted to get the hip scores for the parents before buying the pup. Did you in fact get them? And they were wrong? I'm sorry about your pup. Please discuss your options with the breeder, and find out how much they are able to help you before criticising them too much.

Never feed cooked bones. Cooking denatures them in a way that stops the dog being able to digest them properly. They can splinter and cause internal damage.

Seadog, try a raw potato poultice as mentioned in this thread Raw potato poultice Should mention that my dog was found to have no foreign body on either occasion.

It's a bit of a worry Pheebs Seems no rhyme or reason. How long till you can have her back?

Rozzie, dreadful news......I am so sorry for your loss.

Visla girl, dab some apple cider vinegar, or even normal vinegar, on the hives. It will take the itch away. You could even give her a bath and use it as a rinse if there is too many.

They are at our park as well. Just the last few days, bloody great mutant mozzies that can bite through fabric

Don't know if this will help, but my boy is a mad bird chaser and will hear nothing else when he spots his favourite ducks at the local off leash park. Fortunately our park is massive and fenced and a long way from roads, so worst case scenario for me so far has been having to get wet to drag him out of the creek. Although, the beach is another story and he ain't going off lead again there!Swimming in the ocean in 8degree temperature to retrieve seagull crazed dog is not much fun!!! His favourite birds used to be swallows and when he was younger and more energetic, he would chase them in big wide circles until the cows came home, and I could never catch him as he would do a runner when I got close. You can see the brain ticking over. "Am I far enough away from her to get away with it? Or will she catch me?" I put him on a 12 metre nylon string and let him chase them, and then called and reeled him in, until he eventually started realising I could reach him, and he started coming. Haven't had a problem with calling him away from swallows since. This doesn't work with ducks however. He finds a duck in the creek and tells Skye about it and all you hear is the pair of them whoopeeing and yahooing off into the distance!! Duck is sky high by this stage, mind you. He is however, dependant on Mum, and I only have to keep walking and he will look up from whatever he is doing and have a little panic and run after me. Funniest thing is hiding behind a tree and sneaking a look and seeing the panic and the mad bolt with his nose on the ground to find me!!! Dunno Tess, lots of hard work, which I imagine you already do, and a safe practise area

Wendy what are using to strip her coat? Are you showing, or planning to show her? Could you use thinning scissors on her head? She is looking divine. Growing into a stunning girl Is it because you feed her all that sand?

Well, Skye is cross with me for posting a pic of her boobies, so I won't post anymore pics, but will tell you that both her and Leo have their armpits shaved out with the no. 10 blade as well. We also sometimes run the clippers along the inside of their legs and just leave the outside for show. Armpits are terrible traps for grass seeds too. Typically, Melbourne has gone from 37 degrees yesterday, to 10 degrees and pouring rain today. So much for our summer haircuts Jeddah's coat looks spectacular by the way

Something else Skye asks her hairdresser to do is trim her tummy with the clippers. This keeps her tummy cool, makes grooming a bit easier, and doesn't take away from her full feathered look at all, which pleases Skye, as you know, when your a floosie, it's all about attracting the boys, isn't it Jeddah?

Hi Shelly and Jeddah, today, just for you, Skye is modelling her new summer hairstyle. She 'specially asked the hairdresser to give her this smooth sleek look so that she would be sexy for the boys. While chatting to the hairdresser about what she has been up to lately, she asked if she could have her back clipped off, but her lovely feathering left intact, but at the same time thinned out and neatly trimmed. This way, while playing with her ball in the creek, she can still catch the boy's eye with her little girly skirt and luscious fluffy ears. Her hairdresser also rubs some delicious smelling aloveen conditioner into her coat. When the Aloveen is used, Skye finds when she is groomed after her exercise and flirting sessions, the prickles and burrs slide out much easier.