dancinbcs

Fascinating. I have owned several entire males including dogs that have been used at stud and have NEVER had any of these things happen. No humping anything, no little deposits left. Nothing, even when the girls are in season. Maybe it is a breed thing and my BCs have too much class to do any of this. They have all had one go at lifting their leg in the house when they learn that trick, but a swift whack up the bum at the crucial moment lets them know that is not acceptable in the house. Other than that, I find boys cleaner and easier to house train than the girls.

The basic pigment colours of chocolate and blue are recessive to black and if they both occur together, it creates lilac. All the other colours like red, tri, sable and merle are actually coat patterns, because they only affect the hair not the basic pigment of the skin. All the coat patterns can occur on with any pigment colour. The original colours in Australia where black/white, black/white/tan (tri) and black/tan but all colours/patterns did occur here, except for merle. All the colours/patterns including merle where and are seen overseas. Over the years, the black/tan was dropped and chocolate and blue added to the Australian standard as dogs of these colours occured occasionally. Reds also occured but many breeders drowned them at birth. I remember a time when the greatest insult you could direct at a breeder, was to say they had produced reds. Times changed and some prominent breeders started showing reds, that were at the time usually called sables. We now have no way of knowing which of the the early dogs registered as sable, where in fact sable and which ones where red. Eventually, in the late 80s, red was added to the standard but so far sable has not been. Merle, which is a dominant coat pattern, was then introduced with a couple of imports a few years ago. Personally, from observing BCs over 27 years, I believe the fastest way to lose quality is to breed colours together. The best coloured dogs have always had at least one black parent. The majority of better quality dogs are black so if you want to breed for quality you will not do it mixing colours. Merles should never be bred to reds or dogs carrying red because merle cannot usually be seen in a red coat and it may lead to accidently breeding a red that is actually a merle to another merle, with the associated problems of merle/merle breeding. Incidently, breeding a red with black pigment to either a chocolate or a blue, will result in all black puppies, unless the red also carries the recessive pigment colour of it's partner.

If she is happy to ride in the car, the distance shouldn't make any difference. Dogs that get car sick usually do it on short trips as well as long ones, so if she isn't getting sick on short trips she should be fine. Make sure she has a collar and tag with your mobile number. Make sure she is confined when you open the door and that you have a lead on her before she gets out of the car. Enforce the stay command, until you give a command to get out of the car. Take some toys and chews to keep her amused so she doesn't get bored and eat the seatbelts or upholstery. She should sleep until daybreak, then have a toilet stop every two hours (5-10 minutes) and offer her water that you take from home. Feed her at her normal meal times but just make the the meals are a bit smaller. If you haven't taught her to toilet on command work on this in the next few days. It is much easier to travel with a dog that will toilet when told. It saves multiple stops where the dog just sniffs, only to whine when it needs to go and you are back on the highway with no suitable place to pull up. People travel all over the country with show dogs of all ages and most never have a problem. Happy travelling.

Because buyers are dumb enough to pay it. Same reason some "breeders" charge more for chocolate, merle, lilac and red Border Collies. Because these colours are rare in the better quality show lines they con the buyers into thinking they are getting something special. What most in fact are doing is breeding from inferior stock just to get the colour and charge a fortune for them to a gullible public. No matter what breed, different colours should not be different prices. Certain colours only become desirable to pet buyers when breeders charge more for them, thus making Joe Public think there is something special about the colour.

I find that puppy appetites vary a lot. They seem to grow in spurts rather than at a constant rate and the appetite corresponds to the growth rate. If the growth levels off for a while the appetite disappears, only to re-appear when they start to grow again. I test them by offering a small amount of something really tasty like roast chicken to make sure they are not ill. If they will eat that, I assume they are just not hungry enough to eat normal food, so offer a smaller meal and remove it if they do not eat. Then offer the next meal at the usual time. They usually only skip a few meals before they start to get hungry again. If they are still on 3 or 4 meals a day, I use the drop in appetite to determine when they should be cut down to one less meal. The one exception to this rule was a dog many years ago that would eat practically nothing between about 7 and 9 months. He was seriously losing weight so I started offering Di-Vetelact made up thick like cream. He was happy to drink that and it kept his weight up until he finally started to eat again. He was still a picky eater until about age three and then just ate normally for the rest of his life. I found in that first few years that offering smaller meals worked best. If he ate all the food offered I would put a bit more in the plate and repeat until he had enough. If I put the whole meal in together, he woud just walk away and not even taste it.

It's awful to lose them suddenly like that. Pets at Peace ph: 1800 636 797, are very good in Sydney. I have used them 4 times now for dogs. They pick up from your house or the vet and return the ashes in a lovely urn. The Pet Cemetery at Berkshire Park is also great but they are more expensive. I took my dog to them the first time I had one cremated but they where just too expensive the next time.

Mine won't touch food with them crumbled in. I have to slice them and hide completely inside cubes of raw meat. Even then he is wary and manages to spit a few bits out. It takes a lot of food to get a dose into him.

I used to have an oldie with very arthritic legs. I used a trampoline type bed with vet bed covering and placed a whelping box heating panel under the bed lifted up on bricks. When the dog lied on the bed her weight meant that the bed just touched the heat panel underneath. I kept it to one side as she prefered to keep her body off the heat but her legs over the warm spot. With the heating panel under the bed the cord is out of the way and it is much safer. This worked well for my old girl's last three winters.

I thought it was just my dogs that didn't like the chewables until I read these posts. I have now written an email of complaint to Novartis, asking them to start making the tablets again. I received an answer, stating that there are no plans to do this at the moment but they will pass on my comments. So can I suggest that everyone on here that has dogs that do not like the new chewables, write a similar email to : <[email protected]> Maybe of they get multiple complaints about the dogs refusing to eat them, they might do something about it.

Very much dependant on the breed. If you have breed that like lying near the fire in winter it is going to need to be kept a lot warmer than a breed like mine that tend to clear out of a heated room and even like to play in snow if they get a chance. The puppies still need to be kept warm as babies but really dense coats keep them a lot warmer than breeds with fine coats.

My repro specialist vet says that you should be comfortable sitting in the room in short sleeves, so about 23 -25 degrees, for the first couple of weeks. She also recommends covering the whelping box and adding a heating pad in one corner, in cold weather, to create a warm cave. Much depends on the breed, because if a coated bitch is too hot she will not stay with the puppies, so a balance is needed between keeping the puppies warm enough and not having the bitch too hot. If the bitch is panting, it is too hot. One of my summer litters on the other hand where so hot (despite air con at the other end of the house), that I had to put ice packs in the whelping box. The temperature in the room with the puppies was generally around 28 - 30 degrees when it was 40 - 45 outside but it was still too hot for them. They were really big fat puppies with thick coats and would scream if they didn't have cold packs to lie on. I used the flat, flexible ones and wrapped them well in towels and they were in the box from day two, when I worked out what the babies where screaming about. They would have huge feed, crawl across the box, lie belly down on the cold packs, let out a sigh and fall asleep.

That's fine for tablets but these chews are huge. This is the only way you can buy Interceptor now. I never had any trouble with the old Interceptor tablets with one dog that just took and swallowed them and the other, that has an aversion to anything tablet shaped, I broke them up and tossed them in food. With the new chewables the first dog will still eat them but the other one flatly refuses to eat them on their own or broken up with food. His dose is way too big to put down his throat, so I have now resorted to slicing it into thin slices and slipping them into meat cubes. I toss him a few plain meat cubes then toss him the ones with the chews hidden in them. He doesn't bother to chew them and because I am throwing them he doesn't stop to sniff them first, so never works out what is hidden in there.

As far as we know 5 is too old for CL, but it has different ages of onset in humans, so there is a very slight possibility that it could occur in an older dog. We just have never seen a case. If Roy does not have one parent DNA clear for CL it would be worth DNA testing to rule it out 100%. All registered BCs should by now have their CL status confirmed. There has not been a case in a registered dog in Australia for many years but it does still occur in unregistered dogs here. Brain tumours, meningitis, fungal infections and other brain trauma can all have similar syptoms to CL. My dog that had the meningitis was by a CL carrier so despite his age we did supect CL at first, but the pathology and later DNA testing of his mother, ruled that out completely. Sometimes there is just no answer. I remember one young dog in the early days of CL research being put down with all the symptoms at the right age. Despite the efforts of two pathology labs and the Uni that was then the main research point for CL, we never found out what was wrong with the dog. The professor doing the CL research thought it may have been some sort of toxin that had affected the brain but left no residue. The brain appeared perfectly normal but the dog had all the physical and behavioural symptoms of CL, together with one other symptom that did not fit in.

Definitely sounds more likely to be neurological rather than behavioral to me. Having been badly attacked by one of my own dogs that turned out to have brain damage due to bacterial meningitis, I am always very wary of odd behaviour changes. My dog, also a 5 year old BC at the time, had done a few weird things over several months but nothing to ring alarm bells until he attacked me. The pressure build up in his brain must have caused excruciating headaches. A few minuted after the attack he had no idea what all the fuss was about, I'm sure he didn't even know he had done it. Do not take any chances with this dog until you can get him checked out thoroughly. If it is a neuro problem you may have to opt to pts because even if you treat him you will never be sure he is cured and that you can trust him again. Dogs have no way of telling us if pain in their head has gone away or not.

Think Dog by John Fisher. Best dog book I have ever read.

Oh, I forgot about the Schipperke. Great little dogs. A bit smaller than a Japanese Spitz so may be smaller than they are looking for. A Border Terrier could also suit. They are the only terrier breed that is definitely not supposed to be a fighter with other dogs. It sounds like Spottydog0 is looking for something around the 7-10 kg range. A Clumber is quite a large dog, that just has shorter legs. In the Spaniels a Cocker would probably be most suitable and they could groom one themselves. Cockers with correct coats don't need a lot of work if they are not being shown. Many from back yard breeders have incorrect, woolly coats that need clipping but the coat should be fine and flat, only needing a little hand stripping to keep it looking good. I would also not recommend a Shar Pei or Stafford to a new dog owner, especially when one of the important criteria is that they be friendly and non confrontational with other dogs. Both these breeds need a firm hand and despite socialisation, still need to be watched carefully with other dogs. They may not start trouble, but they won't back down from a confrontation. They are also very physically strong breeds for their size and the numbers of both in pounds and rescue shows that they are breeds for dedicated enthusiasts not for everyone who wants a dog. Same applies to breeds like Rotties, Dobes, German Shepherds, Mals, Sibes, any of the fighting Terriers and many other breeds. Many are challenging to own and not suitable as the average pet for a novice owner. Even my own breed BCs is not one I recommend to most people as a first dog. To raise a BC you need to know more than the dog so I prefer owners with some dog training experience. There are of course exceptions in all these breeds and with novice owners, but as a general rule I prefer to see new owners start with one of the more easy going breeds as a first dog.

Could be swollen lymph glands in those positions.

If you would be happy with half an hours grooming a week, either a Shetland Sheepdog or Japanese Spitz might suit. Both very hairy but not difficult to groom. Both bark an alarm warning at strangers but are usually pretty good around people and dogs is socialised as puppies. Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers might also suit but I have no idea if they will act as guard dogs. A Whippet, Beagle or Cocker Spaniel are all good suggestions for the size. Cavaliers are actually classed as a "Toy" breed so are probably smaller than you had in mind.

I'm sold! :D The more I find out about this breed, I really want one! I don't mind that they are busy and somewhat of a handful. I think the bad behaviour in the breed is lack of social skills, no firm leadership (or lack of knowleadge) and no training. I was going to put up a thread about getting an older and mature dog... just to see what other people thought. But, I think the boyfriend and I have our heart set on getting a puppy. A clean slate, no issues, the challenge of owning and training another puppy, and also Charlie likes puppies (I'm also keeping in my mind if he has his bad day and doesn't want any company... we will deal with that too, the boyfriend and I make a really good team.. both dogs needs will always be met). To be honest I'm a little surprised that a lot of them are known to be a handful, because ours is actually a bit of a slug! She's happy to spend the day lying at my feet whilst I work. Though she loves nothing more than getting out and about for a walk. We were first time dog owners when we got her, so were really lucky that she was so easy to train etc. I came to a rude awakening when we recently got our papillon... she's a maniac!! I had never realised how placid our JS was as a puppy until we got the papillon! Most of the Jap Spitz I have known are pretty easy as babies but tend to become more active as they get older. The exact opposite to my Border Collies. BC babies are up and running as soon as they get on their legs, climbing out of everything including the whelping box, digging holes and chewing everything in sight from a few weeks. :D The Japs in contrast sit in the whelping box and look cute and once they are in a puppy pen it never occurs to them to climb out. Just so easy going compared to BCs. As adults the BCs learn to chill out and lie around if nothing is going on but the Japs seem to spend more time on their feet just keeping an eye on everything. Unless, of course they are lying on your lap getting a tummy rub ;) when they are very calm.

Having the bitch desexed now would cost a lot less than raising a litter of big breed puppies. A large breed bitch would cost more to feed per week while she is lactating than an ultrasound will cost. Many people think the bitch will feed the puppies without her eating anything extra and they don't realise that the puppies need to be be fed as well for several weeks. They think that the bitch takes care of everything and they get to sell the puppies. When they work out how much food the bitch and puppies need, plus worming, vaccination, microchipping and then can't find homes for them, it comes as a big shock. The stupidy of some dog owners never ceases to amaze me. I really think you should have to sit an IQ test to be able to own a dog.

That would be a complete lack of socialisation with other breeds as babies. They are a breed that needs to be introduced to dogs other than spitz at a very young age or they can become very fearful of other shaped dogs. They are always more comfortable with other spitz breeds but can get on well with other breeds if they meet them young enough. Japanese Spitz are the only breed I know of where breeders routinely run several stud males together with no aggression problems at all. They even seem to be able to put a strange male in with their other boys without problems. The girls are sometimes a different matter and some just don't get on but the boys are fine. They are very territorial and will bark at other dogs when in crates or trolleys at shows, but it is all false bravado. Once they are out of the crate they are not so brave and are happy to say hello to other dogs with no issues. I always pinch my friends new babies at shows and take them over to sit amongst the Border Collies and the other working breeds at their first few shows. It really helps them accept that those other strange creatures are all dogs, even if they are not spitz looking.

That's sad. Unfortunately there are quite few registered "puppy farmers" with Jap Spitz. One kennel that comes to mind has at least a litter or two every month, compared to the few dedicated show breeders who only breed about 2 or 3 litters a year.

I was thinking exactly the same questions... i haven't seen jap spitz in any agility or any dog sports. how would they go in flyball? i definitely do want my next dog to go into some kind of dog sport. They are fabulous in agility. I have also seen a few make it to the highest levels in obedience. They are very "busy" dogs that that don't really have an off switch unless they are asleep. They bond closely to their owner and do need a lot of early socialisation (from 8 weeks). If they don't get the early socialisation they tend to be timid, if they are socialised correctly they are delightful dogs. Some are chronic yappers and others only bark to sound a warning. The barking level is a very individual thing and varies from dog to dog. They are very alert watchdogs. I don't own one yet but will probably get one in the next few years but it won't be a yappy one. I will be picking the temperament carefully. They are much less demanding as puppies than my Border Collies and the smaller size appeals. I have helped to show them occassionally over the past 6 or 7 years so have got to know a lot of Jap Spitz in that time. Be very careful where you buy one from as they are favoured by puppy farmers just breeding large numbers for profit. Healthwise they need to be checked by a vet for luxating patellas before being sold but other than that health problems are rare. I can highly recommend Daesdaemar or Mannerking in NSW as having high quality, healthy dogs with great temperaments.

What medication has the vet given him? At the very least he sounds like he should be on Scourban. I don't like the idea of wait and see with a puppy that young. I think reaction that bad to a C3 would be pretty unusual. Adverse reactions, to varying degrees, to C5 are reasonably common but not to C3. I would be worried that the puppies actually had faulty immune systems for that to happen. In my breed, Border Collies, we discovered a fatal genetic immune system problem that sometimes showed the first symptoms after vaccination. The problem was not the vaccine but the puppies inability to cope with it. These sorts of faulty immune systems are common across many species, so they probably also occur in other dog breeds. The fact that they are common was the reason we were able to have a DNA test developed very quickly. They are hard to pinpoint clinically because the symptoms vary depending on the challenge to the immune system. A puppy that contracts an infection will have different syptoms to one that reacts to a vaccine, but they can still have the same underlying problem.

Wow! Never heard of it costing that much. Dogs generally tolerate chemo very well, is what our Vet Oncologist told us. In our case that was true. The treatments for Lymphoma are very different to those for other cancers like osteosarcoma. Dogs often do tolerate chemo well, except when it is for Lymphoma. For the dog mentioned above the $30000 total was for lots of ongoing treatments including chemo and surgery. The total cost was never mentioned at the start with each treatment adding a few thousand her and there until the owner finally totalled it all up once he was gone.