dancinbcs

I've read the book and seen the movie. Having owned a lab, I too could not see what was so different about Marley. He was just a typical Lab with absolute idiots for owners. That they loved him was nowhere near enough to make them good owners. The dog was obviously smarter than them and I find it amusing that the owner wrote the book, basically admitting how incredibly stupid he was to get a dog he had no idea how to raise and train. It is a problem we have when selling Border Collie puppies. Finding owners that are smarter than the dog can be a real challenge. While an untrained Lab will just charge through life like a bull at a gate, an untrained BC will actually manipulate the owners to act the way they want them to. Basically we end up with the dog training the owner and it can be complicated to reverse the process.

A velcro dog needs to be carefully trained to accept being on his own. Dogs are pack animals and being alone is not something that would happen in a pack situation, so we are asking our dogs to accept something that goes against their instinct to stay with the pack. You need to practice leaving him alone starting with just a few minutes and gradually building up the time over several months. The age doesn't make any difference, they are either totally devoted to you or they are more independent and those traits are quite evident at 8 weeks. In my breed, Border Collies, the males tend to be the devoted ones and the females more independent. Some whole breeds are very independent but even they prefer the company of other dogs to being on their own. Crate training helps as they learn to stay quietly in their secure crate and know that they will be safe in there until you come back. Mine have all been trained to stay quietly in the car in crates and they know I will always come back to the car. If I visit friends on rural properties my dogs have always been happy to run around so long as I am with them but if I go in the house they just sit at the door and wait for me or get into the car because they know I can't leave without it. Training a dog to stay quietly in a strange place while you go out of sight is a long and difficult process for many dogs.

If her ultimate ambition is to be a vet, she needs to get into that sooner, rather than later because it is a lot of years study. She will not be able to do that in the country and would have to go to a major university. The University of Adelaide have a 6 year course but does she have the HSC marks to get into Vet Science? It is one of the hardest courses to get into and she may even have to condsider a uni in another state if that is really what she wants to do. If she doesn't have the marks to get straight into vet science she would be better doing a science degree at uni, rather than vet nursing, then transfering to Vet Science later. She may be able to do a science degree through Open Universities by correspondence before heading to the city to complete her Veterinary studies. BTW, Adelaide may be the "big smoke" compared to were you are but it is a country town compared to Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane. Much smaller and easier to get around than the bigger capital cities. It is a beautiful little city.

I would be asking them what their dogs have achieved. Have they shown them successfully, now or in the past? If not why are they breeding and how do they know that their dogs are good enough examples of the breed to be used for breeding? How many litters do they have a year? Most reputable breeders only breed 1-4 litters a year of companion type breeds so if they have say 10 litters, I would be wary. Some can breed that many and do it well but large numbers start to indicate that they value profit over a love of the breed. Most important - If you leave a deposit, get a receipt stating what you paid, exactly what it is for and any terms attached to it. The receipt needs to specify a pure bred Shih Tzu, Main or limit ANKC registered puppy, the final purchase price, date puppy is to be collected and under what, if any terms the deposit is refundable.

Every puppy I have ever had has dug in their water bowl. The problem is that they dig all the water out then have no water. For outside dogs providing a wading pool solves the available water problem. Inside the house a constant flood of water on the floor is not so good so I use noise distraction to discourage the behaviour from about 12 weeks. When you hear the water being dug out of the bowl, make a really load noise like hitting a wall or bashing pans together to startle the puppy. Then as soon as they stop digging praise like mad. The idea is that only digging in the water, makes the scary noise happen.

I have used Yoplus for years for the dogs but they do prefer the creamy Gipplsland one.

He has had several checks by the vet. He chews cow hooves. To my eye he is thin, but the vet says he's OK. As I said earlier, he will eat, but only if we coax him. If left to himself (with or without the bitch, outdoors or in seclusion), he simply will not eat. Even spending fifteen minutes encouraging him at each mealtime, sometimes he won't eat more than a few mouthfuls. I have had dozens of dogs in the past forty years and trained some to a very high standard, but this one has me stumped. I have had a few BCs with light appetites as youngsters but one at about 6-8 months would eat practically nothing. On some days he would even turn his nose up at hand fed cooked chicken. I kept him going on Di-Vetelact made up thick like cream, that he was happy to lap and Nutripet. Eventually around 9 months he started to eat again but would only eat food he could pick up or lap, not anything he had to put his nose in like stew. I all seemed to be about texture of the food. He remained fussy until about 3 years when he just started to eat like all the others. Up until then if I gave him a bone he would bury it straight way and could never work out why it wasn't still there when he went back His mum would follow him around and dig it up and he never noticed.

To try to pass on some of the knowledge I have built up in a lifetime with dogs as an owner, breeder, exhibitor, trainer, and working for a groomer, pet supply company and shelter at different times.

A well bred Cocker with a correct coat is not hard to maintain. I organised a nice registered dog for an old work colleague, who had always had unregistered Cockers before. She had always had them clipped because the coats were too much work. When she got the one from the top show breeder, she managed the coat on her own with no problem. She was delighted to find that the correct silky texture does not matt like the woolly incorrect coats do so regular baths with conditioner, a little hand stripping and once or twice a week brushing were all this dog needed. Stripping a Cocker is nothing like having to hand strip a wire coated terrier.

Never offer a full meal to a fussy eater. Just offer a small amount and if he eats it offer a bit more. Don't leave the food down for longer than 10 minutes and don't let him leave the bowl during that 10 minutes. Make him stay next to the bowl so he thinks about the food. Try different foods like small balls of mince if he wont eat anything sloppy. Never offer another food at the same meal unless he first eats what is offered. Wait until the next meal to try something different. Feed indoors in a quiet spot with no distractions, always in the same spot. Usually, it is better to feed next to another dog, stand between them and offer the other dog some of the food out of the fussy one's plate but never let the other dog just take food without it being offered by you. Good luck!

Excess white over the ears is sometimes linked to deafness but overall it is not a common problem in the breed. Merle to Merle matings are not allowed by the ANKC because the resulting puppies are often deaf or blind or have small eyes. If a dog is genetically red and merle at the same time, it will just appear red as the red masks the merle pattern, so it may then be bred to merle with resulting problems. Red and merle are actually both coat patterns and can occur with any pigment colour (nose, eye rims, etc). So the dog will have a pigment of black, choc, blue or lilac with the red or merle coat. Sadly many of the breeders, breeding just to profit from odd colours, have no understanding of genetics either and are doing red to merle matings.

Most reputable show and performance breeders are currently charging $800 - $1000, regardless of sex or colour. That is for puppies from parents with three lots of DNA test results, hip and elbow scores. There are plenty of reds that show up in the litters from reputable breeders but as show quality merles are still very rare here, you could have quite a wait to get a merle from one of the couple of breeders that currently have merle in their yard. Most breeders actually prefer to stay away from merle because of all the associated possible problems like deafness and the fact that if you breed a merle into lines carrying red, then you never know which red puppies are true red or hidden merle.

A well bred Cocker Spaniel would be perfect. Anything smaller is at definite risk from toddlers being too rough. Try to find a breeder that has some dogs involved in obedience or agility. Some Cockers are really dumb but the smart ones are great and easy to train. Also make sure they eye test because this in the main hereditary problem with the breed. Be prepared for some grooming to keep the coat nice and silky. If you clip them off, you need to keep clipping because the coat will grow back woolly and be harder to groom.

I don't see any BC in them at all. Definitely Staffy or Pitbull/Amstaff cross something. Hard to tell how old they are from the photos but could even be Dane in them as well. Could be some sort of pigging dog mix and if they are, they may not be suitable as family pets. Lots of breeds have the same markings as BCs so could be any number of breeds.

I can see a SBT sending a toddler flying if they ran into them. They are tough and childproof but maybe a bit too strong for littlies. If you like terriers there are all the other smaller ones like Cairn, Norfolk, Norwich a West Highland White, besides the Border, Fox and Aussie already mentioned. Just remember most terriers dig and hunt and most will finish a dog fight even if they don't start it.

Samoyed are huge!! Actually the Samoyed size standard is about the same as a Border Collie with just an inch more in height allowed for the males. Breed suggestions - Corgi, Border Terrier, Schipperke, Japanese Spitz or a Sheltie but only if your 2 year old is very gentle. A bit bigger a Collie Rough could be perfect.

The work involved in a show coat for either a Shih Tzu or a Maltese is huge. They are bathed and conditioned for every show then after the show they are bathed again, put in a heavy conditioner and have the longest parts of the coat wrapped in tissue and rolled to keep it from tangling. If they show on consecutive days, this all happens every day. Once a show dog retires it is clipped or scissored off because the coats are just too much work. Mixing the two coats makes it worse so for a pet you need to at least scissor the coat back to about 2-3cm or have her clipped unless you are prepared to devote time every day to grooming and bath/condition at least once a week. Even then the coat will still knot because of the type of coat it is.

If you have always wanted a Standard then go ahead and do it now. They are wonderful dogs and you sound like you are well prepared to deal with the training, exercise and grooming required. Remember active, smart dogs can be easily tired out with lots of short training sessions at home, faster than they can be by just walking them. Physical exercise is important but not as important as mental exercise. The lifestyle you have described would be fine for most Border Collies and I doubt most Poodles would have a problem with it either. I think the key is to find the right puppy. Temperament and activity level varies in all litters of all breeds, so you need a knowledgable breeder to select a quiet or middle of the road puppy for you, rather than a hyperactive one. An active 12.5 year old mini cross is nowhwere near being an old dog with many of that type making 15-18 years and if she is a fairly tough little lady she would probably have the baby Standard well and truly working to her rules in a very short time. I have friends with 2 Maltese that took on a very large and boisterous Labrador. All entire males. The younger Malt quickly became the pack leader and the Lab is very careful how he interacts with the tiny Malts so a big dog with smaller ones often work out fine. I also know someone else that has a Bullmastiff with Japanese Spitz with no problem. The Bullmastiff plays very gently with the spitz babies even when they are really tiny. Temperament of the individuals concerned is more important than size and with agile breeds you have even less chance of the bigger dog accidently sitting on the smaller ones.

Red Bellied Blacks are still deadly to dogs. If you see them bitten then you might have time for treatment but if you don't see it the dog can be dead before you know what happened.

Keep checking him for more ticks as well. There is often more than one. Most dogs I know of that have had tick poisoning have had syptoms from 3-5 days after picking up the tick. It is also possible that the tick was in his coat or on something else he came in contact with for a few days before it actually attached. I brought one back from a trip to Qld once either on dogs or my gear. I found the tick 4 days after returning home on a dog that had not come with me. It had only just attached and not engorged being about 3mm in size.

I don't kick either but a good whack with the flat of your hand to the butt, puts them off balance and gets the message through.

My thoughts exactly. I have had a couple of young males try this on and a well timed whack up the backside as they start to do it usually stops them ever trying it again. I had one do it to me as I was about to enter the showring with him at Melbourne Royal years ago. He got a swift whack up the bum and a a severe growling at from me. The ring steward asked if I then expected him to show and I replied that I didn't care if he showed or not but he would never pee on my leg again. He went into the ring as showed just as well as ever but he never ever tried to lift his leg on anyone again. Same applies to adolescent house trained males that suddenly decide to try marking inside the house. If you catch them in the act and reprimand hard enough, they never do it again.

he is a BABY who has just been removed from everything he knows. So , yes, he will vocalise. Where does he sleep? What kind of crate have you? What exercise does he get? When do you feed him? What toilet training had he before you go him? Thanks, I think I may need reminding of that every now and then :S, he is super cute though..... I probably should have said how can I ease this transition some for him .... I has only been one night, he slept in our sunroom which has been cordoned off especially for him as a "pen" type area with some toys and an emergency toilet tray,, we were prepared to possibly have to deal with accidents, but there were none. touch wood we have a repeat of that tonight. . its an airline crate, a large one with a box in it to make it the right size for him. He follows me around all day, and we do some training, and a dig and a run around the back yard - he sleeps quite a bit too. Feed him at 7, 12, 530 + training treats. I am not sure what toilet training he had before we got him, He seemed to have a pretty free range kinda life (in an indoor/outdoor pen) If he had access to the outdoors then he has probably almost toilet trained himself so you won't need to use the crate for toilet training. Just use the room you have and give him regular access to outside, add a command word for toileting and he should catch on very quickly. Make it easier for him to settle at night and hold on to go out to the toilet by spacing the meals out more and feeding him the last one about an hour before you go to bed. Puppies need to toilet straight after eating, then about 9 hours later so feeding last thing at night fits in better with those times. Also 5.30pm to 7 am is far too long between meals. He is probably crying because he is hungry. As you won't need to use the crate for toilet training just make it a pleasant place by giving him treats or toys to keep him happy in there and gradually increase the time he spends crated until he gets used to it.

how do they do this? it seems impossible.... Imagine a dog lying like a frog, then sitting up but leaving the back legs in the same position, with the stifle joints still touching the ground and the legs out behind them. Looks really bizarre.

This is why I no longer own cats. My house doesn't have anywhere I can put a litter tray out of reach of dogs. Last time we had a cat one of the dogs was constantly making itself ill on cat poo, so no more cats here. Unfortunately, the only way to keep the dog out of the litter tray is to completely block access to it.