dancinbcs

Does he have any new plastic bowls or toys? I have seen this reaction to a plastic dog bowl. The problem apparently is the chemical they use to line the moulds when they make the bowls. Same problem could apply to toys.

In some states like SA breeders usually only registered the show puppies and sold the others without papers but in NSW and Vic, certainly in my breed, all puppies were registered and sold on main register unless they had a major show fault. Most breeder I know that started out in th 80s actually bought a nice main registered pet, then decided to show and breed. These are the stalwarts of the breed all these years later. In fact I cannot think of anyone who actually started out with a plan to become a breeder. When Australian dogs started to become popular in Asia, especially Japan, breeders found the puppies they had sold in good faith to "families", were in fact being onsold to dealers to sell to the Asian market. The Japanese buyers were paying up to twenty times the original purchase price of the puppy to get registered breeding stock for registered puppy farms and there was nothing breeders here could do to stop it. Once they sold a registered puppy the buyer could sell or export it as they wanted to. My breed was one where breeders appealed to the ANKC to try to stop the problem. The limit register was introduced by the ANKC (not NSW) so that breeders could sell registered puppies that could never be issued with an export pedigree and therefore not sold to dealers for export. The option to upgrade to main was put in place so breeders could upgrade the dog once they got to know and trust the buyers. Most breeders started using the limit just to stop anyone from breeding registered puppies from dogs that they didn't think were good enough. Some breeds embraced the limit register and others pretty much ignored it for several years. Now it has gone to the other extreme of most breeders putting everything they don't keep on limit so no new breeders and exhibitors are entering the dog world. The drastically dropping ANKC membership numbers reflect this trend. I remember reading a study years ago when ANKC numbers were at an all time high. It stated that the majority of members only stayed for 5-7 years, breeding just a few litters or one generation before dropping out of dogs. So this means we had a core of dedicated long time breeders but the majority were only temporary members of the dog world. These were the ones making up the numbers though. Without them the numbers have dropped off and the world of pure bred dogs is in jeopardy.

I used to have a dog that had constant bladder infections and subsequent yeast infections in her ears, caused by taking the antibiotics for the bladder problem. After about 2-3 years of constantly treating the problems alternately, we tried her on Chinese herbs and fixed both problems completely within a couple of months.

I notice a lot of the working tan point Kelpies tend to have a few white markings, so my guess at one reason, is that breeders found it hard to keep the white out when using tan point dogs. White markings are not permitted in the show standard so it might have been easier to just breed the solids. Also if the first show dogs were solid colours then breeders would have kept to these lines to keep the type. Tan point is recessive to solid colour, only some of the solids will carry the tan points and if prominent sires or influential brood bitches do not carry the gene, it doesn't take long for it to become rare. If the majority of better quality dogs don't carry the gene it simply disappears. If solid parents do produce a tan point the odds of it being the best in the litter are not high. I would compare it to chocolate colour in Border Collies. It is an acceptable colour and there have been a couple of big winning dogs of this colour over the years but most of the show lines do not carry it at all. Many of the inferior lines carry the colour and lots of breeders have now jumped on the bandwagon to produce the colour as pets but they are not breeding with show quality stock, so will never produce a good quality chocolate dog. This further consolidates the idea that the colour is inferior and it then takes an outstanding chocolate dog to get a look in. In nearly three decades with the breed, I can count on one hand the number of really good chocolate Borders I have seen here in Australia. Tan point or tri colour in Border Collies is pretty rare in the showring as well. Again a lot of lines don't carry the markings and it is really hard to get a well marked tri, with deep tan markings, that is also an outstanding dog as well. This is the one time that Borders need even white markings because a tri with odd white markings can look really strange. Sadly fashion comes into it as well. There are unfortunately still judges around that think Border Collies must have white collars or even markings, when the breed standard makes no mention of where the white markings should be. They need white markings and white must not predominate but other than that it shouldn't matter how they are marked. Many judges do understand this but there are some that just don't get it. I imagine the same applies to the Kelpies with some judges being predjudiced against the tan points.

Some breeders do matings that close but any geneticist will tell you it is a really bad idea with the potential for disaster. The biggest problem with any really close mating is it increases the risk of doubling up on genetic defects. If the puppies are deformed then they are put down but there are plenty of genetic defects that are not obvious in a puppy and may not show up until the dog is older, by which time they have been sold to an unsuspecting owner. These defects can also happen in any living creature but close inbreeding greatly increases the odds of problems like this happening. Every living creature carries defective genes, so the more you concentrate a dog in a pedigree, the greater the chance that you will produce the defects that dog is carrying. Similarly, the more a dog is bred from, the more defects it will produce. I think The Kennel Club in England has now banned full (and possibly half) brother/sister matings as well as any parent to offspring matings. Many knowledgable breeders have great success breeding the next generation away ie. niece/uncle, cousins or back to a grandparent. This allows for the consolidating of lines while still bring in some genetic diversity. These can also be risky but far less so than siblings or parent/offspring matings.

Yep....I had one of these things when Bindi was younger, mainly to stop her chasing the cows & chooks. I also have a hand held ultrasonic device, which would be great for stopping your dog humping. When he humps, you just push the button. It doesn't hurt him, just startles him with a sound only dogs can hear & is unpleasant to their ears. He would soon start to associate his behavour with the unpleasant sound & stop it. You can probably pick them up cheap off Ebay but I got the best....it's called a Dazer....great for all sorts of bad behavour. No good if you have more than one dog though as the second dog will also hear it if he is within it's range. The collar looks good, especially for recalls but those ultrasonic things don't work on all dogs. I had one that worked on friends dogs but none of mine took any notice of it, even if I held it up to their ears I thought it must have been faulty so tried it on some other dogs belonging to friends and they all reacted to it even though mine never seemed to even notice it.

Definitely breed related, especially with terriers. I have never had or heard of a Border Collie humping anything.

Agreed. Far to much work and too many risks involved for the bitch to just breed to produce pets. With every litter the aim should be to produce the next generation, that is hopefully an improvement on the parents. With this in mind a litter of all limited register puppies is a complete waste for the bitch and for the breed, as none will contribute to the future of the breed and if we don't start encouraging the next generation of breeders there will not be any breeds to contribute to. Of course, if there is nothing good enough to breed from they should all be desexed but if there is at least one show/breeding quality puppy in the litter, it should get the chance to make a contribution to the breed. Hardly any of the breeders I have met over the years, started out with the intention of breeding. Most just bought a nice main registered pet (as they all were before limit came in), then decided to show or maybe just have one litter to see what it was like. If they bred a litter, they invariably kept a baby and being so proud of it, decided to show. A few wins later they a hooked and go on to be stalwarts of the breed. I know we have to be careful who we sell to and that breeders do get get duped, but sometimes you just have to place some trust in someone even if they do suddenly decide that they might want to breed. In this case with LizT's puppy I would offer to possibly transfer the puppy to main at a later date if you think the puppy is good enough to breed from when she matures or if they want to give showing a shot, you can always sell a main register puppy and keep it in dual names until you get to know the person better. This buyer may well have very good mentors on hand that will help her to do the right thing and with the right encouragement may become a dedicated breeder and that is something that most breeds desperately need more of.

The problem may be the closed door. Try using a baby gate instead to keep him enclosed but not isolate him completely from the family. To make him sleep longer, don't put him to bed until you are ready to turn out all the lights. Most dogs will need a toilet break after about 8 hours and he is doing well to be going that long at this age. Also feed him his last meal late at night about an hour before you bed him down. Most puppies poop just after eating and then 9-10 hours later, so if you feed early in the evening they have to go out in the early hours. At 9 weeks I feed a light breakfast, full lunch, afternoon snack and then full dinner late. Breakfast and lunch can be reversed if necessary and puppy will eat in the morning. If he is down to three meals feed a big breakfast and late dinner with a smaller meal mid to late afternoon.

No idea if it is true but it makes no sense. Why on earth would you want to wait until they hit the 12-16 week fear period, rather than send them at 8 weeks when they cope well?

I would do some indoor training with her to distract her, so she gets the message that it is nothing to worry about. Otherwise just crate her if it settles her down. Most Borders are not frightened of storms and the few that are tend to be related to others that are as well. I honestly believe it is an inherited trait and for this reason will not breed from anything with a storm phobia. Far more common though is what your girl is doing. The whole storm thing excites them and many will race around trying to "catch" the thunder if allowed to do so. As it isn't a fear reaction it is pretty easy to train them to concentrate on something else. Just treat it as you would any other training distraction.

Don't know anyone in Adelaide, but when I used Dr Ann Neville in Vic, I did it from Sydney, through my vets and by sending hair to her for analysis. She is very good at long distance treatment but you need a local vet to be prepared to co-operate with her for best results. My vets thought I was nuts, but went along with it because they had nothing to offer my boy with a mast cell tumour. Instead of the predicted 4-6 months, he lived three happy healthy years with the chinese treatment.

Several friends and I have all had a lot of success treating dogs with traditional chinese medicine, for cancer. I wouldn't use anything else now for a dog and after watching a couple of friends put dogs through very expensive and unsuccessful chemo, I believe chinese medicine to be the best solution. I can recommend either Dr Ann Neville, a vet in Bentleigh, Vic or Lynne Pinosa (Dip. Trad Chinese Med.), at Alternative Therapies, in Austral NSW.

I would love one of those ones but just a bit out of my price range I bet they are really good though. I have one of the original Oldfield dryers and it is still going strong after about 20 years and many dogs. I think they are now around the $500 range but worth every cent as they are all but indestructable. Do you condition your boy's coat? His brother has an enormous coat, so with your's being desexed I imagine his coat is huge and would need regular conditioner to keep it under control. Coats on desexed dogs are completely different in texture to the entire dogs. The coat tends to go more woolly and difficult to groom. Also keep in mind that not all blacks are created equal. Some dogs never get that reddish tinge but others have it all the time, no matter what you do.

Have pm'd you about this but your dogs' parents were not particularly big dogs and certainly not over 20kgs.

That is at least double the amount of food that any of my Borders have ever been fed and mine are certainly not the leanest dogs in the ring and nowhere near as light as the working and agility dogs. Male Borders of standard height usually weigh from about 18-22kgs with a few larger framed ones from 23-26 at the very most.

None of my dogs have ever outgrown dreaming. They all run, twitch, yelp, and growl in their sleep and I have one that hardly ever barks when he is awake but regularly barks when he is asleep, loud enough to wake everyone in the house.

Round Up (Glycophosphate) is about the safest as far as poisoning goes but your can't spray a whole lawn with it because it kills every plant it comes in contact with. If there is any wind and it drifts onto trees you will kill them as well. It is really only useful for carefully spraying on selected spots unless you want to clear a whole yard of vegetation. I'm not sure how true it is but I have heard in recent years that it is thought to be carcinogenic, so while it won't poison anyone, exposure to it may increase the risk of cancer developing later. I have no idea what sort of exposure is required but would research it more before using it. I imagine farmers that use it over vast areas on a regular basis might be more at risk but don't know if a one off, small amount would be a problem or not. For this season you will need to dig out bindis because it is too late to kill them with weed killer once the prickles are on them. Next year spray with Bin-die in August in sections and temp fence the dogs off it for a week to be safe.

Far too many breeders pick for style and a showy attitude over correct construction and then go on to win with a dog with bad conformation. They then breed from these incorrect, big winning dogs and the breed starts to decline. It is the very thing that show breeders get accused of all the time and these days the that accusation is often justified. It also leads to judges awarding "generic show dogs" over correct dogs that conform to the standard. Joe Blogs off the street could pick the showiest dog in a line-up. Judges that spend years getting their qualifications and studying standards, should be looking for correct conformation and movement first. Sadly this is getting to be the exception rather than the rule and is one of the reasons I and many other devoted showies, hardly if ever, bother to show any more. No breed standard states that a dog must "show" well but this now seems to be the only criteria for winning under some judges. When I did my members eduation scheme I was horrified to hear that judges are trained to look for type and style first and then pick the soundest from what they have shortlisted, whereas it should be the dog of best type from among the ones of sound conformation and movement. Now I know a mongrel can be soundly constructed so type and style are important but if the dog is not firstly correct and sound in conformation it should not be considered either a show or breeding prospect. Sometimes picking puppies comes down to eliminating breed wide faults. In many breeds, including my own, most breeders and judges don't seem to worry about correct fronts. For me, if a puppy does not have a correct front it is a non-contender from the start. I don't care how good the rest is, if the front is not right the dog will never move correctly and I will not add yet another dog with a bad front to the ever increasing number in our breed. Correct temperament for the breed is essential and should not ever be compromised no matter how good the rest of the dog is.

Most animals need salt and I add some to my dogs raw diet, especially if they start licking me a lot. Dogs sometimes lick to get the salt from your skin. They also need it more in hot weather than in cold.

Sorry to have to say it sounds like a classic case of OCD to me. It is know to occur in Borders and can happen in elbows, shoulders or hocks but usually follows an injury. We score elbows but of the few cases I have known of, most weren't in the elbow. I have seen a few with shoulder OCD and the description you have given would fit that. Good move to get the x-rays asap. Sometimes complete crate rest for several weeks will fix the problem, otherwise surgery followed by 6 weeks complete crate rest is required. Hopefully, I am completely wrong but if it is OCD, have a good look at his diet and think about the environment he lives in. One owner I know of that has a terraced yard had three dogs from different lines with OCD but it is really not all that common in the breed. It seems the constant running up and down the terraced yard was too stressful for the growing joints.

These are the sort of pen you need and if you get the 36" it will still be usable with an adult dog if you need to confine him for some reason. http://www.bowhouse.com.au/p/453700/pets-e...oat-finish.html If you look around you will probably find them cheaper but this site has good photos of them.

A Border Collie would probably eat that. They need something that is chew proof and unable to be climbed.

Most Borders can climb out of the Bunnings panels because they are square mesh. You can buy specific puppy pens from pet supply warehouses or show suppliers at shows. They come in different heights and are designed to make them harder to climb. Long before any of this stuff was invented I used an old kid's play pen and wired it in for my first two Border puppies. I had to make a wire top as well because like most Borders they could climb like monkeys.

Unless you have a large dog the trojan hooks on the lunge reins are too heavy.