stormie

Well said, centitout. Just for the record, I have a dog who produces some stinky gas that can clear a room. He's fed entirely a raw diet and I would say has just as bad a smell, if no sometimes worse, than he did when raised on dry. Some dogs are just 'gassy' dogs. Personally, I think sometimes people obsess way too much over diet. They're dogs - designed to be scavengers and opportunists and eat whatever is available. I think dogs are capable of surviving and also being healthy, on a wide variety of diets. My boss's parents used to have Newfs and Saints. Their soul diet was mostly meat with a bone here and there and dinner left overs. Most people would cringe at a diet like this, about how unbalanced it is, yet they all lived long healthy lives. Go figure.

I know plenty of dogs who were fed supermarket foods and lived well into their teens. Our 3 family dogs grew up on supermarket foods and lived on them their entire lives. Our JRT died at 16 from a ruptured liver tumour. One GR was pts at 15 after developing complications from a chicken frame she ate which became obstructed and our other GR was put to sleep at 15 from degenerative joint disease where one day she could just no longer get up properly. I know of a dog who was fed raw who died at 2.5yrs from cancer. I know a few others who have died quite young from cancer who were fed raw. I feed raw now but that's mostly because of dietary requirements - it's what he does best on. The foods you buy in the supermarkets, vets, stock feed places etc are all balanced diets and can provide a dog with its nutritional requirements. If your dog does well on it, awesome. If not, time to try some others.

you will possibly need to lubricate the penis to help get it back in. Sometimes the sheath can sort of fold in on the penis, if that makes sense, and needs to be unfolded gently and also with some lube. have fun with that

That's a bit over the top don't you think? I rarely take my dog to off leash parks and he rarely ventures into the backyard. I do, though, take him for a 2-3km walk/jog every day. If I want to let him have a big run, I take him up to the local school and let him have a play on the oval. IMO, leash walking for exercise provides for a more stable mind. You can't really go wrong with a good long daily on lead walk - its good for you, its good for the dog and it enforces the pack mentality and leadership. But you know that Dobe puppies shouldn't be leash walked - the same rules apply to them as to Danes while they are growing. slightly OT sorry - I wasn't aware about the "Dobe puppies shouldn't be leash walked"? I did a quick google search, but couldn't find anything... - our dobe puppy is only leash walked at the moment as he has no recall to speak of yet, can you please give me more info? Why shouldn't they be leash walked? Is it bad physically? Or mentally? Got me a bit worried now!! I think it means pups are still growing and should not be over exercised, a short walk around the yard of 5mins is enough. At 4mths you can go to obedience training, but still take it easy. Dobes,GSD's and Rottie pups should not walk on slippery floors for the first 12mths to protect their hips. Yep leash training is fine but I was responding to a suggestion of long daily walks which is not recommended for pups of large breeds until after 12 months. Free running is recommended until then. Any large breed pups should not be running on slippery floors. I wasn't suggesting the OP takes their pup for long daily walks, blab. It was my response to the OP saying that people in the Eastern Suburbs shouldn't be allowed dogs at all if they can't take their dogs off-leash anywhere but their backyards. I was saying that there are other ways to exercise dogs in general rather than just taking them to a park to run around. I think leash walking is important for pups of all ages and most definitely wouldn't wait till a large breed dog is 12months before starting daily walks. It's just a matter of not over doing it with FORCED exercise.

That's a bit over the top don't you think? I rarely take my dog to off leash parks and he rarely ventures into the backyard. I do, though, take him for a 2-3km walk/jog every day. If I want to let him have a big run, I take him up to the local school and let him have a play on the oval. IMO, leash walking for exercise provides for a more stable mind. You can't really go wrong with a good long daily on lead walk - its good for you, its good for the dog and it enforces the pack mentality and leadership. But you know that Dobe puppies shouldn't be leash walked - the same rules apply to them as to Danes while they are growing. Dane puppies can be leashed walked. It's just all in moderation. 5mins up the road and back isn't going to hurt them. Oops didn't know that about the schools! Local dogs are always at our local school - will keep a look out for people to get us in trouble!

I personally think walking is better than off leash running. I walk Orbit 2-3km a day and we jog some of that. We usually go past an oval on our walk too, so if its free I'll let him off for a quick run, but then its back on leash to continue our walk. I should say too, when I take him to the oval, I often do laps or sprints and he follows along too. I'm not talking a leisurely stroll either - I'm talking proper walking with intent. He's trotting next to me the whole time. I wouldn't really trust Orbit to completely 'self exercise' just at an offleash park. He'd have a couple of runs then just potter around sniffing etc. Atleast on a walk, I know he's burning energy and also satisfying his mental instinct to walk.

That's a bit over the top don't you think? I rarely take my dog to off leash parks and he rarely ventures into the backyard. I do, though, take him for a 2-3km walk/jog every day. If I want to let him have a big run, I take him up to the local school and let him have a play on the oval. IMO, leash walking for exercise provides for a more stable mind. You can't really go wrong with a good long daily on lead walk - its good for you, its good for the dog and it enforces the pack mentality and leadership. I totally agree, Stormie. OT but Orbit is so beautiful and one of my DOL faves. oh thank you, corrie! That's so lovely! You mustn't have seen many of his photos though

Orbit is an inside dog but I usually have the door open for him to come and go as he pleases. The only time he really goes outside is to eat/drink and toilet. He rarely goes exploring and doesn't ever exercise himself in the yard. When we're at work he sometimes plays with the bosses dog outside, but mostly they sleep together inside. Right now, I'm at my mums and he is out in the back sunroom which has backyard access. He's asleep at the back door waiting to come inside. I personally don't think yard size is really all that significant. I think dogs should be walked every day to give them their exercise.

That's a bit over the top don't you think? I rarely take my dog to off leash parks and he rarely ventures into the backyard. I do, though, take him for a 2-3km walk/jog every day. If I want to let him have a big run, I take him up to the local school and let him have a play on the oval. IMO, leash walking for exercise provides for a more stable mind. You can't really go wrong with a good long daily on lead walk - its good for you, its good for the dog and it enforces the pack mentality and leadership.

Really must be the week for it. 3 offlead dogs on our walk this afternoon. 1 is an older Boxer who lives 3 doors up, that the owner lets 'patrol' the front yard when he's out working in the yard. The dog just barks at any other dogs that go past, so we cross the street to avoid it. A few blocks down and we get to an elderly Shep x laying out on the corner of the street right across the footpath. Started barking so we gave it a wide berth and fortunately was too old to get up quick enough to catch up. Finally nearly home and I see a young Staffy x offlead playing with the older Boxer from earlier. His young owner was on his bike trying to call his dog to follow him. His dog then sees us coming and rushes straight up to Orbit. Orbit spun around a few times and slammed into my legs so hard he nearly took me down. Owner continuously trying to call his dog but he was too busy running circles around Orbit. Not a happy jan.... We did encounter a couple walking their little Staffy offlead, who as soon as they saw us coming up the path, called their dog back and put him on lead straight away. Need more people like this!!!

Just to clarify - no ones saying don't take puppies out, more so that they should be kept out of dog parks and mostly carried around. I wouldn't say 'very very low risk' either. I think the reason we're not seeing parvo in those areas is because most dogs ARE vaccinated. It's not to say that the disease isn't out there. In fact I think people around this area have had titres come back with high parvo antibody levels, implying the dog has come into contact with the disease. So it is out there, its just that most dogs are vacc'd and most people with puppies follow the advice of keeping pups out of high risk areas until after their 12wk shot.

Stormie, have you read the old socialisation vs neutralisation thread? I think it's in the training forum. You might find it interesting ;) I have!! And I think I may have done that unknowingly!!

Lo Pans comments have got me thinking and I am now pondering something. How 'natural' is it for many different packs of dogs to come together and socialise? Does this sort of thing happen amongst wild dog packs? I guess I'm just thinking about the concept of off leash parks. Assuming your family is your dogs' pack, I wonder what sort of thing is going on in the dogs mind when they do visit an off lead park and suddenly dealing with a whole lot of other new 'packs'. I do off leash parks here and there, but Orbit doesn't really place any value on other dogs and tends to just want to play with me anyway. I didn't actually do the whole puppy school, major socialisation thing during his puppy period. I'm not at all saying people shouldn't socialise - I do think its very important. But I must admit I do like having a dog that would rather socialise with me at the park than other dogs. We also recently had to go to Star City Casino to do a (very embarassing) performance on stage at the Lyric Theatre. He was backstage, dealing with so many people, lights, and then had to go on stage to a whole crowd of cheering people. I wasn't sure how he would react because of the fact I never did the whole 'crowds' thing whilst he was young, but it was just like we were at home - he was completely fine and his focus was just on me. Maybe I'm just lucky with him, I dunno...

Sorry this happened to you. It must have been really awful. But banning the breed isn't going to change or stop irresponsible owners. They'll simply move onto another breed. What say, for example, the dog that attacked your pup was an aggressive Dobe? Would you be calling for Dobes to be banned, even though you had a lovely Dobey puppy? As awful as it was, it does sound like it affected the other owner and she sounds like she was upset by the incident too. She said she would keep that dog on a lead from now on, so atleast it got through to her this time. I know its off topic and I think already mentioned, but its not really the safest to be taking an 11wk old to areas frequented by lots of other dogs. Even if you had the newer vaccine that claims to finish at 10wks, you probably should be waiting about 2 weeks after this booster before you frequent those areas. Also, and someone with Dobes might be able to clarify this, but I believe 'black and tans' seem to have longer lasting maternal antibodies too, so they're usually advised to do the 8, 12 then 16wk regime?

If the owners couldn't afford the 180pound fee to have their dog euthanased by that vet, or if that vet outright refused, there were plenty of other options out there. Eltham isn't exactly a tiny town in the middle of no where. Oh, and the South East London Branch of the RSPCA is 23mins from Eltham, according to google maps. So IMO, it's no reason to blame that vet for declining, particularly if the owner admitted from the start they couldn't afford their fees.

Erny - why is it 'possible'? Can't they just do a swab and tell you either yay or nay? If its bad, the ears could be really quite sore and may need a really thorough clean out and medicate...

I'd have his back checked out. Poodlefan - you'll have to come and meat Orbit too! Only dog I've ever seen get almost as excited when I say 'bath' as I do when I say 'walk'...

They can guess that's what it is, but without imaging, nope, they can't. Could be a number of things, such as diskospondylitis or degenerative myelopathy. Has this come on suddenly or has there been some changes over time?

Think I have to agree here. The guy was just doing his job Perhaps your OH could have been more helpful and politely shown the ranger where the dogs were kept during the night?

No idea, that was just the info I was given in the email. It's not me or our clinic offering the job, its the group who runs our training classes. She just asked me to put the word out because she knows I talk to lots of 'doggy people'. If you're interested in anymore information, you'll need to speak to the people offering the job.

I just received an email from the person who runs our puppy/dog training classes at our clinic (Positive Puppies) asking me to put the word out that they are looking for part time dog walker to work Tues, Wed and Thurs on the Lower North Shore of Sydney. Pay is $17.17/hr plus super and the use of a vehicle. If anyone is interested, PM me and I'll give you her contact details.

Thanks Steve, that makes sense

I have a question regarding Steve Austins comments re petshop puppy dumping rates. He said that they know that isn't true, because all pet shop puppies are microchipped. This may be true, however, once someone buys the puppy, the details on the chip are all changed over to the owners details, so if a dog in the pound was scanned, the details which would come up would be the owner details as well as the vet/person who implanted the chip. Does the registry keep on file, a list of all the previous names that microchip was registered to? And do pound staff actually have every microchip number investigated to track down where the dog originated from?

Well, my boss watched it and he knows my views on it all and does share it, but he just text me to say that he found it really sad and was really upset by the conditions the dogs were kept in. So hopefully, it will be quite shocking for general viewers who had no idea about puppy farms etc...

And there goes any ounce of possible respect I may have had for Steve Austin. Will not be giving any recommendations for his kennels. Wish they had of had a registered breeder on talking about the good they do, with health testing etc, to explain how the good ones do it right.