dee lee

Oh Kirislin, I'm sorry. My heart breaks for you.

My Goldie is the same. I have a lovely big bed for her & she spends hardly any time on it. During the night she prefers to lie on the floor next to the door (so I'm guessing yes, it's the draughts). In winter time she's more likely to be cosy in her bed though. I wouldn't worry about the young joints etc- I suspect its more of a problem when they get old.

I have tried many different brands- my GR did fine on all of them & I settled on Nutro, purely because I can always get it. Some of the high end organic ones can be difficult to source & I got sick of running out while waiting for orders to come in. Supplemented with bones, Nutro works well for my Goldie.

I feel your pain. We've just been suffering flea infestation recently & nothing topical seems to work. Luckily we've finally been able to remove my dog & thanks to Advocate & capstar, seem to have finally beaten it. We will be fleabombing the other place once we've finished moving out. Flea bombing is the best thing for it, you need to kill the fleas in the environment. In an infestation in years gone past, I tried every natural remedy known, & got zero results, just a funky smelling, very itchy dog. Then we hit the house with flea bombs, gave the dog capstar every second day for a week (did you know it's got up to 98% efficacy for the second day?), followed up with a spot on treatment & we beat the bastards. A friend suggested spraying permoxin in the yard too, but that wasn't necessary.

My Goldie usually only smells when she's in need of a bath. But we've been staying in a crappy rental place with carpet for the last few months & it smells strongly of dog. I've never had that with floorboards. I put it down to the flea infestation we've been battling there (thanks previous renters..) - she's been chewing herself & the wet skin & fur stink. Thankfully we've just left the place & no longer have to deal with living with carpet. Carpet is evil. Do you have carpet? That may be the culprit.

Having been through a bad experience with adopting a mixed breed dog through a rescue group, I would now always choose to go through a reputable breed rescue or a breeder. NEVER straight from the pound. It would consider it Russian roulette without the temp testing & fostering of rescue groups, and having had to deal with a worst case scenario, I have no desire to risk that again. I have nothing against mixed breeds, but considering what a lottery they are, I lean towards pure breeds, where the odds are better in your favour in regards to predictable temperament.

One storm phobic dog here. Honey gets highly agitated at thunder & would chase it if she could. It's wierd, it is almost like it sets her prey drive into overload. I've been at a park with her just as unexpected thunder sounded and was so lucky she was next to me & that I caught her collar in mid air as she went to bolt. God knows where she would have gone. I'm interested to hear what kind of symptoms other dogs have- are they all like my Honey or do some just want to hide?

I'm pretty strict. We live in an urban area & I am mindful of neighbours. I keep my dog inside when we are out for that reason & I will tell her off if she barks unnecessarily. Interestingly though, we have moved out of our house while renovating & when visiting our house recently, I've noticed that there is another dog somewhere who sounds exactly like Honey & has been barking a lot. Which explains why one of my neighbours made a passing comment about her barking once. It suprised me at the time, knowing she's usually inside, & hopefully by now they've realised they were wrong!

Sam man, can I ask if you don't think your dog would be ok living in an apartment or just that it wouldn't be allowed? Obviously there is not much you could do about the latter, but apartment living with a dog isn't impossible. I live in a very small innercity terrace with a courtyard the size of a balcony, my dog lives inside & I take her out daily for exercise. There are many innercity parks where you can take dogs. Many CBD residents have dogs with no problem. There are also an abundance of dog walking and doggy day care businesses. It would take a little adjustment, but your dog would be fine.

I have found my friend's cocker spaniel to be fairly similar in temperament to my Goldie. She is a bit more neurotic but I suspect that's more to do with her owner spoiling her. To be honest I prefer the more robust quality of Cockers to Cavs. Sheena, can I ask why they want a smaller dog? Older Goldies would be far less work than most smaller breeds I would think.

Never owned anything other than rescue animals, I think that speaks for itself! :laugh: (Damn you- now I want to go look!! :laugh: )

Admittedly I did notice a marked improvement on her energy levels after I let her have a swim yesterday & then this morning when I poured a bowl of water on her mid run (post fish scale roll... ). But she's been slow even on cool mornings, so I don't think the heat is the sole culprit.

Thanks everyone, I will get her to my vet to see if anything is up. Til then, I'll be easing back on her exercise.

Sandgrubber, I did ask for breed recommendations. Fbaudry was just making a suggestion. I'm not replacing Honey, she's my heart dog, but I'm always going to run & I actually really love doing it with my dog. Next time I want to make sure that I have chosen a breed better suited to it. If it turns out that this is the end of us running together, so be it, I'll just have to exercise her separately. SSM, I've been religiously cutting her nails. That was my first thought. And yes you recall rightly, she is a rescue, so I've no idea about her breeding but, to my admittedly inexperienced eye, she doesn't have great confirmation. Your post really gives me pause for thought... and only emphasizes how I need to plan for my next dog. To be honest, Id just assumed if I kept her fit and healthy that would be all I had to worry about. But of course physiology is very complex. Esky, true, it has been hot & I exercise her early because of this. Now that I think of it, she's been panting a fair bit & I've been blaming the weather, but maybe it's something else. I'll mention it to the vet.

Ok, I'll get her checked out- I did think she was still young, we will see what the vet thinks. Thanks guys. :)

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the weight. She is only marginally overweight, still has a waist, just a covering over the ribs. She's on a diet & it won't take long, maybe it will help, I hope so. To be honest, I've not owned an older dog before, so I am just unsure whether I've got unrealistic expectations of her. Even at her fittest a couple of years ago, other gun breeds would have had more stamina. As a rule Retrievers generally don't seem as energetic as the HPRs. :) I was once told English Pointers are a bit more chilled in temperament than GSPs- would that be right? I adore the look of HPR breeds (Weims in particular! Gorgeous dogs) & the general temperaments suit me beautifully, but I worry about the Velcro dog reputation of some of them.

I have jogged a minimum of 5kms regularly with my Golden Retriever for over 4 years now, she used to love it and keep up with no problem. However, I have noticed in the last few months she has been lagging behind. She's perfectly healthy, so initially I wondered if she was just being lazy or bored, or even that I am getting faster (deluded :laugh: ), but I'm starting to wonder whether at 6 and a half, she's getting older & may not be up for running much longer. So I'd be interested to hear what Dolers think- is she getting too old? Also, as breeds go, GRs are generally not known as jogging companions, my next breed most likely will be a short haired gun breed, which of them would you recommend for running?

Less shedding, less slowing down as they age. Otherwise, for me, Goldies are perfect. :) Considering short haired, more energetic gun dogs for my next dog, but it feels like a big compromise. Love the long fur- just wish it didn't fall out! :laugh:

Lol, I just put my dog on a diet after thinking about this thread! :laugh: Seems I'm not as immune to creeping weight gain as I'd thought! I checked Honey out & hidden under that fluffy shedding were... no ribs... Mind you, she's not obese, just got a little extra post winter layer, but I'm feeling a bit sheepish about being sactimonious now. However, it's interesting to note that we run together every day & in the last few months shes been lagging behind. I'd been thinking she was just getting older, but I'm wondering if she's just been struggling with the extra weight? Bad mum here.

Sadly you will find that most people expect Goldies and Labs to be overweight. I used to get it a lot, especially when my dog was younger & her fur was a little shorter. Don't listen to people telling you such things, it's really important for their joints & hips for them to remain light & fit. Fit and lean Goldies are beautiful.

It doesn't bother me too much. Being a Goldie, she looks very approachable & she loves the attention. I don't find that too many people are interested in chatting, just patting, which suits me fine. I did have one guy stop his car and run over for a pat (he was visiting from O/S & missing his GR), I thought that was pretty funny! When I was young & owned a Keeshond, it used to annoy me that so mamy people would go out of their way to come and pat her. I guess she was a pretty & fairly unusual dog so she got a lot more attention. And I was young & too cool for that. :laugh:

Oh Jelly, I really feel for you, such a hard decision. You did the best you could, but sometimes it just isn't it enough & when quality of life diminishes its a kindness to say goodbye. From someone who has been in a similar situation, I advise you to be kind to yourself. It will be heartbreaking, but you put your dog first which is an admirable thing. Best wishes.

Oh me too! It drives me batty. But then one person said to me "it's so hard to keep their weight down isn't it? They eat so much". Huh? She gets a set amount of food a day and that's it. Plus we exercise her regularly. Pretty easy I'd think.

Whatever the relationship with your dog, having your dog deliberately offlead while walking the streets is ILLEGAL. Simple as that. In my substantial experience, for every impeccably behaved dog that sticks like glue to their owner, there are a dozen wannabes who have less than ideal control. With that kind of ratio, I will always assume the worst & act accordingly.

:laugh: Lol, it must be a blonde Goldie thing, 9 times out of 10 my dog gets hit in the head by food rather than catching it! Though she does try hard (see below signature). :D Was reading the comments & saw a couple of posters outraged that he called her "dumb as a stump". :laugh: