poodlefan

I would highly recommend the topical application of medicinal grade Manuka honey for this wound. Howard had a very similar one earlier in the year. Along with a course of prescription ABs I applied honey twice a day to the wound. It healed really well - no scarring. The honey will form a protective covering, preventing scabbing. It's great stuff. Howard learned to love the treatment - he got to lick the excess honey off my fingers!

Then you need to toilet train him onto pads and use exactly the same practices that someone training their dog to go outside does. After waking, eating, sleeping or playing take him to the pad and stay there. Reward the right behaviour. Personally I think your pup would benefit immensely from access to fresh air and sunshine. He will get his necessary dose of Vitamin D, and have the opportunity to explore and work his muscles. A dog door IMO is the ideal way to balance the inside/outside aspects of a dog's life.

He looks wonderful.. and so does the look in his eyes. Well done Mrs T!

I'd suggest you take up Clyde's offer then. ;)

percyk: The middle approach is to only socialise in safe places with adult dogs you know will respond appropriately or with other pups.

Who did him before? If you were happy with them and explained his situation I'm sure that would be fine. However, learning to do him yourself is probably best in the long term. That way you can space the whole grooming process out over several short sessions.

No, it wouldn't. Its been tried and failed.. this is what BSL is. Which part of "breed alone doesn't make a dog dangerous" aren't you getting Nannas?

I think you're wrong Chris. The RSPCA is changing its tune and what they think counts for a great deal. If the breed can be kept out of the hands of morons and out of the headlines it stand a chance. That is entirely in the hands of current owners/breeders. GSD folk achieved it for their breed.

Nannas: Best you go read some USA dog attacks statistics then. APBTs are right up there in the stats. How terribly inconvenient for the oft quoted statement that the breed is less likely than others to do harm. Nannas there's lies, damned lies, and statistics. Those statistics (facts if you prefer) don't tell us the proportion of the breeds represented in terms of their overall population. They don't tell us if the owners of dogs that are banned breeds lied or misidentified them (as some APBT fanciers on this site have encouraged owners to do) They don't tell us if the dogs were correctly identified (a problem all dog attack breed statistics note). Most importantly, they don't tell us a thing about how severe these attacks were. And they tell us nothing about how the dogs were raised, socialised and controlled. You've missed the point completely. Seems to me that you're sounding remarkably like an supporter of BSL, provided your preferred breed isn't affected.

Nannas: I thought you said BSL was rubbish? Seems to me you're suggesting that BSL would be OK provided it didnt' affect the APBT. Read my previous post carefully Nannas. You're following the same line of reasoning that got us BSL in the first place.

This is not a balanced diet. It's calcium deficient for a start. If that's all your pup gets, expect major bone and joint issues. I'd highly recommend you introduce a good quality puppy kibble or at least feed chicken wings and meat on the bone. I suggest you head over to the Amstaff breed thread and ask people experienced in the breed for their advice on a good diet. Didn't the pup's breeder give you one?

Nannas BSL is based on nonsense. As soon as people fall into the trap of discussing breeds in relation to dog attacks (just as has been done here) then they follow the same line of reasoning that led to the nonsense becoming law in the first place. Furthermore, its only when you examine the number of attacks vs the number of dogs of that breed in the population that breed stats mean anything anyway. The solution to the issue is not to identify breeds that bite more than the currently banned ones but to focus on the owners that produce dangerous dogs. Every time I see the argument "but other breeds are more dangerous" I see potential for breed bans to be extended, not repealled. The solution to the banning of the APBT does not lie in pointing the finger at other breeds.

Go to a saddlery or rural supplies and buy a tube of Septicide. It's an antiseptic cream with built in insecticide.

There have definitely been observations about dogs benefitting from diets free from colourings and preservatives but as far as I know the improvments are anecdotal evidence only. I think Wendy Vollhard has written on the issue.

Do some reading on the impact of sensory deprivation on growing pups. Locking a baby puppy in a pitch black, metal shed because it barks and you can't be bothered to toilet train it is pretty extreme. Canberra was cold last week. My dog were rugged a couple of nights and they sleep inside. It's possible a baby puppy that can't regulate its body temperature was freezing. It is also more than possible that the pup is stress barking so I suggest you ponder what impact socially isolating it in a such an environment might be having on it. I'm not exaggerating when I say that studies suggest this kind of isolation can have permament long term effects on a dog's mental health. You could solve all these problems by buying a crate, putting it inside and confining the pup to it at night. You'd have to get up if the pup needed to go to the toilet but with a bit of effort the pup would be sleeping through. You bought a pup bred for generations as a companion. You also bought a breed not unknown for barking. I'd suggest that some further reflection on how to meet the social, physical and mental needs of this pup is required because its only going to become more demanding of your time and effort as it grows. A dog the size of a Miniature Schnauzer will not cope well with Canberra winters and really needs to sleep inside, even if only crated. Sorry if I sound harsh but I find the idea of depriving a young, social animal of sensory experience and company for your convenience pretty sad. If I were the breeder of this pup, I'd be horrified frankly. If you want this pup to grow into a well mannered, stable adult dog then you need to be putting in real effort now. You only get one chance at this. If you have not read the training advice on this website then I commend it to you.

Jesus - that's extreme emaciation. I hope the poor bugger doesn't suffer any permanent damage from it. Probably riddled with worms too. How can any human being do that? :p

I'm guessing this is not an inside dog. It would stink I'd imagine.

Is the foot sensitive or still injured? What happens if you put a protective covering (eg. a boot) over the pads? Has she seen a chiropractor?

I agree.. but had inferred we weren't talking about that, but about serial offenders.

I think there's a thread in this forum that outlines the situation in each state. I'm pretty sure that SA and TAS both have BSL.

I have spoken to more than a few DD pup owners who had absolutely no idea their dogs would require clipping. It does happen. They walk away from petshops with the pup, a bunch of overpriced shit they'll never use and usually the wrong grooming tools. Or they pick the pup up from the plane, head for Petbarn (witnessed this personally) and get sold the wrong tools. In my experience its difficult to get the best grooming tools from your average pet shop anyway. I have shown a slicker and a metal comb to people who'd never seen them and who didn't realise that a cheap pin brush wasn't going to do the job. The fatal flaw is leaving brushing Muffy to the kiddies who have no idea what they're doing and give up quickly on a struggling mouthy pup.

Hey Cosmolo, I don't plan on fostering regularly & this was the first I have fostered with Tequila. It was more of a favour to a friend than an official favour Despite not intending on fostering regularly I am still keen on a behaviour consult so I can nip any buds @ the start. I don't want any major behaviour problems in future that could have been solved early. You should prepare yourself for the fact that this problem may not be solved. You've got a breed that's got a higher incidence of dog aggression than most. As she reaches maturity, this may be her adult behaviour you are witnessing. A behavioural consult may give you the skills to manage it, but it may not disappear.

Until you get their recalls sorted, I recommend you keep one on a long line or flexilead rather than letting both off.

Call the RSPCA - their trainers have a recall class. From your words I inferred that not coming back was more than a one off? Did they come back when called in the offlead park in Brisbane? What happens when you take one dog out by itself. Do you get more focus on you?

The answer to the buggering off issue is training. Allowing them to keep doing it reinforces the behaviour, prolonging the retraining required. My guess is that one dog's behaviour reinforces the other so allowing only one off may assist with managing it while you retrain. You can take a dog out of back yard, to an unoccupied offlead area and allow it to run. Once other dogs enter, the issue of control becomes paramount. If you don't have control, safety issues arise. CDC's offlead areas are generally quiet but few members will want to share one with dogs that don't recall. Being mobbed by someone's dogs while you're trying to get in the gate is hardly ideal. Use them very early or late and you'll be fine.