poodlefan

What difficulties are you experiencing getting them into her ears?

Is she teething? Sore gums can discourage eating for a while. If you want to put weight on her, some lamb (diced) is always good. Try sardines too! However, kibble will give her the balance of nutrients she needs unless you opt for a full raw diet. Do you leave food down for her all day or only give her food at meal times?

Anyone suffering under the blanket of smoke needs chocolate Erny. Swiss or Belgian are the only kinds with proven effectiveness for detoxing smoke. Lindt is probably the best brand to keep in your first aid kit as Lindt balls come in convenient single dose packaging. Quadruple the dose in cases of stress.

aaaah I must've known this instinctively, I've been self medicating already! Make sure its the good stuff.. no generics.

I hope you get some good rain soon down there Kirislin. Have some rescue remedy and Vitamins B and C yourself.. . your immune system will be a bit depressed from all this stress. Oh and Dr Poodlefan prescribes chocolate for you - 100g per day.

Growing pup + weight loss requried = very carefully balanced diet. I can see why the vet recommended kibble - he/she will know that your pup will get enough nutrients even with a significant calorie reduction. What ever you are feeding, HALVE it. You want weight off your pup ASAP. Give no extras and feed the best quality suitable kibble you can afford. Labradors are meant to have a waist and an obvious tuck. They should not have rolls of skin around their shoulders and tail. You want your boy lean to help prevent any further skeletal issues. BARF is not for every dog. I feed it and recommend it but there are other options. The OP needs advice, not judgment on his/her dog ownership skills.

Kirislin my view would be to watch and wait. I'd be suggesting a bit of rescue remedy for Puck and a relatively bland diet for a few days with perhaps a bit of slippery elm powder and some Vitamin C. Chicken and rice is always good. If that's too much of a pain to produce from scratch, buy some cans of Hills ID - that's basically all that is in the cans. I hate canned food generally but that stuff smells OK. You've been through hell in the last week. He'd be picking up on that. In addition, his normal routine is upset. If he's sensitive, I'd say that is a stress related thing but I'd be keeping an eye on it.

From memory the mucus is a sign of stomach irritation. Any changes in diet? Is he stressed?

There's definitely been research on feral dogs in Australia.

Yep, you feed canned food to relieve constipation, not the runs. It contains a fair bit of water and indigestible fibre - moving stuff.

Grass seed? Sorry if I'm being a bit dense How and why grass seed? Dogs running through long grass can pick up seeds on their fur. If a dog picks up a seed near its ear, the seed can end up in the ear canal and even against the ear drum. Grass seeds have a tendency to dig into skin and travel. They need to be removed quickly. Dogs with seeds in their ear can exhibit very fast onset discomfort. Head shaking is one symptom. Rubbing the ear is another.

Could be a grass seed. I'd not be waiting a week if she's that uncomfortable.

Most top level show jumpers are over 10. You'd not really be starting to put the poles up for a horse until it's around 6. Most of the more common dog sports breeds go well past 10. In the longer lived breeds, competing past 10 is quite common. Dog sports are fairly new in the scheme of things. It will take a while for husbandry practices to develop. However, there is enough information around to establish what current best practice is.

1. Sell current couch 2. Buy leather couch. If that's not possible, a good clothing brush or masking tape will help.

I think the trick is to be conscious of the risks and to eliminate the ones you consider unacceptable.

Corvus: I hope you have him chiropracted regularly - dog's bodies can pay a price for all that rough play.

Kyliegirl: If done too young and too often, I would say it could. Catching a frisbee requires a fair bit of athletic effort and if you did it as your dog's primary means of exercise, I'd say you could expect problems down the track. Not necessarily. It will depend on how good the dog's conformation is, and what kind and duration of stress the dog is subject to. Leaping around in the air repeatedly isn't the kind of natural behaviour a dog's body is built for. Same goes for a lot of jumping and fast turns if done too often. My vet's rule is no jumping above the dog's fetlocks and no weaving until at least 12 months old. I'd not jump any dog at full agility trial height before 14 months and slower growing breeds later than that. The sports in and of themsevles aren't harmful as such IMO. How well a dog is put together, how young and often it does them and the kind of husbandry it receives while doing them are all going to make a difference. Not personally but in the USA they are seeing dogs with pretty severe arthritis by age 5 from doing sports like flyball too young and too often. Horse folk have been at these things a lot longer and take far more time and care of their sports animals than many dog folk do. Chiropractic, accupuncture and spelling are all very common for sports horses. Anyone trying to train a less than mature horse to show jump would be run out of town on a rail. The same cannot be said for dog sports.

Darcy's resting heart rate is 68. If your dogs are lean and very fit, don't forget that a lot of the "average" dogs vet sees are anything but that. Just like people, some individuals will have low heart rates and fitter individuals can have quite low ones. Oh, I see that Charles Kuntz has posted - what he said!! :wink:

JB: Couldn't agree more. However, from reading all the food threads here, it seems that there are lower priced dog foods (not the generic supermarket stuff) that are very good. Great Barko? seems to be a good one.

I think learning how to read the side of a packet of dog food is important. I know someone whose new pup is already having ear problems. She thought she was feeding a gluten free dog food - she wasn't. I can think of another dog who has suffered from dreadful ear infections. Lots of drugs, lots of visits to the vet and the dog was still in a lot of pain. A change of dog food has improved that dog's life greatly. He's not the only dog I know of that's needed a diet change to improve its health.

There are zealots and dogma spouted in almost on almost any subject you care to name on this forum. All I'd say is don't judge the diet by its supporters and anyone who thinks that one diet will suit every dog is sadly deluded. That said, I also think that with dog food, as with most things, you tend to get what you pay for. I don't think you'd find too many people who think the dog foods at the lowest end of the petfood market would be an ideal diet for any dog. My standard expressed view has always been to feed a carefully researched (and preferably vet endorsed) raw diet OR the best quality dried food (perhaps with supplementary stuff too) you can afford. You can feed a gluten free, soy free kibble diet free of preservatives without too much trouble and for many dogs, avoiding those three common dog allergens can do wonders for their health. If your dog does fine being fed them then lucky you. However, if your dog has constant yeasty infected ears and skin complaints then its time to start looking at what he/she's eating.

I think that many dogs are less tolerant of dogs whose behaviour they consider lacks "manners". I can think of a couple of dogs who provoke aggressive reactions almost everytime they meet a new dog. Rushing up at great speed and going nose to nose, hard shoulder charging, jumping on shoulders, humping and clobbering another dog with front paws are behaviours many dogs find offensive, regardless of how playful any human regards these things. Some dogs may tolerate it. Some dogs may even enjoy such encounters. But quite a few won't and will have something to say. Dog park regulars with bad mannered dogs are my worst nightmare because they usually regard such behaviour as acceptable forms of play and any dog that rebuffs it as "aggressive".

The show that blew me away on African Painted Dogs had "den cams" that showed the dogs in some very interesting lights. It featured one dog that had broken a front leg hunting (ran into a stump in long grass or similar) that the researchers had thought wouldn't survive long. 3 years later that dog was still alive and kicking with its front leg totally non weight bearing. When the hunting was on (and Painted Dogs hunt over miles, literally running their prey to a standstill on occasions) that dog would still get its share. Researchers followed the hunt and every now and again, one of the pack would go back for the injured dog finding it to make sure it was still on the right trail. Amazing stuff.

Your dog is clawing at his face because he finds the halti extremely uncomfortable. It feels that way to him whether he's doing the right thing or not. He won't move because he finds it so aversive it's shutting him down. Ask your instructor to explain to you how such a constantly aversive a training tool can be used positively on your dog. Don't hold your breath for a logical response. I'd be sticking with the martingale if you have sufficient control over him when he pulls. If you must up the anti and go for something more aversive when used, go for a Sporn no pull harness or similar - much kinder to the dog and much less harmful to his neck and spine.

Personally I often wonder why wolves are considered to be the species on which we base our understanding of dogs. There are wild dogs in existence and my limited understanding of their behaviour is that in some ways it is quite different to wolves. The stuff I've seen and read on African Painted Dogs is that their structure is more matriachal, they are far more cooperative in puppy raising and they also will tolerate and accept outsiders to some degree. Their packs are also larger than most wolf packs would ever achieve. They are most successful predators (in terms of hunt to kill ratios) of any African mammal. I find them fascinating.