poodlefan

My vets advice is that if the baby canines are retained for a week after the adult ones start emerging, they should be removed.

What kind of pancreatitis has your dog got? You may find this link useful although the supplements recommended are American brands. However a digestive enzyme would be a good addition to the diet and small regular meals work well for my friend's dog that suffers from the condition. There is a lot of information on the web and my guess is that there will be a yahoo group or similar about this condition.

I'd recommend you discourage this.. dogs can really ruin their teeth if this habit becomes compulsive. A bitter spray on edges may help. Does she have access to lots of chewable toys?

Kissindra it could be as simple as the teething. Quite a few dogs stain during that.

Not at that age, but tear staining can have a lot of causes from physical ones (eye shape, tear duct issues) to allergies to disease issues. I view is as indicator that all it not right with the dog.

"Normal" and "healthy" aren't the same thing. Gum disease in small hairy dogs is very common also.

Sorry, but no it isn't. The staining is bacteria breeding in the damp skin under his eyes. How are his teeth/gums?

Is there any bone in that chicken mince? That's not a very balanced diet to raise a youngster on. Being new to having a puppy I wasn't sure myself but guess can only follow what the breeder recommended? Cooby has Coprice Horse Pellets cereal morning and night with raw chicken mince for lunch (the whole carcass is minced). Apparently most commercial dog foods have by-meat products/slush in them whereas the Corprice Horse Pellets are based on rice and rice pollard and fortified with vitamins and minerals. The chicken mince is high in calcium and we also give raw chicken necks as a snack. He seems to be going well on it ..... and it's a huge cost saving compared to the commercial products around Dog's don't digest cereals Cooby and their nutrional needs are not the same as horses. I'd be either making a carefully researched home made diet or feeding premium puppy kibble and some chicken pieces. Have a look in the health/nutrition/grooming thread for plenty of info on feeding pups.

Is there any bone in that chicken mince? That's not a very balanced diet to raise a youngster on.

I reckon if you brought in a container full you'd get a nice little online business going Missymoo!

My old groomer has taken photos of some dogs she's had brought in and sent them to the RSPCA. The matted jobs usually.

Or their dogs. :rolleyes:

I'd use the Blackdog car harness rather than the flyball one. The flyball one encompasses the dog's chest and restricts shoulder movement. The car one is a Y design that doesn't. Any Y harness would be OK. ETA: A Y tracking harness is at the bottom of this page

My guess is you've got yourself a resource guarder. If that's the case, chasing and cornering him to take something off him will heighten his aggression because you're triggering him to defend his prize. If you search DOL on 'resource guarding' you'll find a lot of information on this common issue. As Luke W suggests, preventing him getting things you don't want him to have is important. Teaching "give" and "take" may help. I'd also be trying to exchange his prize for a really tasty treat? Ticking the "whats in it for me" box with a resource guarder is usually a low conflict way of removing things from them. Are there any children in the house?

LM: Sounds like you've got one of the schizo angel/Satan spawn puppies. Puppies always angelic when they're sleeping. I like the little demons.. those clever, active minds are fun to train. I'd highly recommend you add a copy of The Perfect Puppy by Gwen Bailey to your reading list.. it's a wonderful book about raising puppies to be the adults you want to live with. It's worth the purchase price to have it on hand. Puppies for Dummies and Dog Training for Dummies are also not bad. I'd also highly recommend formal obedience training for a Lab.. they often excel at it, once they grow a brain.

She's probably a little young for adolesence but once they're no longer tiny babies, you and they benefit from the reinforcement of your leadership that training provides. You also benefit from nipping issues in the bud rather than having to retrain out of bad habits that have become ingrained. Asking here on DOL will probably get you some advice on good places to train. Yep, it is hard to find the motivation to head out when it's dark and cold. How about getting up earlier? I walk my dogs in the morning.

Cut out the less obvious ones (eg under legs) and a matt rake or splitter for the rest. I've used one tooth in a metal comb to split small matts but it would depend on how big/extensive these ones are.

Some puppies are angels.. they take to training like a duck to water, never chew anything and become happy well mannered adults with no major upsets along the way. ;) Some are the spawn of Satan - if there's trouble they'll find it, they make you feel like a total dunce and you wonder whether your sanity is intact and why you wanted a dog in the first place. With time and effort they also grow into happy well mannered adults. Some puppies are schizo and alternate between these states. And they don't tend to look any different. ;) I see a gleam in those innocent eyes.. I reckon he'll give you a few moments of hell along the way.

Puppy school is a great beginning. However your most challenging time for training is still to come - the terrible teens. ;) Think about going back to training until she's at least 12 months old.. you'll both learn a lot. If your OH is getting frustrated, walk her by yourself until this is sorted. They don't have to be long walks but you do have to be absolutely consistent in not moving off until she sits. Same goes if she's pulling on the lead - she needs to learn that she doesn't get to move on unless the lead is slack. Doing the hard yards now will set her up for a lifetime of pleasant walking with you. :cool:

Penny, if you do not absolutely insist that your pup sit every time you ask her to, she's learning that her response to your commands can be when/if she feels like it. You don't have to be heavy handed to improve her response. You simply have to refuse to move forward unless she sits first. It might take a while the first few times to get that sit but her reliablity and speed will improve once she realises that she doesn't get what she wants (to move ahead) until she gives what you're asking for. She's well and truly old enough to be able to learn to focus on you and to obey. Such self discipline/focus has to be trained into pups. If you haven't been attending dog training classes, now would be a great time to start. These are smart little dogs who soon learn whether or not you mean what you say.

Knowing and willingness to perform unfortuantely aren't the same thing. This is a training issue. You need to practice more outside the home environment to improve consistency of performance under distraction. A really reliable recall including under distractions would be the best training you could give for this situation.

Or better still, cut it out all together. If the pup has a decent diet, it will do more harm than good.

On the youngsters, yep. On the oldsters, less so IMO. I suppose like us, they just get crumblier. If it's only a recent thing though, it should definitely get better.

Chiro's good but it's not a miracle. When I took myself to see one with a long standing neck issues, it took about 4 weeks of visits twice a week and deep tissue massage to stop the bones returning to their old (out) position. Muscles and ligaments adjust over time to hold bones in incorrect positions. One adjustment would not be enough to stop them pulling the dog's back out again. Fortunately, dogs do seem to need less adjustment than we do. At her age, I'd expect a few adustments and some good massage before getting a lasting improvement. I honestly can't think of anything that will produce a lasting result in one go. If this has been a long standing issue, you are lucky that it could be adjusted. My chiro says he sees a lot of dogs with spondylosis that simply cannot be adjusted - they are too far gone. My older dogs are adjusted monthly.

Two words... ENJOYING LIFE!!! That he does Persephone.. in spades.