poodlefan

Step 1 - take her to the vet. It could be a UTI or hormonal incontinence. If she's peeing where she lies, I'd be looking at the latter for a start.

I'd suggest you leave the kids at home for puppy preschool and any further training you do. Kids don't have the best attention spans when they're young and it will be distracting for you and the instructor if they're there. Most dog training actually focusses on teaching handlers, not dogs. IMO it's preferable that you get the lessons and reinforce them with the puppy and teach the kids at home. A flat collar is fine for a pup. Checking it regularly will ensure that it doesn't get too tight as puppy grows. I would be very careful about taking him out in public until he's been fully vaccinated. Parvo is around at the moment and potentially lethal for pups. ETA: Agree with the advice about you taking charge of the jumping on your daughter. I'd also very strongly recommend that your children and the pup are never left together unsupervised. If you can't watch, put puppy in a play pen or outside. Personally, I'd not bother feeding canned food - it's mostly water anyway. Decent kibble and some chicken wings, lamb flaps or beef ribs will give puppy something to chew on.

Kyeamba is the local dog training club at Wagga. They train obedience and agility. I don't know about flyball. Contact details are as follows: Kyeamba Kennel & Training Club 02 6925 0012 Ms R Herring Wagga Wagga 2650

Most vets can tell how bad the joint is by manipulating it. As I said, dogs are born with this problem. Sometimes muscle development can improve the situation, but sometimes not enough. It can be worse in older dogs due to arthritis issues.

Most vets can, and do but how well they do it is another matter. Perhaps the grade of the luxation is influencing her advice. Any kind of canine joint supplement (eg. the Greenpet one) would do or you can feed a human one in the appropriate dose for a dog. I have my dogs on NZ Greenlipped Mussel - the brand I use is Technyflex. Seems to help my dogs but results appear varied amongst my friends dogs.

Tess: That's a visual image I could have lived without. Mind you, I put offal in my blender.

Hi MR, Sorry to hear this. Luxating patella are a congenital (inherited) condition to some degree. She'd have been born like that. One of my poodle had one leg done. He recovered well and went on to do agility. How old is Molly now and what grade of luxation has she got. If it's not severe your vet may not recommend surgery. Fixing this is a very common procedure but I'd be tempted to check your vet's experience in performing it. Ted didnt spend a great deal of time "being quiet". Crating and onleash walking should manage it OK. ETA: The arthritis issue will worsen the longer you delay the op, if your vet deems it necessary. If you don't already feed a joint supplement, I'd be adding one to her diet.

I feed chicken wings and drummies, lamb shanks, necks and flaps and beef bones of varying types. Also pork bones. Bunnies when I can get them and duck wings too! Their BARF mix is based on full fat beef mince, with a nutritional supplement, yoghurt, fruit and veggies and an oil blend. Apples, carrots and pumpkin always feature but the others change. I feed celery a fair bit too. Your dogs are still eating better than many dogs - don't sweat it. My dogs are less active in warmer weather anyway. How old are your dogs?

Thanks for the advice poodlefan - i will defintely give this a go. Do you think i should feed less mix meals and more other things? It's worth a go. My guys get the mix one meal in every three. I only feed once a day but that's neither here nor there. I'd also suggest you could drop the dairy content of the mix and feed fish as a meal rather than in the mix. Balance over time is the goal. What oil are the sardines in? If it's soy, change to something else if you can. However, if the lethagy continues, I'd suggest you talk to your vet. No one diet is best for every dog and some dogs simply don't do all that well on a raw diet. Make changes on estep at a time. I'd allow 6 weeks or so to evaluate changes.

Broccoli and cabbage are both cruciferous veggies and can impact on thyroid function if fed often and in enough quantity. I'd drop them both and substitute some other greenery for a while. Maybe zucchini? See if that makes a difference. Drop the tomatoes too. They are members of the nightshade family and not wonderful for dogs. A wider variety of fruit and veggie may assist. I feed everything from capsicum, to beetroot (not the stalks/leaves), strawberries and pineapple. I work on what's on special and what's getting sad in the fridge. If you really wanted to eliminate any issues, you can have some bloodwork done.

What fruit and veggies do you feed?

Instead of frames all the time, I'd feed other RMBs. Lamb flaps and necks and beef frames are good. I also feed pork ribs when I can get them cheap.

My suggestions: Feed the mix less often. Once every couple of days would be enough. Mix up your meats more - use beef mince, lamb and beef bones and vary your offal too. Up the fat content generally - that's the energy food. How fit are your dogs? How lean are they?

Yep, big problem. How much exercise and training would Obi get on a daily basis. I think there's a very high chance he's bored and under stimulated - both physically and mentally.

I agree. The family have gone through a very traumatic period with the loss of a child. They are at breaking point and I don't think that they could even listen to more ideas. I also would think it may have already been discussed perhaps as they have comsulted with thier vet quite extensively, although I didn't bring this up with them at the time as I hadn't even thought of it. it is a sad story all round from go to whoa. Jesus.. .very sad.

Thanks, that makes sense. I have never had a dog debarked before. I'll look into that as well. Until I get him in I can't be sure what it is all about. I only know that he current family is at breaking point although there have been other extenuating circumstances involved that may have contributed to the breaking point bwing reached. The deafness wouldn't be helping. Has the family considered debarking? It might mean they wouldn't have to rehome him. Sounds like they didnt' give up easily.

So it's an electronic one. Are they legal in NSW? It would almost certainly work - they have a very high level of success. If the behaviour is anxiety related, I'd be considering debarking.. far kinder IMO. Adding an aversive to any kind of anxious behaviour wouldn't be good.

What kind of collar is it Puggles? Jet spray, electronic, ultrasonic??

My boy is 2.5 years old and has subsisted on a diet of kangaroo, carrott, zucchini ONLY for the last 18 months. He is on a severly restricted diet due to food intolerances and inflammatory bowel disease. He is in fantastic condition which only continues to improve. He wasn't a puppy on the diet then?

It is Pax but you can fail it. A dog did when Darcy did his ET.

Cheapest source will be a poultry supplier. Most of my big dog owning friends buy them in 20kg lots. Lennards and supermarkets have them too. You shouldn't be paying more than $2 a kilo for them - that's way cheaper than good kibble.

If a CKCS and a Mini P can do it, a tall fit Tentie should be OK. It would be better if he could trot it.

ANKC Endurance Test Rules Obedience when I did it was short heel on lead (out, turn and back) and recall from end of lead. You can have a different bike handler/s to the obedience one. I did The pace of the test is 10kph for all dogs - a big ask for a Tenterfield Terrier.

Darcy was trained to gait with the bike on footpaths and bikepaths. He did the overwhelming majority of his training running offlead on bush tracks - the joy of living in Canberra.

I'd prefer to risk the police than my dog's safety. You can't really train a dog to gait at the required pace beside the bike offlead unless it will heel (or similar) and I don't really think you run much risk of being pulled over by the cops for having your dog onlead if you aren't on the road.