poodlefan

I'd be looking at some manipulation... a good dog chiro might make a big difference here.

The best way to judge whether your dog is the right weight is to use your hands, not the scales. If you can't feel his/her ribs with the flat of your hand without applying pressure, your dog is overweight. With CCL rupture, excess weight is a significant factor so getting and keeping the weight off will help recovery and may prevent the other leg from going. DOL has has some real doggy weight watcher successes - good luck with it!

I use Technyflex for my dogs on my holistic vet's recommendation. The dog's chiro has been so impressed he's recommending it too. It's Greenlipped Mussel - and it smells like it but the dogs like it. Big Ted is noticeably more spry since he's been on it. Scientific mumbo jumbo about it is on the website. One advantage of GLM over MSM/Chondrointin is it's pain killing properties.

If you want your dog to lose weight, feed it less. You can safely halve a dog's food to get weight off it fast. With BARF, quantity will be just as important as with kibble.

I think you're right. A couple of years ago I would have said that the teams that were fast enough were not consistent enough...but I think that has changed & we now have a few teams who are managing to get both. Pity about quarantine, I would love to be cheering some Aussies on! Vickie, I have to admit that the standard of the small dog handling in the DVDs I watched was nowhere near as good as that of the larger dogs. As you know only too well, there's no margin for error with a superfast dog and I think that builds consistently better handling. I suppose also that most of the deadly serious competitors tend to have the the higher drive working dogs.

Tank Girl, keep in mind that kennel cough is highly contagious. Keep your puppies away from other dogs until they are well again. If you are feeding puppy kibble, I'd be most wary of supplementing with additonal calcium BTW. Your pups would be better off with some chicken wings rather than mince anyway.

Don't confuse palatability with nutritional value. The fact that I prefer Krispy Kremes to brussell sprouts doesn't mean I should be fed Krispy Kremes does it? One of the ways to make kibble palatible is to spray the outside of it with fat.. it doesn't make the inside any better though. The best way to judge the nutritional value of the kibble you're feeding is to read the side of the pack. There are some threads here about how to judge the value of dog food but if the top ingredients in what you're feeding are cereal, cereal byproduct, soy and meat byproduct, and if the food contains artificial colours and flavours, how good do you think it is for your dog.? The best kibbles are not found in the supermarket, despite what you've been told.

Thanks for the tip, PF. Yeah, I got a tub of Joint Guard which does indeed contain MSM as well as glucosamine etc. I'll look into the mussel option. I presume it's available as a powder? I still haven't made it to Cardowan in the last week so I'll ask the bloke when I eventually get there Yep, available in powder and there is a specific one for dogs. You can order it online direct from Technyflex Those guys should be paying me commission.

Moops, glad to hear that it's nothing serious. You might consider adding green lipped muscle rather than just MSM to his diet. In addition to being anti-inflammatory, it also has some natural pain killing attributes. I've added it to Ted's diet on advice from our holistic vet and am very happy with the results.

Gave me goosebumps!!! I was watching DVDs of the FCI worlds over Christmas. I really like when they morph the first and second place getters into the one film so you can see where people gain and lose ground. The previous year's small dog winner was a mini poodle who trailed until the last contact where it shot by the Sheltie who did a stop on the contact where the mini P did a running contact. Having argued long and loud about NOT training a small dog to run to the end of the see saw, I noted that nearly all the small dogs stopped at the pivot point to ride it down. Having seen small dogs bounced off at the end, I'll be sticking to the pivot point. I think our top handlers would hold their own at the Worlds. What you really notice is that for the top dogs, the tightness of the turns and the speed of the contacts is what makes a winner.

*Caro: There have been a couple of recent losses reported here. RIP doggies. I prefer to rely on the microchip. All a person has to do to keep a dog with a collar is take it off.

I was always under the impression that feeding raw food meant a dog was less likely to smell. That's been my experience. I'd not feed patties every day though and I don't use them anyway.

Bones fed are soft KBO but you could start with chicken wings and necks and smash them. Handy hint - put them in a plastic bag before you do!

And stop running backwards!!!

Too much luring in the weavers.. Handler should try using guides. And stop bending over so much.. never get any speed up that way.

What age/breed pup are you talking about Odette. What surfaces would it walk on. She is a pug x cavalier, 5 months old... She is small, but has long legs, and pulls like crazy on the lead). She would walk on the sidewalk and on grass in the park. The walk to the video store is about 10 mins each way with a brisk pace, but we usually take our time, and let her run off the lead in the park (she stays close, and her recall is EXCELLENT, thanks puppy pre-school!). I dont want to do any damage to her legs though.... I'd say 15-20 minutes at this age is about the maximum I'd do.. . I'd add 10 minutes a month until she's fully mature. A larger breed I'd take more slowly. The pulling on lead is a TRAINING issue. Time to enrol in big dog obedience school and get that sorted.

What age/breed pup are you talking about Odette. What surfaces would it walk on.

There's a big difference betweening maintaining a practice of "no onlead exercise" and leaving your pup in the backyard unsocialised, untrained and unstimulated. The devil is in the detail. My pups are not walked with the adults. They get their own outing, sometimes on their own and sometimes with an older 'buddy' to help develop confidence. They go to friends homes, trials, shops and any other places I can think of to expose them to the sights and sounds of every day living. But I don't walk their legs off. Unfortunately some people don't know when enough is enough. That's why the practice of "no onlead exercise" is advocated by many people, including me. Exercise is not training or socialisation.. it's just what it says. Biking your 6month old pup for 2 hours a day (as one person I know did) is a recipe for disaster.. in that case, complete destruction of a shoulder. Furthermore, trotting along on a lead doesn't develop muscles half as well as play exercise. There's more to a dog's body than the muscles require to trot. There's sprinting, turning, tugging etc.

Seek qualified, professional, experienced help NOW. Where are you? If you give us a town/city location, we may be able to point you towards a recommended behaviouralist. This is beyond the capacity of most ordinary dog trainers to deal with - calling Bark Busters is out. It's a pity you had to wait so long before as issues have become more serious but the sooner you get help, the better. I would also be talking to your vet - is Rory desexed?

I understand that raw feeding isn't for everyone. That's why I advocate either doing your homework or feeding the best quality manufactured diet you can afford. I'll only ever feed raw though if I can help it.

In fact, because it's digested grass, it's nutrients are more available to dogs than the fresh stuff.

Legend!!! Wait till you find your dog IN a maggot ridden ribcage.. upside down and rolling.

Ahh, i see... Odette DEFINATELY dictates the pace I was using an extendable lead to being with, but she tugs so hard on it, ive gotten her a much stronger lead, and she is only a little dog!!! When she was very little, if we did see her slowing, we would carry her the rest of the way, never made her walk if she didnt want to.... Odette, teach your pup to walk on a loose lead or you'll be regretting it for the next 15 years.. Extendable leads teach dogs to pull - that's the only way they extend. That's why I usually don't recommend them to people.

If people are interested in feeding raw and don't know how to go about it, one book I'd recommend you try to get hold of is Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats by Kymothy Shultze. She refers to Billinghurst, Lonsdale et all but her writing style is very clear and easy to understand. Crikey, if you can manage to feed your family a decent, nutritious home prepared diet, why on earth couldn't you manage it for your dog. The idea that you have to be an expert to come up with a balanced canine diet is a myth promoted by those who have the most to benefit from it - dog food manufactuers. Tell a mum that she's not qualified to feed her kids and that all the best food comes out of a packet and she'd laugh at you (I hope :p ) People fed dogs well for centuries before cereal millers came up with a great idea for using all that byproduct that was unfit for human consumption.

Welcome to the wonderful world of dog ownership. Most dogs LOVE eating poo. Keep up regular worming treatments and pray she doesn't learn to roll in it.