Jumabaar

It would be nice if the world made sense and A followed B but it doesn't always work like that. Some low grade murmurs are caused by serious defects, other higher grade murmurs may be innocent. It is possible that there was a slight murmur- so slight that a general practitioner may not have picked up up if the puppy squirmed or was excited. If there was no history in the lines, and the breeder did get the pups vet checked I am not sure what else they could do? At some point there is a 'shit happens' element that breeders cant control no matter how ethical and careful they are. Breeders also have to accept the word of the professional looking at the puppies and if they are told it was normal and healthy at 6 weeks then they have sold the pup in good faith that is healthy. I hope this puppy pulls through!!

My IGA minces up chicken legs for me- I order a few days in advance because its the last thing they put through the mincer for the day. I use it when I dont have time to supervise them eating bones and havent had a problem with it. I know you were struggling to keep weight on him so here are a few of the ways I get around it. I find I need to feed some form of grains purely for energy- it cuts down on my food bill and keeps a little weight on my gremlins. sometimes its rice although they really enjoy boiled oats atm. Yogurt and cheese may be another option to add in slowly (although I try and pick ones without added sugar and it will depend if your dog can tolerate lactose, but most do). I also use the vet all natural complete dry mix that I add water too as part of my dogs diet. When my dogs are sick they also get puppy milk, or human milk once again for energy- they only get a little but its an extra few calories that doesn't take up much space and is quickly digested. I am not sure if any of these would be contra-indicated in your case but some food for thought :laugh:

It might sound mean but the way you are talking it sounds as if you know that the right thing to do is to have one dog each, but your trying to justify taking both. Which I understand- the human animal bond can be exceptionally strong! The fact that your worried about it does indicate that you think that he does have a bond with the dogs as well which does make the situation tough. As others have said put yourself in his shoes and imagine how hard it would be if he said he wanted both dogs. I think the best course of action is to sit down and actually ask what he thinks. You might be investing all this energy into worrying when he might tell you that you can have both dogs!

I have done a few of those looooooong poop walks (after surgeries) to get everything moving again :laugh: I would add some mashed pumpkin to her diet for a little while to keep everything moving through for the next few days.

Circling can be a Displacement behaviour- a behaviour that has a normal function but has become a coping mechanism for the dog and is performed excessively and in the incorrect situation. This doesnt mean that this dog is displaying actual herding instinct or is trying to work when the behaviour is performed, it may be but in this case it doesnt sound like it.

7 Kelpies ranging from 12-20kg...... I dont think you will have a problem!! Most of my use would have been with 45-50kg of bouncing dogs :laugh:

Real back seat buddy- still going strong after 7 years! I have ripped it in a few places recently but still functional and could easily be fixed. It has had puppies born on it, had 7 kelpies squished in it, isnt taken out often so had other miscellaneous items thrown on it. aka generally been trashed.

My girl was more interested in the kitchen than the pups after two weeks so I would make sure that I sat with her and the pups and would read a book while she fed. She was more than happy to settle in with them and care for them when she knew there wasnt anything more interesting going on around the place.

I pour the water from boiled watercress on their treats- its a throat soother and has a few other helpful properties. http://www.botanical-online.com/english/watercressproperties.htm

I have always been able to keep my chemically sterilised boy with on heat girls- he is far to downtrodden to try anything! I am sterilising my other far more randy boy in the near future so it will be interesting to see if he loses interest. My oldest girl would sing to let the boys know when she was ready the little tart. I didnt take her for walks because there are far to many off lead dogs in my area for my to risk it. Instead I did trick training etc but thats just me.

Mine all have an automatic sit (most of the time ) and I have just taught them stand as a separate command. I teach it first as them getting up from a sit or drop so both those commands are handy! I then start teaching them to walk into a stand, then I up the criteria so its a nice square stand once they are a few months old and strong enough. They also have learnt the body language- if I turn into them to get them to stand/stack infront of me at a show they dont sit because they know whats coming, as opposed to me stopping without turning into them so they sit.

I agree that there are lines like this. I do sometimes wonder if they were given coping mechanisms and taught to stop and settle if they could learn it..... ETA- I think, having experienced a dog like this, there can be a point where you end up in a very negative spiral. It wasnt until I moved into the what have I go to lose stage that I retried some of the methods that hadnt worked but modified them with things that had made a little difference that I saw results. I think solving this type of problem very much relies on an open mind and the ability to be flexible- which is where is sounds like ES is right now!

I am another one that advocates a relaxation protocol! I wouldn't necessarily look at threads rather use them to do further research and then try a protocol from beginning to end. Behavior Adjustment Training (BAT) is an option, Touch Associated Clicker Training (TACT) is another and there are quite a few others. I have a dog that was very hyper and the thunder shirt and physically holding her was often the only way to get her to sleep until she learnt how to calm herself, and one of my other dogs also responds quite well to physical massage/pressure rather better than other rewards such as treats. Combined with that I agree with the others that there needs to be a job. So teaching some very basic behaviours and see what happens and try and build up to a more complex one. Dogs need to learn to learn and that is one thing that many rescues have not grasped compared to working dogs that work stock or do dog sports. As such you need to teach them this concept in baby steps- so you need to work on creating focus before duration before complexity. At the moment it sounds like there is a lot of displacement and self rewarding- so teach options that you can actively reward and so give options other than barking to earn the rewards. I dont think this dog needs to be 'worn out' it needs to be taught options and given different coping mechanisms to be able to function and and be settled. These dogs just get fitter and fitter so wearing them out is not a solution.

I do know of people who's first show dog has been an import because they wanted something specific and went overseas to get it. They had put in the research and time and ended up with exactly what they wanted. Others have imported after showing for 12mths. Alternately there are breeders who have imported multiple times and got burnt at some point. But that doesnt mean you shouldnt aim for the stars!! There are far more good stories than bad ones when it comes to bringing dogs in. I would begin by trying to attend specialty shows and getting to know what you do and dont like, then look at the relatives of the dogs you do and dont like and go back through pedigrees. If your looking at breeding then I suggest trying to look at young pups and watch them mature so you know what features do/dont change as they grow. I would love to import a dog but it will take me another couple of years before I can consider it and I plan on using that time to look at what lines I am interested in so that I have the highest chance of getting something I would be happy with. There should be pedigree sites internationally where you can look at pictures etc. From there it is networking- here and overseas. You have some great questions being thrown your way which should help you refine what your thinking. I think its only then that you can answer how hard and how costly it will be and how much you are willing to risk to get an import.

Sounds like your getting great advice! I will just add in that 2 weeks between vaccinations really is too close so I am glad you have gotten other information. I have done 7 and 11 week vaccinations with my pups and had them titre tested at 14mths and had they have had high levels of immunity so have not needed to be boosted at that point so the less intensive protocol does work. I also took my pups to very low risk areas (where other dogs dont often go) and walked around with them on a backpack on my chest before they were fully vaccinated so they could get used to seeing things. I would just check with the vet that your not in a high disease area but I found it good to get them acclimatised to cars moving past and other sounds.

My dogs have fluids for all their surgeries. The drugs used for a GA can affect blood pressure, blood flow to kidneys etc so a young dog can probably tolerate the disturbances to their system but I tend to play it safe just in case there is an asymptomatic problem.

Instead of price shopping I would just ask Dogtainers what vet they recommend and use them. Much easier to go to someone who regularly deals with exports because they will know exactly what they are doing and save you the confusion, time and angst regardless of a few dollars difference. Otherwise you rely on them going and doing their own research because its not something that they would do every day so wouldn't necessarily be up to date on different requirements for different countries.

My rubbish bin now lives in a cupboard and the food bin is behind a door with a circular knob on it *cough my dogs can open doors with pull down handles*........ E collar or remove the temptation because its a self rewarding behaviour and the more random and occasional the reward and the occasional jackpot means its exceptionally difficult to train them out of. My meat defrosts in the microwave and I also now have a lockable cupboard in the kitchen for anything that I wouldnt want the dogs getting into if they did manage to open one of the pantry doors! I only have one ninja but I dont want the others learning from her. She also learnt that clip lock plastic containers held the 'good stuff' so was actively searching for them at one point. Thankfully a few boobie traps in the plastic containers sorted that out :laugh:

I have told my vets upfront that I have insurance, but in most circumstances the paperwork wouldnt be filled out till the end. If they feel the vet is unethical then they can always find a new vet. However there are so many things that can add to the cost that I think it is very unfair to say that two cats that may have very different histories had a condition that was somewhat similar so should have been charged the same amount. ie a young healthy cat has to have a surgery vs a geriatric cat with renal disease- They are going to cost different amounts even if they have the same presenting condition.

The vet should give the owners all the options available regardless of insurance (not saying all do). My vets are very upfront about 'must haves' and 'would likes' and tell their clients what these are and the clients can then make a decision based on what they can afford. This means that some animals dont get the must haves, let alone the would likes, others without insurance get both, others with insurance may still opt only for the must haves. Ultimately the vet can only offer what they believe is the correct information at the time they are talking to their client and then do what they are instructed. We have clients that come in and say they have X amount to spend on an animal so that is the budget that a vet has and the animal will either get better or it wont. I just know that I have been much more relaxed about doing 'would likes' knowing its covered so its easy for me to end up with a big vet bill whereas I in the past I would have probably held off a day knowing that the treatment wouldn't have changed significantly regardless of the test results.

Nope- But I have had vets do extra diagnostics to work out what a problem was faster and with better reliability because I knew that I would get the money all back from insurance. ie doing Xray and ultrasound early on instead of winging it and trying empirical treatment which I probably would have had to do if I were not insured to keep costs down. The cats may also have had similar problems but there may have been complications etc with the second cat, or other complicating factors such as concurrent disease that may have made treatment more expensive.

I saw a really nice waiting room- it was quite long and deep with alcoves so that people could sit and wait without the other animals being disturbed and wide enough that you could walk along the far wall to get past everyone easily. That didn't stop people letting their dogs lung out of the alcoves but the receptionist was very on the ball about asking people nicely to control their dogs. There were also more consult rooms than there were vets so that the ferals (animals or owners) could be put in seclusion if necessary. Unfortunately my vets practice is in a renovated town house so the reception is part of the hallway and its a complete nightmare for me and my monsters!

I had pups die from Haemophillia. Not easy to diagnose because I did have pups that apparently had normal clotting times initially, and it was only after they used up reserves that they bled out. It doesnt sound similar but they can appear in some cases to be fading puppy. It is also quite rare but ask if the haemorrhage could indicate investigating this further.

Tetanus can be found in soil so no horses required BUT dogs are far far more resistant to the organism than humans which is why they aren't vaccinated preventatively like we are.

This is a good post from a previous thread http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/227842-if-your-dog-flys-under-the-coffee-table-and-lays-there-shaking-in-fear-because-of-thunder/page__view__findpost__p__5531180