anthony mazzeri

Have you raised the possibility of toxoplasmosis with your vet? Similar symptoms of not being able to see/focus and fear/aggression (because of the lack of sight and pain) when my dog got it. The reason I'm bringing this up is because the specialist also suggested a brain tumor in my dog, so that is similar as well. But then a simple blood test and some antibiotics fixed it.

Just out of curiosity, how many of you with biting puppies have bought them a stuffed toy with a squeaker inside it? I realised two days ago that my little pup was mouthing my sleeve (with arm in it!) just like he mouthed his stuffed toy to make it squeak. So I took it away and he's since improved dramatically.

I guess a growl from what it sees as a pack leeader is totally different to a growl from what it sees as another pup playmate. So if it sees you as just another puppy growling and acting dominant it would just be a trigger for more play fighting/wrestling/mouthing, so it would have the opposite effect to what you'd want. If the puppy sees you as another puppy to play and mouth with, then the puppy squeal would be most immediate success in terms of communication. Actually getting the pup to see you/me/us as the pack leader thing seems to be a separate issue by the looks of it.

I just saw this on 'It's Me or the Dog' last night with a Great Dane pup (about 12 months) called Dylan. When the lady owner asked Victoria why Dylan was mouthing her and not Victoria, her reply was simply that pups don't mouth more dominant members of the pack, so he doesn't see his owner as the dominant one whereas he perceived Victoria's dominance just by her attitude. The solution was the 'quick high pitched puppy squeal' (which I doubt men can imitate successfully, if at all), cross the arms, turn your back and look away - ie, total ignore / game over. It worked virtually instantly. There's definitely something about the squeal resonating with dogs as the one she emitted on TV even startled my little Cocker Spaniel pup out his sleep and he started looking around. He's also one of these mouthy/nipping pups because I play with him so he sees me currently more as a playmate than the boss, so I had the thought of copying Victoria's squeal (I taped the show) and putting it onto some sort of tape player to use when needed... but I don't have one. Anyway, the thought's there, so a possible puppy training tool? I know they make electronic clickers now with chirps and trills, so maybe one with a sqeal for the mouthing problems?

Have a look at some of the free video clip excerpts from the DVDs for sale on Karen Pryor's clickertraining.com to see if you think it will work for you. If your cattle dog is smart and focussed on you (ie jumping up at you) then clicker training sounds like it would be ideal. I bought a couple of the DVDs before I got my new Cocker pup. I've only had him a few days now (8.5 weeks old now) and he's already doing the sit and drop after only three 5-minute lessons starting yesterday. Awkward puppy sits and drops, but still! Considering they were the first ever clicker lessons for me too, I'm mightily impressed so far by this method.

Hi Michelle, I've just found the clicker training books' tip of using party frankfurt sausages cut into small bits make good food treats for training for my little 8 week old puppy. The pieces hold their shape and don't stick together so they're easily dispensed, and they're soft enough for the pup to wolf down quickly without distracting from the training. If he eventually gets bored of frankfurt pieces, I'll try their other suggestions of small pieces of chicken breast and even cheese.

Is PRA very common in Cocker Spaniels in Australia? I've heard it is in the UK, but here as well? I've just picked up my 8 week old puppy and the breeder said it's not an issue in her dogs. But I worry anyway as Curns' situation with Amber is something I wouldn't want to be looking forward to in 5 to 10 years time, especially with a steep tile staircase which could be very dangerous. I wish you all the best Curns with Amber and hope she copes well in your new place. The two links Dogbesotted posted have a lot of useful info.

Why does blow drying make such a difference? What happens if you just let it dry au naturelle?

Hopefully the vet dermatologist can diagnose it as being something as simple as a food allergy so it can be fixed easily, rather than it turning out to be some rare disease. I assume his new Hill's food is Science Diet Sensitive Skin but his problem still persists? If the dog's previous food contained chicken, corn, egg or soybean, and he might possibly be allergic to one of these, then the Hill's food won't help as it contains them too. The suggestion would be to switch to a completely different food with ingredients like lamb & rice and see what happens. It doesn't have to be a special diet, just completely different ingredients to what he's been eating so far - just something he's never eaten before. Here's a good link - peteducation.com - food allergies It would be great if it really was something as simple to fix as just changing food.

Mine passed away two months ago at age 14 and a half. He was my best friend and constant companion for all those years so he was pretty special to me, so I just couldn't bring myself to just replace him with another dog similar to him. I finally ended up choosing a different type of gundog, a Cocker Spaniel pup who'll be arriving this week. Much smaller, which I'll have to get used to! PS. It's not just a puppy problem! Two specific things to watch out for from my own personal experience - mine apparently ate some cat poo in our backyard (from some unknown irresponsible neighbour's feral cat) at around age 7 and he got toxoplasmosis, which was a nightmare as both the vet and a neuro-specialist misdiagnosed it at first. Then when he was 9 he ate a rotten potato from the compost (he knew never to touch the compost, but a family member left the kitchen scraps in a bucket next to the compost the day before - so the rules didn't apply!) and I had to have his stomach pumped at the emergency hospital at 3am. I thought I was going to lose him both times, but he came through them okay to live to a ripe old age (102 in human years).

What a run of bad luck. Hopefully once you get through this patch, you'll have years of never visiting the vet except for annual shots! My Wei tended to investigate every interesting smell nose-first with a one-track mind and I was forever worrying he'd jab his eye on a sharp branch or get bitten by a spider in all the bushes he barged through. I lost track of how many times he'd pop his head up smiling happily with his face covered in spider webs.

Getting a new puppy now, it's certainly new and different for me to the last time when I got my Wei puppy back in 1993. Then, it was boosters at 12, 16 and 20 weeks. So now it's only 1 compared to 3 before - I got very confused talking to the breeder about vaccinating my new puppy!

Hi, I'm picking up my new baby Cocker Spaniel next week and have been researching clicker training. It's been 14 years since I've had a puppy (my beautiful Weimaraner and best friend passed away two months ago at age 14.5, I miss you so much good friend), so I've basically forgotten everything I learned back then on how to train a pup. Clicker training wasn't around back then that I was aware of, so it's new to me. So I bought a couple of clicker training DVDs from Karen Pryor's http://clickertraining.com/ (you can buy them as downloadable videos if you want to watch them straight away instead of waiting for the DVDs in the mail) and I have to agree 1000% on how impressive the training method is just to watch. I am truly amazed by what I am seeing achieved on these videos using this method. The speed they learn, from 8 week old puppies to a 9 year old rescue, dogs of all breeds, sizes, age and experience is astonishing! And how happy they look wagging their tails like mad while they're training! As I mentioned, my new puppy Alfred hasn't arrived yet, but I already have my clicker all ready and waiting for his first training session (learning the clicker and his name) on his very first day home next week. So I don't have any direct experience with it yet, but will soon hopefully. If he learns only half as fast and enjoys his training half as much as the pups on the videos, I'll be more than happy! PS. For those who have new puppies like me, they have three puppy-specific DVDs/downloadable videos - Puppy Love, Clicker Puppy and Puppy Kindergarten. The last one is the best I think as it's like having your own personal trainer to show you what to do, training real pups step by step in real time from the first introductory click to more advanced like sit, down etc.