jillybean

If you think you're getting bitten by fleas you'll see the bites. They start of sort of pimple sized but you scratch and they swell up like mozzie bites. Perhaps a bath with an oatmeal shampoo will help if he has dry skin?

Who cares about the treat when you can rip up a foam cup!! :rolleyes:

From what my vet said it's usually 6 weeks, 12 weeks and then 16 weeks whilst they're a puppy, and then once a year from then onwards.

Hours?! How do you make them last that long? My pup eats her way through a frozen kong in about 30mins! Are those smoked bones from the pet shop really hard? I bought one for my dog who ate the bits off the ends but hasn't really touched it since. If it were a marrow bone she'd be working on it on and off for days!

What kind of dog is he? Does he have a long/short coat? You could try parting the coat in various places and actually looking for the fleas. Otherwise give him a good comb with a fine tooth comb and see if anything falls off him. Fleas look like little brown things, a few mm in length.

I personally don't crate my dog, but I've heard that it should only big just big enough for the dog to lie down comfortably and move around a little. You don't want it too big or the dog will learn to pee at one end and sleep at the opposite end. It you have it smaller the dog will try its best not to pee inside it because it doesn't want to sleep in it.

It doesn't matter if there's offal mixed in with it, dogs need some of that too. The red specks might also be blood from the bones. Pet mince is usually minced frames so it's likely to have bones in it.

Visited the vet yesterday for vaccinations and he confirmed that she is teething, well just beginning to. No teeth falling out yet, but "itchy" gums.

Have you tried freezing things? The cold can be soothing for their sore gums. I fill a Kong with a mixture of peanut butter and natural yoghurt and freeze it, my pup loves it. I also fill small containers with water and chopped up fruit and freeze that. When you tip it out of the container it's like a big ice cube and she spends ages chasing it around!

Googled it and came up with this http://www.petshop-online.com.au/category116_1.htm I've never purchased from them before and don't know how much Ziggies normally cost so can't really recommend them!

Have abit of a read through older posts on this forum. There are plenty of threads about what people feed their dogs. Dog's don't care what meal happens at what time of day. Give them food and they'll eat it if they're hungry. You don't need to feed them brekkie foods at brekkie and lunch foods at lunch. You could probably feed the same for all 3 meals and they wouldn't care. My puppy normally gets dry food for breakfast mainly because it's quick and easy when I'm in a hurry! You probably don't need to be feeding extra carbs such as rice or pasta if you're already feeding dry food. It's more important to add raw meat than to add more carbs. I usually add raw beef mince or chicken pet mince. You can find chicken necks and any chicken shop such as Red Lea and sometimes at the butchers. You could try chicken wings instead of necks if you want, just that they're more expensive and have more skin on them. You can also get chicken pet mince from chicken shops, it's made up of minced chicken carcasses and is really cheap. Other things you could try adding are sardines and raw egg.

Did you say your puppy was 12 weeks? That's still quite early for them to be losing teeth. Teething may only just be starting, but for some dogs it doesn't happen till 4-5 or even 6 months. When you say your vet said she has very severe problems, is this in regards to the crying and whinging? Or something else? I don't see why the crying is that severe a problem?

I'm saying this on the assumption that a ruptured cruciate ligament in a dog is similar to that of a human, but if it's already ruptured then waiting won't do any further harm. If it's already torn, it can't possibly tear any more. Plus once the swelling and inflammation go down she won't be in pain anymore. People wait months for cruciate ligament repairs, and if you're elderly or not overly active chances are you wouldn't even bother with surgery. You can functional perfectly fine without it as long as you don't intend to do alot of sport. So with that in mind I'm sure waiting 3 weeks is fine. But like I said, I'm not too familiar with anatomy of a dog, only that of humans

Wow that is a little harsh. How long have you had the pup for? Puppies really need company, at least for the first few weeks until they get settled. There should be someone home with her through the day, or at least for most of the day. Have you got lots of toys for her? Kongs are great once your pup figures out how they work! Fill them with a peanut butter & yoghurt mixture and freeze them. My puppy's favourite toy at the moment is a soft toy animal I got from the Reject shop for $3! It's a frog that croaks.

Thanks Husky! I'll go have a look for some tomorrow!

At puppy school we each get a small plastic bag full of a variety of treats to use during the class. There's one that my puppy goes crazy for but I'm not sure what brand they are or where to find them so I'm hoping someone here can help me. They're like little balls of soft meat (I think this one is chicken), about 1.5cm diameter and they're wet rather than dried n hard. I think they come in a foil type zip lock bag. Any ideas? Ta!

I'm wondering if my puppy might be teething? She seems very agitated today, and has been biting me quite aggressively, tugging on my clothes etc. She usually mouths and can bite when she's over excited, but today it's constant painful bites. She also seems to be barking a lot, and at nothing in particular (that I can see). I gave her a bone earlier and she chewed it for a little while but then left it when she'd normally be spending hours chewing on it! However she's only 12 weeks old, so it seems rather early to be teething? Maybe she's just being bratty today.

Caught Chloe in the act of trying to rip yet another plant out of its pot... Distracted her with a bone but now the crazy girl is barking at the plant!!

My puppy is an outdoors dog but I thought I'd let her sleep indoors. For the first few nights I had her I'd wait till she fell asleep in her bed then carry her whole bed into the bathroom. Usually she'd sleep for another hour or so but then she'd wake up and realise she was inside and alone and howl and whine all through the night! The only thing that would stop her howling was if I went and sat in the bathroom and let her fall asleep on my lap. After 3 nights of that I thought why move her if she's fast asleep outdoors. Surprisingly she was quiet through the whole night! So now she just sleeps on the verandah all the time. She has a kennel with her soft bed inside it. I thought I'd bring her indoors the other night when it was storming but she howled the minute I tried to leave her in the bathroom. Perhaps your puppy doesn't doesn't like being shut up indoors? Just be patient, it can take a while for new pups to settle down in their new environment.

My pup does the same thing. She gets up on her hind paws and "runs" with her front ones on our glass sliding door. It makes such a racket and she whines at the same time. She only does it when she can see me inside so I have to keep that curtain shut. If she doesn't see me she's fine! Do you have curtains/blinds that you could close? Give it a try :rolleyes:

that's awesome! how exciting, a claim to fame ;)

There's a great thread "What my vet said about fleas" that's pinned at the top. My puppy picked up fleas last week. I treated her with Capstar and a dose of Revolution. I also washed all her bedding and brushed her a few times a day to pick out all the fleas. I made up some of the lemon & rosemary solution (think the instructions are in the pinned thread too) and sprayed my pup and all around her kennel and food areas. As far as I can tell she's flea free now - she's not scratching anywhere near as much and I haven't seen any fall off whilst I've been brushing her.

Haha yes puppy shopping is expensive! And if you're anything like me you'll keep buying them toys and other little bits and pieces almost everytime you go past a pet shop! ;) I haven't had any troubles with Chloe and walking on a leash, but you could still use a harness instead of you're worried about it.

Perhaps you could try feeding some canned dog food for his next meal because I've read suggestions around here that it helps with constipation. It might help it pass through a little quicker haha

I don't cook any of my dog's food. She gets raw chicken mince (minced chicken frames) and raw beef mince as well as chicken necks and marrow bones etc.