Miss Danni

I am pretty sure that all of the Pro Plan lines are manufactured in Australia. Beneful in the article is an American product.

Artline white paint marker, they are non toxic, don't smell like nail polish can and last a while before mum can lick the numbers off. Either put a mark in a specific location and write the location in your record book, or put a number on the top of their heads. Congrats on the safe arrival of your brood!

I have been told that the 7.30 Report are doing a "part 2" to this story, filming this weekend.

I do them online, tends to be late at night. I have had only a few issues and have had to abandon the process and ring Dogs NSW the next day. I always follow up with an email to make sure that it all went through OK. However, at present, if you have GSD's, you CANNOT register a litter that has both SC and LSC in it, but does it tell you that anywhere? No, of course not. It would be a lot better if any issues were highlighted and they told you what to do to get around them - like the fact that a sire owned by multiple people in different states is likely to error and tell you that the owners are Unfinancial, but you can ignore this and continue to register your litter no problems. It is not a user friendly system at all

I give Sandoz during whelping and maybe for the day after. I don't give it after that, instead, I give my girl calcium rich foods like goats milk, ice cream, custards etc. She gets a daily egg flip made with goats milk for the first 2 weeks post whelping. While I don't continue to give oral calcium, I certainly would if I thought that I had an issue that calcium would help with and I always have Sandoz on hand. I am also a member of Myra's group on FB and it is a wealth of information!

I second the books by Myra, they are very handy and I use Myra's replacement milk formula for supplementing pups and they thrive on it We once had a locum at our old vet that could not even successfully microchip a puppy. He had never owned an animal and was clearly frightened of our GSDs. That was pretty much the last straw for us after other issues with this vet, and we completely changed vets thereafter.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/Balto_CLE.JPG/220px-Balto_CLE.JPG and http://www.freewebs.com/bonydog/Balto.png Have a look at Balto, one of the early "real" sled dogs in the US. He is not like Hope. Hope is from racing lines and they are substantially different to the original, heavier sled dogs. Racing Siberian Huskies are athletes, more designed for sprint work than freighting cargo over long distances. Also, the Mawson Huskies, used in Antarctica until dogs were banned there http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/salzberg/mawson.html Bannerbrite - :laugh: you made me laugh, thanks.

Yep, this happened just down the road from us, cops and forensics everywhere, plus we heard the gunshots but that is nothing unusual at Castlereagh at night! Bob was a friend and we were all very upset when the pond scum got off the murder charges. I am very happy to find out that one of the vermin involved has now been shot just down the road from us. I'm just hoping that he doesn't ever get better. Go Karma! Good start!

FH, turn your phone off when you go to bed! :laugh:

Angelsun, read any of Dr Willis's books on GSD genetics and your info will be there.

Excellent news DakotaJ

Exactly Rebanne. Are they going to have to take their hip, elbow, eye certificates into the ring with them? :laugh: Blindingly stupid, shortsighted people the KC! Just give in to the crazies!

That is truely beautiful Wendy, Brianna was clearly a very special little dog. Just know that she is still with you, which is why you still see her and hear her. Hugs to you and your family.

Hi Dean, Broken Hill GSD club is alive and well. Email Joylene Neddermeyer at [email protected] for more info.

DakotaJ, I had a Siberian Husky with ectopic ureters. She was born in 1993, so we are going back a fair way :) Same as you, she was treated for UTI a few times without result and was then assessed for ectopic ureter at Sydney Uni. The only option for her was surgery or PTS. There was never any thought of PTS let me tell you! The surgery was expensive - $800+ at the time, so probably equivalent to about $3000 now, but we went ahead and she recovered well and we never had any major health issues with her subsequently. We did have to take some care with her diet, as the surgery increases the chance of crystals forming in the bladder at the site of the scars and more UTIs as well. I used to feed her cranberry juice in her water and I honestly cannot recall too many issues associated with the ectopic ureter surgery. She was sore for a little while after the surgery, as you would expect, but it would be no worse than desexing for instance, and she was back to normal in a few days. In the intervening 20 years, I am sure that the surgical procedure is even more refined and less invasive than it was for Moscow. I would have no hesitation in doing the surgery again if I ever had another puppy diagnosed with the problem. There are certainly much worse things that puppies can suffer from. Good luck with your girl :)

double post, stoopid computer

Lionqueen, if you are doing prog tests, you will know exactly when to do the mating. Once she ovulates, wait 48 hours then do the mating. That's all you need assuming all goes well. Eggs take 48 hours after ovulation to become "ripe" and allow penetration of the sperm for fertilisation. Sperm from fresh semen will live for days inside your bitch and will clean up any eggs that she releases. All eggs are released at the same time, so no eggs can be "conceived later", it is not possible. Your bitch will release maybe 10 eggs and your stud may have half a billion sperm in his ejaculate, so even if only 25% of them are viable, all eggs released will be fertilised! If you have smaller pups, it would be either genetics at work or a less favourable position in the uterus for gestation than other litter mates. The other benefit here is that you know exactly what day the pups are due - 63 days from the day of ovulation - NOT mating. Some bitches will stand for a dog all the way through their season and some dogs would mate a fence post, so canine sexual behaviour is not always the best way to determine when to mate. And the bitch determines the number of pups that you have, the dog determines the sex :) We only do one mating and have never missed. Hope this helps.

Dasha, go to Robert Zammit at Vineyard Vet. They have very good equipment and experienced vets that will quickly tell you yes or no. I usually go at around day 24 ish for ultrasound, but no hard and fast rule except not before day 21. If you want to know numbers, have them xray your girl when she is 8 weeks and you will get a pretty accurate count.

Fred was an SV foreign-list judge until his compulsory retirement at age 70. He runs tours to the Sieger Show and I know a few Aussies that have travelled with him and had a great time. I hope he gets a great entry

Petbarn meat and bones are rubbish, I find that they go off within a few days or are already on the turn when you get them home. World 4 Pets for me!

Ring Robert Zammit at Vineyard Veterinary Hospital, he does them.

I dont find ultrasounds to be a waste of time/money. I'm not interested in an accurate count, I just use it to confirm pregnancy. I xray at 8 weeks to get an idea of numbers because our girl has very big litters and I am comforted to know how many to expect once whelping starts. :)

16th of June Sares, not July The GSDL Demo Team will be there

I have GSDs and learnt German at school and have over the years, taken a number of courses in German at Sydney Uni to refresh my knowledge. It is very handy when we go to Germany and was more helpful when we bought and imported a German bitch. I have also stewarded for the German SV judges at specialty shows over many years and knowing at least a bit of their language has been priceless! I frequent the German forums and have a lot of German and German-speaking friends that I have met through the dogs. I also can understand the written word better than the spoken and my knowledge of dog terminology will get me a better conversation about dogs than it would about families or jobs! :laugh:

Dont risk your precious pups, keep the "invader" out of the box with an x-pen around it. She can look at and hear the pups but cant hurt them, even by accident. Your Mum will also feel happier I'm sure. In a few weeks, when the pups are out and about, the "invader' might be a good nanny/baby sitter if she is trustworthy, but right now, she isn't needed and may be disruptive. Let Mum enjoy her time with her babies, it's only a few short weeks and then they'll be gone. We have GSDs, they all live in the house and the pups are born and raised in our home, but they are protected from the adult dogs, who we allow to see and sniff the pups one at a time under very close supervision while Mum is outside having a loo break. I'm not worried that our adults would intentionally hurt our babies, far from it, but they are very tiny and accidents happen in a heart beat. At 3 weeks, the pups join the family in the loungeroom to watch TV at night, but they are still seperated by a physical barrier from the adults (also because the adults steal their toys!). Their first nanny is, in fact, one of our adult males, who is incredibly careful and tolerant with babies. He watches over them outside and is penned with them when they eventually move out of the house during the day at 6 weeks. But I'd never let him in the box with 11 day old babies, he'd walk all over them!