Miss Danni

Shells, you may also need to cut out the yoghurt. One of our boys is sensitive to dairy and even a teaspoon of yoghurt in his food will set his ears off. The only food that he does well on is Pro Plan. We treat his ears when they get yucky with a 50/50 solution of white vinegar and warm water and it does the trick and he does not seem to mind it too much. We put it into a little spray bottle and spray it into his ears, he prefers this to drops. Good luck with your boy.

We have always taken back dogs that we have bred, some with refunds and some without depending on circumstances. Taking back an adult dog can cause problems in a stable pack, but if I had to, I'd put a dog into boarding to make sure that I could take back one that I had bred. Otherwise, we juggle dogs until we find a suitable new home, and of course, some that come back never leave again and just take up room on the bed! I have also fostered my breeds (back in the days when I only had 3 dogs!) for up to 7 months while trying to find good homes. I particularly despise anyone that threatens to PTS if the breeder wont take a dog back immediately. Those people are a waste of breathing space and should be banned from animal ownership for life

I know what I'd do, I've done it before and I'd do it again. I've gone into a bushfire to get my animals out, so has my Dad. Next time the circumstances would be different but my actions would be the same. I've gone into a collapsing, burning house to rescue someone that I would not recognise in the street, so there's no way in hell I'd leave my dogs behind in a bushfire.

Could he be barking at birds as well as your neighbours getting ready for work? Birds are very active at that time and being a GSD, he might like to chase them, barking while he does so.

I wasn't talking about how the dog looks on the stack vs gaiting, that's another issue again that you can see pretty much as soon as they move. As to the rest of your post, I think that you are being OTT with your comparisons, but if those breeds decided that's what they need to do, good luck to them. Good to see that you are amused by how GSDs are judged, we like to see our exhibitors happy.

A little bit confused by your opening statement regarding a GSD should have "endurance" but then you go on to say in follwoing paragraph that dbl handling can be used for dog "getting tired". If a dog has endurance then a dozen laps round a ring should make it tired???? Also if it's getting tired does that then mean that it doesn't conform because it doesn't have "endurance", so therefore, if there was no double handling to pep up a tiring dog then those of lesser quality will be seen quicker? I don't mind double handling in the Specality Ring - it's amusing to watch for a couple of minutes of so! Sorry that you are confused. You might need to see a specialty show to know what I mean.

So do an Endurance Test with them. 20km at 10km per hour is a better test of structural stability than a handful of laps around a ring wouldn't you say? To pass requires obedience, soundness and fitness. Just the ticket I say. Slightly different thing Poodlefan and not mutually exclusive. But I dont think that there are too many specialist judges that are watching the yearly ET to decide who gets BOB at the next show. :D

In our 2008 litter, our biggest puppy at 8 weeks was a bitch. There were 7 bitches and one male and she was much larger than the male, let alone her sisters. Now rising 2, she is the smallest of the 7 bitches by far and the male is a lovely big strong boy :D

Yes I have competed in the specialty rings in North America quite a bit. I gave it up a few years back when my back began to act up as I simply can't do the marathon running that these specialty judges seem to feel is needed. (which is another bugaboo of mine as if they can't see in one go round how a dog moves, they aren't going to see it after six go rounds!!) Angelsun, GSDs are supposed to have endurance. A dog that looks great after one or 2 laps often falls apart after 6 or 7 laps and even the best handlers cant hide it anymore. If we wanted to do one lap, we'd just do All Breeds shows! We use double handling mainly to give a PMU to a dog that is getting a bit tired. You have to be sensible as to when to use double handling and when you should let the dog do his thing by himself. I've seen double handling ruin a dog that was working perfectly well by himself. Pockets is a good double handler, aren't you Pockets? :D

When I bought my house 11 years ago, I ripped up all of the carpet and laid slate through the entire house, bedrooms included. All of our GSDs are house dogs and the floors cop a beating. I am also an asthma sufferer and my life is much improved without curtains and carpet! Slate is not slippery, it is cool in summer and warm in winter, softer than tiles and you can get a variety of different sealants and therefore "gloss" types. It does need to be resealed every so often but that is not too much hassle with a good broom and vacuum cleaner. It is easy to mop, sweep and vacuum, hard wearing and fleas get no foothold. And it looks great! Turkishdelight, this may not suit your circumstances, but I would never have anything other than slate in any house I own ever again.

Thanks everyone for your help, I am passing the info onto my folks and they can decide what to do. Unfortunately, I live over an hour away and the dogs cant stay with us, we have 8 GSDs and my parents dogs dont like them, so they would be too stressed to come to our place. Our fantastic house/dog/horse minder could not go that far to Mum's, she would have been perfect. Kelly_Louise, Cindy has been doing well on her meds since she got over getting sick last time they put her in the boarding kennel. She ended up at the vets for most of the time that Mum and Dad were away and she was not a well dog. Luckily the vet is only 3 mins away and knows Cindy very well. I think that Cindy will be quite happy at home with some nice lady coming to see her twice a day and feed her roast chicken!

Furthest was 17 hours, Sydney to Adelaide for a National, driven by my partner and another breeder. I got to fly down and back on the same day but only saw a few classes (someone had to stay home with our 5 week old pups!). Last year we drove Sydney to Brisvegas for our National and did it overnight, but coming back we got trapped behind a major accident near Taree and it took us longer to get home from Brisbane than it did from Adelaide! Funnily enough, I dont mind driving 3 hours to Canberra or Newcastle for a specialty but I am really reluctant to bother for an All Breeds show!

Hi all, I am looking for a recommendation for someone that can either house sit or mind my parents 2 dogs when they go away in October. The dogs are a Silky X and a Lhasa Apso, but the Silky X is on meds for Cushings and got very sick last time she was put into her normal boarding kennel. My Mum is now thinking that they wont be able to go away anymore until the Silky crosses the Bridge, so I would like to try to find someone reliable, experienced (especially with medicating dogs) and trustworthy to look after the dogs in their own home, which I think will help to make the Silky happier and less stressed. Anybody know anyone that they can recommend for the Menai area? Thanks in advance.

Luci and John at Camarna Kennels train dogs and people of all ages at their show training on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. You will have a lot of fun and get heaps of help. :D We always take our pups down for socialisation and training, although we rarely show All-Breeds, but it is a great place for GSD's to interact with other breeds of all shapes and sizes :D Plus Luci keeps me on my toes!

Yes, exactly. We have GSD's and that often happens, although I have found that the adult males can be a bit more accomodating to a puppy for slightly longer than the adult females in the house. With the girls, you can see the "I've had a gutful" switch thrown and that's the expiry of the passport, much to the dismay of the puppy!

We call it their "Puppy Passport" and it is never valid past 9 months of age in our house!

Pinkpuppy, you really need to get him to sign your puppy over to you by signing the Canine Control registration papers. For the Canine Controls, they dont care at all whose name the dog is chipped in, they wont even honour a court order about who owns the dog, your partner will have to sign her over to you. Otherwise, when you come to breed her or get her titles and you need to sign something, both of you will need to sign everything and you can just imagine what that will be like in 6 months time if the breakup is not amicable. He will be able to hamstring your puppy's breeding career if he feels like it.

We have just had a litter of 11 go off to their own homes. Their Mum didn't pay much attention until about 7 had gone and then it was like "hang on, where are the pups?" She wasn't distressed, more curious and you could see her doing a head count and then looking for the others. But when she couldn't find them, she wasn't worried, just went on playing with the 4 that were left!

Thank you Dianed, I'll pass the info on.

Hi all, could anyone please recommend a good Puppy Preschool in the Batemans Bay area? I have seen that the Batemans Bay Vet runs Puppy Preschool and they mention Delta Dog programme as well, has anyone got any experience with this school? I would love an APDT or CGC trainer but as long as it isn't "Puppy Free For All" preschool, I'll be happy to send my puppy owner the recommendation. Thanks in advance.

Oh, if your puppy even is close to 12 weeks when it flies, it might pay to have some proof of age sent along with the pup - a vaccination card, registration papers etc. Tassie Quarantine advised us to send the Dogs NSW registration papers clearly marked with the date of birth to prove that the puppy was under 12 weeks - it was a 10 week old GSD but Quarantine officers apparently aren't paid to be able to tell how old a puppy is

Not only are they not handing out the tablets to worm the dogs on arrival, but there are significant fines that they can impose for not meeting the Quarantine import requirements. Also, you need to be sure that there is a Quarantine officer present at the airport when your dog arrives so that they can check your paperwork, otherwise the freight company may be obliged to hold your dog until a Quarantine officer is on duty. Sending a dog in the morning seems to be the safest option.

I have flown 3 animals to Tassie recently, including Launceston. Use Dogtainers, they are well priced. Fly with Virgin, I have found them to be better than AAE (QANTAS).

yup - stop taking 3rd hand advice Haha - yep. I told her that i sit with Sophie when she has them to make sure she's chewing them, but apparently it's better to be safe rather than sorry if she gets a rupture in her stomach lining. I know i'm listening to 2nd hand advice, but it is from a vet. She said give her femur bones and that's it - but she loves her chicken, so the jury's out at my house, hehe. Long weight bearing bones are definitely ones to avoid, as they are more likely to shatter when a serious chewer gets onto them. Pups wont make a dent in a femur bone and you also have the potential problem with adults wearing their teeth down on these kinds of bones. The vet might have been referring to cooked chicken and just was not very clear on that point. Raw chicken or rabbit bones will very rarely give any problems, as Nekhbet said. It's also possible that the vet is a bit confused - some vets are not very good with feeding and nutrition advice!

Barbs, fatty fish with edible bones are best as they provide great oils and fatty acids for skin and coat, lots of Omega 3/6/9. For convenience, we feed tinned mackeral and tuna to our GSDs but they LOVE prawns (they get the heads and tails when we peel them) and when we feel rich they might also get some salmon. I would think that marinara mixes would get a bit expensive, the cans are a bargain - around $1 for the No Name mackeral, less if on special.