RuralPug

Everything already suggested, plus: Most chemists stock saline in small single use containers (aimed at contact lens wearers). These are invaluable, you just twist off the top and you have 20 or 25ml of easy to use eye flush or wound flush. Keep at least half a dozen in your emergency kit. I also keep a human tear replacement product (look in the dry eye section of your pharmacy) and pop a few drops in the eye after flushing to reduce discomfort. Invaluable for dogs who get sand in their eyes! Also invaluable are fragrance and alchohol free baby wipes - ten thousand uses, one of which is to clean your own hands before and after administering first aid. And if you can fit in one of those disposable nappy change mats (they are very inexpensive) then you have an instant hygienic surface to pop your dog on while you attend to a wound. Look what I found! I didn't know that St John's Ambulance did Pet First Aid Kits! And only $25.00! And add your own meds!

Non-destructible dog beds reasonably priced that I can see and touch before buying! I know there are various kinds available online but often what you see in a photo turns out to be not quite what you had imagined. Actually that goes for a lot of stuff only available online - grooming gear, bowls. whelping gear, sport harnesses etc. But I have to admit I would be the sort of disloyal person that goes and checks these things out in-store and then orders them online where they are cheaper due to no store overheads, so that's not going to help you much, sorry. If you are thinking of establishing an online store then please feature lots of videos with a well known breed using the products so that we can judge it better. Or it might be just me not being able to visualise things in the new fangled metric dimensions!

Dogs do grieve. Let her have her grieving moments. It will pass. Showdogs advice above is excellent.

I second what Showdog has said. he is who he is. But if you are doing longish walks you might find that at his age they are too much, try keeping walks quite short and snappy at this point and try to fire him up with exciting treats or toy etc. as you have been doing. One method is to place something desirable to him (food, toy, whatever he really likes) at one end of the yard or driveway where he can see it and make that item your goal. He will be eager to get there, but of course you will stop dead or reverse every time he pulls on the leash, so hopefully the result will be Mr Eagerly Gaiting on a loose leash. Also make an idiot out of yourself with lots of praise at this stage and go dead quiet when he plods. That might help the penny to drop! You won't be able to do that in the ring, but your training ground is not the show ring, he will know that.

I was a bit overwhelmed with the foster care form and I couldn't see anywhere on there where I could put that I was happy to provide transport but didn't have any vacant foster places, so I just messaged their FB page, telling them the size of my dog float, areas I could transport to etc. and that worked well.

Personally I would think it would rarely apply. Pounds and shelters are often really scary places to pets because the fear and confusion felt by many inmates can be heard and smelt by all the others - that plus the rapid turnover of inmates is very unsettling and stressful. A retired stud dog, even if spending most of his life in outdoor kennels has usually not had that kind of stress - mostly he will have been handled by the same person or people, had a reasonably reliable routine and his neighbour kennel mates are usually fairly long term ones (except of course for the delicious ladies that come to be mated LOL). So I personally don't think that you need to give the same kind of support that you would use for a shut down stressed straight from the pound foster. @jemappelle The thing is that you know right from the get-go that this guy is a forever guy and, it may be subconscious, but you will probably be somewhat more anxious than with a foster because even though we love our fosters we are preparing them to be happy with another family forever and so they don't need to fit neatly into every single quirk of our household. This is doubly so when a new forever pet has issues that we have been made aware before accepting them, so we are anxious that we do everything "right" so the transition to our home is made as least stressful as it can possibly be. It is really easy for me to say this LOL I've been there more than once and the best thing that happened was when I was told "Just relax. You have rehabbed dogs much worse than this, you've got this girl!" It's harder to actually do it - relax about the whole thing, and just deal with each issue. The magic thing is, once you do manage to beat your own subconscious into submission and just accept that you ARE doing right by your new family member, they tend to relax as well and suddenly fit right in. Apologies if you have better control over your subconscious than I -,as most of this this will be meaningless and please ignore it except for the bit that says "You've got this, girl!"

Bottom line is, it is your dog and you should be training him to walk the way you want him to walk. If you are okay with him walking in front of you, then as long as it is a loose leash and he is not pulling then why not. But he does need to be close enough to you to be able to anticipate your changes of direction etc. and it is easiest for him to do this at your side. But you don't have to go for the obedience trial winning heel closely on leash - he can take a pace or two to the side to sniff at something interesting as long as he doesn't walk too far in front and as soon as the leash goes taut, he should hurry to catch up or stop and wait for you. Keep the leash fairly short while you are training so that he can't move too far away. When training, you can choose an area where you are going to be more relaxed with him: for instance you can choose a destination 5 minutes walk away and spend 10 - 15 minutes getting there with full on loose leash walking training, but when you get there (say a park or wide grass verge) relax the training and do fun stuff - run with him on leash back and forth a bit, then dawdle along letting him sniff his way - play tug with him or let him pounce on a ball (all on leash) so it is playtime. When returning home, concentrate on the loose leash training again. Really this is a 10 -15 minute training session, then a break, then another training session. When you can do the 5 minute walk in 5 actual minutes without constantly having to redirect him, he is pretty much loose leash trained and you can venture further afield! Personally I think that is is nice for the dog if they can always have a few minutes play/fun stuff at some stage during a walk. You can choose a word or words to describe the play time and he will soon work out that it is only when you use those words that he can leap about on leash!

Good on you for keeping it polite - that is the very best way to engage strangers and has the best chance of them actually listening to you. I wonder if their vet had suggested that their dog would be much more comfortable if he lost weight which would mean less stress on the sore joint? So they have gone all out and done a "Biggest Loser" weight reduction exercise program for the poor thing, instead of regular gentle exercise. No doubt the vet would be horrified at the misunderstanding. With the best of intentions, they could have made the problem worse.

Many brands look similar but are not. You could ask the breeder exactly what brand they have (if they remember). Lawrence is a well known long lasting brand so it might be the ordinary (non Tender Care) Lawrence and yes they do get worn over the years and therefore feel softer! But as long as you have a light touch with it it should be fine. A comb needs to go right through to the skin, but a slicker brush is best not to touch the skin beneath the coat. If you were still looking to buy a slicker, for a spaniel coat I would recommend that your first slicker is one with ball pins and you don't need to be practised with these to avoid scratching skin or breaking coat, there are a number of different brands - if you can find a flexible one it cuts your work in half.

So it would seem that someone found this little chap and instead of getting him scanned or handing him over to authorities, decided to either keep him or onsell him. We will never know, but his family is rapt to finally have this tibbie home again. https://dogshome.com/lost-dog-buddy-reunited-with-family/ John and Vicky were devastated when their precious dog, Buddy, went missing from a family member’s property years ago. “He was our beloved dog; he went everywhere with us,” said John. “But when we didn’t find him, we thought someone must have had him.” Yesterday – six-and-a-half years after he went missing – Buddy was picked up by the Home’s Animal Ambulance. “I was so happy when I received the call; I couldn’t believe it,” said Vicky. “It’s hard to put it into words,” said John. “I have a Labrador at home and we’ve bonded really closely together. But Buddy was Vicky’s dog; her little lap dog. “We’re rapt to have him back. “Now, we’re going to take Buddy home and give him something to eat… and a bath.” Microchipping gives you the best chance of being reunited with your pet if they go missing, provided that your details are always kept up to date. Please book an appointment with your vet to have your pet microchipped, and make sure you update your details if you change your phone number or address.

Screening really depends on the size of the run. A small run might become no more than a large crate with extensive screening, then you have issues with boredom. As a compromise I would think about screening to just over the height of the dog when he is standing on his back legs so that he can still see things in the distance but cannot see things that are very close to the wire ... he will still see your landlady as she passes by but won't be able to "fence run" with her dogs. If the gate is at a narrow end of the run, I would keep that entire end unscreened, both for safety reasons (never screen a gate to a run) and to give the dog one vista. It won't help with the landlady issue, she will probably come to that end to say "hello", sigh. What might help is to add interactive toys to his run to keep his mind amused. A clam shell sandpit is an inexpensive way to provide a digging spot, a cotton rope tied firmly to one of the run supports makes an attractive tug toy and I'm sure that others can come up with more inexpensive suggestions to keep his mind active while he is alone in the pen.

Sounds like you are doing well with the walking. Another trick is the rapid change of direction whenever they start to pull - do an about face and walk the opposite way or go off at a tangent. Forget about how it looks with you stopping, starting, U-turning and zig zagging LOL you are teaching the dog what is expected of him and once done, you will both be happier for it for the rest of your lives. With some sensitive pups, if you keep up constant praise when they are walking nicely next to you and then stop the praise when they pull, it can be enough to train them. For the chewing of the leash if you can get a chain leash that stops it instantly because it is not fun, but if you want to teach with the same leash then treat the leash biting exactly the same way as you are dealing with pulling (stop and don't proceed until he has let go off the leash). Never pull on the leash when he has it in his mouth - tug of war should be for special toys only and never the leash. Puppies biting shoes, trousers, feet etc. should be distracted and offered a chew toy. If they refuse the chew toy and continue play biting clothes or body parts you should use Squeal: Choose Stop or Time Out method. You squeal to indicate that the chewing on shoes or clothing is "hurting" and if puppy stops all good. If he does not stop, then he gets time out.Time out is simply moving the dog, without fuss or fanfare, to a safe area where he can longer reach you. This might be a puppy pen, or his crate, or another room. If he is out of doors being walked and chews on your shoes I would squeal, look horrified and change direction to distract him, remembering lots of praise when he is actually doing the right thing - walking on a loose leash beside you. As you are probably aware, typically a border collie pup, being an intelligent working breed, does need a lot of stimulation and interaction to avoid becoming destructive or naughty from boredom. Other respondents can give you better detail on that!

If you are worried that the outside dog will be jealous of the inside dog, it could happen. If you are going to get them both as puppies, the GSD will need to start off inside anyway - baby pappies shouldn't live outdoors. Getting two puppies at the same time is a lot of work, you may want to rethink that. The other thing that I want to say is that a Pembroke Corgi is not what I would call a little dog. It is actually a medium to large size dog with very short legs, their bark sounds like quite a large dog bark. Both of these breeds, once old enough, do very well outdoors when no-one is home, but will best bond with you if allowed indoors when people are home. So do think about them having a doggy door access to outside, but sleeping inside at night. That way the whole property is protected and not just the back yard.

For the missing of the pee pad - this all depends on the size of your nook, but I found that putting the pee pad inside a low container that they needed to step into worked really well for my latest girl puppy, who started out with a similar bad aim! . I used an underbed plastic storage container (about $8 from memory) and because she had to hop inside to wee, everything was easily contained. She had to be shown to use it but it only took two or three times with me giving rapturous praise for her to realise her indoor toilet had grown walls LOL. Depending on the size of the nook and the size of your puppy, possibly a kitty litter tray lined with a pee pad would work just as well. When training them to wee on command, you need to say your chosen word whenever you see them pee (in the right places!) and follow the word with your praise. Then start using the word just as they are beginning to pee and heaps more praise (careful here - if she stops peeing to see what you want her to do just go dead quiet and look at the sky). It shouldn't take take too many repetitions (if you get the timing right) before she associates that word with peeing. Then you need to go absolutely over the top with praise the first few times you've used the word and she has peed in response!! Of course, at first you need to carefully set yourself up for the win - you need to be sure she wants to go and that you've led her to a spot where she is happy to pee. It's not to late to train her to a word, but remember she is still learning English LOL and needs a way to associate the word with the meaning you want it to have. As to the whining to be out of the pen, you'll have to come to some sort of agreement with your housemate, preferably that when she whinges to come out, she is taken to the toilet spot, given two minutes to use it, and then returned to the pen and not let out again until she is QUIETLY waiting. Or that she is ignored totally by him and you are the only one who lets her out of the pen.

I guess some dogs, like some people, just focus too hard on what they're doing to have any attention span span left over for obstacles etc. This can often be easily cured in people by removing their mobile phones or tablets, but I'm reasonably sure that won't apply to many dogs. To be fair, at twelve months old, she has probably not quite left her teenage months yet, so there may be hope that with maturity comes a bit more body awareness LOL

I like the idea in principle, but it might deter people from registering their dog at all - it's hard enough to get some people following the law now, and it is already a substantial amount more to register an entire dog than a desexed one (unless of course you are a member of an approved organisation), I do think the larger breeds especially are disadvantaged by juvenile desexing and so that one-off 'bond' would be retained by the shire for up to three years, depending on the breed maturity age, if you moved before the time was up you'd most likely forfeit it and have to pay another bond at the next shire. Slightly off topic - are there any councils left that still give registration discounts for obedience qualified dogs? I know some councils run a sort of Good Canine Citizen programme, often in conjunction with local obedience clubs - but it would be great if passing a good canine citizen test qualified one for a discount.

This is a fairly comprehensive rundown (as at late last year) on what product covers what. No product in Australia covers everything. Here is the website for Simparica - for flea and tick control only. The active ingredient in it is fairly new to Australia and I don't know if it would be effective against paralysis ticks.

LOL all four are now on PetRescue! It must be a new policy for BBNA.

Basenjis are actually primitive dogs and extremely independent and some are very stubborn when it comes to training. Some also vocalise a lot, they rarely if ever bark but they do yodel, howl, sing, chuckle and are noisy in various other ways. The BBNA are very good at educating first-time Basenji owners, as long as you are aware of what you might be getting into and have good advice ready to hand it isn't impossible LOL!

Maybe you can try popping him on a leash at first and leading him to the desired target e.g. clotheslines and then praising him excitedly when he pees there. Dead silence and staring at the sky if he pees where you don't want him to. It won't be long before he twigs...

Excellent progress!

There are actually four currently available on the BBNA website. They don't often need to use PetRescue, I'm thinking that it might be because the two girls are senior they have chosen to do that?

I would say that your parents are entitled to a dog of their own (especially since they are more than likely your landlords!) but you and your parents are best to put a possible separation scheme into place well before the second puppy arrives. I would suggest a run or fenced off area of the yard, with shelter etc., where one dog can be put while you are working with the other. As soon as the puppy is old enough, this might be an excellent time out area also. They may become the best of mates, but because of the difference in age at this stage, they are best only together when actively supervised until they are both adults. Edited to add; your boy hasn't learned how to properly approach other dogs because he is not backing off if they don't wan't to play - this is causing the attacks on him that you have mentioned. If I were you, I would be seeking a good behaviorist in your area who can teach you how to overcome this in him because it could end in a tragedy.

All of this will take trust on his part. To get his trust faster, spend more intensive one-on-one time with him. That will entail separate walks and separate training sessions which your other dog can't see so doesn't become a distraction. Plus try to regularly schedule activities which involve both dogs interacting with you. All part of adding an adult pet to your family. The resource guarding wouldn't worry me as the cats are new to him and he is warning them to stay away from what is his. As soon as he realises that they aren't interested in his biscuit, this will stop. It will also stop once he begins to trust you fully i.e. he won't need to guard food that you have given him, because he will trust you not to let any other pet take it away. There is no harm in you letting him know that barking loudly is over the top, a glare from him to cat should suffice. I know it is early days, but I wouldn't actually let him drive you away from his food bowl before he gets to eat. Put it down, then call him over. Stand over the bowl quietly - if he won't approach within say, three minutes, pick up the bowl and put it on the bench or somewhere out of his reach and then walk away. Try again in a half hour. Rinse and repeat, As soon as he does come to the bowl and begins eating, praise him verbally and move away to let him eat in peace. Some of this may be learned behaviour from his previous home, you need to establish from the beginning what the required behaviour is in this home

Since many excellent agility winners are desexed, I would imagine that your belief was due to growth/maturity reasons, in which case first check with council to see if a tubal ligation, which prevents conception but leaves hormones intact, is acceptable as a form of desexing? Many councils WILL accept a TL certificate as a desexing certificate. If you want your dog to be able to able to conceive, then yes, I feel that you should register as a "Breeder", even if your intention is to have a stud male and not to raise puppies. We all know that far too many are just too damn lazy or don't want to spend the money to get their pet's desexed and it does have huge impacts on our society, For those who believe strongly that just because others are negligent, they shouldn't be compelled to take measures aimed at keeping unwanted animals less frequent, why is there a stigma in applying for a Breeder's permit which they intend never to use? It is a way that they can adhere to their beliefs to keep their animal capable of conceiving, while still assisting in cutting down the number of unwanted animals in society. Just my point of view.