luvsdogs

Been a while since anyone's posted here. Who's entering the final competition for the year in Sydney next month? I'll be there with bells on to watch. :D So hoping they get a large entry. kallistar, I've only done a bit of htm at the workshops so haven't thought a lot about what to call the different positions. For heel I use 'heel', naturally & for right side heeling I use 'side'. For one of the across body positions I use 'cross' & not thought of the others. For handler moving backwards & dog moving forwards facing handler I've heard 'head', 'leg', & 'knee' used.

Sooty came into our lives when my son brought her home from work in November 2000. Being bred by a workmate that wanted to 'get rid' of the litter she was only 5 weeks & 5 days old. What an ugly pup I thought & there goes my chance of getting another Border Collie. Even though I was home with her most of the time, she knew she was my son's dog & what a wonderful bond they shared. My Border Collie April was 7.5 years old & not real comfortable with most dogs. For the 1st 4 days she totally ignored this strange little creature that followed her around. By day 4 April started to take an interest in Sooty & they became the best of friends & loved nothing more than to play tug with a piece of rag in the back yard. Sooty didn't stay little for long, you could practically see her grow every few days, for a while there we thought she may have Great Dane in her, something pointed out to us on occasion. On Christmas Day we went to my cousins for dinner & left Sooty in the back room. Seven hours later when we arrived home I gingerly crept into the room to avoid stepping in a puddle. No puddle, what a good girl, & she was toilet trained from that day on at only 10 weeks old. She had these big ears that she wore pointing outwards. I likened them to the Flying Nun's habit. :laugh: Sooty was such a funny dog to live with, having us laughing at her on many occasions. She was very smart too, picked things up so quickly. For a time I took her to my obedience club where she'd do anything for a tennis ball even though she was also food obsessed. We even had some lessons in DWD when it was in it's infancy. It is with great sadness that we had to say goodbye when she went to the bridge last night. She had been sick for a short while & made it to her 12th birthday on October 16. RIP beautiful girl you were a pleasure to live with & will be sorely missed by all who loved you. In our hearts forever.

I've shared her story on FB. Let's hope she's returned sooner than later.

I'm glad it went well for Scooter. I feel as though I know him well. At the time you were getting him I was also looking for a Pap. Not to be, we ended up with a JS instead.

I believe they do. I've heard it called puppy licence. My Border Collie that doesn't like some dogs some of the time takes heaps from my young Japanese Spitz. From the time the JS came home he has used the border's tail & as he got bigger, her neck hair as a play thing. I was told by others that when he reached 9-12 months old she would finally get fed up & tell him off. Now at 15 months he's still doing it & she still lets him. When did you get your puppy? I knew you were thinking of it but can't find where you found pup & got it.

So sorry to hear you & poor Riddick had to go through this terrible ordeal. I met Riddick back in Jan at Ziva's party & I have never met such a laid back, gentle, well behaved dog. My little JS Panda was drawn to him because we have a big black cross breed dog at home & felt comfortable with Riddick. I hope he makes a full recovery & that idiot pays for what his dog has done. I have only taken my Border Collie to St Ives a couple of times on a week day, is this guy mostly there on weekends?

I had been using plaque off on my JS for a few months with no effect. I tried scraping it off with my fingernail but nothing came off. I have changed him over to a raw meaty bone diet in the hopes that his teeth will be cleaner. He's only 15 m/o now & was about 9-10 m/o when I started him on the plaque off. He's been on raw for about 2 months with some improvement, he must just have one of those mouths. LizT how many times did you clean your dogs teeth b4 you noticed a difference & what did you use?

If you want to follow a true Raw Meaty Bone diet you do not need to feed veggies or grains at all. http://www.rawmeatybones.com/articles.php

My JS has always had tear stains. It started to go away around 5-6 mths but came back worse once he started teething. My vet flushed his tear ducts when desexed at 8 mths & said his tear ducts were very narrow, he was the runt of the litter & is still undersized. The vet suggested I just used plain water to wash his eyes 2-3 times a day. I've tried 2 tear stain removers & they did nothing. From the pic I saw of your pup the tear staining looks very minor so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Also get the vet to check he doesn't have entropian, there the eye lashes grow towards the eye.

I have put my 15 m/o Japanese Spitz onto a raw diet because kibble was making his teeth terribly discoloured & even adding plaque remover didn't help. He started off with chicken pieces, mostly legs, for a couple of weeks before adding slowly, turkey wings, beef pieces etc. The meat is best left in large pieces so the dog can chew which help clean the teeth. A few raw feeding forums I'm on say that the meat shouldn't be minced as it doesn't help the teeth & it creates more bacteria to the meat. I saw a youtube video today that was interesting. The (I think holistic vet) says to help prevent dogs from getting food allergies is to change their food, kibble, 3-4 times per year. It helps their gut adjust to different food sources. from about 1m 39s on.

My Japanese Spitz puppy had a perfect scissor bite with his milk teeth but he retained quite a few of them & no longer had a scissor bite. I contacted Christine Hawke http://sydneypetdentistry.com.au of SPD & joined her site & read the puppy tooth book. I wasn't given a name on what was wrong but one of his adult lower k9s was growing behind the upper incisor next to the upper k9. I worried over it for a long time & eventually emailed Christine & she rang me & we had quite a long chat. She knew my vet from vet school & was happy for me to make up my own mind on who to see about it. I eventually decided to go with my vet & had the incisor removed when he was desexed, to make room for the k9. He's on a raw meaty bone diet & has no problems eating them. Christine's mentor is a pet dentist in Melbourne so maybe you can contact them.

My Japanese Spitz does this quite often. He pulls on my Border Collie's tail & neck so swallows her hair. He then does the hacking noise & will bring up hair balls.

I didn't ask price when I made the initial contact with Tilba's breeder. To me it was more important to know that the parents had the appropriate health checks & the results. Next was how they were raised, then the price.

I found these videos interesting on how vaccinations work. http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2011/05/31/what-your-vet-didnt-tell-you-about-all-those-puppy-and-kitty-vaccines.aspx

You can carry her to places if you can. Sit near a school, railway station, not at the busiest times, so she can take in the sounds & smells.

Cinder is gorgeous, I too like her name. I've heard they can be difficult, it will be a learning curve I'm sure. :)

I would never now be without 2 dogs. At present we have 3, 2 mine & 1 my son's. Up until my son's dog came into our lives in 2000 we'd only ever had 1 dog at a time. As others have said 2 are better than 1. It's so much fun watching them play & interact with each other. The 1st 2 times a 2nd dog was added there was a 7.5 yr age gap. When I got Panda, Tilba was 4.5 y/o, I didn't want to wait any longer because she was used to playing with Sooty who has slowed down in the last couple of years & another play mate for Tilba was the way to go. As to the breeder's terms, I thought it was fairly common practice. When I'd 1st heard about it several years ago, I'd thought, no way. I think you've thought everything else out well, but this throws a spanner in the works. You need to get all the details, write down everything you can think of with the help of the posts here. As to keeping an entire male, all my dogs as a kid were entire males. Panda was my 1st as an adult. He started to mark at about 6 months & I had him desexed at 8 months & he hasn't done it since.

We were booked into a holiday let for my granddaughter's 1st birthday. I took Tilba to the vets on the Tuesday & she said no sign of swelling. We went away on the Friday & on the Sunday I noticed spotting in her crate. I had left her in there while we went to a BBQ lunch. I thought oh no. Not here. We weren't going home til the next day. Luckily she only spotted occasionally & on a hard floor was easy to clean up. I had read some horror stories of dogs mating through chain wire fencing, we have chain wire side gates. I had also read that they will try to find a mate as much as the males do. I had visions of all the male dogs in the neighbourhood visiting us, did not happen. I was also told to carry her to the car if going for walks & drive to the park so any males couldn't follow her scent home. She was very good through the whole process, preferring to sleep the time away. I supervised her in the back yard, never saw another dog. Like I said she spotted a few days at a time with breaks of a day or so in between. When she went a week without spotting at nearly 3 weeks in I thought it was all over but she spotted another day & that was it. I had her spayed 4 months later at 14 months old. I had taken her to my dog club's Xmas party 2.5 weeks in where she stayed in her crate. There was a show dog nearby & he never glanced her way.

All of the above, plus if she eats kibble, you can scatter her breakfast all over the yard for her to search for, rather than gobble it up from her bowl. Gives her something to do & forget about your leaving.

Dr Tom Lonsdale of Raw Meaty Bones is now selling pet bones & meat at Bligh Park. I haven't used them though. http://www.localvet.com.au/BlighParkPetHealthCentre/RAWFOODSALES.aspx

Glad to hear Melton is on the improve.

Sending healing vibes to little Melton. Ticks are one of the worst things on earth. It's about time there was some sort of vaccination against their poison. My daughter in laws old dog had one last August, luckily they found it before it could cause any damage. They live on the NSW South Coast. We even have to be wary of ticks on ourselves after hearing the horror stories on Channel 7 about Lyme Disease which the authorities deny is in Australia.

ow my god!!!what a cutie! Exactly what I said. My son was interested in getting a kelpie & Noonbarra was recommended to us. How are they to deal with?

Hi again Skruffy n Flea! Would you mind telling me about 1 more thing? :) I am still just making sure eveything is correct on this packaging... On the bottom of the box it shows 1104006A01 1104008D01 and Exp. 04/2014EXP. 04/2014 and on the foil packs it says 1104006A 1104008D and EXP. 04/2014EXP. 04/2014 so it seems to match. Is this how it is on yours? Also, on the top lid of the box once you open it on the flap it has numbers and letters: 603485A AUS 911777603488A AUS 911777 and on the foil packs it shows on the side of the pack 603480 AUS603483 AUS so it is not exactly the same. Is it like this on yours too? I really appreciate your help with this! I just want to be sure everything is safe for my twins! Thanks so much!! I've included the nos. on a large box I have in blue. In the order given are the nos. on a small dogs box 4-11kg, a green box I bought a couple of weeks ago. 1202012B01 EXP. 02/2015 1202012B EXP. 02/2015 603486A 911777 603481 AUS

Tilba used to be the worst at jumping up & over things. I used to worry about it all the time. She'd spring straight up in the air like a gazelle. She started doing it again when I put the puppy pen up in our driveway to stop Panda from going up the front. Now that he's older I don't use it any more, so the end of her jumping.