Greytmate

It's probably the clitoris. Some bitches are much larger than others. See a vet if you want to know for sure.

Large grinders/mincers are also very dangerous things. I know somebody that got rid of theirs for that reason alone.

Yes I would be interested in buying it, at the right price. I want one for the GAP greyhounds, to get them all spiffy looking before they go to their new homes. How much will you sell it for?

He's in Stafford Heights. 263 Appleby Road Ph. 3359 0777

That is good advice from sheree. I would add that if your boy has large testicles, and the scrotum is not going to be removed, then it is even more important that he be kept quiet after desexing, because this can swell up with fluid. You can apply an icepack to the area every now and then to help avoid swelling. Don't worry, it is a minor operation.

The diet sounds ok. Washing the dog once a month may be too often. Try washing in an anti-fungal or anti-dandruff shampoo.

Tick collars are ok for greyhounds, but not flea collars. We use Bayer Killtix collars as required.

Nothing for now, you don't live in a tick area, just don't take the little pup into the bush. When the pup is older use the same products that you do on the older dogs. Yes, Drontal will take care of any tapeworm, which Advocate won't cover.

Not everyone that fosters needs to know about how to test a dog. But every organisation needs to have people that do know how to do it, and there needs to be good communication between those people and the foster carers. I would hate for anyone to be put off foster caring by your post. Foster caring may not be for everyone, but we have plenty of carers that find it really enjoyable and worthwhile. Having the correct procedures in place (to prevent the horrible things happenning that Cordelia mentions), actually make things a whole lot less complicated than groups taking short cuts and not following procedures. You don't need any special skills to be a foster carer when you are with a group that will give you the right support. :D

Good point Liberty. Poor Schmoo, every time she touches on an important topic, it opens up another range of complex issues to take into consideration. Has your book reached encyclopedia size yet Schmoo?

What a good post Schmoo. There is one part that I would question "Temperament assessments are always advised before taking on a rescue dog and it is strongly advised you do this YOURSELF to make sure YOU are satisfied with the dog and are 100% positive you can provide care for the term of fostering." If you are aiming your post at an audience that is new to rescue or foster care, then that person may not have the knowledge or experience to conduct an appropriate behaviour test. To say that a dog has been temperament tested, when it has not been tested by somebody qualified to test could have unpleasant ramifications. I am not saying that formal qualifications are needed, but the person needs to have a clear idea of what they are testing for, what constitutes a pass or fail, and the limits of the testing. I believe that a pre-foster assessment should not be referred to as a temperament test, it is only a behaviour test. My suggested amendment to your post would be "Pre-foster behaviour assessments are always advised before taking on a rescue dog and it is strongly advised that the test result is properly documented and fully understood by you, so that you can satisfy yourself that you are able to provide the neccessary care and management of the dog for the term of fostering." I don't mean to sound picky, because I think that the work you are doing is brilliant, will help countless dogs find their way into loving new homes, and make foster caring a worthwhile and enjoyable reality for many who would otherwise be too daunted to try. I do want a copy of your book please.

Schmoo, I think if people are taking dogs of unknown history directly from a pound then they do need to have access to quarantine kennels. If a rescuer has no way of quarantining dogs then they could get dogs from other places, like FTGH ads in the paper, taking dogs being surrendered by their previous owner or by taking a dog from another carer where the dog has already been quarantined. If a rescue group has any carers that have quarantine kennels, they could move the dogs around so that all dogs spend 2 weeks in those kennels before going to a carer without quarantine kennels.

Nothing else would be regarded as quarantine, but there are other precautions that could be taken to minimise risks for the home foster carer without kennels. Having dogs vaccinated and treated for parasites at least two weeks before bringing them home. Fostering healthy adult dogs instead of puppies or dogs with health problems. Fostering surrenders instead of pound dogs, especially surrenders with known histories. Taking these precautions mean that a person may not be able to save every dog that they want to save, but there will still be some dogs that need rescuing that are much lower risk than others.

With the Dr B Barf Patties, you feed one patty per 11 kg as a rough guide. It will depend on the breed and the activity level of your dog. They are designed as a complete food, and the barf philosophy is that you do not feed kibble in conjunction with barf. But Nutro is also a balanced food, a bit better and more nutritious than the average kibble, and if your dog is doing well on it there is not reason why you couldn't feed this as well as the patties, as long as you reduced the quantity of the patties to allow for the dry food. Keep in mind that you also need to be feeding bones for dental health, so the more bones you feed the less patties you will need to feed.

We get our barf in 2kg rolls. It's not firm like the patties though, it's very soft just like fine mince. You can either cut it into slices while frozen, divide the unfrozen roll into portions and then freeze it, or leave it fresh and just scoop out what you need and put the rest back in the fridge. It all depends on what quantity you need to use each day as to what you do, and how squeamish you are about handling raw meat and blood. If the entire 2kg cannot be used within about 4 days, it will not be very nice to feed. We get the 2kg rolls in bulk quantities. If you don't have a lot of freezer space to buy barf in bulk, the patties may turn out to be the better option for you. Our Barf diet is made by Big Dog Pet Foods in Lawnton, just north of Brisbane. They also manufacture Barf patties.

If you ring around you will be able to find a vet that will charge you a discount rate for a whole litter. The vaccines sold over the counter is not the same as the vaccines given by a vet. The vaccines that the vets use are not permitted to be sold over the counter. If you are selling these pups, it is important that you have them seen by a vet and issue a vaccination certificate with the pup when it goes to its new home. Responsible buyers will insist on it, and I am sure that you want your pups to be bought be responsible buyers.

If given the choice I would wait about a month after the season to have the bitch desexed, for the reasons people have mentioned above. Desexing, like any major operation, is life threatening. Desexing during a season is even more so. $10 desexing for one day only sounds cheap, but would make me wonder about the standard of the work. Have they got some sort of assembly line going on?

Dogs can catch tapeworm from fleas in the environment, so I would be using an all-wormer in conjunction with the advocate. I have seen dogs that have been on advocate with tape worms. You also need to consider whether you need a tick preventative. You can use a combination of advocate, drontal and tick collar or you can use a tick and flea preventative like advantix in combination with heart and intestinal wormers.

We don't have our own kennels, but we do lease kennels where our dogs stay and are observed before they go into foster care. Not quarantine in the strictest sense, but it does allow up to pick up any problems and to keep our foster carers' other pets safe. The good thing about racing greyhounds is that they have all been vaccinated as pups, and are not allowed to be registered for racing unless vaccinated again at a year old. So at least we know that they have some immunity. And we have a requirement that the dogs have a current vaccination certificate before we accept them into our program. While our system would not suit many rescue groups, those that take in surrendered dogs could ask if the dog could possibly be vaccinated a fortnight before being accepted, and this would lower the risk of parvo being spread if a rescuer has no possible way to quarantine a dog themselves. Too bad the pounds only hold dogs for a week or so. If they were able to be held for a few weeks, they could be vaccinated and left in the pound for a fortnight before being picked up for foster care. That would be one step better than coming straight out of the pound into foster care and then being vaccinated.

He looks pretty good to me Warley. He could put on half a kg or so and still look good, but I think he is in really nice shape how he is. He is how a greyhound is supposed to look.

Good grief! How tall are your guys??? My boy is about medium size for a male and barely hits 30kg. He looks good - we think. He looks like a racer - you can see his defined muscles, ribs and a few back bones. IMO how they are meant to look. ( have seen an overweight greyhound - can see no bones at all - it looked so wrong) My girl is admittedly small for a female, and weighs in at between 21 & 22kg. Same condition as my boy. Your two must be very tall! My two get a cup and a half of eukanuba morning and night, plus leftovers if they are lucky. Also get chicken necks and roo tails occasionally. Euk is the only think i have found that doesnt go right through them - have tried all the expensive dry brands. There can be quite a weight difference in different greyhounds, ex-racing males can range from about 25kg up to about 42kg and still be a very healthy weight. As well as height making a difference so does build, some are slender and some are quite boofy with broader chests and necks. There are slight differences in shape between Aussie racers, American racers and show greyhounds which will mean that three dogs of the same height can have very different weights and still be healthy. Muscle weighs more than fat, so a dog can put on weight just through the muscle bulking up, and you can still see the last couple of ribs. The amount a greyhound needs to eat depends not only on its size and but on the amount of energy that it uses. Our littlest greyhound eats way more than our bigger one, but she gets hard exercise so needs more food. As a rough guide, we like to see three vertebrae and two ribs, and like to be able to just see the pin bones. As a dog ages, you will naturally see more vertebrae without the dog being underweight. Another way to see if your male dog is at a healthy weight is to stand him in the late afternoon sunlight. You should be able to see the sunlight glowing through the skin between the dog's penis and its abdomen. If you can't then there is too much fat on the dog. Imy, you should try this, and see if the diets are working.

It is really important to keep your greyhound warm. Otherwise a large amount of energy is spent just keeping warm. A really warm coat at night and a lighter coat for winter days is a good idea, especially seeing as you are in Victoria. Zorro is also still young, he will need less food as he matures and slows down a bit. Yes, greyhounds really do need more food than most other dogs.

I would get the weight off the dog first, and then take it to Dr John Murray in Capalaba. He is one of the best canine ortho vets in QLD, although semi retired now. But really, with arthritis, getting the weight off is the best thing you can do to help the dog. Less weight, less pressure on the joints, whatever it is that is causing the arthritis.

Obtaining many of these items is not as difficult as you might think. Many are available over the counter, it's just a matter of knowing what to buy. This can take a bit of research. Worm pastes are just one example. But the point remains that the manufacturers have a huge markup on some products. For example, the chemical used in a popular flea control is sold as other products for the equivalent of 30cents per dog dose. And they are still making money on the product as that is a retail over the counter price, but for bulk (you have to buy $300 worth at a time). It will cost you $1.50 per dose if you buy smaller amounts. I think it's more like $6 or more for the 'dog' product per dose. And sure, I'm all for buying cheap on the net. My only comment was that the pet shop rip off is mild compared to the manufacturer rip off. BTW - Look at tick control as well. Dog dip costs 4 times as much as sheep dip, even though its the same stuff While I understand how it can work out a lot cheaper to be using chemicals in this way, I think a warning should be given. If a product is used in a way other than described on the label, there is no come back at all if the dog suffers a reaction, gets ill or dies as a result of using that product. People such as groomers or commercial kennel owners need to be aware of this, as they will be at fault should a problem occur with a client's dog. The other concern is that if you are using a product labelled for agricultural use on a dog, the product may be a lot more concentrated and so it is crucial that the dosage is calculated correctly. With some products, if more than one single drop is used on a dog, the dog can suffer permanent damage.

I saw a woman trialling her dog in novice at the Royal a few years ago, and it highlighted the disadvantages of training a dog without the help of others. It was embarrassing to watch. Every hand signal was exaggerated and sloppy, and many were double signals. She bent right down to give her dog the command to drop. She was leaning in towards her dog the whole time, and could not walk in a straight line at all. She was sent out of the ring by the judge after the first on-lead heeling sequence. I felt very sorry for her. Yes her dog knew all of the commands, and was at novice standard. But the dog was let down by the abysmal handling. If this woman had trained with a club, she would have been given the help and advice neccessary to handle the dog properly.