~*Shell*~

Wow - Zero wouldn't touch any product made by hills! Stopped eating for 5 days and was even happier to eat Pal (not by my choice!) and generic supermarket kibble (which he would never normally touch - also not my choice but we were on a camping trip and that was all the people camped next to us had) than the hills....

I feel your pain. Everytime I go to my vet they try and get me to feed hills science diet! There's only one vet in the whole practice that doesn't - so we go to see her everytime. She doesn't like HSD - she recommends eagle pack, orijen and raw but doesn't push it on you.

I don't think this is a DIY fix - i'd suggest going to see a behaviourist (or having one come out to you) even though it's expensive. Unfortunately, even with the best precautions, accidents can happen and if one got to the other then you could have a big problem (not to mention vets fees) - I'm not saying it's going to happen but it would be something i would worry about (and i did worry about it when i got Zero and realised he had DA problems). Can't recommend anyone in vic as I'm based in sydney but I'm sure if you searched the forums you'd find someone who can! Hope everything works out and your dogs become friends!

Anyone got a pattern for doggie PJs?

The ones that I've been using only have high speed - You probably can get low speed only ones, but I've only found high speed.

The hair between Zero's toes is more coarse than a poodles (in fact, the the coarsest hair on his body - i was really surprised when I felt it the first time! It's like whiskers!) - if I do it with the 1 speed i don't get as close to the skin as I would with a lower setting because the hair just gets pushed out of the way and i get a choppy looking cut which holds onto the clay/mud a lot easier. I don't need the slower speed to do my friends poodles' (or another friends "spoodle" ) feet but i use the slower speed for the poodles' faces and under their front legs (in the little bit of skin that is like their arm pit) as Hannah, Elle and Toby are all very sensitive here and don't like it being done. For what I want it for, the extra $$ for the two speed is worth it.

I really wanted the 2 speed to do the more sensitive areas (i find the single speed are just too fast to do facial and genital areas). I would like to be able to do Zero's feet with them too as he has very very furry feet and he gets mud between his pads easily if there is hair between them and the higher speed is too fast.

Zero does "shake" (for his left) and then "paw" (for his right). I'm trying to teach him hi 5 (annd the hopefully hi 10) and "dance" (to spin in a circle) at the moment (as well as a better recall!)

You can even get them at K-mart now - that's where I got mine (just to see how Zero would react to the sound).

Since everyone's mentioned vaccinations, just thought I'd mention to keep a close eye on your puppy (i'm sure you will!)! Not all dogs take to swimming right away and some never get the hang of it. I know of one dog that loves the water but can't swim so he has to wear doggie floaties!

That's fantastic! My vet was happy to talk to me about titre testing but didn't know all the information so she did some research for me and then called me a couple days after i'd asked with the dumbed down version of the information. They don't do it at my vet clinic but she was happy to start offering it if we wanted to have it done. All in all I'm very impressed!

Thanks all! Will get my butt into gear and order them tonight!

Hi everyone, I'm looking at getting a set of clippers in the next couple of weeks - I'm looking at the Wahl KM2 from clipper world and have been told that they work quite well. I'm doing a grooming course at the moment and have been practicing on friends dogs (no complaints yet, even when i did a poodle clip on my friends "spoodle" (she knows better now!) and gave him fluffy feet, tail and head) with a "petlife" set that a friend of a friend apparently paid $600 for (i think not). The clippers get hot, don't cut properly and make a noise you wouldn't believe! Took me 3.5 hours to do the clip for a photo and a laugh :rolleyes: and then shave him down because we kept having to turn the things off to cool down! Didn't help that he didn't like the noise either! Anyway, I was looking at the Wahl KM2 and wanted to know what everyone thought of them?

ooooo - I wish i was going to this But i have an appointment with Steve on the 12th July, so i guess i'll just have to wait a little bit longer!

I was just thinking what I was going to get to house my grooming supplies! All I need is a new set of clippers (which I'll hopefully get in 2 weeks!) and then my drier which should be the month after that and I'll have everything I need for a while. It's just too hard transporting everything (not to mention storing it in my house) when it's all over the place!

Zero loves some peanut butter, vegemite, schmakoes, beef or chicken and cheese (not much cheese though!) frozen in his. Great for a hot day!

Thanks for the fast replies! Zero loves his squeaky toys, but tends to get over then quite quickly (only a few retrievals before he gets bored) and because of his diet we have to be very careful of the treats - though i might get him some chicken mince or something to train with! I might ask the behaviourist (who is also a trainer - Steve at K9 Force who comes highly recommended. Can you tell i'm excited to meet him?) and see what he recommends to help zero get over a few of his fears too and see if that helps with recall. We have a feeling that his old owners used to call him to them and then abuse him so i think i'm going to have my work cut out for me! i think i'll try and get him a long leash tonight - or i'll at least order one so i can try different techniques and see if anything helps!

Hi all, I have a nearly 4 year old husky that we adopted about 18 months ago from the pound. While he's learnt sit, drop, shake (and is learning "other paw" so we can handle both paws) and will stay (to some extent) we can't seem to teach him "come". I've sent him to a trainer (who told me he would use the clicker method but ended up using a choke chain on him till he threw up because Zero refused to do the command) but because Zero has some dog aggression problems (we've nearly cured him of them and are going to see a behaviourist in july to work on the last couple of problems) we haven't been able to take him to classes like i would have liked. I haven't used a clicker before, though would like to start working with one with him. How would i go about teaching him a recall command? I've heard that huskies are notoriously hard to train (because they don't listen to you) and while i haven't had a problem teaching him things like sit, i just can't think of how i would teach him this one!

Yay! Hope it continues to work. Maybe you could try a little correction when she goes to chew her feet if you're sure they're not itching (i use an "arrrrrr" noise with Zero and it works great). If you can persuade her not chew then it was probably a habit, not a itchy thing (since the spray).

Zero hit 4 days without eating and i couldn't take it anymore. Then with the hills science diet, it was 5 days. He knows which foods will make him sick and he just won't touch them!

At the moment I feed a mix of raw and dry (once a day because Zero is on a massive diet!) Zero has supercoat lite and mature or the diet Pedigree Naturals (1.5 cups) and a chicken wing. Tonight he's getting his normal supercoat and a chicken frame. If i only feed dry then he gets sick of it very quickly! ETA: I'm trying orijen as of thursday if i can get hold of it - Zero gets sick off a lot of things and refuses to eat others so I'm going to try him on it and see how he goes!

Hmmm - I have a similar problem. Zero won't eat premium foods (sniffs then walks away) and when we were told to persevere, Zero didn't eat for 4 days (my overweight husky would rather starve than eat most foods) and when he finally did eat, he just gets sick off them. The only food he will eat and not get sick off is Pedigree Naturals and Supercoat. I'm going to try him on eaglepack and orijen though in the next few weeks and see if he'll eat them - if not it'll be back to pedigree naturals, chicken wings and frames and meaty bones!

I'd be interested to know how many people have dogs who refuse to eat it? Zero is very fussy (he also gets sick off most dry foods with the exception of pedigree naturals and supercoat which are not the things i would be feeding him if i was given the choice) and has refused many foods but i would be interested in orijen if he would eat it and do well on it. I saw that there's a 400g bag of it and i will buy it when it comes back in stock just to try, but if a lot of dogs are refusing to eat it then i don't know if i'll bother (other dogs refusing it have always been a sign in the past that he won't do well on it).

With short coated breeds they usually just do a bath and clip the toe nails - even with Zero (husky) he just gets a bath and a brush! ETA: I think as long as the dog isn't dirty or smelly then you don't have to bath. Zero doesn't get a bath very often because i don't have the tools at home to groom (no dryer or warm water bath - we've got renovations happening right now) but after seeing him all fluffy again this weekend (i caved and paid someone else to groom him - waste of grooming training no?) I'll be sending him up every few weeks till the renovations are over!

I've heard it's filled with filler foods like cereals and grains that are hard for the dog to digest - but that's not why i don't feed it to my dog! He simply refused to eat it and that was that! 5 days with just sniffing at it, and then walking away was too much for me to handle!