Rascalmyshadow

I have clipped a few border collies and the owners have told me they seem much happier. Don't mean to criticise anyone but I wouldn't go any shorter than a 5# also a lot of them are grey underneath not black so her/his colour might look a bit different.

Thanks all for the advice, as soon as the dog started this my OH did ignore him but he just carries on barking we will keep it up and hopefully time will improve him. Normally I would have told my OH to feed him but because he is so scared of his bowl I don't think it would work well.

We took on a 9 month old male toy poodle two and a half weeks ago, he was sold by the original breeder to another breeder with the intention he would be used as a stud dog, however the new breeder didn't like his temperament and decided it wasn't a good idea to breed from him. His history is he was raised outdoors in a kennel invironment the second breeder told me he hadn't been toilet trained, he was a bully with other dogs, he had never had a collar or lead on (never been for a walk) and he was a fear biter (yep I like a challenge). We picked him up from the airport (he came from NSW) he was stiff and in shock. It took me all of two days to have him toilet trained, he is great with all our dogs, he now loves his collar and lead (and his walks) and so far have seen no sign of fear biting (he is great with the kids). I have two problems to still solve, 1: he was petrified of his food bowl we seem to be overcoming that slowly. 2: he is still frightened of my OH, all my OH has to do is stand up and he is off barking and hides outside. When my OH gets up in the morning he does the same thing. How would be the best way to approach the issue? What sort of things should my OH be doing to improve the problem? He is a quiet person the rarely raises his voice so I am not sure what is making the dog react in such a way, it is quite obvious he hasn't had such a pleasant past but I would like to make sure he has a great future.

My little Sebastian has had a runny eye since we rescued him at 14 weeks, I finally had him knocked out a few days ago and had it checked out properly. Vet has found there is a membrane covering the duct, we can leave it be and the only problem it will cause is a messy face so we have to be vigilant about keeping the area clean to avoid dermatitis. Other option is take him to a specialist and see if they can open up the duct permanently. My question is has anyone else had this surgery done and what was the long term outcome? Has anyone left the eye as it is what was the long term outcome?

Arolf cute poodle looks great for his age!

off topic *sorry* thankyou for the compliments on my poodles poodlemum they are all gorgeous.

I tried my dogs on an all BARF diet and wasn't happy with the results, we now have them on a mix of optimum dry and natures gift for breakfast and chicken carcasses (big dogs) chicken necks (littlies) for dinner, they all look great and my skinny standard girl has even put on the 3kgs that she needed.

If you can only afford one I would stick with a force dryer, they can still be used to fluff dry and a good one will be powerful enough to do all breeds. If you were to use a stand dryer only and you needed to do a double coated dog ie. GSD, samoyed etc it would take forever. Force dryers also do a much better job of removing loose undercoat.

I have done a few cats and would be happy to have a go as long as you are willing to stay and hold. I am located in Moorabbin.

Hi I can't answer most of your questions but I have clipped quite a few of them and so far the haven't grown back any different to what they were before they were clipped.

So far other than clipping it out I have found nothing that works. If you find a solution would you mind letting me know.

Yep have a very sore back, neck, shoulder, knee, hip and now during the night my right hand goes numb and gets pins and needles. One place I worked instead of having a hydrobath they had a normal bath built up to waist level, it was much better and although it took a bit more scrubbing to wash the dogs I never ended up so sore.

We have had a multiple dog house for years at the moment we have 5 but for me 3 was probably the best. It allowed plenty of one on one with each dog while the other two played together. It definately seems easier when they are all the same breed, we have had inroduced other breeds along the way (fosters etc.) and it hasn't worked as well the poodles prefer to stick together.

doggrooma I'm glad you came along LOL I was starting to doubt myself and timed all the dogs I groomed today just to make sure I had my timing right. Poodlewrangler I didn't mean to come acroos that way I was just trying to answer the OP's question honestly, I felt like a few people jumped on me just because my skills are different.

Chocolate I have been grooming for 12.5 years at first it took me ages probably about the times other people on here have said. My second boss mostly trained me to clip and she taught me to do a lot of scissor work, I always thought there must be a better way so the dogs didn't have to be on the table so long. I slowly taught myself how to make the most of my clippers instead of doing so much scissoring, now I use a lot of plastic blocking blades and have ended up being exceptionally good at shaping legs and heads without spending hours scissoring. I have found this method is much better for the dogs and easier on myself. I went back and did a little more training with my first boss a few years back (she is a show judge, groomer and poodle breeder) just to get a few more tips and she told me not many groomers perfect the art of clipping and waste a lot of time using scissors. Are you learning to groom by any chance?

Showdog you don't even know me or know what my skills are. I have customers that have their dogs clipped every 8 weeks I also have customers that come twice a year. I am fast and I do a good job. Every dog gets a break between their bath/dry and their clip. No dog is rushed through. I can do a standard poodle in a lamb clip with FFT in 1 1/2 hours- 2 hours including bath and dry. I take a bit longer with puppies so they relax and get used to it. I used to also groom small dogs from home, the owners would leave them with me for an hour and they would spend the last 15 mins having a play with my dogs. Before I injured my neck and shoulder I was doing 10 dogs a day bymyself working an 8 hour day, I'm quite sure that adds up to less than one hour per dog.

I am very good at my job and I definately do it in 45 minutes I can do a lamb clip on to/ mini poodle including FFT in just over an hour. If I'm having a lazy day add an extra 15 minutes. I do not miss anything if a dog is matted it is clipped before the bath if not it goes straight in, all dogs are blow dried immediately not left to cage dry. All dogs (if neede of course) have ears plucked, nails cut and anal glands emptied. All dogs have underarms and groin clipped with a 10#. OH and I add Lustre Aid at the end. I am very offended by the comments made by a couple of people. It's a shame others have to be so bloody rude.

Hi for the scenario you have described it would take me around 45 minutes from start to finish including the bath, blow dry, nails, anal glands and of course the clipping. I would charge around $50

I have been grooming 12 years and have never needed to restrain a dog in the bath, IMO it is dangerous and it teaches the dog nothing. I have seen a few restrained dogs hanging (didn't die) after jumping out of baths when I was working for other people. I also do not restrain dogs on the table for the same reason, I have one hand on all dogs 100% of the time they are being groomed. I also have my table against a wall so they cant fall off the back.

I would be starting puppy school as soon as you can, poodles can become unsociable easily especially the littlies. If they are not exposed to enough as young pups they can become nervous and fearful of new people, dogs and surroundings even if all seems ok at the moment. I know a great trainer that does puppy school in Carrum, Frankston and Mt Eliza (I think) but she books out very quickly. If you want her details I can PM them.

I used to feed my dogs the BARF patties, my standard girl hated them she ended up being too skinny because she refused to eat. I have stopped buying them and put the dogs onto a mix of raw meat/chicken for dinner and a mix of canned and dry for breaky, they all look so much better and my girl is finally a good weight. I have always thought fresh/BARF is best but the results I was getting weren't great.

On most of my customers dogs I use Fido's everyday shampoo (it smells great and is very easy to use) I use Aloveen conditioner (I don't like the shampoo) I finish off with a squirt of Lustre Aid.

Benji's mum I thought you were joking at first but that is really quite funny sounds like a cheeky boy.

Sorry I don't agree with putting a muzzle on a dog (especially not a young puppy) unless it's 100% necessary, often that makes them feel more intimidated and makes the behaviour worse. Holding a dog around the snout is a calming behaviour it's the same thing a mother dog does to her pups to tell them off and settle them down, it is definately not being heavy handed. A nervous dog needs someone who shows strength and confidence to stop them being so frightened not someone thats going to bribe them and talk delicately, all that will do is reinforce the behaviour IMO.

BC I was going to post the same thing about teaching the dogs to lie down but I thought I'd get flamed. My standard boy lies down on the job constantly he's like a rag doll, it drives me insane and at 30kg he's not easy to stand up every 5 minutes although it does make it easy to face, feet and tail.