OSoSwift

Rommi is at the vets as she injured her toe - again- two weeks ago, all was going well until I started to slowly increase her exercise. Took her back and she had some pain on manipulation of her knee! She definately had a swollen toe but it appears she may have damaged her knee as well. She is in for sedation and xrays of her foot and knee. Geez I hope it isn't her cruciate!! praying very hard here!

I would fill the holes, put some turf in, cover them with mesh so he can't dig them and buy him a sandpit, Bunnings had a heap when I was in there the otherday. Put lots of fun things in it like bones, treats etc so he digs in it and get a reward. Can you keep him in one section of the yard where there is less he can destroy??? If he is getting lots of walks and mental stimulation he may be doing it just because it is fun. Many kongs stuffed with something, treat balls, toys (and rotate them so he has different ones each day). I think if you do the best you can to repair his holes and the rest of the property is looked after then your landlord may not be really happy but I am sure will cope. Anyone that has a dog realises dogs are dogs and sometimes they dig holes. If you allowed him to turn it into a moonscape that would be different.

Great to hear

THanks Ptolomy

I had been showing horses and doing dressage and eventing, so to do it with the dog was cheaper, easier and cost less! My first dog when I moved out of home was Female Rotti. She was an absolute star, but bilateral OCD of her elbows shut her obedience career very short and also her life. I had met a lady that had DObermann's which I had always admired but had only met ones with less than desirable temperments. Her male wandered into the vet hospital with his favourite Teddy in his mouth wagging his tail. I was hooked. As I wanted an entire dog to show and also to trial, I got a male Dobe. We never got on, he didn't really have an value for humans and he was a pig to live with. I sent him back to his breeder at 18 months for an evaluation and to see if it was me that was the problem of the dog! Whilst I am sure I didn't help, the breeder said he was one of the hardest dogs he had ever bred. I did get him into the ring doing Novice but it was a very hard slog. He ended up being rehomed to a lovely couple who didn't ever ask him to do training or obedience and wanted a walking companion and a lounge pet. He excelled in that. Whilst my male was at the breeders he had sent a retired bitch down for a bit of a holiday. She was brilliant, easy to live with loving and actually cared where I was. She also had her CDX title so I dabbled in Open at our club trials. She stayed and I had her for nearly 8 years. When she had been with us for a couple of years I got offered one of her grandaughters. She got her Champion title, CD, CDX, ET and also her WAE(Working apptitude certificate, basically a temperment test) and therefore her Register of Merit with the National Dobermann Club, I believe she was something like the 42nd Dobe to get it since the programme started in the early 80's I think or close to anyway... She started agility me with a complete novice but tried hard and only retired due to a spinal problem. The other thing was to get all those titles we had to travel at least 400kms to a small country show and trial and the Perth shows were 750kms away. We also travelled to the NT twice and she went to Melbourne with the breeder. She also had a litter for the breeder in the middle. It took a lot of KMS to get that title, but she tried so hard for me and was the first dog I had ever had a title on. In the future when I have more time I will hit the rings again with the Whippets.

Yay for stubble! Especially when it is on your dog and not my legs!!!!! Sounds like complemtary medicine and it is great it is working so far

I am not overly fussed about Aloveen either, it does smell nice, but i think for the price you can get others that are better. I have WHippets and an old Stafford and use Plush Puppy Whitening shampoo on Lewis and The conditioning one on Rommi, The stafoord gets whatever I have in my hands at the time!. I also wait until they are dry and put Plush Puppy reviva coat on them, they feel lovely and sodt, but not sticky. I would like to try Chris Christiansen (I think that is right!) White on White for Lewis as he looks lovely when sparkly white. I am waiting until my PP runs out which won't be for ages.

I have 4 dams, 1600 acres of trees, 500 acres of pasture. They have plently of room, water and frogs. Do they need to come into my 5 acres around the house or worse try desperately to get into the dog runs???!!! NO!

Yep got my heart rate up! LAst summer we had a stinker of a day and I was going out regularly and changing frozen bottle for the Guinea PIgs and watering around and over their hutch. In a little bit of grass behing the hutch was a blue tounge sharing the sahde of the tree the piggies were under. It was around 44 with a hot northerly. Poor lizard looked hot so I watered over hima nd some water collected in a large leaf near his head. He had a lovely drink and when I went out there an hour later he was gone. I hope I made him feel better Even though they make me jump when they move near me I quite like my little lizards.

I do have to agree with this. Where I live crossbreeds and non rego'd purebreeds dominate. To be a registered breeder or show dogs is seen as snobish and you are thought of as being nasty because you breed for showing only and not for a healthy family pet ( even though all of the puppies are healthy and make great family pets). Now I know this isn't true, but the average Jo Public does quite ofen feel that rego'd breeders are elitist and we need to show them that is not the case and we can breed wonderful family dogs as well. Many Jo public's know we can, but many more have been fed the designer dog hybrid vigour crap and they believe it

WHat some gorgeous dogs we have in here. I love the BAsset X GSD. What an amazing looking dog. I would never tell someone their dog is ugly it is just too rude.

Hi Shepherds Yes the health of your dog can suffer long term. I have also seen that if they dog is a little older say 5 and above it seems to take them longer to recover than a younger dog. I have often heard how much it has aged the dog. I have worked down here in the veterinary industry for 15 years before retiring and have seen many many animals bitten by snakes. And I think that is what makes me so worried about mine getting bitten. You know it can kill them but when you have battled and battled you know exactly what animals can go through. We have a huge amount of snakes this year and in particular tiger snakes here with a few browns. Luckily I do not work and can spend a lot of time with my dogs at home but there are times when they are in their dog runs and I worry. Hopefully they will be much more snake proof now. I hope your boy is fine this summer and you have no more encounters with snakes.

that is so nice of you to offer BB. I may just take you up on that in the near future Thank you for thinking of me

Once the infection is under control maybe a couple of drops of Collodial Silver a couple of times a week??? I have seen dogs that have issues be maintained quite well on that, however the ear must be healthy and make sure there are no ruptured ear drums etc before starting it.

VEry clever Bedazzled. Yep we are in the habit of chopping of BC's tails. They make much better house dogs that way I have lost count of the amount of time I have heard "Muuumm look at that SKINNY dog" at the top of some darlings lungs. Or "Mate ya need to feed ya dog" I usually answer have you ever seen a fat sprinter or athlete??????? Then they conceed they haven't. One day I will have educated this lil 'ol town......ONE day.

I have only heard of high energy high prey drive Tollers, but I may be wrong??

It is bad enough owing a WHippet, people either love them or think they are half starved or weedy and ugly. Someone else on here has on their Sigi - Chinese Cresteds, saving on shampoo or something like that! Maybe get a shirt with that on it?????

I have done half the shadeclothing that I wanted to, but not yet finished-bit under the weather! I have also gone around the dog runs with expanda foam. Where the bricks meet the metal pipe of the upright of the dog run and also around the roof so there are no gaps between the roofing and the metal piping they are attatched to. Also filled holes in the grout between the bricks and the flashing. Have to stitch together some more strips of shadecloth and then attatch those tomorrow I hope. All around my dogs runs are mowed and the weeds are sprayed so there are none growing near the runs and there is a strip of gravel all the way around.

Ummm nope! But I am really glad you stuck around. There are lots of people who do not breed and have pets only, obedience/agility/herding/dancing with dogs people, trainers, behaviouralists, vets and many many more. There is a wealth of information from everyone on most things.

Great to hear from you I would suggest that becoming a member of a boxer club would probably be a good way of learning which health tests are required. Some people just need to spice up their life so you can ignore those you wish too. Have you shown your dogs as yet?? Some photos would be lovely

Well I have to say he definately looks all Dobe to me Some peole were away on the day brains were handed out.

Hi Beckley85 - IT would be great to have you back in this thread Feel free to PM me if you would like

Note this line. The bitch isn't pregnant yet there is a wonderful open window of opportunity here.

exactly!

I would also recommend doing some obedience teaching tricks etc. Mental stimualtion can tire them out more than physical exercise.