OSoSwift

IT is now in my favourites! I would love a gold one - but am trying to save. Will definately be saving for one.

Sorry didn't check tha dates properly, I thought it was the second dog, my mistake, thank you.

3 Muskateers, So sorry to hear you are going through this. I know you will do the utmost best thing you can by your girl. Going through what you are can be very very hard to cope with. Your other little dog will be sad for a little while, but with your and your families love she will get better with a little time. Make sure you look after yourself. You are the most imporatant thing Mia can have when eventually her friend needs to leave her. Take care, seek help when you need it, we are thinking of you.

This is a blinky thing to attatch to the collar, but it says visibility up to half a mile? Not very expensive either. Not sure how it would go if the doggy did tails up and off though Ooops forgot to add the linky! http://www.pets-megastore.com.au/product_i...roducts_id=1038

Oh Cosmolo you will have a blast! If they want character refrences just send them to DOL! I agree with all the above, be yourself, don't get too worried you are not being interviewed for a puppy, it is more a get to know you and what type of people you are. Over time the breeder will get to know what your desires and wants from a puppy are, and hopefully match you up with your perfect mate. Have a great time

As I said it was my friend who taught this so I can't know for sure, however she used a clicker to mark the wag of the tail. She then put a cue on it and the dog when given the cue wagged her tail. If not given the cue she looked like she had been kicked up the bum. I guess that her overall demeanour was happier so maybe the feeling was conditioned - not sure.

That is sounding good, if it is responding that well you may be able to reduce the drops like Greymate. Fingers crossed for you when you have a return visit to the vet

I am glad you have had such a positive result and I am sure your neighbours will be much happier also. Now you can relax a little!

Sounds like you have heaps of great advice on here- some of which I am going to take away to try myself, never have too many tricks up ones sleeve! A game I play with mine is to start of heeling, then run off as fast as you can, hopefully the dog runs to catch up (most do), possibly forgets it's self a little and will run to you possibly slightly past. Click the second the dog is in the correct position and reward. With clicker training I was told (especially in the beginning) never click without treating, never treat without clicking. Even if your click is a mistake you reward, if you don't the click will become unreliable to the dog. Your treats for training must be really worth working for. My treats at dog club have to have a higher value than the ones I use at home or for tricks. Try roast frech chicken or beef, or something just as tasty. When I train heel, I quite often do one step CT, then 2 etc etc. I also will do one step back every now and again, or a few backwards. Lots of little circles and funny heeling patterns - or Doodles as I will now call them- are really good as if you lose focus you can go another direction. I also do lots of training on large circles to help both myself and my dog to have good bablnce and it actually helps you to walk straight as silly as that sounds. Once you get a reasonable degree of focus, your dog will quite often follow what your shoulders are doing. So if you are looking back at your dog all the time then your shoulder is back, therefore your dog is moving back as they think that is what you want. You need to think about what your body is doing as they are much better than us at reading body language. Your mouth may be telling them one thing, but your body quite another. I would say 95% percent of my training is done off lead. Having said that I have a very safe place to do so. At dog club she is on a lead and will only come off when she is working very well and does not get distracted. I have to remind myself to train on lead as if I don't I get all gumby and all thumbs as it gets in the way. Good on you for doing so much research and try not to get too frustrated, if it was easy everyone would have dogs with multiple obedience titles. I am going to re-read all the replies later and note them down for myself to try!

My dog would look people in the eye and growl, taught it quite easily and she was as friendly as anything. She just enjoyed performing. She never got into an aggressive heightened state because you got her to "Talk" on command. My friend had a Dobe who hated showing. She taught her how to walk into a stack, lift her head up, then drop her nose. After she had done that my friend would say tail(which in the ring would be planted firmly down) she would then wag her tail quite fast the entire time she was standing there. The dog looked like she was enjoying it, but in reality her owner had done lots and lots of training to get her to that point.

I haven't had this in my own dog, but have seen it quite a few times thorugh work. As far as I can remember it has a high prevelence with Shepherds and crosses. I have seen it in a shepherd, a cross and a Kelpie X that could have quite possibly had shepherd in there, but also maybe not. It is a life long disease and it will not go away. If you medicate Mica as advised then the condition should be kept in check so that she leads a normal life. The dogs I saw -the two I can remember coped very well and the condition was kept in check and they were happy and comfortable. No medication of course it can get a lot worse and dogs lose vision. With her drops are they cold? Do you keep them in the fridge? Dogs (and myself) hate cold drops as it is a real shock to the nice warm eye. It is best to let them sit out for a little bit or hold them in your hand until room temperature. I guess Mica will have to get used to them and if she is trying to bite at the bottle can you get someone else to help you treat her? One to hold the dog and one to do the drops? My mum's old Kelpie had an eye probelm, not Pannus but needed drops everyday. When you got the bottle out she would put her paws firmly across her eyes and it was very difficult to remove them! She did give in eventually. I would consider PMing Erny or Cosmolo they would probably be able to help you out in the fighting the drops department. Good luck and I feel for you having something like this to cope with.

Agree very much with that. Do not give him any medication without a medical check up first. If you think he has fitted you can take them straight to the vets. He will most likely be over it by the time you get there, but he may be in the recovery phase. Definately record it though.

I have always plucked as much as possible using my fingers, get a pretty clean ear and hair free. One had hairy ears further down and he was a bit harder and did have to be sedated to pluck properly from time to time (hair went all the way to the ear drum!) If not he got ear infections.

I am also very interested as I am looking to use this at our next due vaccination.

I also support Australian and specifically Western Australian businesses where possible. If you supplied an imported product for half the price, I would buy the Australian twice the price product every time without fail.

My old Dobe had a heart murmer for three and a half years (was aged) and did not have medication and was fine, no problems with fluid etc. Our Stafford was diagnosed with a grade 3 heart murmer at 10 and a half, 2 weeks after losing my young Dobe to Dilated Cardio myopathy(You can imagine I was just a little freaked out!) and whilst we didn't start medication straight away within a short time he was coughing so we did. He now had a grade 4 murmer is on daily Fortekor and 3 times daily fluid tablets. While he is on this he is great and quite energetic for an old fella. We always though he was just slowing down as he was getting older, but after starting medication he started playing tug again and runnign around asking for a game! He turns 12 tomorrow and he is still going well with no need to increase or change medication as yet. It costs up about $170 every 5 or 6 weeks I think ( don't keep track, just get tablets as needed, cause I don't really want to know!) and we hope he keeps going happily for a while yet. Great to hear your girl is okay, she may be like my Old Dobe and yes have a clinical heart murmer, but it may be asymptomatic and cause no problems. Good Luck

Agreed!

And I thought I was cynical! I am guessing that anything anybody says you will argue about and any solutions will be met with a similar attitude to above. Some people there is just no pleasing

Couldn't agree more. If they cannot afford around $20 to $25 dollars a month to not have to worry about coming up with potentially thousands, then they really should think twice about having a pet. I have insurance for just that reason

Unfortunately it is fairly typical of a lot of average Joe Blows. Always blaming someone else, and wanting what they cannot necessarily afford. I would have another dog except for the fact I believe I would find it harder to meet the costs involved. I COULD do it although at times it may be harder, however I choose not to get another dog so then I can more easily afford what I have. Vets do have huge running costs and it is MUCH easier to work with animals that cannot tell you what is wrong, than some of the owners who expect a lot for not much and complain most of the time! My vets are not cheap, the other one in town is. I go to my vets because I believe they offer a far superior service and I am happy to pay for that.

I have used it with success on multiple dogs, horses and myself. Haven't had to give it to any of my cats yet! I have quite a decent dose before a trial!

I use Advocate and will be doing the 3 yearly vaccination when she is next due.

WE have a Stafford who had had skin problems since he was 14 months old. He will be 12 next month. He gets very lethargic when his skin is bad or we have to put his medication up. I believe that having these sorts of allergic problems makes them feel very unwell. I suffer from hayfever and it makes me feel like crap. I would say that his general feeling is probably having an impact on his demeaner. I would love him for what he is, a softy marshmallow smoochy boy. Some dogs are just not meant to be athletes. I agree with Persephone, maybe a visiting doggy to make peoples days a bit brighter. Good luck and I hope it all goes well

How is your girl? any report from the vets? Hope all is well

I do have a car, and a few bikes - Problem is Midol, our closest city that would probably have fully accredited trainers that I know about anyway is Perth 750kms away. The only other regional centres that may are at least 400kms away. Not just a couple of hours. I wouldn't have a problem with telephone and email consultations, but that may not be considered as the dog being assessed by and seeing an accredited trainer. That's great to hear. :p