sheena

No....We called it Grevillea Cottage many years ago when I went mad on planting grevilleas, then we had a nursery by the same name & the name has just stuck. We are not far away, though, just north of Coffs Harbour & south of Grafton.

I buy the largest size available & divide it up with a tiny syringe. Works out a lot cheaper if you don't have an extra large breed dog.

My girls tail is so thick it is like a fox's tail. It gets brushed every couple of days with a Les Pooch Brush & rake & I keep the knots out of it, but it is so thick & heavy. Is there a safe way of thinning her tail out without ruining her coat. I have used the Mars Coat King on her pants to take some of the weight out of them, but not game to use it on her beautiful, thick tail.

I know with my dogs, using a good brush like a furminator is much better than a rubber brush. If you think that's getting lots of hair off, grab a furminator and you'll get about 100 times more. I try and do my pugs daily (haha yeh right, who am I kidding, it's more like weekly ) and it really does cut down on shedding. So yes, get used to the white fluffy look, invest in some white clothes, but also invest in a furminator! Whats the difference between a furminator & a Mars Coat King in the way they work, & how are they different to a rake...are they suitable for double coated dogs like mine.

I wouldn't use a tick collar, not just because my dogs are swimming everyday, but also because of the chance of them mouthing each others tick collars & also myself & grandkids getting the stuff on their hands or face. I am in a very high tick area & use Frontline Plus, and every now & then switching to Advantix so that the little buggers don't build up an immunity. I find it works best if distributed fairly evenly all the way down the back from the base of the neck to the base of the tail making sure it is applied to the skin. Also I don't let them get wet for two days after. I have a small supply of Proban left which I keep for when I have to leave them with someone & I have ordered a couple of these Flea & Tick Repeller Not sure if it will work, but it got good reviews & anything is worth a try & nothing takes the place of daily searching.

I just keep my dried stuff in a sealed plastic container in a dry dark spot. The only thing I have had go fuzzy on me were some sheep necks once & that was during our long humid summer. The tendons I get seem to have a long shelf life....I have never had to throw them out.

When my dogs get it, I give one tablespoon each & they are around 20 kilo dogs. I just sprinkle it on their kibble & moisten it with a bit of home made stock. My chocolate coloured dogs fade because they are in the pool each day & then sunbake for about an hour to get dry. The Livamol brings back the dark chocolate that they really are, even though the top layer is still a bit faded ATM they look good. I was giving coconut oil, but supply was a bit haphazard, so I think I will stick to the Livamol daily from now on.

My dogs wont eat pigs ears. I give them beef tendons & am about to try cows ears.

Well done Jules. You must have been on tender hooks for a while. Not sure if this is my imagination or not (don't think so). The last couple of times I have been to a trial or just hanging about at training waiting our turn & my girl starts to carry on like a Tassie Devil, I have just straddled her, holding her gently but firmly between my legs & holding the back of her collar (just gently). A couple of times she has made an attempt to back out, but quickly settles again when she realises I "have her". It really seems to have calmed her down & when its her turn to line up, she goes like a rocket. Just wondering, if holding the dog this way may be similar to having a thunder shirt on. It's only early days yet, & I will test it out this weekend at a two day trial.

Yep, have a 10kg bag and it has lasted a loooong time even with giving to chooks etc as well as dogs. Can't remember what I paid for it! :laugh: at Vehs. Well they are French - and fashion is everything :laugh: Interesting...what did it do for the chooks & how did you feed it to them ??...sorry a little off topic :D

Yep.....good old Livamol...2kg for $29.00 :laugh:

I just ordered two Skudos from Amazon for a total of $39 AUD including postage. Will be interested to see if they work in conjunction with their normal tick treatment. The fact that they actually repel the ticks is what I am looking for.....it does it by way of ultrasonics.

Does anybody know where you can buy the Skudo tick repeller ETA It is now called the Mitey Tick Off & I have found it on-line, but it is not cheap at $69.

Excellent comments Sheena - my breeder who is extremely knowledgable and well respected in Aus. sent me an email the other day re; the current diet of the pups... she basically said everything you have just said - "why remove grain, a staple food of the world unless the dog is allergic?" - she adds some rice to their meals occasionaly and has been feeding the pups raw chicken wings, necks, frames, brisket bones, lamp flaps, veg mix and advance or bonnie puppy dry food occassionaly. She said (and I def agree) that they should be exposed to all these different foods - eliminates picky eating later on. She will occassionaly cook up chicken or lamb mince with veg/rice too but only sometimes. She also believes in not having a strict routine but a 'round about' time for feeding (most people would agree on that) and to increase/decrease food depending on look of dog or activities eg: hunting or the season. She has told me to 'relax' and not worry too much as long as it is balanced. Sheena - may I ask what food your dogs are on that you have mentioned in that comment - sounds great! :) I have sent you a PM

Grains are only "bad" for your dog if it has an allergy to a particular type. MOST dogs do not have allergies to grains & may benefit from having them in their diet. "Grain Free" has become a buzz word like other buzz words used in marketing & it seems it has become fashionable to seek out the most "grain free" food available. If you look at the ingredient list of most of these "grain free" foods, you will see that they still use the oil extracted from grains, which is the most potent part of the grain. Personally, I feel that a young pup should be exposed to all these things in moderation while it is still young to help it build up resistance. The best food for your pup is the food IT does best on. Before I found the food I currently feed my dogs, which is 100% Australian, free of preservatives & free of corn, wheat & soy (which seem to be the biggest "nasties")& is a premium food at a reasonable price....I raised my dogs on Bonnie & a daily meaty bone. So unless you have a particular health reason for it, don't get too carried away & stressed over trying to find the best "grain free" food. That's just my opinion.

I havn't used that one, but Livamol is excellent for brown/chocolate type dogs & is quite cheap @ $29 for two kilos. For a 20 kilo dog, you sprinkle 1 tablespoon on their food once a day & they don't mind the taste.

LOL. Hope you are right, Willow. If you watched the video, it is quite clear what the mother said about the dogs...but in hindsight, she probably wishes she hadn't said it. If it were my kid & he's done it before, I would have a childproof fence & gate, similar to a swimming pool.

Thanks for that. I did some Googling myself & came up with nothing. Thanks Again

Maybe someone from BioShine, Smiley Dog Products who advertise on DOL, might read this. :) I would like to get in contact with them preferably by email & can't find reference to a contact any where on their website.

Can a food really be labeled "grain free" if it contains canola & linseed oils Both canola & linseed are a grain/seed & the oil would be the most potent part of the grain,& all vegetable oils come from grains, so therefore if you had a dog that was allergic to grains, then the oil from grains would surely have to be taken into account. This is a genuine question , I am not just throwing a red herring about this particular food, but just foods labeled "grain free" in general.

Personally, I would rather sit down to a good old bowl of rolled oats than a massive big plate of mashed potato :)

A lot of unnecessary fillers ie...potato, pumpkin, beet pulp, tapioca starch plus salt is high up on the list @ 1.2% of the total ingredients.

This is different to a dog being distracted by sight, smell, movement etc. when I said I've never seen it, I meant I've never seen a dog fixate (through eye) on an obstacle during a sequence to the point it can't move, although I have seen dogs...including mine, fixate on the wrong obstacle...but they are moving towards it, not stuck on it. I think the agility thing is different from sticky eye on stock. To me the agility thing is more that there is massive value for certain obstacles. Poppy was nuts about contacts and will still, years after doing agility, run and stand on something that looks like a contact. She still offers a nose touches. And agility wasn't a high value thing for her at all so I can imagine what a dog would be like if it did have high value for agility. It might all be part of the 'over achiever' syndrome though :laugh: I've never seen a dog get "stuck" badly on an agility obstacle, but Leslie McDevitt in her article on Sticky Dogs refers to this. What I found interesting, was the fact that the dog has switched to a different part of it's brain & cannot hear you. She says that sticky dogs can never be cured, but you can train the dog to control it...the best way (she says) is through shaping with a clicker. Vickie, the dog does not have to be stationary to be stuck on an obstacle, just fixated on it to the extent that he takes completely no notice of you calling etc. My dog gets "stuck" when stationary, but is at her worse when running around in circles, with a leaf in her mouth, eye fixed on whatever it is she is circling. If I let her do it for too long, she starts to dehydrate & also forgets to breath properly.

Really pleased with my girl, Bindi, at the ADAA Grand Prix today. Out of 5 runs, she scored 3 "Q"s, the last one being in Jumplers which she did in 22 seconds minus 10 bonus points for me staying within the exclusion zone, so 12 seconds in all. Not bad for a motion reactive dog which 12 months ago I had trouble keeping her in the ring We lost the other 2 runs purely because of bad handling on my part.

When Bindi does the "leaf" thing, she is in a trance even though she is on the move, usually going round & round in circles. She also has to have a leaf when swimming. I always have to check, she has nothing in her mouth before we do a run at agility, otherwise she is just off in her own little world. Her strong eye/stare is forever getting her into trouble as she goes into a trance when she sees a SWF & SWF's don't like being stared at.