sheena

AA...thankyou for going to the trouble with your post...I appreciate that you have taken the time to contribute to my initial question. Thankyou, too, Erny for your detailed posts ....I havn't tried it in my coffee yet, but a few people have suggested it goes well in smoothies & it certainly makes good scones. My dogs love it & as I said earlier, their coats are already showing an improvement. AA...I read with interest the case storey where the person claims that using coconut oil seemed to help with the ticks. I note that she said that they were giving it to their dog with a raw egg everyday. I would be more inclined to think it was the daily raw egg, which is very high in sulphur, which was deterring the ticks rather than the oil. Having said that, though, if the dog has a healthier & oilier coat,because of the coconut oil, then any spot-on tick prevention is naturally going to work more efficiently. I give my dogs sulphur everyday in their food & I havn't seen a tick on them in ages. They are on a spot-on, but as I pointed out in an earlier post, this alone has not been enough to repel the ticks in the past which we get in plague proportions. There will always be sceptics to no matter what natural remedies you care to try, but I prefer to leave an open mind when it comes to natural remedies...after all,I have wasted so much money on vet prescribed products which don't work (for my dogs). I choose to feed my dogs a holistic dog food, plus raw & it works for them, so adding a bit of coconut oil to their diets is only going to benefit them. I think the modern human diet could do with a little bit more fat (oil)...we need a certain amount of fat to be able to digest/absorb the vitamins & minerals in the food we eat & all this low-fat fad will one day turn around & bite us, just like the statistics on the huge proportion of people who are lacking Vit D, cause they have gone overboard with the slip, slop, slap. I picked up a 750g bottle of organic cold pressed oil yesterday for just $19....$28 in another shop, so it pays to shop around ETA...Jules & AA, you have posted while I took so long to write my reply. Jules, I agree that all natural remedies should be given the same respect as chemical ones...a little may be good, but a lot is not necessarily better. And AA, I too would be very interested in MEH giving us a bit more detail about her/his experience with coconut oil...brand, type, quantities, duration, why she tried it in the first place..etc etc...I think MEH could expand a bit on her own personal experience, afterall, the others are giving us details of their own personal experiences, which is what I asked for in the first post.

Picked up my final parcel today. Both pairs of shoes fit perfectly & I got my udder tug...havn't shown it to the dogs yet.

Have you approached your local Credit Union

I can already notice a BIG improvement in my dogs' coats & no sloppy poos. They are now on a tablespoon each with their Black Hawk kibble at night. I didn't expect to see a change so soon. Personally... I have given up trying to eat the stuff & I tried it in my tea, but just couldn't come at it I made scones with it yesterday, substituting it for the butter & they were the best scones ever I have been using it instead of moisturizer & have come out in pimples (@ the age of 60), but that may have been because of all the Christmas choccies I have consumed

Hard to tell from the photo, but my BC girl had these on her nose Vet wrongly diagnosed it & the stuff he gave me didn't do any good....someone on DOL suggested it might be Diggers Nose caused by a fungus from the soil. I went with that & cleared it up with Filtabac

Thanks everyone for the comments re: coconut oil. Interesting Erny, that you use it in your coffee...is that in place of milk?? The dogs love it & will eat it straight off the spoon & so far, no runny poos. I have been using it in place of moisturiser & it's good, but I will have to get used to the smell of coconuts. As far as eating 4 tablespoons a day....well....I think I will give that one a miss, but I might try some in my coffee & start using it in my cooking. Wonder how it goes for using it in a wok for stirfries etc. I found this interesting site, which needs to be read with an open mind 80 Uses for Coconut Oil

Next time I will get a bigger jar. Just the thought of consuming 4 tablespoons a day would be enough to put me off my food

A good solid stay, with a fast drive once released....hand touches & targeting...working on both your left side & your right & not crossing behind you....focus...back end awareness...being comfortable on wobbly surfaces.....how to play with a tug toy...reliable recall. I am sure there are lots of things I have left out, but clicker training is an invaluable tool IMO & using the clicker to shape most of the above as well as as many tricks as you can. This creates focus on you & a willingness to please you. With my older BC, I only have to produce the clicker & she is like putty in my hands An excellent puppy book to get is The Focused Puppy & start by teaching everything in there.

Very interesting websites. Where do you buy it and how much to do you give a Newfie? I just bought mine from the health food shop. It was around $12 for a 380g jar. I am working up to giving my BC's 1 tablespoon a day but would like someone to confirm that as not being excessive. I ate a spoonful myself before breakfast & found it a bit sickly, but I think that was more the thought of eating a spoonful of oil, rather than the coconutty flavour. If I want to use it, personally, to help me lose weight, I have to build it up to 4 tablespoons a day....Hmmmmmm...not sure if I could consume that much :D

I bought a bottle of organic coconut oil yesterday & have been googling some of it's benefits. I thought I might add a bit to my dogs' diets to try & help counteract the effects that swimming in our pool is having on their coats. I was just reading about rubbing it into your horse's tail as a conditioner. Has anybody here used it directly onto the dog's coat & does it leave it greasy?? I thought I should add about 1 tablespoon to their diet (building up gradually to avoid sloppy poos). Does this sound about right for 20 kilo BC's?? I would be interested to know what other benefits DOL's have found for Coconut Oil. When I was a teenager, (45 - 50 yrs ago) we used to rub it into our skin before sunbaking (gave a lovely tan) & from what I have just read, maybe it was, after all, beneficial & is safer than sunscreen

Do you do any dog sports/competition

Last time I took my 10 month old Choc Tri Border Collie dog & Choc Border Collie dog for a walk in public, a lady ran up to me & said Ohhhhhhh....how lovely...are you going to breed....my husband would love a long haired Kelpie. I was very polite & told her they were not long haired kelpies & that I didn't agree with BYB'ers & went on to explain the merits of ethical breeding. I don't think she understood...like the majority of Mr & Mrs Public

Yes, I know the good rescues do a fine job, it's just me in the sense why I wouldn't adopt the classic cross breed from a rescue because I don't support the BYB system of random cross breedings, I guess I protest my dislike of this breeding system buy not owning one? I see rescue as a bit of a two edged sword, they are giving dogs a chance at life is what dog lovers do, but at the same token they are the BYB's greatest advocate to breed another litter. It's not like hey guys, were over run with BYB's looking for homes, tone the breeding down for a bit, the BYB say's look at all our marketing organisations how good is this, we will pump out a few more litters in that case?. Agree Mace!!

And I bought a roll of hession webbing, 2 inch wide from Bunnings ($10) & I'm going to put an eyelet every 60cm to poke the weave poles in...save measuring each time

At last it came...my second order. 12 stick in the ground weave poles, set of jump caps, walkie belt & Sensible front attaching harness for Bindi. I already have one for Cricket, & they are great. I solved the problem with the jump caps being too big for the poles. I lined the caps with the thickest side of stick-on velcro then stuck a tiny piece of the other on a spot on the pole, where I calculated the cap would come to rest for 500 height. If I wanted to I could put more spots on for different heights. Works well & looks neat Just waiting on my 3rd & final order now. ;)

Yeah... I have the tracking numbers but one says it is in Australia somewhere & the other number hasn't been updated since the 14th when it left America Oh well...just have to drag out another old milk bottle or wrap him up a bit of 4 b 2...he'll be happy with that. And Bindi...she'll be happy with a kiss & a cuddle ;)

I am still waiting on my two parcels which I ordered 3 weeks ago But in the meantime, my two want to know what all the fuss is about....they have plenty of toys They are just waiting for me to go away, so they can scatter them again...after all, they are piled on top of their favourite mud-wrestling patch I used to have one hose, now I have three, thanks to my clever puppy.

Hmmmmm...if you couldn't train the other dog not to jump up, then there is no way you would be able to train a MS either....it's not the dog that's at fault, but the trainer. It's something you have to work on consistantly from the time you get your dog. I'm not a fan of MS's ...all the ones I have met have been snappy. but I would suggest you learn how to train a dog, get books, DVD's anything it takes to learn the best way. Dogs arn't born knowing not to jump up along with other things that are socially unacceptable. You can't just keep getting dogs & passing them on when they don't work out, then get another etc. etc. You might find learning a lot more about training...you might enjoy it.....it's can be challenging, but it's not impossible.

Purebred with papers or just looked like a particular breed? Whilst it may look like a purebred dog without papers you have no idea, not to mention the rest of the litter could look the complete opposite. No, no papers, that's why I said we were going by what they looked like. To be honest pounds will rarely if ever know if a dog is actually purebred as they would never get to see papers, only what's on the chip, if the chip says it's pure, who are they to disagree? That's what makes me a bit sad...dogs that "real & papered" purebreds are lumped in with the ones that "appear" purebred & that is why a lot of people say "I would never get a purebred, because they are this or that....."

I would love to be able talk further about this .......but just quickly from my own experience manning the phone for our rescue and dealing with the pounds and surrenders ......the staffy/bull breed crosses would be no 1 type dog found in the council pounds . Out of the 9 purebred dogs that we have available for adoption atm 5 are from registered breeders . Three were surrendered by their owners directly and two came in via the vets where they had been taken in for euthanasia.Three of the other four came from pounds so we don't know where they originated from. Just curious to know, do these 5 come with papers to prove they are registered & if so, is any effort made to contact the breeder whose name is on the papers & also what breeds are they????? sorry for all the questions, but I can't get my head around people calling dogs "purebred" unless they can see the actual ANKC registration papers of the dogs I think it is mainly due to people calling dogs "purebred" that give the genuine purebreds a bad name. To me a dog is not "purebred" unless it is registered with the State body of the ANKC & if it is not registered then it should not be called "purebred" unless maybe it has been genetically tested, which I very much doubt.

IMO it's BYB & Puppy farms that fill the rescue centres. With any reputable breeder, you sign a contract agreeing to give the breeder first option to take your dog back if things don't work out. Any reputable breeder does not want to ever see her pups end up dumped. By slapping the face of good ethical breeders & critisizing those who choose to buy from them instead of getting a rescue, is not doing anything to stop the problem. Instead, they should be venting their anger on those who choose to mass produce puppies for the money & those who let their entire males "have fun" & those who don't have their bitches desexed because they want the kids to see puppies being born, or because they think they can make a quick quid by having BY litters from Limited Register bitches & have little thought if any, of the health & genetic testing that goes into producing good pups that people will want to share the rest of their lives with. Both my dogs are registered purebreds, (desexed) & when I got my last boy, there were some people at our club that are so "into" rescue that they can't even bring themselves to pat him or give him a compliment. It used to worry me, but now I recognise that it is them that has the attitude problem not me. I am often give their rescue dogs compliments & lots of pats etc but it is never returned. Knowing what I know now, I would never again get a puppy from anyone but a reputable breeder, but I am sure that most rescue people are not like the ones I know & they do a great job. It's just my experience with the ones that I know & hope that they are a small majority. Good on somebody for being brave enough to take on a rescue of unknown parentage, but don't rubbish & snob those who decide to choose wisely in the first place, so that their dog does not become one

Going by the last couple of pages of this thread, it looks like the sniffer dogs from AQUIS are going to have a great Christmas Party

Great question I just had a lightbulb moment :-) I now know what I will do when I go back to work, just need to get a large baby play pen then my guy can be inside safe, much bigger area than what I was thinking I think.. If you are going to use a baby play pen, be careful that the puppy can't get his head stuck in the bars. You can get wire compost panels from Bunnings which make a safer play pen,

Must be muscle ;)

Basically, the crate becomes the dog's den....a space all of his own where he can feel safe & relaxed. My older BC who is now 4YO was only introduced to a crate about 2 yrs ago, when I started doing agility trials with her & now it's just left open at night & she goes in there to sleep. Our 9 mo BC puppy, has had a crate all his life & it was the most valuable tool for house training him. He mainly used it at night as he preferred to be outside during the day. Now he likes to sleep on the verandah curled up in his kennel, but we still use the crate if we are staying somewhere or camping etc. The older girl has a good quality cloth crate & the puppy has a wire crate with a custom made canvas cover with flyscreen windows. We also put puppy in the crate in the back of the 4WD, cause if we didn't he would have the interior chewed to bits. We would be lost without our crates & so would the dogs