sheena

Not sure about that, but I think they would be the same. The Elk horns may be bigger & more suitable to big dogs. Do we have Elks in Australia

2nd and 3rd April Thanks...I just had a crazy thought. I havn't been to the Royal for at least 25 years & thinking its probably about time for a visit. Only to watch though :)

We have housesitters that we found on Aussiehousesitters.com. Look them up on the web & put an add in ...it's free. We are so happy with ours, & they are so happy with looking after our dogs & house, garden, chooks etc that they come back each time. You do have to give plenty of notice to get the right ones though as they are popular. We get retired couples, non smokers & ask for references, photos etc...anything you like.

Cricket tonight under the lounge enjoying his new giant Deer's Antler :)

Anyone know what day the agility might be on at the Sydney Royal this year

I think they started the trials back before 2009, & out of that came the Comfortis.

'Sounds like he is trying to sell you a very expensive food. Dogs' stomachs are designed to eat raw meat & they are a lot more tolerant of things like salmonella than we are. How often do you see a dog bury a bone then go back days or weeks later & dig it up & eat it. When a fox kills your chooks, more than he can eat in one go, he will take the rest away & bury them for later. But I am not a vet, so that's just my thoughts :) ETA some kibbles are very rich & need to be introduced slowly. It may be that your dog cannot handle a main ingredient in the kibble like lamb or salmon.

I thought the breakthrough of a once a month pill for paralysis tick, may have got a little more interest & comment from DOL's, or is it just a handful like myself that lives with the problem of ticks

Cold pressed organic coconut oil (from the health food shops) is also excellent for skin conditions. Not sure how much you would use for a little dog, but for a 20 kilo dog it is about 1 tablespoon per day. You can usually see an improvement within a couple of weeks. But make sure it's the genuine stuff :)

I gather the vets have ruled out fleas & grass ticks. The grass ticks are really bad at the moment after fll the rain & some of them are so tiny you can hardly see them.

Will do....I promise I will save them up for you. Send me a PM so I have a record of you, otherwise you will get lost. :) Awesome, will PM you. Thanks! S I will save them up for you along with the other things they win, like pigs ears. I have put my order in for the free ones for you to use. :)

What an excellent little video When we got our first BC & had no idea what we were doing, LOL, we taught her to weave using wings on the poles so she had to go through the weaves, then we removed the wings a few at a time leaving the first & last one to teach the correct entries. This worked well for her & she picked it up really quickly. Our second dog, we taught the 2 X 2 method. However, we wanted more speed in our first girl, so we retrained using the channel method, but because they already knew how to weave, we started off with the channels only about 6 inches apart. Now if we are going to do a lot of weaves, we will move the poles slightly apart & it is a lot less stress on their bodies & they learn to "one step" the weaves with their heads down (which is good). If we had our time again, I think we would choose the channel method. Slower than 2 x 2, but kinder on their bodies. By the way, you space the poles 60cm apart. Have fun :)

Will do....I promise I will save them up for you. Send me a PM so I have a record of you, otherwise you will get lost. :)

I don't feed Schmackos to my dogs. Too much salt, preservatives & artificial flavours for my liking. A couple of times they have won them at trials, but given the choice they would rather have a home made treat, just a bit of Black Hawk kibble, or a piece of dried beef liver, over a piece of Schmackos, so the Schmackos go straight in the bin. I agree with the others...dishonesty doesn't go down well with me

You can get excellent control of forward movement with a front attached harness. I use one on my 23 kilo BC boy & he is like putty in my hands & so much kinder on him than a head halter or a flat collar pulling on his throat. I must add, though, that after months of walking with a FA Harness, he now walks lovely on a loose lead (most of the time)

My dogs swim every day as part of their daily routine, so that's why a pill would be so useful to me. Every fortnight after I apply the Advantix, they can't go in the water for 2 days & it is very sad faces at the pool gate for two days With this new pill (if it ever happens) I guess it will be similiar to Proban, in as such, it doesn't actually repel the ticks, just kills them. So I will have to keep putting on the Advantix anyway to actually stop the nasties from getting on...not that it is very affective either...but maybe will only have to apply it once a month. Not sure how they can claim that the new pill will prevent Lymes (sp?) disease, if the tick still gets on them & bites before it dies.

Aparantly they are still working on it 2013 Research Article

Just came across this article which is a little old "2009" where they were working on a Once a Month Pill for both fleas & TICKS. Last time I was at the vets, the vet nurse said that a new pill to take the place of Proban was in the pipeline. It can't come soon enough...I have just opened my last bottle of Proban. I put Advantix on them last night (tuesday) & was wondering if anyone knows if I can re-apply it in five days instead of 14, as I am going away & leaving them with the housesitters.

Ness. I can understand your frustrations & sadness with this.

He's a pup & while he is a pup you will probably have to keep things out of his reach. With my BC boy, I ended up getting him a soft muzzle so I could let him in the house & be fairly confident he wasn't going to chew anything. Same with travelling in the car. He grew out of it at about 19 months of age. Make sure your pup has lots of toys of its own & encourage him to play with these instead.

I had a look on the council web site & it didn't have anything at all about dog restrictions only "dangerous breeds". Have you contacted council in regard to off leash areas ??

Yep, I guess that's about it. And I guess there will probably more than one diet that can achieve that for most dogs. The points I listed are simply triggers for considering how well your dog does on what it is fed now. That just about sums it up

OK...I'll be first up :) To start with I think we should say a bit about our dogs. I have two very active border collies that do agility with training every day & lots of swimming & dock diving (daily) so they are VERY active :) One is 18 kilos & the boy is 22 -23 kilos. (1) He gets a cup, she gets 3/4 cup of their Black Hawk kibble, with a bit of steak or fish or egg yolk at night & in the mornings get a raw meaty bone. I just have to watch that they don't put weight ON. If they have had a lot of training treats that day, then I will cut back the kibble at night. (2) One is 5 & the other 2 & they only go to the vets for checkups & vaccinations & to be weighed. They have absolutely no skin/ear infections or itches & they have beautiful teeth & gums (according to the vet) & their breath does not smell. She has had her anal glands cleaned twice in the last six months. (3) Back end....they have small, firm stools & two a day on average. No smell. The older girl has had to have her anal glands cleaned out twice now. (4) No my dogs don't smell in any department. Even when the girl has blocked anal glands, the smell is hardly noticeable. (5) Our dogs LOVE their food. (6) I will add a sixth one here...supplements...they get a tablespoon of Livamol with their kibble.

Gee I was lucky to get them then :laugh: Must have been after I posted that link that every one rushed them. My X-large ones are in the post, so should get here in a couple of days

We get our sitters from AussieHousesitters.com & have been very please with them. We now have the one couple that come regularly from interstate to housesit & look after our dogs. It costs us nothing & it costs them nothing. We do leave plenty of food in the house for them, but this is not required, it is just something we do. :)