Starkehre

Mpup, well done on your research and efforts. I am going to make a couple of suggestions. Some of these are additional to what you have and I think they are integral parts of raising a pup and others are opposing ideas on some suggestions you have or have been given by others. This is no way intended to be arguementative or to confuse you for the sake of it, but unfortunately, as with everything in life, you are going to come across different ideas. When this happens you should take them all in and decide what is going to work best for you personally. Where my ideas are different to yours or others, I will provide an explanation why I do things this particular way in efforts to assist your decision making. Congratulations on choosing your breed. Sibes are a lovely dog. Please remember Sibes can be a very vocal breed. A couple of days prior to your new pup arriving, I suggest you pop around to any and all adjoining neighbours and take them a bottle of wine or a tin of bickies or similar and some ear plugs. Might a light joke of it and tell them you have a new puppy arriving on **enter date** and it may cry during the day/night. Apologise upfront, and explain you will be putting in a lot of effort in training your new pup, but some crying may be unavoidable. It should not last more than around 5 nights (if you put in the work) and there is a chance they won't hear it anyway. Add that you will bring the new pup in to meet them for a cuddle in a couple of weeks when things settle down. The reason to do this is when your pup does cry at night and this may occur several times each night, particularly when being put back in the crate, many owners give in with their crating because they are concerned about disturbing the neighbours. If you remove this concern, you will be more likely to stock to your regime. And likewise with your own family. Be prepared that you may be up for some sleep deprivation, all normal. From day one it is important to start teaching pup to be comfortable and confident in it's own company. Absolutely love, cuddle, train and play with your pup. But remember that for every hour of awake time that you spend with your pup, try to do at least the same amount of time with it being ignored, sometimes with you pottering nearby and other times completely out of sight. You can build it up, but definitely start straight away. If you leave this until day 3 or day 5 or later or if/when you have to go back to work, you and your neighbours will be in for a real shock. Although I understand fully the reason you might be advised to praise a pup as soon as it starts toileting regarding praise/behaviour, because in pretty much all aspects of training praise is very much about timing, this is one area where I choose to praise the dog after it has completed emptying. To date I have never noticed this confusing any of my dogs or ruining their learning process or other aspects of training. The reason I do this is because I have regularly found that if you praise the pup or dog whilst it is eliminating it will often stop straight away prior to finishing and come to you to be rewarded/praised. (There was actually a thread on this very thing not long ago) And no, I would not remove the praise instead. I would always praise the pup for eliminating on command or when being expected to, at night just make the praise shorter and lower key so pup can go back to sleep without feeling it needs to be played with. I suggest lifting pup out of the crate and carrying it outside for emptying, more so during the night, but initially during the day also. The reason for this is that pup will not be leash trained for a while and accidents can easily happen before getting outside. You can clip on a leash for use outside if you wish. I prefer to teach on and off leash emptying for when I am in a situation or scenario where either is required. it is frustrating to have a dog that will only eliminate off leash. I do not agree with demand emptying pups during the night. Many do and I can understand that. The reason I do not demand empty is that many pups (and I probably shouldn't say this, but bugger it, I will go out on a limb and just say it, probably most pups) particularly vocal and energised pups will very quickly learn that as soon as they make a noise you will come to them and let them out of their crate. Undoing a learned behaviour that is undesirable to you is much more difficult than teaching a behaviour that is easier to live with. Another reason I prefer this method is that like small children, puppies often won't demand they are let out until it is too late or nearly too late to the point where you will be unable to get them out in time. I personally always set my alarm during the night, similary to your original post. Slowly stretch out the sleeping time, until eventually the sleeping times join up. Yes, it is more work this way, but in the long run it pays off. And judging by your planned regime you are not afraid of a lot of work... either that or you are not aware of how much work it is going to be :laugh: I find puppies are sleeping right through from say 10.30 til 5.30am by between week 2 - week 4. I will also add that if you are not now an early riser, it might pay to be aware that with a new puppy, 5.30am may be your new morning time for a couple of weeks. You can fight it if you want and insist puppy goes back to bed, but I find this is the best time for training. After they have been trained, played, been emptied and had brekky (not necessarily in that order) they will be ready for another nap, probably around 8-10am. If you can, always set yourself and your puppy up for "a win". It is far easier on you and better for pup's learning if he can be moulded into doing the right things. There will be mistakes, we are only human. Dogs have an innate need to please humans, so remember whenever puppy exhibits an undesired behaviour it is generally always human error, and puppy is not being naughty, puppy is just being a puppy that has not been taught to do things as you would like him to do yet. Please let us know when you find your breeder, new pup is imminent and arrives. We would love to see photos. :)

Dr, I am so sorry to hear of Bison's final day. You were so lucky to have one another. My thoughts are with you at this difficult time. Take car DR. Run free Bison.

Hope Emma's tummy upset settles soon SC, and it is just a transient thing, nothing more sinister. Please let us know how she goes. She could take anything from already being fine to a couple of days if it is just a tummy bug. My guess is it will settle fairly quickly. Just play it by ear. Stomach ulcers owing to meds can cause this sort of thing, but I would expect she might also be feeling nausea, therefore would not eat, and you didn't mention that. That is the only thing I could think of that would mean it was the meds and could happen after a while. But I am sure if the vet thought it was an ulcer he would have said so. All the best SC. Feel better Emma.

On OZ Show last night, the clubs Secretary Rod Bennets, said that all groups will be judged inside on Saturday. They will wait and see what the weather will be for Sunday and will let people know Saturday night and they will put it on OZ Show on Saturday arvo/evening too. Thank you.

Have they confirmed yet whether or not it is going to be indoors or out. I spoke to the show sec a few days ago and at that stage it was yet to be confirmed, but looking like inside for all. I know that wherever it is on Sat, it will be the same on Sunday. Does anyone have an update please?

So does the bed actually feel wet to the touch? Also, is it fairly firm when the dog walks or lies on it? Do you have a price list Dyzney? Thanks!! When you soak the Pad, unless you hang it on the line for a while to allow the outer fabric to dry it will feel quite wet. If you do allow the fabric to dry it will feel relatively dry, however because the produced cooling effect is caused by evaporation, as this evaporative action takes place, the moisture in the polymers is rising up from the product, so there will usually be a slight damp feel to it whilst activated. You won't actually get a wet hand from touching it, but it may feel cool n sort of clammy, but only when a body is on the product, blocking some of the evaporation. It will feel dry if left alone. Some dogs do not enjoy this feeling as it is foreighn to them, others don't mind it at all. If a dog does not like the feeling of the possible dampness then a dry towel can be used on top. The activated polmers become gel like to the feel, providing a therapeutic property. depending on the amount of soaking/activation the gel may be harder or softer. Once again some dogs find this feeling a little different so require training or an adjustment period to become accustomed to it. other dogs take straight to the Pads with no issues. Out of our 4 dogs, two enjoy using the pads and do so of their own free will moving on and off them to control and cool their core body temperature as they should. One dog won't go on them unless I tell her to and even then she is not overly comfortable with it. That said I do not persist with her as she is not a hot dog and does not require other methods of cooling. Most dogs generally know best regarding their cooling needs and I definitely trust her on this. And the 4th dog is also not hot dog but will happily use a Pad if I direct her to it, she is a pup and at this stage has had no need to use one anyway. In my experience, I find most dogs that do not use Polar Pads have either not had enough training and time to be able to get used to the product or they simply do not require the cooling that the owner thinks they do. Of course as with anything, there will always be the odd exception. www.k9softdogcrates.com.au

Hi WHM, we distribute Polar Pads, which are the crystal polymer style cooling beds. A Polar Pad used in the conditions you describe will need resoaking approx every 2-6 days depending on temperature, wind, useage, size, water quality and amount of original activation/soaking. In a scenario such as this we would suggest to the customer to try a small top up soaking every couple 2-3 days to keep the Pad at an ideal or average activation point. More for convenience and routine sake than anything else. That said, the Pad produces as much of a cooling affect when it is first activated until it is relatively close to being dehydrated. It does not need to be rock hard and fully soaked to be working optimally.

+1 :)

... and this one in pencil. He took the photo of Dyzney watching sheep whilst waiting to go in a herding trial. David added the herding scene in this pencil which was done from another photo he took of her on that day. David is an amazing artist, His work is just stunning. I plan to have more done soon.

.... and Dyzney

Lovely portrait on Enya, allerzeit. I too can vouch for David's work. He does photography as well as painting and art work in different forum (correct word??). He has done quite a bit of photography for us and also these paintings from his own photos. Jag

Thank you TnS will check it out.

We go away to Country Wide Cottages with our dogs. Otherwise all our trips are showing or trialling anyway, so the dogs come or we split us and them, some come, some stay. We went away together on our honeymoon 6 years ago, just a 5 day trip to Tassie. Had a good friend come and stay. Never again. Though she is a wonderful dear friend, she just did the opposite of what we asked because she has different ideas on dog husbandry. Came home to spoilt, fat dogs, pee on carpet, scratches on walls and found out things were done differently to how we asked. We didn't say anything as nothing was that bad, but bad enough to never ask her again. We went away one other time 7 years ago for a week. Split the dogs - two in a kennel and two went to breeder. The kennel disappointed us and so did the breeder. Every time my OH mentions a holiday, I just say NO. I can't bear the thought of it... does my head in just contemplating dealing with someone else not doing what they are asked to do.

Some raw hide chews are bleached (the really white ones). She may have been reacting to the bleach?? Perhaps try to stick to unprocessed treats only. Hope Lucy is much better now.

Hi all, I did look into this ages ago and can't seem to find links now... does anyone know where I can purchase the silver mesh fabric (the nice loose weave stuff) by the metre please? any help is greatly appreciated. :)

What the heck, just added to my order... a couple of harnesses, now over 4hunge. Gotta be mad :laugh:

Ouch! Just spent over 3hunge. Oh well, must be time to spoil ourselves and the dogs again. got a wide variety of toys, some books and a couple of coats. The coats really add up quick. Just as long as they fit well, I won't mind :) Coats can be a bit dicey with fittings. Dammit, I forgot I was goin to order one of those heavy duty harnesses. Oh well, might do it on the next free shipping special. I still say dogs are cheaper to keep than horses, so can't complain :D

I suggest you start contacting breeders now and not necessarily breeders with litters. In fact I can see many benefits in deliberately targeting breeders without litters. This will give you and them time to get a feel for one another and also afford you more time to learn as much as you can about your breed of choice. Perhaps they may be planning a litter later this year or early to mid next year. IMO you need more time to get the feel of a breeder and them for you, building a raport, learn more about the breed and mentally and physically prepare yourself. Though it is definitely very important to plan the arrival of your pup around ensuring you can take time off to settle the pup in and getting a puppy is always so exciting that we tend to not want to wait, for me the searching should be more focused on finding and securing the right breeder and line you will be happy with and then waiting for it. You will be surprised how much more about the breed and buying a puppy you will learn when you start talking to breeders. Good things are worth waiting for. Best wishes with your search.

Yeh, absolutely. We always learn a lot about things when we are faced with them, well done. And it is wonderful to be well informed and aware, knowledge is a great thing as long as we don't allow it to twist us in knots and become manic about it (which is unhealthy)... and I am not suggesting that anyone here is doing that... just something I often wonder about.

Unless you grow and then kill your own meat and grow your own veggies (if you feed them veggies), you don't actually know what they're ingesting. +1

I am not suggesting the ingredience of Hills is good or bad (not in this post anyway ) but what always surprises me is how some people choose to get all up in arms over some things and yet other things like say storing dry food in tubs that are not "human grade" plastic or feeding nylabones etc (that are also intended to be digested and are made of plastic) and feeding processed treats that are full of salt and other nasties are OK How many of us gladly accept samples of food for our pets without checking to see if they are in human grade plastic bags? With the longevity in humans as it exists we are more likely to see negative results from years of eating processed foods and other nasty environmental impacts than we are to see in dogs that have a far shorter life expectance, yet how many of can honestly say we only eat raw foods and are super vigilant at all the other nasties we ingest. I too am as careful, yet realistic as I can be about what we feed and medicate our dogs with, way more so than myself, but sometimes you really have to wonder about it all. :D Personally, for me it should be all about balance and sensibility. :) And no, I do not feed Hills.

He is 1 year old . Edited, I thought I read somewhere that Gus was 12 months old, now I can't find it, so maybe I was imagining things Edited, checked back, Gus is now approx 14 months old. I hope Gus has not been exercising and moving around in this fashion for more than a couple of months. This all really concerns me a bit. I would expect a radical change of environment is called for here and pretty quickly. Controlled exercise, any excess weight stripped right off and keep away from added calcium such as commercial puppy formula foods (wet or dry), milk, cheese and even yoghurt for a while. I agree with using vitamin C, but not ridiculous amounts. Definitely have an open and honest talk with his breeder. If you do not get much help there, my suggestion would be to take Gus along to a reputable Myo or Bowen therapist. If they are good, they should know what is going on and may be able to assist to some degree. Ask their opinion on also going to see a ortho specialist. Gus' issues are almost definitely environmental/diet related. Good luck getting it under control. I most certainly would not be waiting another few months to see if this gets better on it's own. The joints are unlikely to improve with this amount and style of exercise and he has an issue with his back.

Has Gus been doing similar amounts and styles of exercise and has he been negotiating stairs frequently in this fashion for long?

I have had to use Pete Laverty from Melbourne Vet Referral Centre in Glenwaverley a couple of times for specialist surgery. His knowledge and expertise are second to none and his client skills and communication are excellent also. Brilliant!!

Hi SC. It is wonderful to hear Emma is travelling so well. Great she hasn't needed pain killers for a while now. What you are doing sounds awesome, even the maccas ice cream. Whatever makes her happy is exactly what the doctor ordered. And I just love the photos. Hopefully you can retrieve the lost ones from your phone somehow, but if you can't, I am sure they are etched there in your mind. You know, all that wondering you are doing about Emma, now she is where she is at is all perfectly normal and expected. This phase you and Emma are going through is more about time being provided for you to adjust than anything else, and your thoughts are exactly that... you adjusting. These things take time. You are now able to deal with these thoughts in a different way than earlier in Emma's diagnosis. Emma is fine, she is dealing with her different life, don't worry about her, she is coping and it doesn't sound like it is quite her time just yet. I am sure she is happy. And I am relieved to hear that you are coping also. Not that any of this is easy for you, I can barely imagine what you are going through and how brave you have had to be, but you are gradually preparing yourself to be ready to let go when the time eventually comes. I hope you come up with lots of different and bizarre things to balance on Emma's nose for photos. I look forward to seeing some of them.