pmiller

I know a lot of people have dog doors and their pups can go as they please. We never installed one, and our Cavvies just seem to know that when we let them outside, that we want them to do a wee. Mind you, they know the routine extremely well by now, and we have always used the command "hurry up" to get them to go. By 10 months, I'm pretty sure our male was able to hang on all night, from say 10pm to 6pm. At two and a bit now, both of them hang on from 7:30am to at least 4 or 5pm while I am at work. I don't know how they do it!!!!!

I love when my two Cavvies go nose to nose with the big dogs! Fantastic photos!

So, just out of curiosity - did you ask about the yearly heartworm injection? Did you go ahead with it while you were there? I didn't get the heartworm done but did ask about it. The vet felt it was absolutely no problem to do both at once, and that in fact they were sort of designed that way. Still undecided about what to do, as Shiraz had both last year and I didn't have any problems. Will do my research!

Well those last two posts got it right! Yeast infection it is and she is going on to some stuff called Dermotic. Hopefully it clears up soon. Thanks for the advice all.

Thanks for the advice Gretel. Will discuss with the vet and probably get hers and Shiraz's proheart done tomorrow then and do the vaccinations on the 1st.

Hi All, My CKCS has a bit of a funny smell coming from one of her ears. I can only describe it as a "sweet" smell that is really strong and quite unpleasant. It has been there for maybe a week or two. Visually, the ear looks ok, no discharge. She did throw up this afternoon, but don't know if that is related. Otherwise, she is behaving normally. Should I take her down to the vet sooner rather than later, as I have her booked in on the 1st for pro-heart and yearly vaccination. Any advice appreciated!

I've got a two bedroom townhouse with a smallish backyard. We got our first Cav and had him for about a year. Then added a second a year later. However, they are virtually indoors 24-7, except for a trip outside to take care of business and a walk (twice a day, about 30 mins in the morning, 20 mins at night). With this amount of exercise, I find they sleep pretty much all day. We've never taken ours to the groomers once, but will give them a scrub once a month, brush every 5 days or so. It was a great decision to get a Cav...haven't regretted it once!

I heard that cats slept a lot. Than I met Cavaliers! My boy and girl probably sleep for 16 hours a day!!!! As a pup (can't speak of Isla as we got her at 14 months) Shiraz did sleep a lot. We found on the hot Melbourne days he slept even more. I'll bet today (Melbourne is going to be 32) they spend pretty much up 'til around 6pm sleeping. Your little guy is gorgeous...fabulous choice in breeds!

Shiraz as a pup loved to pull up grass and chew on it. He grew out of it pretty quickly though. Pretty normal! LuvMyCav - very very cute pics!!!!

Hi guys! My second Cav who we picked up 3 weeks has a few issues with car travel. She is 14 months. When bringing her home from the breeders she threw up in the back seat (about a 45 minute drive). Since then, we've had her in the car a few times, probably at most for a 20 minute trip and she hasn't thrown up, but she does seem to salivate a lot (there is a we spot always under her head). This morning heading out to dog obedience she threw up after only being on the road for two minutes (no food, just seemed to be liquid). Once again, she was salivating a lot, at one point I looked back and it was even sort of dripping. I was told that she was ok with cars (and she doesn't exhibit and signs of being scared of the car whatsoever). She may have been crated though in the past (she was a showdog at one point) but she is just on the back seat in my car, since there is not a lot of room for her crate. So my questions: Why does she salivate so much in the car when she doesn't elsewhere? Any advice on how to get her a bit happier in the car? Thanks!

I spoke to a vet today regarding prices. The 3 year vaccination was $135, plus an anual $68 for kennel cough. The 1 year vaccination was $80, with the second dog done at $65. I would have thought the vaccinations would be a bit closer in price from what others are saying...maybe it is just my vet (which it is a bit pricey, must admit). Will go with the one year option as they are in there for their annual heartworm shot at exactly the same time. Probably save on consult fees. Should be earning a few frequent flier points out of my little guys!

We followed Dunbar's suggestions when our Cav was a pup, although we tweaked them to suit. He's about 13 months now and is a fantastic dog with no real behavioural problems. Shiraz was crated from day 1. He spent a lot of time in there with the door shut in the first two weeks, and even at 11 months, was still sleeping in his crate with the door shut in the laundry. He never loved it, but didn't seem to mind all that much. Dunbar suggesting stuffing kongs with kibble. Sadly, Shiraz just wasn't interested in chewing them and is a dog that isn't really motivated by food all that much. Every night since we got him, he sleeps with a soft toy. He doesn't touch it, but it is just force of habbit that we always give him one. We put a baby gate on the laundry door and kept him in there throughout the day for about 10 months. As of about 1 year, we have let him loose around the house. No problems, he sleeps all day and is toilet trained. He isn't all that interested in going outside. Spends some time out there doing his business and is walked for about 30-40 minutes a day. We put a collar on him from day 1. He got used to it really quickly. His fur is a lot longer now and it is a nightmare to clip and unclip so we just leave it on. Your toilet training plan is pretty much what we did. Persist with it, we still had the odd accident with Shiraz even at 7 months. As I said earlier, our boy just isn't motivated by food all that much and skips meals all over the place. Feeding him through kongs just wasn't an option. We just fed him twice a day and left it down for 15 minutes. If he didn't eat, we just presumed he wasn't hungry! He is 8kg, perfect weight for a Cav and in great shape. I don't think there is any perfect way to raise a pup and they all will be different. We used Dunbar's book for suggestions rather than bible. A lot of the other little difficulties have been solved by posting questions here! Good luck with the pup. It is hard yakka, but loads of fun!

Our 1 year old CKCS doesn't tell us. We just let him out on a regular basis. It would be nice of him to give us a signal though!

I support all the previous posts here. I've got a ruby CKCS and he is fantastic. He just likes relaxing around the house and following us from room to room for most of the day but does love to get out for a walk. He loves people so much and hardly ever barks. Not to say he hasn't been without problems. He's a fussy eater, pulls on walks, sensitive stomach and has had to have knee surgery to fix a luxating patella! I've recieved so much advice from this forum and found it such a great resource! We crate trained him, but it did take quite some time to get him toilet trained (maybe 6 months). During the day whilst at work and for sleeping at night we kept him inside the laundry and he seemed quite happy with his 3 or so square metres of floor space. Just recently, since he turned 1 we have allowed to access to most of the house during the day and night. From previous posts, I've noted that Cavies can be fussy eaters, so establish a feeding system whereby you only give him 15 minutes to eat a meal and then you remove it. Good luck and enjoy your ruby (the best colour in my opinion obviously!!!!).

Hi All, Our CKCS is almost a year old. He's just had an operation on his patella to stop it luxating. Under vet orders, we've had him confined for 4 weeks. He's only just been out for about a week. We've taken this opportunity to do a few things also. Since he's gone back to walking only 5 mins each day, we've put him back on a gentle leader (which he hated). With much coaxing, this seems to be working. We've also switched him from a diet of Hills puppy (60g morning, 80g at night) and a little pinch of microwaved human grade chicken mince. He'd eat two meals most days, though brekkie was a bit hit and miss. We've put him on Royal Canin for Cavaliers and using just the dry food, no mince. We've been slowly switching him over and it has agreed with him well. For the first 4 or so days he went for it twice a day. Strangely, for the last 5 or so, he's only eaten once a day at 6pm. So my questions! 1. Do you think it is time to go to 1 meal a day? 2. If so, how slowly would you recommend making the switch (i.e. increase dinner by 10g every day or the like)? 3. Finally, if we are to add something to the kibble to make it more tempting, does anyone put anything dry in? He seems to not like his kibble the second time around with wet stuff in there and at $22, we are reluctant to toss the RC. Thanks in advance for the advice!

I fenced off our plants with puppy fence, metal stakes and cable ties. Worked well, took the stress out of letting our little fella outside. Good luck!

Another update on my little man's condition. His leg has worsened over the last couple of weeks. Had him in at the vet the breeder recommended today. He had no doubt what the problem was and felt the options were as follows: He listed 3 options: 1. Do Nothing 2. Walking him up hills to strengthen his muscle (said there was a 20% chance that this would work but we would have to keep doing the hill walking...well...forever) 3. Surgery We opted for the surgery option which will be done this Friday. We have to keep him confined to one room for the next 4 weeks after that, and then another 4 weeks of slow build up (least I think that is what he said). Poor little guy doesn't know what is in store for him.

Our Cav did this probably 4 or 5 times when he was around that age. We had the washing machine going pretty steadily at home. We always encouraged our boy to go outside, but when confined inside (the laundry while we are at work) we laid down newspaper. He used that for a while, and now just holds it in all day (sometimes 8 hours!!!!). We just stuck to our routine and it just seemed to click after a while. Don't miss toilet training to be honest. It is great just sitting around the house and not worrying what he is doing every minute he wasn't confined.

Hi All, Well, it sort of is a dog problem but nothing I think we can do for him. I have a 10 month old CKCS. At times when he gets playful he does scratch me. Not hard, doesn't draw blood. Just some minor scratch marks on the surface of the skin as he tries to grab a ball etc. However, a couple of days later I develop a rash on my skin (lasts about a week and a half). Went to the doc today who thinks it is an allergy. Got some cream to put on it. I'm not allergic to him in any other way except when he scratches me. Anyone else in this situation. Is there anything I can do (i.e. cleaning his paws etc). Any advice appreciated!

When we first tried to get him ready for walks in the backyard our CKCS did the same thing. We held out a treat in front of him and tried to get him to walk following the treat. He would do it for a short period of time (30 seconds) before going for the lead. We thought he was going to be a nightmare to walk and were really disheartened. At about 20 weeks, when we first took him out for a walk, he simply lost interest in the lead. He still has a little chew of it just as we are about to go out the door, but being outside is much more interesting for him than the lead. So my humble advice is to keep the training in the backyard short and sweet and my prediction is that he will lose interest once you can officially take him on the street for a walk. It is so much fun walking a dog...especially as the weather in Melbourne is really starting to pick up!

We are first time dog owners, got our Cav in January this year. He was really hard graft for the first 3 months or so. Toilet training was a nightmare, fussy eater, had the trots 3 or 4 times, woke up early, loved biting, etc etc. He is 10 months as of yesterday and is brilliant. Its now time where all that hard work we did in the early months is paying dividends. He is such great company! Good luck with your pup...

It has probably been a couple of weeks and Shiraz's leg is settling down. He hasn't had an luxations (if that is the word) for the last 4 days. I've started walking him just a little bit again. The vet has told me to just watch him and see what happens. I'm glad he doesn't need to go in for surgery just yet, if at all. Oh, and spoke to the breeders again. They constantly check the patella's of their dogs so I guess I was just a bit unlucky or he might have simply injured it. My fingers are crossed...I really hope he continues to improve.

Shiraz has had his fair share of stomach upsets. Definitely chicken and rice for a few days. One of the best things we did in combatting his fussyness is persist with feeding him the one type of food (Hills). He didn't go for it at first, but with persistance and dishing the same thing up each mealtime, he now eats it regularly (still misses a meal here and there at 9 months...probably 1 a week). He gets 15 minutes to eat it or else he loses it. It feels cruel but you'll be creating a fussy eater by varying his meals too much. Good luck with the pup!!!

Great advice as always! Have contacted the breeders and also put a ramp the ramp back up that allows Shiraz to go down the stairs into the backyard. He yelped a few time last night just randomly when he obviously "twinged" it a bit. I really hope it clears up like some of you mention and he's not in too much pain. Will let you know the upshot.

Hi All, I took my CKCS out for a walk this afternoon. We got down to the park and I let him off lead and he had a bit of a run. As he ran back towards me, I saw his back left leg "a bit limp" as he approached. I quickly put him back on lead and walked home. He struggled up the stairs and really looked like he was favouring his good leg. So I quickly got onto the VET and took him in. The VET felt around and believed he had a grade 2 or low grade (sorry can't remember which one) luxating patella. He has been ordered plenty of rest (4 days), some Rimadyl (pain reliever?), slow walk, building up to a run in 7 days and reassessment of his condition. My feeling was that the VET thought it would fix itself, although he flagged the possibility that surgery may be required in the long run. Has anyone else had any experience with this sort of condition? I spose I'm wondering if anyone has any more information. Sadly, once I leave the VET I think of all the questions I should have asked! Oh, I should add that he is 9 months...a young fella in otherwise good health. Cheers...