Red Fox

Thanks Erny I'll try the chemist today, they have a section for health foods and may have it. We have a healthfood store in the next town that might have it but they wont be opened until tomorrow. If they don't I should be able to do an internet order so I'll get my hands on it somehow Looking at Kei today his skin does not look any worse- if anything it seems less flaky than yesterday. Hopefully it's just a reaction to the combo of new shampoo, brushing, weather and over bathing and nothing more.

Don't worry about waiting until next time you bath him. In fact, I'd be inclined to not bath him too much - let the skin find its natural PH balance. If you infuse the Calendula into a tea, you can apply it with a flannel soaked in it, and wet his coat down to the skin, especially at the affected area. I tend to find the Calendula leaves the coat lovely and clean and fresh smelling. Does Kei have pollen allergy? I read that you need to be a little on the careful side with that, given that Calendula is made from the Marigold flower plant. No, no pollen allergies as far as I'm aware Where can I find the Calendula tea though? I did a search of both supermarkets in my town this afternoon and neither had it. I'll give the health food section of the chemist a try tomorrow, otherwise I'll have to wait for the health food store to open up again and see if they have any... I have used calendula cream on myself before and remember that it was very soothing. Hopefully it's just a mild reaction to something (and not mange ) and the tea will do the trick

SK .... as one of the symptoms to his already seemingly complex health issues, Mandela suffers this as well. I use the Calendula Tea to wash him down to help with his hives (I think you've read of the problems I am having with him) and I did notice this has a very positive effect on the oiliness and the flakiness of his skin. His oiliness and flakiness, when it does occur, is not completely restricted to his ridge, but it does occur predominantly along his ridge. It is generally worse up near his shoulder blades, at the rosette end of the ridge, although it does get him down on his loin area as well at times. The Calendula Tea is antibacterial and is soothing and chemical free. ETA: I agree that a Vet consult to confirm the absence of parasites is one of the first steps to take. I don't think the Calendula Tea wash would harm in any way, but I'm not a Vet. Mind you, Vets often lean towards the chemically based shampoos anyway, so they may not even be aware of the benefits of CT. Thanks Erny, I might give the Calendula tea a go next time I bath him. It can't hurt to try Kei's dandruff is pretty much entirely along his ridge with a little up near the neck area and a tiny amount down near his butt. There is nothing on the underside of his neck though or anywhere else. The oilyness is in the same area. And yes, I have read your posts about Mandela's health issues too I'll definitely get him to the vet for a scraping. It's obviously not an emergency though and I doubt we'll get an appointment until after new Years, but we will get in as soon as we can. When I said I was worried that the Malaseb would agravate the situation I was more refering to bathing him again so soon as opposed to the Malaseb itself. I do doubt that it's mange, but will need a scraping to rule it out for sure

I'm a bit worried about Kei's skin... Over the past month or two he seems to have developed a bit of oily dandruff. Not severe, but very noticeable after a good brushing. It's only along his back and neck, nowhere else on his body and mainly in the ridge. I put it down to the fact that I had changed brands of shampoo/conditioner in that time (from Aloveen to PAW). And now the more I think about it, the problem seems to have gotten worse each time I bathed him in the new shampoo. Normally I would only bath him ever 3-4 weeks, but over the past month I have been bathing much more frequently (1-2 times per fortnight). The reason being that everytime I give him a decent brush his coat becomes excessively oily and the dandruff just sticks to it. If I can get away with it I just rub him down with a damp cloth after brushing. Failing that he is bathed. Due to my concern about it being caused by the new brand of Shampoo I have switched back to Aloveen for the past 2 washes which seems to have helped with the oilyness somewhat. Now what has me concerned is that yesterday I gave Kei a really thorough brush with the Zoom groom to loosen off any dead hair then put him in the bath for a good scrub. I used Aloveen, left the shampoo on for a good 5 mins, rinsed thoroughly and then rinsed again just to make sure it was all out. Then used the Aloveen leave-in conditioner with a light rinse off. He seemed fine last night and coat looked great. But this-afternoon I noticed that his Ridge looks rather patchy -like he is getting bald spots! The skin is not red or inflamed at all but slightly grey and flaky He is not itchy at all and is acting normal but I am worried. Google tells me it's mange but I'm not so sure... I'll take him to the vet when they re-open and have it checked out anyway. I have some Malaseb here and am tempted to use it but dont want to agravate the situation any more. Kei is on a raw/BARF diet, with no recent changes that I can think of. He is also given an Omega Oil supplement (Melrose Omega Pet) and has sardines or Mackeral added to his food twice per week. We've never has any skin or coat problems before bar mild dandruff when he was a baby puppy. Does anyone know what this could be

Yep, I am finding that out the hard way I really didn't expect it to be so challenging either! I think half of our problem is that Kei gets bored too quickly. I'm all raring to go and he's like 'Nah, I don't wanna play that game today' Thanks Shoemonster. I have seen a few of your videos before- Ed is awesome!! I love the little snorts he makes when he chasing his tug too

Thanks Huski I have recently started Kei on the TID DLP using prey drive but he's not doing as well as I would have hoped It may improve or it may not... only time will tell. I guess food drive would be the next step if prey is unsuccessful. Of course we already have some fantastic guidance on it all but it's always great to hear what has/hasn't worked for others. The 'evil Beagle' has been quite an inspiration for me

Poor Buddy. And I know of a few dogs who are treated the same way too As you said, it's hard but you can't do everything for everyone. I dont know... but from the tone of your post it sounds like these owners will not commit any time to training this dog. Do they live close to you? Could you possible spare 10-15 mins per day to leash train him? Possibly using one of your own collars? Obviously not your responsibility at all, but if you are dead set on trying to save this dog you could probably have him walking nicely within a month with minimal (but regular) training

Quick question for both Shoemonster and Huski- Why/how did you make the decision to train in food drive as opposed to prey drive? Thanks

What type of collars have they been using on him? If they have been buying cheapo ones from the supermarket of course they are going to break, same with anything that has a clip in/easy release type closure. You get what you pay for and the owners must be willing to purchase some decent collars if they want them to last. A 2" wide high quality thick leather buckle collar should be pretty unbreakable, or a good quality harness as Cosmolo suggested and a nice strong martingale or check chain for walking (Herm Sprenger or similar quality). But neither will do any good if the owners refuse to walk the dog regularly and invest some time in teaching him to walk properly on a leash.... I know it sounds harsh, but maybe this dog would be better off being PTS. If he is spending all of his time on the chain, not being walked at all.... that's not a life IMO

To US killing something is not a game. I dont believe that animals see it that way though. This may be a little OT but how many people have seen an animal kill something without intending to? Say a cat chasing a moth and playing with it until it is dead? I don't have a degree in science, nor will I even pretend that I understand the different drives, but (IMO) to a dog- chasing and 'killing' a tug to achieve drive satisfaction and chasing and killing an animal are one and the same. It's very self satisfying for some animals to hunt and if that is able to be transfered into a prey item (ie toy) then that can only be a good thing :p Not trying to start an argument on this one Corvus, it's JMO Slightly OT from the original post but has anyone done K9 Force's TID program with a lower drive dog? and if so, did you find that you were able to increase the drive to a more workable level? ETA Huski said it much better than me :D

What do you mean by this corvus? How can you decrease the dogs drive by working to build it ;)

Appointments I can't think of anything worse than having to wait in a room full of other (potentially very sick) dogs not knowing when you will be seen to. It's nice to be able to book a quiet time if need be. It would be handy if you had the option of walking in and being told either -Yes, we dont have many bookings today you are welcome to wait for the vet to see you OR No, we are fully booked today and have appointments for emergencies only please come back at X time. But I would not feel comfortable visiting a clinic with a walk in only policy.

I dont think what you have done is too bad, but from what I can see you have about 4kg of RMB (minced) to approx 16kg of food which is around 25% and you really need it to be at least 50% or more I would feed your BARF mix for one meal per day and RMB's only at the others. At night I feed my dog a mix of roo mince (no bone), yogurt, vegie slops, and a few supplements. Then add either a can of sardines, some offal, a few chicken necks or wings, or an egg (w/shell) on alternate nights. He has RMS's every morning at breakfast time though which is a larger meal and accounts for at least 60% of his diet. Works well for us Definitely get the books, they are great when you are starting off

If you are looking for Roo treats at a decent price try here: http://roochoos.com.au/products.html I've ordered from them before and found them to be excellent in range and price. They can also put together a sample pack with different products for you if you want to try a few things. Shipping is capped at $10 from memory too I recently found a butcher in the next town from me that specialises in Roo products so now buy from there. Mainly fresh meat for us- but they also do dried leg bones, jerky, tendons, hearts and liver very cheaply too. I'm very happy with their roo products, it's not a 'farmed' meat and there are strict regulations on how the roo is killed, transported, checked and cleaned They are 3 hours out of Adelaide and I'm not sure if they deliver or not but if you want their contact details feel free to PM me I've seen the Vegie pig ears before but tend to steer away from anything overly processed like that. But then I very rarely buy normal pigs ears either as they are also junk IMO. The last time I bought one was about 8 months ago -Kei stole it from the basket at the vet (coveniently put at dog height near the front desk) so I HAD to buy it

Whats he like with 'fishy' things? You could try sprinkling a little bit of Sascha Blend over his food. It's pretty potent smelling but good if you have a dog that likes fishy things "Happy Paws" also makes an appeteaser powder which is supposed to be good too: http://www.happypawstreats.com.au/products.cfm

See if you can organise with your vet to drop her off before work one morning this week and pick her up on the way home. Even if your vets hours are 9am-5:30pm (same as yours) there will still be someone there from at least 8:30am-6pm The other option is to take her in your lunch break (or off to the 24hr emergency centre if you have one). I'm not sure what could be done if it is a broken rib though I guess they could give her some pain relief though... You might want to crate her and keep her as quiet as you can until you can see a vet too.

You should have asked her to come and join your training session Huski. She sounds like and excellent trainer with LOADS of experience

Yep JS I have to agree with you there lol. If Steve lip sincs through the workshop I will be pretty damn disappointed

I think he's been really flat out, I'm sure you'll hear from him soon I'm sure we will too Huski But we are an impatient lot down here in SA :stamps foot in anticipation: We will surely DIE if we have to wait much longer......... .....must .....be .....patient

If I could afford to I would Technically I want a harness for long distance car travel. I dont walk my dog on a harness so that's not a major issue, I'm happy to run him on one though when wearing a long line or down river. However good quality harnesses are very expensive and I dont travel much (though when we do it is usually long trips), so I was hoping to get something as versatile as possible :p Whatever I buy will have to be over the net though so no chance of trying on for size I'll also need to take comfort into consideration as my boy likes to sleep in the car, and fit (deep chested breed).

Yeah, I want it for the car but it would be good if we have the option of using it as a normal walking harness too... I was thinking that the webmaster might be good for running Kei on the long line as it will keep the leash away from his front end if that makes sense too... I liked the look of the Roadie too but apparently it is non adjustable

Time to start pestering Steve me thinks I'm getting a bit panicky about finding accommodation. I've found some really nice places but they're all booked out due to Easter holidays dammit. Haven't been away for a year now so I really want to make the most of it ..even if it's only Adelaide

Okay, so after scouring the internet for reviews I've decided on either the PetBuckle Harness (looks like it would be great for the car, very secure, easy on and off + nice and strong) or the Ruffwear Webmaster (looks like it would be the most comfortable of those I've seen, well made, near impossible to escape from and well, it just looks cool ) I was heading towards the Webmaster since it's something that can be used outside of the car too and I think that Kei would be comfortable sleeping in it during long car trips. However a few of the US sites that I have come across said that it's not recommended for car travel Anyone know why this would be?? Also, has anyone tried the PetBuckle harness? and how have you found it? Thanks

BUMP Do we have a date yet??

Patience. If she's 8 wks she's only been away from the litter for a couple days. Maybe 5:30 is when the puppys all woke up and got fed at the breeder's place. Very likely she is unused to being alone, and waking up and finding herself alone is upsetting. If it's not toilet time it could easily be feeding time. Kei's litter was fed breakfast at 5-5:30am at his breeders place and it took me quite a few weeks to gradually increase it to 6:30-7am. My guess is that the pup is lonely though. I'd be putting her in a crate in the bedroom with you rather than the laundry and see if that helps