PuddleDuck

Congratulations!!! How exciting!! Our daughter is 7 weeks old today and we have found our dogs to be excellent. Kodiak was very connected to her while I was pregnant and spent many a happy hour with her head on my belly. She still adores michaela but doesn't like the crying so much-she generally wanders outside and sleeps in the sun when that happens. But she sticks her head into our room and 'checks' bubs regularly while she is sleeping. Doof had no idea I was pregnant but spends ever waking moment shadowing me and bubs now unless he gets really sleep deprived, then he goes outside. She was sleeping in her pram the other day inside our back door while I was in the yard with hubby, and when I came back to check her he was sitting outside the door staring intently, and would only go away when I 'took over' again. It can be quite sweet to see how dogs go around new babies Most important thing in the world is supervision. Make sure your dog doesn't feel 'left out'. When I'm pacing around trying to get bubs to sleep I often have one of them doing some offlead heeling beside me, to work in some training time!! Start restricting things now, so your dog doesn't associate it with you baby, and pregnancy is a great time to make sure her on lead skills are awesome, because it is a handful trying to walk a dog and a pram!! If you want I have a copy of Kathy kopellis mcleod's book on introducing dogs to babies and you are welcome to have it, just pm me your postal details. And don't forget to join the pregnancy thread in o/t!!!

Cruciates are the only condition with a waiting period. Otherwise you can not claim for VET diagnosed pre existing conditions. We had a lump taken out of doof a couple of months after getting insurance. We had to send in his full vet records with the claim to prove it hadn't been previously noted/diagnosed. They never asked when the lump appeared just went off the vet record

Gingers mum that is exactly what doof does-brings up all the scary pointy bits. I've found deer antler good cos it's too hard for them to get pointy bits off-but they've bloody gone and lost interest in it again. Rawhide seems to help too but is as unnatural as all hell I believe. Cows hooves are good too but they've lost interest again. Might go rub some peanut butter on them tomorrow to get them interested again

Sounds like a deshonko creation to me.... ;)

From memory neocort should no be used on wounds, as it delays healing. If it is really bothering him I think you can use polaramine (human antihistamine), call the emergency vet to confirm the dosage

Thanks guys Nekbhet how long would you take to build up the minced bones then transition to chicken wings/necks? Persephone its been ages since I tried so can remember. They would have been red meat bones. Probably fairly heavy weight bearing bones I would think It's just with the new baby I see them somewhat bored and would love a healthy enrichment treat for them

too true iBoz!!!!

So, I have an issue with feeding bones. Doof, without fail, spews every time....usually brought on by stepping on to my carpet to ensure the most annoyingness possible. He can eat cow hooves, rawhide and deer antler with no issues. I have no intention of changing their diet - they are on eukanuba and do brilliantly on it, it's fantastic. I would really like to offer bones and remember someone on here saying once that their stomachs need to be conditioned to digest them? Any ideas how to do this???

Doof farts audibly, then turns and gives his butt a filthy look for giving him away. The last time he spewed on the carpet he ran and got his toy duck, put the duck next to the spew and sat there looking at the spew, then giving the duck a filthy look, then looking at me to make sure I was falling for it He also eats copious amounts of snow if given the Opportunity Kodiak occasionnaly has a bad dream and when you wake her up she'll come running over for a cuddle and will lie in your arms crying for about 10 minutes Post breakfast she lies on her back with her legs in the air for an hour. Post dinner she does a weird little strut/stretch manouvre across the floor. She is happiest when you sit with her and hold her poor When I was at uni she would sit behind me when I study crying until I put another chair beside mine. Then she jumps up on it and spends hours listening to lectures with me

If you wanted to drive to the northern beaches rather than get a ferry, there is an off lead dog park on the water in bayview which is a lovely place for a swim in the ocean (not a surf beach, water there is calm)

Totally recommend 'a dogs purpose' too, one of the best books I've ever read I also love 'the art of racing in the rain', it has a very similar feel to it 'from Baghdad with love' is a fantastic story of how far one US defense force person goes to rescue a stray puppy in the midst of downtown war torn Baghdad and bring him home to the US And I have recently rediscovered my favorite childhood book which I am determined will be my daughter's favorite book-the diggingest dog. I had it memorised by the time I was 2 apparently!!!

A bit of my heart just broke off reading that. Very well written and good on them for writing it. I hope it makes a lot of people stop and think, not just the original owner

When I was 11 dad got me a staffy x cairn puppy from the rspca-riff raff. He was about 8 weeks old when we got him. Dad had a friend staying with us at the time who didn't know anything about the pup. His friend was going to be home late that night and dad asked him to stick his head in my room and check on me before he went to bed. Riff slept in my room from the first night. Apparently around midnight dad woke up to hear his friend yelling and swearing and falling onto things and went tearing out to find our teeny pup hanging off his mates jeans growling for all he was worth. Riff looked after me well for the rest of his life-he was a bugger of a dog but after that first night he could do no wrong in dads eyes. On the flip side is doof, who was missing one morning a few years ago when we woke up. we called him for ages and eventually found him hiding under the bed (impressive as he can't actually fit under our bed without a massive struggle). Took us half sn hour to coax him out. We couldn't work out what was wrong with him till we went to the garage and found some of the cars broken into!! I never expected doof to defend us but he could have at least woken us up to hide with him!!!!

There is an organization called righteous pups which does work with placing therapy dogs with people who have a disability that falls into the autistic spectrum. Their website is Here I have a very good friend who's son is severly autistic and she adopted a 'failed' guide dog into the family for him. The lab doesn't have the steady and calm nature going well enough to be trusted to be a guide dog but has the training and temperament to make him ideal for the situation he is in. If you wanted to research a larger dog I would suggest contacting guide dogs and assistance dogs Australia about adopting a 'failed' dog. Also (slightly OT) you may really enjoy reading "a friend called Henry" by Nuala Gardner. It's a lovely book about a golden retriever that helps unlock an autistic boy's world. Good luck!!!

Thinking of you - snakes are my biggest fear around my dogs

I've been mauled by a Bassett hound and it took a lot more than a crack with a cricket bat to get it off me. The owner was well aware of it's issues and didn't bother to inform kennel staff when it came in. The dog was a well know sire at the time, but I havent seen levels of Bassett hound attacks rising I can't say I really like the breed personally now (no offense to Bassett lovers) so I wouldn't own one, but I wouldn't treat them any differently to any other unknown dog I meet. I havent read the whole thread so apologies if this point has been made, but Matthew by your logic any genetically identical twins of murderers/rapists/violent criminals should be jailed at the time of their criminal twins conviction.....because obviously they were pre-destined by their breeding alone to be the same way, and it is only a matter of time before the non-criminal twin will commit an offence???

I have to say I was very proud of my mum the other day. She was over with her Maltese X that was a pet shop puppy and my MIL asked where she had gotten him. Mum (before I could start to growl) turned around and said "I got him from a pet store, which I shouldn't have done, because I know now that probably means he came from a puppy farm. You should never buy a dog from a pet store". I was so proud of her - just goes to show what can come of one little seed planted in someones mind....I have no doubt that she tells everyone that now. And the pet store went broke a few weeks after she got him, which made me feel a bit better as well

Thanks guys. We want to use the weedmat in the hope it'll stop the dirt mixing with the mulch (generally kodi's fault) but if that doesn't work we'll chicken wire over the top of it too

We live in a unit with a reasonable sized yard, half of which is fenced off and mulched for the dogs and their bathroom. The problem is, it's starting to stink (after over 4 years of acting as a loo!). Hubby is going to dig out the 15ish cm of mulch and replace it but beneath that is about 2 feet of hard compacted soil that sits on top of the slab for the under building garage. Before we put in new mulch I want to treat the soil as well to get rid of the odours as best we can and I was wondering if lime would be the best thing for that? And if it is, is there a particular sort that is dog safe? Plan is to treat the soil, put in weed mat (kodi is a digger) then 20-30cm of fresh mulch. Any suggestions to get rid of the smell would be awesome!!

I think eukanuba does a range of breed specific foods too

Erny, do you make up a huge amount of tea and pour it over them? I'm getting a mental picture of many kettles..... ;)

Kodi is a really annoying non-specific itcher (definately no issues with infections/allergies) and now that I'm not working I'm hanging out with the dogs all day and the itching is driving me nuts! I'm thinking I might try another shampoo with her to see how that goes, just wondering what other people use and why? There are so many choices in the pet store!

There are plenty of those around. And i often just call them Blobradors. Slabradors over here. We have some not-so-intelligent ones in the family, so they are Tardadors over here

I would avoid Beckman Kennels. The welfare league at ingleside runs boarding kennels as well and they are really good. Also, Hanrob used to do free pickups from some northern beaches vets if you wanted to send your pet out there. You used to be able to drop them at newport vet and the hanrob people would come and collect them that day, then drop them back to the vet for you on the morning you wanted to pick them up. I've been out of the industry for quite a while but it was really popular when I was there and I dont imagine they would have stopped.

The dog park at bayview (Sydney, Northern Beaches) has a beach area and opens out onto pittwater. Its not a normal surf beach - there is no surf/swell and no strong currents etc. Usually pretty crowded though, especially at this time of year. The dog friendly side of Manly dam at Allambie Heights is good too, freshwater so they dont need a bath afterwards.