all that glitters

LOLL

i also have used Advocate the last 2 months, how often should one use the tape wormer?

;)

I love the first photo, they look like such buddies!

I just realized we paid for a whole new year a few weeks ago so I better suck it up for a while and just accept the 8.15 starts LOL

Went to Brighton Dog Beach yesterday with Sky_Mel and Shyla had a ball playing with her long coat GSD Skylar!

Are there any that have classes at a reasonable time - the club I go to at the moment has 8.30AM starts on Sunday mornings, I just can't keep it up much longer, I have to get up at 6.50am all week so it's really putting me off training

If I want to vaccinate shyla every 3yrs and she's only had her initial vaccinations so far, should I get next years first booster and THEN go 3yrly, or go 3yrly from now on if the titre results are good?

Yep get your money back if it doesn't feel right, and remember buying from ethical registered breeders is always the better approach so you don't support pet shops who get puppies from puppy mills and just want $$! Buying from a genuine breeder means having a point of contact for any help you need in the future with your pup, it means staying in contact with them if you like and showing pictures of the pup growing up, you can't do any of that with pet shops! I just love keeping in contact with my breeders Be careful with those so called "papers" I doubt they are the proper papers, they will probably just also tell you that the parents were tested and hips are fine, hoping that's enough to convince you. Just remember ~ they are all for $$, not for the dogs. Labs are great family dogs but just notorious for being very boisterous and lively and also possibly destructive if bored when they are young. Not all but a lot of them are like this, just full of life! Which isn't a bad thing if you have the time to control it and show them the rules, but could be a lot with a family. If your prepared this may happen though and still go ahead, at least you know about the breed unlike a lot of people Good luck with your decisions

Love it LOL

Awesome photos, makes me wanna go for a drive up in the country side *sigh* lol

I'm gonna start taking Shyla swimming HERE cos it looks great and is 5 minutes from my house

I thought I'd also mention about the eating before your pup idea... this doesn't necessarily have to be your dinner that she eats after, you could just eat a snack or chocolate bar or something in front of her so she sees you eating, even just a nibble on anything really, and then she thinks you are and have eaten! That's what we used to do anyway *shrug*

Looks good, but how do you correct the dog without the tightening aspect? Wouldn't it be the same as a flat collar in terms of just pressure at the front of the throat/neck as they pull, and there's no real way to get a clean correction/pop on the leash? ETA ~ never mind, found your reply in my other thread

I'm gonna buy one cos they aren't too steep on the wallet, so I'll let you know

What a shock, please let us know tomorrow, that is so sad. I have 3 indoor cats and they are 4yrs old, I still imagine them having 10yrs + left! but it just goes to show its not always the way. RIP :p

.......SHYLA She had to have major surgery at 4 weeks of age as she was born with Persistent Right Aortic Arch, where a vein was obstructing her esophagus, which first became noticable when her and her siblings were being weaned onto solids, every time she tried to eat solids, 20 minutes later she would be walking around in pain and crying and would regurgitate her food up, her breeders said it was awful to see her like that. The vets did a barium and saw the issue, and said they could either PTS or operate for a large $um. They decided to operate as she has a sparkle in her eye and seemed strong enough, and so she had her big surgery (they had to cut through a couple of ribs and move her heart and lung out of the way to get to the esophagus problem area), and after spending so much special time with Shyla as she had to recover, my breeders have ended up having a soft spot for her and being absolutely in love with her :D They call her the special one and each time I have seen them since the wife always sheds a tear ;) She was the only long-coat in her litter and when I put a deposit on a GSD puppy from my breeders litter, I said I wanted a female, and ideally a long coat. She said they are not that common and aren't bred for and that sometimes a bitch will throw a long coat in some litters, and I said ok well I guess I will end up with a standard coat then. But as it may seem, I DID get the long-coated shepherd of my dreams after all!! She attracts so much extra attention because of her beautiful rich dark coat, some people have even questioned her breed (which is a bit weird..) Has a weakness for whipped cream and roti bread and whenever I make a hot milo with whipped cream on top, when she hears the cream being squirted out, she comes RUNNING and wants a lick We also eat Thai food takeaway twice a week and get roti bread, and she goes NUTS for it, haha. Has a boyfriend who's fluffy also, but very white and her boyfriend is Bindii's Samoyed Fletcher!! The two of them have known each other from young, and we have watched with excitement the way our two quite different fluffballs have gone from small little puppies, to much bigger mature puppies!! They have weekly playdates together and it sure is more noisy and there are lots of thuds and bangs and wobbling furniture in the house when they have their indoor wrestles :p Will only ever sleep under our bed at night happily. We have a mattress under our bed which we have to keep pushed out a bit, and in the morning she ends up on the end of the mattress that sticks out the bottom of our bed. That's so there's a gap under our bed beneath our heads, and she sleeps every single night under their on the carpet, we call it her "den". We tried pushing the mattress all the way in once and she had the option of the floor, mattress or on the bed with us, and she whined and carried on til she had her "den" back. She must like the cosyness factor. Loves everybody and everything she has a remarkable temperament for a shepherd, and I am yet to see her be aggressive or overly fearful. As a pup we socialized her a lot, but not tremendously, and she's always taken everything in her stride! She loves all people and all dogs, and wants to say hello to everyone. She is gentle when meeting new dogs and will lick their faces and become submissive if needed. We met a shepherd at obedience this morning that was quite young also, and was lifting it's upper lip up and snarling silently at other dogs, which got me thinking I feel so lucky Shyla doesn't act like that!! She learnt to love people from a young age as she had so much more hands on time with people as a little puppy because of her operation etc. Is a trick dog in the making and knows heaps of tricks already. Some of the fun stuff we do is reversing, spinning, waving, she will tap me on the butt with her paw, she will bow when I take a bow, she will fall on her side when I go BANG! and pretend to shoot her, she will leave a treat or her food til I say the magic word, she will weave through my legs as I walk, she will run up from behind me and poke her head through my legs and look up with a smile when I say PEEKABOO!, she will reverse-walk backwards with me behind her until she ends up between my legs, she will shake her head when I say "Are you naughty?", she will open cupboards and doors by pulling on a rope, she will roll over. We have lots more to learn! Is a casual worker and will go to work with OH 3 days a week! She isn't the best at her job and distracts other employees with her balls and toys, wanting them to be thrown all day. But she's great company and loves hanging out with OH and his other worker ;) And it only means shes home 2 days a week on her own, such a spoilt girl! loves Tug and Fetch the most and will play these two games all day if given the opportunity. She never liked fetch as a puppy, and has only lately developed a great love for it. And I am SO SO glad she has, it's sooo easy to wear her out now, I get to sit, and she gets to run and have fun! And we bond at the same time is our amazing baby and we love her to pieces, my OH was anti-dog owning for years, and didn't like the idea of me getting a dog at all. But from the day we brought her home that changed, I literally saw him melt when we went to pick her up and there she was so cute and fluffy with her big butterfly ears How can you not love her, shes still cute! OH and I hate babies and kids and will never have human ones, so she is our beloved who we spoil and buy lots of things for ;) Having said that though we have still brought her up the way a dog should be with discipline and showing her her place in the pack, but we also shower her with love and get it back tenfold :D

Yep that's right I'll just see how she goes, it will either work well for her or not! Artemis is definately another one I would love to try, quite a bit more pricey though, especially the puppy food! I might wait til shes considered 'adult' and them change over cos the adult Artemis is a bit cheaper LOL. Yeah I've heard lots of good things about RC on here, but if I google Royal Canin I see lots of "it's no good" reviews and I think oh gosh, I just bought a bag, now what!! But no I will persevere and see how it goes, it's premium after all!

I think I want to buy one of these to stop Shylas fur being rubbed off, they seem to sound good but I don't know anyone that uses one. So anyone got any feedback? Good? Bad? http://allfreightfree.com/en/dog-security-...ml?currency=USD

Yeah i'll see how she goes on the RC and change to Artemis if her condition (coat, poos etc) deteriorate in any way

Agreed! We adopted two of our cats from there (two sisters) and so we have taken our 3 cats there from then on, they are so lovely and warm and friendly and I love the vets, and the nurses are awesome too! I however take Shyla to Boronia Veterinary Clinic, I would never change vets after going there Bigger clinic than most means more vets on, means more time slots available and means more vets to help each other with difficult cases etc, they are always fantastic and friendly. Also open later in the evenings if you need a last minute appointment and prise wise VERY reasonable compared to others

Well the Eagle Pack is getting too hard for me to source and it's becoming annoying, and I have heard of others having their shepherds really going well on the Royal Canin Shepherd one. When comparing their German Shepherd food to the standard Giant Breed food there seems to be less grains in the Shepherd one?? I'm over Eagle Pack being unavailable a lot, I used to get it for cheaper through a friend but she can't get it now, and my local feed store has trouble, so its getting stressful thinking it might not be available when I need it, also I heard a rumor they are phasing out international supply?? Not sure on that though. Anyway I thought Royal Canin was a premium food? I can always change anyway, I will see if her condition and coat etc stay looking great, if not I can change to something else (I was thinking Artemis?) Thanks laffi!

Went to our local feed store the other weekend where the guy we know quite well works. We mentioned Eagle Pack Holistic and he said oh why pay that price! and took us over to a big stack of big white bags of food, totally plain except for a printed sticker on each that said "Holistic Lamb & Chicken" and then a guaranteed analysis ingredients listing. No brand, and on the bottom it said "Packed for ____" the name of the feed store. It was 22KG for about $75. The ingredients looked pretty good and I was about to buy some but we left it, and went on to another pet supply store where my friend works, and mentioned the food. Another guy working there overheard the convo and said no way BestCare is bad and to avoid their foods, that they used to make foods for greyhounds or something? So for now I've changed her over to Royal Canin. That food sounded good though going by the ingredients, so how could it be so bad, and what would make it 'holistic'?

Hi Linda! Well I can get the Eagle Pack $115 for 15KG and the Royal Canin $93 for 12KG So pretty much the same price wise!

My mums miniature pinscher had her 4 fang adult teeth come through but still had the 4 baby ones next to the adult ones, very bizarre! She ended up having them pulled while under for her spay operation