Serket

Ok so my Golden Retriever puppy had a piece of lamb offcut yesterday at lunch, and this morning for breakfast. I normally don't buy them because the bones are big and sharp, but these ones were very meaty with only a small amount of bone and no long thin pieces. I just heard her outside yelping, and I went outside and she was squatting as if to poo, but didn't seem able to. There's no new poo from this morning yet, and normally there would be by now. I'd be on my way to the vets now except OH took the car today and I need to wait for my sister to come around (45-60 minutes). Gypsy seems fine, she doesn't seem bothered if I press on her abdomen at all, it's just when she actually goes to poo that there seems to be a problem. She's had bones before - chicken necks and drumsticks, and lamb. I'm also worried she's been eating rocks from the garden, she's been digging them up and carrying them around the yard.

Another vote for cremation here. I had one of my dogs cremated when I still lived with my parents, because I wanted to be able to take her with me when I moved out, but my mum was so creeped out by the thought of having ashes in the house she made me bury them :p We barely spoke for years after that I was so upset. So, maybe check to see how your OH or anyone else you live with feels about the idea too. Even now that I own my own house with OH, I'd still cremate for when we move one day.

Dogs do growl and bark when they're playing - it sounds different to an aggressive growl/bark

Hopefully this link works: http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?act=...ghlite=%2Bcrate If not, search "crate" in advanced search and set it to search titles and display topics. Some of those threads should help to answer your questions.

We got the XL size of these http://www.patiolink.com.au/index.html - they have a sliding cover so they 'lock' when you're not home, either if you go out and take the dog(s), or leave the dogs outside, etc. I didn't find it to be very secure, so we riveted a bolt to each side on the inside to bolt the locking flap on (it can be forced open from the outside otherwise, if someone tried). I can fit through the flap, so it's a bit of a security concern, but all the doors and windows are locked so they'd only be taking out what they could carry, unless they smash a window or door. We have a smaller flap on the laundry door (different type) and I can still fit through that one so (I'm not that small - 170cm tall, average weight). A large man probably wouldn't fit though, my OH or dad wouldn't.

Are you a light or heavy sleeper? For the first week or so, with the crate next to the bed I knew I'd need to get up and slept fairly lightly - I'd wake up when I could hear Gypsy waking up and moving around in the crate which meant toilet time. I'd get up, call her out with me, she'd go to the toilet and then straight back in the crate. After a while, now that she can hold it through the night, she wakes me up with a bark around 6am to let me know she wants out to go to the toilet. Obviously now that I know she can sleep through the night I'm not on 'alert' while asleep and can sleep normally again. I did set the alarm just in case I didn't wake up - pretty much the same as Danois, although I never needed it as she always managed to wake me up. We ended up doing 1am, 3-4am, and 6am (when we got up anyway) for a while there - i.e. every 2 hours, then it dropped back to around 2-3am, and now she sleeps through.

How long are you planning to leave the puppy in the crate? 45 minutes of every hour? Personally I don't like leaving a puppy in a crate for the vast majority of the day - they do spend a lot of it sleeping, but still. As for night time - you'll probably need to get up once or twice a night if you go to bed around 11 and wake up at 6, more if you go to bed earlier/wake up later - at least for the first 2 weeks or so. My golden retriever puppy could hold 6-7 hours overnight from about 10 weeks without a problem and at 14 weeks is more or less house trained - we still have the odd accident, maybe once or twice a week and usually at night - she doesn't like to go outside if the light isn't on. We crate trained but only at night, during the day she's with us in whichever room we're in (some parts of the house have doors closed/blocked off with baby gates though - she doesn't have free run). When we go out and leave her home, she's left in the kitchen/dining area which is blocked off from the rest of the house, but she can go outside via the back door which has a doggy door. That's just how we've done it, and so far it's working fine for us. With previous dogs we haven't used a crate at all so this time was our first time as well. We probably use the crate much less than others do, a lot is personal preference.

I buy the ones in spring water rather than the ones in oil or flavoured ones, no need to worry about soy etc that way.

Can you leave her alone for short periods and gradually build it up to a full day?

Update: Went to the vet because I'm a worrywart. Vet seemed to think it could be a cyst or a slight infection via a hair follicle from the previous girly issues. Said that if it wasn't cleared up by 6 months then they'd normally remove it when desexing, although I would hope it's gone by then. She prescribed some antibiotics - clavulox.

New pic. It seems bigger than before.

She has/had some mild vaginitis, with the small lumps you're talking about Puggy Puggy, but I think this is different. Those ones didn't bother her at all, and they were on the surface whereas this is harder, bigger, seems to be under the skin more, and she's not keen for me to touch it. She's not due for her next vaccination for almost a month. Since she seems fine otherwise, I might see how it looks tomorrow. If it was a spider bite I would expect other symptoms, it could be an ant bite, although I haven't seen any bigger ants in our garden yet, only the tiny ones.

You can't really see much, or very clearly, but the slightly darker patch circled in red.

Ellz & Puggy Puggy - edited to add the location as you were both replying I think. Sorry. Doesn't sound like an umbilical hernia, it's much too far down and off to the left hand side. It's to the right (so towards the middle of her stomach but right near the nipple) and slightly below her last set of nipples, so rear end, near her girly bits. Tried to take a photo but Miss Wriggles wouldn't hold still long enough. She's now got a major case of the zoomies She just transferred a mouthful of mud onto my arm, and pawsful of mud onto the lounge. Lovely. So she's certainly bright and bouncy at the moment

I've just been playing with my 13wk old golden retriever puppy, and noticed she has a strange lump on her belly. It's about the size and shape of a pea, and feels like its under the skin, i.e. not so much like a welt or a bite. I was thinking it could be an ant or spider bite, but it doesn't seem like swelling from a bite, and it's not red, but it does seem painful as she doesn't like me touching it much (had to clean the dirt off to see what was there). She seems perfectly normal aside from this lump. I'm perfectly happy to take her to the vet, assuming they can fit us in tonight. I'm just not sure if I should be worried or not. Any ideas? It wasn't there yesterday, I'm not sure how long it's been there today as I haven't given her a belly rub until just now today. Edit: It's at the lower end of her stomach, near the bottom set of nipples

To me it sounds like maybe not quite enough - given that its 1.25 cups + small amount of mince and yoghurt, but it could be the brand of dry food you feed is very high in kilojoules and so you don't need to feed as much. Basically, you feed depending on how he looks - can you feel his ribs easily? If you can that's good, but if they stick out then you need to feed more. Likewise, if there's a layer of roly poly puppy fat over them, then cut down a little bit. Labs have a tendency to be overfed because they always seem hungry and are good at manipulating us, so I'd be more worried about overfeeding rather than under. General consensus is that if you feed by what the bag of food says, you'll end up with an overweight dog as the recommended feeding guidelines are often WAY in excess because you then get through the bag quicker and need to buy more. For golden retrievers (labs would probably be quite similar), the recommended weight gain I've been given is: Males - 12 -20 weeks (3 months - 5 months) gain max. 1kg min. 800g per week Males - 20-26 weeks (5 months - 6.5 months) gain max. 750g min 500g per week Males - 26-35 weeks ( 6.5 months - almost 9 months) gain max 500g min 250g per week So by using a combination of weighing him and feeling his ribs (all very scientific ) you should be able to work out a good amount of food for your puppy. I think that even if you don't change the amount you feed, you should divide his food into 3 meals per day where possible, as others have mentioned. Pop in here http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?show...30&st=12600 (Lab thread - just start at the end, don't try to read the whole thing!) and ask them for their advice as well

So he's 10 weeks old? 500gm of mince sounds like a lot to me. (so over the course of the day it's 1.25 cups of dry, and 500gm mince?) I've got a 13 week old Golden Retriever puppy and she gets 3/4 cup of dry food (ProPlan at the moment) 3 x a day, and a medium kong with some dry food and peanut butter/yoghurt in it at night in her crate (2.5 cups total of dry). Sometimes she gets a chicken drumstick or lamb ribs instead of dry food for lunch, and sometimes she gets some sardines (half a tin) mixed in with the dry food just so she gets used to eating different things. She'd certainly eat more if I let her, but she's doing well on this amount and has been on the same amount since 8 weeks. She weighs approx 10kg at the moment, which is within the range on the chart I got from her breeder for her age and gender. If she starts to look chubby I'd reduce the amount of dry food slightly at each meal, likewise if her ribs were protruding and not just able to be felt, then I'd add more. The amount of dry food you need to feed also depends on the brand that it is - some brands you don't need to feed as much, others you need to feed more to have the same result. There's an argument towards making sure larger breed puppies grow slowly to avoid putting too much pressure on their developing bones and joints. Maybe go and ask in the Lab thread, as they're probably able to give you breed-specific advice.

You can use the panels of the compost crates to make a roof as well if you think climbing over will be a problem. Also you can put the pen together with the panels upright so it's taller. You'd need to buy two compost bins for that to work though as you need 5 panels to include a roof.

If you're planning to put the pen up outside, get some weed mat pins and peg it into the ground to make it more secure. Also, the spiral things that come with the compost crate to connect the panels are not very secure - if the puppy throws itself at the sides enough they spiral down and eventually the puppy could get out, so cable tie at regular intervals or find another way to actually put the pen together if you won't be there to supervise him while he's in it. ETA: Could you fence off the back gate section with the compost crate + weed mat pins so he would have the backyard to run around in? I've got my garden fenced off like that at the moment.

It is exhausting, but it got a lot better after the first two weeks - that was when I was up twice a night to take her out , and had to get up at 6 because she wouldn't go back to sleep after that. So I felt incredibly sleep deprived and couldn't catch up on sleep anywhere. Now, at 12 weeks things have settled down into a workable routine, mostly. Since she was 10 weeks she sleeps through the night, wakes me up at 6, I get up, take her out, get her breakfast, and either go to work, or close most doors/block off some rooms with baby gates and go back to bed She takes herself outside to the toiler 90% of the time now. Chiccy - I know exactly what you're saying re: OH not helping much, well he's happy to play with her, but not if she bites because then it's "come and deal with the puppy, she keeps biting me", and he certainly doesn't clean up any messes or take her out to the toilet, etc. I feel like a single parent some nights, and it's only a puppy! Sigh.

Some links...I don't know of any books though I find Gypsy responds more consistently to hand signals at this stage for most commands http://www.bordercollierescue.org/breed_ad...niCommands.html http://www.deafdogs.org/training/signs.php http://www.the-hunting-dog.com/dog-trainin...nd-signals.html ETA: I took too long, Rusky beat me to the deaf dogs one

Corvus - Is that mandatory or is it just more expensive if your dog is entire? My local council just charges a lot more for entire dogs (unless you have a breeding permit) but you can still register them, and that has to be done by 6 months.

We just recently got a new puppy (see avatar), and we got a folder from the breeder with a 5 generation pedigree, feeding information, toilet training, weight guide from birth to adult, information on crate training, basic obedience info, etc. We got regular photo updates via email prior to picking her up. I was happy with what we got in terms of information - we also got a bag of the food she'd been eating although I would have been happy just to get some ourselves as we knew already what they were eating. Some of the suggestions that I think are especially good are: *Grooming information, ideally a demonstration (only needs to take a minute or two) - mainly applies to long haired breeds of course, but things like nail trimming and ear cleaning would apply for all breeds. *Providing the next worming treatment not just the information so it's not forgotten in the excitement of the new puppy Things that I don't feel are necessary and would just add to breeder's costs: *Collar & lead *Toys (except if it's for the reason of having the scent of mum and littermates on it) *Other accessories - it's a lovely gesture, but personally I prefer to pick things like bowls, collars and leads out myself. It might be good to have some guidance on size, and type though, and quality as someone else mentioned for larger breeds.

Open them using Paint (in accessories in the start menu on a Windows computer), and then save as JPG? I think that works, from memory.

From the Italian Greyhound breed thread. Looks like the pup has been/will be rehomed - hopefully somewhere appropriate and not the pound ;)