Serket

I can join this thread, since we suddenly seem to have fleas here too I'm absolutely horrified and disgusted too, yuck. Saw these bugs crawling on her and thought oh, strange bugs, and then I thought oh no....fleas?!?! (can you tell I've been spared having to deal with them before? ) Couldn't work out how/why they'd appeared all of a sudden when she hasn't really been out, certainly hasn't been near any other dogs or cats for a fortnight now and then I read that and wondered about the 60cm deep hole to China she dug just before the fleas appeared :D Just spent a fortune on various products to get rid of them, hope it works, and quickly. This was the exact same thought pattern that I went through So I frontlined before I went away which got rid of all visible signs of fleas. I've searched and searched on the dogs but can't find a thing. Problem is one dog is still very itchy. He has been known to have allergies and i think he is quite allergic to them. How do you get rid of the itchiness? I also let off flea bombs while I was gone and came back and found a fair few dead fleas around the place so it obviously worked. Now am washing everything possible. Fun! I purchased some of that Fidos stuff mentioned by Aziah so just waiting for that to arrive. Now I'm just a bit confused about what products I should use for ongoing flea control. I currently use sentinel spectrum for worms and heartworm but it doesn't kill adult fleas so need to use another product. I was going to use frontline (which appears to have worked this time) as well but with other people giving bad reviews of it thought I should maybe use something else. The sentinel packet recommends Capstar (not sure how long that lasts though) or should I use comfortis? Also, how many fleas do you normally see on your dogs when they are infested with them? It's one of those "it'll never happen to my dogs" things isn't it. Like nits with kids at school. I refuse to use the things like frontline that go onto their skin, it grosses me out and I've heard horror stories about melted plastic, so, Before Fleas (B.F, ) she was on proban (ticks and fleas) and interceptor spectrum monthly chews for worms/heartworm (doesn't do fleas) . I was slack with the proban though over the last month, which obviously was a bad, bad, move. So, After Fleas: I got Fido's flea wash shampoo (didn't see the concentrate ) and gave her a bath outside (and got myself a possibly broken nose in the process from her zoomies afterwards :D). I'm still waiting for my flea killing arsenal to arrive (why I bought online instead of driving 25 min to petbarn, I don't know, but not going to buy everything twice), but I bought Capster and something called "program" I think (looked at comfortis, but was possibly more expensive? The one I got sounded just the same (and almost as expensive). Capster = kill all adult fleas Program = kill eggs/make them infertile Fido's shampoo for the record I haven't found overly effective, unless it just kills the ones on her but doesn;t stop them getting back on? I found more fleas on her after the first bath than I had before. So she got a 2nd bath yesterday - and she was such a good girl, I think she realised I was trying to help get rid of the itchy nasty bugs (I've been grabbing her every 30 min and checking her coat ) I'll get the concentrate and spray on the carpet etc like someone suggested - can't do flea bombs, can barely stand getting the house sprayed for insects once every 2 years (I have a chemical phobia) Today I actually found 3 dead ones on her - so something is working (back on proban too since last week). I checked and proban + fido's + capster + program or comfortis are all safe to use together. No idea about frontline and the like. Would something like aloveen or another oatmeal shampoo help the itchiness? Gypsy's skin looks quite irritated too, but she's not too annoyed by it

Thanks for sharing Corvus :D Fleas aren't that disgusting in themselves, but the idea of having fleas is! Oh and the panic about eradicating them Bot flies are seriously gross though *shudder*

I can join this thread, since we suddenly seem to have fleas here too I'm absolutely horrified and disgusted too, yuck. Saw these bugs crawling on her and thought oh, strange bugs, and then I thought oh no....fleas?!?! (can you tell I've been spared having to deal with them before? ) Couldn't work out how/why they'd appeared all of a sudden when she hasn't really been out, certainly hasn't been near any other dogs or cats for a fortnight now and then I read that and wondered about the 60cm deep hole to China she dug just before the fleas appeared Just spent a fortune on various products to get rid of them, hope it works, and quickly.

Where to begin... Gypsy will put her paws up on the bathroom sink for a drink if you try to wash your hands (possibly this one had some help from OH, he certainly encouraged it once she started). I've been trying to get it to a point where she only does it if asked "Do you want a drink?" - she'll jump up if she does and ignore me if she doesn't now (but will still jump up uninvited sometimes, sigh) On the phone... If I'm on the phone and walking around (I'm one of those people who has to walk and walk ) she follows me and humps my leg :D No idea why - she doesn't do it at any other time, and if I sit down and talk she doesn't try it. I can ignore her all day and she doesn't try to get attention, or if real people are actually here, but there's just something about being on the phone (possibly the fact she knows I can't reprimand her for it as easily "excuse me for a moment, my dog is humping my leg" doesn't go over so well in polite conversation, and now the habit has stuck) She gives kisses on command (mainly to OH). Oh and she has a disgusting habit of licking his head/face and now if I say "does he need cleaning?" she'll go and lick him (his fault for letting her do it) A recent one is when I say "go to bed" she goes to our bed, jumps up and lays down, instead of her crate which is what "go to bed" has always referred to (this is after letting her sleep on our bed a few times recently).

no way, when did getting a purebred dog become bad? Don't all dogs deserve good homes? Why are pound dogs more deserving than purebred dogs? You're not being selfish. It's an attitude I came across as well when we got Gypsy. Nobody in my circle of friends was remotely interested or excited when I got a purebred dog from a registered breeder, when another friend in the same group got a rescue dog it was THE most exciting and cute thing ever. Don't get me wrong, it's wonderful that people are now so supportive of getting rescue dogs, but surely it doesn't have to make getting a purebred dog something to feel guilty and ashamed of. BYB and Petshops are a different story, but to most people with this attitude, it's either rescue or bad.

x2 (except she watches us, not another dog)

Make sure to reintroduce the dry food gradually - don't go from chicken & rice straight back to dry food, mix it in, so 3/4 chicken/rice + 1/4 dry, for a meal or two, and then gradually increase dry and reduce chicken/rice IF there are no problems. Gypsy had a similar gastric upset when she was about 9 weeks old (eating proplan at the time) but it wasn't food related, although we did later change to Artemis (but that was always our intention)

Well there are loving gestures that are cute, but then you have extremes like Gypsy, who demonstrates her love for OH by "cleaning" him compulsively - if we're not careful her morning greeting is jumping on the bed and licking his face thoroughly to wake him up - her ears go right back and she's quite dedicated and thorough about it (I watch and laugh, aren't I mean). We had to move her crate to the other side of the bed to block her access to his face from the ground or she'd do it every morning - let out of the crate, toilet, breakfast, mad dash back to the bedroom and lick his face She NEVER does it to me, and I'm quite happy to be unloved in this instance. So, be careful what you wish for

She's 9 months old now and of course much bigger (photos scattered around in the retrievers thread), but she's quite petite and lean for her age. Back on topic...Gypsy will sometimes bring her current favourite toy to the door as well (although she usually drops it in favour of an arm) but just having something in her mouth makes her happy, so it would be easy enough to just use the toy and discourage the hand holding I think, like others have said

When OH or I come home the first thing Gypsy does is roll over for a belly rub but she must also hold a hand or wrist in her mouth at the same time. She;s done it ever since she was a tiny puppy. Her default greeting behaviour is lie down, roll over, and grab a wrist/hand - she just holds it, doesn't even lick it, but she MUST do it She doesn't do it to other people though (she jumps on them ) so it's her special greeting in some way.

darling dog - I think the meaning was more that a single dog doesn't 'self-exercise' although if you have more than one dog and they enjoy playing together, then yes, they would.

I've got a 9 month old golden retriever in a small backyard, and I very rarely take her for 'walks' because of her age (and if we do, it's a very slow meandering sniff around the block on the grass not the pavement and only in the last month or so). We go to the beach once a week, go down to the local oval (leash free area but never any other dogs around) and she runs around and plays on-leash (12m tracking lead) and we do some training - recall, heeling, other things. She goes to obedience classes twice a week normally - one is pretty structured and boring, the other is more social. She's also left at home by herself for probably 4 full days a week 7am-7pm and half days most other days. She copes fine. She can be pretty hyperactive but it's only in short bursts. She sleeps most of the day whether we're home or not. She doesn't get taken out for exercise every day at all, maybe 3 times a week lately, if that. But we spend at least 2 hours playing with her each day, probably more. She also comes with me when I go out (where possible) She certainly doesn't exercise herself - she needs someone to bounce off when playing and a backyard, no matter how large loses it's excitement for new smells pretty quickly, so while 'outside walks' are exciting, being at home isn't so much.

iSqueak arrived yesterday Although now it's disappeared?! Maybe she loves it so much she has to make sure we can't get it She's not a big squeaker of ball-toys (althuogh she never stops squeaking stuffed toys), but she was playing 'soccer' with her nose and the iSqueak last night, and retrieving it up and down the hallway. She'll work out the squeaking part eventually

Should add that the chicken ones are much more popular than lamb or beef, lamb is almost as popular as chicken, but beef is something that she won't try too hard to get out of a kong, but will eat if it's easy to get to

I use it for training treats, but not for her meals. She loves it, although I rotate through a few things for variety

We haven't yet, but we will (except overseas). Don't want to board her, can't trust neither my parents nor in laws to look after her 'properly' and both have DA dogs, so not an option anyway.

Gypsy LOVES to play with other dogs and I think that it's important for her to interact with other dogs and people as she's an 'only dog'. Having said that, she has particular friends at obedience/agility/dogs belonging to friends who she plays with. She would love to play with absolutely any dog she met, I'm sure, but she also has enough focus and attention to work while in the presence of dogs she'd love to play with and only plays when she's allowed to/when it's appropriate. At agility quite often in between our runs she plays wrestling and chasey with a kelpie friend of hers - and as soon as it's our turn, she's back to focusing on the task at hand. I think training the focus/ability to switch between play mode and work mode is important - I think it's sad if a dog is never allowed to interact with other dogs in case it 'ruins' their training. I'm not saying dogs should play and be allowed to play anywhere, any time, with any dog they see - of course not. But play with other dogs, generally speaking, is something I see as a very positive thing. Gypsy and I do play "rough" (it looks rough, but isn't) but I'm not a substitute for another dog, I'm not going to want to run around madly chasing/being chased, or play other 'doggy' games, why shouldn't she interact with her own species? She loves it, she's much, much happier for being allowed to do it. It doesn't cause us any problems in training - because from a very early age I made sure to practice switching 'modes' And I'm not even touching the issue of dog parks.

Sounds like something else is in there anyway - last I checked Labs didn't come in multicolour. People have NO idea about Labs/Golden Retrievers, which is just scary as I thought they would be two breeds people would be familiar with. I don't even react now beyond quietly correcting them when people tell me I have a Lab, or people tell me I have a Lab x GR - I used to explain the difference, but then I had people say "right so yours is a long haired golden retriever" Sigh.

Artemis should be balanced in terms of vitamins/minerals on its own I would think. I feed Artermis to my GR, although she has never been on that much per day - 3/4 cup morning and night up until around 7 months, and now 1 cup morning, one cup at night. If you add extra food anywhere you should reduce the dry at mealtimes of course - her total intake of food per day is a bit higher than the 2cups with training treats, etc though. She gets the occasional sardine, some yoghurt, some chicken frames or drumsticks or wings (+ training treats, of course), but nothing else aside from that and she seems to be doing very well.

I'm so sorry for your loss Darkrai I'm horrified you had to find out that way too

No, just red ones - fine for Gypsy as she just likes to bounce them around empty (or bounce them around and chew a bit if they have food), but not good if your dog likes to shred them I used it today for the first time - crammed 2 full of mince/veg mix one with just peanut butter smeared on the inside, and one with some dry food, peanut butter mixed together. She picks them up and drops them/bounces them too, so it doesn't last long if it's not packed in. I keep meaning to freeze things, never have the time/foresight though. She's still running around with an empty kong bouncing it in the hope more food will appear So they definitely keep her entertained, even empty

Update: Kong Time arrived yesterday It has a 'demo' button, so I loaded it up (with empty kongs) and set it to go on demo - whir, whir, whir, beep - kong falls out on the floor, Gypsy pounces, bats it, picks it up and bolts out the back door with her "prize) (empty, remember) it kept going with the rest of the kongs straight after (being on demo mode) but she was oblivious as she already had one. I put the rest of them away and left her with the first one, which she's still carrying around today and bringing in to show me I think it might just be a success

Was it just me who read a lot of "purebred puppies = problem, rescue dogs = always good" in this? Obviously the type of "purebred" she's talking about here is BYB and pet shop and therefore to be discouraged, but it just seemed like there was an underlying current....one which seems to set people up to expect a rescue dog to be easier than a "purebred" (wherever it may come from) (I'm possibly not expressing this very well - I've got nothing against rescue, just concerned that people might take a different message frmo this article)

It's probably not as awful as it sounds - it's just hit and miss week to week I guess, I don't think we'll attend every week now that we've moved up a class, maybe every 2 weeks or so and just do more training at home instead. We attend a different class during the week as well, so she'll still be getting out and about Erny - thanks for explaining Sounds much more active and energetic than what I've been seeing

I've done that in the past, it seems that it depends on the luck of the draw with the instructor what's 'allowed' or not - in the past it's never been a problem, all the other classes I usually take her off to the side and work on a variety of things rather than 10 sits in a row or whatever. But last time I gave her a rest, or e.g. did a series of short drop-stays instead of one big one (since they were supposed to look at you the entire duration of the stay, I figured I'd set her up to win not lose), I got asked rather sharply why we weren't doing what everyone else was. They're supposed to look at you apparently, even while the instructor is explaining the handling explanation part, i.e. when you're not looking at them at all or really asking them to do anything for any purpose. There's no real "down time" for the dogs, they're supposed to working pretty much the entire time, or you're slack for letting them slack off. I was told off for having an "out of control" dog even though I was letting her play with the dog next to us (with the other owner's permission) and was told quite clearly that the only thing she should be doing while we were waiting our turn/listening to explanations was sitting looking at me ignoring the world around her. Oh, and (genuine question) what do "motivational exercises" involve during a class? We just sit and wait our turn, and then can use food (or a toy in theory) to reward when doing exercises (Sorry for the hijack )