aussielover

You can use human glucosamine, fish oils and green lipped mussel powder. It might be cheaper for you to get the human stuff as sasha's blend is really quite expensive. Has bella tried cartrophen injections yet? These are usually very cheap (around $10 an injection) and can often help a lot. If none of this helps you could start her on some anti inflammatories.

Cooper is adorable. I black GSDs! If his only signs of HD are bunny-hopping occaisonally, so far so good! If you can take prevenative measures such as diet, supplements, keeping him fit and lean (swimming is excellent) etc then it may be a while, if ever, before you have to even consider surgery. Were the Xrays taken under GA or sedation? They are not perfectly straight (but pretty good) which can sometimes make HD look worse than it is. I've even seen cases where the owners have been told the hip was luxated (when it was not) due to bad positioning!

Wow you are brave leaving a 7 month old retriever with full indoor access! At that age my dog (lab) was left outside or locked in the laundary only if we had to go out. She sounds like a normal dog- 6-7 months is the age when they have a lot of energy and use it creatively as well as test the boundaries. Personally I'd be limiting her to one room and remove anything you don't want destroyed. The toilet training is a hard one because you don't have a backyard but I'd say you'll have to go back to basics with her- basically retrain her the way you did when she was a young pup. You may want to hire someone to have a play with her and take her out for a short walk when you're at work. There are a few individuals and dog walking/pet sitting companies who will do this. When she gets older she can go for the longer walks/group walks. TBH I think its only fair to the dog if you have a large energetic breed like a goldie and live in an apartment and she doesn't have much space to run around in but thats just my opinion. We have a small backyard- my girl likes chasing birds, digging and ripping up trees but I do feel guilty the yard isn't large enough for her and I will hire a dog walker if she's going to be alone for more than 3 hours She will eat whats in her kong if she is hungry enough. All dogs are food motivated when they get hungry enough. Stop feeding her in a bowl and put her kibble in the kong or equivalent toy. When she gets used to this, you can start making the food in the kong harder to get to.

Its a shame that it seems so difficult to take agility classes in VIC Do you think that already having agility titles or if you're already trialling you would have an advantage? surely that is more relevant than a dog having a good standard of obedience?

I would find a pet friendly B&B, although if you're with someone else, you could share the driving but its a pretty long day in the car. Is your dog used to going for longish trips in the car? I don't think giving a pigs ear would be a problem, I've given my dog pigs ears when we do 4 hour trips and she has no problem. I could not bear to do a long drive with a cat, unless it was well trained and used to travel. Its much harder on cats as you can't really let them out for toilet breaks and they don't generally like change or moving house which could make staying at a B&B a bit stressful for both yourselves and the cat.

Were his hips actually related to the problem that you presented him for: lame in the right frontlimb? Femoral head and neck excision is not a reliable treatment for large breed dogs. It can produce a fantastic outcome or it can lead to more problems and make other surgeries like total hips replacements more difficult. If the OP isn't cost concerned I would be recommending a hip replacement over a FHO in a GSD.

I tend to agree with HW. Surveys are inherently biased and not the ideal way to make conclusions especially about such subjective issues such as temperament. I think that in conjunction with more tightly controlled trials etc surveys can be useful. I admit I have no idea if other trials are being conducted in conjunction with the survey corvus was involved in. I think having an expert (or a number of experts) in behaviour assess lots of different dogs in the flesh would be a much more useful indicator of things like temperament and health. Obviously this is a lot more work though.

I would change to a product that doesn't contain ivermectin. Eg revolution Some dogs, usually collie breeds, can be very sensitive to ivermectin which can lead to seizures and death. It can be seen in any breed though but more commonly in collie breeds. There is a test available to see if your dog carries the gene and is therefore more likely to be susceptible

Some dogs with very Dysplastic hips will never show clinical signs or not show bad signs until they are quite old. So it's important to keep in mind that x rays dont always correlate with clinical signs or the amount if pain the dog Is in. So Sometimes dogs with very little coverage of the femoral head and very shallow sockets are better off than dogs with mild HD because there is not much bone contact to rub and cause arthritis. If he isn't showing signs of pain (assuming the limp in the front leg is unrelated?) I would hold off on any surgery for as long as possible. Hip replacements only have a limited lifespan before the implants loosen and break down. From memory it's between 5-8 years. So you want the dog to be older 5yrs +ideally in order to avoid a second surgery later in life. But if there dog is in severe painTHR would probably be the best option for a large breed. Sorry you are going through this and I hope your boy will be ok.

I like the idea of clubs offering separate competitive obedience and recreation/socialization streams. This way both serious obedience people and average pet owners can be happy. In my obedience school, unfortunately neither group is well catered for. The level of precision expected is not high enough for someone who wants to trial but the class work is very "old school" obedience type exercises like 30 mins of "heeling" and boring sit/drop/stay exercises. I would actually go back to obedience if it was more serious and aimed at triallers, with more experienced instructors and also went for a shorter period. 1 hour is too long for my dog to expect a high level of work with no break. I don't know if you have access to a better area but as we train on the local oval, there isn't any opportunity for off leash work or recall under distraction which is what many people are really after. Actually, recently the oval was closed for work, and we did street walks and agility exercises which many people found much more enjoyable and beneficial. People generally only want dogs that walk well on lead, can be taken to dog parks and come back when they're called. I did a "manners" and advanced manners class with my dog when she was younger and found them to be WAY for beneficial for everyday life. We did loose leash walking, trick training, off leash work under distraction, getting the dog to sit quietly at cafes etc. The only downside to these classes were that they were quite expensive (about the same price as a puppy school course so around $200 for 4 weeks).

Looks like superficial bacterial pyoderma to me. Is cookie itchy?

Immune mediated thrommbocytopenia or IMT is where the immune system attacks its own platelets which can lead to uncontrolled haemorrhage. Immune mediated hemolytic anemia or IMHA is where red blood cells are attacked leading to anemia They both have similar clinical signs though and animals can have both forms at the same time, when this occurs it is called Evan's syndrome. I hope your friend's dog recovers

I think you should contact your rescue group and get this dog assessed by a behaviourist. It sounds like you are doing a good job but need a bit of extra help as the dog is showing some very undesirable behaviourist like nipping at your husband and thinking about biting you. In the meantime I would restrict her privileges eg. don't allow her on the bed or couch at all, lock her out of your room when you are having cuddles with your husband (maybe in her crate if she has one), keep her confined to her own yard (don't let her run around the neighbours yards), keep her on a long line if you take her to dog parks etc. If you are seriously worried about her biting you, I would keep her on a lead in the house so you don't have to get close to her to remove her from undesirable situations (eg telling her to get off the bed or couch)

Dogs can get actue cruciate rupture from traumatic injury, which is what we typically see in younger and small breed dogs. The dog will go from being fine to being quite lame (often non weight bearing) very quickly. Is there a history of acute injury for the lab pup? Dogs can also get chronic cruciate weakening which eventually ruptures but typically the dogs are older as time is needed for thr cruciate to weaken over time. The clinical signs are often more gradual in these cases too.

immune mediated hemolytic anemia?

I think the english ones can be smaller. The american ones are usually tall, lean and leggy. I'm not sure if the enlgish ones are as drivey and energetic as the american ones? I know a few people that have bought english fild labs in the UK as a pet only or a weekend hunter only and the dogs aren't as hyper as some of the american ones sound like. But I haven't met any american field labs.

The thought of sharing utensils with my own dog makes me feel sick, but I know where her mouth has been and its not pleasant! She eats rotting carcasses of dead aniamls, dog poo, horse poo, sheep poo basically any poo :laugh: This is fairly commonplace in eurpoe though, I remeber we went out for dinne ronce in Paris and a lady has her SWF sitting on her lap and let it lick the bowl. We were pretty horrified but no one else in the restuarant seemed to care. Coffee is bad for dogs, but one lick of a teaspoon isn't likely to do much harm. My dad always lets Mindy lick the froth out of the lid of his take-away coffee.

Well I guess it depends on the amount of effort you put in, as well as the individual puppy. Depending on the puppy and upbringing, Id say its reasonable for the puppy to start "getting it" at 3-4 months but still not be totally reliable. I would worry and seek extra help if the puppy wasn't around 90% reliable at 6 months.

Surely if you pick a good breeder with proven lines many of the puppies will be suitable for the intended purpose and the breeder would be happy enough to tell you which ones they thought weren't suitable? Then it comes down to which pup you like the look of or which one seems to have the best connection with you at the time of viewing. Personally for me it would be about which dog I could live with the most easily, after all they are not a true working dog but first and foremost a companion.

1. I'd like to see a tick paralysis vacccine! 2. stem cell research 3. effects of raw diets vs commercial diets 4. polygenic diseases eg. ED, HD, OCD, epilepsy etc 5. clinical trials/studies on "preventative surgeries" such as JPS

I still do agility with the same club but I've stopped going to obedience, SO I'll answer for why I don't go to obedience class anymore. What was the reason why you stopped training your dog? - Lack of interest and time on my part Do you feel your dog is well trained enough? -Generally, yes. I can take her pretty much anywhere and she is obedient enough and listens to me most of the time. I don';t think obedience classes really helped her with general manners much anyway though. Did you not get results from previous training attempts? - We got results but thy weren't exactly useful for real life. - also there got to a stage where I felt like we weren't progressing. Is training too far away/ too often/ too expensive? -no its very close to where I live only about a 15 min walk or 5 min drive (in fact much closer than the agility clubs I go to!), it is also very cheap. The only thing is that it is on late at night (8pm) which is a very hard time for me to find motivation to go out in the cold and dark! Are you simply too busy? - It is not so much that I am too busy, but I would rather spend my time differently. I think I can achieve a lot more in shorter training sessions on my own than what we achieved in an hour class. Did you find training boring? -Yes. I didn't find the 30 mins or so of heel work particularly interesting. Even Rally O type exercises weren't exactly thrilling or exciting. I have to say that I felt my dog did enjoy the opportunity to earn rewards and enjoyed the work more than I did. The only reason I was going at all in the end was that I felt bad about not letting her go because she does seem to enjoy the whole opportunity to work, the socialisation and being out and about. What would prompt you to start training again or would you not start training again regardless? - I would have to find a very inspirational obedience instructor that understood that it was boring for both the humans and dog (mostly humans though!) to do the same heel exercise for 30 mins. - I don't think pure obedience really interests me but I would be more interested in joining a training group that learnt tricks, manners etc.

You can use advantix or frontline as well as using comfortis. I use advantix plus comfortis as my dog is flea allergic so can't get any fleas on her.

Lablover on DOL breeds working labs. Maybe send her a message? There is also a working retriever message board http://www.australianworkingretrievercentral.org.au/ Working line labs tend to be taller, more leggy and of a finer/leaner build than show-bred labs. If you're looking for a smaller lab maybe look into Guide Dog or assistance dog lines. Guide dogs prefers smaller dogs as they are easier to manage and take to places. In NSW, Guide dogs and assistance dogs gets some of their pups from registered breeders and a few of us on DOL have Labs with guide dog lines.

Kelpie x terrier? Whatever he is, he is very cute! I think the pink collar is pretty as well, even if it is not very masculine lol

Kelpie x terrier? Whatever he is, he is very cute! I think the pink collar is pretty as well, even if it is not very masculine lol