aussielover

Did she give reasons for this choice of dog?

I have a towel under the water bowl to stop the splashes. But as for the drool and dribbles... I don't think its physically possible for a labrador or other loose-lipped breed NOT to dribble- other lab owners correct me if i'm wrong?

See a behaviourist and then a surgeon, if it is deemed as not a behavioural problem. To get it back in- apply some lube, which should help it slide in easier.

As close to 8 weeks as possible.

Pretty much any dog can be trained to give a good warning bark. Any large dog will look pretty intimidating. Personally I would not rely on a pet/companion dog for security, a determined intruder will not be put off by a dog. My black labrador, has a very scary and aggressive sounding bark, to the point where delivery people have been too scared to enter. She is not at all aggressive and unlikely to ever back up her voice with a bite. She also does not wander, people can accidently leave the door open or open the door to let others in and she will wander around the front but not leave the property. I would not purposefully give her free access to the front though. Not wandering has a lot to with training and also the dogs personality, rather than breed though, in my opinion.

I did not mean for that to be the sole indicator of a good working/tough Dobermann. I will from now on How very strange that my "pathetic" show dogs do it and the working ones dont. I wonder why. I would love for ONE puppy buyer to come to me and say - I want to compete in something with the dog, Im yet to find one like that...... everyone wants a pet, not interested in any dog sports AT ALL. Not even obedience or agility? I would have thought dobes a good choice for those activities in particular...

I've also been trying out some marker training on all our puppy spay/neuters. I've noticed that they have become a lot calmer, less barking, howling etc after a session. They are also much more happy to see me, and I've even managed to teach a few pups some simple tricks like shake hands, roll on back, touch etc. I haven't tried it with any of our older patients as I find puppies much more receptive to training and interaction in a short period. There have been a number of studies on the effect of training shelter dogs, and their subsequent adoptability and adoption success rates. I will have to dig up some of my old essays to get the referenced though.

If I feed only bones and meat to an adult dog, is this going to cause health problems? How do you know if your dog has a balanced diet on a homemade diet? I use carrots as a filler in my dogs food (to make her feel more full), but they just go straight through her. I assume I would have to mush any veggies or fruit that I chose to add into a raw diet? What is the difference between barf and prey model and raw?

Congrats Tapua! I love your labs, they are so gorgeous!

You're dogs are gorgeous!!! I am a lab and aussie fan also! I had an Aussie who passed away earlier this year Now I have a black lab puppy. I would like to have both an Aussie and a lab, but I do find labs a bit easier to manage overall- especially in terms of coat care (live in a tick area and near beaches so lots of swimming). I love red tri's, i think they are my favourite colour, although my girl was black tri, so I am quite partial to a nicely marked black tri too! The merles are also stunning!

Enquiring on behalf of a friend with a dog with quite bad HD. What is the best type of exercise for a dog with HD, especially to help strengthen and build up the hip area/muscles? She was recommended swimming, but unfortunately that is not an option for regular exercise. Is there any other treatments which may help? I have suggested acupuncture and maybe a dog physio or chiro. Can anyone recommend a good canine chiro or physio, would be great if in or close to the hills district in sydney.

If it was just the colour, markings and health testing etc you wanted why wouldn't you buy from a breeder that doesn't charge extra for colour and markings etc? If one breeder had the pup I wanted and it was more expensive than say, another litter from a different breeder, then I would probably go for the colour I liked, provided good temperament and health tested etc If the puppy was show quality, then I would also be willing to pay more.

Sorry to hear about Cindy ;) We commonly get dogs that vomit after having a comfortis tablet. HOwever, these are generally dogs that have it on an empty stomach. We recommend giving it with a small meal, to minimize the risk of vomiting. We haven't had any of the "side effects" you have described above. Does it actually say side effects or adverse reaction? Technically, side effects are known and occur in many animals receiving the treatment eg. excessive hunger and thirst and increased urination on corticosteroids. An adverse reaction occurs rarely, in individual animals. We have had a lot of success using comfortis, many clients report it is the only thing that has got rid of the fleas.

I would pay more for a nicely marked pup in the colour I liked, so long as it had the temperament and health tests (of the parents) as well.

I guess my big question to you is then, would you do it again if you had another dog with a similar prob? In other words, was the improvement enough to improve shep's quality of life? Yes but i would have done it way earlier- like at 8 or 9 years when she first started showing signs of arthritis. We saw an improvement initially in our dog's proprioception and confidence using her front legs. She was also able to walk for longer distances. It may only be 3500 for the treatment itself, but does that include the GA, pain relief, CT scans etc? Also we got it done at a vet clinic in sydney. They insisted on doing a CT scan before to make sure the dog doesn't have any other problems and to make sure the dog is suitable for the procedure. Obviously its worth the money if it works though. At the moment it is the "last resort" for many arthritic dogs and I would not hesitate to give my dog the best chance possible, but luckily we are in a financial position to be able to afford experimental treatments. I do hope they do further research though into the uptake of stem cells in patients (they are currently doing this in horses but not dogs). In a young, otherwise healthy dogs, the risks are not so great (GA etc) so I guess the question is- can you afford and are you willing to spend thousands of dollars on a treatment that may or may not work?

That is poor advice from the vet. UTI's are quite common in puppies- the stress of a new environment etc can bring them on. Inverted vulva can also resolve itself with age, and especially by allowing the pup to have one season before desexing. It can also be corrected surgically as a last resort, if there are continual UTIs. My own puppy had this condition and it resolved itself as she got older, she didn't even need to have a season to correct it. That is not to say that your poor pup wouldn't have had other problems being so inbred But it does annoy me when vets give poor advice. I am glad you've had such a positive experience with registered breeders

Could she be recognising the context as a training situation and therefore particularly want to be with you because you reward her a lot in training situations when she's with you? Or it could just be that she hasn't generalised away from you=okay in every scenario. I think Corvus is on track. Looking at the training history it's possible that your dog has a history of high reinforcement from you, especially in a training session whilst previously little has come from another person. Sometimes it pays for you to hold the lead but the other person works with the dog providing all the reinforcement while you be a "disinterested" party, ie no eye contact, no verbal, no food, no touching. You are close to the dog distance wise so the dog is not distracted by looking for you. This enables the dog to work out more easily where the reinforcement is coming from. There are of course a few other variables in the equation depending on the temperament of your dog too. Interesting, because she will work for friends and family OFF the lead, like do her tricks, obedience etc, but they don't treat her at all when they walk her on lead as they only walk her, where as I actually train her on walks (doing her GD stuff).

Sorry i don't quite understand what you mean by reward history in this context? She is used to being tied up and not seeing me, at obedience and also at the shops sometimes. She just lies down and waits for me. I think the issue is when she can actually see me, she isn't able to be on lead and under the conrol of another person. Guide dogs certainly know about this problem, it was at one of their training sessions she turned into a demon lol

That's a good point Corvus. I think it is generally easier to find a good breeder of a truly rare or less common breed (not a "blue staffy" lol). They are less likely to be in it for the money and more likely to be breeding for the betterment of the breed. All the aussie breeders i had contact with were sooo enthusiastic about the breed (rightly so!). I think labs are more suitable for me at the moment, but looking through the puppy listings of DOL is really very daunting, I wouldn't really know where to start asking... I think I would have to stick with Mindy's breeder, other guide dog breeders, DOL members or recommendations from DOLers.

This is the guide dog puppy, my aussie actually died a while ago :D My Aussie also only worked for family members but it didn't really matter in her case. She gives me sad eyes if do that, but thats all. Given the chance though, she follows me from room to room. She is not a velcro dog ie. she doesn't have to sit right beside me, but she does like to have me in her sights.

i guess i sort of assumed one would not get a dog from someone they weren't happy with??? but, ok i'll add that anyway

How long has she had it? My dog gets discharge after sleeping, but she also has allergies. It is yellow colour but I have always assumed it is just "sleep" like humans get. I wipe it away with a tissue and some water but it doesn't come back. If it is not normal for you pup and you are worried i would take her to the vet

Many people seem to have had negative experiences with registered breeders and there are so many posts here saying how hard it is to find a good one. I have only had good experiences with breeders. After having a pet shop puppy where no support was offered and the dog was under-socialised and obviously not even the breed they said he was, getting a pup from a registered breeder was great. Our Aussie breeder was very helpful and truthful about the breed. We were invited to come and visit her dogs so we could see what they were like. She gave us an older puppy that she was going to keep for breeding as she thought it would have better life with us and fit in well with us. The puppy was perfect for our lifestyle and will always be very fondly remembered as our family dog. We were able to board the dog with her when we went on holidays. When we saw her at dog shows (like the easter show) she always remembered us and asked after Clover. When Clover passed away we let her know and received a lovely email back. Unfortunately she is not breeding very many Australian Shepherd litters anymore. When were thinking about getting a new puppy, all the breeders i contacted were lovely, if they didn't have any dogs suitable, they would recommend another breeder. When i contacted Mindy's breeder to let her know that we had her and how she was going, she was delighted to hear from us and appreciated the pics sent and progress update. So my experiences have only been good!

I have never heard of such a 'training' method. It's not one I'd recommend. A young pup, socially isolated, barks for attention so you gag it. A barking collar would be less aversive - at least that only works when the pup barks. Seriously, crate train these pup.s Get up, let them into the house, give a bone or a kong and go back to bed. If it carries on, ignore it. At least the neighbours won't have to listen to it. Or better still, sleep the dog inside in its crate. Gundogs and working dogs were bred to focus on people - isolate a people focussed pup outside and the consequences are hardly surprising. I fail to see why a pup should pay for simply wanting to be with its family. I dont like the sound of a muzzle either but in saying that I am not the one to say its cruel or indecent In no way is my dog isolated.. She is with me 24/7 through out the day and just sleep in a secure place ouside/undercover in a warm place. There is no reason a dog needs to be with you 24/7 otherwise it will make a dog anxious when you do need to go out. I agree a pup should be with its family most the time.. I dont mind her whining in the morning its the kids i dont want her to wake up especially on a school day.. like i said 6.30-7 is fine but not when its still dark outside.. i tried giving her food when bringing her inside but find she still whines.. Someone mentioned putting her on a mat with treats.. i might try that.. thanx How about giving her a frozen kong, pigs ear (although mine demolishes that in like 1 minute), or a bone? Something that takes them a while to get through? I used to get up for mindy at 6am, toilet her and then put her back in the crate with a kong or bone which would give me another 40 mins or so. She now sometimes still gets this as a treat but sits on her bed now, not in the crate (which she no longer fits in to) Don't worry though, the need to be up early doesn't last that long, by the time they are 6 months they are usually happy for a more civilized getting up time! Its now 9.30 and my pup and i are still lazing around, we will go for a walk soon, but its not like she is desperate to go for one, which she used to be as a younger puppy.

So we did a training exercise on Tuesday, where handlers swapped dogs for the session. Unfortunately, my dog went nuts and no-one could handle her at all, even the instructor struggled. She kept trying to get back to me, if I went in front she pulled like a steam train, which she usually never does (she is quite lazy) and if i went behind she wouldn't move at all or keep trying to run backwards to me. Even food could not keep her interested in the other handler (she is usually totally food obsessed and will do ANYTHING for it). She was the only dog in the group that had this problem, the dog i swapped with was fine with me and all the other dogs were fine as well. It was quite embarrassing really as she is usually the calmest and best behaved dog there. It was like she turned into a monster or something! Interestingly, her brothers behave like this all the time. She does not have any other separation anxiety issues as far as i know, I have been away for a month and she was fine with my parents. I can leave her at home and she doesn't bark or destroy things (she has full run of the house and yard too). I have had my friends help out with her training by doing her tricks with her and taking her for short walks at uni and work so she should be used to going with other people. My parents also tell me she is more naughty with them on walks but I know thats because they let her get away with stuff. Can some dogs only work well for one person? I suppose if I am not there, she wouldn't be as naughty?