Mrs Rusty Bucket

These problems don't seem like it's because it's a cross breed dog. I have one. Well mystery ancestry. I don't have the kinds of problems you're describing and most of my friend who own mutts of various origins - do not have these problems. Plenty of pedigree or even working line dogs have "weak nerves". It's a pity he had to be sedated at the vet - hard to check eyes and hearing when you do that. If he's going blind - some of the anxiety and fear problems might be caused by that.

I dunno the answer. I don't know how much calcium a dog (or a human) needs to do well. Vegans can get enough calcium to grow strong bones - I don't know how they do that but some are healthy. I guess if you had a dog that seemed to be allergic to everything and was losing weight at high speed and this diet reversed that - would you trade a dying dog for one that is fairly healthy but has weak bones? Not saying this product can do that. But would love people to contribute data... eg did nothing noticiable, did something (seems better, seems worse).

I don't think you even need to repeat daily. Once a week training will work (provided there is no self reinforcement being naughty in between). But there's no point going round to help people with their dog problems if you are trying to get them to use a bunch of techniques they're not comfortable using (too harsh or feel stupid or "don't believe in treats"). Or misuse by mistiming or inconsistent application. It's not just the dog that a trainer needs to train.

No? They put the check chain in a little bag and throw it near the dog. timing and consistency is everything (for all operant conditioning quadrants) and the BB trainer my neighbour got didn't have it and didn't teach it. Throwing things at the dog and yelling "bah" is not positive re-inforcement. It might be positive punishment - if they get the timing right and are consistent enough for the dog to make the connection.

There is some calcium in lentils and in meat products and some other vegies. I don't feed my dog bones on a regular basis. They get stuck and cause problems - because she doesn't chew them properly. But she got a boiled egg this morning in its shell - and she ate some of that - though it usually goes straight through unchanged, there is some calcium in that. Most of my dog's calcium comes from dairy (yogurt). Same as me - I don't eat bones either.

My dog's worst effort was something that closely resembled sump oil. I tried increasing levels of soap intensity to get it out, with warm water... eventually resorted to omo enzyme based washing powder - that worked. rinse thoroughly and then some. And no more visits to the home of the sump oil. Even dead sea critter smell was easier to remove than sump oil or power steering fluid or whatever it was. She did it again at the local park - found something that had leaked out of the council tractor mower and rolled in that... actually I think she was just trying to get belly rubs and picked a bad spot to roll over. Blue oily substance. Omo fixed again. ARGH.

Oops sorry to confuse the issue with an Airedale and pancreas problems. Multifocal to coalescing, multi nodular pyogranulomateos and panniculitis seems to be a skin lump problem. For which AA suggests a topical application of turmeric and coconut something and something - wrapped up so that the dog can't eat it too quickly There is something on their website and youtube about it. To me it sounds like a topical application of a curry mix (no chilli) so is pretty much edible for humans. Not sure about dogs. And like I said before - the stuff I looked up - the lumps would have gone away naturally but if you're on to the third opinion and anything is worth a shot... But if you do decide to try it... can you do us all a favour and take before photos, and keep a diary of how many treatments you do (and what they are - doses etc) and whether or not much gets eaten, and if you do any diet change as well ie as complete as you can, and then post us a weekly update. If it's as good as AA says - all the lumps will be gone inside a month or so. But I suspect for this problem - that might not happen. Would love to see not just the positive testimonials but the "did nothing noticeable" testimonials, and the "it got worse" testimonials. Because that would be the basis of a proper study. And if there were a lot more positive than others then it might be better than placebo...

Hi Airedaler No idea what the diagnosis stated means. Looks a lot worse than food allergies tho. I have a friend who walks an Airedale - that has some serious problems with its pancreas. If they stick to the vet-recommended diet - he functions - but has the worst stinkiest sloppiest foul poos ever. If they go off the diet - he is worse. I suspect they're not very dedicated about sticking to the diet and he eats a lot of stuff he shouldn't - mostly found in his back yard. There is some evidence that (eating) turmeric is good for preventing / reducing the chance of getting some cancers in humans. But I don't know what the active dose is and I really don't like it much. And not sure if it is any good for dogs. Not sure if there is any evidence for turmeric applied externally - helping remove lumps. There are "testimonials" but when I looked up the type of lumps being treated - they would have healed in the same time anyway (ie no better than no treatment). My Grandmother had pancreatic cancer - and she changed her diet radically and lasted a lot longer than the standard life expectancy ie an amazing 10 years (didn't have time to die). So I think if the dog has a pancreas problem - the right diet (finding it) could help immensely. Ie don't give the pancreas any work to do.

Hmm with my dog obviously cyclone wire fences and large metal water tanks and hills hoists must throw her compass off. Her fave position - I would call ostridge - she likes to put her head right up against a tin fence or barrier or into a bush... In the back yard she likes under something where the magpies can't swoop her, eg lemon tree or hills hoist. Craps do not line up with north/south on a regular basis. Now I'm going to have to start record keeping.

My dog is allergic to kikuyu grass which is in our lawn at home and at our favourite park - so her belly is covered in pink stain from her licking but I'm happy to tolerate that rather than a bright red rash. I try to get her to sit on a bed made of a tarp and a towel instead of the grass on nice days. That helps keep the rash at bay. I could also rinse off with calendular tea but that's a bit of a hassle - trying to get it on then off and dry and what to do with the left overs and how long does it keep... I sometimes use alloveen oatmeal goo (looks like vaseline but isn't) if the rash gets bad. Diet - I had to change from one kind of dry kibble to another to stop her getting the runs. Has worked. Now she only gets the runs if she helps herself to something she shouldn't eat. I feed her a couple of spoonfuls of ordinary yogurt - most of the lactose/lactic acid that causes allergies to cow milk is modified to something less allergy causing by the yogurt making process. I give her carrots or cow hoofs and the occasional green eucalyptus stick to chew on - cow hooves can get pretty stinky tho. I don't feed bones because she doesn't chew them up properly and the big splintery chunks or whole but slightly crumpled chicken wings tend to come back to haunt us - guaranteed the most inconvenient time. Tea tree and eucalyptus oils - can be toxic to dogs in high quantities and a bit corrosive (burns). You'd want to dilute it a lot. Dogs also find the smell offensive / painful. I use these oils (couple of drops to 200mls water) to clean my kitchen counters to discourage counter surfing by evil hound.

Now that would have been a good excuse to visit my sister in Perth for her birthday...] How did you find out about it (whose list should I be subscribing to)?

I think it's a sort of brand for three or four different products. They have their own website that explains their stuff. There's some sort of food supplement There is a poultice ointment stuff for lumps and bumps and stuff - they have posted a recipe for that one if you don't want to buy it. And there is something that is supposed to help with parasites. They make a lot of claims that they only back up with testimonials (positive stories) not data (responses from all users not just the happy ones). So they're somewhere between home remedy, snake oil and yet to be tested good product or placebo. Your choice. What do you want it for?

My neighbour got a bark busters trainer in. I think he wanted to get his dog to stop barking all the time and attacking birds in the yard. They spent some time on the back verandah - saying "bah" and throwing a bag with a chain in it at the ground (I think)... Neighbours tried to keep it up for a couple of days and then stopped. They found me going round the back yard with my dog saying "shitnapiss" and then "good dog" extremely funny and didn't understand why I didn't get embarrassed about it. My dog doesn't kill birds and she stops barking when I ask her to. My neighbours have not asked me for any training advice but they can see what I do. The bloke is a bit old school. He thinks you should not use treats at all for dog training. And that scolding and the occasional infliction of pain (I hear the dog scream) works. His dog is proof that scolding etc does not work. Made zero difference to what the dog does. She still barks all the time and kills any bird dumb enough to fly too close.

How old is he? Dogs around the 8 to 18 months of age - adolescent - sometimes develop irrational fears (and selective hearing). He might be having trouble with his eye sight too. Talking to him as you approach and letting him use his nose - should reassure him if this is the case. And some dogs (and children) - if you change your hair style - will not recognise you eg from fluffy halo of dry hair to a wet cling rat hair - not the same person. hat on / hat off will do it for my dog.

We used to have a "fun class" for people who didn't learn or want to learn, they just wanted to run round some equipment with their dogs (often on lead - argh). Just set up a simple course that could be done with dog on left the whole way round and left an instructor "supervising". Any chance you could video this student and play it back and let her see for herself what you're talking about? Have some video of what normal people look like too. Just set up a tripod somewhere and leave it running. I must admit I'm pretty horrified about how I look running a course - most of my time my butt sticks out and my knees are knocked... but I'm nice to my dog and she looks like she's enjoying herself.

Just wondering if it has something to do with acceleration and deceleration cues. Eg there are times you need the dog to keep moving but you need to be relatively still - so leaning forward like you're running faster than you are might keep the dog out and moving instead of coming in and stopping with you if you stood upright. I would think this could apply if you wanted to send a dog into a tunnel or over a jump sequence and change direction yourself ie you needed to stop but the dog needs to keep going. I often lean forward or crouch a bit and then bounce to simulate what running looks like from a distance to get my dog to move faster. So I guess in a way - she's trained me to do that.

it's an Australian road rule - you're not allowed to ride / drive with an animal tethered to or held from your vehicle (includes bicycles. And not on any road related areas either - which includes footpaths. For some reason - most police don't actually know this rule - maybe because they are never asked to enforce it. Unless there is a major accident because of it - in which case you might have hard time getting insurance to pay out - if they ask. A lot of the endurance clubs use bikes with dogs to build endurance. And I've seen a few people who ride with their dog - attached or not - past police and they do nothing so I figure it's not high on their priority list. They're not likely to ping parents for riding their bikes on the footpaths with their children either. I think the internet term for it is bikejoring or something similar.

The following three - are associated with ANKC / VCA / Dogs Vic rego, should come together. Not sure if that would be exactly the same as when you take the puppy home as some breeders are a bit slow to send in their paperwork and some dog orgs are a bit slow to process them. But you should be able to get a copy of one or both parent dog's paper work maybe - like a photocopy so if your puppy's papers don't come when the breeder said - you can follow up. -Registration (limited/main) with ANKC/state body eg VCA -Possibly informatin on parents and breed (usually optional, right?) -Transfer of ownership papers-all signed and ready to be sent Council rego - the registration as an animal breeder business with council - hasn't got anything to do with (individual) dog rego with council - most councils give you a little bit of lead time to get your puppy registered, between two weeks and 3 months depending on where you live. -Registration with council (so is this separate from the above?) Hopefully the breeder can provide you with a vet certificate that shows when the puppy has been vaccinated, something on when it was wormed (tho mostly don't need the vet to do this), and when the next treatments are due and what to use. -Vet history: vaccinations, checkup history, health issues etc shouldn't be any health issues. This one - you want the microchip info to be in your name or a transfer into your name to be signed off by the breeder. I don't know how this works since the breeders are supposed to microchip before they rehome - but whose name do they put the microchip details into. I tried to get my dog registered with more than one database (ie the one my vet uses as well as the one the AWL uses) but couldn't do that because the website link was broken on the day I was at the vet and you have to get the vet to certify the microchip you're registering is in the dog. Frustrating much. -Microchipping information (number, names, dates, addresses, phone number on microchip) I suspect the new owner has to ensure the microchip details are their details - usually at the vet's office is a good place to do this, because I've heard of some puppies where the new owners never did this and the (lost and found) dog ended up back with the breeder.

yes and no. helps if buyer knows their consumer rights and are clear about what they expect or understand by "registered" and "purebred" etc. Straight up if they think they're buying a show dog and they tell the seller that - then the seller sells them a puppy with no ANKC papers - that seller is commiting fraud. It's not really about whether they're "technically" telling the truth - it's about what "any reasonable member of the public" would understand by their ad. Which of course is a joy for lawyers, but the enforcement of "Australian consumer law" is starting to be applied to puppy vendors. Especially pet shops. But to some extent - anyone who puts an ad in writing on gumtree or the trading post or email - could also be subject to it. This is the WA take on it. http://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/consumerprotection/PDF/Publications/A_consumers_guide_to_buying_a_pet.pdf

This is what many buyers think they are getting when they ask for a dog with "papers". They want a dog that they could put in a dog show if they wanted and call purebred/pedigree and be confident about that. They want a dog that reflects the characteristics of its breed - otherwise they might as well rescue a mutt puppy from a shelter. But the ads say "registered" when they mean with Council, and papers when they mean stuff they printed themselves or vaccination papers or even the microchip papers. I've actually had that conversation with dog owners - what papers? oh - vaccination and microchip... yes but you can't show the dog and you'd have to get it desexed to enter most dog sport competitions like obedience and agility etc. I've even had people who wanted a "Show dog" be fooled by "council registration". They think a "show dog" is something they can get at the local pet shop puppy supply or off gumtree/trading post. It's all very well to say "papers" and "registered" don't mean members of dogs vic or some other breeder association (eg working dogs) with records of each dog's ancestry and performance but that's not now the general public read it.

Feels like fraud to me. The trouble is - as some have said - "registered" for pedigree (not purebred) with DogsVIC and ANKC is not the same as "registered with local council to breed dogs". This lady was misleading to suggest that papers were a hassle - pedigree papers - in her case - impossible. So theoretically you could report her to council and consumer affairs for misleading advertising (depending what she wrote in the ad you found her with), or misleading conduct - suggesting the puppies were "eligible" for (ANKC pedigree) papers but weren't going to have them). Make it clear you were looking for a pedigree/purebred dog from a breeder who follows the ANKC / Dogs Vic code of ethics and this person misled you saying papers were not important. Note some breeders - especially of cross breeds - will print their own "papers". Which mean nothing and have no legal standing at the moment.

There have been studies that dogs show empathy to humans. really not sure about cats, but there are plenty of territorial protective killer attack cats in my neighbourhood. They will shoot out from their front yard to hook a dog in the face. And I used to live with a cat that required me to wear gum boots in the house because it's fave game was ankle hooking. And it would not tolerate a boyfriend in its owner's bed. And I'm pretty sure not the only cat (or dog and the occasional parrot) that "protects" its bonded human from all comers. Pretty sure the human is in slavery/bondage to the animal as far as it's concerned.

The only way I could tell a pitbull from an American Staffordshire Terrier is with a bit of ANKC paper and a photo in an ANKC affiliated journal. You can legally carry fly repellent spray on walks. I always carry the roll on but maybe I should upgrade. I always have a pocket knife buried in my gear too. Bugger the illegal to carry. How am I supposed to cut up an apple or bit of tough steak without one or cut some rope that gets tangled around my dog or cut a cable tie or remove a splinter or render first aid without one? Flick knife - should be illegal but an ordinary swiss army knife - they're crap in a knife fight. You could probably do more damage with a stick.

Done. I had to answer some of the questions about punishment based on how she reacts to other people's attempts to "punish" her because I don't use it much. Unless you count putting her in the crate for counter surfing... there's no scolding, dragging or "taps" involved. She goes in the crate willingly and then gets peeved that I don't let her come out when she wants.

If you really want to be sure stuff going in is stuff coming out... you can feed him a bit of tinned sweet corn or tinned chick peas or raw carrot. That's really obvious coming out the other end. Then you know things are passing through ok and the plastic is probably not causing problems. But he probably up chucked it (if it was a big bit) when you weren't looking. If my dog eats big bone splinters (20cent sized pieces of beef neck or whatever) she gets me up in the middle of the night to get those out of the system. They can come out frontways or backways. Not fun for her. I don't give her bones any more.