lillim

I have to confess, when a dog hair tumbleweed floats past me while I'm on the lounge, I can't help but hum a "old western stand off" tune in my head, makes the neat freak in me calm down.

I've used a solution of 70% white vinegar, 20% water and a 1 drop of tea tree oil, which seems to work effectively.

We wash our dog with Maleseb fortnightly, and when she has a nasty flare up, we wash the affected area with Maleseb daily. A product I've found really helpful for relieving the particualry itchy areas which you can't apply cortisone cream directly to the skin to because of fur is a cortisone spray called Cortavance. Any food elimination diet you put the dog on, is not going to show results for 4 weeks or so, and any supplements you add to the dogs diet such as fish oil will also not have instant results. I think it took about 6 weeks to see any improvement in our dogs skin and fur when she started on the Omega Oil and I never saw improvement for the 8 weeks she was on rosehip & fish oil capsules. There is Science Hill Z/D which is a dry food made for dogs with allergies or on elimination diets, other than the weird smell, we found it easier to use this than trying different combinations of foods. We have tried elimination diets, scoured the yard and house for possible plants and things that could be cause of the dogs allergies, swapped to all natural cleaning products in case it was chemicals. In the end we took the dog to get an allergy test and it turned out to be dustmites and storage mites, so no matter what you try, it could just be something you don't know and can't possibly know about until you get the test done.

total noob, surrounded by dogs, cats and other misc animal growing up and always had an interest, my current dog Misha is my first "big girl, I'll all moved out of home and independant" dog, so its been a steep learning curve, especially with her allergies and the fact that I've made a few mistakes with her, which I'm now working on to correct. I have though learnt a lot and am hoping to learn more.

As long as the dogs are contained in the yard, I see no problem, on our walking route there is swf and Heeler that both bark like mad when we pass their houses, but since the dogs are well secured in their yard and pose no threat it does not concern me.

oh dear god, words cannot express just how silly PETA is.

Thanks for the suggestions

hmm intriguing, did they only try one alternative treatment like chinese medicine or did they try a couple?

thankyou, have you used then yourself for anything?

I'm wanting to investigate alternative methods for dealing with my dogs allergies, but honestly don't know where to start, can anyone reccomend someone in the Sydney Region that could help?

All dogs know how to do that i think! I found the dogs that actually get onto the subway and travel absolutely fascinating! If a dog did that here people would have a fit! Just goes to show how much a part of peoples daily lives they are in Moscow. :D lol , yes mine knows very well how to pick marks for pats, but for strays that have never been pets, its curios, and i wonder if its something that they have picked up from descending from pets or something else?

very interesting, I never knew that Moscow had a large population of stray dogs, it is particularly fascinating that the 'beggar' strays know how to pick their mark.

This is a great game, we use "stay" then hide, then "find" and the dog tears around the house looking for us.

yeah, I don't quite get it either...... it seems a bit basic 101 stuff yeah I really hate my vet too, I take my dog in weekly to get a needle and they don't charge me. Money hungry gits! There are always people in any profession that makes you wonder why they got into it in the first place, but to tarnish all vets with the same brush is uncalled for.

there is a woman that we pass on walks sometimes that is terrified of dogs and is a bit unbalanced, when we cannot avoid walking past her, I move to the side of the road say " she is under control, and can't harm you" then get my dog to sit and focus on me. I did try telling her that my dog was friendly and would not harm her, then got my dog to sit but this seemed to scare her more, I think it made her feel like I did not think my dog was a concern when she certainly did.

Flies are a favourite for mine, but when she goes to sniff a grasshopper, if it jumps she makes a hasty retreat.

What a nasty thing to happen, definantly report it to the cops and council. geez, you too? I love the filthy looks from a particular woman, who is all over the footpath running trying to keeping in pace with what her onlead small dog is doing, while it barks and snarls its head off at us and Misha my dog gets a bit jumpy and upset then barks back.

at the moment, that when its stinking hot, having 36 Kilos of fur lying pretty much on top me makes we wonder why even though I knew she was going to be big dog, I decided that her being on the couch would be ok. also deciding how I wanted to train my dog and getting professional help, rather than googling so much and ending up more confused.

not to mention the little ones that never even had a chance to become an amazing dog, it is very disheartening to be reminded what humanity is capable of and what a disrespect of life we have.

geez, he is allergic to alot, just out of curiosity, are you still on the desenstising injections, or did it not work? My dog is still on the desenstising injections, but we are yet to reach the stage where we know if it works or not, so I wanted to find out more about homeopathic remedies, got any pointers as to where to start looking?

well I feel like a dunce, didn't knew they came in black. He is very gorgeous, such a relaxed expression.

if the dog is not toilet trained and ill mannered, I think its very rude to automatically expect that its ok. My grandmother has a 13 year old cattle dog with arthritis and cateracts, who is very dog aggresive,especially with dogs that enter her house. My aunty thought insists on bringing her dog everytime she visits and expects the cattle dog to be locked up in a room, while her dog romps around the house and plays zoomies in the yard. It annoys me no end as for children ,I think it depends on age and how they behave and how much control and boundaries the parents have over their children (the ones that are old enought to know better)

I know there are lots of posts about allergies, but I wanted to get a general idea about how people have dealt with/ treated their dog's allergies. So my queries are: what allergy does your dog have? how have you dealt with/treated it? has it helped? have you used any alternative methods to deal with/treat? I have a dog with dust mite allergies, so would be particularly interested in hearing from owners of dogs with dust mite allergies.

Ah such cute photos, you make the lil devils look so sweet and innocent ;) . thank you so much for taking them, I'll have to get you to come around and take photos of the dog..... if she behaves. and of course your welcome to come around and play with them again.

there is also an omega 3 oil made specifically for dogs, we give this to our dog, an alternative to giving her fish oil and rosehip capsules, and it really helps keep her fur shiny and skin less flaky. It can take a while to see results but it really does work.