Purple Julie

Oh yes, that's a good idea, how did I never think of that? He's probably a New Guinea Singing Dog cross, I don't imagine he's a pure breed. I think he barks but he also makes rather unusual noises when he's happy an wants to 'talk' to us. Forgot to mention that his tongue is fully blue-black, not spotted or flecked.

Sasaki is a village dog living in Bougainville, PNG and he has a blue-black tongue, which I know that the Chow Chow breed has. He doesn't really look much like a chow chow, except he has the red hair and a blue-black tongue (which I unfortunately haven't been able to get a photo of - he doesn't stand with his tongue hanging out much). It seems strange that there would have been chow chows in Bougainville, but I guess not too impossible, since the Japanese were there during WW2 and I think they're popular dogs with the Japanese people. See the attached photos. I've also put a thread in the health forum about the bad skin on his back which isn't shown in these photos, but is in a photo in that thread.

Meet Sasaki, our very friendly village dog! Well, he's not 'our' dog, but he's one of the dogs in our village in Bougainville, PNG. He, and all the village dogs have terrible looking backs and I'm not sure what is causing it. Our theory is that it is a combination of flea bites, scratching and flies. If we give him a good wash and a flea treatment, would his hair on his back grow back or do you think it is permanent damage and he would always look like that? Any suggestions for what we could do to help Sasaki? Attached photos - one shows his terrible back and the other just shows how cute and loving he is (and how many fights he's been in too!) (NB. I don't see the attached photos in the preview, so I hope they work).

I did a bit of research on the internet and on this forum about fear of thunder issues, and I found the Thundershirt (in the US) on Google, and I found anxiety wraps mentioned in the forums back in 2008. The 2008 discussion was about if they are effective, etc, but there wasn't many people who had tried them to know. I was wondering if there are now people here who have tried them and found that they have helped their dog with anxiety or fear, particularly of thunder. Poor Jyra has developed a fear of thunder and is terrified of it now, so I'm looking for solutions, and I know about the desensitisation strategy. She escaped during an unexpected thunderstorm on Wednesday, giving my poor Mum a huge panic and also worrying my Dad and brother. Dad left work straight away and was picturing driving along one of the roads near home and seeing a dead dog. Her breakaway collar came off when she was trying to open the garage door (which she succeeded in doing). Thankfully someone called the council and the ranger picked her up and took her to the shelter, where she arrived when my Mum was on the phone to them, and they scanned her microchip and asked Mum, "Is her name Jyra?". What a relief! I heard all about it after the fact since I am in PNG. It is much better when you know the dog is ok and you don't have the huge dread and panic feeling of a missing dog. Mum and Dad do their best to keep Jyra inside when they know there is thunder coming, but can't do much when you're not expecting it, other than keeping her inside all the time when you're out and my parents don't want to do that. Anyway, I'd like to hear thoughts on these Thundershirt type things/anxiety wraps, and any other thoughts would be good too. I think Jyra will not respond to thunder on CDs so the desensitisation might not work that way.

Hi, sorry it's taken me a while to respond again. Erny, we don't really train in drive, but I have tried it a little. Nekhbet, I'm not sure if is a bluff, but I am waiting till she settles before I let her in. Anyway, she hasn't been really scared since the day I started the post. She has been demanding to come in, but we are not letting her in until she settles down. When she was really scared, she wouldn't chase her toys, no matter how exciting I made them seem and I figure that she would only do that (ie not chase them) if she were truly scared. If she were bluffing she would have got excited about her toys.

Not sure if there is a pattern because I haven't been around to know, but today was a nice sunny day and she was fine outside. She would chase her toys and she would settle down and was never shaking. I that if there is a pattern it is probably cold and overcast days when she is more stressed, and also at night, but she is not usually left outside at night for long and she is happy to go to the toilet at night. She really doesn't like thunder, so maybe she is thinking that thunder may be coming and is afraid or maybe there's some atmospheric pressure change that leads her to think that thunder is coming. Any suggestions on what we could do to help her?

Mum and Dad say that she has been like this for a while, it's not just turned up since I've come home. I just asked Mum and she said that there has been another time when she didn't eat all of her fish meal, but she's always eaten all of her other meals before wanting to go inside. Fish isn't her favourite.

We always feed her outside only. I don't know what's causing the worry - the neighbours are fine. There are some dogs on one side and she loves being outside whenever they are in their back yard, she loves looking through small gaps in the fence at them. There is a possum that's sometimes around at night and she runs up the backyard when let out at night and sometimes barks at it, but she usually wants to stay out there at look up the tree at it, so I don't think she is scared of it. I am wondering if the cold weather could be an issue. I haven't been around for the past year, so I'm not sure on the different circumstances when she is okay outside though.

Jyra seems to be having increasing anxiety when she is outside. She is just desparate to come inside and sometimes she is shaking. Other times she is quite happy to be outside, but it seems a lot of the time she wants to be inside. Take this morning for example - I gave her her breakfast (tinned mackeral) and went inside, leaving her to eat it. She only ate some and then was wanting to come inside. I left her there for a while, hoping that she would settle down, but she didn't, so I went and spent some time outside with her, giving some commands, etc, but whenever I let her free, she ran to the door. She wouldn't even chase her toys. I discovered that she hadn't eaten all of her fish and it's not like her to not eat. She did finish it off when I called her to finish it and stood with her. Does anyone have any suggestions about what we could do to help Jyra to be happier out in the back yard? (She is fine on walks).

I feed Jyra ox tongue, and it's about $2.50 or $3 for a 'tounge' (the butcher that I buy from hasn't seemed to learn how to spell it correctly). We cut it up into daily servings using an electric knife. That electric knife is getting used more than ever before since I started feeding Jyra raw food.

Mum and Dad told me that Jyra has lost 3kg in 3 months, since I left. Jyra has been fine since I left, no pining or anything, just her usual self, so she doesn't really seem to be missing me. She was at the vet for her regular check up and the vet suggested that she might have lost weight because of missing me, but really there are no other changes. I'm not really too worried, but thought I'd check to see what you guys on DOL think. The vet suggested that they give her a cup of dry food a day in addition to her raw diet. I don't want Jyra on dry food, so I have told Mum and Dad to increase her food from 500g/day to 600g/day and see if she gains weight. Any thoughts/suggestions?

I only just heard that Jyra's mother, Jessie passed away recently. Here is the message I got: She loved chasing things and loved people. I know her owners loved her so much, they will be devastated. Jyra and I haven't seen much of her in the past 5 years as we lived in different states. Here are some pictures of her: Jyra on the left and Jessie on the right

I got a message that Jyra's mother (Jessie) died. This is what my friend wrote: These people are not registered breeders and don't know all about dogs, so I am wondering, when they mention that she twisted her stomach, is that the same thing as gastric torsion or bloat? And what are the chances of Jyra having the same thing happen to her? Jyra is on a raw diet, Jessie was on dry and tin dog food. Jessie was 8 years old and Jyra is 6 at the moment.

How much do they recommend you feed a 30kg dog per day? I feed Jyra raw and it costs us about $50/month. I think that if Origen's feeding guidelines are similar to Innova Evo's, a 13.5kg bag would probably last a month, making the cost $120/month instead of $50/month. I think I'll stick with the raw, but Origen is the only dry food that I would consider and what I would use if I HAD to switch to dry food. Considering that my parents are going to be paying for her food (and preparing it) soon, I think they'll stick with the raw too!

Wow! Talk about individual differences for individual dogs!! My GSD is almost 4 times the weight of your corgi (she's 30kg) and eats 500g a day, which is not a huge increase on your 350-400g a day. You would think she'd need to eat about four times the quantity, but nooo. 350-400g a day sounds like a lot for an 8kg dog, but as you say, it's working for your dog just fine. This 500g is keeping Jyra at a steady weight too.