Staff'n'Toller

Well she obviously can't hold on for that long at night, reducing her crate size will probably only make her upset once she's peed in there and has to lie in it. It's great that she's sleeping through but 8 hrs is probably too long for a small breed pup. Get up and take her out at 11.30 if you usually go to bed at 9pm. Mel.

Hey Peigirl! I saw an ad for a new Royal Canin food made with vegetable proteins only. It was on the back of the Bark magazine. Mel.

Greenies. Or you could get yourself a finger toothbrush (looks like a thimbel) and some flavoured toothpaste...comes in beef, chicken or cheese.

It's funny how that happens isn't it? :D One of the cats has my dad trained to let her out at 4.30am ;) I certainly wouldn't be doing that.

You really need a Behaviourist consult. If you've only had the dog for 10 days then this behaviour is obvioiusly well established, not your fault, but NILIF and pack stucture training won't fix this- it will help- but your dog probably needs more than that. ETA: This may sound harsh and I don't want to offend you, but if you rescued this dog and you have major concerns about it's behaviour and kids, then you may want to reconsider whether this is the best home for this maltese. Your kids are the priority here, maybe a young Cavalier would be a better choice if you are going to have lots of kids in your home on a regular basis. Mel.

My Stafford girl also has many allergies but going onto a prescription diet has improved her skin by about 50%. The pink colour has gone from her ears and belly and her ears are no longer hot to touch. Often skin and gastrointestinal allergies go together. Vaccinating dogs that are currently showing symptoms is not a good idea either. There are studies on that but I have done a google search and can't find them. I bet Morgan would have them though. Since I stopped Vaccinating my girl - no more hotspots. Mel.

Cover the crate with a dark sheet. Mel.

Not down here yet....I hear they're on their way though!

Yes they are .... but they're getting some pretty good results. And there are instructors there who really know their stuff. Yep ditto to that, they are really positive, they have an awesome foundations course, but you need to do what they say or you'll just piss them off- that would happen in any club though. Be prepared to go back through foundations if you go to Action Dogs, they teach contacts, weavers, crosses etc etc the RIGHT way first time around, so they may require you to relearn it. Mel.

I'm guessing it's from here: Clickertraining.com I have heard bad reports of people not receiving their stuff in the past, so glad the OP got her kit. Mel.

Certainly with dogs under 10kg we can treat cruciate rupture conseratively but they will definitely have lots of arthritic change. If the dog is young enough, active, and has just ruptured the cruciate then surgery can be very successful and if done asap will reduce the amount of arthritic change that will cause pain down the track. Mel.

Hills R/d or the Eukanuba Veterinary diet equivalent are the best and SAFEST way for a dog to loose weight. The have less calories but the correct nutrients for the dog whilst they are loosing that halving the diet won't provide, and it makes them feel full. Dogs shouldn't loose weight quickly, it should be SLOW and steady. The cruciate also sounds like it needs to be fixed- taking the dog back to it's healthy weight will not negate the need for surgery. Mel.

I doubt stress would affect the results, but the easiest thing to do is stay with her in the waiting room whilst she is premedicated then hand her over once she is nice and drowsy. Giving the Dermatologist lots of information about her temperament at the first visit is the key. The testing determines what the allergens are- it's very specific. It is normal for dogs and people to come up allergic to a wide range of things, and allergy vaccines tailor made for the patient is the end result- given (generally by yourself at home) on a regular basis will help the immune system desensitise to those things it used to identify as allergens. You need a referral from your Vet so that they can compile a history of what they have treated and send that to the Dermatologist Vet. We deal with stressed and scaredy dogs all the time- it's our job- not many dogs are happy to be in a cage at the clinic. Mel.

Full history Skin Scraping and Pathology- cytology and looking for mites. Possibly a food elimination diet Intradermal skin testing- they have them in for the day, and under sedation to test a patch of skin with an assortment of allergens to find out what she is allergic to. Some or all of the above, and this is not an exhaustive list. Mel.

Doesn't sound like it will take too long for Barney to realise he is a really cool guy. Mel.

I actually prefer fear aggressive dogs, the signs are generally much bigger, unless they have been stopped, and they only attack long enough to remedy the situation, if this dog feels he is unable to take the flight option, whereas a confident dog's signs are generally more subtle. They don't feel they need to take the flight option but if they need to attack it is generally "harder".... like they are saying "and let that be a lesson to you for ignoring my warning". I also believe that all aggression is anxiety ( which to me is still fear, just at the lower end of the scale) based, with the possible exception of idiopathic and predatory aggression. With dogs that appear to have learned to enjoy aggressing, through success, their initial reason for reacting was anxiety and if it doesn't work for the dog like they think it should, they do get anxious again. One of the laws of learning if a dog that has learned another way to do something/deal with a situation, when under stress they will revert back to their initial learning. I'm guessing it is this law that makes the dog aggress if his critical distance is breached when changing his behaviour using positives or corrections. cheers M-J Nice post m-j...very interesting to read. Mel.

Sorry I wasn't trying to be rude...just that I remembered that bit and forgot the rest of the details by all means whinge as much as you like.

Yeah I remember about the chicken protein.

I would definitely try the Anchovy, I have tried it on my Stafford girl and found it worked *almost* as well as Z/d for her skin. I'm not sure why we have such a limited supply of choice when there are hundreds of brands over in the US. Mel.

I've had pups come to me at 6 weeks and others at 9 weeks and their lack of bite inhibition is no different. 8 weeks is not the magic age for learning bite inhibition, it continues until about 4mths. Mel.

We don't have it here as far as I know. Refresh my memory coz I can't remember but are any of the Eagle Pack holistic types suitable? Namely the duck one? You would have to get onto your Vet to call the Rep and see what they can do about shipping it for you....not sure what the response would be though. Mel.

Well there is more to it than that, the Vet makes a decision on what they stock and use depending on whether they want to use live or modified live vaccines, then the brand, country of origin, price obviously comes into it, but the schedule is only one of the considerations. Virbac is an Australian company, my boss chooses to use them for this reason. Why send our money to the US when Aus make a perfectly good vaccine?? Unfortunately the US vaccines are often slightly cheaper, but if a Vet is choosing on price alone then this bothers me- sorry I want the best vaccine not necessarily the cheapest- or the one that just got my Vet a plasma for buying 2000 doses. America has a much higher rate of Vaccine related sarcomas- pretty scary. There are lots of variables. ETA: As for the drontal price- if you like your Vet there's no need to change, but perhaps do a ring around for prices when buying products. Mel.

RRP for Vet Drontal is around 7.50/8.00 so I would certainly be checking on that one- may have just been a computer mistake. Be aware that Vet Drontal is different to supermarket Drontal as it does Giardia. VIRBAC are definitely a 3 x Vacc schedule, regardless of the first Vacc brand if moving to Virbac you would still need to do 2 more Vacc's for full protection. Cheers, Mel.

Are you a member of the big Toller email list? If not I would strongly consider joining up there and writing a bit of a history on him eg age, weight loss, when it started, what you feed etc. There is a wealth of information there from long-time Toller owners and breeders, and most are very proactive in regards to health issues. I'm positive they can tell you what you should be testing for in regards to breed. To subscribe: 1. Send and e-mail to: [email protected] 2. Leave the subject line blank 3. In the body of the message write: subscribe TOLLER-L & your-name (replace your-name with your first and last name) Mel.

In fairness to the instructor I can see that perhaps they are not happy about not being able to assess her stress levels whilst in the chute. It's a bit hard to see how a dog is reacting if they are blocked at the entrance. I can remember you have talked about pushing her through the stress a bit and she comes out the other side just fine- you know your dog and that's cool- but the instructor doesn't and that may be why they are advising against forcing her through it. Anyways....can you not set it up at home? Get her proficient with the feeling of a sheet on top of her, and then with her running through and controlling the exercise herself. Mel.