Staff'n'Toller

Good to hear he is going well...on thinking I have realised he's probably just losing his puppy licence right about now. This is a really good article It takes a pack to raise a puppy. Mel.

I have Roseline straight shears and I loooooove them. They cost over a hundred. I recently bought Wahl thinning scissors and they are either blunt or crap...haven't sent them off yet to find out!! Mel.

I read that foil thing too and tried it on a pair of household scissors- didn't do much. :D Gawd my scissors cost me so much I couldn't do the sandpaper thing. They're like my babies.. Mel.

The Lite n Easy man should bring sausage or chicken or steak. And do as you say, start off by throwing yummy food in Barney's general direction, and let Barney take it upon himself to approach the guy taking as many weeks as he needs to. Mel.

Stella we have talked (albeit briefly) and I think we have very similar philosophies. Just wanted to clarify coz I do use NRM's sometimes. Lablover has asked for titles as a definition, so I don't want to go OT but I think a successful purely positive trainer means one that has a well behaved dog in all facets of (the dog's) life, and not just in the trial ring.....you can have a purely positive trained trial dog who has horrid manners at home- demanding attention, rushing at people or other dogs, not recalling from distraction, not being able to LLW in free etc etc and that sort of thing doesn't cut it with me. Anyways, a whole other topic... Mel.

Hehehe ok.

In all the books and articles I've read, a NRM isn't classified as purely positive.

Have a great day everyone!! Wish I could be there- can you run one next year when I'm free from the Delta course?? Mel.

:p what a crack up. My guys love them as well, and I also recommend them to my puppy school clients with medium or large breed dogs when they get big enough. Mel.

ok thanks . i think it is just a puppy stage, he doesnt know he is doing wrong , and other than that is a good playfull obedient dog . i havent had any trouble stopping it . but i will supervise her with him in the yard from now on , andf get her to do some more walking with lead and training him. other than this it's an absolute joy to hear the kids laughing so much and playing with him, he beats them at dodge ball. but for some reason he is a bit rough with her .the growls come Yes you don't have any trouble stopping the play BUT YOUR DAUGHTER IS!! Stop with the rough play!! Get yourself some professional help- otherwise this WILL turn bad in the future. Mel.

Nah, they have a food that is specially made for dogs showing signs of early heart disease. It's not available here in Oz. Mel.

We don't have early cardiac here. Mel.

Advance is. Cheers, Mel.

I think you have a responsibility to your neighbours, and any neighbours in the future to keep him in an enclosed run (with a roof). You are lucky that they haven't reported you because there's a good chance he would be declared dangerous and have to live in an escape proof run anyway, muzzled in public etc. It could be alot worse, and from an outsiders POV I would imagine you are skating on extremely thin ice. There are plenty of environmental enrichment activities you can provide and you could pen your dogs next door to each other. My dogs sleep most of the day when there is no one at home, and most dogs are the same. Sounds to me your only other option is to keep your dogs indoors. Mel.

Well if he's not desexed soon you will probably find he starts marking on a lot more things! But I have seen dogs do it and I honestly don't think they realise it's a human leg- smells good- pee on it. Mel.

When you are fixing a food/resource guarding problem you don't add food after they have growled. You get in long before the dog feels the need to growl, and change their perception of the situation. Mel.

YAYYYY THANKYOU FAOLMOR For taking the time to write what I would have written. ;) Mel.

What Persephone said but I will add that if it were me, I would be spending some money on super premium food for the first couple of years of her life...an excellent quality large breed puppy food that encourages controlled bone growth etc. Particularly if you are adding raw bones/necks/wings it's not as expensive as if you were feeding it solely. My favourite is Eaglepack at the moment, but you could go for Nutro, Hills, Royal Canin.... Mel.

I would be thinking more like stuffed kong or porkhide roll/bone..even if both he and the adult dog has one each that would be better than the treat ball which he can take or leave as he wishes. Are you taking him out to shows? Whilst socialisation is great with your dogs he also needs to meet heaps of other breeds, sizes and dispositions. Although I'm not sure that shows are the best place to do this it would be better than nothing. If you can make it down to Berwick Obed there are a heap of new dogs and quite a number of young dogs as well at the moment. The next membership intake isn't until next month but you could definitely just bring him down and walk him around the place, meet a few friendly dogs etc etc. Mel.

He needs stuff to do whilst in the company of the others, he needs other things to keep him busy rather than being a pain and inciting. Adult dogs don't always want to play...particularly older adult dogs. Mel.

I made these on the weekend...didn't take long...just waiting for more stakes so I can add more poles!

I have PM'd you laffi.

;) OMG! I don't use either - frontline for fleas and tablets from vets for worms (can't remember the name). I haven't been happy with the frontline though - only lasted about 3 weeks and then he started scratching again. I will be trying something different next time. We are in a newish area so there is still a fair amount of building etc going on and fleas are probably in the dirt. Diesel hasn't been scratching though and I haven't actually seen any fleas. My cat scratches heaps but no fleas so ... ;) Sorry, can't really help here, but the tablet sounds ok. kendall Are you treating your cat as well? Cats carry flea populations around and you won't see any adults usually, because they groom them out.

Yep I was going in to the Comedy Festival I thought it was you. See you at agility, Geordie and I have to come back into foundations and go over some stuff we missed last year. Mel.

It's a bit hard to do path on an abscess- it's a pocket full of puss. You can do a swab and they will tell you what kind of bacteria it is and the antibiotics it is sensitive to, that's about it. You can't do histopathology on an abscess, unless there was mass underneath the infection.