Staff'n'Toller

Forgive me b/c I don't know my way around Qld at all! Are you anywhere near Kuraby? I know a good Vet there. ETA: Before I was nursing I used to drive about 20mins and pass about 4 other clinics to get to my Vet, now he has moved about 45mins away and if I needed a 2nd opinion or a full workup on a dog I would go there no question...he's gold.

You can try Jenny Ireland Pet Products. 08 85232004 You can also try abebooks.com but you will likely still pay postage depending on which State the books are in. I use amazon for those types of books when the dollar is good purely because the prices are so much better than ordering them from here. They generally only take 7 working days and shipping is never over the top IMO.

It sounds like you are doing the right thing by letting her approach the strangers, with the walking down the street you need to be able to get calm enough behaviour that you can get rewards in to effect some change. Whenever she pays attention to house visitors you should get them to throw food softly in her direction building the criteria each time. You may need roast chicken or dried fish and a hungry dog for this. 3. Absolutely no way I would do it if it were my dog. Flooding can work or it can go horribly wrong, and it doesn't sound like she's at the stage yet where you can take a chance. Also it's way too difficult for you to control all the people and dogs to make her environment comfortable enough for learning. Down here we have a Vet Behaviourist who gets good results running her own very carefully orchestrated desensitisation classes with people who are experienced with fearful dogs and will absolutely follow her directions during the class. Maybe you might be able to find something like this?? 4. & 5. I would be very bossy and ask them to stop, then explain she's a bit shy, can they help you by standing still or slowly getting down to her level and patting UNDER the chin/to her side not over the head. Invariably they STILL reach over the head, so unless I knew the person I would generally just block them and say sorry, nuh. Help for Your Fearful Dog - Nicole Wilde <-- Excellent book, have listened to Nicole as a keynote speaker and she has had lots of experience with fearful dogs. Highly suggest you grab a copy. Also do a bit of searching on calming signals, pick up Turid's book On Talking Terms with Dogs, or the Brenda Aloff photographic body language book so you can read when she is becoming uncomfortable with situations so you can get her focus back on to you and provide her with more space.

It's a great food but very fatty. As you say some dogs eat them all their lives no problem, but in other susceptible dogs one marrow bone can cause pancreatitis and then they can never tolerate bones again. In a huge clod bone quite often the dog doesn't finish it, leaving a proportion of the inside marrow, but when you slice bones in half you make it easy for the dog to consume all the marrow....just depends on the amount for most dogs.

err no. maybe they need to get their facts straight. I see no probs in adding glucosamine to a growing giant breed puppies food, have done it for my boys and it does make a world of difference especially to my HD/ED rottweiler. Oh well another vote from me to not purchase it I guess it depends how much they were adding as well, it's all nice to say as a company you add it, but as RC says- if it's not at 'therapeutic levels' then there's little point.

Hard to say over the net but yes you need to be very careful about splitting bones. If you do it's wise to scoop as much of the marrow out as possible with a spoon and throw it away. I would say if she still seems not right tomorrow take her to get checked out - she may have low grade pain there that she's hiding.

There's no way I'd be buying something poured into a plastic container - could be anything!!

I think my astroturf got lost in the mail. ;)

ahh yes the old 'but he went to puppy preschool!' a pity not more PPs are attached to bigger schools or have relationships with clubs so they progress straight from there to level 1 I think a lot actually do give direct recommendations (I know I do, and three other colleagues who do) but the psyche of the owners has to change.

She should check with her Vet.

And that's fair enough . Out of curiousity, what is the protein source used in Hills I/D? It's turkey and egg. Stitch: You can have them surgically removed, there can be complications but with a Vet who is very confident in doing them, there are generally no problems. All the surgeries I have seen no dogs have had faecal incontinence. Including one of my own who had one gland removed due to a tumour in the anal gland.

I haven't thoroughly read all the replies but I know that some Labs shed like sheep - literally the hair is in tufts sticking out all over. Stress also causes dogs to instantly drop tonnes of hair so she may have looked great when the groomer finished but continued to stress whilst waiting to be picked up. Shedding in double coated breeds also lasts right through the warm season, I have done several coat strips of my Retriever and x 2 baths and blow dries and about 70% of it is gone. Get yourself a furminator or a fur buster and continue to do this yourself at home in small sessions. You will probably need to teach a stand first and have someone at the head end continuously reinforcing her for holding position whilst you groom. It's great that she can hold positions at home but that generally goes out the window once you step out the front door and that's why weekly obedience lessons are good because it gives you an opportunity to work on the basics in a highly distracting environment. Private lessons first at home, then heading out to the local park/s will also get the same results (but potentially faster). Teaching grooming routines is dead easy using high reinforcement and a verbal marker for correct behaviours. In puppy school classes I suggest to ALL participants with dogs who need to go to the groomers it will be cheaper and your groomer will love you if you can take them BEFORE 6mths of age and 2-3 times BEFORE 12mths of age so they can work with the dog and do some teaching at the same time. So you may see now how waiting until your dog is 2yrs old and has her own agenda would be very difficult. Spend a day bending over a hydrobath for little dogs and I guarantee you will feel your back is breaking - that's why groomers have little patience for huge bouncy dogs who will not do as they are told - and nor they should! I can't afford pro groomers and I get much more enjoyment out of grooming my dogs myself. They jump in and out of the hydrobath on command and stand still, they shake off the water on command, and brushing/stripping/feet trimming is a very regular occurance (3 x weekly) so it's short and sweet for them and easy for me to maintain.

You can use capstar daily until you can reapply advantage. The fact that three weeks later you are seeing more fleas is testimony to the fact that the flea population was already existing in your home- not at the Vet Clinic. You can bomb your house with commercial flea bombs removing all animals and humans whilst doing it for half a day or so. Much of the population will be in your carpets/floorboards/pets bedding/upholstery etc.

excellent.

Cortivance is Cortisone just in a Spray and can only be used short term i.e. 14 days. Cortavance does not enter the bloodstream, therefore it does not have the potential to create cortisone related complications down the track. Specialist Dermatologists have recently confirmed that you can use it day on-day off indefinitely with none of the ill effects. It also works faster and more effectively because you are applying it onto the source. Sorry.

That's what I thought but I was kind of looking for confirmation from current triallers.

Intradermal allergy testing and immunotherapy injections really are the way to go with young dogs if you want to avoid cortisone. I think it's that or Atopica- which are both as expensive as each other!

Me niether Enry. FWIW I agree with sending off bloods for a Thyroid Profile to the US as well.

I went to Petstock to get the anchovy or duck and they only had tonnes of Natural and small amounts of the other regular formulas. I think Golden Eagle will be bringing their foods in to Aus but no idea how long it will be.

I would have thought no platelets warranted a transfusion ASAP. ETA: I have never nursed an IMT dog though.

Apologies for my grammar - last post was from a mobile phone.

My boss says to contact DrSteven Cutter @ The Ark Vet, he has a couple of locations so you will probably need to leave a message. If you can explain your girls peoblems to Lisa one of the nurses there she may be able to advise. If Steven thinks it is out of his area of expertise he will def let you know, but he also has contacts in Qld in regards to Specialists.

Where exactly are you in the NT???

-from the judge. My first instinct is to protect my dog obviously, just not sure if it is all worth my while IYKWIM.

I'm interested in this thread heading in any direction...I was asking based on the fact that I would love to trial Geordie and I would not put him in until he was rock solid. My main worry is that if a dog stood over him or stood over and growled he may not like it. If a dog play bowed at him then he would probably just break and head off for a play lol. I wanted to get an idea of how often dogs breaking stays happens, and how quick the stewards are to collect the dog as my first instinct would be to signal my dog to recall to me if I saw a dog break and I was at all worried about it's body language, but I realise how annoying that may be if it causes other dogs to break as well or that I might get in big heaps of trouble