Pretty Miss Emma

I am looking at re-doing some flooring. I would still like the bedrooms in the house to have carpet, but I want it to be something that will work with animals. Looking for any suggestions of carpet that can cope with animals and is available in Australia!

Today we said goodbye to the crazy lady, Nana Gem. She was still happy and loved being with us, but her body just couldn't hang in any longer. For those who don't know Nana's background, she came to me 18 months ago as a 14 year old surrender. I took her on just to see out the last few weeks or months of her life. My younger dogs were so happy to have an old dog in the house again!! She also became my herding judging mascot, coming along to every trial I judged and making all the competitors happy and calm to see the old dottery girl hanging out while the younger ones worked with the sheepies! Yesterday we all spent the day together. She went for a ride in the car with Kenzie, Hamish, Skye and I. She had a wander on her familiar wandering grounds. We sat in the shade and had lots of treats. Then we came home so she could have a nap before she got to have roast chicken and chips for dinner. Kenzie gave her lots of kisses, both excited but also lots of gentle ones. She has been telling me Nana wasn't quite right for a couple of days, actually all the dogs have been. This morning she went to sleep forever while still eating her favourite, roast chicken. It was all very peaceful and surrounded with love. She is a dog that has touched the lives of so many people and other dogs. Everyone loved Nana Gem. She might not be with us now but we are all a little bit better for having had her in our lives. For a dog that was coming home for a couple of months of palliative care before her time was up, she certainly showed us over the last 18 months that a bit of love (from all of us) can work some miracles. Love you Nana Gem, so glad I could be your retirement home and with you to the last moment.

Sooo many ways you can teach recall, and it depends on what you want from your dog when they are offlead also - is it an opportunity for zoomies, do you want them to walk near by, can they go off and sniff and then come back, etc, etc, etc?! Anyway, I reward my dogs every time they come back to me when we are out and they are off lead. If I call them and they come in super fast they get a great reward, but if they come to check in they get a reward, if they come when called they get a reward. I have found with my lot that gets them in to me consistently. And when I don't have a reward they don't know that, so still come in anyway! I do recalls on their normal walking lead first, then progress to a long lead and then a 25m lead. And at the same time as this try to find fenced areas where we can practice our recalls. When I tech recalls I do a lot of what I call "bouncing" - call the dog, reward somehow for coming to you and send them off again straight away. When we do "bouncing" there is no stopping, no need to sit, etc the dog just needs to come to the person close enough that they could grab their collar and then they are released to keep walking straight away. I do this on a normal lead and while we are just doing normal walking. And I think one of the keys things is make it as fun as you can and mix it up. If it becomes predictable and boring no one will want to do it. Make it a game and keep having fun!

Nana Gem is my 15.5 year old BC. When I got her about 16 months ago she was able to do about a 1.5km walk each day. I have stopped walking her now. We have outings where she can potter about and she visits people/dogs at their houses but I can't walk her any distance anymore. And to be honest she is happy as Larry. I think once they are older if they are struggling with their walks so long as they still get exercise and mental stimulation it's not a big issue to stop walking them. Go with what they can do and what they enjoy. Nana enjoys pottering so the most we will walk is to the end of my street (about 4 houses!!).

Love my Aldi dehydrator!!! Make my own treats most of the time now. Plus I make treats for my mum's dogs who have to have an almost 0 fat diet - they get dried sweet potato chips and they love them!!

My rats were desexed at 350grams, so I would think they should be able to desex a small dog! But well done on being responsible and following up your suspicions, hopefully it is all easy to deal with! If you need vet resommendations just ask on here as we all know a vet somewhere that is great!

Chat with your vet about it. I used human syringes with my dog, the biggest difference being that the unit of measurement on the side was different so you had to know the conversion (not hard to do, particularly if they are stable and on the same dose all the time). And if you order them online (if you can) you will find that you save heaps. If he's only just ben diagnosed you might prefer to wait to make sure that he has stabilised, just so you don't have to play around with conversions all the time while stabilising. I found also that when injecting insulin you sort of need to inject in line with the crest of the pulled up skin not across it - that can help ensure that you don't go through.

One of my dogs is on Carprofen. She's on 75mg per day now. Anyway, I just got 21 50mg tablets (2 weeks worth) from the vet and the cost was around $2.21 per tablet. Having done a bit of research I also got a prescription to order some more online. So that is going to cost me $27.50 script fee, $70 for 100 tablets, $6.50 postage. Which works out to... $1.04 per tablet. Such a huge difference!! And yes, I understand why. But I'm wondering if the $2.21 per tablet is pretty average when buying them from the vet or if that is a slightly inflated price. So I'm just interested to hear if that is similar to what others pay.

Have you managed to find someone and get some help?

I haven't looked at what everyone has said. But when Nana was attacked a couple of months ago I yelled at the dog and kicked the dog and I may as well not have existed. He was picking her up and shaking her while I was doing that and he kept adjusting his grip on her rib cage, not letting go just releasing enough to alter his grip. The only way I could get him off her was by choking him with his lead. It wasn't until I heard him gasping/wheezing that he released his grip enough for Nana to be pulled away. In this situation I just don't think you have many choices!

Woohoo!!! Congrats Tassie! I have to find some more trials that I can fit in to my calendar!

Given that Masters level is new to Rally O I thought I'd start a thread. For me this first post is a bit of a brag/moment of disbelief!! But also thought it might be good for inspiration, training tips etc! Kenzie and I got our first Masters pass last weekend, score of 96 - her best score ever!!!! I figured we would probably get a few NQ's before getting a pass, purely just because we haven't been in a trial ring for a while. But no, she was a super star!!! And this from my reactive little girl who for a few years I never would have believed could ever work offlead, let alone be competing at the upper level of a dog sport!!! So I'm getting my trial mojo back!! I'm going to try to get her Masters title this year. Then next year (or late this year) I'm going to start her on the journey to Rally Champion!! I never thought these would be the goals I'd be setting for myself and my munchkin girl!!! Our favourite stations from the rule review.... Moving down walk around (took us ages to get it, and now she's got it she loves it!), spin while in heel (we also do dancing!), everything involving distance command!!

Don't think so, but I can't remember!!! Today I have whole chicken hearts drying, takes a while because they are thick but the dogs go beserk over them!! Did I see a photo of yours on another thread?

I got a dehydrator and now pretty much make everything myself. But looking for new things to try. My main list so far is... Liver (all sorts) Chicken hearts Sweet potato pieces Pear slices Love the dehydrator because I can put it outside so there is no smell at all in the house. In saying that I find it interesting how much better my home made liver smells compared to what is bought in the shop.

It's been recommended that Nana Gem have the least amount of red meat in her diet as possible as her blood work has indicated some possible precursors to kidney issues (not really that unexpected in a 14.5 year old dog!). Chatting with the vet I've made the decision to just try to minimise proteins from red meats as apparently that can help keep the kidneys functioning pretty well. Currently she gets a kibble that has a primary content of chicken, she also gets chicken carcass mince and also whole chicken carcasses. Periodically she has been getting lamb bones and sometimes beef bones. I was thinking for her meaty bones to chew (gum!) on that maybe pork bones might be ok. She will also get turkey when I can find the cuts I like for her. I've never bought pork bones before. Are dogs ok on them? Any particular bones to look out for? Any other ideas on bones I can feed her (well that she can chew on!) that don't go in the "red meat" category?

I fostered a 6 week old pup. I just put her in the crate at bedtime, shut the door and let her be. However - the crate was right beside my bed so she could see/hear/smell me and I also had a heartbeat pillow that I put in there with her and a puppy sized teddy bear. I only took her out if she woke up and whimpered. And I guess the other thing was the crate she was in wasn't so huge that she could toilet in there and still sleep in there. But I certainly didn't wake the sleeping puppy!! It only took her about 3 days to get used to sleeping in there and not wake up between 11-6. Each puppy is different but be consistent and don't give in to a tantrum, listen for the different types of barking/crying you will start to tell the difference between the tantrum and the toilet request!

Agree, constant testing of bgl if water consumption is not consistent. Is the dog on 12 hour insulin doses and 2 meals? I have heard of some vets trying once daily insulin but that is no where near as effective. Even with twice daily you only have about a 30 minute window either side of the usual time it is given to keep it managed effectively. I would also just look in to incontinence in terms of the leaking. My diabetic dog was also on meds for incontinence and all the leaking stopped except for when she occasionally had high bgl. Don't forget that also you can have pretty much no variation in food type and quantity, treats pretty much become a no no. And if they will be given it needs to be at their meal time not at random times (or they have to be super teeny tiny and low calorie). I found my dogs diabetes was very easy to control so long as we followed very strict routines around timing of food/insulin and exercise. But establishing initial control is the difficult bit. You might need to get a few more bgl curves done to get the right insulin dosage established.

This might be a silly question, but why does chicken and rice bind up an upset tummy? I know it is bland but is it the starch in the rice or something that helps pull everything back together?!

I don't get the feeling that it is. I don't know maybe it is a way she just gets everything moving again after she's been lying down, but it doesn't seem to be pain related, she doesn't seem to have a great deal of pain in general other than old age stiffness.

No it's her whole body. She's literally just walking backwards! She just lies down if she needs to relieve the weight! That's why I find it interesting as it's just a backwards shuffle!

I had considered this. I just wish she'd do it when I need her to!!! She's lucky she's so loved, she's the only one who gets walked around and over when she's in the way, everyone else has to move themselves!!!

Hadn't thought of that! Mind you her vision is pretty poor, so I'm not sure that any moving backwards or forwards will make a huge amount of difference!

Nana Gem is the newest addition to my household. She's a 14.5 year old BC. I've noticed recently that she does a lot of shuffling backwards. As in she will be up and possibly about to walk around somewhere and she shuffles backwards for several steps. I'm not overly concerned about it I just find it interesting and don't understand why she does it!!! If anyone has ideas on what she is doing I'd love to hear them as I'm just curious now. I do wonder if it is something to do with her getting more comfortable in our house (she's been here 3 months now). Oh and she does have some issues with her vision, and she has very little hearing - I guess this may contribute to this trait.

Yep, if the certificate is blue it is main registered. A dog can still be main registered but not to be bred from - that's the current agreement I have with my boy which we did because I want to show him but we weren't sure about using him for breeding; however that part of the status can be changed if the breeder agrees to do so.

I have just added a 14.5 year old BC to my household and to be honest she isn't on heaps for arthritis. As has been mentioned weight is really important - keep your dog healthily lean, more weight is more stress on joints. Nana is getting a cartrophen injection once a month. I also have her on turmeric paste, and periodic glucosamine. I have been told in terms of natural things you can also add apple cider vinegar to their food and parsley as both of these have natural anti-inflammatory properties. Good bedding, not having them sleep in draughts and continuing moderate exercise also. I had my previous dog on Sasha's blend and it seemed to help her out. Oh and omega oils.