Pretty Miss Emma

He's adorable!!! Enjoy!!!

My first thought in reading this bit is that maybe the new owners aren't maintaining the dogs training in this area and being consistent - maybe he's testing the boundaries!! And it seems like he's getting away with it!! Just a possibility.

If you can see if there is an oily fish that he will eat if he won't eat sardines (I always give the ones in tomato sauce - less smelly plus I'm sure they're yummier!! I personally can't stand them and see them as only dog or cat food!!). It may help with skin issues. Just because it adds a bit more oil into the system and fish oils in general are not too bad for them. I know a couple of dogs that moved onto sardines/tuna/salmon and their dry skin improved and itchiness decreased. You could also try giving him a fish oil capsule.

Mine always have extras. They get some Natures Gift canned with their breakfast. At night they get some of ... chicken necks/wings, mince of some sort, sardines, tuna, eggs, rice with veg, other bits and pieces. If you find something doesn't agree with them eliminate that. And obviously keep the "bad things" to a minimum. What are the "bad things", well I think that list would depend on who you asked!!!!

I have one insured dog and one uninsured (she was too old for illness when I got her so decided that I would just bank money for her). So the insured one (only 19 months old) so far has cost me almost nothing other than normal check up type fees. The uninsured one has probably cost me around $10,000 since October last year maybe more. Most recently it was probably $4000 in emergency due to having pneumonia and then hyperglycaemia. There is absolutely no way known that I would not have treated her, so had to just fork the money out. If you end up with a trip or two to emergency in their life time I reckon the insurance has paid itself off. I think I worked out that if the insurance premium didn't rise then the couple of problems we've encountered recently would be the whole lifetime cost of the premium, and I've only had the old uninsured girl for 3 years!! I did look into including the routine care option, but it ended up that I would only be able to get back about $5 per year so I figured I'd rather not bother with that bit of it!

I have a car/bus/bike/runner/etc chaser!! It's a bit of a working dog thing I think (not to say they all do it, but it seems at some point they all have a go!!). There is absolutely no way known that I will let Kenzie off lead where there are things I know she will chase and lets be honest her life is still perfectly fine like that! She gets plenty of exercise and mental stimulation. So my first thing would be to reinforce it is not essential for a dog to go off lead, it is ideal if you can WORK with the dog off lead but not essential. Anyway, that's a bit off track. I've recently had an immense amount of success in a very very short time frame with the "Look at that" game from Control Unleashed. Kenzie is a pretty soft dog so punishment is really not good for her, plus I'm more interested in trying to reward her for good before resorting to punishment. So the look at that game is rewarding her for looking at something before she has a chance to react to it. So she looks at something (eg. car) and I bridge and reward her immediately, as a result of hearing her bridge word she looks at me to get the reward, thus breaking her attention on the "trigger" and redirecting it to me. The day we started playing it I instantly saw improvement. Yay!!! We've now been doing it for a bit and when a car goes past she watches it and then instantly looks up to me. I'm very happy with this! I know it is not an instant fix, it something that you have to keep working on forever (the level you work at it would obviously change, but as with all training they need reminders every so often). But I'm finding it is a fun way to get rid of this undesirable behaviour, it makes me calmer, Kenzie thinks it's a great game and it's working for us! There's a lot more to it than the little description I gave here, but that is the basics of it!!

I'm sure you do have the right person!! And I could understand the frustration with those that are lookign to send their dogs straight over equipment because I certainly think that all the info sent out makes it clear what goes on in the Foundation class!!! (Unless they chose not to read any of it nor listen at the first night!!!). I have to say I'm really enjoying the flat work skills as it's really helping with focus and developing a stronger bond between handler and dog - these are my primary goals everything else is a bonus to me!!! Luckily I seem to be getting a bit of "everything else" from the munchkin also. Very, very pleased with how she has been going (and maybe I should be happy with how I'm dealing with her also!)!!

Straight off to the specialist! I know it's sort of hard to make that jump, but you'll be glad they are just so knowledgable and will probably be able to sort it all out for you with relative ease. Good luck, let us know how you go. After our trials and tribulations I'm getting a bit of a soft spot for dogs with eye problems!!!

Don't put them in a situation where he can steal her treats? So maybe crate one while they get treats if they are long lasting chewy treats, or one inside one outside. If they are short lived treats then hand feed them during training. And as stonecutter said - leave it?

I have a cargo barrier in my car and it works a treat. When I first got the car Kenzie was not reliable in terms of not jumping out the moment the door was opened so she had to also wear a harness and was secured in also. But this was only so that when I opened the door she did not run off. Now she has been trained to wait until I pick up her leash and then she is allowed out. good system!!

There is now also Bulla Agility Dogs. Relatively new compared to the others but certainly filling a niche!!! We were on the waiting list for a good 6 months or so. Positive training style. We're only new there but enjoying it and it is suiting both me and my dog really well. But there are also places that do less formal agility training. We also sometimes train with Planet K9 - this is more about you and your dog having fun and then you take it where you want. BAD is about formal agility training and getting your dog ready to trial. So I guess it depends on what you're looking for in those terms also as many obedience clubs also offer some form of agility.

I have a feeling that the groomer my Mum uses has done a course in Canine Natropathy and if she hasn't he would be able to direct you to someone who has. It's been a while since I've been to see her (distance becomes a problem!) but I remember talking about this sort of thing with her. Her name is Sue. 0421 280 530 Email: [email protected]

I bought a horse lunging lead (25m) at a stock feed store to teach my young one recall, worked a treat!

I needed to vote BOTH, but it's counted as before because that's what I clicked first!! One dog gets 20 min every morning befoe work and then about 1 hour after work, the other gets about 30 min after work. I think it depends on yyour dogs particular needs. Kenzie would be horrid all day I think if she didn't get some beans out in the morning, and I want to sleep well so she needs it in the evening also! Em just needs it for sensory stimulation and keeping her basic fitness, so she potters in the backyard when Kenz gets her morning walk (as she has to stay inside all day at the moment) and then gets to go out in the street/park when I get home - she's too slow for me to be able to take her on a walk also in the morning. Time does become a factor!!!

After going through all of Em's eye issues since last October all I can say is just go to the eye specialist. They know what they're talking about and even if it's just about giving you peace of mind at least then you can be assured that the treatment the vet is dishing out is the right thing and it's not a problem that's getting worse because it wasn't dealt with properly earlier. To be honest I didn't find it too expensive for Em with her first check and her follow up checks have also been pretty reasonable.

Have a look at some of the threads in the Training. Particularly the one about Endurance Testing as there was lots of discussion about riding with dogs. If it were me I'd be walking my dog beside the bike at 5 months so that they get used to it. But I would think that riding with it would probably be a little harsh on growing and developing bones and joints at that age. I didn't really even think about starting that sort of training until my girl (BC) was close to 12 months old.

You'll know when the time is right. I thought our time had come a few weeks ago, and thank goodness the vet I was dealing with said to at least give Em a chance for the next day or so (I was not particularly rational at that point!). She's doing really well now and the vet's really happy with her progress and we're close to out of the woods. But I think it's the one time you really do need to follow your heart because it and your dog will tell you when the time is right, as heartbreaking as it will be.

Well, I'm looking to steal as many of the brilliant DOL ideas as I can!! Here's the deal... Since Emma (12yo, diabetic, mostly blind) has had pneumonia I'm not prepared to leave her outside unsupervised. She takes herself off to sleep on the concrete rather than using one of her cosy beds, or even the mat!! We can't afford a relapse of the pneumonia, so her days are now spent inside while I am at work. If the weather is pretty much guaranteed to be lovely and quite warm I'll leave her out (but let's be honest it's an early winter for Victoria!!). Before this she was used to spending days outside in the garden with Kenzie. I leave either the TV or radio on for her. I also try to leave her with some sort of treat (usually a few treats scattered on the floor for her to sniff out, but have to be careful with this due to the diabetes!), but watching her find food I'm wondering if her eye drops are having some effect on her sense of smell making it difficult for her to find them easily. So I welcome any ideas you can give me for environmental enrichment for her or if you have any other boredom buster ideas!!!! I know dogs do spend a lot of time sleeping, but I'm really feeling that she is getting a bit bored and I need to do as much as I can for that does not involve sight to keep her quality of life high (I don't think it's low, but I really don't want a bored/depressed dog). Any help welcomed!!!

Keep them separate unless under very close supervision. Even with a mature older dog I would be doing this for some time. When Kenzie was a baby she was not left unsupervised with Em for probably at least 2 months, and Emma is a an absolute role model of a tolerant dog who will give puppies every warning signal under the sun. Agree with PF about socialising them on their own. I didn't do enough socialising with Kenzie on her own (we did heaps of socialising but she had Emma who is 11 years her senior with her too much of the time) and I think that has created some of her problems now which I am woring very hard to fix up. The next time I get a pup I will be trying to do the majority of socialising with them on their own for at least about 6 months. But that certainly won't be until Kenzie is at least 2-3 years of age. One puppy provides enough issues to deal with (Kenz is 18 months and she's well and truely still a puppy at times!!). If you aren't able to keep them separate and are considering returning her do it sooner rather than later (hopefully will mean less issues for her from having to deal with the boy being too rough, plus emotionally much easier for everyone). Good luck with whatever avenue you choose to follow!

This isn't necessarily the kid or relatives fault. You can't assume that because a dog is on leash that it will be happy and friendly. I have a reactive dog who used to lunge at people when she was on lead (that is when she found people to be most threatening). I've worked very hard with her to make sure that she has learnt there are more appropriate ways to behave. But I am still very vigilant about her body language and behaviour because I don't want to end up in a situation like this. There isn't enough information here to say who may be at fault. Maybe it's the child, maybe it's the owner of the dog for not ensuring their dog did not get in to this situation. Either way it's awful that it happened and regardless of who is at fault will end up being another "black spot" against dogs in the community unfortunately.

Hmm, this is making me feel like I'm the only one with a diabetic dog!!! (Yes I know I'm not! )

Hi all, This is just generally out of curiousity as Em's insulin dose is increasing at the moment so obviously we go through more of it quickly! If you have a diabetic dog (or if you know due to being in industry), what sort of insulin do you use? And how much does it cost ou for a 10ml vial? As I said just curious. I have heard that human insulin can be cheaper than that made for dogs, but there can also be some issues in terms of it's effectiveness.

I generally use a treat bag when I'm in class just because I can fit more in it, it has pockets to store the other bits I need and it's easy access. When I'm out of class I might use my treat pouch, or just put treats on my pocket, keep them in my handbag or in containers around the house. I try to mix up how I "look" with my treats to minimise the association with the treat pouch - but Kenzie always works that little bit better when she sees it (I'm now looking at trying to work with it a little less in formal situations!!!).

I'm in a unit with a 12.5yr old BC and an 18mo BC. So the oldie doesn't really count in terms of being a normal BC anymore (except in her spectacularly beautiful BC looks and the personality that shines through every so often!!). But the young one loves her exercise and certainly is not a chill out dog. But I guess my yard is a little larger than most units/townhouses so she does have a bit of space. But I thought long and hard before getting her knowing that doing so with a yard this size meant that I had to make a committment to a greater level of brain work and exercise time each day. As a result we do obedience training classes once a week and agility classes once or twice a week; she also gets at least 30 min total training most evenings, a 15-20 min walk each morning and anywhere between 30 min to 1.5 hrs walking each night. If I know I'm working late and won't be able to do that I try to send her to a friends where I know she will get to play all day. I would definitely say don't rule out a BC, but weigh up if you can offer the dog what it needs (which goes for any breed of dog not just a BC, obviously!).

Sometimes I'll make up bags that have only one thing other times I'll mix it up. If I use dry food I try to keep it with the soft smelly food for a while because it softens and takes on the smell of the yummies! My bag of tricks includes: Dry dog food Dry kitten food Dried whitebait (cat treats) Liver treats Natures Gift treats (the straps and the little bits like balls) Devonloaf Hotdogs Sausages Roast chicken 4 legs or chunkers cheese Chopped up meat Agree with what everyone else said, make it tiny pieces (my girls are BC's and each tiny piece is about .5cm sq) and have heaps and heaps!! Oh and make sure you put it in something that is easy to access - a sandwich size ziplock bag is good (don't use a big plastic bag from the fruit section, you'll end up spending all your time trying to wrangle the bag to get to your treats!!!).