divinemissmillie

Deer antlers - keeps all three occupied for absolutely ages. :) :)

Sounds like your problem is not actually your dog - it's the creek that he swims in. Still or stagnant water is notorious for making dogs stink. Only real solution is to ban the swim in the creek.

I think your question could probably apply to a lot of dogs - there are different personalities within a particular breed - some laid back and some prey driven. I've had 3 Cavalier King Charles Spaniels in the past and all were keen on catching mice and chasing birds - but having said that I got them all as adults. I'm sure if you get a puppy it could be trained to get along fine with smaller animals - just use common sense and don't leave them together unsupervised (same as you wouldn't leave a child and dog alone together). As far as temperament goes, it's hard to go past a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. They're fabulous.

We have 3 cavs - coats clipped off super short every 10 weeks. As we don't show them it doesn't matter - and they still look gorgeous by the way - all sleek and shiny. We are on acreage and we used to be constantly looking for grass seeds etc in ears, feet and coats, brushing out the bits they'd picked up and washing off the mud. They go in an out 24/7 via the doggy door so are never made to stay outside in the cold or heat and usually pile into the one dog bed together anyway (or the sofa, despite there being a bed for each. People may ask why get a dog with a long coat and then clip it off - well because you can't beat them for temperament and those soft brown eyes !!

I am sure I have seen them in Mega Pet Warehouse in High Street, Epping (opposite Epping Plaza near Bunnings). You could phone and see if they have XL - number is 8405 3033. Good luck with your search !

You'll surely be putting those two Bull Terriers to sleep or rehoming them now that your son has been born !!!!! WTF ??????

My old terrier would bark in the night, too - usually wanted to go out (despite there being a dog flap). I plugged a night light (from Safeway) into the power point in the laundry and then she was happy to go in and out of the dog flap to relieve herself during the night. It could be an easy solution and worth a try ?

I used the same thing for my old, incontinent Lab who I didn't have the heart to ban from the sofa after spending his life getting on and off it as he pleased. Readily available at all department stores (e.g. Target, Big W, K-Mart, etc.), inexpensive enough to have a few (i.e. on on the bed, one in the wash and one on the line). Worked a treat and machine washable.

Hi dandybrush - my older dogs don't even look at it (having said that, though I don't tempt them by having presents underneath. This year we have an addition to our family (a two-year-old - canine, not human) and just to be sure I bought a kids playpen. The tree is in the corner and fenced off at the three sides she can get to (although she has shown zero interest in it so far). :)

Three of my dogs get fed half dry (Black Hawk) and half raw (Canine Country BARF patties). One day a week they get a boiled egg each added, and one another day they get half a tin of sardines added for each. Plus whatever safe food scraps are left over (although that's not all that often). Why ? Because they all do extremely well on it. The fourth dog (14 year old) gets half Black Hawk and half tinned (My Dog), plus the extras the others get. Why ? Because she won't touch raw food and she loves that tinned junk food. As she is so old and a little underweight I figure she can eat anything she likes ! :D

Have an old border terrier that had the same problem (including a runny eye). No medications made any difference. A few months later she had an infected tooth removed and lo and behold the eye and nose stopped running and she stopped sneezing almost immediately. Maybe you could get her teeth checked out at the vet ?

Hello - we had an old black lab years ago with the same bad coat condition. As soon as the vet saw his coat he suspected either hyperthroidism or hypothyroidism (I can't remember now which one it was now). Anyhow he was put on medication to control his condition and his coat went back to its soft shiny shelf. It may not be that at all, but could it be worth investigating ? Cheers, sophiethecav

As far as Hume City Council rules go: We have four dogs and no permit required (as long as you are on land 1 acre or larger, which we are). If the land is smaller than that anything over 2 dogs requires a permit (and any objections or lack of objections have to be sought by you, the owner, from all your immediate neighbours). Cheers, Tina

I live 10 minutes up the road from there. Haven't used it myself, used to look dreadful but has had a change of ownership and what looks from the outside like a big cleanup. Having said that though, a work colleague and her husband went to check it out last month with a view to putting their dogs in there while they went away. She said she had to drag her husband away before he went off his trolley and told the owners he wouldn't house a cockroach there !!! So I guess I would personally go check it out before I booked them in. Is there any chance your friend can get someone to "house sit" her house and the dogs while she's gone ? We've done that before in the past, and it's worked out well. Cheers,

I'm with you there !!! Most of our dogs have been ex breeding bitches or dogs not up to par for the show ring - given up to us without a backward glance (in fact most didn't even want a follow up email letting them know how their dog was going with us).

Bellackcs, my vet referred me to the University of Melbourne Veterinary Clinic (a teaching facility who have specialist vets working and teaching there)who then did the MRI on my dog (about 8 years ago and cost around $800 back then). I know you're not in Victoria, but your state would surely also have some large facility similar to here (or veterinary specialists). Good luck.

There are different brands of BARF with quite different textures. There's one that I think the Guide Dogs use (can't remember the name - Canine Country????) that has different formulas based on age. It apparently has a more attractive texture than Dr B's. It might be a better fit for Indy? I used to get Billinghurst's patties, too and found them too finely minced, and therefore pretty sloppy when they were thawed out. I now buy Canine Country patties - they are more coarse in texture and you can actually see the veges in it. My 13-year-old Border Terrier happily eats them.

I used to buy these too, and found all the varieties are just too sloppy. Have changed over to Canine Country patties - they have less blood in them, are of a much firmer consistency (not ground down so finely), and you can actually see the veges in them. I'm very happy with them and the dogs love them.

:D Yes, arjay - I always feed BH and barf patties together. Along with an occasional egg, or a tin of sardines or some low fat cottage cheese - and any suitable leftovers from our dinners as well !).

Didn't know they could get these in their mouths ! And I didn't know they could fall off by themselves, either. Both my Cavalier King Charles Spaniels have them. My boy has a few on both his ears (where the ears meets the skull) and one on the side of his face. My girl has one on one ear as well, and also on the side of her flank. They've been there for a few years - vet says nothing to worry about. You can't really see them through the fur anyway, just feel them.

My advice is research and take your time buying a French Bulldog. I was after an adult frenchie - and it took 15 months to find the right dog. In the end I bought a 10-month old bitch - much younger than I wanted, but the trade-off was great breathing and good health (and she is so fantastic in every way that I bless the day she joined our household). I looked at quite a few frenchies over that time and although they all looked gorgeous, some didn't seem to breathe too well, so I didn't proceed with buying. There were some in contention where the owners admitted the frenchie could be aggressive towards the same sex, and as we already had 3 other dogs I didn't want to risk it, so a few otherwise suitable dogs were ruled out on that score, too. I avoided all cheap dogs - I figured I would get what I paid for - on the other hand I felt that anything over $3,000 was just cashing in on their popularity. Having said that there were some top priced dogs that didn't seem too healthy. I researched legitimate breeders (not back yarders) and just stuck with ones that had been breeding frenchies for many, many years and did health testing of parents before breeding them together. The majority of the breeders seemed to have just popped up "overnight" as it were, and I avoided them, too. (A work colleague went to pick up her dachshund puppy from a breeder - and the breeder's comment was "that's the last of the dachsie's - I'm going to breed frenchies from now on - there's more money in them ! - and that's what I mean by "cashing in" and not having the best interests of the breed at heart.) The breeders that I chose I contacted and let them know what I was after and my details. I kept in touch every few months to remind them about me. My patience paid off - I was contacted about the little girl I ended up with before she was advertised. So my point is expect to pay around $3,000, expect that the parents are health tested for the appropriate things before they are bred together, and expect to be patient. Also, the breeder gave me a written full money-back guarantee if the dog was returned for any reason whatsover within two weeks - no questions asked. And as well, the dog was to be returned to them if I could no longer keep it down the track and they would rehome it. You can't ask for fairer than that - and they are the sort of breeders that I trust.

Hi Little Mary. My 8-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel has been scratching for about 2 years on both sides of his body (on the flanks) usually when he is patted there (occasionally for no reason). Despite many visits to the vet, and diet and shampoo changes there has been no change, but no worsening either, and we have learned to live with it. He doesn't do it constantly, just occasionally. I did have a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel about 5 years ago with syringomyelia (can't remember if that's the right spelling)and her symptoms were different - more of an "air scratching" near her ears, and she definitely worsened over time.

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We've raised four puppies in our time, and then the last four dogs came to us as adults (or almost adults) - 9 months old, 2 years old, and two dogs at four years old. House-broken, past the chewing stage, past the crying stage, used to walking on lead. Only one had never lived indoors and she caught onto house training and lead walking within a week. We've even changed the name of some - no problems. They make fabulous pets and seem to know when they're well off. They bond just as well as pups. I highly recommend adult dogs to anyone. I have a theory that nature made pups so cute so people would fall for those beautiful faces and lovely puppy breath, because it's literally like bringing up a kid (only thankfully not for so long). Everyone wants a cute pup, but believe me there is so much to be said for an adult dog - just a pleasure to live with !! I say go for it - you won't regret it. :D :D :D

Been through the luxating patella thing, too - but with a Cavalier King Charles Spanel (who already had it when I got her as a 4 year old). Vet told me a price for them to fix it (with a possiblility it may happen again) or told me the name of an excellent specialist at the University of Melbourne Veterinary Hopsital in Werribee (Victoria) who does the operation differently (but at a greater cost) with a higher success rate. I took the expensive option (cost was about $2,000 and that was 5 years ago) as I didn't want to possibly go through the whole 3 months rehab again (what a pain that was trying to keep an otherwise healthy dog quiet !!!). Her leg was in bandages for a few weeks and then slowly started taking her for walks for a few minutes and then building up the time until her 3 months was up and she could run around as normal. No matter how we tried to confine her, we'd come home and she'd always managed to escape and join the other dogs. Despite this, her leg came out great and she has never looked back. Good luck with your lovely lab - hope all goes as straightforward as ours did.