EmiLeigh

Thanks, I shall look into it. Thanks for the tips

Very interesting! Thank you so much for your replies! I had never heard of this before when I socialised my cocker spaniel 12 years ago. She was useless at listening to us when other dogs were around so this time around I want to do things differently. It does seem a little sad that dogs are incapable to play with other dogs at all...it would be interesting to know how to find a balance. I guess, as some have said, it depends on the dog. Does anyone know of any trainers/obedience schools who use this technique in SA?

I am interested in methods of getting a dog to go to the toilet in one corner of the yard.

I remember once reading on this forum about a few dog owners who trained their dogs to NOT play with other dogs when out and about as a way to keep them in line all the time. So they do not run off and not respond to commands because they are over excited etc. Does anyone know what this style of training is called and where I can get more information on it? Furthermore What training styles do you use?

Thanks everyone. She is all booked in to be desexed on Friday. The vets were so nice and gave us a discount. They said it may only cost about $130 extra if she is pregnant. Better this way than to wait to get a scan anyway, which wouldn't show much yet and would cost about the same amount. Thanks for letting me know that was an option (and the fence is getting fixed properly next week :D )

1. It's not uncommon for large/giant breeds to have their first season well after 12 months of age. 2. It is possible for a bitch that has been mated (espcially a maiden bitch) to show signs of pregnancy quite early on however the same can be said for phantom pregnancies. There is no reason not to take her to Vet now and have her desexed, please do so. She will be desexed. I am just concerned that if she is pregnant desexing while pregnant would be less than ideal. Or is that still possible since she it is so early? We can't have puppies now, I am pregnant myself and due any day so I am hoping she is simply sympathising with me otherwise we get a scan done now just to be sure, and wait until we have settled with the new baby before we put her through surgery (but before she goes on heat). So do you have two bitches (ie. one who hasn't yet come into season and the other who has and may have been mated)? If you have one bitch then she was either in season or not and got out? She is a giant breed and far too young to be having a litter, please have her desexed now rather than later. There's no reason to put it off, you've got a baby on the way and things are only going to become more hectic. If you have her done now (ie. this week or next) then it will be over and done with and forgotten and you won't have the worry of a bitch in season. I really can't be any clearer - have her desexed ETA: Yes even if she is pregant, she can still be desexed (adn the earlier on the better). Yes two bitches. Ok, I was under the impression from a friend working for a vet that a good vet wouldn't do desex while a dog was pregnant, so thought I should ask.

Diarrhea in the middle of a public square....oooh she was my partners dog after that. He had to clean it up.

I heard the funniest pronounciation of Dogue de Bordeaux the other day. The lady was an owner of a Dogue x American bulldog and was very enthusiastic to show us photos of her "doh-gay du bor-day"

1. It's not uncommon for large/giant breeds to have their first season well after 12 months of age. 2. It is possible for a bitch that has been mated (espcially a maiden bitch) to show signs of pregnancy quite early on however the same can be said for phantom pregnancies. There is no reason not to take her to Vet now and have her desexed, please do so. She will be desexed. I am just concerned that if she is pregnant desexing while pregnant would be less than ideal. Or is that still possible since she it is so early? We can't have puppies now, I am pregnant myself and due any day so I am hoping she is simply sympathising with me otherwise we get a scan done now just to be sure, and wait until we have settled with the new baby before we put her through surgery (but before she goes on heat).

Two questions: 1. Should I be worried if my 14 month old pup hasn't been in heat yet? She is a large breed. 2. Would a dog be showing signs of pregnancy only 18 days after mating - including swollen breasts, tiredness, and tiny amounts of milk - or is it more likely to be a phantom pregnancy? I have only known milk to be a late sign. She wasn't mated, but breifly got out the yard while on heat after our fence fell over We want to desex her, but with signs like this I guess we can't go ahead with the desexing.

Looks like I won that argument :D My partner thinks he has seen this, but I think he may have just seen a bitch who got pregnant to two dogs in the one mating(??) though he is convinced the bitch he saw didn't have the chance to mate with another dog. Thank you everyone for your answers.

I have been having this 'discussion' with my partner a while back about the possibility of dogs 'throwing back' to previous matings, and a friend recently bought up the topic again today. So tell me, if you have a pure bred bitch and she mates with a mutt, is she 'ruined' for further purebred breeding? Woudldn't that mean a bitch would have to store live sperm in it for that period of it for it to be physically possible? Plus that means if you were to mate a purebred bitch wtih one stud dog one season and another stud dog another, she could have pups from the previous dog, meaning that no breeder could garantee the pup is of the genetic lineage they say it is if they have bred their dog with other studs in the past. Right? Look forward to your answers

Thanks everyone I was hoping to just get more advice, since as mentioned they could always just lie to me anyway. so I thought it good to ask around. but it seems that hernia is not anything to worry about which is good. As long as it is not affecting her health. I am not trying to bad mouth my breeder - our pup is generaly a lovely healthy puppy and we are very happy with her, I don't mean to suggest that they have done wrong by me, just trying to gather as much information as I can about the breed and other peoples experience with hernia

I understand that. I am waiting a response from my breeder and thought I would just ask since a dogue exhibitor had replied on this thread. My main concern and the topic of this thread was the hernia. I see no need to ask the breeder about that since many people on here can give me different advice and their own personal experience. I also don't really want to sound like a worry wart to my breeder, better to get some of my concerns alleviated first

Our vet receptionist stuffed up our puppies vaccination certificates THREE times!! First they put the wrong name on it - gave my partner MY surname (not that I am complaining, I would love for him to take my surname ). AND the wrong date (stating the pups didn't need their second vaccinations for another year! Glad I picked that one up. So we asked them to change it. Then it had the wrong breed on it (thought the first one had the correct breed) and then they were trying to tell us that they couldn't change it to that breed coz the computer wouldn't let them - even though it let them last time?? and finally we realised they had put the wrong date on it AGAIN. Not a huge mistake, but still...how do you stuff it up so many times? It really isn't rocket science