Keira&Phoenix

Anvet Beenleigh is quite good with friendly staff. It has excellent modern facilities too. Cheers Greymate. I think that may be the one my brother takes his dogs too so will check it out. My vet is Beenleigh Vet Hospital. I prefer to see Renata as she is a straight talker but Sidney is young and very good as well. One thing I like there is that they stagger appointments and when you go the waiting room isn't full of people and other animals, which is great if you have a vet hating dog. I think their prices are also reasonable. Cool Keira loves vets and vet surgeries they give her treats lol but she is leash aggressive so the less other dogs the better. Thanks i will look into both of these

Thanks PF for the suggestions

Probably a question better answered by a professional but I'm not sure it would be helping. Have you considered feeding in a crate and asking her to wait before releasing to enter for her food? Nope haven't tried that one, I always have her wait before releasing her for food when bowl feeding her but never have done this in her crate. Might try keeping her away from food prep area and then feeding in her crate and also dropping in extra food also. See how we go Thanks

Anvet Beenleigh is quite good with friendly staff. It has excellent modern facilities too. Cheers Greymate. I think that may be the one my brother takes his dogs too so will check it out.

Sounds like you are doing heaps as it is!!! Obviously when your not home leaving as many windows open (with fly screens of course) and turning on fans, if you don't have ceiling fans maybe a pedestal fan on rotate near the area she is staying in. I think you can get fans that have a mister on them as well..? I heard someone talking about them that might be ok. Does she have free roam of the house or is she staying in a certain room ie: bathroom? If she is big enough maybe putting a little bit of water in the bottom of that bath tub for her to sit in if she wants...

You do realise that even lower level dogs in a pack will resource guard? That throws the "be the alpha and it won't happen" theory clean out the window. Anything that will decrease the dog's anxiety about losing food will help. The only method I'd recommend without professional supervision would be to approach the dog and reward it (with higher value food) for tolerating your presence. Dropping MORE food in the bowl will help. Any sign of a warning should be heeded. Teaching a give and using it regularly may assist but personally I think resource guarding calls for careful management and professional help. Alpha rolling sometimes works. When it doesn't the results can be distrastous. Anxious or dominant dogs can be triggered to defend themselves or to confront the physical 'challenge'. Don't go there. Hi Poodlefan thanks for that. I make sure I never take anything away from her to make sure I never "encourage" the behaviour by showing her she needs to guard it. I will try dropping food into the bowl from now on when I am bowl feeding her. As I said most times I will hand feed her or give her food to her frozen in stock or in a kong so she has to work for it the only time I don't is if I am giving her salmon or something messy that I cant actually hand feed her. My trainers come back from Christmas as of this weekend so I will have a chat to him about it also and see what he thinks I should do. But I thought I would ask around here as well while I waited. I think he has mentioned dropping food int he bowl before but I haven't done it yet so will take this up this week. Do you think hand feeding her could be doing more damage then good? With Keira all I ever did was teach her to sit and wait until she was given the OK and I have never had an issue with her....

Quick question for everyone. I have a 20 week old am staff x pup. Last week I gave her a chicken wing to munch on while I got ready for work and kept her in the same room as me to make sure there were no issues while she was eating it ie: chocking because she tends to swallow food quite quickly. Anyways she got most of the way through it and she was doing really well she wasn't trying to eat it too quickly she was ripping off the meat and then trying to break through the bones, anyways I leaned down to pick up a few little shards of bone that were lying around and one of her teeth which had fallen out (she was losing her milk teeth at the time) and as I reached in and picked it up she growled a bit, I thought maybe I heard wrong so I reached down again and lo and behold she growled and sort of barked in her throat at me, she has NEVER EVER done this before. She also growled a bit at me last night when I was giving her a pat while she ate her dinner, only when I patted her on the head though. I have another dog Keira who I haven't had this issue with, she has never resource guarded and she is now 3 I can take food and bones off her with no dramas at all. I have made a point to do the same thing with Phoenix as I did with Keira because it worked. I also follow what my trainer says to do. IE: I will hand feed her or give her her breaky/dinner in a kong toy so she has to work for the food. If I am giving her something which I have to give to her in her bowl I can put it down and she won't touch it until I give her the OK. And I make a point of never taking food from her and if I have to take a bone off her I will trade ie: I will give her a chunk of steak and swap her for the bone. What am I doing wrong? Or what can I do stop this? I don't want a dog that will bite me if one day in an emergency I have to take something off her and don't have time to get something to swap it with. I have taught her leave it and can drop food on the floor without her touching it until I say so or give her something else and pick it up. But dogs are not fool proof and I cannot guarantee one day she won't grab something she shouldn't and I will have to act quickly to take it from her or if I am not there someone else has to. Suggestions? Criticisms? All welcome. Thanks Edit for spelling

When I first got Keira (MY first dog ie: not a family dog) I called around practices in the area and it was extremely off putting to speak to someone over the phone who was rude and abrupt which some were, I ended up going to the vet practice that had friendly, helpful reception staff. I understand that they can sometimes be busy or stressed out but it is no excuse to treat customers rudely. I work in Recruitment (Labour Hire) so everyday I deal with people who don't go to work or who just want to treat you like dirt but when I answer the phone or when I am dealing with someone who could be on the other end of the line calling me all sort of horrible names I still manage to be polite, so I expect it from others, if you are in reception then you are in customer service and you should be polite and helpful, not abrupt and rude ever. On another note, I have moved house and it is too far to travel to my previous vet now. Does anyone have a recommendation of a good vet in Logan City, QLD? I am currently using a local vet but I am not very happy with them and would prefer to go somewhere that a DOLer recommends as I trust you lot

Thanks Shell. I have a big problem with my dog getting fly bitten on the end of her ears, I will try this

Sorry all I didnt make it. I am unwell at the moment and trying to recover. Hope you had fun though.

Naw I am so jealous, I honestly wish I had the facilities to take Keira swimming everyday its just great fun, as it is it costs me $20 every time I take her so could get expensive taking her thei emore than once a week.

Hi Korbin, It took a while for me to get Keira into the swimming, ie she was always trying to get out and would at any opportunity but after a lot of treats whilst swimming and once she calmed down and could play ball she now LOVES it, absolutely LOVES it, I just throw a ball for her and she is in no coaxing needed. Get whatever motivates your dog the most and use that to show them that the pool is fun. Honestly I find it so rewarding to sit by the pool and throw the ball for Keira because you can see she just absolutely enjoys it, I wish I had a pool so I could do it with her everyday! EDIT: I know some people are not comfortable "forcing" their dog to do something the reason I did was because she had the dodgy hips (BTW she stopped limping the day after her first swim!) but as I said well worth it when they really start to love it. Thanks for the info. I think that I'm going to put a bit more effort into a bit of pool work. It would do them a world of good. Funny thing is that they love their clam shell. And Bell will often stick her whole head in her drinking water :D Yet they freak out over the pool Its probably the depth of the pool they know its not a clam shell and that they are not going to be able to stand in it. Maybe start by having them stand on the steps and praise/treat them for that and then move on from there. As I said though worth the effort in the end because they just seem to be so happy once they are used to it. If you wanted to and were willing to spend the money you can get life jackets for between $50 - $80. That is how I started Keira in a life jacket (see my sig that was her first time in the pool) and once they get comfortable and are used to the exercise involved you can stop using them. Be careful once you do get them swimming that you ease them out of the pool because they get "sea legs" and it takes them a little time to re-adjust to walking on land and taking their weight but only take a minute or two.

Hi Korbin, It took a while for me to get Keira into the swimming, ie she was always trying to get out and would at any opportunity but after a lot of treats whilst swimming and once she calmed down and could play ball she now LOVES it, absolutely LOVES it, I just throw a ball for her and she is in no coaxing needed. Get whatever motivates your dog the most and use that to show them that the pool is fun. Honestly I find it so rewarding to sit by the pool and throw the ball for Keira because you can see she just absolutely enjoys it, I wish I had a pool so I could do it with her everyday! EDIT: I know some people are not comfortable "forcing" their dog to do something the reason I did was because she had the dodgy hips (BTW she stopped limping the day after her first swim!) but as I said well worth it when they really start to love it.

Is there somewhere in your local area that offers swimming for dogs? Ie up here with have several facilities that you can take you dog to for a swim (one I go to is Canine Cubby), its fantastic exercise and great for them, and it cools them off at the same time. I first started taking Keira for her hip dysplaxia worked wonders but now I also take her because she loves to dive in a chase and chase a ball and it is good low impact exercise and is good for summer time. I am also taking Phoenix now to teach her to swim. Otherwise do you have a pool, a nearby lake/dam or beach? EDITED for spelling

Maybe. But in the end most people live with the attitude "ignorance is bliss" if they do not witness the suffering of puppy farms or a similar operation first hand then it makes no difference to them. Buying pets from pet stores should be illegal because people still impulse buy from them which is another major issue on top of BYB's and puppy mills.

Love It!!

What a brave, loyal dog. How sad that it died from the snake bite ;) :D Some really wonderful stories in here. This is the reason dogs need to be loved and treated right because they will love us and protect us. Keira has never had to be in the position to protect me but I know she would if she ever felt someone was a threat to me. Phoenix is too young and also has never been in that position. Keira did chase off someone who was in our front yard trying to break into my house mates car although we didn't know that was why she was barking and carrying on until the next morning when he went to get into his car.

Its on Bio again at 8:30 am tomorrow incase anyone who missed it wants to watch or record it!

Breed 5 ---- A horse??? LOL

None right? Darn how did that happen I'm off home (yes this is what I have been doing at work all afternoon, don't judge me, its very slow) Will check in when I get home. And also think about it on my way there.

I like this one!! Breed 1 - Maremma (Sp?) Breed 2 - Beagle? Breed 4 - Bullmastiff? Or Mastiff of some kind? Breed 5 - Greyhound or Whippet?

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!! LOL I said some I didn't want 1 specific one haha and only extra points! Its non shedding and has webbed feet BTW

yay! your go ST. Also heres a pic just for fun

no guess??? I will give you a clue it is not an ANKC recognized breed. But is recognized by the UKC and AKC

Ok well here is a relatively quick one to get us back on our way. As usual NO googling! Churro, Laneto, Perro de Agua and Pero de Lanas are all names that refer to which breed of dog? For extra points what are some distinguishing features of this dog?