Miranda

At 7 weeks of age your puppy is a tiny baby and has little control over her bowel functions, when she wants to go it just happens, they really aren't capable of holding on at that age. As you have a GR who will eventually need to toilet outside I would ditch the puppy pads and start teaching your dog to go outside from day one. IMO using puppy pads and newspaper can actually hinder toilet training and are a complete waste of time with a large breed.

It's probably best to discuss this with your vet, he may recommend a course of injections and the frequency of the injections depends on the individual dog. Its effectiveness can also vary from dog to dog.

Yes lamb flaps are good, but horse meat is very low in fat and is unlikely to help with weight gain, it may also cause diarrhoea is some dogs. Satin balls put weight on most dogs, if you do a search of the forum you will find some info about them. Feeding your dog a couple of raw eggs a week will not cause a biotin deficiency, there is more than enough biotin in the yolk to counteract the effect of the avidin in the white.

A combination of Joint Guard, fish oil capsules (1g per 10kg) and cartrophen injections can be very effective.

I would never keep any dog or puppy in a crate for 10 hours while I was at work. If I were in your situation I would keep the puppy in an outside run with a kennel or in a separate room inside.

monkeytrunks I have six dogs here at the moment and if I threw a few bones out into the yard when all the dogs were out together I'd have fights as well. I don't think that desexing will make any difference, but feeding separately, keeping them apart when they have bones and making sure that you don't leave any food lying around certainly will. Don't worry about keeping your boy entire for a bit longer, entire males aren't monsters you know, I have three here and they're all perfectly normal

seems a little rough.... but then again guess it depends on how your dog learns. mine isnt learning by glrowling, or sin binning. or the gag response thing so i might have to give this a go. Well it works for me, you don't have to lift them off the ground or go over the top, just be firm. I think it's the shock factor that works, I do it instantly as soon as they bite and I usually only have to do it once, after that the growly "uh-uh" works just as well as they associate the sound with the correction. I'm a great advocate for positive training methods, but sometimes it's necessary to give a little aversion therapy and biting humans is not something that I tolerate even when they're babies. IMO the younger they are when they're taught not to bite the better, biting is little more than an irritation in a baby, but it can become a real problem in a 5 or 6 month old puppy, especially if you have young children and even more so if they have friends who come round to play and end up being chewed by the dog. Problems like biting are one of the reasons that people rehome dogs and surrender them at pounds, it's far better to nip it in the bud at a very young age than to mess around with positive methods that aren't working, some puppies are harder than others and positive methods won't work with them all.

If I have a puppy that starts to chew on me I say "uh-uh", take it by the scruff, give it a little shake and put it away from me, if it repeats the behaviour I give it a harder shake. I find that this works very quickly and very few puppies do it more than once or twice.

Confine the dog at night, all my dogs are crated at night because if they were running around loose in the yard they'd be barking at possums too, your dog will get used to it. Personally I wouldn't use a bark collar on a 5 month old puppy. If she's barking during the day it's probably because she's bored and frustrated, do you have things in your yard to occupy her during the day? You can give her breakfast in a kong, leave her a large marrow bone to chew on, build a sand pit and bury treats in it, there are lots of things you can do to alleviate boredom. A short walk before you go to work will also help, you can extend the distance as she gets older. Are you doing any training with her? Do you belong to an obedience club? Remember that you own a working dog that requires lots of mental and physical stimulation, you can't give her much exercise at the moment, but you should be training her and a few short sessions a day to give her something to 'think' about will help to get rid of some of her energy.

You need to have x-rays done so that you know what you're dealing with, if it turns out to be something like UAP the dog may need surgery. I would get the dog x-rayed as soon as possible.

A dog who guards resources wants to keep something that he considers of high value all to himself and doesn't want to share it with another dog (or sometimes even with a human). Dogs aren't altruistic by nature and they don't share, this is a survival mechanism as in the wild it's 'every dog for himself' in most situations and a dog that shared would lessen the chances of its own survival. A bitch will share food and other resources with her pups, but even then it's only for a limited amount of time and once the pups reach a certain age the bitch will expect the pups to fend for themselves. I would considering the following scenarios as resource guarding. You are petting one of your dogs, another dog comes up to you and the dog who was there first will stiffen and go very still, eyeball the other dog, growl or even attack unless the other dog backs off. You are petting your dog and a human comes up to speak to you or touch you and the dog reacts as above. Some people misconstrue these two situations and think that the dog is 'protecting' them, but this isn't strictly true, the dog is actually protecting his resource (you, because you are petting him) and acting accordingly. Your dog is eating his meal and another dog or human comes near his bowl and he reacts as above, this may also occur if the dog has a bone, a chew, a toy or even just a stick that he happens to be playing with or chewing. You are preparing food in the kitchen and your dog is watching from a few feet away, another dog tries to get closer to you and the food and once again the same reaction. Your dog is lying on a dog bed, a rug or a favourite chair, another dog comes close to him and once again they get the stare, a growl or the dog may just attack. Your dog is lying on the couch and you decide to sit next to it, the dog growls or snaps. Your dog is lying on your bed or on the couch and you attempt to remove it, the dog growls or snaps. I would class all these situations as forms of resource guarding although others may disagree. Dogs who do this usually lack leadership from their owners and consider themselves above the other dogs and even the humans (especially children) in the household. TOT and the NILIF program usually work wonders with dogs who guard resources, but if the dog in question is actually growling and attacking humans I'd recommend that the owners engage the services of a qualified behaviorist and trainer.

You are misinformed Andrea, this is a common misconception. Neonates have the ability to absorb large protein antibody molecules through their intestinal wall ONLY during the first 24 hours of life. Once the puppy is a day old its digestive system matures and hydrolyses protein molecules thereby breaking them down into much smaller pieces and the puppy loses its ability to absorb them, so even if the dam continued to produce antibodies in her milk (which she doesn't) they wouldn't be available to the puppies. This is why 99.9% of maternal antibodies are produced during the first 24 hours post parturition, after this the amount of antibodies in ordinary bitch's milk is negligible. Maternal antibodies may persist in a puppy giving varying degrees of protection, sometimes as long as 18 or 20 weeks, but all the antibodies were originally received during the first 24 hours after birth. ETA I posted at the same time as wylie

Definitely NOT I don't vaccinate yearly and haven't done for years, I give C3 puppy shots and one C3 booster at 16 months and that's it.

Most vets treat a routine spay as day surgery. If there are no complications there is no reason why the dog should be kept in overnight, once the anaesthetic starts to wear off she will start to stress and fret and it is far better for the dog to be at home and with her owners than locked in a crate at a vet's surgery. If the surgery isn't staffed during the night she will left alone with no one to comfort her if she becomes distressed. Personally I wouldn't use a vet whose standard policy is to keep bitches in overnight and most of the next day, sounds like a money making exercise to me

None of my dogs will touch mushrooms, I guess it could be a survival mechanism as so many species of fungi are inedible and some are actually poisonous.

Well to be perfectly honest I wouldn't take this dog. If you're the type of person who's prepared to work at it if you do have problems then go ahead, but if you have doubts that you'd be able to deal with a resource guarder and would find constantly supervising and separating the dogs a hassle then I'd think twice about it. Of course it may all work out fine, but if it doesn't you may have dispose of the dog or keep them permanently apart. Really if you want a third dog why not buy a puppy, taking on a dog that has nipped a child is asking for trouble IMO, you say that the dog shows no aggression towards people, but I would class what he did to the child as an aggressive act and there is no guarantee that he won't do it again under similar circumstances.

Is the dog getting plenty of daily exercise and training?

No I don't think you can assume that it will be ok, bringing any dog, especially an adult into an existing pack will completely alter the dynamics and it's wise to supervise closely. Just because they get on when they first meet doesn't mean that they're going to get on all the time and I wouldn't leave them together when you're not there because if a fight does break out you're risking serious injury or worse. Feeding separately and making sure that no bones, chews or toys are left lying around is also a good idea. The dog probably nipped the child as a warning to keep away from the adult because the dog regarded the adult as a resource to be guarded. If the dog is a resource guarder I would expect it to behave the same way with another dog that got too close to something that the dog considered 'mine', so I would be very careful introducing a dog like this into your household. If the dog has formerly been an only dog this may also make things more difficult because he'll be used to getting all the attention and everything in the yard that he treasured such as toys etc. would have been his and his alone. I would give this a lot of thought before you commit yourself, is it possible to take the dog on a trial basis and see how he fits in?

Keep the dog out of the bedroom and out of the room where the couch is, keep the doors closed or use baby gates. Same at your parents' house, don't allow your dog upstairs, block the staircase off. What she is doing sounds like marking to me and the fact that she's marking your scent means that she thinks she's boss of the household. You need to improve your leadership skills and she needs to know that she's below you in the pack order. You could start with the NILIF program and try searching 'leadership' on these forums. IMO the diffuser would be a waste of money, your dog needs training and she needs to learn that you're in charge not her.

I wouldn't use any dog food bought from a supermarket, IMO there are much better brands available and although more expensive you use less, pick up less poo and they are better for the dog. However there are people who use Optimum and like it.

The person in the other forum is misinformed, other than tapeworm segments you are highly unlikely to see worms in poo, especially whipworm and hookworm, they are just too small. So yes, dogs should be wormed at least twice yearly with a complete all wormer.

You need a wormer that covers whipworm and hookworm as well skwo2, I buy Canine All Wormer tablets from Vet-N-Pet Direct, you can buy them in bulk or as singles or if you prefer chewables Drontal are very good although more expensive. I worm mine two three times a year and give monthly heartworm preventative. The only worms you're likely to notice in droppings are usually roundworms (they look like spaghetti) in very young puppies or tapeworm segments (they look like cucumber seeds). Most adult dogs are immune to roundworms once they reach six months of age (although they do become active again in pregnant bitches) so you're not likely to see roundworms in adults unless they're very stressed and/or their immune system is compromised.

4 Paws & More stock it moggy, they are in Keilor and will send it to you if you're too far away to pick it up.

Just because a dog is reliably toilet trained in their own environment doesn't mean that they won't mark in another dog's territory. None of my dogs ever soil inside, but I would never take them into a house where there are other dogs and allow them to run around unattended as I just wouldn't trust them. I never allow strange dogs into my house either, outside yes, but never actually inside the house. If I were you I'd keep your dog outside when you visit other houses where there are dogs on the premises then you won't have any accidents. The urge to mark other dogs' scents is very strong in some dogs.

Hmmm I can't say I'm impressed with the article and I disagree with a lot of it. However all my dogs have beautiful coats.