ness

Actually westiemum I just had another thought - Jenny Ireland will custom make harness's and the price is very reasonable so just another option. I know a friend who swears by her stuff and she is local. http://jennyireland.com.au/

I like the comfortflex ones and clean run have them on free shipping still. http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=1771&ParentCat=449

Urgh - I thought I was imagining some front end lameness over the weekend but went out this morning tracking with my oldie and had a few others look at Kenz moving and they definitely think she is carrying her front right a little bit. I can't take a bloody trick with this dog I really can't.

Oh boy I thought I was going to have a battle on my hands today - they tried to make her first session 3 minutes again I went excuse me we have been doing much longer then that . So Kenz got her 3 reasonable length sessions again at a slightly faster rate. Not sure she was coping as well as she has previously though. Last session on Friday and then I have to work out what the plan is from here given she is battling.

I have had it clarified that the amount of Vitamin C contained in 1 scoop of RHVC is only 2.5mg. So we aren't talking huge amounts by any length. Its also a natural form rather than a synthetic form.

Jess the lab - conventional meds especially NSAIDs have huge potential to harm a dog in the long run. Its always a matter of balancing the risk v reward situation. Rose-Hip Canine Vital is APVMA registered. APVMA are the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicine Authority and was the first natural product registered since new guidelines for the registration of Complementary Herbal Remedies was introduced in 2009. So yes there was extensive research done before registration was granted. I don't know exactly what the registration process entails but I am aware there were clinical trials done on canines with doses up to 5 times the loading dose over extended durations.

Thanks for posting an update westiemum. Give Mac a gentle cuddle from the BC girls when he is home.

I will quite happily run my dogs off-lead persephone. You don't allow them to harass wildlife and if leopuppy's kids are anything like mine they mostly stick to racing along the paths. Can't help you with your question LP but its certainly heaps of fun. I was lucky enough to take my two out on Saturday to the grounds we use for tracking trials to help plot tracks for next weekend. Both were extremely well behaved despite the number of roos that were around and only had to go on-lead once for a little bit because I didn't want to risk it when the oldie started showing a little to much interest in the roos. Baby dog was oblivious to them .

Hugs westiemum. Fingers crossed.

Well prognosis would be she could resume doing fun things to the extent which her BC Collapse issue presents as a problem or not. Given she is having issues with both patellas first surgery would be to go in and stabilise the right so she had a "good" leg. Then if everything goes to plan 8 weeks later go in and redo the left repair. She would be scheduled to have x-rays at 4 weeks post-op on the first leg and pending outcome of that be allowed to do some underwater treadmill at that stage so we don't end up with the huge muscle wastage and issues she suffered with the first repair failing.

so what we are facing at the moment is another 4 months crate rest post surgery x 2 - never mind finding the dollars .

So after a run of reasonably "good" days, her run decided to come to an end tonight when she was walking in the backroom and managed to have the patella on her "good" repaired leg luxate . Poor girl was in serious pain biting her leg and whimpering again. . One huge frigging mess.

Steve do you have an literature references to back up what your saying I would be keen to have a read. In the end its about what works for the dog and they don't suffer from the placebo effect experienced in humans. There are "consequences" for lots of things. There are huge consequences of using conventional drug therapies (nsaids/tramadol). Everything in life is a risk v reward scenario. My oldie who featured in the recent video spent this morning helping plot tracks for a track and search trial next weekend. She was happy racing around the bush for a couple of hours without any issue. She then came home and happily came out for another walk just before. She hasn't had an issue with her front leg since starting on the RHVC.

No the bit in that statement I was highlighting (and the bit I underlined and bolded) is the bit about it not being a vitamin C supplement, I don't think it really matters whether its better absorbed or not in this context. I am still not sure what you then use to supplement for a joint related issue if all of the joint supplements appear to contain vitamin C. They are not being marketed as a vitamin C supplement. I have just googled 4 commonly recommended joint supplements for dogs manufactured by different companies and all contain vitamin C.

Joint Guard - another commonly used and recommended joint supplement also contains Vitamin C. I am not sure what the argument is if as you say all normal foods including raw diets contain vitamin C. I have had both dogs on joint guard previously as recommended by vet specialists. My oldie has probably been on joint guard for at least 5 years and quite possibly a lot longer then that. The Rose-Hip (and the dog equivalent) given that I just borrowed this from the RH webpage states the following - "Vitamin C in Rose-Hip Vital® is completely natural and is absorbed more effectively then synthetic Vitamin C but is not a Vitamin C supplement". So therefore presumably no different to any other "food or raw diet" which happens to contain some level of Vitamin C supplementation.

Here we go - I have mainly spoken about my baby girls experience on RHVC but about time my oldie got a bit of airtime. Ness's improvements haven't been as dramatic because she wasn't having as many issues to begin with. Its still helping her significantly though .

Both my two are on the RHVC plus fish oil at the moment.

Today was session 12 - she got 3 x 5 min sessions at a reasonable speed - yee har. Progress at last. Much less double stepping and mostly just nice walking . Think next time she might need it a little faster though watching the video back.

Note to TheLBD = we will have to discuss this food handling bit its not helping the kelps = HOMEWORK assignment cut up treats into bite size bits and don't use things that are crumbly (sermon over) :laugh:

I still think regardless of your training method placement of reinforcement is important. Hence why things like the use of magnetic balls/tugs are a brilliant invention when using a toy reward for heeling. A lot of the toy related problems in my view come from the dog anticipating subtle cues from the handler and being able to remove these by releasing the dog to grab a toy hands free is fantastic. I have also released a dog to a tug in position or used placement of the toy to encourage or tweak position.

I was told the Highbury side is off-lead the Athelstone side is on-lead but I have never actually been there myself just have a friend who runs shelties there.

Great news for Olly - westiemum .

The food in the hand initially is about getting the head position. Once the dog offers the head position with the food then you can quickly fade the food and reward the hand target with a toy if thats your dogs preference. Given Denise's suggestions were posted an an offer to fix crabbing/forging the toy rewards were mostly thrown behind the dog and away from the dog so they were having to turn away from the handler. At least this was the discussion that was posted on the list at the time the videos were posted.

AKC is very similar to ANKC Wobbly - Denise's methods work well for ANKC .

Today was session 11, the first of her donated sessions and finally she actually got some reasonable time in the treadmill. I didn't even have to push for it the comment was has she got to 4 minutes a session yeah and I was like nope we haven't really progressed. We also managed to up the speed a little bit too . Will have to review the video to see how she was doing but she didn't seem to be overly trouble by the increased length and came home as feral and ready for action as after her shorter sessions. Thanks again .