Pjrt

For me that would depend on the degree over overweight. If I were a judge looking at several mediocre dogs of correct body condition, and one chumpy but otherwise excellent example, i'd award the heavier dog. If the best dog was clearly very overweight, i would weigh it up *scuse the pun* and may award the heavier dog but speak to the handler and critique it, or may choose to award the next best, and still possibly talk to second place with the heavy dog "I'd have like to have placed your first as your dog is *list good points* but is not in appropriate body condition, go home and work on that and you'll have yourself a winner" If the dog was obese it would be placed last in my ring.

Gruf has a collar with a metal clasp which is engraved saying his name, microchipped, ph number. A large collar like you would need would have plenty of room for a short sentence to be engraved.

Basset Hounds are true dwarf breed which means they have a normal size dogs body on small limbs. The correct body weight & size of a large male Basset would easily equal or eclipse that of the average Labrador. Just because a dog is short doesn't mean it should weigh less. I agree that the best way to tell if a dog is the correct weight is to actually look at the dog. As for breed standards, If a small but tall Labrador weighed 30kg it would look totally out of proportion and would most likely not fit most of the rest of the standard, despite being the 'correct' weight.

Turkey feet!! Gruf would love that. He gets chicken feet sometimes but OMG Turkey feet !! We don't have super accurate mealtimes either. He gets what he gets when I want to give it. He never pesters me for food.

Gruf gets a raw mince formula plus other raw bits and bobs of yoghurt, cottage cheese, whole fresh sardines, egg, offal, for breakfast and his main meal of bones at night, usually a turkey neck, but sometimes duck or chicken carcass, roo lumbar or lamb neck. He doesn't get treats during the day at all but sometimes gets a chunk of dried lung at bedtime. No kibble at all A big bone if I'm going out all day.

I don't know if it's still up but there was an ad a few days ago on SA gumtree dogs for 'pontian mastiffs' The speil that went with the add sent shudders down my spine. I believe there was a related ad for Rotties as the spiel was very similar

:love:

Pictures speak louder than words.......

Great job folks..... My dogs are crated every night for around 8 hours, they cope perfectly fine so this sounds very acceptable to me. Don't let the negative nellies get you down. Overnight crating is very different to going to work and leaving your dog in its crate for 8 hours which someone in this thread felt was acceptable...it is not. Not at all, get a hamster if this is the life you can provide an animal Yep, but I don't even think a hamster deserves that

I have a very active dog that I didn't think drink enough. He is wholly raw fed, with a mince mix in the morning with extra bits and pieces like egg, fish, offal and cottage cheese mixed with it, and a meaty bone such as a turkey neck or half chicken carcass in the evening. Anyway, what I started doing with his mince mix in the morning adding a cup of water to it to make it more of a mince soup! He loves it and i add warm water in winter, cold water in summer. At least I know he has had a good drink at least once a day. The only other time he drinks is after very vigorous exercise, has a few licks and he's off again Ps, I'm not trying to tell you to feed raw! ....just maybe adding water to their mince meal in the morning maybe he will be less inclined to drink so much later in the day nearer to bed time.

Thank you

Can anyone tell me what plant this pod is from. I know it's more of a tree than a bush, but that's it. And whether it would be safe if a dog chewed on the husk and /or the seeds. *looks more like Cassowary food to me!

If you own the male outright, you have the say on what happens in regards to breeding him, but you incur all the costs. You would need to make sure you have main registration papers in your name, be a member of your states ANKC canine Assoc, make sure your dogs health testing is done, at your cost, approve and arrange bitches for breeding etc etc. Do you have the knowledge to know and make the best choices in these regards. If you are a novice dog person it may benefit you to have the breeders guidance through all of this. You also need to know whether your breeder has the knowledge and the best intentions for the dogs in making these decisions. Would you be happy if you ended up in a situation where you have agreed to let the breeder stud your dog, and find a bitch of poor quality arrive at your place. Or what if your boy doesnt quite turn out to the standard you would approve of for breeding etc. What happens if your boys health tests dont return the results you hope for. So much to think through. If your breeder is terrific and you can be confident in them and the terms and conditions set out and signed by you both are to your satisfaction, then great. If you just want a pet dog then I would just make an outright purchase.

I agree. I would not put whitening shampoo on to a dry coat. The way I do it mixing the shampoo and warm water, means the coat is not dry as soon as the mix hits it. I wouldn't just splodge some neat whitening shampoo onto a dry coat. And yes, If you don't dilute properly, some whitening shampoos really take to the coat and are a bitch to get out. By diluting the Whitening shampoo together with regular shampoo, and mixing with warm water before application to the dog, I have never had that happen and I do it every day on all sorts of coat types. the ones you really have to watch are the soft undercoat dogs like Samoyed, Pyrenean, Husky, Collie etc. I remember in the good old days when we used magic silver white. A few dogs went out with a 'purple rinse'!

Yes definitely build an escape proof dog run for her, with a sheltered area and some space to walk around and lie in the sun. Also, have you considered an electronic containment system. I can't post a link at the moment. Can anyone else do it. I think one brand name is Innotek ?

hmm, yes I would have to agree with that. Mixed into a diluted shampoo will definitely lessen the possibility but yes, proceed with caution around white grout! hmmm. Well the floor grout is a brown/beige colour...but the walls are white. Its regularly doused in flaming red hair hair dye without much problem. I shall proceed with caution. Yes I think you will be ok. just rinse the walls down asap. I use the mix every day but the bath shell I use is fibreglass. The shakes go up the walls, which are off white, and I have never had a problem cleaning the walls of the diluted solution, but grout is obviously more porous. Be really careful with the neat shampoo though!

An old showies tip is to soak a bar of old fashioned Velvet Soap in a pot of water and then use the water and the gooey bar of soap to wash the dog. We used to do that 3 times a week on the whites of the Landseer Newfies. It is definitely shower safe. working with a short coarse coat is very different to a fluffy coat. Half of the success of whitening products on fluffy coats is that the hair is easier to penetrate, the undercoat really grabs the product, and once fluff dried, light penetrating the coat adds to the illusion of whiteness!

hmm, yes I would have to agree with that. Mixed into a diluted shampoo will definitely lessen the possibility but yes, proceed with caution around white grout!

Oh and while I'm at it!......Adding the purple Equinade to your shampoo mix will make the shampoo purple. I find it an interesting exercise for owners because it makes it easy to identify how well you have rinsed! Keep rinsing until there is no trace of purple....... you might identify that your current rinsing was maybe not what you thought it was !

oh and your recent oil encounter will definitely have discoloured the coat. Engine oil, even once 'washed out' will leave a yellowish grubbiness to that area for a while.

Yes i mean do the first wash starting with a dry dog. It will suds up pretty well on the first go, but the second wash will really put the polish on. I don;t exactly know why, but starting with a dry dog is, I believe, the secret to why everyone, even other pro groomers (happened just last night lol) shake their heads and wonder how i get the dogs so glowing and white, without the yellowish tinge that sometimes creeps in with 'blue' shampoos.

Try Equinade Glo White shampoo. Obviously it is marketed for horses, but also labelled for dogs, cats and pocket pets. It does really well on the short 'horse like' coats. Get a 1 litre squeezy bottle from the supermarket or 2 dollar store. add some of your regular shampoo in the bottom, probably about 1 to 2 cm depth, then add about 1cm depth of Glo White , fill with warm water and shake. Then shampoo the dog from a dry start. Just squeeze the shampoo mix onto the dog and rub it in as you go. Rinse and repeat. Do not use conditioner. You can just use a bucket to make the shampoo mix and apply using a facewasher, but the squeezy bottle works a treat. Equinade is readily available from horse supply places and feed stores, and is not terribly expensive. I think I have tried every 'white' dog shampoo on the market over the years, but keep going back to Equinade. Australian made to boot!

Yes either leave people who breed dogs, to do the perfectly legal activity of breeding dogs, to their own devices and catch the pond scum by actually policing and enforcing animal welfare codes and acts. Or subject every single person who breeds a dog to the same regulations. Everyone from the ANKC breeder, to the big box commercial breeder, to the guy who advertises his litter of shihtiwhattzitz on gumtree, to the farmers working dogs and everyone in between.

I guess my post was a bit blunt. I apologise for that. Ill post a link to an article posted in another part of the forum recently. I have highlighted on bit near the end. It resonated so strongly with me when I read it. Having worked with pet dogs for 29 yrs, I meet a lot of dogs who for one reason or another have been through the 'behaviourial training, behaviour modification' routine. So many times I have seen dogs pushed from one often small manageable issues into a whole lifetime of problems. I guess what Im saying is, be careful what you wish for. It sounds like you are getting some guidance, but don't take everything or anything, you are told, as gospel. Just as you should question what I am trying to say. Make sure not to push your dog too hard too fast and end up with more problems than if you hadn't. While you may not exactly have a 'project dog' at the moment, over doing it can lead to ending up with on, IMHO. LINK The Project Dog June 22, 2015 By Blanche Axton If you've owned dogs for any period of time, you have probably had a project dog. A Project Dog is the dog that presents you with significant behavioural problems. Maybe the dog came to you with issues, maybe you created the issues, or maybe the dog developed them over time. Regardless of how it happened, now you have a Project Dog. It is a dog that brings out both the best and the worst in you. A dog that requires more of you than you had bargained for, tests your skills, and shows the chinks in your training and rehabilitation armour. The dog that makes you feel alone and lonely because sometimes you just don't like the dog and there isn't a soul to whom you can say that without fear of being tagged as a hideous human being. How They Come to Be I've had a few project dogs. I have one now. I've given a lot of thought to these dogs over the years. They come to us in a few different ways, in my experience. They came with issues. I've had a few dogs that I've adopted or purchased that came to me with issues. Sometimes I knew about the issues, sometimes I didn't, and sometimes the person from whom I got the dog either downplayed the seriousness of the issues or they simply didn't know enough to see how serious the issues were. Sometimes the issues simply didn't show up until the dog had settled into my home and had enough invested in life with us to let those issues to show up. My current Project Dog is one of those "late bloomers." I fostered him so I knew he had some glitches, but the full force of the glitches—in this case "isolation distress" and, I suspect, some neurological deficits—didn't show up until he'd been with us for several months. They came with issues. I've had a few dogs that I've adopted or purchased that came to me with issues. Sometimes I knew about the issues, sometimes I didn't, and sometimes the person from whom I got the dog either downplayed the seriousness of the issues or they simply didn't know enough to see how serious the issues were. Sometimes the issues simply didn't show up until the dog had settled into my home and had enough invested in life with us to let those issues to show up. My current Project Dog is one of those "late bloomers." I fostered him so I knew he had some glitches, but the full force of the glitches—in this case "isolation distress" and, I suspect, some neurological deficits—didn't show up until he'd been with us for several months. You created the issues. Sadly, I've done this in the past. I had border collies many years ago and I created a suspicious dog who was inclined to lash out first because of my own ham handed use of compulsion. In those days I was solidly in the camp that believed dogs MUST obey every command (and I'm using the word 'command' deliberately) given, obey instantly and if they didn't, you must MAKE them by any means necessary. There certainly was no use of food reinforcers or even much play as a reward. It was "I say – You do" training. I had been lucky to have had a couple of dogs that just rolled with it and did not resist. But my one bitch was not a "go with the flow" dog. She and I locked horns early on and in my misguided and overly forceful efforts to get compliance, I created a Project Dog. She lost trust in me, and approached most of our further interactions with wariness and a willingness to defend herself vigorously if needed. She may have turned out differently in the hands of a more skilled, less punishing owner. But I also think that she was somewhat hard wired to be less flexible and more deeply impacted by punishment than my previous dogs had been. I don't know. But I definitely carry the weight of the issues that dog developed. I am confident I created them. They developed them over time. This group of Project Dogs are probably the most disheartening. The dogs that develop issues and become Project Dogs for no discernible reason. They just do. I do believe these dogs exist, as I've worked with them. Some seem to be genetically more easily frightened, more inclined to anxiety, less resilient, less able to cope with the life that they live. They drew the short straw in the genetics lottery. Who knows why, but I have seen dogs that have come from solid breeders, had skilled and knowledgeable owners, and yet still developed significant behavioural issues. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Life with a Project Dog is not all misery and grimly clenched teeth. There are good things about them—although you may not see it at the time. There are also aspects that aren't so great and some are downright awful. The Good: A Project Dog makes you look seriously at your skill level in your work with your dog. You have to review and evaluate how you work with this dog. A Project Dog should force you to research and read everything you can get your hands on about how to work with their specific issues. AND you will have to bring ALL your skills at analysing what is and isn't a solid strategy for dealing with this particular dog. A Project Dog forces you to break down your work into manageable pieces and to log observable progress if you hope to be at all effective. It forces you look at things objectively, to track what is working and what isn't. If you are smart, you keep logs so you can compare what you think you see happening with what you've actually observed and noted. This can do two important things. First, it can show you progress that's been made. Second, it can derail our tendency to project our desire to see progress that isn't really there. A Project Dog slaps you in the face with reality. It forces you to look at what you had dreamed of/hoped for/expected from this dog and then deal, realistically, with the dog that is in front of you. This is no easy task. I have a very fearful Japanese Chin. He was going to be my sports dog, my foray into all things competitive. Guess what? Not so much. It took me a long time to come to terms with what Meesh (my Japanese Chin) is as opposed to what I wanted him to be. He's a great dog, but the competitive dog sports circuit is not in our future. Now that I've readjusted my expectations and quietly washed my sports dreams away, we are both happier. Meesh has also highlighted some errors in my own thinking about working with a fearful dog. I thought I knew what baby steps were. I didn't. Scared Japanese Chin baby steps are not the same as Scared Pug baby steps. The other thing that having Meesh in my life has done is made me realize that an accurate understanding of breed characteristics is useful. Chins, generally, are inclined to timidity, suspiciousness and aloofness with strangers. I didn't take that particular description seriously enough. I love Meesh, but he has forced me to readjust my expectations and not dismiss breed characteristics out of hand. A Project Dog can show you what you can and cannot live with. This is a good thing, although the process of coming to that realization can be painful. As a trainer, having a Project Dog reminds me of what my clients feel and live. It gives me fresh perspective on why people get so frustrated, so overwhelmed, so hopeless, so willing to try anything. The Bad: Working and living with a Project Dog can be seriously isolating. People can view you as some kind of human monster when your dog fires off on leash or at the door. Or when they cower in fear as a well meaning stranger continues to encroach on your space even while you are body blocking them from your dog and asking them to "Please! Stop!" It is easy to feel like you are the only one with a dog like this and that if you had any skills at all, your dog would be happily frolicking at the dog park with all the other dogs. I'm putting this in the 'bad' category because it is such a struggle for many people and lots of judgement can get heaped on you as a result. You may not be able to "fix" this and you may need to use medications to even get the dog to a place where their brain can take in any rehabilitation strategies. Many folks struggle away for months and years with "nutriceuticals", homeopathics, etc when the dog needs serious pharmacological help. Just as many people have doubts and concerns with human psychiatric meds, many project that onto dogs needing medication assistance. Beware the "Love Network." My husband calls the well meaning but utterly clueless folks who think "Love and Time" can cure all ills of a dog as the "Love Network." Watch out for these folks. They will make you feel like a penny waiting for change. They don't mean to be soul destroyers, but they imply that if you only loved your dog more, had more patience, devoted more time to the dog, the issues would be fixed. Project Dogs can require life long, life altering management. My shih tzu mix has serious isolation distress. And by serious, I mean that I need to be sure that my life is structured to keep him safe and minimize his stress. He is quite capable of jumping onto my office chair, onto the second floor window sill and flinging himself through the screen in his efforts to get to me. I have to be super vigilant about a great many things now that I didn't have to be vigilant about before adopting him. The Ugly: You may at some point come up against a dog that you simply cannot live with for any one of a number of reasons. You are then in the unenviable position of deciding if this dog can or should be re-homed or if euthanasia is the most humane answer. Let me be clear, I take the decision about euthanasia very seriously and do not euthanize a dog because they are inconvenient. However, the ugly side of the Project Dog can be that re-homing is not only not possible, it's not humane, responsible, or in the best interests of the dog. Some Project Dogs CAN be re-homed and can be happier in a different environment than yours, but this is not the case in every situation. I'll use my shih tzu mix, Ty, as an example. Re-homing him would be one of the worst things I could do. He is already somewhere between 10 and 12, has likely been re-homed prior to coming to me and dogs with isolation distress and separation anxiety really suffer serious consequences from being re-homed, especially multiple times. And in all honestly, I would not wish on anyone what I've had to do to keep him safe and try to reduce his distress. I spend a fortune on dog sitters so he is not alone. I've had to turn down work because I either could not bring him with me, couldn't get a dog sitter, or was going to be gone FAR too long for him to be without a human in the house. I have to be very vigilant about all the possible cues I give that set him up for anxiety well before I leave the house. He is quite capable of seriously injuring or killing himself in his distress when alone. He's on medication that, while not outrageously expensive, isn't cheap. He's clearly had some previous bad experience with people leaving him alone and has some generalized anxiety about a number of things. He's a boat load of work, worry, and expense. And while money isn't the most important thing in the world, I'd be lying if I acted like it isn't a factor in what people with Project Dogs have to deal with. Judgement and guilt. People are very quick to condemn the person who realizes that they cannot deal with or live with the issues of their dogs. I'm not talking about the person who is just not willing to put in even minimal effort. I'm talking about the owner who has seriously evaluated the dog, themselves, the quality of life for both the dog and the humans and the ability of both to cope with what they are facing over the long term. Re-homing a dog is not necessarily a wrong decision and is not de facto evidence that the human is a lazy, insensitive, and careless clod. Euthanizing a dog is also not necessarily a wrong decision. It can be the most humane thing we can offer a dog, not that I expect everyone to agree with me on that. What's ugly in this scenario is the judgement from people outside of the situation. The nasty comments. And the guilt that it puts on an owner who has really gone the extra mile (or miles in some cases) in their efforts to help their dog. The Guaranteed Fix. Those of us with Project Dogs can become so obsessed with finding the cure, the fix, or the answer to our dog's problem that we can go where angels fear to tread. We can be easy targets for the snake oil salesmen. The newest protocol. The latest "quick" way for dealing with reactivity, dog aggression, separation anxiety. This can lead us to see methods we would never consider as viable alternatives. To see behavioural suppression as progress. To use flooding rather careful counter conditioning and desensitization. We can place ourselves, and more importantly, our dogs onto a slippery slope where the welfare of the dog is sacrificed for anything that looks like progress. We need to check our own thoughts about what the dog needs. Does your dog really NEED to be able to play with other dogs? Is that a necessary condition for thatdog to be happy? Says who? Generally, when I see someone talking about guaranteed and 'quick' fixes to canine behavioural issues, my intuitive senses start tingling. Few serious behavioural issues are quickly fixed, if they can be said to be fixed at all. I can't even guarantee my own behaviour over the long term so I sure won't make any guarantees about the dogs. Be careful when you read about the newest, fastest, guaranteed fix for a canine behavioural issue….here there be dragons. Why I am writing this Because it's five in the morning on a Sunday when I had hoped to sleep in. But I have to work later in the morning and my shih tzu mix is having an anxiety day. I had to abandon sleep for some extra time to try and get his stress reduced before I leave the house. He won't be alone, my husband will be home, but he's stressing NOW so I have to deal with that. These can be the dark moments of the soul. The times when I close my eyes and think "I wish I hadn't adopted him" and then feel massive, overwhelming guilt for even having that thought. But I do have that thought. Not often. And I wouldn't change what I did. I did adopt him. I will work on his issues. We will get through this. But some days are easier than others and I need to learn that it's not a crime to feel some negativity from time to time. I need to be able to think those thoughts. Sometimes I need to be able to say them out loud to someone. Anyone. I have been fortunate to know a very few people that I can say those kind of things to and not be cast into the lowest circles of Hell. And on the days where I can't say those things out loud to anyone, I write them. I add them to the behavioural log I keep about Ty. And at some point, I will hopefully look back and think "Wow. We've made such progress. I've made such progress".

Personally I'd avoid all dog parks. Why do you feel the need for you poor timid fearful dog to go anywhere near a "dog park" . Is there a reason your dog needs to be around fast moving dogs? Does your dog need to sniff them through the fence. I'd just hang out and walk my dog in less dog congested areas where you can have more control over what happens. A section for scared dogs sounds like a disaster to me. Scared dogs teaching other scared dogs to be even more scared of dogs, and a bunch of owners who for various reasons have ended up with a scared dog, thinking its great to get a bunch of scared dogs together.......stay the hell away from that idea!