DesertDobes

I once took my then 5 month old puppy along to a trial my older dog was entered in and got told off by the trial manager because I didn't ask permission first. I had wrongly assumed that if she was in her crate it wouldn't be a problem and because I had travelled 2 hours to get to the trial I had to leave her in the car alone while I competed and spent the rest of the day sitting with my two dogs in the back of the car.

Thinking of you, Bru is obviously a very loved member of your family and you are doing what's right for him. Take care of yourself, it's a very tough time but time lessens the pain xx

Why do some vets still tell people that desexing will help behavioural issues? And also, imo its not great to desex a large breed before they have at least finished growing which for your fella could be around 3 years or at least 2. I had to desex my male at 9 months because of a retained teste which does pose a risk of cancer and he ended up very tall and lanky. Before I did that I sought the opinion of the repro vets at Monash Vets (melbourne) who my breeder dealt with to make sure it was the right decision. He's only 5 at the moment so time will tell if the early desexing has negative consequences for his long term health and I didn't have a lot of other options but I would second others opinion here- find a different trainer and leave desexing/ implants for the time being

run free Greta, hugs for you RayHay xx

I hear you! This is rife in rottweilers as well, brags about how heavy the sire and dam are, although moreso in BYB litters than registered. I actually had our vet comment on how nice it was to see a rottweiler at correct weight when I took Nova in a couple of weeks ago. They're a working dog, they can't work if they're fat and sloppy! You have lovely Rottweilers and the ones I have seen at our local shows always look very fit, so it probably is more of a byb thing. I just smile and nod when other dobe owners say how much bigger their dogs are than mine :laugh:

Thanks Dory, will give that a go! I asked Dezzy about number of corners while training, your thoughts on this would be appreciated too

Thanks Dezzy. Yes my dog is a good liar too which is why I have problems. I do normally lay my own tracks for training and then take the dog over it but even though I am watching him intently to see what he looks like when he is taking the corner properly and when he is just faffing about, I can't notice any difference. It used to be that when he was hunting rather than tracking his tail would come up and start wagging like crazy but he just calmly tried to head off in the wrong direction with his nose to the ground when I tracked him on the weekend! More practice for us I guess. I will try some food at the corner and after. I normally just train tracks which are similar in number of corners and length to whatever test we are up to. So at the moment we have 2 or 3 turns for a T4. Just wondering if I should make the length shorter but have more corners while I am working this out with him?

But important to note that the rate of fatties is lower than in the general dog population. I've noticed there is a trend to give the weight of sire and dam for some "protection" breed litters though which is worrying to me, dobes should be athletic, not meat heads, and the same goes for most gun dog breeds.

We had a puppy and then had a baby a few months later. I would say be prepared ie crate train your pup as soon as possible so you can safely put the puppy somewhere when you need to tend to your bubba. Also makes toilet training easier which is something you don't want to be worrying about while sleep deprived and doing hourly feeds lol! Invest in toys and treats to occupy the puppy when you are busy. A meaty bone is a great boredom buster. Don't spend every hour with the pup when you first get it only to dissapear once the baby arrives; get the puppy used to being on it's own (in its crate) for lengths of time. I would say it can work if you want it to, at least if you are home full time you are not juggling getting kids to and from childcare and then trying to squeeze in puppy time as well. My son and puppy grew up together and she was a great dog. In a lot of ways it was easier for the puppy to adjust to the new baby in our household than our older jack russel. Good luck

I need some help tracking people. On turns, what does your dog do that says they have found the next leg as opposed to just sniffing about. I am having trouble reading my TD dog and I'm not confident in trusting him at turns (although I am finally learning the difference between when he is tracking or hunting on the straight legs). How would you train changes of direction to be better? Are there any good youtube clips I could watch? As some of you would know, I live in the NT and don't normally have anyone else to train with who could help me. Thanks

I think the biggest mistake I made, and I've seen others do, is mess up the hair of the dogs with elaborate coats and clips! Don't be offended if people won't let you pat their dogs even when you ask nicely as it is hours of work getting them looking how they do. I would take a chair to sit on and get a program so you can see what is going on too. Have fun

Do not google "dog with cow teeth", results are scary :laugh:

Missed all the stuff about the beauce in Australia Terrible to go to all that effort of importing and then not be able to keep the dog. Hope he went to a happy home anyway. I am still in the planning stages (and saving money stages) but I have family approval so that is a good start at least... I am hoping to get the ball rolling with this and hopefully get a dog in the next 2 years. I don't think I will actually be able to visit a breeder in person so just have to do a lot of research. I have collected various versions of the breed standard and will be contacting the ANKC soon to see what else needs to be done, I realised I really do want a mains registered beauceron so will work on ANKC approval before anything else. As the US has a few Beauce breeders I am going to use them as a first contact in addition to Overhill and maybe get some help with contacting French and Belgian breeders.

I have the same problem. Older dog loves car ride, younger dog looks peaky even when the back of the car gets opened. She was terrible as a puppy, was better for a while but has recently started getting car sick again at two and a half. We live in the NT so long distance car travel to dog shows etc is a fairly common event. I find she is always better if she has eaten something before going in the car- seems counter intuitive but only once has she thrown up if she has had a meal. I also either feed her treats while driving (she sits on the front passenger seat) or get my son to give her some food while we drive. Sometimes putting her in a crate seems to help, but so does having the window down so she can sniff the breeze. She is always more car sick when my other dog is in the car with her, I think his excitement makes her anxious. Makes family holidays challenging! Good luck with your dog, sometimes its a bit of experimentation to see what works and what doesn't

Ah yes, manuka honey- yes thats a great idea thanks. He is already being confined for his broken toe, so no exercise for quite a while

Not that similar, but I have Dobes, not that keen on Rotties. Love Beaucerons at a distance (I've never met one in the flesh) which are most like dobes from what I can tell

My male dobe broke his toe last week, vet said it was fine to heal on its own with no splint which was good news... idiot dog has now cut the same foot badly on his pad! This was after female dog decided she had a phantom complete with morning sickness at 5am every morning! I have been bathing in a dilute iodine solution once a day and keeping it bandaged to keep the dirt out. Any other suggestions? Brain transplant for dog??

LIke this?

4 times! Do you know how he did it? I have no idea what my dog did but I think maybe he got his toe stuck in a deck chair. My dog has a splint at the moment while I decided what to do- its not a cast just vet wrap and strapping over some padding and the splint, is that what you mean?

Thats what I'm wondering, I don't want him having any movement issues later because it will all put more strain on his good limbs!

Thanks, yes thats kind of what i feel at the moment too. I guess if the dog racing community amputates toes too then they must not have any trouble with running ect but I'd rather leave that as a last resort.

My boy dobe has broken a middle toe on his back leg. Unlike people breaking toes, dogs apparently don't heal very well on their own and surgical repair or amputation is what has been suggested to me by the vet. I was told by the vet and have since found the same info online that the two middle toes on a dogs foot don't knit properly when broken and often develop arthritis so splinting is not a good option. I'm not at all concerned about cost difference but want to know if anyone has had a dog with a broken toe and what the course of action was? I don't want to have the toe amputated, but I don't know if thats the best option or not. I live somewhere with no orthopedic specialists so any surgical repair would be done by a normal vet so I can see that an amputation of the toe would be less complicated.

I've just swapped one of our dogs from petplan to pet insurance australia (which is what dog number 1 has always been insured with). Petplan increased that dogs premium from about $450 to $900 with no explanation. I made no claims with that dog the previous year and when I rang them about it they couldn't explain their own fee structure! I initially insured with them for dog no. 2 because at the time they were cheaper at PIA didn't offer a multi pet discount but I regret it now PIA has always been great with my other dog and the premium for a second dog at the moment has a 15% discount

Yep I will keep an eye on it. I might give him a spray in the area with some cold chamomile tea- it shouldn't hurt. The slimy stuff seems to have gone away, I gave him a break from bones for the past couple of days just so his stools weren't too hard and aggravating something and that seems to have helped. The new vet is pretty wonderful and has trained with a homeopathic vet and he was wonderful with my dog. I've always felt a bit trapped with only one clinic in town and they weren't very understanding of raw food or the keeping of entire dogs so were always pressuring me to switch to dry food and spey our female, so it is great to have other options.