Nekhbet

Any dog that is truely aggressive is never cured - simply managed. dogs that exhibit aggressive responses to situations can be 'cured' but owners have to remain vigilent in case of relapses back to old habits in some dogs. just because a dog bares teeth doesnt mean it is aggressive.

testosterone causes more 'male' looking structure. That is why in most breeds bitches look finer and dogs broader, more muscly, etc if his behavior is of concern def keep an eye on it. I would rather you have a healthy, friendly dog then a raging hormonal PITA. It's more a cosmetic thing or in HD dogs they should have their hormones but temperament comes first and foremost

that photos from Snelling Engineering in Shep, they may know someone closer there was a bloke in ferntree gully http://www.puppybars.com/

you need to calm her down before she can think, she is learning nothing. have her hungry, crumble some really smelly food so she cant see it and spread it around the floor. Then give her the search word over and over as she sniffs the ground and gets the food. She will HAVE to learn to be thorough and glue her nose to the floor otherwise she will miss the food. when you have that to the point you say the word and nose hits the floor THEN simply put the box in the middle of the spread food and have her search around it. It wont be exciting to her just another piece of the furniture and she will be focussed on nose glued to the ground. then proceed to put your herbs on top of the box, a little food on top of that and get her to search. Progress as you would for the rest of the exercise but gradually wean off the food unless your timing is completely off. I would start reintroducing the prey reward when you have the lid on the box, as soon as she taps it with her nose/paw throw the prey reward in front of her and loudly 'YAAAAAY GOOD DOG GOOD DOG!!' in a high pitched excited voice. She will already know control and to keep her nose down before her excitement gets too far. I dont bother with clickers I prefer my voice. If i'm out and about in public, where I train my dogs mostly, clickers can be drowned out by traffic noise etc but my voice will always be heard.

it wont affect the personality it will affect their growth and coat. Large breeds are still in puppy growth for a lot longer then smaller breeds. I would not consider a large/giant breed an adult until 2-3 years old depending on the breed. tivins that can be true. The more dominant, pushy one I tend to desex. Saying that I would not get another male if your dog cannot listen to you and accept your leadership. I'd be working on getting bourbon under good control and getting him out of pushy habits before getting another puppy.

cages are the best idea. The dog will lie down and wont be flung around that much plus if you have an accident the dog is contained and not just attached by a harness/collar. I've seen a lot of hunters use ones like this with a divider, one dog per box. That or you can lock tools in the other side.

how calm do you want? You have a working breed and still young so he will want to be active. Desexing will make an impact on hormonal driven behaviors such as exacerbated territoriality/pack drive and mating behaviors. A dog can still be dominant, pushy, active etc even with desexing it's up to you to train your dog to stop these behaviors getting worst. Desexing should never be relied on to solve anything unless it's absolutely too much hormones. Your pup is not pushy at 5 1/2 months its up to you when you want to, but if it were me I would leave till after 12 months. There should be little difference in price before or after 12 months. There sometimes is due to size difference but apart form that it's a simple operation unlike a spey in a female. different dogs have different personalities, different lines display different behavioral traits. You can raise two dogs exactly the same way and have two completely different personalities. You need to boot camp him a little and keep him on lead more at dog parks before he starts an argument with another dog. He's simply a growing teenage male dog and he's doing what he thinks is right.

tivins it's still up to you to lay down the law and stop his behavior. Desexing doesnt stop it, it can simply lessen the desire and drive to do that. If you still let him though he will continue and try especially if he is of a dominant personality anyway

if you're not going to breed then desex him. I would leave him longer, at least 12-18 months old before you do it so he grows out and matures then it has little baring on his growth pattern. I would never desex another large/giant breed young again. If he's not showing hormonal driven bad behaviors and is handelable at 18 months then it's up to you, at least get him a vascectomy so no accidents happen. If he's irritable, dominant, a pushy dog then whip em out sooner then later.

my working commands are all in Serbian and since most peoples pronunciation is different command refusal comes easily to my dogs. General words are in english bit funny when you scream 'PUSTI' out to a dog long distance ... anyone who knows greek goes between confusion and hilarity

prune off the shoots from around the bottom and some of the old or lower branches have at least a foot radius of no grass around the bottom of the tree and make sure it doesnt dry out there will be whippet free fruit next year ;)

very good idea quoll I will be looking into it as soon as I can afford it and find a vet that wont sedate him while he's doing it either.

if you want to teach tight performance then you will need it to a degree. No good rewarding a dog for a half arsed performance then try and get a tight, fast performance later ... one confused dog! I have one set of commands for every day stuff and another for work/schutzhund. The two put the dogs in completely different frame of mind too, just make sure they dont sound too similar. Saying that sit, drop are the same for all situations

It comes as such a shock as she was always such an active happy dog that never showed problems and it was nothing my vet could have picked up ... I felt so guilty, if I had known I would have never rehomed her and caused such heartache. Life is so cruel sometimes My dogue is from the same breeder so I am having him x-rayed ASAP to make sure he doesnt have a similar problem

I just got word the dogue I rehomed passed away this morning from a heart attack. The darling angel was only 2 years old goodbye beautiful Stella (Bella originally) your new mum loved you to the ends of the earth and you touched everyones heart with your big dogue smile and lovely nature. Run free now little one your body won't trouble you any more

very nice what's his breeding?

I know that. I was meaning that even in a puppy that had colostrum the levels of Igs are not high enough to be negating the effects of 3 vaccines. Maybe I should have been a little clearer in what I wrote. If Cav is the vet then i'm still wondering why this result is so surprising. Pump the dog full of virus and it got an immune response. Again I'd be more worried about the long term effects of such a young dog being over vaccinated then the smaller risk of catching Parvo.

twice a day, I do that with everyone. I would change from hills to something different, something that is not flavoured horse food - Royal Canin large breed and lamb flaps is a great diet for growing doggies

with 3 vaccines each a week apart I wouldnt expect anything less then that. The level of maternal antibodies are not that high they soak up 3 vaccines and the problem is pups HAVE an immune system, we overload it at once and then take them into areas where they can pick up the virus. We also don't know the stats on the number of dogs who actually come in contact with the virus and either show no/low symptoms so sometimes I think we panic a little at parvo. have you talked to the vet about the long term effects of so many vaccines so young the dogs immune system would be in hyperdrive with that much in it.

met a couple and love them

Aiden if there is a playground behind the owner cannot control what happens when he is not there. I feel it is prey driven, he cant see the kids but he can hear them and BOY are they exciting!!! Barriers build frustration which in turn builds the behavior. Yes you need to start at long distances but to decrease drive you need to introduce some corrections - I would chuck the food unless the food drive overrides the prey drive and anxiety in the dog already. Correction, redirection of focus and big rewards for IGNORING kids and teaching your dog that hey, they exist, they make noises but they're really nothing to worry about is the way to go. And for guarenteed compliance I use corrections to shut that dog down before it heads into pfffffft BANG territory. As you are in SA try Mark Singer for a consult. Its something that can be fixed, my own dog had a similar problem after some kids kept climbing my fence and throwing rocks and bottles at her.

if the drugs are providing that quality of life with minimal to no side effects I dont have an issue but to see my own dog sucking them down, actively seeking the storage draw and trying to medicate himself like some drug addict with no benefit to his well being, thats why I dont give them to him. A little bearable pain wont kill him in fact it makes him sit his little but down in the crate and rest. Otherwise he still gets along and his problems are more from wear and tear/not being able to support himself then cutting out medication. Any NSAIDS are reserved for if he trips/falls or his hip comes from the socket a little too much He gets his alternative therapies, foods, supplements, massages etc.

I dont believe in long term medicating. I went through daily medicating with 2 dogs and it drove them into the ground, they run about like nothing is wrong when in fact a little pain could be making them slow down and not further injure joints. alternative therapies worked better then just NSAIDS anyway for me

definately acupuncture and chiro glucosamine/MSM/chondroiten fish oil tablets antioxidant tablets (reveratrol) and keep him moving. I let Diesel do what he wants as they can self regulate when off pain killers. I dont bother with NSAIDS at all with Diesel he just became reliant on them. Up the cartrophen and I would be chucking the aspirin but thats just IMO

I went to the last one and it was fabulous I can highly recommend it