Nekhbet

I'm surprised you say your dog is too soft - you dont know until you try and its not about wrenching the dogs ear off either. If your dog really was too soft for an ear pinch it would be a nervous wreck in general but anyway. To teach the way Meh has learned, you have the dog sitting in front of you, you can sit on a chair. Place the dumbell in the dogs mouth, when you feel teeth on then you can give a release dumbell command and take it back- with your dog I would be holding treats in my cheek and spitting only when you have taken the dumbell from the dogs mouth. What you want is a hold pattern where the dog will hold until told to drop, only then will it get the reward. You gradually make this exercise longer and longer but the dog has to be solidly holding the dumbell with minimal assistance, then no assistance from you when you have put it in its mouth. This method also prevents mouthing of the item. You can use food, but you have to be clever about it. If you have to use too many NRM's then you're moving too fast for the dog or not being clear in what you want.

you need a proper assessment as to wether this dog will be good with people at all. If it naturally has a nervous temperament and has had no critical period socialisation you can be plugging away for years with no result. Dont wait and see, if you want changes you do them now before the dog learns that even with you strangers are something to remain fearful of. I'm curious as to why you chose the dog with the least pet quality temperament.

I'd get professional behaviour advice before self administering things from chemists. Sounds like your dog needs more work not tablets.

My dogs are trained together or some watching depending what we're doing. If its prey work and building it's great they watch each other, especially pups. They also need to learn to behave with another dog/s around so I do have them loose together and train one by one especially throwing food at them. Increases their focus.

your dog is too obsessed with the food. Make sure you are not rewarding at all for the dog spitting it out. Put the dumbell in the dogs mouth and hold it there with your hand then click. Shaping only gets you so far with a dog thats now learned this habit. There is the old method of forced retrieve http://www.versatiledogs.com/ask/ret8.html I dont use dumbells as prey items and razz them up with it otherwise you end up with a dog that mouths the item which is not what you want, it has to be held there.

who says the dog needs to be 7kg? By the way this is not a medium breed if it's in this weight range, it's small. if the dog is well muscled and healthy leave it alone. Up the amount of protein from red meat sources though it sounds a little lacking in that.

what about thyroid function? If the dog is going to be on Creon it should have been on a special diet and eating at least twice a day. What is the current diet?

a dog wont actively chase down and bite without positive reinforcement. That dog could have been treated better then they're own children and in many cases they are. All bitework is based on heave reinforcement both from the handler and the decoy being 'chased away' by the dog. The bite element engages the dogs prey drive and also done properly, defense drive. This is about bitework training not animal psychology, unless you have learned about the training you will know nothing about it. I'm just sick to death of people making uneducated assumptions about it. Bitework is enjoyed by dogs of the right temperament and training, they will snap their collars to get to the decoy just for one bite.

because thats an intelligent thing to keep rewarding and promoting in a large breed dog. Just make sure you have some command for your dog to settle before it bowls someone over or injures someone severely when it's acting like a fool. I've seen people with broken arms and legs from exhuberant large breed dogs slamming into them or knocking them over. Just remember that high anxiety coupled with strong reinforcement encourages the behaviour to grow and get stronger. Depends on the pup. Jumping is always better solved if you can get attention and teach the dog the alternative behaviour. Make jumping up on command only and you wont have a problem, all my dogs know 'hop' and a patted chest means they can come up on 2 legs for a cuddle. Exhuberant and violent jumpers especially large breeds get the old leg up and ignored until they run the stupidity out of themselves and engage their brain into a mode ripe to learn.

OMG do not use Confidor on your animals O_O It is not made to be put on the skin of any animal jeezus just because something has the same active ingredient does not mean it's the same. If you want to try something like Avenge it is at least made to be poured onto the skin as for greyhound people, I've seen some of them do some absolute stupidity to save a few dollars so take their advice with a grain of salt. Pyrethrin and permethrin(unless you have cats to which permethrin is toxic) i the safest to use and can be purchased in large quantities. Conversely Inca make things like Malaban liquid and Pestene powder which has been working really well this season

its missing a lot of essential fatty acids as it's such a lean meat. Commercial rabbits especially are a horrific colour there's not much nutrition in them long term. If you want to use rabbit you should be mixing it with another protein.

rabbit should not be the only protein source in an animals diet it's too lacking in vital elements. Treat and mixed with other meats OK. Why dont you just keep the dog on a raw diet?

nothing to do with the story but thats a pretty poor judgement call.

Christ almighty ... do I really want to comment ... yeah OK I will ... We truely are getting dumber. Vets diagnosing behavioural disorders? Christ 90% of them can't even give basic training advice. Yay lets start medicating dogs to the eyeballs because owners insist on buying dogs not suitable, or not training them appropriately! Oh yay! We can all be doped up together! Because it's too hard to just put your foot down and go to a training school like everyone used to and train the dog, or hell get it from breeders who you go VISIT like you did in the old days. You can see a lot of anything when you look hard enough. I say Dr Carter send all her 'troubled' patients down to our dog school for a few visits, if we can't fix it between us she can start pill popping. We have no issues with doing this but prong collars are illegal Locking my doors now. I should hand over a couple of my dogs and see what problems they imagine considering Melbourne Uni vets consider wrenching my dogs legs out perpendicularly and hearing her scream the official way of diagnosing arthritis, then just doping her upon tramadol and NSAIDS the way to fix it.

ahh yeah no, just because the dog doesnt make contact doesnt mean it's fear. Everyone jumps on the fear bandwagon when a dog gets snappy because it seems to make them feel better about it all. First step is to understand 'anthropomorphising' and stop doing it with Brock. You still have this idea he's a baby, or maybe just the way you type about him. Excuses for dogs behaviour dont fix them, setting a plan and sticking him to it will. Dogs can be incredibly resilient but without guidence they decide what they want to do on their own terms. Dont wait for problems to get worst call a professional now. If he does have fear issues he should be out of the gene pool anyway and castrated, weak nerve is not a trait you want to be passing down to your pups. Frankly, unless you're a registered breeder desex them both and just concentrate on learning about dog training and behaviour.

It's not an exclusive protein formula and frankly a single source protein is not necessary unless the dog has a specific issue with other meats - pure chicken for most breeds anyway is not the best idea. Poultry is just that - domestic food grade poultry species slaughtered for consumption. What is the protein content of the food? If your GSD formula is lower protein then the maize can slightly outweight it ... and remember the ingredients are in order of weight, there can be a teeny difference between the maize and poultry but it has to be listed that way. Then there can be a massive difference between the poultry and maize flour (which is just ground corn) but ditto to the above idea. Egg powder is a dehydrated form of egg that is used in a lot of food (both human and animal) because it's guarenteed analysis as well as its ease of use ... it's basically real eggs dried and powdered. Another point to remember is that pure muscle meat is only abou 30% protein - so those that weigh 'real meat' wet weight, only a third will be usable food source the rest being water ... With RC I believe you get what you pay for. I love the food and almost every dog i've seen on it looks fabulous. Everything we get in Australia is EU ONLY, we do not get Asian/USA made foods and none of it is irradiated. RC are great with customer feedback why dont you email them with your questions I've always found them helpful.

I would take the plasma for a pup her age, it shouldn't be into the hundreds. Keep her on fluids and only give her literally half a teaspoon full of something like Hills i/d tinned food then wait a few hours, then another half a teaspoon. Yes she needs food but the upsetting on the stomach by trying to feed too quickly will make her sicker. My own dog was on a drip for 3 weeks with parvo he ended up almost skin and bone but lived, i've been vet nurse for other young pups like yours. Some vets do charge an arm and a leg for parvo care but keep her on the drip as long as you can, even if she looks ok, remember with constant fluids into her she will be perky but take her off too early and they slide again. If you get a pup again down the track dont take it that early again. Their immune systems are not built to be out and about. Good luck to your baby girl i'm sure she'll pull through she doesnt sound as bad as it could be

Billy Goat soaps are fantastic, OH uses them as he's allergic to most things and it really helps sooth the skin and fix the dry patchy flakes

Contact either K9Pro.com.au or petresortsaustralia.com.au for a good trainer/behaviourist Your dogs have bonded with each other and Brock is acting like a typical entire male spoiled terrier. I'm surprised you have not been bitten by him already, although he's not fully matured so I give it a little more time. Cassie is HIS bitch and you're taking a sexually entire dog pack into situations that make him feel like he has to aggress. He will probably also be supressing her personality with his dominant macho behaviour. unless your dogs are registered and properly health tested you shouldnt be breeding them, particularly if you're already having trouble controlling them as it is. Also westies carry a lot of problems have your dogs parents been thoroughly tested and passed all health tests?

what drive do you want? Food, prey etc? Also what for?

fordogtrainers.com have muzzles for flat faced breeds

colours will say colours on the label, if the food is a brighter hue then most foods (like the premium foods) it will have a colour in it as by law now they have to be labelled as their chemical number and colour (eg, Red, Yellow etc). I dont like proplan for the wheat and grain content, have never used it or Hills/Euk and never will. if you look at foods like Pal, my dog etc with their bright kibble they are artificially coloured to make the people think it's closer to 'natural' food when in fact its muck. Ha, also just found that Pedigree put onion powder in their food O_o http://www.pedigree.com/02All-Things-Dog/A...hing-means.aspx

I just got end of roll carpet pieces, neatened the edges and voila, room size for under $50 if they get too manky just chuck them out. Much cheaper then rugs

many people think it. Friends of ours have a lab x kelpie, they say that the kelpie part makes her lab part smarter, but they're waiting for the lab 'calmness' to kick in when she's two (the dog has prey drive out of its arse which they're not really channeling but hey, the lab part will suppress that in a year or so ) people seem to think crossbreeding works like cordial. Mix it together and you get the flavour just right, ie, you get the temperament just right. I usually tell people like this, wow point this out in my genetics textbooks we seemed to have missed these parts. I see plenty of crossbreeds with massive temperament flaws ... why? EIther two non complementary breeds have been crossed and the dog got the 'best of both worlds' (try high working drive and no idea what to do with it so the poor animal just keeps exploding) or the parents have character traits that should never have been passed on but have. Breeding is difficult. The problem is there are too many idiots out there with self justifying reasons as to why they should breed their prime specimens and how fabulous those pups will indeed be. Perception is the key ...

your dog needs a lot of work to do not just exercise. To those who think a working kelpie is happy just running on a treadmill for a bit think again I think give it back before the stock chasing habits and other ones stick, making it harder for the dog to find a new home. I think you're right in considering that prospects considering your circumstances and you are being totally fair to the needs of the dog