karen15

I offer the coats and if they want them they come to get them on. Usually they seem to go around 15degrees and under. I've put a warm blanket on their beds though, so that keeps them warm at the moment. The cocker has a lovely green velvet gown that she likes for winter. I got some beautiful coats on Ebay from the UK last year.

my dogs are taught to walk two ways. Heel, means they are beside me with the leash loose. Ok means they can walk to however much lead they've been given, but can't dawdle. It's a bit like a dressage test with the difference between medium walk and free walk LOL they need to quickly and softly be able to move between heel, free walk and back to heel when instructed. Returning to heel promptly is very important when cyclists or other dogs approach. I use the free walk as reward for maintaining heel. the cocker pulled like a demon when I got her, so much so she'd give me blisters. I hate dogs that pull. I ended up putting a chocker chain on her as she was just leaning into a normal collar or harness. A couple of well timed corrections and that fixed the problem. I need to be very strict when walking out of the house and ensure she is obedient. I have found stopping at park before our walk seems to be the best way to get her beans out and have her listening for a proper walk. She happily walks on a loopy lead these days at both heel and free walk. At the beginning of a walk, if she pulls, she sits and waits. The more she pulls, the more she sits. She's smart when it suits her and these days one or two sits reminds her that she's going nowhere if it continues, which is not what she wants, so she remembers her manners and off we go. the westie is a rascal on loose leash time. Bounds around like a bunny and will run to the end of the lead and pretend it's a slingshot and zoom back in. He never pulls though.

I cannot believe people who find dogs don't take them to the vet to scan for a chip. It's the first thing I do if I find a dog without a collar. Very nearly scored a beautiful boxer once. She found us on our walk. I'd never seen her on our route and she followed us home. She didn't have a collar so I took her to the vet to scan for chip. She didn't have one. She had beautiful manners so was obviously loved. I took her walking the next day hoping her owners would be out looking for her, but no luck. I only found her owner when I called the council to check what I needed to do with a possibly unregistered dog. The owner had called them too, so they got reunited. If I hadn't found them I probably would have kept her as she was very lovely.

I always sent my staffy to homestay. He enjoyed it and I found the homes looked after him well. When he got older I would pay someone to come and look after him at home. He was really wobbly and home environment was more comfortable for him by then. With the current two, I'd probably get someone to look after them at home, if not stay here too.

flame, when I was looking at glucosamine for my horse, my readings said the glucosamine sulphate is better absorbed, some articles suggested the difference in absorption was too small to be material, however better absorption to me is better absorption, so I went for the glucosamine sulphate. I get mine from Country Park herbs. I think it's $60 for 1 kg.

another hands up for clumsy human - I can do a good impersonation of a pinball in a door frame LOL struggle to get through sometimes

when I first got the cocker she would whine when I was out, my neighbour kindly let me know. So I started leaving the radio on when I went out and that seemed to help. Once I got the westie pup she settled fine, probably helped by me being home for three months. so maybe try the radio?

Mowgli, I highly recommend the grooming book Theory of Five. It's got a whole section on shaping heads I've never groomed before and my dogs heads look fine. We get comments on their good looks, with many people saying the westie looks like he's out of a picture. His breeder does point out if his sideburns look a little long in the regular pictures I send her. She called him a hippy one day LOL

I call things like that casual cruelty. It's not intentional, but that doesn't stop it being cruel. Most people are totally oblivious to the condition of their animals, they have no idea when they're stressed. I think a much kinder way to reduce weight is reduce food. The dog can still exercise, but at a level appropriate to it's fitness and condition. As it loses weight and gets fitter the intensity and duration of the exercise can increase.

I've never seen NILIF but, after reading the link, it seems that is how I train my animals, even the horse and cat. It is very simple and very effective. The trick for people is getting out of the 'no' habit. No is not a command. Instead of No, replace it with what you want the animal to do. You kill two birds with one stone doing that. The animal becomes attuned to the command, which can later be used in varying situations, and you get to reward a correct response. No has nothing you can reward for. Leave it and drop it are good replacements for touching / chewing / looking to chase. Sit, drop, even bang are good options to stop jumping. Think of what you want the dog to do instead of what it is doing.

I think you would need something to suit the personality of your dog. I haven't had amstaffs, but did have a staffy and found staffies tend to be magnets. My boy was extremely friendly and confident and would play with anything, but as soon as another staffy showed up they'd gravitate to each other and have a right good ole time my experience was they could get a bit vocal playing, which can be daunting. My boy wasn't vocal with other breeds, just staffies and bull terriers. they're a robust dog, so something similar size or larger would be a good idea. My guys regular friends were German shepherd, standard schnauzer, whippet (not advisable if not supervised as they are delicate), cattle dog, kelpie, lab, boxer and bull terrier. So pretty much mid sized dogs. I've now got a westie and a cocker. They are a good match size wise, the cocker is an inch or two taller, but the westie is a livewire and a nice solid little dog.

Dame Danny, I do agree re the dog door Even when I rented I would leave a door open just enough so the dog could go in and out as it pleased. Doors are always closed at night, even the dog door. Doggie door only gets left open if someone has an upset tum and is in and out a lot and I need to sleep. one place I rented had a cat door in the wall. Took my cat about 12 months to find and use it. It wasn't lockable, so I preferred her not to know about it so she stayed in at night. One night I was woken by the unmistakable sound of a cat on the bench. Got up, roused at cat, went back to bed thinking about the white cat. Took me a few minutes to realise mine was black and we had an intruder! What ensued was a comedic attempt of trying to get a strange cat out of a huge open plan area. I had doors wide open but the stupid thing wouldn't run out one of those. Then the dog got involved and the cat went up the venetians in the kitchen so I opened a window and pushed it out with a broom. Unsurprisingly it never came back LOL Apart from interlopers, sometimes dogs do have to stay outside eg when you have tradies leaving doors open everywhere / just not careful in closing doors quickly, so I think it is a good thing to teach them that they can be outside, even if someone is inside. The last thing you need is the dog to be going off about being locked out when you're trying to get stuff done.

when I got my westie, I had 3 months off work. First month revolved around the new puppy, toilet training, playing, eating, sleeping. The cocker and I loved midday nap time as he was a little livewire. I started painting in the second month. Initially the bedrooms, where the dogs could watch me paint, but then to the lounge room etc. It was a great way to teach the westie to be outside and entertain himself, have the two dogs spend longer time together unsupervised (in preparation for me returning to work) and just make locked outside not an issue as eventually they would get let back in. on a funny note, the westie obviously paid attention to me on the ladder. I've got a picture of where he angled his bed against the end of the couch and tried to walk up it like a ladder LOL clever little monkey

Sarah, I've got the conni critters pet pads and they are a godsend. Soak up wee, but you can wash them and they stop wee getting on the floor. Do you have an outside area to your apartment (other than the balcony)? I live in a unit and have a 200m2 courtyard. That's about a third of a houseblock, so a great yard. Despite having a doggy door open all day, the cocker spaniel isn't the best at going outside. She does however pee on the pads, so no longer any stink. I'd put pads all over your balcony, so she has to pee on them, then work to reducing the number and her still peeing on them. You can do that in the bathroom too, stick some in the tub, so she wees on them. Leave them smelly for a few days so she gets the idea that is where she's meant to wee, then relocate to where you want her to wee.

what a wonderful story

a PS the cocker wears Sam's car harness. I had to fully shrink the neck to fit her, but the belly stayed the same as for Sam! Thank goodness she has now slimmed up - she was obviously very fat when i got her!

practise the leg thing with Monty. If the dog is a barrel,I don't think it will work as they'll wriggle free and a tall dog would also be an issue. But if the have a waist, you can get in the skinny bit between the ribs and hips and they can't get out. Very risky as you said to get in a dog fight, but the position was excellent to give me the leverage to twist and lift as I could lift straight up. In females, we're generally stronger in the legs, which certainly helped. it was a last option for me as the owner was nowhere and it was hammering the crap out of my dog. After an initial scuffle, Sam had dropped belly down to the ground, and it was standing over him chomping his neck and head. A lady who saw it all happen was surprised I got it off him. Council were great. Attack happened around 6-6.30 am. We went straight to the vet once we got home (couple of km walk!). Poor Sam was drooling everywhere, which the vet said was shock. He was really muscular and there were no punctures or rips. A few days later lots of scabs came off his neck area from where it was trying to get him. Anyway, council answered the phone before 7am. Ranger was at my place by 8 but we were at the vet. By the time he came back at 12, he'd spoken to the witness and spoken to the dogs owner (it had jumped out of their yard so I knew the address). Dog was declared dangerous in max 3 days from memory. I didn't even know the witness was there, but she saw it all happen. The house didn't normally have a dog and when I saw it I thought there must have been a fence behind the hedge, no.... the dog jumped out through the hedge, said hello to mine (we couldn't miss it), we went to walk off and it attacked without warning. Reciting the witnesses name and number stopped me from having a major meltdown on the way home. I'm so lucky Sam was a pretty tough, well conditioned dog. The two I have now, cocker and westie, would have been dead. So now I see a loose dog I do all I can to keep it away. think I've told this one before. Was riding my horse one day, loose dog started heading towards us. We pulled up as he was quite spooky and I was patting him and said to the horse "don't worry, you can kill him if he gets too close" Never seen a dog go on a lead so fast.

I find most dogs react to "get out" and "go home". Said as a command I've found them effective, even from horse back. I've unfortunately had a dog attacked on a walk. It was my staffy and he was nailed by a wolf hound. The only way to get it off was drop the lead, wait until it had him pinned, step up behind it and lock my legs in it's waist, grab its collar and twist and lift. Think I almost strangled the thing before it stopped going for my dog. I used to do the legs and waist thing with the staffy as a game. They can't bite you from there as they can't bend enough to reach you. For us he'd wiggle and squirm to get free and play, it was part of our wrestling games. But it paid off when it counted........ Saying "mine isn't" will certainly make that guy think in future about randomly allowing his dog to run up to someone. Your work with Monty has obviously been really successful for him to cope so well. He was probably more concerned because you were worried, than worried himself (from what you've said) which is just excellent. Post our attack, I found putting me between a rushing, attacking dog stopped another attack. Most dogs won't go for a human, and breaking line of sight is effective IME, however there's always a risk that the unknown strange dog will take on a person. Luckily for me, I'd put a lot of effort into socialising the staffy as a pup and he was a beautiful, friendly dog. He suffered no ill effects from the attack and remained the happy friendly dog he always had been. Me on the other hand, well I now despise loose or aggressive dogs and do all I can (reporting to council etc) to get rid of them.

I posted on here a while's back about the cocker I rehomed from a guy at work when she was nearly 3. I was her fourth owner in her short life, so she's not really had a consistent home until me I got her to be a companion for the westie puppy I was getting. She has been a bugger for toileting inside. Only when I'm out but the dog door is open. Much worse when it was raining. Other than wet weather, the toileting was random. Nothing for ages then a spate for a week or two. I finally cracked it big time when I got the flooring replaced. They'd been outside all day, access to the bedroom where I was. The flooring guys left, I let the dogs in, was gone for less than half an hour and she peed on the couch. After that, I got a gate for the hallway and they get put in the hall and bathroom when I go out. Apart from overnight accidents when the dog door is shut, rarely an inside toileting incident. last week she was getting the westie to wake me up at night if she needed to go out, this week for the first time ever, she woke me up herself with a big slurp up the arm. The westie has always been very good about waking me up to go out. He growls and when it's super urgent gives a single woof. seeing the underlay when it was pulled up, it no doubt still had some smell in it, even though I cleaned with an enzyme cleaner. I do wonder if a previous occupant had a dog that toileted inside. The new vinyl has no doubt helped with the odour issue. I've also put Conni pets pee pads on the hall runners, so if there is an accident it can get washed and the scent removed. I got vinyl as its the only non porous flooring I could think of. Wood, tiles etc all have some absorbency. so we're all much happier Apart from the toileting issue, the cocker is a lovely dog. She's adored by the westie and is everything I had wanted as his companion.

if my dog is outside and barks, it gets called inside. Funnily enough, now the westie is nearly two, he'll bark and bring himself in before I call him LOL I bring them inside as it breaks the link with whatever they are barking at and they learn if they want to play outside they have to be quiet. the one thing I can't figure how to stop is his reaction to animals on tv. If there is an animal, but moreso a dog, on TV he growls till they go off scene. It's like he's telling it to get out of his house. you do need to know when they are barking for a reason though. The westie gave a late night visitor (got a toy plane stuck on my unit roof) a right telling off for daring to touch mums house. The guy was rather bashful when I went to investigate. another evening, mid night wee time, and the westie stood at the corner of the house barking. Would not come when called. Turned out he must have stood on a python when going out the pet door and there was no way he was coming back past it. Got him in another door and shooed the snake with a broom. It was climbing up to the roof but I didn't know if that was because it was cornered, so I shooed it out to the yard so it could decide where it wanted to go. A lovely 1m long python.

lots of stupid people I think. You don't have to be involved with dogs to know what pedigree papers are. To confuse that with council / microchip registration..... Well that was my opening line! I've had a total of 5 dogs in my life, two as a kid, the current two and my staffy. Even before the advent of the internet, people knew what a registered purebred was. Much harder to find breeders, but you still knew what constituted a registered purebred. Now with the internet, there is no excuse not to know. If you can use the internet to search for a puppy, you can use it for basic research around common dog terms.

For my old dog, no one got the yellow ribbon etc, so I made him "disabled" plates that hung either side like a backpack. That certainly got attention but imbeciles still thought the vet waiting room was a dog social club and gee would I be rude and blunt to them.

would it be related to a fear period?

I just redid my bedrooms with a plush carpet. Best maintenance is daily half hr vacuum with my new deebot 12 in 1 robo vac! Got it from crazysales on a good discount - cost $300 odd down from $600. I mainly got it to do the new vinyl and rugs in the living area but was surprised at how much it gets out of the carpet. Has an intensive option, which has more suction and faster brush speed. Added bonus, it mops, which it is currently doing absolutely love it! Does the floors daily while I do other things (like watching a movie at the moment ) I'm not much help other than that I'm afraid. Apart from noting I used carpet call and what should have been 3 contacts over two weeks, ended up being 30+ contacts over nearly two months. Love the new floors but it was a never ending saga that I would prefer to forget! Culminated with carpet guy getting glue all over my brand new vinyl and having to get vinyl ripped up and replaced....... Vinyl guys did a beautiful job. You can't tell where they replaced it.

my old staffy had his bottom canines removed when he was young as he broke them. When he was 11or 12 he snapped off his top right canine, so was a doggy pirate with one pointy tooth remaining :D Due to his age and the difficulty in removing teeth we left the stump in, even though we did a cancer removal after he had broken it. we visited the vet monthly so we both kept a close eye on it and it remained fine until he died. in your situation if you think it's worse and needs removing, I'd talk to the vet you're most comfortable with, discuss removal and the impact of the procedure given his age. IMO he's probably just young enough to do it. If you put it off and it gets worse and has to come out later, he's only going to be older and the procedure will be harder on him. my staffy had his last op two months before he died to remove a tumour that had changed and grown. He came out of it really well and was just shy of 14yo, but my vet wouldn't do the tooth, so it must be more intensive / take longer.