Erny

Sorry Moosmum .... thought you were talking about horse meat. If camel meat, no thanks. I won't take the risk. If horse meat, contact info would help, unless it turns out I can find a reputable place down this way (Victoria, Melbourne) that people know of and use? If too much trouble, don't worry and leave it to me. I can come back here and ask again in the event I struggle to find somewhere. Cheers Erny :)

Sit on the floor and back him up in between your legs so his back is toward you. Use your legs to help hold his body, one hand to hold his face still the other to administer the ointment. Alternatively, use a corner. I have developed a method whereby one wall of the corner stops my dog moving sideways away from me. The back wall stops him backing up. I stretch one of my legs back and that stops him backing around the corner. Use one hand to hold his face steady against your leg to allow you to apply the ointment. My boy has had so much handling over the years that once in the corner, he is so compliant I can do pretty much whatever I need to do. Follow up with a tasty treat. Randomise - don't always ask your dog to move into the corner and follow through with stuff he doesn't like. Many times, follow through with just a yummy treat so he can begin to look forward to being in the corner. My boy moves into 'his' corner at my request without collar/lead or other restraint aid. ETA - I never lie to my dog. IOW I don't 'make out' I'm going to do one thing but then do another

Sorry - I missed this question. I had to look it up as I'd not heard of it either. Quinoa is a whole grain - or more particularly, a seed that is like and/or prepared in the same way as whole-grains. It looks a bit like Barley. Apparently a good healthy source of nutrition, but obviously not for Mandela. Neither is Barley, as you'll see. Coincidentally, for the first time ever I tried Mandela with Barley (cooked) in his food about 4 weeks ago as his poop was quite soft/sloppy and I felt he needed more fibre (and was looking for something to add to or to use as an alternative to, sweet potato). It seemed to make it worse and although I wasn't certain it was the culprit, I stopped feeding it to him. Turns out my guess was right, going by the Intolerance Test results.

I've heard that too, Inevitablue, but don't know much about it.

Thanks Moosmum ..... that could be of help and that's certainly something that I'd be glad of right now :) . Perhaps they can give some hints/tips/guides to whether they ship to Victoria and/or whether they know of other places in Victoria. I particularly want to know the meat is clean.

Hi Aussie Dog - If my thread outlining my experiences helps even just one person, I'm happy for you to hi-jack away :D. Yes - if it is in your dog's 'signature' to be food intolerant to certain foods and this is not picked up and the food is administered, the result can be irritable bowel. When you're on the Nutriscan website, scroll across the top tabs and some drop down boxes will appear. One of them will be "FAQS". Apart from the general reading of the website I found FAQS helpful at least in part towards beginning to understand what it is all about.

If I'm using food treat rewards I tend to use the Bega cubed cheese - and I chop each cube down into 4 cubes. That's what I use for an adult large dog. You could go smaller again for a pup. Just watch too much of it over a short space could affect stools so keep an eye out. I tend to use lower value treats for stuff already known and easy. Also, I don't necessarily stick to one food treat style for all times. Sometimes cooked sausage cut into very small cubes; sometimes frankfurts; sometimes ...... Much depends on what the dog likes and that can mean variations :).

Horse is another meat that might be a consideration. I was given about 500 grams of it once from a guy in the dog industry, to try out. Mandela enjoyed it straight off (which is a start, but not a given). Anyone know where horse can be bought and that the meat is 'clean' ? I try not to think of what the meat source is, too much, being a life-long horsey person myself. But when you're stretched to finding something that might suit as I am, you tend to turn your mind to food sources that you might not ordinarily consider . Note : Horse is only a consideration because it has not been tested for (and I don't know the result) and because at this point there's no consumption history to indicate it being a problem or not.

Augustine - at your website. Pardon me, but I'm feeling a bit lazy (actually, mainly a bit time poor atm) and I'm wondering what it is that you would suggest I'd order from you to make/establish a full/complete diet that would suit Mandela? Also, the "Super Food" ..... contains Barley Grass. Food Intolerance test has shown him as throwing an albeit weak reaction to Barley. I presume this would be the grain, but would Barley Grass also be likely to affect?

Jumabaar and Moosmum - He's never eaten goat. I bought a side of goat from the butcher's once and Mandela wouldn't touch it. It is in pieces, frozen in (his own private) freezer and I pull out a piece on the odd occasion to see if he's had a change of mind (ie nose) but nope, won't touch it. I even cut some of the meat off the bone and cooked it, to see if that would make a difference, but no. I generally trust his instincts for stuff he won't eat (although I suspect in certain situations he tests to see if I'll 'play'). I have not tried camel. Where do we get camel from? JulesP - yes, that's what I already considered. When you end up with next to nothing remaining as a possibility, the "weakest reaction" list is the only thing to go for and I would be thinking that the foods on that list would need to be fed as alternatives to each other on a frequently rotating basis. I've sent this question to Dr Jean Dodds (amongst other questions) for her opinion also. The difference between Food Intolerances and Allergy testing (from how I understand it) is that allergy symptoms can appear as a result of the irritation to the gut, whereas Food Intolerance results indicate the 'signature' of the dog and reveal the potential for irritation before the a development of allergy occurs. (I think that's along the essence of it.) You're right - it's hard to do much when there are so many things that the body is intolerant to. Augustine the Boxer - I will have another squiz at your website again (visited there last year, I think, when I was still working things through with Mandela). If your food did work for Mandela I would suggest you'll have a HUGE winner on your hands and a big demand for your food, :laugh: - maybe you'd add a picture of his face on your packet. Seriously though, I will have a look. Must admit price is a consideration of sorts right now - Mandela's dietary requirements are eating me out of house and home!!! But will stroll on over to your site and see what can be seen :D. Would be great if that proved to be a solution . <sigh> :) ....... Will continue to try :D.

Hi all. I ran another (more advanced) Food Intolerance (Saliva) Test via Hemolife/Nutriscan (Dr Jean Dodds & ors, USA). The list is not exhaustive, but I'm disappointed to have the results confirm what I've learnt (over the 3.5 years of my own work/trials/food experiments etc). I'm not sure where I'll go from here. Have sent a half dozen or so question to the good Dr Jean and maybe some answers will open up a door or two in my mind. But in the meantime, these are the summarised results : Foods I absolutely have to avoid : Turkey Quinoa Salmon White Fish Foods that should also be avoided (reaction but not quite as strong as above, but still affecting) : Chicken Corn Venison Peanut Potato Rabbit Rice Foods that would be better to avoid (I add my own words "if possible" here, as I'm running out of options) - these gave "weak" reactions : Beef Lamb Milk Soy Wheat White fish Barley Millet Oatmeal The only negative result I got from the foods tested was for eggs. Strangely, the general suggestion is to avoid eggs if there is a reaction to chicken. I think I'll be needing to source the help of a very good canine nutritionist who can put together a recipe for a diet or two or three. Roo is not a food source for testing on the Nutriscan list (yet) but going by what I see, I think he would prove to show a reaction to that too. I think I have my work cut out for me. Edited : white fish was re-tested and came in as "strong reaction" (the worst out of all tested foods so far).

............. Calendula Tea .... brew it, let it cool and then wet up the skin with it and let it dry on. That will help the skin clear. ETA: Unlike shampoo based items, Calendula doesn't affect the skin's pH levels and avoids sending the skin into overdrive trying to regain balance. Be careful about bathing/shampooing too often.

:D ..................

Pro-K9 ran Agility Classes - really good ones too, even if I do say so myself. Aimed at anyone (ie didn't have to have their aims set on trialling) but taught correctly from the outset so that trialling would always remain an option if they wanted to change their mind, but moreover, aimed at training for safety. We had no hard nor fast rule with having to reach advance level obedience training through our school, although we did encourage at least sufficient basic training to be undertaken with us. This helped much with the understanding of motivation and delivery of reward, but admittedly for some the basic level training was not always an essential and there were therefore, a few exemptions. Initial introduction level lessons were on-lead (all due care taken) and we worked up to off-lead. Although I was surprised, given the numbers of people wanting to training in the agility sport (which I whole-heartedly support), the problem is the costs of running. Private business meant no ground-hire subsidy and also means paying professional instructors. Generally two instructos required for the purposes of setting up, moving and packing up equipment. More instructors to cater for different levels which overlap the others as far as times are concerned. Even at "cost" price, the attendance level was not maintained and this in itself made it difficult to achieve what we wanted to achieve in terms of services/levels etc etc. For this reason I closed the books on our agility component with a view to restructure it in such a way to make it more affordable, but I still very much want the "ideal" of what I wanted for people to be able to enjoy, achieve and thrive their training on to be able to be attained. If anyone has any ideas of what they'd like, how they'd like it, and how it might be achieved, and a group size sufficient to have it run, Pro-K9 would be happy to entertain the idea :).

Some tips : Don't forget to reinforce the preferred/better behaviour. I wouldn't make high fuss, but the calm delivery of a food treat and pat when he's not and hasn't been paying attention to tail can be helpful. Sometimes some things such as the wearing of a harness, for example, can help stop/change undesirable behaviours. Shouldn't be constant wear though as the body can simply adjust and get so used to wearing it that the dog becomes no longer conscious of it being there. But putting it on before the onset of known triggers can help. Thunder coats can assist also. In addition - where possible, take the (worst) known triggers and begin teaching an alternate and preferably incompatible behaviour than tail chasing. I'm not a big fan of teaching spinning. It might work for some but in other instances can worsen an already bad self-harm situation. Rather than saying "no", use something to distract and/or cause the dog to pause the behaviour. Call over/away. Be calm/neutral but rewarding for the dog. This, as for the other things, needs consistency for success though.

Far more complex, but adrenal gland issues can contribute to excessive panting.

Whilst feeding cooked bones is a no-no, it doesn't mean that every time cooked bones are eaten that the worst will happen. I agree with everyone else. Feed her so that the bones have half a chance of being smothered by the soft food as it moves through the intestinal passage. And don't be angry with her. Nothing's ever achieved at being angry. She was being a dog. If someone left the cooked chicken bones in a place other than in a bin, get cross at them. But otherwise, put it down to one of those things and rejoice when you see the bones make their way out in her poop. Good luck - hope it all goes well.

I responded in your same post in the "general" forum. I was thinking pain and/or heart. Was he panting this way only since coming to stay with you, or was this the case even before he left the farm to come to you?

My first two thoughts were (a) possible pain and/or (b) heart. Was he panting this way at the farm, before he came down to stay with you?

IME humping as a puppy begins as experimental - perhaps initially triggered by scent for some and for others regardless. Whether it develops into a dominance driven behaviour (yes - IMO dominance driven behaviours in animals does exist) or is purely driven due to the reinforcement the dog is receiving from it (or both) depends on the dog.

Well, that's a step in a good direction, it seems :). Glad he's back home where he wouldn't be stressing so much and hopefully the meds will see the ulcer right and him back to as good as new, very soon.

Only for the fun of "guessing" ..... Kelpie x Malinois

Oh dear . It's always awful, the waiting. Good luck, MsDani. I hope some good news of healing can come out of all of this. We're thinking of you and your fella.

I trained my boy away from o/top territorial barking by calling him in and rewarding him EVERY time for the recall. Now for the most part he will bark once or twice and then come running inside for his treat. Trouble is this training needs to be consistent. Because of the set up of my yard I was able to rig it so that consistency could be maintained.

Eeeeeewww, guys ............. "Willy goo" ..... hahahaha