Staranais

Sounds like two problems - firstly the leash simply isn't strong enough for safety, and secondly the dog is lunging hard enough to break it! My girl breaks regular leads too (if I tie her up & don't tell her to stay she snaps them easily!) - I have a lovely strong leather collar and leash now with strong brass buckles that hold her well. The lead is from ForDogTrainers.com, and the collar is from K9Pro.com.au, but I'm sure people here can recommend other places to get good strong products like that. As for the possible aggression problem, how about getting a trainer/behavourist in to help you at home? Especially with aggression, it is pretty essential for someone to look at your dog & see how you're interacting with it before giving advice. Where exactly in NSW are you? I think there are behaviourists/trainers in NSW who post here. The Triangle of Temptation program at the top of the forum gets recommended a lot, & in my experience can be a very helpful way to start a training relationship with your dog, although doesn't replace professional help. Welcome to the forum, and congratulations on your new dog!

Off the top of my head, I'd say that that's a little confusing, since fat in the stools means he's not absorbing it from his diet into his body (hence, it shouldn't be turning up in his blood)? But I don't fully understand all the details of how the body metabolises fat either, so I guess it's possible that they could be caused by the same disease process. Perhaps there's something I'm not understanding here. Perhaps his low weight is leading his body to mobilise fat stores & they're turning up in the blood, or something? Colour me confused. Visible fat in the blood is pretty common after a meal, especially a fatty meal - it's not always pathological, in fact when you see it it's usually normal, especially if the animal wasn't fasted before the blood was taken. If he wasn't fasted for 12 hours before the blood was taken, that would be the simplest explanation, and probably the correct one. Fat in the blood is also a symptom of a whole range of conditions that derange fat metabolism - things like hypothyroidism, diabetes, nephrotic syndrome & pancreatitis. ETA, here's a list. :D http://veterinarymedicine.dvm360.com/vetme...e/detail/456193

I'm very sorry for your loss. Please, do follow JackieW's advice & ask your vet to submit a report of the reaction.

Oh not at all! Besides, I don't mind it at all when you question me, sometimes it makes me go away & revise things I'm really going to need to know at the end of the year.

Sounds like your dog is a puppy? If so, then I'd personally only be taking her/him to meet other dogs that you know are friendly & polite, not strange dogs of unknown temperament. If you want to go to the dog park with your pup, I reckon it's better to save that until after your dog is adult. As some other posters have said, puppies are very impressionable and just one bad experience with another dog can result in them developing fear or aggression issues that take a lot of work to resolve. Well socialised adult dogs are usually not affected as much by encountering an aggressive or rude dog, so it's less of a risk to take them to meet strange dogs (although there is always some risk present when taking any dog to a dog park). Hope you can find lots of nice dogs for your pup to socialise with. ETA - perhaps if you post where exactly you are, some DOLers sters from your local area might be happy to let your pup meet their dogs? Just a thought.

I confess that I do, even if it is the Calendula. Am I doing the wrong thing by doing this, Staranias? I figure that with a fresh wound inflammation and infection may not be apparent but it might be on its way and always thought a flush out with something such as Calendula or Betadine would help to thwart that. I don't know much about Calendula or how appropriate it is to put into a fresh wound, sorry Erny. Topical Betadine is a good thing to put onto fresh wounds (clean out with saline first), the iodine in it helps prevent infection by getting rid of any bacteria in or around the wound site - I just don't normally bother with my guys since their small scrapes seem to heal up nicely by themselves, guess we all have good immune systems around here.

Betadine is good stuff, for people and for dogs - I've liked it ever since I put it on a deep nasty cat bite I got last year & it didn't get at all infected - and cat wounds are foul, they almost always turn nasty. Silvazine is good too. Medical manuka honey is great as well. We used it on a poultice a goat with a rope embedded in its neck when I was volunteering at a clinic last year, did wonders. However, I don't think it would stay on wounds very long around here, it's too tasty. I don't usually put anything on shallow non-infected wounds, though. If they don't need stitching, I'll wash them out & leave them to heal. With puncture wounds it's a bit different, I treat those or get them treated.

Just for interest, we are taught that the most common causes of food allergies are (in order of decreasing prevalence), beef, dairy, chicken, egg, soya, & wheat. However, dogs can be allergic to just about almost anything you care to feed. :D

They can drink through a basket muzzle, but some dogs need to be shown that they can do it - please don't leave her unsupervised without making sure she knows she can drink through it. There are heaps of different types of muzzle out there. My dog has a rigid plastic basket muzzle for hiking in (to avoid poisoning), but if I were leaving her alone muzzled I'd aim to pick a softer one (for comfort) & definitely a basket design (for good ventilation). I'd go for something like this: http://www.k9pro.com.au/products/Jafco-Plastic-Muzzle.html http://www.fordogtrainers.com/index.php?ma...roducts_id=3827 & definitely not something like this, even if your vet sells them: http://leerburg.com/clothmuzzle.htm :D

I just wish they provided a risk estimate of some type when mentioning side effects that have been observed. A drug that has caused a particular side effect in 1% of dogs, for example, has a rather different risk profile to one that has caused the effect in 0.001% of dogs. Yet both effects would be listed on the packet insert in exactly the same way. I sometimes wonder if the manufacturers are as vague as possible about side effects in order to avoid any possible legal action? I suppose leaving this information off avoids additional expense in collecting & collating information on adverse effects. However, they could list adverse events reported per unit of drug sold, to avoid having to estimate how many dogs have been prescribed the drug.

To be fair, Aidan, the information on side effects which is supplied by the drug manufacturers themselves would also worry many people who read it. This is true of most drugs, of course.

Dogs can get trapped places & be unable to escape when wearing an ecollar - my own dog has done this & got quite distressed, luckily I was there to rescue her. I'd rather leave a dog with a soft basket muzzle on unsupervised, although both options do have risks. There are some nice soft leather basket muzzles available, and K9Pro who posted in this thread sells cheaper soft (Jaafco brand) plastic basket muzzles. If my dog had this issue I'd definitely go for a combination of behavioural therapy and drugs, rather than just drugs alone. Perhaps you can find a good experienced behaviourist to work alongside your vet, since vets often don't have the experience (or the time) to really go into the details of behavioural modification with clients, even if they'd like to do so. ETA - your dog is a cutie pie!

Here, I think the xrays technically belong to the vet - you're paying for the vet's diagnostic skills, not the xray itself. However, many vets I know will give a copy of the xrays to the client if requested, for good faith, if they are digital. Not sure how you'd go copying film xrays in order to retain sufficient detail for accurate interpretation, but that's not to say it can't be done - just that I don't know about it. They may also let you take the xray temporarily in order to show the chiro, if you then bring it back to put in the files? Perhaps ask the vet why you can't take the xray to show the chiro - do they not trust the chiro to interpret the xray properly or something, and if so, can they give you a written interpretation of your dog's condition to give to the chiro? Since surely the vet would like the chiro to be on the same page so far as diagnosis & treatment is concerned?

Brushing works very well to remove plaque (and prevent tartar) if you do it at least every few days. Not so good at removing pre-existing tartar, though.

I didn't say anything because I knew that you would not have even considered it I was more concerned about lurking readers than about you, Huski - I know you're too smart to get a new dog without doing all the research.

Haven't read the previous 16 pages sorry Huski. But I'd suggest a smaller kelpie, heeler, or farmdog (heading dog or small huntaway), or a mix of one of these breeds, if I were after a smaller sport or working dog. I've seen some very cute little pocket rockets from all of these breeds. If I get a second dog to work, I'll be seriously considering one of these guys. I'd also consider a smaller bull breed dog if I were wanting a sport dog, some of those guys have very good prey drive, they're not necessarily as quick to learn or hanlder responsive as a herding dog, but are generally very sweet natured with humans & can be a lot of fun. If I were after a pet to do some sport with (rather than getting a dog specifically to do sport), I'd seriously consider a bull breed. ETA, thinking further, bull breeds are often very clingy & people focused so that may not suit you? If a WL mally is too crazy/too high maintenance for what you're wanting (and I think that's a sensible decision), I wouldn't go for a dutchie either. Plus, from what I understand they're generally larger than a mally, so certainly not what you're after.

I have also had problems building duration in the past. One way I have experimented with that helped was including an intermediate bridge (basically that means "keep doing what you're doing & you'll hear the click soon"), introduced in other situations so the dog understands it first. Also when teaching something like paw touch to your hand, when the dog is fluently offerning short touches, I have found that it can help if you move your own hand to keep contact with the dog's paw after the dog has touched, before marking with the terminal bridge, to demonstrate what you want. After a few reps of being marked for passively keeping contact with your hand for a second the dog often gets it and actively tries to keep contact for that second.

Some dogs definitely pick some concepts up faster than others. If you want to teach it, I'd break it into smaller and smaller bits until he does get it. e.g. start with can he put his paw on your hand when it's on the ground, then you can raise it higher and higher? If he won't offer the first step, then break that down into smaller steps - click him for just looking at your hand to start, or make it easier to start with - perhaps put something big and novel (phone book?) on the ground & try to shape him standing on it, so he understands the concept of "paw touch" before trying to get him to transfer that to your hand. The fun thing about dog training is that there are a gazillion ways to teach anything.

Yes, it must be tricky for you guys with the dingos - at least we haven't got that issue over here, everything that looks like a dog is a dog!

Depends what you're trying to teach, perhaps. Some things are very hard to lure, so although I have no problem with luring or guiding if required, it's good to have a dog that also understands free shaping. I've also found that by doing more targetting, you can aovid luring entirely if desired. I prefer to target rather than lure, as I think it's reinforcing the doggy zen principle rather than just teaching her to follow the food.

That's why my girl usually wears an ecollar (to enforce recall if needed) and a muzzle when offleash in rural areas. Not saying you should do that (you probably can't with the herding), but it is a big fear of mine too that I'll somehow lose my girl into a rural area to a farmer (she's generally quite OK with sheep but who knows what a dog will do when unsupervised?) or poison. So she's very well dressed when we go tramping - muzzle, e collar, regular collar... To the OP, it's sad for you (and very sad for the owners of the dog), but it was an understandable thing to do, I think. Although to be completely honest, although I realise the farmer is well within their rights to shoot in that situation, if it were my dog that somehow escaped and got shot for killing a chicken without the farmer making an attempt to call her over first, I would probably be upset with the farmer for not giving her a chance by calling before shooting (as well as being very angry at myself for letting her get out). I probably wouldn't be terribly reasonable if you'd just shot my dog, as I'm only human.

Interesting, thanks Muttaburra!

Used to wash my last dog in the shower. I've tried with my current dog too, but sadly my girl doesn't like it any better than she likes having a bath any other way. She really, really, really hates it! I can't be arsed arguing about it - she's a wash & wear dog so stays pretty sweet smelling just with regular brushing - hence she's had a total of two baths in her entire life.

Yup.

I don't know a whole lot about GSD, but from talking to working dog people (including the GSD SAR handlers I know), it seems to me that the issue with german shepherds is often finding one with enough drive and energy to be a good working dog. That's an issue for working dog people, but for pet owners, a low to medium drive dog like this is not usually a huge problem. This is different to the WL mally, where the problems often start with a dog with so much drive and energy that the typical pet owner can't keep it busy enough. Both breeds can be nervy and both can be unstable. Both can also have health issues.