Staranais

Amanda, from your post it sounds like there is a research project afoot - am I understanding this correctly? Also, what age is considered "early"? There's already research on it - I haven't time to dig it out right now sorry, but I think some links to the research have been posted on the forum before. At least one study shows that the earlier a bitch is spayed, then the more likely she is to develop incontinence. But no matter when they're spayed, spayed bitches have a much higher risk of incontinence than entire bitches do. It's due to the lack of estrogen after spaying which causes downregulation of adrenergic hormone receptors on her urethral sphincter, making the sphincter less responsive to the hormones that cause it to clamp shut. Research also suggests that larger sized bitches are also more likely to develop it than smaller bitches.

I agree Geo, my dogs love people & other dogs & if they ever got out all they would want to do is play with them, however when it comes to small wild life then their prey drive certainly takes over. I have witnessed my dogs attack & kill birds & lizards aswell as rodents,& while I certainly don't encourage it, I do understand that they are terriers with high prey drive & I certainly don't consider them unsafe pets or that they should be PTS. Agree with you both.

1. Pretty sure you're right, i.e. they're saying they couldn't find any non-digested striated muscle from his diet in his poop = presumably he's digesting it. 2. Yup Pretty sure the results are saying all results are normal, i.e. malabsorption doesn't seem to be present & the dog is producing the exocrine pancreatic enzyme trypsin. It's not the same as a TLI. TLI is a blood test & these are all fecal tests. I believe TLI is generally considered to be more sensitive & more specific for EPI than the fecal tests are (i.e., fewer false negatives & false positives). The first part of this free link may be of interest. http://loudoun.nvcc.edu/vetonline/vet132/c...nal_testing.htm Oh and this one: http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=2rRNYfO...p;q&f=false

That's true, although I'm not sure where you draw the line. If the dog growls at someone who is threatening you, and that person backs off, the dog technically did protect you . Even though it may have been mostly bluff on the dog's part, and even though the dog might not have continued to protect you if the situation had gotten more violent, the dog's "protection" was still adequate for that situation. I agree that there is usually an element of wishful thinking in many of these types of stories, though. People want to own the perfect dog, and we all interpret our dog's behaviour in the most flattering light.

It's a hard call. I would be very reluctant to evacuate without my dog. I would put myself into considerable danger to keep her safe. But, I can't expect other people to risk their lives for my dog either. I guess it would be my responsibility to evacuate her as early as possible so no one had to make that decision. Reminds me of when I was talking to some helicopter guys about doing SAR training with my malinois girl. They said that if the dog went uncontrollably apeshit in mid air and became a danger by distracting the pilot (some dogs react very strangely to helicopters), they would throw the dog out the door. Their primary responsibility was to keep the aircraft & passengers safe, not to keep the dog safe, so their priorities were very different to mine!

The noise I use as an interrupter totally depends how distracted she is, and also if I'm just wanting to interrupt it, or also discourage it in the future. I use smooch, hand clap, her name, a whistle, another command like "come on!", or sometimes a large "UH" noise or "leave it" command if it's something I want to discourage. I think it's quite likely that if you use a neutral sound as an interrupter, and never reinforce or punish it, it will become irrelevant to the dog eventually.

Ring your old vet (the one that diagnosed or treated the epilepsy) and ask them if Capstar is safe to use with the medications that your dog is currently on. I haven't heard of any specific contraindications for Capstar in adult dogs, but best to check.

Go Jedi! He is such a star.

There was a link about this ages ago, but won't let me post since it's been more than a year since the last post. How did people go with this trick? We've started this a while ago, just for fun, & are proceeding very, very slowly to allow pup to build up the right muscles. So far she'll happy back onto things that are about the same height as her back is.

I only walk my dog on leash if I'm taking her some place (e.g., if we're walking to visit a friend). I don't take her walking just for the sake of walking. This is because walking on a leash does absolutely nothing to tire my dog or myself out. It's therefore a waste of time for us - if I take her for an hours walk, neither she nor I are tired after it, so what have either of us gained by it? I still need to go tire her out so she'll settle. To exercise her I either take her training (tracking mostly, but sometimes airscenting when I can get a willing victim), which tires her out completely. Or if I can't get her out training, I'll sometimes take her for an off leash run so she can really use her muscles (I'll usually either throw the ball using a chuckit, or take her on a series of sprints with me so we both get a real work out). Or occasionally I'll take her to obedience school to do drive work around the other dogs as a distraction. I do take her hiking, but that's a little different - it's offleash & for hours at a time, so it tires her out nicely.

Yes, she'll do anything for her toy - hence why we'll probably start off rewarding only with food or simply praise if we can, since I'm hoping to get a slow & steady & safe performance on her agility equipment rather than crazy scrambling & leaping that any toy can produce. Thanks for the ideas, everyone. Will work on getting a ladder first after we get back from the bush next week, and then play round with what we can do with it.

I stick mine on youtube, cos you can always take them down again after your instructor has seen them. Not sure about emailing them, they might be too big? Guess you could burn them to a DVD and send them by snail mail. Are you doing T.I.D with K9Pro? ETA: Huski, I didn't know you could do that! That is smart.

Is it cruel to never exercise your dog out side of your own property? Depends on how big your "backyard" is (farm vs suburb), what additional exercise and stimulation you give your dog, and how old the dog is (getting off the property to see different places & things is IMO essential for a puppy).

She's a cutie! Where is she from? Do you work them, or just trial?

Yes, I'm pretty sure this is what would happen if I ever left beer in my garden. My dog would be very happy that I'd left her lots of little saucers of beer to drink. :p

Thanks heaps, Kja & Persephone! I can't adjust the flash strength or brightness but I'll try sticking something over the flash & playing around with that. I can do spot exposure I think, but I guess since it will make the background super light that's not really what I'm after? Want to be able to see the nice scenery too. :p

Thanks guys for all the ideas. I do like the idea of having it horizontal & just a little off the ground to start, and if luring/asking her to follow my hand up doesn't work quickly, I'll definitely have a go at shaping it. Apparently learning to go down is far harder for them than learning to go up. I have to invest in a ladder first, at home we just have a narrow plank to practice balancing on, so have plenty of time to think it through. :p

Hey there knowledgeable camera people! So, if I'm taking a photo in the sun with my subject backlit (with my point & shoot CanonPowershot), it's pretty hard to see details in their face (especially if they have a black face like my dog does). Should I use the flash? I've tried that a few times, but things can get overly bleached out, & I can get red eye with it. Or is there something else I can do? I can adjust the exposure, would that help? I know the obvious answer is to turn them around so they're not backlit, but sometimes they're posing in front of a nice bit of scenery (or if they're the dog, they're unlikely to pose again nicely if I make them move). Also, how do you prevent red-eye when you're photographing dogs with a flash? :p Ta very much!

Yes. I don't think that people who are involved in dog fighting are always evil - any more than people who buy pet shop puppies, or people who buy things made by little kids in sweatshops, are always evil. Uneducated & indifferent to suffering, certainly. But that can hopefully be fixed, with time and education. Although, I would imagine that dog fighting and other such very violent activities might be particularly attractive to people who are evil or sociopathic.

I don't, but perhaps you could print out a copy of this thread? OT, but I'll hopefully be taking my dog in for kiwi proofing/certification some time in the upcoming year. It's done by e-collar, P+. My understanding is that they retest the dog yearly after the initial training session & give a "tune up" then if the dog does not show avoidant behaviour around the bait. That's a little different to chasing cars, perhaps, since there's very little I can do between official sessions to either punish or reinforce correct behaviour around kiwi or kiwi scent, since both are very hard to come across on purpose.

Sounds like she is not sure what the break command means anymore - sounds like she thinks that she might get in trouble for eating the food even after the "break" command is given? Is there any food she really likes to eat, that she has good drive for and will eat around you? Roast chicken, roast meat, smelly cheese, perhaps after skipping a meal? Can you maybe reteach the meaning of the break command using that? Just showing her the food in your closed hand, saying "break!" and opening your hand so she can get the food should do it to get her interested in earning the food again & understanding that "break" means it's OK to take. That would be my first port of call probably, anyway.

Not for a SAR dog there aren't alternatives, but thanks for the hints. Hope you got your old dog back OK.

He came to our house! With a new piece of agility equipment, a new leather collar, and a new tug toy for doing scent work with. Probably all of those things are more appreciated by the owner than by the dog! Luckily she also has grandparents, who bought her two large bones.

Will she not work for food at all, or just not work for food around the toy? If the second, she may have made a negative association with the toy. Dogs make weird associations, sometimes.

I've been told one way to get fast confident A-frames is to lay the frame completely flat & open on the ground, & get them to run over it to a target/toy/food. Only raise it very gradually as they look confident running over it. Probably only works if you have access to the equipment at home, though.