Staranais

That's what longlines are for. You can let them drag & the dog hardly knows he isn't free.

I am a little confused because of this statement. Can you clarify - is the drug labelled 'not for use in animals' or is it that the use in animals is omitted or not shown? I know a number of dogs on Fludrocortisone (florinef). It is possible that the particular brand used by the vet was not made for use in animals, but as Aussielover says fludrocortisone is definitely used in dogs.

That's a good idea in a lot of ways. If a neighbour had baited or abducted & abused dogs in the past, I'd definitely want to know so I could keep my girl inside while I was out!

Yes we got reply back yesterday from vet board, so far only vets response which there is a large number of lies in. We can however prove quite a lot for the wrongful death of our beautiful girl. Its been 5mths now & still finding it very difficult to let go of all the suffering witnessed. Only found 1 Solicitor who will has successfully sued a human doctor. he will take case on. Does anyone know of any solicitors that will take on Vets? What was the response from the Vet Council? Do you mean they haven't finished investigating yet? If it were me, I'd hold fire until the investigation was over & see what they find. Have you been allowed to submit evidence or testify? From my understanding, the vet will be penalised if they have clearly been negligent or have did something that a good vet should not do or otherwise have breached the code of professional conduct. If they did something that was a reasonable option but had unfortunate consequences, they won't be penalised, since sometimes even the best vet won't get it right. At least that's the way it works over here. I guess Aussie could be different.

Over here it's more usual to complain to the vet council, who will penalise the vet if they find they've been unreasonably negligent & can't defend their actions satisfactorily. I presume Aussie would be similar. I have no idea if you could sue a vet in a civil court, I guess you probably could, but I'd think you'd have more chance of getting satisfaction through the Vet Council.

Yes. It is absolutely horrible for the owner of the Westie. And probably the husky owners were irresponsible and didn't make efforts to contain their dog properly. But I guess it's also possible that the husky owners are usually responsible owners and perhaps just this once a tradesman or neighbour left the gate open, or the huskies dug out for the first time ever, or something else random happened like that to allow them to escape. I've never had my girl escape the yard, but I guess it could happen by freak chance one day. Imagine if the husky owners have just discovered their beloved, "friendly" dogs have done this when they escaped and are going to be PTS? They'd feel just as awful as the Westie owner does. Not a good situation for anyone.

I like Shirley Chong's philosophy - she says something along the lines of she's not a fanatic about clicker, but is a fanatic about good recalls. & also that in most cases, the clients that bring dogs to her specifically to use ecollar don't actually ever end up needing it, they achieve a recall just by going back to positive foundation work. She sounds really sensible to me.

That is a very good DVD, I have it and really like it too. It describes really well how to move the tug to get the dog interested in it. & if you always make sure you stop the game while your dog really wants to continue, instead of tugging until your dog is getting bored, then that will increase your dog's drive for the game.

I'm not Oakway, but I think you might be thinking of liver fluke (fasciola)? Those are carried by water snails.

Oops that is a problem. Good on you for looking for help now. If you can, it would probably be a good idea to get a professional in to have a look at what your dog is doing & give you some tips on how best to fix it. If you let us know exactly where you are, probably someone here will have recommendations on someone you could see. In the mean time, I'd not be letting her on my lap, in the bedroom, or on the bed, or anywhere else she displays the aggressive behaviour.

My understanding is that they can, they have found rabbits with E. granulosum cysts in before, but it's not a common intermediate host (at least in NZ or Aussie).

Yup Oakway is technically right to my knowledge, the chances of a dog catching hydatids (Echinococcus) from meat that has been passed for human consumption is low, but it is still possible since the cysts are very small when they first start to develop. Over here it's still illegal to feed ruminant liver or lungs to dogs unless boiled for 30 minutes. It's also illegal to feel any sheep or goat meat unless it is either cooked thoroughly or frozen at -7c for a week. I'm not sure if freezing offal would kill the hydatids cyst or not, but it would not be legal here anyway. Not sure about the situation in Aussie. Dosing the dog for tapeworms every 6 weeks with Praziquantel/Drontal or similar will also help prevent hydatids. These two precautions help prevent the spread of sheep measles as well as hydatids, so pretty important if you ever take your dog onto a sheep farm. The farmer will get pretty cranky if it turns out your dog has introduced sheep measles onto his farm.

There are doggie doors big enough for Golden Retrievers - I know a large male squeezed through mine once. Most dogs don't do a full 12 hours overnight. IF you toilet your dog before bed at 10.00 and get up at 7.00, that's only 9 hours. I sleep less than that & go before I go to bed & when I wake up OT sorry .....I don't think anyone here would sleep 12 hrs in a row.. I do in the weekends sometimes! But my girl sleeps on my bed, so she wakes me up if she needs to go. :p She doesn't do it often, but will if she needs to.

No reason you couldn't get a GSD as a first dog if you're willing to put the work in - plus, if you put your feelers out a breeder or rescue may have an older GSD with a more placid & soft temperament that would suit you as a brand new owner? Some labs can be quite challenging & energetic too. I think the advice about adding dogs one at a time, with at least a couple of years between dogs, is a good one. ETA - if you want to get to know your girlfriend's dogs better, then if she gives permission, you might want to try clicker training them just for tricks. Will be good for your training knowledge, will improve your bond with them, & they will find it fun.

I too think 12 hours is a long time to expect a dog to hold on. Just because she can do it some days, doesn't mean it's reasonable to expect her to do it all the time - I could probably hold on for some days for 12 hours, and not on other days. She's the same. If it were my dog, I'd probably rather put her outside & look for strategies to reduce/stop the barking, than keep her inside all night & try to stop her toileting.

That is also a good point.

Oh that is so sad. I wish the law gave them the option to do the right thing by those dogs.

They tell us that of the dogs that survive acute kidney disease (which I presume this is from the description), 50% will suffer from some form of chronic renal disease. i.e., 50% will have kidneys with less reserve so they will be less resilient to other insults. Charlotte, just out of curiosity, did they monitor your dog's blood pressure throughout the surgery, & what painkillers did they prescribe post op?

Me too.

Yup, it can. Some studies suggest that if you desex before the dog has had one or two heat cycles, it's more likely for them to develop hormonal incontinence than if they were desexed later on. But all desexed bitches have a much higher chance of developing hormonal incontinence than entire bitches do. It's to do with the changed progesterone-estrogen balance after spaying, which interferes with the spincter that seals the bladder. The medicines for it either replace the hormones, or increase the dog's sensitivity to her own hormones. But, it might be something else entirely - so do go see your vet.

Agree with the previous two posters. Hormonal incontinence is reasonably common in spayed female dogs, there are meds (or if really necessary an operation) that can help reduce or stop it if it's an issue for you. A UTI also possible, in that case it should clear up with antibiotics. Also, I think Tilly is gorgeous.

They were having similar issues with our lowest obedience class here a few years back, people were winning out of it but then being totally unprepared for the standard of work in the higher classes. So they increased the score necessary to win out of the lowest class. You now need to win two trials with a score of at least 96% of the total points to win out of the lowest class, unlike the higher classes where you just need to win the class with at least 90% of the total points.

Great news!

That's really great work on their behalf! But I have to ask - do they include pitbulls? I really hope so. Am just a little wary after finding out a few years back that our SPCA automatically deemed them "not suitable" for adoption and PTS.

I know a woman who has a crate on the back of her ute for her dog, she has a cover which is reflective silver coating on 5 of the sides to keep the crate sheltered & cool. I have no issue with that at all, it's pretty comfy looking. I have a stationwagon with a crate in the back for my own dog which works OK, but I don't think it's any more comfy for my dog than her ute setup would be.