Staranais

I saw a litter of mals on youtube that were fawn/black and also brindle??? Maybe crossed with a dutch shepherd (is this permtted?) although they called them malinois puppies? Depends. KNPV and non-FCI mallies are regularly mixed with dutchies, they are a very very similar breed after all, whereas FCI dogs aren't mixed (or aren't supposed to be!) Not sure if a pure FCI mally x mally breeding could throw a brindle, I guess it could happen. You do get the occasional black mally though, or one with "too much" white - my girl's litter brother had one white sock, for example. No good dog is a bad colour, and mallies are made to work not look pretty (although IMO they are often very pretty!) ETA, snap, Kavik!

My breed generally only comes in one colour. Like Kavik, I really prefer black or Sable GSD to the black & tan ones. Just think they're much prettier.

Yes, several options. Precautions too, though. Never make a dog vomit anything caustic, it will cause as much damage coming back up as it did going down. Never make them vomit if they're unco-ordinated or unconscious, or there is a chance for any other reason that they might aspirate their vomit, as this can be deadly. And remember even if they have vomited, they will only have vomited (at best) 2/3 of whatever they ate - if they have eaten something dangerous then you still need to get them to the clinic for further supportive treatment. With those precautions, washing soda, a pinch at the back of the tongue, is the best household emetic. This is not washing powder, by the way, it's different. It isn't totally benign, in rare cases can cause burns to the throat, however I know several people who have used this successfully after their dogs ate bait in the bush. Only ever use a pinch. Your vet clinic will have several other options. Apomorphine tabs are effective and safe and are what I personally use and carry in the bush, but are prescription only. One tab goes into the corner of the eye, hold the lid closed until it dissolves, then wash out with sterile saline when the dog has vomited.

The WSAVA recommendation is for veterinarians to give the C3 MLV to adult dogs no more often than every 3 years, except in special circumstances, regardless of manufacturer licensing claims. http://www.wsava.org/PDF/Misc/VaccinationGuidelines2010.pdf Agree with others that this thread is not a very good sample for which to make a decision on whether or how often to vaccinate a dog.

I've got one cat that vomits chicken necks, so I don't feed them to him anymore. My other animals do fine with raw poultry (so far, anyway). Dogs do vomit easily, but if they're regularly vomiting up only one type of food, perhaps that particular food isn't great for that particular dog.

If your law is the same as ours then anyone at all (including a vet nurse) is allowed to give, and charge for, advice on animal health. I wouldn't say it was a common thing for a vet nurse to do, but depending on what type of advice she is charging for, she is probably entirely within her legal rights to offer advice for a fee. If she is an educated and experienced nurse, she will have invested substantial time into her qualifications & knowledge, so I guess why shouldn't she make money from it? It would be illegal if she were implying that she's a vet, but she clearly isn't. It would also be illegal if she were attempting to prescribe restricted drugs or do surgery on animals, which are also privileges reserved for vets. Again, I don't think she's doing that! :D I'm not sure if you'd have any real legal comeback if you take the advice and it turns out to be crap or dangerous, however. It's not like paying for advice from a vet, where we can get fined or struck off by the vet council if we are negligent or incompetent when diagnosing or treating your animal. Perhaps someone who is good at law could comment on what legal comeback someone would have if they took advice from a vet nurse that turned out to be dangerous or wrong?

I've done work experience at two slaughterhouses, and have toured behind the scenes at two pet food factories, and so I've seen first hand what type of thing gets made into pet foods. The type of ingredients that got used, and especially the lack of hygiene with how the pet food was stored and handled, really appalled me. Really put me off feeding certain products to my animals. The factories made both raw and cooked pet food products, by the way.

Very interesting. Thanks, Bedazzled! I've never taught a continental LAT. I was wondering for those who do, how do you cue the dog that it's going to be a LAT (and they therefore must do a RAT around your back) vs that it's going to be a 90 degree LT (and they need to flip their hind quarters left to stick with you)? Seems like it would be easy for a dog to make a mistake there since the start of a LAT and LT look very similar.

It's just started in the last few years, and starting to pick up momentum. But, unlikely to affect obedience any time soon since the Ob rules define the finish as an around the back finish, so if you do a flip you'll be marked as not completing the exercise (and around the back LAT is always penalised as dog leaves heel position as defined by NZKC in order to complete the turn). Perhaps we are the weird ones!

+1 Tossed cigarette butts are disgusting (and dangerous in dry areas!) But, I guess it's far easier to just pick on the dog owners...

Perhaps we're the peculiar ones over here, then - we're only permitted the around the back finish (flip finish isn't allowed) and a U-LAT (round the back LAT turn not allowed)! And pretty sure it's always been that way?

Be very careful with supplementing large breed pups with extra calcium unless you want to end up with orthopaedic problems like OCD later on. Too much Ca is just as dangerous as too little, and it's easy to go overboard in giant or large breed dogs.

If he's pulling, he's not learning anything, except possibly that pulling works to get him places. And that's pretty much exactly the opposite of what you want him to learn, right? I'd personally stick to working on the loose leash walking at your stage, and teach a by-my-side walk later on with positive methods. Being able to call your dog back to walk beside you, on or off leash, is tremendously useful in many situations. I have nothing against correction collars when used appropriately, but they're neither needed or useful in a pup of your age. You don't need a formal heel unless you're planning on competing in obedience, and if so, you can teach that completely separately. There are lots of components to a formal heel (back end awareness, focus, drive) that are not necessary on a casual walk.

Well, I guess there's always the possibility that it works for some dogs or some people and not for others - unless you designed the study really carefully it wouldn't pick that up. I've talked to many clients who swear that it does help their individual dog (again, that could just be the owner seeing what they hope to see. So, no reason not to give it if you've got lots of money to spend on supplements. It won't hurt. But, since there's plenty of evidence that fish oil is useful, I'd never recommend skimping on fish oil in order to give glucosamine. To the OP, Pentosan injections might be worth looking into as well.

If you're happy with your results, keep doing what you're doing. Easy. Having said that, it can be handy to have your dog know how to do several "types" of leash walking. Although my girl is generally allowed out in front of me when I'm walking her, so long as she doesn't pull, it's also handy in some situations to be able to have her come back to my side on cue and walk right beside me. Both are useful skills for the dog to know. Howvever this is certainly not something I'd expect a 15 week old puppy to learn or know. At that age, getting a loose leash walk is an achievement. I certainly wouldn't be using a correction collar at that age (although the martingale collar you describe doesn't need to be used for leash corrections, it can just be useful to stop a pup wiggling out of the collar backwards).

How many vaccines - depends which vaccine your vet uses, and on when the first dose was given. 2 or 3 doses are normal for a puppy course, given 2 or 3 weeks apart, finishing at 14 or 16 weeks old. If she had her first vaccine at 6 weeks, it would be unusual and probably unwise to just give one more. Why are 2 or 3 given - because the first ones may not work due to pup still having some immunity from mum until they're up to 14 or 16 weeks old (and you don't want to just wait until 16 weeks to give one vaccination that you know will work, as that can leave pup very vulnerable to disease if their maternal immunity wears off earlier). I don't know what the difference is between a CC3 and a C3 sorry, we don't have anything called a CC3 where I am.

Eukanuba "Healthy Joints" has so little omega 3 it's hardly worth feeding. The amount you'd feed a medium sized dog in a day contains less than 1 capsule of fish oil, not enough to make any difference whatsoever. Hill's gets a bad rap on this forum (not always unfairly either), but their j/d diet has universally very good reviews from vets & clients I know in terms of increased mobility in arthritic dogs. It includes the equivalent of approx 3 fish oil capsules in each 100g of dry food (ten times as much as the Eukanuba). You don't need to buy any special joint diet, though. My 28 kg girl had OCD and she gets 5000 - 6000 mg of human quality fish oil per day, added to her regular diet. That costs no more than buying the j/d, and means I can feed her far better ingredients than j/d has. I don't bother with glucosamine. Interestingly, although the Hill's j/d also includes glucosamine & chondroitin, according to the company rep I talked to that's only because people expect to see it in there, not because they have any evidence it does anything beneficial. Whereas the fish oil has been proven to have anti-inflammatory effects. Don't forget the vit E if you're feeding fish oil on a regular basis, as OSoSwift says.

I've never seen a dog trained primarily with correction doing well in the obedience ring (or in any other competitive or working venue, for that matter). That's not to say that you can't use correction at some point. If you're careful and sensitive about it, corrections can be very helpful for some dogs and some situations. But every great competition dog I've ever seen has had their foundation in positive training.

Hey there Tollersowned, did you get it & if you do, did you like it?

I find it hard to believe that someone could keep 50 dogs well fed, mentally entertained, physically fit, give them appropriate veterinary care, and screen the parents for temperament and health flaws, while still turning a profit from selling the pups? Hence, I believe these people won't make a profit without some serious short cuts in terms of dog welfare. This should not be allowed.

Like others have said, waste of money. I also don't understand why dog owners are continually held to a higher standard than other people in the community. How about tracking down all the people who dump litter in public places? Or worse yet, the ones that chuck used condoms? That is just as pervasive, and disgusting, a problem as dog poo. Plus, many (in some places most) dog owners don't register their dogs. So, they're hardly going to come forth and get their dog DNA tested, are they? Again, this will penalise the responsible owners by increasing the cost of dog rego, and not affect the bad owners.

Welcome to NZ!

I've got to admit that I don't really "get" the around the back LAT. To me it seems that since the dog does not stick to your left hand side during the turn, it has left heel position during the turn, and this should be penalised, not accepted? Perhaps I am partly just biased against it because it is never seen in competition over here. Does anyone know the history of the different types of turns - i.e. were they all developed at the same time during early competition obedience, or did one type come first? ETA, that is a nice video, TerraNik.

I might! But it would have to look like it was going to be REALLY damn good at it's job.

The only one of I know is the Akita standard. I quote: Temperament: Alert and responsive, dignified and courageous. Aggressive toward other dogs.