Staranais

Only if I were going to brush her teeth for her later that day.

I think petshops selling dogs are a much more serious problem than petshops selling animals like mice or goldfish. Why? Mostly because dogs live longer than many other pets, and need more exercise and training than most other pets. An animal like a dog that lives decades (as opposed to years) and that needs a huge amount of ongoing training and exercising (as opposed to being quite happy being left in a bowl or cage with a conspecific) is IMO much more likely to end up deprived or neglected when purchased on a whim (as most petshop purchases are). For that reason, I also think it's a very bad idea for petstores to sell other animals (like the larger parrots) that live for a very long time and need constant socialisation and care. Also, our pounds aren't overflowing with unwanted goldfish or mice. They are overflowing with unwanted dogs and cats.

If that's true, it's a very good idea, and I wish other breeds would follow suit. Although I don't know how they could enforce it. Noone has mentioned the dingo yet! That's technically a dog, right? Yep I mentioned the Dingo in page 1...& yes I agree it is technically a dog, & a Native to Australia,rather than a developed by man breed. Aw, I missed it! Sorry!

If that's true, it's a very good idea, and I wish other breeds would follow suit. Although I don't know how they could enforce it. Noone has mentioned the dingo yet! That's technically a dog, right?

Exactly. How are we going to define which standard encourage HA or DA when we decide which breeds to ban or legislate against? Not many (if any) standards come right out and say "this breed should be aggressive to humans" or "this breed should want to kill other dogs". So do we just ban anything with "protective" or "defensive" or "game" in the standard? We'll lose a lot of dog breeds that way. I'd lose my belgian, for a start. What proportion of dog attacks are perpetrated by dogs that come from registered breeders, anyway? BYB don't follow the standard, pretty much by definition, so legislating dogs based on the standard isn't necessarily going to affect attacks by BYB-bred dogs.

I don't think it hurts them to skip a meal now and again, although I usually feed my girl at least once and usually twice a day. Not sure about some of his facts (e.g. the idea that dogs fed a few times a week need to eat 1/4 or a 1/3 less than dogs that eat every day) - not saying he's wrong, just saying that I've never heard this before and he doesn't back it up in any way, so who knows where he got that from. It's true that the dog has a big stomach compared to many animals, though, allowing them to fast & gorge. Personally, I think the credibility of the site is hurt by the way he mindlessly recycles the same old claims that vets get paid to push Science Diet (I wish!) and that we like to keep your dog unhealthy so we make more money fixing it (...which makes about as much sense as saying that breeders like to produce pups that die young so they can sell you another).

Very hard to define HA, or DA, I think. There are very few standards that outright call for a HA or DA temperament (the Akita NZKC standard springs to mind as accepting DA, I don't know of any others). But many standards ask a dog to be protective, or defensive, or say that it should be wary of strangers, or that it should be game. These can all verge on HA or DA in some situations (defensiveness can result in a display of what some would call HA if the dog feels it needs to defend something, for example). Not all dogs are supposed to have the temperament of a labrador or goldie.

Aussie might be different, but over here Nobivac have a label claim for 3 years on their C3. Anything incorporating KC or lepto will still have an annual label claim though, because of that component. Nice to "see" you around again.

Pretty disgusting. This borders on animal abuse. However, I guess it's no different to those parents who allow their young kids to become dangerously obese. If they're not prosecuted (and I've never seen it happen), then I doubt anyone will prosecute owners of fat dogs.

She'll be much happier when she is lean, believe me. Obesity ages dogs prematurely. It hurts their joints, especially if they're already starting to get arthritis, and it makes them more likely to get cancer & diabetes. Less food - measure it so you know how much you're feeding - and more gentle exercise. Swimming would be good for her until she has lost some weight.

I think this is your underlying problem. If this is fixed, you can stop him approaching strange people in the first place - whether it is to jump on them, pee on them, or whatever. Desexing might help a little. My old dog marked far less after he was desexed (he had never marked in the house since he was not allowed to do so, but he marked far less outside too after desexing). However, it won't fix the other problem, that of control.

What are the changes? Just being nosy as they obviously don't affect me.

I'd suspect the pred, steroids can cause hair retention & colour change due to hair aging. Could be diet related too, though, if you're on an unbalanced diet. Thyroid is possible, although symptoms you describe don't fit classic hypothyroidism, but even if you test thyroid hormone levels and find them low, it will be tricky to determine whether they are low due to a primary thyroid disorder or as a reflection of his concurrent illnesses ("euthyroid sick" syndrome).

I think whether bones are sufficient for tooth cleaning depends a little on the dog. I had a client in at our clinic last week who had an older dog with lovely clean molars one one side & a substantial tartar build up on the other side. Turns out it got a big bone to chew on at least every week - but tended to only chew them with one side of its mouth! Not something I'd seen before.

There are lots & lots of causes for increased drinking, some totally benign, some more worrisome (off the top of my head, can be a sign of things as varied as hot weather, more exercise, change to a a saltier or drier diet, renal dz, liver dz, diabetes, pyometra, Cushings dz, some types of cancers that cause hypercalcaemia, etc). Might be helpful for your vet if you could measure how much water she actually is drinking, so they can check how abnormal the amount is. In the absence of other symptoms, the black poo would worry me more, I think, since it can indicate upper GIT bleeding. Hope it all turns out well for your girl. Please let us know what happens.

Eating poo is gross, but I think I'd be more concerned about that cat - it could feel vulnerable if the pup could access the box, & may decide not to use the litter box. It sometimes only takes one bad litter box experience for a cat to decide never to use that particular spot again. Having it up high or through a baby gate is a great idea.

The mother certainly shouldn't have approached the dog without explicit permission to do so (in the article, it sounds like she assumed that the dog owner smiling at her as she approached was implicit permission to interact with the dog - I find that understandable, although obviously incorrect). She also certainly should not have turned her back on the child and allowed it to approach the strange dog unsupervised (there's no excuse for that!) However, if this article is accurate then I also wonder why the owner just sat there and allowed the child to approach the dog? If I were at a park and a random unsupervised toddler ran up to my dog, I'd intervene immediately (recall the dog, or step in front of the child, to prevent the encounter), as it's simply not worth the risk to allow my dog to interact offleash with a strange, unsupervised toddler. I'd think that was common sense?

Yeah, it is a possibility. There are a whole bunch of tests you can do to try to find the cause of this sort of thing, and unfortunately all do come with a cost. Things like joint fluid analysis (for immune mediated arthritis), CSF tap (for meningitis), bone marrow aspirate, echocardiogram (endocarditis), blood cultures, etc etc, can all be diagnostic options. That's why a specialist could be a good plan - you're possibly going to spend a lot of money anyway, I figure you might as well pay for the opinion of an expert to make sure you're spending your money efficiently. Good luck.

The cause of fever of unknown origin can be a pretty tricky thing to track down. They teach us in class that even when all possible diagnostic tests are done, 10 - 25% of cases just won't ever get a definitive diagnosis. The main differential groupings they teach us to think about for dogs are immune mediated diseases (such as immune mediated polyarthritis or meningitis, or SLE), primary bone marrow abnormalities, infectious diseases (such as discospondylitis, bacterial endocarditis, pneumonias), and cancers. Your vet sounds like she's made a good start at ruling some of these conditions out. Stormie's suggestions are good ones, I think (both her suggestion to see a small animal medicine specialist, and her suggestion to investigate joint fluid).

Toothbrush works the best. You don't need dog toothpaste, it only increases the effectiveness by a few %. Although dogs do like the taste, so it can encourage them to enjoy the brushing process.

We all have to put up with some noise from neighbours, it's just part of living in suburbia. We don't expect our neighbours to cause NO noise in other respects. We understand that their kids are sometimes going to play outside and yell and squeal, that they're going to use their lawn mowers sometimes, that they'll have parties or play music sometimes. Excessive noise is a problem no matter what the source is. So why do they single out dogs as the one noise that may not ever be "projected into human habitat"?

I think you have made a great point, too. In a similar vein, I'd say that at least over here, it's incredibly hard to title in obedience. I'd say less than 1% of dogs that compete in Ob will ever achieve any Ob title over here. Whereas from what I'd seen the average fit dog and dedicated owner can usually achieve at least some agility or jumpers titles - not because agility itself is easier, just because the award system is different. So there's perhaps more motivation for the average owner to do Agility, since their hard work is more likely to be recognised in the form of a title? I also think that's one reason that Rally-O and the CGC system are gaining ground over here, as they too give the average owner a chance to earn a title.

DA = dog aggressive = aggressive towards other dogs.

I'm confused - do you mean that the vet is talking about the dog coughing, or about the dog's heart making "coughing" sounds? The first can be a symptom of congestive heart disease (the heart isn't moving the blood properly so it backs up into the lungs causing a cough), the second just sounds like she is describing any type of murmur. Dog heart valves often do degenerate as the dog ages (called endocardiosis). That can cause a heart murmur, and can sometimes ultimately lead to congestive heart failure (DCM), although it certainly doesn't always do so. If you're worried, you can ask for a full work up, including cardiac radiology. This can show if the heart has enlarged, or if the lungs are becoming full of fluid, both of which would suggest congestive heart disease. But even in that case, it is usual to not start treating congestive heart disease until it becomes symptomatic (since treating it before that doesn't help the dog). So even if the work up shows some form of heart disease, you won't necessarily start to treat it now. You'll start to treat it when it starts to affect the dog's daily life.

Yes, all dog trainers aren't equal. I would have saved a lot of money and time with my previous dog if I'd gone to a good one first, instead of trying out a string of mediocre ones. Personal recommendations are a good way to go - certainly better than trying someone random.