Norskgra

There is a vet at the top of our street but I wouldn't take any of my animals there. They have misdiagnosed previous animals and ripped me off with one of my cats and tried to rip me off again. My current vet is great. They really care about my animals and don't try to rush us out. The pay attention to what I say and sometimes don't even charge us. When they first found out that I had Norwegian Elkhounds, they did a lot of reading on the breed to see if they had any health problems because they had never had Elkhounds before. I wouldn't go anywhere else. I can ring them at any time if I have any problems.

I have tried RR with my dogs and it did not have any effect on them. Iuse specially made up Homeopathy remedies on them now and they are fantastic. They have cured the problems we were having.

I always make my own treats and make a wide variety of them so that they don't get bored with them.

The girls are not too bad at wrangling, they only weigh about 18kg. The boys weigh about 24kg. The amount of kicking they do, I am sure they have more than 4 legs. They have been having their toes and feet touched since they were babies but they still don't like having their nails done. Sometimes I am lucky and can get to them when they are asleep otherwise I have to get my daughter to just about sit on them!

I had a go with it but they didn't like it and took off. I am slowly trying to introduce them to it. Our girls nails are so long they scratch everytime they jump up for cuddles. It is going to take time to get them back to where they should be but I am going to get them used to it and they are going to love it!

If the Vet charged you for a consultation, it does not seem fair. We are lucky with our Vet. They are great. If I have a question I can phone and speak to them at any time and they are only to happy to help. They don't charge for revisits.

I am sure that no one thinks you are a bad owner. Walking them on the road and/or concrete will wear the nails down.

She will probably want to do that too. I told her she would have to buy her own sanding tubes. I didn't want the dogs using the same ones as hers!

My daughter bought the cheaper one from Bunnings last night. I can't wait to try it as I only got through 3 nails on the weekend and gave up when there was so much blood. I have the other dogs to do as well. The only problem now is that my elderly mother saw it and wants to use it on her hard toe nails as well! I will think about getting a more expensive one if/when this one blows.

Thanks everypne. I have a huge Bunnings not far from here. I will have a look at what they have. I don't want to have to bandage my poor girls paw again to stop the bleeding! :shakehead: Although she did like the extra attention she got.

Unfortunately, my Elkhounds have black nails. Yesterday, while trying to cut them, I managed to cut a bit too far on one of my girls and blood poured out. I seem to manage to draw a little blood each time I cut them especially with the girls because their nails grow so much faster than the boys. I never draw blood with my white nailed Afghan. I have decided now that I have to get a Dremel to save their poor saw paws. I have seen professional nail ones for humans but I am unsure whether they would last with the dogs. I have looked at the hardware store and they had a couple of models. What model do you use?

I feed mine twice a day even when they are adults. The main reason for this is that one of my girls can only eat 1 1/2 cups of food at a time. If I give her any more, she will bring it straight back up. I spread her food over two meals a day and it is easier to feed the others at the same time.

Mine are all shoved in drawers. One day I will get around to putting them up on a wall. We take the better ones to put up as part of a display at Pet Expos and then they are put back in a drawer.

We do some weaving through witches hats and also work on the right hand side at show training. The idea behind this is so that the dogs don't anticipate what you are going to do. They can be too smart and think they know where they are going. It also helps to stop them from crabbing.

Thanks Everyone, I would only consider my older 22 month and 17 month old ones who are fully grown. I know that they will need more obedience training before they start but I am just looking ahead for something fun for them to do.

That is why I keep them lean. It does annoy me when other Elkhound breeders say that they are too thin. I think their dogs are too fat. Ours can't be too bad because they still do reasonably well in the ring for a rare breed. I suppose you can't please everyone!

Thanks poodlefan. As always you are very helpful. I checked the link and our oldest two pass the weight test. I have always believed in keeping them lean.

Thanks poodlefan and kelpiecuddles. My oldest boys father and oldest girls half sister have Agility titles. My oldest two have tried Agility at Expos and loved it. Their weight is not a problem as other Elkhound breeders have told us that our dogs need to put weight on because they are too thin. As far as the Vet and myself are concerned they pass the weight test easily. The only one who could lose a bit of weight is our almost 6 month old girl but I am not too worried about her yet. I will speak to Sutherland next time I go. Hazz - We are lucky. They don't have a problem working on the right. I know they will need more training but I was just interested.

Hi Everyone, I was just wondering what sort of training dogs need before they start Agility. Do they need to be at a certain level of obedience training? I think my dogs would love to do it and could be good at it.

Exactly Nat. That was one of the reasons I didn't like the club. They didn't even ask. As I said previously, the same training technique does not work for every dog. We know our dogs better than anyone and we know what works for them. This wasn't understood. I can't say that SSDTC will not be the same but I am going to give them a chance.

Thanks Myszka. AT this stage we are happy with SDTC. TigerJack - I hope you enjoy Peakhurst if you decide to go, but for us it was not suitable. I guess eveyone wants something different for their dogs. We want a club that understands that each breed of dog, or for that matter each dog is different and that the same method of training does not work for all. We also want a club that appreciates that sometimes the owners know what works best for their dog.

Hi Mrsdog and animalsluvbree, Both my daughter and I enjoyed our first day at SSDTC. The people are very friendly. It was warm but the dogs didn't mind too much. They got a big drink after we had finished. Our 5 month old seemed to catch on quite quickly but the 22 month old male can be subborn and took longer to do as he was told. He seems to have forgotten what he had learned previously. We will definitely be back. I registered four of our dogs this morning when we were there. You may not have got to meet us animalsluvbree, but I am sure you would have heard our two before the class started!!!!!! The boy only growled at a couple of dogs when we first got there and after that he was fine. He is very protective of our others. Although they go to dog shows and show training, I am sure that going to SSDTC will help him settle down. Myszka - Although we only live about 5 minutes away from Gannons Park, niether my daughter nor I were happy with the Club. We found that there was too much inconsistancy with the training methods used by the instructors. The things you don't like about SSDTC, are similar to the things that we didn't like about Peakhurst. The instructors didn't seem to understand that different dogs respond better to different methods of training. Some of the Instructors wanted us to praise our dogs while otgher instructors were quite nasty to the dogs. I know that we have a rare breed but we know what works better with our dogs and what will keep them interested. The instructors wouldn't listen. Also, although it was not the Clubs fault, the last time we took our dogs there, they ended up with Kennel Cough. Luckily they had been vaccinated or they would have been alot sicker than they were. This is the only place that they could have caught Kennel Cough. So far I am happy with SSDTC and at this stage we intend to keep going there when it doesn't interfere with showing the dogs. Two of the dogs we are taking are already Australian Champions and our youngest will be old enough to get Challenge points next weekend. Showing will always be our first choice for the Elkhounds but we are looking for something different for our Afghan. My daughter is thinking about doing Obedience with him. We will be going to Obedience training as often as we can.

Thanks MD, I will be there and I will try to get my daughter up as well so we can bring two of our dogs. It would probably be our 22 month old male and our 5 month old female. We may bring other dogs on different weekends if that is okay.

Hi Mrs Dog, When would we be able to come to start training? Also, what collars do you use for training? We usually use a check chain for our male as he is extremely strong?

Thanks everyone. I might give Sutherland or Hanrob a try if there is nothing closer. The Peakhurst Club was the one my daughter and I were not happy with.