MissA

I have a staff who had strained a muscle in his leg - took him to the vets who gave him antibiotics and wanted to do x-rays and was talking about bone issues. took him to the chiro who immediately diagnosed a strain in a muscle. We had to crate and only let him out on a lead to the toilet for 8 weeks, and eventually it healed and he stopped limping. I personally go to chiro first when one of my dogs is limping.

I have my stuff in a baby bag with lots of compartments, its lined and washable and is really light, so it works for me. I did have a toolbox but I obviously take waaaaaay to much stuff to shows.

I have a friend who uses the animal house shampoo and conditioner and she swears by it (she even sent some to friends in England who loved it) I use Kelco shampoo, but i am in love with the Animal House silk finish coat spray - it smells beautiful and gets used on both the staffords and Tibetan Spaniels I also really like their volhold - particularly because i can use it after hot towelling on the morning of the 2nd day of a weekend showing

my dog wouldnt eat it and didnt do very well on it at all, so I would say it would depend on the individual dog.

Generally Tibetan spaniels only bark when something unusual is happening, but I have one that would bark all day when he was an only dog - he was incredibly spoiled- as soon as he had another dog for company he stopped. our dogs now only bark when someone comes to the door. They were bred to be watchdogs and should only bark as a warning. I would only recommend a Tibbie though if you are prepared to have an independent little dog who will generally only obey your commands when there is something in it for them and you dont want a dog that you can let off leash. I know some tibbies do fine offleash, but I personally never let mine off and would not sell my puppies to a home that wanted a dog to take offleash.

The other place I really like is Xanado Natural Pet Care at Kiama (I know, its a bit of a trip but its worth it!) they have really good vegie/supplement combo mince that they make up as well as all sorts of other good stuff.

You could try hot towelling the dog, we do this instead of bathing before a show get a towel and run hot water on it, then squeeze out as much water as possible and place over the dogs back - we also rub the coat up the wrong way. I then use a yummy smelling grooming spray and brush that through the coat.

Are you REALLY REALLY sure they arent playing? sometimes its really hard to tell We have an 8 week old baby here now - and her idea of playing is launching herself growling really loudly at the adult dogs. Puppies play pretty roughly and they let the other puppy know when they have been hurt by a little squeak, but they continue on pretty much straight away. my stafford boy has a big chuck out of his face from where the baby was play biting him. - and they just keep going

My Tibbie is fed on the 'Beauty' variety - and I definitely think it has helped his coat - we are really happy with it - the only problem is it comes in such little bags - but luckily for me the man at the produce shop orders me in enough bags to keep me going I always have an extra in reserve so I dont have to feed any other dry I have just bought a big bag of the medium junior to put the staffords on - I'm finding the poos are a tiny bit sloppier than with pro-plan but as we have only been using it for a week or so we will see how we go - I am still happy with the results so far

The scream didnt work for me at all it was like he just shrugged and decided to do it anyway. But distracting him with a toy or something else much more interesting helped and he eventually stopped

We were convinced our dog didnt like us for about two weeks, and now he is such a mummys boy. It will probably take him awhile to settle in, considering he has just been taken away from his whole world. Distraction worked well for me, we just kept giving him toys to play with and bite on when he started mouthing

I was using advantix every two weeks on my dog and he was still getting fleas :D the vet and the people in the pet shop were shocked and said they had never heard of that before but after about 6 months of using advantix theres no fleas on him now. I dont know whether the product worked better over time for anyone else though we also put half on neck and half on top of the hips (just push the hair back) even though he is only a toy dog

Our 12 week old stafford has decided our lounge would make a great lunch. He started with the corners, but has moved on to the seat. We cant get angry at him though as we have never caught him in the act!

I have used a couple of drops in my dogs water and it was amazing, he was calm when we left when usually he screams at the door for hours. I spoke to my vet who told me it was safe to give him, but I am only keeping it for emergencies.