deerhound owner

Thanks everyone - thankfully they appear to be in luck and are off to their new home together tomorrow. Hopefully they get to live out the rest of their days in comfort.

A friend and her partner recently tragically died leaving her two rescue dogs behind and they are now in need of a new home. Details can be found in this article.. My link Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Yeah, it's so nice to see the dog enjoying itself. So often there are videos of dogs "surfing" that peopple think are funny but the dog looks terrified!

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=cqxTUxzOceE&feature=youtube_gdata_plaJ

Wow, hasn't Eric grown up to be big and beautiful!! Sorry to hear about the split with your hubby, but I think you are right, you definitely got the better deal keeping Eric. So pics as requested. Here is our boy in the typical deerhound sleeping position. and a few at the beach Taog Aila playing together

Our boy also loves the rain (being scottish helps I suppose) and often goes out of his own accord to lye in it. Princess paws on the other hand is totally offended at the idea. Got this great snap after Taog had been lying in the rain one day.

Scottish deerhounds usually get shortened to Deeries or occasionally dearies ;) Mind you in Oz we have officially ditched the Scottish bit which means you end up following the Dachshunds at a show. Makes for some interesting group line ups

Casowner - really sorry to hear about your sheep I was at a free range pig production workshop on the weekend and they mentioed these things called fox lights which reduced their piglet mortalities from foxes to zero. I'm not sure of their efficacy on dogs but it might help at least until you can get your new guardian pup. they work by releasing completely random flashes of light, automatically turning on at dusk and off again at dawn. hope that helps

I hope the puppies that the nursing dog had given birth to are ok too... Cute photo but I'm just wondering about the bolded bit. How does this happen by mistake? "opps I accidentally left the door between the lion and tiger pens open last night" or maybe "opps I grabed the wrong straw of semen for AI"?? Sounds more like they do it for the publicity!

What about a greyhound? they come in quite a range of sizes so you could go for a smaller one and even the bigger ones are probably light enough to lift if you need to. There are also lots of blacks in rescue which might help with the imposing part of things. Low shedding with a lovely soft nature, great with kids and other dogs! Would need to come inside but they are very good at squashing themselves into tiny balls to fit in the corner so you'd barely notice they were there.

Thanks for this link. I have suspected this for while with my old girl (12) and this seems to confirm it. "scores between 50 and 80 indicate dogs with possible cogntive dysfunction. Your dog is showing behaviours indicative of Canine Cognitive Dysfunction." No worries, just remember that it is important to get a vet check up to confirm this diagnosis as there are lots of diseases that can cause some or all of the symptoms asked about in this questionnaire. It is approximately 80% accurate in giving a positive diagnosis and almost 100% accurate in giving a negative diagnosis (dog doesn't have the disease). Early treatment is very important so a vet trip is good for that as well. Hope that helps

yes it can take a while to work and unfortunately it doesn't work in all cases but fingers crossed it works for lilly. Don't worry about it bothering her, the upside (and it's about the only one) to dementia is that they are not aware of their behavioural changes. Instead of thinking how distressed she must be because she's getting confused and toileting inside, think that she has gone back to puppyhood and no longer has the recollection that she was ever toilet trained in the first place. The only thing that will make her anxious about it is your reaction. She will be able to tell if it upsets you so try to remain as neutral as possible. A nappy might help ease the burden on you when you can't supervise her. The same goes for the other behavioural changes. The only symptom I think is actually distressing to the dog is if they start becoming anxious. Some people have reported good success with clomicalm if this is the case. There is also another drug called Anipryl which helps to increase blood flow and nerve function which may be an option if you don't see an improvement with vivitonin. Best of luck with it and let us know how you go.

great looking prizes... have brought 20 tickets!

You can complete a questionnaire HERE that may help you find out if Lilly is showing other signs of dementia. Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss it further.

yeah it's always a tough decision: stand still and hope they go around you or move and hope they don't dodge in the same direction. I'm trying to convince dad to build a lure machine for our two since we moved away from our local club. They look so fantastic in full flight. Libbylewis - they are the perfect patting height for the lazy person. No need to bend down!! unfortunately it also means they are at crotch height when they want an ear rub