centitout

well,i was a proffessional pig mater,fanatic ball feeler might just clich a job fo rme.

There is hope for him yet

I had one that was a bit slow coming down,my kids thought i was weird,the dog thought i was weird too.Would go out to have my morning coffee and have a feel of his 'bits" while i was there.I have become a fanatic ball feeler,and i think my boys told some of there mates cause we were getting a lot of teenage male visitors for a while If they are going to drop ,they will drop and often when you least expect it.

Dont worry about the excitement,you will be amazed how quickly they grasp food,walk into a stack. With my guys even when touching there head i will gently guide them into a self stack without them really realising ,its all about encouraging a natural desire to stack & then you start to adjust & be hands on. When outside playing with them use food,teach catching & using your "it" word its again all about setting the stack. Also if it was me i would be buying one of liberty big low tables & teaching dogs to stand on the table. All my large breeds are constantly stacked on the table & you have greater control as youngsters. Even at this age weight you can stack on the table.just teach them to put there fronts up & lift Edward was weighed today and he is 25 kgs I am doing that now,just a quick stack without being a stack,sort of a claytons stack really. Maybe i am too impatient and expect that the judges will want more of them than they are ready for.Already nervous about going back in the ring,i break into a sweat thinking about it! Edward gets that worked up at the prospect of food,as soon as he smells anything he goes nuts,a little too food driven!

There are heaps of allergenic plants most arent even aware of,and if he has come from a different area could be a possible? It always helps to have a really good look at what grasses you have,plants,feeds etc,that way when you do go to the derm you have a list they can tick off ,cant always think on the spot I had a german shep/malamute 15 years ago that started to get itchy,bald patches,smelly skin etc ,elimination diets were tried first,sh ewas allergic to pretty much all meat protein,could have 500 gm lamb over the week,rest was rice/veg.She did have the intra dermal tests done to confirm.This was before the days of the allergy free brands. And dogs of yesteryear were fed mainly meat/organs/fish and sometimes cooked oats etc from the info i have from an old bloodhound book from the uk.It is no co incidence that allergies are on the rise in both human s and canines-why?

$4400 to remove a toy -bloody hell,cant remember how many corn cobs i saw removed from intestines,often with the dog dangerously close to being septic,and i think they averaged $800. I SO LOVE MY VETS RIGHT NOW

So Sorry Indigirl ,very hard on everyone and i'm thinking of you

Cant write what i am thinking at the moment

Of course vet nurses should be paid properly,i earnt the same fo rvet nursing as i did for supervisor at an IGA :)except sundays ,i earnt $33 an hour. But it is up to the vets themselves to pay appropriately,the bonuses i mentioned were taken from the vets own pockets to give to us. None have flash cars or big houses,although being the only vets over a huge area,they could easily be very rich if they chose to be. We also received sometimes less than cost price care for any of our animals,cost price drugs etc as another perk.

My bloodhound bitches c-section/desexing at 2.30 am cost me all up with x-rays,fluids,AB on a sat night was $947. My bitch that had the 18 pups was $650/xrays,AB and lots of fluids to c-section/desex. The last one was performed by a 2nd year practising vet whom i did the vet nursing for,and while a little slower,did an amazing job.

I could be wrong but my guess is that in this situation they where quoting for different techniques, some of the higher priced repairs are more successful long term than the cheap surgeries, so what you think is cheap now may come back to haunt you in a few years time when your animal has ongoing problems or requires further surgery as the result of having cheap surgery now which fixed the symptom rather than the problem. I work in a surgery that is by no means the cheapest around (but neither is it the most expensive) however I can tell you that they pay their staff fairly as well as promoting and paying for continuing education. This translates into happier and more experienced nurses and vets. The end result being that they are more compassionate and care for the animals better than some of their peers who work elsewhere. I would also question the cheap vet about their experience with major surgeries such as cruciate repair ...have they done it before? They may be using your dog as a guinea pig to learn on. The vets i worked for did heaps of CR ,most of their clients are farmers dogs,although i trust them implicitly with my bloodhounds.They also paid for and encouraged going to seminars and further study,paid more than the award and we all received bonuses of $1000 at the end of the financial year as well as xmas.If their was something they were iffy about,they normally directed the owners on to specialists without hesitation. As for paying staff more equals more compassionate staff-"crap" -i have seen some from big ,expensive practices that i wouldnt hand over my pet mouse to,others whose animal handling skills are non existent,or extremely poor. I have seen my vets do extremely complicated ,life threatening surgeries,spend all night sleeping next to the cage while they recovered,sat there with snake bite cats on oxygen all night ,done CR and seen the dogs go back to working sheep and have no further probs for years.They make only enough to cover expenses,never refuse emergency cases and if someone in an emergency situation who is unable to pay upfront-will let them pay it off.I have told them often enough that they need to charge more,but they are happy doing what they do. Have also seen some vets from "big" practises that are the most arrogant,blow hards you will come across,that have botched simple surgeries. To me ,expensive is not necessarily the best and i will quite happily drive 300 kms and spend $50 in fuel to get there.My CHEAP vets are worth their weight in gold.

My preferred vets are at the cheaper end of the scale,but very good,in fact i will do a 300 km round trip to see them for major things.I use a vet 40 kms away to do vaccs etc,when there is one in town here. $176 for a post whelping xray? when my other vets charge $60. I had one owner that had a CKC and was charged $7000 for cruciate ligament repair ,and $900 to have his ears plucked and cleaned under sedation.They did get a bottle of epi otic included in the price.

Wouldnt ALL the pups from that litter now need testing to confirm parentage?

I feel for the new and old owners,poor puppy.The issue needs to be raised with the airport as well as the company involved.

I think its easier to teach them trailing than show stacking probably something that is easier to pick up when shown by a proffessional.Tried Bella with bbq chicken tonight,as she switched off with everything else,just stood there doing the bloodhound thing-head hanging,blind,deaf and dumb-so frustrating.Then with the chicken she got that excited she wouldnt stand still for even a second. By the end of 10 mins though she is sort of getting there,its the whole head on the ground,you've just viciously beaten me look that is hard to work through,but thats bloodhounds for you

I will try the free stacking,i dont want to place pressure on them as pups,thats why i dont start training as such.4-6 wk bloodhounds just dont have the ability to do anything beyond sit I found with the bigger male that is 11 mths ,he was the same,any attempt at stacking was soundly defeated,but as he gets older and more mentally mature,it is now no problem. I use treats-problem is they drool like crazy!! My sister is coming up in a few days,she has done a bit of showing with collies and a lab, maybe i can con her into helping me Thanks showdog too,i didnt realise i was causing them to tuck up!

Has anyone got any tips on how to teach 14 week old bloodhound puppies to stack? These 2 just "arent into" standing with their legs back at all,both roach their backs up until they look like the harbour bridge Or they will consistently pull a hind leg up,or lean sideways. Going to be fun at their first show in 2 weeks ! And no,no show training classes in my town.

piglets are routinely docked after birth,they might squeal once or twice ,but then within a minute or 2 are back suckling,if done correctly there is hardly any blood either. Some are done by inexperienced/inconsiderate people and i have seen several die from bloodloss because an artery has been nicked and it was too much trouble to stop it by the person performing the op.They object more to their teeth being cut out at the gums,and their ears notched-do the rspca care about that??

I would be getting a fine needle aspiration done to rule out Lymphoma as worst case,could be something simple like abcess,salivary gland infection etc.

And i cant stay o/n as pups went over 3 week period to suit owners work schedules/time off etc,so with 12 flying out impossible to do.

I cant book earlier flights for mine,as i live 6 hrs from sydney,even so i have to send them from Parkes(300 km round trip).They fly out at 9.10 am,only connecting one to sydney services. I put a frozen and wrapped bottle of electrolyte replacer on the outside,and a taped container on the inside so it drips in,also froze filled hot water bottles for the ones that flew to WA,QLD ETC.Taped a laminated sign to the top with all contact numbers for me/owners and a very sad pic of a bloodhound puppy looking up at the camers and the heading "please dont leave me in the sun,i'm only a puppy".

Wonder what the RSPCA would have said about the way a crippled sow was disposed of that i saw-7 shots at point blank range-the last one finally dropped the poor thing.And this place passed accreditation,but as i was told "only a pig".They (RSPCA)are simply not interested in the big issues.

Hi Cassie, Edward is going to his first show on the 13th feb,as is Bella.She is then heading off to VIC to be shown for a while while i concentrate on Edward.He will be shown for a year,then he will switch to man trailing(hopefully).Dyson the blanket black has just resumed SAR training this week,and we will also be training at the end of the year for endurance (i have started now ) Sorry KHM,for hijacking,Earl looks very relaxed,he appears to be settling in well.

The horse shooting was the thing that turned me off that useless organisation for ever,i remember seeing it on the news and crying my head off. Poor bloody police officer,i feel for him having to do that in public,but the alternative of leaving it in agony and being a danger to the public is a lot worse. I still remember when i was little ,and they called the police to shoot a old horse in a communal paddock that backed onto us,when she was chased into a fence by 2 german shepards and broke both front legs.He was crying as he did it.

[att achment=203682:Edward_14_weeks.JPG] Here are some pics of edward and bella 14 weeks