cactus

I have become something of a collar and leash collector- especially leashes... Plus Zara has a stuffed toy and squeaky ball collection that any small child would be proud of. As far as grooming- just one bottle of Johnsons baby shampoo with conditioner and a rubber grooming mit.

Glad you are looking at alternatives, because if the halti isn't working, then the infin8 sure wont. Neither is designed for "horror pullers" ;) I've got one of each, and they are great for mild to moderate pullers- a good tool to keep them under control while they are in training. I have found I prefer the halti to the infin8- less fiddly, easier to use, and on my dog, more effective. The dog obedience club we attend recommends and sells gentle leaders. Again- no good for horror pullers though. I almost bought a remote training collar (was tossing up whether to get that or the prong collar) but one day we just seemed to turn a corner with her pulling and chasing behaviours. She no longer tries to drag me accross roads and over to aggro dogs or runs after and tumbles every swf she sees. Miracles CAN happen! All the best Inka! Scope, I couldn't count how many times my mum advised me to get rid of Zara, and she came up with a wide variety of arguments, like: she's too big for me, she's too powerful, its not fair on my other dog, its not fair to my cats, she takes too much of my time, life was easier before, someone else would suit her better, another dog would suit me better, I'm not experienced enough, its too late for her to change, she'll always have problem behaviours, I'll get kicked out of my house, she's costing a fortune... bla blah blah. Good thing I dont listen to my mum!

I think he's embarrassed and is trying to sniff it all up before you detect his little slip edited coz its late and I'm tired and typing gibberish (well more so than usual)

Oh Pampa what a nightmare! I'm sure she will pull through fine with the great care you are taking of her. You are incredibly vigilant, and switched on to have even suspected rat bait when she licked her lips (with mine I would have thought- spider!) and then to put two and two together! Good on you Pampa.

If there are distractions around- like at obedience class, my treats have to be as smelly as possible. tiny pieces of vintage cheese, dried whiting (cat treats- I break them up), mini salami sticks from the deli(they are thinner than my little finger)- I slice them thinly. When I'm at home anything will do- I usually use cat kibble (they are always waiting for me to forget to pick the cat bowl up anyway lol), pistachios, and dried liver treats. When I'm at the park or the beach it doesn't matter what treats I use- she isnt interested and will let them fall out of her mouth.

my first dog learned not to pull by wearing a halti- she wasn't a horror puller though, and now is consistently perfect for me wearing her flat collar. 2nd dog is a horror puller and a whole other story....

Noisymina, what do you mean by 'no extra meat added'? The mix that I'm giving Kiki at the moment is 1/3 fruit and vege mix, 1/3 chicken pet mince and 1/3 premium beef mince. Should I replace the pet mince with premium mince, or do you mean increase the vege mix? ;) ... or something else entirely... :p

I make my own BARF- laborious I know, but I make the vege mix in bulk and freeze it in portions, them thaw and mix it with the meat as needed. I really did look!!! I'll have to go see how I missed it, I *was* tired, but still.... ;) Yeah, I'll be needing that ;)

Poodlefan wrote: Oh thanks poodlefan, I swear I *did* look! ;) I did reduce the quantity of food I gave her, then more recently changed the food itself. She gained some weight initially- and this was at a time when she got just one meal a day. She has gained a lot of weight since *returning* to her usual activity level- which is what I dont understand. I was told two meals a day would be better than one for keeping weight down. I'm reluctant to reduce her food much further- especially since a good deal of the weight in BARF wouls be water. The only bones I give her are turkey and chicken necks and frames, and only every now and again wings (because I believe they are fattier than the others?). I wonder though at the fat content of the chicken pet mince- maybe that is fattier at some butchers than others? Half the mince I give them is premium beef mince. I'm guessing that 2 cups a day would amount to 500grams a day of BARF? I dont have a scale :p If I want her to be 30kg them presumably feeding her 600 grams would be appropriate, so given that she is over 34 kg and getting less than that but still gaining.... Perhaps I'll try 1 cup in the morning and 1/2 cup in the evening, and see how that goes. I dont want to leave her ravenous (and being a ridgie she is always under the impression that I am starving her to death! lol) and she's not going to die if the weight takes a while longer to come off.

She had blood work done when she had her operation- she is in the best of health- except she's FAT (I forgot to mention that from time to time the little fatty was supplementing her diet with super premium cat kibble!!) :rolleyes:

What worries me about this approach is the risk of causing her to become malnourished. I already give her more pulverised veges in her mix than what zara gets, and my mum thinks I'm starving her to death because her corgi gets the same amount of food I give her, and his ideal weight is 15kg! :rolleyes: I probably will go the SP kibble way- although if it works there'll be no going back to BARF. She's 6 years old and can do without all the weight being piled on and then dieting to reduce it. Zara seems to be maintaining her weight well, and she usually has at least half as much again to eat as Kiki (zara is 37.5kg and at optimal weight). I just can't believe Billinghurst didn't come up with a formula for working out how much to feed? There must be one, surely!

Kiki has been on the BARF diet now for about a month. Before that she was on a weight reduction diet, and got 1 cup of kibble am and another pm. When she got frames/bones etc then the kibble was reduced. Now she gets 1 cup of barf am and another cup pm, or 2 turkey necks/a frame etc instead. She is GAINING weight!!!! She is becoming a fat little pig and I'm seriusly considering switching her to a calorie controled super premium kibble instead. Her ideal weight is about 30kg, a fortnight ago she was 34.5 and she is fatter than that now! Even on Billinghurst's site I couldn't see any recommendation on serving size. With Kibble I am told you give 1% of what you want their weight to be- so if I want Kiki to slim down to 30kg then I should give her 150grams twice a day. What do you think??? Ugh.. I never thought I'd have a FAT dog! She started gaining weight when I got injured and couldn't take her out, then she had surgery and couldn't exercise. Its all on her tummy and round her neck. Not a good look and very uncomfortable for her. Plus she doesn't have much energy any more. :rolleyes:

but Kiki is about 6 years of age... and the welts are on her tummy now too. dammit.

Hmm... it seems my other girl Kiki has proved all my previous assumptions to be false She has never had allergies in the time I have had her- about 15 months, and has always lived in this area, and yet what did I just find under one of her little armpits??!! Welts! Grrr.

I'll give these a go. Could I get them from my vet without having to pay for a consult do you think? I've paid over $1000 in vet bills these past three months, so I'm looking to avoid paying more than I have to!

So she got a secondary infection as a result of scrathing at a rash? I think thats what the vet said was happening with Zara. I wonder if I had not let her scratch if they would have cleared up quicker through not getting infected and being kept angry and inflamed. So I wonder in that case, as a temporary measure, if something to simply take the itch out might work in conjunction with the elizabethan collar? Yikes I couldn't afford allergy testing! I didn't try that, but will next time I see her bothered by them. Thanks Tanya! Seems like a few of us are in the same boat with this rash business.

wow biancalouise, that sounds a whole lot worse than my girl has! I wonder whether there is something natural you can use to boost his resistance? Has his diet/bath wash/bedding etc changed recently or are you certain that its something in the yard? I used an elizabethan collar on Zara to stop her licking her welts- that eased them quite a bit as she was keeping them inflamed. She has some of the pimples coming back on her inner thighs, but so far she hasn't touched them. Now that i think of it, I think she may have got the welts on her underarms first. Its a real mystery to me.

Thanks Steve! I've bookmarked that page and will read the articles before getting the collar.

What are the allergy symptoms? My 3yr old ridgie was at the vet last week because she had little bumps come up (looked like bites) then some of them turned into little scabby patches that lost hair, while on her tummy and inner thighs she develped big pimple looking things and welts that looked like jelly fish stings! It was all rather ugly and worrisome, but the vet said it was common in dogs who moved from cooler climates to hotter ones (she came to QLD from Sydney) but that they had become infected and that she could possibly be allergic to the long grass at the park. He gave her a jab of antibiotics and then gave me some tablets to give her (anti-inflammatories perhaps). They did clear up, but the pimples are returning, and now my other ridgie has some of the bite-looking bumps coming up, so I dont know whats going on! Having never dealt with allergies before, I'm keen to find out about others' experiences with them and what does and doesn't work. I have no intention of going to the vets every other week and dosing her up with chemicals!

Is it also waterproof? She is in the water a lot, so thats something I would really need. I'll really need the manual, DVD and email support as I am nowhere near K9 Force so cant have lessons I can only guess with what love and adoration she gazes at her owner with those big brown eyes!

It seems its not easy to get much information about them or where to get them- is there a brand that is more reputable? I dont want to pay $400 and find I got a poor quality product. Also, do they come with enough information to use them, as I dont know of any trainers here (Gold Coast) who use/allow them- its hard enough finding trainers that allow head halters or check chains. My main interest in using one would be to train her not to chase small dogs, but if I could get training on how to use it effectively in other more useful situations, that would be great. How long has your collar lasted myszka?

yep, and some of the hardly evers were really nevers.

LOL lablover! My problem is one of memory rather than patience- my kids got frustrated with me years ago because I was constantly asking "whats that command again?" and they'd say ALT Tab mum!!! ALT Tab!!! In the end they wrote it on a post-it note and stuck it to the monitor. Many months later it had lost its sticky and blew away... again I had to ask what do I hit- ALT ... ???? TAB!!!! They really thought I was taking the mickey, but alt tab is such a meaningless phrase, it just wouldn't stick in my memory. :D

Nah, coz see I know where the *edit* button is! :p :D edited to add my hypothetical dream dog's scores: Prey = 0 Pack = 70 Defense - Fight = 15 Defense - Flight = 10 :p :D

ok late with my scores coz we had a wee blackout kiki scored: Prey = 15 Pack = 65 Defense - Fight = 10 Defense - Flight = 35 zara scored: Prey = 45 Pack = 40 Defense - Fight = 40 Defense - Flight = 10 edited coz i hdnt even finished yet!! sheesh!