cowanbree

I am not a trainer but run a fairly large pack so have a bit of experience dealing with this. Firstly recognize he is a dog and thinks like a dog. He does not associate missing his tea and being hungry with whining 4 hours ago or sleeping outside because he was making noise when you fed the other dogs. Their minds don’t work like that, all he know is he is hungry and by himself. I have had a lot of issues with noise at tea time until I watched Jan Fennel (?) CD. She is a great advocate of making the dogs think for himself. I prepare tea and all the dogs have to be sitting or lying down quietly before they are fed. It wasn’t that hard to teach, I simply stood making no eye contact until they relaxed, then I picked up the bowls. Each time they made a noise tea stopped until they sat back down. First night it took me over an hour to feed 12 dogs but now they know what I expect. I still get the occasional backslide normally when I am in a hurry but mostly tea time is a quiet event. It is more a matter or timing the reward than the punishment

I have a conmurra hydrobath too but I have wondered about the ones sold here http://www.thebarfshop.com/shop/product_in...;products_id=36 They seem to have overcome the issue the conmurra one has with soap getting into the rinse water. I always feel I have to have final rinse water to make sure all the soap is out of the coat

I have done the one where they totally removed the hip socket and the hip is held in place by muscle. Worked very well and minimal rehab time. I understand there are issues as they get older as the muscle tone lessens but I will face that in 10 years. Until then she can enjoy life pain free

I have owned a bitch in who was spayed incorrectly in that part of one of the ovaries was left behind by accident. She most definitely attracted male dogs, wanted to mate, experienced false pregnancies and ultimately got mammary cancer which resulted in 3 different surgeries. I do not believe this has any benefit over leaving a bitch entire other than the risk of pregnancy is removed. It is my personal belief that spay incontinence is due to poor surgical technique rather than lacking hormones so you would still have the same risks here

To answer your question yes she will still cycle and attract dogs, the only difference is she can not have puppies

People will be far less tolerant to dogs barking in the morning and waking them up. I know myself I will put up with a lot but if I am woken up more than once in a while I am very unhappy about it. I would sugest you take sas suggestion and walk the dogs in the morning. Yes I know it is early but if you want to resolve the situation something has to change. You have outlined quite a few changes recently (ie stoped taking them to training, stop taking them to work) that have resulted in the dogs being left home alone more and not being as mentally challenged. Perhaps a necessary evil but ½ hours walks for 2 young dogs really isn’t much. I would suggest you buy yourslf a tape recorder or even hire a video to run for the first few hours so you can see exactly what is going on. Perhaps you can crate them inside and hire a dog walker to come later in the morning to walk them and put them out in the yard?

I would most certainly worry about genetic testing but it can be confusing. For example my breed (shelties) has never tested for HD until the last 4-5 years. More and more breeders are recognising that it is becoming more of an issue and have started resting but a good proportion (80%)still don't. This doesn't make them bad breeders just perhaps not well informed. Given a choice I would definitely buy from a breeder who does do as much health testing as possible

There is nothing the matter with leaving your puppy alone for short periods of time but 10 hours is to my mind not doable now or anytime in the near future. At a minimum he will need someone to drop in and feed him at lunchtime and I would not even consider leaving him unsupervised in the yard. He is just a baby and they get in all sorts of mischief, barking may be the least of your worries. Personally I would not leave an adult dog alone for that length of time let alone a puppy. I would seriously consider paying someone to visit midday and as he gets older perhaps walk him. Also perhaps consider getting him a companion

Sounds like they are going to have to be kept seperated for a while. I personally would never run two puppies of such vast size differences togeather. Quest my aussie is 2 1/2 and only allowed with the shelties when I am directly supervising, just too rough

Just because the Goldie is older and bigger does not mean he will be boss, certainly my 25kg aussie is bossed round by every sheltie here. Let them sort it out themselves but make sure the play doesn’t get too rough, the difference in size can result in the smaller one being hurt

Personally in your situation I would look at an older dog, not a puppy and there are plenty in rescue which would fit the bill perfectly

And yet another repeat post

Hmm, repeat post

I have lost puppies from Hypoglycemia and have to say this doesn’t really sound like it but it is very easy to eliminate, up the amount of times the pup is getting fed a day. At 6mths the pup will still be on 2 feds a day? Cut those meals into 3 or four. It can only be properly diagnosed if a blood test is taken at the time of the seizure and yes it does look exactly like a seizure

Personally I would look seriously at debarking, neighbours like this are not going to accept anything else. They can still bark but it is very muted. Once you have done it you will wish you had thought of it long ago. It does not harm the dogs, it is a minor operation and it solves the issue completely

To be fair to all you do have to approach your neighbour with your concerns. How would you feel if someone got council involved without giving you the opportunity to correct it. I have approached my neighbour previously and said a number of the neighbours are upset about the barking and I wanted to approach them directly. That way if you have to take it further it could be any neighbour. Plenty of options to stop the barking but the first one is find out why it is barking. If it is locked up by itself for long periods of time I would suggest it is bored and needs more exercise and better kennelling. Perhaps they want to rehome it

Dremel them. Most brilliant thing I have ever found, think it is actually a drill?? You attach a sanding barrel on it and way you go. Very easy, dogs don’t mind it and you can go back past the quick without them feeling a thing. Only word of warning is keeping changing nails as they heat up very quickly

I use a Mars coat king or rather did before it broke on my older shelties that have a ton of coat and are too hot. It works wonders. Allows me to thin the coat out and remove the undercoat without leaving cut marks. I would never use on a show dog but it can be handy. I would be interested to see you girl as how you groom her very much depends on what coat type she has. If it is a sheltie coat it should never be shaved but if she takes after the Maltese you just need to find a good groomer that will groom her properly

Friend of mine recently got a new puppy that wasn’t entire yet. He was concerned about it and told me that his wife couldn’t find anything but because he was a man he was much better at feeling for them. Apparently when he rubbed either side of the penis they just popped up. He was encouraged by this so was trying to do it 3-4 times a day. I nearly fell off my chair laughing but finally managed to tell him to stop doing that, they were not testicles and his dog was perhaps enjoying the attention a little much

I don't exercise my puppies at all until around 7mths. Even then I just start with gentle ambles on soft surfaces and wouldn’t take them for real walks until around 12mths. As a result my oldies are very sound and are not crippled with arthritis at a young age

I would fold the tip over and glue the top third. Personal preference really but I rather like his tipped ears (of course maybe that is because that is how my breed is meant to look

Glue them, you can get the ear glue from online shop and works a wonder. Will only work if he is a puppy though as ears set around 12mths and will generally stay that way for life

My friend brought a scat mat to keep her cats of the bench. It was very effective

As a last resort put her on prednisone. It is a great for the joints and helps with the appetite but not so good for the kidneys long term. It is certainly not what I reach for first but my old boy was on it for the last 18mths of his life after everything else stopped working. He had no other options and it gave him quality of life. When his kidneys started packing up I had him pts at nearly 17 years but the prednisone gave him another 18mths. I presently have a cat in kidney failure on it. She had stopped eating so I said to my vet what do we have to lose and she is still going strong

You shouldn’t use a conditioner on shelties generally as it makes the coat soft which then tends to matt more but when brushing a dry coat I would recommend misting the coat lightly with water. It stops the coat splitting and makes the job a lot easier