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I've trained for 2 years since Bob was 8 months old - 12 months at one club and 12 months at the current one. We are doing a Social class atm, mostly I train a little away from the other dogs as Bob is pretty stressy. We are starting Rally-O in a couple of weeks, so we'll be doing 2 classes hopefully. I keep on going as it's a social outing for both of us, [me especially]

$20.00 joining fee (first year only) $10.00 membership fee (per person, per year) $20.00 training fee (per dog, per year) $6.50 insurance levy for non-VCA members so $36.50 per year after the first year. Pretty cheap in my estimation.

They have dogs because they can. It's as simple as that. They don't think about the long term implications in owning a dog. They see Lassie or Eddie and think 'cool, I'll get one of those'. They have preconceived ideas about how their dog will turn out, they don't think about training or socialising or anything else, it's just going to happen without any effort. They don't think about the expense. Dog gets too much for them well there's always FTGH or a shelter, of course it's always the dog's fault, never the owner. Arrgh people sh*t me sometimes. Can you tell I'm having a bad dog day? One neighbour has a puppy, it's howled most of the day as it's locked in their back porch while they are at work. Other neighbour is 'looking after' a rottie who has been in their backyard for almost 4 weeks, no walks virtually no interaction that I have seen other than when I take my dogs out for their 3 times a day run and play in the backyard, it stands at the fence and growls at us. They also have two toy sized dogs which live in the house except when they get out and run up and down the road. Not good, not good. I keep telling myself that not everyone has the luxury of staying at home and spending as much time as I do with my dogs. Not everyone enjoys going to obedience training rain, hail or shine, like I do. But geez... I feel a bit better now I've ranted.

Here's a website with a small amount of info regarding the flower remedies. I had another which was quite comprehensive but can't find it. http://www.edwardbach.org/ppage.asp?pagenameid=WB3ANIM I found the combinations of the individual remedies worked better than RR. My Health Food Shop makes up small bottles of your chosen remedies [up to 5] for a really reasonable price.

RR is the same dose as for people on the bottle. It's interesting stuff, same dose if you are giving to a horse, or a mouse.

It's the same stuff for people, animals and plants. Either chemist or health food shop should have it. RR is designed to be just that an emergency remedy. There are other flower essences which address specific problems.

OOOHHHHH what a sweetie. Great you sorted out her 'bum breath' problem so easily.

I've never heard this before, do you have any more info or a link so I can research it a bit.

Deanne, my heart goes out to you. I know how you feel about giving injections. I had a rabbit with a bad infection once and had to give antibiotic inj and it was really hard, but I digress. As far as I have read and the dogs I have known who have had diabetes insulin is only given by injection. I'm sure your vet will be the one to dicuss this with though. My ex hubby's dog had diabetes and she had two injections a day and a controlled diet. She lived to quite a good life and to around 16 yo even though she lost her sight towards the end. Hopefully there will be some DOLers with diabetic dogs who can help you through this time.

wyvernblade I am so sorry to hear of your anguish. I've had a couple of situations where my dog's have been misdiagnosed on fairly serious conditions so I know just how angry and frustrated you are. Will be keeping you and your precious boy in my thoughts.

That's great Shek. They are amazing when things just finally click with them.

I don't think that Vet Products Direct is the same as the Pet Food Direct shop I went into. The place I went into had a lot of PP labeled toys and other products that PP has. They also sold Evo and CF. Vets Prod Direct online doesn't seem to sell Evo and Calif Natural which they would if they were one and the same.

Mooper, ok, I think she said World Pets but it was a couple of weeks ago. I asked if they were owned by PP and she said, no, they were owned by WP [i think] who also own the other companies. I got the impression it was sort of complicated the way they were linked. ETA: ok, I just did some googling and found it it's Global Pets here's a website you might be interested in http://www.petsparadise.com.au/htmlSite/ht...e.asp?pid=10050

No problems giving carrots, firstly a whole carrot won't be digested very well anyway, but the vit a in them is beta-carotene which is a precursor to vit a. The body just uses it if it needs it and gets rid of it if it doesn't. It's the vitamin a in liver and supplements that can build up in the liver and cause problems. Other chewy type things are 'broccoli bones' [the stalk] trim off any suss bits, [wouldn't give them daily though] and I've also heard of people giving thick slices of turnip as chewies. I've also made sweet potato 'rawhide' in the dehydrator, that's pretty chewy.

I asked a staff member at PFD and was told that a parent company owns them, PP and Warner Brothers Movie World and also are opening Coffee Shops in Aus as well. Looks like they have fingers in many pies.

Erny, you and Kal are very much in my thoughts and prayers. I had hoped that by now you would have had some definite idea of what is going on. It must be very hard for you.

Is this possibly an abcessed anal gland? Off to the vet to have it checked.

Rather than take the food out in a L shape try taking it down inwards towards his chest, or straight down, like the hand signal. This works really well if you are teaching drop from a stand, the dog kind of folds up like a folding chair. Also when he is in the drop give a jackpot of treats, biggest mistake I made was 1 drop 1 treat, so Bob wouldn't stay down, he kept bouncing up. Some dogs are not comfortable dropping in a group situation, I have a lot of trouble with Bob at obedience club, but at home he'll drop anytime I ask him to.

Do you only feed Kuma once a day? Small dogs often do better on several small meals. A lot of people feed twice a day. Kuma may digest her food better in small batches. Did you change to RC dry food because of her vomiting? What were you feeding before? Food usually is in the stomach for 4 - 8 hours and continues through and out the rear end in 24 - 48 hours, so obviously there is something going on if there was undigested food after 15 hours. Has your vet run blood tests for liver or kidney disease? Sometimes the first indication of a problem is vomiting. BlackLab's suggestion of raw chicken mince is good, with the bone in it Kuma will get calcium and phosphorus. Of course it will only help if it's not chicken that she is sensitive to, or if she can tolerate the fat. As chicken is in most dog foods it's now become a common allergen. If you think it is food allergy and want to do an elimination diet what you need to do is feed something that she has never had before. Most people use one novel protein and one novel carb source, say something like rabbit and sweet potato, nothing else. Don't worry about balancing the diet for several weeks, dog's can exist just fine up to 8 weeks without a balanced diet, they have a lot of reserves to fall back on. These sensitive dogs are quite a challenge. It took me a while to get Bob's very sensitive tummy under control. Evo is available at Pets Paradise and Pet Food Direct. Another thought if you don't want to do a home prepared elimination diet on her, there are prescription diets from your vet that are as close to an elimination diet you will get in a bag, they still have quite a few ingredients but are designed to be used for sensitive dogs, and don't have nearly as many ingredients as the regular diets, to confuse the issue when you are trying to figure out what is causing the problem.

It's so frustrating that we can't get so many of the premium foods available in U.S. Eventually I'm sure we will. My Bob has food intolerances and I have yet to find a commercial food that he can tolerate. He too is sensitive to corn along with chicken, beef and kangaroo. OH gave him 2 cornflakes a few weeks ago and we had an almost instant ear problem and upset tummy. His first ear infection was after the vet gave him I/D food for a tummy upset, it also contains corn. Eagle Pack have a couple of their Holistic Foods which don't contain corn apart from that I wouldn't have a clue as to any others that don't. Oh, Evo has no grain at all I believe. Perhaps you could speak to your vet about an elimination diet. Most of the commercial foods have so many ingredients that it's really impossible to pinpoint what is causing the problem when you are feeding them. Although corn is a common allergen it could be anything that your dog is allergic to. The other thing that comes to mind... Is your dog only vomiting in the mornings, and what is in it? I need to give Bob a bit to eat before bed to have something in his stomach overnight or else he gets acidy and vomits in the morning.

Very smart dog. I don't have any more advice other than what's been suggested above except to say that reading your post, all I could think of was this is a smart dog and consequently a little bit bored. Ok, he's thinking about things you don't want him to do but a thinker nevertheless. NILIF is great. Dog school is a great idea, it will be a time that you and he are spending quality time together away from the other dog and family, and it should challenge him mentally. Perhaps agility, something that he really enjoys. Or lots of brain work, name toys and objects around the house and send him off to get them. Bob will go and find a particular pair of my runners that I only wear at home and bring them to me, and I've taught him to get one of those little soft bottle coolers named 'lunch box'. He will find certain toys. You are going to have to be one step ahead of this boy. My Bob is somewhat similar to Champa always thinking of things to get my attention. I do quite a bit each day to keep Bob stimulated, just doing tricks, obedience, then we play ball his most favourite thing, and today I got out the jumps for him. I don't spend a lot of time just bits here and there to keep him stimulated. Good luck.

If it was me I'd be making sure that he couldn't get into 'stuff' and eat it. Bob was a great one for trying to eat things especially material when he was a pup. I became very neat and tidy. :rolleyes: Even though your dog has passed stuff in the past you might just be unlucky sometime. Not worth it.

EaglePack, I'm sure that your food is high quality, but it contains so many ingredients, any of which a dog could be allergic to. Natural or holistic doesn't make it any less allergenic. I actually tried the EaglePack Lamb and Rice formula a couple of years ago, when it was just lamb and rice. Now the formulas have multiple grains, eg: rice, oatmeal and corn/barley, not good for a dog that may have or has allergies. Duck and oatmeal sounded tempting to try on my allergy dog until I looked at the ingredients, yes it's duck and oatmeal but it also has rice, flaxseed and brewers yeast, as well as egg product. And then again it's stated that oatmeal is hypoallergenic, well, sorry but any food can be allergenic. Oatmeal may be less allergenic due to the fact that it is a novel ingredient to most dog's diets. . I don't think recommending a product with so many ingredients to allergy dogs is wise. JMHO I will concede that when the dog is NOT suffering a food allergy then a high quality diet may in fact help with the healing process in conjunction with veterinary intervention. ok, I'll get off my soapbox now

Put the food down, leave it for 15 mins then take it away. He doesn't get another chance to eat now until his next meal time. If you feed twice a day, morning and night then that is when you do this, once only each time, don't keep offering the food, and don't put the bowl on your hand. He must eat out of his bowl from the floor. Feeding at lunchtime is fine too, just divide his ration into three so you are not overfeeding. This dog is training you. They are very smart and cunning, especially when they realise we are a little inexperienced. Also while you are doing this, give no treats. It should only take a couple of days before he's eating at meal time out of his bowl.

Hi Haze, Sounds like your dog is quite a little character. Please don't hand feed him. He is already making a game out of it by spitting the food out when you are giving it to him. Give him his food in a bowl, leave it down for 10 minutes, then take it away. He will soon learn when you say it's meal time. Don't leave food down all the time either. You are in control of the food not him. It's a shame that you don't have community based obedience clubs. However you can train from a book. Don't feel overwhelmed by what is in the book. Read one chapter, say teaching sit. Then work on that and only that for several days. Keep it interesting and fun. Then when you are ready, move on to the next. Don't rush it. If you don't finish the book before it has to go back to the library so what? Just reborrow it, or find a new one. You can also get lots of help and advice here if you don't understand something. Training should only be for short periods of time. 5 - 10 mins a session. You can do this a few times a day. You are a good owner, we can tell that because you have taken the time to ask for help. Just keep asking and learning.