ellz

I had an Ozito prior to this one (one of the casualties in the shed fire unfortunately with most of my other grooming stuff) and this is easily comparable. I ground the Pug nails last night in about 2 minutes. No vibration as such and adjustable speeds which were great too. And not noisy! I've always found in the past that half of the dogs who have had issues with clippers or nail grinding are the ones who don't like loud noises. Very pleased with my new toy! And don't forget, you people with long coated dogs (like my American Cockers), to grind toenails without the risk of wrapping the ear or leg hair around the shaft, put a snood on the head and stockings on the feet and just poke the toenails through the fabric one at a time!

I don't use the dryers there. I bring my guys home and dry them at home.

Locations for the Trublu Auto Dogwashes in Victoria: Octopus Car Wash 1-7 Louis St Airport West Magic Carwash Bairnsdale 491 Main St Bairnsdale Benalla Carwash 1063 Bridge St Benalla Groom & Zoom Plenty Rd Bundoora The Maine Wash – Castlemaine 17 Elizabeth St Castlemaine SSS Car Wash 401 High St Echuca Grovedale Car & Dog Wash 226-228 Torquay Rd Grovedale Magic Carwash Healesville 25 Hunter Rd Healesville Easy Bay Wash – Highett 357 Bay Rd Highett Cruises Auto Wash 28 Darlot St Horsham Happy Jack Dog Wash 51 Upper Heidelberg Rd Ivanhoe Metrodogs 1 Malcolm Crt Kealba Wash Werx – Kyabram 5-6 Allans St Kyabram Water Wizard Carwash 10 Lemon Place Mildura Easy Bay Wash – Moorabbin 230 Chesterville Rd Moorabbin Fast Fuel Wantirna 1 Monbulk Rd Mt Evelyn Woofpunary Cnr Narre Warren North & Heatherton Rds Narre Warren North Launderit Laundrymat & Dog Wash High St Northcote Car Wash Express 179 Warrandyte Rd Ringwood North Water Wizard Carwash TBN Robinvale Pro Wash Pascovale Rd Roxburg Park No. 1 Carwash 321 York St Sale Stawell Car Wash 20-22 Wakham St Stawell Groom & Zoom Old Calder Hwy Taylors Lakes Waterwise Carwash 5 Peace Ave Warragul JJs Waterwise Carwash 1263 Howitt St Wendouree Pet Stock – Wodonga Burn St Wodonga Quick & Clean Car Wash – Yarraville 280 Williamstown Rd Yarraville Rapid Car Wash 3 Springvale Rd Aspendale Gardens Pet Stock Ballarat 909 Latrobe St Ballarat Barooga Car Wash Vermont St Barooga Apco Service Station TBN Barwon Heads Car Wash X-Press 627 Police Close Caroline Springs Pet Stock Horsham 49-51 Urquart Horsham Easy As Car Wash South Gippsland Hwy Leongatha Mansfield Car Wash 2-6 Chenery St Mansfield Pet Stock Mitcham 487 - 491 Whitehorse Rd Mitcham Pet Stock Mornington 1128 - 1132 Nepean Hwy Mornington Wash Me Jack 241 Myrtle St Myrtleford Evolution Car Wash 99 Carlisle St St Kilda Pet Stock Sunshine 3/131 Harvaster Rd Sunshine Easy As Car Wash Cnr Bourke & Campbell Rd Swan Hill Splash and Dash Keilor Melton Rd Sydenham Basin Car Wash Cnr Mountain Hwy & Miller Rd The Basin Pet Stock Torquay 18 Bristol Rd Torquay Magic Car Wash 2 Livington St Traralgon Apco Service Station TBN Wangaratta Tru Blu Dogwash 27b Walsh Rd Warrnambool Apco Service Station TBN Waurn Ponds Wodonga Car Wash 8 Roadshow Drv Wodonga Bendigo Pet Stock 106 Hattam St Bendigo Classic Hand Wash 64 Bulla Rd Essendon Karingal Vet Hospital 328 Cranbourne Rd Karingal And FWIW, I use the ones in Hobart to bath my show dogs. I have limited tank water (except for now when they are overflowing and I have VERY clean dogs! ) so find it helpful to use the Trublu Dogwash instead. I use my shampoos and conditioners and rinses and their water. Can add up a bit if you faff around but I tend to get in and do what needs to be done pretty quickly anyway. And I carry a bottle of Ajax Cleaner/Disinfectant in my car and clean before (and after) I use it. I highly recommend the Trublu dog wash setups as well!!

More information for you........Mr Ellz rang this morning to tell me to go to his place when I was out and about because there was a present waiting for me. YEP!!! My Grinder......I wasn't hinting when I told him about it, honestly, but he wanted to give me a treat so he had his apprentice dash off and buy it. Anyhoo......I ground the nails of a very reluctant Stafford and it is awesome! She has nails like cast iron and it made short work of them and with the aid of the flexible shaft, I was able to bodyslam her to the ground and use the shaft to manoeuvre around her wriggling toes (who'da thunk that a Stafford could wriggle its toes independently! )! HIGHLY recommend this toy. Lots of power and lots of spare thingies to grind with. It isn't cordless but the flexible shaft made it manageable anyway.

For those who are interested, Mitre 10 have a small grinder on sale at the moment for under $40. I had a brief look at them today and they look quite good. Come in a small case and have variable speed as well as a detachable flexible shaft (VERY useful item indeed) and a heap of other bits n bobs. Comes with a 2 year home warranty too. Brandname is Rok. Not sure if it is of any use but I wrote down a number that was on the box 150-35-50009. Can't vouch for performance, didn't buy, was just looking.

Provided the puppy is no older than 6 months of age, you can start heartworm treatment at any time. And definitely monthly treatment, it is far safer than the annual injection for many reasons.

Black skin can sometimes mean a thyroid issue, as can bald patches and scaly skin. What does your vet say?

Why bother with wet food at all? Canned food is really essentially "junk food" for dogs. As a long-term dietary addition it truly has little nutritional value. And it is expensive. But if you're ok with paying for tinned water, then that's your choice. As for the choice of dry food......You'll Love Coles dry food and Woolworths Select are, in my opinion anyway, FAR superior to Supercoat for many reasons. Supercoat is NOT the food it once was and I used to be a diehard Supercoat feeder, come hell or high water. Something in the formulation has changed in the past few years and it is nowhere near the quality any more. And for the price, there are much better out there.

You'll find the term is "luxating patellas". Basically, slipping kneecaps. Quite common in some toy breeds.

PS. If you're going to feed raw eggs, add them shell and all. The shells won't hurt them and are a natural source of calcium too. And if a dog robbed a nest in the wild, they'd eat the eggs shell and all anyway. There isn't anybody in the wild to crack and separate eggs nicely for a hungry canine!

Dogs are ONLY lactose intolerant if not exposed to lactose when their digestive systems are forming/maturing. 99.9% of dogs that are fed milk (ie cows milk) as puppies will NOT be lactose intolerant in later life.

As with anything, success or failure lies within the cues you give. I use the words stand, stack and watch initially and then when the dog "gets it" and I'm ready to move onto the tail carriage, I use the word "tail" and they quickly learn that stand and stack mean to stand four square while watch means to look at the bait in my hand and then tail means get your tail up. It's surprising how fast the learning process is.

My dogs fall further when they fall off the terracing in my backyard....which they do frequently! Using show stackers as a training tool is IMO no different to the age old method of "dragging" a dog off a grooming table or step to encourage it to lean forward into a stack. Or for that matter, picking a dog up by its head and tail to table it, stack it or whatever. If anything, I would personally think that the show stackers are more humane than table training because there ISN'T as far to fall and all four feet are being trained, not just the back ones which would, I would imagine, mean less unsoundness and straining for the back end of the dog anyway.

Geez Riesenhaft....I was always taught when you work with horses, you should wear boots not thongs!! *running* But seriously.....showstackers are not something to be feared or legislated against. Agreed with other posters, there are far worse objects out there....check chains in the wrong hands, prong collars in the wrong hands, shock collars and even grooming nooses.

I'm with Rysup on this one. Although I don't give my puppies a lot of milk, the milk that they DO get is diluted cows milk. I don't see the point in spending heaps of $$$ on the pet-specific milks available at the supermarket and I don't recommend them to my puppy purchasers simply because they aren't necessary and are expensive. I don't wean puppies onto milky cereals. My puppies are all weaned straight onto fresh mince and mince/milk "slushies" with a warm drink of milk for supper each night with a small dog biscuit at bedtime. I just use "normal" cows milk or if I don't have any left, then I will crack open a tin of evaporated milk or a box of UHT milk. I have never yet had a lactose intolerant dog that has been raised here. Most of my dogs all queue up for their leftover shares of Weetbix or porridge each day, no matter what the age of the dog. I have no issues with diarrhoea or stomach upsets. I firmly believe that as with many human food allergies and intolerances, it is how the stomach is "trained" that dictates how it copes with various foods later in life. Finicky dietary practices make for fussy dogs and dicky stomachs IMO.

I should probably add/clarify here....I don't use the dryers at the dog wash either. At best, if it is a cold day, I will blast a bit of the water out so the dogs aren't actually dripping everywhere, otherwise, they are in crates wrapped in towels and get dried with my own dryers when I get home. I live about 35 minutes from the nearest one so the timing is great for one dog, but the other needs rewetting. This isn't a problem in itself though because I dampen him with a particular "finishing" spray during drying anyway. It works for me anyway.

I use them all the time. It became a case of having to over summer when I had little water for the house and drinking, let alone bathing dogs (I am on tank water and we had NO rain). They really are very easy to use but like Erny, I take my own shampoo and conditioner although some of the shampoos there aren't really so bad and I know the guy who supplies them to the commercial dog washes here and he uses them on his own (BIS winning) dogs. Here they cost $10 for 10 minutes and you can add more time if need be. The dryers are cattle blower types and I believe they are manufactured by Oldfields which are a quality dryer.

If you're feeding tuna, sardines etc they'll get Omega 3s from the fish. Vegetable oil is a good source of energy and fat which many dogs require more of during colder weather to maintain body weight. And Woofbix is as good as any other of the cheaper dry foods, better than most in fact. Also good are the You'll Love Coles Dry Food (Chicken and Rice for preference) and the Woolworths Select Dry Food. But I'm another sworn Great Barko/Uncle Albers devotee. Dogs do great on it (some of them TOO great) and very rarely do they turn their noses up. Coats are shiny and no great difference in stool production that I'm aware of.

I second the suggestion of a snood to keep ears out of food (and water). For the gulping, you could try putting a large, smooth rock in the bowl. This often works for a piggy eater. They have to slow down to eat their food from around and under the rock.

When you have clipped a few dark nails, you can also see from the top of the nail where the "dead" nail begins and the healthy nail ends. The healthy nail will be shinier whereas the dead part is dull and often a bit flakey. If in doubt, just keep clipping a small amount at a time every couple of days or as suggested, get a Dremel and grind them back on a regular basis.

I'm not saying people can't be "put out" as you put it. What I'm saying is that it isn't necessarily the fault of the breeder. Pyoderma can go hand in hand with the fungal infection. Ringworm is highly contagious. Pyoderma can also occur in a young animal that has lowered immunity. That can also occur after vaccination. It's not so sinister. And it isn't always something a breeder can do anything much about. And sadly, these things always seem to happen to the puppies which are sold, resulting in recrimination and nastiness. It is a VERY stressful time for a puppy to be leaving home and going into a new environment.

Why did you buy it then if it had so many obvious issues?

The fact is that even the best families can get worms. It doesn't mean that the breeder was necessarily lax or neglectful. It simply means that they didn't worm at the correct developmental stage of the worm and that there were still eggs or larvae hatching. Just keep worming on a regular basis, according to the correct dosage with a good allwormer and that is all you need to concern yourself about.

If you didn't notice the problem when the dog was a baby, why would the breeder have noticed it? And even if they did, that's probably precisely why they didn't keep her as a show dog for themselves. But to be frank, as I have said before, breeders aren't in possession of crystal balls and there is nothing to say that it is just an isolated issue or a developmental one. Puppies develop at different rates and in different places and just because the laxity is all over doesn't mean a thing IMO. It could be environmental, it could be dietary, it could just be a good old fashioned case of bad luck. And even if it WERE an easily recognisable issue, it would only be recognisable if the breeder (or somebody else, like a vet for instance when doing vaccinations etc) had seen it before and knew what to look for. As for not going to the breeders' home. I don't think that is an issue. I don't always have prospective puppy purchasers visiting my home either. It is a security and safety issue for me and as most of my puppies are sold via the internet and/or word of mouth, it isn't really necessary.

And if entering more than one dog of the same breed, ensure that you have an extra handler organised if for some reason you should find yourself in the position that more than one of your dogs are required in the ring at one time. Also, if you are relying upon other people to assist you if you need to change dogs for different classes, genders etc., be sure to leave their leads and exhibit numbers handy so that whoever is helping you is able to do it as expediently as possible.