ellz

He's got you trained nicely. Personally, I think a touch of tough love may be in order before he rules you completely. He won't allow himself to starve. You've already seen that. Dogs don't need variety, their taste buds aren't that sophisticated. They eat to live, not live to eat. Decide upon a balanced diet, whether it be a good quality dry food or whatever else you feel you'd like to feed and stick to it. As previously mentioned. Put the food down at regular mealtimes. What he doesn't eat in 15 minutes is removed and nothing goes down again until next meal. Don't coddle him or you're making a rod for your own back. Chopping and changing isn't good either and can lead to diarrhoea.

You're probably not far off the mark there considering they let a puppy leave the nest at 7 weeks in the first place.

Because personally, I don't like loading a developing puppy up with too many systemic products. I much prefer to treat worms and fleas as separate matters in a youngster.

I recommend fortnightly until 12 weeks, monthly until 6 months and then every 3 months after that for life. The only variation to this would be if you are using a monthly treatment for fleas/worms combined. And I personally wouldn't recommend these until at least 6 months of age anyway.

Just keep on with a good quality all wormer and practice impeccable personal hygiene yourself and you'll be just fine. The worms you are seeing are the ones that have been anaesthetised by whatever allwormer the breeder was using. You just need to keep dosing regularly (and disposing of droppings meticulously too) and provided there is no further infection from an outside source, there should be no future issues with them.

Not necessarily. Roundworm can be picked up from eating the faeces of an infected dog or from the soil and can live in the dog for quite some time. Worming a dog with most commercial wormers will only kill worms in the intestinal tract, it won't kill larvae which can be present in the liver and or lungs. What you might be seeing are worms from second or third stage larvae so it is important to keep on with a good quality all wormer and have faecal testing done if you're concerned that they don't seem to be disappearing.

Whiteners can be used on any coloured dog. They will help to brighten any light colour and provided they are rinsed properly, they can help shine on darker coloured dogs as well.

I would also be teaching him to lay down to be brushed and dried. Makes it a lot easier to get to the underneath bits that are more difficult to reach when they're standing up and it also feels a lot more stable for the dog and is therefore less stressful and more enjoyable for you both.

Animal House are based in Qld. I use their product on my Lowchen. Quite like the whitening shampoo but not that fond of their conditioner so I use my own "blend". On my American Cockers, I use either Plush Puppy or Laser Lites.

Our local market sells fish heads for $2 bag so I'll usually pick up a bag and then the dogs and cats fight over the contents!

That IS good to know. I personally have used the Woofbix (and Coles YLC and Woolies Chicken and Rice) dry food when I have run out of food on a weekend and Big W, Coles or Woolies are the only shops available. I live in the country so running out of food from time to time is inevitable, especially if my fresh meat supplier is running late or whatever. I've found these to be perfectly adequate foods and I have in fact added them to my puppy information booklet. It is really good to be able to recommend readily available and budget-friendly foods to families who aren't necessarily in a position to purchase bulk from a feed supplier.

You seriously expect me to believe a staffy 'just' stopped doing something......... you sure Daisy ain't broken? I agree! Or perhaps the question should be.....what else did she start doing instead of pulling the washing off the line?

May I pretty please swap my Staffords for yours? Mine LOVE the water! To the point where I have one that continually sits in my horse troughs in ALL weather and another who gets his head stuck in the tyres of my round yard because he would prefer to drink out of those than from a water bucket!

I personally wouldn't. And in fact, even though Tasmania is considered to be heartworm free, I'm considering beginning heartworm treatments on my dogs for a couple of reasons. Firstly because I will more than likely start travelling to shows on the mainland again within the next 12 months and secondly because with the way our seasons are changing it seems quite possible that the mozzie may become more of a problem here in Tassie in future summers.

I can think of worse things than Balsam that he could smell of! :D On a side note, did you know that many Afghans from older lines actually smell like sandalwood? Absolutely true and not a word of a fib!!

I think lamb flaps are usually the thick pad of meat and fat that are found on either side of the ribs. Though in pet meat, they are often left complete. EXCELLENT source of fat for skinny dogs and great chewing material for mouthy puppies too!

Try to avoid vets who totally remove the gland when they "fix" a cherry eye. When they do this, they remove the lubrication source for the eye and the end result is invariably a condition called dry eye. This is very painful and can ultimately cause blindness through ulceration and pigment growing over the eye in an attempt for the eye to protect itself. A cherry eye might be unsightly but given a choice between cherry eye and dry eye, cherry eye is the better of the two. Some dogs will never require more than the gland being "popped" back in. Some dogs need it to be tacked into place. Puppies are particularly prone to cherry eye during teething and rough play. Some breeds are more prone than others but any breed can suffer from it. It isn't necessarily hereditary.

Had the Lazors for a few months now Jed and have no complaints whatsoever. They hold their charge for a long time, are light and quite quiet and are tough enough to get through the thickest hair. Really good bang for the buck!

I love that thread :) Me too!! What a hoot!

ellz, I would bet that at some stage he has watched another dog and if absolutely not, then he may be a highly territorial dog, which is instinctual and has self taught in order to mark higher on the surfaces. But leg cocking itself, is NOT instinctual. I can say he has absolutely and categorically NOT watched another dog as he has had no contact whatsoever with another male canine (or a leg-cocking female) from the day he was born.

I American Cockers, a Lowchen and Arabian horses - all of which need clipping. I have a set of Osters, 2 sets of Wahls and have recently changed over to Lazor RX and Moser Arco cordless which are fabulous. Light, quiet and very very efficient. Would find it very difficult to go back to the heavy, noisy corded models now.

On the rare occasion it happens with any of mine, I just pinch their nostrils together and it stops.

I've had to modify my use of mine a little because I don't have good enough water pressure from my gravity feed tank to fill the rinse tank quickly so I also fill mine manually (but still leave the hose running as well) and turn the thermostat on to heat the water (cheaper than using hot water). I do my shampooing manually, which I prefer anyway because some areas need more work than others and use the pressure from the hydrobath to rinse. It saves so much time and so much wear and tear on my back and certainly beats hanging over the side of a bathtub for hours rinsing hair out of long coats! Mine lives on my back porch and I just wheel it over to the pathway and point the drain down the garden. If I were really inspired I could no doubt attach a hose to the drain and use the grey water to water the garden but I'm happy enough for it to wash the paths because the shampoo helps stop moss from growing. I got the purple, the magenta was on backorder and not expected in for a few weeks.

I feel your pain, I really do. My Am Cocker girl is coming back from Melbourne any day now and then my own private torture begins. Only this is her first season in three years so I will probably be more surprised if she IS in whelp.