ellz

Many breeders still do the whole "cereal" bit (ie weetbix or farex). I'm not one of them, but my puppies DO get supper each night (warm milky drink and a biscuit - I have found they sleep better with something warm in their tummies) and they help clean up the skinkids breakfast bowls when they're finished with them (waste not want not). It simply isn't necessary to feed puppy food to bitches these days. A good balanced diet will provide all the caloric requirements a bitch needs, without the extra expense or bother of puppy food which can often be an overload anyway. It is the same as extra calcium supplementation during gestation....not necessary. A good NATURAL source of calcium on a regular basis for life is what is more sensible.

It "kind of" gives step by step instructions....but is very diagram heavy. I've decided that the best way for me to follow the instructions is to photocopy the page that I want to try (they are black/white line drawings) and then colour each individual strand in a seperate colour and have a cord of the same colour so that I can move each one to look like the part of the diagram that I'm following IYKWIM. I've got a better chance of taking it in and "getting" enough of a hang of things to allow muscle memory to take over then. I'm fairly dextrous but I just need to fully understand each particular movement of each individual cord before I can be confident with what I'm doing.

Yes, they can survive parvo. Especially if early treatment takes place. It isn't readily understood that the parvo itself isn't the problem with young or old dogs....it is the associated dangerous dehydration that is usually the killer. Fluid replacement is absolutely essential.

I think many pet owners who don't understand nutrition think that if it is suitable for puppies, it must be ok for adult dogs as well. Like it is a watered down version or something. Little do many realise that the products designed for puppy consumption are more like the "high powered" products such as Rev and things like that...extra calcium, extra of many things....not much of which is actually suitable for an adult dog unless it has specific dietary/health requirements due to ill health or injury. It's much the same I think as people who feed puppy foods to in whelp bitches thinking that they are doing the right thing. Yes, in years gone by that may have been the case but foods are much more researched and balanced now and it just isn't necessary.

If you're talking about the stuff in cartons that you can buy from the supermarket......don't waste your money. If you or your OH's mum want to give milk, just normal cow's milk will be fine, as will goats milk or even good old powdered milk. Dogs aren't born lactose intolerant. MANY (not all) become lactose intolerant because they aren't given milk and their bodies stop producing the enzyme that digests it. All of my dogs tolerate milk very readily (which is handy for leftover weetbix and porridge at hooman breakfast time). But then all are given milk on a regular basis from puppyhood.

Which is exactly what I had in mind when I said it needed to be adopted fairly in all states. I don't have anything which qualifies now, but that's not to say that I won't in the future. Unfortunately, the Neuter classes as offered now are rarely contested, but perhaps if there is a title in the offing, it may give some incentive.

Not necessarily. Some lines are slower to grow coat than others. A lot depends upon hormones, maturity and also nutrition. A good coat is BRED for, FED for and CARED for. Many desexed dogs grow a huge coat but often the texture isn't correct. I'd be careful what I wished for anyway....Goldens can shed like the billyo. Less hair on the dog means less hair over the house!

Yes and they get a Neuter title in addition to their entire titles.

+1 for an hour being WAY too much "structured" exercise for a puppy that age. Free play is much more beneficial. He will stop when he has had enough. A short time on the lead for training is all that is required for a puppy. With regards to the desexing at 6 months. Personally, I wouldn't. If he is a puppy that is inclined towards being lean and leggy anyway, desexing early may contribute even further to this. It has been shown that in larger or heavier boned breeds, desexing prior to sexual maturity can cause the bones to grow longer which will increase height and make the dog look skinnier still. I'm going to buck the trend and say that to my eye, he is slightly too "light-on" for a puppy of that age. I don't want to see them fat, but I DO like to see them well covered. It is possible that the exercise you are giving him is walking off this cover and it really isn't necessary at this age.

We only ever have class 18 and 18A here so I guess that will need to be clarified nationally and applied fairly in all states.

So the "guts" of it is that it is the same as an entire Championship title but Neuters will only compete against neuters. SO...the clarification needs to be in the actual show classes themselves. If a club offers a Neuter class, does the winner of the class "automatically" receive the Neuter Certificate with the 2nd place winner getting the Reserve? Or are they going to change it and offer age classes within the Neuter system as they do in the cat/horse worlds? Not that I have anything that I would be able to show, but you never know what the future might bring so somebody has to ask the dumb questions now!

My book has arrived....now I just need to work out how to interpret the diagrams!

I feed Optimum Puppy. Used a different brand prior to this Stafford and American Cocker lot and to be honest, the difference is astounding. In addition I feed a kind of hybrid raw diet. Plenty of good quality meaty bones, chicken wings, necks and now frames. And veges with cottage cheese and yoghurt. Not all at once of course but I was thinking as you were that it is all very well for me to be militant about what I feed, but the reality is that most puppy owners will do what is convenient for them. About the only thing I told them to NOT feed on a regular basis are canned foods and dog loaf/rolls.

This isn't necessarily a bad starting point if you were interested in ditching the dry and feeding raw. Perhaps the breeder was feeding raw and you've misunderstood their feeding instructions? Presuming of course that the puppy is from a reputable breeder and you actually GOT any! If your puppy IS from a breeder, I personally would contact them and as their advice. Any breeder worth their salt would give it freely.

I like to believe that because I know what I am doing 99.9999999% of the puppies I breed (in either breed) LOOK like they are supposed to. So, in view of the fact that usually the majority of the puppies that I breed, with the exception of those I keep for myself, end up in companion homes.....I breed for temperament and soundness first and foremost. It doesn't matter how beautiful something is, if you can't live with it, it has NO place on earth. So....to answer the question directly, I choose my breeding program for good temperament and would never breed from something that is fearful, aggressive or just plain crazy and I nurture the puppies in each litter in the best way that I can. I expose them to as many of the daily pitfalls of life as I can and they are all reared inside the home being exposed to the normal things that they would experience in most families (with a few curly situations usually thrown in to really test them). I send them to their new homes as best prepared as I can possibly make them. What happens after that is up to the individuals. Either they continue as I have started, or they don't. But I am quite comfortable in the knowledge of the time and love and energy that I have put into them up until the time that they leave home at around 9 weeks of age and know that I have done everything I can, and more, so that they can be a productive member of a family and society. More than that, I simply cannot do.

Don't beat yourself up, accidents happen. The bad news is that an elbow break on a young puppy is always risky due to the possibility of compromising the growth plates. The good news on the other hand is that done properly by a competent surgeon, a nasty elbow break CAN be repaired to the point where unless you know it happened, you wouldn't believe it. The REALLY bad news is that depending upon who performs the surgery, you could be up for anything from hundreds to a couple of thousands. My now deceased Staffordshire Bull Terrier Reginald (SBIS Ch Gamester Street Machine) shattered his elbow at the age of 17 weeks. It was plated, pinned and screwed and he was confined to his crate with on-lead only toileting for 6 weeks followed by slow, gradual increases in exercise. The decision was made to leave the hardware in situ due to the location and the possibility of a refracture and at the time of the evaluation, it wasn't impeding movement or future growth and THANKFULLY his growth plates weren't compromised. He recovered so well that at the age of 10 months, he entered the show ring for the first time at a Specialty show in Sydney and won Best In Show from the Puppy class. It is my firm belief that the competency of the surgeon and the effectiveness of the rehabilitation that will tell the final story on the pup's ultimate recovery. Best of luck to you and your puppy!

Geez, now they're gettting sophisticated.....2nd generation crossbred crosses!

Oh yeah, you get the phone call 6 months later and they have a problem with their 4 month old puppy, which they had to buy because they just couldn't wait any more, and the breeder was no help at all when they phoned. "You were such a lot of help when we were looking" ------ so you went and bought that BYB puppy why???????? Ahhh yes, and especially when they decided not to purchase a puppy from you in the first place because they were too expensive!

Well, at the risk of offending Cocker owners, the "average" Cocker isn't the most sensible nor sane dog on 4 legs anyway. I've owned a few but always go back to the American Cocker which are only marginally better!

The black Cocker I mentioned made the cut!

Unfortunately the average puppy person will buy first and ask questions later. THEY must take responsibility for that. If somebody truly WANTS to know and actually does care about the origins of their dog, they will ask the proper questions BEFORE handing over their money. Otherwise, they're just another Joe Q with money burning a hole in his pocket who will no doubt end up purchasing a puppy from yet another FORMER Joe Q who had money burning a hole in HIS pocket. I spent over 2 hours on the phone yesterday to a woman who contacted me about puppies. Unfortunately, she was about 2 weeks too late because I would have bent over backwards to let her have one of mine had I had one available. She WAS a Joe Q who jumped at the first cute puppy she saw that was advertised locally, without papers, for $300. That puppy (coincidentally has blue breeding) is now known as her "million dollar dog" thanks to the amount of money she has spent on him at the vets for all manner of problems ranging from separation anxiety and temperament issues and digestive disorders through to (surprise surprise) hair loss problems and itching. He was desexed at the age of 7 months. She would desex all future animals as well but having researched things a bit more, wouldn't do it as young. She succumbed again to another puppy (different "breeder") after a little more research and ended up with a more healthy dog BUT she passed away unexpectedly at a very young age from an undetermined cause that the vet said was possibly associated with dehydration after consuming a gut full of salt water on a seaside holiday. A friend of hers who purchased a littermate to her deceased bitch has recently had a litter and offered her a puppy from the litter, but she declined because...in her words "she doesn't want to encourage indiscriminate breeding any more". Since then, the woman has spent many many hours following links to websites, checking out the DOL classifieds and making phone calls. She has decided that she has learned her lesson now and her next dog will come from a breeder in whom she can place her trust. She doesn't care about the pedigree, she just wants a HEALTHY dog and knows now that she can get that, with health guarantees from a good breeder and she is prepared to make as many phone calls or write as many emails and even travel to meet as many breeders as she can until she has found the RIGHT one. I take my hat off to potential purchasers like this. Everybody is entitled to make a mistake, and I daresay that most of us established breeders/exhibitors have made MORE than our fair share (if we are brave and honest enough to admit them!) of mistakes until we "settled on", "found" or "lucked into" what we feel is our most successful line, dog or whatever. The SMART people are the ones who learn from their mistakes and they are the ones who DESERVE the best that we, as breeders can give them. That won't stop me from trying to educate people, but sometimes you just KNOW you're beating your head against that proverbial brick wall and oh BOY does it feel good when you finally stop!

I may be the odd one out, but I'd far rather purchase a puppy from health-tested parents that is closely inbred from a registered breeder , than purchase one that is "who knows what" from a backyard breeder. And I daresay that there are MANY happy, healthy family pets already out there who are incredibly closely bred but that the owners wouldn't know because most of the time, they never even bother to look at, let alone research a pedigree. JMHO

My puppies have been paper-trained from when they could first get up to go to the loo. The puppy pen had their bed in one corner and newspaper over the rest of it. They'd eat, play or wake up and toddle onto the paper and use it. And I'm STILL attempting to educate the other hooman household members not to read The Mercury spread out on the floor when the puppers are on the loose or it'll be peed on!!! Now that they are 12 weeks old though and I only have the 3 Stafford puppies (until the last one goes next week when her parents come home from holidays) and Bad Alice they are pretty much clean and dry all night and they wake me in the morning to be let outside and they head to the door during the day and stand there staring at me if they can't find a bit of newspaper when nature calls.....but only until the urge is overwhelming and then they'll squat where they stand and glare at me as if to say "I TOLD you I needed to go out!" It must have looked hilarious when they were all tiny, me in my skintight flesh-coloured pjs "leading the charge" out the door from the pen to the great outdoors for loo breaks! Not so bad going, but they were a real pain in the behind to get back inside again. It's amazing how many directions 10 puppies can disappear in when you're not wearing any clothing and don't really want to go looking for them!

I have an agreement with my neighbours that if their sheep come onto my property they are fair game for my dogs and if my dogs are caught on their properties, they do what they have to do at the time. As my "main" neighbour (his property backs right along the back of mine, down one side and across the highway) said, if they're just looking and he has the time, he'll shoo them home and ring me. If they're up to no good, he does what he needs to do. BUT, that said....I have been here for 2 years on Thursday and haven't had a problem with my dogs leaving home or visiting any of the neighbouring paddocks. Maybe I have been very lucky, but I don't leave them unattended for hours on end as I'm in and outdoors all day and they usually follow me. But I know that I CAN leave them outside and they will stay put.

There were a few entered but all were absent with the exception of the two shown.