sandgrubber

Likely they'll go on to other things and eventually karma will catch up with them.

Sprocket was the qwirkiest dog I ever owned. She used to howl at sirens. She was a big one for carrying stuff in her mouth. What was funny was seeing her howl with a tennis ball in her mouth. Another tennis ball trick she made up was dropping the ball, generally well covered with mouth slime, in someone's drink. G&T and dog slime is not much appreciated. Sprocket also had stick routines with preference for BIG sticks (or small logs). She seemed baffled when a big long stick wouldn't go through a door or gate. A favorite game was to take a long stick by one end, let the other end dig into the ground, and run pivoting around the grounded end.

Have you tried autism support groups? I can't remember where, but I remember seeing some discussion among parents with autistic children of bring a dog home after finding it very hard to qualify for a professionally trained dog. As I remember, results were mixed, but some people had very good experiences. I think the main lesson was temperament screening is more important than training for kids who aren't severely affected. p.s. Still can't find the discussion I was looking for, but here's a clip from an autism group https://www.autismspeaks.org/blog/2016/07/15/service-dog-or-therapy-dog-which-best-child-autism Service dog or therapy dog: Which is best for a child with autism? You are correct to recognize a difference between a service dog and a therapy dog. We’d add a third category – a companion dog that’s well-behaved and well-trained. In fact, that’s what we usually recommend when a family comes to us for advice on choosing a dog for a child who has autism. Here are some distinctions to consider when deciding which type of dog is right for a child – or adult – who has autism: Companion dogs As mentioned, a well-trained family pet can be a wonderful calming influence for someone who has autism. An affectionate dog provides unconditional love and friendship on a daily basis. Walking the dog provides both exercise and a “social magnet” to ease conversation with other children. Learning to care for the dog teaches responsibility and practical skills. And pets provide parents with opportunities to teach and model caring behaviors and consideration of a friend’s needs – both important social skills. If you’re considering purchasing or adopting a dog, we suggest golden retrievers, labs and labradoodles (lab-poodle mixes) because these breeds tend to have a calm temperament and high intelligence. When it comes to adopting a rescue dog, we have one caveat. Many rescue dogs have unknown histories. That makes it difficult to predict how they will react when they feel frightened or threatened. Would the dog bite your child if he grabbed it roughly? Is it prone to chase cats? Attack other dogs? ...

What others say about dogs and kids is to be taken seriously, but all naughty kids aren't the same, and a lot depends on how young. Has your kid been around dogs much? Does he or she act sensibly? How old? Walking a few times a week isn't enough exercise for most dogs, regardless of breed. Costs can vary hugely depending on your choices for food, what you do for training, and what veterinary costs you encounter. Probably not less than $3.00/day, and could easily be double or triple that number. More if you choose a dog with serious health or behavioral problems. As for breeds, I'd say there is a reason so many people with young kids get Labradors. Most are past the chewing and too crazy stage by 2-3 years. They tend to be super-tolerant, playful, and affectionate...and not nervous. Many are couch potatoes. But there's a lot of variation in any breed. You really want to get to know the temperament of the individual dog. Get someone who knows a lot about dogs to help you with screening.

Awful wording. I'd guess they are looking for the word dominant. But as I understand it, dominant genes don't repress recessives. They preclude their expression. Repress implies active interference. To say dominant genes repress recessives is bit like saying birth control pills repress pregnancy, or a vaccination represses a disease.

What sort of stomach bug? I used to breed Labs and have brought 100+ pups to at least 8 weeks. Don't remember ever encountering a tummy bug. Have had pups puke from eating too much or too fast, but not often. Have had pups get VERY carsick and scare their new owners... before I decided it's best to fast them for several hours before travel. If the pup is showing serious Sicky signs, see a vet. Infections can wipe out little guys pretty badly.

That's about what I paid in Perth, years back. It's worth noting all frames aren't equal. Some sources give you skin and a LOT of fat along with the frame, others give you just bone with a little meat clinging to it. My cheaper source was very fatty. I had mostly Labbies, and had to trim of a lot of fat lest the dogs develop a layer of blubber.

Not so different than people. Some like cuddles better than others. Sometimes it depends on who is doing the cuddling, and how they do it . . . and the mood the dog is in.

OMG that's horrible! Can someone recommend a good article on hookworm, including geography, drug resistance, avoidance, treatment etc. I've never encountered this paracite, and always assumed it was a problem 'somewhere else'.

Lagottos require critical sorting. High prices and a rare breed mean some people have been breeding from anything they can get. Temperament faults and or health problems can be concerns. Not saying don't. Just be careful.

You can find Labs with lighter structure. Look for working Labs, not show. People who breed for Guide Dogs may be able to help

My new place is great, but the gardens and orchard show the effect of six months of neglect. The girls are getting their first exposure to sheep...The neighbors have three of them in my small paddock, securely fenced. I hope they soon decide sheep are boring. They've barked a few times, but don't seem THAT interested. Pictures to follow next week when I get my internet installed.

On the ferry. Should be on South Island in a bit more than an hour. I thought I could stay in the car with the dogs, but no...Had to leave them. It's been a rough crossing. Hope they're not Sicky. Tomorrow we'll be at my new place... At last.

Have been visiting the girls in quarantine for the last few days. NZ quarantine is not all that bad or that expensive. It's all the testing before and the transport costs that get you. The facility is as it has to be . . . dogs never leave easily cleanable surfaces, kennels are pretty large, but there's no access to exercise areas. But the people are nice and pretty informal, and they obviously love dogs. You have to wear white coats when visiting, but it's clearly a beaurocrat's joke. My dogs jump all over me and unbutton the white coat and generally max out body contact, so the silly white coat wouldn't do much good if a disease was lurking. I guess they get something serious once in a blue moon, but mostly, everyone is healthy. I want so badly to let them run and get some exercise. Only two more days. Then we drive four or five hours, stay overnight, drive again, take the ferry, and about an hour later we could be to the new place!!!!

The girls are now in quarantine. Jane, at Auckland quarantine writes that they are doing well, though my old girl looks confused. I'd say she has every reason to be confused. I'm still in the US packing (ugh). Miss the girls, but they wouldn't have been much help packing. I fly out on Sunday . . . arrive Tuesday. Thanks Baronia for the info/link and thanks everyone for the support. I'm not getting any younger and decided if I was going to move back to Oceania, I'd better do it while I have the strength to move.

The first leg was a grand mess, though the outcome was ok. The pet transport company worked really hard on the import requirements but totally forgot about domestic travel requirements. So I showed up at the loading dock at 7:30 am and they say: "Where's your health clearance?" Turns out a vet has to sign off within ten days of a domestic flight, but no one warned me. I was 2 hours away from home, in a city I don't know well, fortunately, with a friend who is a good navigator. Lots of calls to lots of vets. They all have surgery in the morning and can't see us until afternoon. Meanwhile we miss two possible flights. Finally get a veterinary booking at 1 pm, and a booking for a flight where they load at 2 pm. The vet charged $240 for taking temps, looking in their mouths, and listening to their chests, then filling out a simple form. Took all of 15 minutes. Horrible flight. One stop, with 2 hours lay over. But the dogs did make it to LA, and the pictures I've been sent look as though they are reasonably happy. On to Auckland in another hour or two. That's presuming no one has screwed up on the very complicated paperwork..

After all the months of vaccinations and blood tests and wormings and paperwork, it's finally happening. My three fly to New Zealand on Tuesday. I follow five days later. It's a long flight. The dogs get to overnight in Los Angeles before flying on to get put in quarantine in Auckland. I know, they'll be fine. They are three generations, mother, daughter, grand daughter, and very close. So they'll have one another. Or so I keep telling myself. But I'm so unnerved, and my stomach won't settle. Not much I can do about it, though.

No one can answer this question without knowing the actual medications used. If it's Ivermectin, as in Heartgard, and your dogs are not intolerant of the drug (unlikely with rotties, and if they are, they'd probably be dead by now) then there's little harm done by additional doses. The DIY heartworm prevention measures, using feedstore Ivermectin, often end up giving doses that are five or ten times the dose in Heartgard, with no ill effect. However, showdog is right. No advantage to doubling up. And really, no need to worm monthly unless you are in some unusual environment where worms are extra abundant. In the long term, I'd ditch the annual heartworm jab and just use the monthly dose. It's not unknown for dogs to have bad reactions, sometimes very bad reactions, to the annual heartworm. Btw, what meds for worms really depends on what worms your dogs have. Tapeworm does not respond to many wormers.

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what you can get out of ultrasound depends greatly on the equipment and the training of the techs. Back when I was breeding in WA, Murdoch vet school was letting well trained techs use top quality equipment and their counts were good (my girls typically had 9 or 10 pups . . .they generally came within one . . . sometimes they would say something like 10, but two are poorly attached and may not make it. Murdoch stopped offering the service. It's hard to find a good radiographer for this procedure.

Are you saying that locomotion is fundamentally different between dogs and horses? My gut feeling (couldwi be wrong) is that angulation close to 90 degrees has a physical advantage. Physical as in physics. I can't think of any naturally evolved animals that have the peculiar rear end conformation of the modern show GSD. Even the bitch you show looks, to me, like a building that on the way to eventual collapse because the stresses are all wrong.

I have Labradors. THEY LIKE EVERYTHING The more the merrier.

Sorry if this offends . . . or is kicking a dead horse . . . but I think it's clever BUGGER . . . the formatting won't post. Here's the source. http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2017/02/lets-do-to-horses-what-we-did-to.html takes the skeletal changes in GSD conformation and applies them to a horse.

One tip. If you have multiple dogs, DO NOT LET THEM LICK EACH OTHER AFTER YOU APPLY A SPOT-ON. I ended out with a dog having horrible seizures and longer-term neurological problems (periodi focal seizures) after she licked her pup after application of a spot-on containing synthetic pyretheroids (as does advantage).

I've always walked (or run) 'momma dog' . . . but been careful to walk in areas where I've seldom if ever seen other dogs. I hate the idea of depriving a normally active bitch of exercise; I doubt if anyone has ever did any study of this, but it seems like old fashioned and now debunked notions of 'confinement' for human mothers. My impression is that exercise helps the bitch settle into her role as mother.