toy dog

eeeekkkk some people must have more money than brains.

thanks for everyone's response, i've also asked other breeders of chihuahuas to see what they do too. we've been with this breed for 26 years now but there is always something different that presents itself with this breed. this little puppy has not been 100% right from the word go and he started having seizures last week where i had to rush him to the vets. he was burning up so we don't know if was low blood sugar puppy, had a trauma to his head or ate something but the vet did say that he thinks his nervous system is not 100% correct. so i had to keep dropper feeding him all through the night and had the vets tell me he is going to die if i don't put him on a drip and i have no choice!!! but meanwhile said i'd have to leave him in the vets overnight on his own as they don't have staff to attend to dogs overnight!!! with chihuahuas they panic if left in with strangers as tehy look for you and start a panic i could see he would fit even more because seizures can be brought on by too much stress as well as overheating (which he was doing he was 40.1) so the vet gave him a big injection for antibiotics just incase it was an infection and he screamed the house down and was very uncomfortable afterwards then an hour later was going into a seizure so i suspect the stress of that may have played a little part. he is now on liquid clavulox that i dropper feed to him twice a day. he is very tiny as normally with chis they continue to grow but he has stopped as the small ones often tend to do about 8-10 weeks of age and then it becomes apparent they are going to be tiny. chi puppies are tiny anyway but this one is abnormally tiny. rang my friend who has been in chihuahuas for a lot longer than us and deals with puppies just like this one and is very good nursing them back to health and i am to put him on nutrigel which stimulates their appetite and also if low blood sugar levels will help with that. my friend had a chihuahua that she sold who apparently got dropped on his head and was going into fits and is now a little bit brain damaged, the vets told her to put the puppy down but she perservered and now the puppy is a happy little boy and getting better every day. she worked very hard with this puppy at the moment he is doing well despite the vets telling me he is going to die! if not put on drip so i kept giving him 2 mls of honey water every hour and he pulled through now he is back to his old self running around with his little tail up all happy. this puppy is not normal hence why he is not chewing on things just licking but still gets enough in to survive. didn't eat for a day and lost all his puppy fat but now slowly putting it back on. so that was our drama on monday with this little one. my boss was not too happy that i had to take 2 days off work to tend to my baby but thems the breaks when you have sick children. cheers TOY DOG

just heard something a bit strange the other day, while waiting for the vet to attend to us, a couple came in and were carrying a small fluffy cross breed puppy, toy poodle cross they said...... ask nurse have you any di-vetelact? she said how old is the puppy? they go 6 weeks. my mother goes, uh oh, the nurse had a very big scowl on her face. lol but apparently these people got advised by the breeder to put the 6 wo puppy on this milk supplement, he has not been weaned and is not fully off mum and apparently no attempt had been made so how long they were planning to put poor pup on this milk supplement is anyone's guess. milk supplement is for mum if she has no milk or low in supply etc. to help wean your baby off. not to fully put the pup on this. these people have never owned a puppy before. these backyarders know nothing and should not be doing this rearing of pups they have no idea and yet are advising new puppy owners. i just think people like this that go to a supposedly "breeder" (not a breeder just a person who has mated their pets together for $$) are encouraging through their ignorance for this "breeder" to breed up even more poor misfortunate dogs into this world. wasn't game to ask how much they paid for a cross breed of this combination. probably about $500 to $800. when we sell our pedigrees for that. makes me very angry when these ppl who call themselves breeders are giving the wrong advice as well.

you'd think with all the technology today with info on the net and how well informed society today is that people like this would know better and not be fooled. they can say anything and people believe them which is what is clearly happening with these cross breed dogs today. i went into a petshop a few months ago as i know they always have a couple of pups in there it always makes me so upset so for some reason i go in this shop again one day on my walks and low and behold they have about 20 pups running around, all saying cross this and that no prices. a shop assistant came up to me and said can i help you, i said where do all these pups come from? sort of acting like i don't know much. she goes from breeders. i said not puppy farmers or farms? she goes oh no we would never source pups from a farm. i said, isn't breeders who breed cross breeds the same as puppy farms they have the same dogs? (its the same bloody thing!!! big or small they are still puppy farmers farming their dogs!!! i didn't say that though) she goes no they are family breeders. i said oscars law, she goes oh yeah we've had many people quoting that. its like as though she saying oh thats rubbish, like as though she hasn't a clue. its just all mad people shouting oscars law. there's a message in that trying to warn the public don't buy from petshops or backyard breeders we have enough in shelters. grrrrrrr always gets my dander up. i now try and steer people clear of going in that petshop as its the only one around in the city. the industy im in, there are several thousand of people involved so i have a wide audience.

i can't remember exactly but the last litter of 3 i had i did introduce bones very early, pigs ears and meaty chuck bones i think about 5 weeks maybe 6 weeks. that litter is now 18 months old half sisters and brothers to this one now. same mum. they took to the bones very easily, grabbed onto them straight away whereas this one just sniffs it and walks away as if to say to me, what the heck are you giving me mum? funny little buggar. i only got one in the litter this time. so perhaps im fussing over him a bit too much :D

vet will be checking him out today so i will be mentioning all this to him see what he thinks. i have a very good vet on hand. he is very tiny because sometimes we get very smallish pups with chihuahuas - smaller than usual but still strong and healthy, sometimes breeders get tiny ones that don't do as good as the rest of the litter so need extra help like hand raising etc. he has a very short back this is what is making him look tiny too. short backs are good in the breed, i am just use to seeing a longer back and bigger dogs. he is on puppy food at the moment with a bit of chicken mince that the adults eat mixed in with some steak, vegies etc. etc. i will be trying to introduce pigs ears later on. he does play with toys i've left in the pen if i muck around with him for a while. and i notice the ball moves alot. he loves milk (i give them lactose free milk) and i've seen him lap water yes. sometimes - this breed can be a bit slow off the mark bit different and very challenging.

yes totally agree will separating starting from this week. chihuahuas dont' take too kindly to being left on their own when pups, they like company. this little guy is ruling the roost it is really hard not to spoil him he is so very cute, hency why he will be named "toy boy"....

no he is eating properly he eats like a horse just licks the food doesn't try to chomp it, that was until yesterday when i didn't mush his food this time i cut it up (puppy food) and also cut up some steak very small. he attempted to grab it but didn't quite know what to do. feed him and mum separately ofcourse, mum's bit of a guts when it comes to food. then fed her in with him and he goes straight for her food and pushes her out the way and grabs big bits of meat and was eating it! so my concerns are probably being too picky and worrying for nothing. he will get there i think. it will just take a bit more time more than the others in the past. ETA: chloe was so good with him, she never growls at her pups she just let him hog the whole bowl an 8 week old puppy, and then just looked up at me. his dad is like this, he likes his food too, his dad would eat all day if you allowed him. seems to be a dead ringer for his dad. yes toys are totally different to larger breeds. chihuahuas a bit more delicate, every litter is different with new challenges.

yeah i know wasn't it. i actually invited this lady along to a get together involving chihuahuas and she also threw that back in my face as well. i contacted her to tell her that the grandmother of the dog in question had died thought i'd kill 2 birds with one stone and ask how the boy was doing. big mistake. i welcome people asking me questions and they don't have to buy a dog from me to get any answers either. i have made quite a few friends this way online over the years.

troy has a good link pedigree dogs versus designer dogs, is this what you mean? i've never seen anything re: why breed a purebred reg dog tho. perhaps try googling it and see what comes up. why buy a purebred dog?

oh ok, i found i worried alot if they weren't desexed but then again i always worry alot when they first go into their new homes. we found having a good open communication with buyers and letting them come and view the dogs/pups several times before buying often helps with the communication so you know that they are in a good home no need to worry. did have one lady i sold an older male dog to (3 yr old) that i could no longer show due to a major fault and contacted her 5 months after and she promptly told me to leave her alone don't bug her all the time!!! so rude some people. i spoke to others and asked them what they do and most said they wait until the buyer contacts them some did say they contact the buyer ever so often to see that the dogs are okay thats what i was doing. its not as if i was contacting this lady every week or anything, she was a bit of a nutter anyway, i did everything for her, i drove the dog out to her she didn't have a car, he was considerably alot less than what i normally charge and the list goes on what i did for her and her son. do i get a thanks, nope i get a P**SS off instead! some people i don't know.

gosh and we wonder why we have so many dogs in the pound eh. a no brainer there as to why there is a population explosion of dogs across the country.

i know what they are thinking, if its a bitch, they are probably thinking to breed it later to make some money to pay off their debts, if the people sold all the others in the litter for that much and they are boasting about it, makes it attractive to potential BYB. had a man do that to my work friend who had a British bulldog. he said that he made $15,000 a year in stud fees and told my work friend to do the same. the pup in question was not a good example of the breed at all just pet quality. i was so angry. in the end i won the dog got desexed. but you have farmers come along and make it look attractive and low and behold they try and do the same thing. don't huskies howl not bark, you could tell them that. they get very bored and start howling and you can't stop them. plus the element they are very driven and jump fences they won't be able to keep it in, it costs alot to feed the dog and they need it registered with the council and microchipped by law and vaccinated and where are they are going to get the $ to afford it. if they don't get it registerd with the council they could be fined $500. so they are up for $50-$60 a vacc X3 times plus microchip $25 plus $20 a week or so in food? plus council reg $30 odd....plus worming, leads brushes so they could be looking at possibly $300 just for basic stuff so thats $1000 easily. perhaps ask them are they planning to breed this pup.

actually the socialisation period is about 6 - 13 weeks that they are impressionable. we only breed when we need new showdogs and mostly our little dogs only have about 3 pups in a litter and sometimes even just one. so its very easy for us to socialise ourselves and often we sell at about 6 months and they are fully trained and socialised by that time. i do know of alot of other chi breeders who are the same. and also in other toy breeds too. our socialisation program for show or just a general allround pet involves getting the pups use to people as well as alot of dogs around. So we take them down busy streets and train from about 8 weeks and get as many people as possible coming up and patting. then we take them to shows, i am near the dog complex here so quite easy for me to do that every weekend if i want. ETA: in our breed you can have a confident dog that shows itself with little training and some breeders do rely on this aspect while others like us, rely more on conditioning the puppy/dog for the showring. i prefer the other way rather than just relying on their temp. it does also depend deeply on their genetics as to how they handle the socialisation as well i.e. come from a long line of timid dogs or confident dogs. been there done that a million times.

I don't think it is so much a lack of common sense more a complete disregard for other people - the "its all about me" is so prevelant that these morons truly don't think that there is a problem. If they want to do something and it irritates / inconveniences / harms other people they just shrug their shoulders. Rant over :laugh: Its not only that its like some parents who cant see their kids absolutely drive everyone they come in contact with nuts - they love them so why wouldnt every one else?. The dog doesnt scare them so therefore anyone that gets scared by them is stupid. Its inconceivable for them that everyone wont love their dogs just as they do. We see lots of this with Pacers. People who have never put a leash on a dog and never done any of the most basic training with them, some dog agressive , some people agressive but THEY love them and when they hit a disaster they expect we can just find a place for someone to take them as feral as they are into their homes free of charge , distrupt their own lives and that of their own dogs and family without ever considering exactly what it is they are asking or expecting. Little flossie is an inside dog so everyone expects that she will be able to be with a foster carer who can have her inside until "mummy" can come back and get her and take her home. Ooops forgot to mention she widdles everywhere. Why wouldnt the foster carer love her and not notice she piddles on everything and has taken over the foster carers dog's bed and when you let her out in the yard she never shuts up and upsets the neighbours ? " Look how beautiful she is " Walk your dog down the street off leash - all those peopel who cross the street because they are worried about it eating their small white fluffies are idiots. Or take it for a run in the on leash park and let it run through other family's picnic lunches and worry parents about letting their kids walk on their own to the toot - throw in a couple of nce poos to leave behind - whats wrong with people who get upset about this? " look how beautiful they are " yes, people who don't pick up after their dog really irks me and expects someone else to do it. i spent about 10 mins picking up poo in the exercise yard at KCC park the other day, and this is a dog area with people who should know better, i kept stepping in poo while i was exercising my dog. it gives us all a bad name, then the public can go, those dog people they are dirty.

you can't really. limit reg only stops the dogs turning up at a show or being bred reg. down where we are, there are about 20 farms so we have always been warning reg breeders not to sell undesexed dogs down here because these farmers pose as normal family people or we've had some people hand the dog to others, ended up following up that one and the dog was sold desexed to a friend of ours after they worked out they couldn't breed with her. We thought it would be safe after telling buyers that she cant' be bred from the pups would grow in the wrong area and she'd end up giving birth to dead pups, these people said they were after just a pet, yeah right. but no they tried to breed her. So for years we worried what happened to this little dog and tried to track her to no avail. They came into our house and lied outright. so to protect the dogs thats what we have to do now desex them all, can't trust anyone anymore, not that we breed that many litters a year anyway so we can do that. Buyers can check out ok and say all the right things and know what to say like those people did, then go and breed them, had one lady tell me to mind my own business they are her dogs now and she is going to breed them if she likes! i said we sold those 2 female pups as pets only we put it on the receipt. Bit stupid really thats not gona stop them! We were a bit green then and this is when we first started in chihuahuas. This is little toy dogs don't know about bigger breeds what they go through although heard that this lady also has a bigger breed that she farms as well. so no breed is safe really with her and the other farmers down in gippsland in the Wellington Shire region.

my mum got a phone call for one of our chihuahua puppies many years ago, lady rang us up and asked if we have a male puppy, mum said we get all of our puppies desexed we keep them until 5-6 months old we don't sell any young pups. this lady answers so what if i want to buy one for breeding, mum just goes well you don't from us, sorry about that! (she really wasn't though) :D lady was suitably p**d off. so what does she do, gets one of her friends to ring up and ask if we had a male for stud, mum goes oh yea, lady goes how much, mum goes 2000 bucks, the line then went dead. this was only a few hours later. did she think we were that stupid. we never got any regular phone calls in those days we were too far out in the sticks. the first lady ends up now being the most well known puppy farmer in the state. we saw how she started out and mum kept saying watch her she is a puppy farmer. old mum was right she can pick em.

I agree with what others have said, not being registered and just being purebred is a recipe for disaster in my opinion. pedigrees are a useful tool in studying to ascertain whether your dogs have any genetic problems that could come out in the pups. Then you sell those pups with a genetic problem then you get a phone call from an iriate buyer asking you to give their money back as they are not happy with the puppy you sold them as it is sick or has a disease. have you factored in that? don't mean to sound harsh but this is the reality. breeding is not for the faint hearted/ it takes years of studying to make sure you are doing the right thing by those pups you have produced. not an easy task im afraid. even if you know every dog in the pedigree (been there done that) there is always that dog or dogs you don't know and is hidden there somewhere to come out genetically in the pups you produce. had a work friend breed some pups sold them, had an angry buyer wanting to give pup back as it had an inherited fault with the eyelids from the sire of the puppies. they never got told of this fault that gets passed on until they had the pups. then they wanted to stud out a puppy with the eyelid fault and i said, be careful you don't end up in court passing that on knowingly. put them off, the dog got desexed lot less hassle in the long run they said.

OMG mini girl- the website is VERY informative- but so sad- thankyou for sharing the link I didnt realise it was SO bad here in Australia- i cant believe people- puppy farms designer dogs

gets his first vacc this friday actually and a general vet check, he is very tiny for his age thats why i didn't take him in any sooner, usually yes when they are teething the ears tend to go a bit hay wire usually they flop down though not up LOL. the ears are fine now they are sitting straight up where they should be. i had visions of trying to show a dog with its ears permanently sitting backward. i'll be mentioning all this to my vet good idea

just wondering on other breeders opinion on when to start introducing bones to young puppies either toy dogs or larger breeds. usually we start at aged 6-8 weeks when they are weaning and they take to them, other toy breeders have told us they believe it ruins their teeth so don't introduce but we end up buying dogs from others that don't even know what bones are! also one boy we bought from another breeder had retained teeth, ended up having to remove at vets (10 of them) because it took a while to get him to take bones. spoken to some breeders of pugs and some seem to think it is a herediatary problem. i am inclined to think thats it more not being given bones early enough to help naturally lose baby teeth and growing in the permanents. the last litter we had of 3 they all were into pigs ears, raw bones at a very young age and we've had no problems with retained teeth ever. here's the problem, i have a young pup about 8 weeks now and he seems to be breaking the mould with everything from ears sitting backwards instead of forwards (straight up now after a few sessions of rubbing ears each night) (strange!) to lead training. some breeders never seen the ears backwards instead of foreward neither have we in 26 years of breeding this delighfully challenging toy breed :D although with chis you never know what you are going to get really. now it seems he licks his food doesn't bite into it to grab it which is very unusual im thinking. he has a full set of chompers and his bite seems okay at this age. maybe i should wait until he matures and try and slowly introduce bones etc. then, not sure as to what im going to do yet. although tonight i thought i'd cook up some nice roast chicken and hold it in my fingers to see whether he goes for it and grabs hold of that and attempts to eat it (being very careful the little teeth don't accidentally get my fingers they are like little needles at this age). sniffs the big meaty bone i put in there and walks away not interested. still feeding off mum, on and off. just interested to know what others do or don't do.

At least it is food. Expensive but food. Try Aldi for the salmon at a better price. has anyone noticed the tinned salmon and tuna is all from either thailand or malaysia no australian tuna or salmon anymore thats when i stopped buying it actually for me and the dogs

one of my bitches did this too usually when this happens and they stop eating for whatever reason, i give them vitamin B or vegiemite which makes the dog hungry. it also works on myself if i take a tablet in the morning. usually ravenous by mid morning. i usually crush the tablet up into powder and sprinkle on something that she really likes, has anyone suggested maybe roasting some nice chicken breast with garlic and lemon juice and a pinch of salt rub it on her lips to make her see its nice to taste then put the bowl down and see whether she'll go for it. i always say with dogs they sort of know if they don't like whats put down for them, get to know that something else will be coming along to replace it. :D some dogs are very cunning that way. maybe your dog might have this idea too??? i noticed over many years just like humans dogs can get morning sickness have a bad pregnancy or a good pregnancy, maybe this could be what the poor girl is suffering from too. hope she eats for you. good luck

Hi, i started giving my chi bitches raspberry leaf in the last 3-4 years since i discovered its benefits from this forum. i usually have given it to my older bitch who has just had a litter at 7. it says on the back label if you read it, that it should be given at the third tri-mester only, which is about 6 weeks onwards of her pregnancy thats when i start giving it. I have read somewhere to give it any earlier could be damaging to the bitch or the pups, i give her one tablet a day crushed into powder and sprinkled on her food of a night. don't know whether its just luck or whether its the bitch herself but had no problems so far and we hope this will continue but anything is possible ofcourse, she's had 4 litters so far. (some with only one pup in litter). i just believe maybe the raspberry leaf might have something to do with that, we tend to give our dogs alternative remedies anyway which we find has its benefits.

http://leerburg.com/dogfight.htm Before we start, I would like to say that I am always looking for photos of dog bites that can be used to demonstrate to others how dangerous breaking up a fight can be. I have included some photos at the bottom of this page and on other dog bite pages in my web site. If you have a photo - click here to email it: This past week I had an incident at my kennel that reminds me how important it is for everyone who works with dogs, or owns dogs to know how to break up a dogfight without getting hurt. I will start with a warning. Unless you have a lot of experience do not try and break up a dog fight by yourself. Never step in the middle of two loving pets and try and grab them by the collar to stop a dog fight. If you try this, the chances of you being badly bitten are extremely high. People don't understand that 2 animals in the middle of a fight are in survival drive. If they see you at all, they don't look at you as their loving owner. When you charge in and grab them they either react out of a fight reflex and bite, or they see you as another aggressor. When they are in fight or flight mode they will bite you. You can take that to the bank. Here is what happened at my kennel this week. The wife of a friend came to the kennel with her daughter. She told my secretaries that I had said it was OK to go into my whelping rooms to show her little girl our puppies. I had never told her this. Anyway, that does not matter. When she left, she did not latch one of the kennel gates properly (this was also an employee mistake for not checking the gate). Later, one of my kennel staff let another bitch outside. The first bitch jumped against her poorly latched kennel gate, and it came open. She ran outside and started a terrible dog fight. I had not told this young kennel person how to break up a dog fight in progress. He ran in and tried to grab both dog collars. He was bitten very badly in the forearm and hand before I could get on scene and break up the dog fight the correct way. The safest way to break up a dogfight requires 2 people. Each person grabs the back feet of one of the dogs. The dog back feet are then picked up like a wheelbarrow. With the legs up, both dogs are then pulled apart. Once the dog fight is broken up and the dogs pulled apart it is critical that the people do not release the dogs or the dog fight will begin again. The two people need to start turning in a circle, or slowly swinging the dogs in a circle while they back away from the other dog. This stops the dog from curling and coming back and biting the person holding their legs. By circling the dog has to sidestep with its front feet or it will fall on its chin. As long as you slowly continue to back and circle, the dog cannot do any damage to you. To insure that the fight will not begin all over again when you release the dogs, one of the dogs needs to be dragged into an enclosure (i.e. a kennel, the garage, another room) before the dog is released. If you do not do this, the dogs will often charge back and start fighting again or if you release the dog to quickly the dog will turn and attack the person who had his feet. Dog fights are a very dangerous thing to try and break up alone. You should never rush in and try and grab the dogs to pull them apart. They are in high "fight drive" and are not thinking clearly when fighting. If someone grabs them they will bite without even thinking about who or what they are biting. This is how your loving pet can dog bite the living crap out of you in about a second and a half. In reality it probably doesn't even know it's biting you. I compare it to a bar fight. If a person comes up behind 2 guys fighting and just reaches out and grabs the shoulder of one of the combatants most of the time the fighter is going to turn and throw a punch without even looking at who or what he is hitting. This is because his adrenaline in pumping and he is in "fight drive". The worst case scenario is that you are alone when a serious fight breaks out. There are a couple things that you must keep in mind: Keep your cool you have a job to do. Do not waste time screaming at the dogs. It hardly ever works. Your goal is still the same; you must break up the fight without getting hurt. Go get a leash (allow the fight to continue while you do this). Dogs are almost always locked onto one another. Walk up and loop the leash around the back loin of the dog by either threading the leash through the handle or use the clip. I prefer the thread method. Now slowly back away and drag the dog to a fence or to an object that you can tie the leash to. By doing this, you effectively create an anchor for one of the dogs. Then walk around and grab the back legs of the second dog and drag it away from the dog that is tied up. Remember to turn and circle as they release. Drag the dog into a dog pen or another room before you release the back legs. Go back and take the dog off the fence and put him or her into a dog kennel. Sit down and have a stiff drink (or two). People talk about using cattle prods or shock collars to break up 2 pets that fight. I can tell you that many times this is not going to work. The electric cattle prod or electric collar will only put the dogs into higher fight drive. When they are shocked they will turn and bite the prod, or when they are shocked they will think the other dog is causing the pain and they will fight harder. An electric collar is best used in conditioning training, but not during an actual dogfight. I had a friend tell me that using a stun gun works. Not to actually shock the dog, but just to hold it in your hand and allow it to snap. The sound of the electrical snap is supposed to cause the dogs to stop fighting. I will muzzle 2 of my dogs and let them go at it to see if this works. I will be surprised if it works on 2 really strong dogs going after each other. A point I would like to make is that if you see two dogs out there squaring off through body posturing (i.e. one dog with stiff legs and tail straight up in the air putting his head over the shoulders of the other to show dominance) do not run out there screaming "NO NO NO!!!!" Most of the time this is going to trigger the fight. A lot of times dogs will posture and one will give in and back away. They settle their dominance issue without a battle. I NEVER, NEVER, NEVER recommend testing this situation. It's not worth the fight that erupts if you are wrong. But I can tell you of a couple of situations at my kennel where I went outside and 2 males were loose that I would have thought would fight to the death. Obviously they determined that today is not the day to argue. I also know that had I gone out screaming before they settled it themselves there would have been a nasty fight.