wolf82

Whats difference between Epsom salt and normal Sea Salt? Steve

Ok, i just soaked his paws in very salty water for a good 25 minutes (filled up bath with warm to hot water and half a box of salt until water was cloudy, let it cool a bit and put him in the bath to soak while i fed him treats and talked to him lol). Rinsed his paws in fresh water and gave them a good dry with a soft towel, he is running around the house at the moment. Im going to keep him inside as much as possible so he cant get them all dirty and stuff, atleast until i see the vet tomorrow evening. Will let you know how i go tomorrow. Steve

His paws are no where near as bad as those pics, but he has them, lots of them on his toes. They have literally all came up in the last 24 hours. Steve

I have just read that it also might be alergy related, and to watch for these things "licking forepaw and itchy face". Well Loki quite often will lick the inside of his forepaw (normally when hes standing and after he has been outside), he will do it for 30sec - 1minute, i always put it down to him pissing on his front legs when he pee's sometimes. As for the itchy face... a lot of the time after he has had some food he will run into the living room and jump onto the sofa, he will snort like a pig and bury his head in the cushons and rub his face etc, he will do it to the edge of the sofa, your legs, anything that is soft and around at the time. Is this alergy related? Or common? Steve

He is going to the vet tomorrow. Where can i get epson salts today? Any ideas? Steve

Shit, i just googled it. He has these in all of his toes, im stressing. They have just appeared over night. http://www.balgownievet.com.au/images/atla...paws8_small.jpg http://www.bulldogrescue.co.uk/interdigitalcyst.JPG Steve

Hmm, we dont have wandering dew (i think), but we have 2 clam pool's full of dirty water that are left outside for the dogs to run through if its hot outside (the water is changed every 2 days in the clams, but our sibe will have it filthy in about 30min of us changing it. He digs the water out onto dirty, then digs in the dirt, then runs back into the clam to clean his paws. Rinse / repeat, water is black soon after we change it). Would taking him to the beach and making him walk in the salt water help? Steve

The other day i was playing with Loki and noticed a red mark on the top of one of his toes, upon closer inspection i found a wierd red rash thing, and all of the hair had fallen out inbetween his 2 toes. I then went to check all of his other toes, they were all fine until i got to one of his back feet, and i found this lump the size of a marble (cut in half) that was big red and shiney. It had 3 holes and it was oozing clear fluid with a tiny bit of blood / pus in it, i tried squeezing it incase it was some sort of cyst, but nothing came out, it isnt hard either, quite soft. I bathed it in betadine. 2 days later, i check the same toe, it looks slightly better.... Then i check his other toes. He has these lumps inbetween 90% of his toes (only 1-2 clear), they are quite a bit bigger than the original, and some are just big red lumps with no holes yet, some are so big they are pushing his toes in different directions. Some are on the surface of the skin and look like boils, and some are under the skin and are just big round lumps in the webbing of his toes. Nothing has changed in his diet latley (apart from a bit of pal wet dog food mixed in with his usual dry food, and some scraps, but he always gets scraps and has had pal wet food with his dry before). Ill be posting pics as soon as i can. I called the Vet today but they are shut, and i cant afford to rush him down to the emergincy vet, especially just after xmas. He doesnt seem to have any pain walking, and is not acting any different (but he has a huge pain tollerance) and let me squeeze and poke them. Im worried because he also has developed a lump in the back of his leg in the muscle, you can see it when he is running around, its about the size of marble and is sitting inbetween 2 muscles, you can see the lump through his skin and its quite deep when you play around with his leg and feel it. Any thoughts on the feet issue? He was going to vet next week for leg problem, but this feet thing has just cropped up. Is there any sort of diseases going around that cause this? How could i treat temporarily before vet? Steve

Lol, familiar story. If anyone knows how hard Sibe Huskies play with other dogs, you will understand this: We got our sibe when our AmStaff was 7mo, still a puppy himself, our sibe used to hang from his face and neck and play SOO rough, and generally be a little pain in the ass. Our AmStaff never bothered with this and used to play back very gently (this was strange, he was so rough and dominant with other dogs). Long story short, vet said nothing we can do, just scrub the wounds with salt water and take the scab off so infection wont start, it needs to get air to dry etc. I would just ignore it, our dogs still play like this, the Sibe still causes Loki to bleed and he constantly has cuts on his neck and raised welts on his sides bum, but he doesnt seem to mind. When Odin gets out of hand and does it too much, Loki tells him off, so its all good. its acctually quite funny, we always joke that Odin is protected by his fur, Loki will bite him back hard but always ends up getting a mouth full of fur when Odin bolts off Funny stuff

Protein wont stop anything to do with his size, he will eventually grow into what his genetics will allow. Hes a puppy, they need protein and fat, he isnt a giant breed either. Maybe try him with some swimming and not as much running around? My pups are currently on Eagle Pack Power Formula, doing very well on it, im happy with the 30% protein and 20% fat. Steve

His growth will slow down soon, my Loki was 26.5kg at 6 months, and also 19 inches. He didnt grow much in the last 6 months, but he leaned up alot and put on muscle, lost his cute puppy belly He is 12 months now, 20.5 inches and 31.5kg. Still needs to fill out!

Can anyone do Eagle Pack Power Formula>? I dont have my bag handy, at work. Steve

He doesnt do it at doggy school, just the beach. Trust me when i say its not aggressive, im not a moron, he just wants to play. We have had off lead dogs come charging towards us and stopping about 1ft away then come closer to sniff (while im telling the other to get their f**king dog) and Loki is wagging so hard his body is bending. Ill be consulting the head trainer at doggy school.

Ok, Thanks for that, i will keep a close eye on him. If he starts going feral towards other dogs, ill probably get his knackers off. Steve

I must say though, im glad that its not aggression which drives him towards other dogs!

Hmmmm! Good point, i just read ToT. When i make him wait for his food, he doesnt stop looking me in the eyes, he doesnt even look at the food. I have had him sitting for 10minutes just waiting for me to allow him to eat, and leaving big piles of drool on the floor As for the pulling me along.. Thats a very good point. Do you have any advice what else needs to be done apart from TOT? You mention it will be difficult to do with out aversives... Such as what? Any advice would be fantastic :D Infact, i would probably be happier if you managed to come to SA, i know i have posted before asking if you were heading to SA anytime soon hehe.

TOT is enforcing pack leadership correct? My dog knows who is alpha. Bones, toys, etc all belong to me, i can call my dog from a bone, or pick it up with my mouth if i want, he will just sit back and watch me, wagging his tail and hoping ill give it back to him. Ill look into TOT more, maybe i presumed that its more than just leadership and showing whos boss.

Ya know, your the first to say he might have high drive... Hes a lazy bones to me I thought he was my low drive couche potato! As for distance..... The other dog can be a tiny spec on the horizon... So much so that you can barely make out the colour, let alone the breed, and he will see it and start pulling towards it. He also does the jaw clicking (mouth trembles) if he sees another dog or something really smelly that he likes on the ground, even if i drag him away from the smelly spot he will whine for a good 15seconds and his jaw will tremble, then he forgets about it. Dont even get me started on when i was at a friends house and their dog was in heat, i didnt even realise this was the case and was patting their dog etc. When i got home he ran around the house crying for HOURS, he wouldnt settle and kept sniffing my shorts. Anyway, i make sure to stay away from dogs in heat these days, the house of whining drove me crazy! Steve

I do NILIF and TOT (similar, dog waits until he is told to eat, wont eat until i give him the ok). He can sit ok, if i yank him back and tell him to sit, he will, but he will just whine and stay focused, if i start walking again he will charge towards the other dog until i tell him to sit again, rinse repeat. Steve

Hi, I have a quick question. When ever i take my dog for a walk, he loves other dogs... i mean loves. He will happily wander along and look at people with his tail wagging, but if he sees another dog, even in the distance, he fixates on them and starts pulling. The closer they get, the more excited he gets. His tail is going 1 million miles p/h and he is yelping and moaning? to try and get to the other dog, he even hits the end of the lead and does backflips (full backflips and lands on his paws) trying to get to the other dog. Now as you can imagine, this can frighten some people. He goes to doggy school every sunday morning and loves playing with other dogs, we have never had any agro issues with him either, he just loves other dogs. He can see one far in the distance and will start pulling like crazy towards that dog. I have tried distracting him with food, he will eat the food and "watch me" for a few seconds until he goes back to fixating on the other dog. Any ideas how to stop this? Im a big strong guy, but its starting to get painful holding a 30kg AmStaff on a lead whos pulling as hard as he can. Any advice is welcome. Cheers, Steve PS He is also intact, and im not interesting in using a choker chain.

Ill try the warmth issue. The dogs were only in the crate together becase they both fell asleep in there. We have 2 giant crates, one for each of them.

We have a huskie too, the huskie sleeps in a corner on the floor tho, the dogs never sleep together because the huskie gets too warm and eventually moves. We left them together in the crate last night for a bit, but Odin the huskie got too hot and was very restless and eventually wanted out, so he went to his usual spot, rolled on his back and went to sleep, Loki just went back to sleep himself. Ill try the blanket over the crate tonight and see how we go. I think that he is just in the bad habbit of sleeping on our bed, but i dont want to reward him by letting him out of the crate for crying. Steve

Doesnt need toilet, and isnt cold (i think). I let him out this morning after lots of crying and he just launched out, jumped onto the bed next to me and went to sleep.... What a bastard! He didnt get under the covers, so i dont think he was cold. He is 30kg, and he pushes me over on the bed, ill wake up and find him sprawled where i was laying, and im in the middle of the bed, and my GF is falling out, so she cracks the shits at me for taking up the room, and i cant do anything about it! Steve

He is crated in our room! Hes 2ft away from my side of the bed, right next to me! He crys because he wants to sleep on the bed with me! I wouldnt just put him in his crate and leave him in the hall or in another room. I just want him to be able to be crated in the bed room, so i get more sleep at night... Nothing like getting woken up because the dog wants to put his face over your face, or they walk on your stomache trying to move around, or even better, being licked on the eye ball at 3am. Steve

Ok, where to start! Suspect: Loki Discription: 10 months old, Am Staff, very handsome. Habbits: Well, this is where the story starts! When we first got loki he was crated for a few months or so until he was toilet trained, he quickly out grew his crate. He was then allowed to sleep on the floor of our room on his little bed.... That quickly migrated to our BED when we were sleeping, he would sleep on his bed until we went to sleep, then jump up and cuddle in, he would be pushed down, and rinse repeat. After doing this for some time, i gave up, winter was here and i let him sleep at the foot of my side of the bed (much to my girlfriends disdane) and he has been doing that ever since, but lately he has been sneaking UNDER the covers in the middle of the night, quite often i wake up and hes sleeping ON my feet, under the blanket! I figured he was cold, so i didnt care So... one thing led to another, and we organised big crates. They arrived the other day and we set them up in the hall and since then have been feeding the dogs in them, we also put all their bedding and stuff in them too. Loki is really good with his crate, i figured if we left the door open in the hall he can get used to it being there, and hopefully get used to being crated again when the need arose. For the last week Loki has been sleeping in his crate with the door open in the hall (not at night), if we are busy and doing stuff around the house he will just go and sleep in his crate on his special bed. The problem we have happens at night..... He will goto sleep in his crate at night, all cuddled up and happy.... its around 4-5am that i want to kill him. He wakes up in his crate and sits there and crys, and crys, and crys, and crys, and crys.... Did i say he crys? to get out... this is at 5am, im a grumpy shit around this time and dont have patience for a dog crying. I told him to lay down this morning and tried to get him to go back to sleep, it worked kinda, i just dozed off again when he started crying, AGAIN! I eventually let him out, it was that or kill him. I know this was bad as he got what he wanted... but my sleep is precious, i need it! So here comes the kicker...! How do i get him used to sleeping in his crate all night? And NOT cry to get out? I know i kinda messed up by letting him sleep on the bed, but he is my son and he gets cold! Poor little shit. We eventually settled on crates since our sleep was going down hill from the dogs moving around at night etc and waking us up, but this is even worse! The bad thing is, im a light sleeper, so i cant just hope that i will sleep through it (like my gf). Help! For the sake of my sleep, and Lokis good health! Steve