Horsefeathers!

With the number of dogs I have plus the fact that we foster, I think my dogs are used to seeing dogs coming and going. Whether they leave for a permanent home or die, the other dogs don't seem to actually miss them. When my beloved little Yorkie died a couple of years ago (my heart of hearts dog that I swore I would never get over losing), I took it really hard and my dogs did seem depressed. I am sure they were reacting to my grief rather than the actual loss of Goober. Since then, other dogs have come and gone (placed in permanent homes or died) and the rest of the gang seems not to notice. There are a couple of really close relationships among my dogs that I do expect to change their "partner's" life when they leave... Perry & Pauly and Missy & Peanut. This sounds so bad, but I hope every day that Pauly goes before Perry does because I truly think Pauly will deteriorate without Perry. He clings to him as if his very life depends on it. Other than that, my gang really doesn't seem to grieve if one is gone. Maybe they don't realize the finality of the dead ones' departure.

You rock! Thanks for the articles. 8) It's not that I'm trying to be defensive of Poodles because they are my breed. I like to think I'm pretty openminded. Even if Labs are the "perfect" service dogs, I don't see the point of basically watering them down with Poodles. I don't buy into the coat thing that's often used as an excuse. Either way it goes, whether it's for coat or for temperament, one or the other isn't going to be reliable. Again, I have no problem with dogs being bred for service, possibly even mixed breed dogs (as opposed to designer breeds bred for profit), if that's what it takes (though I would argue if that's what it takes). I just fail to see why it's necessary. I'm not necessarily adamantly opposed to it as much as I don't understand the need for it, I reckon is what I'm trying to say. Also, I reckon the thing that's really scary about them is that they're rapidly gaining popularity. I can live with service dogs, but people are buying Standard Poodles and Labs left and right and breeding them because they are fast becoming the breed du jour. Even in our podunk town, our local miller is talking of plans to get a Standard to breed with their ugly, nervous, ill tempered Labs because of how much money they think they'll rake in. I just see it as a disaster waiting (or beginning) to happen. I have no problem with the dogs that don't cut it as service dogs being sold as pets and on a spay/neuter contract, but I'm very concerned with the inevitable overbreeding.

Yeah, he'll be fine. He still has Snowball (our black cat). That's his favorite playmate. :P

I'm a "Dobe person" only in the sense that I've adopted one and fostered another and decided I really like the breed. That's about the extent of my expertise. I can only agree with everyone else that she does look very Dobe-ish. :oops:

Only Devin. Little Devin Doo Doo Head loves having a playmate (he's the "baby" here at two years old) and nobody else will really play with him. He and Peaches played well together.

Uh, er, no, but it could be a loooooooooong time. :P For some reason, dogs seem to always seem to want to test my friend before deciding they have it made. She currently has three other dogs I fostered and she used to have another one (Standard Poodle named Razzle) that eventually died. I remember when she adopted Razzle... holy moly, the first night I left him with her, she called me back, held the phone in the air and just said, "listen." That dog was howling and carrying on as if someone were trying to slit his throat. I had to drive back over there and leave my own Standard with him (which he was tightly bonded to) so he'd stop. He eventually did fine. I'm sure Peaches will be ok. She's been to my friend's house several times before, so it's not like unfamiliar surroundings. My friend said Peaches acts like she's looking for me. I'm sure it's just a security thing. To be totally honest, if I didn't have so many other dogs, I would adopt Peaches outright. I don't mind having a tenth (again), but I do honestly think Peaches needs to be somewhere that she can receive much more one on one attention.

I sent Peaches (our three legged "disabled" foster Dobe) to stay with my best friend, at least until my ankle could heal more properly and I wouldn't continue to get injured trying to walk her. Peaches has to be the sweetest, most outgoing, friendly love of a dog. From what I know, she was seized in an abuse case, so she does act attention starved and you do have to be kind of perky perky with her. Anything she perceives as "punishment" or anger frightens her. While she was at my house, Peaches behaved fairly well other than the leash lunging thing. She's pretty reliably house trained and wasn't too destructive. She did chew up a pair of clean, folded underwear that hadn't found their way to their proper place :oops: , but that's pretty much been the extent of her destructiveness. I've been able to leave her loose in the house a few times when I went to work and she did well. She's spent two nights with my best friend. So far, Peaches has: 1) ripped up the carpet in one room 2) shredded a large bed beyond any recognition 3) barked/howled all night 4) refused to potty in the yard because tormenting the cat is more interesting 5) bitten the crap out of my friend when treats were offered... Peaches is not the least bit aggressive, but is VERY food oriented and often forgets hands are attached to treats 6) chewed one of those plug in air freshener things out of the wall I'm sure I'm missing some things, but you get the picture. My poor friend... gotta love her. She is laughing about all of this so far (ha? :o ) and still adores Peaches. She hasn't said anything yet about sending her back. I am sure Peaches will eventually settle in. I hope.

Just the idea of your dog running around with hose on her head makes me giggle. Man, court, you sure do have your share of "well intentioned" neighbors to deal with, aye? :o Oh well, let her tell it. It'll make her feel better, AC will get a laugh, and Laurel will still be able to run around with stockings on her head.

[quote]Poodles in general do not have the overall temperament needed in Service Dog work,[/quote] Elaborate, please? I reckon I'll just have to agree to disagree. I can't think of a thing about a PROPERLY bred Standard Poodle's temperament that would not make them good service dogs and just because these "professional" and well intentioned breeders say otherwise doesn't make it so. I think I will always believe it is still marketed toward people, disabled or otherwise, who do not wish to have a Poodle, but will settle for a Poodle lite. I can live with it if these dogs are actually being used for something and serving a function other than "cuteness." I'm not a militant anything and I'm pretty open minded. I just think the reasons listed by people are a lot of excuses and it isn't necessary, though good for them if they're able to produce service dogs for people who otherwise wouldn't like a Poodle. I would love for one of the "professional" breeders of these Labradoodles to tell me what it is about Standard Poodle temperaments that isn't acceptable. I'm not saying they're being dissed... just that I think, yet again, some people, "professional" or not, may not actually be aware of what properly bred Standard Poodles can do. IMO, Labradoodles are just Poodle lites. It's kind of how some people perceive Pit Bulls as all being killers. Some people perceive Poodles as just big foofy brainless dogs. I wonder how people would feel if they started breeding Pit Bull MIXES to fill some niche (service dogs?) just because they wanted a watered down, "safe" Pit Bull (public perception). They could be marketed as having all the good traits of Pits, but the "bad" things were bred out by being diluted with Labs. I think it's the same for Poodles, only instead of "safe," it dilutes them to where people aren't having to live with the stigma of having a foo foo "cutesy" dog. Disabled people are still people and subject to the same misperceptions as the rest of the world. It's hard for me to explain how I'm seeing this. Long story short, I don't believe it, no matter how well intentioned or "credible" the source. 8)

Malamum, I take her with me to work most days and other places, so I have to be able to walk her. Hubby can't take her to his work and we can't just leave her home 24/7. It wasn't a silly question at all. I got the ok from the rescue coordinator to let Peaches stay with my friend for a while. I'll still be in close contact and I'm not feeling as bad about it as I was. Goo, I like the idea of that leash. It sounds like a very good idea, but I think I'm going to wait until my ankle is much better before trying anything new. I still think one of those might be handy to have around. When I am able to move around better, I think it might help keep me from being re-injured. Thanks for sharing that.

I don't know that a prong collar would be the thing for Peaches. :oops: She was seized in an abuse case (from what I understand), but I don't know the nature of the abuse. I do know that if you "pop" her collar, it frightens her and she screams and hunkers down. I've been really trying to boost her confidence and not give her any reason to be afraid. With this dog being as sensitive as she is, I don't know that she'd respond positively to a prong. Beside that, I'd still have to go through the initial lunging even if only once or twice and I'm afraid another time or two is going to do me in. What's weird is that Peaches has a perfect OFF leash heel :o . She will walk right beside me and sit if I stop. Still, I can't have her off leash everywhere I go because 1) the law requires dogs in public places to be leashed and 2) I don't trust her recall 100% yet, though she hasn't given me a reason not to. I don't know if maybe someone strung her up by a collar or leash at some time in her life, but if you reach for her collar, she cowers. You can have a leash on her all day long and she's happy as a clam as long as you aren't directly trying to grab her by her collar. It's like she has this fear of having something tightened around her throat. She takes the martingale well, but not if it's "snapped." I'm hoping the rescue coordinator won't mind letting my friend take her for a while. It's only a mile from me, she has a nice fenced yard and only three other dogs. I'd still see Peaches several times a week and be involved with her. If, after a while, she still hasn't been adopted, I don't mind having her back. My friend really actually loves Peaches and wanted to adopt her, but due to some circumstances ($$), we didn't think it was a good idea. If she [u]fosters[/u] Peaches for us, it won't cost her a thing (I'll be providing food and heartworm prevention and hopefully the rescue would pick up any big bills that arose) and Peaches gets to spend time with someone who is absolutely ga ga in love with her. It's just my foot needs a break (or rather DOESN'T need one). Peaches has visited my friend with me several times, so it's not like she'd be shipped off yet again to unfamiliar surroundings. Maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better? :oops: I'm certainly not trying to give up on her and I know she's smart enough to learn. I just need more time to heal. :oops:

Court, I have to be able to walk her. She goes with me to work and a lot of other places and it's very important that I'm able to walk her on a leash. I can't just leave her home 24/7. The harness helps once she realizes it's on. It's just that initial lunge before she realizes it. That's about to do me in. I don't mind the effort that goes into handling and teaching her. I'm just physically unable to keep going this. I'm afraid I'm about to rebreak my ankle. :(

Most of you are aware that we are fostering Peaches... a three legged Dobe. She's a very sweet, outgoing dog and easy to love. She's also pretty smart if not very well trained. She's intelligent enough that she can learn quickly. Here's my problem... :-? Peaches is not good on a leash. She jerks me nearly right off my feet. I have handled leash lungers before and I have no doubt I could fix that with her, but I'm recovering from a broken ankle and she's a pretty strong dog. I am just not sturdy enough right now to plant my feet firmly to keep her from yanking me. I once tried a head halter thing and she freaked so badly that I decided it wasn't even worth it to try. She was going to hurt herself. She's from an abuse case, though I don't know the nature of the abuse, but she does seem to have serious issues with feeling physically restrained. I put a martingale collar on her and it works well and she deals with it ok. I have also tried Court's suggestion of a no pull harness and it does help with walking, but there's that initial yank I have to deal with before she realizes it's there. A few weeks ago, she jerked me pretty hard and something popped in my injured foot and it's hurt pretty bad since. The doctor is sending me to physical therapy for it to see if it'll help (I don't know, ask him :-? ). This morning, Peaches jerked me so hard, I lost balance and REALLY hurt my foot. It had been healing so well before all this yanking and lunging. I have to call the doctor yet again tomorrow and see if I can get in for more xrays. My foot and lower leg are swollen way up and it's blackish like it's bruised. I can't do this. I haven't emailed the rescue coordinator yet to make other arrangements because I feel guilty. These are problems I could easily overcome and live with if I had TWO good feet to work with her. She's not impossible to handle. Does this make me a failure? We are only fostering Peaches; we haven't adopted her, so it's not like I'm abandoning one of my own, but then, in a way, it sort of feels like it. I have a friend with a fenced yard and three of my former fosters who is willing to foster her for a while. I have to email the rescue coordinator and see if that's ok with her. If not, Peaches will have to go back to the foster home she was initially in :( . She's in no danger of going to a shelter or being put down. Am I wrong? Should I feel so guilty? What would you do?

We have a similar setup, Malamum. Our backyard is fenced, but not the front. Apparently, people feel like they have more business behind my house than on the roadway in front of it. :o

Since one of our dogs bit a neighbor's kid (through the fence? he claimed) and the neighborhood kids have such a notion to harrass our dogs, we can't leave them outside unsupervised anymore. If we lived further away from town and didn't have crappy neighbors with rotten kids, I'd love to be able to let them roam freely (fenced yard) during the day. I'm all for it. At least our larger dogs do have free run of the house when we're gone. Hopefully, next year, I'll be working from home.

It's cording... basically managed mats. Believe it or not, there's a LOT of work in keeping a coat like that. It doesn't just happen that way, though it looks kind of like neglect. Poodles can be corded, too, but you very seldom see it. I think it's fascinating, but I don't have the discipline to do it and I'm also somewhat compulsive. I like my dogs fluffed, not lumpy. :oops: Still, I think it's awesome and wish I had the self discipline to do it. [img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0ZQCFAwkhYdMBFfE7AlVqyqZ75SuQgFK7pXBXmMjQZ2t!rhYGfm3RT7O5fZe*gVvTiv9!m6cB1TGY2eNd7yd12aXvemmF9NBpomH**MDXHVazEjh6NdND0MQwdSkZGx4cWPyys6PYqxKZBR141G1fjg/corded%20standard.jpg?dc=4675494070128313623[/img]

That was chilling. :o Some of the pictures brought tears to my eyes. :(

[quote name='AllAmericanPUP']labrdoodles and such, because this "breed" was created to help children who needed services dogs but were allergic to dogs. You get a dog(sometimes not always) that has the brains of a lab, but the coat of a poodle. giving you a service dog that people aren't allergic to :D[/quote] I don't understand the whole Labradoodle concept, though I've heard it explained several times. It just hasn't sunk in with me. I mean, I don't understand how they are assured that it won't be a curly coated shedding dog (combining the both) and the other thing is that Labs are not categorically more intelligent than Standard Poodles. I guess I can't understand why, if someone wanted a virtually shed free (sorta) breed and one that is intelligent, a plain ol' Standard Poodle won't do. Highly intelligent AND a user friendly coat. I don't see the need to mix Lab into it. I'm pretty open minded and can see where there might be usefulness in mixing some breeds for a purpose, but I just don't get the mixing of Labs and Poodles when they have similar temperaments and trainability and one already has the highly desired "allergy friendly" coat. I just don't understand people who don't want a Poodle, but will settle for a Poodle Lite. :-? That's just addressing the whole "coats and brains" theory. IMO, it's flawed. I also have nothing against responsible breeding. I'm not even sure where I stand on the whole mixing of breeds thing. I'm all for the diversity in the gene pool, but very few people who are mixing something in with their chosen breed are doing it for the sake of sustaining healthy bloodlines. Most people are out to capitalize on cute. That's what I have a problem with.

I was initially taught to preclip everything before the bath. As time went by and I started learning from some "senior" groomers and handlers on some of the groups, I found that I can get a great finish in way less time if I skip the preclip and bathe them first and put a good fluffin' on them. The first few times I read it, I was skeptical, but when I tried it, it worked. I think most everyone is initially taught to preclip first. It turned out to be a waste of time to me once I learned that I could get as nice a finish without first preclipping. Not only that, but it's much harder on blades to have to clip through dirty coat. My blades don't have to go out to be sharpened nearly as often... maybe once a year. It's just really important that the coat be squeaky clean and have a good fluff finish, but clipping just once over is wonderful. Beside that, my clientele consists almost solely of prebooked dogs that come in from every two weeks to every eight weeks. There are very, very few dogs I have that go longer than eight weeks between grooms. Because of this, I almost never have to deal with matted dogs... maybe a little in ears and tails occasionally, but that's it. On double coated dogs ESPECIALLY I force dry because it's one of my biggest tools in blowing out that undercoat. I know on showdogs they don't want to remove too much undercoat, but with all of my doublecoated dog clients, they want as much of that fluff gone as possible. I'll admit I'm a compulsive dryer. I hand dry almost everything and very seldom cage dry. The only dogs I don't hv dry are the ones that are very frail or sensitive that stress over it. I know I'd never just buzz a dog down without owner consent. Back when I used to do the good, the bad, and the ugly, I'd always make the owner aware that the dog would need a buzz cut. It doesn't much matter around here, anyway, because most people WANT them short.

[quote name='pwrpufgirlz'] HF, do you brush the dogs before you start clipping?[/quote] Generally, most dogs go straight to the tub- bath, hand dry, fluff (brushing through during that last bit of drying) and then clip. I almost never clip a dog before it's been bathed and brushed and I never brush a dog before the bath.

Voter registration card! [img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0YQDnAncfiDqPoHbo*VO*k6YkVsjsui1KYGfqoPb3PGet0mEYsc71EksSfApXuugKjHdt1Ms4!cD27pQV8nrn8XsjL0sRNRUqfFM9onCOu5TTdDLOrc8!wJ2avAe2dG0Roa9KB3o*mJmcVsGJJSf5rw/crying%20girl.gif?dc=4675436072349453090[/img] It sounds like a lame lie like the dog ate your homework, but one of the dogs got hold of my voter registration card and destroyed it. :-? That's ok. Much to the chagrin of some folks *snicker*, I'll be getting a new card and even if it doesn't make it in time, they can confirm onsite that I'm registered. Still, that sucks. Of all the things they could get hold of, why couldn't it have been a bill? :-?

If you double stack the baby gates or find another barrier, be sure not to lift him over the it. It seems a pain in the butt, but make sure you take it down or open it "gate" style. If you lift them over the gate, they learn very quickly how to do it on their own.

Anytime! :) I think we dose at 1 ml per 20 lbs of dog. That means a small dog up to 20 lbs would get 1 ml. A 20 lb (or under) dog could get four applications from a single large dog tube which contains 4 mls. You should be able to get a syringe and measure it (ml and cc is the same, I believe). I don't know if it works with Frontline or not. I've never used Frontline and don't know anything about it. It's the Advantage I'm familiar with. Hope that helps you save money! That stuff is so expensive.

For all the little dog owners... Did you know that you can buy the large dog doses of Advantage and split them for smaller dogs? One tube of large dog Advantage will easily treat three of my smaller dogs which equals huge savings for people that have to buy it. It's the same exact medicine, the only difference being the amount in the tube. When I was still buying Advantage, I always bought the big dog sizes and just broke them up for my smaller dogs. It went a lot further and saved a ton of money. My vet and the Bayer (makers of Advantage) rep actually encourage this for people who do a lot of rescue and have fosters coming in and out.

In our house, it's my husband who is... obsessive? :-? For someone who always bitches and moans about how many dogs we have and, by golly, that's IT, not another one, he's the one who usually can't give them up and makes special arrangements for them. Our dogs LOVE ice, so he not only feeds them ice, but he takes a spoon and breaks it up into tiny pieces for the smaller dogs. Not me. Here it is... have fun. :o He gets up a half hour earlier every morning, work or not (5:00 am), so that he can get the dogs up and out the door and cook breakfast for us and THEM. He cooks enough eggs to share with them (I requested he stop giving them sausage). :-? This is the same man who initially believed that dogs do NOT belong on furniture and, oh my, especially NOT the bed. Now, if a dog is in a chair, he'll find somewhere else to sit. Also, I can think of a couple of occasions where there were so many dogs on the bed, he couldn't sleep comfortably. Instead of making someone get down, he slept in the guest bedroom to keep from having to disturb them. Of course, he bitched about it, but still... I told him he should have made the dogs get down. No, he says... they were comfy. :-? The bad dog owner I am, these are not things I'll do. I ain't getting up at 5am, I ain't giving up my chair and I sure ain't giving up my bed. I'm more than happy to share them and rearrange so we can all sit or lay comfortably, but I'm not sleeping in the guest bed to keep from disturbing a sleeping dog on MY bed. Fortunately, though, having a lot of dogs on the bed doesn't cramp me up, so it's not an issue for me. I do take some of my dogs to work with me each day because they love to go. I also made sure I have extra keys so that I can leave the car running (a/c) and lock it up if I need to be out of it for more than a minute. I think my biggest sacrifice is probably going to be the engine I'm ruining by letting my car sit and idle so much. :-?