DogPaddle

:lol: It wears me out watching. Actually, I would prefer to watch the boys play rather than tv anyday. Their chase and playfighting are very entertaining . . . :o . . . Hey wait, I enjoy watching a dog(play)fight. I bet I'm not the only guilty one though, how many other multiple dog householders enjoy watching the show? When non dog folk come to visit and we are watching a movie and the boys start up I just pause the movie, guests think I'm :crazyeyes: but IMO they just don't know good entertainment when they see it.

We are into the vet tomorrow at 9 am to determine if the root canal is viable, as it has been 3 months. I don't know why this wasn't properly addressed earlier, I feel a bit misinformed, I should've come here. Anyway, the boys will only be getting kongs, ropes, boodas, stuffies etc. from now on, although that is not how Kavik broke his tooth. As much as I love Kavik's intensity I begin to understand why some people say BCs have way to much work drive for regular pet households, I mean really wouldn't most other dogs stop trying to pick up a rock well before they broke a tooth?

Kavik has finally destroyed all six darts, he was very gentle with them really but he did play with them for over a year. I must get more of those, maybe that would be a good Christmas present for him, he still gets all still and serious and sits in the "dart spot" if someone says the word dart. :D

OMG, I just got the rough estimate on Kavik's root canal . . . $1000! :o The vet seems good though, but he doesn't do pre-aenethetic bloodwork, I have to make a seperate appt and have my vet do it (which is going to cost me a whole other vetvisitcharge.) I know the root canal is better but I am sorely tempted to go with extraction. Why oh why did he have to try to retrieve bedrock?!?

Kavik usually is not that interested in playing with Zaphod, he will once in a while but not for long and Zaphod always instigates it. However, I was cleaning and moved a chair into the middle of the living room. This apparently spawned the game. They started just chasing each other around the chair, mostly Zaphod chasing but this was not work oriented enough for Kavik so he has decided that he must carry a toy. Any time they are on opposite sides of the chair he either drops it or lies down and chews on it, as soon as Zaphod starts after him again he must get the toy and tear ass around the chair until he the chair is once more in between them. They are really starting to develop tactics. I hope this lasts, not very good for the carpet but it will certainly wear them out some.

A laxative may not be the solution. He could have food poisioning, be poisoned by other household products, or have consumed something that is causing gastronomical distress, like glass, aluminum, threading or other inedibles. I would strongly suggest going to see the vet.

What is the difference between open shows and championa shows?

Its been three months I think we are too late for a vital pulpectomy. I guess we are looking at a root canal. Guelph is closer than Toronto for me so we will probablly go there. Good site BTW. I really didn't want to have that tooth pulled. Poor Kavik he has more drive than is good for him I think. I've not had to leave him at the vet ever, I'm going to feel like a creep because I know he is going to fret and fuss a lot.

Some of you may remember Kavik broke the tip off of one of his back teeth on our canoe trip. It has never seemed to bother him. When I took him to the vet on our return the vet said it was best if it wasn't bothering him to just leave it. Lately, however, it seems he squirms more when I brush his teeth around there. Has anyone had doggie dental work done? The vet has suggested that the most practical and realistic solution is to pull that tooth if it starts to trouble him but it is a big tooth it is his largest molar on that side. I worry if it will be a problem to remove it but I also worry that if they cap it he will just break that off too (also he would have to go off to Guelph to have the procedure done as it is not common to cap dogs teeth here.)

In my ideal little fantasy world I am not against extremely responsible, somewhat limited dog breeding so there will be doggies available after we adopt all the dogs out of the shelters.

I don't think it is absolutely nec. to put down dogs with food aggression. Yes, it can in many cases be dealt with. However, the reality of the situation in many shelters is that when you are full to capacity and there are more dogs coming everyday and when your organization could be held liable for a dog biting after you adopt it sometimes there are going to be salvagable dogs put down. I think that Animal Precint is pretty good, they work hard to place dogs and will do some rehab with behaviour issues and will spend money to save injured or sick animals. Animal Cops Houstan is pretty good, Animal Cops Detroit is acceptable given the conditions they have to work worth (such as half a million pits alone in detroit) and Animal Cops Miami is the most pathetic, horrible, callous, evil group. They perform feild euthanasia on injured dogs without tags. They don't show compassion in their handling or transport of the animals. The prevelant attitude is one that appears to be cowboys wrangling "just animals."

Wasn't there some new by-law somewhere that had yard size/pound of dog guidlines? If someone could remember where that info is that would be great, you could take that guideline and maybe double it and use that. Otherwise I would say that 750 square feet to a 1000 square feet would be adequate? Anyone else?

Our city by-laws are designed to discourage people from having more than one dog, I guess because the really like euthanizing dogs. $25 for first desexed dog $35 for second desexed dog its more for unaltered animals Personally I would do it the other way around.

Hmmm, it IS starting to get cold here, Haiti might be nice. :lol:

What's the poopfactor with the Innova Evo, I would think they would make less but what have you experienced?

I tried the loopi back on Zaphod just to see if I was using it wrong or something. . . It doesn't fit anymore. I got it when he was over a year old and he is just over 2 now. I his chest seems at least 1/3 larger than it was a year ago. I hadn't realized how big he was getting. He is still trim enough, can see his waist and he has a slight tuck but he has just filled out so much. Well if the halti doesn't work I'll have an excuse to try a different brand of harness.

No worries VRH. You didn't know so no harm done. Your welcome to stick around and post, sounds like you might have some interesting information for us. BTW I'm impressed that you don't let your pups go until 12 weeks, I'm no expert but I've often thought that 8-9 weeks is a bit too young as far as proper puppy socialization goes.

I have only used one no-pull harness - a lupi or loopi. It did not work at all. It's supposed to lift their front half off the ground if they start to pull so in theory they'll have less traction. My boys are STRONG and the amount of pull already in play by the time their front feet come off the ground is not insubstantial. In addition, they quickly learned to pull with just their back legs - I suppose it would be good if they needed to strengthen their back ends. Maybe its just me.

Thanks for the encouragment. Now we just have to see if he will continue to tolerate it outside while walking. Doberfanatic - Zaphod is the same way with his prong, he would prefer to see it any day over the halti, get the wiggle butt when he sees it, but many trainers won't allow them in class and I'd like to take Zaphod.

That is alot. Still maybe in another 8 to 10 years I could afford it which is fine as I don't want to add a third dog to my household for another 5 to 10 years anyway. It will give me plenty of time to learn more about it I guess. :lol:

I have no dog I could actually show but I was wondering what it costs to show a single dog. Does anyone have a yearly all-inclusive estimate? If its for Canadian shower it would be even better but anything will do.

Well, I would definately start combining hand signals with your verbal commands. And unless his hearing goes completely, start every command with his name and some kind of other sound signal he may hear even if hearing impaired. Perhaps a foot stomp, done jovially of course, as that may vibrate through the floor some. My uncle had a dog that went deaf but he often perked up at the sound of his own name or the word treat or any words that sounded remotely like his name or treat for some time. Hope the vet tells you good news.

As I've mentioned before Zaphod hates his halti, must wear wrong around the cheeks or something. However, he will now wear it without fuss for 10 min at a time. I'm so happy. I put it on him, fuss over him and give him cookies. I do this for short periods several times a day and he doesn't get cookies unless he wears the halti. As Zaphod realllllly likes oatmeal cookies it works well. :D

I don't understand. You own the home. I'm with HF - What can they do legally? Phooie on them.

There was an eight month old Lab/Dane cross, Sampson, at the Humane Society when I was looking for my second dog. Eight months old and his shoulder was probably around 30 inches maybe more. He thin as a rail, poor dear, but you could see a real solid bone structure and a fairly wide chest, not quite as tankish as a lab but still respectable. He was going to be a monster. He was a nice, sweet boy, tons of puppy energy but not to rambunctious considering he was in a shelter, he did jump up though. :o I was sooooo tempted, even went so far as to price Sampson sized crates (found one 50 inches wide, 75 inches long and just of 60 inches tall or something like that) but in the end I decided that I just did not really have the space inside the house for Sampson to be comfortable. Looked somewhat like your boy in the face and legs but not remarkably like him so who knows, maybe he is Dane/Pit or Dane/Pit/Lab or Dane/Lab or something else altogether.