DogPaddle

Meals are ok. Brown rice would be better than white rice but as long as the rice is not in the top three ingredients it should be ok. Canidae is a nice food, good ingredients, good price, you should check out the feeding portions, they are quite small. :kciuki:

Eric - I might be guilty of babying him a bit when he is afraid, I will have to cut that out completely. Holz_Boomer - I can't think of anything new happening that has caused this.

No no apology. :roll: Even if it wasn't the polite thing to do you'd think she'd show more concern due to what it could have meant for her dog if brother wasn't understanding.

I have a wire stand, I got it when we were fostering Tyr because he seemed uncomfortable with the dish on the floor. We've kept using it because Zaphod seems to favour it a bit. Kavik seems to favour the bowl on the floor. Zaphod is taller than Kavik, so that is probably the explanation. I have also heard conflicting opinions on bloat and stands - some for, some against. I feed to meals a day so they are smaller and feed a high quality kibble or a homemade diet (people food) to avoid bloat from ingredients they don't digest correctly. I have never thought of checking to see if the food bloats up when wet or goes spongey, I think I'll do that now.

Yay for Laurel! They always give back to us in any way they can.

Well brother did go and talk to her: Cheque is all in one piece. Rabies vacs up to date. She did not seem that concerned about the bite. So I guess we'll see if we can get together some sort of box for the inside of the door. Everyone else here has mailboxes on the outside of the house but the landlords have to be inside due to the amount of rent checks and confidential info that gets dropped off.

We have tv tables that sit in a rickety stand in the living room and the mop nook is exposed. Kavik frequently ran into them when he was tearing around as a puppy - they did fall on him a couple times, he is still leary of the tv tables when they are folded up so maybe that explains some of this. I don't recall any other issues with sticks, umbrellas etc, however my brother has a jo (?) (stick) and he practices with and occaisionally he drops it while spinning it, he has never dropped it on the dogs and I insist he practice when they are not in the room (and when I'm not in the room) but perhaps he is negligent when I'm not home.

Thanks StarFox With most things he hinds behind people he trusts, or in his crate or on another floor. With the vaccume cleaner he barks and attacks it. He is afraid of the umbrella both opened and closed, we have been hanging it on the downstairs doorknob (this is somewhere he has no reason to go but he passes it on his way to the kitchen.)

I tried desensitizing him to the umbrella, slowly. We don't appear to be making good progress. I'm thinking about putting a dab of penut butter on the plastic part of the mop (that's the item he seems least afraid of) and working from there. :-?

Excellent suggestions, thanks. As for the dog being older . . . I was really surprised, I didin't think she was spry enough to reach the mail slot. :lol:

Brother was dropping off the rent check, landlord has a double flap on slot so you pretty much have to push the mail all the way through so his fingers were on the inside of their house and the little thing yanked the cheque out of his hand and nipped him good - drew blood. He'll be going by later to see if the dog has its shots . . . and if the rent check made it in one piece. Now, he won't make a fuss like some people will (but he will advise her to get a box because others might fuss) but he does sort of want to see the rabies tag or cert. personally for his piece of mind but he doesn't want to p*** of the landlady. (wow that was a horrible run on sentence) So any advice on how to handle this?

Kavik has always reacted strongly to fireworks, the vaccume cleaner and people arguing but now things are getting worse. He is terrified of the umbrella, the mop and . . . when people blow bubbles with gum. He has added to his list of scarey things fairly steadily for the past 6 weeks. Someone said there was a second stress/fear period, Kavik is nearly two though. Any thoughts?

Might or might not work but you could start with "Watch Me". Basically this is just a command to get the dog to look at you, so when it is excited you might be able to get its attention and then give the next command. If Kavik is really wound up I sometimes have to use "Kavik" "Watch Me" then "Sit" or "Down" or "Come" or "Quiet". We started the training by standing directly in front of the dog in a quiet area while the dog is in a sitstay. I hold a treat in one hand out to the side, which the dog naturally looks at - he is never going to get this treat, the real treat is in my other hand behind my back. I say "Kavik, Watch Me." If he looks at my face, even for a second a tell him "Good Watch" and give him the treat from behind my back. You gradually increase the amount of time he has to look at your face and the amount of distraction. Good luck.

Can you take 5 min and have a cup of tea? (or coffee as your region and personal tastes dictate)

How many children do you have K, and how many dogs? I think you do to have a full time job.

Excellent suggestion Happybooker1, any opportunity to seperate small and large dogs is useful for both groups. Even and accidental collision with a very large and very small dog can cause injury.

Just as a side note it takes next to no time to look up all of anyones posts: you click on the profile button below anyone of their posts and then click on show all posts by this user button (or something like that) and there they all are.

[quote][color=red]People out there call themselves "breeders" when they really aren't. They think that because they have a litter every now and then it means they are a breeder.[/color] They have a litter with the intent of keeping one or two for there showing career. The rest of the pups go to other homes. Well, the dictionary says,"breeder: one that breeds : an animal or plant kept for [color=#444444]propagation[/color]". [color=red]Sounds to me like these folks are not keeping these animals for propagation. So lets have these people stop calling themselves breeders because they are NOT. They make people believe that if they do not do it how they do (when they aren't even true breeders by definition), they are PM's and BYB's![/color] [/quote] This is some of the reason why people think your posts are hostile. The people you are talking about are very responsible and are not PMs or BYBs. I have had quite a few dogs from rescue and fostered one - he was intentionally bred and the guy liked his dogs etc but didn't do the checks - Tyr ended up with 4rth grade Hip Displaysia (sp?) and this resulted in moderate Oesteo Arthritis by the age of 8 months! Many owners and vets put these dogs down, others ignore their pain and the dog suffers. Fortunately Tyr is now in a permanent home where they ensure he has something soft to sleep on and gets his Glucosamine and Chondroitine and occaisional aspirin. People are wound up about this so much because they care so much.

I love snow . . . I just don't like the cold so much. :lol: The last few years have been so disappointing - lots of cold but not much snow. Hope this year is different!

The forum is experiencing some difficulties at this time. People are suppossed to have been emailing the Admins because even K is having difficulties - she couldn't access some features she should be able to.

[quote]What's the name of that thing that sits under the bridge in the 3 Billy Goats Gruff? [/quote] :lol: :lol: :lol:

[quote] The thought that it could get too cold for plants never even occured to me [/quote] :lol: I think that is so cool actually. It is really interesting to see how where we live shapes the way we think.

Excellent suggestions all, I will look into that nature's miricle stuff and some fragrant plants for next spring. (Pei is right about the temp right now, it would be cruelty to plants to enact this plan now. :lol: )

:oops: I live in a townhome. My yard is patio stone. Even when we go out the boys often wait to get home to do their business. I clean the yard at least once a day and wash it down two to three times a week but even after I pick up the yard smells a bit. Anyone have any suggestions?

NP