skycat
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Everything posted by skycat
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It all depends on his running style: dogs that 'float', which don't pound the ground hard like some do, can get away with having flatter feet. Yes, flat feet are less able to absorb shock when running, and really flat toes like your dog's can be more prone to damage if they hit something sharp: heather stems, sharp stones cutting into ligaments etc. But I wouldn't get rid of the dog until I knew whether or not he could stand up to real work.
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I've had 3 purpose bred coursing type male dogs, one with a lot of Saluki in him, the others it would be impossible to say quite how much as they were bred lurcher to lurcher for so many generations. What they all had/have is/was exceptionally good feet: tight arched, thick-boned toes. Really thick solid pads and claws like iron, and leg assembly so strong they could run and turn hard on hard gravel, sand and packed earth without damaging themselves. Dogs bred like that, where form follows function, may not be show winners, but their bodies, especially the feet, have been tested to the lim
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How long have you had the dog? (Could be that the dog, a pup you say, is shy, timid, unsure of itself, not used to biking, not fed properly before you got him, unsocialised etc etc. How old is he? Male pups take a lot longer to mature than bitches. You say he was kept on an allotment: in a shed? How much exercise was the dog getting then?
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I used Richard Torr in Shepshed at the Canine Sports Clinic, I think it's called. It's in Leicestershire: http://www.caninesports.co.uk/ But I have to say, the plaster he put on the dog wasn't correct: not high enough up the leg, so it was actually pulling the fracture open all the time My own vet, who had failed to find the break, put the correct type of splint on a week later as the bitch was in so much pain and there was obviously something not right. So I would give mixed reviews on this particular greyhound vet, though friends swear by him.
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that will be it then ! i would of never of thought this until you said it but it all makes sence now, id say dont take her anywhere where there are rabbits for a walk i know thats easyer said than done but i am sure she will be fine by the time you come to lamp her atb well thought kev u can tell ur a real dog man not just a man with a dog My bitches tend to do if during a phantom pregnancy too: only young rabbits, but it's down to the hormones telling them they have a litter to feed, even if it isn't a real litter. Bitches with young pups often do it: instinct telling them to get th
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Here's why a good greyhound vet is the only vet to see: I had a dog go lame. Slight heat just above wrist, no swelling. Local vet took ONE x-ray: couldn't find anything. Dog still lame two weeks later. Took her to a GOOD greyhound vet who took FOUR x-rays from different angles and the hairline fracture showed up in only ONE of those x-rays. Get your dog to a good greyhound vet.
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Possibly torn a muscle: get the dog to a greyhound vet asap for a correct diagnosis and treatment plan.
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A good steady trotting speed in this weather, and providing the dogs are young and healthy, around 3-5 miles a day, but not in the heat! Stick to very early morning. Evening isn't very good as the ground is still releasing warmth until late at night at this time of year. Dogs should be panting lightly, but not heavily. Tongues should be normal coloured: not dark red or bright red and hanging out a mile. If you must go out in the heat then only do so if there is plenty of water for the dogs to immerse themselves in at least twice during the exercise, and cool down before kennelling: walk the la
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I feel sorry for Collies as pets, unless they belong to very active people who want to do loads of fun things with them. Couch potatoes they ain't.
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Something I forgot to say earlier: is that things change a lot when you start to add dogs of different types to a pack and especially when you have more than a couple. You become more of a whipper in and a huntsman when you are hunting multiple animals, and their management becomes more critical. You can never afford to relax or become a 'follower on' of your dogs. Even when out mooching about along hedgerows, you should be constantly observing and taking note of the dogs' reactions to each other: for example ... watching for the young lurcher which takes a playful pop at a terrier emerging fr
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Harmony is a dangerous word to use. No living creature lives totally in harmony with its fellows: you only have to look at humans to see that. There is always competition, greed, possessiveness in all animals, and more than anything else, the access to food and the right to reproduce. Those are the most important things in any animal's life. When we want a load of dogs to leave peacefully together we have to put in place various rules, laws that WE lay down, not the dogs. Of course dogs that have learned to work together work better than those that don't know each other at all. They have
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Bumble bees are great, and we need to give them all the help they can get. They'll be gone by autumn anyway, leaving only the new queen who will have left the nest earlier on to hibernate over winter. We have loads of bumble bee nests around our garden, often in old sheds and in the ground. They never aggressively defend their nests unless you really disturb them, and I often sit and watch them coming and going from their nests from only a couple of feet away. The dogs have never been stung by them either, unless they are stupid enough to try and bite them.
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Would any of you say a pack that is housed together in work better than a pack kept in separate runs ? Not at all. Dogs learn to work together no matter how they are housed. I even get pet dogs from dog walkers who follow the same route as I do round the lakes where I live, come and join in our mini hunts. Living as a pack all the time is very stressful for any dogs, especially those which have a different mindset to one another. Just like people, you shouldn't expect dogs to live happily in a confined space all the time. There are dogs that subtly bully others, moving into their sp
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I've just been thinking about that price! It does seem insane. I recently paid £800 for an out of hours Caesarean. OK, not the digestive tract, but still a delicate bit of surgery. I think I paid around the same amount for Dill, the Airedale, again out of hours and 4 years ago, to get the pebble removed from her intestine. Your dog's case sounds more complicated I know, but nearly 4 grand? That defies belief.
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So glad you were quick off the mark to get her to the vet. Any operation involving the gut is very risky, but my Airedale pulled through just fine after swallowing a round pebble that got lodged in her small intestine. Vets these days are pretty good at avoiding contamination during surgery. Good luck with her recovery.
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In this day and age, surely the best method is the one that doesn't actually appear to involve any violence such as swinging, bashing, chopping etc, which is why necking and chinning are the only ways I'll use, quite apart from being the quickest and the least likely to fail. The average member of the public doesn't even realise what you're doing if you neck a rabbit quickly. They just think it is being held. Also, if it does start kicking once its dead, you still have hold of it until the kicking stops, so people don't see a rabbit flopping about on the ground and think it is still alive.
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Tried it several times with various methods: testosterone, oestrogen, and Supralorin that acts as a chemical 'castrator' in bitches as well as dogs. Never again. It messes with their heads as well as their bodies.
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What I find so sad is that people, everyone, and I'm not excluding myself, have to learn the hard way about things that, had we bothered to truly listen and learn to the experiences of others, we'd never have done. This isn't the first time that I've read of a dog that has been killed by its kennel mates, despite 'apparently' living together for years with no sign of a problem. I'd hazard a guess and say that many, if not most, kennel incidents between bitches can be attributed to their hormonal cycle. If you live with a pack of dogs, and I mean live with, as opposed to kennelling them in
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Firstly, a pup of nearly 9 months is just that: a pup. Young dogs, especially males, don't get their full coordination and speed until they are at least a year old, especially those which are larger, with longer legs etc. Muscle isn't fully developed at 9 months old, therefore the ability to turn at speed is also an issue. Secondly, from what I gather your pup has been bred for long runs, so more for stamina than just pure speed. Long, slow twitch muscles which mature later than fast twitch muscles for explosive speed. Saluki lurchers are often very slow to develop mentally as well. and w
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The thing is, playing tug does not make a dog hard mouthed, nor does it encourage the dog to play tug with its catch or retrieved game. What it does is teach the dog to come straight to you carrying something, then, if you have taught the rules of the tug game correctly, the dog releases the item/rabbit/pheasant or whatever the moment you give it the release command. Tug isn't just played with no rules, that would indeed lead to a dog that tries to pull something out of your hand. Tug teaches the dog to 'cap the prey drive', which means that when you say 'Give' the dog gives very quickly b
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I'm afraid that won't be happening as the breeder will no longer speak tom me for some reason I can't fathom. Things are not looking very hopeful at the moment unless I went with a KC Airedale.
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I meant that he emailed me the photos. I downloaded them, put them on photoshop, resized them etc, and saved for web as I normally do: but they wouldn't upload on to here: no idea what the problem is
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Mark sent me some great photos, but despite resizing them and putting them on Photoshop, they won't upload on here for some reason: never had that happen before: anyone any ideas?
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I've sent you a pm Mark.
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I think he's referring to an earlier post you made about the pup when she was 11 weeks old and you scruffed or slapped it for growling at you over a bone, or some food. By doing that, you would have damaged the trust and potential bond between you and the pup, and they never forget that you failed to understand them. A dog will only retrieve something it has chased, or something of value, if it trusts you completely. Break that trust, and you may always have issues when it comes to training, especially retrieving. Retrieving involves the dog being in one of two, or three places in its mind.
