skycat
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Everything posted by skycat
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Congratulations to her: not the easiest language to learn by all accounts.
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Hi Mark, Got any photos of your Airedales? Love to see some working KC dogs. What did you find their drive and intelligence like? Trying to find a working KC Airedale in the UK is like trying to reach the moon with a firework.
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I went for the 2nd ever Glastonbury : yes, that was in '71 and nearly got chucked out of school for sneaking off. I went again about 10 years later and it had already changed a lot by then: loads of stalls selling everything including the kitchen sink: down hill slide from there on. Never been since and wouldn't want to.
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Muscle Injury Do They Fully Recover?
skycat replied to dogmad riley's topic in Lurchers & Running Dogs
There are very few injuries that benefit by complete rest: and it can also cause muscles and other soft tissues to heal 'wrong'. Steady lead walking is nearly always recommended for most soft tissue injuries, but do see a greyhound vet or good back man and get a proper diagnosis and treatment plan. Just leaving a dog in a kennel is usually counter productive as the dog gets so stressed out, starts bouncing up and down and can sometimes make things a lot worse. -
Muscle Injury Do They Fully Recover?
skycat replied to dogmad riley's topic in Lurchers & Running Dogs
As we don't know exactly what the injury is, it is impossible to tell you anything sensible: only a greyhound vet can tell you this. -
Muscle Injury Do They Fully Recover?
skycat replied to dogmad riley's topic in Lurchers & Running Dogs
Seconded: only a good greyhound vet/bone man will be able to tell you what is wrong, and give you a programme to follow. Maybe more than a pulled muscle. Could be a tear, or there could be tendon or ligament damage as well which can take 3 months to heal. But just leaving it as it is may always leave the dog lame as soft tissue that is damaged can heal in the wrong way (muscle heals contracted or with scar tissue that prevents it from moving normally, for example). Good physio and or massage is as important as rest. -
The problem is that many Collies are very sound sensitive. Loud noises really hurt their ears, so you can't blame them for not wanting to be around loud bangs. You can overcome this to a certain extent by getting the dog to associate the shot with something pleasurable. If the dog has a strong prey drive, in other words, chase instinct, and it loves retrieving, you may be able to use first a quiet bang: anything that makes a smaller sound similar to a gun shot, and let the dog retrieve an item. Even getting someone to stand beside you and pop a blown up paper bag to start with. Desensitisi
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Mince it very finely, or steam it lightly then mash into their food.
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Getting the tartar off canine teeth and molars is best done with as small blunt knife. Easiest if you get the dog to lie down next to you with its head on your lap, so you can exert the necessary pressure, which may be quite considerable as you have to prise the tartar away from the tooth. Hold the dog's head steady and put the edge of the knife at right angles to the gum right at the top of the tooth just below the gumline and prise away, going ONLY away from the gum, so if you slip, you don't slice into the gum itself. If your dog trusts you it is easily done, though needs a bit of patience.
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It's just a little skin tag: nothing to worry about, but if it bothers you take it to the vet who will remove it ... but it will cost you. Only worry about things like this if they bleed and won't stop, or change appearance. Skin tags are very common on dogs.
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Bones! Stuff like chicken wings and carcases are good. Raw of course. Plain natural yoghurt is also very good and easily digested by dogs unlike cow's milk. I once heard of a litter of pups that were reared solely on heart and liver: 3 of the pups broke their legs at around a year old: blood tests confirmed that they were very deficient in calcium. Meat alone is a dangerous way to feed: think 'whole carcase' when you feed raw: bones, skin, offal, muscle meat, fat.
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Treat the dog like any other dog, and concentrate on getting a good bond. Play with the pup like you would any puppy. You've got months and months before even thinking about hunting, and the more places you take your pup, the more you mess about with it, the more confident and willing it will be. The prey drive, which makes a dog chase, is very small in a pup, but increases as it gets older. The time to worry about hunting is when the pup is 8-10 months old, and by the sounds of it, you will need many months so you can both learn together how to make a good team.
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Ferreting With Tomo And Vin - New Video
skycat replied to FERRETBOY's topic in Lurchers & Running Dogs
Cracking vid, and commentary not bad either Can't help feeling sorry for Venus having her catches nicked off her, but I've got dogs like that too, and it doesn't seem to affect their retrieving when they're on their own, but still ... -
I don't show any more, and very seldom judge, but I always looked first at movement and conformation, followed by condition, though of course during the summer a working dog can't be expected to be such hard condition as it is in the winter. However, as there seem to be more and more dogs that aren't outright working dogs in the show ring, those that appear super fit have obviously been conditioned specifically for showing and/or racing. For me, a well muscled and fit looking dog will always beat one that is flabby and/or overweight providing it has everything else I am looking for.
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Yes, and even the most paranoid of dogs, the sort that run for the hills the moment they see you with the claw clippers, tolerate the nail grinder very well, though one of mine does sit there with her nose running through stress
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Got my OH to hold a similar terrier: scruffed it and dangled it a couple of seconds, then held it against him with its legs facing outwards, still holding on tight to the scruff as well: puts them in much more submissive state of mind, plus they can't crocodile roll or get a leg on the ground to stabilise them> had to laugh reading the above post though, imagining a terrier spinning gently hanging from a rafter.
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Sounds like a horrible and protracted death for an animal, even if it is 'small'. Don't know how a vet, who is trained to alleviate suffering, can bear to see that kind of thing: dare say they do pet rabbits and guinea pigs etc in the same way. I couldn't stand to see any animal struggling to walk, breathe, fighting for its life without knowing what is happening to it, let alone a ferret, an animal which I consider in a similar way to my dogs; not a prey animal, but a little predator, one of us, so to speak. Thanks for flagging that up Ian. A tap on the head is way kinder and instant. Sh*t, w
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Without seeing a photo of the wound it is hard to say, but in general, so long as a wound only affects the skin, doesn't expose underlying tendons/ligaments/muscle/bone, and is less than a centimetre wide or long, it will heal on its own very well, providing it is not in a very moveable area such as the back of the wrist or foot where there is constant flexing of a joint. Keep dog quiet for a week, or until the wound has 'settled': in other words, stopped bleeding at every movement and has started to granulate, which is the term for new tissue growing. Wounds that remain open: a hole inste
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The only one you may need to worry about is the Lepto vaccine. It is only supposed to cover dogs for 6-12 months, but I've never had any of mine boosted, though they no longer go ratting much and there are very few rats in my immediate area. My own vet said that once you'd had the first booster done at just over a year old there was no need to bother. You can get a titre count done with a blood test to assess your dog's level of antibodies: mind you that could cost you anything from £25 to £100 depending on whether or not your vet supports titre counts, and if their antibodies weren't high en
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Seen this? http://www.predatorexperience.co.uk/walking-with-wolves/#dwb4 Look like Shepherd crosses to me: and it does say 'hybrid' wolves. And the pack consists of 2 pups I bet there's hordes of people falling over themselves to get in touch with their 'wild' side
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New mown hay
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Yes, he has presence already: note the tail straight up: "you looking at me?"
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Thanks for putting that up: I'd forgotten all about it! I like the bit where he disproves the myth that a running dog should have 'well let down hocks'. This, as well as the very laid back shoulder blade was put in place as how a dog must appear when people were still comparing the dog to the horse, which has a completely different running action due to its size and weight. A horse would collapse if it was shaped like a dog.
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Love the hedgehog pic: useful litter critters as well.
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You lot drivel on about women causing problems being anti hunting: the only grief I've ever had when out ferreting has been from men, storming over to me all red faced with steam coming out of their ears, even filming me on their mobiles and shouting the odds about illegal activities and cruelty to animals. Not all antis are women, just for the record.
