toobendy

news on poppy isn't great. their were no signs of arthritis however whilst she was out for the count they discovered her hip pops in & out of joint quite easily so it seems that is the problem. not sure how long she will be able to continue working for me, just have to see how she does really. vet suggested physio & hydrotherapy may help & a friend has suggested k-laser therapy may help so got to get that lot organised & see how she goes. one things for sure though, that hip will always be a problem from now on, the right treatment may help to strengthen ligaments & muscles

forgot to mention frozen lamb spines are fantastic for saving your furniture when pups teeth are bothering it & its wanting to chew everything. also chewing on bones tends to relax dogs & tires them out. if your puppy falls asleep on a lamb spine & then comes out his bed later with blood all down one side remember not to panic its just blood from the bone, my last pup did that often & first time i didn't realise until i'd checked the pup over where the blood was from, that was a worrying few seconds until i realised!

i feed a totally raw diet, best thing i ever did for my dog. she used to be on dry food & was always slightly underweight as she ate just enough to get by but now she actually enjoys her food. i just make sure she gets plenty of variety, try to give her 6 different proteins within 2 weeks & look at poo to see whats needed, if its crumbly then she's getting too much bone so i go easy on the bone & give more meat & a bit of offal, if its a bit soft as in consistency of dog poo from most dogs not fed raw then she's not getting enough bone. poo should be firm but not crumbly. green

getting a good dog is surely about nature & nurture. you can get a dog thats excellent breeding for the job you want it for but you bring it up wrong, don't put enough time into it then its not going to reach its full potential but the potential was there. if you want a dog that can round up sheep you don't go out & get yourself a terrier do you? could a terrier be trained to round up sheep? well yeah possibly if you put a lot of time & effort in but if you go out & get yourself a border collie you have the natural instincts there already so you can use that & it makes trai

thanks hopefully I'll find the right pup soon. Poppy is off to the vets tomorrow morning for x rays, she won't be impressed when she doesn't get her breakfast!

if I were looking for a pet I would certainly consider a rescue but with a dog that I hope would end up being my assistance dog i need to know the parents are healthy & have good temperaments & I need to know that those first 8 weeks whilst the pup is with the mother it has been looked after properly & has had as much socialisation as possible in that time to make it more likely that the pup will be able to be an assistance dog. Usually if pups are in rescue they have not been looked after well before they ended up there & its quite likely the mother will not have been looked a

their are charities that train up dogs then give them to disabled people but theirs several reasons I won't get one from there. firstly you can be on the waiting list for years. Secondly I have a terrier that lives with my mum as she wouldn't have coped very well if she had moved to middlesbrough with me but she visits every week & she will accept a young pup but wouldn't accept an adult dog, she would want to rip its throat out! The terrier is 14 so may be gone by the time I got a dog from a charity but she is a very healthy 14 year old so she could still be around. Also the charities ten

I have an 8 year old bedlington x whippet. She is a good little assistance dog despite her not being intended for such work. I had hoped to work her on rabbits but became disabled when she was just a pup so I decided to attempt to teach her to do some tasks to help me. I now live in Middlesbrough as I needed to move to accessible housing which is sadly lacking in the countryside but poppy has adapted well & coped no problem with all the strange people in Middlesbrough, seriously she often gets random people coming up to her & barking in her face, small children running around right beh