Nearly a Collie Catastrophe Today

Well its been an exhausting day today. It could have ended badly but thankfully hasn't.
Its been a warning about how a dog could in theory cause a lot of harm !

This is what happened !

Firstly Tika has so far been contained by our lovely new fenced garden. She has only twice lept the new fence and that was when in the middle of a very exciting game.
So around lunchtime today she was pottering the garden and our neighbour who she seems to love called her over. The neighbours were sitting out enjoying the sun. I had been out playing with Tika but left her pottering in the garden. Anwyay I watched from the window and she leapt the fence and went to say hello. The neighbours didnt mind but I did so went to rescue her as she could have ended up going to the front of their house and into the street.

The next incident was then more dramatic as she went to visit the neighbours again and this time ended up in their house !

And finally i asked someone to walk her in the garden on the lead until I had time this evening to build a higher fence ! However the person I asked seemed not to have heard about the earlier incidents (do you know people like that as well ?!?) Anyway they decided to leave her playing in the garden.
Next thing is she has gone visiting again and I didnt realise straight away so the neighbours were trying to catch her. When I finally arrived she very nearly could have caused my elderly neighbour to get injured and another of their family who had a broken leg to have fallen over, and she had disrupted their dinner.

So obviously it is not acceptable. And thank goodness no-one was injured. We have now started to raise the height of the fence !
I know as well that you shouldnt really leave a collie on their own in the garden - she needs occupied at all times - games, exercise etc.
Its like having a naughty child though at this stage !

She had had a good walk this morning although it was slightly curtailed as there was a dog walker walking eight dogs on the moorland where I was walking so I had to change route and put her back on the lead earlier than I might have done so that is a bit annoying. I dont understand how people can walk 8 dogs ! She actually lost one of the spaniels which had come across to say hello to us. Last thing I saw it was heading back to her. But they must be earning at least £40 for that walk but how under control realistically can you be in charge of 8 dogs ! I cant even keep control of one dog as you can see from today's hectic day !

Worms, Fleas and Ticks !

Lovely heading you might say !
But what a minefield it all is.

Tika arrived with us at 7.5 weeks old having had some worm treatmentsat 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 weeks as a puppy. At that time you have to then worm them monthly.
So I followed the vets directions after that and took her to be weighed and then she was given worm tablets or skin spot on treatment every month.
Then it all started to get a bit complicated !

There isnt one treatment which will tackle all the types of worms along with Fleas and Ticks. So as we now move towards spring and summer these start to become a problem. Apparently ticks will only begin to appear after the last frost disappears. I suspect we still have some more frost to come here in Scotland so I hope not to have to worry about that yet. However we definitely go places in the summer in Scotland where there are ticks and also where there is lyme disease in the ticks so I am definitely wanting to avoid those if possible.

Another risk which I know Tika will be exposed to in the summer is slugs and snails. She already ate some of the ones which were lying around in our garden in the autumn and it will be difficult to clear them from the garden so I need to make sure she is protected from lungworms which can be found in slugs and snails but also in any water they may have drunk from or dog toys etc that they may have crawled over in the night.

Anyway here is a quick summary of the types of treatment she will now be taking at age 6 months :

Monthly - Advocate on skin on back of neck - this deals with lungworm, fleas and worms. - she will get this this evening - 15th March
In two weeks we will give her Milbemax which will last 3 months and deals with a broad spectrum of worms - roundworms, hookworm, whipworm, tapeworm, heartworm (apparently the only thing we are double dosing against with these two treatments is roundworms.) The two treatments need to be taken two weeks apart at they both contain something collies may react against and its in case of overdose (I think !)

This treatment should take us to mid June.
At this point we will be spending quite a bit of the summer camping or walking moorland so ticks will become a problem and they are also worse later in the summer when its wet apparenlty.
So in Mid June we will give her Frontline as a spot on which is effective against ticks and the next Milbemax tablet for the broadspectrum of worms.

PHEW !!

And watch out - one thing I have found out is that collies and related dogs have a problem in their brains with processing some chemical which is in Milbemax and there is also a warning on the lable of Advocate to be very careful that collies dont manage to lick the Advocate as it affects that type of dog so you need to be very careful when applying it.  And with the Milbemax you must be very careful to give the right dose and not overdose as the problem arises if you were to give a dose of 5x the recommeneded.  Its just as well collie owners are as clever as their dogs or we just couldnt cope with all this !

Hope you find this useful and please send any comments which you think can add to the discussion and help us all understand this a bit better.

For more information about worms : http://www.wormfree.co.uk/dog_cat_worms/en/index.shtml
http://www.ashwoodvet.co.uk/news/view-article.php?Title=SLUGS+AND+SNAILS+and+DOGS+!!!+-+A+VERY+BAD+MIX+!

Ticks already spotted in Scotland in March 2011 ! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-12804689

Advantix website : http://www.animalhealth.bayerhealthcare.com/5614.0.html

European ticks now found in some areas of the UK : http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9432000/9432605.stm

Some very detailed information including about diseases that can be caught in Europe or abroad : http://www.cvbd.org/

Here is information about lungworm - it is very good and easy to read information and the good news is it seems that lungworm is treatable. http://www.lungworm.co.uk/scripts/pages/en/home.php

More confusing updates from vets (18 May) - apparently the Milbemax 3 month does doesnt work after a while against lungworm - we would need to give her the monthly version for that and that is off license ! (but this conflicts with what I have already written ...someone is not telling me the right story -......aaarghh !)

Vets for Worm Tablets

Age 14 weeks - now weighs 8.95 kg !
She was 4.2 kg at 8 weeks !

She got weighed at the vets and they then gaves us two worm tablets as puppies need to be wormed every month until 6 months and then 6 monthly after that. They were pretty small and went down quite easily with a chocolate drop. However she may be more wary next time now that she knows what I am up to !!

Anyway must dash - I can hear her wrecking stuff !

Winter Still here and Pup now Reluctant to go Outside ! (age 13wks 5days)

Well Tika is still full of energy and has had me running around all day rescuing the various things I dont want to be destroyed - music, sellotape, Christmas cards, glove, Christmas stamper, brush, windowsill (expertly installed by my husband), chocolate from bin that was through the stair gate etc etc. And the headphones which I didnt rescue in time ! Her own toys do not seem to be of any interest today !

Anyway the weather outside is still very cold. Think it was at least -5 degrees today and probably down to minus 10. And the back garden is still mostly snow and ice. So its actually not good for her to run out there. Its not good for them to slip and fall so I have been throwing the ball in the top half of the garden where the sun has melted the ice. However it means that firstly she is not running off energy and secondly the temperature is putting her off (and us off) standing around in the garden to catch those moments when she decides to "do her business". Any time we do catch her going outside we lavish praise on her but at the moment we are running at a 50% success rate and not improving from day to day which I believe is not great for a collie !

Also she refused to go any further on her walk tonight and that was even with her coat on !
Also I have now slipped three times on the ice, Once on our back steps even after I had gritted them heavily. However the snow was melting off the roof and had led to thick ice on the steps. I was lucky to avoid serious injury. The other two falls were while I was walking her. I landed on my left wrist both times but seem to have avoided too much damage.

They are predicting more snow for here in Scotland for Thursday. As you can see from my posts we have had about two or three weeks of this. The bins have not been emptied as the dustmen have all been working on the gritting lorries (not that I have seen any of those !). My neighbour tells me its now three weeks since our bins were collected. I can believe that as we have four bin bags in the hall and two in the cellar as well as all our recycling items stacking up. So its a chaotic run up to Christmas here at the moment !

On a final positive note though we have met lots of dogs and she has got on fine with all of them. She is still on her lead but she has enjoyed meeting them. That is apart from a few older dogs who werent interested and a few terriers whose owners quickly hurried past with their dogs ! 

We also had a day of major socialisation when I took her to watch our local Christmas lights being switched on. So we were able to tick various categories (as recommended in The Perfect Puppy book) - fairground rides, lights, crowds, cars, lorries (she didnt like those), noise, uniforms, shops ! She did very well considering it was a first time for many of those things !

Snow and More Snow !

We have had continuous snow since she has been allowed out in the garden !

So its not been great temperatures for toilet training ! However we are having some success so far. We are following the advice in the books and only praising her when she gets it right and goes in the garden. However its hard standing around in sub zero temperatures !

We bought a training lead so have made a little use of that so she can have a run around when out walking at open spaces and also she can do some training. Its 15m long !
I took her for a walk this morning. I decided to walk on the pavements so we would only meet dogs on leads. However the first dog we met was one running loose while the owner cleared her drive ! However I just picked Tika up and crossed the road to avoid trouble. However we did then meet a very nice older dog who she said hello to and that went well. He could have eaten her in one mouthful as he was about double her size but it was a good first introduction to other dogs while out for a walk !

International Sheepdog Society

We discovered that our breeder has registered her pedigree with the International Sheep Dog Society. I never knew there was such a thing but there is lots of interesting reading at : http://www.isds.org.uk/

They have some lovely Collie themed presents as well as dog whistles etc for sheep dog trials.

Their information about dog names says that the Society permits the use of only one, simple working name for a registered dog.  Working on the fields, perhaps with more than one dog, a shepherd will be able to cope with names such as "Ben", "Meg", "Cap" or "Moss".  But names such as "Philip", "Flossie","Pretty Boy", etc. would be impossible to work with. They are happy to accept non-English language names.  The test is that the names should, ideally, be single-syllable.  This is the same advice we were given by a relative who had had a collie but unfortunately we had already named her. So lets hope the name is OK !  I am only planning to have one dog so hopefully the name will work out. Once we got her we thought of some other names such as Mystic which would have been nice. Meg was a name we had in reserve as well.

Allowed Out !

Well finally our new collie puppy is allowed out. She is now 11 weeks old and has completed her course of puppy vaccinations. So, after a last visit to the puppy socialisation class at the vet, where she met the same two poodles as last week, along with a labrador and a pug (very cute !), she finally got to go outside !

She is enjoying being out in the garden (newly fenced off !) and has been following various scents.

Our next task is to introduce her to some well behaved dogs so she can have some good experiences with meeting other dogs. In addition we need to try out "planes, trains and automobiles" ! Well maybe not all of those exactly but before 16 weeks we should expose her to various experiences. The reason for this is that puppies are very impressionable as well as eager to try new things at this age. Any good experiences are stored up by the impressionable little things and will make them more confident dogs in the future.

At the age of 16 weeks, they become much more wary. Apparently in the wild this is the age at which they leave the den and a survival tactic is for them to be wary of new things.

So between 8 weeks and 16 weeks its important to introduce them to a variety of new people and experiences. They will probably only complete their course of injections and be allowed outside at about 11 weeks so you have to cram a lot of new things into those last 5 weeks !

There are quite a number of out of control dogs that walk near us, so I want her to have some controlled good experiences before meeting some of them - and also maybe put on a bit more weight !

So I'm away to text a friend to see if her friendly spaniel is available for a "playdate" !!

Puppy Socialisation !

Last night Tika went along to the puppy socialisation class at the vets ! She met two poodles and apparently had a great time once she was brave enough to come out from under her chair.
We will hopefully take her along again next week as its a good chance for her to meet some puppies in a safe environment.  The day after that she will be able to go outside finally ! Yippee !

Hyper Collie !

Well she is now beginning to show her true colours !

She can vary between being a very calm, sweet dog to certainly in the evening becoming a snapping, wild, full of energy challenge !  We are doing all the things the books say such as ignore her when she isnt behaving and also saying a strong "No" - "uh uh" or actually growling which seemed to work well.

However on a positive, she has learnt "Sit" and this has been useful actually to make her behave and sit down instead of jumping.

We have bought some more toys - a puppy bone from Asda and some new tennis balls for dogs from Asda which didnt have so much fluff on them to be chewed off.

We also have a stair gate up now so she is kept in the kitchen. This apparently is a good idea, apart from protecting your carpets but it also stops them being given the "right" to greet people at the door which lets them get a big opinion of themselves in the "pack" which is not what you want.

Also we discovered a new game she likes tonight - hide a dog treat in a box along with her toys. Kept her busy for a while !

I have signed up for dog training classes which begin in February !

Also she is still sleeping well in her crate at night. We have allowed her to roam the kitchen for the last few nights and that has worked well. She appears to get up to go to the toilet and then go back to her crate to sleep.

So we have reached 9 weeks with her !

Two weeks to go until she is allowed outside and I think that will help to let her run off some steam.

4 Days Later

Well the first night with a puppy did not go as planned !  We had followed the advice of some books and thought that she could have two nights in a soft crate in one of our rooms before migrating to her metal crate downstairs (which has bedding etc in it - its not just metal !).
Anyway she became a howling, teeth flashing demon trying to get out. I doubt she was missing her littermates at all and was merely concerned with getting out. However as we live in a semi detached house, firstly we couldnt just keep ignoring the noise and secondly when I looked at her, I thought she was possibly going to get a tooth trapped in the fibres of the soft cage door. So out she came and into bed ! In fact I was even contemplating taking her back the next day but when I brought her through to see everyone else the next morning they were all happy to see her so that was the end of that ! So we now have our new family member !

In fact it has been quite an adjustment getting to know that new member of the family. However by day 5 she is now a firm member of the family and I think I am getting used to it !

She now sleeps in a crate and I took the advice of a friend and slept the last three nights in a camp bed next to her. It was supposed to be for two nights but we have found that she is pretty good at her toilet training but in fact she still needs up once in the night for a "No. 2" or a poo, whatever is the polite term for that ! So following advice from the books, I have not interacted at all with her until after she does her business and at that point its fine to praise her then settle her back to bed. So so far I had one night that was 11 - 7 with a wakening at 4 and last night she was 12 - 7 with two breaks at 1.30 and 5.
I am surviving OK on that so far as I was a bit of a latenighter before. However I am making sure I get to bed at the same time as her and get as much sleep as is possible.

Other things we got on top of is that we seem to have managed to stop her "puppy biting". A combination of sharp "Nos", ending the game is she bites and diverting bites onto her toys has worked.

Toyswise, we already had a teddy and an old baby rattle and a Kong Wubba which has been good. Today I went out and got a great ball which you can hide a treat in and there is a hole which the treat will fall out of when it turns the right way. She has thoroughly enjoyed this ball and exhausts herself chasing it. The Pet Shop also recommended a small space hopper which squeaks which you can throw to them and they bring back holding onto the handles. Apparently the feedback from customers has been good about this. However she is a bit wary of that at the moment.

Well I must go and get back to my new "routine".  Oh yes and the ironing has piled up - the pile is currently the volume of an arm chair! Aargh !  Oh and the other thing is we have had lots of visitors eager to meet her so that is good and helps with her socialisation. All have to remove shoes at the door to keep the dreaded parvovirus out until after she completes her vaccinations.

And the other thing is to see how tomorrow night goes with Fireworks night. I am hoping she will be too young to notice them but if there are very loud that might be difficult.... Bye til the next time !