Nanda & Nelson

A collie in my family has just been diagnosed with severe hip dysplasia. At only 1 year old, we started to notice she had a difficult time getting up, somewhat pushing her hind legs up. She never seemed in pain and is otherwise a very healthy, happy, active and social border collie. But with a rescue with severe HD in the family, we recognized this is not how a 1-year old dog should move. We quickly made a trip to the vet. Unfortunately, she has severe hip dysplasia in both hips. The femoral head is barely in the hip socket. Knowing she is showing sign this early, we know it's not good. Our local vet has sent out photo's to a specialized clinic and we are most likely looking at a double total hip replacement (THR - will hopefully have an appointment with the specialist in a week). First they will do one leg, then the other. She is insured but even if she wasn't, we would go ahead whatever is needed. Recovery time was mentioned to be about 3-months if all goes well. Once the first one is healed, the other will be done. Now I am curious to hear if... Is there anyone here has experience with this surgery? Any tips for recovery / keeping her entertained while resting? She is a pretty hyper pup. How was your dog after surgery? Did they recover / able to live a happy life? I would very much appreciate some real-life experiences. PS: I know the question may be asked, therefor I will answer here. Parents were HD A (free of HD), and were fully health tested. We are in contact with the breeder to get some answers but at this point our priority lays with our dog and getting her the help she needs to hopefully live a pain-free, happy life.

Posting this for my parents whom I temporarily live with. We are a family with 3 border collies and one aussie sherpherd (1 collie and the shepherd are mine). All are best buds. My parents got their new border collie puppy a week ago, after attempting to adopt one for three years. Rehoming in my country is popular, and thus it is actually hard to be picked! Anyhow, got a lovely healthy pup. We picked her out from a big litter, 7 farm dogs, the mom had 12 puppies. So, busy nest. The pup has overall been great and we just started with her and everything I am asking questions for is in no means anything we see as a problem, just looking for advice on how to deal with certain behavior. She does not like to be told no. If she does something, such as jumping up / biting something wrong etcetera and we tell here 'leave it' and distract her with a toy, she gets worked up/mad. She starts growling and sometimes even wines as if she's been hurt while no one touches her. One of my collies is a very sweet and sensetive dog, the pup likes to bark at her at times (not all the time). It so happens that my dog is also the only one playing with her once or twice a day, the other dogs ignore the pup. But, when my dog doesn't want to play the pup starts barking at it non stop. Obviously, we don't allow this behavior and put the pup in the crate and give my dog a place to go where the pup can't go. Overall she seems to show a bit of dominant behaviour; she bites the leash and if you take it out of her mouth she grawls and wants to bite. Or if she gets a bit wild, she tried to 'attack'. Right now, we try and make her stop with commands and reward positive behaviour. But, any other tips? We 100% know she is a pup, she needs looooots of time before she will behave, but I also want to know right from the start how to nap the bad behavior in the butt. And also, what can we consider nest behaviour and what not? Aslo she is super cute and sweet and confident and we all love her to bits!

I started to notice that my 7 year old dog has a small (maybe 1 or 2mm) hole in one of his upper canines, its tiny, but it is there. I've been wanting to take him to the vet to get his teeth cleaned as he has got a bit of tartar on both upper teeth. He hates being brushes or have his tooth touched, which makes dealing with it a bit more complex. Of course we have contacted a vet (currently abroad in a country where we dont speak the language for a long period), and will have it checked out as soon as they can see us. Posting here to see if anyone else has had experience with this? I think it may be a cavity which is apparently quite rare in dogs. He is fine otherwise, I only noticed while I was checking him out. I hope it can be fixed like a human cavity as I wouldn't want him to loose a tooth!

Btw we also never let her travel with a full stomach. Before we did that, she puked. She had to have an empty stomach.

Thank you for the extra comments. She hasn't drooled since November 1st and is happy as she can be. Even when travelling in the van. Its a bit funny though because it has become her favourite spot and sometimes she doesnt want to come out haha. She has made incredible progress. She is 11 months old, cuddly and gentle. She can not sit still during the day and frolicks around outside (on average they spent about 10+ hours outside, just hanging out and of course going on hikes at times). Her recall is great and she just stays around (our Aussie x Maremma needs to stay on a lead as he is our guard dog ). They are best friends. She can easily sleep for 12 hours straight and is a queen at entertaining herself with a rock or a stick. It is incredible how much progress she had made in these months! Best choice of 2018, to get her.

We just got over our pups anxiety. It took us 5 months. What worked for us is: not driving for 3 weeks. My dad took her with their 3 collies multiple times in his truck. She drooled a couple times but not buckets as before. After those 3 weeks we travelled again. We got rid of the crate she was travelling in as as soon as she saw that thing, she got anxious. We started with letting her choose her spot in the vehicle, she chooses to lay on the ground and not on a seat (she hates sitting on a seat for travelling). When she moved to her own spot she would be anxious for an hour, the next time half an hour en it got shorter and shorter. She is now 200% over it. It took us from June to November. And it was really, really bad. When my parents experienced how she behaved... they said we should leave her with them. We jokingly always say that she is now under a 'travel spell' when we drive. As soon as she hears the car keys, she has to jump in the vehicle and curls up on her blanket and falls asleep. I never ever thought we'd get there even a couple months ago (we are on the road for a year travelling). Best of luck!

Just another update. We are back on the road in our campervan since 3 weeks and while we took the crate we haven't used it and actually donated it to a shelter a couple days ago (no space for it). The first day we left again her anxiety was through the roof. She didnt want to get in the van. She drooled buckets. I felt awful for her and seriously wondered if I should leave her at my parents. Though an hour in, she stopped drooling an her whole body language changed. She had her perky ears up and just curled up at my feet and slept. Since then, he association with the camper has totally changed. It is her chill space and she goes to sleep in it during the day as well, even if we are outside. If she sees us packing and the sound of the keys; the first thing she will do it jump in the van and curl up in her spot. No pre-drooling. We don't have to watch her, she just goes there. The other day we were packing up and I didn't see her anywhere. I immediatley thought she had left off as she had seen us packing. Then we whistled... and she came out of the van. I am so new to her loving being in here all the time haha. We started timing when she did drool and it went from 1 hour at the start. Then 30 min and now 10 min. I still don't have an answer to 'why' as, even if we drive all day through the craziest mountain roads, it is only the first little bit that stresses her out. Long story short. It is going really well. The barking is almost non existent, even with cattle. She has learned how to play with herself as well as with us (and knows a very clear 'that will do'). She tries to play with our other dog at least 5 x a day. Her recall is good and she is all in all a completely different dog from when I first posted. Life is good!

We travelles for 8+ the other day aa we had to go back home for a couple weeks. I decided to not put her in the crate but she was allowed to sit with our other dog. She didn't drool at all... back home, she has now been in two different vehicles and also did not drool. So odd! We are seeing the vet next week.

Oh and another reason I think it ia anxiety; she stargs drooling before we go. As soon as she realizes we will be travelling, drool comes out. Even if she is outside and not in the car yet...

I think you are right: consistency is key. Also, for me, putting on a different harnass was important. As I allowed her to pull on her Ruffwear harness, it was associated with it somehow. I am also not allowing anyone else to walk her right now as that way she doesnt get to chance to pull with someone else. Different harness now and she is absolutely not allowed to pull ever, meaning we stop often. I think I have talked more to the dog then to my boyfriend the past couple days haha and while spending a lot of time we haven't covered much distance. After doing this for only 3 days (and doing it for hours and hours a day), the big thing I am starting to notice is, is that she now checks in on me during the walk instead of booking it forward. We've got a long way to go but I am happy to see change, as for 2 months there was none. She also does not bark at sheep or other dogs anymore. Gets excited, but I can control her now, we can walk past other dogs and through a field of sheep quietly and well behaved. It is a huge improvement.

Ok thank you. I will call my vet on Monday and discuss with them. When she heels she gets praise or a treat and every now and then we stop for a full cuddle. So it is a loooot of interaction during our hikes right now. She isn't much food motivated but really loves praise and cuddles, it is a higher reward for her then food.

Hi D'Elle, this is so true and I know this too and after writing about it here as well I realised this even more. And thus I have told my partner that, until she walks properly on the leash, I do all the walks. This will allow me to enforce consistent loose leash walking (the dogs are kinda 'mine', by choice. He loves them, walks them, but I initiated them and am responsible for training). So, for the past 3 days, I have done multiple long hikes with both dogs but have not allowed her to pull at all. Pull = stop, this meant one of our hikes was 4,5 hours haha. I must have done this for about 8 hours if not more in the past couple days, she gets it though and also knows the command 'heel'. The big difference is she is not being allowed to pull ever right now. She doesn't do it 100% of the time yet, but she now just goes to the end of the leash and isn't sled dogging anymore. When she goes to the end of the leash, I stop and she knows she has to come back. So, we are going to keep doing this and if she understands this much in a couple days... I am sure progress will be even better a month from now. Also, I put her on a different harness. I think she associated the harness we had with pulling. Now... if there was also a magic trick for the drooling then I'd be so happy. She is such a happy, quick learner. She LOVES being in the camper, it is just the driving part she doesn't enjoy. The amount of drool is really no fun. We will be going home in a week for 2 weeks or so, and I home I can do some desensitization then (have a week to learn about it). I am also curious to see how she would do with other vehicles.

I do that during our training sessions, but we have another dog and he must walk 2 hours a day to get tired. And thus she has to come. We mainly walk through grazing fields and I won't let her off leash there so onleash is the only option. I know this is a problem, because I am allowing her to pull. She has a Ruffwear harness with a front clip, but it doesn't make a difference. I looked in at least 5 different stores here for an Easy Walk harness (this is what we used with our other dog and worked well, he now is perfect on the leash, no matter what he wears). I did find a head halter, though I know not everyone likes it here, she walks very nicely with it and doesn't seem to bother her. I am using it (only since 4 days) because if I need a way of excersizing / walking her... It is not my intention to use this as a training method or to keep using it at all. I just don't want to allow her to pull in the harness and think that that is OK, if you understand what I mean. She knows the command 'Look' and when we walk and I say it, she looks at me and waits, but then pulls again after. I found a treat she likes a couple days ago, because toys get her too excited almost to train with it. Her recall is great, if there is a toy around to reward her with. We probably just need to do much more and longer 'heel' / loose leash training sessions...

Hi D'elle, we are going to be in one location for about 2 weeks at my parents house. This would be an opportunity for the desensitisation. Do you have any tips on this? Her behaviour has improved. She gets excited about sheep but no more barking and she snaps out of it quickly. The pulling has not improved at all, though I train everyday. She seems to just pull like a sleddog as soon as we go on a real walk. She now loves the camper. She will go in and out of it all day, is happy and really, really likes it. Until, we start the engine though even then she still wants to jump in her crate and be inside. It is anxiety, not sickness, she doesn't puke, just buckets of drool.

Correct that I don't know how to exactly name it and don't really know what is what. Also, English isn't my first language. But yes it happens in the penis area nog where the testicles used to be (I think, never saw them, never had a male dog before) His private area never developed much as he was neutered so young. Most people think he is a girl as you can't see much down there behind his long hair. The swelling comes and goes in a matter of minutes. It hasnt happend for a while even though we got a new female unspayed pup ;). Sorry for the weird description. Just thought I'd let people know as this is a much less 'serious' reason for back arching and who knows, maybe other dogs may have it too :).

Thank you for both your opinions. We are currently travelling Europe with her for a year and she is allowed to cross borders with the vaccinations she has. She had 0 shots until 6 months (not bt my choice, as I got her at that age). What I did read is that they do build a an immune system in those 6 months as well and are less vulnerable. I am going to read into it a bit more, as I mentioned she now has had one round plus rabbies. So we definitely will vaccinate and keep doing so but trying to figure out 'the schedule".

So to repeat the DHPP isn't 'necessary' but she will need a booster shot at 18 months - correct? Or do you mean she does need the repeat (according to that protocol - and yes I know you guys arent vets) and then not again until 18 months?

I know... He was neutered at 9 weeks, that is the policy of shelters in Vancouver, Canada. Way, way too young of course. So far (he is 6 now) it hasn't affected him, except, I guess when he is excited, his balls (or whatever is left down there) swells, and makes him arch his back.

She got no vaccinations until 6 months (when we got her, she got her first shots). It is now the fourth week since those and can't find any info on whether another dose - like the vet said - is needed. BTW this is not a cost issue at all, just curious to hear people's thoughts on what may or may not be needed.

About a month ago we got an unvaccinated puppy (she was dewormed and microchipped). We took her to a vet the next day and got her DHPP and rabiea shots. The vet said to repeat a set of shot in 4 weeks (this week). We are not currently in our home country and not visiting our regular vet. I do not want to over- or under vaccinate of course. And thus wondering if anyone knows why she has to have another round again so soon after the first? There isn't much info to be found on the topic of how to deal with first vaccinations in 'older' puppy's.

It's beeb a while but I figures an uodate wouldn't hurt. I startes to notice that with the arched back, he would also lick his crotch and thus I started checking him out down there. It scared me to find it was swollen like a small tennis ball, immediatley called the vet. She asked me to check again and it was gone... Appartently it is normal and even neutered dogs can have this. It must make him feel odd and that is why he was arching his back To confirm my theory this was the cause, I checked multiple times when he was arching and it was the same 'issue'. I did get him checked our by the vet who said all was good. He barely does it now anymore!

We actually have a Ruffwear front range harness, which also allows the leash to be clipped up the front. I took her on a hike with the martingale anf it was 100% better, she didn't pull at all and the leash was loose, she got.lots of praise. I think we will use it and train walking her on the harness. I think you are right about the sheep as it was the same with other dogs. Once she met them all was good. We have adjusted our travelling to her needs, we don't travel everyday and no more then 1.5 hours - we would never let her be stressed for more then that. Last week we rented accomodations to give her a break and we are teaching her the van means funtimes. She really likes her travel crate. Since 2 days she jumps into it as well, with wagging tale and loves to curl up next to me while I am working. There is some improvement for sure... though this one pains me as well.

Hello! It's been a while since I've last posted. This forum helped me a lot when I got my first dog (an Aussie Shepherd x Maremma - first thought to be a border collie from the shelter), he had some male-dog agression, which in the end - just ended up being his bad trait that we learned to live with. We fostered street dogs for a year, of which many males, which improved his attitude greatly and interactions, even off leash, are rare. Because he loved having a friend, we got him a buddy.... for which I am looking for some advice. Three weeks ago we got a friend for our very social dog, I decided to get a 'purebred' border collie for a multitude of reasons. Meet June (photos attached), she is a 7 month old border collie from a working line of collies in Scotland, which is also where we got her. She lived on a farm before we got her (so until she was 6 months old). So far, it has been much easier then we thought it would be and she has been amazing. The 'big' issues we are having with her are: Barking at sheep and other dogs: the barking at other dogs is getting less and less as I putting in a lot of effort to go and meet other dogs. This barking is definitely coming from a point of being excited. The barking at sheep may be excitement as well - but how does one stop it? We are currently travelling through Scotland, so there is no avoiding sheep and avoiding them wouldn't solve the issue either. Obviously she is on a leash and absolutely not off the leash. Sled-dogging on the leash: she pulls on the leash. Our other dog did this too, but he was very food motivated and thus we could teach him, with him, getting a harness helped. He eventually grew out of it... but it took YEARS. We got her a harness too but I wonder if it actually just invites her to pull. We just started doing longer hikes with the dogs (our other dog was injured, so her first 2 weeks were spend outside, getting used to us / vanlife and shorter or offleash walks) and it is pretty much impossible to walk with her. Uphill is fine, downhill is downright dangerous. I've tried the method where I stand still and reward her when she lets the leash slack, but as soon as I set 1 step forward, it's sled-dog-mode all over. I've been doing the Kiko Pup method for a couple days, multiple times a day - taking her alone but so far it makes 0 difference, the leash isn't loose once. I know this is going to take time, but still wondering about other tips. Excessive drooling while driving: I got her a travel crate, which helps contain the drool to one spot. Is this just a 'have patience' thing? The drooling comes from anxiety when driving, she doesn't puke. She loves our van when it is not moving and jumps in and out of it all day. When it moves, she would like to run away into the mountains. In general... any tips on training a dog that isn't food motivated Few notes: She is not food motivated. She is 'love-motivated' (high pitch voices and such) She likes toys but isn't super obsessed with them. She loves sheep shit more, should I start using that as treats? (Haha). She doesn't have fulltime acces to toys, but still finds barking/pulling/sheep shit more important then Praise seems to work as the biggest reward for her (our other dog could care less about cuddles, she wants them all x 1000) We are travelling in a campervan (en decent size one), so leash practice in the yard won't happen I put on our other dogs martingale collar (we are currently on Isle of Mull, no pet stores) and will try this Would love to ask the community for help once again. Further... She is amazing. She is super sweet, loves people and kids, likes going for walks, she is amazing inside the van (when its not driving) and gets along with out other dog as well. He is learning her how to play and she likes to give him a 1000 x kisses a day.

My 5 year old male neutered dog has been arching his back lately. In his life it has happend before, but it was sporadically. I had mentioned it to our vet who couldn't see anything odd. Now the past month, we were on an active holiday and I noticed him arching his back one morning. It happened after he woke up, tail between the legs and a sad face. It's is only for maybe 20 seconds then he stretches and is fine again. Happy, grabbing a toy and eating without problems. We decided to not throw frisbees or balls the rest of the holiday. Back from the holiday we have been doing our normal walks and this evening we threw a few balls - he had a nap and gets up with an arched back. Again, it's a couple seconds, he gets up normally, arches his back, looks sad and then stretches it out. I am not noticing anything odd about him, he never has a problem walk, getting in the car, jumping on logs... Never had a limp, walks normally and in general has never had any physical issues ever since we had him. The arching is short and he quickly 'snaps' out of it. He doesn't really seem to be in pain - but he can't talk so how would I know. Is this something 'normal' for an active dog? Is it stiffness similar to what I get when I go to the gym? It makes me wonder if I should have some more tests done at the vet to rule out anything more serious.

Guess what... the stressy behaviour is back - and it's in worse form now. We moved overseas in December and all in all it was a very smooth move, for us as well as Nelson. We lived at my parents with two other dogs whom he loves and since a week we have our own place. He seems to hate it... Whenever we are outside, in the yard or in the park he is totally fine. I've taken him on the bus, the train without any issues. Yet inside the house, he is totally freaked out. The first day and night, he was fine. But the next night, before we went to bet, all at once he jumps on top of me. The kind of freaked out a dog becomes when they hear fireworks or something like that. The night that followed, he walked around alllll nightttttt! I couldn't get him to chill out and lay down for just a second. This changed a little bit. Last night before going to bed (after a looonnggg day of lots of fun and excersize), he just went to bed normally but I woke up again from him wandering. He ended up sleep right next to me on the floor (he never does that). It comes in phases but he is stressed 80% of the time. With stressed I mean; constantly panting, yawning, walking around etc etc. We have moved around before and he has never had any issues, ever. He always got used to all the places we went to. He was checked out by a vet and there aren't any issues, it really seems to be another 'something' or somekind of noise that sets him off. He only sleeps now when he is really tired and he only eats outside when you hand feed him. I'm trying to be as relaxed as possible around him but it does make me feel sad to know he is so uncomfortable! I'm almost certain its a sound in this (old) house that I cant hear that freaks him out. That sound, isn't going away. The last time, I could take the problem away, but now.... No clue what to do!