Hello from a newbie

[melinda]

Hello all,

I have been pointed in the direction of this forum by Bev, who i'm hoping is going to fly in here like superwoman and sort my dogs out with me 

I am the proud owner of a 'difficult' (polite word) rough collie named Simba, she is 3.5years old and a bit messed up, we've had her 2 years and got her because we 'felt sorry for her'...that old chestnut.  She's very lovely when you know her but has a bit of a reputation as a grump among our family and friends, though she's a rather inconsistent grump who will love you today and growl at you tomorrow  .  She's lovely for us though, at least, and is a million times better than she was.  She's very clever and neurotic and we can see she's a star waiting to shine, we just want others to see her that way too.

We have also very recently (as in 2 days ago) adopted a second dog from Dogs Trust, he's called Oscar and he's an 'English Pointer crossbreed' according to his paperwork, but we think he's actually a purebred as do the centre staff, so I don't know why they've called him a cross - not that it matters to us.  He's lovely and has settled in remarkably quickly, but he's very 'exuberant' and needs some training on how not to pull my arm out of its socket on walks...and not to chase pigeons with me dragging along behind, and eventually a reliable recall!

Bev is hopefully going to enlighten me as to the best way to sort my terrible twosome out, so nice to join you all!

Melinda

Oscar...


Simba...

[carlos33]

hello and welcome from me, carl and willow.

[Izzie]

Hiya Mel 

[melinda]

Hello Izzie!  Nice to see/hear you here too 

Thanks for the welcome Carl&gem, Willow is just gorgeous!

[Izzie]

Hows Molly doing hon, keep meaning to ask 

[melinda]

She's fabulous, as always, such a perfect little spaniel girly and I do miss her quite a lot being so far away.  I've been down visiting a fair bit though, so not all bad.

She's been at the vets a fair bit recently, she's got loads of scabs on her skin and we think it might be due to her swimming in manky water/algae, but she's under treatment now and banned from dirty water (yeah right).  She's also had an ear infection and one of her tear ducts has stopped working (related to her hereditary eye problem), but she's being treated for the lot and she is still mad as a hatter, bless her.    She is a one for the 'problems' is our Mol, if it's not being partially blind and bashing into things or getting bitten by adders, it's something else 
 

[Izzie]

best bet is to speak to Val on here nicely, she will help you with regards to her skin probs, ear probs and most likely her eye probs.
 

[*Nat*]

Hi and welcome, hope you get your problems sorted 

[kerrie and stan]

hi and welcome

[xtine]

Hi from me and Fritz.. lovely looking dogs.. good luck with Bev 

[SuzAndTheDiva]

Hello and welcome.

[Val]

Hallo and Welcome what is the breeding of your Rough sounds like Bev will have fun training her  when you are ready stick up the problems with your other dog and the food and treatments she has had we will see if we can sort it
Val

[melinda]

Thanks for the welcome everyone 

Bev came to see us this morning and has enlightened us on a whole host of problems we hadn't even realised the dogs had...so we're really looking forward to getting them sorted out and happy.

Val, the other dog lives with my mum and dad down in Devon, she's one I adopted when I was living there and they kept her when I moved out to university.  She's a puppy farm rescue Cocker spaniel and has congenital cataracts which make her partially sighted, deformed feet and a whole host of things wrong with her.  We got her as a 4 month old pup from the local shelter.  She's got a fab temperament and you wouldn't ever know she's nearly blind!

I think they feed her on a mixture of food, lots of chicken, beef and mixer.  I'm not sure exactly what she's been treated with, will ask my sister but I know she's had eye drops, medicated shampoo and ear drops which according to them have been working quickly.

Simba is a 'Jamesfair' collie.  Bev has assured us she's not quite as grumpy as we first thought, her grumblings are her 'noises', you learn something new every day!

[kizkiznobite]

hi mel and welcome

think the wee spanner needs a diet change...i would drop the beef...vals ear cleaner would help the ears...rec in the sticky area....

rough collies  they can sing an aria in 3 minutes flat...she has a fine contralto voice  bless her she sooo tiny....she needs a bit of un grumping 

the boyo ...well poor lado had a bit of a tough time me thinks....too much punishment not enough reward...he will get there...

[melinda]

Hi Bev!

will tell the parents to cut the beef out of Molly's diet. She's a spaniel food hoover or 'tummy with legs to carry her to food' as my dad calls her.  She'll eat absolutely anything!

The skin complaint has come up recently and she likes to splosh about in bogs (they live in the Dartmoor area) and the vet thinks she has had a reaction to something icky in the water, so she's getting hosed off when she gets home now.  She was bitten by an adder last year and has hurt herself a few times, she's a bit accident prone, probably down to her eyesight I guess.  I will look up the ear cleaner and pass it on.

Simba is teeny tiny isn't she, or 'concentrated rage' as we used to call her    She was pretty good earlier, she didn't get into full gremlin mode (obviously knew not to do it in front of you!)

I'm feeling sad about poor Oscar and what you've said about him,  but onwards and upwards and no more smackings will come his way  ever again, that's in his past