My new rescue girl

con1888

It's tomorrow guys, she is in Perth which is about an hour and a half drive from me and the rescue had to use their transport to go rescue a dog so she couldn't come tonight. She is coming tomorrow around lunchtime.

Her ID came in the post today, have fitted it to her collar , everything is ready.
Just having a relaxing night with a takeaway and chilling out.

con1888

krlyr wrote: »

Just bear in mind that GSDs don't always like "nice and warm"! Lots of ours preferred to sleep by the back door, presumably liking the cooler kitchen tiles and slight draught under the door. Casper often took himself up out of the living room and into the kitchen - I say used to, our new house doesn't have a great difference in temperature between the rooms like the old house did, but he definately has a preference for it a bit cooler.

I use a variety of brushes for different purposes. My shorthaired (her coats a bit more Rottie than GSD, but still double-coated) is mostly brushed with a slicker brush like in your link. It helps pull out the undercoat.
Another brush I have is a combination of a plastic pin brush and a bristle brush - haven't been able to find them online whenever I've looked but I think it's a Rosewood one. It's square like the one you've got but it's got both of these kinds of brushes, but combined into one side (the bristle bits are about half a cm shorter than the pins)
http://www.petsathome.com/shop/large-double-sided-brush-by-pets-at-home-28351
I find this helps pick up loose hair as well as massaging the skin, which can help promote healthy hair growth.

I have a Mikki MoultMaster, which is Mikki's version of the Furminator. I don't use it that often, I have found it to damage Kiki's coat if used too often. Just once a month or so, when the dogs are looked tufty
http://www.petsathome.com/shop/matt-master-for-fine-medium-matts-by-mikki-26689

Finally, I've just replaced my own hairbrush and I'm finding my old one fab for Casper's long hair, but it doesn't do much for Kiki. It's just a regular paddle-shaped pin brush, I loved it for my own hair as it never seemed to catch on knots, it untangled them easily, and it seems to do the same with Casper's

Save your money and avoid petshop bought flea and worming treatments, many have become inaffective. Definately avoid the Bob Martins products, not only do they not tend to work, but some have been known to cause bad reactions.
If you speak to the vet or a vet nurse, they should be happy to discuss a flea and worming treatment regime to suit you. Some may have some kind of discount payment plan to take advantage of, or some may have low prescription fees that make it cheaper to buy the products online. My vet writes a prescription for a £6 fee, and then I order the flea treatment online at half the price my vets sell it (my vets aren't a ripoff but just don't have the bulkbuying power and low overheads of an online pharmacy). I personally use Advocate monthly and then Drontal every 6 months - Advocate covers fleas and most worms (including lungworm - find out if this is a problem in your area as Advocate and Panacur are the only treatments for it) but Drontal is needed once in a while to cover for tapeworm, as that's one that Advocate doesn't cover. It works out about £5 a month for the Advocate per dog, and £4 for the Drontal (so neglible costs if you divide that by 6 months!). If lungworm isn't a concern in your area then you could use an alternative flea treatment, or just use it less often.

Thanks her bed is near the backdoor at one end and the radiator at the other (it's huge) so she can choose if she wants hot or cool.

I think lungworm is a problem in my area as the vet have a poster up warning about it on their window and the reception desk so will be speaking to the vet regarding flea and worm treating, had an idea they were best place, I get my cats from the vet.

krlyr

As far as I am aware, the only treatment for lungworm (there is no preventative as such) is two doses of Advocate (given a month apart - one dose will reduce an infection but two is needed to "cure" it) or a 7-10 day course of Panacur (longer than the one-off dose for regular worms or a 3 day course sometimes given). The wormer Milbemax will reduce an infection but not treat it. Over-the-counter treatments from petshops won't do anything for it, so it's definately a vet trip if you want to cover lungworm.
You have a few options though. In my old house, I felt we were quite high risk, living next to a farm it meant there was always long grass for my two to graze on, we got tons of slugs and snails, the dog's part of the garden was a nightmare to mow, so I thought I would be extra cautious and used Advocate every month. As I said, there's no preventative medication so all you can do is treat as if there's an infection. So if you assumed she's not been treated and collected her tomorrow, you might want to give her a week or so to settle in, but perhaps administer it on the 1st of April. If she has lungworm, this will reduce an infection. Come May 1st, you will dose her again and she should now be completely lungworm-free. However, if she ate a lungworm-infected snail on May 5th, she's now reinfected. So by treating her on June 1st, you're eradicating any infection she may have picked up in that last month. July 1st, you'll kill off any lungworm infection from June. And so on. So she may still catch it, but by constantly treating for it, the infection should never get severe enough to cause serious problems.
However, if lungworm isn't such an issue, you might want to only treat occasionally. Remember that 2 doses are necessary, you so can't just give her a dose of Advocate once every quarter, or every 6 months. It'd have to be, for example, April 1st, May 1st, then have a gap. August 1st, September 1st, then a gap. I might start giving my two a gap month to reduce the amount of chemicals I'm administering, I haven't spotted too many slugs etc. around here, but I might go back to more frequently when the weather gets damper or when I start to let mine go off-lead (at the moment they stay on longlines most of the time so I can see what they're up to more easily and whether they might be munching on a snail!)
Some people choose to only treat once a year, around/just after peak slug season (Autumnish, when it's all rainy and miserable), to reduce the amount of chemicals they give. But speak to your vet, find out if it's a real threat or if they're just being wary because it's a relatively new thing cropping up around the UK.
As said, Panacur is the other option but when I priced this up, it actually works out more expensive because you have to give such a long course of it.
Advocate covers every kind of worm except tapeworm, so you only need to occasionally give a seperate worming product - as said, I do it every 6 months as per my vet's recommendation.

con1888

Thanks will definately speak to vet to see how much an issue it it, to be honest I had never heard of it til I read the poster in vet. My old dog was scared of slugs and snails luckily.

I can't contain my excitement lol

Wellyboots6

Boooo! I was all excited when I logged on hoping to see an update!

Shall have to check back again tomorrow evening

con1888

Sorry Women was so apologetic to me when she phoned me to tell me she can't come today.

I'm really tired anyways and have managed to cut the grass so at least it has been productive and I haven't sat around waiting.

Going to have a long lie tomorrow so that lunchtime comes quicker :P

Sagz_2

Last sleep as a non-dog owner! I think we are all as excited as you are

Will be waiting for pics - she looks lovely in your original post Con, has a really kind face.

con1888

I hope she settles soon, not sure what to do on her first night cos I don't want to let her upstairs as worried it wont be good for her legs. Don't want her to feel lovely either though.

Wellyboots6

Do you know if she was ok to be left at her previous home?

You might find she is used to sleeping downstairs.

Mine used to be allowed all over the house, but I decided he wouldn't be allowed upstairs. When he first came in to the house he was told 'no' when he went to go up the stairs and he didn't try again.

I had a crate for him, so put his bed in there, fed him in there etc and at night closed the door with him in it.

He did cry for the first 15 minutes the first night, 10 minutes the second night and then stopped. After about a week I stopped shutting him in and he has been fine. He used to sleep in his crate anyway without being closed in.

I eventually sold the crate however as it took up a lot of room and he only ever used it to sleep in. He now has his own little corner in the living room he uses as his bedroom

krlyr

Going upstairs for a week or two isn't going to be a major thing, especially if it's just at bedtime (rather than up and down all day). Personally, all my dogs have always slept downstairs from day one, the only time they're in the bedroom is if there's a practical need for it (e.g. used to have a sofabed downstairs at the old house, dogs were kept in our bedroom otherwise they'd wake guests up in the middle of the night licking their faces!), I don't have an issue with doing it on the odd occasion but I know that when unsupervised, they can play silly games running up and down stairs chasing each other (have heard them when they thought I wasn't nearby!) and I worry that this'll put strain on their legs or that they'll fall down the stairs.
I would say see how she goes. If she is distressed sleeping downstairs then it will probably be beneficial to "give in" to her shortterm and slowly wean her out of the room, rather than force her to stay downstairs in the hope that it'll pass and distress her more. You could always shift yourself downstairs for the first few nights, so she's not alone but she's not in the habit of sleeping upstairs.