[Redeemer8]

Originally Posted by Behemoth

Give him two raw eggs with his meal everyday and his coat will be shiny and fresh (after 2 weeks). The cod liver oils are also helpful and eggs as they contain sulphur, keep the skin healthy.

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

SevenSeas is fantastic for dogs coats. Fish oil.

Originally Posted by Aroy

If there is no other recourse then of course oil capsules are excellent substitute.

Thanks for your response. I've tried giving him supplements for coat such as Beaphar Salmon Oil, Glossy Coat, Advance etc. Will try the alternatives suggested.

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

My intent is to do my best to prolong their time with us as much as possible and keep them happy and healthy as much as I can.

I truly appreciate your efforts in taking care of your pets. Even I love my Bruno a lot but some times feel guilty for not spending enough time with him.

Posting couple of his pictures since the time we brought him home in May 2011. ( He was only 06 weeks old when I got him from Bangalore & seen sleeping in the pic after his journey and having had his meal ) & the other ones taken during subsequent period !!

[Aditya]

Athos turns 10 years old today.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by Redeemer8

I truly appreciate your efforts in taking care of your pets. Even I love my Bruno a lot but some times feel guilty for not spending enough time with him.

If we don't do this much, we'll only regret it. Even though one may try to spend maximum time with them, when the dogs pass on and go to the great gig in the sky, one still feels that one hasn't done enough.
The sad thing is that we always outlive them. But in a way it is better than they outliving us, because they will probably feel sadder about us passing on than we do when they pass on...and they can't speak so it makes it worse. (Actually they can speak, only they don't speak "human", but if one listens and is close to one's pets, then one will always understand what they are saying...

[Redeemer8]

Originally Posted by Aditya

Athos turns 10 years old today. Attachment 1556521

A very warm happy birthday to him

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

If we don't do this much, we'll only regret it. Even though one may try to spend maximum time with them, when the dogs pass on and go to the great gig in the sky, one still feels that one hasn't done enough.
The sad thing is that we always outlive them. But in a way it is better than they outliving us, because they will probably feel sadder about us passing on than we do when they pass on...and they can't speak so it makes it worse. (Actually they can speak, only they don't speak "human", but if one listens and is close to one's pets, then one will always understand what they are saying...

I completely understand what you're trying to convey. Its a very special bond that we share with our pets. I can't think of him leaving us, I pray for him every day. I can't discuss this subject with anyone as I get very emotional since he is like my son.

[faithless_1984]

Finally i can post in this thread again ! After losing our beloved Maggi 6 years ago we`v become proud parents of a baby girl again.



We`v named her Eva. Got her home last week and life has changed for the better ! She`s just 50 days old (Lhasa Apso) and is extremely naughty, i just want to play with her all the time and get all the unconditional love i can.

[vamsi.kona]

Another case of human brutality towards animals and, once again done by medicos who are expected to treat patients with compassion and understanding.

In the said case four medical students in Vellore tortured a monkey by tying its limbs and then breaking them and finally killing it by inserting a sharp object through its anus. These people should be given the hardest of jail term. If they can be so cruel towards an animal which didn't cause them any harm I shudder to think what they are capable towards someone against whom they hold a grudge.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/55591407.cms

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by vamsi.kona

Another case of human brutality towards animals and, once again done by medicos who are expected to treat patients with compassion and understanding.

In the said case four medical students in Vellore tortured a monkey by tying its limbs and then breaking them and finally killing it by inserting a sharp object through its anus. These people should be given the hardest of jail term. If they can be so cruel towards an animal which didn't cause them any harm I shudder to think what they are capable towards someone against whom they hold a grudge.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/55591407.cms

That level of brutality is incomprehensible! I couldn't bear to watch that, but the description was enough. What the heck is wrong with us as a species that some of us are evolving with such minds?
These are weak people showing their weakness against a an animal. The sentient ones amongst us have gone from getting angry to being sad. It would be too much to ask for forgiveness for what we do.

[drmohitg]

Is this to do anything with the generally accepted, and sometimes cheered, unofficial culling of stray dogs in the neighbouring state of kerala? It might be happening in TN too. I don't really understand why will anyone do this. More horrific is the thought of how many hundreds of other animals must be tortured this way as we speak and go unreported. Also did they themselves shoot the video or was it done by someone else? Couldn't they have intervened?

[vamsi.kona]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

Also did they themselves shoot the video or was it done by someone else? Couldn't they have intervened?

I didn't have enough heart to watch the video, but from the news I gather that there were others watching.

[dark.knight]

For all the animal lovers and haters (who might constitute the majority), here are a few things to ponder upon. The earth is roughly 4.5 billion years old, life began conservatively around 2 billion years later and it wasn't life as we know it.. just evolving microorganisms at a microscopic level growing and disappearing almost by the billions, with no particular purpose or sense of existence. Earth was almost always a water planet (ancient names of Tiamat by Sumerians and Gaia by Greeks depicted the planet as the water goddess) and the first evolved signs of life came through water beings.. the primitive form of fungi, fish and bacteria that we know today.

Dinosaurs came only 200 million years ago, almost a blip when compared to the real age of Earth. They evolved, thrived and were known as the rulers of the Mesozoic era and went extinct almost 65 million years ago. The most unevolved, rudimentary form of man came not more than 20 million years ago, and for all intents and purposes he was an animal as well, a mammal but not human. Evidences of societal living, housing etc point to a date not more than 30,000 years ago, at best, based on carbon datings. This is exactly 1/150000th the age of earth itself, thats how long the semi modern man has been around with the so called most developed society ever being not more than 2000 years B.C, around the same time as The Hammurabi Code (1700 b.c) and of course the Talmudic Mosaic laws (in 1300 b.c).

Our presence on this earth has been a microsecond in the decade of the evolution of earth and yet we bear the arrogance and impression that we've always dominated over earth. We've come so far and yet all we could achieve is this moral and financial squalor, where all that matters is power or money, and the only result of that is moral corruption at its highest state. Lives don't seem to matter, human or animal. We took over forests, jungles, oceans, mountains and rivers, we need to control all life, incuding those in the air and now based on monetary power we seek to control the humans as well. The stage is set for a perfect disaster. Sodom and Gomorrah were virtuous cities compared to the world that is today.

I hope we all wake up to realise that earth is one and we're of the same oneness. True power is in being good and identifying the pains and realities of every aspect of nature. I hope this is achieved before its too late and we take a full circle back to caveman era. People will be dancing with their Mbbs, BTech and PGDBM degrees around a fire worshipping some morally deprived celebrity.

[TorqueyTechie]

For all the dog owners in Bangalore there is a new park opened which helps to exercise, socialize and have fun for the dogs. This is opened in whitefield area and is open all days of the week including weekends. You can reserve the place online as well. Cost for one session is 200 rs and it is for 1 hour. In one session only 15 dogs are allowed it seems.

Link : Dog Park

P.S : I am not involved with the organization in any way nor have seen the above park myself. Just saw it while browsing and thought of mentioning here.

[swiftnfurious]

Looks like a pet adoption drive happening at Bandra today & tomorrow (26 & 27 Nov 2016).

https://www.facebook.com/worldforall/

Edit:

Originally Posted by drmohitg

...and sometimes cheered, unofficial culling of stray dogs in the neighbouring state of kerala?...

I'll try to answer this here. Kerala has seen a good rise in animal attacks on humans and a lot of babies (especially) have been murdered by such animals. And no one (officials) tried to contain the issue. On top of it, Menaka Gandhi proposes imposing KAPA and some other very serious charges to those who try to kill dogs, which adds fuel to fire. (Instead, she could have worked out some steps with the relevant ministry to bring about a positive change / allocate funds to sterilise the dogs or give them shelter & food).

Unfortunately, she doesn't have anything creative to suggest / implement instead of staying in the headline with absurd suggestions. How much ever a dog lover I am, I believe an aggressive dog (if it attacks people) should be either quarantined or killed, but not brutally. The massive culling started after Menaka Gandhi's atrocious statements, which irritated the common people of Kerala. No babies deserve to be mauled to death.

When people have had enough of this, they took it on themselves to clear the mess because they also have a family who are scared to walk on the roads due to the attacks. They also probably wanted to send a strong message to people like Menaka Gandhi that they are not scared of her power. Unfortunately again, those who cry foul are those from the higher strata of the society who usually commute in their private vehicles and definitely not in the problem places.

I still don't think there are any measures done to sterlise these dogs or move them to any shelters yet, inspite of all these problems.

Some time back, Kochouseph Chittilappilly had demanded the killing of dogs and there was stiff discussion on his "inconsiderate" statement on FB and a whole lot of them were using uncivilised language. One look at his wikipedia and you'll know he has a philanthropist side too and is not someone who just "speaks" high level stuff, but he does his part too towards helping the ones in need.

Having said this, I also believe that a lot of friendly dogs too are being killed in Kerala because they see all dogs to be problematic. And no, I don't support the brutal way of killing those either. There should be selective killing (if required) of the rabies infected dogs but that could still be done in a more civilised way.

[pdma]

Its been close to 3 years that my wife has been asking for a pet, however I always found reasons (most common) to push the thought aside and override her plans (a very rare occurrence).
As parents of single child we did want our kid to have a companion however I was skeptical to get a dog home. My kid is now 6 years old and from the last 1 year the push from my wife intensified and I had to budge (nothing new I agree).
So the preparation kicked in about 6 months back before we even started checking a few pups. A checklist was prepared, and some of the points included were as below (not in any specific order)

• Have good information on dogs
• How to choose the right pet
• Find a very good vet
• Find a place where we can leave the pet when on vacation.
• Food
• Precautions needed
• Training
• Deciding on the breed

We lost the count of hours spent on reading articles and watching videos on dogs and their behaviors. After a good healthy debate we have decided on getting a Labrador, a medium sized friendly dog. Space is not a constraint as we have an independent house with abundant place to play and run around.
It became extremely tough to find the right place from where we can get a good healthy pup. The market is full of people who just want your money and least bothered about transparency.

As part of our preparation, we went around the city find a good boarding place, visited many, finally progressive kennels caught our attention and we finalized on this place. During the conversation with the owners we received very good information on how to take care of the pets and more importantly how to pick the right pup. As part of our conversation we were strictly instructed not to pick any pup without looking / spending time at least with the mother of the litter.
We came across multiple people offering to sell the best pups but none willing to show us the mother. A very renowned kennel near Secundrabad - suchitra area (on the Medak highway) showed us a 50days old pup, but denied showing us the mother, however they constantly emphasized that the parents were from their kennel and they are actually somewhere inside, where we are not allowed to go.
A quick look around shows that the asking price for the pups is anywhere between 4k - 25k and such wide range threw us in a fix, also an experience at one of the kennel mentioned above confirmed that paying a higher price doesn't guarantee transparency.
We even came across a very nice website and when we raised a query, someone called us and said they will send the pup via flight from Kolkatta and the price was huge off course. The pics shared looked awesome, however a more detailed search over the internet confirmed that this kennel in Kolkatta is fraud and one of the biggest cheat of all.
Most of the people we came across to name a few (fur & feathers, JSSS, SS Kennels etc..,) wanted us to pay half the money by just looking at the picture and remaning after the delivery. None were ready to show us the pup in real. None of these sellers gave any confidence to us and all looked to be more eager on your purse than giving you clarity. Our search was getting tougher so we shifted our focus back to reading and other things we had on our prep list.

We looked for a good vet and finally decided on one in Madhapur, went and met him in person and got some additional information from what we had from progressive kennels. We went to Progressive Kennels a few more times to get our kid acquainted to dogs and the owners were very happy to allow us to spend time with some of their own pets and they allowed my son to get comfortable with one of the most silent pets of theirs (Progressive Kennels is a pet training and boarding place, the folks here are very genuine and unfortunately they are not into breeding so we cannot pick a pup from them). Anyone here with children at home, planning to get pets do get your kids acquainted to pets so that they build a comfort level.

A few weeks passed by and our information seeking spread towards training and food for the pet and we came across some wonderful videos by Ramachandran on you tube. Loved all his videos and we continue to watch them so that we get more understanding.

On the food part many existing owners suggested pedigree / royal canine.
We read a lot and eventually my wife is convinced that cooking food the right way for dogs at home is definitely healthy, however for packaged food our search continued as we were not convinced (after some extensive reading) with the pedigree or Royal canine.

Finally we have come across Orijen and we zeroed down on this after going through some extensive comparisons, made a note of the websites that are selling this as this not easily available.

A few weeks back, when I was searching for new posts over the popular websites that sell everything, I came across one specific post where the seller posted pics of 2 adult dogs along with the litter. I pinged him via the chat option and he confirmed my guess that the adult dogs were indeed parents. This got me interested and during further discussion he asked us to come over to check the litter, the parents. This was very promising.

The date and time was fixed, we reached his place as soon as we parked the car one large dog peeped from the balcony on the first floor of the house and within seconds it was followed by another one, this confirmed that both the dogs shown in the picture were indeed at the house. The owner greeted us warmly, took us upstairs were the litter was and they were just a week old, they did not even open their eyes.

He locked both the dogs in a room (there was no aggression displayed by any of the dogs, they were quietly waiting for the door to be opened) before he took us near the litter and we spent a few min there as we were clueless what to do, but there was a lot of excitement.
He explained a few things, then we were asked to go downstairs and wait for him. While we were waiting he released both the dogs and they came to us running with full energy.
The mother looked very healthy and huge (4 years old, yellow lab), very calm and composed it went around us for a few times, my wife gave it some nice patting and then it quietly moved away, but the father is a completely different character kind of naughty, he was very healthy too (2 years old, black lab) sprinting here and there and when my wife started patting him he just didn't want to move and wanted to stay there all day long :-).
Both the dogs are very nice and calm, no bad temperament and all the while we were getting a lot of info from the owner. The owner then showed us some history where he got his dogs, shared a lot of other details of the parents. All this while, the male dog was with us, however the female did return after a short while to take care of its babies.
After a good time spent we said good bye and came back home. All the time we were traveling back me and my wife had a huge smile plastered right across our faces as we knew that we found the place where we can pick the pup from.
I called the owner the next day and expressed our interest and requested for a negotiation on the price, he immediately said that price can be discussed later as he that is secondary for him, but in case we are sure he wanted us to come back to his place pick a pup of our choice so that he will not give it to anyone else. As soon as he pushed the price part aside I felt very good as I know from my past experience how tough people were on the price where they were not even willing to show the puppy.

The color choice was black, so we went back after few days, the litter had 3 black pups, 2 male and 1 female. We picked a black male, as it was the first pup that was born in the litter (some said that the first pup is the most healthiest, not sure how true, as we did not come across any verified facts)
It is very easy to identify him as the second black pup had a small white patch below his neck, and the 3rd one was a female. the owner then brought 2 files which had the complete medical history of the parents along with their vaccination details and asked us to check them. We had a good look at it and everything looked fine. A very short discussion on the price, he asked me what i had in mind, I gave a figure 10K - 40% less than the figure he quoted on his post (that was the max budget I had in mind when we started looking for pups), he was fine. I did an online transfer of the amount and he acknowledged the receipt.
He keeps sending is pics of the pups, and now our wait starts for the pup to grow a little older so that we can bring him home.

While the wait continues for a few more weeks, our search for information extended further now to pet friendly floor cleaners (want to get rid of the regular phenyl etc.., we are using now that would be harmful), chew sticks, food bowls etc.., and the digging of information is in progress.
I will look forward for advice / information from you down the line and all suggestions are welcome .

PS : The debate on the name is still ongoing, we are looking for a name with a good meaning, easy, small and something that sounds Indian , will keep you all posted.

A few pics, more would follow in the coming weeks after the pup comes home.

The little one with my father and my son.



The parents.



Cheers,
Pradeep.

[Aroy]

That is a nice experience. Here are a few tips on what we did when we got our lab :

1. Keep the puppy at home and do not let any street dog come near, as they may infect the pup.

2. Check with the Vet and get the first set of shots, I think it is at 3 months. Our Vet gave us a printed chart where he would paste the lable from the vaccine. That way we have the history of all the shots given in the last 11 years.

3. A lab needs a lot of exercise, so ensure that he walks at least 4 to 5 km a day.

4. Labs will in general clean up as much food as you ladle up, so you have to be a bit miserly if you want them to grow up healthy and strong. Large breeds develop their leg muscles slowly till they are nearly 3 years old, so if the body grows fat too early the legs do not develop fully and may fail at 6 or 7 years of age.

5. Contrary to intuition the diet of a dog remains constant with age. The quantity consumed is same starting from about 4 months. So desist from increasing the quantity as the pup grows.

6. Our Lab has two meals and two snacks a day
. Morning - 1 glass of milk and a few biscuits
. Noon - 1 bowl of rice based food
. Evening - 1 glass of milk and a few biscuits
. Night - 1 bowl of rice based food

7. We cook rice in a 5L pressure cooker and that makes between 10 and 12 portions 5 to 6 days
. Vegetables - cabbage, cauliflower stems, pumpkin, bottle gourd, radish leaves etc. What ever is in season. Cut into small pieces. Quantity 1/2 the pressure cooker.
. Chicken carcass. We use the legs and boneless breast for our selves and the rest of the carcass - breast bone, wings, offal and neck for the dog. Sometimes waste pieces from mutton also. 1 chicken.
. Rice. Use parboiled rice as that has vitamin B and is more nutritious. - 3 to 4 cups.
. Garlic - about one medium sized one. Peeled and finely chopped.
. Turmeric - 1 teaspoon
. Dal - either Masoor or Moong - 1/2 cup
. Oil/Fat. This is essential for Labradors as their skin has to be well lubricated - a few table spoons. Alternatively you can use chicken/mutton fat.
. Water - about 4-6 cups. If you put rice first it should be 1 cm above the rice.

The cooker should now be full, within a couple of cm from the top. Put the cooker on the gas and stop after the first whistle. Let it rest for 1/2 hour. The above quantity will fill up between 10 and 12 take away containers (so if you use take away food hand on to the containers). Each container for one meal.

Depending on the inclination, your lab may or may not like raw carcass. In case he it likes, give one chicken carcass every month or so (we get our one from the market where they supply boneless chicken to clients). That will not only keep him happy but also keep the teeth clean.

Wishing you a long and happy relationship.

[trek]

Originally Posted by pdma

He keeps sending is pics of the pups, and now our wait starts for the pup to grow a little older so that we can bring him home.

Just curious and maybe concerned too, at what age is the pup separated from the mother in such cases? Doesn't the mother undergo trauma of her new born being taken away suddenly one day?