JulesP

He may not be a foody dog but it may be that you are using the wrong food. I thought I was being so clever one day using raw steak and the dogs were not fussed at all! But cat kibble, well that is the best apparently. If it makes you feel better all the kelpies I come across are acting like yours.

I find that most dogs don't seem very bothered by my dogs stalking them. They don't even seem to notice what my pair are up to. Stalking their Belgian Shepherd friends is their fav game. How are the other dogs reacting? If your dog is on a lead then no one has anything to be complaining about. Maybe take him off the path and get him to sit and focus on you. That is what I do if I can see there is potentially going to be problems. If it is a person with a small white fluffy then I just make a bit of a joke 'it isn't a sheep' and move on.

RIP Grumpy. Big hugs Sheridan.

Poppy isn't a super drooly dog but the VIP makes her drool in anticipation, lol. I got one of the rolls to try this week. Thumbs down for Propac though. It made her coat go crap and she didn't much like it, which says alot as she eats anything.

Very sorry to hear LittleMissOdie . Glad she made it out of the op ok though.

Same Jules :)

Yogurt is quite good for powders.

LOL, OK anniek I think I may be able to help you here or give you some hope. I rang VIP foods and spoke to a lady about the product and this is what she said. They hope to have the product in Coles in about 2 months they are negotiating with them (Coles) at the moment about stocking the product. Also they are hoping to get it out in 8Kg bags but it appeared as though the supermarkets prefer it in small bags, could be something to do with space on their shelves I think. Keep your fingers crossed that it may be able to be purchased at another supermarket soon and that may appear in 8 Kg bags. but I guess the size of the bag doesn't really matter, I usually buy 4 at a time, just that if OH is heading to Woolies and I ask him to buy 'some' he only brings back one bag :laugh: Guess I just need to train him better. "Hubby buy 4 bags of ..." :laugh: You have to tell them exactly!!

Was feeding Poppy this and Purina One. Felt guilt, went and got some super premium food and her coat/skin has got really dry! Mmmmmm

Brock greeted me with a lovely tongue kiss one day. I thought it tasted a bit more ick than normal. He went back to his bed and as I walked past I saw that he was chewing on a dead rat. Dead rat kisses

Very happy for you! He is lovely. Hope you have lots of fun together.

I know a dog that was debarked. The noise she makes is just as loud as a bark but is a horrid high pitched squeal now. It is certainly not preferable to a normal bark.

I feed 3 times a day because of Amber. The optimal meal schedule for her is actual 6 meals but I thought that was over the top a bit. Feeding Poppy the same amount of food but over 3 meals stacked the weight on her. So if you are having trouble with weight gain this would be a good thing to try. Prior to that I had been feeding 2 times a day. I seem to remember feeding once a day years and years ago. Changed to two because I had lots of young dogs for a couple of years.

I feed kibble for breakfast and lunch. For dinner they get wet food. Amber is on Hills Prescription diet as she has a liver condition, which is also why the 3 meals a day. Poppy has various kibbles and really does ok on most of them, at night she gets a variety of stuff from chicken necks to Natures Gift. I used to feed BARF (not the patties, made it up myself) and then moved to 50% kibble 50% raw. Would still feed like that except for Amber's condition. Why? I like to hedge my bets.

You could try a thundershirt. http://www.k9pro.com.au/products/Thundershirt.html

Thanks so much :) Amber was given less than 6 months to live and this food plus medication has got her over a year so far. Amber says thanks too! (and OMG I use tinypic for my photos and you have to type in spam filter and the one for this pic was dog's breakfast!)

It really isn't good enough! I shouldn't have said Amber was doing well on the k/d as she is now having quite bad fluid build up.

I've got a couple of my pups at Xmas anyhow. I like having a couple of weeks off work to spend with the new pup so Xmas works well.

The buyer might have backed out. I had that happen at week 8. Very upsetting. Luckily puppy sold straight away when I re-advertised so I didn't end up trying to sell an older pup. Second buyer was great. Pup was a surprise pressie . They called me when the dog died of old age to see if I was still breeding as they loved her so much.

if you are going to quote someone's ad, best to get it right as it is easy to identify the breeder. The ad actually says Nothing about "must go before Christmas". It is understandable that the price is reduced as the pup grows older, and I am guessing the breeder maybe wants to get the pup settled in a new home prior to the silly season. Makes sense to me. Cant see anything cheesy or disturbing or sad at all A Reg breeder should know better then to buy into the 'puppy for christmas' jig, but that's just my opinion. It say 'before' Christmas not 'for' Christmas. The breeder could be going away or something.

Most of the 'extra' things on my list have more to do with how the breeder keeps their dogs and what they do with them. Not what happens when I get the puppy. I was very upset with my breeders lack of care factor when my young dog got sick. I had at this stage got 3 dogs from her and helped her rehome a couple. I thought the relationship was a bit beyond breeder/owner. We had fairly regular contact for a number of years (5+). I think this reflects on her as a person though rather than her as a breeder. I didn't even call the breeder of my young cat I just lost as I had no relationship with them at all.

I doubt that the majority of the general public would be thinking that they can hand back dogs to the breeder, unless the breeder has stated that in the beginning. There are certainly lots of posts on here about people rehoming dogs via Gumtree and the cry is always - have they told the breeder. People from here have even tried to find the breeder to let them know. That a breeder will take back any dog in any circumstance is not on my list of criteria btw. It is nice that a breeder will help out someone to rehome a dog if needed. And if one of their pups was in trouble (in pound) I would hope that they would rescue the dog.

Yes. I think that it's a very subjective thing, everyone will have different ideas of what THEY believe is ethical and will look for a breeder who matches this. I certainly don't have anything against registered breeders who don't do all the things I would like done, I just wouldn't get a puppy from them. Part of the problem is that CC registered breeders have a code of ethics - yet many of them don't really know what they say and what they have agreed to and those in the public decide what they think is ethical and expect that everyone else will be and think the same way. no one has any right to have an expectation on a registered breeder for anything that's not in their code of ethics. that's all they agreed to and all they are held accountable for . Ask people to define ethical and you dont get the same answer from anyone same with the term reputable. When people make up their own ethics unless there is an accountability process many of them will justify doing something outside of that if they think its better for attaining their goals some of them will have higher and lower standards - no amount of laws will help that. I have every right to buy a puppy from someone that meets my personal expectations of what is ethical. I actually don't care one bit about the ANKC rules or whatever. I make up my own mind about what I think is ok or not. How can you determine if what you see and what you are told is as it is? Because I will know the breeder or have a guarantee from someone that does.

You obviously don't get at all what I am saying therefore any further discussion is pointless.

Yes. I think that it's a very subjective thing, everyone will have different ideas of what THEY believe is ethical and will look for a breeder who matches this. I certainly don't have anything against registered breeders who don't do all the things I would like done, I just wouldn't get a puppy from them. Part of the problem is that CC registered breeders have a code of ethics - yet many of them don't really know what they say and what they have agreed to and those in the public decide what they think is ethical and expect that everyone else will be and think the same way. no one has any right to have an expectation on a registered breeder for anything that's not in their code of ethics. that's all they agreed to and all they are held accountable for . Ask people to define ethical and you dont get the same answer from anyone same with the term reputable. When people make up their own ethics unless there is an accountability process many of them will justify doing something outside of that if they think its better for attaining their goals some of them will have higher and lower standards - no amount of laws will help that. I have every right to buy a puppy from someone that meets my personal expectations of what is ethical. I actually don't care one bit about the ANKC rules or whatever. I make up my own mind about what I think is ok or not.