Sandra777

How old is this puppy?

Most supermarkets sell offal, if not a butcher's should. Personally I wouldn't be feeding anything less than human-grade offal to any dog. 10% of the meat can be offal I think it is, how often is less important than how much. Start small though, it's very rich and some dogs just won't eat it. Yes, Staffords can have the same problem with beef (I got one of those LOL). Have you ever tried him on beef? I'd be inclined to try because IMO allergies tend to pop up when the dog hasn't been exposed to something young (there are other reasons too obviously). Maybe just add a handful of ordinary beef mince or chunks (cheap supermarket stuff is fine for an experiment) to the usual food and see what happens. You usually get a skin reaction with beef, itchy feet, hotspots, something like that.

Canned fish is fine. I would include the eggshell in his mince and give him 2 or 3 a week no problems. Does your chicken mince include bone? Give him offal too - liver and kidney - species unimportant. A whole sheep's heart is a decent sort of snack too (this is a muscle meat though, not offal) I'd feed him chicken carcasses or maryland and chunks of roo meat in preference to mince if this was possible. Is there a reason you're avoiding beef & lamb?

I've never found Staffs to be particularly velcro dogs - not compared with the collie types for example - unless you have something of interest to them, or there's no sunny patch to sleep in. Get used to it - the dogs never grow out of being sooky lala's Not necessarily - treats are a tool not an end in itself. At some point you need to get him to obey just because you say so, not because you have treats. Hopefully the instructor at obedience will be able to help you sort out the line between "treat" and "bribe" He has to develop enough of an interest in the rest of the world to be able to occupy himself, but at the same time you have to keep control of the very best resources - so start thinking about things like really great toys that only come out when you choose, walks are an obvious one (only happen when you're there), and don't fall into the trap of cuddling him when he wants - insist on being able to cuddle him when you want - and if he comes begging for cuddles or pats don't always give them to him without him doing something for you first (sit, play dead, whatever). You control the stuff in life that he really wants (to a degree, it doesn't have to be a prison camp!) but you have to figure out what really gets him going, they're all different.

;) What breed is China Sandra ? Stafford with a big mouth and a bigger appetite

25 to 45 seconds. Less time if China is hungry and gets it just on the right angle.

What do YOU have to offer him that's better than whatever he can smell and investigate outside. He's learning about his world, in ways that interest a dog - smelling, chewing, licking etc. He is also entering a phase in his life where he will become more independent - for goodness sake encourage this or you will end up with a dog which is incapable of independent acting (thinking), totally clingy and lacking in personality. He needs room to develop as an individual - and I don't mean that in a "he needs to go find himself" new age sort of way either! Let him explore and do what he likes (within the rules) and encourage him to spend time away from you, interacting independently with his toys and the world - well the world within the back yard anyway Don't practice "for ages" He is a baby with a very short attention span. Don't expect his recall to be 100% until he's at least 8 or 9 months old. Practice in different places and always make it fun to come to you. Perfectly normal that he only comes when you have a really good treat otherwise, as said above...What do YOU have to offer him that's better than whatever he can smell and investigate outside. Blind obedience is not something SBTs know very much about. Normal. He is changing from a fat little baby to a leggy teenager, he will change shape, appear to loose weight and change his eating habits. Make sure you enforce the "go without" - 15 minutes to eat then nothing until the next meal time. Normal. He's trying you on. If you want him to sit before coming inside just keep on enforcing the rules - but don't call him, expect him to sit and if he doesn't leave him to it because what you are teaching him there is, come here, if you want to stay outside and do fun stuff don't sit. If you WANT him inside, call him, enforce the sit then bring him in. If he refuses to sit, make it happen, bring him inside and put him in his crate. If he comes to the door and you think he wants inside but he refuses to sit, don't leave him out because what he's learning is, if I come to the door someone comes to see me, then I can go and do what I like.

Staffords that are kept primarily inside don't grow a lot of coat so don't shed a great deal - but their hair is quite stiff so sticks to things and looks like bristles. Dogs which are outside a fair bit will grow a fluffy undercoat in winter so when they moult this there will be a fair bit of fluff about - it's soft and short and rolls into nice balls on the carpet :-) It's a simple matter to brush them every day for just a couple of minutes, twice a day if need be for the few days they're moulting. A rubber hound mitt is as good as anything else for this.

Glad to hear all is well

Same here - well OH did. Actually cost virtually nothing because the folding legs came off a table we already had and the top was from something else we were "recycling". The best part of making it yourself is you can make the top whatever size you want. Mine was for the PWD so could be smaller than the "big" commercial tables but bigger than the "small" commercial tables and you can add packing under the top to make it taller - but I'm a shorty so the legs were a good length anyway. Most expensive part was the rubber matting, glue was already in the shed. It was heavy (about 15kg) but really sturdy and impossible to break I agree with Ellz - buy sturdy for carting to shows unless you can afford to replace it every couple of years.

Sounds like kennel cough to me quite honestly. Only had it at our place once and it sounded like a TB ward cough cough hack hack hack

Is she still pooping? If she had a blockage and was throwing up I would be expecting her to be extremely lethargic - and either not pooping at all or only in very small quanitites. Difficult to know what to do - if it's a blockage and you mess about she could die very quickly, if it's not a blockage you could throw away a large chunk of cash. Does anyone know if plastic will show up on an ultrasound and if an ultrasound would be possible in this case?

Some of the best dogs in Australia are or have been white or predominantly white - so as long as they're a good dog they'll do well under most judges. There is the odd judge with colour prejudice and sometimes US judges get confused between the SBT where white is allowed and the Amstaff where it's not, but on the whole most judges are OK. Dogs with white ears can be more prone to being deaf but no, all white dogs are not deaf and in fact most white Staffords aren't deaf. When the specialised hairs inside the ears which transmit sound are white they don't work (that's the simple explanation!) and dogs with white ears are more likely to have this problem than dogs with coloured ears. Most white Staffords have skin pigment or even some ticking in the coat so they are less likely to have this problem. When buying a white puppy I would certainly be wanting to know what measures the breeder had taken to check for deafness. Staffords tend to have very fine hair and with white dogs they almost always have pink or mostly pink skin, which can lead to problems with sun burn and skin cancer. Allergies don't seem to be worse in the whites, but a white dog with an allergic reaction tends to look worse than a black one with the same reaction.

I would be wary of brisket bones in a dog the size & strength of a ridgeback. I know of three Staffordshire Bull Terriers which have tried to swallow beef brisket without chewing it to size - choked and died. I don't think this is such an issue with smaller dogs because they probably don't have the jaw strength to force the bone that far back in their mouths, but I would think a RR might do? Perhaps not a puppy, but do you REALLY want to find out the hard way? Hasn't put me off raw feeding, but no brisket ever passes my door Those big leg bones are not much use for anything except breaking teeth so I really couldn't recommend them. Perhaps toys rather than a bone would be a better idea? IMO bones are for when there is active human supervision, not for play time. Just my opinion of course!

Wouldn't you rather they were inside protecting YOUR territory - and possessions and family. Mind you - neither Staffords nor Boxers are considered any great shakes as "guard dogs" - hope you're prepared to hand out towels for licked-to-death burglars Crate for the Boxer, is the Stafford chew-proofed?

As a meal - IMO no. As a taste/texture/filler included in other food - don't see the harm as long as there's no allergy issues. My mum had care of one of my old bitches. All winter mum made an extra serving of porridge (oats) for Carla's breakfast, served with a dollop of cold water and some milk along with a chicken wing or mince. In the summer Carla had a weetbix and milk with a chicken wing or mince - or a specially made slice toast & marmite. (excuse the marmite, we're Kiwis ) She was never happy to come and stay with us and be served a chicken carcase straight out of the fridge

I don't agree that puppies need cereals but the reality is that a lot of people are going to feed their pups on commercial (cereal based) foods through their life so once they're eating meat properly I give them cereals of all sorts - commercial food included. I believe that if they aren't introduced to these things early it can contribute to allergy/sensitivity issues later. I wean them on to 100% meat and introduce what I consider to be "unnatural" things to them about 6 weeks. Rice, weetbix, pasta, commercial food, a bit of bread - all stuff the average owner is likely to give the dog. With our adults they will get bread when there's some going stale, rice pasta etc if there's left overs, commercial food if we're travelling but in the normal run of things no, not a lot of cereals in their diet.

Post your clinic's number and we can all phone up for you :D I just find it amazing that the vet schools in the USA are teaching the three year protocol as standard now but the Australian Vet Association isn't picking it up. I've met some great vet nurses over the years, it just so happens that not many of them are the first point of contact in the larger clinics - which is a shame IMO, but understandable - you trained to be a vet nurse not a receptionist

Just got to ask yellowgirl - when you "ring around" do you speak to the vet or to the underpaid kid on the front desk? I think you might find that if you actually spoke to the vets in the practice you would get a whole different story than you get from the girl on the phone (I know I do!) ETA: Gotta wonder about the internet hoax thing though!

Tongue is a muscle meat, very yummy - your dogs are lucky I didn't see them first(the tongues, not the dogs!) Very "dense" meat, can be fatty on the under part of the "big end", where it is attached to the animal but the flappy bit is very lean Search yahoogroups for a raw feeding group? I haven't looked for an Australian-specific one. I don't know of any forums like this one, just email groups. Maybe we could ask Troy for a raw feeding sub-forum on here????????????????

Is the ranger suggesting he's going to come and chip the dogs on his own/while you're not there????? Otherwise any sensible person would say I will need you to be there to hold their head while I chip them. It takes no time at all and except for extremely small dogs, is absolutely nothing to the dog. The needle is slightly larger than the needle used for vaccinations.

Firstly, I wouldn't be stopping people outside the family from patting her - you want her to accept "other people" as people too or you could end up with an aggressive or fearful dog who doesn't accept strangers. Obviously if others are interacting with her you need to control what happens (make sure she obeys your rules even when interacting with others for example). Joggers are very exciting because they're fast moving. I wouldn't be too wound up about it at this age, she's bound to want to look and will be excited by the movement so slowly and gently to do the job - if you get her associating joggers with bad experiences it could also make for problems - like chasing and biting because "joggers are bad" could get stuck in her mind. Set her up. Have a friend help out and get them to jog past. When she get fixated on them the friend stops moving completely and (on leash) you allow missy to approach (try not to let her pull like mad, but don't jerk her back much, you want her to approach) and she can have a good sniff. The "jogger" ignores her. Eventually she'll just go, huh, it's just a person and then the jogger can pat her and she'll realise joggers are good but not really interesting - but I'd avoid making the jogger too interesting or she'll just want to meet more of them! In 'real life' situations, get some really good treats and when you see a jogger coming start talking to her and make sure she knows you have the treats. If she glances at you, praise like mad, if she looks at you for longer, see if you can convince her to sit (however briefly!) and give her a treat. It will take patience. Teach her "watch" or "look" - where she looks at you (eye contact) on command, but this too will take patience! And later you can use this command if she's getting distracted.

Depends on the breed. Some breeds definitely have a "problem" with murmers so you've got to assume they have a genetic basis in some form or other. But murmers can occur in any breed so you need to do some research about what is specific to the breed you are interested in.

Apart from the fact that a "heart murmer" covers a lot of things, from serious to totally benign and everything in between - it also depends on the cause of the murmer. If the breed you have is well known for the problem and it is suspected of having a genetic base, then the breeder should be paying close attention to this in their breeding programme. If murmers are not a well known problem in the breed and/or is not suspected of having a genetic base AND your dog developed the murmer after he left the breeder - how is the breeder meant to know there is a problem and how can they be blamed for selling "unhealthy" dogs. I would find out first if the breed is known to have a problem. I would then find out if any mode of inheritance is suspected or known and if there are any genetic or diagnostic checks recommended to be carried out on breeding stock of that breed. Armed with this knowledge I would then seek the advice of a specialist vet for a proper diagnosis - the vast majority of heart murmers have no effect at all on the animal concerned. As for it being inherited by his pups - well that all depends on all of the above.

;) The look on her face!!!!!!!!!!!