Sandra777

Not exactly socialisation, but squeezing (gently!) the feet, lips, muzzle, skin etc. Opening the mouth, looking in ears, pulling up/down the eyelids to examine membranes all that sort of "fiddling with the dog" stuff. I recommend my puppy buyers always make sure they can hold the fully awake puppy firmly in their lap or against their body without any struggling, biting or whinging - sort of a full-body hug. Also recommend they "interfere" with the puppy's food bowl - I know a lot of people disagree with this but especially in a house with children I think it's important for the dog to grow up knowing that having a person messing with their food bowl is meaningless.

Don't buy a Border Collie just because "they're so smart" Have lost count of the number of Borders I've met which I would have to say are raving mad because of the way they've been raised & not trained. Don't buy a Labrador just because "they're such good family dogs". Also can't count the number of Labradors I've met with no manners - belonging to families with kids with no manners either. Dogs don't train themselves

During the day he's outside. Even when you're home he will often stay outside. At night he is in his crate. Sorry, not meaning to be harsh but just how much time every day is he getting with the family? Not just hanging out time, but actual interaction, attention etc. He was good after puppy preschool so like some one else said, replicate that. What did you do there - gave him lots of attention and tired out his brain with new experiences and learning. I would not be giving him the option to stay outside either - you need to be having him inside (this is assuming you want him to be an inside dog) so you can actively teach him house rules. A puppy raised mostly outside and mostly crated when inside is not going to be reliably house trained because he never really gets to learn the distinction between in and out.

Apple seeds contain traces of arsenic. Arsenic has a cumulative effect. Phar Lap's demise is sometimes said to be due to the trainer giving him arsenic as a stimulant. The quantity which is "dangerous" depends on the dog, it's sensitivity, probably the type of apple and the frequency it's fed. The flesh/skin have no nasties, the quantity depends on the dog. It really doesn't have a lot of value for a carnivore but a lot of dogs like it. I will give my girls (about 15kg) an apple core on occasions, probably no more than once a fortnight since there's three of them and I don't eat a lot of apples. Two of them leave most of the seeds anyway, the third one eats anything. My first dog used to pick them off the tree but hardly ever ate the core before going back for a new one. When I got my first bitch it was very cute, he'd pick an apple - drop it in front of her then go get one for himself

I would take her to the vet - sounds like she might have some sort of prolapse or weakness happening, get it checked out. As for the trimming - well I've not had a Pom but with the hairy beastie I did have I would trim the hair flush to the skin so that the circular part of the butt is visible (no, not the best look) with nothing overhaning it so to speak, then hold the scissors on an angle away from her body (points downwards and blend the long hair a little so anything immediately below the anus was shorter than the hair further away. You don't have to crutch her like a sheep, just a tidy up. To start with maybe just trim the bits that get dirty and you'll soon get the idea of which bits *need* to be trimmed.

You need to talk to the breeder about what they recommend (assuming they have been breeding for a while and do their research). If they are not forthcoming or confuse you, then find a vet you trust (easier said than done) and go with what they say. You will only get a huge amount of conflicting and confusing information here. Me - I vaccinate pups I'm keeping at 10 weeks and 13 weeks then again at 12-13 months and not ever again for life. I don't vaccinate for kennel cough & I won't allow the vet to vaccinate for leptospirosis (have lost a vaccinated dog to lepto and later had a dog die on the vet's table within 5 minutes of being vaccinated for the second time for lepto) Worming. Pups I breed are wormed every 2 weeks from 2 weeks of age with as many different wormers as I can buy (rotate them). They are wormed with this regime up until 3 months of age and then I only rarely worm (fecal count done first). Heartworm - I have only recently come from NZ where we don't have it, still researching for myself. At the moment our 3 have had the proheart 12 shot, which I will not be repeating.

Raw egg white certainly does have the effect of inhibiting Biotin uptake however nature is a pretty canny creature and egg yolk contains a excess of biotin so these two facts counteract each other. Raw egg white is no more a natural food for a dog than cooked egg white - in the wild the dog would eat the whole egg (including some of the shell). Plus... you'd have to feed a whole pile of egg white (on it's own) to affect most dogs. Just another little fact the dog food industry has taken what they want out of and ignored the whole fact

You might need to mix his canned food with the new dry food for a while to get him used to the idea, but if you've done that already then go for the tough love method. Assuming you feed him twice a day - just don't feed him at all one night. Simply do not offer him any food (this is assuming the dog is healthy and there is no medical reason not to feed him). Next morning, give him a normal portion and if he doesn't finish it all in ten minutes, pick it up and put it away. That evening, give him a normal portion, give him ten minutes then take it away. He will soon get the message.

Totally agree there. It can and most often (in my experience) DOES cause upset tummies Good on you for doing your research There's a wealth of information here Sidetracking the OP sorry. I will change MY dogs' diet cold turkey, but they have always been raw fed and so get something different every meal anyway. Never had a problem When I've had someone else's dog & they're dry food dogs I change their diet very slowly and some do have problems. Depends on what they're fed IMO. Back to the original question - if the diet the breeder gives you works for them and is easy enough for you to achieve, why consider changing it? If they have been breeding for a decent number of years they WILL know more about the requirements of their breed than your vet.

Like all mammals - milk is the natural food of babies but the milk of their own species is the one they're designed to drink and once they have reached the age they would (in the wild) be mostly weaned, they do lose some of the ability to digest milk. I have had one lactose intolerant dog in 30 years so aren't really that bothered by the whole lactose intolerant thing, but some breeds are really prone to it and some dogs do suffer very badly with such intolerance If you really want to give the pup cows milk - start off with a very small amount on ONE meal mixed 1/2 and 1/2 with water and see how the puppy reacts. By small amount, I'm thinking half the amount you'd put in a cup of coffee + that much water again, for a pup that's going to be a 15kg adult - you can do the maths LOL. Goats milk is meant to be easier to digest and you can buy pet-specific milk from the supermarket too. If you feed a high quality puppy food definitely don't add vitamins and minerals, when feeding a puppy it is especially important to get the ratios right (for their bone growth) and adding things is a bad idea.

You should feed whatever the breeder recommends, for at least the first 7-10 days. A puppy going to a new home has quite enough stress to cope with without changing the food too. After that you could change over to something else if your research has convinced you it is better or if it suits your circumstances better. I can't tell you about the benefits or disadvantages of the foods mentioned as I've never used any of them, but wander over to the Labrador thread and I'm sure you'll gets lots of conflicting and confusing advice :cool:

2% of their ideal weight for the day is a starting point, but like everyone else has pointed out, it depends on the dog. If they're a bit thin feed them more if they're a bit fat feed them less. If you have a big weekend planned for them, feed them a bit more say Thursday and Friday so they have built up a bit of extra for the weekend, if you're working late all week and they'll get less than usual exercise feed them a bit less. No biggy - they love you no matter how much you feed them :cool:

It's not really a matter of "how much" because just like us, all dogs are individuals. Are the dogs healthy, active and in good body condition? If it's colder or they have an extra-active weekend then they could probably do with a handful more food than on a warm day when they've been lying about the back yard all week. Between 2 & 4 % of their IDEAL bodyweight is the rough guide for adult raw-fed dogs but this really doesn't work with dry food. Whatever it says on the packet for their weight is likely 10-20% more than they actually need on a regular basis, but again this depends on the dog and what it's doing. Sorry not to be able to give you an exact figure :-)

Too late now, but with dogs that size and "human" grade cooked chicken I really wouldn't get concerned. The chickens sold for people to eat are so young even the "hard" bones are not really that hard, and with big dogs they would get what, a couple of mouthfuls each? Their stomach acids would almost certainly take care of it. Different story if was one small dog and it'd had eaten the whole carcase of course :-)

As you know she is too young to be away from her litter. However, that's done. As you're working nights sleep is going to be an issue for you, so what I would do in this case would be to get a high sided box she can't get out of, put it beside your bed and let her sleep in that - a crate but with an open top. If she cries when put to bed you can dangle your hand into the box (don't speak to her, pat or fuss her, just have the hand there as a living warm "thing" for her) until she goes to sleep. Obviously you still need to do all the usual stuff of letting her out to toilet very regularly, tiring her out before bed time, good meals etc. Gradually wean her off your hand being there to reassure her by slowly letting her cry a it longer before reassuring her and just as gradually move the box away from the bed until she is sleeping where ever you want her to be. During the day, when you aren't working or whenever it is convenient for her to cry a bit more, you can do your alone training.

Apart from any other consideration, like her health!, IMO you should be teaching Lizzy that jumping up at people and snatching food really isn't on... what happens when she sees kids on the streets eating? As for stealing off benches - well you can stop that behaviour *most of the time*, and if you have a dog which will get very sick when they eat things they shouldn't, why wouldn't you do some training :rolleyes:

Well I must be an evil mother - I just give the girls a whole egg and they take care of it for themselves. They're 1 x 13.5kg 1 x 14.5kg and 1 x 16kg so OP that's about the size you're talking about. I don't add any vitamins/minerals/oils. Vege scraps, sometimes cooked scraps, sometimes specially & lovingly prepared slops. About a tablespoon for each a day (but not necessarily fed every day) primarily green leafy vege & always including some fruit - pip fruit cores & skins, yucky grapes (no, they have not died), bananas & the odd bit of citrus, but they don't like that much. Twice a week a sheep's heart each (muscle meat not offal) Once a week a sheeps kidney (or equivalent beef kidney) I would give them a feed of green tripe once a week when I could get it (about 200g per dog) but can't use it at the moment as we only have a people freezer which is why I'm doing vege/fruit instead - IMO you don't need both. Once a week a can of sardines each. Once a week about 100g of a 1/2 and 1/2 mix of chicken gizzards & hearts or chicken gizzards and livers. Rest of the time primarily chicken bodies am, chicken "casarole pieces' pm. I have a bitch who does badly on beef & kangaroo and a different one reacts badly to a lot of fat so I avoid buying mutton offcuts, beef & roo (if we had a dogfood freezer it'd be different but for now there's no room for individual diets) Eggs, sardines, good bone content, tripe - IMO those four things cover virtually everything. Of COURSE some dogs are going to have problems and need different treatment, but for a normally healthy dog this does the trick most of the time

Standard Poodle or Portuguese Water Dog if you want the slightly larger dog - Miniature Poodle for the smaller dog. PWD are brilliant at agility and obedience but not quite the same as training a Border Collie - if there's a new or different way of doing an exercise a PWD will try it out and see if it works.

Harsh settrlvr very harsh

I go with this one Also - take the pup outside and praise him for peeing, bring him inside then 10 minutes later take him back outside again........... I have met pups who like to do serial pees, I think you've got one of those.

I wouldn't feed her dry food then raw dry food then raw dry food..... The digestive enzymes required to digest cereal and those required to digest raw meat are very different. Many dogs can cope with both and perhaps your dog will be one of them after a while, but at the moment it's probably not a good idea. I have never heard of any dog which is allergic to raw meat but can eat the same meat cooked - but nothing is impossible! Mucous on the faeces generally indicates the gut cannot process the food properly. This could be as a result of a food allergy or a stomach upset or the food being fed being a fraction off (for that dog - some dogs could eat meat so rotten it walks and have no ill effect!) If you find a vet that doesn't try to sell you hills chicken and rice in a can you are a lucky person. IMO the average vet is not the right person to ask for dietary advice for your dog. IMO you should fast her for 12-24 hours, at least until her bowels are clear and her poop normal. Make sure she has plenty of water and encourage her to drink liberally. If she doesn't seem to want to drink add a little lactose free milk (a splash to a cup of water) to encourage her. If you use milk, put it in a separate bowl and offer it every couple of hours, keep it in the fridge between times (leave plain down water for her) - you don't want to risk ANY chance of introducing yet another bad bacteria to her poor tum! Once everything is OK again get some probiotic. You can use acidopholous yoghurt but in this case I'd go for the good stuff from a health food shop - either wet form or in a capsule. For the first four or five days give her either cooked chicken or cooked white fish (one or the other, decide at the start) and nothing else except the probiotic - dosage could be an issue, you'll need to do some maths! Don't over load her system, small meals little and often. If all goes well then over one or two days cook the meat less until you are feeding her raw meat only with the probiotic. If all still goes well then add ONE additional meat - preferably something substantially different to the one she is OK with (if you use white fish for example, don't choose chicken to add, choose a red meat). Mix it about 1/4 new meat and 3/4 proven OK meat for ONE meal only (proven OK meat only for the other meals in that day) and watch her reaction. You can cook the new meat for one or two meals if you want, but generally this isn't required. If nothing untoward happens, then just feed her a mixture of these 2 meats for 2 or 3 days, don't worry about introducing them slowly or such, just mix and match or mix them together. Introduce a third meat the same way If she has any reaction, immediately remove the new food from the diet and stabilise her again before trying a different new meat. Now you can try bone content. Assuming she's been OK with chicken, get some minced chicken bodies (Lenards was suggested) and introduce this as if it was a fourth new meat (1/4 - 3/4 etc). If she's OK with this use it for a few days along with the other proven OK meats. Get a chicken wing or body - personally I don't think chicken necks are much good for anything except tiny puppies or chihuahuas. Break the body into three or four pieces and remove any huge hunks of fat or if using a wing, take most of the skin off it. Feed her the wing/body only for one meal. See what happens. You can usually taper back on the probiotic after they're eating two or three different meats and also managing the bone content - you just have to watch what happens I'm sure you've got the idea, stop all mixing and matching until her body is quite recovered from the stomach upset. Start simple and easy to digest. Introduce anything new only when the dog is stable and the gut functioning properly. I've switched dogs cold turkey and had no problems, but they're all different and all have to be treated that way. ETA: do NOT cook minced chicken bodies - even in the minced form cooked bone is not good.

That is a brilliant idea - always wanted to get one of those bubble machines, will have to get a timer too!

Stop filling his every waking minute with your presence. It's hard when they're so young and cute, but he needs to learn to do things by himself and that it's OK to be alone. A puppy pen with some really good toys can help. He only gets to play with those toys in the puppy pen, and when he's in the puppy pen you leave him absolutely alone, no hovering over him and oohing and ahhing. This teaches him tthat being alone can be fun (good toys that you don't get when people are there) and that the puppy pen is a good place to be. Outside the puppy pen he can be with you and you can pat him etc but don't carry him all over the place - if he has the chance to walk he will find things to investigate, get "left behind" and work out for himself that not being constantly touched by you is fine. A good sort of morning routine would be out to the toilet, then a cuddle, then some fun training (he's not to young to learn), then in his play pen for ten minutes or so. Out of the pen, just general hanging out with people time, throw a toy occasionally but not constantly, pat him occasionally but not constant cuddles. Out for another toilet stop then another little cuddle, breakfast then after another toilet stop and into the puppy pen and he'll probably be ready for a nap. On work mornings this is the right time to leave, even if he's crying he'll be tired and so go to sleep fairly quickly. Being alone doesn't come naturally to a dog and some take longer than others to adapt to the odd human love of taking a pack animal into their home and then expecting it to be happy when it's pack leaves it alone. Millions of dogs all over the world get used to this odd behaviour, so Alfie can too. While it's great that he can have some one with him all day for now - he still has to learn to be alone. With the other person in the house this lesson can be more gradual, but make sure they're actually teaching him this! ETA: he is not your baby and you are not his mother. As Settrlvr said - you can love them to bits but they are still DOGS and have the right to be respected for what they are.

Not too much time alone IMO, certainly not as much as many. The fact that you're worrying about it is a good thing! Just a thought though. I would not be leaving an 8-9 week old puppy outside when there is no one home. Too easy for him to be stolen & too easy for him to get into trouble. You might think you've puppy proofed your garden but unless it's a sterile concrete courtyard I bet it's not Stafford proof! If he's fine in the bathroom leave him there when you're out - if you want to crate train him this is a good time to start. Enjoy!

Yep - if it's a meaty smell (which I guess it must be since you said you thought it was her beef bone) that's pretty normal. Anything that smells off or rotten isn't. Usually passes pretty quickly without you doing anything.