Gayle.

I am going to get myself a bike for Christmas and start training Benson (and me) for an endurance test. I have seen the Walky Dog bike attachments and while I realise you can't use them for the ET, they look like just the trick for teaching him to run alongside the bike at a safe distance from the pedals and wheels. Does anyone have any feedback they'd like to share?

My dogs eat mostly a raw diet but I like to have kibble on hand as well. Some nights I simply forget to defrost their meat and they seem to enjoy the change of menu. I've been giving them Eagle Pack holistic which is an excellent food, but recently discovered Pro Plan Selects which they absolutely love and seems to agree with them very nicely! A friend gave me a bag she'd recieved as a breeder incentive, but because it was lamb and veges and her dogs can't have lamb, I ended up with it. The dogs would have happily lived on it, and even my very elderly Lhasa Apso (who is getting fussier with age) gobbled it down and looked for more.

It's VERY good for them, especially whole pieces (necks, drumsticks, marylands etc) as it exercises their jaws and cleans their teeth, as well as being an excellent source of protein and calcium.

Chicken necks would be good....give them to her whole so she has to chew them, and only feed them to her under supervision. Brisket bones are good as well. Chicken wings are very high in fat (which is why they bake so crisp and yummy!) so go easy on them or you might end up with a tubby bubby.

Oh cool, thanks so much for that. As soon as it's back I'll book mark it.

Temporarily unavailable! Does the link contain all the info for the trial? Entry details, venue, time etc?

A friend gave me a bag of Pro Plan Selects Lamb and Oatmeal, as her dogs can't eat lamb and she'd been given the food as a breeder trial. My dogs absolutely loved it so I have since bought a 15kg bag. Only problem is I couldn't buy it locally (Latrobe Valley) and had to go to Dandenong to get it. I'd be quite happy to base their diet on thsi food and supplement it with raw chicken and lamb, eggs, veges, sardines etc.

I want to enter an obedience trial at Knox Obedience Club in October (our first!!) and they have a link to the schedule on their website but the link doesn't bring up anything. There are no contact details that I can find either, so if anyone here is a member, would you please let me know how I can enter the trial?

OHMIGOD!!!!! That's highway robbery! I use the hydrobath at the local pet shop, they charge $8.00 per dog and it's a DIY set up. I love it cos I don't have ANY mess at home and I can get the dogs clean right down to their skin and get rid of a lot of dead hair at the same time. A bath at home just doesn't do the same job, I'm afraid as the hydrobath forces the water through the coat, not just wets it. Until this week I didn't have a proper dog dryer and I'd just towel dry the dogs, crate them in the car and bring them home and use my daughters hairdryer on them. Now I have a proper dog dryer so it's much easier to get them dry.

I would not use Demadex while the pup is being treated with Ivermectin.......way too big of a chemical bomb for a small body to handle. But if the Ivermectin isn't working, then maybe have a break for a week then try Demadex. I used the rinse, diluted at a massive rate, applied very carefully to the patch with a cotton bud. The hairloss stopped within a few days and hair started to grow back almost immediately. It was only a month ago that we got home from the interstate trip and already the mange is a thing of the past. The Demadex stinks but it's MUCH more bearable than neem oil. Comapared to neem oil, Demadex rinse is like Chanel No 5!

Dusty had a small patch of demodectic mange near her eye, brought on after an interstate trip in early August. She was stressed by being in a strange house with my son, to whom she took an instant and unrelenting dislike (she growled at the poor bugger the whole 5 days we were there!) Anyway, being an Australian Shepherd, she can't have ivermectin. The vet was going to look into an alternative treatment and get back to me....but she didn't. I did some research and found that need oil is supposed to be a natural insecticide and treatment for mange. I ordered some and tried it but it didn't work either. Plus it stunk like rotten garlic. The mange got worse instead of better. The breeder I bought her from suggested a chemical treatment called Demadex. I bought some, applied it very carefully (much diluted), and the mange was gone in a few days. The hair is now almost all grown back.

I also use the word "give" to get them to drop something from their mouths. Walking nicely on a lead is a good thing for them to learn and you can easily do it up and down your driveway or backyard. You can also teach her to stand on command (very handy for grooming!) and also start working on a short on-lead stay.

The pug looks "pug-coloured" to me. My monitor is callibrated to display colours correctly, so I suggest you check yours. Digital SLR cameras, no matter what brand, are VERY capable cameras. You need to remove yourself from auto and start exploring the other options (not portrait, landscape, sports etc. but Av, Tv, Program, Manual) and start learning some basic technical stuff.

He's very, very cute. Got that innocent head tilt happening very nicely too. That gets puppies out of tons of trouble! Names...how about Kruger, Shaka, Christiaan (after Christiaan Barnard, the heart surgeon).

Landscapes, buildings, group shots. Anything where you want to get a lot in the frame. Portraits, pets, flowers, general outdoor stuff. This is your long distance zoom, so this is the one you'd take to the zoo. Also good for portraits up to about 150mm. This one would not be any use indoors. My personal choice would be the first two, then save some money for a tele zoom.

Most cameras are warrantied only in the country of purchase. Lenses usually carry an international warranty though. I buy my DSLR's from Teds, I have always found them to be excellent to deal with. Lenses however, come from B&H in New York.

Wash the bedding in Bio-Zet detergent. It's a biological detergent that will remove the smell so that he can't even smell traces of it. Please don't let him lay in his own wee, that's disgusting and he's only doing it because he doesn't know how to tell you he needs to go somewhere else to do a wee.

You can get it in the health food section of Coles supermarkets, or in a health food store (probably cheaper than Coles.)

I used Troy Oaticaot shampoo on Benson and it made his skin flaky so I switched to Aloveen and it was a bit better, now I use Plush Puppy conditioning shampoo and it's fantastic. No more flaky skin at all. I use Aloveen conditioner on both the dogs after their baths by rubbing it on my hands then smoothing it through their coats. You can add Flaxseed oil to puppy's food, which will be good for his skin and coat, and give him some sardines a few times each week, mashed in with his kibble. He'll love them! To put weight on, chicken wings are high in fat (which is why they bake nice and crisp for us to eat) and he is old enough to tackle a whole one for a meal each day.....maybe a meal that you can supervise.

I would be inclined to sleep them together in a crate, maybe not in the bathroom though as bathrooms can be very cold rooms in the middle of winter (but you might be in a warmer place than me!) My dogs stayed outside from when they were about 10 weeks old during the day. As long as they have a warm, dry place to sleep and shelter, water and space to play, they should be fine. Just make sure they can't be too easily seen from the street as you would not want them stolen (a very real possibility with popular breeds). If I may suggest.......as they get older, make a point of seperating them for a certain amount of time each day to "loosen" the bonds that will invariably be strong. Maybe take them on seperate walks, or have one inside and one out with someone. My two dogs are not brother and sister, and are 10 months apart but they are very attached to each other and miss each other terribly when they are not together. It makes it quite difficult to take just one dog anywhere!

Get some super premium quality puppy kibble such as Eagle Pack, Nutrience, Pro Plan etc, and feed that twice a day. Your little puppy will grow fast and she needs the very best nutrition possible. Add in some chicken pieces as Huski suggests and the occasional meal of mince and veges and you'll have a nice diet for a puppy. But the quality kibble will cover all bases until you do some research on making up your own diet.

CharlieBrown, it might be a better idea to start a thread of your own rather than tack onto someone elses thread. Your little guy deserves his own limelight, and you'll get more response to your questions.

Yes, it's in a red plastic tub.

You can buy Lucas Paw Paw ointment from Coles supermarkets.

My dogs get mostly raw chicken pieces (frames, necks, thighs, drums), lamb offcuts, brisket bones, a mix of mince, offal, veges, eggs, cheese, parsley, garlic, oil and Eagle Pack Holistic kibble with sardines. I don't have a set pattern to feed them, they just get a small morning meal and a larger evening one. Yesterday morning they had some lamb offcuts, last night they have kibble and sardines, this morning they are having the rest of the lamb off cuts, tonight they'll get a mince/vege mix (raw), tomorrow morning they'll have chicken necks, tomorrow night they'll have a mix of grated veges, cheese, eggs and parsley with the rest of the chicken necks. They have kibble about 3-4 times a week and chicken frames about the same. On Friday nights they each get a nice fresh chicken maryland each for their dinner cos that's what I pick up for them while I'm doing the grocery shopping. I think my dogs look fabulous. They are both young, have no health issues, they both have straight, strong bones, loads of energy and their coats shine.