Gayle.

She lost condition at the start of winter and was looking very thin and old, so I upped her food intake to about double and within a week she was looking good again. I've never had a dog as old as this before (my last one died at 14) and it didn't dawn on me that when the weather is cold, she uses much more energy keeping herself warm than the younger dogs do, and so she needs more food than in summer. She used to wear a coat in winter, but this year she won't keep it on. I suspect a couple of Australian Shepherds might have something to do with that. But I've had her inside as much as possible and some days she goes out to pee in the morning, my daughter lets her back in before she goes to school, and she stays in the house in her bed til someone comes home in the afternoon. She just sleeps the day away, cos that's what she does when I'm home and she's inside. I might try her with some yoghurt too.

No, the chicken shop here doesn't do a pet mince, I already asked. And no ready made Barf here either, the pet shops just sell normal dog food. I think next time I make a mince mix (I usually make about 5 kgs at a time), I might make some smaller packs up just for her but in the meantime, I'll see if she likes the stuff I already bought. Didn't think of eggs.....I could scramble one and mix it with some cheese and pasta or rice for her. I'm quite happy to pander to her old tastebuds, we probably won't have her for much longer so I'd like to make her last years comfortable and happy for her. And the Aussies are always happy to keep her dog bowl empty if she doesn't eat her dinner!

I have an elderly Lhasa Apso, she's coming up for 15 and she's starting to show her age. She's still in good health for her age but she's become increasingly fussy about her food lately. She was brought up on supermarket kibble and stuff like those packets of My Dog. Later on she got better quality kibble (RC, EP etc) and Natures Gift tinned food, but as I've switched the big dogs totally to raw, I've been giving her the same when I can. She gets their mince mixture, and small chunks of red meat and chicken but she doesn't get the bones as she doesn't have many teeth left. Now she won't eat kibble at all, even if I soften it in water and add something tasty to it like sardines. Because the big dogs only get what's suitable for her about 3-4 times a week, I have to come up with something she'll eat when they have their bones. Tonight I bought 4Legs fresh mince meatballs and she quite liked them. I've also got a bag of Chunkers to try. She's so old that I'm quite happy to give her whatever she wants (she's lived long enough to deserve it!) as long as it's reasonably nutritious. What do others feed their oldies that might be suitable for my dear old love?

That's not barking, it's talking (or so I've been told). It's worse when you have two because the vocabulary increases to growling, snarling, yipping and groaning, all in the name of having a great time while dragging each other around the backyard by their neck ruffs. They look at me in amazement if I stick my head out the window to see what's wrong....and as soon as I mind my own business they're right back into it. There's a lady who belongs to the Sale Obedience Club who owns both an Aussie and a Toller. I have the broken Aussies, the ones that aren't full on all the time, the ones that are happy enough to settle down and relax when we want them to be quiet. I just love them to bits, they are one very awesome breed. Don't know much about Tollers, I've only ever seen one (that belonged to the lady in Sale) but I was more interested in her Aussie so didn't really pay much attention to her other dog.

The vet told me it could be as long as 3 months before regrowth started. It was fully grown back within a month.

My Aussie Shepherd boy was desexed at 4 1/2 months. He is now 2 1/2 years old, and definitely isn't leggy. He's at the top end of height for the breed, but he's in proportion, and has a solid, masculine head, broad chest and shoulders as a male should. Early desexing doesn't seem to have made any difference to his masculinity, he does all the same things the entire boys do (except mate) and he looks very much like a male dog of his breed should look. His frame has filled out as it should and he gaits like a well put-together dog. Which he probably wouldn't do if he was leggy.

The puppy will be fine on it's own. It will probably sleep most of the time, just leave some safe toys in case it wants to play for a bit. We all work or go to school in this house and our dogs were quite OK being left in the backyard during the day. They had shelter, water and toys, then lots of attention when we were home. When we got Dusty, I took a couple of weeks off to settle her in and she just slept the whole time. I needn't have bothered. Puppies aren't human babies, they don't need constant attendance and they are perfectly able to put themselves into bed and off to sleep, they are capable of getting themselves a drink and if you leave adequate toilet facilities (newspaper) they are also able to find that and use it.

Funniest "breed" comment I heard at a show (not a Royal) was at a local country show near here. There was a trolley full of Pembroke Corgis waiing for their turn in the ring, and a lady and her little girl were wandering past looking at the various dogs. The little girl was about 4, and her mum pointed to the corgis and said "Oh look, aren't they cute? What breed do you think they are?" The little girl stopped in her tracks, crossed her arms, put her best thinking expression on, then announced loudly and confidently "Dingoes!" I wasn't the only one who nearly wet myself laughing!

That's fabulous, and oh so true. When I titled by boy in endurance, it was the culmination of 6 months of training......evenings and weekends riding the bike with him running beside it, for longer and longer rides. He had to learn to run on a loose lead, I had to learn to ride at a pace he could comfortably gait at, and also trust that he wouldn't pull me off the bike. The day we did the trial, I was justifiably proud that we completed it, and gained his title. The following week, we went to our obedience club and in conversation with the instructor, I mentioned we'd got our endurance title the previous weekend. His response was "Endurance??? Oh, anyone can do that!" I looked along the line of people in the class and asked "If anyone can do it, where were all these people and their dogs then?" Endurance might not be a title of skill, but it is most definitely a title that requires specific training and a bond of complete trust between dog and handler.

Give eBay a big miss. Prices there for some things are just ridiculous. A few months ago my husband was looking for a 2nd hand 6x4 trailer, he checked eBay listings for weeks and even trailers that were in so bad a condition they'd never have made it home in one piece, were going in excess of $300. Absolutely ridiculous! Good quality second hand ones were finishing at $500-$700. He checked locally, at places that sold new trailers, and a few welding workshops and within a few hours he'd bought a fully refurbished heavy duty steel trailer for $300. It had new sides, new wheels and had been repainted and it was like new, and compared to eBay, a fantastic bargain. Keep an eye on the for sale ads on DOL, but also check out the Trading Post, and ask around your local groomers. They might be in a position to sell a second hand hydrobath, but they also might know of one that up for sale.

There's a pet roll called Ecopet that I used to keep on hand to feed Benson if I forgot to defost raw, or for a change. It was very good....nice and firm and with a fresh garlicky smell. He loved it, and it looked and smelled decent. Our oldie get Natures Gift sometimes, she loves it. My sons kelpie-x does well on Natures Gift and Uncle Albers kibble...my son doesn't have the time, inclination or budget to feed her super premium, or raw. Can you reference your source, please?

I had Benson neutered at 4 1/2 months. He is now 2 1/2 years old and has developed like any other medium-large breed male. He's at the top end of height for the breed standard, but he is built to match his height. Broad chest and shoulders, good bone, big masculine head. He pees like a boy, has a big deep masculine bark and is dominant over the entire female here. The only difference I can see (aside from the obvious) is that he doesn't have a seasonal coat drop and he has slightly less of a neck ruff than an entire Australian Shepherd male, but that could also be that he's bred from working lines and they traditionally have a more moderate coat than show lines anyway. He has a gentle, sweet, tolerant nature and that hasn't changed since he was a puppy.

Are you prepared for the smell? I bought some pure Neem oil as I'd read it was good for demodectic mange, which Dusty had once when she was a puppy. I also bought Neel oil dog wash, which was Neem oil suspended in scum. Ohmigod, it was the grossest stink ever, and I ended up giving it away to a lady at a dog show, who emailed me to let me know she'd dealt with the smell by mixing it with essential oils. This is where I bought it from: http://www.pureneem.com.au/

Have you tried topping it with some tinned sardines? Sometimes that's a good enticement to get them to try new food.

Yep, it sure is. And you know when you were a kid and you'd hang around the kitchen and try and stick your grubby fingers in the cake mix when mum wasn't looking? Well, Dusty hangs around and tries to stick her tongue into whatever I'm doing and hopes I don't notice. I have to tilt the soup pot towards me and wrap one arm around it to steady it so O can mix it properly.....Dusty wiggles in between the kitchen bench and me, paws on the edge of the bench and waits for the flicky bits to land in her mouth.

It takes me about an hour to make a BIG batch, divide into meal portions and freeze. I use a big aluminium soup boiler to mix everything in....grate the veges first, chop the offal (god, that's such a gross job, easier if it's partly frozen), cook rice if I'm using it in the mix which I sometimes do, and cook the pumpkin or sweet potato...they get that skin and all. I don't have a food processor so it's easier that way. Once it's mixed, I have a tall jug that is just the right size for meal portions for the two dogs, so I line it with a freezer bag, fill almost to the top of the jug then tie up the bag ready for the freezer. Doing it this way saves a heap of time because I don't have to weigh the portions.....I know if I fill the bag almost to the top of the jug it will be exactly right. Dusty has the most important helping job of all.....she gets to lick the soup pot out afterwards.

What about a chicken frame? They don't need big bones to clean their teeth, they just need to rip into the bones. Because a chicken frame is bigger, but has small, thin, edible bones, might he eat one instead of a big chunky piece of bone?

Have you tried her with soft, boneless food such as chicken mince and rice? Just to see if she's actually hungry but can't physically handle the more chewable food, then you'll know something is definitely not right with her mouth, throat or teeth.

I used to get it from Robbo's Pet Barn in Dandenong.....$129 for 15kg's (I think that was the size, it was a big bag).

I tried a couple of bags of Pro Plan Selects, which is NOT the standard Pro Plan. It's in a white bag and has an photo of a dog on the pack (it's also not the breeders bag of Pro Plan which is also white but without the photo). The dogs LOVED it, the ingredient list was very good, but it's an expensive food. I could use it as training treats though, because the dogs just adored it. They did well on the few meals they had each week (amongst their raw) but it wasn't available locally and I had to travel 90 minutes to buy it so it just got too expensive. I had been fedding EP Holistic and felt the dogs did better on the Pro Plan Selects.

If I forget to defrost, I feed them tinned tuna, grated carrot, eggs and cheese. Just mix it all up and serve, they love it!

Last night I was at the local butchers and noticed they had rib cages for sale. I assume they were from lambs, they looked quite small, so I bought two of them for the dogs dinner. They were the complete rib cage and part of the spine. They didn't look THAT big in the butchers display, but when I gave them to each dog they looked enormous! The dogs thought all their Christmases had come at once and settled down on an old rug in the living room to munch through their very large dinners. After they'd got through about half, I rescued them and put them in the fridge for today. They had the rest for brekkie. Next time I'll get the butcher to saw them in half, but the dogs LOVED them. I have never seen them for sale before. Tonight they got a very small pigs trotter each for their dinner and they'll be having very small dinners for the rest of the week!

My dogs did really well on it, to the point that I'd highly recommend it to anyone.....on a budget or not. My son was looking for a cheap, easy to source dog food to feed his kelpie-x pound puppy, as the Pedigree stuff he was feeding her exploded out the back end in a big, smelly way. He bought a bag of Uncle Albers and was amazed at the difference....not only in the dogs output (much less and much tidier to clean up) but in the dogs gereral well-being. In fact I thought it was such great value for such a good quality food, that it made me stop and wonder who's making the biggest profits from the super premium kibble! And who pays for all those gift with purchases etc?

I didn't find Unlce Albers oily at all, although the shiny slippery feel of it first made me think it might be. I kept some in my pocket for training treats, expecting there to be an oily patch on my pants from my body heat drawing the oil out of the kibble, but there wasn't. On further inspection, it's not oily at all, it's just the way the pieces have been compacted so they are very hard and smooth.

Not really because the dogs have never had much in the way of commercial food anyway....maybe one or two meals a week, so I never spent loads on their dry food. I have noticed a difference in the budget since I discovered the local market......rather than buying their raw at Coles I'm getting it for less than half the price at the chicken shop and butchers at the market. I can get chicken bones.....chopped up frames, usually halved or quartered, for $1 kg. And a similar price for lamb or beef offcuts (all meat with no bone), and large bags of brisket bones for even less. Coles are $3.49 kg for chicken frames. I can also get pigs trotters there (I think they're 50c each), and the meat and chicken I buy for us is SO much nicer and there's such a better variety.