JeffnCel

Buffy is loving her roo tails!! I'm just worried about giving her only one kind of meat in her meals. We're going to be giving chicken carcasses, along with mainly chicken mince and processed vegies, and yoghurt/eggs once a week, then I thought one or two kangaroo meals, and maybe one or two offal meals. I'm so new at this. Does that sound right? Then there's the beef/lamb bones and chicken wings throughout the day to nibble on.

I'm just wondering what people here think of kangaroo mince?? We're switching Buffy (6 1/2 month doberman) to a BARF diet, and want to vary the meats used during the week but I've heard that because kangaroo is lean you need to supplement with some type of fat?? Does that sound right?? Also heard it can be rich for puppies?? Just curious thanks in advance

Can I please quickly add how grateful I am for this thread which has educated me on the benefits of this sport. Before we bought Buffy we were completely under the impression that it turned nice dogs savage, but having read info and joining a club, I can see how much these dogs benefit from the sport, and how our family will benefit having an extremely well trained and obedient dog all because of this sport. The dogs at our club are some of the friendliest dogs I have met (for huge dobermans and german shepherds) but as soon as they're with their trainer working BAM focussed on what they have to do... they're amazing. I watch the experienced dogs in awe of them, and I hope I can give our Buffy that kind of training for her sake. We take our 6 year old daughter to training with us sometimes, and I can tell you I trust the dogs at that club more than I trust the ones at the local dog park, with idiots for owners who don't believe in obedience or that their dogs have their own temperament. Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you

Hi Ayra I'm fairly new to the sport, we've been going to an IPO club in Brizzy for just over a month now. I am about to join the club, and they have two types of membership, one that includes protection, tracking and obedience, and the other is just obedience and tracking. We're going to try to do all, don't know how Buffy's going to go, but really if you never try you'll never know. If anything out of this club I have met so many lovely people full of wisdom who have made me understand the sport so much better. It's never too late to join, I don't know how old your girl is, but I'd say just have go, I think it's an awesome sport.

Buffy ran off on us last night!!! How funny OH was bringing the bins in and she got out the gate and took off ... so did OH thank goodness we live in an estate. The only problem is Buffy is predominantly black so he couldn't see that she hadn't run all that far ... she just ran and went under our car!! She's not 100% on recall yet, but she did come out eventually We're considering putting some high visability gear on her somewhere so we can see her in the dark

Yes Matt we took your advice and only pay her attention when we're either training or doing some of that prey drive stuff with her. She hasn't managed to rip our pillow case up yet, I think she's teething and doesn't seem to bite anything too hard at the moment, but she has broken the string/rope. Since it's not raining as much today (YAY!) we'll take her to the dog park... I'm starting to teach her to speak on command apparently it is easier for them to learn the protection side of IPO if they learn to do this early ... my neighbours are going to love it

Hi all we bought our female dobie 2 weeks ago from working lines. We've taken her to two training sessions with an IPO club however it seemed that she was a little down on her prey drive. We were advised to crate her, or at least give her nothing to amuse herself with during the day and then really play hard "prey" games with her. Chasing a rag on a string, getting her to go after it after windering her up. One week later and that prey drive is going strong. We were told not to "baby" her and she would be a good working dog. I am a little concerned about the concentration levels, however she is only 5 months old. She's already displaying great response to OB already, I'm glad we sought out a "working line" doberman, because I have heard of a lot of breeders who breed for showing and calm temperament ... not saying our Buffy hasn't got a good temperament, just a little less playful in the "showing lines" is my understanding. We're really looking forward to seeing what she can achieve.

Hey everyone This may be normal since our Buffy hasn't been formally trained to "heel" while walking, but I'm just wondering if anyone elses puppies seem to want to walk either under your feet or between your legs?!?! I feel like I'm doing the "ministry of funny walks" while I'm out walking her When she's out walking with 2 of us, she seems to want to naturally "heel" to the person not carrying the lead, and when she's with only 1 of us, she pushes against our leg so hard it pushes us off the path (that's when she's not tripping us). Today it was like she wanted the path all to herself! Is this a normal behaviour that she will grow out of? Or is she trying to stay close for some other reason, perhaps fear (even though at 5 months she's bigger than most of the other dogs around our area). Thanks guys

Hey everyone thanks so much for the replies and advice We took our girl to the vet the day after picking her up for her final puppy vaccination and just all over check. The vet didn't seem too worried about anything, in fact he was fairly laid back to be honest. Our normal vet sold his practice and I don't really like them anymore so we'll have to find a new vet. Slowly Buffy seems to be settling in and getting to know us and realising that when we go inside we're not leaving her. She has slept inside in her crate since we picked her up on Friday, but she's outside now and seems happy. We have an indoor cat who does not seem to be too happy that we have an additional member in our family (he was attacked by another cat while staying with relatives) and does nothing but hiss at our friendly puppy. We have taken Buffy for two big walks today, and throughout the day when she has been happily lying down we've given her treats and lots of praise, and just ignored her when she's barked. As I said she's lying down outside now and seems fairly content. Our breeder recommended we start her obedience training with the Brisbane Sporting Dog Club straight away, but I don't know if we should start this so soon after her getting here. Plus I've already paid for obedience training with Wagtails (anyone used them??). With time I know she will settle, we will be patient with her ... 'cause who couldn't love those big brown eyes

Hi everyone we're new to the forum We picked up our 5 month old Doberman yesterday afternoon after she travelled from Melbourne to Brisbane. She is happy to play and we've taken her for walks and she seems really happy, but the minute we walk inside she starts barking and yelping and sooking :cool: We have her booked in for an 8 week obedience course starting next Saturday, but I'm just wondering if anyone could suggest ANYTHING that could help us get her to settle especially at night time. Preferably we would like her to be an "outdoor" dog and sleep in her kennel, but last night we put her in her crate inside which seemed to help for about an hour at a time. Any suggestions or maybe even some words of encouragement, we know this phase won't last, but it's a very noisy phase. ' Thanks in advance