WinGus

Thanks persephone! I've read heaps of the threads on here about BARF, and it's been great learning, but not many of them have told me how to introduce the veges. I know which veges I'll be using, and yeah, I'll only be feeding a small amount, but I'm just not sure if I'll upset puppy too much if I introduce too many veges in the one go. Thought the antioxidants in the berries would benefit her?!?!

I think we've reached the "terrible twos" with my 5 1/2 mo baby! Some of the things below have been happening gradually, but have all been building up these last two weeks since we got back from her first weekend away. 1. She's been really nippy lately although we think that could also be a result of her teething?!? She doesn't bite hard, but still her teeth are sharp!!! Her favourite game at the moment is nipping at our fingers and play growling when we're sitting on the floor with her. We have tried taking our attention away, and it will quiet her. Normally only happens once a night then she'll stop once we have stopped the play. Doesn't seem to remember it for the next night though!!! My worry is that she likes to do this with other people too. I don't want anything to happen. 2. She's starting to hate the leash when we want to practice obedience training at home. She will chew on it and try to run from it by pulling on it. But we find that she's pretty good when going for walkies on the leash?!?! Occasionally she will pull but she won't try to pull away from us, it's more pulling to try and get to whatever has her interested! At obedience school, she is okay, but when she's had enough, she will play up and start to chew on the leash and pull around a bit. 3. She lives in our laundry and there have been some days before the holiday when her bedding has been pulled out of her crate and the covering towel strewn on the floor. That wasn't so bad, but the Monday after our trip, she was feral!! She ripped up her puppy wee pad out of its holder and shredded it and really strew her bedding, towel and toys all over the place!!! Maybe this was due to boredom as she did get lots of stimulation and attention from us on the holiday and I'd get feral too if I was locked up in a laundry after that much fun!!! I'm not sure what to do about her boredom though because she will only play with her toys when we play with her, she is not interested in her toys when she's by herself!! I use kongs and treat balls, but if I make it too easy, she finishes them in a second. If I make them too hard, she loses interest really quickly. I'm really at a loss as to what to do to keep her entertained. ;) 4. Last night was the first night she didn't want to go to bed. Normally she knows when it's bedtime and will go to the door, especially when we make bedtime preparations, but last night she just stuck her head in the laundry door and then ran away, doing zoomies all around the house, almost like she was running away or trying to get us to chase her. She tried to hide a few times under the dining table, but we eventually caught her and put her to bed. Funny thing was that once we got her into the laundry, she went into the crate all by herself, thrashed her snuggle puppie around a bit then settled down, just as she normally does?!?!?!? ;) Sigh. I'm sure this is not the end of it, and I probably have it easy if it's just these few items!! I'm not too concerned about it all and hopefully with some consistency from us, we'll all get through this!!!!!!!!! She gets desexed this Thursday, do you think that will tone down some of this behaviour?!?! Sorry for the long rant!!!! ;)

Pepper is a 5 1/2 month mini-foxie and has so far been fed on chicken wings, beef briskets and mince mix. I am currently considering adding a few fruit and veges to her mince mix meal, but was wondering how to do this? By this I mean do I introduce individual veges one at a time or do I prepare a whole vege mix and introduce that? Also, can dogs eat berries (strawberries, blue berries, raspberries etc.)? Thanks!

Does anyone know of any puppy playgroups in Sydney, primarily in the North? My little one is so scared of the big dogs when we go to the dog park, but is interested in playing with smaller dogs her size (mini foxie). Trouble is, I don't know of any dogs in my area that are small and interested in playing. We do have two Maltese as neighbours but they don't seem to want to play with a puppy!!! She really needs to learn how to play with other dogs, not just her human parents! Anybody interested in starting a play group?

Hi Oakway Yeah, I had thought we may have been training her subconsciously! Our usual routine is to let her run in the backyard for a little while, come inside the house to calm down and then feed her. After mulling over this incident for a couple of days, I think that she is getting used to a routine and when we deviated from the routine, she just wanted to go back home to continue with the routine!! You're right when you say they are clever things! I think Pepper is ALWAYS one step ahead of us without us knowing!!!

Well, we tried it again tonight, but I didn't start to prepare her dinner. Both of us went together with her to the park. She was fine when we got there, and enjoyed a good run around (on leash), but then started to pull on the lead and as we guessed, she wanted to run back home!! She pulled on lead all the way back home again!!!!! Thankfully we didn't let go of the leash this time so no heart failures! Amypie, she didn't run to her water bowl, nor did she need to toilet (we have trained her to use puppy pads all the time), so maybe she did just want her food!! She's an eating machine!!!!!! Sounds like this is common for puppies!!!

rugerfly, after the initial shock subsided, I did have a huge chuckle watching hubby chasing furkid up the street. Never saw him run so fast in my life! bridgie_cat, yeah, she was pulling on the lead, wanting come back home apparently. There was nothing visually behind me, but I can't say the same aurally. Maybe she did get spooked by something. Normally she'll bark though, and she didn't. Just weird! We're going to try it again tonight and see if we get the same reaction. Hopefully this time we can stop her from running all the way home!!!

Hubby and I thought it was a nice night to take the little one (5 months old) out for a walk before dinner, so when we got home from work, I started to prepare her dinner whilst hubby took Pepper down to the local oval for a run. The oval isn't far, about 100m from our house. I joined them a short time later, and saw hubby trying to restrain Pepper. Both of us had thought she was missing me so he let her run free. However, instead of running to me, she ran straight past me!!! Not having trained a reliable recall yet, we freaked out as she kept running out of the oval. She ran all the way home without stopping!!! Thank goodness that we are on a fairly quiet street as she did have to cross the road to get back home. This was really weird - it's never happened before. Was it because she was hungry? Was it because it was twilight and getting darker fast, but then we've been out on the oval before during twilight?! Was it because it was a deviation from her normal routine?!! Can anyone offer any explanations?!? I think my heart is definitely weaker after tonights' episode!!! :shakehead:

What about brisket bones? I've tried some for my little one, but find they are quite fatty without a lot of meat?!? Still trying to find a smallish bone for my little girl (mini-foxie). All she gets at the moment are chicken wings. Haven't tried necks yet. What part of the lamb are lamb flaps?

Hi, I have this problem too and the way I deal with it is when pup nips, I yelp and get up and turn my back on her for a minute or two. If she is really bitey, then I'll go and hide out in another room, leaving her alone. Normally the lack of attention does work. It has made her nip less and she'll actually lick my hands instead of biting, but sometimes when she is in her moods (tiredness?!?!) she still bites. When that happens I just put her to bed or give her something else to chew on. I haven't yet worked out how to stop her from jumping up and catching hold of clothing! OH is annoyed that she has ripped a couple of small holes in his jumper!! Lucky she's only a tiny thing and can't do too much damage to clothing/hands yet!!! Good luck with your little one!