luvsdogs

Look up this site for raw feeding http://www.rawmeatybones.com/petowners/feedyourdogrmb.php

That's great news. Look forward to hearing all about her as she grows & pics are a must. The breed subforums are probalbly the place to go.

You would have to make sure the yard is secure, no places she can squeeze through, nothing she could eat that could be dangerous for her. Tilba was a nightmare when she 1st came home & I was there most of the time. Training should have begun with the breeder. Puppies can go to puppy pre school from 8-16 weeks of age. Good for socialisation. As far as house training goes you need to be more vigilant, only give her access to one room with an easy clean floor. You need to take her out after eating, drinking, waking up, playing & every 1/2 - hour in between. I found a crate helpful because usually a puppy won't foul their sleeping area unless they came from a pet shop. Take her to the place you've decided she is to use as a toilet, wait until she goes, use a phrase like hurry up, & when she goes give her a couple of treats & lots of praise. Never punish her for making a mistake, clean it up with an enzyme cleaner & watch her better next time.

I would think it would be more coastal.

I'd like to know too. I put foil on dog food tin after it's opened. Nothing like that has happened to it.

You may find a qualified trainer here, but they won't allow check chains. http://www.apdt.com.au/trainers/directory.html#wa

I started feeding my dogs Natural balance canned food with raw bones for April as she had a wheat allergy. I still give it to my son's dog with Purina One or Supercoat lg breed. I've been feeding Tilba, my 10.5 m/o pup on Innova but after reading the other thread I may switch her over to NB kibble (which I can get from the supermarket & don't have to make a special trip to the pet store),as well as raw bones. The Innova is $40 for a 3kg bag, although last time I got 2 for the price of 1 as it was a few days from being out of date. It lasts different rates because of all the other things they get.

I've been feeding their tinned food for a number of years & the one with barley in it, is whole & comes out the other end the same way. I've just bought my 2nd bag of Nature's Gift kibble & of all the supermarket brands it seems I will now make it my dog's main food. So far I've only been adding it as a supplement. This has been very informative, thanks for all the info. It makes my job a little easier. I have been feeding Tilba Innova & will not buy it again after hearing about it on here. Even though she has been thriving on it. The only thing with it is, it has been hard to get. Pp doesn't always have it in, or if they do its nearly or out of date.

I'm not sure, it could be. Maybe its time to have her sleep in another room. I've sometimes been tempted to have Tilba sleep in my room but have resisted, thinking its not fair to her if there are times when she can't be there. It reminds me of the story that the breeder of April told me when we 1st went to look at her litter. She had a male border that was hers & he used to sleep on their bed. After a while he would bark at the husband when he came into the room. It escalated to the dog growling when he went to get in bed. There are lots of things you could try. Like practice taking things off her by swapping with something that's safe for her to have. It's not a good idea to take away a dogs food but rather stand with them while they eat & add some tasty treats to the bowl. I had a small resource guarding incident with Tilba the 1st time I gave her a chicken wing. She grabbed it & took off to eat it. I read that if you keep a hold of the food it still belongs to you. It's when you let go that the dog sees it as his. I did this & she is now fine with me handling her food.

I've just been following this thread & would like to give a few warnings in regards to some of the replys. I have heard that pigs ears & raw hides can become stodgy & get stuck in the dogs throat. I'm a big believer in giving dogs raw bones but be wary of the big marrow bones. I used to get them to April & she broke the top off one of her k9 teeth. The same thing happened to my son's mixed breed dog only she broke the top off 2 k9's. I don't give them any more. An empty soft drink bottle is fine for giving the dog its dinner in it like a kong. But I would be removing the lid & plastic ring around the bottles' neck so the dog won't choke on them. I would also not leave a dog to play with a squeaky toy unattended as they can chew out the squeaker & choke on it. I was so happy to hear that your dog now has access to the back yard. I know many years ago when April was a puppy, my 1st pure bred dog, that I used to put a chain & padlock on the side gate so she wouldn't be stollen. Didn't need to do it with Tilba with Sooty in the yard to protect her. A great way to keep a dog/puppy occupied when you go to work is to scatter their breakfast all over the lawn. It will take them a long time to find all the pieces. A friend does it for her dog & she says the dog searches every inch of the lawn to find each piece & when she's finished spends more time looking for any missed pieces.

That's really good to know. I was nearly going to throw out my bag of Innova.

I have been feeding CN to my cat & Innova to my pup. Didn't know about the principles. From being on other dog forums they seemed to be good foods. But they don't always have a fresh supply & I'm finding them hard to get. What Aussie food are you feeding/going to feed?

I nearly bought a bag of Orijen at the Sydney pet expo but decided it was too heavy to carry. Now I'm glad. I feed Tilba Innova, but am now a little uneasy that they may irradiate it too.

She certainly does. How old is she?

I think its important to take puppies to a qualified behaviourist for puppy pre school. The puppy pre school I took Tilba to is run by CertIV Delta trained teachers. It's more about your pup seeing different puppies & having a chance to socialise with them in a controlled manner. Tilba had 3 vaccinations because my vet still does it that way. I went to this years APDT conference in Sydney a few weeks ago & one of the speakers, a vet, told us that the newer 2 vaccination method has a stronger concentration of the vaccines & equals the 3 vaccination routine. As long as you carry your pup in & out of the vets & they disinfect the floor, your pup should be fine.

I've never had a fussy eater so I can only say what I've heard & read. It's advised to leave the food down for a set time, say 10-20 mins & pick up the bowl if not all eaten. Feed the next meal & do the same. A dog will never starve itself. She will soon learn that if she wants all her dinner to eat it in the allotted time. If you pander to her she could get worse. My last 2 pups have been gutsy so they were made to wait until I give the word to eat. By the time my son's dog was 9-10 weeks old she would wait until given permission to eat. At the time my dog was 7.5 yrs old & her word was 'dinner' & with my son's dog I used 'food'. It became handy because they wouldn't eat until they got their word. While teaching son's dog to wait I used to put a hand on her chest & release hand when saying 'food'. With my current 10 m/o pup I just used a stop signal with my hand in front of her nose. It's also a good idea to stay while the pup is eating, do not take the bowl away, but stand with her & try to pat her while she's eating, to prevent resourse guarding.

Also after drinking, & every hour in between. Never scold, only give heaps of praise & a treat or 2 when done the job. Some puppies are quicker than others, my son's mixed breed dog was fully trained at 10 weeks but Tilba my now 10 m/o pup still has the odd accident if I don't hear her want to go out bark.

I have the same problem with Tilba, 10 mths old today. I've had her since 12 weeks & she has always jumped on ppl. The breeder was working on it, & she seemed to not be as bad as she later became. Tilba hasn't been to a leash free park yet, I'd be to wary of the other dogs that I didn't know. A lot of awful things can happen if the other owners let their dogs do as they please. I try to stop her from jumping on ppl but they usually say something like, 'It's ok, I'm used to dogs,' & encourage her by patting her. Does she jump up at other times? or just at the park? The usual way to go is to turn your back, fold your arms & ignore her, no eye contact or pushing off. If she jumps on you while you're sitting down, simply stand up. Tilba doesn't jump on me, but most other ppl & most of them give her a pat. It's so hard.

I heard it at the Pet Expo on Friday. I'll have to give it a go.

The current Dog's Life mag has a free Pet Talk Radio CD on the cover. Steve Austin talks about dogs & storms. He says to ignore it in puppies bc it's a very hard, long process to fix the problem in an adult dog. My son's dog Sooty is terrified of storms. Tilba so far, we've only had a couple, seems OK.

I bought a trick training book on Sat. by Mary Ray & Justine Harding. Still going through it, haven't put anything into practice yet. Although Tilba already knows shake both paws, high five & roll over. Teaching her to wave. She also does touches with her nose & a paw touch on a baby's spinning top.

The old days are gone when you couldn't take your pup out until about 4 mths old which was after their socialisation period. As said as long as you know of ppl with friendly, vaccinated dogs its ok to let them together. Puppy pre school is a good idea, all puppies are at the same stage with their vacs. I took Tilba to my obedience club & had her in her crate or carried her. After classes she was allowed to say hello to some of the dogs. You can carry your pup on walks & encourage the ppl you meet to say hello to Kato. He is very cute & welcome to dol.

PPS wasn't around when I got April. In Jan 2001 we took Sooty my son's puppy to the one run by our vet. It was a 3 week course & had 3 puppies. Sooty & a boxer, both same size & an American cocker. Sooty was scared the 1st week & spent the class under our chairs watching the other 2 play. The boxer started to corner the cocker & they were put back on lead. The next week Sooty started out under the chair, but watching the other 2 play, she slowly came out & joined in. So now there were 2 puppies cornering the cocker. My son only went on the 1st week & I finished the last 2 weeks. I didn't find it a very good class because all the vet nurse talked about was looking after puppies. Health, vaccinations, feeding, worming, desexing & dental care. She did show us around the pens they use in the hospital. We were given free samples of dog food, worming tablets & shampoo sachets. I've been a volunteer instructor at my obedience club sinse 1996 & had dogs all my life & didn't get much out of it. She did show us how to get the pups to sit & drop. That was the only training. When I got Tilba in April I wasn't going back to our vets although now they run a 4 week course. Two of the instructors at my obedience club run puppy pre school so I took her there. It was in another vet practice & went for 4 weeks. We were given a booklet in week one on the entire course & weekly sheets to practice between classes. There were 8 puppies varying in size from a rather big lab pup to a tiny little terrier. The 1st week we were told how dogs learn & shown a couple of exercises & asked to demonstrate. Each week we were asked to bring something to class from week 2. A toy, dog mat, comb or brush. Week 3 we all had to bring something different. I had to bring a big hat. A couple of others brought fresh herbs from their garden, someone else a skateboard & a few other things. We were asked to do something with our items by showing them to the puppies to see if they reacted to them. Over the weeks the instructors had squeeky toys etc & would sound them to see if the pups took any notice, which they didn't. The puppies were encouraged to walk over different surfaces that were laid down on the floor. On weeks 3 & 4 2-3 puppies were allowed off lead & food treats were scattered around the floor for them to find. On the 4th week the vet gave a talk on everything she thought we needed to know on dog care, feeding, desexing & vaccinations. On the whole it was a much better run course than the previous 1 I had been to. We were also shown how to get the puppies to do basic obedience commands using food rewards. The 1st week we had our photo taken with our pup & were presented with a lamanated Graduation certificate with our photo in the corner. We do much the same things in more detail at my obedience club's beginner class, but I went to PPS to continue Tilba's socialisation.

All I could find was the Burdekin Obedience Club which also does agility in Ayr email [email protected] I hope this helps.

Rally O is following a set course with instructions at each point with what to do. E.g. you sit in a chair & ask the dog to sit, drop, sit; dog stays in a hoop for 5 seconds; dog sit stays while you sing a line in a nursery rhyme; whatever little tricks can be done in a short while. The quickest time with no mistakes I think wins.