luvsdogs

No it's included. Most dogs on a raw only diet will only eat what they need & leave the rest in which case you can wrap the remainder up & put in fridge for the next day's meal. They also suggest 2-3% of adult body weight per day but as you're reducing his cals 1.5% would be ok. There are lots of videos on youtube of dogs & puppies eating raw meaty bones. Things like whole chickens for large dogs & 1/2 to a 1/4 for the little dogs. I once had a lamb leg that was left in the freezer too long so gave it to my 5.5kg Japanese Spitz. He spent a good 30 mins eating it until I took it away, he doesn't seem to self-regulate his meals & will eat all I give him. A lot on the forum feed pork shoulder/necks but I'm not sure I like that, but they assure it's a perfect food for dogs. If giving lamb bones make sure to cut off most of the visible fat as lambs a fatty meat .

That sounds exactly what my little JS has. I also did a thread on the same subject. Raw Vs Kibble! in this forum. What breed is your older dog? I'd suggest whole lamb necks rather than knuckle bones from beef cattle. A yahoo raw feeding forum says that large chunks of meat larger than the dog's head so they have to chew it & not scoff it down. I think most dogs chew bones on the side of their mouths, I know mine do.

We would be about 45 mins to an hour away from the Springwood, Winmalee fires & have found burnt gum leaves in the back yard. The sky this afternoon had a very eerie yellow glow about it & later on the smoke haze was like very bad thunder clouds. I hope those that are in the fire areas stay safe.

Yes I think that's what I'm going to have to do. He's a very patient little dog as far as grooming goes & I did brush his teeth once to see how he'd go. He didn't protest too much, so I'll have a go at doing it daily. To think that all the dogs I had as a child tooth brushing & nail clipping was unheard of. Something to my knowledge has only been around in the last few decades.

trinabean I've heard good & bad about roo tails & wouldn't know where to get them, never seen them in a supermarket or butchers. Yonjuro I read on Tom Lonsdale's site once that the plaque returns straight away after a vet clean but for the life of me can't find it. Plus I don't think Panda's is that bad, it's mainly the top of his top k9s. I know many years ago when my 1st Border Collie was aging the vet said she needed a clean before she got too much older. I didn't do it & started feeding her chicken pieces with her regular dog food & a year later the vet said her teeth were ok for her age. Malakita my vet recommended greenies but I don't think they make a scrap of difference, same as dentastix. He finishes them in seconds flat & I've heard they are rubbish for dogs. I've given him a small turkey leg for his dinner tonight & he's making short work of the meat on it, still chewing on the sides of his mouth. Looks like he needs a side of lamb etc. :laugh:

I know there are lots of similar topics but I need to vent a little. I have had my little Japanese Spitz on a raw meaty bone diet for most of the year. He has an overbite problem & it's hard to get his teeth nice & white. Even with chewing on bones his, mostly, k9 teeth have brown plaque near the gums. First off I tried Plaque off on his food after reading all the good reports on DOL. After many months on the product there was no real difference. That's when I decided to go RMB's. I found that if I got a bit lazy or forgot to defrost his bones & gave him a kibble meal the plaque would get a lot worse, like a child eating too many lollies. He gets a very small amount of kibble now only when we go out, so he mostly has the raw diet. But, alas, his teeth aren't as white & clean as I'd hoped or expected. To make matters worse my granddaughter's little Chihuahua, who is 1/2 the size of my JS has the whitest, cleanest teeth I've seen on any dog, and she gets My Dog trays & the cheapest supermarket kibbles. It's just so unfair. I'm at a loss on what to do about it. Don't want to send him to the vets for a clean, could try brushing them myself? The only other thing I can think of is to buy him the biggest bones like lamb/turkey legs (not any beef bones) something that makes him spend more time eating his bones. From what I've seen he only chews on the sides of his mouth & doesn't spend time ripping the meat off the bones with his front teeth. Anyone else have the same problem?

My dogs are on a raw meaty bone diet but will get the odd cup of grain free scattered over the back yard when we go out. I've tried the 2 supermarket grain frees & EBH. My little JS has a plaque problem so needs to chew on meat & bones. Kibble is like he's had lots of lollies & his k9's are brown near the roots.

Half a handful's not much shared between them, how are they now?

I've had the reverse problem with a previous & my present BC. In 1999 I bought Billinghurst's 1st 2 books & started feeding my then BC with the raw diet. At the end of 2000 my son brought home a pup which I also fed the raw diet. When she was taken to the vets for her 15 m/o check-up I was told that she was too thin & we'd be reported to the RSPCA if an inspector went past our house & saw her. So I put her on to Purina One. A year later she saw a different vet & was told to continue feeding her as is because she was in excellent condition. She was still thin & remained so until her death a year ago. I was told her mother was the same way. My 5.5 y/o BC is also a thin dog. I once asked the vet about her being so thin & he said they were meant to be lean, mean, working machines. Most days she gets a cup of kibble for breakfast & a couple of raw meaty bones for dinner. Then there's my 2 y/o JS. He's always been on the small size, being the runt of the litter. The last few weeks I've felt he's looking a little overweight. Not sure if it's because he hasn't lost all his winter coat but then oh likes to give him the wrong treats & says he's ok. He had a bath last week & I didn't really notice his body shape all wet. I've tried feeling his ribs but because he's so small they are so close together, so used to bigger dogs. When I used to instruct at my obedience club & we had overweight dogs I used to suggest to the owners that they reduce their weight, using myself as an example as I'm overweight, by saying we as humans choose to be the way we are but our dogs have no choice by what they are fed. We have a friend that inherited her daughter's stafford & she was terribly overweight. It surprised me that she lived to about 14 years & died a couple of years ago on a 40* day while friend was at work.

Did you freeze the salmon first? Apparently raw salmon has flukes, don't know exactly what they are - some kind of parasite I think - & it is recommended to freeze salmon to kill them off. http://www.itsfortheanimals.com/must_cook_salmon_for_dogs.htm It seems to be from fish caught in the Pacific NW of America but if you don't know the source of the fish it's wise to be cautious.

Years ago when April was a pup she used to chew the plastic garden trellis I had around the house at the driveway to stop her from getting under the house. I had read or heard probably from my obedience club instructor, no internet or forums in those days, to put tabasco on the trellis to stop her from chewing it. I religiously painted it every day & she still would chew the plastic. I eventually gave up & replaced the plastic with off cuts from screen door grills thanks to my s-i-l. She never touched it again & it's still there to this day.

I hope all you smart humans are putting all these doggy brains to good use & teaching them loads of useful tricks. :laugh:

This is what I heard too. If no-one was in the room with the child I don't how they could tell that this is what really happened. Also in one of the articles posted above the dog had done nothing like this in all the years they had the dog. I got the impression that it wasn't a young dog from the TV footage so who knows what physical condition the dog was in. Such a preventable situation. ETA I've always thought that TV advertisements about dog body language & how to approach dogs & act around them etc, should be shown during children's programmes instead of all those ones on toys & junk food.

RIP Rosie.

They were/are originally 2 books & I have both, signed copies, of them. You can download them for free from Dogstardaily.com if you don't already have them. You may have to join the site but it's free. It goes a bit over the top as far as how many people/dogs a puppy should meet but a lot of good advise given. And just for fun watch this clip of a bulldog puppy having his 1st training lesson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_969380&feature=iv&src_vid=TJSGda3b3wA&v=TBvPaqMZyo8

From what I've been reading on other raw feeding forums most dogs won't eat liver. I have tried drying in the microwave, oven, freeze drying & par frying. Nope they won't eat it. But give them store bought dried liver & they love it. Just can't figure them out. When I did try them on kidney they ate it but like I said previously I'm still concerned about hydatids even though I bought them from the supermarket.

My son rang me over 2 years ago asking my advise on getting a Chihuahua for his then 3 y/o daughter. I told him that a registered chi breeder probably wouldn't sell a pup to a family with young children. They live in Ulladulla & saw an add in the paper for the pups that were in Nowra. Anyway my daughter in law went ahead & bought the pup which was about $300 - $500, can't remember now the exact price, could have even been $700. They insist that she's pure bred chi but I'm not totally convinced but she has turned out to be a fabulous little dog for my granddaughter. She's totally spoilt, is such a funny little dog, & does some tricks. She does the quickest & fastest, straight beg for a treat I've ever seen. She looks overweight to me & weighs about 1.5kg. She's a long coat Chihuahua that's black & white & they tell people that she's a mini Border Collie.

I used to walk April to school with my sons when they were in infants school. Some days dogs that weren't in their yards would start to come towards us & not knowing all but one of them I used to flail my arms about at them, yell to get away & a couple of time threw a stone towards them, not the hit them, but to warn them off. Nothing ever came of those ever attacked her but my actions made her dog reactive & I had to always be aware of her body language when strange dogs were around after that. Was it at Hawthorn Parade? I've never been there but I've heard that it's not the best place to take your dogs on the weekends when it can get very busy. I hope Hank will be ok, it's so frustrating when you have to put up with d#@&k heads like that. I will sometimes say something in like situations but afterwards will go through my head that I should have or could of said a lot more.

And I thought Tilba was bad. I used to have one of those swing top tidys that I sticky taped so she couldn't open it. Not very practicle. Now I have one of those kids wheely bin, so far she hasn't tried to open it. As for counter surfing she usually brings what she's stolen into the loungeroom where I am to eat or lick out her spoils. Stupid dog. Or she takes it to her bed. When I used to feed tin dog food she'd get the empty tin & lick it clean, she has licked out butter containers - thankfully they were nearly empty. OH has left a sandwich on the coffee table a few times, silly man, will he ever learn? She's helped herself to an open ham packet, empty cat food pouches. She's a long dog & just stands on her hind legs & reaches whatever may have been left out. I try my hardest to put things away but living with 3 males it doesn't always happen. She even once took a couple of chicken pieces from under the grill. We live next door to my mum & she always has a supply of treat strips for them. She was amazed when looking after her that she ate the whole opened packet. I bought some treats from a food vendor at the Dogs NSW open day, not cheap, gave the dogs one each & by the next day the rest were all gone. She's always at the bathroom door if it's been closed, we feed the cat in there, & sniffs around the empty bowl & under the mat for a forgotten piece of kibble. Like someone said it's good having a small dog, don't have the same problem with Panda. He won't even go into the kitchen, he has an aversion to vinyl & tiled floors. ETA the dogs are always outside when no ones home.

My dogs are raw fed mostly because of my little JS's teeth. I have a lot of trouble keeping them plaque free even on a raw meaty bone diet. They get chicken legs & sometimes wings, turkey wings & small turkey legs if they have them, lamb shanks & flaps, large chunks of beef maybe once or twice a month. If the chicken shop has whole chickens on special I'll buy them & cut up in 1/4's. They should have a small amount of offal in their diet but won't eat liver no matter how I try to disguise it. Although whole chickens do have some organs attached. They don't mind chicken hearts but they're classed as muscle meat & not offal. I'm wary of kidney because of hydatids. All the meaty bones I buy for them are human grade. As a treat they sometimes get chicken feet. Some say pork is also good for them but I'm still a bit iffy about that. No beef bones are recommended especially the leg bones as they are too dense & can cause broken teeth. ETA I get accused all the time of taking up most of the freezer space with dog food.

You are going to have so much fun with that little one! :)

This is what I was taught back in the day of traditional training. It wasn't until 2000 that we went to a Dunbar seminar & saw dogs heeling/looking up at their handlers. My head instructor was aghast saying that the dogs would get a stiff neck from continually looking up on the same side. The dogs were also wrapped around the handler's left leg which looked as though they were touching the leg, something that wasn't allowed. We also had drummed into us that turns had to be sharp & not in an arc or sloppy as I've seen in recent trials.

Some things to do if you don't find a suitable pre school. http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/importance-early-socialization

I think the question was 2 puppies at the same time which is not advised. Nothing wrong with having 2 dogs as long as they aren't the same age.

I've just read this whole thread & didn't realise that titre testing has been going on for so long by so many. I first heard about it from Dr Fougaire sp, back in about 2002. It was then only available to be sent to America. I soon stopped vaccinations for my BC when she was 9 y/o especially after 2 friends elderly dogs died after being vaccinated. It all got me to thinking way back before I had my 1st baby I had a rubella vaccination. My titre came back, from memory, 1.2 which the doctor said was low but I was still covered & my cousin had a titre of 3.4. I wasn't convinced so had the rubella vaccination again before my 2nd baby. While pregnant with my 3rd baby my 2nd son had a terrible rash. We took him to children's hospital where he was tested for rubella. I was so worried that the doctor also tested me. Again my titre was 1.2. After reading Dr Jean Dodds report on vaccinations & immunity, being you're either immune or your not I thought that must have been the case for me. I haven't asked my vet about titre testing but Tilba has had the tri-annual vaccination twice over the years with a yearly KC vaccination. I got a reminder letter for Panda saying he's due for his annual vac. I don't know if he was given the regular vac or the so called tri-annual vac. I'm of 2 minds whether to wait another 2 years or have him titre tested. Is there anyone in Sydney who titre tests? & where are the bloods sent? Can anyone recommend a Sydney based vet who does titre testing? ETA: On a raw feeding forum I'm on they only either give their dogs their puppy vacs &/or their 1st year vac & that's it for life. They say as has been said here that vaccinations + worming + flea spot ons etc compromise their system.