karly101

200g of the barf and 1 chicken frame doesn't sound like much to me for a 9wk old pup. What does your breeder recommend? I think another meal would be good to keep him more satisfied. I can't comment on the entirely raw diet as I've always fed a mix of dry and raw as I don't want to mess anything up during a really important growth period (not saying that you are doing it wrong just what works for me).

I agree with you about insurance.. I think there's way too much small print with them and I know it would be just my luck to get something they don't cover and not only have to fork out the money for the insurance (which when you look at it per year is really hefty) but the cost of the vet bills as well! I also do a similar thing to you but in my own bank account which is perhaps something you want to consider.. do your research and find a low fee one with as high interest rates as possible, at least that way you are earning the benefits of the interest not your vet (though admittedly with rates the way they are atm its not so great)! The money does build up and should a situation happen then at least you'll have no probs paying the vet or at least giving them some of the money. I set it up automatically so I don't miss the money from my pay. All animal health expenses come out of this account

Really any object that your dog plays with every day that is hard will wear down the teeth..I know a person who has worn his teeth down by holding his camera strap between his teeth (a movement he does multipe times per day)! Tennis balls are probably particuarly bad because they collect dirt...dirt will wear down your dogs teeth pretty quick like it does with most herbivoures!

Just that the young tend to have weaker immune systems and puppies are particuarly prone to stomach viruses/bacteria and often can require vet care for that. Of course all their life they need vet care..but a lot of people seem unaware that you can get a pup and have it become sick the second day you have it and you may need money immediately for that. Some breeders may help out with this or even pet insurance but at vets you often need to give up front payment.

No worries then.. puppies can be very cheap! For Turbo we bought some really cute toy, a good collar/lead, brush, car harnes... bedding was second hand, a lot we already had as we had another dog. It really is only as expensive as you want it to be... puppies don't require all the expensive flashy stuff. Also our vet gave us a lot of freebies when we did puppy class which was great.

From your post it sounds like your financial issues are only temporary? Just wondering.. because the costs of microchipping/vaccinations/worming and the high possibility of vet care (lots of puppies require vet care early on in life) etc will add up so if you can't afford them right now perhaps it would be better to wait another next litter? Puppies can be very cheap supplies wise, our breeder gave us a harness/collar some wormer, some food and he was already microchipped so that helped. You can get bedding for very cheap from op shops or if you have some old sheets/blankets etc. We used a cardboard box with our first puppy 20 years ago and the only problem was as he got older he shredded it to bits lol. You could get toys from op shops too.. for soft toys just rip off the eyes and stitch the holes (we do this at the shelter) some old maccas toys make great pet toys! One of Turbo's favourite puppy toy was a coke bottle lol. The $2 shops often have supplies that are really cheap (brushes, bedding, etc) and depending on what it is sometimes there's not much difference between them and their more expensive counterparts. Bowls we usually use human ones (again op shops if you don't have any spare lol). We don't find supplies expensive (except when turbo when through a stage of destroying all his toys)...its really the healthcare side of things.

Turbo didn't start fetching till only recently.. he's still rather confused about the whole concept ("what you threw it away yet want me to go get it and bring in back? why?"). However he will play soccer style games and really enjoys them

Unfortunately as an honours project it wouldn't work.. it's only a year.. plus good luck getting the ethics approval to do it plus it would be a very expensive project! Possibly the only way you could do it would be to get shelters to do feeding trials but even that will have issues (again the results you get may not be inline with what you see in a home environment in dogs not stressed etc). Studying smaller aspects.. like the effects on teeth is much more doable. I'm suprised more people haven't looked at this aspect as yet.

I highly doubt there would be much (apart from whats sponsered by dog food companies). The reason being.. to do it.. you'd have to have dogs from similar genetic backgrounds and run a long term feeding trial. At the end you'd most likely have to kill alll the animals to truely find out how they are doing (unless you can run the study for their natural lifespan whatever that is which could be 15 years) and of course you have to control for as many other factors as possible as otherwise you won't be able to say whatever you are seeing is because of diet. Then lastly the problem of doing such a study is that its a lab test and what you see in the real world might be different! And then getting the ethics approval to do such work. I think there were some studies on cats a long time ago where they fed raw food versus cooked food (they discovered the taurine thing then)... not really an adequate test of raw food versus commercial. I know a researcher working on ferrets who has proven that commercial food causes tooth disease (breaking the long held myth that dry food cleans teeth)... so there are smaller studies like that, that are applicable. I would disagree with the vaccination thing.. many vets now aren't seing illnesses that were once common due to vaccinating.. I would agree that we don't need to give them as often (and many vets are coming to this thought as well) and hopefully titre testing will be more common.

My shepherd doesn't like it either (but never so extreme to try and wipe it off/panicky).. he's a bit of a sook in general and not sure if its just the coldness/feel? Or he usually gets ear cleanings at the same time so it could be that too. He just runs off with his tail between his legs. I've used it for years on my ferrets and they never seem bothered by it at all. Nearly ran out of the packet so trying to decide whether to stick with it or use something else on the shep. I'd suggest reporting it to manufacturer and seeing what they say? Maybe ask for refund?

The black dog I bought (the normal one) has a stopper to .. well stop the lead pulling the muzzle section too tight..I found it did fit a lot better than the normal halti but I've now stopped using it as my dog HATED it (even with bribary) and all he does the entire time it's on is try to fight it and as a tool it just didn't teach him to stop pulling (sure when you use it it's physically impossible NOT to pull but thats not the same thing as teaching not to pull). You could still use it to stop barking I guess but I'd also worry about hurting the neck. The pro's of the black dog is really the fit.. our dog managed to escape the normal halti's several times (by putting his head down quickly and pawing it off) ..

We never found a solution for my old dogs ear problems (he was a poodle cross).. all that we found helped was good diet (seemed to lessen the no. of infections), keeping the hair around his ears shaved to allow the air to circulate- ear dryers would have definitely been useful!) and apart from that for most of his life he was on the ear drops on and off and malaseb. Frustrating.... but don't loose hope as he did live to 18 despite this problem!

We had a dog with this problem quite a few years ago... we tried all those deterrants and none worked (he'd just lick them off), he also developed skin infections from the constant licking (so I'd definitely get the vet to have a look at the skin). We changed his diet (due to old one being unavailable) and funny enough it solved the problem! I'm not sure what ingrediant was causing him trouble but it may be something you want to look into if nothing else works.

Thanks everyone for their input.. he's just had his desexing surgery so once he has recovered I will definitely be looking into some of the trainers you have suggested and hopefully let you all know on his progress

I understand that about the other dog bit but the trainer never mentioned that we would be isolated from the class and if he had told us this would be the case I would have chosen to do one on one sessions with another trainer! When we spoke with him on the phone about Turbo's issues he indicated the class would be good for him, other things he mentioned were the dogs would be around turbo's age (all wrong we were put into a puppy class). Other class members also commented to us that the trainer ignored us a lot and concentrated on other dogs (in training wise commands Turbo wasn't suited for the class as he already knew most basic commands). It really wasn't very helpful and he said 'no refunds'.. after the first week we learnt the class wasn't really for us and Turbo but we had to keep going otherwise we'd spent all that money for one hour. We'd been told the class was for 6-12 month old dogs focusing on behavioural issues with basic obediance- most of this was wrong! This is why I am asking for other suggestions and recommendations of a behaviouralist he is only young and I don't see how the trainer could just say that the issue is unsolveable after such a short amount of time when he hardly spent any time with the dog.

Hi everyone, I have a 9 month old white German shepherd (Turbo) and we've been having an ongoing issue with him and other dogs. From the beginning we took him to puppy school- he was always anxious at the start of the class but half way through would always start playing with the puppies. We've been socialising him as encouraged by the vet (he gets regular short walks + visits to the dog park) but he does continue to have problems on lead. Whenever another dog approaches he gets quite anxious and often tries to flee, his hackles go up and he will growl/bark/snap (has never made contact with other dogs). We've both never encountered this problem before so we seeked out a trainer and put him in for an obediance class. Unfortunately this trainer was TERRIBLE! He told all the other class attendants to stay away from our dog and would only suggest to keep walking Turbo away from other dogs (at any signs of aggressive behaviour) and keep reapproaching and keep repeating. If anything this seems to make his behaviour worse and we just spend the entire time just to keep trying to reapproach- to me it seems we are just rewarding him by removing him from the other dog which tells him the behaviour is working. The trainer in the later classes just told us this would always be an issue with our dog and he didn't seem to offer any other suggestions! Off leash he does play and interact with other dogs though is often still initially scared but I'm sure being off leash he feels a lot more confidant as he can keep running away and reapproaching when he feels it safe to do so. We've also been taking him for regular walks with one of my friends dogs which does seem to have helped a little. Does anyone have any suggestions to how we can teach him to be more confidant and less anxious on leash as well? Or anyone had a similar problem to this? Suggestions for good trainers in the South East VIC suburbs would also be much appreciated! Thanks.