FranVT

Yes, I love my town. It seems like every time I go for a walk something happens. And yesterday was no exception. I took Luuka and Atlas (wow walking 2 dogs is hard especially when one is still being leash trained ) down to the Ski Gardens, a section of the riverbank that's grassed and has some boat / canoe ramps, BBQs etc. Atlas loves to get in and have a swim here (on his lunge lead) so I was standing in the shallows, he was having a little swim (not too far out because he didn't seem to want to stray far from Luuka) and Luuka was splashing about in the shallows having a merry old time. We wandered a bit further up the bank and then I noticed this border collie-ish cross hanging around. I shortened Atlas' lead (he wanted to go and have a sniff) and ignored the dog and kept going up the grassy bank. This dog followed us a few metres away for about 200m and Atlas was very distracted by it, because it kept making sudden lunging forward movements to catch us up, it wasn't just walking along beside us, it would stop and stare for ages then run to catch up which Atlas found very weird being behind him. Luuka didn't seem to care too much. So then seemingly without warning, this dog launches itself at Atlas and jumped on him. Atlas snarled but didn't bite or snap. I told the dog to get and put Atlas in a drop-stay which he went into immediately. The dog wouldn't bugger off so I cut my losses and started back to the carpark - I didn't want Luuka to get a fright. The dog followed us, quite close, the whole way, and there was nothing I could do because I already had 2 dog leashes. I asked a group of people who the dog belonged to and they pointed to some people fishing off the carpark area. I was a bit cranky by this time as Atlas was pulling on the lead and trying to get to the dog. When I got to the group fishing I said "hey guys, is this your dog?" and they said "oh nah mate". I said "oh no worries, must be a stray, I'll just take it to the pound" (I had no actual intention of doing this). I opened my car door and motioned for he dog to jump in, which he nearly did. That changed their tune and they said "oh that one yeah sorry he is ours". And I said "right, well how about you keep it on a f**king leash like you're meant to, because it just followed me and my dogs and made our walk pretty unpleasant, before jumping on top of my bull terrier which he didn't really appreciate". And they told me to "f**k off and mind my own business" which is what I was attempting to do anyway. I got in my car and called the ranger, making sure they could see I was on the phone. We have so few nice places to walk in this town, why do wankers want to ruin them? On the upside, in the paper today there's an article about good socialisation for dogs and the need for training to help with problems, with all the dog obedience club details! Glad I've already booked Luuka in for puppy preschool, I reckon there could be a good turnout this year!

True .I would also scrape the rice a waste of money if trying to budget feed. Really? I thought it might help to bulk him up but it doesn't seem to be. I've been giving Luuka 3 small feeds daily, the one when I get home from work is just a cup of dry food. Maybe I could give Atlas his normal feed in the morning and a couple of chicken wings at night. So the minces that the pet shop offered were beef, beef/roo, beef/horse, roo, horse, umm I think that might have been it ... what's the best option there or are there no good options?

Yeah it just doesn't sit right with me either, I don't think I'll buy it again, only bought 2kg of the beef/horse today.

That's a good idea, I'll ask OH, he is a qualified butcher and he might be able to tee me up a deal with his old work (he still does a few days a month there). Don't know why I didn't think of that before!

I thought maybe if I raised the fat content of what he's eating and reduced the frequency? I dunno I might be just silly Don't worry guys I am a pain I know I'll figure it out

Yep that is what the chicken necks are for, besides when he came out of the vet he had to be on a virtually no-fat diet because of his liver thing, but we have the all clear (in early December, when we added the chicken necks / wings) to reintroduce fat into his diet. Plus he frickin loves roo mince and he is kind of fussy

Mainly because I feel like I am not buying efficiently, plus I can't keep feeding Luuka premium beef mince forever. I figured there must be a more budget-friendly way to buy food, which is why I checked out places that sell bulk pet food. Also what I'm feeding now obviously isn't working since Atlas isn't gaining weight and hasn't since his accident (and no he doesn't have wormyworms). I'm feeding him twice a day, roo mince and cooked brown rice, he flat out won't eat dry food, he gets chicken necks / carcasses etc as well.

The lady said I don't need to feed Atlas twice a day Beef mince was what Luuka's breeder was feeding her so I've just continued on with that and the ProPlan, and some chicken wings / necks etc. I told you I was more overwhelmed than before

Okay so with the help of lovely lappiemum I sourced the two non-grocery store places that sell dog food in my town and went to check them out today after work. The first place I went to, a specific dog food place, the lady seemed to REALLY know her stuff and she was extremely patient with me and explained everything really well but I am not naive and I do realise she was trying to sell me stuff. They seemed to have everything there! Including these bags with frozen blocks of meat in them that'd been band-sawed into separate daily-meal blocks which were impressive but kind of expensive. So I told her I had a 2 year old bully and a 14 week old lappie and she said that roo mince (which is what I feed Atlas currently) is too rich for Luuka (I knew that - I'm still feeding her premium mince from Woolies at the moment plus some mushed up veges, brown rice, chicken necks (supervised) etc) so she recommended a mixture of horse and beef mince - it's about 70% beef I believe. Now, here's my personal quibble - I frickin love horses. I asked her where it comes from and she said she is very good friends with the guy who owns the local knackery (I didn't even know we had one) and the horses often are injured racehorses / pony club horses / old horses etc ... I dunno I just didn't really think of feeding horse to a dog. Naive? Anyway, I bought a little bit of it, and will gradually introduce it to see if they tolerate it. I also bought 3 bags of chicken necks, a bag of turkey necks for Atlas and some preservative-free lamb's fry treats. This lady was so incredibly nice and down to earth, I really liked her and would like to give her my business regularly if you guys think she is probably above board? I know it's hard to tell sorry She had heaps of other stuff, different kinds of mince and steaks and roo tails and stuff. No ProPlan though, bummer! The next place is a horse chemisty / saddlery kind of place, and sold BARF packs, Breeder's Choice, chicken carcasses for $1kg, chicken mince, all kinds of stuff, not as good a range as the other place and all pre-packed mostly, and seemed really expensive, the Breeder's Choice rolls were $10 for 2kg rolls and they seemed to have a lot of other stuff in them like chicken bones ground up, veges, flaxseed and what seemed like a LOT of other stuff... The guy didn't know his products at all and seemed put out by my questions And no ProPlan! So I'm moving Atlas to being fed once a day (probably should ahve done that ages ago ) with a mixture of mince and brown rice as usual and some chicken necks and a turkey neck as a substitute sometimes and continue feeding Luuka mince and veg etc plus a cup of ProPlan in the morning and at night and a cup of ProPlan when I get home from work. Sound reasonable or what am I missing? Oh PS they could both do to put on some weight, Luuka is fine but is a growing bub and Atlas could use to gain some weight.

I think she's worried that the litter she is getting a puppy from may not occur? I could be wrong.

Yeah puppies don't come along *that* often do they? Good advice megan.

Oh gosh. Well, this is a purebred dog forum, so we don't promote cross breeding, there are always rescue puppies and dogs in need though.

Isn't it disgusting, what kind of people do this, I mean really think about it, if they are doing this to animals now what the hell else are they capable of? I just tear up every time I think of the dogs probably thinking they'd made a new friend or something, that poor innocent puppy, it is really upsetting me

I wanted to start Luuka on Interceptor but was told she is too young, or too small, needs to be 11kg I think the vet said? Or a certain age?

I was about to post about this, how can this happen? In my own area too :p I bought the paper this morning and felt sick. What the eff is wrong with people :D One was just a little 12 week old puppy, in the paper there's a pic of it in life and it is the most gorgeous little thing

What a brilliant solution!

Oh god, tell me about it. Was short lived, thank goodness.

Here's a link to the thread I started (also in this section - bad Fran!) just before I got Luuka http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?show...=183869&hl=

Yep, totally agree, but IMO nature never intended them to be in Australia. Though I suppose there were only dingoes prior to domesticated doggies too! Don't mind me I mean absolutely zero offence and don't want to fight I'll show myself out

Yep the Puppy Forum is definitely a place to look and a better location for the thread, sorry to lead you down the garden path Jess!

I think I paid $120 the other day for a 14 week check, 2nd vaccination (C3), 3 months worth of Heartgard and 3 months worth of Drontal.

Just thinking Jess (sorry if I'm presumptive in assuming that's your name), why don't you start a "Getting a New Puppy Questions" thread? That way all your questions are in the one place instead of making topics all the time? And you can save it in your favourites and refer back to it whenever you want Just a thought

We tried to be polite and ask them nicely to move on or not leave rubbish but one day they bent up the copper pipe for the air con moisture outlet, it was really humid and this air con dripped a LOT, we all got home from work the next day and about 3 square metres of the carpet was soaked so it was GAME ON from there. Anyway - cats!

Yep I did that too, it's a good idea and you can cut up the polar fleece into whatever size pieces you want. It's nice and soft and easily washable as Mystiqview said.

I used to do this (the hose) with the high school students that sat on the front doorstep of a house we lived in a few years ago. Just because my doorstep is not far from the footpath and across from your school does not mean you can sit there talking trash, eating and leaving wrappers and cans etc you little germs, *ssssprrrrayyyyy*! Was amazing. Surely would also work for cats? Yep our neighbours let us know if Atlas puts a toe out of line but their cat actually enters our house sometimes, not just the yard, OH said to them "if Atlas one day manages to catch it when it is teasing him like it does every day, don't blame us if he kills it" they just laughed. I'm not a huge fan of cats but no problem at all with them being inside, lying in sunny patches on windowsills like they're meant to do :D