sithspawn

Hi Deanne, My family border collie contracted diabetes in his later years of life. It ended up causing him to pass away, but he was 13 years old so had lived a good long life already. When he first was diagnosed with diabetes, the vet only gave him no more than 1 month and wanted us to put him down after a few days to stop him from being in pain. This was when I first actively sought out information on new diets and what causes diabetes in dogs. There are some vegies and food prodcuts that vastly increase the risk of diabetes in dogs. Basically I started to feed him on the BARF diet, being vary wary of the vegetables that even slightly have diabete warnings on them. He managed to live for another 8 months, and went in his sleep. This was a very severe case though. The vet said that there are ways of treating it, but because it was already too far gone, and also because he was very old, he did not want to put him on any unnecessary treatments. Good luck with your situation Deanne. My heart is with you on this one. Its a very serious thing, but by no means does it mean you will not have a long and happy life with your fur-baby. Regards, Daniel

brussell sprouts are completely different to cabbage and brocolli (well not completely but yeah). Its like why you can feed some root vegetables, but not potatos, and not onions....brocolli is one of the best vegies you can feed, only in small amounts though. Lots of anti-carcinogens.

Be careful with potatos. They can cause diabetes in dogs when fed in large amounts. I play it safe and just take them out of the diet completely. They dont have anything in them that you cant get from elsewhere . Carrots are a super vegie, small amounts of brocolli, NO cabbage, NO ONION, pumpkin is good to keep the pup regular (also good to feed when pup has the runs or is constipated), apples, celery, spinach is awesome, brussell sprouts, and any other odd vegies you have in the fridge that are going a bit over ripe or soggy. Oh and dont worry about cooking the mince. It is better for them raw. Cooking it takes out a lot of the nutrients. And dont forget that you may need to add a few extra supplements to this mix. I strongly recommend reading one of the BARF books for detailed information on this as you dont want to over or under do it.

Hi there, I can offer my own experiences with a situation similar to this. I have a Golden (cant recommend them enough ), and while he was still young lived with a mate of mine that has a JRT for a couple of months. His Jack russell loves people and doesnt really get along well with other dogs. My Golden, being a Golden, loves anything and everything that moves...or doesnt. He was about 7 months old at this point. He tried a couple of times to play with the JR but every time he went close the JR basically ignored him and gave a low growl if ever he get too boisterous. Koda was fine with this and just played with sticks or something instead. Basically I dont think anyone needs to worry about JR's being bullied. They have little dog syndrome. All the energy and presence of a big dog, but pocket size. If you get a Golden they are usually very easy going dogs. If they are with a dog that doesn't want to play, they generally just back off and go and play with someone/thing else that does want to play. Just make sure you introduce them slowly, if you are getting a brand new puppy spending a couple of days or longer just letting him getting acquanted with being away from mum, and to the new house, is hard enough.

Most crates advise you of what dog breeds will fit into them. If they dont have your exact breed, they will have one that is similar in size.

With my golden drop is an ongoing problem. I can get him to drop with food 'most times' not a problem, he was a bit slow with this. I had to resort to lowering the food slowly in front of him with very slight pressure on his shoulders. Maybe keep the food right in front of his face until he is actually licking it and almost eating it and then start to lower it very slowly so that he is constantly almost getting it in his mouth (just out of reach though) Koda just wont drop on command though....Its strange because other commands he is so good with. Anybody have any advice for adding the command to this (without taking away from the initial question).

With our Golden, we used a crate right from the word go while he was sleeping and napping throughout the day. Using the crate at night encouraged him to learn how to 'hold it' until he could let us know that he needed to go. Im not sure if it is because of the crate or because of him, but he has not messed inside since he was about 4-5 months old (now a year and a half), and I will definately be using it next time I get a puppy as well. We can leave him for hours and not worry about it!

cool thanks for the replies everybody. I will probably head down to the supermarket tomorrow and pick out some cheap sandwich meat or something like that to start using. He is DEFINATELY a food motivated dog. He goes CRAZY if he thinks i have food and seems willingto do anything for it...i somtimes think that he might be a little too motivated by food actually...

Hi Just wondering what people have found is the best treat to use for training purposes. I have been using natures gift liver flavoured treats for my puppy but they seem to give him an upset stomach. I stopped using them and have instead been using bits of his food at meal times to entice him to do commands. This works, but of course can only be done at meal times. ANy suggestions on good treats? Cheers

i think the suggestion of starting from where he is reliable and slowly moving back out is the best suggestion so far. This isnt implying that the dog is dumb at all, merely that he isnt quite understanding what you mean when you recall him from a distance. Perhaps he isnt making the connection that s hort recall and a long recall are the SAME exercise, and if he has been rewarded for doing it, a long recall entails doing a little loop at the end.

Looking at that plastic one, i personally think it 'looks' more brutal than the normal prong collar does!!! Ive never thought there was, or should be, a problem with prong collars. I cant understand how the world can be so superficial as to put down a good, safe, reliable training tool just because of its looks, when injury causing tools like choke chains are considered perfectly 'ok'. The truth is, they can both be helpful in training your dog but they both need to be used properly.

sounds about right to me i have no idea how commerical dog food companies can get away with such poor quality food

Bilby - this is jsut another one of those medical things. Before proper dental care was developed for humans, a lot more people had gingivitis, plaque build ups, and a whole other lot of dental problems im not sure about. Dogs in teh wild are the same. While bones scrape off plaque build up, other dental diseases can still occur. Introducing brushing for animals just helps to solve a problem that otherwise goes unsolved. THey have the problem in the wild, they have the problem when domesticated. The difference is we can do something about it in domestication. Just like worming/vaccines/other vet care. just because they wouldnt get it in the wild, does that mean we have to shorten our animals lives in domestication as well? Proper dental care for your pup can add years to their life. THey are susceptible to the same diseases as us. WOuld you be comfortable just using something hard to scrape plaque off your teeth through chewing? I bet your mouth would feel rather disgusting after a few weeks. And your breath probably wouldnt be too great either (no offence!!). Only too a degree. Eating a completely natural/healthy diet wouldnt eradicate many dental diseases. It would definately help, but you still need to brush to have proper dental hygeine.

Its also bad for their teeth. just like human shampoo is bad for their skin.

alright cool, thanks for that tip. Those toothbrushes were only like $5 down at city farmers so i thought "why not?" Now im just looking for a doggie toothepaste that works good/smells good. I think i might ask the vet about that one though.