Acacia

My sisters malt X silky get groomed once a year, and the groomer said that they wished all dogs were like her She just collapeses when you go to groom her, you can roll her on her back and brush/clip, hold her upside down and trim around her bum, even if you accedently hurt her, she doesn't really move.

My sisters JRT X malt likes to be brushed, but his hair get tangled in a day, so around the bum hurts him a bit, but he puts up with it, because he loves to be brushed when there are no knots. He HATES it paws being touched though, he had a toenail ripped out by a vet because it was half ripped off, and ever since then, has had a problem with people touching his paws.

My dog, I wouldn't put anyone through washing him!!! I can do it, I hose him and he is good for me, but I doubt he would get in any sort of bath thing with a stranger.

I just changed my dogs diet the other day.

I was sick of the way he would eat the dry busuits, he would just swallow them, and you could hear it scrape its way all the way down his throat plus the amount of poo in the yard was ridiculous!!!

I feed pet mince, which is basically ground up chicken frames and bits from the butcher and it doesn't last very long in the fridge, about the same as human grade, so I guess it isn't too bad.

I make a mix which is mosly mince, and the rest is broccoli, spinach, carrot, apples, oranges, alfalfa, capsicum, garlic, that's about it I think.

I cook the broccoli, spinach and carrot.... it this ok?

I mix all of that in with the mince, it smells pretty good too, compared the the pet food in cans or buscuit.

He LOVES it! he usually sits and waits for his food, but when I feed him this, he can't help himself... so it is retraining all over again

I am hoping that he won't be as hypo or fart as much. I am hoping that his coat will improve, Hopefully less poo, less smell (coat and poo). I am also working on puting a bit of weight on him, which is impossible with that dry stuff! He doesn't do too well on the stuff.

I like the white poo so much easier to clean, and it's doesn't really matter if you step in it, because it doesn't stick. You don't see much white poo around these days.

I also add a few other things to his diet, such as:

bones

chicken frames

whole egg a few times a week

raw chicken liver

some of my sardines

anyone like to suggest anything I am doing wrong or anything I am missing etc etc???

Well, I guess you no longer have to clean the litter tray.

It a win win situation!!

yayyyyy ;)

I have bathed him in the laundry sink, in the bath and in the shower with me.

Shower isn't too bad, but he is too big for the laundry sink now and I am not strong enough to hold him down to bathe him in the bath...need about three ppl and it is still a nightmare, He isn't even that big, he is small!! About 14.5 kg!! :strong:

So, :p the next time I am trying the hose!!!!

Is a harness better to use, cos I can imagine him rolling and flipping around choking or injuring himself or something....

:D :D

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but here it is anyway... get a few toys, about 6-8 or something, and give him 3 toys to play with for a day or two. then take those toys away and give him the other ones. He will be happy and more likely to play with his toys longer, it's like a new toy for them! and just continue doing that plus treats in kongs etc.... good luck on the barking, if you are goign to ignore him try not to even make eye contact.

so sorry

- No, it's not, although a lot of people do apply that theory to both. Children and their treatment are not interchangeable with animals and our treatment of them. Children understand verbal language and can be talked to about their conduct, animals cannot. A child understands "mummy still loves me", an animal may not, and a child may not be backed into a corner with only his teeth to use.

The problem with using physical punishment is that you don't always know what other problems you are creating. Take it to a logical extreme - If I bash up a child for eating icecream, he may not want to ever see icecream again. It doesn't mean he knows it's wrong, it just means the associations with icecream are strong enough for him to avoid it at all costs. He might not just start disliking icecream though, he might start disliking everything cold, everything vanilla flavoured, and everything white! There is a well known experiment done with a toddler, where every time he saw a rat, a loud noise errupted. He came to hate rats. Physical punishment can simply create fear, and yes, the dog may never behave that way again, but you don't know what damage you might be doing.

What is even worse is that you admit the dog may have been physically abused earlier and thus he already has problems with timidity and submissiveness. The best thing you can do for such a pup is treat him positively, and build trust that isn't based on fear.

Nat

do some speaking lessons/ public speaking and you will find that 90% of what is comunicated between animal/human human/human fly/sea gull is done through the way you comunicate not what you say .ie if you use a soft or a hard voice, you can say i love you all you liek to a little kid in a corey tailor voice( slip knott) and im sure hes gonna feal loved.

and what i find more amusing is that at the start of your post you said it was completely different hitting a child to hitting a dog then latter on you say that it does the same thing?!?!?!?!? but i thought you could tell a child (using your slip knott voice)

It's very easy to misunderstand dog behaviour - how many people arrive home to a dog that's destroyed a shoe and as it slinks away, thinks he is "guilty"?  Many, but the dog isn't guilty, he just knows now that when the Owners come home, so can scary punishment.

no(unless you hit you dog every time you come home) its reading your body language, im not saying hitting your dog is the best thing to do but it sounds like you think its ok to hit you children and not your dog?!?!?!?!

It could be something in the water, which would need to be treated by a vet i guess, since it is a young pup. A few adult dogs have died from drinking out of canberra lakes.... or it could be parvo... any blood in his poo? has he had his vaccinations?

I think supercoat would be the best from say... woolworths, I can't remember seeing many brands. I am considering feeding my dogs BARF when i get all of them (when i get my own place, my mum would kill me if i had more than 2 dogs!) But with the pup that i have now i would prefer a mix of dry and raw meat, because i havn't looked into it yet and he is just a pup and growing fast and i don't want to risk it. But when i do i will defiently be getting some advise from here!

Is BARF cheaper if you have about 3 big dogs?

(A little bit off track here) The dogs that i am thinking of getting in a few years...

Dobermann

Newfoundland

Leonberger (I wish, they are rare here)

I also love the look of the Vizsla or the Ridgback!

Anyone ever seen a pic of a Leonberger?? if you havn't check out this link:

Leonberger

Beautiful dogs!!! What do you think?

Hi,

I used to feed my puppy Pal puppy dry food, but changed over to supercoat puppy food (dry) because his poo was not looking good. I also feed him chicken carcasses, bones etc. His poo is looking a lot better, but, he doesn't seem as interested in supercoat as he was with pal, he lets the cat finish it! BTW He usually loves food.

I remember a while back when my sister was living with me, i changed her dogs food over to supercoat as well, and they wouldn't eat it!! They wouldn't even touch it! (one of the dogs also loved food)

has anyone else has this problem? (It actually isn't much of a problem because he is eating it, but not as fast!! lol..)

Sorry but since the topic is relevant and all i just wanted to ask a question...

My mixed breed pup is almost 19 weeks and he weighs 10 kg, he is gaining about 1.5 kg a week. Is this okay? I think he is going to be medium size when he is older but when he has a growth spurt he looks really lean and lanky and then he fills out, he also has really big paws (about 5.5 cm wide) and chunky legs and ppl say he is going to be huge, but he is fairly old and at puppy school the labs are pretty big and chubby at 9 weeks. He is also 40 cm tall, What do you think?