skully

oh he's beautiful! I wish i could get another puppy - need a bigger backyard first! Pebbles would love him!

I thought this was a really good idea - anyone else seen this around? My dog is fine with other dogs, but she does run up to other dogs at the park and I know not all dogs like to be approached.

My stafford responded really well to the yelping "ouch"!! when she mouthed... although my husband struggled with the high pitched part of it!

Yes i have read that thread. I was just curious what people think should have been the fate of that dog instead? put down at birth? What about accidental litters? rather than BYB who intentionally breed to make money out of it...

I have been reading these forums for a while and feel that I have a better understanding now of costs involved with breeding and being a responsible breeder. So i understand how you would all encourage potential dog owners to purchase from reputable breeders who have all the tests done for potential issues. I bought my dog from a backyard breeder down in dapto. The guy seemed very genuine and that this was the mum's last litter. The parents and one of their previous litter pups seemed very well cared for and loved. I didn't know any better to not buy from such a breeder at the time. I guess my question is this - if everyone is advised to not buy these puppies, what should happen to them? Is the consensus that they should be put down? I mean if someone can't afford a pup from a a registered and reputable breeder and it's cheaper to get one from a BYB, or in most cases its about the same price to adopt, isn't it ok to give a dog a loving home? No matter what it's potential complications might be? I understand the turmoil and heartache that would result from (preventable?) health complications in a family pet, but better to have loved and lost than never loved at all right?

she wee's on command, but not always number 2's. they do prefer pooing offsite don't they...strange - is it just a not wanting to soil their own yard type thing?

She poo's on the carpet??? i'm not sure if i mentioned it earlier - over the last couple of weeks she has had a couple of incidents where she has pooed inside on the carpet (in the hallway outside our room) in the middle of the night. It is not normal (or acceptable) practice for her to poo inside. we've been taking her out after dinner and before bed to toilet. On the nights she doesn't get a walk after work (she always gets a walk in the morning) i'm trying to make sure we stay outside till she does a poo

she hurt her foot last week and had to have surgery to remove the wooden skewer stuck in her paw. but she's been absolutely fine, no visible pain at all or favouring the other foot. we spoiled her a bit the first few nights. she's on antibiotics, but other than that the poo's are all normal texture. quite hard, due to the bones she eats, which has been good as no stains on the carpet. i do believe the neighbours are doing some work to the house as well... i was going to buy the crate games dvd and see how we go.

well yes, as i said at the end of my post, i might have to crate her... it's odd, something she's never done before. so i'm not sure if it's some massive sign of disrespect, or simply the fact that its cold and she doesn't want to go outside? i don't know. i'm stumped. hubby is just smug that she did it to my side of the bed not his! he's not the one who woke up at 2am with dog poo on her foot! ew ew ew

haha yes well she got banished from the bed straight away. she knew she was in trouble. i took her outside to go the toilet and she ran straight into her kennel!

Pebbles just turned 1. She sleeps on her bed in our room, but every night jumps into our bed after an hour or two in her bed. We originally tried to get her to sleep on her own bed, made her get down as soon as we heard her get up onto our bed, but regardless at some stage she'd jump up after we were asleep and we didn't realise till we woke up in the morning. we tried making her sleep outside our room, but she cried most of the night and we relented after two weeks of trying. So pebbles tends to basically sleep in our bed. last night i stretched my legs out and squelched into something soft and wet....she had done a poo in our bed!!!! what the hell? we take her out to go to the toilet before bed every night. In recent weeks she's gotten up and poo'd in the hallway, which is just NOT on, so we've been specifically taking her out before bed on her lead to make sure she 'gets busy'. i've even considered only feeding her in the morning instead of dinner so she has a chance to get all her poo out during the day. what the hell is going on!!! i'm going to have a get a crate and train her i think. lock her in the crate at night... i feel many sleepless nights coming on...

is there anywhere from australia you can buy it?

does anyone have an older copy they'd like to sell? i think its about time i get pebbles used to a crate, especially for vet trips.

the skewer the vet removed https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/468925_10150986809127633_1380689163_o.jpg the patient chilling out in front of the heater. She's absolutely fine, walking fine on the back foot - chewing the bandage a little though. So i hope it lasts till tomorrow morning when we have to go back to the vet. $530 for the op and antibiotics.

update from the vet - biggest splinter he's ever seen. 5cm of kebab stick right up and inbetween her toes. he doesn't seem to think it's done too much damage as the skewer end was sharp. he's cleaned it out as much as he can. can pick her up this arvo with some antibiotics to follow the shot her gave her in surgery. couple of days with a bandage and some walking in a few days will help it heal. my poor bub.

Took pebbles for a walk this morning and threw the ball around - she lunged for her ball and then stood quite still and wouldn't come back to me. I realised she was hurt when she started hobbling towards me and I found a large thick shish kebab skewer poking out of her foot. I tested to try and pull it out, but it was well wedged in there and she SCREAMED. once i carried her home and got to have a look at it the skewer had snapped off and left a bit piece of it in her foot. It's wedged right in between her two middle toes... Had to wait for half an hour until a friend could come and take us to the vet (my husband had the car at work) and poor thing was shaking the entire time. The vet is keeping her there for the day and putting her under a general anaesthetic to get the rest of the skewer out. I get to pick her up this afternoon - so worrying. It's our first emergency trip to the vet - very distressing. Pick up your rubbish people!!!

Our English stafford got generalised mange, a fairly bad case said the vet, just after we got her desexed at 5 months. We had to get injections for her every 5 days for around 8 weeks. it cleared up and her hair grew back and we haven't had a problem since. her's came on very quickly but it's been treated and all good now.

ok thanks! we have about half a packet of the puppy complete mix left - so i guess we'll use the rest of that then start using adult cheers

Pebbles (turning 1 on the 22nd june) just hit 16kg, so we have upped her raw food w/ complete mix amount. The packet suggests we feed her 600g raw meat with the mix - however, we usually give her some kibble in the morning as well, so feed her approx 500g for dinner. Previously we were giving her approx 300g with kibble (instead of the full 420g as recommended on the packet of complete puppy mix). With this amount she would whine in the lead up to dinner time and scoff her food in a matter of seconds. Now that we've upped her dinner to 500g she is not eating it all and not always eating much of her kibble for breakfast either? Do you think it's time to put her on the adult mix and bring the intake down (as per instructions on packet to 300g per day) plus her kibble?

Having her toilet inside is definitely not my preference, but if it works for her then maybe that's what we should do. She's good with letting us know when she wants to go outside (even when it's raining). Normally she whines by the back door, we open it and leave it open till she comes back in. With this rain though she refuses to even go outside, but keeps whining by the back door! It's winter, so i dont want to just leave it open. I dont want to just shut the door on her outside either cause i figure she'll just whine to be let back in, not let me know when she's been to the loo and ready to come back in (if that makes sense). It's strange with SBT - they're such a tough little dog, but she's being so precious it's quite funny (if it wasn't ruining my carpet). big sook that she is!

so woke up in the middle of the night and found a little trail of poo nuggets up the hallway, leading to a little pile of nuggets and a big wee at the end of the hallway!?!?! grrrr i am keen to persist with making her go outside, but I wonder if making a permanent newspaper area in the laundry might not be a bad idea. If the weather is especially rotten we do sometimes leave her inside, so this might be a good idea for us? could you teach her both at the same time? or would that totally confuse her?

Sorry if this has been dicussed before.. It's been SO wet in sydney this week - we have had a few accidents inside. Normally pebbles (11 1/2 month old staffy) tells us when she wants to go outside for toilet. We let her out, she goes, its all fine. but she HATES the rain... She wont jump out of the car when it's raining and hates walking out to the loo in the rain. I've been trying to go out with her on her lead and making her go (she responds very well to her "get busy" pee command - eventually!) and taking her for walks in the rain to get her more used to it... but last night it was POURING and she just wouldn't go out. i busted her a little while after she wined to go out (and wouldn't) having done a poo inside and wee inside this morning. I get she doesn't want to go outside ( i wouldn't!) but is there an indoor solution? I am thinking of one of those doggy indoor loo's... is it worth is - or should i just persist with making her go outside?

I bought one of these yesterday and used it last night. it only heated up one patch on the bed, off centre. there is no on/off switch you have to unplug it.. i think i'll be returning mine and buying one of those snuggle safe heat pads instead

Pebbles (11 month old stafford) has just started doing this.... she usually gets two walks a day (morning and night), has kong, toys, bones etc. I was thinking about getting her an aussie dog 'home alone' bungee thing, but we do not encourage tugging with her as a game, so i dont want to make her think it's ok... any ideas?

Pebbles (my 11 month old English Stafford) hardly barks at all. I've only ever heard her growl or do small barks if she's with us and she hears someone going past the front door (in our secure complex). So rarely... Our neighbours over the fence have embarked on an extension and this morning before i left for work i heard her barking in the yard. I can only assume she's reacting to the new noises on the other side of the fence she's never heard. No idea if she will do it during the day (will talk to the neighbour tonight to find out), or if she's only protecting me when i'm home type thing. any ideas how to nip it in the bud?