skully

other than a few chicken necks she hasn't had a bone since last week. just concerned about the straining as well...

Have been feeding pebbles (english stafford - 11 months old) VAN musli mix with roo mince for almost 6 months now. A couple of weeks ago we upped her daily intake as she had put on more weight and went up a category. Today i noticed she had a hard time pooing and the poo was really crumbly and dry.. what's going on? i recommended VAn to a friend with a stafford a couple of months younger than pebbles and they had the same reaction (crumbly poo) within a week of introducing the diet...

have washed pebbles (english stafford) twice with VAN shampoo and she's developed dandruff... is this common?

Peace park's fenced dog area has a part of the fence down at the moment - as far as i know there isn't much in the way of lighting there, but that might change. It's a pretty quiet dog park, we hardly see many dogs there at all!

Where do you take your dogs for a run around in the evening - are there many places around with lights? We live in Croydon/Ashfield and would love to know of any spots to take our Stafford for her evening play!

Pebbles (9 month english stafford) has a rash on her belly and underarms that comes and goes, but gets worse after we mow the lawn. She pulls herself around on her belly to scratch it at times, but i've noticed that she's scratching it a bit more now. def not fleas would i be better trying her on the sensitive skin mix (even though i recently bought a 5kg bag of the normal stuff...damn)

way to ruin a nice thread Rebanne...

good on you deghj i thought it was very clear you were just offering help with your personal experience with staffy's. thanks for your opinions

We love our Staffy Pebbles. She's doing so well off lead and is learning so much. Only problem with her is bed time! When she was little she slept in her own bed in our room and was let up on our bed in the morning once the alarm went off. As she got bigger, we noticed she was jumping up on our bed some time after we went to sleep and worked her way up to snuggle with us by the time we woke up. Which is super cute, but not always ideal! For a while we tried to have her sleep outside our room, in her bed, with our door closed. She would cry and cry, sometimes settle down for 20 mins, half an hour, then start up again. We only ever lasted until about 3am before we had to let her in. We tried this for a couple of weeks. We ended up putting up a baby gate instead of having the door closed so she didn't feel as cut off from us....but one night she knocked it over!! So we've gone back to having her in our room, but in her bed to start off with. She's SO cheeky though, just jumps up on our bed anyway after half an hour or so. I always make her get off but then i always wake up with her at my feet (or sharing my pillow)! any tips : )

is it correct that you feed puppies twice as much as you would an adult dog? I have an 8 month staffordshire bull terrier who is around 13kg after they turn one do i just cut her food down?

i was doing some training with her this morning (sit, drop, roll over, shake hands, stay etc) and a fly got in and distracted her. I tried to get her attention back and it worked the first time, but then she was off and not interested in returning. We're renting and dont have a screen door on the back door, which in summer is a PAIN - breeze and flies or hot and no flies... bit of a pain. I take her for a short walk in the morning before work, sometimes with a bit of fetch in the park. My partner and i take her for a good walk and run around for at least an hour most evenings. Depending on her mood she likes to play fetch and chase the ball. In general though, anything that runs away from her she loves to chase. So if i distract her from doing it in the house, I obviously can't stop her from doing it in the yard when i'm not around... will this be confusing?

So my 8 month stafford loves chasing flies - which is great. Keeps her occupied and running around for ages in the yard. If one gets in the house though, she'll chase after it forever! Even if she can't find it anymore, she'll end up running around the house looking for it!! I had my sister (and her new baby) over last night and normally pebbles will calm down after 10 mins or so when someone new arrives, but chasing flies just keeps her running around the place! any suggestions?

Started feeding my 7 1/2 month old stafford the dry mix in with her roo mince last week. She has developed small pimple type things right down between her legs and some up under her front legs (arm pits) Is it possible this is a just a change of diet reaction? Or just possible a reaction from us mowing the grass on the weekend? Should we stick with it? or cut it out straight away because of this reaction?

That actually means that she has no recall . Having recall does not mean the dog comes when it feels like it or there is nothing better to do, it means they return to you each and every time you call, regardless of distractions. as I said, she is getting better with slight distractions, we can't expect her to have perfect recall with distractions right away. Training is a process.

We are having this problem at the moment with our 5 1/2 month old English Staffy pup. She's great at recall when no one else is around and is starting to get better with slight distractions...but if she's interested in something its just impossible to get her back. We have resorted to the long line lead when there are other dogs around, but let her off when we're alone in the park. I think it will just take practice... I'm just worried she will run onto the road one day and wont stop when i call her.

Her first day home - 9 weeks Chilling on the couch - 17 weeks Cooling down during our walk last weekend - 5 1/2 months

My 5 month old English Stafford, Pebbles, cries blue murder when she's separated from us. By all accounts (we've been checking with the neighbours) she does not make too much noise during the day while we're at work, just the odd bark here and there. Its when she is actually seperate from us, when we are still present. She sleeps on her own bed in our bedroom, but when she stays at my parents house they have her sleep in the laundry with access to the yard overnight. (It took her a few nights to get used to that arrangement but is ok with it). We are renting and dont have a doggy door, so can't give her the same set-up at our place. Taking her to the shops and leaving her tethered on her lead outside she howls and howls. We have put in a baby gate that seperates her from us when we sit in the loungeroom and are trying to put her in there for short bursts at a time (5 mins or so) and rewarding her when she's quiet. BUt you really have to jump on that quiet time really quickly or she starts up again. Any advice on nipping this in the bud? She has been desexed and the morning i picked her up from the vet she'd been screaming for two hours since she woke up at 6am. We did not crate train her, so she's probably not used to being in a cage at all. She also, on occasion, does a wee inside the house if myself or my husband are are in the bathroom with the door closed and she's alone. She has access to the yard and is very well toilet trained, so i figure this is a reaction to being 'separated' as well.