BullBreedBoy

wow...he looks like a gorgeous boy. Best of luck with him. Staffy pups are sooooo much fun!!

I really hate terms like 'Stafford Cross'. It's very unnecessary to include the Stafford. They could, and should just go with mixed breed. Drives me NUTS.

I do exactly the same. Sometimes my Bull Mastiff leaves his food for a while and I assume it's due to temperature, other times he wolfs it down. I feed it straight from fridge and let my dogs work it out for themselves.

Except it's a picture of the wrong breed of dog!! The attacking dogs were American staffies. I really feel for owners of Staffordshire bull terriers as dog are so often just called Staffies and they all get lumped in the same basket. Why not feel sorry for Amstaff owners as well? All 3 dogs ended up being cross bred.

What a horrible story. Unfortunately all to common over here on the West Coast. We see far too many critically ill Blue Staffy pups at our rescue who have been irresponsibly bred for colour. It's a very sad state of affairs as we find often the owners are well meaning people who were genuinely ignorant to the perils of back yard and irresponsible breeders. I feel very sorry for you, and sorry you have encountered such a jerk of a breeder. We are most certainly NOT all like that. Enjoy your new pup when he/she arrives, bull breed puppies are very, very special.

I would suggest not messing with her diet and trying to drop weight simultaneously. Drop the quantity of everything down by 1 third, and cut out the treats as much as possible. Once she starts dropping weight, then you8 could start working the rice out, and replace with VAN or whatever you want to feed longer term. Another good tip with Bullys is to introduce a fasting day once a week. This I find to be a secret weapon with overall health and vitality for Bullys. ALL the dogs here (except rescue babies that are underweight) get a fast day one day a week. PS - with he treats, one thing you can do is work them into her daily food quantity. IE- work out how much you want to feed (2% of body weight is a good starting point), then weigh out her food for each day and include some kibble to use as treats. Then pull out the kibble you want to treat with, and her meal is what's left.

Seriously, try the balance harness before you pay for a trainer. I guarantee you will succeed if you follow the directions and you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you did it yourself.

One of the myths that needs to be broken down is that the temperament of a rescue puppy with unknown breed origins (father) is completely unpredictable. I hear that from breeders etc regularly and in my experience it's not really the case. I feel that as a pure bred community we feed into the skepticism with which some view rescues. Absolutely there will always be a place and demand for ethically bred pedigree puppies; but so to should there be demand for rescue puppies. For those that aren't fixated on a particular breed of dog, adopting a rescue puppy can be a great solution. Certainly with the rescue I'm involved with adopters get a lifetime of support and community.

Personally I agree with her position that the answer to pulling is to train the dog. The idea of using some kind of no-pull harness long term may well be bio mechanical issue as I have definitely seen some that restrict natural movement. We need to correct problem behaviors folks, and try to avoid band aids wherever possible.

I suggest the use of a balance harness with double sided lead from black dog for the training period. http://www.blackdog.net.au/dog-harnesses/balance-harness/balance-training-pack-large There's a really cool video below from the Black Dog folks on how to utilise the techniques and they are very effective, providing you with a long term solution. I have used this technique many times with both my own dogs and fosters and it's been fool proof for me. https://www.youtube.com/embed/POAo6qNLWys?rel=0 Note the balance harness doesn't replace a standard harness and is not designed for restraining dogs in cars or anything like it. I use the balance harness purely for the training period, then switch to a standard black dog harness.

I use Milbemax from the start. Not keen on the suspensions either.

It says in the guff that comes with it that it's effective within 24 hours. Not sure if this is verifiable though.

Me too. I live in a tick prone area and have had zero tick issues since starting Nexgard.

Are you feeding the Big Dog Puppy BARF? This is just their standard combo BARF in smaller patties? I seriously doubt any calcium supplementation is required, and really supplementing without blood testing is pissing in the wind. IF the calcium levels are a concern, then it's easily rectified by increasing % of bone content in diet.

I don't think thre's particular things with big breed dogs personally, it's just that the behaviours can be more of a problem. 2 things you need to get onto early is not jumping up, because a 50 kg dog jumping up on a small, or elderly person is no good at all, and lead manners. For the lead maaners I highly recomend getting a balance harness from Black Dog with a double sided lead. There is a video on Black Dog's website on how to use it and how to train with pulsating lead. This is a very effetive technique and will be an absolute god send as your pup get's bigger and stronger. Only other thing that pops out is that MAstiff pups are often very mouthy, so getting onto appropriate mouthing behaviour early is a good idea.

same thing as tinder but for dogs?

Look that's fair enough and you're entitled to your opinion. Since you haven't qualified what is that you believe was irresponsible about it I'll leave you to it. I will correct you though, there are large amounts of large and giant breed owners that absolutely believe mass marketed large breed puppy food is unnecessary. What's important with growing large breed babies is that you control the rate of growth (largely this is achieved by controlling quantity of food, and overall amount of calcium in their diet). This is actually really important for puppies of all size and breed, it's just that large breed dogs are more prone to skeletal issues from fast growth. Small and medium breeds are actually not immune to these issues. Baxter's breeder has raised many Bullmastiff pups without buying into special diets, and he has never fed any commercial foods. He simply feeds a raw diet with approx 10% bone (he actually doesn't even weigh) It absolutely can be done, and I don't believe that stressing owners of large breed pups out is at all helpful. I find on this forum that people like to read more into posts than what's there. I maintain my original position, that the OP shouldn't be overly stressed, and with a bit of research it's easy to manage the overall calcium level in their pups diet (as ALL puppy owners should anyway). Out of interest how many large/giant breed puppies have you raised and what did you feed them?

My wife and I had a Blue Heeler come out of the back of a ute and go under the back wheels many years ago when we were young and didn't know better. She had to have 2 ops, and never really recovered, with us putting her down at 7.5 years old due to crippling arthritis. IT was heartbreaking, and I would NEVER put a dog in the back of a ute again.

There is a lot of evidence to back up the info given about careful feeding. Please don't dispense anecdotes as fact, so you got lucky. There are a lot of dogs fed whatever is going around who DO suffer the effects and it is irresponsible to advise otherwise. Yeah, I'm not looking for an arguement thanks. I didn't say that OP shouldn't be careful, I said they don't need to overly stress about it, as I think a 4 week old puppy is stressful enough. That's why I advocate in the next paragragh the OP to get a digital scale to weigh food, because I don't think careul feeding is important. I stand by my position that you can absolutely raise healthy large and giant breed pups without having to purchase special kibbles if you don't want to. And as for the lucky bit, yeah maybe I did get lucky, and maybe Baxter's breeder has got lucky for the last 30 years too. I guess it's also possible that my breeder knows what he is talking about, hell maybe it's possible I have a clue too You know I am actually an extremely passionate Bullmastiff and Bull Terrier owner and breeder. I love the breeds and love my dogs fiercely. So I kind of take offence tou your suggestion that I'm irresponsible and only raised a healthy pup because I was lucky. But hey, I guess that was your intent...

Don't over stress about all the large breed broohaha. People make it out as though feeding large breed dogs need a scientifically controlled environment in order to be healthy. I have raised a healthy, and happy Bullmastiff pup without feeding any supposed large breed foods. Actually I think it's mostly marketing guff, with the only real difference being marginally lower digestible energy. The important take away message is just not to overfeed your pup. Get yourself a digital scale, and your set. At 4 weeks your pup should be getting into bones. I start pups with chicken necks, and then work up from there. If you do want to feed kibble, then suggest you feed a high quality holistic formula such as stay loyal, ivory coat or canidae. The pup needs milk until around 8 weeks but avoid supermarket puppy milk which is high in sugar and salt. Wombarroo is easily available and a better alternative. I'd be offering this 5 times a day, and supplementing with raw meaty bones as above every other day, and puppy barf patties. At 8 weeks the pup can come off the milk and drop back to 3 meals a day. From here, feeding is quite straight forward, as we just feed 4% of body weight per day as a baseline and adjust based off physical condition. Mastiff pups should be lean and muscular, with back ribs either visible, or easily felt. Do try not to stress! Edit: agree wholeheartedly with above post about getting on to manners and lead behaviour early. This dog is going to be very strong, so will be much easier to handle/train whilst a pup.

If you can source it (easy in WA) then I reckon feeding tuckertime for a while is more effective than probiotic supplements. I always put my dogs on it as soon as they come of antibiotics and it's wonderful for returning digestive health.

Agree with sas. It's a low digestibility food, which in turn leads to large stools. Nutri is in that mix of low quality dry foods masquerading as premium food an ripping unsuspecting consumers off.

I reckon you should wait till you bring him home, and get to know him a little before naming him. Something will come to you. Edit: that said Hektor sounds like a super awesome name for a Doberman, whom I always think look a little sophisticated lol.

It's air dried from raw, rather than cooked like regular kibble and made using super premium ingredients. It's a good option for those that really want or need convenience of kibble but like the benefits of raw feeding. I use it for treats, as it's grain free, contains no nasties and is highly nutritious.

I just have to ask out of curiosity. Why do you have like 2k worth of dog food!?