Rom

At a workshop I attended last year, speaker said that you can have a dumb dog that has a high degree of compliance (ie willingness to please, also related to low stress threshhold) and it will be more trainable than a truly intelligent dog.

I'd love to read what other DOLers think about this!

Our local lenards buys in the chicken frames to make their pet mince from. They will sell these chicken frames in approx 10kg box for $5.50. Gets you btn 20 and 25 frames depending on size. I give them to my girl whole but if you wanted to mince them be worth while getting them this way and mincing them yourself.

I use cabanossi as training treats and have found that tabs push nicely into the end of broken sausage. We do a bit of training and have the loaded sausage piece ready to treat. Black and Gold cabanossi from IGA costs around $2.00 for 250 grams.

Just one more little thing to mention, check his paws as well for the fungal infection, keep all the fur around the paws and inbetween the toes well trimmed. Also trim away the fur directly under the tail and from the back of his hocks, this can harbour fleas, dirt and moisture.

Always ensure that the paws are dry before bedtime and the same with his ears.

Where abouts is he sleeping? Have you checked that his bed is nice and dry and in a warm place (for the winter). Sometimes heavy dew can dampen everything exposed to it.

I was thinking fungal too. Should have sample of that smelly stuff from his ears tested...I had a dog with a fungal ear infection and it was very ripe!

About 15 yrs ago before I'd heard about barfing, had an old red cattle dog that needed to lose some weight and vet suggested that we reduce her meal size by 1/2 and make up the bulk with grated raw carrot. Just this simple change alone apart from helping her lose weight, we saw some improvements in her coat, less incontinence probs, she was more active and showed more spark, less probs with grass seed allergies etc. Then found out about barf and decided to go the whole hog. Haven't looked back since. Rescue dogs that we fostered recovered from skin probs, improvements in arthritis w/o medication, found that old dogs are less likely to get that old dog smell...none of our dogs really get that doggy smell..they smell more like leather than the doggy pong you get on processed foods.

I basically give the raw meaty bones and then if I'm cooking vegies or using the other permissable barf ingredients in something I'm cooking for us, I keep a blender on the bench and throw the raw barf ingredients in that for the dogs as I go. So our dogs bascially get a selection of whatever we're having only raw. But its freshly prepared every day. I do however try to follow the following formula:

50%RMBs

10% organ meat

30% fruit and veg

10% other stuff eg raw egg, yoghurt, fish, cottage cheese etc.

I also add to the blender a bit of garlic and brewers yeast.

Hi Erin,

We had an old girl that was on meds for incontinence, but I can't remember if it was steroids or not. (Nearly 10 years ago now) What I do remember though was that after a period of regular medication, we could take her off the medication and then only dose her up if she started having accidents again. I remember it often being maybe just a tablet every 2 or 3 weeks. Maybe check with a vet to see if the medication has to be regular in order for it to work, or whether you can just administer on an as needed basis?

Probably not the exact answer that you're looking for, but hopefully it helps.

Ditto...I'd like to know if prong collars are illegal in Qld

The food labelling laws pertaining to pet foods are much more lax than those relating to human foods. Most of the dry dog foods you find in the supermarket only show a 'typical analysis' of nutrients. This means that the nutrient levels in the food are typical for the ingredients used.....the ingredients aren't necessarily tested for nutrient levels. If the label shows a guaranteed analysis, then the company is actually testing nutrient levels. Unfortunately, the foods that show guaranteed analysis are generally the more expensive brands that are only available from vets and pet shops.

Other tricks that are used:

In the ingredients list, the only control on pet food manufacturers is that they must list the ingredient that makes up the largest percentage of the bulk of the food first, and so on down the line. Most of these lists either list grains first or where they list meat first you'll notice that grain has been broken down into its components eg. wheat germ, wheat bran, crude fibre etc. so that the meat can be listed first. This means that not only does a food need to have a small amount of beef in it to be called 'beef', but also the food may be made up of more than 50% grains. Some of the more expensive brands are not that different in this respect.

Very few manufacturers subject their pet foods to digestibility tests. So while a food may contain adequate nutrients, there is no guarantee that the nutrients come in a form that the dog can readily absorb. One way to test foods is to weigh the amount you feed and then weigh the droppings to figure out how much of the food your dog has been able to utilize. But even this doesn't give you an accurate picture as to whether good nutrient levels have been absorbed.....but it may give you an idea how much of the food is grain! Dogs aren't very good at digesting grain.