Nadia

My dogs have been happily eating raw since long before BARF meant anything to do with dog feeding. It works for me, and my dogs are happy and healthy.

My dogs probably get bones every day, but they get them with a wide variety of foods and they are meaty bones. Constipation is not an issue if the dogs are eating meaty bones and not just munching on clean recreational bones.

I have read articles and heard comments like these before too but have to add this from my own personal experience. My dogs have always eaten raw bones, and raw meat. The only problem I have ever had in over 30 years of raising, training, breeding and living with many dogs of different breeds and sizes, is one little person who ate everyone else chicken necks and was constipated afterwards. I was told many years ago that small hairless folk cannot eat hard foods. I havent found anything hard enough yet casue mine eat anything. My dogs eat a wide variety of foods, including raw chicken peices, mutton/lamb bones, beef bones, and a variety of meats, I have never personally had a problem. The only bone injurys I have seen in my years of Vet nursing have been caused by dogs eating cooked bones, and a couple of dogs that had bones stuck between their back teeth. This is just from my personal experience.

Jim, We have 3 resident moggies, and the dogs would just hoover down the cat food if we left it down, so we have solved our problem by putting the cats food up on a benchtop in the sleepout. The cats can come and go and eat as they please and the woofers cannot reach it. Trying to feed the dogs the same way when they are so used to routine will take some time, but the cats should be easy. Cheers Nadia

ADVANTIX is highly toxic (read - usually fatal) to CATS. However ADVOCATE and ADVANTAGE both have a cat version.

You have to look at what the groomers service includes before you gripe about the price. When I bath a dog, the dog is dried properly using either one or both of my dryers. For a large double coated breed the time it takes has to be included in the price. Dogs are bathed using quality products and which products you use depends on the individual dog. To properly bath and dry a large double coated breed takes time and effort, you have to dry the dog thoroughly and you don't send the dog home with clumps of dead hair hanging off their butts. So time and effort is involved, in bathing, drying and brushing through. If you want want a quick wash and a wet dog you wont get it here.

Didn't Billy come from the pound? I'm a little confused.

I have seen disasterous results from using most brands of puppy food. What suits one litter, simply may not suit another. If you find something that works for you stick to it, do not swap and change, it simply is not worth the mess and the setbacks for the puppies. Personally I don't like the supercoat puppy, but others use it happily. I feed raw and Eaglepack. If you are looking for a more readily available puppy dry, try Optimum.

LOL isaviz!! Having Horses and Dogs is a killer hey! Lets not talk about how much the horses cost! I refuse to add up our feed costs for all of them It may not be good for OHs blood pressure. Seriously though, it would be nice to have access to the good deals you can get down in the big smoke!! And yes the humans are far cheaper to feed

Have emailed them for price and suppliers etc, waiting to hear back. What did you try?

PPPFFFFFTTTTTTTT!!!!

Yeah Ellz, don't make those of us who can't source such goodies cheap cry ;) The minute dog folk show an interest in a product here it becomes too expensive for many to buy. 3.8okg for crap I wouldn't feed my MIL at one place. Dunno what was in it but it certainly wasn't chicken...LOL

All my babies get necks,wings etc. Start of with wing tips, and small necks when puppies are first starting on solids, by 8 weeks they are eating everything.

Actually Dru I have a close friend who has been doing it longer!! We have both found that you start to get picky about what you will take on, how many bad cases you will do in a day etc. It is very hard on the body, and the mind as well!!

It is very hard on the body, the big dogs and the difficult ones take their toll. I have been at it for 20 years now. I say every summer, that I won't do it the next year, but I do. I do not work every day now, it is just too much, in the summer madness you have no time for anything else, nor the inclination, so I've limited the days that I work. Winter give you the chance to ease off a bit from the awful jobs, the once a year cockers etc.

Putrid is a great word!! I really enjoy the well kept dogs, the ones who have owners who keep up the grooming at home, keep the dogs clean and parasite free. It is a joy to send them home looking swish, and especially those who you can send off looking like their breed is meant to look and not like a skun generic version. Friend of mine who is also a Groomer rang last week to tell of a dog she had just clipped, the stench made everyone heave. She started to clip the dogs face and realised that a large wad of ungroomed facial hair was actually inside the dogs mouth wrapped around several teeth and still attached to dogs lip. Groomer and Vet both vomited during the removal process. Poor bloody dog She almost gave up the profession that day, but says her faith in owners was quickly restored by a run of gorgeous well cared for SWF that she got to scissor and style. So I shall add rewarding to the description as well!!

Owners of Cocker Spaniels who only bring them in twice a year, so that you can shave off the putrid mess, then complain because you have had to shave their ears off. Owners who demand that their matted mess is left with 2 inches of hair to keep them warm, and then carry on when you explain it can't be done. Owners of the above who do the rounds of the local Groomers complaining loudly at the injustice of their treatment by all the previous Groomers. The good owners are wonderful, I love them!!

Personally I wouldn't have any of my dogs vaccinated with C7. I made an informed choice not to over vaccinate my dogs, and I will stick to it. As for vaccinating pups with C7, bombarding a baby puppies immune system with that amount of vaccine is disgusting. We wonder why our dogs have so many health issues, immune problems, skin issues, yet continue to pump them full of crap. Poor dogs that are subjected to multiple vaccines, yearly heartworm, monthly doses of chemicals for every parasite known to man, and owners wonder why they have dogs with stuffed immune systems. If your Vet is not up to speed on the changes that are happening with vaccine protocol, discuss it with them, go in armed with information and discuss with them your preferred protocol for your animals. Not all Vets are morons, it takes time to change the way of thinking of some, but it is owners responsibility to be informed as well.

Personally I take the dewclaws off. I left them on a rescue litter I had here, and gave one of the pups to my son, his pups has torn both his badly and they are now to be removed by the Vet. In long haired breeds, I see many dogs with problems caused by the dew claws growing into the leg, because the owners are sometimes unaware that they are there and need regular trimming. We see a lot of dewclaw injuries at work, some quite nasty, and very painful. I prefer to remove them.

The patties are meant to be used as the meat/vegi mush portion of a Barf Diet the recipes for such being in Billinghursts book "Give your dog a Bone" Raw Meaty bones are still meant to be fed. The Patties are for those who do not have time to do the vegie mush thing themselves. Thats my take on it anyway. They come in different mixes I believe.

If your dog is really having constipation problems, add more meat, vegies etc. Meaty bones is the thing to feed though, plain cleanly trimmed bones don't have enough meat on them to be fed all the time IMO. As recreational bones once a week fine. But meaty wings, lamb flaps neck bones etc are good every day bones.

PLEASE FOLK, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!! IF YOU HAVE A SICK DOG SEEK VETERINARY ADVICE!!

I think most dogs will do this if the opportunity arises. Yum Yum Cat Gum!! One of those litter trays with the lid and cat flap may help, turn the tray to face towards the wall with a space for cat to enter amy help. Or a baby gate across the doorway to the cats toliet room. We find it disgusting, dogs don't. ;)

Beautiful post Jed!! ;) You always manage to say what the rest of us try to, and cannot word the way we want.

Haven, Anybody who has actually nursed Parvo cases would have to question you here. Parvo is a devastating disease. It is not a simple tummy bug that unlucky dogs get, that they recover from. Many Parvo cases are not even treated, the animals are Euthanased. It is extremely painful, it is one of the most difficult diseases to nurse. In some areas it simply is not safe to venture out with a puppy that has not been fully vaccinated. A Parvo outbreak in an area sends shivers down the spines of all Vets and their staff.