SHEPPO

i've just come from the vet (Mack got his 16 week vaccinations), and i asked him about dropping the little one down to 2 meals a day. The vet simply said to feed him more for breakfast, and more at dinner, and give him a few chicken necks/wings/frames/etc for the day. Before (3 meals a day) he got 1 cup of dry food 3 times, now he gets 1.5 cups of dry food 2 times a day. still equals the correct daily intake, and the vet said this is fine. We leave for work at 7:30am and get home at 5:30pm. We feed him between 7:00-7:30am and dinner is around 6:30-7:30pm. good luck with it all, owning a pup is fun (at times )

Poodle Fan you have a PM. My OH has decided to try what the Vet has suggested, if only to humour her. So we're going with the Science Diet kibble as recomended by the vet, and will see what happens. I'm against it but i dont mind being proven wrong if it means our pup is fit and healthy. We'll still be giving him chicken necks and frames to chew on whilst we go out for the day, but kibble it is

Mack gets lots of raw chicken. chicken necks and/or chicken frames. I'd say he'd average 1-2 necks or a 1/2 frame daily, as we give him somthing when we leave to go out. also when i cook chicken for dinner (for our meal) i give him the off cuts. We'll try the sardines and up his chicken in his diet. I really want to avoid giving him dry food day in day out, for some reason i feel he should be eating raw meat and things with bones as he is a dog. i may be a bit misguided, and yes top shelf kibble is perfectly balanced, but the poor little man cant eat the stuff day in day out, its boring, hahahahaha.

we give him a raw egg every couple days for his coat, along with a table spoon of oil mixed in on other nights, again for his coat. all our other dogs in the past have thrived with this. i'll give the matter some research, i like the idea of the fish oil tablets, feeding him fish, etc. we'll see how it goes. thanks

Hello all, Our 12 week Staffy was taken to the vet today for his vaccinations. We asked about the, what looks like, dandruff all over his coat. The vet said he is lacking Omega 6?? We feed him wheetbix & puppy milk for breakfast. And lunch & dinner are usually diced up red meat, or pet mince from the butchers (fresh) with carbos (rice, paster, noodles, etc). He also gets chicken necks, chicken frames, etc. This is a diet alot of our friends and my family feed their dogs (including one staffy), and never had any problems like this before. Is it really the diet causing dandruff, or is the vet only saying this to get us onto their recomended dry food (science diet)?? Is there a way of treating dandruff in dogs, like a different shampoo, etc? Any un-biased assistance would be much appreciated. Dave.

just a quick final post on this matter.. Mack has been a perfect lil pup the last 3 nights and he's finally settled in nicely. Quiet, sleeping, 11:30pm till 6:30am! he also goes to the toilet on command now :-) thanks for all the help and suggestions, my OH and i are very appreciative.

Rus_Ren, having gone through the same thing only 2 weeks ago with our staffy, i share your pain, however the pup should calm down as every night goes on. our Mack is now quiet in the laundary when we put him there for bed, and behaves himself at night time. it gets better, just the first week or two are really testing times! you'll be right :-)

another good night! YAY did the same thing, up will midnight, outside for toilet, then to bed. woke him at 6:20am and he was fine, no hurt paws!

our 11 week old staffy has alot of skin spare at the moment, but we have no worries he'll grow into it! our friends 7 month old staffy grew into his skin about the 3 month mark. he's a big boy now (30kg)!!

well we decided to try somthing a little different last night as i was so dog (no pun) tired and so was my OH, that we kept him with us untill about midnight as we fell asleep on the coutch. then woke him, toilet trip, into his bed in the laundary, and we went to bed. i woke up at 5:45am and woke the dog up, he had gone toilet in the laundary on the newspaper, but it was MUCH less than other nights, and he wasnt frantic, no bleeding paws, and he looked like he'd slept well. we also lowered the water level in his bowl down to about 1-2mm so he can only have a few licks if needed, this may have also helped?? i think his "tanks" :-) can hold about 3-4 hours before he needs to go toilet, so we may try working with that philosophy for tonight. 7pm-11pm-3am-7am or somthing like that.

we go to bed about 10-11pm, Mack (the puppy) sleeps from about 8pm onwards with us in the lounge room. i think a 10-11pm toilet trip, then 3am, then 6:30-7am when we wake up would be ok, since i wake up about 2:30-3am myself from his noise some nights! during the day we take him outside for toilet trips, and he is now starting to go outside by himself! ahh we're proud when he does that! it's only the nights where we're worried, and its when he gets a little frantic and ends up hurting his paws.

we'll try toilet breaks tonight. how often should we be getting up for them? every 2-3 hours or more frequent? he has the ability to sleep 3 hours in the day without waking up and needing to go to the toilet, so every 3 hours should be ok yeah? he's 11 weeks old and goes every 1-2 hours when he's awake. lastly, is it a good idea to remove his water bowl from his sleeping area? i've heard conflicting reports about this and it's all the more confusing!!

he does not get toilet breaks, we've been thinking this may be the cause. i was under the impression attending to him overnight would do more harm than good (giving him attention when he's crying out for us), as we were advised not to baby him when he's seeking attention at night time. am i doing the wrong thing here and should be attending him, for toilet breaks?? the room he is in is large (for a laundary) and his newspaper for toilet trips is about 2m from his bed, and he is going on the paper, so it's not like he's in his own mess, but it may be the cause of his distress. what's people's thoughts on this?

we're trying to avoid a create if possible, so would there be any other suggestions?? i cant see how putting him in a create will stop him paw'ing the create's door/walls and doing the same damage he's already inflicting on himself up against a smooth door. however if things dont change for the better, soon, i may have to go the create option as a last resort.

Hello all, 2 weeks ago my GF and I picked up our new dog, a 9 week old, male, pure breed Staffordshire Bull Terrier (staffie). He's now 11 weeks old and going pretty well... After the first few nights of seperation anxiety that all puppies get when they leave their littermates, everything seemed to calm down we thought, "great he's settling in", he'll bark a little then go to sleep till about 6:30am (when i get up for work). Now the last few mornings when we've let him out of the laundry (where he sleeps) i've noticed small little streaks of blood where he's been paw'ing the door. nothing dramatic, and definately not life threatening, just slightly alarming. His paws arent bleeding in the morning, so i assume he's doing this during the night when we're asleep. I am guessing the blood is coming from where the nail goes into the toe, and we wash his paws 2 times a day to eliminate chance of infections. My question is, how can i stop him hurting himself? Or will he just figure it out in time (not too long i hope)?? He's very well behaved, nicely mannered and a real good pup (as far as pup's go), and we'd like to eliminate this behaviour soon before he thinks it's acceptable. Note: we're adopting the "tuff love" attitude overnights as advised by the breeder/vet/friends, where we dont attend to his cries untill its morning (6:30am). He has a nice warm bed, toys to play with, nice size room that's safe, a chewing treat, and water. The room has no sharp edges that we can see or feel (i checked). Any help on the matter would be appreciated. Dave