KitKat

That's what i have been told to I'm teaching my younger dog to walk on both/either the left or right side depending on what i am asking of him.

I'd not suggest any tin food really.....but Natures Gift is all human grade ingredients which makes it fairly decent.

RC does do small breed kibbles....i'll see if i can find a list of their distributers... I wasn't sure which state you were in but you should be able to find a stockist or at least get a contact number for a sales rep from this site Also your local petshop should be able to get the stock in for you.

I'm not big on HSD...but it's only a personal preference...if i was going to be feeding dry food to little dogs i'd be going with either Royal Canin, Eagle Pack or Iams....Iams however looks a bit dry and doesn't smell as 'tasty' but my older large type dog is doing well on the oldfart mix ETA - Not all dogs do well on all food...even the premium brands...say with my two at home..one might do great on RC but the other may do better on something else. So i'd say if you dogs are doing great on a type of food then stick to it. But if you feel you want to change it buy one of the smaller bags and slowly swap them over and see how they go..you might have to buy a couple of the small bags of which ever brand so that you get a good idea of which food they do best on.

If you are going to warm the mince to tempt your dog...just be careful if you have crushed bone in the mix...As you just don't want to cook/heat the bone enough to cause an issue. I'd be tempted to swoosh some vegemite in some warm water and pour that over the mix...see if that gets the dogs senses going

Depending where you are the freight for the 15kg bag is incredibly cheap...because priceless pets has a deal with AusPost which allows them to freight it cheap...or at least it was when i looked into it a few months ago.

Just for some dogs the tongue hanging out hte side of the mouth is a 'grin/or laughter' as much as anything else. It's hard to say what is excessive or not without seeing it...but i still say...if you are worried call and chat to your vet..if nothing else you get peace of mind.

Just if the tongue was hanging out the site it's usually a happy worn out kinda thing, where as out the front is as normal as anything else. Personally i'd not be too concerned...just make sure he's getting enough water. But i haven't seen him pant etc. However as with all things...if you are concerned have a chat to your vet...even just make a phone call and get their opinion...they'll let you know if you should go in or not.

Does he pant with his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth or at the front? Also the days are getting warmer so it could just be that he is getting hotter quicker and that it takes longer to cool down. I guess it depends on what you would consider 'excessive'

The Warehouse (cheapy store) regularly has them for about $4.00. Otherwise you can pay up to $15 at a pet store etc...all i'd suggest is go for one with a comfy handle..lol..it makes it more pleasant for all concerned ;)

The fish scaler just seemed to strip the undercoat from my older boy...but when used on Bronx just couple of outercoat hairs came off...so could well have 'broken' them...hadn't really thought about it just went "oh, didn't work" lol. But no it doesn't hurt them unless you use them to hard :p Not sure if i'd recommend the scalers for GSD's tho..even normal coated dogs. But the rakes are wonderful I also tried one of those really soft long-ish bristled horse brushes on Bronx a few weeks ago...it make him soooo glossy! but i haven't decided if i want to actually buy one yet

They are good, they look like a fish scaler tho...i find it's great on my short coated dog...but it doesn't do anything used on Bronx's coat. PS..my older dog luuuurves it when i use the 'fish scaler' on him

I'll try and find you a pic of the one i use...it's great! and easy to use which is also nice...back soon with something i hope :p Ok...the one i have is something like this it's called an under coat rake...but mine has two separate rows of teeth and it does so much better then the one i have which is just like the pic I got it from a product van at one of the dog shows up this way.. ETA - oh..look it came up with a pic of several of them..lol...oh well, pluraise everything i said These are great if you aren't dealing with matted areas...and they so soo well in getting my furballs shedding tumble weeds out

Pal is good for slimming down a dog...in fact i always have a can handy incase my dogs are feeling a little 'jammed up'. They get their hit of junk food and a clean out at the same time..lol. But Pedigree does do a number of food types including Pal, Optimum, Advance, and there's another 'Optimum' type one that i can remember off hand. A food for all budgets kinda thing. My older dog was brought up on Pal kibble and chum kibble...and he always looked fantastic, to a point where vets etc would ask which premium brand i was feeding him when i went in for his vacc's. But i'm not saying all dogs would do well on it..i wouldn't put my GSD on it for example...but i also know a lot more now which is probably another reason why i wouldn't use their basic products. But their Advance is great and i have head good things about the Optimum as well.

If i was you i'd perhaps go with either the Breeders Choice or The Edge types as from memory they have a lower fat content...i could be wrong tho :D :p (But those are the types that i feed my dogs)

Actually...it's with the big recreational bones that you can have problems...as they are bigger and stronger then the lighter types the dogs can actually snap and break teeth...

If raw meat and it's bacteria was so bad for dogs...why do so many dogs persist in taking bones and hiding them till they get a bit manky and then procede to eat them with great relish? often bringing them out so their loving owners can get a wiff of how ripe the bone is But the day my dogs learn to cook their meat is the day they can start having cooked meat regularly.

Actually...i've seen dogs with C5 vacc's get worse cases of KC then dogs with only a C4 vacc. KC is like the human flu...you might have the vacc for a certain strain or two but not for all of them...and the strains tend to mutate or something..lol. My older dog has been getting his vacc's for his 9 odd years and is now starting to fade a little so i'm not putting his system thru any more injections. My younger dog, after his 1st booster shot, will probably go on the incoming 'once every three year' regime.

Cooked bones are always a risk..but the OP states that they debone the cooked chicken pieces...

The likely reason for them getting the runs from having largish amounts of the organ meat is because it is very rich...and if the dogs aren't used to such it's going to go straight thru them. But it would never be a good idea to give a meal of Just liver or brains for example. But as for the runs...it would be like giving a lamb roast to a dog that's never eaten lamb before..very rich and rather fatty...it will go straight thru them.

Gossco57...you might want to put a link to where you found that info...you could be up for copywrite if your not careful..

Another order may be arranged in the non too distant future as there was a hiccup with this order. Generally it is prefrozen in 2kg bags...but it can depend on when the order is arranged for pick up as the first order ML got was unfrozen. As long as you didn't let it defrost too much i wouldn't think there would be a problem with splitting up the 2kg's as soon as it was possible to do so. Say..let it defrost for a bit then scrap off the ends and stick the frozen middle back in the freezer?

A big thanks to ML for organising this and doing the pick up ;) I reorganised my chest freezer to fit what ML was able to get and found some bits and peices of turkey and roo that had been lost to the freezer for the last little while..lol. So for all i have frozen hands i found a few things the boys will be interested in getting their jaws around so..So thanks to ML on two counts

I couldn't say for sure...but you might find the 'trimmings' is to up the fat content....as the racing greys will certainly use the extra fat. My dogs luuurve the big dog foods...and my younger dog does enough to use the extra fat. My older dog is going to be supplimented more with premium old fart kibble as i think the content will be a bit high for him. Dogbesotted - it might be worth checking with BigDogFoods...i'm paying between $1.00 to $2.30 per kg of ready made barf...for me it works out cheaper then i could actually make it. I do add extra bones a couple of times a week just to keep the crunch factor up.

It could very well be...but i think it will be useful for those currently making the decision and those that know they'll have to think about it in the near and not so near future. A sharing of experiances as it were...