Pixie's mum

Claire Middle wrote a great book "Real food for cats and dogs" which isn't as heavy as Billinghurst's books though his are excellent just a slightly longer read. Good luck.

The percentages also depend on the activity level of your dog. Our female eats between 2 and 3% daily. She weighs 17 kgs and eats between 430g and 520g depending on how she looks. She is incredibly lazy and walks for about 40 minutes daily but that is all she does. Our male weighs about 15kg - is much more active - and eats about 760 - 880g per day. They say you should be able to feel 6 ribs - anymore and they are too slim. Any less and they are too heavy. It is trial and error but it is worth it. Be careful feeding dry with raw as it can upset the balance of barf feeding.

I wouldn't take a new puppy to a holiday rental however you may be able to ask your breeder to look after the pup for you if you can't postpone your holidays. I'm sure they would rather board your pup (for a fee) than put it at risk. Our 2 year old female got parvo as a 10 week old pup even though she had never touched the ground outside our house and we hadn't had parvo in our yard in the time that we had lived here (3 years). Unfortunately it is extremely contagious and according to the vet a bird could land in the virus and fly into your yard and touch the ground infecting the area. Good luck with your decision and enjoy your new puppy.

The poor little fellow. Sending our best wishes for a speedy recovery. Take care

We did it with our dog when she was young. She was allergic to beef - which apparently is very common - and turkey which is quite rare. She can eat all other meats though (refuses kangaroo). Now though as a two year old she can cope with the odd bit of beef. The trial was 4 weeks without beef as they thought this may have been the issue and she was expected to eat turkey and lamb but the turkey tricked us for a couple of weeks.

Best of luck Mizz Piggy - I really hope Aztec makes it home soon. I don't have a dog affected by bsl (yet) however I find it appalling that councils are able to decide a dog is a menace due to its appearance.

Our pup (6 months) has had hives and we finally clued on it was the rhoeo (not sure how it is spelt) ground cover plant. Ripped them all out and he is fine now. Good luck

We have a 4.5 month old pup with a heart murmur - he has been to see the specialist (at 8 weeks) and diagnosed with mild PDA (which is what vets term an innocent puppy murmur). According to the specialist they do not heal themselves however they can improve or worsen as they grow. They often need surgery before the pup is 12 months of age at a cost of $4000 which is not covered by insurance for our pup as it was found within the waiting period. We are going back to see the specialist in January to find out what needs to happen. We're happy as this can be fixed. Before this we lost an eight month old pup with sub aortic stenosis which is unfortunately inoperable. We couldn't believe we were unlucky enough to get two pups with heart murmurs however they seem to be more common than I thought. As the specialist told us; PDA is the murmur you want in your pup because something can be done about it. It was heartbreaking losing our last pup and I wouldn't wish it on anyone; although at the same time we were glad he came and lived happily with us for the short time that we had him. This murmur was picked up in our pup 2 days after we got him (and 7 days after we got our last pup) and we could have returned either of them to the breeder for our money back - which we didn't do because we became so attached. Be aware though that it becomes extremely expensive. January will be our fourth visit to the specialist (in 12months - with 2 pups) at an average cost of $400 and we will need to pay for the operation if he needs it. Good luck with your pup - I hope everything is okay with him.

I actually find the controversy with barf diets really interesting. I agree barf can be done badly if people are ill informed however humans don't need to eat pre packaged food to ensure we get a balanced diet - so why do vets assume barf supporters are not intelligent enough to balance our dogs diets as we manage our own.

We have a dog that is fairly allergic to beef and grass etc. We converted to the barf diet and use a product called vitaskin from greenpet.com.au - when she was really bad she was also on drops from greenpet. She is great now although if we don't give her vitaskin for a few weeks (like when we thought she no longer needed it) she flares up again. Good Luck

Our female got cherry eye when she was about 4months old. We put drops in and they fixed it when she got desexed. She's now 2 and we haven't had any other problems. We did get hers tacked back in though as we were told that she may have a dry eye in her later years - if they removed it. Good luck

We use greenpet supplements as well. They're great.

Have a look at Claire Middle's Book "Real Food for Dogs and Cats" also Ian Billinghurst has "Give Your Dog a Bone", "Grow Your Pup on Bones" and "The Barf Diet". We feed our dogs BARF and have had great success. We started because our female had allergies - constant rashes and hotspots. We also add some supplements from greenpet.com.au as well.

Our dog obedience club spray skintastic 'off" (human insect repellant) onto the bites and it takes the sting away immediately.

In my opinion - having raised our dogs exactly the same way - dog aggresiveness appears fairly young. We had a gorgeous little male who was quite aggresive towards out 2y.o female from about 10 weeks of age. We didn't do anything different however he had such a dominant personality (with dogs) that we constantly had to work to bring out his best side. He went to puppy school and dog obedience every week, was well socialised and accepted some dogs but not others. According to our vet their personalities are pretty much formed by 11 weeks and then you need to work hard with whatever you were given. Fortunately he never drew blood, but he launched some mighty attacks for no reason (our female (very placid) would hide her head under a cushion to avoid him). He would get a look in his eye and we had about 3 seconds to try to ward off the attack.

The cardio we went to is Brad Gavaghan and he works from Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. He is absolutely fantastic and a really nice man. Good luck.

We had a male pup who was diagnosed with a heart murmur at 8.5 weeks - 3 days after we got him. We took him to the cardio and he had an ultrasound and we were told fingers crossed he could live a normal life. As he grew his heart got worse and at his 6 month check up he ended up having beta blockers twice each day. Unfortunately his condition was inoperable and his heart gave out at 8 months. If you are really keen to get this pup arrange with the breeder to take it to a heart specialist to make sure the condition is operable and is mild. Unless he has an ultrasound at the cardio you can't be sure what the condition is or how it will affect him. Good luck. I hope the puppy will be okay.

I don't have white dogs so I am not sure but friends with a bull terrier were told by the breeder to use a permanent marker which will last a week. I would be concerned about toxins etc. but someone else may know if this is a good or bad idea.

Our female got cherry eye when she was 41/2months old. We had to put ointment in each night and she had hers stitched back into place when she got desexed. Over 12 months later and we have not had a problem since. Good luck

Ours only eat the really lush grass after a good rain. There must be some kind of nutrients they need in there.

We feed barf. I process the vegies once a week while I am cooking dinner. It takes about 10mins and lasts our 2 dogs for the whole week. I used to do heaps at a time but I found it more convenient to do it weekly.

Our pup is a little thief. The most annoying thing he took was the end of the toilet roll and ran. Looked hilarious however we now have the roll on the back of the toilet instead of the holder.

We have had two of his treatments. One was to help our dogs allergies which worked well and she no longer needs and the other was to boost the immunity of a new puppy. We put them straight on top of their food and they did not turn their noses up at all. Good luck

Know how you are feeling. Our 12 wk old pup was diagnosed with a heart murmur at 8 weeks by our vet - but the breeder's vet did not pick it up. When he had his 12 week old shots they said it seems to sound a bit better. Will know more Wednesday as he has an appointment with the specialist. From our research and what the vet told us it can be an "innocent puppy murmur" which will close over by itself or "something more sinister" which may require management. Hoping for the innocent murmur. Best of Luck

We have a 16 month old female and a 12 week old male. Initially we had difficulty toilet training our female to use the pads as she is locked inside while we are at work. We bought a pet loo which she took to straight away. Our male at 8 weeks would struggle to climb on the loo however he never got the hang of the pads. We thought he would need the pads as he was too tiny to use the loo which is about 15cm off the ground (frightening as he would leap off if you weren't watching) however he decided the pet loo is the only way to go. They are expensive although we would have spent far more in the last year or so if we were using disposables as our dogs are still inside while we are at work. I can't recommend them enough. Good Luck