DeerhoundLover

I think maybe it's a bit much rice but otherwise it sounds great, he is a lucky puppy. Maybe substitute the dry puppy food for the rice so he gets a bit more protein.

Me too, but I don't agree with cutting out the puppy milk, the calcium is terrific for his growing bones. I can persuade my little guy to be a bit more interested in the puppy kibble by mixing in a tin of sardines with it. He can't pick out the fish separately and the flavour goes all through.

I agree with Poodlefan, and you cannot let this become a habit because there may come a time when he has something really dangerous in his mouth and you need to be able to get it from him with no delay (eg a box of rat poison, packet of cigarettes, sharp knife, someone's cat etc). And you may not have anything 'better' to offer him at that time so you need to be able to take stuff from him without any additional incentive. I would just practice taking stuff away from him a lot, start with something he doesn't much mind about and progress to his favourite stuff. If you constantly take stuff away and praise him and then give it back he should get the idea I think.

I'm interested in this too. Flava did you really mean 15 - 120 minutes? That would be 2 hours, or is that a misprint? I'm guessing you meant 15 - 20?

Is it possible that something upset him? Perhaps a low frequency noise that you couldn't hear? I saw another post recently about a little. I think it was a Staffy, that suddenly started behaving crazily and they were near some military base. It is in any case hardly your husband's place to be 'demanding' anything. Tell him he should obey you as you know what is best for him.

It might also be worth trying some Aloe Vera gel? If you don't have your own plant you can get the pure gel in the supermarket, it would be with the health food stuff.

It has been a long long time. Abby was my first dog when I was a tiny child. We were as close as anything. She was a black and white cocker spaniel - to me of course she was huge. We shared everything. I was an only child so Abby was everything to me. I stil remember the time Abby found a thing in the back yard, she did not eat it but came trotting up to me with it. I didn't know what it was, I thought it was like a cross between a cake and a biscuit. (Older and more sophisticated than my 3 year old self I know know it was one of those Italian biscuits). I had just been explained the concept of 'fair shares' by my grandmother the evening before, so I took the biscuit from Abby and divided it into as exact halves as I could manage, I remember being concerned that I couldn't get it perfect. I gave one half to Abby and ate the other myself. We were both extremely sick. The vet and the doctor both came to the house as of course they used to do in those days. The vet said eating the whole biscuit would have easily been enough to kill Abby. She recovered ok. The doctor said eating the whole biscuit would have certainly killed me. I recovered ok. Later the police also came to the house. I was interviewed extensively in the kitchen which my grandmother thought was the more suitable place to receive uniformed cops. (the parlour only for plain clothes men LOL!) My grandmother lectured me about it and said that sharing equally the biscuit had saved both our lives. If either of us had been greedy and kept the whole thing we would be dead. I have never forgotten that. Later on someone opened our gate and Abby was killed by a car. But although she didn't live long I have kept all my life what I learned from her.

Asher has run free Happy at the Rainbow Bridge He will await you

I just saw this now, thank you Harminee it is lovely, I'm going to print it off right now and give it to my husband. I could hardly read it for crying. I hope if you are ever in trouble someone will be as kind as this to you.

Oh thank you so much! I didn't want to say because it was already late, but I did hope to have it in time for tomorrow, because it would have been Rex's birthday and it is going to be a tough day for my husband. Bless you!

Here are the pix of Rex. His death poem is: You stayed so briefly Illuminating our lives Like a falling star Don't feel you have to use all the photos. I will leave it up to your judgement, you did such a beautiful job with Ogre's one and you helped me before with Rex's photo when I was ordering my husband's t'shirt.

Could I ask you to do another one please Harminee? Of my husband's dog Rex, 4/5/2002 to 21/10/2007. I am just uploading photos now in case you say yes, but don't feel obliged as you have already done one for me.

Oh thank you so much!! It is so beautiful! I just don't know how to thank you for this but I hope that one day I will be able to do something for you.

That would be just lovely, thank you, I will print it off on the good paper and frame it. But as I'm not really sure about the birth date, maybe just put 9 October 2007

Oh that is so beautiful. Ogre died on 9 October 2007 and I am not sure of his birthdate, but he was my mother's dog before she died and she used to celebrate 1 November 1993 as his birthday. Poor little guy, he almost made it to 15. He was with me for 7 years. Harminee thank you so much for doing this, it is so very kind.

This is terribly kind of you Harminee. I would love to have one of my poor Ogre who left us last October, here is the picture: I'd like the text to be this haiku which I composed for Ogre's death poem The end of the road My good dog's life completed Time to say goodbye Thank you so much!

As you can't know yet what size he will grow to I would make it large enough for the largest he can get, as long as the hinges are not stiff it is just as easy to operate as a small one. Ours is large enough for a very large GSD but the cats use it too.

I am so very sorry for your loss. She will be waiting for you at the bridge.

When I was with the circus they used plain old hairspray for the horses. It didn't seem to do them any harm.

We use Urine Off which we get from the vet, it is an enzyme that actually breaks down the traces of urine chemically. We've found it to work really well.

What about milk? Often they will drink a bowl of milk even when they don't want any more food. I got my deerhound's weight up the final few KGs the vet recommended by getting him a milkshake every afternoon after work. But you did say you didn't want to give your dog crap. But you can make a very nice drink for him by frothing up some milk and a raw egg.

I have a new puppy who does the same thing, and I have been growling when he bites me. After 1 week, he is still doing it but noticeably less. It is worse if he gets overexcited so then it's an idea to stop the game. A very experienced vet nurse also told me that at the same time as growling it is good to tap the puppy under his chin. Too early to know if that does any good yet as I only heard about it yesterday. Good luck with your little chap, they are a delightful breed.

There is another one too, can't remember the name but if you go in the dogzonline home page and then Mature Dogs and then choose GSD, the third entry from the top, Vonrauten Memphis, and follow their links to the Vonrauten kennels, they have a swimming pool and other stuff too.

Yes and the other thing to consider is with any form of play where part of someone goes in her mouth there is the potential for accusations by stupid hysterical or just spiteful people, which although ridiculous can still cause you and your dog a lot of trouble. There are plenty of wackos infesting public parks who will assume any dog is a ferocious killer unless it is small white and fluffy.

Stop press I just realised something! Because Beau is a deerhound his little mouth is underneath, like a shark, and it is hard for him to pick up solid food out of a deep sided bowl, I put it onto a flat plate and he gobbled it up straightway!!