sheena

Fry them with the garlic & the flavour goes right through them & is good to the last tiny piece They are also a handy treat for throwing, either whole or broken up a bit.

Amongst my dogs preference for home made treats are these. They are VIP Chunkers Lamb & Vegetable, available from the supermarket, & I have fried them in vegetable oil & garlic. They are easily broken up into tiny little pieces & given to the dog as a special silver service, slow treat reward. The type you give when rewarding something really well done & you want the reward to last approx. 30 seconds. It's only the second time I have made them & my two go nuts for them.

perhaps do an internet search of their prefix/name/kennel ..and see what else they've done? You can also probably do a search of the pups grandparents etc (ask the breeder for their names)..see if any have been winners in shows, etc. Yeah we have checked them out and it's a meeting of 2 kennels - both kennels seem to check out and the kennel the sire is from seems to be established. This could also mean they are a puppy farmer What do you mean by "established"...do you mean turning out lots of puppies for money or are they just breeding for the betterment of their breed & show their dogs & have titles to prove it. What colour are both the parents????

Have a look at this thread re: staffy puppy posted just recently. Lots of good advice there. 6 weeks is way too young to leave it's litter mates. Staffies can have a lot of problems so make sure you get a contract of sale & a receipt & a guarantee that the breeder will take the pup back if you have health problems with it in the future & if it is a Blue Staffy, then be doubly aware. But just read THIS THREAD & it will save DOL's a lot of repeating of advice given to this person.

Our two dogs are first & foremost our companions & our whole life revolves around them, now that all the kids have left home & we are retired, it gives us the freedom to travel with our dogs, either competing at trials or just chilling out at some beach somewhere. I just love camping with the dogs. I would hope I have two very well mannered dogs who are welcome anywhere & the feedback I get, is that they are exactly that. We are both in our sixties, so the training of the dogs & trialling go a long way to keeping us fit both mentally & physically. Who knows what we would be doing if we didn't have our two mates. I am so lucky that OH shares the same love of them as I do My goals in trialling (OH hasn't started yet) is to put into practice the training that I have done & I am just loving the Masters courses as it gives me more opportunity to try out new things. Trialling also lets me know where I might be able to improve or practice a new move. There is nothing more exhilarating or satisfying than to have a good run with my dog, even if we (I) stuff up. I am not into winning places, as I know I have a "challenging" dog, I am only a first time agility handler, & the competition in her height category is great, but when we do snag the odd place it makes me so proud of her :) As mentioned, I don't have the most perfect dog for agility, but that makes the training more challenging & more rewarding. When I bought her as a pup, I hadn't even heard of agility :laugh: Now OH has his dog & will start trialling next month, I am enjoying training him, the handler, to train his dog. To sum it all up ...... our goal is to enjoy the journey, wherever it leads us. :)

YOur dog sounds sort of cute if that's the right word for a big dog. I don't think we've ever met a dog with blue eyes. I wonder what dogs see. Off topic I had a horse (cremello) with blue eyes and the sun was a major issue for her. Her eyes used to water a lot. We had a new dog at training last night...probably some sort of b/collie x. He was jet black with the most piercing, staring light blue eyes. My girl gave him a wide berth :laugh:

Here are some ideas for yummy, healthy, irisistable treats Click here Also, bar-b-q chicken is great & the latest one I have to add is, I think they are called Chunkers, & you buy them at the supermarket. I lightly fry them up in oil & garlic & my furkids go nuts for them. They are great, not only because they smell & taste good, but you can slowly break them into little pieces & deliver them slowly, like silver service. Delivering the treat this way, while dog drools & drools watching you, makes the treat so much more rewarding.

I have just recently got my BC girl to lose a couple of kilos. I cut her kibble down from 1 cup to 1/2 a cup a day & instead of topping it with the usual meat or oily fish, I made up some yummy stock from bones, or fish, or organs & use that to pour over her dinner to make her feel more satisfied. I also did it because I don't feel she drinks enough water for my liking. She still gets her home made training treats & 1/2 turkey neck & now her weight is back to normal. The vet told me he thought she may have a very slight CL injury, but she is back to doing agility & showing absolutely no symptoms at all. I have been giving her a glucosomine supplement & coconut oil.

Not sure about colour, but my girl BC is constantly being lunged at or attacked (if off their leash) by small dogs & off course she gets the blame for reacting back. It's amazing that hardly any of the owners of these small dogs call their dogs off. So I try to avoid them if possible & I never let my girl off leash when there are small dogs around. The only thing I can put it down to is that she probably stares at them like BC's do. My other BC (Mr. Cool) doesn't attract the same sort of attention & I don't think he stares.

Oh dear a child was jumped upon and scratched by a dog!!!! Gosh, better call an ambulance and contact the media. Sheeesh, really? Is she that much of a princess that it was an issue? This post is disgusting...absolutely disgusting :mad :mad No other word for it IMO

Do you have access to a swimming pool...great non-load bearing excercise.

When Max was a puppy, I put peanut butter on carrot sticks to entice her. She will eat anything with peanut butter on them! As she got older I stopped the peanut butter and now she eats the carrot for the crunchy noise. I will have to try something like this then. Maybe might try lightly cooking a few in beef stock, then fade it out. I just would like to give them to them for the chew factor. One loves mandarins & the other likes bananas

I carry my own insurance. If I added up what it would have cost me over the last 30 years with the dogs I have had, plus the excess payable, I could have just about bought another house with the money. I know bad luck can happen & be expensive, but I try to minimise this by getting a healthy dog in the first place, from good breeding. This hasn't always been the case, though, with my previous dogs being from BYB's...they ran up the vet's bills all their life, but it still worked out cheaper to carry my own insurance.

My dogs wont eat carrots...what is the secret

MM these are the bones that my guys get too - great size for he littlies and has a good amount of meat. Yes Sam apart from these getting good meaty bones does seem to be getting harder. These are beef neck bones & lately I have been having trouble getting them to make my soup. Sometimes my dogs get them for a change from turkey necks, but I confine them when eating as I like to put the last bit in the bin .... I am worried they might choke or get a blockage from them.

Hi kayla 1, I contacted Sherel from Black Hawk some time back re the fish meal. Sherel owns Black Hawk & it is manufactured by her, so the answer came from Mrs. Black Hawk herself, not just some sale rep for a foreign food. Her answer was that the fish meal is 100% Australian & is 100% ethoxyquin free. The chicken meal & the fish meal is preserved with natural preservatives. The packaging does say that it is 100 % free of artificial preservatives & colourings etc. Anybody is quite free to contact her themselves, I am sure there is a contact email or phone number on her website & I am sure she is very willing to answer any questions you might have. :)

Why - because you say so? I can ask the same question you have asked in other threads - regarding other dry foods - about this food if it is not stated anywhere that the fishmeal is Ethoxyquin free. You yourself raised the importance of finding this out and I would like to know thanks before trying any dry food. Being Australian does not negate the possibility and the premium dry foods I have used from America state on their website that their food is Ethoxyquin free. Are you responding on behalf of the company that Ethoxyquin is not used? :laugh: Love it....is that a new Emoticon ?????

I am so proud of my girl, who just 12 months ago, I would have had trouble keeping her on the course, & has now just recently moved up into Masters for Jumping and Agility. On Saturday at Alstonville Trial, she got a Q & 5th place in Open Agility, with 23 seconds to spare & 3rd place in Masters Agility with one fault . She started Sunday off with a Q & 2nd place in Open Agility with 22 seconds to spare, & her first Q in Masters Jumping & 7th Place. All her other runs were just one faulters except Masters Agility on Sunday, when she made it clear that she had had enough. :laugh:

The fish meal used in Black Hawk is Australian, as is the other ingredients, so it is not preserved with Ethoxyquin. That is mainly a problem with pet foods imported from America.....but you already knew that :) I think this discussion is long dead.

Go to the Black Hawk website (among the above advertisers) & click on "retailers"

Great explanation - makes so much sense. Thanks Cosmolo. I find the timing of the marker ie the click, very crucial too. You have to click the exact moment he looks at the distraction, not after he has looked & you have lost him. If you get your timing right & click as soon as he looks at the distraction & he doesn't turn to you for the reward, then you know you have gone too far too soon & need to get more distance. Of course playing games & using the clicker to learn tricks etc is very important to the success of the LAT game IMO. The LAT then becomes a 'game/trick" to the dog & before you know it he is turning to you before you have time to click, so then you click & treat him for turning to you with lots of praise.

I feel like I am juuust starting to climb out of the "valley of the teenager" now, after much hard work and frustration - and I can assure you the view looks much better from this side :laugh: I am sure it does - we just bought a Lupi harness as we need one now but I will order a better one online tonight. It goes around his legs and chest and pulls him up if he pulls. I will be honest, it does not look strong enough for him (it is just some soft rope type material).. They did say I can take it back if it is not suitable... If ever you are stuck out somewhere without the harness, just loop his lead loosely around his chest, so you are holding two bits of the lead, a bit like a guide dog. It works wonders to stop them pulling, but they can back out of it & not suitable for dogs that spin. It's not a long term fix though as our young guy...took him a while....but he did work it out in the end & now it's not as effective as the halti or the FA Harness..... I love them both & he is getting good with his loose lead walking as well, just not when he is excited. And talking about teenagers.....our guy is now nearly 17 months & has just recently started to "test" us. "Sit??...why should I sit, when shortly your'e going to get me to stand up.... & stay???...why should I stay when shortly you're going to ask me to run to you... I can get there quicker if I don't sit" Someone told me they go through another teenage stage at about this age....so we need to be a bit firmer, or he'll have us out on the street :laugh:

It might not be that simple depending on what you are trying to do. With Weez's motion reactivity I am using a program of counter-conditioning and LAT, so the front-attach harness fits nicely into that by making it easier to turn him around when he goes over threshold. It doesn't mask anything I can assure you, he still goes off his 'nana :laugh: Great programme & yes....the front attached harness of the head halti will give you more control, by not allowing him to self-reward if the situation is over threshhold...gives you a chance to move back a little. In the July Clean Run Magazine there is a very good article on self-control & they recommend you use a head halter in the early stages.

Clean run have these on Free shipping at the moment along with the Easy Walk ones. They work well on my big Border Collie when he is excited, but after he chewed through his second one, I dug the old Halti (head halter) out of the cupboard & that works well on him as well. We only use it on him, if we think there is a chance he is going to get excited & start to pull.

Pure virgin coconut oil is supposed to have anti-inflammatory properties