wotan

Yep this stuff is amazing. Our Staffords paw pads were dry and cracked from skidding on concrete chasing balls. After aplying this gel each night for about 2 weeks his paws became perfectly conditioned again We still use it once a week to keep them in good shape.

We transitioned to Blackhawk a month ago and all is good. We were using Artemis which we still think is a high quality product (albeit expensive) and would happily go back to it if need be. Although, the value/freshness and delivery service of Blackhawk can't be ignored. Great local product

We buy "Brunswick" sardines in Olive oil, simply because its the only brand that doesn't have have Salt as an ingredient.

The "3 yearly", or the "12 monthly once every 3 years" ? I wouldn't mind knowing the answer to this one also. My pup had his last vacc in Dec "09 (Protech C4). The vet has the marked next treatment for Dec this year. So (as per AVA guidelines) does this mean he can go without for another 2 years, or is the type of vacc for a 3 yearly treatment different?

I found chicken wings way too small & easy for my stafford pup, he would basically snort them When we upgraded him to the bigger and slightly more challenging Turkey wings he was one happy camper

I remember our SBT pup being the worst car traveller! His first trip ever with us in the car after being picked up from the breeder ended in him being sick in the back seat ;) What a start! For about a month after this it was the same...he would virtually get sick just at the thought of going for a drive. We thought we would be stuck with a dog that could never travel in a car. Training was becoming difficult, especially when he couldn't last 5 mins even before driving off! The big turnaround came when we decided to travel at night. This way he had plenty of time to digest his dinner, have a small night walk (purge the system) tired & ready for normal bed time. So we would throw his bed in the back seat and off we go. For the first 10 mins of the drive he was typically fidgety whilst in traffic, but then once we hit the highway he curled up and slept for 2 hrs straight. So in one trip he spent more time in the car than we could manage in one month previously! Needless to say we persisted with night travel for a few weeks to build his confidence with the motion thing before starting small daytime drives to parks etc Well I am happy to say that since 6 months of age he is now a confortable passanger. He will do 3-4 hr plus trips day or night without a hassle He even conquered the great ocean road drive and in the same weekend learned how to swim....diving straight into the ocean We never bothered with tablets/medication etc as we wanted to keep things as natural as possible. Good luck with it, start training immediately and be persistant!

thumbs up for artemis Ingredients are great, coat is shiny and best of all he loves it!

I was waiting for the catch, but it never came After reading that I think I'm going to trade my SBT for a Dobey...how much do ya think I would get on changeover

Are your back doors to the yard glass/see through?

Just my 2c, but if your puppy is smart enough to be taught to ring a bell to go outside, then it should be even easier for it to do something natural (bark,whine/whinge) to be let out. IMO, if you use a bell there is no back up plan. For example, what if bell breaks/falls off or if you take the dog away/friends house and don't have a bell what will the puppy do? If he has become reliant on a bell, the poor thing will not know what do do next The good thing about a natural alert, wether it be barking/whining is that it will only get louder/longer until it gets your attention Our pup (8 months now) was a lazy bugger, he used to walk to the back door and just sit there and stare back at us like we were his royal servants expecting the door to be opened for him. For a while we made the mistake of doing this, but then we realised if he ever needed to go at 3am in the morning, he could not just stare at us (he sleeps ground floor, we sleep upstairs). It took a couple of weeks to perfect, but now he walks to the door and starts whining to be let it. I still make it a point that he has to whine loud enough to be heard otherwise its not good enough and I won't let him out. Even just this morning, I thought I heard a whine but was busy....next thing I hear a loud sharp bark. There he was at the back door giving me the hurry up (I need to do a crap ) look.

Be carefull with cheap and nasty toys from the $2 shops. They are generally made from poor quality plastics and before you know it the dog will rip into it and will wake you up at 3am vomiting chunks of plastic I find that toys made from dense rubbery material (like Kongs) will be safer and last longer.

Yep my 7 month old SBT has been inhaling chicken necks & wings almost since day one They are simply too small and uninteresting for him. I find large frames & maryland are great, good portions of Lamb flap & turkey have plenty of flesh and bone to crush.

For folks living in Melb or visiting Melb, there is a great family owned Pet Stock store in High Street, Northcote called Salce. http://www.salce.com.au/ They sell just about anything for any animal for the same price or most times cheaper price than online stores. I buy Interceptor Spectrum & Advocate from them cheaper than priceless pets online. Also get Artemis dry and other stuff for our birds at great prices. A while back we went in and purchased a heap of stuff for the puppy, the lady was so nice she gave us $20 worth of freebies Now you can't get that kind of service online or from Pets paradise.

Another vote for Artemis here, my staff gets just as excited over it as he does raw!!!! Ingredients are second to none, its economical & coat looks nice and shiny.

Which is preferable, hard boiled or raw egg? So far I've only tried hard boiled, he has fun breaking it up before gobbling it. Never tried raw.