Mrs Rusty Bucket

The way you teach a horse to jump, is to put a wooden pole on the ground and walk over it, allow horse to check out the pole if it wants. It learns that if it hits the pole with its foot or steps on it, there is a clunking noise and it's nicer to step over. Once pole on the ground is "mastered", raise the pole slightly off the ground - eg one brick high - so horse has to pay attention and pick its feet up a little more. Walking, then trotting... Once that step is mastered - raise the pole some more. I'm guessing you could teach a dog to jump the same way. Teaching a dog to jump on the couch would be slightly different - ie you'd have to start with a platform that was big enough to hold the entire dog comfortably, with maybe a big cushion or pillow on top - and arranged so nothing slips or pulls off. Teach dog to park on the platform, gradually raise the platform until the dog has to jump on it. With clicker shaping - you'd break it all down into tiny steps - like looking at the platform, touching the platform, putting a paw on the platform.... but a food treat in the middle of the platform might help skip a few steps. And the platform would have to start close to the ground. It could be that the dog had an unfortunate memory of a fall or similar associated with jumping. My puppy dog at 12 months has decided jumping things under head high - or even head level is great fun. Unfortunately this means the fence between my place and the neighbours and out to freedom down the street, or jumping into the cricket pitch area - and back out. She's happy to jump a rope or a wide band of orange tape/matting. Sigh. And now I have to teach her to jump in the car, but I'm thinking a ramp might be easier. Since jumping onto a landcruiser back seat almost certainly means headbutting the back of the front passenger seat on the way up. I guess I could get a small platform. One of our arthritic doggy friends uses an old card table with the legs cut down to make a step platform about 8 to 12 inches off the ground (it's slightly sloped), and this enables her to get in the back of a normal station wagon.

Science diet - read the ingredients - put me off. Purina/supercoat owned by Nestles - and I have ethical objections to Nestles (nothing to do with their dog food). Also feel Supercoat is like the Maccas of the dog food world - My dog likes it but I'm not sure it's good for her. Raw meaty bones. I'm still working on that one. Raw chicken wing with skin on (looked very fatty) - upchucked later - can never look at pink cake frosting again. Bleah. Raw beef neck bones from supermarket - had splinters - and got upchucked, I had to get up in the middle of the night to let her out and clean up the mess from not being quick enough for chuck number one. Raw beef marrow bone - blessed - chewed small bits off with sharp edges and swallows them - about the size of a 20 cent piece - and upchucks later. Sometimes they go all the way through. I take the bone away as soon as she starts crunching up the shaft bit. If she stayed with the joint bit - it doesn't seem to splinter the way the marrow bit does. She can and has chomped a marrow bone to nothing and this did result in/concide with runny poos. Raw lamb leg bone - chomped until started making splinters of the shaft and then I took it away and put it in the bin. Sardines - no problems eating two in a feed. So I've still got no idea what kind of raw bone is good since she has a nasty habit of swallowing big pointy edged bits.

Hi babydol1977 I recently changed my puppy (blue heeler x) from Advance Puppy to Nutro Natural Choice puppy. Both are a lot more expensive than Supercoat. I think Pedigree are made by the same company as Advance and Nutro (parent company is Mars), food made in Australia (near Bathurst I think) under licence to the American parent. Ie Pedigree might be the cheap version of Nutro NC but I'd be checking the ingredient list. Anyway, puppydog was having the runs every two weeks or so and since changing up - no more runny poo - hooray! touch wood (taps own head). I also feed a home made chicken casserole. I've heard Eukanuba can be good for dogs with sensitive tummies but I've never tried it. A friend feeds it to her boxer. This website has a lot of info that can help you decide what you want in a (dry) dog food. http://www.dogfoodproject.com/