Magstar

Thanks everyone for your replies! Goldielover, how much vitamin C should I give him? I'll definately get the medium size bag of whatever food I end up getting. I stupidly bought the 18kg bag of Supercoat originally, so I still have plenty left! Oh well someone else can have it!

Ok I will definately stop giving any mince. I don't remember seeing Holistic Select at our local pet supplies store. I will have a look though! There are too many choices out these days!

At the moment he is just on supercoat with some mince and chicken necks as well. I thought swtiching him to a large breed puppy food would be better for him? I was thinking if I get him onto a good dry food then I would stop feeding him any other meat (maybe some chicken necks still), so as not to stuff up the balance as you said. Serket, did you use the large breed puppy Proplan, or just the normal puppy one?

My OH and I absolutely love huskies! My OH really wanted one, but we decided that it was not the right breed for us at this time, so we got a GR instead! He has been wonderful and we love him to death... but I do hope that one day we can have a beautiful husky . I think our husky obsession comes from the fact that we think my crossbreed girl has husky in her. My OH also has a thing for GSDs.

I am wanting to switch our 14 week old GR puppy onto a large breed puppy food. I just can't decide which one! What do people recommend? I will just add that Oscar's front legs are a bit crooked and I am hoping that by having him on a large breed puppy food it will help in their development. My vet didn't give me much advice (just said keep him on a good quality puppy food). I have also emailed our breeder (weeks ago when we first noticed the problem) and they said that it is most likely what they call 'east-west feet' and will hopefully fix itself as he grows, but may end up with slightly east-west feet as an adult. So I am really after a food that will be the best in promoting good skeletal development.

I agree, from my experience, people who own DD's seem to be the snobbiest. Just the other day I was talking to a lady as I was buying some toys for our puppy. She asked me what I had and I said a golden retriever puppy. She then went "Oh, well I have a beagalier!" The way she said it was like "you only have a crappy GR, my dog is so much fancier" :p I just turned and walked away before I said anything that I would regret...

No one has ever called my dog a 'mongrel' to my face, but if they did I would probably be offended. That term is more often than not used in a derogatory way. I guess it depends how they say it! Personally I prefer the term 'bitsa' I usually tell people who meet my dog that she was dumped as a puppy, and therefore don't know her parentage, to avoid any judgements!

+1 Nicolatu, I think it was you who told me about eucalyptus oil originally. I owe you a thanks!

My dog has always hated baths, but she LOVES swimming!

Yep total douche!

That is just so disgusting! He should know better...

My puppy does the exact same thing! He does it with carrot as well.

I found eucalyptus oil to be the best deterrent for chewing on things. I tried other things but eucalyptus oil was the only thing that worked.

I agree- skip the obedience class tonight and let him settle in at home a bit more. And don't worry, things will get better. The first week is hard. You are still getting to know each other and setting up routines etc in that early stage.

I just bought the heated bed and the XL soft crate. I was going to spend about $100 on a heated bed so I am glad that I saw this!

I heard that tennis balls are bad because so much dirt etc gets stuck on the ball and then that acts like sandpaper on the dogs teeth. I hadn't heard about the glue being bad before, so that is interesting to know!

It is very intersting getting everyones point of view. I understand why those who are against puppy school run like this are against it, but I also understand why some people are all for it. I guess the thing is that everyone has different ideas and expectations of their dogs. What I like about how our class is run is that we have a couple of minutes of play time, then we do a settle exercise and then some more training exercises, and then back to a short play time again. I guess the point of this is to try and teach your puppy that they can play when you say its ok, but then they have to settle and focus when you say. I found it really surprising how well all of the puppies in teh class could go from playing one minute, to then being settled and focusing the next. I don't know if this will work in the long run or not!

Great Thanks for that!

Oscar is now 13 weeks and I have bought him some Valuheart tablets for his heartworm prevention. Is it safe to start him on prevention at this age without testing for heartworm first? We have mosquitos at our place even in winter. Our vet mentioned that we should get started on prevention, but didn't mention anything about testing first.

Thanks to everyone for your replies. Well we did end up going for our second week yesterday, and I am glad that we did. 2 new puppies were in the class ( a GR and a beautiful boxer girl). These pups were much closer in size, age and temperament to Oscar, which made all the difference. He had a little play with both and started to gain more confidence. Also, the snappy pup had improved since last week, and the instructor seemed to have alot more control over all the puppies this week as well. I came out of the lesson feeling as though we had achieved something.

We did do settling/sitting quietly activities as well. The first part of the lesson was teaching the basics (on lead) and settling. Then we had about 10 mins offlead, then another settling exercise, and then the dogs were let off lead again for the last part of the class. I guess I'm just unhappy about the fact the the off leash time wasn't more controlled. When I did puppy school 11 yrs ago with Maggie I remember that only a couple of pups were let off together at a time and that worked quite well. Its also a real shame that 2/5 of the pups in the class are rescues from horrible backgrounds and that is why they have problems with the other pups.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I appreciate it. Aussielover, Oscar is a GR, so he is pretty big and goofy himself. I think we might give it one more week and see how it goes. Hopefully now that the instructor knows what all the pups are like she will plan the class accordingly. I might just have to make sure that Oscar stays away from the pups that might scare him. I will send the instructor an email and let her know my concerns. If I'm not happy with the response then I guess that might make up my mind for me! I really wish more of my friends/family had dogs that I could introduce Oscar to!

The classes are held at the vets, but are run by a dog training company. Oscar is 12 weeks. I would have liked to start him earlier, but I wasn't organised enough and then had to wait to get into fresh classes. I might have to go dog stalking to find some nice calm dogs! But then is that a risk because he is not fully vaccinated yet?

I'm hoping that if he gets over the frightened stage then it will be a good learning experience for him dealing with a range of different types of pups. I should add that he wasn't extremely frightened, mostly just uneasy and just tried to keep away from the others. But he was definately a bit stressed by the whole thing. So in your class were only a couple of puppies let off together at the same time?

Worth a try I guesss. Maybe I'm being too negative about the situation because I had this image of a group of puppies running around having fun with each other, and then that didn't happen. The instructor did make some attempt to control the situation. She made the owner pick up their pup whenever it had a go at any of the others and make it settle, and then tried to make the pup that was frightened by it feel at ease with treats etc. It just didn't seem to have any effect. The same thing just kept happening. Oscar wouldn't take any treats when he was frightened.