Leema

I like teaching numerous behaviours at once - otherwise we both get bored! But to avoid confusing Clover, I have a different area of the house for each... e.g. She is learning handstand near the steps, we learn back and distance behaviours in the lounge room, "come" in the doorway, "crate" in the bedroom, and "bounce" in the dining room. It's only when we're solid in doing a behaviour in a certain area that we move to a new area. Just an idea... Otherwise you have received some good advice so far.

Does your dog have fleas? Does your dog have worms? If not, I wouldn't use a de-fleaer or wormer. Heartworm is more of a rare case, but it's about risk management. Do you have many mozzies around? Do you have heartworm in your area? Are your dogs inside/outside dogs? What is the weather like there? (Is it over 14C for 14 days straight, day and night?) As heartworm is relatively rare in my area, my dogs live inside, and the weather rarely stays above 14C for 14 days straight, I don't use any heartwormers. It's an educated risk for me.

That's lovely. Clover's such a hog, but it's great that everyone got a 'moment' on the video. Thanks for taking the time to make and edit the video.

Mac is fed an exclusively raw food diet (except for treats!). Most of our food comes from supermarkets when things are 'on special'. 'On special' meats are mostly chickens, chicken drumsticks, chicken wings, chicken cut up into bits, chicken livers, beef hearts, beef liver, lamb hearts, lamb 'offcuts' (fatty but okay occasionally), lamb kidneys, turkey drumsticks, turkey necks, etc, etc. Almost all our food comes from the supermarket from being on special! (I will only pay less than $4 a kilo for dog food.) I do go to the pet shop to get some food - they sell big slabs of beef and the supermarket never has chicken necks for <$4 a kilo! As my dogs are small, turkey drumsticks are a really big meal! Also, sometimes mutton necks are labelled as 'lamb offcuts' and also take a fair bit of work for my dogs. My pet shop sells mutton necks, too. I don't know what brisket bones are?? (Sorry, I'm vegetarian! I've only had to learn these meaty terms since feeding raw!) But I don't feed any femur bones from cows as they can shatter dogs teeth. Beef ribs and stuff, though, are fine. I try to feed a 'boney' meal one day, followed by a 'meaty' or 'organ' meal the next day. Most people do not advise feeding organs (or eggs) solo in a meal, but Mac obviously has a digestive tract of steel as he never gets the trots. For example of a feeding schedule, Mac got two eggs Saturday night. Sunday he got a 'lamb offcut' (boney fatty thing!). Tonight he will get some organ, probably beef heart or kidney. Tomorrow night I will probably try for a bit of chicken neck or another boney chicken wing or something similar.

Same with my borders! They have also not refused chicken livers, but some people do say their dogs reject liver as it has a funny texture.

My Mac has a heart murmur at the higher end of the scale. When you put your hand to his chest, you can feel the unusual beat. He's 6 (diagnosed at 12 weeks? and no change at 16 weeks) and doesn't show any obvious signs of his murmur. He doesn't seem to cope very well in hot weather, but I wouldn't expect any dog to really 'thrive' in hot weather. I wouldn't be worried, but definitely contact the breeder so they know. My vet recommended we keep Mac 'quiet', but we just let him do what he likes. I rather him have a few happy lunatic years rather than many rather boring years. However, he regulates himself pretty well. Hope it shows clear for your dog again in the next few weeks.

You'll find feeding raw food is most expensive when you start off and stock your freezer. Then, once you've enough food to 'get by', you can be more choosey in what you pay. I personally pay <$4 a kg for food for my dogs. Whenever I go to the supermarket, I check the meat section (I'm vegetarian so this was a bit of a learning curve!) and I pretty much just look for the sticky labels saying they're cheap! Chicken wings and drumsticks are, at 'normal price', about $3.70 or so a kilo. I've recently found my pet shop has a good variety of bits and pieces, most <$4 a kilo (most of the expensive stuff is kangaroo!). My aunty also works near a butcher shop, and will message me when things are going out for cheap there! My dogs mostly get chicken. I'd like more variety, but I'm not the richest person. They do get some lamb (often goes for cheap at 'Foodland') and some beef (not a bad price at the pet shop), and they mostly get mammal organs (beef hearts, sheep kidneys, beef liver, sheep liver, etc) instead of chicken organs.

Very cute!! My two do the same. And your house looks like ours with leopard print and guitars around.

Mac got pain meds when he was desexed 5 years ago. I only vaguely remember, but I believe it was tablets for a day or two.

Mince is good for being able to measure/weigh meals out for dogs who you are trying to slim down. They are bad because they don't clean teeth or provide work. Chicken frames are good for cleaning teeth. They are hard to portion out, especially for small dogs. They are normally enjoyed when chewed. Both have a high bone-meat content (more bone than meat!) and so should be fed alongside more meaty meals.

My dogs don't seem to ever get diarrhoea no matter what I throw at them (it's very nice). But my plan of attack would be: fast 24hours, small amounts of chicken mince after that. Chicken mince because: My dogs have most of their diet made of chicken (so it's the meat they're most used to) and because chicken mince is often mostly bone (which would act to clog them up a bit). Hope you get it under control.

I've used retractables for Mac and now Clover until I feel they're trustworthy off lead. They only ever have them on when on a harness as I didn't want either dog to learn that pulling on a collar is rewarding.

I prefer to teach a dog to go outside initially, if that is an option. There are like grass/fake grass dog loos that are made for small backyards. Failing this, I have found the training pads to be absorbent... But have also found dogs that like to tear up their peed on pads!

Here's a local club here: http://www.sdkodc.com/

Cassie, not sure where in Adelaide you are, but I got my Mars Coat King for about $40-$50 from Hilltop Pet and Aquariums at O'Halloran Hill on South Rd.

If your dog won't eat one type of food, take it away after 20 minutes. Then put it down at the next meal time. And the next if need be. If you replace/swap food, then dogs will learn that if they leave food, better options will come. Dogs won't starve themselves to death.

I always supervise meal times, but I'd give him a go on chicken necks now. He might not manage to make a hole in them, so just try again next week. It won't do him any damage, just might be the source of some frustration for him!

I thought dogs manufactuer their own vitamin C?

I recommend reading this article: http://silvia.trkman.net/agilityisgood.htm

My approach would be: Duplicate the layer Erase all the 'background' and probably some of the edges of the dog On the background layer, using copy paste and then the clone and retouch tools, create a background as you please - e.g. the whole blue thing as seen on the left Then, on the top layer featuring just the dog, use the smudge tool to pull out hair so it doesn't look 'cut out'. I have done a tutorial on the smudging (I think... if not I should), but it's on a site you have to sign up to to see it. Would you like me to post it here?

I haven't really looked into parasites and I am not too knowledgable - but my understanding is that freezing kills parasites. And almost all my meat is freezed before I feed it. I always say, though, we have to make decisions we can live with. I know plenty of people who feed marrow bones, but I if one of my dogs shattered their teeth on one I'd feel so guilty and can't live with that. ;) So much so I still have a marrow bone in my fridge that I bought before learning about them! So if pork is too scary for you, don't do it!

Beef is fine. So is pork. Beef femur bones are not as they can shatter dogs teeth. I feed any bone I can get my hand on that is cheap, not cooked, and not a beef femur. I also feed offal and 'just meat' (not attached to a bone).

Thanks for that!

I haven't heard of the Schultze's book so I'll keep an eye out for it. Thanks.

Where does Natures' Gift fit in? If you typed that all out, kudos!