Sookeh!

Thank you for the offer, I will pm you ! And thank you to every one else for sharing their opinions, I am looking into a few of the puppy school you have reccommended

haha I may have to take you up on that offer some time!

I live in around castle hill/baulkham hills area.

haha thanks, I have been watching the third season and the last episode was epic!

No, he is not a rescue, I saw an ad for him at the local notice board... this was before I knew about back yard breeders. I think it was an accidental litter though. Looking back, I would definitely have questioned the seller as to why they were being sold so young and I would have asked to leave him with his mum until he was 8 weeks - We have a bit of a biting problem now, which we are trying to fix but I think it is probably worse because he didn't learn bite inhibition from his litter - however I had not discovered this forum yet

I posted this in the general discussion forum and some one recommended to post it here - so here it goes: Hello everyone! I have been reading these forums for a couple of months now and I have learned a lot from them! So I finally decided to join up and ask a few questions myself I have never owned a dog before, until about a month ago when I bought Nelson. He is now 10 weeks old and we are not exactly sure what breed - mostly fox terrier, possibly some Chihuahua? So...here are my questions 1) Our puppy school teacher was talking to us about what we should feed puppies, and she said that Hills Science was absolutely the best, top of the range food you could get ...well of course I went out and bought some immediatly...then I looked it up on the Internet, and dol forums, and I found that most people do not recommend it, and there are far better brands. At puppy school last week, I asked her about this, and I told her that I saw a lot of breeders do not recommend it and I asked her why she considers it to be so good. Her answer was something along the lines of "Those people are full of crap, they don't know what they are talking about, a lot of breeders are sponsored by other brands such as Eukunumba (sp?) so don't believe them, Hills Science is absolutely the best, anything that doesn't have meat as its first ingredient is bad" (umm...hills science puppy does not have meat as its first ingredient, it is corn or something) So - I am not sure what to feed. I read that Eagle Pack and Nutro and a few others are very good (puppy school teacher said "oh..yes... well thats mostly in newzealand and America, very expensive..") At the moment, he gets his hill science dry food for breakfast, followed by a chicken wing for lunch. Dinner has been 'Optimum' brand wet food mixed with dry food however today I bought some lamb bones so I am considering giving him dry food + lamb bone? What do you think of this diet? Sometimes he also has a few different things added, such as eggs, tuna, banana, plain yoghurt (but he only gets small amounts of these) 2) I am not sure if I should be worried or not about the way he interacts with other dogs... The first time he saw another dog after we took him home was a friends chihuahua girl, and he had a great time playing with her! Then we took him to puppy preschool and things were very different. He was the smallest one there and was very scared, he sat behind my chair and didn't try to play with the other dogs. I think this is understandable as he had never seen so many loud, boisterous puppies in such a small space! The second week was pretty much the same. We have a big playful lab pup in our class who is very rough with him, and nelson just yelps when he gets squashed by him, which makes all the other puppies run over and try to 'play' with him. I feel so bad for him but the lady who runs the class says not to interfere as the lab needs to learn not to be so rough, and nelson needs to learn to not be such a sook. He has also played with my next door neighbours huge lab/poodle, but that dog was very gentle and nelson wasn't scared, he just ran around the dog barking. Then I took him to play with another friends puppy, who is a sixteen week old ...wait for it.... schnoodle cross cavoodle..... This puppy was very bouncy and wanted to play, but Nelson got very vicious! He was not interested in the dog, until it came near him. Then nelson would growl and snarl and attack this puppy. It was not playful growling at all, it was very scary actually. I think he does not like other dogs at all, and I think this may have been because of the puppy preschool. The puppies never play in pairs or anything, they all just go for it, and my one is the one who gets picked on. I am not sure what to do about this... I am not even sure what my question is but I just need to let it all out! (by the way, the lady running this school was recommended by a few people on here..so I am not sure why I have such a bad feeling about her?) Anyway ! That was very long, I am sorry, but it is great to get it all out and hopefully, if my post makes any sense, all you knowledgeable DOLers can give me some opinions! Thank you

wow, thank you for the quick responses! I think I agree with every one and we will not be going back, I had a bad feeling about it from the start but I thought that maybe I was just being over protective of Nelson, so I just let him get bashed by all the other puppies I hope this does not effect him long term, I will be looking for a new puppy school. We are starting at Hills District Kennel Club after his second vaccination (we went last tuesday to have alook and I though the puppy classes were very well run), however I would like to find another puppy school before that because I do not know many people with dogs that I can socialize him with. I also think he will never be particularly fond of other dogs, perhaps it is because we got him at 6 weeks, but I just don't think he is interested in them - he always prefers to stay with people rather then check out the other dogs. Thanks again

Hello everyone! I have been reading these forums for a couple of months now and I have learned a lot from them! So I finally decided to join up and ask a few questions myself I have never owned a dog before, until about a month ago when I bought Nelson. He is now 10 weeks old and we are not exactly sure what breed - mostly fox terrier, possibly some Chihuahua? So...here are my questions 1) Our puppy school teacher was talking to us about what we should feed puppies, and she said that Hills Science was absolutely the best, top of the range food you could get ...well of course I went out and bought some immediatly...then I looked it up on the Internet, and dol forums, and I found that most people do not recommend it, and there are far better brands. At puppy school last week, I asked her about this, and I told her that I saw a lot of breeders do not recommend it and I asked her why she considers it to be so good. Her answer was something along the lines of "Those people are full of crap, they don't know what they are talking about, a lot of breeders are sponsored by other brands such as Eukunumba (sp?) so don't believe them, Hills Science is absolutely the best, anything that doesn't have meat as its first ingredient is bad" (umm...hills science puppy does not have meat as its first ingredient, it is corn or something) So - I am not sure what to feed. I read that Eagle Pack and Nutro and a few others are very good (puppy school teacher said "oh..yes... well thats mostly in newzealand and America, very expensive..") At the moment, he gets his hill science dry food for breakfast, followed by a chicken wing for lunch. Dinner has been 'Optimum' brand wet food mixed with dry food however today I bought some lamb bones so I am considering giving him dry food + lamb bone? What do you think of this diet? Sometimes he also has a few different things added, such as eggs, tuna, banana, plain yoghurt (but he only gets small amounts of these) 2) I am not sure if I should be worried or not about the way he interacts with other dogs... The first time he saw another dog after we took him home was a friends chihuahua girl, and he had a great time playing with her! Then we took him to puppy preschool and things were very different. He was the smallest one there and was very scared, he sat behind my chair and didn't try to play with the other dogs. I think this is understandable as he had never seen so many loud, boisterous puppies in such a small space! The second week was pretty much the same. We have a big playful lab pup in our class who is very rough with him, and nelson just yelps when he gets squashed by him, which makes all the other puppies run over and try to 'play' with him. I feel so bad for him but the lady who runs the class says not to interfere as the lab needs to learn not to be so rough, and nelson needs to learn to not be such a sook. He has also played with my next door neighbours huge lab/poodle, but that dog was very gentle and nelson wasn't scared, he just ran around the dog barking. Then I took him to play with another friends puppy, who is a sixteen week old ...wait for it.... schnoodle cross cavoodle..... This puppy was very bouncy and wanted to play, but Nelson got very vicious! He was not interested in the dog, until it came near him. Then nelson would growl and snarl and attack this puppy. It was not playful growling at all, it was very scary actually. I think he does not like other dogs at all, and I think this may have been because of the puppy preschool. The puppies never play in pairs or anything, they all just go for it, and my one is the one who gets picked on. I am not sure what to do about this... I am not even sure what my question is but I just need to let it all out! (by the way, the lady running this school was recommended by a few people on here..so I am not sure why I have such a bad feeling about her?) Anyway ! That was very long, I am sorry, but it is great to get it all out and hopefully, if my post makes any sense, all you knowledgeable DOLers can give me some opinions! Thank you