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I moved Cleo from grain-containing food to grain-free a few months ago now. Not much different to a normal food really, no tummy upsets (she's never had a tummy upset/runny poo). It still has some degree of fillers, so amounts stay roughly the same - well they did with Cleo. She's 20kg and gets 2 cups a day if no barf patty or 1.5 cups and a barf patty. I think that I'm very lucky that Cleo's never had diahorrea, she's tried several brands of dog food (working in a pet store enables me to try a few cheaply). Sometimes I will change between brands without a transition too, and never had an issue. Just my experiences though, I am aware that some dogs are quite sensitive to dietary changes and every customer of mine is advised to slowly transition foods. ETA: i feed earthborn (primitive natural and ocean fusion (has grains) and the new one meadow feast)

i've used a few brands, but my favourite to date is Fido's white and bright. Love the smell, and it brightens Cleo's coat.

Why should you not be breeding if you need to reduce the price of a puppy to have it in its new home when its ready to go home? Believe it or not sometimes puppies are sold and then at the last minute someone may change their mind, sometimes they all want girls and you get boys and vice versa .Sometimes you have dozens of people on a waiting list and when you go back to them they have all found a puppy somewhere. Geez sometimes the economy is slow and people don't have as much money to spend. Sometimes the breeder is too worried about advertising in many other places in case someone decides its unethical for them to do that too. And then my mentor, in her last litter had a case of a couple people backing out of buying one of her gorgeous pups, because she was very very heavily spotted (dalmatian) and had a slight kink in her tail. Personally, I'd be much more annoyed at an ad that said "just in time for xmas" or something along those lines (usually see those ads in the newspaper, usually not reg. breeders)

Haha I work at a petstock and haven't heard a thing about this! They are petlife/kramar/purina beds (we sell them). Great deal.....best one I've seen so far.

There will be others who will reply with great info, I'm sure, but my 2 cents are: no one tells ME what I do in MY house, and my dog is my family and is included in that. If your brother and sister in law are so very against sharing a house with a dog, possibly have Xmas on neutral territory, eg a park or somewhere similar. You're sister in law does not have a right in your house over your dog, YOU decide that! My dog sleeps inside, and when we move away from my in laws, I hope to have my dogs inside even more!

Sorry, you're not the only one! I have confused myself and now I don't actually know!! Just went and checked an email from my local supplier (agility club) and it's Earthborn Holistic Ocean Fusion grain free. I pay $85 for 12kg. What is the frequent buyer program? Any idea on what sort of savings? We get a discount through our agility club so just wondering if this discount is comparable! Thanks :D Boy...that's cheap....at my local supplier it is $82 for 6 kilos I paid about $98 for the 12kg ocean fusion last time, and that was when it was on special at petstock. So $85 is pretty cheap. Considering the cost price of Earthborn, $85 for 12kg is very cheap! And the earthborn fish grain free is Coastal Catch, not ocean fusion. There is a new grain free variety too, meadow feast (lamb being the primary) lower in fat and protein.

Thanks for posting - good idea! I'm hoping to get a second dog soon, and whippets are one of two breeds we have it narrowed down to...so I may ended up buy one (or both) of those books. For dalmatians, can't go past the Dalmatian Club of America's book, The Official Book of the Dalmatian. Covers SOOOOO much, from breed history generally to dalmatian development in different countries. I found pics of ancestors of my girl, as there are SO many great pics. It also goes into detail on the standard, and even deviations (like lemon spotted, long haired and brindle dallies, with pics!) and also a section on their special needs re. purines. I got it for $15 too! Normally $70.

Im a newly registered breeder with DogsNSW as breeding is in my future plans. I currently owned one dog that I campaign as a neuter. Whenever I mention that I'm registered with a prefix though, I always say that I've never whelped a litter.

Hardy's Angel already said, but Advocate doesn't treat tapeworm. Bayer's reasoning for this is, if you don't have fleas, you won't get tapeworm. That said, my combo is Interceptor and Advantix. In my area, not being on top of tick treatment can be a death sentence (hear it at work all too often). Sometimes I may forget to advantix every fortnight in summer, so I have permoxin on hand too (no cats here!) which has very similar ingredients to advantix.

I've had fairly good experiences. The first experience I had with a reg breeder when searching for my dally girl has ended up producing a great friendship (now count her and her family quite close to me now, they were invited to my wedding) even though I didn't end up buying one of her dogs due to timing issues. I am determined that my next dally will be one of hers. She's also my mentor =] The actual breeder of my girl doesn't really talk to me anymore, but I understand that she has a life, and my other friend is more than willing to help me out with any questions I have. The breeder of the other breed I want to get into has also been quite lovely and easy to communicate with. I am now a reg. breeder, although many years off breeding, but I aspire to be like my mentor/friend. Open, honest and friendly (that's me anyway)

That's how I am! I get absolutely no pleasure from being around my OH's childhood dog. Everyone else loves her and my OH reckons I don't like her because I never tried to bond and I don't want to like her. That's not true, I work in a pet store and there are certain customer's dogs that I "click" with and others that I am indifferent to and yes, a lot of the time breed plays a part. I am a dog person though, If this dog that we live with needed help I would help her (been trying to get OH's mum to take her to the vet for a year now and I have bought her superpremium foods from my work so that she's not just on supermarket stuff all the time) so Im never cruel or anything, but I just don't love her to the end of the earth like I do my dally and other family dogs. I also see that my dog is her best friend and Im glad that Cleo has that doggy companionship every single day.

For me it's an experience of peace, love, joy, happiness, connectedness, relatedness, deep understanding and strong, protective, motherly feelings, and feeling a bit overwhelmed at times. This would be my definition too. I haven't "unbonded", but I have not bonded with a dog that we currently live with (husbands childhood dog).

I use Fidos White and Bright, and it is the best shampoo I've used on my girl so far. I've have compliments on her coat after using it! That said, haven't used Plush Puppy yet (I want to, but still on my first bottle of Fidos and i can get it cheap from my work...) but Plush Puppy have great info on their website, explaining all the products and even grooming tips for different breeds =]

I work in a pet store (doesn't sell pups or kittens) and I get excited when pure breds come in. They are in fewer numbers than all the crosses I see, bought from just up the road from us and I have been known to take photos on my phone to show my OH. So far my favourites have been -a toller (who knew there was a breeder near me, a long time customer too!) -an akita -a dogue de bordeaux -weim -vizsla -tibetan mastiffs (met a boy who was only newly imported, very nice boy!)

I grew up with my parents using check chains (properly, no choking happened, non-pulling dogs), so I naturally started using one with Cleo. She didn't respond well to it, I didn't want to hurt her (she was pulling against it) so I now use a halti and have a non-pulling dog. Each to their own, halti's definately don't work for everyone (and some think my dog has a muzzle on and avoid us but oh well) and obviously check chains didn't work for me.

Rather Ties in well with this I saw today. An old Cherokee told his grandson, “my son, there is a battle between two wolves inside us all. One is evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, inferiority, lies and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope humility, kindness, empathy and truth.” The boy thought about it, and asked, “Grandfather, which wolf wins?” The old man quietly replied, “The one you feed.” Totally unrelated to OP (been on my honeymoon for last 10 days, rude people at a minimum lol) but I've seen that story too (in the Jodi Picoult book, Lone Wolf) it was written slightly differently to that, using the word bad, not evil and not naming the qualities and it talked about how can't just feed the good wolf all the time or we get out of balance. Actually found myself agreeing with that (but not the book character's actions). I love working in the pet industry, but can't wait to find an area where rude people are at a minimum (working in a pet supply store, I think I'm at the maximum right now!)

I didnt get to choose my dally's, she was 10 weeks when we got her and already registered with as Edinglen New Sensation (Edinglen being the prefix). Our lab that my parents have had for 11 years though we did get to choose, and she was co owned, her call name is Meg and she's Kobelco Meg in a million =] I've just got my prefix and im sure I would ask potential puppy owners for input, although I would be keen to have themes that i'd want to stick with

I'd be amazed if you found it cheaper than that. My work sells 6 packs for only a little bit less than that! Of course we pay freight, overheads, etc but that's honest to god, cheaper than our cost price!!!! I pay cost price + 20% to cover taxes and still pay more than that! What it comes down to for me (price wise) is that i'll pay that relatively small amount to hopefully avoid a $1000 vet bill

I smile when she smiles at me (she's a dally, huge smiler!) she smiles at me several times a day, a huge grin with a huge waggly bum, makes me feel so loved!

I fed my pup Eagle Pack HOlistic Select duck formula when I got her (rather than puppy-specific), and now at a year and a half she's had several brands of food and never had a tummy upset or the runs. I prefer grain-free foods but I've in total I've fed EP Holistic, Eagle Pack (Power), Pro Plan, Earthborn Holistic (my favourite), Black Hawk, Advance and a bit of Royal Canin that I got cheap. The only one I will never feed her again is Pro Plan as her skin reacted to it. (Working in a pet store gave me access to a hell of a lot more than most people).

And don't worry if you want to show but worry that you won't get every show day off, I certainly don't! I've only been to 2 shows (mainly coz she's now a neuter and I work weekends in a country area) there is no rule that to get your CH you have to show every single weekend and get those points as fast as possible. We currently have 6 points, and I'm happy to take a couple years to get the rest :) slow and steady!!

I only have a short coated breed (dalmatian) so I can't go crazy at PP (my OH breathes a sigh of relief) but I did buy some Pixie Dust. I'll never use it in the ring, but it's a nice "fun" product to have, she sparkles =] Reading through their articles in my Dog News almost makes me want a coated breed to have fun with! And Im also guilty of having too many shampoos for one dog. I have about 10 and have yet to finish the first ever bottle I bought (although that's only just over a year ago)

My girl did swell a few weeks before her heat cycles. Her first heat was at 6 months on the dot, and 6 months later she was slightly swelling again (while trying to plan her desexing) but nothing happened for weeks, and she wasn't getting sooky so we had her desexed. She then discharged blood from the vagina the next day - indicating that she may indeed have been about to start bleeding (well that's what the vet said). Every dog is different though, a friend of a friend has a a labrador that didn't come into her first heat for well over 18 months. My dog was about a year younger and came into heat first.

I had to buy Cleo a lifejacket as she is a very poor swimmer (and after all the dogs i had growing up with - this was a shock). She literally freezes if her ears get wet - even just the very tips! Which leads to her sinking. Luckily though, she's learnt since getting the lifejacket, how to swim a little. She accidentally jumped into the river a while ago (why, I don't know!) and it was a bit deep. We panicked coz she didn;t have her lifejacket on, but she started to swim after momentary paraylsis. She loves running through the waves at the beach though!

with that attitude your future LH weim will be outsmarting your mum in no time - they are especially good at manipulating and taking advantage!! :laugh: I have a feeling (from the weims I've met) that they are similar in temprement to dallies, but maybe a bit more velcro-like? Cleo is not a sooky/always with me dog, she likes to know where I am, but will not relax at my feet or on the bed with us. If my assessment is correct, then yes, mum will be blown away :laugh: bring it on!