blakkjackal

I personally find it a little weird that they do not offer a detailed ingredient list on their website. Or maybe I'm just missing it.. Can't really say much based on a couple of flashy marketing lines, but my first impression wasn't great (=not enough info on the website and using the same old marketing phrases).

Unless you choose to supplement liver is absolutely necessary. It's really the only good source of vitamin A. I personally choose to supplement vitamin D as it is not cost effective for me to buy my dog fish.. If you can feed fish and your dog tolerates it you should feed it weekly in reasonably large quantities to cover for their vitamin D needs. Bones are also an important part of a dog's diet (although a fairly small one), it's their source of calcium. You can supplement this too but you'll be missing out on all the dental benefits + most dogs love working on their food a bit more than just lapping it up from their bowls. If you take these things (and possibly more) into account it's possible, but not exactly ideal. Red meat really is best for them but I guess if your dog really cannot tolerate darker meats at all then white meat is better than no meat at all. Have you tried introducing darker meats into the dog's diet slowly? Ridiculously slowly (teaspoon a day and work it up type of thing)? Tried all kinds of different meats?

You assumed. I prefer not to make any kind of assumptions when all the info I know about the person is their current state. I come from a country with no BSL whatsoever and several active Dogo breeders. I also know several people with Dogos and there's one thing in common with both the breeders and the owners. Do not trust a Dogo around strange dogs, they are prone to aggression towards dogs they are not familiar with. And that is fine, really, it's just something that has to be accepted when/if you get a D.A. Same with the pit bull really. I mean, no one would buy a pit bull with the intention of frequenting busy dog parks and expecting them to be super tolerant, always and with anyone? At least I hope not (unfortunately I know this happens). A few responsible breeders actually even note this on their website under "common issues".

Heart is a fantastic meat, I feed mine heart at least two or three times a week. They can be quite bloody though so you might want to start easy as it can cause loose poo if introduced too quickly and in large portions. :p

Laekenois is lak-in-wah.

What makes you think I was born and raised in South Australia? Or that my experience with dogos is limited to this state/country?

1000 kcal per day for the kelpie, 1250 1380 kcal for the basset, maintenance (as in only includes "normal living"). Very rough guide, but it's a starting point. :) e/ For the basset might be better to go with the higher estimate to start with..

How heavy are your dogs? :D

What about simply calculating your dog's energy needs per day and basing the amounts you feed on that? A rough estimate for maintenance energy needs per day is about (500-550 kJ x w0,75) (w0,75 beingmetabolic weight). Increase according to activity level.

So I guess the Cordoba Fighting Dog background is irrelevant when it comes to the social nature of a Dogo... Group environments, yes for sure. They are very pack orientated. But unknown dogs and dogs that aren't a part of the already-formed pack? In most cases you will find it quite hard to "dog proof" your Dogo. I'm quite well aware of the type of hunting these dogs are used in. Most Dogos I know will try to eliminate all intruders that try to access their yard. Be it a pet or a human, they are fierce guardians. Pit bulls were bred with extreme human friendliness in mind and most pit bulls I know (the game bred variety) don't guard and most definitely don't deter strangers from accessing the yards they're kept in. There's plenty of other more suitable breeds for those duties. ...Also. Did you just quote Wikipedia on those Dogo "facts"?

Balance exercises (dobo etc) are great for core strength. Edit/ lol sorry just realised this isn't at all helpful regarding your question.

Here you can look up some official kennel club approved statistics for Finnish/European bulldogs. I have to say they aren't very encouraging stats at all. Of course things might be slightly different in Australia, but as far as I know the Finnish Kennel Club is the only organisation to publicly offer such statistics and the information is interesting nevertheless.

Damn, my dog's chip starts with those numbers and was implanted after June 2011. Need to get him checked asap... Thanks for the info, I had no idea.

I ask for eye contact too (or actually, I haven't had to ask for a loooong time as the dog will automatically do it), but IMHO it hasn't got much to do with the dog showing respect. It's just one more trick they've learned that gains them permission to eat.

I'm thinking he's guarding in a way.. During day time it's normal to have all sorts of sounds going on outside but at least my dog will be a lot more alert during night time and will bark at sounds that he wouldn't really care about during the day.

APBTs don't really come in blue... ;) He is out of a pedigree amstaff dam and amstaff x sire.

What about a rough or smooth collie? Or even a sheltie? Some "lower energy" herding breed might be suitable, they tend to stay close to their people.

It's not just the mask, it's the white muzzle and the amber eyes.. looks gorgeous! That too, but I love the fact that it covers almost her whole face. :D

That sure is an awesome mask! The cost of flying a dog overseas is ridiculous, I'm already saving up for our move some time next year and I know it's going to cost more than my own flight... Mr. A doens't look terribly impressed in this photo.

That's IMO not the right approach to solving resource guarding problems. The dog is behaving like that because heis afraid that you're going to take his food away and by telling him off and taking the food away you're just going to make the dog even more worried next time. My dog had this issue for a while but we've worked our way past them now. The main thing is to make the dog comfortable about having you around when he's got something he values a lot, in this case food. I would start from a distance and casually walk past the dog while he was eating (not paying attention to the dog at all and thus make him worried) and throw in something really yummy. I repeated this at every meal time until the dog started to anticipate me throwing in more food. Then I would very slowly work my way closer, always making sure I didn't go over his threshold. It's not an overnight solution and definitely requires dedication, but to me that's the only right way of regaining your dogs trust as it is a trust issue after all. Keep it positive and step back, take it nice and slow if your dog is not comfortable with something. I personally respect my dog's dinner time peace and don't disturb unless really necessary (so no games why taking away bones etc, I could do this with a puppy though but always give something better in return). I don't believe in scaring the dog to "respect your authority" when it comes to taking away something as precious as food. Even the lowest ranking pack members have the right to defend their food, everyone's gotta eat and guarding behaviour is quite natural. Just not acceptable in most living arrangements.. Sorry about the lack of paragraphs and possible typos, typing this on my phone. Edit: I make my dog wait before he gets to eat but I don't think this has much to do with the "leave it" command that you kind of described above (not picking up food scraps etc). I just don't like having a super excited dog around me when I prepare his meals lol.

Potties. :D my display pic doggy is an amstaff mutt. :)

Lol I have no problem admitting that after our morning walk to the park I'll happily sit down for 15 minutes and read Facebook... The dog will carefully sniff every corner of the park during that time. Of course I would only ever do this in a fenced, secure area and as "our" park is quite small I can keep an eye on him at all times. However I do like to play with him after this and we practice recall and some basic obedience most mornings too. I'm just not a morning person...

This is actually not a great description of a dogo, they are quite a different dog compared to the APBT. And most of them aren't dog friendly either (dog friendly to me means that they will tolerate most dogs). Dogos rarely get along with the same sex and I know of several people who have had to separate their own pack because of their dogos not getting along and that is something you should be prepared for. A pit bull is a lot more "terrier" in nature than a dogo, which is a full on molosser. They are very protective which isn't an attribute pit bulls often possess.

Every day. Luckily I live a 15 minute walk away from a fenced park, which allows dogs (although not a designated dog park, which is actually a good thing). That's where we go every morning. I find it absolutely vital for a dog to be able to stretch their legs without being held back by a leash. There's a larger oval about a half an hour walk away and we try to go there every couple of weeks, but the one closer to me is pretty good too. :) Where I used to live we had a forest right around the corner where I could let my dog run around.. I very much miss being surrounded by forest.

This video will show the difference and also tells about why it is bad to let a dog pace. My dog will pace when walked too slowly, not slow enough for steady walking but not fast enough for trotting. I try to speed up whenever I notice the dog changing from trot to pace.