airlock

i've never bought from a breeder before but i would never buy a pup that was selected for me, seems arrogant not to take my preferences into consideration, i would want to see what puppies there were and witch ones interact well with me as well as exhibiting the behaviours i want. a breeder can identify traits and characteristics in a pup but i'm of the belief that you need to have that special spark to really cement the choice and you can only get that face to face. A breeder who will simply choose one for me is either treating the puppy or my self with disrespect and wouldn't be getting my custom.

I'll take 6

Dobermans can be quite good from what i've heard.

Should be ok, might be just a bit constipated however. My house mates dog a few years back ate some similar stuff and he was fine, although he was quite a bit bigger.

Every day as we live in a really quite place, only put him on it if there are other dogs or people around or if we are headed somewhere new.

He's doing a lot better thanks, The sweet potato diet did wonders for him and firmed things right up, bright orange as you would expect. The vet agreed the problem is most likely a combination of the KIbble, raw meat and liver treats , although a small infection is possible. We were given some probiotics to help him out and a few recommendations for kibble change. He's a hell of a lot happier and the garden smells a lot sweeter witch is a god send. He's on pedigree puppy for now as we already had the bag and the vet seemed happy with the choice. I guess Its just about finding a diet that works for him and gives him what he needs. Thanks from all of us for the help and advice.

i dont think they are support to either but he found a way up onto the side were we keep it, hes been at it once before but thats all i think and it doesn't seem to have had any adverse effects, she only has small amounts as shes very little right now.

its on the way out now but we'll need to phase the new stuff in over a the next week or so. hopefully it should cheer his tummy up a bit. just about to give him a sweet potato and see if that helps. the good news is he has started eating again, the bad new is he will only eat the kittens food.

Ive managed to get him an appointment first thing in the morning, he's looking a bit better now but he's really not himself and the poor bugger wont eat a thing .

I was wondering about yoghurt, might give it a go,

well it looks like raw might be out. i tried him with a few bits of turkey last night with his kibble, he's had a pretty bad night of it the poor thing . He doesn't seem to want to eat rice this morning so i'll go and get some pumpkin/sweet potato and see if that does the job.

Sounds like a good plan, let him reset and go from there.

HI, I was Just wondering were your dog or dogs sleep. We had a fair few problems with our pup until we moved him into his crate in our bedroom, ever since then he sleeps perfectly and to be honest i'm not sure i could nod off anymore without the snuffling coming from the corner. Where do your furry friends lay their heads?

They look pretty awesome but a bet they can be quite a handful. Really big muscly dog bred for hunting large game, will need a very firm and balanced hand i'm guessing. Do american have any band breeds or does it just differ from town to town?

Ive just checked the bag and its stating 29% protein 13% fat. Cereals and Real meat from various sources, egg... Im not sure about the various sources for meat now that i look at it.

well liver treats have been pretty constant in his diet and i've never thought about them as causing the problem, we'll cut them out and see how he does. We decided on dog pro as it came pretty well recommended by a friend of ours and a few of the locals, the puppy stuff seemed to have comparable numbers to the other brands we were considering (pedigree ect). We are looking to change at this point but we are a little stuck on the next choice. The Vet and the RSPCA recommended the science diet but its a lot more expensive then anything else out there and we could only track it down at the vet or the pet store both of witch seemed to ramp up the prices on just about everything. We are thinking about trying the pedigree chicken and rice puppy mix.

cant say much about the husky as i have no idea how they work, but the poor brown thing is terrified and any responsible owner would notice this and get their dog out of the situation before anything happens. We were caring for a very small dog for a few weeks and she would exhibit this behaviour around any unknown dog, if the dog came any closer she would resort to snapping yapping and biting, I wouldn't have been surprised to have seen the same outcome here.

Yes we use canned stuff to mix it in, I'm just a bit worried about using raw meats again as it seemed to cause some pretty bad stomach upsets last time he was fed on it, perhaps a n even slower introduction might work. We haven't had a fecal test yet but i will bring it up at the vet on thursday, and will discuss wether a shot is a good idea. He has been wormed regularly since we had him although im not sure about his history while he was at the RSPCA but i assume they would have taken care of the basics.

most of the schools around us seem to put dogs in groups depending on breed, size and age so that owners don't have to worry about there pups being squashed or doing the squashing. Our old roommate had an american staffy cross who did very well in puppy classes and didn't seem to suffer any aggression issues, assuming you make sure all his early socialisation is in a positive environment and you do your best to reward every good encounter you should be good but if its worrying you then check out the breed information and see if its a dog that will suit what you need. good luck and have fun :)

Our Kelpie cross is about 5months old now and has had continuing problems with loose and runny stool. He goes through phases were he is fine for a week or so but then has 3 days or so of pretty loose leavings which doesn't seem to have any pattern that we can spot. He started of on science diet as we got a bag of it when we adopted him, we then switched him over to dog pro as this came quite highly recommended from a friend who feeds her 5 dogs the same (adult rather then puppy.) if it was constant then we would obviously just cut out the dog pro and switch, but the fact that its on and off is making me wonder if there might be another issue in his diet. He gets a few treats a day usually liver biscuits or similar. we add a few spoons of wet food to his kibble to encourage him to eat it, he can be a bit fussy at times. The only thing i can think is that we used to give him chicken necks and things but stopped around a month ago after a bad episode. He's off to the vet for his heart worm shot this week anyway so i'll mention it see what happens, but if we do need to change his food what would you recommend for this situation? *His weight has remained more or less on track and he doesn't seem to have any lack of energy or dehydration.

I really wasn't expecting it to escalate the way it had, there has been some great advice that i will be taking on board. I did not intend to single out any particular breed as being bad, there simply rant any bad breeds i simply wanted to get an idea of what breeds are more predisposed to aggression in order to prevent any further problems. Unfortunately this seems to have focused on Bull breeds, Now having had my share of bad experiences with Large Bull type dogs i'm already pretty set on keeping my pup away from any unknown dogs of this type, not to be vindictive or try and persuade people that they are bad dogs who should be kept away from the public but simply to make sure that i have no more unpleasant encounters that could go badly. As many people have pointed out many of these breeds get a real bad wrap simply because of the way they look and many dogs that don't look like they will cause problems actually do have a high potential for aggression, it was help understanding these that i was really looking for. I have already taken advice concerning body language as well as getting some good insights into how to go about off leash walking. And the most sensible advice that seems to have been given is to watch out for any unknown dog and that those bigger then mine could unwittingly cause the most damage so i will be trying to adapt my off leash walking habits to suit. Once again thanks for all the replies and the help. not to end the post on a bad note but it sounds like there has been another attack in the area, one of the pub dogs was apparently given a pretty hard time of it in the woods just below the main street .

dog racism seems like a bit of a silly concept. All pure-bred dogs are different, they were bred to perform certain task or have certain traits. people have spent hundreds of years breeding in order to create the perfect dog for there needs. wether that need is herding, guarding, hunting or fighting. it seems that a lot of people don't like to accept the fact that there dog breed was originally designed for a certain task and has a natural predisposition to perform it. I agree no dog should be judged at face value when dealing with it on any longterm basis but when it comes to short term meetings and playing it seems silly to ignore any possible clues that might lead to problems, and unfortunately to me that does include the breed. ive been doing a little research and, for example if i knew of an area were a Tosa Inu was walked i would stay away. Like wise i know my dog likes to heard small running things so i don't let him off lead anywhere he might come in contact with children. But there has been some really helpful points made hear. I will continue to research dog body language and how to avoid confrontation. The idea of keeping the pup on the lead when new dogs are in the area seems sensible.

maybe i should have made a thread along the lines of "types of dog owners to avoid" unfortunately its pretty hard to know how they raised there dog untill its a bit late

unfortunately i can relate, it looks like all you can really do is keep a good eye out and make sure you avoid any situation that could turn bad. i'll be keeping my pup away from off leash areas as owners simply won't accept responsibility for what their dog may do or take any action to prevent it.

I know most dogs regardless of breeds are no problem at all and i would never make a judgement based on breed when it came to owning or caring for a dog. i'm just aware that some breeds have certain instincts that have been bred in and are more likley then others to cause problems and i'm just looking for a way of working out how to be as safe as possible. and lets be honest a badly trained beagle is'nt going to cause as many problems as a badly trained bull breed.