dididog

Looks like he has already settled in nicely! I'm so glad he's found himself a nice home, I was so sad every time I checked and he was still listed for adoption, he looks like such a sweetie and I'm sure he'll have a great life with you :)

He doesn't happen to be from furever friends does he? If so I saw him when I was looking around for my own puppy and thought he was such a lovely boofa! I'm so glad he found a lovely home with you :)

That's a shame Thanks for trying though!

Didi is 7 months old and 33kg (and the best puppy in the world) :) Went for a little mosy on a nature walk after days of rain (lots of mud for the puppy) Looking all regal and dignified And not so regal and dignified... Her classic guilt trip face whenever I'm about to leave her Snuggly puppy really loves my Dad... probably more than she loves me :laugh: And here are some full body shots :) .... and yes I've given up on those ears :laugh:

Originally posted in Great Dane thread but might get more feedback here. I have a bit of a question about calcium-phosphorus ratios. After some recommendation from DOL I had been feeding Didi Canidae All Life Stages since she was about 14/15 weeks (she is 7 months now) and she had been doing very well on it. She has though in the last month or so started to get very itchy, to the point her coat was getting a bit patchy and I had suspected perhaps a grain allergy. So when we went to buy her food last weekend and they had run out of her food but had Canidae's grain free variety (pure sky) we decided to try it out. She's been on it a week now and there's been a HUGE change to her itching in that the frequency and intensity has dropped off heaps and her poos are much much nicer . I completely forgot to check the ratio on the new food and I just did and it is 1:8:1 and I'm aware it should be more like 1:2:1 or 1:3:1 so I'm a bit worried about that. So question is I'd really like to keep going with this food as she's improved so much in a short time but I'd like to know if there's something I can add to her diet to make up for the imbalance? Or should it be alright as long as it is not causing her to grow rapidly as to my understanding this was the main reason why the ratio is so important; to grow them slow. On All Life Stages we'd made a gradual transition from puppy amounts (5-6 cups spread over 3 meals) to 4 and a bit cups spread over two meals just recently. This new food is a bit richer so she gets 3 and a bit to 4 cups a day (depending on if she's had lots of treats or particularly large/meaty bone). She also normally has a bone for lunch. Generally lamb's neck or various legs bones which don't have that much meat on them, or a chicken carcass, she doesn't do well on beef protein. I knew there was something important I was supposed to double check on the back of the bag but the calc:phos ratio skipped my mind!!

Oh wow that's a big change... at least you'll have less white hairs floating around. Well probably doesn't make that much of a difference since you already have Esky :laugh:

He's so handsome Esky! And big! Didi also just turned 7 months, she's only 33kg though. Is it just me or have his spots become more distinct recently?

Yay good Vinnie! Didi surprised me a couple of weeks ago, I had to leave her for the day and it was horrid weather outside so I decided to wing it and leave her inside.... came home to only a tissue pulled out of the bin!

Thanks Raineth, I'll let you know how it goes :)

It's also meant to be 20 and sunny !! How many more dogs do you need?

Behavioural interrupter's work very well. I noticed you spoke about your 'leave it' command being pretty good. You could always build it up to be used in this situation. For instance, right now it sounds like she understands it very well when it comes to sniffing, but I think you could do with building it up a bit before using it on birds, which sound like they are a much higher level of distraction for her. Does she like toys? You can practice 'leave it' with a toy she likes, when she turns away from it have a big party with her using another toy that you've had hidden on you. Because what she likes about birds is chasing them (I assume) it's probably a good idea for your reward for leaving them to be an exciting high-energy game, rather than just a treat for example. You could still incorporate treats into it though. All I'm saying is that if she wants to go after the birds because they are fun, show her that she can have fun with you instead :) Ofcourse when you start practicing on real birds, try and make it easy by not being too close, but you've probably figured that already :) Thanks Raineth. Didi loves toys, she is more obsessed with food but she gets more excited about toys so I think I'll try it out and try strengthening her 'leave it' to cover super fun things like birds... in the mean time I'm going to be super vigilant to avoid getting my arm yanked out of its socket :laugh:

Yay so happy you're finally getting your Dane puppy :) He's super cute, those little white paws are adorable!

She is gorgeous! Even covered in mud hehe

Just when you thought he couldn't be anymore horrible On some trees he sets the dog up for failure as he pulls away to the side at the last minute the poor dog could've gotten badly hurt

As a 17 year old girl I don't really feel comfortable knocking on a stranger's door and possibly getting into a confrontational situation... it's not like the owner's will tell me if they are doing anything wrong. I posted on here as I have never been in this position before and was unsure what was the best thing to do or what I could do about the situation and now I know. I'm quite happy to drop the topic and plan to report the no water incident so at least there's record of it somewhere and hope for the dog's sake I am completely misinterpreting the situation.

Nope no side gate, in fact I think it's only semi-detached and a fence right up against the other side. I can take a picture tomorrow so you can see what the yard looks like, it's very bare with a shrub, some dirt and cement. I don't feel comfortable entering their yard, I know how pissed off I would be if somebody came into my yard to do something to do my dog without me knowing (not that I leave my dog in the front where you could do that). If I ever go past and there is no water I will come back and give him some but anything else would be over stepping the bounds for me.

This. My dog would rather sit in the rain sometimes than in front of the heater, if someone looked over the fence he probably would look like I'd chucked him out. Reality is, he would rather be there than under the carport or inside. I don't feel like walking by once, even twice and seeing him out the front is cause for alarm. He looks pretty well groomed and cared for going by that photo. Seems happy and social enough, I must be missing something. It's not once or twice... it's most times I go past his house and I go past often and infrequently enough that it'd be a pretty big coincidence that he's just been put outside for a toilet run every time I've gone past and seen him but I've never said I know definitely what's going on and I can only speculate... hence why I haven't done anything formal about it. I know some dogs prefer the rain or don't like kennels but I'm sure if you left most dogs outside all day in the rain there would come a point where they would want to dry off or warm up and this dog hasn't got that option. Just as easily as this dog could enjoy sitting in the rain (which I doubt since when I went past during the rain he was curled up in the only dry looking bit of cement) he could also not and if he is outside all day with no way to stay dry if he so decides to then I don't think that's very fair. There could be absolutely nothing wrong and he doesn't seem badly neglected and is always happy to see me but I do find it troubling that there is a possibility there might be something wrong and I'm not doing anything about it. Anyway I'm not going to do anything until I know more or have concrete proof, I bumped into the neighbour once, maybe I'll try asking him if I ever see him again what he knows about the dog. At the end of the day if the owners get checked out and there is nothing wrong then no harm done... if the owner's never get checked out and there is actually something wrong this dog has nobody to help him.

this image is haunting..... I am certainly not averse to corrections/discipline ... but this is just awful ..and I have seen it when I have caught feral dogs , when they were , in their minds, fighting for their lives. I would hate any dog of mine to feel that way because of what I was doing ..... that sounds like a blind panic/terror to me. Can't you see it's actually just the dog's manipulative way of dominating you??? [sarcasm] Scary to know borderline abuse is being promoted as 'helping a dog' to those who don't know better.... in 40+ countries around the world no less.

Didi has a cute weatherbeeta on the way so come Tuesday she'll no longer have to sport my daggy old jumpers don't know how long the 70cm will fit her seeing as her back's already 63ish

Done! I love surveys/any excuse to talk about my dog at length

That's true, in the photo the lighter bits on his face look a little less grey but now that you've mentioned it that could just be his colouring. I assumed he was older though by his demeanor very mellow and no barking (which I find unusual for dogs that see people walk past), slow on his feet and when he got up from lying down it was a bit of a process. He also seemed a bit deaf one day when I walked past, didn't notice me standing there even though I called to him until he turned around and saw me. To be honest I don't even know if he's a boy since he has long hair I can't really see anything, it'd be a bit weird if I just let myself into his front yard to check his bits! So should I report to Rspca now or wait till it happens again and I have photographic proof?

Went past today and he wasn't there. It's frustrating because they don't leave him outside all the time, if he was kept outside all the time like that I would have done something by now but because it's kind of hit and miss (maybe 70% of the time i go past he is there) it makes it much harder to know what's actually happening/what his living arrangements are. I just hope when he isn't out the front that means he is inside, not just out the back instead with equally poor conditions.

Under low distraction (around the house/quiet walk) if I just feel like getting her to look at me/having her full attention she will do so when I say her name as I've tried builing a strong link with name=mum wants my attention for something. If she is distracted though I've been working on LAT so when I see her look at something (not necessarily something she's reactive to but just something that's caught her eye and might lead to her getting distracted/excited) then I'll I generally say her name rather than look so I don't think I'm really doing LAT right :/ I use look more for when I want eye contact preceding a command for example I am trying to get her into the habit of stopping and sitting every time we have to cross a road and even though she'll generally sit if I just say the word I prefer eye contact when I give the command so I will say 'look' before I give the sit command or when I'm at obedience training and we are about to start going through a command. I also have a 'leave it' command that is relatively solid if we are walking and she stops to sniff when I don't want her to/when it's poo or something dead or if we are at the park and a dog comes up to say hi but I want to keep walking I also use 'leave it'. SO long story short I don't think I really have a solid behavior interrupter except perhaps a loud 'NO' which I use if she gets too hyped up in play and starts mouthing or if she tries to get too close to something I am eating or if she's barking. It works most of the time but if the behavior is really self rewarding like chasing the birds it's not that effective.

I just got back from a walk and had a similar problem I'm really happy where Didi's loose leash walking is at the moment, normally by my side and if she ever hits the end of her leash she'll slow down or come closer to me and is responsive to my corrections. The only problem that is really bad is birds, if we see one on a walk she will lunge at them with full force and try to chase. At the moment I can hold on but only just. She's so strong and will only get stronger as she's only 7 months old at the moment so I'm getting really worried about it. She also has no road sense and I'm worried if she lunges and I drop the leash she might chase the birds onto the road. I can handle the situation if I see the birds before hand, I stop and ask her to look at me and reward her as we walk past but if I don't notice the bird first I can't get her to snap out of it until the bird has flown away. I'm trying to eliminate the problem while I'm still able to handle her weight but I'm not sure what I can do once she has seen and fixated on the bird... any ideas?