Willem

...an update: we did a longer beach walk on Sunday together with 2 other families and their dogs (the other 2 dogs are just a few month older than our dog), most of the time off leash. They ran and played for nearly 2 hours and had a ball. They must have covered 10 times the distance we walked by chasing each other across the beach. She behaved really good (no aggression at all, gentle to the other kids), and I could recognize that she was much more careful (more matured, more "normal") when off leash and approaching other dogs we met along the way. I tried a few recalls ...actually pretty good, not perfect, but pretty good. This evening I will do some 'trigger zone training' when walking her, let's see how we go, but overall I can recognize a lot of progress in a very short time (I started this thread just 2 weeks ago)...

I think your are right ... I found this: bone broth ...so it seems that time is the key...

...they mention on the webpage that it takes up to 36 hours ... so that is linked also to some costs and I think they wouldn't do it if it wouldn't have a positive impact?...but who knows? ...

na, she digs because she want's to hide her bone, or just play with the grass (she likes to throw a hassock in the air just to chase it :laugh:) , chasing some worms, beetles ...IMO it is pretty normal for a dog to dig. She is indeed very energetic and playful, but even if we would walk her 3 times a day she would have some energy left for some fancy games :D ...

I wonder why 'slow-roasted' bones shouldn't cause a risk as stated here: Slow-Roasted Beef Bones ???? any "Master Chef" around who can explain why this slow roasting is different than normal cooking / BBQ?

they are not built like horses ...no, but still they are meant to carry some weight from time to time; think about wild dogs, wolves etc. that have to carry quite heavy prey over significant distances to feed the young ones... and they even don't have the luxury of a fancy sattle backpack :laugh: ... ...even Cesar Millan encourages it (ok... business for him...): Cesar Millan Dog backpack. She is a healthy dog, full of energy, the parents are working dogs - I can't see that she would have any trouble of carrying some weight (as long as it is not overdone). wrt cheap or not cheap backpack: a backpack can be pretty expensive (and that can be justified by the material, overall quality and finish), however, if it doesn't fit it is not better than a cheap one. There is a review on the Ruffwear website from a BC owner who had problems to find the right size (S too small, M too large), so expensive doesn't mean automatically better. A cheaper one that fits properly - but falls apart after a few trips - can be better than an expensive one that doesn't fit...

...are they cheaper :laugh: ?

I thought about it ...but the Palisades cost even AU$ 100 more (AU$ 240 incl. shipping from Waggle) - I have to sell my camper trailer to afford this :D ...

...just noticed ...25% x 17 kg ....that's 4.25 kg ...so it is even a little bit more than the 3.4 kg I mentioned in the starting thread; yes, I'm aware that I have to increase the weight slowly, that's another reason for trying a cheap one first...she might not like it at all. I saw a few other brands on Amazon, e.g. this one Pettom...cheaper than the Ruffwear Approach, but some nice features, but they don't ship to down under....

I'm planning some trekking tours and thought about letting the dog carry her own water, food etc...I hope some forum members can give me some advice regards: I read somewhere that the load shouldn't exceed more than 25% of the dog's weight? ...she has approx. 17 kg now, so that would be 3.4 kg max (with backpack); that's enough for approx. 1.5 l water, food for 2-3 days, treats... suitable backpacks: ...from AU$ 19 incl. shipping on eBay to AU$ 140 (from Waggle, incl. shipping) for a Ruffwear Approach - that's a pretty steep price variation. I read the reviews on the Ruffwear website and while the quality is obviously far superior to the ones offered on Ebay, some BC's owners who bought the Approach mentioned that they had problems to find the right size for their BCs (S too small, M too big). Has anyone (preferable BC owners) experience with the Ruffear Approach? I guess I try a cheapo from Ebay first and see how I goe, if it fails the worst case is that I have to carry 2-3 kg more (sound not much, but I recall cursing every gram in my backpack when I did some trekking in the Peruvian Andes).

our garden isn't so big and the dogs likes digging (from time to time), hence the lawn needs a lot of TLC and fresh seeds to keep looking like a lawn. The problem I had was when repairing the patches using new grass seeds I had to wait nearly 2 weeks before I could mow it again as otherwise I would have 'vacuumed' the fresh seeds... Now I saw that ALDI had this manual old fashion lawn mowers (AU$ 59) and I thought I give it ago. I was concerned about having to push it, but actually it is harder to push our old petrol lawn mower (alone starting it is a PIA) than this manual one - it works actually like a dream. It doesn't vacuum the fresh seeds, it is easy to push, the clippings are a clean cut and perfect for the guinea pigs, it's light weight and follows perfectly each slope - I like it !

Thanks a lot. I guess in my case there are more benefits from feeding bones from time to time than downsides. She is always chewing, and I never found bigger bone particles in her poo so it seems the risk that she swallows a bigger chunky piece is minimal. 2-3 bones a week, not cooked!!!!...and under supervision...should be ok. Without feeding her bones she will start again nibbling on wood (that might be treated) or even chewing on stones or whatever she finds in the garden or in the house.

I'm always a little bit earlier and walk her over the area, do the drop...stay game etc. while other dogs are there, but outside her trigger zone. During these walks she behaves pretty good. However, during the agility training the obstacles are so close and it is unavoidable that other dogs enter her trigger zone, plus she gets pumped full with adrenalin and so on...ah well, it is not so bad...she is just 10 month old.... actually, when doing the recall training before and after the sessions she is doing really good.

while I was working in the study the dog came in... I heard her chewing on something, she didn't get a bone the last 2 days so I checked what it was ... it was a stone! ... so it looks like if I don't feed her bones from time to time she will ruin her teeth by chewing on stones!

the agility training on Wednesday was 'exhausting' (for me :D , not for the dog, there are just too many dogs around which makes it pretty hard for me to keep focus on her all the time :laugh: )...but during the normal walks she starts behaving much better....sometimes she even drops now without command when she sees another dog in the distance. wrt the clicker training: conversely to the agility training this is so easy to do and stress free. I train her in front of the house, where bikes and car passes and people walk by. She doesn't run of, just looks at them ...click and focus is back on me and she gets the treat (changed also the treats to make it harder for here to resist). However, if someone passes with a dog it is still a challenge, but also here the distance that triggers her gets smaller and smaller. When you think about it: this is really a very tricky training where you can influence the dogs behaviour and response to a trigger independently from the strength of the trigger.... a little bit like a brain wash without torture :D ...

that reminds me of the challenges with my own dog "How to get her focus..." ...I guess with this gap to the earlier training you just have to start from scratch, and 5 weeks training is a very, very short time - you just need to be persistent...the advise other forum members made in the linked thread seem to work for my dog; while it might be a bigger challenge with an older dog that is distracted by everything, the suggested approaches should still work. Good luck ... just keep on going....

Thanks a lot guys, that's the information I'm looking for. @ Haredown Whippets:...could you recognize any abnormal wear and tear wrt teeth? ... 18 years of experience is a very long time... @ denali: I guess you can overload a dog's digestion system with any kind of food if you feed too much, so this case might not really bone related. Working in a vet clinic: can you find out whether there have been other incidents your colleagues are aware of where a dog needed surgery due to bones?

bones or no bones? ...there are thousands and thousands of opinions whether dogs should be fed with bones or not...and I'm a little bit confused now. Our BC loves chewing on a bone, and since we feed her regularly with bones she also stopped nibbling on doors, door frames etc...plus IMO it calms her down and burns some 'nervous' energy. Other positive side effects: the poo is firmer - I assume not only due to the bone, but also due to triggering enzymes that improves digestions when chewing on a bone (digestion starts in the mouth my grandpa told me :D ). Now the risks mention by (some) vets, experts, dog owners and others who have an opinion about the topic are: tooth damage splinters causing internal injuries gastrointestinal obstruction (blockage in the digestive tract) diarrhea choking to name a few. Obviously everyone has his own recipe and experience, but what works for one or one breed might not work for another dog owner / an other breed. Hence, to allow me to get a better picture about the risks, I would like to know about cases, where bones indeed caused injuries or even death of a dog including information about what type of bones were fed that caused it, dog breed, age, was a vet involved, etc etc.... Thanks in advance.

I'm not so sure whether it is predatory or not either - that's why the female guinea pigs not allowed anymore to roam the garden freely (before we had the dog we just let them run around). No matter whether it is predatory or herding, at least it keeps her entertained, so while the kids are not interested in the guinea pigs anymore we keep them for the dog :) . wrt trainable: she learns indeed pretty easily - she is now more or less 'point and shoot' during the agility training (as long as she isn't distracted): I point to an obstacle and she just does it, at home she even weaves through the poles I put up in the garden nearly independently - this evening club agility training is on, let's see how she goes. @ Mrs Rusty Bucket: the threshold is getting better and better, only the last 5-10 meters are still critical. For any longer distance most of the time she follows the commands, e.g. drop and stay...so there is progress.

surprise, surprise, 2 hours ago our 10 month old, submissive, playful 'little' puppy showed a total different behavior: this morning we found 2 dogs from the neighborhood in our garden, their owner might have just let them out (I won't comment on this - I blame myself that I didn't check the door and gate yesterday to make sure they were properly closed and that the storm we had this night couldn't open them, so maybe exactly the same happend to the other dog owner). I went to the garden to find out what happend and to get them out of our garden, our BC - she was in the house - came with me. When she saw the other dogs, her hair stood up and she started chasing the other dogs, not playful, but very aggressively - wow, was this our little puppy?... I had to get her back into the house to get control of the situation. Now I ask myself was this just territorial or was it her herding instinct as the other dogs threatened 'her' guinea pigs? ...we have 2 compounds for the guinea pigs (1 for the male, 1 for the females) in our garden and she takes 'herding' them very serious: she spends a lot of time just watching them, circles around the compounds, and every time we feed them she becomes excited and has to watch closely what we doing.

you can't have too many... :) ....if they don't get enough food ("too many worms"), some of them die and the other feed on them..., and yes, they are good for freshwater fishing too.

we have one of the round worm farms with 3 trays - only the kitchen waste goes in this one. I recall reading this warning too when we got it - not sure whether the vendors of those worm farms also warn of the negative health side effects if you ad dog / cat manure to the worm farm and would use the final compost / manure on your veggie bed? our normal compost bin takes all the garden waste, but it is also based on worms and is not thermophilic - the grass clippings on top might cause some time a thermophilic digestion, but it won't heat up the whole compost bin to kill all the pathogens - I guess the worms will just move to lower and cooler layers and will come back when the thermophilic reaction is finished. I also read that red worms actually also reduce pathogens. Based on my 'compost experience' I can say that as long as the worms are happy and thriving there is never an odor issue - the problem really starts if something kills them....that's why it would be good to have more data about the impact of all the deworming drugs on compost worms, but all the information I found so far are more or less general warnings.

...I guess the wood shavings do the trick here and prevents the odor ... I tried to find more 'scientific data' about the impact of deworming drugs on compost worms, but it looks like there is not much information out there; here some interesting reading: My link. I guess a lot depends on the specific deworming chemical - we started now using interceptor (milbemycin oxime and praziquantel) and after the dog was fed with the tablet I started to add the poo to the composter after discharging 3-4 poos to the normal waste bin. I couldn't recognize any negative impact on the worm activity, but the period might be too short.... might be time for some serious tests to see how the worms cope with dog poo fresh from a dewormed dog :D .

Picking up the poo in bags and throwing the bags in the garbage bin was just a mess and very smelly, hence I started with a dog poo composter. We already have a normal compost bin and one of these worm farms - works well for all the kitchen scraps (worm farm) and garden waste (normal compost). For the dog poo I use one of these 60 l (?) willow bins (we have a few of them - I think we got them from Bunnings?)... didn't bother to drill holes in the bottom and / or buried it half in the ground as recommended somewhere else. I just put some old compost as a starter in it and make sure that the lid is on all the time so it can't dry out or get flooded if there is a heavy rain. I was skeptical whether the worms would thrive in this conditions, but they actually doing very well. If there is a lot of poo I just cover it with a little bit finished compost from the normal compost bin. That accelerates breaking down the poo and also contains the smell from the fresh poo - if the lid is on I can't smell any poo even if I stay beside the bin (I have a very sensitive nose); I'm surprised how good this cheap setup works. The advantage with the willow bin is that once it's full I can move it in a corner where I leave it for a few month till everything is broken down and digested, and just start with another bin. I'm aware that I shouldn't use the finish compost for the veggie bed due to potential health risks caused by parasites that might be still alive in the compost, but there are other places in the garden that will benefit from this manure....and no smelly garbage bin anymore ! The poo 1-2 days after the dog gets a deworming tablet still goes into the normal garbage bin to keep the worms in the dog poo composter happy and alive, but that's manageable. Overall composting the dog poo seems to be a very good solution for smaller gardens respectively gardens that require to pick up the dog poo; if you thought about it, but concerns about potential odor and mess held you back: go for it - IMO it is actually much more hygienic than throwing poo bags in the garbage bin where they get pierced causing server odor issues.

I guess the brachycephalic ones are the ones that suffer most and walking them in heat could be fatal - for other breeds the threshold is much higher - also here I guess taking enough water with you when on a longer walk is a must. At the moment we have 34 deg C outside and I can recognize that our BC (short-haired) is significantly less energetic...he might be still keen to go for a walk - but it's too hot for me :D .