Cassiepeia

Clicker training is wonderful. :p I just wanted to add...don't count your old girl out. Before he passed away my 17yr old Chihuahua who had a severe heart murmur, was going blind and had dementia took to the clicker and learned three commands quite quickly (touch, sit and stand - he knew sit but wasn't reliable before). Old (even ancient) dogs can learn new tricks and the clicker makes it much easier for them to understand what you're asking. So give it a go with her, don't expect her to be as quick as the youngin's though. Cass.

Last Tuesday my dear sweet Chihuahua, Jesse James, passed away. He was my everything and my life now has a gaping hole in it. He will never be forgotten and I miss him desperately. I've had him cremated and should get his ashes back tomorrow or Thursday. I'm not sure how I'm going to cope with that. I still feel like he's just at the vet and will be back, running around and bossing me about, any day now. Goodbye Sweet Jesse. You'll always be my boy. I made a video tribute for him. Hope you all like it. I know none of you really knew much about him, but I realised I hadn't mentioned anything about his passing and felt that maybe you would like to know anyway. Cass.

Jesse James (Chihuahua - 2.14kg) gets about 1/2 cup of Natures Gift (canned) a day (split into two meals). So that's about 3 1/2 cups a week. Wow...big eater. Cass.

I found this great site about dog foods http://www.dogfoodproject.com/ . Natural Balance seems to have rice as the first ingredient and corn gluten meal as the third (and tallow as a fourth), I personally wouldn't include that as a premium food. Great Barko looks good, I don't know where I could find that though. I was going to get Eagle Pack Holistic for my sister's dog. Cass.

I'd heard the opposite, that it's not very digestable, and that one of the most common food allergies dogs have is to corn. I'm confused now. LOL Cass.

Sorry to disrupt the flow of the thread, but I'm curious why some of you include Eukanuba & Purina ProPlan... as 'premium' foods. Everything I've heard about them is that they are two of the worst foods you could possibly feed. Both having whole grain Corn, Corn meal or Corn gluten meal as one of the biggest ingredients. Surely the addition of corn removes them from the premium list? Cass.

Thankyou so much everyone. I never realised that a bag of premium would last that long. If you're right (and I don't doubt you at all) that might just prove to be the deciding factor for them buying better food. I think I'll go ahead and buy them a bag of the good stuff (what ever is easier for them to get a hold of where they are) and make sure they know how to introduce it to Bexley and how much to feed her. I'm seeing them in a couple of weeks and then again at xmas so maybe I'll get a second bag and bring it up at xmas too. ;) No excuses for them after that. lol Cheers guys & gals! You really helped me out, I was just about to give up on them. Oh and I've told them repeatedly how bad the food they feed her is....they don't listen though. I'll never understand these 'non-doggy' people. Hope the change in her (the dog) proves my point though. Cass.

I've been trying for years to stop my mother and sister feeding my sister's dog (a silky terrier) 'junk' dog food. Her coat is awful, she's got obvious allergies and over all she's just not doing well on the rubbish they feed her (pedigree, my dog, meaty bites etc...). The problem I have is that premium dog foods are so unbelievably expensive it's not possible to switch her to anything great. ;) The only food I would even think about feeding a dog, that you can buy at a supermarket, is Nature's Gift, but only the canned variety. However Bexley (my sister's dog) eats a mix of dry and canned so I need a good dry food. I wanted to give them at least a couple of weeks worth of something good and affordable so they can see the difference in her...but I can't find anything even close to reasonable (price wise). The price is a huge issue because they won't continue if it's easier just to nip down to the supermarket and buy some cheap crap. I guessed that perhaps the prices are so high because the foods are imported? Would that be right? Are there any local brands worth trying? Or maybe there is somewhere that sells food (Eagle Pack Holistic, Advance, Innova etc..) cheaper? The only place I can find near them that stocks anything decent is PetStock and like I said...prices (according to the website at least) = way too high. BARF diet, sadly, is out because neither my mother or sister are 'dog people' and I know they wouldn't be bothered preparing it (I live 5hrs south of them so can't do it for them). I'm completely stuck. Any advice about brands or where to buy would be greatly appreciated. ;) Cass.