Staranais

Chicken necks are pretty low in calories, if the skin isn't on them (which it usually isn't). If he can tolerate necks, he could possibly tolerate chicken wings instead, which are much higher in calories than necks due to the skin and the fat in the wing tips? I guess it depends exactly what it is that he's allergic/intolerant to. Chicken backs or carcasses would be higher in calories than necks too, if there's still some skin left on the back when they are fed. Canned fish, lamb flaps, fatty cuts of muscle meat, and lamb hearts are other raw foods that are reasonably high in kJ too, but depends if he can tolerate them?

I think she means that dad was 75% Staffy & 25% RR. Agree with previous posters that you can't expect the pup to fall in the middle of the two weights, though I can see why you're interested in having both breed charts - I'd probably want to do the same if I had pup from two breeds.

I never used to go to obedience in the rain, but I had the perfect excuse - my dog shut down and refused to work in the rain! My new pup doesn't seem to be worried by the rain she's encountered so far, so I may not have that excuse this time round... I also don't think I'd go to agility in the wet though - wouldn't working on the slippery equipment risk injury, or at best just teach the dogs to run slowly and cautiously?

I'm very sorry to hear about your boy, Lawrencefamily. I too would suggest a second opinion if there is any doubt in your mind - not that I think the vet is wrong with the diagnosis, just so you never have any lingering doubts when it's too late to check them out. As to whether the vet was wrong or right, who can say? Perhaps the vet "should" have discovered the tumour earlier, but it's also possible that the best vet in the world would have made the same (unfortunately incorrect) call of MMM from the initial information available. I don't think anyone on the forum has the inside knowledge (and few have the qualifications) to make the call on whether the vet was right or wrong to diagnose MMM initially. I guess you could complain to the AVA if you wanted. I don't see anything wrong with that - if the vet acted reasonably then they will be easily able to defend their actions to their fellow vets, and they won't get in trouble with the AVA. In either case, I hope the vet has expressed their sorrow to you, Lawrencefamily. They did make a mistake, even though it may have been an unavoidable one, and if they're a good vet they will probably be feeling rather stink about both the misdiagnosis and the very sad outcome of your dog's illness.

I played wrestle with my last dog, he seemed to love the physical contact and the gentle rough-housing. He was very good at mouthing me very lightly on the arms and hands, and seemed to understand the rules of the game very clearly. He never attempted to snap, snarl, dominate me, or apply heavy pressure. He also was a very handler soft dog - on the few occasions over the years that he mouthed me uncomfortably hard, a yelp from me were enough to stop him on the spot instantly and make him very much softer with his mouth in the following sessions. He never put his mouth on me outside wrestling sessions, and stopped happily and immediately when I signalled to him that the game was over. I would definitely never have allowed him to play this with anyone beside myself (I didn't actually allow him to play anything much with anyone besides myself - he knew very well that he was expected to be on "good manners" with everyone else besides me). I don't think I'd want to play this type of game with a dog that was snappy, that tended to get too hyped up by things, or that didn't already have great manners with strangers. So if I owned your dog, Corvus, I don't think I'd wrestle with her. No offence to your dog - I probably won't wrestle with my new dog, either. Lots of other things you can do to bond with your dog, though. Playing hide and seek in the house, playing find the hidden treat or toy, playing tug with a toy, retrieving a toy, shaping new tricks with a clicker, ripping up newspapers or old cardboard boxes together, etc.

I don't see anything wrong with feeding a minced diet to younger puppies. Wolf pups spend the first few months after weaning eating regurgitated (= naturally minced) food provided by their parents, so you're not exactly doing anything "unnatural" by feeding your pup a minced diet. However, I'd personally want to start introducing real RMB as soon as they start getting their adult teeth, unless you're planning on brushing your dogs' teeth every day to stop plaque building up. Not sure how old your pups are.

Really? That's ridiculous. I mean I'd understand (not agree, but understand) them barring you from membership for promoting the PP collar f if they were a purely positive-type organisation. But they allow members to use choke and head collars! I've got no problem with head collars as long as they're being used sensibly and sensitively, but I don't like seeing them promoted as a "just stick them on the dog and go for a walk" tool, as many trainers and organisations seem to do.

That vet has an ego by the sounds of things. Or perhaps is just embarrassed or upset with herself? I'd be disappointed if I lost a client like that too, not from ego, just annoyed with myself for making the mistake! I do agree that you have nothing to be ashamed of, if you aren't comfortable with your current vet you should definitely move. It was actually a nice thing that you told her why you were changing vets IMO, as now she knows why she lost a client.

I'd never want to use a checkchain or halti on a puppy, I just don't think it's usually necessary. Different story if you have an adult who is already a confirmed puller, in that case some sort of collar can make learning to walk nicely less stressful for both handler and dog. But not with a puppy. I inherited a very determined puller last time I adopted a dog, it was a real effort to retrain him, so I hope to teach my new pup from the very start that pulling is pointless. If pulling never works for her, she'll hopefully not ever want to do it.

I've done my own research (cos I'm paranoid!) and from what I can find, most prey animals are around about 10% bone. Big heavy animals have a little more bone, but then again wolves or wild dogs don't always eat all of their big weight bearing bones, so I figure that probably evens out at around 10%? Some dogs seem to cope with a lot more bone than that in the diet, adult dogs are pretty good at excreting Ca that they don't need. I wouldn't want to feed any less than 10% bone though, especially not to a puppy. I try to give my cats, and have given my dog, 10 - 15% bone in their diet - the way I feed, that means that 30% of the diet is chicken necks or backs.

If you're feeding prey model, they should get about 10% bone in their diet. Chicken necks are about 1/3 bone, chicken backs are 40 - 50% bone. Not sure how much is in chicken wings or legs. Dogs need bone for the Ca and P content. Depriving dogs of Ca and P is far more serious in young puppies, but still can have long term issues in adult dogs.

Or if pup was exposed to parvovirus right after he's received the vaccine, before the vaccine has a chance to be effective. Or if pup was already asymptomatically incubating the virus when he was vaccinated. Vaccines improve your odds of your pup not getting parvo, but even if you vaccinate appropriately, there's unfortunately no 100% guarantee. But I can say that the vast majority of parvo cases we see at the teaching clinic here are unvaccinated puppies (poor little things!).

You could consider teaching her to ignore commands from other people when she's working for you?

I agree with anneik, from what I understand ultrasound is better than radiograph for diagnosing the underlying cause of a heart murmurs, though your local vet may not have one which may be why he suggested the radiograph? If it was my dog I'd prefer to have both an ultrasound and a 2nd opinion before starting him on drugs.

Poor baby - that does sound like a bad reaction. Which vaccine was it, just out of interest? I'd keep him hydrated (encourage him to drink), keep him warm, and feed him bland food. Probably not a lot the vet can do to help him at this point, but if he doesn't get better in a day or so, I'd take him back in.

I think you've maybe got your operant conditioning terms a little mixed up, here is a link to help you sort them out: http://www.wagntrain.com/OC/ I'm guessing that you actually want a book based on positive punishment? Koehler includes a lot of positive punishment in the form of check chain work, though I don't know if I'd say his method was actually based on punishment (e.g he tended to initially teach most exercises by using physical placement of the dog, praise and simple repetition). But if noone has any better suggestions, I guess I'd look for the Koehler Method of Dog Training at the local library.

I'm a member of a yahoo group with some great agility plans ("agility-equipment"), haven't tried any yet but do plan to do so at some point! In the past I've also used plastic plumbing pipe stuck into the ground as make shift weave poles, seemed to work ok, but then my dog didn't weave all that fast either.

Do you have the details of that? I'd love to go and look it up.

Spaying does make urinary incontinence much more common in bitches, especially if it's a very early spay (one paper I recently read estimated that bitches spayed under 3 months old had a 12% chance of suffering from urinary incontinence in the following 6 years, whereas bitches spayed after 3 months old only had a 5% change, and entire females had only about 0.25% chance). But waiting till after the bitch has her first season gives her a much higher chance of developing a malignant mammary cancer, and that risk becomes higher still if you wait till after the second season. So it's a trade off. No easy answers, sorry! If I had a female pup that I wanted spayed, I personally would wait till she was around 5 months old (or until a month or so before I expected her to come into heat) to do it. Other people will have other opinions about when it should be done. How old is Tilba?

If she's not big on raw chicken necks or frames, have you considered trying big chewy chunks of beef heart a few times a week, Teebs? Or lamb neck chops (chop the meat partially off the bone and let your kitty knaw it the rest of the way off)? My kitties love all of those dinner options, & I reckon chewy meat is just as important in bone in keeping cats' teeth in good order. Sorry if it's OT, and sorry if I'm telling you something you already know.

Haven't tried it, I saw it at the petshop a few weeks ago and had a look, though. Pretty pictures of wild animals on the packet, but it seemed outrageously expensive for a grain and potato based food!

You mean vets don't need to see a clean ear, right? Harder to tell what's going on if someone's already cleaned away the gunk.

If it is chicken frames the mince is made out of, rather than whole raw chickens, then I would personally probably also chuck in some organ (primarily liver) once a week or so. Maybe some red meat or heart as well. Liver is supposed to be about 5% of a raw diet I believe. It has lots of good vitamins and minerals that aren't present in chicken frames, and which may not be sufficient in a half serve of kibble. Don't forget you can also chuck in eggs (raw or cooked), canned or fresh fish, unsweetened yoghurt, cooked or minced veges etc occasionally. Variety is good, and those things are all good additions to dog tucker.

Well that's what we call it over this side of the ditch anyway.

Agree with Cosmolo - tiny baby steps at first! I'd start off by calling her to heel, if she is in good position, click, release, big excited reward for her, then just take a break. Rinse and repeat a little bit later. You want to leave her keen to heel again, rather than getting sick of it and losing focus. If she is consistently in the wrong heel position, I would probably help her there at first by guiding with a leash, or asking her to target your hand with her nose, etc. Like Nehkbet has said, it's not fair to just keep telling her 'Volvo, volvo' if she doesn't know what it means, it will just frustrate her or confuse her. You have to explain to her what you do want before you start telling her she's wrong. But when she is getting to heel position by herself at least some of the time, then introducing the NRM can help her really start to understand the subtle distinction between a precise heel position and a not-quite-good-enough-heel position. So after a few sessions when she's getting it right some of the time, then if you call her to heel and she's in the wrong position, you can start giving your NRM and immediately stepping away (so she realises the NRM means that the exercise has restarted), and ask her for a heel again. Hope that makes sense? I think there are probably about as many different ways to teach heel as there are obedience triallers, but if we all tell you how we'd do it, I guess you can make up your own method. "Doodling" can help too. That involves silly short little heeling patterns (that you'd never see in the ring) such as taking a step backwards, a few steps sideways, a pivot in place, etc. Dogs that can doodle well really do understand heeling, IMO.