Staranais

Me too!

Yup, adoptions can't always work out, better that she comes back to you so you can find her a more suitable home. It just sounds like the wrong dog for them - I hope they find a dog that suits them better, and I hope your girl finds a better match too.

Dogs do need some salt, but I don't think they need as much of it as is in a lot of commercial foods. Salt makes things taste good. Apparently the number one predictor of whether your average owner will buy a pet food again is how palatable the pet finds it (fluffy likes it, it must be good!) So lots of pet food companies spend lots of money trying to design the most palatable pet food possible - which means flavourings, salt, sugar (!), and fat sprayed on the outside of the kibble after baking. Just like human processed foods I guess - they don't put all that salt and sugar in the baked beans because it's healthy, they do it so we buy their brand of baked beans.

Dog kidneys are more powerful that human ones so they can drink reasonably salty water & not get dehydrated as we do - perhaps your dog was after the water, rather than the salt, from the salty pool Felix? Dogs excrete a lot of sodium from their kidneys, like we do. I'm not sure if the amount in a typical raw diet would always cover it or not, but I've never heard a of a dog being low in salt due to being fed a low salt diet. Low salt in dogs is most commonly from chronic vomiting, diarrhoea, renal problems, etc.

Yes, I know it's tempting fate to teach her to limp after she's just got the all clear after the shoulder surgery, but anyhow... She will hold up a front paw on request for a few seconds (although it's more like a repeated paddle than a static hold). She's also happy to target her front paw to my hand and then hop around the room with me holding her front paw up, but insists on putting lots of weight on me as she does so. So far we're unable to progress that into her holding her paw up as she limps. Has anyone else taught this? I'm thinking of introducing a target stick since then she can't put as much weight on it, but any other suggestion or tips would be welcome.

There are a bunch of things it could be. Could be a soft tissue injury or strain. Or OCD, ED, HOD, even pano. Hopefully your vet can help you sort out what's up. Hopefully it's nothing much.

I am glad. But, one further warning, sorry. There are amazing behaviourists out there, but there are shoddy ones too. If you just pick one out of the phonebook you can end up totally wasting your money (I know - I've done it!) I'd suggest you ask for recommendations, perhaps in the training forum. Hopefully someone can recommend a competent behaviourist that is close to you.

Since you say the bulldog is purebred, I'm wondering have you tried contacting your bulldog's breeder to see if they have recommendations or if they could help with a rehome? But otherwise, I'd say your options are to keep the dogs separated permanently (all the time), try the behaviourist, or euth the bulldog. I think your chances of finding a rescue who will take a DA bulldog are pretty slim. Not that many people have the skills to safely handle a huge DA dog, and it's irresponsible to rehome her to someone without a good deal of experience that knows exactly what they're getting themselves into.

You probably won't run into much luck rehoming a dog aggressive dog, although hopefully someone can help. It takes a dedicated & experienced home to safely manage a seriously DA dog, and they're few and far between. Have you tried getting a pro behaviourist in to assess the situation? If you let people know where you are, perhaps someone could suggest someone reputable to help. I would not leave them together when I was out, or you may well come home to a dead dog oneday. I'd divide the yard, leave one in the house & one outside, or crate & rotate them. Good luck.

We are planning to come NZ in January Ooooh awesome! I will let you know if I'm going to be away then - not sure what my time table is yet.

Come to NZ too, you can housesit my house!

LOL what a charming thread. My girl goes anywhere, anytime when she is outside. Since she was a little slow to be housetrained, I'm happy just to have her going outside! When I move houses I think I might try to get her used to only using one spot in the yard, just by taking her out on leash for the first few weeks to see if she forms a habit.

Hmm, not sure how you'd do that. I've never seen it done. I'm also not sure I'd want to go there, since my dog doesn't usually growl unless she's feeling worried or being possessive, and I wouldn't want to make her feel worried for the purposes of training, and don't like to encourage her to feel possessive at all. We do have a bark on command, which was pretty easy to teach. Just wait for the dog to bark & then stick a word on it & reward. And voila! Perhaps you could do that if you haven't already taught it.

My old boy was a stafford, now I have a mally. I loved my old boy, but my goals meant that I wanted a working dog this time. They are similar in a few ways, I guess - high prey drive, short coat, athletic. But there are many more differences that I've had to adjust to. The mally is more "wired". She's always on the go, she fidgets and paces when she has nothing to do, whereas my old boy had an off-switch and would relax. The mally is also much smarter, much more sensitive, less dog aggressive but also less affectionate to humans, and much, much louder. I still miss my old boy - if I were interested in a second dog just for a pet, I would probably get a stafford.

I definately agree with that one. I have also seen what happens when one is wrapped around a human's leg that was wearing shorts and then the dog bolts - not pretty! I have too - one of my dogs injured a good friend that way. Ouch!

I hardly ever walk my dog on leash. Just leash walking is boring for both of us. I do other things instead to exercise her. I also don't see the point in having an outside only dog as a pet - I hardly go outside in the winter, so I'd hardly see my dog for half the year! But she does live outside when I'm not at home.

Some people would say if you need to use pinch or electric or check collar on a dog, then you shouldn't have the dog. :D But agreed, not something you should be playing round with if you don't know what you're doing or have professional guidance.

Oh that is really interesting since sheep measles (closely related) is definitely killed by freezing sheep & goat meat at -10C for a week, I just looked it up. Very good to know that hydatids is different, thanks.

Thanks that will be really interesting!

Flea allergy usually shows up on the lower back and inner thighs, not the tail. The hairloss seen with a flea allergy is due to the dog being so itchy that they scratch and nibble the hair away on their back and thighs. The pattern of hairloss doesn't really fit with this (although having said that, staffies are a special shape, so I guess the tail could be all she can reach to scratch?) If it's flea allergy, the solution is pretty much just to keep her completely free of fleas. Plus sometimes a short course of steroids from your vet to break the cycle of itch-scratch-itch if she really is in misery from it. Like Poodlefan, I'd wonder if she is just wearing the hair off from sitting on a rough or hard surface? I have seen staffies do that before, and it looked similar to this. Vet really is the best bet, although if she is healthy and happy and not itchy or sore, I'd guess there's no rush about it.

Liver is absolutely essential in a raw diet, it's where the majority of your vit A and copper come from, among other important things. Please include liver if you're feeding raw! You can be legal and cook it (and still feed the rest of the diet raw), it will still be nutritious & will be safe. I have no idea if freezing would kill the cysts or not. It does kill the sheep measles cysts in lamb meat, which are related. Oakway, do you know if freezing kills the hydatids cysts?

This could get you into trouble for defamation. Ask you solicitor about it. It would be particularly unwise if you are proceeding with a court case. Yes, 100% agree. If you're unhappy with the way you or your animal have been treated by a vet, you should speak up - but there are better ways to do it. Make your complaints to the vet themselves, to the vet's boss, to the vet council, and/or to your solicitor. Complaining on an internet forum or complaining loudly to strangers in the supermarket will do nothing at best, at worst it will give the vet a case against you for defamation.

This could get you into trouble for defamation. Ask you solicitor about it. It would be particularly unwise if you are proceeding with a court case. Yes, 100% agree. If you're unhappy with the way you or your animal have been treated by a vet, you should speak up - but there are better ways to do it. Make your complaints to the vet themselves, to the vet's boss, to the vet council, and/or to your solicitor. Complaining on an internet forum or complaining loudly to strangers in the supermarket will do nothing at best, at worst it will give the vet a case against you for defamation.

My girl generally launches herself at me the second I show any sign of life, often screaming with excitement, followed by jumping up and down on top of the duvet. She must sit there waiting for me to start to wake up, since she often jumps on me the very second I open my eyes. She has twice given me a bleeding nose doing this, so is now tied to the other end of the bed with a leash.

I've taught my dog to spin left and right on command, and today I've realised that she now knows her lefts and rights far better than I do. I can ask for either, and she'll spin immediately in the correct direction. I, on the other hand, often have to look at my hands to check if she's right before I mark her. I've decided to give up checking, and just trust her and hand her the cookie, since she gets frustrated waiting for me to work it out. I am blown away by how quickly and thoroughly she picked this up, since it seems like a very advanced concept. How the heck does she do it without looking at her little paws to see which one makes an L?! Is this something dogs are normally very good at? Has anyone else taught this - did your dogs pick it up really easily too?