Norskgra

I am glad we aren't the only ones. If we give them something extra we will cut the rest back as well. That is probably why ours are kept at a constant slightly lean weight and the others are always worrying about their dogs having to lose or put weight on. I also make all of their treats and they are low fat but still rationed out to them.

I was at a dog show yesterday and a group of us were talking. Some one mentioned some news about a person we all know and his girlfriend. One of the group asked if he still measured his dogs food and weighs the bones before he gave it to them. Everyone thought it was a laugh to go to so much trouble. My daugher and I just looked at each other but didn't say a word. We have always measured our dogs food and I keep measuring cups in the container with thier dry. We have also weighed the bones and raw food. We couldn't see anything wrong with it. I have to add that we were the only ones there that don't have a problem with our dogs weight. The others are always saying that thier dogs are over or under wieght. Are we taking feeding our dogs too seriously or do others measure and weigh thier dogs food?

It is like asking how long is a piece of string. My male Elkhound started lifting his leg when he was about 8 months old. His brother has only just started recently and he is 2 1/2. My Afghan is 16 months and he has only lifted his leg about 3 times. All dogs are different.

I do exactly the same, Mjosa.

I use Aloveen on ours as well. It leave the dogs spelly really nice.

Paw Paw Ointment is very good. You can get it from Chemists.

Our Elkhounds don't get a doggy odour at all and are only washed occasionally. They were last washed at the beginning of April and don't smell. Our Afghan does smell if we don't wash him every week. They are all on good diets and are perfectly healthy. I like Plush Puppy Odour Muncher and use it when the Afghan starts to smell and I don't have time to bath him.

I don't have the problem with our Elkhounds but our Afghan is a nightmare. I don't leave any food where he can get it but that doesn't keep him from surfing the bench tops.

We don't use a blowdryer to dry our dogs. We towel dry them then chamois them. It is surprising how fast thier coat dries. They are supposed to have a course coat and I found that when they were blow dried, thier coat was too soft and also too fluffy. We have a grooming table that we made for the Afghan but haven't used it yet. We tend to sit on the floor to grrom the Afghan and just bend down to do the Elkhounds because they don't take any longer than 5 minutes each to brush. I will use a dryer on the Elkhounds only when they are blowing thier coat.

No, breeders of cross breeds are not registered breeders unless it happened to be a complete accident, which in cases of Labrador x Poodles is not the case as they intentially breed these 2 breeds. ETA - No ethical registered breeder would deliberately breed crossbreds. Rarely accidents may happen. Ethical registered breeders will only breed purebreds of the same breed once all health tests have been carried out.

My dogs get the 3 vaccinations and I don't take them out to where other dogs are until approximately 2 weeks after thier third vac. They do go out to puppy school and I will take them to see friends with other dogs that I know for socialising. Missing part of Baby Puppy class at a show is not as important to me as thier health is.

Ours don't have any gas/wind problems with Nutro. In fact our Afghan had a terrible wind problem until we switched him to Nutro and then it stopped.

Yes, I have been converted to Nutro for some of my dogs. The others are still on a raw diet. It is fantastic and you can notice a difference within 2 weeks. My pregnant girl is being fed both raw and Nutro Puppy and I intend to feed the pups on Nutro. I will also recommend it to the new puppy owners. It is the only dry I will feed my kids now.

I had a thread going for quite some time about one of my girls, Tyra, who was the most finicky, fussy eater I have had in over 30 years of owning dogs. I tried her on just about every brand of dry food available. She wouldn't eat BARF either. She would willing go without food for up to 2 weeks. She will a raw diet, sort of. She loves her Nutro as well and was getting that a couple of times a week when she wouldn't eat what my other dogs were having for dinner. She has a litter of puppies due in less than 2 weeks and now she is being fed raw meaty bones, sardines and Nutro Puppy. There is not much else she will eat at the moment as she will only eat food she can crunch. She has her sardines on top of her Nutro Puppy once or twice a week and eats her the Nutro for breakfast as well. Some of my dogs are fed on a raw diet and the others are fed Nutro.

All my dogs get a whole one at least once a week. They love them.

Mine are washed no more than once every 2 or 3 months. They are indoor and outdoor dogs but never get a doggy odour. They only get washed when they are dirty or when the bitches finish their seasons.

She is a real pain to feed. I have to be very careful what I feed her. At least I know she can eat duck mince and she gulped it down she loved it so much. I would realy love to be able to feed all of mine the same thing but between all of them there is something they either don't like or can't tolerate.Two of my girls, Kari and Tyra are the worst but I am hoping Tyra will be back to eating everything once she has had her pups. I will have to watch Kari for the rest of her life though and be careful when she stays at her breeders.

Kari had some duck mince last night and so far her bowel motions are fine. It looks like she can eat duck mince after all.

I fed Kari some roo tails last night and she brought them back up. She won't eat the turkey mince. I have given her a bit og duck mince tonight for dinner so it is now a matter of waiting to see if she has a reaction to it.

Tonight was fish night. She had a tin of mackeral and 2 dessertspoons of vegetables in her bowl. I managed to get her to eat approximately half of it by hand feeding her. I gave her some more Nutro and she ate that. It looks like I might have to give her some dry instead of the soft food but still keep feeding her bones on bone nights. I don't want her to be having a completely different meal to the others unless I have to. Some of mine are fed raw and some are fed dry because that is what they do better on. She may have to be fed a combination of both until she gets over being so fussy.

I was going to add some Nutro Puppy to her diet in a week or 2. I might have to add it sooner.

The chicken mince contains bones but the turkey mince doesn't unfortunately. I will try her on some pieces of vegetables to see if she likes them that way. She wouldn't even eat a small piece of toast and vegemite which she normally loves. She is certainly healthy and doesn't have any other problems. It was a lot easier when I fed them all on dry. I didn't seem to have this sort of problem when one of my girls was in whelp. I didn't have anything else defrosted for her last night so I gave her some Nutro and she gulped it down. She also won't eat her brewers yeast or kelp so we have to mix it with yoghurt, cottage cheese or ricotta and spoon feed her. She doesn't seem to want to eat anything soft.

Hi Wylie, She gets fish oil tablets every day and eats fish, normally tinned, once a week as long as I don't add any veg to it.

She has always been finicky which is why we switched her to raw. She loved it up until now. I guess she will be eating more bones or what ever else she likes as long as it is not fillet steak.lol I was just concerned that she wasn't eating a proper diet.

I am not sure if it is morning sickness. She is showing all the early signs of being in whelp. The thing that gets me is that she will always eat her bones but will not touch her mince. I even tried her on some Scotty's roll to see if she would eat that and she had a couple of pieces and left the rest. I will try to get her some Raspberry Leaf tablets tomorrow when I go shopping.