kelpiecuddles

Wll I managed to find a butcher in town who was kind enough to pick the lamb flaps out of the $1.99/kg assorted mixed bones for me. :) So I have 4 kg of lamb flaps, a few tins of sardines and an endless supply of eggs. I don't want to fully convert to raw because they do look great already and do well on their current food, I just want to tweak it to make it even better and with Sascha being picky I don't want to change things too much. So I am thinking 2-3 lamb flaps, some kibble and either sardines or eggs 5 nights and just the kibble and flaps the other two nights. Any other suggestions greatly appreciated. They do get sometimes a small amount of dog suitable leftovers but we don't tend to have much leftovers as no one here is fussy so everything is usually eaten.

We recently had some labrador pups come through work, twice people asked if they had hip scores, etc and we explained that they were backyard bred and therefore didn't have them. One of the guys actually said, "So how do we get one with scores if we only want a pet then?" Cue explanation that registered breeders sell to pet homes too. Enlightened, he left, hopefully to go and research registered breeders. I'm sure it's not super common but maybe more common than breeders realise because those people simply never make it to the point of being able to ask the question of the right person who will explain it to them.

I always thought that if you could get some responsible breeders in cahoots with pet supply stores that don't sell animals and have some video running of their recent litters and a little blurb from the breeder talking about what sort of people their breed suits, etc, etc and have fliers available for various breed groups and canine council, etc that could make them feel more accessible. It wouldn't change anything from the breeders end, potential owners would still be vetted the same, etc but it would make the registered breeder seem more aproachable than many people currently feel they are. Even better if you could get some sort of system going where rescues can use the service as well, it would tackle the problem from multiple angles then. Multiple screens maybe or a selectable touch screen with links to clips from registered breeders of many breeds so people could use breed selector tools and then learn a bit more about possible fits from the people that know the breed best.

Well it put pointers of various types and the Harrier in the top ten for me which I wouldn't be at all keen on but it did put basset hound at 11 so that's not bad. Didn't mention kelpie at all in my list of 100 and whatever but maybe they aren't in there, aussies shephereds, border collies and cattledogs featured in my top 25.

thanks guys, going to try a couple of butchers. No abattoirs around here, just coles/woolies and a couple of chain type butchers in town and one local butcher and that's it.

Where do you get your lamb flaps from? The supermarket here only sells mixed bones which are often very fatty and there are many quite chunky bones in the bags. I might go and chat to the one local butcher and see if he can help at all

Can I ask what people who's dog can be food aggressive feed instead of bones? Unfortunately my basset gets quite cranky if Sascha comes too close while she is eating and I am so short on time at the moment so don't have the time to stand over them or seperate them while they gnaw away at slow foods like bones. I am usually feeding them five minutes before I walk out the door in the morning so it needs to be eaten and gone. My kelpie won't eat chicken(not even expensive free range chicken breast!) which makes it even harder as I can't use small bones like chicken necks

I agree, male wood duck, definately not a magpie goose, well acquainted with them after fending them off at work during breeding season.

They didn't really sponsor bear baiting, they sponsored what they understood to be a dog show and had no knowledge that this would be taking place. They pulled their sponsorship when they found out.

Wow DDD, that really is a one in a million...

Is there any reason you couldn't put her bed next to the window so she can lie in bed and watch the world go by?

Sardines are caught in nets not on hooks so not much chance of that with a sardine. :) I sometimes bring back extra poddy mullet from when I catch them for fishing bait. My cat loves tham but the dogs turn their nose up.

PUL is a breathable waterproof fabric that is used on cloth nappies, it doesn't get hot or sweat like plastic, I can attest to that through 8 years of nappying my children in it :) If someone can give me an idea of the neck size range I'll work on something :)

I never even thought of these being used for dogs. Can I ask here whether it is worth making these for dogs? I make water proof bandana bibs to order for special needs children, they are backed with either polarfleec or PUL(the same thing used to waterproof high end cloth nappies) and front of either flanelette or towelling. If they are something people would potentially be interested in I will add a couple more patterns to my range!

Those fences in Wagga are so low, I'm not surprised people have so much trouble with dogs escaping.

Could even be a fox harrassing them, they seem to be getting pretty desperate and pushy at the moment

Lifting isn't actually a problem, I've had the issues since I was about 13 so I'm well adapted to living with it, it's just that i have reduced flexibility in some directions so I have to adapt some things to suit me differently.

I can't easily lift my arms to the front to push things, I had to ditch the pram when my daughter was still quite young because I couldn't push it. Where do you leave your dogs while you set your gear up? They'd happily stay in the car in cold weather but I wouldn't won't to do that in hotter weather and I won't have a trailer any time soon.

I wonder if there would be any issue of them being top heavy with a crate attached on top. Might see if I can get one cheap and give it a try, if nothing else I can use it on my property for carting firewood LOL

So i have a problem. I have stuffed shoulders and no so good hands/wrists either. The thought of having to carry everything in to a show while walking dogs is doing my head in. Next thought was a show trolley but with my shoulders and the little wheels and a heavy dog or two I can see that ebing a nightmare as well, i am much better pulling a load than pushing. I found the Petmobil http://www.ebyte.webd.pl/sklepEN/?5,petmobil-size-m-complete show trolleys via google and thought they would be perfect but they seem to only be available in the EU(or possibly get one here for an exhorbitant amount with shipping) But really to look at them they are essentially a garden cart with a wire crate attached... So I had a look on ebay and found these http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-Lawn-Garden-Utility-Hand-Truck-Steel-Gardening-Wagon-Farm-Cart-Barrow-300kg-/190851410400?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item2c6fa169e0 which would work perfectly with a wire crate bolted on top since the sides are removable. But the question is, would I look totally ridiculous towing one in to a show...

Funny that, my kelpie will always seek out the other herding breeds in a group of dogs in preference to other breeds. My basset will just look for the people who brought children with them, she lurves children LOL

Oh Boxberry are nice babies, I was thinking he looked pretty hunky :)

Is he a bobtail or has his tail been docked? Looks very short in that pic

Lots of treats for coming when called then, he's probably just got away with ignoring the come command in the past so he's capitalising on it by ignoring you LOL

Cow hooves are very tough, much more tough than pigs ears and similiar. Someone I know fills the hollow bit in the middle with biscuits and a bit of salt reduced chicken stock and freezes them