bloss344

I 2nd the Dremel. Bob actually quite enjoys it and he usually hates his feet being touched. I bought a cheapie at Bunnings about $15, has lots of attachments and the Dremel brand sanding sleeves fit it.

Yes, that was what I meant, an unwanted behaviour such as jumping up is ignored, I turn away and don't look at the dog, rather than kneeing the dog in the chest. Obviously I would use a verbal reprimand such as 'NO' if what the dog's are doing is unacceptable or dangerous, or ignoring a known command. My original comment wasn't very clear. My main aim of the comment was to show the OP that there are other ways of disciplining and training rather than smacking, and that we can all be tempted to smack when our dog's are naughty, rather than badger him for saying he smacked his dog. I wasn't very clear in my intention, I should have read my post through before sending it, or not bother posting when I'm having a vague day.

Hi Daniel, Have you tried sitting on the ground with treats and calling them over. When they come, you use a high pitched [your happy voice] to say, 'good dog, good dog, yes!' Make it fun, act a bit of fool. They sound like they are a little anxious at the moment. One thing you want more than anything is for a dog to have a good recall. It's never to early to start. My Bob took quite a while to warm up to my OH. Some dog's just prefer females. You and your girlfriend also need to be consistent, sharing the discipline and the good stuff. As RealityBites said, don't don't actually 'love' you, but you need respect and they can be extremely devoted. I don't smack my dogs, but there are times I'm tempted with my OH's kelpie. ;) All my training and retraining is done with positive reinforcement.

:cool: told you the smell was really something else. The dog's will be in heaven though.

I'm treating more than one issue, but they are sort of linked. What I am using is: Beech for his allergies but also intolerance of change Cerato for lack of confidence, easily distracted and DIFFICULT TO TRAIN. Unable to concentrate Chicory for extreme attention seeking won't leave me alone, won't allow others to have attention. Impatiens for exitability and rushing Rock Water again for resistance to change, lack of adaptability, and territorial issues. As I said before some behaviours have slightly improved such as the inflexibility and trainability, but the constant need to be with me [Chicory] has become exagerated and he's become even more territorial with me when it come to my OH. Not a good thing. I guess what I need to do is remove the Chicory and Rock Water as they are the two that govern those emotions? and see what happens. Or perhaps it would just be better to contact the people at Ormond.

Thanks for this CBL. I had the mix made up at my Health Food Shop. I chose the essences after doing a lot of reading and research and discussed it with a friend who has done the Bach course. I don't drive but OH often works around Ormond, so perhaps when he's next down that way I'll ring them and get him to pick it up, if they'll do that.

I'm using 5 remedies. Thought that would be okay as RR has 5 in it.

I have Bob on some Bach Flower Essences [not RR] to deal with some training and fear issues. This is the second week I've been dosing him. I have noticed some improvement with some things, we are obviously training as well as giving them, but other issues are actually exagerated. Does this happen sometimes with the remedies, it gets worse before it gets better?

This is what I meant. Bob is not what I would call aggressive. He's happy to mind his own business and not terribly concerned about other dogs, but if a dog rushes up to him or bounces around him he will get on the defensive as he is extremely fearful. It all began at the previous dog club I went to, where several dog's approached him with dominance in mind. As Erny said, it's up to me to make sure my dog is controlled and has his space, but I spend all my time at the club, making sure this is the case. Some people allow their dogs to pull at the length of the lead and the dogs sniff and check out every dog that's within range. Ok, that's normal dog behaviour, but during the time between the 2 lessons I have, I virtually have to keep moving further and further away from the clubroom to keep my boy happy with his space, because other people don't respect it. The other side of the coin are the people who give us dirty looks deciding that because Bob wears a bandana he is an aggressive dog, not a timid dog. Geez, this dog hides under the dining room table if a blow fly buzzes him.

I don't want to hijac this thread but just out of interest, what about a dog like my Bob who wears a 'space bandana'. The idea is that people don't let their dogs rush up to him, or approach him without asking me first. Lots of people however do just let there dogs wander all over the place at trainin, albeit on lead. If a dog gets too close and Bob feels threatened, he'll give a warning snap. What happens if it escalates and he bites the other dog before I can move him away, or the other dog attacks but it's impossible to tell who started it? Does the fact he is wearing a bandana mean that I am admitting liability that my dog could be a problem? Like the 'Beware of Dog' signs people used to put on their gates.

Dogs can derive nutrients from grains. They don't need grains but if well cooked they can in fact benefit from them. Sometimes grains are useful, especially for dogs who don't hold weight well and need more dense calories. Grains can also be protein sparing, where an owner for whatever reason may not want to feed as much protein. If dogs didn't benefit from grains in a balanced diet then my 2 would be in a sorry state. Ultimately it comes down to the best diet for your dog, whether it be canned, bagged, raw, with or without bones, with or without grains or cooked, is what your dog does best on. They are all individual and so have individual needs. JMHO

My Bob has food intolerances and also a very low tolerance to fat, so I haven't been able to find a dry food that he can eat. I make his food; rabbit, rice, sweet potato and green beans and make his dog bikkies and treats out of the same ingredients. Rice flour and sweet potato make nice crunchy bikkies. Another recipe I was given but haven't tried it yet was cooked rice, rice flour a bit of olive oil, mix it up, then add vegetable stock and make into bikkies. Because you are in the elimination diet phase of your dog's diet you could just use beef and rice flour to make bikkies.

Bob gets yeasty ears which we treat with Surolan from the vet. You do need to keep using it for much longer than the recommended time. Yeast is really hard to get rid of as it's on the skin all the time anyway. In regards to being food related. It could be, you would need to do an elimination diet to find out what it is. Bob's ears flare up within a few hours if he gets any corn.

Have you contacted them? They used to do their intake the first Sat of each month. Do they still do that Roxy's mum?

Probiotics to restore digestive health. Inner Health Plus make a good range of them.

The bare minimum for selenium per day is 2.2mcg/kg but many are using double that and it seems that 6mcg will be closer to the RA. Selenium and iodine also interact with each other. If the soil that foods are grown in a low in selenium the foods will also be low. Selenium is one mineral that shouldn't be oversupplemented. My dogs were eating dirt a few months ago, and although dirt eating can be a normal behaviour a veterinary nutritionist suggested that I up the selenium in the diets as I was feeding the 2.2mcg/kg. Might have been coincidence but the dirt eating stopped after about a month. Here's a link to some info about selenium and brazil nuts http://www.mercola.com/2004/dec/18/brazil_nuts.htm

Glad I could help.

ok, you'd probably want to aim for about 200iu each, as we don't know what the diet is actually providing, but that seems to be the standard amount to supplement for dogs up to 25kg. Large dogs can take up to 300 to 400 IU but I would err on the side of caution at the moment. I'm presuming you are feeding BARF. I give my 17kg kelpie and 26kg mixed breed 200mg each of the synthetic form. 5 grams of powder will yeild 200IU. If you haven't got scales you won't be able to measure accurately, which is probably why you wanted teaspoon measures. A lot of powders average out at 4 or 5 grams per teaspoon so if you used a scant teaspoon you'd be pretty right. If at some point you can measure it at a friends place, weigh a teaspoon of powder and go from there.

ok, it's a horse product isn't it, very concentrated. Do you have digital kitchen scales? oh, and how much does your dog weigh?

Yes, Selenium is okay, but shouldn't be overdone. When you find out the actual value of vit e and selenium you'll be able to work out a dose that isn't too high.

I didn't mean to be a but I did spend a bit of time trying to work out what the portions for the list were and was finding all sorts of different amounts. Guess I'm just a bit thick. Was just trying to clarify it for the person who asked.

I used calcium as an example but could have chosen any of the essential nutrients. There are specific requirements for each vitamin, mineral, and amino acide for dogs, just as there are RDI's for people. It's up to each individual but personally I like to think that I am doing what is best for my dog, not a 'near enough is good enough' way of doing it. My dog eats a very limited diet due to food intolerances and allergies so I need to supplement accurately. He can't get all his nutrients out of his food. There is vitamin e in food however your list doesn't give us amounts and quantities. Are they per 100gr or something else? Foods that are highest in vitamin e are cereals and grains and oils perhaps something that many people would not want to feed to their dogs in excess. The diet may supply 'adequate' amounts of vitamin e but often people do want to supply some extra as an antioxidant, as there is evidence that it is beneficial. The problem with supplementing with a human dose is the variation. Some capsules have 100mg, some 200mg some 500mg. All are a safe human dose and all suggest 1 capsule a day. There's a big difference giving a small dog half of one of each of these capsules. But again as I said before, I'm very anal in what I put into my dog's mouth, and intend to give him the best I can.

Vitamin E is pretty safe. It's not actually toxic in large doses but can cause some blood problems when given in excess. It's a great antioxidant and I think beneficial. Vitamin A and D are dangerous in excess. Cod liver oil is a high source of these two vitamins and should not be used unless the dog diet definitely lacks these nutrients which is unlikely here in Australia, as D is the sunshine vitamin and a is found in liver and many vegetables. Some people unfortunately give cod liver oil instead of an omega 3 oil when looking to improve their dog's coat.

My Rani, ask the produce if it's Value Plus brand. If that's the case I have the specs to work out the dosage.

That list doesn't make sense to me. Perhaps Skipy could enlighten us. Just a few vitamin e rich foods for you to start with. Sunflower oil 1 tsp -- 5 grams 1.8 mg Safflower oil 1 tsp -- 5 grams 1.5 mg Wheat germ oil 1 tsp 5 grams 6.7mg Margarine 1 tsp 5 grams .4mg Beef liver raw 100gr .4mg Chicken [no bone] 100gr 2.7mg As you can see you will need to feed large amounts of food to meet the requirements of your dog. Foods that are highest in vitamin e are cold pressed vegetable oils, meats, nuts, green leafy vegetables, it's probably easiest to give a supplement.