ellz

Excellent! Thanks for the input! I already have quite a comprehensive puppy guide, however there is so much more that I'd like to add to make it more rounded and complete. Mr Ellz is a printing machinist and he has offered to take my puppy guide to work with him and have one of the layout people format and produce it so that it can be printed and bound with spiral bounders and plastic front and back. This will be my "generic" puppy guide that applies to both breeds initially. Then to complete it, I will be continuing to work on my American Cocker grooming guide and supplement and my Stafford information so that they can be included with each puppy as well as the other bits and pieces that I send my babies off with, including for the Americans, a new snood for each puppy.

Ahhh...yes....the ringside experts. Who proclaimed the buff American Cocker puppy was a Baby Bulldog! Or the really knowledgeable woman at ringside one year who swore up and down that she had had a black Golden Retriever when she was young!

Well, I'm pleased to say that upon reading through this entire thread, I already provide most, if not all of the things mentioned that it is possible for me to provide to my puppy purchasers, within the boundaries of course of geography, breed requirements and practicality. Something I wanted to ask though is as a purchaser, whether a newbie to dogs or purebred dog ownership, or even as an already established breeder/exhibitor, would you feel offended if you received a no-nonsense, plain English, almost "Idiots Guide To Puppy Ownership" in your puppy kit, covering many of the more mundane things such as basic training, crate training, worming, common diseases, first aid kits and basic first aid, dental care etc etc? Or would you prefer for these to be delivered to you by way of links to websites etc? Or, would you prefer to obtain this information from your own vet?

The better quality foods - no matter what price bracket they fall into - are better quality because of the ingredients, not the name. Obviously this is true. However there are FAR too many people who insist that Product A must be better than Product B because it is manufactured by Company X and costs $XXX per bag compared to $XXX per bag for Product C which is full of XXXXX. Sorry, but in many cases this is just namedropping and I'll bet you pounds to peanuts that the majority of people who DO namedrop and pricetag things have no idea why they are feeding a given food other than what they've heard, read or been told....often on forums like this one. The FACT is that it doesn't need to cost you an arm and a leg to feed a dog. You don't NEED to spend more than $30 a bag on food for certain dogs. And you shouldn't feel guilty if you can't afford to feed any of the "brand names" that seem to be smiled upon in active dog food discussion. The reality is that whilst it may work out cost-effective to feed a small amount of certain foods as compared to a larger amount of other foods, many people simply don't have the money to fork out a huge initial outlay and are only in a position to spend a regular weekly or fortnightly amount for something that the Food Nazis will scoff at. Is this wrong? Of course not.....provided the animals are doing well on it!

Can be a few things. As mentioned, luxating patellas and Leg Perthes are two possibilities. There could also be cruciate ligament issues or what they call an avulsion fracture which is very common in smaller breeds like Jack Russells etc. Whatever it is, it needs veterinary attention and the outcome could be strict crate rest or even surgery depending upon diagnosis and severity.

My Stafford girl and her husband had a good 20 minute tie today so put her down for the 26th (not confirmed)!

Dogs eat to live, they don't live to eat. Their taste buds are not as refined as ours and we get more hung up on variety than they do. Find whatever they do best on, whatever the form it takes and no matter what the cost is, whether it be high-end or budget and stick with it. There are far too many food Nazis on forums and many people are cowed into feeding so-called "premium" foods because of the name, the price and peer pressure and it really isn't necessary.

Completely agree!!! People are way too soft on their dogs. When I have switched foods, all my dogs turn their noses up at it for the first few days. Tough cookies I say! It gets put on the ground for 10 mins - if they dont eat it they go hungry until their next meal. It doesnt take long for them to realise if they dont eat what they are given they go hungry. Dogs need to have a leader - and making them eat what they are given is part of establishing yourself as the pack leader. If you pander their their every whim, they are establishing themself as leader and you will end up with a huge number of behavioural problems! I guarantee if you follow the above method - strictly - your dog will eventually eat the food and get out of the habit of being so damn fussy! He's never been fussy before. And I played it tough for 3 or 4 days before I started to really worry about him starving! He was running out of energy when we went jogging and that concerned me. Dogs won't starve themselves. They eat to live, not live to eat. Their tastebuds aren't as developed as ours and if they won't eat something it's more likely that they don't want to rather than they don't like it. Humans are dogs' worst enemies in that regard.

Perhaps. But I'd not be taking the risk with something that doesn't belong to me anyway.

Agree with Rysup. Anything you don't want chewed WILL get chewed! The metal compost cages are fabulous and incredibly cheap. The beauty of them is that you can use them indoors or out. I use mine outdoors in summer covered in shadecloth.

Go into your nearest saddlery or produce store and purchase a grooming mitt. On one side it has a short coarse-bristled brush and on the other, nobbly rubber. They're PERFECT for getting loose hair from a smooth-coated dog. The rubber nobbles stimulate the skin and encourage it to release the dead hair and the bristles help remove it and bring up a good shine.

I will occasionally feed a tin of the Pedigree Casserole, or at least mix it with some hot water to make a gravy, especially if I'm away from home and can't take my normal food with me. Nature's Gift is ok although I'm a bit phased by the layer of fat that tends to accumulate in the bottom of the tin...it stinks! My dogs do actually tend to prefer a tin of cat food, and for bitches which won't eat when they're in late pregnancy or lactating, I usually warm it in the microwave for a few seconds. For some reason when warm it has the most delectable smell....to a dog anyway!

I'd love another but I think I'm too old and my patience has worn too thin! Keiko (my boy) was from Arthur's first litter and from his first Japanese imported bitch. Yoshi was his first imported male from Japan (Ch Yoshizakura of Kenshu Ikeda Kensha was his registered name I think). I also had Keiko's sister Marko for a little while until she came into season and went back to Arthur to be mated. My last Shiba was from Arthur's own breeding program under the prefix of Glendaline (not co-bred with Wally Rice before Wally left for the USA). He was a beautiful little boy...can't for the life of me remember his registered name but his call name was Mitti. I went to Melbourne to groom one of my American Cocker imports in quarantine and Arthur collected me from the boat, took me to quarantine and then sent me home with a new Shiba baby. He rode back to Hobart on the Redline bus, sitting on my knee and being spoiled by all of the other passengers!

They can be very cat like. Very clean and fastidious animals. Can shed hair like there is NO tomorrow. Can be very challenging to train as they definitely feel that you are there to do THEIR bidding and not the other way around. Oh and the Shiba scream is a noise to behold. Leadtraining a puppy can induce this and it is almost certainly guaranteed to have every neighbour or dog show person within kooee giving you filthy looks because you HAVE to be abusing that puppy for it to be making such an unGODly noise like that! They can climb and are very good jumpers so good fences are essential. I titled the first Australian-born male shiba, Ch Glendalin Kashiwagi San, born in quarantine a long, long time ago!

Maybe, but not yet I'm gonna get Sway's black dog.....wrong breed but a black dog nonetheless!

It does contain fish and fish by-products so it can be a bit fishy. Although I have to say, to me, it smells more like Cod Liver Oil than anything else.

That's really odd because I've got the opposite here, even my picky ones love it.... Horses for courses I guess. Maybe there was a bad batch? Ah well, at least you tried.

Well, I'm FIRMLY of the opinion that I have rocks holding my ears apart. Possible litter due end September/early October, OOPS possible litter due end October and planned Stafford litter end November. Now watch both possibles become probables because I've got the Stafford one planned!

I'm none the wiser (yet), although my younger girl did only eat half of her dinner last night where for the past few weeks she has been absolutely WOLFING it down. She still has her clear discharge as well. She will be 4 weeks on Sunday.

A natural remedy which I'm told can be difficult to obtain in Australia is frageria vesca. From the sounds of it, it does the same thing.

Apologies for being pedantic. Eyes and eye conditions are a particular interest of mine!

Actually, Entropion is a completely and separate condition. Entropion is a condition where the eyelid itself actually folds or rolls inwards. Distichiasis is where eyelashes grow independently inside the eyelid. It is however possible to have both and if I had a dog with both, it would NEVER be bred from. Two strikes is way too close for me! What normally happens as a result of untreated severe distichiasis (or entropion) is corneal ulceration which is painful and can be blinding. It can also cause another condition where constant irritation causes pigmentation to grow over the surface of the eye. And for those who are interested, the "opposite" of entropion (eyelids folding/rolling inwards) is ECtropion (eyelids folding/rolling outwards).

It might be absolutely nothing and/or easily treated.....simple vaginal infections or UTIs etc. But there are also other possibilities that are far more serious so I am glad you're going to act quickly. Far better to at least have it looked at.

The way that the size and shape difference was explained to me is that you should remember that in terms of athletes, the Stafford is the Boxer of the Terrier Group and not the Weightlifter. In that, he should have long muscles and a natural agility and not be overweight, have short bunchy muscles and poor mobility. And I was also told that a quick way to see if your dog is "balanced" is to run a tape measure around the widest part of his skull. That measurement should approximate his height from shoulders to ground.