Keen

I have a 17 year old poodle who has eaten tinned cat food for most of her life. She would not eat dog kibble (no matter what you did to it/mixed it with.) She will eat occasional tins of dog food, will not eat raw food at all, or vegetables. (No matter how hungry she is or what you mix it with... actually, if you covered it all in chocolate she might eat it...) She has no heath problems apart from a little arthritis on cold mornings. My vet told me that there are enzymes in dog food that cats can't digest, but not the other way round, so dogs can eat cat food. Cat food used to have a much higher fat content than dog food, but not any more as there are some fatty cattys out there! You might like to try some of the fish cat food - a lot of dogs love fish. If you are worried about your dog eating the food of 'the enemy', just explain to it that the picture on the outside of the can indicates what is on the inside of the can... (It's true! A tin with a picture of corn on the outside has corn inside, doesn't it!!)

And just to clarify; all those ‘experts’ who have suddenly appeared on the scene, they earn their money by telling other people how to control their aggressive and undisciplined dogs, don’t they? So in reality it is in their be$t interest to allow people to raise undisciplined and aggressive dogs. Puppy pre-school also costs to go, doesn’t it, or is it a free service given by caring dog training experts? Which means no one is making money from insisting that all dogs will be become aggressive if they don’t attend these classes to be ‘socialised’ and that only these training classes run by these experts can result in a happy, well behaved animal. Just trying to understand the motives behind all the expert training that pet dogs now need. To me, training does not and has never meant a dog that will stand up, sits down or roll over upon request. Training also means teaching a dog how it is to fit in and interact with the household it lives in, which includes humans and other pets, and includes behaviour towards property. A well trained companion dog might not know how to heel or stay or run through hoops, but it should know what not to attack or destroy and how to behave in its living environment. I have never suggested for one minute anyone should hit any animal in the face, which obviously includes the nose. I never suggested for a minute that training involves constantly hitting your dog, although I have seen ‘experts’ yanking dogs around the neck with various types of collars – some with raised metal pins that are against the dog’s neck, and chains that are pulled savagely against the dog’s throat. Of course that is not smacking them, so I guess that’s completely acceptable and since done by the experts, must good for the dog. I have seen wolves, dingoes and other wild pack animals discipline their pups – they do it by biting them. Pups are also knocked to the ground, held by the head and neck by bigger dogs, picked up and shaken, and occasionally killed. None of my dogs are wild, so I will not be disciplining them as if they were. As I said, my dogs are smacked if they commit major offences. One tap on the butt (away from the tail/spine) is not going to destroy any dog’s delicate ego, but it will reinforce spoken commands and that word which it is now so not trendy, the “no” word.

In 30 years I've only ever owned 4 dogs - because my terrible 'wrong' way of raising them helped them all lived a long, long time. At the moment I have one healthy, active happy 17 year old and one demon 3 month old. So sue me.

My puppy's crate goes in the laundry. Until 9 weeks the door was left open and newspaper laid down so she could use it at night. After 9 weeks the pup stayed in the crate all night. On weekends I sleep in - so does my pup. I never got up in the night to my pup - I certainly didn't want to teach her that all she had to do was whine and I would be there. She has never cried at night, not even once. Our dogs have always slept in the laundry. I don't want them to become so dependent upon us that they cannot function if we are not there. This makes for happier, healthier dogs who are not fearful of any situation they might face on their own.

Well thank goodness this topic has come up!! NONE of my dogs were ever 'socialised' with other dogs, puppies or people, and NONE of them were ever aggressive towards people puppies or dogs. I don't put up with displays of agression in my dogs in any situation what so ever. None of my dogs were fearful of anything and none of them were frightened of thunder or fire-crackers or were 'hand-shy'. All of my dogs got smacks when they committed major offences. I have raised all of them contrary to the 'experts', yet all my dogs knew/know they were/are dogs and I was human and all of them are loving and loved inside companions. So there - flame away.

I do know what you mean, Caffiend42, and I am not sure why there are so many overweight pets around... I guess there are too many owners who don't equate overfeeding with cruelty. (Although I once knew a woman who overfed her dog because it was agressive and she was aftraid of it - the huge size kept it slow and less agressive!) My other pet peeve... is not clipping nails because 'he doesn't like it!" But my cocker does have a sooky face, and when she gets into trouble from me, she puts it on in bucket-loads.

How can you say that! Cocker spaniels are just born with big stomach bones... Mine really IS starving, honest!

This is no. 10 in the Dog Owners Ten Commandments; 10 Go with me on difficult journeys. Never say I can't bear to watch it or let it happen in your absence. Everything is easier for me if you are there. My thoughts are with you.

Corky has learned what she is not allowed to chew. Now she doesn't chew the rug, the coffee table, the wall, the chairs, the dog baskets, my feet/toes, the couch or the cushions. It meant watching her like a hawk, but she shows no interest in those things now. She DID manage to discover the big basket full of new toilet rolls in the guest toilet, and had a fine old time in there... Came into the lounge room with toilet paper hanging out of her mouth... "I didn't do anything!" ;) She has a cardboard box which she has made a hole in the side so she can walk in and out of it. It works best when you bite the big dog, then run into the box. I bought lots of toys, so the lounge room looks as if we have 5 demented toddlers living here, not one puppy. (The big dog is clean, tidy and quiet.) The cardboard box has been the best toy ever!

I prefer the 'flogging' method - it does not look as gross or 'girlie' as spitting food at your dog... (I mean, that is SO foul!) You just carry a big stick and flog your dog if it doesn't do what it is supposed to. Or wire - you tie wire around the upper part of your dog's face - barbed is best - that way it digs in when you give it a twist if the dog is not behaving properly. None of those mamby pamby clickers or mouth fulls of food to spit for me! My 12 week old cocker spaniel puppy used to be a real brute until I flogged and barbed-wire trained her. Now she fetches me a 6-pack from the fridge when I tell her to, kills anyone who comes onto my property on command and feeds herself (on their carcasses). I have no need for 'sit' and 'stay'!

I avoided using a crate - figuring I had house trained many dogs in the past without one, and believing confining a pup overnight was a bit cruel... Then, due to a family emergency, we found we had to take our dogs with us to stay with family and the only thing I could think of to keep the pup from messing in someone else's house over night was to crate her. I thought I should put the puppy in the crate at our house first (we had 3 days with the crate) as a practice run. Well, I am a convert! How wonderful NOT to wake up to crap and wee all over the laundry floor and an excited pup (who had usually walked in one or the other) trying to jump all over me! (Oh yeah - no smell either...) It's GREAT! No more cleaning and washing the laundry floor every morning, spreading/taking out 'loaded' newspaper... washing little feet... washing dog towels and mop-up cloths... The pup has picked up the toilet training much quicker now, as the overnight waiting has taught her to hold on. She has not messed her bed once overnight. In the morning she goes outside and after a little sniff around the garden, (so I can see that she is not 'busting') she does what she has to do. And I don't make a special point of getting up super early each day to let the pup out of the crate. If I am asleep, the pup stays in her crate. I sleep in on weekends, so do my dogs. Crates are great, and coming from a horrible old sceptic like me, that is praise indeed!

My new pup sleeps in a crate in the laundry and has never cried once. If she had, I would have ignored her. You pup has trained you very well - all it has to do is grizzle a little bit and you make a fuss. What a lucky pup, I wish I had a human trained as well as you are.

Just wanted to say WOW you have a hard one there!! You got no idea... the dog is now about 16 years old, so I do know a bit about how she is going to react. I get lots of 'advice' - like; "when the dog is hungry she will eat" (food with a pill in it). NOT this dog! She would starve herself to death first. It has been a real chore keeping her going this long, but she is my dog and I love her. She won't touch peanut butter, raw food (bones, mince etc) vegetables, honey, yoghurt etc. The only thing I know she will eat for sure is chocolate(carob). Now I have another dog as well, a cocker spaniel pup. She will eat ANYTHING ;) rocks, paper, cardboard, sticks, plants from the garden, me... what a wonderful contrast she is.

No matter how gently, no matter how far down the throat (even if you put in down as far as the stomach...) no matter how much blowing, or cheese, or peanut butter, my poodle won't take a tablet. She is was too cunning and with a shake of her head (once you are SURE the pill has gone down) she flings the offending pill to kindom come... She can swallow 50 times and still not swallow the tablet! I finally defeated her by buying some dog chocs - (the Friskies carob ones) cutting them all in half, then melting a couple and with the back end of a teaspoon sticking the pill to the chocolate and covering it with chocolate so that not one bit of the pill is viewable/smellable. She is happy to eat them and has yet to discover the terrible secret of how I get her to take her pills (I hope she doesn't read this!). I have a tin of the chockies marked 'MEDICATED'. It is a bit fiddly, but so easy once they are all done.

Some friends of friends had a dog who could barely walk as his feet were all twisted because his nails were so long. Their excuse was; "Oh he doesn't like us clipping his nails..." !!! (I felt like driving nails through their feet.) No dog likes having their nails clipped. My dogs don't mind me touching their feet, even using the clippers on their feet, but they don't like their nails being clipped. I understand, I hate going to the dentist, but it has to be done. Good on you, BellasPerson, first for realising he needed his nails cut, no matter what the vet says, and second for not giving up easily. I often think of that poor dog shuffling around on his twisted feet.