Lyric

Long time lurker here, just wanted to throw in a suggestion for Planet Dog balls. http://www.planetdog.com/category.aspx?categoryID=46 Kyrah isn't an intentional toy destroyer, but she chomps on her fetch balls so hard while bringing them back she kills them all without trying. The only ones that hold up are her Orbee-Tuff Orbee and Fetch balls. They seem to take the worst abuse and hardly show a mark. I wouldn't recommend leaving them unsupervised with a heavy chewer, but for interactive play they'll save you a fortune in tennis ball replacements. The glow-in-the-dark one is fabulous for winter evening fetch games in the cow pasture.

Quillin Leather and Tack makes some very nice custom collars and leashes. http://www.quillin.com/jshop/

Thanks, I'll check it out.

Good timing for this to come up again! Kyrah made one too many sliding ball grabs yesterday at the dog park and tore a good sized patch off her pad. I've got it wrapped at the moment with a baby sock under vetwrap to keep it clean, but I was just trying to think of something I could put on it to help it heal faster. I would normaly do Neosporin but we recently discovered she's allergic to Neomycin, one of the ingredients in most topical antibiotic ointments. Any suggestions for something that might speed healing but not give her a massive rash? *sigh* She likes things to stay complicated......

No, I hadn't thought of feeding them frozen. I'll give it a try!

This is indeed the problem. If she gets the least bit distracted while eating, even in her crate, her solution is to gulp down anything left in her bowl as fast as possible so she can direct her attention elsewhere. The second time I saw my 28lb dog swallow a turkey neck virtually whole was when I decided to stick with ground bone only until she learns better "table manners", which we are working on. Thank you for the link and the suggestion of Nature's Variety as a good quality prepared raw. I think I will try both rotating prepared formulas as well as preparing more things myself as I learn how to balance various elements correctly. One of the reasons I decided to try this particular pre-made food was a telephone conversation I had with the owner regarding the ingredients. Per that conversation as well as the webpage he uses only USDA inspected human grade meat and organs, and organic fruits and vegetables. (The vegetables included in the gruel are listed on the main page.) I didn't ask about binders but the food certainly doesn't stick together. It comes in 2lb frozen tubes and crumbles apart as soon as it's defrosted. I do feel that despite the texture similarity to canned food, the live enzymes present in any raw food provide benefits that I cannot get from even the highest quality canned. This was one of the things I was concerned about. What types of meat do you think I should be adding if I continue to use it as a base? Thank you for all the suggestions, I think I'll continue to feed it as at least a part of her diet but it looks like I need to do some more research in order to really give her everything she needs. If anyone has some basic suggestions for additions I can make that would be safe for a grab-and-gulp sort of dog I would welcome ideas.

Yes, I do provide recreational bones as well. I understand that ground meat/bones is something of a compromise however at the moment it's what I'm comfortable with as the bulk of her diet. I ran into some problems with her not properly chewing even soft bones (necks, wings) that make me uncomfortable giving her anything but ground as a consumable for now. Aside from the fact that it's ground, does it seem to be nutritionaly balanced as a long term diet? Here's the page that lists the actual contents if that helps. http://www.boneappetitrawfood.com/products.html

Hi all, I'm normally just a dedicated lurker but I'd like to get some opinions from those of you with experience formulating raw diets. I have a 17 month old BC whom I adopted from BCRNC when she was 8wks old. She has always been fed high quality kibble (NB, Solid Gold BATM, Evo) but after reading many posts here and articles on commercial pet food I started introducing some basic raw meals as part of her diet. Recently I ran across this website http://www.boneappetitrawfood.com/ and I decided to try going completely raw, rotating through their various "meal deals" which are chicken based but contain an "other" meat source- duck, rabbit, lamb, beef, turkey, or pork. So far she seems to be doing very well with this diet. Her coat is noticeably softer and there has been a definite improvement in her chronic itchiness which was not helped by allergy formula foods, 3 different kinds of allergy medication, or prednisone. Stools are good, small and no constipation or excessive softness. Oh, and she has way more energy than any single dog has a right to. The truth is I really like the convenience of feeding prepared meals since it eliminates the guesswork on my part, but I was wondering what your thoughts were on how balanced these formulas are for long term feeding? Should I be adding anything on either a daily or occasional basis? At the moment I do give her a little plain yogurt, 2 tsp camelina oil, and a scoop of ShowStopper ( http://www.an-nat.com/endurancebooster_showstop.html# ) daily. I also mix in a raw egg once or twice a week. So- opinions, suggestions, criticisms? I truly want to feed her the best diet I can and I'd love any and all input from those who have done this before. Thanks!

This is the one I plan to get for Kyrah this spring. I've heard nothing but good things about the quality of Quillin's leatherwork and I love the design. She has a rolled leather collar now from Petco but I'd like for her to have one with a nameplate. http://quillin.com/jshop/product.php?xProd=1020&xSec=11

Strange, my first BC had the same reaction to the smell of lamb. We found her as a stray when she was around 9 months old and were never able to locate her original owners. The first time we cooked lamb around her she went into the yard and stayed there in the very back until after 10pm that night. Short of dragging her into the house there was no way she would come in while the scent was still in the air. She's 15 now and still will not touch treats or food made with a high percentage of lamb. If you toss a handful of those multiflavored crunchy treats on the floor she'll gobble down all but the lamb-flavored ones. The only thing we could come up with was that she had been so severely corrected for touching lamb at some point that it created a phobia of the scent. We don't have a history on her though so we'll never really know. Of course since your dog will eat the bacon, I agree with previous posts that it's more likely a fear related to the cooking process rather than the meat itself. You could try frying a slice of ham though, to see if the pork scent does have anything to do with it.

For some comparison, Kyrah was a little over 20 lbs at 4 months. She just turned 1 year and now weighs 27.5 lbs. Most of the growing she did was just legs. So you may not have a monster on your hands.

If you're thinking about using boots, I ran across these awhile back and it seems like the extra height might be what you're looking for. http://www.dogbootcompany.com/ You could also coat the outside of the boot with something like tiger balm or Vicks since leeches apparently don't like menthol.

After a little more research these balls http://www.petedge.com/Zanies--174--Assort...ter-ZW13124.pro are listed as 2 1/2" in diameter which is the same as the Chuck-It balls http://www.petedge.com/ChuckIt-Ultra-Balls-ZX482.pro so in theory they should fit.

Good question. And I can't answer it because I keep forgetting to actually buy a Chuck-It. They are slightly smaller than tennis balls though. I just like having a bunch of them on hand so that I can go longer periods without fishing balls out from under the couch, dresser, dishwasher and wherever else my little black-and-white squirrel decides to put them. If we start with about 8-9 balls I can usually get through a whole hour of computer time before they all end up in places that require a human arm for retrieval. Then we switch to the volleyball.

http://www.petedge.com/Zanies-Fortune-Ball...ter-ZW13134.pro Kyrah loves these, and at about $0.41 each I really don't care if she loses them!