Redbirdie

I'm sending good mojo for Kelso. He sounds like he needs exactly what you are giving him - patience, understanding and love.

No Frontline used here. I went through periodic diarrhea with dogs, my two and friends' dogs who played with mine. They were getting chicken jerky during the Chinese melamine thing. Got rid of the jerky. Their dogs continued to have diarrhea, one of mine back to normal. They had theirs tested for parasites and giarrdhea, came back negative. Took away rawhides, tried different kibbles, didn't help. I switched to raw food and it cured the issue for mine. My friends won't do raw and their dogs are still having diarrhea periodically. The diarrhea was horribly smelly, worse thing I had ever smelled which includes dead animals at 80%humidity and 95 degrees. Robin

Excellent information!

I was talking to my bulk-order person I get some pieces and parts from. It seems there are a lot more people feeding raw now. There is more disagreement on how to feed raw now than there is on whether or not to feed raw vs. kibble. The % I feed seems to be dynamic. Now that it is summer I need to add a little. When I began feeding veggie mush with meat, organ and bone I found my dogs' weight going down also. I stick to around 2.5% I also order by the case from the bulk-order person referenced above. She gets specific things plus brand-name items from Oma's pride. She gives quanitity discounts also. I can get beef heart for $1.09 a pound at a grocery store, chicken quarters at .53 a lb., ground turkey under $1.50 a pound. I have friends who hunt and give me venison scraps, duck and pheasant carcasses. I've scored a few things from friends who had freezer-burned meats or their electricity went off and the meat was iffy. There are three free turkeys sitting in the freezer. The veggies I use are all available at the grocery store and I save some snips and leftovers from my food. I did find this book helpful: http://www.amazon.com/Raw-Dog-Food-Make-Ea...4744&sr=8-2 The group, Raw-lite on yahoo is a non-judgmental and helpful group. I used to belong to rawfeeding on yahoo but they perpetuate a lot of the myths about raw and really blast anyone who doesn't follow their idea of how to feed raw. It took some time to get into a groove with raw but I think it is the best thing for the dogs and I am finding it is cheaper now that I have my supply-lines figured out.

I just attended a behavior conference for shelter people. Ian Dunbar spoke as well as his wife and others. I had already come across this study before but they mentioned it again: http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/pubs/Dogs/shelter_dogs.shtml Human contact relaxes and reduces stress in shelter dogs so I would guess that the interpretation of the dogs enjoying a hug is their release of some of the stress they feel from the shelter environment.

I'm so sorry. RIP Flick.

I own Sarah Kalnajs "The Language of Dogs" DVD and my Humane Society uses it for training. Also the Aloff book. I think they are both good.

Sending good healing thoughts Buzz's way!

Ditto on feeding raw and getting a freezer. I found these groups helpful: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/CarnivoreFeed-Supplier/ http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawfeed...yguid=155632421 http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/RawChat/?yguid=155632421 http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawcat/?yguid=155632421 One of my dogs has some kind of IBS-like disorder and couldn't hold it for even a few hours so I would come home to nasty poop everywhere. A year into raw, he has no more problems. No accidents, no midnight wake-up calls in 8 months. All the dogs have gorgeous teeth and beautiful coats. They lost any "doggy" smell and are always fresh and clean. No ear infections either. I know I am not getting meat as cheap as maybe I could but I get raw stuff from a raw food dealer I found on one of the above groups. I get lamb necks at around $2.55 a pound, mackerel about the same. Walmart chicken quarters around .57 a pound. I hit the discount bins at the stores. I can find beef heart and turkey necks at one place for about $1.25 a pound. I think it all averages out to a little over $1.50 a pound, maybe more. I splurge on chicken feet as treats and they get O'Paws salmon oil. I hope I will save money on vet bills. I even fed the foster dog raw. His demeanor as well as his coat showed immense improvement. With all the carbs in dog kibble is it any wonder that dogs seem to calm down when the carbs are taken away?

It really is rewarding when your dog makes progress and you've worked hard to get there. Congrats! It finally quit raining up here in Montana but the sky is still very overcast. I thought I might have to evacuate since I live next to one of those irrigation canals that are also used for overflow (small stream flooding). I'd love to see the sun again. And have warm dry body parts when I walk the dogs. Robin

Ouch, poor baby! We are sending healing thoughts to Ollie! Robin

Haha! I initially thought it was all about the shedding but there's hardly any left to shed, they should by all rights be bald by now. They still roll in the dust. I think I will borrow Pig Pen for his nickname. Robin

The foster dogs do something different. Different in that my two dogs don't do this. The foster dogs take DUST BATHS. Needless to say it brings dust into the house for me to dust off of things. Anybody else got Dusty Dogs? Robin

I'm so very sorry. It is so hard. She was a beautiful girl and I hope one day you are reunited. Robin

I read in his book that Cesar took that sound from his mother in Mexico. She used it on her children when she wanted to stop them from doing something or to get their attention. I've used that and something else that is kind of mother-related. A trainer I know always used another sound on dogs and taught it to use. When dogs are underfoot and in the kitchen we would do a deep-voiced "OUT" that was more like "A-OOOOOOT". The trainer claimed it was the closest to the mama dog's vocalization meaning get out of my way. I don't watch his show very much any more but I caught practically all of his first two seasons when I was immersing myself in all things related to dogs. He has some good points and I didn't see anything really horrible done but it is edited for TV. The thing that made me most uneasy about him was when a client sued him after their dog got hurt when left to walk on a treadmill alone. Or something like that. But someone told me later that the client had permission to use the facilities and the dog wasn't under CM's care. One plus side for the CM people is this foundation they set up: Seems like a nice way to give back. http://www.millanfoundation.org/ Robin