MerseyGrey

I think the consistency will depend on how much water they take up, and how long you leave them afterwards, (to cool, with the lid) off before refrigerating them. Mine can look like fine dry(ish) breadcrumbs, or they can form larger wetter clumps. I wouldn’t get too hung up about this. It will slightly alter the amount of water your dog has, but they will probably compensate by drinking less or peeing a bit more on their walk

this is such wonderful news for everyone. I scrolled down to your signature to see ‘your status’ after the word ‘forebber forever’ because I couldn’t wait to find out! Looking forward to seeing the update

Yes, yes and yes. But if you’re home most of the time to train a new puppy you could make it work. I think this mix of breeds is known as a cockador so it will have lots and lots of energy, and will probably need plenty of mental stimulation as well as physical exercise, so it’s just a question of whether you can manage that. I think that having an older dog makes training a puppy a bit easier.

Happy gotcha day Sid! Nothing else gives such a satisfying ‘pop’ as styrofoam when it’s broken up, does it fella?

happy valentine’s to you all

Sorry for your loss

Adorable photos

good for you Mark! Happy birthday dude! You are looking very good for nine (who says black dogs don’t photograph well?)

maybe the warmth of the fire will help you mould him back into shape

My brother came to stay with us recently…I did put clean towel in his bedroom but somehow he missed this and used the green towel hanging over the shower cubicle. The dog’s towel. I haven’t told him yet

Hi Steerpike, have a look at the Ruffwear Flagline harness, large size. It has a sturdy metal clip which sits a bit further down the back than the shoulders, but has a second webbing hook (we have not used this to clip a lead to, I think more people clip to the harness and then to the collar for extra security). It offers very good control in my opinion, and in addition it has a handle on the back. We use one for Buddy who is around 37kg. It does have a chest panel but we haven’t noticed any rubbing coming from its use. Ruffwear do other designs too, like the Webmaster which you might prefer (chest strap vs chest panel). The lead we use with it is a Halti. It’s around 7ft long with a few D-rings on it, so if we wanted to we could clip it to the harness and wear it at the human end like a belt. https://www.instagram.com/p/CUIXdtBKUjS/?utm_medium=copy_link You can see how the dog will move on this video and get a good view of the harness https://www.instagram.com/p/CO8Ir2uhYS2/?utm_medium=copy_link If you scroll through to picture 4/5, this dog wears the lead attached to the harness and her collar. Stupid question possibly, but have you had any success with training your dog to watch you to help with reactivity?

Keep soaking up those rays Sweep! The sun shines on the righteous

She is beautiful and looks very at home already. for a long foster! (It seems like everyone here thinks you’re going to fail, but really, there are worse things to be bad at!)

Mooney learning about the circle of life

I enjoyed that video a lot! Starbuck hasn’t quite got the hang of PB at that stage. Unrelated, but did anyone else get the honey badgers video a little further down the page?!? Also very entertaining

We prep ours in advance too - about 4 tbsp of carrots in a lunch box, with enough boiling water to cover twice the depth of the carrots, if that makes sense? I don’t measure it out. And he gets about 1tbsp of rehydrated carrots twice a day. We have concluded that our dog just has loose stools, and that amount of carrots makes his first poop firm although his subsequent poops on a walk are still on the loose side - this is just his normal. The carrots add fibre so while a small amount will help to firm his poops up, too much will increase the bulk and you could get more, or bigger poops but not necessarily firmer poops. This is what we found.

Buddy runs hot on walks and only needs a coat when the temperature drops to around freezing. His favourite walks are at below 10C. But in the house, when he’s not moving he gets cold quite quickly and has had to wear coats to stop him shivering in August (Bristish summers can be unpredictable!}.

Gelsey is a girl after my own heart: eat first, ask questions later

and she’s traded her orange bandage for a funky new purple one. She looks good.

And I should add that teaching them the ‘leave it’ command, and crucially, being quick enough to use it (!) is useful because some poop contains real nasties like parvovirus which can make them quite sick. Good luck!

I don’t think anyone really knows why they eat their own poo, or other animals’ poo either. I have heard that it is because they are missing something in their diet, but I’ve also heard other theories from that it’s to keep their area tidy to they just like the taste of it! We have some experience of this. Buddy would regularly eat his own poo from the garden (never on walks) if we weren’t quick enough, occasionally eating it as soon as he’d produced it (clearly prefers a freshly cooked meal, gourmand that he is ). But it made him sick a few times so the only sure solution is 1) distract him with a treat as soon as he has pooped in the garden and 2) pick it up as soon as possible. We have had to amend his walking schedule as the main problem became him pooping in the house overnight, which he would eat, leading to a cycle of illness and more pooping in the house and a few expensive vet bills. Since the last occasion just over a year ago we have introduced a couple of chunks of pineapple to his treats each day as this is supposed to stop them from eating their own poo (really ruins the taste apparently) and he hasn’t eaten his own poo at all - it could be a coincidence but for the sake of a couple of chunks of pineapple it’s something I’m happy to keep up with. He also hasn’t pooped in the house so hasn’t had an opportunity for midnight snacks . We haven’t been as successful with other poop, particularly horse poo which he manages to snaffle even when he’s running. There are other GreyTalkers who have more experience with horses - as I understand it horse poop is pretty harmless unless they have been given some medication which potentially could have an effect on a dog, but again, my own experience of Buddy eating horse poo has been generally positive (it firms up his poo like no other substance but gives him stinky breath if he tries to come in for a kiss), so I don’t fret too much if he eats up, but I don’t encourage it either.

I don’t know the answer to this. It just seems that some have ears that are upright (erect?) more than others. Ears do for Buddy what eyebrows do for me - they seem to convey what he is thinking and feeling very well. He would never do well in that famous painting of dogs playing poker

Way to go Sweep!

He is gorgeous!