Jackson - fun with his toy

But unfortunately (unknown to us) the size of this Kong (red rubber ball) was just perfect so that in a freak manner it could slip down his throat and cut off his air supply! So – on the 4 Dec 2010; my wife and I struggled in vain to get this very large solid rubber ball from Jacksons throat – as he lay dying in front of our eyes. Even as I type this one year later, I am almost tearing over remembering how helpless we were to do anything. We tried a couple of ideas, but you only have four minutes – and we lost him.

Jackson - very sadly missed

It still hurts both of us (and particularly my wife) deeply. She has posted a Memoir of him – a collage of Jackson, our truly great friend and companion for an all too brief 3 year period – Here – note that the Powerpoint file with music is about 50 Megabytes and will take several minutes to download.

Steve

Visit the link here to find out more – and to view their dog of the week. Owning a Staffordshire is unlike any dog you’ve ever owned before; the bond between them and owner is so close.

Steve

A couple of friends of Julie went away on holiday – while they were away they left their Staffordshire male and bitch and the last unsold puppy in the care of the mans father. One night we had a huge series of storms pass through our region; but this man took no extra interest or concern in the 3 dogs wellbeing.

Two of the dogs became terrified by the sound of the thunder and in their fear escaped from the yard! They travelled some 3 kilometres (1.5 miles) seeking to escape the noise and unknowingly ended up on railway tracks. The two dogs were hit by a train and killed (I will spare the details).

We have our dogs inside (hey remember its called Dogloverstoolbox) – but they still get very scared, however we are able to reassure them and there are no issues with them trying to escape to find us or find peace. If your dog is usually outside – for the sake of the dogs safety please bring them in, during thunderstorms!

Steve

My answer is – yes! They will eat the same food if not given choice; but given choice – this particular breed will also eat fruits and raw or cooked vegetables too!

Now there are a few articles floating around on the web, stating that ALL dogs are strictly carnivores (meat eaters); but I strongly disagree! They go off-track because they base their argument on the dogs teeth, stating that since they have pointed canine teeth (at the front) they must be carniverous. But there are many examples of animals (like some bears and apes) that have similar type front teeth that are totally vegetarian?

So I know it’s just not true, from this evidence and from watching our own dogs eat apricots and apples that have fallen off of our trees. One of our own girls will even eat mandarin and banana (she prefers cooked banana). All dogs are selective omnivores – in other words they will select what they want to eat from a range of foods – given the choice. Some are just fussier than others and Bull Terriers – like our Staffordshire Bull Terriers – in general – are not fussy at all!

But there’s the key – if you don’t give your Staffordshire Bull Terrier a choice, he or she is stuck with what you offer? We always advise a homemade meal – that way you can add variety, you know what’s in the food and the dog gets a good range of nutrients from various sources.

If you are interested in trying a Homemade Bull Terrier diet, I can highly recommend this product.

My answer is – yes! They will eat the same food if not given choice; but given choice – this particular breed will also eat fruits and raw or cooked vegetables too!

Now there are a few articles floating around on the web, stating that ALL dogs are strictly carnivores (meat eaters); but I strongly disagree! And they go off-track because they base their argument on the dogs teeth, stating that since they have pointed canine teeth (at the front) they must be carniverous. But there are many examples of animals (like some bears and apes) that have similar type front teeth that are totally vegetarian?

So I know it’s just not true, from this evidence and from watching our own dogs eat apricots and apples that have fallen off of our trees. One of our own girls will even eat mandarin and banana (she prefers cooked banana). All dogs are selective omnivores – in other words they will select what they want to eat from a range of foods – given the choice. Some are just fussier than others and Bull Terriers – like our Staffordshire Bull Terriers – in general – are not fussy at all!

But there’s the key – if you don’t give your Bull Terrier a choice, he’s stuck with what you offer? We always advise a homemade meal – that way you can add variety, you know what’s in the food and the dog gets a good range of nutrients from various sources.

If you are interested in trying a Homemade Bull Terrier diet, I can highly recommend this product.

If you think it will make you lots of money, I would advise that you are likely to be in for a whole lot of disappointments! It’s hard work, there are real gut wrenching issues including deaths of bitches and pups; as well as quite considerable veterinary bills to grapple with! So – if you ARE going at it for the $$$ please reconsider?

But assuming that you have thought this through fully; we would advise that your bitch be on at least her 2nd season (here in Australia, pedigreed bitches must be two years old) – because the uterus is not fully ready for pregnancy and puppies prior to that. Sure she can get pregnant – but your chance of trouble increases dramatically!

So – she’s 2nd season (best much later), and you’ve noticed all of the things we mentioned here, now you’ll be wanting to observe her vaginal discharge closely. Here are a couple of myths:

Wait until bleeding stops. NO – TOO LATE – you have usually missed the action at this stage!

You CAN count on the following:

Bitch’s vulva (yes you’ll have to touch it) will go from firm (prior to ovulation), then very loose & stretchy (ovulation)!

Bright red discharge PRIOR to bitch readiness for mating

OK – now if after all of that you’re still unsure – you can take your bitch to the Vet for some blood tests to determine if she’s ready. They can be a little expensive, but if that’s no issue it will take the uncertainty of it away for you. However the above methods are tried n true – they can and do work for us and breeders worldwide.

Finally – once you know that your bitch is ready you can take her to your chosen stud and mate her every 2nd day for 2 or 3 matings.

Some AI (Artificial Insemination) is done for various reasons, often due to aggressive bitches or stud dogs that have no clue, even some canine diseases – but that’s probably more detail than is needed here.

If natural breeding – the dogs need to join (tie) and should be carefully held in place so that no damage is done to bitch or dog – by pulling away in panic or just too early. Even though dogs have done this for thousands of years they can and do harm themselves seriously if left alone – so experienced breeders (even novices) should always remain with the two dogs through the process.

Steve

If you’re not a registered breeder, you will really want to be careful in this matter – there’s a lot of time committment required and it can be expensive; not to mention that finding homes for unwanted puppies is hard work.

It’s important then that you’re on your toes – preventing this will be a bit of a challenge, depending on your pattern of work, the security of your property (from unwanted mates), and even if the bitch spends most of her time alone?

As a general guide – in the first 7 days of her season she’s not really interested in mating (though males will still be interested in her) – but the next 14 days or so ( add about 3 days extra to be certain) are the real risk period!

Do NOT underestimate the desire of neighbouring dogs to sniff her out (literally) – or her desire to go get mated! You MUST be vigilant – we’ve heard stories of people with 6 foot fences coming home to four males in the yard – or out walking with their hounds and them getting into trouble, one case of a person stopped at the traffic lights suddenly looking down to find a male has tied with their bitch!

One point – since it would be cruel to not walk your bitch for 3 weeks – we would highly recommend that, you consider making or buying a pair of Chastity Britches (see here). If you don’t do that you may have to house her in an appropriate kennel (with a run) – or even send her to a Boarding Kennel for that period.

My wife spends all of her time with our dogs – so its only rarely that they are left unattended. If it is required she will crate them briefly – which protects all of them from escape or theft – and any bitch in season.

Crated Bitch in season - to prevent unwanted matings

But lets assume that after all of your efforts though – you failed, it happened to us once – our bitch had only just finished with her previous litter and we did not want another so soon afterwards!

There IS a medical way out – and without any major side effects! The bitch can be given 2 x injections of Aglepristone 24 hours apart, 0-21 days after mating. As I understand it, this acts on the sperm to make the environment unfavourable – or if it has already bound with the egg, causes it to come away from the placenta – ending the pregnancy.

This should be a last line of defence though, prevention is better than cure – keep your bitch safe, or better still if no breeding is required or wanted; get her desexed ASAP.

Steve

Canine Cancer – a subject I would dread to have to come to terms with – but since we have five dogs, I guess we have five times more risk of facing?

I’m not going to waffle on at great length in this email, except to say that I was so suitably impressed with the look and feel of a product I came across that I bought it myself – take a look for yourself at the Dog Cancer Survival Guide & Video series.

I’m still impressed with what Dr Demian Dressler has to offer (even if his name does sound like one off an afternoon TV drama), it’s a 299 page Ebook and a 60 minute video of a cancer consult as well as some other offers. I was impressed enough by the book and video, to feel that the relatively modest fee was warranted, but I’ll let you decide. We’ve heard of a lady who’s dog was given 6 months to live and adopted this system and now he’s still going strong almost 6 years down the track.

It’s backed by Clickbank and has Paypal hook-up. Click Here

Till next time.

Cheers

Steve

I’m sure that you’re aware that among those who really care about what their dogs eat; there’s much debate about whether we should cook the dogs food or whether we should just leave it raw?

There’s even a really successful and popular system called BARF (Bones and Raw Food) that focusses on Raw exclusively! This remarkable system developed by an Australian Dr Ian Billinghurst has a lot of dedicated followers who swear that BARF is the ONLY way to go – and I must admit it has some great advantages for the dog.

But it is not the only way to go – and a recent article found that the meat proteins were slightly more digestible in meat that had been cooked; compared to raw. It was only a slight difference though!

If you choose raw (our opinion) – leave OUT the big bones part and give the dogs something SAFER to chew on to clean their teeth. We’ve heard quite some stories where there has been either dog or owner errors; allowing a bone to cause issues with gut obstructions or worse!

But it makes sense to us that since wild dogs, foxes, dingoes, coyotes, wolves, jackals etc do not have portable stoves – they have been designed to eat raw food exclusively.

Notice that I did not say raw meat exclusively! That’s because are not true carnivores (meat eaters), they are selective omnivores; meaning they will eat a range of foods.

In the wild dogs actually range and forage for all types of food – and while a lot of that will be meat, from rabbits, possums, lizards and insects – some will also come from bush foods and wild fruit – even fruit from man made orchards and vines!

This is why recipes for home made dog food – and our Top Dog Easy Ultra supplement (see Ebay here) should all feature a wide range of natural food components to ensure proper nutrition.

If you are not already feeding your dog a natural diet (whether raw or cooked) I would suggest that you should try it – the quality difference in a natural real food diet can make real differences in your dogs health.

We used to cook all of our meals – but the workload for cooking for 5 dogs once per month was higher, particularly in summer – when the extra heat made it more of a chore. Now we alternate between cooked and raw ourselves – and our dogs love it!

We use exactly the same Top Dog Easy Ultra supplement that is featured in my Ebay store, so you know that it’s quality and exactly what we choose to feed our own special family – and believe me; we loves ‘em!

OK – that’s it from me this time – till next!

Cheers

Steve

More recently doctors have found that a component of some oils—fatty acids, play important roles in human health too, from treating skin conditions, like eczema, and dermatitis, to aiding in the prevention and treatment of depression, for the control of inflammation, and as a preventative for heart disease. It is clear that these oils are essential in maintaining human health.

Our knowledge of the benefits of these oils is now also being applied to pet health.

So – what are fatty acids?

Simply put they are specific types of polyunsaturated fats. The two main classes are omega-3 and omega-6.

Why do pets need fatty acids in their diet?

Animals can produce some, but not all of the fatty acids they need. What they cannot produce themselves, MUST be obtained through diet, hence the name essential fatty acids (or EFA).

But what is essential for one species, is not necessarily essential for another, e.g, the fatty acid, arachidonic acid is essential for cats but not for dogs.

In some diseases, the enzymes that convert fatty acids to another type may be deficient, or the animals ability to absorb fatty acids from the intestine may be reduced.

And pets with poor quality food—like much of the lower quality commercial food sold in stores —simply lack the essential fatty acids in their food to provide the basis from which to make the others!

Additionally—fatty acids, like many nutrients; are subject to destruction, particularly by overcooking, which can destroy them and also by oxidation — commonly called rancidity.

Because of these factors it has become essential to provide these essentials to your dog — to maintain optimum health!

Richard and Susan Pitcairn, had the following to say in their book Dr Pitcairns Complete Guide to Natural Health For Dogs and Cats —

“Without adequate quantities (of EFA) come many health problems, including significant skin eruptions, loss of hair, skin that won’t heal from wounds, liver and kidney degeneration, increase susceptibility to infections, heart and circulatory problems, weakness, retarded growth, spontaneous abortions, sterility, impairment of vision, loss of ability to learn, symptoms similar to arthritis, and more. We can see from this list that these nutritional components are aptly named essential fatty acids.” Dr Pitcairns Complete Guide to Natural Health For Dogs and Cats pg 55

Ratios

There has been some discussion over the ideal ratios of Omega 3 to Omega 6, currently the range is suggested at between 5:1—10:1 Omega 3:Omega 6. Suffice to say that all of the evidence would suggest that they should be added to the diet, if not occurring naturally.

Key Essentials

Now I don’t want to turn this into a complex chemistry lesson, but it is important to a degree that you understand the basics as far as these essentials are concerned;

Omega-3

Omega-3 fatty acids include:

* Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA)

* Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)

* Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)

You will often hear them abbreviated down to ALA, EPA, DHA .

ALA can be converted into EPA, by your dog. EPA is the most essential of the omega-3 fatty acids, because it is a critical part of cell membranes or cell walls.

Omega-6

Omega-6 fatty acids include:

* Linoleic acid (LA)

* Gamma linolenic acid (GLA)

* Dihomo-gamma-linolenic acid (DGLA)

* Arachidonic acid (AA)

Doglovers Oil — Recipe

To make a great oil mix follow this recipe:

500 ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil

125 ml Cod Liver or Fish Oil

125 ml Flax Seed Oil

250 ml Sunflower Oil

If you are in the USA or similar — the following is an approximate conversion of the above recipe!

17 ounces Extra Virgin Olive Oil

4.25 ounces Cod Liver or Fish Oil

4.25 ounces Flax Seed Oil

8.50 ounces Sunflower Oil

Mix all oils together in a large glass bottle and shake well. Store this and any remainder from the original bottles in the fridge.

Use one teaspoon for small dogs, two teaspoons for medium dogs and 3 to 4 teaspoons for large dogs — sprinkle over their food once or twice per day.

Steve