Aroura

Anyone? Doesn't anyone know about this stuff? I've heard boxers are good swimmers, do they have to get used to it first? Help, please?

lol Rowie, at least you can spell pumpkin!!! :lol: My email addy is creamy_pumkin... when I was making it I wasn't thinking and just asked dad whether pumpkin had one or two p's, he musnt have been listening properly and said 'one', so now I'm stuck with a misspelled email addy. My name here is also miss spelled, its supposed to be Aurora, but I accidently spelt it wrong and so that stuck too, even when I joined maniac I intentionally miss spelt it... I guess I like miss spelt names, gives it more uniqueness (yeah yeah, I just don't wanna admit I'm 20 years old and can't spell for peanuts!!!) :wink:

I quite sure its nothing physical, she gets arthritis in winter from when she was hit by a car years ago, but aside from that she is fine and doesn't seem more upset in winter when the arthritis occasionally plays up than in summer when she is fine. Egg, she's full of energy, she'd chase a ball all day if only someone would throw it all day for her!!! Shannon, I think you're right. I moved out of home at the beggining of the year and she was fine. Everyday I'd have a dozen new visiters that she would met and bound around them with a ball. When I first got Lily I think she did feel a little put out by her, but most of the time now days Tessa is the one who is always in the house so it can't be that. Dad and I will be moving out sometime in the next few months, I think that may help things alot because dad and I havn't had a fight in about ten years and neither of us ever raise our voice. I don't know if Willem will come with us, she loves Willem but sometimes when he gets aggitated it really upsets her. Last night he wanted to kill Lily and was screaming at Tessa to eat Lily. I put the dogs in my room. Lets just hope things sort themself out when dad and I move out....

Tessa's been inside for ages!!! Since she's been jumping the fence all the time and we couldn't stop her we've just been keeping her in the house. She's out chewing a bone right now though. She's getting lazy, there's not much point making the fence higher as we are selling the house shortly anyway. Rowie, I know I've been away for a while!!! Just havn't been spending so much time online, my brothers back home and mums taken to spending more time on the net too, so I've got more people to compete with! Also I've been busy doing this that and the other :wink: Oh, I'll probably be gone completely in two weeks for a few weeks though! I'm going to Sydney for a bit, i'll see what I can do about finding someone with the net there though! Hey mouse, I know what you mean, it can get confusing at times! :o

Prozac, I think thats what my brothers on for his schizzophrenia :o Bk, its been going on for a long time. Our house is pretty unstable, mums always angry and screaming, Willem goes through his psycotic phases etc and Tessa always jumps the fence and runs away when any of this happens. Its like she's always worried we'll get angry at her, but I can't stop my mum from being angry or my brother being schizzophrenic. What does prozac do for dogs?

Tessa always looks sad, unless she's being fed, going for a walk or chasing a ball she's always got this 'woe is me' look on her face. I try to hype her up by jumping around like a clown etc which normally works for most dogs, but Tessa just sits and looks at me like the world is against her. Occasionally she'll be happy and jump around and even give a little lick, but compared to all the other dogs I know it isn't often. Even with new people, alot of the time she'll go and just stand next to them for a pat rather than jumping around excitedly. Some people would say she's just well behaved, but why can't I make her misbehave occasionally? She'll never 'play' with you like most dogs, she wont get down for a tumble or anything and she's only 4 years old and a very fit and healthy dog. Is there anything I can do to spark her up a little? Something I can add to her food or physical games that will make her want a cuddle? I'm sad that she seems sad :cry:

Its not a particulary hot day today, but when I looked out the window this morning I saw Lily standing under a tree looking into the house. I showed mum and told her that Lily was hot and that Boxers were'nt designed to be outside in the heat, they were bred as companion dogs and are supposed to be where we are, and to be kept cool. So, to my relief (and Lily's) Lily is allowed back in the house!!!! How cool is that? I didn't even have to beg for hours, I just made mum in a good mood by cooking her lunch, pointed out that boxers cooling system doesn't work as well as it should, told mum I'd teach her to sleep on a rug and that I'd vacuum every few days and she agreed!!!! :angel:

I took the dogs for a swim today. Lily's only been in volantarily once or twice before and only for short bursts... but today she just couldn't get enough! She just swam and swam, I swam next to her the whole time to keep an eye on her. She's a bit of a beef cake though, all muscle and no fat, head like a brick :wink: So she swam, and she swam and then I threw a little stick for her, and all of a sudden Puddles wanted a stick so I got a little one for her and chucked it in the water (meantime Tessa's swimming around with a 3 metre stick she'd found). Anyway, I turned back to Lily to see she'd swum straight passed the little stick I'd chucked and was at the other side of the creek trying to drage this log she'd spotted in the water. I was like "no Lily, what are you doing?" as I swam over and her head went right under the water and she started to sink, I pulled her up (and got a massive scratch on my belly) and helped her swim back to shore. She shook, coughed and went straight back in and sunk again!!!! (of course I was right behind her to pull her back out) My question is, will she always be a sinker or will her swimming muscles build up and help her learn to swim??? She'd been swimming for a while, she was just getting a little tired. She's fine now, got her home and gave her a bath and now she smells really yummy :)

I don't know, I like them both... Pooch Patrol has a good ring to it, but I think I like ~Dog Crazy~ more.

Um, I think I have a severe problem... I can't work out how to feed them!!!! Oh, I feel like a terrible pet owner. I'll starve them to death!!!! Help??? :drinking:

I joined the guild!!!! I don't get the whole reffering thingie though, I clicked on the link but it didn't work! Just took me to the main page of neopets... Well, gotta go for today, I'll try to work it out tomorrow!

Thanks guys, seems like the dog (her names Reef by the way) isn't coming up after all. Apparently Aladdins mums sick of having his three dogs at her house and so he had to get rid of one of them, at least until he gets a place up here next year. When he rang last night he told me how he was going to give Reef back to the guy who bred her (yes, he's a dog fighter) for a few months so that he could breed her, Aladdins mum wouldn't have the dog for a few months and Aladdin could get her back next year after she'd had pups and all would be good. I cut sick at him!!!! I told him how WRONG it was for him to let his dog breed and her pups to be faught etc. Then I lay up half the night unable to sleep because I was worried about the dog, until I sent him a phone message saying "don't give your dog to your friend, tell me you wont and I'll be able to sleep". Straight away he called me and told me that after talking to me (this guy would do anything for me, he would have paid for the dog to be in a kennel for three months if I'd just asked him) he'd found another friend who would take her. Apparently the dog loves this guy, she used to escape and run to his house all the time. So now Aladdins giving Reef to this other guy, who will desex her, keep her inside and take really good care of her. So thats a happy ending to an almost disasterous story, I'm glad I stepped in otherwise she would be having pups who will be faught and mistreated. Should I feel good about myself??? I'd take her myself if I could afford another dog!!! I'm going to visit her in 2 weeks :wink:

Ok, I've got myself a cute little Gelert named "DoobiScoo" (scoobi doo was taken...). He wants something to play with. Hey everyone, you should all join!!!!

ARGHHHHH!!!! The theiven little &^$%^$&!!!!!!! I've been in there all of two minutes and those dam ghosts have already stolen 100 np's from me!!!! :mad:

Alright, signed up. Don't spend much time online anymore, but I'll hop on whenever I can!!!! My name's addicted2dogs :angel: This could be fun! 8)

What a great idea egg, its a good way to get the word out to all sorts of people, focusing on the younger generation who we rely on to make the future a better place. I signed up years ago, then again a year or so under a different name.... I keep forgetting my name and password but now I've got a reason to go I'll sign up again!!! I'll let you know what name I get :D

My friend Aladdin, who goes to UNI here but lives in Sydney is going to bring up his Pit in the UNI holidays so I can meet her and we can all go for a drive to the coast (us and the dogs) for the weekend. I told dad about this and even asked him if she could spend a night or two at our house with our dogs and he's gone off his rocket!!! He believes that it would be the end of Lily if she were to be left with a Pit, and that they'd get into a fight and be ripped apart. From what I can gather this Pit (I havn't asked her name yet) is pretty friendly, she lives with two other dogs and never started a fight in her life... but she's unpapered and I think her breeder was a dog fighter :evil: I have to admit, Lily is a rather dominant dog and is very protective of me (she goes crazy if I'm patting another dog and chases them of then comes and stands between us). But so long as there is no food around she doesn't start any agressive fights. Do you think her behaviour would be enough to aggrevate this dog? Do you think she would be safe? Or do you think we should not take her to the coast just to be safe? Its one of those annoying situations where I want to take her, she's never seen the beach before, but I don't want to risk her safety.... :roll:

Boy do I have some goss for you!!! (I should have even more by the end of the week, but my week is going to be so busy I don't know when I'll find time to email you!) Anywhoo, umm, not sure about sardines, but whatever you do steer clear from pork! We gave Tessa pork for Christmas breakfast once. She got a car harness for her xmas pressie so that night we decided to take her for a drive around to look at the xmas lights.... BIG MISTAKE!!! We spend the whole trip with the windows down and our head out the window about to puke while Tessa just sat there grinning :D Never again...

[quote name='Rowie-the-Pooh']Where's Aroura when you need her? :lol: [size=6][color=green][b]CALLING AROURA![/b][/color][/size][/quote] [color=darkred][size=7]HERE I AM!!!!!![/size][/color] My internet hours have been VERY limited lately, havn't been able to keep up and just spent the past few hours reading this post!!!!! Well, lets see... my take on the situation is that everything has its ups and downs and that nothing is 100% safe.... so, what do we do? Well I guess the best way to know your not feeding your dog the wrong things is simply not feed it at all!!!! Yeah, sure, feeding raw has its dangers, but they are slim and provided you take the proper precautions it is extremely unlikely that anything will go wrong and you will have a nice happy, healthy long lived buddy for many years to come. You know exactly whats going into your dog and can add/take out certain foods where necissarry - tailer the diet to suit the individual dogs needs eg newfimom and her allergy dog :wink: Personally, for every negative I have read/heard on BARF I have learned of a million reasons not to feed commercial food. For the few small, biased studys that show problems with BARF there has been plenty more studys etc to say that commercial food is NOT the way to go. You can choose to beleive which ever side of the story and listen to which ever studys you wish, but just keep in mind - the pet food industry is a multi billion dollar industry, they can spen millions to do these one sided studys that come up with little evidence that kibble is best. Most of these studys are conducted on statistics from dogs that have gone to the vets sick and have been ill due to the feeding of raw foods. Where are the studys that have been properly researched? Controlled studys that show the benifits and downfalls of feeding commercial food v's BARF? Studys done with thousands of dogs, some fed on commercial foods, others fed on a BARF diet with all the necissarry sanitising done? There seems to be alot of studys thrown around about maybe ten dogs, out of the millions of dogs fed on BARF each day, that get ill. As I said before, the pet food industry is a multi billion dollar industry, they can afford to conduct these one sided studys, who's going to pay for studys that show the real benefits of BARF? Thats why I have spent the past few hours looking up studys on BARF and havn't found a thing, not because it is dangerous or deadly, but simply because no one has spent the time or money to do one of these studys. Gordon, I hope you come back and join the conversation again, I found all that you had to say extremely interesting! Hobbit, I'm sorry but not at one point did I see that Gordon was having a go at you, all I could see is her taking her years of research and experiences and applying them to what people have said. She was probably questioning things to sort things out in her own mind, when you've spent that much time researching something you tend to question things if they pop up and contradict what you have spent your whole life studying, I know this because my dads a scientist and anything that sounds a bit strange to him he will spend weeks trying to find out the whole story etc if he has to. Horsefeathers does have a point though, BARF very well may not be for all dogs, some dogs don't have as strong an immune system as others, so I can see your point too. One question though, you say you supplement your dogs diet with cooked meat, do you also supplement with Veggies? And if you do, do you cook them or feed them raw? Just curious.... Rowie, I was thinking exactly the same thing about the original poster (after spending so much time reading this thread you'd think I'd remember their name!!!). I remember reading just the other day "what is BARF" and now, from the same poster they are claiming to have all this research etc behind them, how can you so quickly learn so much, and at the same time keep an open mind to both sides of the story??? She says she has an open mind, but it has been obvious from the start that she refuses to see anyone else's point of view, and accuses people of not answering her questions when really the answers are there but she just chooses to see the ones she wants to hear. Oh, and Jacksmom, its alright, I do sleep!!!! I just keep my mouth closed.... Something bit my bum this morning, don't know if it was a spider but just the thought that it *might* be a spider that *may* be in my pants made me jump so high and quicker than the speed of light I'd stripped off my pants right down to my skimpy g-string right in the middle of my friends house with people watching!!! I didn't even realise it until I was standing right in the middle of the room, pants thrown into the corner, screaming and people asking me whats the matter and I was just sceaming "something bit my bum!!!! can you see a spider??!!!" Nope, not even a spider!!! I was just paraniod!!! Turns out I just got a little prik in the butt :wink:

Sorry I havn't emailed you yet!!!! I'm not often at home, and when I am there's always someone on the computer, so I never get a chance to use it!!! Maybe I'll email you from Aladdins comp, seeing as he's got the net and I can actually use his computer!!!! (I'll tell you all about him later, we're just friends but everyone wants to set up because I'm Jeanne, he's Aladdin... hehe, that would just be too wierd!!!) Anyway, I've found a site, go to: [url]http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Flats/6944/diet.html[/url] It sounds like a good diet, only I would cut out the oats/grains and feed two meals a day. Oh, and sorry I havn't called you yet!!!! I went out and spent all my credit in one night (but you get that) and so can't afford any more (not this fortnight, its mine and Katies 20th this week, plus I have my friends yr12 formal to go to and my sisters coming up from Coffs!!!). I'll call you when I get some money!!! :D

I havn't read it yet, its still down loading. I think the guy has a point about specific diets for specific breeds - not so much breeds as the specific dog, but I don't think tracing their heratige back is the way to go about it. For instance, look at the typical bull dog and the typical poodle, even if they lead the same lifestyle, they are built differently etc so have different nutritional needs to be catered for. Using my dogs as an example, Lily thrives off a diet high in fatty meat. She needs the energy and if she doesn't get that she looses weight so fast you wouldn't know what hit her. Tessa on the other hand, thrives on more veggies, with leaner meat. Too much fat in her diet and she just piles on the weight, no matter how little I feed her. All of that is pretty basic, and there is alot more to learn, but I'm no nutritionalist so I'll just stick to the basics! Newfiemom, about what you said he said about newfs and fish.... raw fish has something in it that in large doses it causes deficiencys (im not sure of what it is or the deficiency it causes... got a memory block). Maybe its what they ate back then, but now that we know better I don't know how this guy, if he indeed knows anything about dogs, can be telling us that thats what we should feed without warning of the possible side effects!!!

[quote name='Jacsmom'][color=blue][size=6]Love ya'll[/color][/size] :lol: :lol: :lol: I knew it would get Sash but did know bout Carol...someone else once stood on the side of a shower.......(memory lapse)[/quote] Hehe, that was me :oops: I'd heard it before though, I'm telling you though, the thought of not sleeping did cross my mind!!!

A few months back I had my dogs on a no carb diet. I put them on BARF and just fed them meat and veggies (with other things of course, like kelp, eggs etc). The dogs both had loads of energy, like any healthy dog, but were no longer hyper. I don't know whats the best as far as commercial dog food goes, the best dog food is more expensive than BARF anyway, so if I could afford that I'd be feeding BARF anyway!!!! Right now I'm feeding lots of meat, bones and veggies with a bit of dry food. The dogs love it, the dry food isn't too high in carbs plus they get all the meat and veg wich make the overall consumption of carbs even lower and the dogs are doing great on it. Lily still runs around and acts like a maniac, but its not hyperactivity, just her way of using up her energy. When she was on a higher carb diet she was phsyco, running around knocking everyone over and nipping. Now she's just a clown, still full of beans but without the annoying bad habbits! Have you considered feeding BARF?

I'll email it to you (and reply to that essay you wrote me!) when I have a bit of spare time. Hey, it wasn't *that* type of dinner :wink: Just some dinner and a few drinks, then went to a party, then the pub.... did see Steve out though :wink: [size=2](hey, where's the kiss emoticon???)[/size]

Thanks shannon :) Sounds like boxers are just a smaller, more compact Bullmastiff! At least Bull mastiffs have a size to match their character though! :o Smooshie, fashion consious? You bet'ya! She wouldn't sit anywhere else but that bean bag... but seeing as dad had spent a long time making it many years ago and her claws were beggining to wreck it they had to confiscate it :(