Dog Owner Chat V. 5

[Haagen-Daagen]

So excited to meet this lady. ❤️ My dad will be back home with her next month but for now I have to settle for the photos and videos he sends.

She is very friendly and affectionate, much more interested in engaging with people than Spikers was. She hasn’t shown any reactivity so far but plenty of prey and toy drive. We’ll definitely have to work on her when she gets here to prevent any accidents involving our chickens because she has already caught and killed a couple birds while my dad has been out there haha

[drift.]

@Gamora
Oo that's right, you're our friendly neighborhood canadian x)
huh I didn't know certain pet websites were only based here in the states

[ᴍᴀᴏᴄɪғᴇʀ]

Discussion topic:

What brand/type of food do you feed your dog? Why?

Nothing special, I wouldn't say their diets are anything... Commendable.
My dogs eat Butchers tinned food and Harringtons biscuits (< Sometimes it's Bakers but we try not to with that). It's definitely not the best for them but it's not the worst and it's affordable without being too cheap, you know what I mean?

I wanted to start Winston especially on a raw diet since I want him to be a big healthy boy but I don't earn money and we can't afford it. Maybe once I start working, I can feed them both better.
Winston eats anything though, except fruits/veg that aren't bananas or carrots.
Ruby is very picky. She'll turn her nose up at anything tinned that isn't Butchers classic since that's what she's always had, and she's also picky about which biscuits she'll eat — at 9 years, it's her luxury, she basically choses the dog food we buy. Other than that, she's a massive fan of vegetables and certain fruit so she scrounges that whenever possible.
I'd like them both to eat fruit and veg and other healthy stuff but organic is expensive and so is the fruit they can eat. The occasional free-range egg, too, is pricey.
Shady eats dried food only, specially tailored to her, mixed with cod-liver oil and her medicines. She gets it good because she's old and she deserves that kind of treatment. She has a raw egg a week to keep her coat healthy, too, and gets bone broth, market-bought animal part like pig's ears and lamb feet, and leftover meat whenever it's there. She'll also raid my grandma's allotment when she gets the chance, and loves eating blackberries off the bushes when they're in season. She's definitely the most healthy eater.

On the note of raw feeding, I thought I'd found a great raw food supplier before I realised it was an American company (though I can't remember the name now). All the British & Irish sourced meats, organic and welfare certified supplies here are crazy expensive. I guess I'm also very picky xD
The price of Winston-sized portions too, wow. Maybe I haven't looked far enough though, I seemed to spend a lot more time on YouTube looking at everyone's Malamutes & Huskies and their amazing diets than I did actually searching.

[Fysha]

just got out of the hospital from a two week stay. still feeling very sick, what are some easy things i can do with lucky to get him back into his training and make sure he hasn't forgotten anything?

Just go through the simple tricks that he already knows. If you want to work on heeling again just take it slow and work out in the yard. Even five mins of work every few hours will do wonders. I have always work my border collie Maya by just going over tricks she already knows.

@food discussion

My border collies get fed Acana (Canadian) and my German Shepard cross is fed Canadian Naturals.

[liv :)]

I plan to get a good, high quality harness for Blue. The one we use right now suffices, but I don’t imagine that it’s very comfortable and it’s rather low quality. Not to mention that it isn’t the most attractive thing lol.

I’m looking at two harnesses right now. The IDC Power Harness from Julius-K9 and the Urban Trail Harness from Alpine Outfitters.

The Urban Trail Harness is less costly than the Power Harness, but that isn’t a big concern if one harness is significantly better than the other... unfortunately, I don’t know much about harnesses so I was hoping some more harness-savvy people here could help me.

Does anyone have any experience with one or both of these harnesses? Would you recommend them? For those of you that don’t, what harness sounds better based off of their descriptions? Are there any other harnesses I should be looking at?

Thank you so much in advance!

[Imzadi83]

I plan to get a good, high quality harness for Blue. The one we use right now suffices, but I don’t imagine that it’s very comfortable and it’s rather low quality. Not to mention that it isn’t the most attractive thing lol.

I’m looking at two harnesses right now. The IDC Power Harness from Julius-K9 and the Urban Trail Harness from Alpine Outfitters.

The Urban Trail Harness is less costly than the Power Harness, but that isn’t a big concern if one harness is significantly better than the other... unfortunately, I don’t know much about harnesses so I was hoping some more harness-savvy people here could help me.

Does anyone have any experience with one or both of these harnesses? Would you recommend them? For those of you that don’t, what harness sounds better based off of their descriptions? Are there any other harnesses I should be looking at?

Thank you so much in advance!

I haven't used either but they both look good. I prefer the JuliusK9 one. I like the reflective stripe and the handle. The Alpine looks okay but just doesn't impress me. It looks like it's also good for sports where your dog pulls you which personally I wouldn't need.

Although I've never used them myself I've heard great things about Ruffwear harnesses https://ruffwear.com/collections/harnesses

Other companies to look into would be Kurgo https://www.kurgo.com/dog-walking-harnesses/
Ezydog http://store.ezydog.com/categories/dog-harnesses/
I also like the look of this harness...https://www.petsmart.com/featured-brands/kong/dog/kong-comfort-dog-harness-42040.html?cgid=5000057

I've never used any of the above personally, but they are ones I would consider. Chloe is difficult fit with her broad chest and the fact that she's hairless. When I adopted her she came with a Puppia harness. It was nice but the straps were too far up in her armpits and she didn't like walking in it. I use a My Canine Kids harness on her now and she is much more comfortable in it. Both brands however are geared towards small dogs so I don't know how bid they go up to or how big you would need.

I sometimes use a Lupine roman style harness https://www.lupinepet.com/store/dogs/dog-harnesses. I like the different designs and the fit. I love that it's so adjustable, as I use it over her clothes. They're good quality, have an "even if chewed" guarantee, and have great customer service. The only downside is that I put her tags on the back D ring and weighs the back piece down from one side to the other and I wish that it stayed in place.

I also use a Rope-N-Go in the bathtub, it's been very sturdy and washable. http://ropengo.com/I wouldn't use it as a walking harness as it's too far forward under her armpit. But I like the lightness of it, and wouldn't hesitate to use one on another dog as walking harness. Certainly for a quick potty break the easy on off is very neat.

[Flossie]

I plan to get a good, high quality harness for Blue. The one we use right now suffices, but I don’t imagine that it’s very comfortable and it’s rather low quality. Not to mention that it isn’t the most attractive thing lol.

I’m looking at two harnesses right now. The IDC Power Harness from Julius-K9 and the Urban Trail Harness from Alpine Outfitters.

The Urban Trail Harness is less costly than the Power Harness, but that isn’t a big concern if one harness is significantly better than the other... unfortunately, I don’t know much about harnesses so I was hoping some more harness-savvy people here could help me.

Does anyone have any experience with one or both of these harnesses? Would you recommend them? For those of you that don’t, what harness sounds better based off of their descriptions? Are there any other harnesses I should be looking at?

Thank you so much in advance!

Out of those two options, I like the Julius K9 better.
I highly recommend the curli harnesses. They’re the ones we have used on Lacey from the beginning, and she loves them. They don’t restrict her movement, and the material is very breathable.
Here’s the one they do for big dogs: https://www.mycurli.com/en/belka


Speaking of Lacey, I haven’t posted her in a while! She’s doing good, we had an incident of making her sick at the vets, due to her eating a small box and we thought she ate the contents. Thankfully she didn’t, but you never know with her. Definitely not leaving anything near her again, even if we thought she couldn’t get it lol.
She’s also badly in need of a haircut, but sadly her groomer is currently sick, and the other groomers in the area are either vets, or ones we haven’t heard the best about, so hopefully her groomer recovers soon. Only good thing about it is her head will be a bit more rounded due to the hair being so long when she gets her Bichon cut haha.

[ᴍᴀᴏᴄɪғᴇʀ]

Is there a special name for harnesses that clip around or just below the shoulder blades? I've only seemed to find big padded ones or small ones that have thin straps and I don't want anything too thin that may cut into Winston or pull on his neck / restrict his shoulder movement.
I spent around £50 on his last harness, but it moves around a lot on his back, makes him a bit hot, and doesn't give me much control. The only thing relatively handy about it is that it has a handle on it so I can hold him.
Any suggestions for high-clip harnesses?

Also, something else, does anyone use any super long or bungee leads when walking your dog around in fields or stuff? I'd like to get Winnie something really long so that he's free to run about and chase after the ball and go say hello to other dogs, but with a lot of smaller dogs coming up to him in the valley recently trying act all "macho", I like to keep him controlled to be able to get him off of them when he does retaliate. I have found some of those cheap but I wondered if any of you knew any that were comfortable and durable?

Sorry for the long questions and thank you in advance c:

[Tipsy]

Oh gosh I love this dog! Anyone have a velcro dog? I thought Swizzy was overly attached but Stella refuses to leave my side. She has the saddest puppy dog eyes, so emotional.

[liv :)]

Also, something else, does anyone use any super long or bungee leads when walking your dog around in fields or stuff? I'd like to get Winnie something really long so that he's free to run about and chase after the ball and go say hello to other dogs, but with a lot of smaller dogs coming up to him in the valley recently trying act all "macho", I like to keep him controlled to be able to get him off of them when he does retaliate. I have found some of those cheap but I wondered if any of you knew any that were comfortable and durable?

We make our own long leads for Blue. We have a 100ft long lead made of old climbing rope, but I wouldn’t recommend that as a material since it’s so heavy. We like using it in remote fields to play fetch with her, so we can do long throws and she can get some good exercise. We also have a 20ft nylon rope lead that we use for hiking. I’d recommend that much more, it’s durable and strong but also very light. But that’s only if you want to make your own long lead, I don’t have any experience with store-bought ones.