I had a really exciting week this week. I went in to see the Vet. First thing I did was pee on her floor..she didn’t mind too much though. She gave me a good check over, she looked in my ears and checked my teeth. She talked to my human about the food I eat. She also talked to my human about whether I get a vaccination and they decided I should, but I won’t need another one for 3 years after that one. The Vet was nice and she gave me treats without me having to sit.
I have been going for walks on the lead around my section. I am learning how to heel, which means I walk right beside the person taking me for a walk. Sometimes I go too slow and I am encouraged forward with treat. Sometimes I go too quickly and the collar around my neck pulls, so I slow down. I need to concentrate all the time to get it just right. That’s quite hard for me to do, but I’ll do a bit more practice each day and I’ll get it right. My human says its important I learn to walk nicely, so I get to go out on lots of fun walks.
And at the end of the week I did get to go out on a fun walk with a group of dogs from Animates. Once a month, on the last Saturday of the month, there are people that meet at the pet shop and walk down to Memorial park. I went with 2 other dogs from home, that were staying with us. It was too far for me, so my human ended up carrying me much of the way back, but it was great to meet other dogs and have a good time.
There’s so much to learn and experience when you are a puppy

What do I feed my Puppy?

Earlier this month our family decided the time was right to get a new puppy to be a friend for the children and a playmate for the dogs that stay with us. We chose Millie from the SPCA, breed unknown..the card says Collie X but who knows. I see you can now do DNA testing on dogs to determine their exact breed. Perhaps we’ll have a think about that.
The first stop was to get some food for her. I remember a little girl asking me once when I was at a Veterinary Clinic..”What’s the best thing to feed a cat?...I suspect she wanted me to say a particular brand of cat food. I replied “The best thing to feed a cat is a bird, or a mouse or a rat, as that is what they’d eat if they were in the wild. If they were supposed to eat out of a can, they’d be born with a can opener around their neck.” There was stunned silence from the little city kid..obviously this was a completely foreign concept to her. I don’t know if she got a second opinion from someone else to do her school project , perhaps my answer wouldn’t have given her a great mark, but it’s still the truth.
So what should you feed a puppy . If Millie was in the wild her mum would eat and regurgitate the food so the puppies could eat a mince like consistency. So Mum would scavenge and forage on whatever was available in the environment at the time. If she came across a dead carcass or killed something the first thing she’d eat would be the stomach contents, and so get a good variety of pre-digested veges. She’d have a munch on a bit of the liver and get some A and D vitamins, she’d crunch on some of the leg bones and get some calcium and give her teeth a good clean in the process, she’d eat a bit of eyes, a bit of kidney, a bit of brain and get a good array of Vitamins, Minerals and essential fatty acids. This raw mince up food would be what the puppy ate and then as it got older it would head out and eat the same things Mum was eating.
So as her new Mum I needed to find something similar. I headed along to Pet Essentials and bought her a bag of the bickies she was eating at the SPCA so I could gradually introduce the new diet. I also got some puppy mince which has lamb, chicken, tripe and heart and chicken necks to introduce her to the joys of chewing on raw bones. She took to her new diet ravenously and since then has eaten, in addition, green tripe, whole chicken carcasses( from the Aussie butcher), chicken wings, chicken drumsticks, fish and salmon heads,( from Sanfords) big lumps of kidney, heart, a little liver, beef and lamb brisket, whole eggs, Tukkathyme, blended veges and left over veges and fruit. She has had a sprinkle of spirulina and occasional LSA mix also. There are a few different people recommending raw food diets and they vary slightly as the amounts of bones and whether to feed grains or not. Certainly any version with fresh raw ingredients, that actually have some life in them, and are free of colourings, flavours,preservatives,tons of bad fats and salt, will significantly increase your pet’s health and lead to a longer and happier life.
Millie certainly agrees with me.

Millies 3rd week

I am really good at doing sit now..and now I am learning “down” , which is lie down. When I do sit my human then puts the treat on the ground in front of me and I put my nose down and she moves it away .If I keep my bottom on the ground I have to go down to get the treat. Sometimes I forget to keep my bottom on the ground and my human reminds me by putting her hand over it to keep it there. She says Millie ..down at the same time..more pats..more good girls, more treats.
My family is a mum, a dad and 2 children. All the family help with my training by all doing and saying the same thing. The children have learnt how to ask me to sit and down too..and that’s really helpful that they all do and say the same thing..otherwise I could be a confused puppy. I get visitors come and meet me and they are asked to make sure I sit when I greet them..my human has to train them too…
My human children love to play and pat and cuddle me. I play with balls and in the paddling pool at my house. I have a big section and I am so lucky that my human has a Doggy Day Care and Pet Home Stay at their house. This means I get lots of other dogs to play with and learn things from. My human says dogs are pack animals and so need to meet and interact with other dogs and all the dogs that come and stay here have lots of time to do that. I feel sorry for dogs that are at home alone all day. I hear that solitary confinement is a punishment for humans…how do they think their dogs feel being in solitary confinement???
This week my human bought me some green tripe to eat as well…she says it smells awful but I love the smell and the taste..yum yum.
It’s great fun being a healthy puppy..