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Imani's Mom said it so well I will do what I can not repeat here.  She said it right.

Unfortunately, we live in a society today where we do not question vaccines - they are such a pushed medical procedure by trusted medical professionals.  There are scores of information out there on the danger of vaccines today however if people want to do their homework and look. The CDC has established an entire separate agency dedicated solely to vaccines to handle all of the lawsuits on a monthly and yearly basis for serious side effects and premature deaths resulting from vaccines.  It is a prolific problem and my hope is more information will be forthcoming.

As Imani's mom stated however, it is a healthy immune system that protects and fights disease - NOT vaccines. Vaccines ARE the disease, as well as many other chemicals. There is no guarantee in them, they often fail, and they often become virulent (causing the actual disease they are aiming to prevent).  This the primary argument against the lepto vaccine for instance - it actually causes lepto more often than not (either acute or carrier state).

What we should be focused on is building a healthy immune system, through controlled natural exposure to illness and disease in order to build resistance, feed a healthy diet, and avoid chemical/toxin assaults on the system.  My dogs have never been vaccinated - a lesson learned after poor health, allergies, cancer and auto-immune problems in prior dogs.  My current dogs are the healthiest I have ever had and actively socialize in a large play group of dogs. A puppy in this group got Parvo - no known parvo in my city so I am convinced from her vaccine - and several dogs in the group got sick. Diarrhea and vomiting were common in all of these vaccinated dogs that were supposedly "protected" - my dogs?  Not a single sign of illness. I focused on their immune system and started boosting it when we learned of the illness through diet and vitamin supplementatio n. My girls' best friend is only now returning to normal and eating regularly again...my girls never skipped a beat.  It truly is the immune system - and vaccines are giving a hugely false sense of security.

Nosodes are based on the homeopathic principle - you may see many of my other posts here referencing homeopathy. It can be given as a preventative or to treat disease. There are mixed views on this since most homeopaths believe it should not be given preventatively, but rather only when exposure has occurred. Conventional science has a problem with homeopathy, so most vets will not support and it is against their oath - they like to say that "nosodes are not proven".  There isn't a lot of "clinical trial" study to support nosodes, but they have been used in the UK for more than 30 years as a matter of course. In the UK, nosodes have historically performed much better than vaccines. This is all anecdotal evidence through vet reporting however. No medical body has any vested interest to pay for clinical trials so it is unlikely to happen.

One important fact about nosodes - they should NEVER be given with vaccines or after vaccination to try to antidote them.

Also, Nosodes, like vaccines, do not confer immunity. Only the immune system can do this.

I highly recommend you purchase Catherine O'Driscoll's book "Shock to the System"...she dedicates an entire chapter to nosodes, what they are, how they should be used if at all, and all the scientific references available regarding them. She discusses vaccination, the immune system, clinical studies and nutrition as well.  An excellent and highly informative book about the vet profession and I can't recommend it enough.

An awful lot of you are talking about feeding your raw bones indoors and this is very concerning to me. I want to preface what I am about to say by saying that I have been feeding raw for 5 years, several dogs, and prepare diets for people on a regular basis. I don't find handling raw meat "icky" or see what is gross about holding a turkey neck so....with that said:

Raw meaty bones in your house is a serious health hazard and not to be taken lightly. You can't rub a meaty bone on your floor and think a "quick mop" is going to do anything to effectively clean the surface. It would take serious chemicals - bleach, ammonia etc. to effectively clean the bacteria - even if it has been frozen you should not presume safety and bacteria free.  I don't recommend using these chemicals as these are hazardous to your animals and would not want them walking on these surfaces afterwards. I do not recommend touching door handles, appliances or other surfaces before washing your hands thoroughly and definitely recommend against allowing your dogs to chew on bones on rugs or regular floor surfaces.

For those raw feeders I know who cannot allow their dogs outside to chew (either too cold etc.), they lay out plastic with a sheet on top so that then at least they can wash the sheet in extremely hot temperatures. I recommend this over allowing them on any other surface.

Personally, my dogs don't set food indoors with a bone - they chew them outside where they stay and since breakfast is always our RMB meal - I hand them their turkey necks outside in the morning.

The last time we fed a bone, it was one of those huge knuckle bones from petsmart,   Seems like the soup bones wouldn't break as sharply as the knuckle bone did.

 Is that right? Will they still pass bone pieces with eating a soup bone?

Knuckle bones ARE soup bones - same thing. They are Beef Knuckle bones from the joint of long bones. Grocery stores all carry them and their benefits of feeding the as recreational chewing is as raw bones - no value to cooked and those would be more dangerous since if consumed so large, would have a much harder time passing and breaking down. There is little meat on them but dogs tend to scrape the raw meat and this is an excellent teeth cleaner - I have never had my dogs' teeth cleaned in their life and they better than the kibble fed dogs who get cleanings.

Beware however of the grocery store variety as these are "cut" bones and some are small relative to their orginal state.  Cut bones, if you have an aggressive chewer who consumes them, can do damage and come out scraping the intestines. Ideally, if you can order them uncut from a butcher or farmer - huge - at least 8 inches long - that is the best and safest manner - Oh and always RAW.

Green tripe is fantastic for dogs - they always love it and it has an excellent balance of nutrients for them - both fiber and offal.  Be sure to never feed bleached tripe - this has all nutrients washed and bleached and provides absolutely no value. It is important to still have the stomach contents in the tripe - this the "green" which is really black   and this is what dogs love.

Good luck!

I have heard a lot about them from Great Dane people - who often turn to them for the common Spondylosis and Wobblers issues in that breed.  One colleague of mind recently referred several to this site for more information:


http://www.danebytes.com/gold_bead_implants.htm

My understanding is success is excellent on young dogs who seek treatment early and drops to only 50% when the dogs are elderly or over 10 years of age.

Good luck

My Berners have always been very easy to potty train, and my current girl took just 3 days to understand and 2 weeks to be trusted and reliable on her own. The breed is highly trainable this way - of course, it depends on our consistency

In my experience, the key to training effectively is to consistently show the behavior desired and reward for it (you're doing that) and don't allow the puppy to be wrong. Mistakes are reinforcing and each one doubles the amount of time to undue. The goal is 0 accidents inside and you can get it done in 3 days like I did.  If accidents happen, they must be caught in the act or there is no learning.

I strongly advise against the use of puppy pads - that does nothing to show the puppy the desired behavior OR location and should only be used in desperate situations such as gone all day long and left alone in a kitchen - not ideal.

In my case, I picked up my girl a couple minutes after eating or drinking and took her outside to the same spot - when she squatted I said "go potty" and after 4 or so repetitions of this she learned the association of the action and word command. We stayed outside until she went by the way...patience . Thereafter, I continued taking her outside every 40 minutes or so to empty herself with the same routine. They seem like they are never empty

While inside, I stayed within 2 feet of her at all times. This is tough for many and so I recommend tethering him to your waist. If she went into a squat, I was right there to pick her up and say "no", moving her outside. Any further than that, and we can't be on top of the action. I always left our back door open for my first Berner, and while he was generally good at going on when he needed he never learned to scratch the door or truly tell me he needed out should the door be closed...this can backfire....so with this girl, I never left the door open, so she learned how to manage with it closed and had to tell me and give me a sign.

We used potty pads while flying home on the airplane together in her bag and in the airport. Here's a great lesson of how this can backfire too:  my girl was good and knowing where to go - outside is first choice. But for the first few days, she would go to the back door and if closed, she would turn and head upstairs straight to the master bathroom, where we had...of all things....whit e bath mats. Funny, they looked like a potty pad.  She peed the first time on the bath mat - very smart girl. So realizing this, I waited for the second instance, and when she turned to head upstairs I allowed her to go...following her...and waited until she got up to the bathmat and started to squat - then I quickly picked her up while saying "no" and ran her downstairs and outside. She understood that the bathmat was also not the right choice through clear association and it never happened again. This is the final key lesson - always catch them in the act in order to correct the behavior. I could have always prevented her from going upstairs to the bathmat but there was no learning in that - I needed to undue the thinking that the bathmat was choice #2. This is harder and harder to do the more times they have been successful going inside without being caught in the act and moved appropriately outside.

So just remember to focus on 1) very close supervision within 2 feet, 2) catch them in the act and move them promptly 3) set up structure to teach the behavior you want such as door closed and an indication they need out 4) reward profusely for going outside 5) set them up for success and take them out frequently so they cant be wrong

Good luck

Thor doesn't need a crate, he needs mental and physical stimulation due to severe boredom.  He is only trying to entertain himself and get out his pent-up energy so it is critical to help him do this and it means he needs more exercise, socialization and stimulation.

I don't know how old he is, but crating a dog for more than 4 hours or so during the day, especially if already crated through the night is not productive or useful. He needs to be able to stretch, utilize his leg muscles and address his own energy level. Crating him during the day will make your current problem worse.  He is a working dog who needs something to do.

If you have long work schedules or are gone a lot, can you get him into a doggie daycare where he can play and socialize with others his age? If not, how about hiring someone to come in twice a day and play with him? neighbor child? professional dog walker?  These are positive solutions that will help alleviate his frustration and your's.

Good luck!