Zach 'n' Hurley, back atcha.

[temper35]

whatever you decide to do, its really probably one of the least of your worries as a bulldog owner.

[MisterMagoo]

whatever you decide to do, its really probably one of the least of your worries as a bulldog owner.

ain't that the truth. tomorrow i gotta clean up half the house, buy all the crap for him, and get his vet appointments ready. two crates, food dishes, food of SOME kind, lead and collar, grooming supplies, a harness or something for in the car or a THIRD crate otherwise, i've got a lot on my plate here. for $2000 he'd better run out into the front yard and mug the joggers. 

[chaos]

ain't that the truth. tomorrow i gotta clean up half the house, buy all the crap for him, and get his vet appointments ready. two crates, food dishes, food of SOME kind, lead and collar, grooming supplies, a harness or something for in the car or a THIRD crate otherwise, i've got a lot on my plate here. for $2000 he'd better run out into the front yard and mug the joggers. 

They make seatbelt harnesses, I don't know how good they are..........~flower~?

[danielson]

What does the title of this thread even mean?  "Zach 'n' Hurley, back atcha."

[~flower~]

They make seatbelt harnesses, I don't know how good they are..........~flower~?

 I have never used them but I have heard they have saved lives.  My big dogs are too big to ride in the seats, they ride in the back of the Rav4.


 Get metal bowls, not plastic.  You could get ceramic but they can break.


  And the food you choose IS important (whether it be raw or kibble) I can't believe on a bb'ng board that I have to even say that.   

[~flower~]

If you are going to go with kibble but switch to a different kind than he has been eating you might want to get his current food and the new food and slowly mix them over time til he is just eating the new food.  Switching crapples suddenly has been know to cause digestive problems, not in every dog, but being in a new home may heighten that so I would be prepared.  You can mix them slower or faster depending on how he does.  

[knny187]

Seat belt harness's work.  There's alot of reasons, but here's a few:

a) prevents the dog jumping around from seat to seat while driving

b) in an accident, prevents them from being thrown out of the vehicle or through the window

c) in an accident, in prevents the dog from fleeing the scene.

I've know 2 people that were in accidents & had a dog in the car.  When they stop & looked around, they realized the dog 'flighted' from the scene because it got scared.  Luckily one person I know, got their dog back 3 days later when someone found it miles from where the accident was.

Use metal bowls if you can.

Recent research has found not to use ceramic bowls especially if made from China.  Basically because of lead contamination.  I also read, they've pretty much figured out that problem & it's a problem in the past, but it's not like they ever recalled the original problem.  So would you still want to take the chance?  Everytime I go in a Pet store, I check the bowls.  They're 95%+ made from China.

Plastic bowls are not a good recommendation.  I used to have a lab & she was highly allergic to the plastic bowls.

[~flower~]

fricken china     Good point on the ceramic knny, I avoid them because of the breakage but yours is an even better reason.


 fricken china, lead paint, contaminated pet food ingredients that killed and harmed all those dogs.     

  boycott the Olympics!!    

[MisterMagoo]

well i'm hitting up PetCo in a little while, we'll see what kinda stuff I can pick up. I've got my shopping list and a big list of the best kibbles, so at the very least I'll have a halfway decent dry food for him before i make my decision on raw/whole.

[temper35]

well i'm hitting up PetCo in a little while, we'll see what kinda stuff I can pick up. I've got my shopping list and a big list of the best kibbles, so at the very least I'll have a halfway decent dry food for him before i make my decision on raw/whole.

No offense, but you probably won't find any decent food at Petco or Petsmart.

[MisterMagoo]

No offense, but you probably won't find any decent food at Petco or Petsmart.

eh, i found something that'll last him a few weeks after i get him. next batch is getting ordered online.

[Princess L]

No offense, but you probably won't find any decent food at Petco or Petsmart.

I was just about to say that 

I'm going to see if I can dig up the most recent WDJ top 10.

[MisterMagoo]

I was just about to say that 

I'm going to see if I can dig up the most recent WDJ top 10.

well, hopefully they have a decent return policy. I might as well go on a little errand tomorrow, i've got the extra time.

and apparently they carry royal canin bulldog, which got a score of 100 on the link i gave.

[temper35]

well, hopefully they have a decent return policy. I might as well go on a little errand tomorrow, i've got the extra time.

and apparently they carry royal canin bulldog, which got a score of 100 on the link i gave.

For what it is worth, I feed my dog the Chicken Soup for the dog lovers soul adult formula.  It sounds gimmicky or gay but it isn't, I actually am pretty sure it is one of the few kibbles flower recommends.

I used Solid Gold for a while when he was a puppy.  Then for over a year or so I tried Canidae which seemed to make his bowel movements irregular, almost constipating him.  Also tried Eagle Pack, which was the same result more or less.  I'm happy with the Chicken Soup, and you can order it online and it is cheap too.

[MisterMagoo]

i actually went for the nature's recipe healthy skin. it got a pretty high rating on that site, so it should be good to start off until i settle for something else.

toss me a link for the chicken soup business? i'm curious now.

[Butterbean]

For what it is worth, I feed my dog the Chicken Soup for the dog lovers soul adult formula.  It sounds gimmicky or gay but it isn't, I actually am pretty sure it is one of the few kibbles flower recommends.

Yes she does.  That is what I feed mainly because of her endorsement

[MisterMagoo]

hmmmm. might hafta look into that.

hurley's skin is looking better... except in the wrinkles on the side. and i think that's because, in order to counteract the problems related to the food allergy, the guy has been putting some kind of anti-fungal cream in there and, unless i'm mistaken, that left the wrinkles all moist and voila! the fur stripped out.

gimme a week without that gunk and i've a feeling he'll be in ship shape.

[temper35]

Flower, or vet, or anyone, while were on the topic of skin/etc.  Plato has had eye boogies/leaky eyes since he was born.  Vets say it is probably just allergies.  His eyes are never red or anything and it never seems to bother him, but they are yucky like when he opens his eyes after sleeping or something.

Is there any decent food that could possibly help the issue?  Or could it be a food issue in general?

[knny187]

If there is...let me know.  I get eye boogies every morning   


Seriously, I find with dogs or humans it's more about 'air borne' particles that give us eye boogies.

Some days my dog is good....some days it's worse.  I can usually tell some days are going to be worse than others.

[~flower~]

temper- It could be that is airborne like knny said, dust, grass, pollen. Is like really gunky or just "normal" eye boogies?   If they start to get really bad or funky looking then a culture might be needed with an eye exam, or if you notice something with the actual eyeball that is odd.  You can rinse his eyes out with plain sterile saline solution like for contacts (make sure it is just saline solution).  Emmett has droopy eyes (haws?) and they seem to get boogiesh sometimes.  I will rinse them out for him unless Tad beats me to it.  Yes, Tad will clean Emmett's eyes, it is really gross.   

 They make some eye rinses for canines with eyebright and goldenseal  in them (2 seperate bottles, HALO is one brand that I know of) that you could look into.  They can soothe the eye more than just saline if it is an allergy flare up and you know it is not something more serious.

[Princess L]

Scout has been getting Chicken Soup since he was 11 weeks.  He loves it.  Sometimes I mix in a spoonful of plain yogurt, or pumpkin or cottage cheese and sometimes as a treat, I'll mix in a spoonful of canned tripe (from Solid Gold).  He smells that the second the can opener punctures the lid. 

http://www.chickensoupforthepetloverssoul.com/products/dogs/dry_food/

[Butterbean]

[
  So replace those with the metal and then get metal some time for the ceramic 2.

Will do!!!  Thanks!!

[MisterMagoo]

that chicken soup stuff seems interesting. depending on how hurley does with the nature's recipe i might pick some of that up.

[MisterMagoo]

i'm a total fucking dork.

i found this little dog store in SoCal here (vay-cay with the family, you know how that goes) and checked out what they had. one of the products was a little leather harness. hand-made in canada, so naturally i felt like picking one up. it was more expensive than i should have ever considered spending on something like that, but hey. it seems like it'll be useful on a dog that's got breathing issues anyway.

http://buddy-belts.com/m_37.asp

[temper35]

i'm a total fucking dork.

i found this little dog store in SoCal here (vay-cay with the family, you know how that goes) and checked out what they had. one of the products was a little leather harness. hand-made in canada, so naturally i felt like picking one up. it was more expensive than i should have ever considered spending on something like that, but hey. it seems like it'll be useful on a dog that's got breathing issues anyway.

http://buddy-belts.com/m_37.asp

If he pulls on the leash even a little bit, take the harness off.  Dogs that pull carts/etc wear harnesses.  If you don't want to make the pulling worse, don't use a harness and use a choker collar, or something else.  People generally buy harnesses because they think its 'safer'.  Yes, it IS safer...when your dog pulls like a maniac, but it gives you no control over a dog at all, and generally encourages the pulling.  Bully breeds have breathing issues, yes, but they could have the worst breathing issues in the world, and the fact of the matter is none of it should matter since when a leash is on, there should be no pressure on the neck if the dog walks properly.

If he walks nice, then more power to you, put on whatever you want.  But from a training standpoint, there is zero need for a harness.  They just aren't used, ever.

And this post wasn't meant to knock you down, and you definitely aren't a dork.  There is a lot of small, up scale, original pet shops in Philly and I bought Plato a TON of shit from there when I got him.  TONS.  The money I spent is startling, lol.  I was just offering advice in terms of the actual harness, being that I didn't know what your conception of it was.  If you need any help, let me know.