Our vet recommends and feeds SoJos herself. She does suggest doubling the meat from what's listed on the bag and says it can be raw or cooked even though the bag says just raw. (I looove having a vet that has SoJos on the shelves instead of SD lol) We currently feed SoJos grain free (green bag, fka Europa) mixed with cooked beef to the 3 pack for one meal a day. When I get meat on sale (like 98 cents/lb a few weeks ago!) the dehydrated is about 15 cents/lb cheaper than kibble, so I have a feeling

I too tend to fall into the "separate the dog from guests for now and train for later" camp and I wholeheartedly agree that confining or similarly restricting his movements around non-dog friendly guests is waaaay better than sedating him! It really sounds like you're in between a rock and a hard place because of your feelings about any sort of management - you've shot down all suggestions thus far other than daycare the day or so before the big day, so I'm not sure what kind

Julie - Z's old SAR blog might be helpful on the refind stuff you're dealing with - it should still be available at www.zthesardog.blogspot.com (ouch that hurts to type since she's been washed...sigh). I did start teaching the alert at the same time as the "show me" so it might make things a little different, but hopefully seeing our progression will help some. She still uses the show me skill to tell me what she wants around the house lol.

That answering message was HILARIOUS! Good job Rex! And now for my mindless chatter tidbit - I just got back from the vet with Z. Maggie decided to puncture her leg over some unknown resource as I was walking out the door to work. The vet put two staples in while Z was fully awake and she did awesome (the lido would've been as painful as the staples and anesthesia for 2 staples seemed to be too much strain on the body for a small issue) - the techs were all raving about how good she was. She

((((hugs))))

WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!!!! :) Yay Brutus!

Heather I'm STILL waiting for my Fedex full of stuff for my dogs and my swap dogs - I am on the edge of my seat - hope yours has arrived. I don't do patience lol. Have you noticed that fedex seems to take longer than UPS and sometimes the USPS? It took them a whole **week** (assuming it arrives today) to get my package from OR to SC!!

Words always fail me, so loads of ((((((HUGS)))))) for you and Akyra both.

Wouldn't you know that fedex came not 5 minutes after I posted?! So I now have all my stuff and loads of stuff for my swap person. :D Unfortunately it looks like I may to send one item back as it's not small enough for Z. :( Awesome for Bev! And def awesome for Amanda on a lot of counts.

I'll always have herding breed mixes, especially ACD/BC crosses. I might go for a purebred ACD or Malinois, maybe a BC with the right temperament (I like my dogs hard/tough vs. soft and many of the BCs I know are on the softer side). I like pibbles but probably won't have one because of the dog aggression issues.