I live in the Mountains of Malaga with my GSD girl of 16 months and my Cairn Terrier who is coming up for 7 years. We have been back and forth to the UK several times over the past 18 months and the dogs have been fine, although this last time we came back in a Merc. Sprinter and it was quite tight in the cab with the 4 of us!! Ailsa the Shep got a bit hacked off with it all so we had to put poor Sam the Cairn into the Suzuki we were towing bless him. My GSD has just had her hip score done and the results were abysmal plus she has some signs of arthritus in 1 hip - she is in the best country though in terms of warmth hopefully. What I was wondering though I want to change her food - she has always been a picky eater - but due to her problems feel I really must persevere now and get her onto a better food, what does anyone else feed their Shepherds over here? I was hoping to breed her, but obviously this is now out of the question. She isn't showing signs of problems at the moment so hopefully this will continue. If I could work out how to do the pictures I would, I'll keep trying!!

Hi to work out how to do photo,s ,go to the lab and look in HELP NEW COMPUTER, everything will be revealed and you will have a laugh

There even you are helping people now ;-)

[My GSD has just had her hip score done and the results were abysmal plus she has some signs of arthritus in 1 hip - she is in the best country though in terms of warmth hopefully. What I was wondering though I want to change her food - she has always been a picky eater - but due to her problems feel I really must persevere now and get her onto a better food, what does anyone else feed their Shepherds over here? I was hoping to breed her, but obviously this is now out of the question. She isn't showing signs of problems at the moment so hopefully this will continue.]

Hi there!
We also have a GSD bitch. She's nearly 8, and we've been here 13 months now.
Our GSD was diagnosed with hip dysplasia when she was a year old, and judging by the X-rays it didn't bode well.
However, thankfully she hasn't shown many signs of problems - and as you say, the warm weather here has got to help.
She does seem to have slowed down a bit now she's getting that bit older, and her hips get a noticeable "sway" if she's done too much running or climbing. She also needs more rest after such exertions than she used to!

As your dog is that much younger, you could perhaps try glucosamine chondroitin (sp?) as a supplement. It helps to build cartilage around the bone, therefore protecting the affected joints against wear and tear.
Our dog has taken it happily for the majority of her life, and I do think it has helped to offset the worst of the damage around her hip joints.

After a lot of consideration, I continued to do Agility with our dog, despite her diagnosis - and again, I'm sure that helped to strengthen her muscles. If your dog is willing to jump and climb, then by all means encourage her to do so. If she's at all uncomfortable, she won't do it!

As far as food is concerned, in the UK we fed a mainly BARF diet (bones and raw food, ie veg) and I would advocate that as the best diet of all.
Our dog has raw chicken wings, which she LOVES! (Cooked bones are potentially dangerous - raw ones are not)
We also used Royal Canin in the UK (which is available here) but at the moment we are trying Brekkies, which is the same type of dry food and appears to have a very similar make up.
Our dog loves it, but I'm not convinced that it's as good as Royal Canin?
She also eats chicken, tuna, sardines (bones and all) and frankfurter sausages - which we mix with either rice or pasta ( she has a dry food meal one day, and a rice/pasta dish the next)
I always put olive oil in with her food (extra virgin is best)

Hope that helps a bit, and hope you can put some photos of your dogs on here soon. It would be great to see them.
If I can manage it, anyone can!!

Best wishes,
Sam.

Hi Sam,
Thanks so much for that great email. Your info. and also some tips that I have had from an american site I log on to have been really excellent, I was quite devastated at first =a hip score of 78 out of 100 is bad news, plus the start of arthritus in 1 hip at 15 months, but I have been cheered greatly by everyone's helpful comments and suggestions. I am already giving her the glucosamine and will consider the barf diet - Ive heard a lot about it, but it sounded like a lot of hassle to be honest and as a basically lazy person I was a bit put off, but in view of her pickiness and subsequent diagnosis I think I will look into it. I will also try the rice - she does seem to be partial to human food. I am about to have her spayed - we had hoped to breed, but obviously this is out of the question now - such a shame but there. Hope to talk to you some more in the future. I have attempted to put some pictures on but to be honest couldn't make head nor tail of it and lost the will to live. Any hints maybe? Take care. Gill

To post pics.

click reply.
Type your text.
Scroll down to additional options, below the submit reply button.
Click manage attachments, (or you can just click the paperclip above the text box), this will open a window with choose buttons in it.
Click one of those, this will open "my pics" on your computer.
Find the pic you want, click on it and click open, this will put the file in the space just before where you clicked choose.
Click upload and wait a few seconds, when the choose box goes blank again either choose another pic or close the window.
Then click submit reply.

Thanks jdr I'm going to try that in a minute - sounds ridiculously simple doesn't it? watch this space - lol!!!!!!!!

This is my first attempt at showing my picture on here, please be patient with me if I submit war and peace in pictures - I think I've done it am holding my breath. This is Ailsa as a pup, as a grown up pup and as a grown up pup in Spain.

Hi Northernsoulgirl! Welcome to the forum and well done! Ailsa looks a beauty! Check out page 1 post #6, there is a picture of my Joshey! As you will see, I also posted his picture with baited breath!

Hi Northersoulgirl,well done,you did better at me at posting your pics,your Ailsa looks devine And welcome,you will have fun here

Thanks for the lovely welcome everyone. Look forward to posting more.

Joshy is absolutely gorgeously beautiful - GSDs are the loves of my life next to my hubby of course and the kids. Cairn Terriers follow closely behind.
George is adorable - boxers have so much character. Are you in Spain yet jandy?

Thanks for your comments,Nooooooo.... Im still here in the uk,hoping to move in the next few months Umph,thats if O/H pulls his finger out and gets our house on the market,mind you if he keeps taking it to bits we will never get there !!! Cheers,by the way there is a definate pecking order in our house,me George then hubby

Lol - yes I'm on the same page there. My husband said yesterday that if he had a waggy tail and poked his tongue out a lot he'd probably get fed more often. I said 'don't be silly' but thought yes, you're probably right especially as I was preparing their mid day snack and hadn't even got his breakfast for him! Must try harder...............

Gets worse than that here,one day last week I took some frying steak out of the freezer,when I came to prepare dinner Id gone off the idea,so George had the steak ,we had the steak pie not kidding