Your dog should be fed the appropriate high quality dry dog food and given a raw bone once or twice a week. Always make sure your dog has access to fresh water. In hot climates, two sources of water is a good idea. We do not recommend feeding your dog wet food in a can. This is expensive and causes unnecessary environmentally damage due to the energy and steel used in the manufacture of the tins.

Raw bones, goat horns or deer antlers are a good idea. Never give them cooked bones as these can splinter and cause injury. Start with chicken wings and necks and when your puppy destroys them in less than half a hour, move up to more challenging treats. Do not worry if they bury them or they sit around for a few days before they eat them. They like the extra taste of a mature bone! Other great treats are dried pigs ears, tendons, snouts, trotters, raw hide bones and chews.

Dogs need good quality chew toys like hard rubber balls, bones and tug toys. NEVER give your dog plastic bottles, shoes, human toys, clothes or furniture.

Dogs are given a full physical examination and vaccination every year for Parvovirus, Distemper, Hepatitis and Coronavirus. If you are travelling to a capital city or colder coastal areas, your dog should also be vaccinated for kennel cough.

All dogs should be wormed every three months. Dogs are scavengers and as such, have a high risk of ingesting intestinal worms. REMEMBER: Worming your dog protects you and your families health. Call in and see the veterinary nurse who will weigh your dog and supply you the right type and amount of worm tablets for your dog.

Heartworm is a serious disease of dogs that is spread by mosquitoes from dog to dog. Originally, it was a tropical disease, but now that dogs move around the country with their owners, it has spread to South Australia. The heartworm parasite lives in the blood vessels of the dogs heart, clogging them up and producing heart failure. All dogs should be on heartworm prevention which is a once a year injection that will prevent the disease developing, if your dog is infected. For your dogs safety, dogs over 6 months of age should be tested before they are put on heartworm prevention.

All dogs should be desexed at 6 months of age before they enter puberty. At 6 months, your dog is almost fully grown and will handle the anaesthetic well. This is the ideal time to get your dog microchipped (If this hasn’t already been done)

Assuming your dog does not have any preventative medical conditions and your dogs vaccination is up to date, your dog should go for two long walks every day. Always leave your dogs collar on as this provides a restraining point in an emergency and somewhere to hang your registration and identification discs in the unlikely event that your dog is lost. Lost dog information here.