I want to get a dog but I have to work, how does everyone on broadway market do it ?

Awww 2nd dibs

We completed (and won) our second dog jog over the weekend. Managed 5k in 20.34. Not bad for a lil Shih Tzu. We're going to try our first canine cross event next month so it will be interesting how Errol fairs off road. If all goes well I want to do a lot more next winter.

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That's brilliant.

When I run with our whippet he does laps around me literally the whole way because he gets so frustrated with my 30 min 5ks. I let him down in that regard. I reckon he runs at least 2k more than me. He gets very tired much more than that though.

My sister went here over the weekend. They'd like to rehome a greyhound but even if that's not your plan then they still need volunteers for walks

http://www.dunrunnin.org/

I missed your post @Dammit - I’m neither a shelter nor SE but, if you fancy a quick trip round the south circular, you’re welcome to walk Reggie any time

Amazing well done.

Met Reggie yesterday - he's a very handsome lad. Nice to meet you Mark and thanks again for the crate / collar. Will post pics when we've installed the small furry mammal.

I want to get a dog but I have to work, how does everyone on broadway market do it ?

Bring dog to work:

No problem at all and looking no forward to seeing pics of new pup

Anybody here raw feeding their dog? We've been using Natures Menu for a few years with good results but wanted to see if anybody had any better recommendations. Natures menu is fantastic for convenience, but not convinced its the best quality.

We'd love to prepare our own but simply do not live somewhere where that would be convenient, for now anyway.

@dancing james Do I remember correctly that you prepare your own raw diet for your dogs? Interested to hear what you do...

We feed our dogs raw, using some prepared stuff and other bits from scratch.

We used to get whole cows stomachs and chop them into smaller portions. Green tripe is fantastic for dogs but fuck that is a smelly, messy time consuming job that you want to do without interruptions. Having to clean yourself off and get to the front door is not something you can do in a hurry.

There are a few companies that send out parcels of raw frozen food -freezing is beneficial as it kills some bacteria, I think some of it is food that is passed its best for human consumption. We have a dedicated dog kitchen with freezers, fridge, prep area and sink so as not to contaminate human food.

Currently we have a lot of stuff from rawtodoor and paleo ridge.

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THanks mate.

The natures menu stuff is basically 80% minced carcasses with bone and 20% vegetables, so not perfect. But it comes in frozen nugget form so measuring out a meal is as easy as counting out a certain number of nuggets.

We're happy to sacrifice convenience for quality now, but sadly won't be able to go down your route until we have a more suitable space. At least we have a chest freezer solely for cat and dog food.

So many raw food manufacturers insist that fruit and veg is essential, but others say that meat/bone/offal only is fine as long as you vary the meats fed to ensure a varied diet. Combine that with all of the keyboard warriors with strong opinions and its a confusing subject.

Some fruit and veg is beneficial. Our dogs always demand citrus fruit when we are eating them and polish off apple cores, carrot peelings etc anyway.

Pigs trotters are a great thing - the bones are easily digestible.

The hounds get one of those complete meal sachets between them for breakfast as it’s so easy.

Evenings we aim to alternate between a meal with a lot of bone and a more meaty meal as too much bone leads to constipation. We also make offal pops, pureed offal and allegedly beneficial herbs and wotnot which are frozen into ice cube trays to aid with their digestion.

Fish heads and trimmings if you can get them from a fishmonger are great too.

tl;dr dogs are scavengers and can eat almost anything.

Aha. Paleo Ridge might be just what we are looking for.

Those boxes are really convenient but can take a while to defrost. General routine is to start defrosting each meal 24 hours in advance - so pull out the makings for the next days meal as I feed the dogs. But in the height of summer it can just be 12 hours so sort out evening meal as I give them breakfast.

Some things come in v large amounts such as lambs tracheas and may be fed over a few days so we have a fridge in addition to the freezers.

Natures Menu takes about 12 hours to defrost in the fridge so it'll be a small adjustment.

It all works well apart from when my partner forgets to defrost a meal at the right time and the dogs end up with something akin to a steak tartare sorbet.

This blurry little lad is Mars.

He’s joining us in a week and a bit to ruin our house and eat all my shoes. Mum is a staff and Dad is a springer/poodle so who knows what size he’ll be

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@Stonehedge I use Nature's Menu and I think they're pretty good. I do buy the nuggets but mainly buy the 400g blocks of pure mince (lamb, chicken, turkey, beef), the 2kg bags of "free flow" pure mince, and the 1kg bags of beef chunks. I supplement this with chicken wings (for the bone and marrow) from the butcher, chopped carrot/broccoli stalks/cabbage leaves/apple and the occasional egg. The only things I cook are brown rice and sweet potato, which I occasionally add.

So Reggie, at 9 months, gets something like 2-300g of "free flow" mince, six nuggets, a couple of spoonfuls of brown rice and a chicken wing first thing; then a 400g block of mince, some chopped veg/apple and another chicken wing in the evening. It's about 8% of his bodyweight and he's in good shape. We exercise twice a day - an hour in the morning, half an hour in the evening - with lots of running, tugging and playing with other dogs.

I defrost the Nature's Menu stuff on the work top (either wrapped or in his bowl but covered) - breakfast defrosted overnight, dinner defrosted during the day. I probably spend about £80 a month, but this will come down as I reduce the amount he gets as he matures.

Awesome!

Really useful, thanks. One of the options we are considering is doing something similar to you.

Our Otto has been having 425g (25 nuggets) of natures menu each day, which is just right for a super active whippet (13kg). He has really thrived on the stuff. That said, he bloody should do for £60pm.

I suppose there is no real reason to switch him to something else. It'd be good to reduce the cost a little though and Paleo Ridge does seem to be a bit cheaper if not quite as convenient as NM nugs.

First dog? Either way, raising a puppy is brilliant fun. He's super cute.

How about switching to their mince and adding your own veg? Have you tried him on chicken wings for the bone/calcium? You could replicate the 80/20 balance you have with the nuggets, but save some ££