I know I'm lucky.
On the right day, I'd have taken the opertunity to educate such a vet nurse, though by the sounds of her I don't know she'd have taken much in. At least you are sensible enough to not take on board what she said.

Well Ms. Emma Bruno who is an Italian vet. and a world authority on Newfoundlands has written in her book that she thinks dogs deserve a varied diet and she recommends most of the things you are giving Ollie.

Ms. Bruno's books are considered the definitive works (At least as far as Newfoundlands are concerned) so I would say if it's good enough for her dogs then it's good enough for mine and yours.

Dogs need variety, how would you like to have to eat the same boring stuff everyday BTW can you get chicken necks around your way, our two love them and turkey necks too

Ignore known best practices,and you can expect that. Good for the nurse for telling you what you need to hear.

Labman, what on earth do you think dogs lived off before dog food was invented? it was, believe it or not, "people" food...or at least, the bits of "people" food (leftovers/scraps) that the people didn't want to eat. Dogs are scavengers with the capability to consume all sorts of food. Doing as you suggest (keeping a dog on a cheap rubbish kibble for it's entire life) is far more likely to be of detriment to the dog than giving it variety. If you give a dog zero variety in it's diet, when it does consume something that is not it's regular dry food, that will likely result in the dog having diarrhea or even getting sick as the digestive system cannot cope with the change. On the other hand, dogs that are used to eating all sorts of foods rarely experience problems with eating something 'new'.

True, but today wasn't the right day for me to be constructive. I am off work with a head full of cement and screaming sinuses! Ollie couldn't have picked a worse day to hurt himself really!

Good for Mrs Bruno, she sounds like my sort of vet!

Straight from your manual no doubt? Disappointingly short though, I would have liked at least a page of knowledge pasted in.

Sounds like you are both having a rough day. Hope you're feeling better soon. x

Absolutely! If they have just kibble they get diarrhoea even changing flavours within brands . They are much healthier eating a mixture of all sorts. They rarely get the squits at all.

Cheers Hun, tomorrow will be better I'm sure!!