spottychick

I thought the water bottle on lawns rubbish was all about "dogs wont pee in/near a water supply". Well even if that were true - a bottle full of water on some strangers overly manicured lawn is not "a water supply" to dogs. It's a bottle lying in the middle of nowhere - and therefore an interesting object to be investigated and most likely peed on while you're there. I always imagine a dog thinking along the lines of "hmmmm what's this thing over here...lets see lets SEEE!!!!! ........oh...... BORing!!!!!! just another one of them plastic things.... might as well pee on it now that I'm standing next to it. Smells a bit funny anyway". Silly people lovemesideways - that pic in your post a couple of pages back made me spit out my coffee LMAO I don't think it matters to most people if you call the dog an omnivore or a sub-type of carnivore. It has the same effect, they are animals that mostly eat meat. It would be good to impress the "carnivore" angle on all those people who feed their dogs kibble with sweet FA actual meat content though. And dogs DO derive nutrition from foods other than meat. Just ask my stone-forming dalmatian. He'd be dead if they didn't.

dawwwwwwww! Much too cute LOL "Start as you mean to continue" - hmmmmm all mine sleep in the bedroom anyway Helps keep the room warm, all those warm bodies in one space..... so they tell me

So very good to see you posting Jed I couldn't get the vid of your celeb news appearance to work. The best I got was one still shot of you behind the news ladies head LOL Then the whole thing seized up and crashed my putey. LMAO I've just applied to have broadband (at last I've finally moved to a town where they have ADSL magic!! Cor! Strewth! Stone the Crows! etc) so hopefully by the time I've got a decent connection it will still be available for viewing. But even without seeing it I know how brave you are and what it cost you to save those you could. You looked remarkably well in that one photo I could see of you and I was really happy to see that. I know you've got a long way to go and a lot to deal with - but you look strong and that gave me confidence for you! Cheers and - lots of them!

Fantastic stuff!! Congrats to all who have helped rescue these four - I sure hope they all turn out to be rehomable VC - Sophie looks gorgeous! She will settle after a while - I'm sure of it. Tango had his 3rd off-lead walk today. He's getting more adventurous and disappears for longer but always finds his way back to us. He's doing really well - but when I think back to 5 months ago...... LOL Good on ya anyway! Give her a hug from me

Ohhhhhhhh I have dialup atm so I can't even get the landing page at ninemsn to load let alone the video. Daggnabbit!!!

That's excellent heavypaws!!

Sorry to hear about your boy too labsrule - it just breaks your heart doesn't it. I must admit I'm still not over it and feel guilty I couldn't save him. It's such an emotional minefield (and I can't imagine how parents feel when it's their child involved!!) I wouldn't wish it on any person, dog or loving owner.

I registered my dog for this trial last year, I sent in reports from several vets, x-rays etc etc and wrote a long application letter - I was desperate to save my beautiful boy. But they never got back to me - and in the meantime he died. I still havent heard a word back despite several requests for some sort of response. I figure they didn't want to deal with non-mainland dogs but they could have let me know one way or the other. I was always hoping....... there's nothing worse. I REALLY hope this results in some fantastic stuff happening for animals and people alike and it's great to hear about the help it gave other dogs. But I can't help feeling a little sad and bitter that they didn't even bother to let me know what was going on with my application while I spent thousands of dollars desperately hoping/trying to save him and watched my poor gorgeous guy pass away. I watched the show tonight with very mixed feelings.

Doh! They didn't put it on in Tassie. Is there somewhere I could see it online?

Really good poem Jed!! :rolleyes:

IMHO there's absolutely no excuse for "feeding" a dog a vegan diet. I used to be vegetarian but I was a lazy veggo and never really balanced my diet right so I had to start eating whole proteins or... you know - die or something. I was never vegan because I figured you have to get some sort of enjoyment out of eating LOL and probably my reasons for giving up meat were different to your average vegan. I gave up eating meat for a range of reasons relating to the horrific treatment of animals and the appallingly unhealthy condition of the meat itself in our mass meat industry and to an extent, my own health considerations. But my pets don't know about all that. NOr would they care! And what's good for my health isn't necessarily good for theirs. I now only eat chicken and seafood/fish, not other kinds of meat, but regardless of what I choose to eat, I would NEVER force my lifestyle decision on my animals. I try to source my own and the animals meat from small/organic farmers and eat fish that's caught right out of our local river etc. But if I can't get that - or if my budget doesn't allow it or whatever - the dogs will get whatever meat I can find. I often have local roo shooters giving me parts of roos and wallabies they've shot (unfortunately Tango can't eat it tho! Too high in purines!!) and I get free range eggs from next door! But I will buy them meat from any butcher or woolies if that's all I can do. Why on earth would I assume my dogs would care where their meat comes from? They just want to eat a good diet and it's completely ridiculous and mean to impose human "ethics" or philosophies or whatever on domestic animals like this. The only consideration for my pets is THEIR health and so they are fed whatever is best for THEM, not me. And being as they are NOT herbivores or grass-feeders etc that would be MEAT.

Thanks jackie I'll email them and tell them my thoughts

Good morning Jed. Thank you for sharing your thoughts/feelings with us - and introducing us to the beautiful souls who have left us. They have had many many candles lit to guide them on their way. Hugs to you

Yeah - what Trisven and Daisy said. I can't see to type properly coz I have these strange wet eyes going on and I'm not sure I have the words of my own to express what I'm feeling for you and your lovely pets anyway.

That's what I thought too. Such eloquence, such erudition, so nuanced :D ;)

Nice post Erny! I don't know much about Jed's posts, although I had a read of the one that was linked in the thread about her and it was lovely. Look forward to the day when she's posting again so I can get to know her better. Hey Jed

OHHHHHH! That's just wonderful! Hello Jed!

awww there all gorgeous! Thanks Schmurps - I'm technologically disadvantaged All I have is an old crt telly

Thank you Toohey. It's so great to hear she's able to get online now. That's a big improvement. Jed! Hi there. I don't know you very well but I have held you in my thoughts since this happened. I can only imagine how you're feeling Jed, losing all those precious babies. You have such a lot to deal with - sort of cliche but so true - one step at a time eh! My heart goes out to you. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Sorry, much as I would love to have seen the doggies - NOTHING will induce me to sit through a minute of that appalling show

Oh the poor wee thing! I hope she's okay and out of pain soon!!

That's interesting. I'd never heard of "shaping" before I came here and read through posts about the TOT programme. It makes so much sense to me tho and I think I've been doing it by accident for years. Apart from some early training of one dog when she was a puppy none of my dogs get trained at "obedience" classes or whatever but all of them have been incredibly well behaved and smart (well mostly well behaved LOL). I've never really cared about having a dog that is "obedient" enough to worry about training. I wanted dogs who are well-behaved and social. ANd somehow or another I seem to achieve that. I know, for example, that when I take dogs for a walk or run next to my bike off-lead I talk to them, so if we start turning left I'll say "Go left guys" or whatever and often they're already going left so I'm giving them the name for something they are already doing. "Go left" eventually becomes something I can ask them to do at any time and they will. I think that was shaping (am I right??) and it's great to know what it is and why it works. I'm keen to know more about it tho. Might give that walking backwards gig a go LOL I can't thank people in this forum enough for that valuable information.

I've seen all of my dogs work out problems. For example, I was walking Pepper off lead one day and she got stuck on the other side of a barbed wire fence. A friend who was with me called her and I told her not to call her because she might try to go through or jump the barbed wire and get hurt. SO we stopped to look back and see where she could get through safely, but while we were thinking about it Pepper was looking at us and clearly thinking about getting back to us. Then she looked along the fence in both directions, ran a little way in both directions then spotted the lowest bit and ran straight for it, checked it, then jumped over it safely. The lowest bit was quite a distance from us. ANother time I lost the old dogs "doggles" when we were walking (she needed them for a severe eye condition but I'd taken them off when we were in deep shade) I tied up the old girl under a tree and then went back to look for the doggles with Pepper trailing along side me. We'd trecked off-track so it was a difficult task to work out where they'd fallen out of my pocket. Anyway - after a while Pepper found them, ran back to me then back ahead and "pointed' at the doggles that were lying half-hidden in a patch of prickles. I have never taught her these things. SHe just worked out what was needed. I think it's about how they are raised as well as about the breed itself. But I wouldn't mind even if my dog couldn't work stuff out. LOL I don't want a smart wild animal, I want a companion. Mind you, just for fun I'd love to give Pepper a go at that test they did and see what she made of it LOL

fantastic news!

LMAO Snoops sounds like an absolute honey and looks gorgeous too!!