spottychick

Perhaps you're right, make that "only half of it was to do with the dog itself".

Yes, people should be looking at what went wrong and trying to avoid it happening again - but in this particular case that had little to do with the dog itself. The focus SHOULD be on how to properly bring any new dog into a new home and on educating people about the need to train their dogs and NOT to leave young kids alone with ANY dog, regardless of it's history or temperament. That's what went wrong here. (tho of course all dogs need to be temperament checked and people should do their homework on the dog before taking it home). From everything I'm reading and the little info we have, including the pic of the injury to the child's face, it doesn't look like this dog was a "dangerous" dog with serious temperament issues. The fact that the little girl has NO injuries at all speaks volumes. If this had been a dangerous dog attack both children would have been in a far more serious state. Seriously, we're talking about a dog who let a 4 year girl beat him up! At it's absolute worst, the issue seems to be a simple case of a dog being too rough around kids when playing and accidentally biting a face instead of a toy. That is easily resolved with very basic training and by not leaving small kids to play with a dog unsupervised. This is as opposed to unprovoked snarling and attacking which this dog did NOT do, even when provoked by the 4 year old's attempts to help her brother. The whole thing is horrifically tragic for the children and the dog, but is being compounded by unfair negativity about adopting adult dogs.

If a 4 year old girl was able to get the dog away by kicking and punching it, and the dog didn't turn on her, then the dog was probably not intending to attack anyone and doesn't sound all that vicious. Note there sounds like only one injury to the kids face which doesn't suggest it "continued to bite and maul". It doesn't say anything about whether the dog was growling etc or just biting to get the toy and got the kid instead. Anyone, let alone a small child, holding a toy up for a newly adopted dog to leap at is obviously a disaster about to happen. This is disgusting. That mother should never have left a child/children that young alone with ANY dog, no matter how long they'd known it. Stupid Stupid! And now the dog has had it all because people don't take the time to think about how to introduce a dog into the home. These people should never be allowed to have a dog - hopefully they won't get another one because of this.

Okay - thanks Bonnie and dancin. Pom is must be! Such a cute ad and great little dog

Has anyone seen the cute new ad for Corolla hatch with the truckie, whose semi is piled high with Corolla cars , but he has stopped in the middle of the highway because there is a little dog sitting in the middle of the road. He looks at the dog and puts his head on the side, the dog cocks his head to the side too. Then the cute little dog snarls LOL and suddenly all these people emerge from hiding and nick off with all the cars and the little dog Anyway - the dog sure is a cute little devil. Anyone know what breed or mix of breeds he/she might be???? Just to satisfy my curiousity.

Maybe they come from the same place that all those single socks disappear to when you wash them Mine don't have a secret stash - but the girl has a habit of stealing the neighbours dog's toys. He doesn't seem to mind.

Hey staffyluv. The original protocol by Johanna Budwig apparently recommends both the oil and the ground seeds (tho she recommends a proprietry mix that includes the ground seeds but stops them oxidising - going rancid - for those who can't or don't want to grind their own). http://www.healingcancernaturally.com/budw...ementation.html It's really not very gritty - no more so than the ground egg shells I give my dogs anyway. I didnt find it was rough on my dogs tummies (or mine) but if you're just using the oil that's good too. I hope Ollie does okay with his battle!!

I've recently started using the Easy Walk harness (with the clip ring on the front!!) on both my new dog and other people's arm-pullers - can't recommend it enough. It enables me to easily keep him under control while working with him on keeping his attention on me and learning to walk on a loose leash. Re halters: My friend has just switched her greyhound from a head halter to a sighthound collar and discovered what many people learn - unless you have also trained the dog very well in loose leash walking and heel, the halter only teaches them not to pull when they're wearing the halter. But when they go on a collar they've learnt nothing. She didn't want to keep using the halter because it was clearly distressing her dog to have a thing on her face and pulling her head around all the time.

Oh almost forgot - due to a rather surprising natural tendency on Tango's part - I'm teaching him to dance. Really!!

Tango - newly adopted. Working on everything really LOL But mostly TOT (to get him paying attention to me), sit (not just when there's a treat), walk on lead without pulling my arm off and not to bite me or snarl/lunge at my other dog. Pepper - resident girl. Lose weight. Not to try and hop into bed with grumpy new boy.

It's perfectly safe as long as it's freshly ground (it will go rancid within 10 minutes of being ground apparently). WHen my dog had cancer one of the things I fed him was cottage cheese blended with flaxoil and then I ground some flax seeds and mixed that in. There is something good in the freshly ground seed that is missing in the oil (lignans or something - a potent antioxidant). Anyway - he loved it. I used to also add honey and/or fruit to it and in fact I ate some of it myself LOL Either the oil or fresh ground seeds are excellent anyway. Good for the heart, hair, skin, you name it If you do grind your own seeds you can make it fairly fine but just be sure not to "heat" it when you grind it and feed it straight away.

That Romanova chick is a psycho

good pic tho

This is terrible. An absolute waste. SHAME ON US

I'm sure there's good vets out there - and I knew a great one in Canberra! But since moving to Tassie I have to say it's been a nightmare for the most part. I'm currently deciding whether or not to take action against at least 2 vets over the unnecessary death of my beautiful boy. But that doesn't mean there aren't good ones around. It's just FINDING them that's so difficult - and that's a real shame. But after 4 useless vets and spending a small fortune for no good reason, I did end up with one vet who showed a bit of intelligence, knew what needed to be done and how to approach things and - most importantly - showed a bit of compassion. Sadly they were too late to help as it turned out, but they sent me a beautiful sympathy card with a personal message about my dog after he died. I really appreciated that. Anyway - I havent followed the whole thread - it all got too argumentative for me on a subject that is - right at this moment - a little too touchy for me. But I wanted to say I think all vets should be taught LOTS more about basic animal nutrition in vet school. This seems to me to be knowledge that's sadly lacking amongst vets and fundamentally important to animal health. Doctors used to have the same problem but they seem to be more aware of nutritional issues these days. And vet students should be taught a whole lot more about communication and responsiblity. EG Be very very clear about what they do and don't know about. Eg if you know stuff all about cancer then REFER people who have a dog with cancer to someone who does instead of providing an incorrect diagnosis, making up some half-baked treatment option and then desperately trying to avoid having any more to do with it. For those who are studying vet at Uni now - good luck to you! I've known some wonderful compassionate vet students who went on to be fantastic intelligent vets (tho not necessarily very rich). I hope you do the same (tho not necessarily being poor or anything LOL).

Yes - more than once. They just laughed and mumbled about how "he doesn't like dogs" (ie isn't that hilarious???!!!!) Fair enough.

I don't know if this comment is "smug" but it's not really to the point. My dogs generally ignore cats when we're out walking - unless it's friendly and they then say hello with a bit of a nuzzle up the bottom and go on their way. They are very cat friendly and well behaved. But that has nothing to do with cats running loose at a vet clinic. My dog was in a lot of pain, extremely lame in his front leg and very sick from cancer when I tried to take him to the vet for treatment. I brought the girl with us because he found having her with him comforting and she is also well behaved. I was distraught, my boy was trying to be stoic. The fact that this stupid cat was laying across the doorway, hissing and trying to scratch both of my dogs (who were on leads) as we tried to get inside - and the even STUPIDER staff were sitting around doing nothing but laughing has nothing to do with whether or not my dogs were under control - which they were, incidentally. It's about a vet practice behaving in an entirely unprofessional manner and causing stress to people and animals who are already going through enough in the first place. The problem - and the animal that was not under control in this situation - was not mine. This situation was, in fact, highly distressing for me and my dog, who definitely didn't need more stress in his condition and we were forced to be outside in the hot sun a lot longer than was healthy for him. Neither of my dogs attempted to retaliate, they were trying to do the right thing and follow me into a vets office, even tho they didn't particularly like vets. The staff had the responsibility to do something about the cat and not allow it to behave that way. And there was no way I was going to reach down to try and remove a hissing clawing cat while trying to help my lame dog deal with the porch and steps around him. Another poster suggested these sorts of situations are all some kind of fabulous "training opportunity" that we should be focussing on, presumably instead of worrying about how much pain and suffering the dog might be currently experiencing. Oh really???? And what new training opp did I so stupidly overlook in this situation???? The old "bite the idiotic cat up the bum" lesson perhaps???? Or maybe the ever-reliable, "rip those stupid grins off the face of the vet staff" module??? I'm sure my sick bloke would have been most interested in a bit of innovative learning right at that moment in his tragically shortened life. NOT!! Sorry if this comes across as rude it's just some of the responses in here have really gotten up my nose..... Obviously whether or not it's okay for vets (and others) to have cats or dogs or whatever in the reception area depends entirely on how those animals behave and how the staff manage situations when they get out of hand. If they vet staff can't control their animals they should not be allowed anywhere near the public - especially when you're running a MEDICAL business. It's just common sense.

yeah that's a bit too old. And I have no idea what RC use for preservatives etc so personally I'd say no

Hi juice Yes fish are high or moderately high in purines too but I dont feed the stone-former fish - the other dallys got raw fish like flounder or trout occassionally. What is "optimum chicken and rice"? Eagle pack is very good - altho probably not for stone-formers. Sometimes you can get slightly out of date packs cheaper if you keep an eye open.

In my case it's just not a great diet for dalmatians (too high in purines). BUt it's also apparently a food that a lot of dogs are allergic to or have tolerance issues with. It's also highly acidic and the health of the meat will depend a bit on whether the cattle are fed on grass or grain (grass is better!). Beef can also be high in toxins and has been linked to high incidences of cancer in people and animals. Which is probably related to how beef is produced for the most part. SOme people just have issues with the whole beef industry and if you could see (and more to the point SMELL!!!) the beef production place near Launceston you'd probably be put off beef for life too!! It probably doesn't mean you shouldn't feed your dogs ANY beef but maybe it's best to feed it in moderation. If I didn't have dallys I still wouldnt feed them much beef if any. I'd rather go with the wild/free ranging animal diet like Roo and camel etc or healthier poultry and fish (and perhaps lamb).

I'd go with the camel meat tho if the dogs could eat it. There is a bit of a camel epidemic (well more than a bit) in Australia so we might as well make use of them rather than just culling them and leaving them to rot or whatever. And it's a bit like roo or other game to me, can't see the same issues with camel as I do with horses.

I'm not an expert in nutrition so I could be completely wrong but surely you don't need animal fat to gain weight??? Otherwise my poor stone-forming dal will NEVER stop being a skeleton LOL I source meat for my other dally from the local butcher or from chicken processors. THey will usually do a fairly reasonable deal if you buy in bulk. So when I had 3 dallys I could buy a couple of crates of chicken frames and several kilos of good quality chicken meat for a very good price - and it would last several weeks. Cheaper than commercial I can tell ya! My friend who has a greyhound buys the same stuff from the same people (chicken meat and necks) plus buys some inexpensive lamb flaps for her dog.

I also avoid beef. And I don't think I can come at the horse thing. Poor retired racing horses and such - something about it just doesn't sit right about that, with me anyway. Roo is good tho - my dallys can't have too much of it but I've had local registered shooters occassionally drop meat off for me or just tails and .... er .... feet (blurk). They love them BTW why do you think you should be feeding only once a day??? Just curious. I feed mine 2 x daily with the first meal being around lunch time (and preferably the first meal is RMBs). This helps with keeping their systems less acidic apparently but seems to be recommended for a few reasons. I'd be interested in alternative thoughts.

awwww what a shame you feel ripped off now when you were so excited originally Well you'll know next time.

Sorry to hear this. I don't know much about fitting. Except my old dally once fitted for a while after an operation - she actually nearly died after I brought her home (she became non-responsive, gums went blue/black) and I rushed her to another emergency vet who said she'd been over-anaesthetised by the original vet and might have suffered slight brain damage as a result. Anyway, over the next few days she started suddenly suffering these sort of twitching fits which sometimes (but not always) caused her to fall over. I had her looked at again by yet another vet who suggested some natural "brain foods" and after a few months her fitting went away. Never came back either. I have no idea if the "brain foods" did the trick or whether she would've improved anyway. But I'm glad it got sorted and I'm sure the natural supplements didn't do any harm anyway Not sure that helps at all but it's all I have to share about this.