spottychick

Geez..... all my dalmatians are pitbull crosses. And I thought that puppy was just leaping at me in enthusiasm.....

Ive now changed vets . Good to hear. Silly vet - thank goodness you had lots of people in here who'd experienced things and could give you better info.

My dog Tango will only go in the crate if the best blanket is in there LOL That's a huge double thickness minky. Guaranteed to get them all clamouring to be in the crate.

Awww what a sweety! He's very calm And you should be proud he's doing brilliantly!

Danois - I believe thats more to do with being attuned to nature and having more "senses" than the five we normally think of. I took a course once with a mob connected to the UN relating to something called ecopsychology. That course is based on the notion that as humans we have lost many of the senses we used to have although we actually use more than we realise. So animals who havent "evolved" away from nature have more senses than we do and can predict natural events that we don't see coming and sense more around them than we do. Not supernatural - but just more natural (tho I don't rule out the supernatural either). But according to the ecopsych people we can "awaken" at least some of those senses in ourselves. When the Tsunami hit Bali and other areas there was a tribe of people living on an island out there somewhere who had never had any significant contact with the rest of the world (actually there were several of these communities but I just want to say something about this one particular one). Everyone feared this community had all perished in the Tsunami because their island was tiny and right in it's path. When searchers went to the island it was deserted and all their belongings etc were gone. BUT a few days later the entire community returned. They had predicted the tsunami and hightailed it out of there in boats days before the Tsunami hit. I saw them being interviewed later with an interpreter and they were mildly surprised that people were astonished that they knew it was coming.

The best bit is that that lady adopted such a lovely old dog

STUPID STUPID STUPID moronic waste-of-space people

Didnt this happen before and they lost one of them? What is the deal with people stealing monkeys?

Yeah I'm sure it's possible with older dogs too. I think I just didn't have the patience at the time with three adult dalmatians LOL I did actually get a little further with my old girl but then she was pretty cool about everything and I could clip her claws in a mere couple of minutes with no fuss anyway. But the others were just too much of a handful. I'm thinking I'll give it a try with the pup and Pepper. Tango is too phobic about noises AND having his feet touched for me to attempt it without some expert help tho. At this point I don't clip his claws either. Mr Snappy!!!

Warning for the squeamish - slightly gruesome bits ahead. Dear diary Yesterday I took the gang for a walk up in the forest with Rusty the heeler. I must get some photos up there to show people how beautiful it is. Anyway, it's a tourist walk and there are random life-size statues of people made of tin planted amongst the ferns and trees along the way. Dylan didn't like them (art snob!!) so he would start barking at them and then run to me, still barking. Rusty and Pepper would look at Dylan as if he was stark raving bonkers! LOL But even more interesting is that Dylan's barking would cause Tango to emerge from wherever he'd been and come running back to see what was wrong. He normally doesn't come back for anything! I reassured DYlan it was all okay and acted nonchalant about it all so on the way back he passed them by without so much as a glance. When we were nearly back to the parking area Rusty took off through the trees in the direction of her home and we continued along the walk. I was keeping an eye on Tango as he darted through the forest nearby trying to make sure he didn't follow Rusty and nick off on me as usual. Suddenly I saw him stop, sniff around and then start excitedly pawing and carrying on at something on the ground. When it didn't look like he would leave it and follow I heaved a sigh, pulled out his lead from my backpack and prepared to go bush bashing up to where he was. After a bit of a struggle and numerous slaps in the face from waving branches and ferns, I arrived at Tango's spot, Pepper and Dylan by my side, and discovered what was so interesting. He was near a large hole in the ground and it appeared that a wallaby had landed awkwardly in the hole and broken it's leg. The poor animal had clearly been unable to get up and had died of exposure/starvation. As I drew near I expected Tango to make a grab for the wallaby and run away - or at least dart away from me. He did neither. He just glanced up, wagged his tail and started happily munching into the poor creatures head. Now I didn't want Tango to associate me coming up to him with a negative, as this was the first time I 'd come after him like this on an off-lead walk. SO I just patted his back and said happy things to him like "What have you got there Tango!" and "Oh arent you clever" - stuff like that - when really I wanted to vomit and drag him bodily away!!! Not knowing if he'd snap at me I reached over and attached the lead to his collar. He didn't even flinch or pause in his joyful munching. Meanwhile Dylan and Pepper were swarming all over the carcass, noses and tails going wild. Dylan grabbed hold of a leg and made a few futile attempts at biting into it. Tango did nothing and continued eating the head . I let them keep going partly to reinforce me being there as a positive thing and also out of curiousity to see what Tango would do with all of us hovering over his "prize". Tango seemed, if anything, proud to share his spoils with both dogs. Even to the point where Dylan started pulling on the leg and pulled the head right out of Tango's mouth. Still Tango just kept wagging his tail and sort of calmly moved in the direction Dylan was hauling to get hold of the head again. Somehow Dylan managed to get in between Tango and the head and take over that part. Tango just backed up a couple of steps and looked around casually as if wondering if he should start on another bit. At that point I decided it was a good time to go so I led Tango away (he came with me easily). Pepper followed next to me and Dylan tried to follow behind us while dragging the dead wallaby hee hee. Not possible sonny-jim!!!! It was bigger than him. Hahahaha I just kept going and picked up the pace as much as I could while stumbling through thick forest and undergrowth. After a short distance Dylan abandoned the wallaby and caught us up. (I guess the driving off and leaving him behind episode of a few days ago did the trick!!! hee hee *evil laugh*) I found that all very fascinating as it was like watching a couple of dogs in the wild, with the adult dog sharing his "kill" with the pup. I swear Tango looked like he thought he'd killed the thing and was magnanimously offering it to everyone. Tango still has some issues we need to work through when it comes to snapping and inappropriate biting, but none of it is down to aggression. He really is a lovely boy. Meanwhile, I've taught Dylan his first "touch" lessons (with my hand as the target) and he is able to identify and touch my car keys on command. Smart little dude. And just because they are there and also want treats, Tango and Pepper are learning the same things - tho not as quickly.

What about you Ellz? Can you see the face? Maybe it's only visible to Tasmanians

Hey skruffy I tried using a grinder - but none of my dogs coped with it at all - including my old girl who had no probs having them clipped. I suspect if you start young it would be good but I found it very difficult with adult dogs. They are kinder tho - if you can do it. There's a useful website about it here: LINK

:D Having various health issues amongst the canine members of this family, particularly the loopy but delightful Tango And also looking for good cheapish but healthy dog food for my neighbour the animal rescuer to use for her woofers. Absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to know as much as possible about stuff you feed your dogs (cats, people etc) :D

He was probably reacting to whatever that thing in the far left window peeking out is. OMG You're right! I see it - there's a spooky face there!!!! :D

Hmmmm then I would have gone there, or at least driven through there Just forgotten the name I guess. LOL Yeah I reckon they would have records of some kind.

And stupidity knows no bounds. Seriously these morons must have excrement where their brains are supposed to be.

That looks a lot like the cemetery in my town Ellz. I havent been to Lawitta - which part of tassie is it in? how do they know she's the very first white woman? Just wondering. You probably can't answer that LOL And yes, NN Mental "asylum" is definitely a "special" place. Only two other places in Tassie so far have given me a similar creepy feeling - Rossarden and parts of the peninsula leading to and around port arthur.

Maybe ellz - or maybe they pick up on other things such as smells, atmosphere etc that spooks them. I had a similar experience whenever I walked my dogs in a particular spot when I lived in New Norfolk. You might know it - it used to be the "mental institution" or whatever they called them. Even I could pick up on the strange vibrations there (I dont know how else to put it). The place had a smell about it as well and just a spooky desperately sad feel about it. The dogs were always subdued and acted a little wary when we walked near the buildings - but okay when we got away a bit and into the fields etc. I've no doubt dogs are more attuned to the "history" of places - however that's conveyed to them.

From what I understand the monkey bit the baby and then realised it wasn't food so it stopped. Then it dropped the baby because someone yelled and startled the monkey. Unfortunately it happened to drop the baby off a roof. A terrible tragedy all round but FWIW it sounds like it was an accident/mistake on the monkeys part rather than some wierd malicious baby-killing monkey Not that anyone here implied otherwise, but I've seen people going a bit overboard about monkeys killing babies elsewhere on the net.

:D Thanks for that image td!! No poo eaters here. Well not dog poo anyway. Tango is very partial to wallaby poo tho. ;) Gets quite excited about it and pulls on his lead to get to it when we walk in wallaby areas! ;)

Lovely pics!! Looks like it's a match made in heaven :D What a sweetheart!

Wow they are stunning!! That blue eye is amazing!! Is that what "wall eye" means?

Very sweet and extremely well made too!!! Lovely little dog.

lol Im jealous. Well when you get over all the stuff that's going on and can laugh (without it hurting) you'll find em all on youtube. I recommend starting with their wonderful send up of Mamma Mia (my god that Jennifer Saunders is brilliant!) and - if you're like me - you wont be able to stop hahaha Part one is here part one Part two is even funnier part 2 I also love their send up of Bjork as well as so many others Enjoy (when you can!!)

Phew! Right - now we can all relax a bit and I can go back to watching silly French and Saunders videos without feeling distracted Give Bonnie (and yourself) a HUGE hug from me! Hope she keeps getting better