mawson

Thank you all so much for taking the time to help with this... I have certainly checked out a number of the companies mentioned above and will continue my research when I get home next week Thanks again!

Unfortunately Nutro is owned by Mars Inc. who test on animals. At the moment I use Advance who is also owned by Mars!! Off to check out Eagle Pack Lamb and Rice... Thanks again to everyone

Thanks all for your replies so far.... off to check out the Nutro online now and that's great that there is no fish in the Lamb and Rice Eagle Pack. Can't call on the phone from down here and have checked out the website but will be home in a few weeks and can call then. Is anyone able to provide me with information on how much (in grams) to feed per day to a 22kg boxer and a 40kg rotti x of both Nutro and Eagle Pack? Thanks again

This may be a little but I would like to point out that the club being mentioned IS NOT endorsed by the RSPCA, there are simply a number of local volunteers from the shelter that also volunteer at the club. The club also does a dog and cat food collection at Christmas time, I'm sure this does not mean that RSPCA endorses the club..... is appreciative of course but does not endorse. I couldn't actually see the relevance of a number of points posted earlier, including this one. It appears to have been suggested that RSPCA endorses this club due to the non use of CC. RSPCA is not opposed to the use of CC, this decision has been made by the original founders of the club. It is a decision that not everyone agrees with and is exactly the reason that TLC is chasing further information about what is done at other clubs. Another point was made about the club not allowing a dog with stitches in its neck to train with anything but a flat collar, I will go as far as to say that this has to be total and utter crap as the club in question allows harnesses, gentle leaders and other headcollars etc. There was never any mention of the club only allowing flat collars, but a range of other collars, leads, harnesses, just not CC and you wouldn't put one on a dog with stiches in its neck anyway. It's a shame that the thread has to degrade to a club bashing session when there was some really useful info coming through from others posters. I know we don't all agree about all the methods of the two clubs in town, but it would be great if we can all work together to find solutions to improve them both

I have and will continue to check out raw but I go away a fair bit and it has to be something that my OH and the kennels that they stay at has to be able to manage... Thanks though

Sorry yeah I should have made that clearer!! I don't mean testing for palatability, etc. I mean the big multinational companies that test a whole range of products (not just pet food) on laboratory animals, an example of a dog food one is Iams cutting out muscle from dogs kept in horrific conditions, etc. For examply, I don't use any products that are made or owned by Proctor and Gamble and Unilever as they are huge multinational companies that test on laboratory animals, there are a whloe range of products that claim to be 'not tested on animals' but are parently owned by these large companies. I know that most dog food brands are owned by these large companies, hence why I was attracted to Eagle Pack, which is apparently not. Does this make is clearer? I am not opposed to testing for taste and palatability on companion dogs...

Hi all, Sorry if this question has been posted before but I am looking for a high quality dry dog food for my boxer (who has an awful time putting and keeping weight on) that is made by a company that does not test products on animals and preferably uses free range meat products and no fish. I have read that Eagle Pack does not test products on animals but the ingredients list on a quite a few of their packets indicate chicken and Antarctic caught Anchovies which I would like to avoid. Do they make one that is primarily lamb or beef instead? Also, is anyone able to give me a guide on amount to feed (weight to feed per day in grams) for a 22kg boxer and a 40kg rotti x? I would go to the shops and look myself but I am in Antarctica at the moment for a few more weeks so no shops to check! Any other suggestions would be great... I am happy to try alternative foods but nothing that I have to spend too much time preparing, I know this sounds lazy but the reality is that I do not have time to prepare complex meals. Any help would be appreciated, thank you!

Hi guys.... Sorry I haven't been on for a while, I think tlc mentioned that I was at a remote field camp and didn't have internet for a few weeks. I'm back at Casey now and have been catching up on all the news Hope you all have a good time at the catch up on Saturday night and hope the Wednesday night training went well. JJ, congrats on the birth of little Jemma (sp?), I'm going to check out the piccies of her when I finish this message. RJ, fingers crossed on the purchase of all that land!! I think it will have to become DOL headquarters!! I hope everyone else had a lovely Christmas and New Year and best wishes for 2010. I will be home in a few weeks and hope to catch up with all of you soon after... I can't wait to see my kiddies Cheers

Merry Christmas and happy new year to all!! Tlc, great pics but why does Coop look so sad in the last one?? Hope they all got nice things.... Happy birthday to Munchin for the 23rd.... I had my Chrissie a day late due to the ship resupply taking a day longer, you can see a story in The Age about it (http://www.theage.com.au/national/christmas-is-a-moveable-feast-at-casey-base-20091225-lf2t.html). We had a great day, even though it was weird to be away from family, it still felt very Chrismassy I will be away now for a few weeks at a field camp where I will not have www (or a shower or proper toilet!) so I won't be in touch again until I get back on or around the 16th January. So, have a great new year everyone and all the best for 2010

All this talk about meat..... geeeeeezz!!! Greetings from Antarctica!! Barb, thanks for posting that I finally made it on the forum... sounds like you are all well! Tez, congrats on Eddie, he is a cutie, sorry it didn't work out with Jane's brother Hope you are getting better weather in Hobart than I got, and I hope you had a great time on the ship. Tlc, the pics of Tully with your MIL are beautiful, you are getting closer to Delta all the time!!! And happy birthday to Lacy again, hope she had a good day! JJ, good to hear that all your pups went to good homes, must be tear jerking though... one thing I would like to say without any offence intended is when posting your opinion about RSPCA, please consider the organisation's policies and the staff/vols that work at the shelters as two separate things. A lot of people don't agree with some of the policies of the RSPCA and I can only imagine that you were referring to the jumps racing maybe? I don't know what other campaigns they have been running lately?? But the people that work inside the shelters as staff, vols and vets etc. all work very hard to rehome as many unwanted animals as possible. And please think of them/us at this time of year when many people will purchase pets, mainly dogs, that they will no longer want in 6 weeks time when the kids go back to school and will readily dump them on the local shelter to deal with, while they get on with their lives. You also need to understand that they do not readily rehome DA dgs but they can slip through the cracks... look at Migaloo, she was very fearful when we got her and showed no sign of being aggresive with another dog at the shelter until we got out and about with her and... well, you've seen what she is like. I'm just glad that I ended up with her and not someone else. I hate to say it, especially to Tez, but the chance of Jane's brother being rehomed now if he was that DA is not good. You can't simply send them to a home without other dogs as they still have to go into the public area. This is not an easy decision for anyone at the shelter, especially when they have been model citizens until they get put in to a situation that they react to, but with all the dogs seeking new homes, especially at this time of year, I don't think he will be rehomed, but I feel that this is a better decision now than after he is adopted and causes damage or injury or worse. So the local vets do assess them for temp and health and sometimes they show no sign at all during assessment or when in cages next to other dogs. Anyway, this is just my opinion that RSPCA gets bagged out as an organisation way too often but there are a lot of hard working staff and vols trying to do the right thing, outside of the pubic view. Hmmmm. what else.... everything is good down here, we have been working long hours (we usually fly from 2pm to 2am) but the scenery and lifestyle down here are great!!! If any of you want to see where I am living/working then check out the Australian Antarctic Division website (www.aad.gov.au) and click on the link to Casey Station. There are links to a web cam, "this week at Casey" etc. etc. In fact if you click on this week at Casey at the moment and scroll down to 15 December you can see a photo on the right of the group I flew down with and I am on the ver left on the photo at the Antarctic circle sign. Anyway, unfortunately there are no dogs down here anymore so it might not interest you!!!! Hope you all have a great Chrissie and New Year and I'll try to get on and check when I can although I won't have any web access at all from the 27th Dec to the 16th Jan as we are going to a remote camp for a few weeks with no shower and the toilet is a bucket!!! But we have plenty of food including chocolate!! Oh, and tlc, the out of date chocolate is just left over for survival training, but actully a lot of things are out of date by a bit (not 2002 like the stuff we had then!) because the station only get resupplied once a year and the ship just arrived yesterday to do that, so all fresh food is on its way!!! Please give a kiss to your doggies for me and if any of you head out to the shelter at any time please say hi to Maws and Migs for me!!

Add me and my two in to the 7 acres too...... Hi all, I am still alive! I have just read about 30 pages of updates since I last was online and I am exhausted! Obviously I can't comment an all aspects of the thread but A HUGE GDAY TO EVERYONE! I am still waiting in Hobart to leave for Antarctica, I might even catch you tez by the time you get down here!!! The runway is still not prepared enough for the airbus to land and there has been bouts of bad weather slowing the progress even more (surprise, surprise, it's Antarctica!). At this stage we are looking at Friday so please cross your fingers for me! Tez, it sounds like the pup you are looking at is at RSPCA? And it's Jane's brother?? What happened to the GAP greyhound??? Sorry to hear about your finger too, I hope it's getting better soon. Tlc, thanks for the great pics of the break up day, oh I wish I was there!! That's so great that the SEDA pups all came and hey, you never told me about the temp care of pups!!! I just noticed it as I was going through the thread! Do you reckon Laura would consider me for that? I can keep Migs seperate for short periods? Of course I would have to ask Giorgio too, but I would love to help out in that way! Hi to everyone else and sorry I have been such a bugger on here. I will try to get on more often once I am stuck indoors down south and keep up with what's going on. I don't need to when I am at home as tlc keeps me up to date on all the goss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a great Christmas and new year and please give all of your puppies a big sloppy kiss from me and Maws and Migs Cheers

Awesome pics again TLC, that one of Bronson on the lounge is AWESOME, he is such a cutie and I love the one of Maws and Jane, they are very pretty black doggies. Tez, glad to hear that Jane is feelin fine, sorry for you about the farts though!!! Maws chucked up his pippi breakfast at the carpark after you left, right at the rear of TLC's car... twas the seawater that did it!!! Great day anyway and I think we'll blame it all on the moon

Hi all, I hope whoever is catching up with Ravyk has an awesome time... unfortunately a meeting that I had at uni at 2pm has been brought forward to 12pm, so not gonna be able to make it. I came in late in the thread to say that I was able to come so unfortunately didn't have time to finalise a meeting place before leaving. I thought Albert Park had been organised but after the recent baitings, I understood that no one wanted to go there. Have fun anyway Ravyk, I hope you get a good turn out from the Warrnambool DOLers and sorry I couldn't make it.

Hi guys, Ooh I made in onto the forum twice in two days!! Tlc, I hope you made it inside already... not sure about catch up tomorrow, last Ravyk wrote she said she would prefer beach, I'm happy to do Logans.. def. safer than Albert Park!!! Cavalblaze, hope your kitty gets better Cheers :p

Hi all!!! Guess what?? I just waded through 14 pages since I was last on here, THANKS ALL FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY WISHES!! You are too nice We had a wonderful time in Tassie, too much roadkill tho, had to close my eyes after we had stopped and checked about 20 per day!!!! I was really looking forward to the catch up with Ravyk at Albert Park, but thanks for the notice about the baits found there. Giorgio received a call from a friend last night to say to keep an eye on our dogs cause his dog had been poisened in their yard, she is 16 years old but ok for now (next door to Tommy tlc and supposedly Tommy has been baited twice in the last few weeks :D ). Maybe we can catch up at the enclosure at Harris Street, who else is coming?? Tlc, you should come too . Good luck driving home when you finally do, hope you've had a good time . I have to leave by 1PM on Friday. Hope to see you all again soon, sounds like you have all been busy, I will try and get my butt into gear and get on here more often, I was being lasy cause Tlc would tell me everything when I see her anyway See ya

Thanks for the pics again tlc and thanks heaps for filling everyone in with the Delta info, I am hopeless!!

Hi Jess, As you can see from my lack of response, I am hopeless at keeping up with DOL!!! I reckon everyone on this thread can vouch for that!!!! Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner re. the Delta info, I reckon tlc has pretty much summed it up. The assessment day is the 12th September and if Darcy (or your new baby ) passes, then you have to attend the people training part the following weekend (20th Sept) which is also in Geelong. As tlc pointed out, you can't do one and not the other. It really is an awesome program but really difficult for us given that we are so far away. It is not that far if you are already heading that way, but I find it hard to travel 200km each way for a one hour visit only. It would be so completely awesome to get a facility up here, maybe tlc and I can suss it out and see if we can get a facility interested before next March (I was always told that Delta had to arrange the facility, not us, but tlc was told otherwise) so that you can ALL (AND I MEAN ALL ) have your dogs assessed and we can all go visiting together!!! At the moment I do the Geelong hospital with Mawson, maybe we can try for the hospital up here instead of an aged care facility??? If you still wanna try for this round of asessment on the 12th September, I can email you the forms to fill in asap and speak with Vanda (the Geelong brach coordinator). I have PM'ed this to you too in case you don't read it on here.

Hi guys... keeping fingers crossed for a nice day tomorrow! Tez, just in regards to your Jane and seagull incident I just wanna let you know that I am a wildlife carer for our area and would have been more than happy to help out with the seagull before and/or after Jane got to it!! Not blaming you or her at all for what happened, any dog let alone a young pup would have had a go or a play with a struggling bird, but I will give you my number tomorrow and if you or anyone else on here ever come across injured/sick wildlife in our region, please give me a bell and I will get onto it. Not very nice for wildlife to suffer out there unnecessarily, even if animals come into care and need to euthanised, better that than them suffering in the wild. Also, please remind me tomorrow to promote Delta again at dog school, the assessment day coming up in Geelong is the 12th September and if we can get enough people passing, they will try to get us a facility in Warrnambool rather than me having to go to Geelong! I'm sure if you cannot commit to regular visits to Geelong, you can tell them on the day and they will know that you are testing for the potential to have a facility in Warrnambool, that will give us more of a push... please guys think about doing it, it is a great cause and your dog doesn't have to be the best at obedience, just have a lovely nature and be calm and friendly. Cheers! Hope to see you all soon...

Hi all......... Sorry it has been so long since I have posted.. Barb does a wonderful job keeping me in the loop!! Barb, thanks for all the recent pics, they are awesome!! Welcome Roxley, Barb and Giorgio both told me about the pic in the paper today, will have to try and check it out before I leave uni today Barb posted some beautiful pics tho! How is Roxy coping with Pickles?? Barb, the pics of your pups are adorable, but I couldn't help but think that I am glad they are past Miggy munching stage!!! Bye all, hope to see you soon ;) :D ;) Just cause JJ likes emo thingys!!

Hi guys, Tlc, they are some of the best pics ever of Migs and Maws, thank you!! I laughed so hard when I saw the one of Migs running on the beach, those lips are crazy!! WOuld you be able to send me a higher res pic of a couple of them, or maybe I can lend you my USB next time I see you?? WIll talk about it then, just a couple there that I woulod love to out as wallpaper on my laptop or even print up and put somewhere around the house :rolleyes: Good to see you at training today as well as Tanya with Bruno and I don't know how I missed seeing Tez with Jane, when were you there?? Maybe you were there for puppies and I was late?? Maybe I was just half asleep, either way, sorry I missed you! Oh, tlc you said that the whale pics were taken at Thunder Point, weren't they the ones you took with me at Logans or did you see one while you were walking with RJ? Great ones of sammy too, did you happen to see if he had a bung eye?? Hope to see you all soon.... thanks again for the pics

Hi guys, long time no write I know, sorry about that... life has been absolutely chaotic lately and I haven't had any chance to get online at all. First of all, happy birthday Pandii for a week or so ago. I hope you had a great day. Secondly, I hope the rest of you have been well and tlc as you know I am sorry about your nan but I am glad you have some closure about it now. Tlc and RJ it was great to see you both today, Maws hasn't moved all night!!! Hope to see Tez, Munchin, JJ, Tenties and T&T soon. T&T I'm so glad to hear that Brierly is working well for you, I will get there someday soon when I am not working and see you and Bruno!! My opinion on Harris St and Brierly after attending both during the past 5 years (Harris St for 3.5 years and Brierly for 3.5 years, yes I can count, there was overlap!!) is that Harris St is good if you want to compete in obedience trials or agility trials and Brierly is good for your every day training and socialisation. I started Maws at Harris St puppy class and we loved it, so did it again (he wasn't old enough to move to class one) and then when he moved into class one, it tied in with the end of the year so we moved to Brierly as they went later in the year. I enjoyed it but found the off-lead socialisation a bit full on for Maws at that age. I just kept Maws on lead during class and it was fine. I loved the well behaved program at Brierly cause it offers everything in day to day life that you want your dog to learn, not just heeling all day. We went back to Harris St when I started doing agility with Maws and we became members so of course we did obedience there. By that stage Maws was in class 3 and incredibly bored heeling all day, he would not switch on at all in class and we both started to find it incredibly boring so we started trying to get from agility to Brierly but the timing was wrong and I was always late (agility 9-10, training 10-11). WE stil prefered to do this as Harris St was so boring, but the timing was juts wrong cause they would always want us to pack up after agility and the I would be really late to Brierly, so when we got Migs we started doing class 1 at Harris St and I didn't enjoy it at all. After I started having probs with the trainers doing agility I decided to cut ties with Harris St and take both mine to Brierly as I really enjoyed the program and off-lead socialisation there (Maws was fine with it by this stage, in fact he LOVES it!!). Brierly has been wonderful for Migs as Harris St just wanted me to correct her all the time and she had just come from a very unstable background and was becoming aggresive and unpredictable and having all the dogs on lead all the time did not help her as she never got to get close enough to try and teach her right from wrong. I have to manage her closely at Brierly if the other dogs are off lead but I keep her under control with a gentle leader and by using various techniques to change her focus if she is fixed on something, harsh corrections do not help her when she is in high drive anyway. A piece of food in front of her face does not fix the problem but there are heaps of other techniques that can be used. Brierly has been the best thing ever for Migs and she has never needed a check chain no matter how full on she gets. Maws is now in class 4 at Brierly and although I don't do much training with him now (he just loves the off lead running!) when we do class there are a bunch of other advanced dogs there that we do training withand it's good fun. I hope this helps a little with the questions people are asking, I am not advocating one or the other but I don't think that check chains should be the decider cause there are heaps of other ways to "correct" your dog without the use of a chain. Migs cannot wear a chain cause her skin is so sensitive it rubs her neck raw and so I use a flat collar during class, cause when she is working she is fine. I could never walk her with a flat collar outiside but when she is in work mode, no probs. Hope to see you all soon and have fun with your puppies!!

Hi guys, Yep, I am replying from work, can't do it all the time but here on my own atm! I'm up for a walk this arvo... have already got Maws with me so can meet you at 2:30 or 3pm, whatever suits. Tanya, we get staffies in quite often here, mostly not purebred but some have been and some are pretty close! I would not exactly call staffies low energy though, they are typically very clingy and want to be with their owners all the time. They do not do well outside on thier own all day but obviously having Bruno would help. Just something to think about. The only one I could suggest to look at atm is Jack, a cross breed that we have here at the shelter. I think he is a greyhound x (definitely low energy!) and he is about 9 months old and very sweet and fairly quiet. He is in adoption now so if you have some spare time this week, drop in and check him out. Of course you can see him online too (he is the pet of the week this week) at www.rpscavic.org, just click on the Warrnambool link. Hope this helps and I hope to see some of you this arvo!

Hi guys, Oh tlc, I had no idea that was happening with Coop, I hope he gets better soon, any news of results yet?? Its always so scary when they are not well, and we start to blame ourselves and convince ourselves that it must be something we have done but most often it isn't. It sounds like Coop has a fantastic diet and I'm sure whatever it is that you haven't caused it. Good luck to him Tanya, I will most certainly keep an eye out at RSPCA for you... oh, I love it when someone wants a new furbabay and I get to help! Are there any particular breeds that you are interested in? Or better still any that you particularly DON'T want? Just asking cause medium size is pretty common and I don't want to be bugging you with what medium breeds we have all the time!! We get a lot of kelpies in (oh, I should point out that most dogs at the shelter are crosses, not all, but most) and border collies, are they more energetic than what you want. If you can try to let me know what sort of thing you would like... energetic, not energetic, etc. and I will let you know what we have! We have a chinese crested cross at the moment named George who is cute!!! (not exactly medium I know!!) Are you after a pup prefereably or adult? Og great pic of Bruno too, he is so gorgeous! Cheers all, hope to see you all soon.....

Oh TLC, what happened with Cooper????????

Hi guys, Sorry I missed the walk yesterday, although prob better I didn't bring Miggy with Dante!! There may have been blood! Having said that, there is a dominant bitch at dog school that Miggy and her just look at each other and you can almost see them saying "respect" to each other, no probs at all I must have just missed you all anyway cause we had a field trip at TP as part of the marine conference I was at all weekend and we got back to the carpark at 2pm. We were gonna have lunch up there but it had been raining during our walk and we were all pretty wet and cold so we went back and had it indoors. Will be there next time anyway, it's time to expand Miggy's list of friends Tenties, awesome house!! Can't wait to have a catch up out there! Munchin, thanks for the text last week, hope to catch up with you sometime soon Hi to all others and I hope to see you soon. TLC they haven't taken down the "dogs on lead" signs at Albert Park yet Still letting Maws off anyway, anyone that complains I will get them to call Peter at the council Hope you are all warm and dry I know we need the rain too but I agree TLC enough is enough!