Pheebs

I'm so sorry Esky RIP little Penny.

He's still listing in the classifieds as at the 24th July: http://sale.yourguide.com.au/classifieds.aspx?category_list=4&pub_list=133&subclass_list=268

Maggie just adores her crate. Knowing what I do of her background I think she's just stoked that she still gets the chance to be inside amongst the family. Lucy's not the hugest fan but she will still go in willingly. It's saved my sanity in terms of being able to feed them all together (when we had the three) whilst still keeping them separated.

Been there :laugh:

Another vote for the Bullmastiff, here. My Maggie certainly looks the part (we're led to believe she's Bullmastiff X Boxer); and will certainly alert bark but other than that she's a big snuggly ball of smooshy love. :D

https://www.facebook.com/groups/177533432341252/

Used to be the three terrors: Now it's just the terrible two

ETA: It would now appear that dogs around the showgrounds area aren't safe either - there's been reports of 3 separate dogs being bashed and cut up

I have no idea, I'm afraid Sheridan. A couple of people have asked for more information but I think she's just too distressed at the moment. Will try and report back if I can get more info.

Woohoo! Thanks for keeping us in the loop Sherel :)

Police have also issued a statement that there's no reason to believe that there's a dog-napping problem in the area http://www.krock.com.au/index.php/news/18243-police-play-down-dog-nap-fears

Hi all Someone has posted on a Facebook Group I belong to that their dog was poisoned last night with a tennis ball that had been baited with some kind of brown fluid. Post was as follows: "this was found in my ward the smorning after a a seach due to our beautiful doggie passed away last nite from poisoning please keep your eyes open this is getting way out of hand please no negative comments as me n my family are very very heart broken of the passing of our dear family member we tryed all we could to save him he will b dealy missed people please please take care of ur fure babys we cut the ball open to fid a brown very smelly liquid inside have been in contact with police concil rspca and just keep geting passed around" Do please keep an eye out and take care x

I know I'm being ridiculously optimistic but does Black Hawk have any plans in the future to release a grainfree dry food?

I bought a couple of samplers as well from Pet Stock and use them for training treats. Stocked up on some of the grainfree food, tried Lucy on it and am amazed how much better she's looking and feeling (sometimes her tummy/ears can feel quite hot and this has disappeared completely with the grainfree dry)

Hi Guys, Wondering if someone can please make some recommendations for a trainer/behaviourist in Ballarat. I'm having ongoing troubles with Lucy (Great Dane) and the little bugger is really trying my patience. We're considering starting a family in the next year or so and just need to make sure I can control some seriously undesirable behaviours. It's a horrible thing to say as I love Lucy dearly, but there are days that I really don't like her all that much - I need someone to help me work with her to work on our bond together as I'd say 70% of the behaviours she's displaying are a result of my inability to be firm with her in the early days and establish some form of leadership over her and it's come back to bite me in the arse. Thanks all!

Is anyone able to get into Room 4, documentary? ETA: Nevermind, got it!

Wow - thank you all so much for your advice! Thank you Belinda - your post has echoed what I believed to be the case (the manager doesn't have the heart to surrender her to the pound for them to put in the hardwork so as long as the poor dog is there I think she feels she can monitor her more closely, give her the attention she needs in the interim, etc.)

In all fairness LizT, I totally see your point but this woman is a dog lover/carer first and foremost and a business operator second. I think she counts herself lucky that she's not had to deal with this in the 5 years she's been there. The owner ("proprietor" as the links listed above refer to her as) would have no problem in surrendering her to the pound but the manager just wants to do the right thing by this poor girl.

Thanks Daveri... I went to visit the poor girl yesterday - very smoochy and loving but very hyperactive and desperately needing some love. She is microchipped with the CAR. The contract in place signed by all clients says the following: 6. If at any time, any charges due to [Company Name] are more than 14 days in arrears, I authorise the Owner of Representative to sell or otherwise dispose of the dog/cat at such time, and in such manner and at such price [if any] and subject to such conditions as you may determine-provided that at least three [3] days prior to the destruction, sale or other disposition, notice of intention to destroy, sell or otherwise dispose of, shall be posted to me by prepaid post addressed to me. Where to from here? I dropped out of Law School :laugh:

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and suggestions, will check back in here when I have more info re: any clause in place in the contract.

Hi all Was wondering if I could please pick the collective brain of DOLers. We often use the services of a particular boarding kennel here in Ballarat and in doing so have become quite good friends with the operator. Today she has called me asking for my help in the possible rehoming of a Husky X bitch that has been abandoned at her kennels (she knew that I had been involved with Weim Rescue in some capacity). The owner of this bitch has done a runner and is supposedly now in Tasmania and no one is able to get a hold of him. To clarify the situation, let's call the owner A. A, I'm guessing is a younger guy and is friends with B. B's father paid for first two weeks of board for the dog. In trying to chase up both the funds and ensure that the dog is collected, even B has said that A has gone completely off the radar. So we're now left with a situation where A owes the business $550 for services provided until today and has been informed by B's father that her chances of contacting him are slim-to-none and under his recommendation should rehome the dog (not that he has any authority whatsoever). What does one do in this situation? There's no way of contacting the owner for release details Thanks in advance! :) (ETA: I will help advertise and contact husky rescue etc. once we've established legal entitlements to proceed with desexing and other assorted vetwork). ETA II: She also has in her care two other dogs (an Afghan and a little malt x that came together who are in similar circumstances. People suck )

Sas I am so very sorry

Exactly the same for us - and we did just that :) (It was also inferred by a select few two years after the fact that I was supporting the "indiscriminate breeding practices" of shoddy registered breeders by doing so ) As far as I'm concerned, I was doing the right thing in following the advice I was given at the time - going to a breeder registered with Dogs NSW. I naively believed that if you were registered you were above reproach. Would I choose this breeder again? Depends. Based on reputation alone there's another breeder that I would just love to have one of their pups. I love my current girl dearly and she's *touch wood* given us no cause for concerns health-wise thus far, but she's an absolute loon and exhausting so I'm not sure that's an avenue I'd want to go down again anyway :laugh:

I'm so very sorry for your loss - even in the "right" circumstances it is still a tragic - I could not imagine suffering the loss of a furrychild that I had only shared my life with for 1 year - it is truly unfair. Not much to say really other than I truly do sympathise - I took my 11 year old girl to an emergency vet after she went "crazy" (we received her brain tumour diagnosis only two weeks prior so whilst we knew the situation, we thought we had another 6 months with her - I was also furious that my calls had been unanswered all day as I had some concerns and both canine neurologists had taken annual leave at the same time). In this time between admitting her and having them put in the canula, I heard her screaming in the back area whilst the staff were attending to other reception-duties (I understand it was an emergency vet and there were probably equally important phone calls coming in, but hearing her scream was heartbreaking). I knew what we were there to do, I simply wanted confirmation that I was doing the right thing. I advised that I wanted 5 minutes of time with her to say our goodbyes. 15-20 minutes later (she was highly distressed, whimpering and we had to pin her down to the ground as she was going beserk and chasing something that simply wasn't there) we still were waiting for the vet to check back in. Didn't happen. What we did get however were two separate cleaners on two separate occasions walking in to empty the bio-hazard and other waste bins and asking us if everything was okay and why were we crying? No it isn't okay and I don't really want to talk about it with the cleaning staff) They asked me how I planned on paying prior to PTS and quite frankly the whole experience was incredibly distasteful. I understand your reluctance to trust a vet again, but would advise that you do what we did - vote with your feet and never go back to that vet. Once you've lost trust in a particular practice or veterinarian - that's fair enough, but to tar them all with the same brush is doing no-one any favours (let alone your new furry child). Perhaps home-visits might be the way to go? Wishing you all the best and a long happy future together :)

Wouldn't have a clue! She's not as leggy as a Boxer - more nuggety. She looks Bullmastiff-like but we just adopted her from the pound as a Boxer X :)