Golden Rules

Simple Salad - No Dressing Required Feta Cheese - cubed Snow Peas Sundried tomatoes Gherkins - chopped or sliced Bean Sprouts (optional) Approximately equal quantities of each (you may need more snow peas and Feta). Mix all together. This salad has a delightful combination of flavours that work really well and you don't need any dressing because there is residual oil from the tomatoes and vinegar from the gherkins that coat it all beautifully.

You are an anxious parent Bub!

Aaaawwwww, she's feeling better!

MeatLoaf 1/2 kilo of minced beef (or lamb, chicken or whatever meat takes your fancy) 1 tube sausage meat (Woolworths etc have this) 2 eggs 2 carrots chopped finely 2 onions chopped finely 1/2 cup BBQ Sauce 2 tbsp Worcester sauce 2tbsp Sweet Chili Sauce 1 tsp beef stock 1/2 tsp ground pepper Breadcrumbs (fresh or dried) Mix the first 10 ingredients together well. The mixture will be sloppy. Add breadcrumbs until the mixture is able to be formed in your hands. At this point you can choose what to do with the mixture. The mixture can be put in a loaf tin and cooked for 45 minutes in a moderate oven. Can be eaten hot or cold as a loaf - great in salad sandwiches. or The mixture can be used for homemade sausage rolls (using puff pastry). or The same mixture (minus the sausage meat) can be formed into rissoles or hamburgers and fried.

Dogs that come from the pounds here in Perth (not rescue places, I'm talking council pounds here) generally don't come with anything other than a years registration. Mostly no vaccination/desexing. To get a dog with those you need to go through a rescue organisation. They aren't desexed prior to being released but with two of my rescues, the $140 adoption fee included the cost of desexing. So there's no excuse!

Hop onto your lap? Get down beside her, she just wants to be close to her mummy

Lappiemum, that lamb dish sounds divine!!! The book will be available a couple of ways when all recipes are collated and printed so stay tuned!

Does she like doggy DVDs? Has she seen 'Up'? Sorry, I'm not much use Kongs, Kongs and more Kongs.

I think you would be better off with a Mars Coat King rather than a Furminator. The teeth are too close together on a Furminator. Check with Clipperworld, they will help you.

Dug is secretly really Bubby ;) Why does that not surprise me huh?!

Dug is a Golden Retriever!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CBR!!! ;) Hope you have a great day and intend to celebrate??!!

Why? A whole host of reasons. 1. Because its good for them..... When they know how to play watch the fun they have. 2. Because they need to develop skills to deal with OUR world...... Wild dogs would naturally be suspicious of strangers especially on their territory (humans and dogs). Learning proper social skills teaches dogs how to compromise. 3. Because its good for their health..... Im sure that future studies (once they get going) will prove that dogs who can play well are fitter and healthier both mentally and physically. Prior to any scientific studies we only have the actual case history of experienced dog handlers and trainers to go by. 4. Because its good for their owners..... Let the owners learn how to socialise their dogs properly and the dogs and humans will have a better relationship together and the owners will spend more good times with their pooches. 5. Because you can use play to develop better focus..... learn how to incorporate play into your training and your dog's focus will shift to you as the major player in his games. Like with kids in a playground they all want to hang out with the cool guy. So you learn to be the cool guy. 6. Because it releases stress..... dogs who have "emotional" issues tend to have them because humans tend to pander to them. If a dog has a bad experience he needs the chance to work thru it and come out the other side more confident. I have had many dogs (of varied ages) learn to be more relaxed by developing their play skills. I don't mean to go on. However this is my specialist subject and I am passionate about it. Most of the time you take dogs out and about (yes even to dog parks) and they have a great time. Yes, sometimes they can have a bad experience but this is something the owner needs to develop skills to deal with or even prevent. Sometimes people feel that two dogs having rough play is aggression.... and step in and panic creating more stress to what could be a normal situation for the dog. Often in fact dogs have a tendancy in a group to exhibit "social conflict" which is a normal dog behaviour of teaching each other when the boundaries have been pushed to far. The trick is that the owners need the skills to interpret when to step in and when to count to three and let it play out. More social classes needed that are geared to the owners learning. Great post!! You seem to be focusing on 'dog parks', you had a bad experience there so you have cut them out of your life (and your dog's) forever? Do you never go anywhere else where there are strange dogs off lead? Eg a dog beach? I had my little Norwich Terrier attacked by a big dog the minute we got out of the car at the river. I didn't even see the big dog coming. She wasn't hurt thankfully, but my approach was not to avoid the river forever and always, but rather immediately find some friendlier dogs down there for my little one to have a positive interaction and experience with. She was nervous to start with but came round quickly and appeared to forget all about the unfortunate incident with the big dog. This part of the river is an off leash area for dogs, it's always busy in summer and few dogs are really under control but there are very few incidences of dog aggression. In fact I have never seen it, have only heard of it from other users. It doesn't stop anyone from returning to the river with their dog either, I see many different regulars there on different days and always new people as well. Same goes for the dog beach - which is actually busier and dogs running amok. Never any incidences of dog aggression. I'm sure it must happen occasionally but the owner of the aggressor would be loath to return, such would be the wrath of all the other dogowners I do think owners are sometimes more anxious about certain things than their dogs are, or the anxiety is transferred to the dogs.

Deelee, my DOugal is just the same - I always used to think he prefers humans to other dogs but when Duncan came along, they were always playing, both at home and at the park. I think you will find that when you get your second Goldie ( ) you will see a change in Honey's oblivious behaviour Agree, and that's why I always let my dogs play with other known dogs. I like a well balanced dog

Welcome RottPerth! You have 2 gorgeous furries there!! :D

Such a sad weekend for you Lab Rat and a bad year for pets! Sally looks beautiful in those photos, you'll have some beautiful memories. My Dad refuses to have another cat after the last one died - he can't bear going through that kind of loss again either

RIP Occy He is pain free now and running free.

Tara was just beautiful! Very sorry for your loss, it is so hard RIP Tara.

My Dougal Dog barks a lot - but only at the park where there are other dogs and people's attention to get. He does it purely to get attention and it annoys the sh!t out of me. But everyone gives him attention to shut him up or I roar at him to 'Sssshhh!' which lasts all of a few minutes While it is irritating and I don't encourage it, I do think a little tolerance wouldn't go astray, there are far worse behaviours we could have to put up with.

You also get good at teaching 'back up', 'out of the way', 'go to your beds', and 'no you don't fit there'. And my favourite which works best is "Beep Beep"

:D You have to be a GR owner to fully appreciate this book. I've just finished it and although I also own two GSD's it's totally for the GR lovers out there. That's it! I'm not going to bother finishing my current book and go straight to A Big Little Life. A friend recommended it the other day so I immediately bought it on my Kindle

Everyone has different ideas of how long they will let their pet live for with various illnesses when the pet is a senior, and also how much money they are prepared to spend on them when old and ill. Sometime people do it to lengthen the life of the pet for the sake of the pet, and others do it for their own sake - never wanting to let go of their pet. Everyone is different and perhaps the person that made that comment to you Pepi was voicing their own opinion but in a less than diplomatic way

I agree!! I love doing geraldton!! and yes, its about a 10 hour round trip! you must drive slowly and safely

That's interesting because I have never had a problem with fleas before and while it's not exactly a problem, I do keep finding the odd flea at the moment. We haven't had rain for over 4 months. I was wondering about the use of it on cats as it's only made/marketed for dogs. So it's quite safe to give a small dog dose to cats, preferably given over 2 days?

Yep it sucked because I could have gone in my sisters car but took the extra vehicle so this person didn't miss out. Still, one of lifes lessons learnt. We still had a great time, just mean't that my bills had to be paid in installments for awhile as I had to dip into my emergency funds and use some of my rates money. I'd always wanted to drive across Australia though, and also try showing in another state so I wouldn't have missed out on that part of the trip and the other ladies more than made up for the one. That person must not have had a conscience to treat you like that :D Karma will catch up with her (if it hasn't already).