B-Q

If had people I trusted i would probably leave my dogs at home, but as it is I don't have anyone I would trust with that and I know Buster wouldn't happily lt anyone wander in, we kennel them when we leave, it keeps them safe and fed and cared for by people that know dogs. We use a kennel about 90 minutes from where we live but they are great, the dogs always come back happy and their set up is great, I never feel bad leaving them there.

I've only had to deal with one dog fight when out on a walk so far. Buster is very DA so he is always onleash, i want the leg to stand on incase anything ever happens. Nealry every loose dog that approaches him keep sits distance with eh show he puts on, but one did get too close in behind us before we saw it coming. It was twice his size but he grabbed the skin on its head and wouldn't let go. The owners were close behind and holding their dog, I was holding Buster and just trying to wait till he let go, I kicked him int eh ribs a few times but its pretty useless. It probably just made him more over the top. I've found that me being the tough one when I see a dog generally works, I few times I've turned around and just yelled "NO" as loud and mean as I can and its made a dog back off, other than that it'll cop being kicked or having stuff thrown at it if it won't back off a bit. I'm also glad Buster is generally big enough and tough enough to look after himself for the most part and we havn't run into too much trouble *touchwood* and I'm glad Quinn is still small enough for me to pick her up quickly if I have to because she's nervous as it is. Being in that situation with no help would be just about my worst nightmare.

1 or two long walks. I live in my pyjamas at home and its a pain to get dressed to go out.

Both Buster and Quinn sleep on my bed almost every night, Quinn has done everynight since she was 8 weeks, her second night home was on the bed until she got more comfy with her crate, now she is 6 months old and crated when she's being restless at night so that she doesn't destroy things but generally she's happy to sleep and wakes me up early int eh morning to wrestle around and then go out and pee. I don't think it causes any adverse behaviour on its own.

I have my dogs now, they will always be my first priority. My family is the same. I live with my mother, my 18 year old sister and my 28 year old brother - he just moved back in and we all wouldn't have it any other way. I think I've already resigned myself to never having an OH unless he really likes dogs.

Nice story. She's vert loved. I often think how lucky Buster is, we found him dumped in a carpark at 8 weeks old in Katherine, NT. Now he has half my bed, custom made collars and leashes, premium food, a new coat every winter and a family that are actually interested in understanding him and working with him. I often wonder how his life would have turned out if Mum hadn't picked him up that day.

We have 3 currently and hope to be adding another again next year. All 3 are medium. 2 are mine, 1 is my sisters (the 4th will be my mothers) so as for walking, grooming, training, vet bills, registration costs etc they are up to the individual owner. I pay for a decent quality dry food and mum pays for the meat atm, once my sister has a job we will split the cost. Buster is almost 8 now, he is pretty nervous outside the yard so I generally walk him in the paddocks, Quinn I walk alone every morning because I don't want her leanrng from Buster's DA.

I can't wait till Quinn is a bit older and we can't start doing this.

Left her outside for 5 minutes.

Whoops, thanks . :D Spelling breed names wrong is ahuge pet peeve of mine so I'll keep that in mind. I think Mum is sold.

Did you chat to Leith or Ruth? I think it was Leith, Ruth is my other coolie mate so I could be confused. Coolies are awesome dogs, can't wait to own my second one, I just love my coolie boy so much, it's a pity that I didnt' know about agiility three years ago but when I start to train the pup I'll start doing stuff with him as well. He is a smart boy and will learn quicklly. Thank you so much everyone for all this information. I'm compiling a list, it's been so helpful if bits of it not confusing Im in for a steep learnign curve I think! My bad, I did mean Leith, I spoke to Ruth aswell briefly. Remember to post lots of pics This thread has alwso pretty much given me my entire christmas wishlist. lol

Thanks guys, does anyone have them with cats? We've got a 12 year old Siamese who is king of the world (he's currently outside asleep in one of the dog beds) he is an amazing cat to have living with dogs and I think as we are getting a puppy we should be okay. When we bought the cat home Buster wanted to kill him, I've never seen him like that with an animal. It took a few months and Elliot slowly introduced himself and now they are bombproof together, Buster can't even look him in thee eye. Elliot is now teaching the BC pup her manners, he is unbelivable with dogs, he never runs or puts himself in a compromising position, he doesn't overeact but he will occasionally chase them and bite their legs gently just to remind them to sleep with one eye open. What are other peoples experiences??

Well Quinn will be a year old at the end of May next year. She's the first dog I've started any formal training with and she's doign really well so far , I think as long as I can keep up with her we could do anything but I'm still stumbling through it all working it out so we'll see where we end up. I am also going to start my distance NDTF course at the end of April and want to start making progress with Buster's DA.

We're thinking about adding another dog in the next year or so. It will be my mothers dog predominantly. I want her to have the chance to get the perfect dog from the very beginning that can be exactly what she wants. So a bit about our lifestyle. We have 3 dogs here now. My sister has a 5 year old Mini Foxy/Kelpie mix, I have an 8 year old Cattledog/Kelpie mix and a 6 month old Border Collie (thats part of the reason we are waiting, we want her to be more mature and have more time for a new puppy) Busters the only male, he's desexed and the new dog would be female. We're active, we have 10 acres with a 1acre dog fenced houseyard. Mum wants something moderate - high energy, very trainable, not likely to have aggression issue with humans or dogs, doesn't have to be protective. Has to be able to be let offleash (although only in safe areas and with training) possibly a jogging partner, something she can take down in the paddocks with her when she goes down with the horses. After listening to me talking about dog training and sports for years and now coming along with me to Quinn's training classes she'd like to probably try her hand at some sports, she's interested in agility mainly. She has had dogs all her life and she's really open to learning about positive training methods, she said watching me over the last year or so has made her really start to relise there is a less harsh way to training and now that I have been raising a puppy in a much gentler way and she's turning out wonderfully she's completely convinced and has started to clicker train the horses. lol. She's almost as dog mad as I am. She's always loved both Vizla's and GSP's and atm she's leaning towards Vizla's. She just loves the look of them and I think a gundog would probably be a good match for her. But I havn't met many in real life so I thought I'd ask here for people that actually own/know them. I know FHRP has both breeds, how different are they to live with? What is their prey drive like? How does being a gundog effect it? How much do they just want to learn or do you have to give them a really good reason? I did find a couple of Vizla breeders in our area and thought maybe I'd ask if we could meet their dogs and probably go to some shows and ask as many people as we can but theres no rush.

Te Australian Bulldog and the American Bulldog are different breeds, I don't think its definetly unethical breeding just because they arn't an ANKC/AKC/KC registered breed. Just because someone isn't breeding towards a show standard or trying to get a breed recognised by the Kennel Club doesn't automatically make them a bad breeder. There are other ways of proving a dog than in a show ring. A lot of breeders are trying to breed back towards what the bulldogs of old looked like, I find the Olde English Bulldog a fascinating breed. I imagine they wlll become such a fad breed (if they havn't already) though and finding a good breeder is probably already difficult. You also might want to look at the Alapaha Blue Blood Bulldog, a breed recently developed in America. They are really interesting aswell.

She really is a sweetheart.

Yep, Quinn did this for ages, she's 6 months old now and she still prefers to wait for me to be out in the yard with her to go. I don't mind, I have to go out with her and get her doing stuff a few times a day as it is and like Tassie said, it allows me to praise and check quality. lol When Quinn was young I had to tak her out every hour or two, after everytime she slept, played, drank, ate etc. It did pay off though, now she's almost 100%, very few accidents and only when I don't notice she's asking to go out.

onsntillnflash, I don't have much to add except I can't wait to see that pup. I had a good chat with Ruth when you put me onto her when I was looking for a dog, I'd still like a Koolie one day and I'll probably get into contact with her again when I do. Will you pass on my congrats for the litter, they look adorable.

I love my dog but she's too smart for her own good.

When we lived up in teh NT the dogs spent most of their time outdoors. They had lots of shade, and always had water. They were fit, not overweight and climatised to the heat so that helped. They were in with us when we were home but they didn't ever have issues. Sometimes we'd put ice block in their water and stuff.

Oh wow, so sad.

I used about 20% kibble, 40% raw and 40% rice/veg/meat mix. She does well on it.

RAWRRRRRRRRRRRRR

And we'll see the dogs get blamed, nealry all dog bites could be prevented if people acted intelligently around dogs. 1. All dogs will bite. 2. Supervise children, don't let them give a dog a reason to bite. 3. Ofcourse most bites end up on a childs face, its usually at a dogs face level. Also would it be too much to assume a lot of bites to children are because children got in teh dogs face? 4. Ofocurse Labs are up there on the list. They are so popular, and they're gerat with kids right? So they don't mind if the kid pulls their ears/tail or jumps on their BYB HD hips? Because labs love kids right? 5. Theres a difference between a "get out of my face" nip and an aggressive bite. These are all issues that humans need to be responsible for and would probably vastly reduce the number of bites.

Took this one of Quinn today. WAVE PANIC! Her drowned rat impersonation.