Gayle.

My girls can and do wander amongst the chooks without a problem, they are much more interested in finding food the chooks might have overlooked (unlikely) than chasing them. The boys would like to chase them, although I think I could easily encourage Ripley not to. Isaak.......no........he has chased them when he was accidentally let into an area where the chooks were, but were not supposed to be, and it was all a bit too much fun for him. I would not like their chances of survival if that happened again but he can be in the paddock next to their pen and completely ignore them.Benson, on the other hand, would stalk them through the fence, he was mesmerised by them and pushed down a fence to get to them shortly after we brought them home. Fortunately there was another fence in his way and he couldn't push that one down. So in a breed, there are wide variations. But if a dog shows any potential to chase chickens, I'd be very inclined to never leave it unsupervised in a position to do so.......even after training.

Could the OP please edit the first post to include the correct contact details? The Kylain Kennels link no longer works.

What's the average lifespan of a healthy, well bred British Bulldog?

I left Dusty outside from when she was 10 weeks old. We fenced off part of the back yard for her, put a kennel in there, some water, toys, blankets etc.......and she was absolutely fine. But she wanted to be with Benson, who she could play with through the fence and when we deemed she was big enough, she shared the yard with him. Isaak stayed indoors til he was around 3 1/2 months, and by then he was desperate to get out and play with the big kids. My dogs all get turfed outside early in the morning (5am or thereabouts) and spend all day outside while we're at work. The only time one would be inside is in case of illness or in season.

Well, we get our chooks from the local chook auctions...not sure if that equates to a pet shop for chooks and the sellers are probably backyard breeders of chooks.....they certainly aren't show quality, but we love our chooks and none of them have ever ended up in the pot and each of them has a name, and they live a very nice life here.

There seems to be a general feeling here that people (who want to buy dogs) want everything NOW and aren't prepared to wait for the right pup to come along, but that is just not the case. If people only knew how to get a well-bred pup, who to ask, where to look and then get treated with a certain level of respect....and not just lumped in together as "Joe Public, the annoying bloody puppy buyer who asks stupid questions and doesn't know anything"....I have no doubt that they'd wait. Not for years, but certainly for a few months to be given the chance to buy a pup from good breeding. It should be easier than it ever was to get in touch with registered breeders and source nicely bred and reared puppies but it's just as difficult as ever. The internet should make the connection easy, but it's not.

Where did someone make that assumption? I'm not having a 'go'.....I may have missed it. The point I made was that there are people with a good record in pet ownership (wherever their pets have come from) who don't know that they can buy directly from registered breeders. Not in answer to you but someone else. The people I've referred on to contact registered breeders in order to enquire about adopting an adult dog (of my fancied breed), have all successfully obtained one. With the proviso, told up front, they may need to wait until a good match comes up. And it has. There appears to be a positive culture among that group, both here & internationally. I can't speak for any other breeds. So I continue with word of mouth, for my own breed. Also there's been initiatives like 'just for fun' picnics, put on by the breed club (NSW), where breed fanciers with their pets are equally welcome (& where folk interested in the breed can be directed). My own state has a Breed Social Club, run for pets & show by the registered breeders. It's a general assumption that sometimes comes up when people on here refer to those who purchase their pets from shops or unregistered breeders. Not to anyone in particular, just in general. Where someone buys their pet does not equate to how they treat their pet, and I'd go so far as to say that some of those pets live better and more fulfilled lives than some that are owned by registered breeders....the ones who have a revolving door of dog ownership, and pass their dogs from breeder to breeder, show home to show home.

It's very untrue that people who source their pets from pet shops and backyard breeders regard them as "throwaways'. That is a disgusting assumption to make. I had pet shop dogs, one lived until 12 and died of a stroke and my heart broke into a million pieces when she left me. The other died this year aged 17 and never had a sick day in her life and was loved and cherished every single day of her long, healthy life. I work with people who have got pets from backyard breeders......mostly staffies, labs and oodles, and they definitely don't consider them throwaway pets. They are no less loved than my pedigree dogs are. Would they go to registered dog breeders if they knew about them? Maybe, maybe not. They don't know about them so they didn't. They got their pets at the places they knew to get pets from.....the local pet shops and from people advertising in the local paper.

Here's the breeder list for Australia/NZ on DOL: http://www.dogzonline.com.au/breeds/breeders/boston-terrier.asp I'd be inclined not to put limits on the area, you might need to go interstate. A few years back, I tried to find breeders to talk to about going on a waiting list for one, and I emailed a heap and never got a reply, rang a few and left messages and never got a response so I dropped it. You might be better off going to a dog show in Adelaide and seeing if you can find someone to talk to about them, although they don't seem to be in any quantity in SA.

About $3000-$3500 and they are as rare as rocking horse poop. They are hardly ever advertised on the Dogzonline puppy listings (maybe twice in the past 4 years) and it's difficult to find breeders to even talk to.

I had an elderly Lhasa Apso and a couple of young boisterous Australian Shepherds who all ran together, all day while we were at work and the Lhasa died of old age at 17, without ever having a sick day or an injury in her life.

I've always taken it to mean not drooly.

Some dogs don't need to learn it. My first Aussie had never seen chickens til we bought 6 for our new place and he was hellbent on killing them. He never learnt it from anywhere. Separate them. It's VERY unfair on chickens to live in a high stress environment with a predator. Chooks are gorgeous, social creatures with a very ordered and structured life, they should feel safe and secure at all times.

To be fair, he isn't the one who recently advised on radio that the best dog to get was anything crossed with a poodle, that was someone else.

I don't think we have as many here in Vic.....they tend to be KCC Park or Bulla or regional. The regional ones might be some in the south east and some in the north/north west or west on the same weekend, but they'd be at least 6 hours drive apart. I'm in the south east of the state and I usually have to travel to KCC Park (2 hours away) or further. We do have a few shows down this way but they generally don't double up with ones at KCC Park or Bulla.

The Karen Hedberg book is supposed to be excellent, I've suggested it would be an ideal gift for me.

I have 4 because I find 3 too hard to manage for the same reasons as tlc. I hate leaving one at home and I love taking two with me but can't manage three on my own. I realsed this early in the year when our old Lhasa Apso died. She had always been company for the Aussie that got to stay home because she didn't like going anywhere. Once she died, I realsed how much I had relied on her as the fourth dog, and so I got Shae. When Benson died we ended up with the same issue but fortunately we were offered the gorgeous Ripley to help fill the hole.

Yes, evening time is Cuz time here. They don't take them outside, and I take them away at bedtime because Shae would drive me to bloody murder.....she doesn't squeak them but she can't relax when she's got one in her mouth and she will pace the bedroom all night, wiggling her bum and snorting with happiness. She gets this stupid blissed-out expression on her face, a bit like she's been doped up or something. Ripley DOES squeak them to the point where a couple of them have now been de-squeaked. He's not too bad with the round ones though, it's more the odd shaped ones he feels the need to squeak.

Same here Gayle, my ball mad girl loves them and so does my youngest. No one in town stocks them, Last year I got some from A shop in Gisborne (DOLer Sagittarian shop) 4paws. I just ordered some with my clean run order, great prices and a good variety too. I don't know what it is about the Cuz's that makes them so much better than any other toy, but each evening after dinner, Shae and Ripley go get them and they play with them for hours....carrying them around, stalking each other, trying to do swapsies, hiding them then finding them.....I have never seen dog toys so loved as the Cuz's are here. All their toys are kept in a big basket in the rumpus room and they only choose the Cuz ones to play with. Shae finished her dinner tonight then trotted off down the passage, next thing she comes back with a gob full of pink and a pair of feet sticking out of her mouth! LOL! The pink Cuz with feet is her latest favourite.

It's such an awesome thing to even HAVE a dog paddock, I can't tell you how much we love ours.....and the dogs love it even more....but it's even more awesome to have a dog PARK, with a proper sign and rules to be obeyed. And named after my best boy!

And more brownie points for keeping it a surprise. He must have just about been bursting, because he just can't keep secrets at all!

Yeah, I took one look at it and promptly burst into tears, then had a hard time seeing the screen on the camera when I went to take the photos. But it's so perfect, I could not have thought of anything better than this.

Today my husband took me completely by surprise by bringing home a sign he'd had made in honour of Benson. For months I've been trying to think of something permanent we could place in the yard in memory of Benson, but I never thought of this....and it's perfect. From the moment we moved here, Benson loved our little paddock, it's kept solely for dog play and the dogs get very excited when we open the gate and let them in, because they run, chase balls, chase frisbees, chase each other and have an absolute blast. It's like having our own personal off-leash dog park, and now it has a new name. And here's the gang of four (plus one) obeying the rules of the newly named park.

Since Ripley and Shae discovered Cuz toys (my friend in Sydney bought them some) they've deemed that they are the best presents ever and they wish for nothing else from Santa, just a stocking full of Cuz's each. I just wish someone locally would sell them!

I don't really get the rare breeds don't get picked for group wins either...because if they're good enough they will. If they aren't winning best in group then maybe they're not best in group material. Not sure about the new title, it's getting a bit like cat show titles.......double gold supreme grand champion etc. etc.