Ms James

Hello, oh wise ones! ;) Wondered if you could help me out with some advice. My girl, Bella (scruffy white kelpie X in my sig, 5 yrs old), is a fantastic dog. She's got great obedience, fantastic recall (can recall her when she's barrelling off into the distance chasing leaves), reliable sits & waits, etc etc. She's generally fairly well behaved, although does have her goofy moments. I like to train her in play drive, as she's incredibly ball focused and anything that has a squeak is of extremely high value for her. My problem, so far, has been her chasing our kitties. We have three of our own, and 1 foster kitten. As Bella and Rove are both indoor dogs, we can understand that quarters can be a little close sometimes...but if a cat decides to do zoomies for any reason, Bella clicks straight into prey mode and will chase until the cat is either cornered or safely over the babygate to another area of the house. She also has a habit of stalking our foster kitten. While I have no doubt that Bella would come off worst in any close encounter with the cats - as many bleeding muzzles can attest to - I do feel that this is a behaviour I'd like to curtail. While my boy, Roggie, was still alive - and top dog - she didn't really pay too much attention to the cats, but since we had him PTS and she's moved up a position in the pack, her behaviour has escalated to the point where 2 of the cats no longer come out of the "demilitarised" zone. Is there a way I can keep the peace in the household? Given that I may not be in the room at the time that she clicks into prey drive (but can easily hear the chase happening), I've thought about using an e collar to break her off the pursuit and hopefully she'd learn that chasing the cats is not on. However (and this is a big however), the cost involved with purchasing an e collar are fairly prohibitive and thought I might seek out some alternatives instead. That being said, I have found a place that can lease a PetSafe e collar for $70 for 2 weeks. Is it too ambitious to think that something as strong as a prey drive can be corrected in 2 weeks? Sorry for the lengthy post, but I'd really appreciate your thoughts on this

Absolutely only get a dog that suits your lifestyle. Don't just buy a breed because you like the look of them. The number of dogs in pounds across Australia is testament to nitwits who purchase dogs based on looks alone.

Keilor Obedience Club has flyball too, and they're a good mob of people

If the dog has severe allergies and can only tolerate Cal Nat then I would stick with it even though it's only available through PP, it's not worth risking your dog's health and well being. I think Pro Pac contains only chicken and rice, but as I said I wouldn't be changing foods if you've found one that suits her so well. I have to say I agree, if it's a choice between your morals & your dog's welfare, the dog's welfare has to win out every time

http://www.franchisebusiness.com.au/Franch...et-Goods-Direct

Ours is $70 for full checkup and vaccs (including eyes, internal organs palp, weight, etc etc). We go to the uni vets so there's always a few students in with us during the consult, they're pretty thorough to demonstrate for the students

We should start a "I've been duped by Pet Goods Direct" support group.

Crap Pet Goods Direct, that's it! I go there to get the cats' food. Damn, I've been tacitly supporting PP, I feel terrible! Ah wells, the cats are over the evo anyway

PP has a monopoly to import Innova to Australia. All the stores selling Innova are owned by the PP mob. No way...really??

I get my cat's evo from the mega warehouse pet place in Hopper's Crossing. PP isn't the only place you can get Evo.

Yeah...my dog got his ET...was a piece of cake for me (cough cough cough cough cough) Easy peasy, lemon squeezy! Yeoville All He Can Be ADX JDX SPD SD GDX ET <--- check it! Check him out in action! I picked him up on Friday, now watch me turn this titled monster into a lazy slob

I'd go freshly steamed and mashed over the tinned stuff if you can get it. Although, I don't really remember seeing a whole lot of pumpkins when I was in the states, here you see them everywhere, whereas in the US they seemed to only show up around october. Do you have good access to fresh pumpkin?

Any bowel movements with mucus usually involves the large intestine and points to irritable bowel, but it can also be worms. Has your dog been wormed recently? Or been drinking from yucky water? Get your doctor to test for Giardia, that can often cause yellow runny poos. Hope your doggy gets better soon!

I find feeding P platers is far superior than kids. You get more value for money per kilo and the meat is more tender.

I was thinking that too, puggy Poor old guy. Good on you for taking him in, he'll get used to comfy living in no time.

Poor little n00b. Maybe go have a bex and a lie down.

That little lagotto was classic!!

Awwww @ Farley and her ex-serviceman.

So's Bella, she keeps coming up to me at the laptop and cocking her head at me

The quality of the streaming is just fantastic.

Go. To. The. Vet. NOW.

Oh god, dogs eat genitals? And to think that my dogs going for the kitty litter cookies was bad enough to make me cry! My Bella girl loves her veges and will eat cauliflower, cooked potato, broccoli, mushrooms whole if offered. But for ease of freezing and making her eat the less desirable foods, I stole puggy puggy's vege slops recipe (ta, puggy! ) and mix it in with her chicken necks, mince etc. She licks the bowl clean everytime, whereas if I offered spinach, she'd probably refuse it. I swear I had an easier time making my daughter eat her veges than I do with my dogs

I'm afraid I don't understand, you first say that you can't feed raw because it's not convenient for your lifestyle....and now you're saying that you do feed mainly raw with the dry being a sometimes food So what's the issue? Can't you continue using the raw + premium dry on your budget seeing as the dry is stretched out further?

She's my foster girl, I'm completely in luffs with her! She'd be a foster failure if I believed this was the best place for her, but I reckon she needs somewhere quiet where teenagers don't run around screaming & cats don't try to swipe her food :D

Yeah, I think I'll give her another go tomorrow