Aphra

Pet Finder makes their ads for dogs available on a variety of sites ... including ebay classifieds in local areas. Like here: http://www.ebayclassifieds.com/user?id=518868 If you check the ads you'll see they've all got Pet Finder on the bottom.

The ads actually come via Petfinder.com which is the US equivalent of Pet Rescue, so the dogs in the ad are rescue dogs and clearly crosses from a variety of rescue groups. Labrador is probably just the way the rescue group has listed the dog.

Maybe they mean they need a reference, such as a dictionary? :D

My Neo puppy had blood and mucous in her stool for a couple of months after she came home. After a bit of trial and error we established that she's not really tolerant of kibble. I didn't spend much time working out why, since I feeding my other dogs raw I just fed her the same. But she still gets the runs if I happen to feed her kibble, even premium brands like Royal Canin.

A couple of weeks ago I went to a professional training session which had nothing to do with dogs, but everything to do with creative thinking. And one of the things the teacher said which really stuck in my mind was the importance of questioning our assumptions; putting the things we think we know to the test to see if they are valid opinions or just something we think we know because we just know, or learned a long time ago, or was told by someone or whatever. So I decided it was an interesting approach to thinking (bear with me, I have a point) and I would make use of it. Because rescue is one of the things I do, and one of the things which takes up huge amounts of my time, I bent my new thinking tool onto rescue and dogs in general. And one of the questions I asked myself was about the breeders good (mostly) vs puppy farmers/backyard breeders (bad) issue. Well, I still think puppy farms are not a good thing in general but I'm no longer willing to condemn and since I know some good breeders I'm still thinking that ethical breeders are probably a good thing, although possibly their own worst enemies. However, I started to think about the reason why puppy farmers are making so much money and why it's seen as such a bad thing for good breeders to make a profit. So one of the questions I'm asking myself is related to Steve's point above. Why is it such a desirable thing for good breeders to breed less and less and have fewer and fewer dogs? Why shouldn't good breeders breed pretty, well-tempered, healthy dogs with the intention that most of them will be family pets? That doesn't mean that they're not also working to improve the breed, it might even make it easier since they don't have to wait years between litters to see what they're getting. Puppy farmers make profits because people want pets. I'm sure most people would prefer healthy, well-tempered pets, which breeders are in a position to offer them. And although I can admire the persistance of people willing to wait two years for their desired breeder to produce a litter; I don't blame people who would like to live with a dog sometime before that and go elsewhere to find one, I'm not that patient either. Is the measure of a good owner really someone heroic enough to swim oceans, slay dragons, rescue maidens and generally go to heroic measures to prove their worth to own a dog (I'm looking at some rescue groups I know as well saying this)? Or could being generally responsible, fond of dogs, mostly sane and somewhat financially beforehand enough? Is conformation showing the only way to judge the rightness of dogs? Working dogs keep working happily without being shown; surely a line of sane, happy, pets is as desirable as a line of title show dogs? I don't really know the answers but I keep thinking that there is a real disconnect between the reality (people happily paying big sums of money for sad puppy shop puppies) on the one hand and breeders being sidelined because the concept of what constitutes ethical is being so narrowly and tightly defined. I don't think this is an animal rights agenda (apologies to the more paranoid out there :D, I suspect it's all part our Western culture's increasing discomfort with laissez-faire approaches and an increasing desire to define, control and regulate just about everything. The reasons for that will be the subject of my next lecture for those of you still awake.

I'm very sorry that you lost your old cat, it's always sad when old friends pass away, and even worse when its in such a sad circumstance. I have to say that while not impossible, it's not that likely for one cat to kill another one, especially without leaving any wounds. The other possibility of course is that your dog killed her. From my own sad experience I can tell you that a dog can kill a cat without leaving any bite marks. Their instinct is to grab prey and shake it hard, usually breaking the neck. You can see dogs do it if you feed them a piece of chicken, they pick it up in their mouth and shake their heads hard, it's an instinctual movement for killing prey. If your dog has lived in harmony with your cat for a long time it is possible that the intrusion of a stray cat into your dog's home excited his prey drive, and if your cat got into a barney with the stray cat (hence the cat fur) your dog grabbed a cat in all the excitement. Dogs in high arousal can behave very differently to dogs under normal circumstances, but it only takes once for a tragedy to occur. I'd think long and hard about getting another cat, unless you are sure that you are disciplined enough to keep them separate when you aren't around to supervise. If you do decide to get another cat, I wouldn't suggest a kitten; even for dogs who like cats the darting movement of a kitten is just too exciting.

Thing is though, some absolutely gorgeous dogs come through pounds and shelters. Not necessarily purebreeds and obviously 'one-offs', but gorgeous none-the-less. I know that over the time I've been on the rescue forum I've seen some astoundingly attractive crossbreeds who'd make great advertising material. However, I actually think the ad is really clever and I love the idea. Think about it; singles sights don't advertise themselves with pictures of ordinary people carrying a bit of a extra weight, wrinkles and grey hair do they? They use pretty, young people to grab your attention; sensible people already know that their match is probably going to be about as ordinary looking as they are, but that bit of glamour draws you in. That's marketing 101 and it works. No-one wants a relationship with someone pathetic for no reason other than they've had a hard life and deserve some attention and if you've ever had that kind of relationship I'll guarantee you don't look back on it with much joy. As a rescuer, I don't want people adopting our dogs because they feel sorry for them; I want them to look at our dogs and go, "hey, that's a great dog who is exactly what we need for our home". I don't put sad stories about past lives onto our profiles, because I want our dogs to be adopted because they are great dogs who will make excellent companions. I don't want them defined by "sad rescue dog who needs a home because I feel sorry for it"; I want them to be seen as "cute, loving, happy dog who I really want to take home and incidentally I can feel good because I adopted a rescue dog". And just as an aside, I assume that apart from the glamour factor, they used the Afghan because the narrow head shape and long hair made that first visual joke possible ... I can't see it working with your average staffie x!

Oh, I like that. I've already got one in a another colour, I could have a matching set.

Thing is, there is no way any private rescues would be able to comply with the DPI's regulations for pounds and shelters because the legislation is written for a completely different set of circumstances and assumes a whole lot of infrastructure and populations which rescue groups don't have and don't want to have. It's a bit like having legislation to manage apples and then trying to apply it to potatoes ... they might all end up in your fridge, but the that doesn't mean they're the same thing. There was a proposed change to the current legislation earlier this year which attempted to define rescue groups and was worded in such a way as to make rescue almost impossible. I'm not sure who leaked the draft, but clearly not all members of the DPI's Animal Welfare Committee are in favour of the heavy handed approach. While I don't always agree with Steve (respectfully disagree quite often ) in this case I think she's spot on. I don't agree with the proposed Oscar's Law for a number of reasons, including the ones Steve has mentioned. Given the DPI's record on companion animal welfare in Victoria to date, I simply can't understand why we'd have any trust at all in any legislation they write. This is the same people who gave us the recent dangerous dog legislation which is a nice example of knee jerk, pointless legislation. Many Victorian pounds, particularly in remote and rural areas are desperate to work with rescue. The people who run pounds, by and large, don't like killing healthy animals and will do as much as they possibly can to save lives. The fact that they are hindered by antiquated legislation and an antiquated mind set shames Victoria. I think the letter to Councils is more about power and control than animal welfare.

When my Belar was diagnosed with osteosarcoma I did a fair bit of research on alternative treatments. The most promising is artemisinin. http://www.bonecancerdogs.org/main/document/50 I found this Yahoo group tremendously helpful: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Artemisinin_and_cancer/ Sadly, Belar's cancer progressed very rapidly and we didn't try any alternative treatments, but others have had some success, and since there are few side effects and it can be used in tandem with chemo, could be worth a try.

My boy Belar who died this year. First puppy I ever raised and I was lucky ... he was a good boy right from 8 weeks old. His idea of being bad was to carry my shoes (undamaged) from the front door to the back. It was nothing to do with my training and everything to do with his lovely nature and sensitive, willing to please temperament.

We've been using the Black Hawk food for our foster cats ... we've gone through around 100 kilos now. Cats are happy and healthy and love the food. I got a donation of Eukanuba and the cats vastly prefer the Black Hawk. We've started using the dog food for the foster dogs as well, and they are doing fine on it.

I think the really sad thing about this story is that by saying "he could see American Pit Bull in him and that would explain why he was getting vicious" means that nobody actually bothered to think about what the real story might be. Maybe your dog was naturally aggressive or fearful, but it's also possible that there were faults in the way he was handled, or indicators of what was going to happen that were missed because assumptions were made that some kind of statement of breed were the explanation for his behaviour. Pits are terriers, just like Jack Russells and Fox Terriers, and all the terriers to be be reactive and even the little terriers can be naturally very assertive and steadfast in nature and not everybody has the capacity to handle them; I freely admit to not being a terrier person for that reason. Pits aren't some special category of dog, they are just dogs, with all the variability of nature that all breeds and x breeds of dogs have. It's terribly sad that you took him to the pound; given the reason for surrender he was probably euthanised as soon as you left. I think that while it is much harder to have the dog PTS yourself, it is much kinder for the dog to die quietly with people he knows than stressed by strange people in an unpleasant environment. I've read some interesting research about the nature vs nurture argument: http://www.breedingbetterdogs.com/articles...mulation_en.pdf I used this technique on my litter of rescue puppies ... I have no idea how it has helped if at all, but they are very friendly, confident, out-going pups.

I paid $75 for 20 kilos, which a really good price. Cat food is $80 for 20 kgs, on par with Whiskas dry but much better nutritional profile. I don't think you have to buy 20kg bags, you can get other sizes.

I've just started using Black Hawk Holistics for my foster cats and have been very pleased, so we've also just got a bag of dog food for the foster dogs. It's made in Australia and is isn't incredibly expensive. http://www.kylainknls.com/food.htm The puppy formula has wheat flour, but the adult one doesn't have corn, or wheat. The adult dog formula. Lamb Meal, Ground Brown Rice, Ground Oats, Rice Bran, Flaxseed, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Ascorbyl Palmitate), Brewers Dried Yeast, Lecithin, Natural Lamb Flavour, Dried Carrots, Dried Kelp, Choline Chloride, Calcium Ascorbate (source of Vitamin C), Zinc Amino Acid Chelate, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Dried Blueberries, Dandelion, Peppermint, Rosemary. Tomato Meal, Vitamin E Supplement, Iron Amino Acid Chelate, Manganese Amino Acid Chelate, Cobalt Amino Acid Chelate, Biotin, Vitamin A Acetate, Calcium Pantothenate Niacin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (B6), Thiamine Mononitrate (B1), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, DL-Methionine, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Folic Acid, Copper Amino Acid Chelate, Sodium Selenite, Calcium Iodate.

We have a dog going to Seaford in Victoria and his new owners would like to enrol him in obedience. He's a fabulous Stafford with some training already, and as first time dog owners they'd like to keep up his training. We'd also like to pay for them to have a session one-on-one with a good trainer/behaviourist to get them off to a good start. Does anyone have recommendations for a club and trainer/behaviourist down that way we could recommend to them?

Bad Alice.

Maybe my puppies are developmentally delayed? They haven't even started getting out of their bed yet, let alone sniffing around mum's food. I have offered them a sniff of food but only the runt was really interested, and although she's the littlest, she seems to be the most forward. I'll try them on a bit of mince and let them gum some chicken necks, that should be amusing. I don't know what the puppies are ... mum is a stumpy tailed cattle dog X. Two of the puppies are showing signs of having heeler markings, the other two are brown with white and black masks and stumpy tails. But the biggest puppy weighed over 2kgs at just over two weeks old, so I think he's going to be a big boy. The runt is a third of the size of the other puppies, so I imagine she had a different father. It's a bit of a mixed bag all round. Thank you!

I have a rescue dog which came into my care very heavily pregnant. She had four nice, healthy puppies who are thriving and three weeks old. I need some guidance on when to start them on solids and what kind of solids to feed. There is lots of advice around on the internet, but I'd rather some hands-on advice, since I've never had puppies before (and won't ever again if I get any choice in the matter ). Currently mum dog is on a mix of raw food and Eukanuba kibble. She has lots of milk and is doing a great job of feeding them, so I want to continue her good work.

I pulled a little red stumpy tailed cattle dog X out of the pound when she was heavily pregnant. She had four puppies (http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?showtopic=203548). Three of the puppies are HUGE. The biggest is two weeks old today and last night weighed in at 1640 g. The other two aren't far behind and while the runt is growing like a weed, she's only half the size of her siblings. I don't know anything about puppies and was wondering if what I have are three puppies who are going to be very big dogs, or just three puppies who are doing well out of a mum with lots of milk and only four pups? I realise that bigger dogs have bigger puppies, but is there a rule of thumb that will give me a clue as to how big these babies might end up? I have no idea at all about what the father might be, I'm assuming a X breed of some sort.

What beautiful photos. My old German Shepherd bitch loved cats, she helped me raise a couple of litters of kittens and one orphan baby. She was totally besotted with kittens and would sit and watch them for hours. My male Neo Homer chased cats when he arrived at my place, but soon learned to like them and they treated him like a throw pillow.

These are two of my current fosters, Jemma and Lizzie. They share a run together during the day and are very fond of each other.

You need to read the relevant legislation: Code of Practice for Shelters and Pounds and Domestic Animals Act A pound must hold an animal, other than a surrendered animal, for 8 days, in order to allow an owner to reclaim it. At the end of that period they may euthanize and animal, rehome it (by adoption from the pound) or transfer it to a rescue group or foster care. The maximum amount of time an animal may remain in a shelter or pound is 28 days, after which it must be permanently removed from the facility. In general this means euthanization. A surrendered animal may be destroyed immediately and pounds have no obligation to hold an animal for longer than the 8 days, the 28 days is a maximum not a mandated holding period.

Oh no. I'm so sorry Jed. My heart breaks for you.

Rather than a specific breed you're better off looking for a personality type which will work for you. And although I hate to disagree with lilli (hi lilli, Boo is goind very well), you can find a dog to suit you in rescue if you're prepared to take the time to identify the reputable rescues; be patient when looking for the right dog and be willing to put in the appropriate management strategies with any dog you adopt. The suggestion that you look for a rescue which fosters in a rural situation is a good one. I test my fosters on cats, cows and horses, so I can tell people whether or not my fosters are likely to chase stock. I've had working dogs who were terrific with stock and some who couldn't be trusted, but it didn't take very long to work that out.