Maddy

To a certain extent, I'd agree with you. I rescued a dog that had been "rescued" by another group and placed with a foster carer who couldn't afford to properly feed the dogs she had and as a result, the poor dog was stick thin and in really poor condition. On the other hand though, meeting all of the needs of kennelled dogs is difficult and if it's not done correctly, dogs can end up with issues that make them even harder to rehome. I can think of a few rescues that kennel and in all cases, they're barely meeting minimum welfare requirements. Physical welfare is pretty easy to manage- feed, clean, basic health- but keeping a dog in a cage means you have to work so much harder to maintain their mental health. Zoos and wildlife parks put a lot of thought into that management and even then, there can still be issues. A dog kept in a pen 24/7 (excluding short breaks for exercise and socialisation) is almost bound to suffer mentally. My opinion is that whilst foster care in a home environment isn't always perfect, it's almost always going to be the better option.

Absolutely not. If the rescue hasn't managed to find a home after four years, either the dog is not suitable for ANY home that had applied (which seems unlikely) or they aren't actually trying to find the dog a home. Whichever it is, it's not appropriate management.

I'll be honest, I didn't even notice the changes to the agreement, as the email I got seemed to be all about the "benefits" I get, as listed in this article- https://www.petrescue.com.au/library/articles/are-you-getting-the-most-out-of-your-petrescue-membership? These free flights are like Big Foot. Some people claim to know someone who knows someone else who was able to get one but so far, no one has come forward with any compelling evidence of the existence of these free flights. Free pet food but only to people living in certain areas. I was told our area had nothing, even though we're a 10 minute drive from a Petstock store in the second-largest city in Tasmania. As for events.. Nothing seems to happen down here. If someone is already at my website, they can be looking at my dogs in a format I choose, without any confusion about who is actually rehoming the dogs. Nice, but the least of many rescues' concerns with the ever-increasing cost of just the basic vet work. When I'm struggling to set aside enough money to take in a single dog, insurance is the least of my worries. The expensive busywork mentioned a few posts back. When I started reading the email, I thought maybe PR had seen this thread and were responding with some useful information that might actually help. Same old, same old, though.

Nope, I agree with you. I don't begrudge PR employees a wage when they're actually helping rescues- such as the Sensis promotions or with getting donations of pet food to rescues (assuming your rescue is in an eligible area, of course)- but some of the other recent stuff seems to be very expensive busywork. What I'd like to see is PR asking rescues how they would liked to be helped, rather than coming up with endless promotional stuff. It's great to have adoption enquiries but if I can't afford to take on new dogs because I'm completely out of resources.. it's a bit pointless. And that's not a hypothetical if, I am out of resources. And it wasn't for lack of effort on my part, either; I spent hundreds of hours trying to fundraise and came up virtually empty. If I'd worked a minimum wage job for the same period of time, I'd have made more money for the dogs and with that depressing realisation, I'm now back at school, studying to get a decent job so that in future, I can fund my rescue entirely by myself. It's one thing to say "Oh, all rescues can be financially stable if only they choose to" but my question is, how? Where is the information? Where are the resources? PR could be helping us with this but instead, they're spending the money on..? If it seems like people are getting emotional in here, it's because many of us have put so much of our own time and money into rescue and it sort of feels like PR is benefiting from it (and running well enough to pay wages) while we struggle just to keep going. Thanks Maddy I understand this. Im happy to help you with how . Give me a ring when you get a chance we have lots of resources to help you. Once I'm on holidays in a few weeks' time, I definitely will. At the moment, I'm out on placement (35 hours a week) and just don't have the actual time or energy to be trying to start anything else. This is sort of what I'm getting at though- PR have the resources to be offering real help to struggling rescues but instead, they're spending that time/money on stuff like profile makeovers that are available only to a limited few. Rescues need practical help and the biggest struggle for rescues will probably always be sourcing funds.

Nope, I agree with you. I don't begrudge PR employees a wage when they're actually helping rescues- such as the Sensis promotions or with getting donations of pet food to rescues (assuming your rescue is in an eligible area, of course)- but some of the other recent stuff seems to be very expensive busywork. What I'd like to see is PR asking rescues how they would liked to be helped, rather than coming up with endless promotional stuff. It's great to have adoption enquiries but if I can't afford to take on new dogs because I'm completely out of resources.. it's a bit pointless. And that's not a hypothetical if, I am out of resources. And it wasn't for lack of effort on my part, either; I spent hundreds of hours trying to fundraise and came up virtually empty. If I'd worked a minimum wage job for the same period of time, I'd have made more money for the dogs and with that depressing realisation, I'm now back at school, studying to get a decent job so that in future, I can fund my rescue entirely by myself. It's one thing to say "Oh, all rescues can be financially stable if only they choose to" but my question is, how? Where is the information? Where are the resources? PR could be helping us with this but instead, they're spending the money on..? If it seems like people are getting emotional in here, it's because many of us have put so much of our own time and money into rescue and it sort of feels like PR is benefiting from it (and running well enough to pay wages) while we struggle just to keep going.

Would it kill you to use the spoiler tags? :p Seriously though..yeah, pretty much. What works for one person might not work for another. I'd just pick whatever suits you best in terms of price for quality and give it a go. If it's not working after a month or so, try something else.

If a rescue keeps their dogs in kennels and adopts straight out of kennels.. I'd avoid them like the plague. How a dog behaves in kennels is often completely different to how they are in a home and without a decent amount of time living a "normal" life with a foster carer, I don't think dogs can really be accurately assessed. Case in point, recent incident involving the Dogs' Home down here where a shelter dog was being walked in public by a volunteer (a dog which had passed all assessments) and this "adoptable" dog attacked another dog and a couple of people. I'd also expect that the rescue does actually assess to some standard- not just chucking the dog in with another dog once and if no one gets killed, it's considered fine. By this, I mean written assessments, dated and signed by the person who did them. On top of that, in my opinion, trial periods should absolutely be required and before adoption even takes place, the dog having a chance to meet all resident family members and pets to ensure there aren't any obvious problems. The trouble with rescue is that while it used to be a pretty reliable way to get a great pet, there are a LOT of dodgy "rescues" around these days and you do really have to research carefully.

Maddy, we stock a full range of spare parts. it will be a very inexpensive fix and your crate will be as new again :) Please send us an email Damn. It got thrown out a while ago because I didn't realise spare parts were available

I had (had ) a K9+ crate and it really was excellent quality. Idiot Dog was happy to sleep in it as a bed and it seemed to have more room in it than an equivalent sized wire crate. Unfortunately for the soft crate, my OH liked to pile junk on it and eventually the plastic clip-in bit broke under the strain and no amount of duct tape would keep it in place. I forget which make it was but it had some really nice features like a zippered pouch thing on the back for storing dog junk. They might cost more than the average soft crate but you could definitely see the differences in terms of design and manufacturing quality so I'd also recommend them.

I don't think I can agree there. Unsafe conditions, whether they are obvious or not, are the responsibility of the kennel owner. Pet owners shouldn't have to go over the place with a fine-tooth comb to ensure their animals will be safe. To me, it's like saying you should take apart and inspect every little part of a fridge before you buy it- and if you buy a lemon because you failed to do so, tough luck. When a product or service is offered for sale it has to meet certain standards and the responsibility to ensure compliance does not (and should never) rest with the consumer. In the case of this kennel, the faults are obvious but this is not always the case anyway. And when it comes to things like unsafe practices, not many kennels are going to be open about the things they're doing wrong, for obvious reasons.

I can understand it's necessary to not accept responsibility for things that are out of your control (because they're not things you can prevent so you really can't be blamed for them) but that's a very different thing to refusing responsibility for everything, I think. If a kennel operator says they will accept no responsibility for anything that might happen, I think it's reasonable to be a bit worried about what they might be trying to cover themselves against. If staff are properly trainer, kennels are safely designed, etc, that really only leaves the things that are out of their control, or outright negligence. In the case of this particular "kennel", the "kennels" were a couple of old tin sheds with some very dodgy fencing so I can see why she has those T&Cs :/

That was what I thought. If nothing else, they would be responsible under our welfare act anyway, as the person in charge of the animal. The owner's only real argument was that it was a "standard" clause and that it'd totally never come to that anyway. Which makes me think if they're that confident in the care they offer, surely they don't need dodgy clauses to protect themselves from -any possible circumstance? Anyway, I asked the owner to clarify and was told I was a very negative person (because finding that wording concerning is negative?) so I guess that confirms my concerns.

Is it usual to have a clause like the one below in terms and conditions of boarding? I looked at several other local kennels and none had a clause like this. The wording sounds as if the kennel owner would deny any and all liability even if they were directly responsible for the injury or death of a pet. The owner in question claims this clause is standard in the industry but given it indemnifies them even in the case of their negligence, surely no pet owner would ever sign a boarding agreement like that?

That was exactly the problem I had. They seem like nice coats but on a whippet, the coat I got was a formless sack that wouldn't stay on right. Probably good for really chunky dogs though. Doesn't seem so? http://www.weatherbeeta.com.au/ Although it wouldn't surprise me if they had. Their coats are pretty pricey and these days, you can get amazing custom stuff for the same price- stuff that isn't just a scaled-down horse rug.

Having had a week to settle in, I'm not even sure she's really rehomeable at this point Her health problems are quite manageable (some arthritis that is responding really well to a change back to raw diet) but mentally, she seems to be struggling. Tryptophan+B supplements since Saturday have made no difference at all so far and she spends a lot of time just wandering and crying. It probably doesn't help that I'm at school for several hours a day and she's stuck at home. My own dogs are used to being alone but Grace was living with a stay-at-home mum with two other greyhounds and a couple of smaller dogs so I think the silence has been a difficult change. She really needs another oldie to bond with but those homes aren't easy to find so I'm not getting my hopes up for finding her something before old age takes her :/ That said, she's safe here and I'll do whatever I can for her. The poor girl deserves that, after all her bad luck. Looking a lot more grey these days

The north west of Tasmania has had an ongoing outbreak of parvo (probably the last three months or so?) but not a single thing listed for that area of the state. Link to a news story about the issue- http://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasmania/warning-after-parvovirus-outbreak-leaves-up-to-20-dogs-dead-on-tasmanias-northwest-coast/news-story/162cd542960757a87ebb20b5dbcd021c If the local paper provides more up-to-date information than the register, pretty likely that the register in question is not likely to be all that useful.

I spend about $30 per month on prescription medication from the vet, yearly bloods/script consults would average out around $300, cost of triennial vacc per year for four dogs would be about $100. Add in the odd accident/emergency/random illness at an average cost of around $200.. Roughly $960 per year for us, on average. Obviously this doesn't include foster dogs and the desex/vacc/chip/teeth costs associated with them. The average also assumes nothing major like the year one of our oldies got cancer and we had a few thousand in that one year in vet expenses. All things considered though, vet bills aren't too bad. Other things more than make up for it.. food is currently $4,380 a year (although they do get fresh, local raw for that money), coats and collars and other junk like replacing beds.. I couldn't even guess. To be honest, I don't think I'd want to know what I spend there. Other things like flea/worming and other miscellaneous costs.. about $1,000 a year. I think vet bills are actually one of the cheapest ongoing costs for our dogs

I think the brand is playmate I'll have to check when I get home, I went looking for it on google, note to self don't put "dog rug" into a Google image search I'll try cutting off the leg loops on the knitted one, would it ride up if I did? I've cut the silly thigh straps off a couple of coats and it made no difference to how well they did or didn't stay on. If a coat is badly designed and slips or rides up, thigh straps won't really help anyway- I've watched a BC run clean out of a Hurtta coat with thigh straps. Took her all of about 3 seconds to get it off.

Almost exactly a year since Grace found her new home, it looks like she'll be coming back to us again due to her owner's very poor health

If the OP wanted a serious discussion about the pros/cons of desexing, he could've started one? No one held a gun to his head and forced him to accuse rescue as being a contributor to the problem, no one forced him to discount the risks involved in keeping entire animals or to attribute those risks to entirely unrelated issues. If he didn't want a circus, he probably should've left his monkeys at home. There have been numerous sensible, interesting discussions about the issue in the past, no one is punishing the OP for the topic, but for the offensive and questionable content of the first post.

I understand that going through this is a terrifying experience (I followed your thread about Amber) - however I don't believe that dealing with cancer is more pleasant. Here a study that shows some interesting figures about mortality for pyometra: http://bmcvetres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1746-6148-10-6...interestingly, the mortality for the medical treated ones was 0%!...the surgical treated ones (OHE) was only 1%. The overall mortality considering also euthanized dogs (due to various reasons) was 10%. Compare these figures with the survival rate of dogs with cancer due to de-sexing http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0055937: quote: ...For females, the timing of neutering is more problematical because early neutering significantly increases the incidence rate of CCL from near zero to almost 8 percent, and late neutering increases the rates of HSA to 4 times that of the 1.6 percent rate for intact females and to 5.7 percent for MCT, which was not diagnosed in intact females. ...from zero to 5.7% for MCT!!!...plus all the other side effects. Based on these figures pyo seems to be the less dangerous evil... I dont desex, but then mine have dog proof fences so no accidents. in 40 years and being a breeder 3 to 8 bitches at any given time, from retired to puppies had one case of pymetra and one breast cancer in one teat, both removed and no further complications. other friends seem to have similar,others not as lucky. ditto results with friends with desexed pets.life tends to be a lottery for us and our pets http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/your-dog-needs-to-be-spayed-or-neutered-right/ ....more scare-mongering pseudoscience ...but hold on, so many studies coming to the same conclusion Scare-mongering pseudoscience is claiming a link between vaccinations and pyometra, amongst other absolutely absurd claims you've made in this thread. But anyway, I'm sure you've got three billy goats to terrorise from under your bridge, in between frothy, attention-seeking rants about the evils of vets, vaccines and something about Hitler and/or Trump (or maybe me?) being the cause of all dog problems.

Who knows. I've used them and found they weren't enough without having to also put pajamas on the dogs under the coats. My overall impression was that the quality was pretty average for the price and that there are better coats out there. I actually have a couple of D&D coats from Meg and they were much better quality so I'd recommend the D&D coats over Chilly Dog.

I dunno, I like the idea of vests for when the weather is a bit cool but not cold enough for a real coat* . I think some coats are marketed as being suitable for things they aren't though, and that's the problem. I was reading through the details for the Chilly Dog fleece coats I have and the recommended temperature range for them.. down to -5oC. Yet I'm loath to use them even as house coats (in a house with pretty decent heating) because they're just too thin. I imagine if you put one of those coats on a greyhound and chucked it outside in -5oC, you'd have a greyhound-shaped ice block pretty quickly. They certainly look like they cover the bum but that doesn't make them warm and definitely doesn't make them suitable for subzero weather. Sort of like us wearing a onesie made out of tissue paper :p *my dogs also have t-shirts for almost-warm-enough-to-be-naked-but-not-quite though so maybe that's just me. I guess I worry a lot about how warm they are :/

Launceston, 19th June at Heritage Forest in Invermay at 12pm. The second Great Global Greyhound Walk in Tasmania will be held in Launceston, hosted by Greyhound Haven Tasmania. All sighthounds and larger dogs are welcome. Small, white and fluffies are probably best left at home as there will be greyhounds attending who may not have been small dog tested. Muzzles and leads are required for all greyhounds. Muzzles will be available to borrow for those who don't have one. Unmuzzled greyhounds will not be able to join the walk. People who don't own a hound but would like to meet some are welcome to attend. FB event page (with all the details) https://www.facebook.com/events/1576213079338761/ GGGW Listing http://www.greatglobalgreyhoundwalk.co.uk/walks/tasmania-australia-worldwide-walk-2016/

I'm not normally a fan of leather collars but.. oh my. The Antiquity collar is gorgeous, pity about the price