Maddy

These are two tags I had done to match themed collars for the Idiot Dog. I needed a fair amount of room to put in information about his medical condition/medication needs and I also wanted ones that would fit a silencer because clinking tags drive me nuts. Both are attached to a sturdy lobster clasp so they can be easily taken off. Edit- link to seller - http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Pet-tags-Military-style-/321522838688?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&var=&hash=item76d64931bb

I have a dog who is a bit "speshal" and despite being a greyhound (who are normally very clean and easy to toilet train), it was a real struggle to toilet train him. He finally picked it up when he was about a year old- we gave him a smaller space outside to toilet (rather than the whole backyard) and he eventually came to recognise that as his toilet spot. That said, he's still very prone to accidents and still has to be treated like a puppy in some respects (taken outside to toilet straight after meals and whenever he wakes up) because he sometimes seems to forget about his bladder until it's really urgent.

Sorry to hear that Idiopathic or..?

Green with envy! :laugh: OMG I love dog clothes especially the knitted jumpers. I wonder if you can get knitted pyjamas? :) Hurtta Comfort Knit They don't make the Comfort Knit in greyhound sizes and to be honest, I'd be reluctant to buy Hurrta again for sighthounds. Shitty Whippet has a Hurtta winter coat and despite being the right size, the fit is awful- it looks pouchy and odd. But she's also got a tiny waist so I figured I'd get one of the cooling coats for the Idiot Dog, who is a fair bit stouter and has a relatively short back for a boy. And.. that was a fail, too. Some generic shaped stuff works for sighthounds but Hurtta doesn't, which is a shame because the waterproof overalls would come in very handy around here. Oh that's a bugger, because those knits are really cute! If I had a smooth coated dog I'd be very very tempted. They are (not that I should be buying the dogs more coats this week anyway >.> ) Ah! Buy medium or smaller, "normal" proportioned, smooth coated dog first, then you can buy a Hurtta Knit! I do already have that nice collar that's too big for the whippet but too small for the greyhounds.. it'd be wasteful not to get a dog to fit it, wouldn't it?

Green with envy! :laugh: OMG I love dog clothes especially the knitted jumpers. I wonder if you can get knitted pyjamas? :) Hurtta Comfort Knit They don't make the Comfort Knit in greyhound sizes and to be honest, I'd be reluctant to buy Hurrta again for sighthounds. Shitty Whippet has a Hurtta winter coat and despite being the right size, the fit is awful- it looks pouchy and odd. But she's also got a tiny waist so I figured I'd get one of the cooling coats for the Idiot Dog, who is a fair bit stouter and has a relatively short back for a boy. And.. that was a fail, too. Some generic shaped stuff works for sighthounds but Hurtta doesn't, which is a shame because the waterproof overalls would come in very handy around here. Oh that's a bugger, because those knits are really cute! If I had a smooth coated dog I'd be very very tempted. They are (not that I should be buying the dogs more coats this week anyway >.> )

Green with envy! :laugh: OMG I love dog clothes especially the knitted jumpers. I wonder if you can get knitted pyjamas? :) Hurtta Comfort Knit They don't make the Comfort Knit in greyhound sizes and to be honest, I'd be reluctant to buy Hurrta again for sighthounds. Shitty Whippet has a Hurtta winter coat and despite being the right size, the fit is awful- it looks pouchy and odd. But she's also got a tiny waist so I figured I'd get one of the cooling coats for the Idiot Dog, who is a fair bit stouter and has a relatively short back for a boy. And.. that was a fail, too. Some generic shaped stuff works for sighthounds but Hurtta doesn't, which is a shame because the waterproof overalls would come in very handy around here.

Green with envy! :laugh: OMG I love dog clothes especially the knitted jumpers. I wonder if you can get knitted pyjamas? :) If you could.. I'd be all over that :D My dogs all have fleece pajamas but they're really not warm enough in the middle of winter here so they have to wear a coat over the top.

They changed their name a while back. Used to be Paws for Life. Also used to be much cheaper >.>

More coats, including a knitted sweater each As a late birthday present, Idiot Dog got a wardrobe to share with Shitty Whippet to keep all all their coats/leads/collars/junk in.

It was great :D Freeeeeezing cold start but we had more than 30 dogs there and I got to catch up with several of my old foster dogs for cuddles. Idiot Dog, all dressed up and ready to be slowly dragged along behind everyone else.

My thoughts exactly. It should have been a great day to celebrate greyhounds as pets, not rehash the live baiting or wastage issues :/

If it was my money (as a member of GRNSW), I guess I'd have a lot more incentive to care about the quality of the survey. Fortunately for me, it's not my membership dues being wasted on questionable research that could impact my future participation in the sport. I wonder how many members are aware of this study? That aside, it worries me that the results of this survey might be used by other states to form policy or by anti racing groups to back up their claims that the majority of the public would support a ban (and the subsequent extinction of the racing greyhound in Australia). Bad research (in other areas) has already led to policies that aren't good for dogs. The new regulations for breeders in Victoria are a good example of AR-influenced laws that actually negatively affect animal welfare.

Why? I'd assume scientists would be much more familiar and comfortable with research than members of the public? If the researchers don't understand the topic and how to write questions that will yield the most accurate data for that topic, perhaps they should have spent some time beforehand learning about the industry and all of the groups within it or affected by it? Anyways, I've voiced my opinion of the issues with this survey and it's not my money being wasted so..

You know what happens when one assumes? It's a bit rich to say those of us involved in greyhounds don't care and as far as saying put your money where your mouth is, well that's just insulting. You know a lot about the industry do you corvus or just what you read on social media and watch on 4Corners? As others have said this will just be another platform for the wackos and the nutjobs to spew their uninformed opinions, they will be told how to answer the questions. Just reading through it for example the question that asks if greyhounds should be socialised with other breeds while racing. Now that will be an overwhelming yes by the people who have NFI, the people that think a trainer should have an elite athlete romping around a dog park making friends. Do you have any idea what damage can be done? Maybe WreckitWhippet can post a photo of the damage done to her greyhound that ended it's racing career. I have given blood, sweat and tears to greyhound rescue so don't dare tell me that because I can't be bothered filling out a pointless survey that I don't care. You have no idea...it really is just as simple as that. At risk of getting involved in what appears to be a pre-existing relationship, I think you might have misunderstood what Corvus meant about you caring and assuming - she 'assumed' that you DO care about the industry and that is why you spent so long thinking about it. We're much more familiar and comfortable with research than your average member of the public (I don't mean that in a bad way, but both Corvus and I are scientists who work with dogs so it's what we do), so sometimes it's hard for us to understand the reluctance of some people to use their voice in a situation like this where one well-worded answer could raise a point that the researchers hadn't considered and change the direction of their research. Like I said above, of course the researchers are going to identify trends, but the focus of the work that will come out of this survey isn't decided by popular vote (or even only by the results of this survey as there's lots of other things being considered) - this is purely about gathering info, so the researchers aren't going in with an idea of what the results 'should' be, as it's not that type of work. All they want is lots of info, from lots of different people, with varying amounts of direct or indirect involvement with greyhound racing - nothing sinister :) If that is the case, I'd expect questions that had actually been researched (to ensure the answers they got were actually useful). I'll give you an example here.. Is this question asking what percentage of dogs should be assessed for suitability for rehoming? Or which percentage of assessed dogs should be rehomed? Or even which percentage of assessed dogs would we like to see being assessed as rehomable? I assumed the first question was what was meant. Someone else might assume the second or even third and answer with that interpretation in mind. When you ask questions that suggest a lack of insight into how rehoming works, you're going to end up with unusable answers. But by all means, continue to assume us simple plebs don't understand how research works :) I'm not part of the research group, so I'm making an educated guess on why questions were worded they way they were. My guess is that the question is actually trying to gauge what degree of 'wastage' people feel is acceptable. Obviously the more you know about the industry, the nature of the dogs and rehoming process, the more realistic you will be about the actual number of dogs that don't go on to become pets after racing, and the more able you are to justify your answer and ask questions like the ones you have - that will change how you feel about the situation and what number you feel comfortable writing. Others may automatically write 100%, or 90% or 10% (and those numbers may or may not correlate with how much knowledge people demonstrate in other questions that were asked). The question isn't aimed at giving you an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge of the industry, or even at finding out how the rehoming process works and why there is wastage, as such, how 'useable' the answers are completely depends on what info the researchers are trying to get from them. If you want to know more though, I'd suggest you contact the researchers directly - Tiffani has given her email above :) You are missing my point. That one question is going to yield different answers based on what the person answering thinks the question means. It's not one question, it's several questions. If 40% of people think it means example A, 50% think it means example B and 10% think it means example C, you are going to have three different sets of data for one question with no way of knowing which example the person thought they were answering. It has nothing to do with the respondent's knowledge of the industry, it's about the knowledge of the people writing the questions. If the people who write the questions haven't bothered to do their research, you're going to end up with bad questions, like the example given. Edited to add condescending smiley face. :)

You know what happens when one assumes? It's a bit rich to say those of us involved in greyhounds don't care and as far as saying put your money where your mouth is, well that's just insulting. You know a lot about the industry do you corvus or just what you read on social media and watch on 4Corners? As others have said this will just be another platform for the wackos and the nutjobs to spew their uninformed opinions, they will be told how to answer the questions. Just reading through it for example the question that asks if greyhounds should be socialised with other breeds while racing. Now that will be an overwhelming yes by the people who have NFI, the people that think a trainer should have an elite athlete romping around a dog park making friends. Do you have any idea what damage can be done? Maybe WreckitWhippet can post a photo of the damage done to her greyhound that ended it's racing career. I have given blood, sweat and tears to greyhound rescue so don't dare tell me that because I can't be bothered filling out a pointless survey that I don't care. You have no idea...it really is just as simple as that. At risk of getting involved in what appears to be a pre-existing relationship, I think you might have misunderstood what Corvus meant about you caring and assuming - she 'assumed' that you DO care about the industry and that is why you spent so long thinking about it. We're much more familiar and comfortable with research than your average member of the public (I don't mean that in a bad way, but both Corvus and I are scientists who work with dogs so it's what we do), so sometimes it's hard for us to understand the reluctance of some people to use their voice in a situation like this where one well-worded answer could raise a point that the researchers hadn't considered and change the direction of their research. Like I said above, of course the researchers are going to identify trends, but the focus of the work that will come out of this survey isn't decided by popular vote (or even only by the results of this survey as there's lots of other things being considered) - this is purely about gathering info, so the researchers aren't going in with an idea of what the results 'should' be, as it's not that type of work. All they want is lots of info, from lots of different people, with varying amounts of direct or indirect involvement with greyhound racing - nothing sinister :) If that is the case, I'd expect questions that had actually been researched (to ensure the answers they got were actually useful). I'll give you an example here.. Is this question asking what percentage of dogs should be assessed for suitability for rehoming? Or which percentage of assessed dogs should be rehomed? Or even which percentage of assessed dogs would we like to see being assessed as rehomable? I assumed the first question was what was meant. Someone else might assume the second or even third and answer with that interpretation in mind. When you ask questions that suggest a lack of insight into how rehoming works, you're going to end up with unusable answers. But by all means, continue to assume us simple plebs don't understand how research works :)

The results should make for some interesting reading. I have a feeling that this will soon be all over the anti pages and they'll be encouraging all their supporters to respond in a particular way. To be honest, I doubt anything useful will come of this particular survey but I am pleased to see GRNSW are (apparently) looking to make changes based on welfare science, rather than whatever is best for trainers or whatever the anti racing people demand.

Sounds like they're confusing rottweilers with white men.. :p

I think (as I said before) that the injury that occurred to the person needs to be considered in the context of how it actually happened, rather than judging the severity of the dog's behaviour by the size of the wound, if that makes sense? Obviously, if nothing else, the dog in question is dog aggressive. And obviously, if nothing else, the owner of the dog is irresponsible. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that returning DA dog to idiot owner brings with it a VERY high risk of a repeat performance. I think it's kind of sad and ironic that so much effort and so many resources are being put into saving this DA staffy while heaps of perfectly sweet, rehomeable staffies are dying in pounds because of a lack of resources.

Maybe there are two types because the ones I have didn't have that packaging and were more square all the ones I have bought, as I recall, are this type. 90 x 70 cms in plastic. Might have to go into Bunnings on Saturday and have a look at what the brand is. I'm sure the label was mostly white and yellow.

It would be great if this group can succeed where others have not. My biggest concern is that the attitude behind the pound's operation is anything but pro-rescue and pro-welfare. When even the RSPCA has "investigated" and found nothing to complain about in terms of welfare, there's a problem. I and others have been asking for true and genuine transparency in the pound's operations. I don't live in Cowra shire, so my voice is pretty muted based on that - yet Cowra is my closest town and where I spend most of my time and money. Since I moved here, I've seen atrocious "management" of particular cases and inadequate responses from people claiming to be "rescuers". I did confuse Kylie with someone else and for that I can only offer an apology. There are lots of pretenders in the rescue community (as with most sectors of the community I guess), and sometimes they blur into each other. I am not a pretender and the people who actually know me, know that. If comments on social media and forums stop good people from continuing to rescue, I don't see how that helps. I can only imagine how empty some people's lives must be if trying to damage or destroy others is something to do for fun. I'm not having a dig at anyone specific here. If that were the case I would do so privately - and then I'd probably be condemned for not doing so in public. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. I'm in rescue for the dogs. That's my agenda. That quote is just too classic to make comment. Get that shovel ready, you're digging yourself a nice deep hole. And you can shovel something else of yours while you're at it. I guess Countrygirl's comment about them not allowing "rescuers" in makes sense now. It seems the ranger there is not a complete idiot.

Maybe there are two types because the ones I have didn't have that packaging and were more square

Chemists will sell hydrogen peroxide but you can also buy it online. Make sure it is food grade. Styptic powder (or pencil) can be gotten from chemists and some pet shops but again, can also be bought online (and generally cheaper that way). F10 is a veterinary disinfectant. I usually buy it online only. http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/Pet-Supplies-/1281/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=f10 It looks expensive but for a pet owner, a 200ml bottle should last you until it expires so it works out being very economical. It is more or less odourless (very slight smell) and can be used on most surfaces safely.

Compost cages, in the aisle with other composty stuff (usually hidden away on a bottom shelf). I use them to keep the dogs out of certain areas of the front yard when we're trying to regrow grass in the summer or keep the dogs out of the mud in winter. They're not terribly sturdy (I use cable ties as those spiral rings are annoying and useless) so they get used strictly for blocking things that aren't dangerous but I want the dogs away from. Maddy if you're using them on the lawn or in the garden, a couple of tent pegs driven in each side makes them fairly sturdy when set up in a square or octagon. To close off part of a garden while regrowing it I've even been known to wire them up to a few star pickets! lol We've tried that and found that it didn't stop determined greyhounds from nudging them over to go climb on the compost pile or do zoomies in the mud :/ That said.. we have the worst possible soil for pegs. In summer, the clay is like concrete and getting a peg in requires a mallet. In winter, after a few good rains, it's a bog that doesn't dry out again until November. At one point, we fenced off an area using star pickets driven as deep as we could and that construction tape stuff (this stuff) cable tied through the holes in the pickets, all the way to the bottom. Despite that, the fresh soil/new grass seeds seemed really kicked around after a few days and some covert surveillance revealed one foster dog was getting on her belly and slowly worming her way under so that she could enjoy rolling around in the fresh soil Since then, we've given up on trying too hard to have a decent lawn :laugh:

They're definitely "last resort" items and personally, I've never had to do it (my dogs have been considerate enough to have their accidents/fights at home, which is close to the vet) but you never know. I don't have actual cotton in mine though, I got disposable packs that come with non-soluble suture material and curved needles. Same with bloat kits, really. If things are bad enough that you're having to use one, things are bad enough that you have nothing to lose.

It was from my greyhound first aid book that I sent you a while back :p I just copy/pasted because I'm a bit lazy.