Maddy

Etsy is a black hole for money. The Eclectic Hound make some beautiful collars and not just for sighthounds. https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/TheEclecticHound I have a couple of things from there and they're really nicely made.

Oh, for some reason I thought you were down in Hobart Susie also does dog treats and she's recent started making beef sticks. I got some beef sticks last Friday and my dogs LOVE them. https://www.facebook.com/northernpetmeats

If you can find a pet meat place near you that does offal, it's all legal and inspected. Make sure wherever you get pet meat from is properly licensed by the DPI though, there are a lot of backyarders around at the moment (who may or may not check their carcasses) and meat hygiene is really important. From what I know, there is a place near the track in Glenorchy that does reasonable pet meat but if you can afford a trip up to Launceston once a month or so (and have a freezer for storing bulk amounts), Northern Pet Meats would be your best bet. I've been feeding my greyhounds their meat for years and the hounds do really well on it (and she does things like green tripe and other unusual stuff to order).

Oh, yes Shitty Whippet figured out quite a while ago that she could use my chair to get up on my desk. And once up there.. oh, the things we can steal. She also figured out that the best time to do this stealing was when I was taking Idiot Dog out to the toilet- something which gives her a good five minutes to get up on the desk, pick something interesting, take it to her bed in the lounge room to hide and be back sitting innocently in the kitchen (as if she'd been patiently waiting for me the whole time) when I get back inside.

Absolutely this. I now only take the occasional dog and the expectations still piss me off. Newer rescuers (those who are all still fired up with that immediate anger and drive to Make Positive Changes) tend to be the ones putting that pressure on because they've yet to realise that quality is what matters, not quantity. I could easily cram ten dogs into my backyard and scrape by on the cheapest food, with each dog getting minimal human contact or.. I could have one or two foster dogs, they can eat high quality food, get lots of my time and attention for grooming, training and assessment and then go on to be easy to rehome and very successful in their new homes. I might rehome less dogs but my bounce rate.. incredibly low. Rushing around, trying to save everything with no regard for the actual welfare of the animals is where a lot of rescuers seem to come unstuck.

I think pretty much all the hounds were labeled as "dumb", which suggests to me that they've judged on biddability, not actual intelligence. Most of the greyhounds I've had were very intelligent, the difference between them and a border collie is that the hound isn't going to do what you ask of it just because you asked. For example.. they won't often fetch. After all, if you wanted the ball so much, why did you throw it away to start with? They're also bright enough to figure out that if they don't want to work for their food like a performing monkey, they can just wait until dinner time for their regular meal. Liver treats might be nice but so is going back to bed and sleeping until dinner. A dog (or type) bred for hundreds of years to hunt independently of human guidance just doesn't have much use for being told what to do and personally, I like that trait. If independence is such a negative, cats are basically the worst pets ever

The nipple thing from the other thread.. To provide a bit of context.. we were at the vet anyway because he did actually have a large lump on his neck that was also darkly pigmented (which ended up being malignant). The other "lump" was something I'd noticed a few days before our appointment and I decided to mention it because.. well, it seemed likely that they were related. So, the appointment rolls around and my vet looked at the actual lump and then asked me to point out the second one. I point it out. Vet asked me if I'm sure that was the lump. I said yes (thinking maybe he needed to get his glasses checked). Vet informs me that said lump is a nipple, followed by a very long, awkward silence.

Now I feel slightly less stupid for taking my dog in to have that weird little black lump removed from his chest- which turned out to be one of his nipples At least you didn't try to pull a nipple off thinking it was a tick (I will admit to picking at it. In my own defense though.. if you don't want your nipple to be mistaken for something else, don't have a randomly black nipple when all the rest are regular dog nipple coloured)

Now I feel slightly less stupid for taking my dog in to have that weird little black lump removed from his chest- which turned out to be one of his nipples

Even if it's used to dogs, the cat may very well be the issue. Although there is always risk when fostering dogs with other dogs, that risk is higher with cats and if anything were to happen to the cat, it has the potential to cause all sorts of mess for the group.

That's the million dollar question. Recidivism rates are quite high I just can't find the exact % right now. I did a bit of reading up on the subject, mainly due to rescue and the easy availability of animals.The new problem of pets being sent to anyone, anywhere just to save them isn't helping and is actively enabling very unwell people. I wanted to know the difference and evolution of a hoarder. And seeing so many rescuers called hoarders when people don't like them. There's lots of people with "too many dogs". Not all of them are ill. Ironically puppy farmers are quick to plead hoarding if they get caught. Anyway ... rambling on. lol :laugh: :laugh: Could be completely wrong. http://vet.tufts.edu/hoarding/ From what I recall, recidivism rates for animal hoarding were pretty much 100%, even in cases where courts had imposed bans on ownership. As for hoarders not selling animals.. breeding animals for the purpose of "sale" is one fairly common justification for hoarders keeping/breeding animals. Some animals do get sold but the motivation to breed them in the first place was never actually money. Kind of like rescue hoarders (I can think of one very high profile example of rescue hoarding going on right now >.> ) in that there appears to be legitimate reason for obtaining animals beyond what can be cared for but when you look further into the situation, it's the same old patterns.

Horses get dogged for pet meat down here, it's common and perfectly legal. Personally, I wouldn't feed it to my dogs but I know plenty of people who do. Just curiously, why wouldn't you feed horse to your dogs? For several reasons. The most important of which being that people aren't always honest about what veterinary treatments/drugs have been administered to the horse. If you have an unwell horse and your only two options are to shoot it on your own land (and have to go to the time and expense of burying it) or selling the horse for pet meat (which could be a couple of hundred dollars in your pocket), there is incentive not to be honest. Most pet meat abattoirs won't want to be hanging onto horses to wait out withholding periods so they won't accept horses that have been given certain drugs- so people just don't tell them to start with. Given I have one dog who is already on a lot of medication, it's not a risk I'm willing to take with his health. Then there is the question of what the purchase of horse meat is supporting. From what I've seen, ex race horses do make up some of the horses dogged but many more are pets- bought by people without the knowledge or experience to care for them- and when things go south (they injure the horse through bad riding, they feed it improperly and cause permanent damage, etc), rather than taking responsibility for their actions, they can just dog the horse and then go out and buy another to ruin. If they had to pay someone to come out and shoot/bury that horse, maybe they'd think a bit harder before buying another. Those reasons aside, I live in a state with really good access to quality game/livestock meats. Why would I feed some kid's poor riding pony to my dogs when they could be eating fresh wallaby for the same price?

Do you have cats or any other requirements that might limit the sort of dog you can take? A quick look at their FB and one minute ago, they're still desperately trying to find a foster for a lab cross

Horses get dogged for pet meat down here, it's common and perfectly legal. Personally, I wouldn't feed it to my dogs but I know plenty of people who do.

For the Tasmanian folks, Greyhound Haven Tasmania will be hosting a walk in Launceston at Heritage Forest, starting at 10am :D

When you say 'unbacked' I see they have ones that are either ribbed or 'green' backing. Is there another version or which one would be best for my needs? The unbacked stuff has neither type of backing (which means it's lighter and easier to wash/dry and you can get it from here- http://www.ozgroomingworld.com.au/super-dry-bed--vet-bed-p225/

I'd get a couple of pieces of unbacked vet bed and stack them. It doesn't hold water, it's easy to wash when it gets dragged out onto the lawn and it will last forever.

I bought a Doog belt a while back and have only ever used it once. The pockets were tiny and difficult to get into and it seemed really bulky for something that carries so little. As daggy as they are, a normal bumbag would probably be better value for money.

I wonder what he got called as a kid in school..

Haughty McNaughty does really nice custom stuff. This was one she did for the Shitty Whippet.

Perhaps one of the Fair Dinkum coats would be suit your needs? They still have that boxy, ugly shape for the non-sighthound coats but moleskin is a lot more flexible than ripstop. http://fairdinkumdogs.com.au/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=54

When Idiot Dog was a puppy, he had a Wag Wear coat and even though the back of the coat (towards the loin) was a bit lose on him, for a pet shop coat, it was probably one of the best. Damned if I know what the style was called but it actually looked quite nice and wasn't a shapeless piece of stiff fabric with straps on it.

One side of Idiot Dog's mouth is pristine. The other.. is due for a dental soon. We feed bones, chicken frames, deer antlers, cows hooves, but he'll only chew on one side so the other is usually dirty again within a month of having a dental done.

See, I think that's part of the problem- they do up under the chest, instead of under the loin and it looks wrong to me. From looking at the photo, I'd say back length is right (maybe a tad long?) but drop is all wrong, like they assume a dog of X back length is going to be built like a labrador and need Y girth all the way along. That said, WB coats are shapeless stiff dog drapes so by comparison, Hurrta are better. Which reminds me.. Chilly Dogs coats are okay. I don't think quality quite matches the price- the fleece on mine feels pretty average, maybe even a little thin- but they're a decent coat if you can get them at a reasonable price.

I have the cooling coat (which velcros up right between the front legs, of all the fiddly places to be trying to be mucking around with trying to thread a velcro tab through) and one of the winter coats and the shapes are a bit.. stout. I'm used to non-greyhound specific things not fitting quite right but the Hurrta coats seem very square. For breeds besides sighthounds? The Lilcracka coats are decent, if you can get them with the regular plastic buckles and not those god-awful metal things that are impossible to do up and pop open constantly. I have a couple of their thick winter coats (they also do a polar fleece) and besides the metal things (which still give me an irrational case of the rages because they're so terrible), they were good quality coats and sat very nicely.