Maddy

I'm allergic to dogs and in my experience, it depends entirely on the individual dog. I could rub Gooberdog hair into my eyes and there's no reaction. The grumpy old beast.. he increases my Zyrtec consumption considerably. There's no obvious pattern to it- some give me horribly itchy eyes and skin, some just don't.

I don't think feeding to the requirements of your wallet is going to be in the best interests of your dog. BlackHawk is not a terribly expensive food (although I believe it's seriously overpriced for what it is) but if you can't afford that, your options for decent foods are going to be seriously limited. Also, feeding additional vegetables to a dog that is on a diet that includes a lot of fibre and carbs... I don't think that's a good idea. Dogs are carnivores, padding out their diet with vegetables does them no good.

Based on the information in that particular story.. yeah, I'd just give the dog back. My reasoning is entirely practical though- after a week or so, I wouldn't be especially attached to the dog and as long as I got the adoption fee back, no real loss. I guess you could think of it as some unexpected dog minding.

Beauty and the Bees make a few different shampoo bars for dogs. I used to them (switched to Fidos because I needed shampoos to fix specific things) and they do give pretty good results. http://www.beebeauty.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=dog

I use Livamol and have never had any issues with it. It darkens pigments, it won't put brown in there. Although my first step would be to give the dog a very thorough grooming out with a Furminator- sometimes that brown rubbishy coat is just undercoat and can be removed.

Show bred greyhounds do have deeper chests though. I don't think you can really compare the two types because there's so much difference in build. I'm sure some people disagree that those differences exist but one is a working dog, with build being a very minor consideration in breeding.

I actually had a fairly serious dog fight here last week and despite knowing "better" than to stick my hands anywhere in the vicinity of the pointy ends.. well.. I think sometimes, it's hard to do things by other people's books when it's -your- situation. In my case, it was two girls who got overexcited by the visitors I had. They started fighting behind a gate and it was immediately obvious that it wasn't just a minor spat. I went in with them, speaking to them in the same voice I use for normal interaction. Dog 1 immediately stopped, dog 2 held her grip on dog 1's neck. I walked over, held dog 2 by the collar and told her it was crate time. She let go, I led her in to get crate, popped her in there and went back to check dog 1. Dog 2 ended up needing several stitches from a bite that happened before I could reach them but it could have been a lot worse. I've used that same approach in other fights (it's not a thought-out way of doing it, just how I react) and I've broken up some seriously nasty fights that way. I think the most important thing is to treat the situation with the same sort of attitude as you would any mundane handling- shouting, screaming or rough, unusual behaviour doesn't really help the situation. Be calm and be gentle, they're just as upset as you are, if not more so- avoid making their distress worse than it already is.

Honestly, I think the bloat risk in greyhounds is sometimes seriously overstated. A bit of common sense in management doesn't hurt though- no zoomies before or after meals, avoid cheap, crappy kibbles (which is a good idea generally) and educate yourself as to what to look for in the event it ever does happen. I've fostered many greyhounds (and have three of my own) and have never had any bloat. I'd also second getting a greyhound from a reputable rescue like GAP Vic or GSN. There are many dodgy groups out there (some are very big and at first glance seem ethical) and it's just not worth the potential heartbreak. I think it's also important to be very clear about what you're looking for and to communicate that to whichever group you choose. Getting the right match can be the difference between getting a dog that you can live with and getting a dog who completes your family. Good luck and welcome to life as a crazy greyhound person :D

As above. Pity we can't put all this energy into having a National Paedophile Registry like they do in America. Much more danger to our children than dogs. There is also the issue of what qualifies a dog to go on it & who decides this ? Slightly OT but.. Be careful what you wish for. That registry is a horrible joke: a child who sends another child a picture of their own body can be added to that list as a child pornographer. It's happened, it continues to happen. In my opinion, you'd have to be crazy to wish for nanny state policies like that.

Oh, I'd definitely agree about a lack of animal management resources. Launceston apparently has three ACOs but I've never seen one of those mythical creatures- sometimes you hear about the friend of a friend being called by one but that's as close as anyone has gotten. At the park we use, I reckon 80% of the dogs are offlead in the onlead area- the council could make a killing in fines from just a couple of days sitting in the carpark but yeah.. never seen an ACO there.

and you just to look at how many off lead dogs you see in these areas to see how much actual enforcing the council actually does... Exactly. Current laws don't get enforced, people do what they want. Maybe if people obeyed the current laws, there'd be less of a push to get those laws tightened up. That's not what's happening though. Before we get our knickers in a knot over things like that, it's worth reading the legislation carefully and looking at how existing legislation has been applied. To date, it's been sensible and very, very reasonable. Unlike some of the reactions in this thread.

I think suggestions that they're planning to ban dogs from footpaths are a bit silly. Under the current act, councils can already declare areas as restricted or prohibited so I don't understand the panic over this. In the Launceston City Council area, dogs are prohibited from playgrounds and schools (which is sensible, in my opinion) and restricted to on lead only for certain wildlife areas. They're also prohibited (from memory) from two malls. The doom and gloom predicted hasn't happened under current legislation and I doubt that will be any different with the proposed changes.

I think I'd have to agree with sandgrubber, it's an incredibly risky thing to do without some proper training and on a distressed dog who might be struggling, that risk just gets even worse (let alone risk of being bitten while attempting it).

I got mine by just asking my pet food place for it. They were giving us so much that the dogs got thoroughly sick of it and now I have about half a first stomach taking up space in the bottom of my meat freezer. As far as I know, most places just toss the GI tract as there's little demand for it. Fair warning though.. fresh green tripe is a bastard to cut up. It's incredibly dense, slippery as hell and the gut wall is hard muscle and connective tissue. A quality boning knife is a must, unless you can source it already minced (which would be very tricky)

The ingredients of the product on their front page look like the ingredients of your average tinned food. Rice flour and gelling agents.. not what I'd call "all natural", even if it's raw.

In my opinion, lack of sight is not the sort of disability that would impact on quality of life in the right home. I own a partially blind and epileptic dog and although he is somewhat different from the other dogs to care for, most people don't even realise- he feels his way along on one side with his front paw so if anyone does notice anything different, it's the "limp". If the dog in question is with a responsible group, odds are he'll get an appropriate home. Plenty of perfectly healthy dogs are challenging in their own ways (like sighthounds, for example) but no one questions rehoming of those dogs

Some of our dogs like to sunbake on the concrete and really, there's no fast way of regrowing hair that has been rubbed off like that. Prevention is definitely your best bet- a lightweight coat, made from smooth fabric and long enough to cover his thighs when lying down is an option if he insists on concrete naps. A better option is to get him a raised bed and then use one of the soft Snooza covers on it (they seem fairly weather resistant).

That stuff is amazing. I use it on the Gooberdog and his coat feels so beautiful afterwards. I'm back to using the Fido's White and Bright with the herbal rinse and he looks better than with anything else I've used.

While I'd agree there are some dodgy trainers out there, most are just normal who participate in the sport as a hobby. Allegations of doping are old news- there are some trainers who don't understand that there is more to training than walking the dog a few times a week and feeding it cheap rubbish. Successful trainers are usually putting a lot of time and money into their dogs. To give you a good example of the "he cheated" crap that goes on.. My pet meat place also supplies a few local trainers. One came in one day and accused the shop owner of selling him inferior meat as his dog had lost to another customer's dog. In his opinion, the shop owner was saving all the 'good' meat for this other customer. That was rubbish, obviously, but he couldn't accept that their dog was just faster, someone else had to be at fault. There are undoubtedly issues with the industry but doping isn't one of them.

Beef and roo mince. Weigh it out into portions, roll portion into a ball, put in freezer bag and freeze. Slows down the food inhalers, forces them to chew (which helps their teeth) and because it takes them longer to eat, they tend to eat less. Only two of my dogs get their meat defrosted and that's because they both need a bit of weight on (one has visible hip bones and the other is a very fussy dog who can drop a lot of weight from just a week of being more picky than usual).

I'm not a huge fan of the fabric martingales because realistically, they're not safe to walk a grey in. I had a dog (the old boy) break a collar by lunging after a cat and it was a terrifying experience. These days, they only get walked in their BlackDog martingales. Fancy tag collars, on the other hand.. I liked that idea enough that I started making them. With tag collars, strength isn't an issue so you can do all sorts of stuff and they're still functional. I suppose a fabric collar with a proper webbing base would be a different story but they seem hard to come by, especially decent quality ones that could actually be used for walking.

I can't say I've ever really had problems with my hounds being gassy but they are raw fed so maybe that's why. To answer the OP.. maybe prey drive. Not the actual drive itself but the intensity of it in some dogs. Chasing rabbits wouldn't bother me, chasing small dogs, on the other hand, is a serious concern. I love my drivey girl a lot but it'd be nice to be able to do normal dog things with her, like just taking her for a walk in public.

One of my dogs is overweight and I'm very much aware of it. Someone pointing this out to me or implying I didn't care correctly for my dog would piss me off. In the old dog's case, he has a degenerative spine issue and keeping him lean is much easier said than done when he doesn't want to exercise. Try forcing a 39kg dog to walk if it really doesn't want to. With Old Dog, he just puts the brakes on and that's that- it's like trying to walk a boulder. I'm sure some people just don't know better but there's always a chance that the dog has some sort of medical condition that you can't see, potentially one that will eventually take the dog's life (as it will the Old Dog), making assumptions from other people even more upsetting.

I mostly feed raw but for kibble, I'd second Taste of the Wild. It seems to be a lot easier to get and although the dogs definitely prefer raw food, I've never had a dog refuse TotW.

As others have said, it depends on which dog. My old boy is an absolute tart and I have to watch how much lead he has as some people don't like big dogs. He's always very happy to be patted (and to have a willing victim to rub his muzzle on) so I don't mind strangers approaching him. My youngest dog is the opposite- he's blind in one eye so really doesn't like having his head patted and despite a lot of positive socialisation, he's wary of strangers anyway. The annoying thing is, the younger dog is very small for a male grey (only 26 kg) so people more willing to approach him for a pat :/