Maddy

But they do collect rego fees every year :p When you pay rego on your car, that income goes towards providing you with the infrastructure needed ffor it, dog rego should be no different.

I can think of piles of things I'd like to see :D Clear explanations of all dog-related laws (not everyone has the time or inclination to look them up online and try to decipher the laws) and further, for everything to be included. Tasmania has laws that, so far as I can find, exist but don't seem to be recorded anywhere the average person can find them (I've spent hours searching and not been able to find sources for some things). General health information. Not every dog owner is a crazy dog person. Basic information about preventative care (vaccinations, parasite prevention, etc), basic guidelines for when a dog needs veterinary care (you'd be horribly surprised by how many people think a dog's dew claws growing back into its forelegs is not a health issue), information on basic needs for certain breeds (like longhaired breeds needing grooming- it sounds obvious but trust me, it's not to some people) and basic day-to-day stuff. General dog behaviour/training info. To most of us, the idea of rubbing a dog's nose in its own urine if it has an accident inside is just absurd but plenty of people still believe this is the best way to train. So, basic information that reflects what we know today about dog behaviour, as well as safe, effective training methods, including methods for dealing with some of the common problems (barking, poor recall, pulling on the lead, etc). Directories of services. Vets, approved trainers, groomers, boarding kennels, etc. That's just a couple of the things and if we even got one of those, I'd be very happy.

Launceston City Council doesn't offer much for dog owners- a few off-lead parks, poo bags in parks and that's about it. Even just working taps or areas that aren't filthy swamps would be nice :p But anyway.. Free training programs would be great, dog education programs (starting with kids), parks with decent shade, seating and running water (no grotty, concrete troughs filled with mysteriously greenish-brown water), rangers to monitor on-lead parks to ensure people obey the rules (especially if there are playgrounds nearby), low-cost desexing/vaccination programs, better rego discounts for responsible owners (people who train/desex/vacc/chip their pets), regular dog socialisation events, proper educational resources (besides those dodgy council fact sheets).

Just to update.. Our amazing vet did a partial removal yesterday (saved the pad and most of the toe itself) and he's walking fine on it already. She said she didn't think it was SLO but the toe is being sent up to Melbourne tomorrow for testing so we should have a definite answer by next Friday. Fingers crossed that he just somehow managed to mangle the nail!

I've noticed huge amounts of variation in the greys. We had one dog who could clean out a full, split marrow bone in about 30 minutes (when I say clean, I mean not even small bits of meat left, you'd get a perfectly stripped bone back) and then on the other hand, we recently had a foster dog who was so precious about food, I ended up having to feed her from a dropper (she hadn't eaten in over a week). Of our current dogs, we have the old man (who likes to tour the backyard for grotty old bones that have been hidden and then forgotten) and who will eat until he pukes and then re-eat the puke. We have the older girl (who never appears to eat yet remains the same weight), the foster dog (who walked away from fresh steak a few nights ago, presumably because it was the second night in a row eating steak and he was bored with it) and the puppy who eats more than most of the adult dogs and yet still seems hungry all the time- he'll eat anything he finds on the floor that looks roughly food-sized (lint, paper, pebbles, etc) and is not above countersurfing if floor pickings are slim.

From my own experience, allergies don't necessarily always show up in childhood. I was fine with animals until I got to about 18 and then.. allergies. It's not so much the hair that causes the issues (I have a smooth-coated, short-haired breed that drops very little hair) but the saliva. Any licking tends to leave itchy rashes and if I pat them and then touch my eyes.. the most horribly itchy, red eyes. I'd guess that allergies would be easy enough to manage if hygiene was kept up and the children kept away from direct contact with the animals.

How odd The dog in the picture (which I asusme to be the dog in question) looks like 90% of the labs we see around here, nothing pit bull about her. I can't even see the husky, just tubby lab. Things like this make me very glad that I own a breed that differs greatly in proportions to the dogs described in Victorian legislation.

Same. When we go away, my mum is the only person I'd trust to follow instructions regarding the dogs (we usually have fosters so not only will those instructions change each time, for the safety of the dogs, they must be followed closely). Recently, we went up to QLD and the puppy had to go into boarding (as two of our dogs are senior and can't cope with him all day) but even that is something I'd never do again unless I have no choice (the puppy came back in very average condition). If it were me, I'd be looking for either friend or family who were sensible and dog-savvy. Failing that, I'd be looking here as at least here, most people take their dogs pretty seriously.

Forgot to add.. BlackDog Wear do a full range of these sorts of items- http://www.blackdog.net.au/index.php?page=shop.browse&category_id=5&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=5 and they're a bit clearer in intent.

fair enough.. I think , if it was in general use, and joe public was taught what it meant - it would perhaps make life a lot more pleasant :) SO many members of the public..and dog owners are not at all fluent in dog body language . A simple yellow ribbon easily sends them the message that the dog is probably also sending .. but which is not able to be read!It will save mis- understandings, maybe :) Please keep away . Agreed. I have a puppy who is totally blind in one eye and so can't see other dogs barging up to him from that side. If the other dog is on lead and the owner is careful to introduce the dog on Bosley's good side, I'm happy for him to meet other dogs but for off-lead dogs, it's an accident waiting to happen (with Bosley the one likely to get hurt because he can't see to get out of the way). He's certainly not a shit of a dog because he needs space

Besides the two issues we've have, his nails appear quite normal. He has one dewclaw that grows thicker than the other but the rest are healthy. The other nail that he fully lost is growing back quite well, no sign of any issues there. I did actually keep the last nail that he lost (got it in a ziplock bag on my desk, don't ask why I kept it, I have no idea) so I think I might take that in with me on Wednesday. Might not be usable for biopsy but.. I really do hope it is just track nail, he's getting on a bit and GAs are getting more risky as he goes (already got cataract surgery to look forward to )

Ah.. my vet wants to remove the entire toe to prevent infection but I feel like it's perhaps a very heavy-handed means of going about it. The other worry is that because of what they're doing, he'll need a full GA, rather than just sedation. The final concern is that he'll get it in other toes (this is the second toe to have the issue) and that we may end up having to do it more than once (which is going to impact even further on his balance). I might ask if a partial removal is possible to allow the wound to be fully closed without having to lose the entire lot, especially when it seems likely that he's going to have the same problem again.

agree and in that case PTS would be the kindest thing for the dog. Having some do-gooder try to "heal" it would be very cruel. However most dogs do seem to be able to adapt very quickly thankfully. That's how I feel about it. I've known dogs like that (my grandmother had one, she left my cousin and I to babysit it once and it was a hell of howling and pacing for three hours) and even if they got over the initial loss enough to function normally, I don't think they'd be happy dogs.

My senior greyhound has had a few issues with his nails recently and several months back, he lost an entire nail (I assume it was track nail that I somehow didn't see until it was too late) and now, we have another nail infected. He was treated with an AB shot, a week of AB tabs (3rd to the 10th of this month) and five days of anti-inflammatories . Despite that, he continued to show discomfort when having it handled and the claw itself, because of the initial infection, is now angled widely out and apparently infected still (he went to the vet today and got another script for ABs). The first vet I saw said it was likely that the claw would need to be removed (it was loose enough to snag on something but unfortunately, not loose enough for her to ease off) but that his toe should be fine and the nail would regrow as the last one did. The vet today (our usual vet) said that the toe would have to be removed as there was too much risk of infection to the bone through the wound. He has the appointment for the removal but I'm not entirely convinced it's the right course of action (especially considering he's an inside dog and keeping the wound clean and dry wouldn't be an issue). Obviously I don't want to put him at any unnecessary risk but removing an outside toe is going to have an impact on his movement (his joints are already a bit loose) and a fall could do him serious damage so I'm a bit worried. Has anyone else had to have claws removed entirely and if so, was it recommended that the toe also be removed?

Can I give you a baby Whippet to take out and about. You can give it back when the destructo mutt wrecks something ? LOL it sounds safer to stick with the Malinois! Totally. I have a baby grey at the moment and they're little monsters My favourite trackpants are full of teeth holes from him exercising his prey drive, I have about one pair of shoes left (the others are spread far and wide through the house, usually found with bits of raw meat hidden in them) and he's so naughty that all three of the adult greys we have at the moment are scared of him. Baby sighthounds.. *eye twitch* my baby greyhounds have always been a pleasure :D no ripped cloths or chewed shoes here. You will be getting something sent to you in a large cardboard box. It's definitely not a naughty baby who likes to chew cardboard boxes. The box may be damaged >.> :laugh: My GSD's when pups were much naughtier then any grey baby I have had. Will said box have air holes? Air holes (and foot holes, head holes, escape holes, holes to reach through and steal anything that isn't nailed down, etc) will be made en route. It might not be so much a box that you receive, rather, a heap of soggy, chewed cardboard stuck to something that might look like a naughty greyhound baby (but I can assure you, it's totally not such a creature, pinky swear on it :D

I'm happy to adopt dogs out to older people but in the case of the very elderly (80+), I'd want to discuss the adoption with the family, also. Having a breed that can live up to 15 years, the last thing we'd want to see is the owner dying and the family dumping the dog at the pound. So, even if the family aren't willing to care for the dog if the owner passes, we do require that they agree to return the dog to us, rather than disposing of it themselves (unless the owner has made other arrangements for the dog- pts, rehome outside of family, etc). It does also depend a bit on the temperament of the dog they wanted. I wouldn't adopt out a young, drivey and energetic grey to an elderly person because honestly, it's an accident waiting to happen as they (the dogs, not the elderly person >.>) can lunge at prey items with a huge amount of force and possibly pull over and badly hurt an older person. Generally speaking though, I prefer older adopters as they're usually more stable, don't have children at home and from my experience, less likely to return dogs (for whatever reason).

Can I give you a baby Whippet to take out and about. You can give it back when the destructo mutt wrecks something ? LOL it sounds safer to stick with the Malinois! Totally. I have a baby grey at the moment and they're little monsters My favourite trackpants are full of teeth holes from him exercising his prey drive, I have about one pair of shoes left (the others are spread far and wide through the house, usually found with bits of raw meat hidden in them) and he's so naughty that all three of the adult greys we have at the moment are scared of him. Baby sighthounds.. *eye twitch* my baby greyhounds have always been a pleasure :D no ripped cloths or chewed shoes here. You will be getting something sent to you in a large cardboard box. It's definitely not a naughty baby who likes to chew cardboard boxes. The box may be damaged >.>

To be fair to the adult greys, I'd be scared of these eyes if they were running at me http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii215/grottylittlegreyhound/Greyhounds/BosleyCrazyEyes.jpg I've found quite a lot of the greys that test as cat-safe also test as "oh-god-keep-it-away-from-me-oh-plz-god-it's-looking-at-me" scared of cats and of the recent cat-safes, they were usually exposed to cats as puppies (so presumably learned the hard way that kitties can be mean mofos :D ) Have to say though.. the idea of a mal being scared of cats.. I may have lol'd >.>

Can I give you a baby Whippet to take out and about. You can give it back when the destructo mutt wrecks something ? LOL it sounds safer to stick with the Malinois! Totally. I have a baby grey at the moment and they're little monsters My favourite trackpants are full of teeth holes from him exercising his prey drive, I have about one pair of shoes left (the others are spread far and wide through the house, usually found with bits of raw meat hidden in them) and he's so naughty that all three of the adult greys we have at the moment are scared of him. Baby sighthounds.. *eye twitch*

I was having the same issue while trying to correct a listing I had there. Also, there's no option to change the group picture, even though there's a little placeholder logo that's called groupavatar.jpg Things seem quite buggy at the moment but I assume they're working out the problems. On a slightly unrelated topic, I agree with what someone said about not liking that interstate groups were now included in state directories. Tasmania only had a couple of Tasmanian-based groups, now it has a huge list of rescue groups for adopters to wade through (the majority being mainland groups who'll adopt to interstate). I honestly don't see the point of that when you can select adoptable from interstate in your animal search.

Nice work :D Greys don't have hugely strong jaws but we've had our aircon hoses chewed, our actual hose destroyed so many times that we now keep the fittings in a bucket up on a shelf, remote controls, mops (they love them some sponge mop), brooms, muzzles, leads, collars, toys (of course), crate covers (I have one that was recently turned into an homage to Freddy Kruger), the handrailing of our back deck, the back deck itself and basically anything they can get their teeth around. Young dogs are the big offenders, never had a hound over the age of four who was interested in destroying anything unless another dog had already started it. Curiously though.. I made them a fun tug toy- one of those soft toys that are attached to strong elastic rope, untied the loop and re-tied it from the clothesline so they can pull at it and it'd bounce around.. that toy has remained entirely untouched in the 6 months it's been there. I can hang dog towels from the line beside it and sometimes those get removed and helpfully re-dirtied for me.. Sometimes, I'm fairly sure I hear them late at night, sitting up in the loungeroom and discussing hilarious things to do to me >.>

If it makes you feel any better, I've had so many beds shredded by foster dogs that I've lost count entirely (probably a few thousand dollars worth though as beds for big dogs aren't cheap). I even had one dog recently who somehow managed to shred a trampoline bed (the fabric that stretches across it, not the frame, obviously), despite the fact that the cover was made of a blend of steel fibres that're covered with heavy-duty plastic and stretched taut to provide no grip for teeth. Only took her a few hours, too. I've had stuffing-filled beds destroyed (not so bad to clean up), memory foam beds destroyed (slightly less fun to clean) and possibly the worst.. a bed filled with tiny shredded foam pieces. That one took me several hours to clean up because it was all over the lawn and the concrete (the helpful dog who did it dragged it outside for the final act of a little play I like to call "You Just Got Home Late On A Friday Evening And Would Like To Get To Bed. Enjoy The Mess"). A rake works on the bigger chunks but towards the end, you'll be picking up bits by hand. I once toyed with the idea of beanbag beds for the older dogs but then realised that that was possibly the most pants-on-head stoopid thing I had ever thought. Currently, most of the dogs are sleeping on extra heavy-duty ripstop nylon beds as the price of replacing softer fabric beds was getting insane. Edited to add.. They have vetbed on the beds to make them soft and warm. Vetbed is one of the few things they haven't managed to shred and even when they drag the stuff outside into the rain (Doug likes to sleep in the pouring rain, on the concrete- but only on a piece of vetbed..) it can be thrown into the washing machine and dries fairly quickly. I did ask a friend about making bed covers out of vetbed but the consenus was that an industrial sewing machine would probably be needed. Life is so unfair.

I use the Equinade disinfectant here- http://www.equinade.com/maintain.htm#dis and buy it from Greyhound Products Direct where it costs about $30 for 5L (which lasts a decent amount of time). I also use it in the first wash of bedding and coats (second wash is just hot water to remove any detergent residue that might irritate their skin) and it doesn't seem to do any damage to fabrics (even wool).

I'd still have the dog on a lead. The wire basket muzzles do not stop a dog from grabbing or even eating things. One of my recent fosters could play with toys (pick them up and throw them around) and eat with a basket muzzle on- and that was a UK yard muzzle (which is much better than a wire basket muzzle) with the built-in stool guard that lines the bottom of the muzzle and all the way up to the nose. A muzzle may give you a bit more time to intervene but I'd never rely on one to stop a dog from harming another animal. My own dog was actually attacked by a foster dog wearing a muzzle and bitten quite badly on the neck. All it took was a few seconds and the damage was done (and the dog in question was smaller and much weaker than Kiff). For a lizard or a cat, a muzzle might buy them a few more seconds of suffering before the dog killed them, not much more. I'd never rely on muzzles to do my job (which is protecting both other animals and my own dogs from their behaviour), even something like the safe handling muzzle (which is moulded plastic) as dogs can do damage with more than just their mouths. Anyways.. dog on lead unless a very reliable response can be expected from the dog. Safer for everyone, in my opinion.

Yes, It appears I have come to the wrong forum for help. I did not post a topic to be indulged. I wanted advice on possible methods I could employ that could be effective in helping to manage this undesirable behaviour. I do not read other posts. I am far too busy with a life. To be fair.. you were given advice on how to manage prey drive, I posted some myself (and I wasn't the first). Despite how rude this comes across, I'm going to play nice and suggest that perhaps you should take the time to read here. Plenty of us have dogs with higher levels of prey drive and there are lots of older threads about similar issues that might give you more insight into how to manage prey drive.