Maddy

I let my dogs out into the backyard to go to the toilet before I take them for a walk and this seems to work well enough, they understand why they're being let out and we don't go anywhere until they're finished. That said, I'm also one of those mean owners who won't allow their dog to urinate on other people's front fences or on power poles to leave urine all over the footpath- in my opinion, walks shouldn't be toilet trips (unless the dog actually needs to go- and you can usually tell the difference), it's about exercise and practising handling, exposure to traffic/new people/other dogs, etc.

I am and I know for a fact you're making gross generalisations that sound as if they've been ripped straight from a PETA website. I've taken dogs from trainers that were born with minor health problems.. dogs that the trainers knew almost from day one would never race.. dogs that they still cared for and raised until they were old enough to be entered into GAP.. dogs that had been fed the best food available, exercised carefully every day, given names and treated far better than many pet dogs. As for the live baiting, killing puppies, dosing up the dogs with.. whatever you think they're being dosed with.. no. That is not the norm and most certainly not every trainer or every breeder. What dreck..

Kiff also does this (the only greyhound that we've had here who does it :D ) and there's been days he's come back to the back door with one foot literally yellow and soaked- wanting to come back inside to sleep next to my side of the bed, of course. I'm very grateful he's desexed and that it doesn't smell, I'm not sure I could stomach having to wipe that off first thing in the morning, otherwise...

Kiff has had a few accidents inside recently (he's getting a little old and really doesn't like having to go outside if the weather isn't great) and even though he doesn't seem to drink much water to dilute it, I couldn't smell anything when cleaning it up. I'd compare that to the last entire dog we had here who made the entire yard stink. It took several rains as well as scrubbing down every solid object he'd marked to get rid of the smell. :D

Sally and our current foster play very loudly and I've found the only way to really stop it is to give them something else to do. It's not ideal for the foster (I want them forming healthy relationships and associations with other dogs through play) but when they're chasing each other around in the middle of the night and barking, it's a compromise that has to be made to keep the neighbours happy and to get some sleep ourselves. I usually give them a large piece of wallaby hide each (with fur on) to chew and play with and that seems to work well. Doesn't make a mess inside either so it can be used if they're getting a little loud in the house.

Same here. Even before our vet started giving us a small discount (it was about 10%), we never had a boy who cost more than $180 just to desex and the service has always been perfect. Most of the dogs we've had desexed weighed between 30kg and 40kg and from memory, one or two had undescended testicles that had to be found. Expensive definitely doesn't mean better when choosing a vet so really, you're better off selecting a vet based on other variables (for us, the decision was based on the vet's experience with greyhounds, amongst other things).

yes, and before human activities , the planet could well deal with that amount. Now , however, there is a double/triple whammy , and less of the natural planet available to absorb it all. From memory, CO2 from bush fires makes up more than 90% of what it produced and human activity accounts for less than 5% so it's not really a triple or even a double whammy on top of what's already happening. It sure is. If you want to protest hamburgers, there are far better reasons. My point was, people only tend to protest things they don't use/consume themselves anyway. This guy has a problem with dogs presumably so his argument is against owning them for environmental reasons (as environmental issues get quite a reaction at the moment).. "Dog cause damage to the environment and because of them, children are starving in Africa".

Ah, wonderful. In that case, you'll be able to provide a link to some independent scientific testing of your product then? Or even just a proper explanation of how they work? (Your site's great and all, just.. doesn't actually provide any real information) As an aside, if they can repel the mosquitos that are killing thousands of a people a year in India with malaria, I'm sure the WHO would love to have some to distribute, perhaps shoot them an email and let them know. :p

My point was.. more CO2 is produced annually by bush fires than by activites of the entire human population. Just because something is natural, doesn't mean it's what we'd consider good, just like how something being a product of human activity doesn't necessarily make it all bad. The methane produced by cows also manages to do more damage to the ozone layer than humans but for some odd reason, you never see people protesting their hamburgers.. Edited for typo

The fecal position? Like.. a kind of.. swirly ball?

Naturally occuring bush fires cause more damage (in terms of CO2 output) than humans could ever manage. Nature is an irresponsible skank who doesn't care about the environment.

We do have two other species of snake here but in 25 years, I've only ever seen tiger snakes (although I live up north, possibly not as favourable conditions for the other two types).

It must be heartbreaking to know that your pets are going to die but on the bright side (even if it's not much help right now), you at least have a chance to really spend some time with them before they go and I'd be trying to focus on staying happy for them, even if it's really hard to be positive when you have a diagnosis as terrible as that. I'm not really all that good with sympathetic stuff so.. <-- That.

We've seen one already up here in Launceston at the North Esk trail. The grass in the fenced area is fairly short so that's probably safe enough but the wetlands trail (which is where we saw it) has very long grass and reeds that come almost up to the path and the area supports a lot of rats (and other little critters) for them to feed on. Although I keep the greyhounds on lead anyway so we've not yet had any issues with snakes.

How large is she? A bucket of water raised up on something (and the bucket itself weighted with something to stop her from easily knocking it over) might work, position it low enough that she can get her head over the rim to drink but still high enough that she should have trouble getting her feet in. Although I've had water diggers before (a few that were pretty skilled at it) and all of them seemed to get over the excitement of it after a while, most were younger dogs. Another thought is, if she enjoys water that much, perhaps a clamshell wading pool out in the yard would be a good idea? It may take a little time and training but if you can provide somewhere that behaviour is acceptable, training her not to do it in her water may be easier.

Still not really getting the point If it leaks, it's going to waste a fair amount of water and for the price, it seems that just keeping water bowls clean and filled is a much better idea and allows you to supplement through their water (things like Dog Rocks for summer and ACV).

Even if it's been tested and proven as not harmful, they're not going to work anyway. Magnetic therapy [*pulls on flame suit*] simply does not work. The science behind it is wrong and the only real effect it has is one you can also get from a sugar pill- a placebo effect. Personally, I wouldn't be wasting my money on magical, mystical tags that repel fleas just with the power of magnets. Products like this are little different from the ultrasonic pest devices and other things of that nature: cheap enough that people decide to give them a shot but not worth the hassle of trying to get a refund for when they don't work (which they won't ). Save yourself the $38 a tag and using it to buy your dog a nice hat. Chances are, it'll be just as effective at keeping fleas and ticks off. Edited to add.. Just read this: http://www.tetherdcow.com/?p=7497 Turns out that rather than buying your dog a hat with that $38, maybe you should just apply for a credit card for him- then he'll be able to buy his own hats (as well as being able to repel fleas in three dimensions or whatever was claimed).

I honestly can't see how that style of water bowl saves you any work. The bowl still need to be wiped out every other day (even if you use something like Trough Blox to minimise build-up) so you'd still have to refill it again. For our dogs, outside we have a large plastic bowly-bucket-thing (that cost us under $10 from Kmart) that sits where the tap is and another regular bucket in the garage so they have somewhere sheltered to drink from if it rains. Keeping things in the shade definitely helps reduce build-up (as does a tiny amount of Trough Blox) but the reality is, other stuff gets in the water anyway (leaves, dust blown in the wind, dirt off the dogs' muzzles) so to keep it clean enough, you actually do have to tip everything out and rinse.

I didn't Some of these breed specific organisations you've lumped in together almost literally give over everything they have to offer to help the breeds they feel very strongly about.

The only type of dog I'd take from a pound is greyhounds, does that mean I have plans to on-sell those dogs at crazy prices and one day retire to the Bahamas in a house with a pool just for my money? Not likely. I take greyhounds because they're the breed I'm passionate about. They're the breed I can accomodate for and most important (for the dogs), they're a breed that copes in pounds very poorly (and they're not the only breed that copes poorly in the pound environment). People who rescue certain breeds are almost certainly doing so because they're passionate about a particular breed and to imply that breed rescues are out to make money on dogs that would likely decline very quickly in a pound situation is disgusting. Sorry to be so blunt but.. you're suggesting that rescue should leave the rehoming of dogs to the pound when there are groups in place who specialise in certain breeds, know exactly what they need and can provide owners with the sort of ongoing support that a pound just can't offer. And often.. for around the same price. I get that you consider you've somehow been stiffed by breed rescue but how about not tarring them all with the "unethical and out for money" brush? Edited to add.. The current foster girl I have was pulled from a pound and she'd been there for about two months- I guess I need to work on my swooping skills.

Maybe if they hadn't put the silly dress on it.. I dunno, I guess I found that a little creepy. If it hadn't have been wearing a dress, I don't think I'd have had an issue with it and even then, it's not so much the clothing (my dogs wear pajamas and have dressing gowns, after all) but.. I'm not sure, I can't really put my finger on it, just.. no.

That's what I thought. As far as I was aware, a private business can refuse service. At any rate, this proposal isn't going to make a lick of difference. If pet stores that sold puppies and kittens were genuinely concerned about finding good homes for those animals, they'd likely not be selling them from a retail outlet in the first place. Edited for typo

I train my dogs not to pee in my house, thwarting their natural behaviour of marking their territory. I'm a monster. Speaking of thwarting natural behaviours.. I wonder how much of a chance dogs on puppy farms get to express natural behaviours.. Maybe they could study that

You do understand that the concept of 'an for an eye' puts you into the same catagory for violence and abhorrent behaviour as the people committing crimes against animals and other people., don't you? (and saying you don't mean to be harsh but they should be killed really doesn't make sense).. I've pointed it out on several occasions recently but apparently drowing a child for drowing puppies (just one example of many of those sort of posts) is just fine because.. some people are monsters or something and so that makes it okay. You can point out the hypocrisy until you're blue in the face but the only thing you achieve is accusations of being holier than thou or even siding with abusers. Although I will add this.. I find it really odd that people would call for "eye for an eye" punishments for abusers of animals yet these same people don't seem to give a rat's arse about all the innocent people who suffer every day because of abuse. Go figure.

It's all very generic (as many people have pointed out), not very well researched and in some cases, just a minute or two on Google will correct some of her "facts". Most of what she's done seems to be taking fairly broad descriptions from places like Wikipedia and then just padding them out with some Type stereotypes. For example.. "Greyhounds are reserved around strangers". Almost every greyhound we've had through here have been the absolute opposite. They love visitors and will happily go with anyone, even people they've never met before. Not too surprisingly, the site's aim is to direct you to the "buy" pages where Michele kindly offers to tell you what breed of dog she thinks suits you and all for the low, low price of just $75. For $75, I'd be more than happy to give someone my opinion of which breed was best for them and I'd at least take the time to research properly for the breed descriptions