dammit

I have a grooming question I am hoping someone can help me with. I have a set of wahl KMSS clippers with a #10 competition series blade. I tried to clip my dog on the weekend (having owned and used it for many years and never having an issue), and it cut through one big clump like normal and then completely gave up, the clippers still move and all looks normal, but when I put it through hair it just grunts and won't cut through. Has something broken with them or is this normal when the blades go blunt? Can I just buy a new #10 blade (about $30 online), or does the other part of the clippers (the bit that moves back and forth) also need replacing or sharpening? Does anyone know what sharpening costs or any places or people that do it? Do you send both the blade and the thing that moves to be sharpened? I am in Brisbane if that helps. Thanks :)

Hi I was just wondering what everyone's take is about optional IV Fluids and blood tests when your dogs are getting anaesthetic - 2 of our dogs are going to go in to the vet for some dental work (thorough scale and polish, one dog needs 2 small teeth out, other one 'may' need a big tooth extracted), there is the option to have a pre anaesthetic blood test/profile - $90 ea per dog, and there is the option for IV Fluid Therapy for $80 ea per dog, so an extra $170 per dog, if we wanted. Dogs are 4/5 yr old dogs, generally healthy, both had been desexed back when they were 6 mth olds, is it necessary to get these options? I'm thinking not to get them, obviously if during the surgery there were any issues they would do whatever/incur whatever costs needed to ensure their safety...but the vet was saying some people like to get these things done as a precaution and because they are small dogs (7kg and 13kg) it is something to consider.

I agree that Alidas is fantastic - we have been there with our dogs many times. I wont be able to use them this time due to distance/timing of the trip, thinking I will either try this Greenbank kennel and see how it goes, or get a pet minding service like dont fret pet to visit the house to feed/check on the dogs etc given it is only an overnight trip.

Looks like the Greenbank Boarding Kennel is the same thing as Furkids, the phone numbers are the same. So has anyone boarded their dogs there? Thanks for the feedback.

Does anyone know of a good dog kennel near Greenbank/Springfield Lakes area? I googled and found "Greenbank Boarding Kennels" but can't find any info - has anyone used them? We have 3 small breed dogs, they go outside most of the day but come in of a night. We are only going to be away 36 hours max. Would you put yours in a kennel? Or leave them in the yard with food? I just worry they would bark and about cane toads.

They pretty much come straight back to the door if I open it or call the one that's outside. The trouble is a lot of the training methods require me to basically camp out in the backyard and correct the behavior, and going to work for 12 hrs a day isn't very helpful. At the moment the problems mainly persist while we are home and let the dogs out the back because when we go out we mostly leave them inside. But it would be good once we get this corrected a bit to be able to leave the dogs outside more.

Hi all if we keep one of the two barkers inside, the one that is outside still barks, but not as much as when they are both out there, and the one left outside tends to bark from a distance rather than right up at the fence. we could block off the area so they can't get to the fence, but trouble is that bit of the yard is the only bit with grass, and if we block off that part the dogs would only have hard rocks/pebbles to walk on and no grass, which wouldn't be very good for their feet and they wouldn't be able to lay down or anything. i was thinking about getting brushwood fencing and staple it to the pail fence, to try and make it so they can't see or hear through as well,,but it would be a very expensive fix and might not even work :S

Our 3 little dogs seem to have developed a bit of a barking problem.. I really want to do something about it but from what I've read you really need to invest a lot of time into most of the training methods (like teaching your dog to speak and giving it treads for being silent etc), anyway..because I am not home often enough or have enough time for that I was looking at the shock bark collars. 2 out of the 3 dogs seem to congregate at the back fence and bark at the 1 dog that's on the other side of it, the fence is your standard pine pailing fence 1.8m so they can't get too close, but there would be a few cracks between the pailings they could see through and they can hear / sense the other dog and thats what makes them back, it doesn't really bark back at them ever. So it seems to be purely their territorial behaviour (which is ironic because the other dog was here first)! the 3rd dog isn't too bad and only really chimes in when she hears the other 2 bark or she tends to only really bark at people (like when neighbours are out, strangers, etc) which isn't really too much of a problem, it's mainly the other 2 that are the problem. Is this something I should look at bark collars for? What I'm not sure on is how they work in a multiple dog environment, do I buy just 1, or 2, or do I need to get all 3 on at the same time? Is there any particular sort I should look at? at the moment the dogs are staying inside for about 11 hours a day, but I would like to be able to leave them outside during business hours but their barking needs to be fixed first. The Innotek shock collars look good. The other thing I need to watch out for is that sometimes when our dogs play in the past they have ripped collars off each other and torn them up into shreds (my dogs aren't ferocious or anything..they are all toy breed just bored and badly behaved!), I need to make sure they don't rip a $100 or $200 collar off and chew it to bits, and I also need to be sure that if it's just 1 dog barking that all 3 don't get punished.. Does anyone have any ideas on what I should be looking at? I would hate for council or neighbours to start complaining and it really makes me sad that I have to keep the dogs inside because of their loud behaviour.

Just wondering, if anyone has come across this before and knows what it is? If its not a common thing I'll have to take our dog to the vet but just wanted to see what others thought. A bit over a week ago, dog had a few sores which had scabs on her under belly/inside of back leg, didn't really think anything of it except that it might have been a flea bite or something (even though on advantix), but then checked yesterday and the sores had changed and now appear to be brown spots, almost looks like a fungus infection of some kind? They have a slight bump to them so you could say it is elevated. I was doing some searches on the net, which brought up it could be staph, dust mites or yeast infection as some of the possible causes. Is this something I should try Fido Itch Free and/or bathing etc, or is it going to mean a trip to the vet? Dog also needs a C5 vaccine in a few weeks time, so if I have to take her to the vet not sure if they could do the annual C5 vac slightly early or if I can hold off for a week or so. Dog doesn't seem to be in any pain, but the spots must be slightly itchy because she is scratching and licking a little more.

thanks for the replies, can't believe we have to do that letter, and deliver it to every house within 100m of our property - i counted and measured, and that is going to be 35+ houses. is it just me or does that seem over-kill by the council to require that? If I try to do the right thing and get the permit, then someone objects..would they need to have evidence or some solid grounds to object against the 3 dogs and provide this to the council? surely the council can't deny a permit if there is one little old lady who hates dogs, or is worried about hearing a dog bark every now and then (i'm just speculating..I dont fully know any of the neighbourhood yet, they all may be very nice people!). we will sort of be down to a situation where we either do the right thing by applying for a permit and hope for the best, and risk getting denied and have to either remove one of our 3 dogs (which is not an option- they are all members of the family for over 4 years), and then either be denied permit and have an illegal dog, or just not apply for the permit in the first place and continue living with a 3rd dog thats not registered or allowed to 'live' at the property. (which I know is wrong..and I know a lot of other people do this), and I am prepared to try and do the right thing even though it's going to cost an arm and a leg but its a big risk to have to take. I cant believe the council charge $175 a year (and $290 in the first year) for the privilege of having a 3rd dog, when it does not cost them anything.

I am about to move away from Brisbane City Council precinct, to Ipswich City Council (ICC) and wondering what's involved in getting an ICC Special Dog Permit. Previously I have lived in BCC with one dog being 'off the record', have had 2 registered but the 3rd hasn't. Now that we are moving I thought it would be a good time to come clean and get things above board and declare/register/get a permit for our 3rd dog. Does anyone know the process with Ipswich City Council? I know BCC are pretty much just pay your fee and there you go, but Gold Coast I think come inspect, consult neighbours etc. havent heard what Ipswich do. An inspection would be fine, its a fully fenced yard, brand new 1.8m high fencing and the dogs are relatively well behaved with strangers. Block is 310m2. The dogs are all toy breed as well, the 3rd dog which has never been registered is 5 y.o. fully grown 3kg in size. (hardly a "dog" in size!) If Ipswich Council consult the neighbours, I am wondering if it is best that I apply for it straight up when we move, in which case the neighbours would not even know us etc, which could be good or bad, they could object or on other side may not have a bad thing to say as our dogs wouldnt have irritated them, or if we would then be better waiting a little while till we meet the neighbours, the dogs settle in, and know they wont have any problems. Happy to pay all the $ fees but just want to give myself the best possible chance to get the permit.

I have used Jetpets twice now too, and they were great. Brisbane to Syd and then Canberra to Brisbane, I almost used Dogtainers from Canberra to Brisbane, but got a rude bloke on the other end of the phone from Dogtainers..who seemed a little vague/ might just have been his personality. Dogtainers were $50 cheaper than jetpets, but I told jetpets and they matched it. Jetpets seemed a lot more professional and did not let me down

I have 3 little terror dogs, (all small breed, 3kg aged 5, 7kg aged 4 and 12kg aged 3) fully grown, who are as good as gold and as naughty devils all at the same time. We are about to move into a BRAND new house, which has just had nice new turf laid out the back, and I need to get the dogs behaving and not digging holes or tearing around the backyard. I have monitored them in the past and they occasionally seem to dig when they are bored, but more the problem is that they see little lizards, and the like, which catch their eye, and they think they have gone 'under ground' so they dig a big hole looking for a lizard to play with! This may not be a huge problem in the new place because its mostly just turf and pebbles whereas other houses have been a bit more of a jungle, so hopefully there wont be any lizards. They don't really get toys to occupy/distract them because one of the 3 is toy possessive, so ends up with a pile of 20 toys growling and the others get none. We have kept them inside heaps during the day lately, because they bark a lot (they even bark when inside), the big one barks whenever we leave. but he doesn't do it as much if we leave them inside and the radio on for some reason. If we leave them inside in a room bigger than 5-7m2 they piddle and poo in the room! you wouldn't expect separation anxiety when he is left with 2 other dogs but thats what I think it is. So they either go in a large crate or a small room, which is not ideal because then they are confined and so full of energy when we get home etc and its not really fair on them but what else can we do when we have ran out of places to put them due to their behaviour? So we are running out of places to put them,! but in the new place they are going to have to go outside because we wont be able to come home at lunch from work to let them out as its too far away. So we need to try and stop them barking during the day and destroying the yard and turf..any suggestions welcome! The other thing is we have a baby on the way, and I'm starting to research and trying to work out how to train the dogs now, so that when the baby arrives they at least have some form of obedience, one of them is a real licker and the other is like a bull in a china shop. I heard if you play cd's with babies crying it gets the dogs used to it. I guess that will be a learning curve too Sorry for a bit of a rant, just wanted to see if anyone had any quick tips or feedback to help get me started

ah cheers, fingers crossed this company still does it, here is the working link http://www.doggoneholidays.com/motorhome.html - i have submitted an enquiry.

Just wondering if anyone knows of any companies that hire out motorhomes, like the Apollo / Kea / Maui - the 2-4 berth type with shower etc. I don't expect the big/main ones to allow dogs in their hire vehicles, maybe someone knows of one that does, or a smaller company..they could recommend? I am interested in going on a motorhoming holiday down the NSW coast from Brisbane with our 3 dogs. The other option is to take them in the car on a road trip and just stay at pet friendly places along the way between Brisbane and Sydney.

I am jumping on the "Raw" band wagon and going to start feeding my dogs raw foods. I have given them chicken necks which they seemed to like and enjoy. If I was to buy half a chicken or a whole chicken and give it to them for instance, do they eat the whole thing bones and all? I don't need to take anything from the item to make it safe? I'm assuming they do just crunch down the whole thing but I just want to check. They seem to get a raw item crunch it down and swallow the various bits of bone, meat etc. is this right? I just want to make sure I'm doing it right and don't put the dogs at any risk. I have been supervising them when eating raw - do you all do this too or just leave your dog with raw food unattended?

I have 3 little (toy) doggies. I am looking at putting them all on tick prevention because our garden has a lot of plants and also we will be boarding them soon when on holidays. Previously they all had tick collars, they seemed to irritate all of them and one of the dogs got a bit of a rash so we can't use them (I think it was a Virbac Preventic Collar that lasts 2 months). We did a flea treatment once which was the liquid on their back/behind their head and they didn't like that either - all 3 licked it off each other (team work huh?) which was not good! and then they all ended up with big dirty stain mark on their backs until they had a bath. They never have fleas but going to dog parks a bit and boarding kennels it probably wouldn't hurt if we can find a decent flea+tick treatment? Because we have 3 dogs what do everyone recommend that's cost effective? I was looking at Advantix but it's quite expensive and also Frontline Plus. Some of them seem to work out to be $60 for 6 pipettes, that's $5-10 a week per dog?! Is it an option to get the thing for large dogs e.g. (our 3 dogs total weight combined would be under 25kg) and just share a pipette between them or does the dosage/amount you put on need to be exact? Just trying to think of ideas. Also what do you all think about Heartworm prevention? Is it necessary? I live in Brisbane, i haven't seen any mozzies around and our dogs pretty much stay indoors all day (and night) except for a few toilet breaks. They are never left outside at night.

Im trying to find a dog boarding kennel within close reach of Brisbane City/CBD. Obviously this is proving difficult because you usually find kennels out in Rural areas and the like. We have taken our 3 doggies to Alidas Pet Resort which is basically half way between Brisbane and Gold Coast, prices were very reasonable ($40/day for all 3 so 13.33 a dog). Great when heading south that way on holidays but not so good if your heading north. Boy there is some big differences in price, and some sure do know how to slug you on multiple dogs. Does anyone know of any good kennels close to the CBD? Or alternatively Im going to need to find a kennel on the north on route to Sunshine Coast, one West and one South (South one is ok because Alidas is that way)!

Im looking at moving into a new house with our 3 doggies, the fencing is relatively good but the side fence on each side of the house is chainlink, approx. 1.2m high. While it seems nice and secure, our dogs have never had this sort of fencing before, and I worry that they will bark all day at the neighbours, and because they are all 'toy breed' dogs, that if the neighbours got a dog like a german shepherd or something it could jump the fence or that they'd fight thru the chainlink?? At the moment they have pailing fence and if they hear the neighbour pottering around or his dog, they bark at him a bit The only thing I was thinking was creating a 'jail within a jail' situation where I get one of those petsafe dog enclosures and put it away from the fences, etc. I was wondering if anyone else who has dogs and chainlink fences and how they cope with the neighbours and maybe the neighbours dogs ?? Its not to big a deal, they mostly stay inside 80% of the time anyways but has been on my mind.

I didn't think of laserlite, good suggestion ! Gutter guard, I assume you are talking the metal type and not the plastic type, e.g. http://www.gutterguardian.com.au/ ? Great suggestions so far, thank you !

Im about to move into a new house which has an inground pool. Obviously this opens up a whole new can of worms owning doggies and a pool. I have decided I will set a rule of no dogs able to access the pool area unless under my immediate supervision. This is great in theory, but I have 1 chihuahua which is fully grown at 3.5kg. This worries me because with pool fencing with the vertical bars, she can easily just walk through them being only 8cm shoulder width (fence width is almost 10cm) and 17cm shoulder height. I need to be 200% sure that they can't get through the fence and go for a swim when no one is home, the other dogs are too fat to fit through the bars but the chihuahua can fit. It doesn't help she can jump a good 50+ cm either (springy back legs!). At first I was thinking of getting that euro-reed/bamboo screening and attach that to the pool fence so the dog can't get through to the pool, but I don't know if this then causes an issue that the pool fence can be climbed over by a kid easier than just vertical bars. I don't have any kids but the neighbours might. The only other idea I had was on the pool side of the fence, place a row of bricks and go to about 3-4 high, to try and block access thru the bars, or weave shade cloth through the bars and cable tie but the dogs could get bored and rip it up. Was wondering if anyone had experienced this and had any ideas? Also does anyone have any tips for safely having a dog in the pool, I have read about skamper ramps which look like a good idea, I was thinking that the dogs would only be allowed in the pool area if they are wearing a doggy life jacket? Does anyone have any experience with them/are they a good investment or junk? http://www.lovemypet.com.au/shopexd.asp?id=2391 Thanks all

Is this really a necessity to buy a decent dryer? Do you mean like one from clipperworld, the cheapest dryer there seems to be $200 ? (Lazor RX). When I bath her I try her with just a normal human hair dryer, will this not get her dry enough for me to clip? If its going to cost 200 for clippers then 100 for scissors then 200 for a dryer = 500 I may as well just go to the groomers ? Are scissors and a dryer needed to do a basic job, I don't mind if she ends up a bit scruffy looking as long as her hair gets short enough not to get so dirty..

thanks for your help everyone the one time i did take her to the groomers they said she was great and really behaved herself & was a pleasure so not sure..it was more the fact that we asked for it to be really short all over and they left her face/mouth long and legs long. maybe it was because she figited or couldnt keep still around there or maybe they were just in a hurry. not sure ! Can you buy different blades for the Wahl KMSS? Like a #10 , and also a #30? Or is it just the blade it comes with and you cant interchange?? Compared to the KM-2, would the KMSS get me by/do everything I need it for or would I benefit from forking out the extra for the KM-2 (or notice no difference at all?) Andis look a bit expensive for me :/ !! the wahl is expensive too but it looks to be good quality and hopefully would last me a long time. !! Thanks again

Hi All I have a Maltese cross Toy Poodle that is about 8 months old now. Anyways being the playful puppy she is, she's always running around in the dirt, digging holes, rolling around, pooing on herself etc! We have gotten her professionally groomed once which cost $65 and they didn't do a really good job/do what we asked them to do. So I was thinking maybe I should get some equipment which will cost a little more initially but hopefully pay for itself in the savings of getting her groomed every month or so. I have gave her a bit of a hair cut with scissors and she didnt mind that. But when i tried to shave a bit of her hair on her back using just a standard pair of hair clippers she freaked out a bit and wouldn't keep still (probably because they are a bit noisy and not made specially for animal grooming) My question is, should I fork out and buy something like a Wahl KMSS for around $200, or a KM2 for a bit more? The thing I'm worried about is that I don't want to fork out that type of money and then find she is hopeless to groom (as in hates it & plays up) or that I'm hopeless at grooming her! The main problem areas are her legs, face, bum and underneath. Is one of the above clippers designed to focus on those areas or are they more to get the length off and then you use a smaller, quieter one to do those legs face bum areas? The Wahl Pro Clipper looked ok that it was cordless but you could also use the cord too, I thought it would probably be quieter/gentler on the face and stuff?? Plus it is a bit cheaper than the others. But can the Wahl Pro take different blades like the other ones? I think the KMSS comes with a 10# blade and from what I read that means length of 1.8mm which is a bit short. if I wanted her hair around the 5mm mark, is there a blade for this? Or do you just use a 10# and have a plastic comb attachment thing on it to keep a bit of length? I am completely new to dog grooming and have no idea! Or would a cordless clipper set from a department store do a good enough job for doing a home-groom once a month? Or is there a better brand or model suited to what I need? Ideally I would like to keep her groomed all the time to keep her a bit cleaner and not look so scruffy! Any advice or thoughts on my situation are appreciated, thanks all!