ash1

+1 We get the 20kg bags of Bonnie Complete from the stockfeed store. Dogs like it and seem to do well on it.

I have somewhere in the back of my mind that keeping a large dog can be tax deductible (security). I vaguely remember going through this with my accountant some years back - something about the German Shepherd's costs could be tax deductible, but she didn't think that the ATO would view the pomeranian or chihuahua as a security tax deductible. I told her the pomeranian was the boss of all the dogs, and that the chihuahua was the noisiest of the lot! :laugh: I can't remember if that was business or private tax matters though, may have been business (run from home). I am absolutely no accountant and have no idea whatsoever on these things, but would it be possible if yellowdog's rescue operation was set up as a tax-loss company, it may at least get GST payments back? Perhaps someone knowledgeable could advise? Can completely understand the concerns, but a mature large dog of a breed who didn't require a lot of exercise might work - we have two senior littlies and six large breed dogs, and the littlies have never been even close to being hurt. Perhaps we could all chip in to spring a senior biggie from the pound for yellowgirl *Runs quickly from thread before I get pummelled* :laugh:

I was about to reply that no I'm not serious about getting a big dog ... but then for some reason while I was doing the dogs' ointments, I started thinking about it ... *shakes fist at Ash* :laugh: I wanna big doggy now! Yellowgirl, it's really not a silly idea, especially as you live alone. Even physcologically they give you a wonderful feeling of security. My husband works away most weeks, and we live rurally with no close neighbours, but I never, ever, feel scared (well, until I listened to your video last night, that was ) with my big dogs around. Even before we had so many large dogs, just having my German Shepherd lying on the end of the bed made me sleep without worry. You may even find the littlies feel more secure with a large dog (have no idea about this, just a wild guess, perhaps some dog behaviouralists could confirm or deny.)

If you were serious about getting a larger dog for security and to keep the little ones feeling safe, then you wouldn't need a larger dog door - we have both large and small breed dogs and I have found that the little ones need to toilet much more frequently than the larger ones (especially as they get older), so if you're more often home than not, then you should find that the large dog is fine with regular toilet breaks rather than needing all-hours access. Our large dogs have free outside access during the day, but at night time they only get two toilet breaks, one around 7:30pm, the last at around 11:00 pm and are then happy to hold on til morning. I don't like the dogs outside at night, as there's too much trouble for them to get themselves into (i.e., cane toads, snakes, etc).

For the non-sewer's amongst us this would probably work well inside an old doona cover as well.

We use the Snooza futons here, all the dogs love them. They are the longest lasting beds I've had, for some reason the dogs aren't interested in de-stuffing them, although that has been a favourite pastime with other beds of lesser quality. The beds aren't super cheap, but you can get replacement covers, which is handly, means you can have a cover in the wash and a fresh cover on the bed. They (Snooza) claim they are warm in winter and cool in summer - I'll have to take their word for it, as I haven't slept on one :laugh:

I can definately hear the girl/woman's voice at the beginning, but the sound sounds like it is mechanical rather than human to me, especially at the beginning - like someone else's suggestion of a halloween toy. It's strange how the dogs are quiet immediately - mine would keep carry on until the intruder had left the property. Hopefully it was just kids being silly buggers. So sorry your wee doggies had to suffer this.

Her poor little feet look so sore and inflammed. This is not addressing the root cause of the problem, but in conjunction with the herb/vitamin/medication suggestions above, could you put booties on her feet, or even bandage them? Perhaps if they were bandaged you could put a soothing cream inside the bandage (or aloe). You know when kids have windburned lips and keep licking them because the licking soothes, but actually makes the initial problem worse? This may be part of the problem with this little girl - her poor wee feet look sore and possibly itchy, so the licking soothes. It becomes a vicious circle.

I think desexing would work in her favour, actually. If she is healthy enough to survive, her being a desexed, 'rare' breed means that she is more likely to be on sold to a pet home than ending up in a puppy farm/BYB situation. What I would be doing is keeping an eye on gumtree and the trading post etc., and maybe also contacting obedience/agility clubs and asking if they have a magazine/bulletin that people can advertise in asking members to keep a look out for her. Dog people are the first ones who would notice another dog around, especially one new to their area, a 'rare' breed, a puppy, and such a striking looking dog. Wonder if it's worth putting a "wanted to buy" ad on gumtree - may lure the thieves out if they think they can make a quick easy buck selling her?

We used Tabasco sauce successfully. Our pups were chewing the corners of wooden furniture, just shook a bit on the areas they had started to nibble. As the wood was darkish, the tabasco didn't show, but test it first in an inconspicuous area to make sure it doesn't stain.

We have a king size bed and in it sleep; me, my husband, our german shepherd, our cattle dog x, our chihuahua, our pomeranian and at least one cat (two other cats may or may not end up in bed, depends upon the night-time temperature). Our four young dogs sleep in their own room off our room. It has a gate seperating the two rooms so they can still see and hear us, but not jump on the bed (strange house layout). The GS has no problem with them being on the bed during the day, but at night time it's "his" bed and only the original four (and most graciously, us :laugh: ) are allowed on it. As the pups have grown bigger we have had to shift more and more furniture out of their bedroom to accommodate them. I have just one cupboard left in the room amongst a sea of dog beds, that cupboard has its marching orders and is leaving this weekend. All eight dogs play and sleep on our bed every day and it's a nightmare having to wash the sheets up to four times a week, as they bring their "treasures" into the bed to chew. 16 paddy paws make an awful lot of mess. We are in the process of building a raised bed so the dogs can't get on it, and having a dog "den" underneath it. Then I may be able to go back to only washing the sheets once or twice a week (she hopes).

I can attest to guinea fowl being noisy - certainly not a bird for a suburban backyard. We have large acreage and have a large flock of guinea fowl, but they do carry on all day, every day (you do tend to switch off to it after a while though). They are funny little birds, very amusing to watch. I still wouldn't trust them as my only tick protection though, they roam a huge area and I wouldn't count on them to spot every single tick that may be in hiding under every blade of grass (or wherever ticks hide). I still use preventic collars on the dogs, although it's hard to keep them on the young dogs as they keep getting chewed off when they're playing.

This thread has become really nasty and that was not my intention, I was simply looking for advice. I have owned dogs all my life and we have always had a pack of at least four, so please don't assume (as a few have) I am inexperienced. We have also had bull breeds in the past and young males growing up together. This is a situation I have not encountered before. I'm not coming back into this thread because reading all the infighting is upsetting in what is already an upsetting situation. I simply want to let you all know that Jane has responded, unfortunately she is overseas at present, but will be coming in the first week of November to assess. Until then we will keep the two dogs separated. ETA thank you so much to all who offered helpful and constructive advice.

Thanks again for all the responses. Have taken on board all the advice about the muzzle and so we will just keep the dogs completely separated until I hear from Jane. My main concern with attempting to have the problem "fixed" by a dog behaviouralist is that I don't know if I could ever fully trust Spud again not to attack. And maybe not Murphy, but someone else. I could never forgive myself if any of the dogs were hurt, but particularly if one of my seniors, and especially the two small breed seniors were harmed or killed by Spud. Or my senior shepherd who is the undisputed (at this stage) alpha dog (next down from us) who all the dogs respect and is very placid, but would fight back if Spud tried it on with him. I'm going to wait to talk to Jane (have sent her a big long email with all the details), but in all honesty if she can't 100% guarantee to be able to work with us and Spud to fix the problem, I think we're going to have to face up and have Spud put to sleep. It's misery living with a dog you don't fully trust, like watching a ticking time bomb. Besides the risk of trying to rehome a dog with aggresion issues, I am almost of the mind that I would rather know that Spud was dead than wondering for the rest of my life what the rest of his life was like. What if he kept getting shunted from home to home because people couldn't deal with his agression? Being a Bull Arab obviously he has a certain look to him (although very placid up until now) that could be attractive to the wrong people, I couldn't bear him falling into the wrong hands and living a life of misery. I feel so sick about the whole situation

Thank you so much everyone for your responses and suggestions. Spud was locked up for a few hours this afternoon (with a peanut butter filled Kong, so he didn't mind too much!) and then, unbeknown to me, husband came home from hardware shopping and let him out with the other dogs, but had put a muzzle on him (Spud). I hadn't even thought about a muzzle, so at least that is another option for us to manage Spuddy and Murphy until we come to a decision (i.e., keeping them apart as much as is physically possible and muzzling Spuddy when we can't). I have telephoned Jane and left a message, it's a long weekend here in Qld, so if I don't hear from her over the weekend, hopefully she may be able to chat with me on Tuesday and we can go from there. To someone who asked earlier, we got Spud and Murphy just a day apart from each other, so they have grown up together. All the pups sleep together in their own bedroom off our bedroom (weird house layout). There have been a few puppy scuffles ocassionally in the past at night time, but only in play.

Thanks for responding so quickly Persephone, it's appreciated. I'm sitting here at my computer almost in tears. I have never had to put down a young, healthy dog before. The two dogs are separated now and we will keep them apart. But we will have to find a permanent solution soon, as it's extremely difficult and miserable for both the dogs. We are just out of Toowoomba. I just spoke to the locum vet (regular vet's day off, have to phone back tomorrow) about the situation and her advice was to have him put down, she reckons she's seen a lot of these situations and it's just not worth the risk as you can never truly trust the dog.

We have eight dogs in total; four mature dogs (eight to twelve years old) and four pups, aged between 9 and 12 mths. Everyone is desexed (the four pups all very young, as they are all ex RSPCA dogs). Everyone gets on well, up until now. Over the past two/three days our young Bull Arab (Spud, 10mths) has attacked our Dobie/Husky cross (Murphy, 12 mths old)a few times, with absolutely no provocation. The four young dogs spend most of the day running around our large fenced dog yard (about two acres fenced off for them) or sleeping. They play roughly, but well together, however now Spud has attacked Murphy with what looks like real intention. No blood has been drawn, but I am very fearful it may not be far off if we don't address the situation immediately. A couple of nights ago Hubby was on the lounge watching tele and Spud grabbed Murphy around the neck (not playing, serious), hubby grabbed him off, Murphy fled under the bed, Spud chased Murphy through the house and was lunging at him under the bed, wanting to have another go (but is too large to fit under the bed). Yesterday afternoon I was working in the garden and all the dogs were running around playing. Spud launched onto Murphys neck, hackles raised, Murphys was screaming, but Spud wouldn't let go (it seemed to excite him more), so not just puppy play as usually when they are playing and someone squeals, they understand they have been too rough and let go. I shouted at Spud to leave it, but he completely ignored me, I threw a stick at Spud (was too far away to do anything else), Spud was momentarily distracted and Murphy managed to escape and fled under the stairs - Spud giving chase. This was not play, Spud meant business and wanted to have another go. This morning my husband was giving Murphy attention, Spud launched on Murphy again. Hubby pulled Spud off (no way was he going to let go otherwise), lost his grip and Spud was straight back in there. Hubby dragged him off again and shut him away in the house. Hubby says we have to have Spud put down. I just don't know if there is anything that can be done about an agressive dog? He hasn't shown agression to anyone else except for Murphy, but now it seems he is searching Murphy out specifically to have a go. It has got to the point where we are now having to keep the two dogs completely separated, which makes life extremely difficult for us and not too happy for the dogs involved, and I now feel I can't completely trust Spud, who up until now has been a very placid (somewhat dopey) dog. Hubby thinks it is a jealousy thing, I'm not so sure, Spud is not particularly bonded to either of us, and one of the attacks were when the dogs were playing together and neither of us close. There may have been other times as well, the dogs are not supervised 24/7 as they have the run of the yard during the day. Murphy is losing confidence very fast. Is putting Spud down the only solution? I wouldn't feel comfortable rehoming him, what if he attacked another dog? We have two small breed elderly dogs and whilst he hasn't shown any agression or interest towards them, he could snap their necks with a single bite. Is this just a teenage thing that will pass, or will he always want to kill Murphy? Can it be trained out? Medicated? Or is hubby right and we have to have Spuddy put down for Murphy's and future risks sake? We also have lifestock on the property, Spud has shown no interest in any of them, but at the moment I'm feeling that I just can't trust him with anyone

The only person on earth besides my husband that I trust to look after my animals properly is my Mum, however as we have now moved two hours away and have eight dogs (used to only be four), plus an assortment of farm animals, that is no longer feasible. If we ever get the chance to go away again I would definately use kennels for at least the dogs (do kennels board pet pigs?). A few years ago I trusted a very close friend to look after our dogs when we were preparing to move from NZ to Aus (only two dogs back then). The dogs were staying at her house, we moved them there a day before we were due to fly out (doggies were following a week later, to give us time to settle so they didn't arrive into chaos). I rang that night (flying out next day) just to make sure everything had gone okay and she said that someone had accidentally left the front door open, Smudge had gotten out and trotted off down the (very busy main) road, "but it was okay, 'cos she came back again". I went around straight away, picked them up and took them to a kennel the next morning before we flew out. It may have been "okay 'cos Smudge came back again", but what if it hadn't been? Kennels may not be the happiest environment for a dog, but they are certainly the safest. Just choose the kennels wisely and the dogs will be healthy and safe upon your return.

I really think you could drive yourself mad with hypotheticals. I'm a kinda "cross that bridge when I come to it person". Why worry about something that may never happen? That said, I don't have children and never will (never wanted them), but if I did, as much as I love and adore my dogs (my "substitute" children), I would have to put the child first, it's only right. I guess my solution would be to try and divide off the house so the dogs had a part and the child had a part and never the twain to meet.

Hey Jed, it's great to know that your girls had a much longer life than I had been led to believe - gives me hope that my girls will be around longer than expected. We don't get an egg a day from all of them, but that's okay, the eggs are just a bonus (between them and my light sussex there's plenty of eggs to go around anyway), it was just such a pleasure being able to see these girls rehabilitate from the misery they had endured. We're just waiting for these girls to completely feather up - not long now - so they can join the sussex in the large chookie pen (ex-battery girls are currently in a fenced off section so they don't get bullied), then I think I'll go and get a half dozen more. We have a chookie pen of around 1/2 an acre, so there's plenty of room and the dogs love a feed of eggs once a week - it's a win/win.

Hi Louise, I'm just out of Toowoomba and we have six ex-battery chooks adopted about three months ago. We were also told that we'd probably only have them for a couple of years - apparently because the egg production is so intensive it substantially shortens their lifespan. Hopefully time will prove wrong and with the tender loving care they are getting now they may live a bit longer. It has been such a pleasure to see them emerge from near bald, bewildered and frightened birds into "normal" hens. We also have five light sussex chooks, but once the battery chooks pass on I will certainly be getting some more, it feels so good to know that they have at least enjoyed a lovely "retirement". Check out gumtree, there are usually heaps of ads for purebred chooks on there.

We have eight dogs; four ranging from 9mths to 12 mths old, two just turned eight years old, one 10 years and one 11 years. The two oldest ones are small breed, the rest are large breed dogs. They all live inside with us in our teeny, tiny little cottage, but we are on large acreage (130 acres), so plenty of room to run around during the day. The door is open all day long so they are free to come and go inside or out, but are inside at night and just taken out for toilet breaks, one after dinner and one just before bed. It's actually pretty easy to manage, we feed in shifts; all the seniors eat together, then two pups, then two pups, although lately we have been feeding eldest pup with the seniors, then the three remaining pups together. We also have two minipigs who live inside at night time (in their own yard during the day), plus four cats. People are usually horrified when I tell them how many dogs we have (so I usually I don't) and I don't know that we'd find a house-sitter in a hurry if we wanted to go away. However, I think once you establish a routine that fits, it all gels together quite easily. The only major con is that I can never reach the phone in time - by the time I've waded through a sea of dogs, I've missed the call. :laugh: The other con would be that you always have way more "helpers" than you need when doing a project - I've just finished building a poultry pen and I swear it took me twice as long as it should have - because half of that time was spent locating stolen tools.

We brought two dogs and three cats in from NZ about eight years ago and it was a breeze, we just picked them up at the freight office, signed a couple of forms and off we went. Their dog beds, however, were not allowed in - go figure?

We have a king size bed, you'd think that would be heaps of room for my husband and I. But add 1 x german shepherd, 1 x cattle dog, 1 x chihuahua, 1 x pomeranian and the odd cat or two (one of whom believes my pillow is HIS pillow), there is very little room left. We also have four pups, but the german shepherd won't let them sleep on the bed at night (fine with them being on the bed during the day), so they sleep in their own room off our room (weird house layout). My husband often works away from home, so you'd think I'd be looking forward to all the extra space in the bed when he's away. But no, german shepherd then decides he is the man of the house and so sleeps sprawled out in "daddy's" spot, complete with head on "daddy's" pillow. Poor old "mum" - me - still gets squished up in a corner. We were seriously thinking of getting another king size bed and having them both side-by-side, but I know what would happen - hubby would starfish out all on his own in one bed and I would still be squished up in a corner with everyone else in the other bed! Due to the puppies claiming our bed as their personal playground during the day and us going to bed with bits of stick, chewed up toys and other "treasures" they have buried in it during the day, we've decided to raise our bed up (too high for puppies to jump up!) and make a dog den underneath it.

Thanks Saffi, He was desexed very early (RSPCA). I am just in the process of finding a new vet (not happy with our current vet) and will take him up for a checkup later this week.