Miss Danni

Rat Lungworm is a horrible disease in dogs, just like people. Some months ago, I emailed Bayer to see if Advocate was effective against Rat Lungworm and they advised me that, currently, there is no wormer that will kill Rat Lungworm in dogs. So be vigilant is all I can say.

Vegas is a dark, well pigmented dog and he generally is passing that to his offspring, most of whom are still young. His mother does not have a dark, full mask, but she did as a younger dog. What is the mother of the pups like? Has she older progeny that you can see and assess their pigmentation? Some GSD lines will get more mask as they age and others will lose it as they mature, so you need to know the lines. Rely somewhat on the breeder, she should know her lines and have some idea about Vegas.

OMG, your MUM objected and didn't mention it to you! Hells bells!

I used my Arabian stud prefix for my kennel prefix too. That was in 1991, so things may be a little different now, but I cant see why they would even check for equine prefixes??

We stocked up too ..... sad really!

We've done it a few times, even just recently with a puppy that we were not going to run on and then changed our minds. As we bred her and still owned her, it was just a matter of signing the form and paying the money. I have also done it for a puppy buyer that said that they wanted to show, after we saw the dog and decided that he was good enough (as per our contract).

I Googled her. She bred Cats and apparently ran a boarding kennel and cattery God help us.

Has something happened to Holly, Pockets? Hope all is OK. She is what, 3 weeks in whelp? I'd be a little concerned at that stage too, feotuses are still early in their development and I would have thought far more susceptible to xrays than in 5 weeks time. But if it is a limb that needs xray, I'm sure that they could drape a lead apron over the rest of her to protect the pups. If it isn't essential, can it wait until she is 8 weeks in?

Call me a cynic, but 6 weeks! I've never had H & E results take that long to come back, 2 weeks tops, even with the AVA. And just when did she have the xrays taken? It could not have been when she was pregnant surely???? Sounds like a story to me - as Snagglepuss would say - "exit, stage left".

Something I have always wondered about is the possibility of shows taking entries on the day (as well as pre-entries as per normal). Lots of horse shows do it, sure it would be more work for the stewards and show secretary, but it might help to get entries. I know that there have been days where I have been at a bit of a loose end and would have gone to a show if I had been able to, spur of the moment. Obviously there are plenty of potential problems, like not actually knowing how many entries and therefore, if you need extra judges, but it could be trialled??? As a breeder, I also have taken risks in my past few litters, on new people that have said that they want to show. Only one of them has let me down and never even turned up to training with his lovely girl. The others are now hooked and one is on her second show dog from us There are a few other breeders in our breed that have obviously done the same thing and brought new people into showing. In our last litter, we gave new people our pick male and kept the second pick, a huge risk for us but it has worked out well so far, with the new people getting a top puppy that is going gangbusters in the ring and the breed picking up some really switched on young people that I can see being successful breeders themselves down the track. As a sport, we have plenty of high profile people that could be utilised to assist in PR with the general public, I think that we just need a co-ordinated effort from the ANKC and affiliates to promote our "brand". I dont see any evidence of marketing plans being in place for the purebred breeds or for showing. At shows, we should have people that are clearly identified - maybe with fluoro T-shirts that say "Ask me anything!", so that the general public have a point of first contact when they rock up to an overwhelming, chaotic new experience. New people have to be coddled, welcomed and prized, someone needs to take responsibility for them - it cant always be their breeder. :D

We use a professional that comes and stays at our home while we are away. If we are overseas, we might have 8 or 9 dogs and 2 horses that need to be looked after. While I could board the dogs, my options are limited with the horses and we have no family close enough or knowledgable enough to look after horses. Virginia is a God-send, we never have to worry about our house, the horses, or the dogs while she is there and she is often booked up for 12 months in advance. And because she is a professional, she will follow your instructions to the letter, which we found in the past that friends could not always do, especially if they were dog people. While it might cost us an arm and a leg to have her stay while we are overseas for a month, it's cheaper than boarding the dogs and the peace of mind is invaluable. And our animals lover her! :D

Cool

We imported our girl from Germany to Eastern Creek and did not have any issues, once we had a kennel attendant that actually knew dogs! I went to Quarantine every day that I was allowed to, took bones and special treats in and left them in the kitchen fridge and she was given them during the day. Weekends were different, because they only had casual staff on, so I never left anything for the weekend because it was a waste of time. That was in 2008 but last year I pretty much did the same thing for a friend in Qld that imported a girl in whelp from Germany and found things to be much the same. It might be different now though.

Good vets are worth their weight in gold. :D Many years ago, we had a great young vet that worked at the practice we went to, always asked for her when we made an appointment. She had grown up with our breed and was very knowledgable. But then she went overseas to work and we lost track of her until a few years later, she was briefly back at the practice before setting up her own surgery about 15 mins aways from our new house. So we started going to her and she was (and is) a fantastic vet, very caring, always listened to you, loved our dogs. But she sold her practice after many years and the new vets, while nice people, started to give me the shits with chopping and changing opening hours because they were more interested in going to Mudgee for wine tastings than running their surgery, their locums were idiots who could not even microchip a puppy properly and then I was very unhappy with them when I took my bitch in labour distress to them and they were noncholant about her to the point of not caring, or seeming to care, so we dumped them. We had always also had our breeder vet that we used for GSD specific things or repro issues, but we go there for everything now, even though they are 45 mins away. All of the vets are great, but I still bookin for the expert when I need to! And they listen to me because they know I know more than their average pet owner customer. I have never been hassled to vaccinate annually or had them try to switch me onto another food. My opinion and knowledge is respected. I now just tell my puppy buyers to go there, regardless of where they live in Sydney, because there are too many vets out there that are substandard. Many years ago, at a different vet, I had a locum/student that was clearly frightened of my dogs and she told me that she had never personally owned ANY animal, she had become a vet because that's what her family told her to do!

I think that because ours are born and raised in the house, they are not destructive and are happy and relaxed when left inside. They all sleep in the house at night, some loose and some in their crates, but if we go to sleep watching TV, there will be 9 GSD's of various ages laying around the house or snuck up onto the lounge! We generally have 2 or 3 in the house during the day, depending on bitches in season or pregnant, or whose turn it is to stay inside! Our import Lilli is always inside, she was also a house dog in Germany so we have never had any issues with her either. We dont let them into the bedrooms or the front of the house because I dont want them sticking their heads through the blinds to "guard" the property all day. And our hallway is the coolest part of the house in summer and the dogs gravitate to it. They also have access to the kitchen, which has a fan and an old lounge to lie on. They have their toys and some days I'll give them a Kong or pigs ear, some days they get nothing when I leave except a quick treat or biscuit. The whole house is slate flooring, so we dont worry about toileting specifically, but unless they are sick, they dont pee or poop inside the house anyway. I am generally gone from home for 9 hours but could be much longer, never have an issue. Once when there was a problem, I could not get home and the dogs were locked in for 17 hours, still no "accidents" when we got home, they just held on! Even now, our 8 month old male wont even pee in his pen, let alone the house, but he pees for about 4 minutes when I get home and let him out :D

Sounds like Wonder Wash from Plush Puppy, we use it all the time and it's great for quick baths or washes inbetween hydrobaths.

Back 3 Falcons ago (a long, long time), I had Peter Goldstein make a steel crate to perfectly fit the dimensions of the cargo space in the wagon. That crate has gone from Falcon to Falcon to Falcon. Last year, my 2000 Fairmont AU2 wagon was really on its' last legs, so we looked at the Terry, trusty measuring tape in hand and were pleased to find that my dog crate will still fit into the back of the Terry, with the back seats up. We have GSDs and the crate is designed to comfortably fit 2 adult males. But the Terrys that I liked were a bit more than I wanted to spend, so we searched for months and eventually found a fantastic bargain 2005 Falcon Futura with factory fitted roof racks and 2300kg towbar and snapped it up! Hopefully the Futura will see me out for another 4 years and then we'll probably hunt around for a good value used Terry ...... unless of course, Ford wake up to themselves and bring back the Falcon wagon! PS. we have to have a big car, as it also has to be able to tow 2300kg for our horse float, otherwise there would be other cars in consideration I'm sure.

Try Luci Ellem at Camarna Kennels, Luci and John are great.

A not so hypothetical drunk bicycle rider was recently arrested and charged and subsequently had their DNA taken and ran through the Police Not Hypothetical database. This lead to a very real charge of murder in regards to a young man that was murdered about 20 years ago. I'd be reporting the hypothetical bum to the Police.

Second vote for Luci. I send my puppy buyers to her when they are on the "south side". :D Robert Zammit also runs a Puppy Preschool at his surgery and I sent some puppy buyers from my last litter there and had good reports too.

Same here Ange. We xrayed Lilli on the Saturday, she wasn't due until Wednesday at least but she decided that Valentines Day (Monday) would do her just fine. No problem though, at least we knew she was having at least 10 pups!

Why are they closing Eastern Creek? The Quarantine stations in WA and Vic often seem to be full, I've had a few friends have to send their imports into Sydney instead of Vic. I hope that they plan to expand the Vic facilities, or it will be even harder to import. Some breeders wont sell to us now because of our import restrictions.

And come down to the bottom grounds to see the specialty GSD shows. There is also a good canteen down there and it is less crowded than up the top when you are hungry or thirsty!

Exactly right! Delving deeper into the stats MAY reveal that these types of dogs are disproportionately owned by people that have a propensity to violence themselves. Or are financially and educationally disadvantaged. Or it MAY reveal that the average witness (including rangers and police) have NO CLUE about breed identification - if it's black and tan it's a Rottweiler, if it's tall and muscular and white and tan, it's a pit bull. Or whatever. The point is, that these "stats" are not helpful in isolation and more needs to be done to find out the underlying causes of why these dogs (whatever breed) have attacked humans.

Mate you are a joke, you wont be killing anydog, and no dog will be going BERSERK due to car backfire, pathetic Sorry, but you are wrong there. Many years ago, I owned a dog that would attack something if your sandshoes made a high pitched squeek on the vinyl floor or closing a sticky window made a high pitched sound. This dog did not live with children and was MANAGED responsibly her whole life. Not a pleasant way to live for us, but she was happy! If children had been introduced into the family, she would have had to have been PTS. I'd have done it myself.