RuralPug

Glad you have the ping line on the way in the mail! Most unfortunately, once they get the escaping bug it is really hard to convince them that staying home is more fun so incarceration becomes necessary. Lets hope you can cure her quick before a roofed dog run becomes needed. Dog proof the laundry - check the child-proofing sections in Bunnings or online for ways to working-dog proof the laundry cupboards. Also invest in some dog deterent spray to put on her side of the inner laundry door every so often so that she never gets the bright idea of eating her way through to the rest of the house. Sigh. Or a really high baby gate (or inner screen door LOL).

AI explains some obvious stuff, like - huh? The sire is in deepest darkest Europe - how could the bitch have got there and back in time to whelp in Australia??? And AI explains litters where the sire crossed the Bridge eight years ago. There are quite a lot of AI litters where the pups don't have AI after their names, because an ordinary stud certificate could be signed by the stud owner. I think most of the time you will find the pups have that suffix when frozen semen has been used, because there is a whole lot of extra paperwork for that.

For ear and facial sutures I honestly think that the standard Elizabethan collar is best, the longer the safer. I have known dogs to scrunch the soft collar up against a wall and rub their sutures with the soft collar itself GRRR - plus I personally don't like the way it limits vision. For eye injuries the Optivizor is magical. And it was developed in Australia!!! (no I don't have shares in it LOL) For sutures not on the head, that's when you can take your pick of Cloud Collars, soft cones , Novaguards, etc.

If you don't get any responses here, make a phone call to Bendigo Obedience Dog Club and ask for permission to put an enquiry in their newsletter or noticeboard or FB page. I am sure that some of the members with well socialised dogs would be happy to help out.

Believe me, mastiff type hunting crosses can and do destroy snuggle safes! I was afraid of that with the yoga mats - I'm guessing the spongy stuff is very thin and light simliar to the packing stuff that comes with electronics sometimes? I might look in my local packaging depo and see what they have. Let us know if that works, jemmapelle!

Valblitz you are awesome. My two Siamese will thank you forever!!! But I'm still thinking of making some large ones for the bigger foster dogs - I have a 14 y.o. here and she finds coats uncomfortable (sigh). The fosters have already destroyed heat bags and electric mats so I was hoping that home-made ones would be easier on nmy wallet when destroyed LOL Canetoad, Scottsmum and westiemom thank you for your input! Gallomph that is really helpful, thanks and similar to what I was planning! I buy cheap yoga mats and cut them to be the "spongy stuff" in bed liners - would they be too dense for this purpose?

I was looking at a website currectly advertising half-price on the Slumber Pet Cat Mats. These mats claim to have a heat reflective layer (like a space blanket) inside which reflects the pet's body heat and keeps them warm without needing power. Now this might be a stupid question, but if I don't ask I will lose the chance to be educated, so.... Do you think if I cut up a space blanket (they are so cheap ) and included it in a home made mat or bed liner, that it would work the same way? Which side of the blanket piece would have to face up - the shiny side or the other? Would the space blanket piece need to be immediately beneath the top layer of fabric or could it be a couple of layers down? All comments welcome. ETA typo fixes, as usual.

I have refused to adopt out to homes that have an undesexed pet if they can not give me a good reason WHY that pet is entire. If they are waiting for a large breed puppy to gain maturity before being desexed, then fine. Or if they are willing to desex that pet immediately so they can adopt the one that they are applying for, that is fine too. Or if their current pet is entire because they are exhibiting, or bound by breeder's terms or something, that would be fine too. My reasoning is that if they have just not bothered to desex OR won't spend the money, and that is the only reason the current animals remain entire then I am not satisfied with the priority they give to their pets' welfare and I am certainly not going to release a dog that I have invested a lot of time and money in to someone who doesn''t care enough.

LOL HW me too! Thanks to another DOL thread on grooming, where I confessed to having four Mason Pearsons in my grooming kit and yet using a cheap supermarket brush on my own tresses, I now use a Mason Pearson on my hair and wish I'd done it years ago!

My Shire is rural and the multiple dog permit is a yearly fee ($110) plus individual regos. (The indiv regos though are half price for VCA members and or desexed and halved again for pensioners so only $20 a year per dog or cat for me.)

If your kelpie cross is a heavy shedder I would be inclined to use a medium toothed steel comb rather than a brush as this will tend to remove more of the dead hair before it is shed than most brushes. Next best thing would be a curry comb, as Gruf has said, or a slicker brush. ETA I'm assuming that your girl has a slightly longer coat than most kelpies.. A kelpie x long coat border collie type is what I'm thinking, but of course if she is a kelpie cross staffie typethen daily vaccuming is probably best LOL!

Another vote for this. Plus - groom REGULARLY. Once every couple of months is a nightmare for both you and the dog. Get into the habit of raking the dog out weekly, it will be quick and easy - get the kids involved! Bathing is not required so often, though.

GRRRR pc keeps eating my post so you aren't going to get the 6 or 7 links to possibles on Petrescue I laboriously linked and lost... Ignore breed descriptions (which tend to be Jack Russell mix, although we all know these littlies are more likely to be Tentie mixes or mini foxie mixes) and just check the pictures. Here is my favourite though: Joey In the very unlikely event that she can't find what she wants in NSW, I have a 3yo Tentie-type mix boy here almost ready for adoption that may suit.

Agreed. In the past, breeders could use restricted colour dogs in their breeding program even though they could not be exhibited, and the gene pool was not automatically reduced by the limited register. Our system assumes that if a dog or bitch does not meet the standard entirely, then it is not worthy of being considered for breeding. This might make sense in breeds where the gene pool is large, but definitely does not make sense where only small gene pools are available AND the restrictive trait neither affects health nor breed type. There could be a case made, in some breeds, for allowing restricted colours to be bred on main register, but not shown. Application by breed clubs could be made to the ANKC for this in the same way that application can be made for inter-variety breeding etc.trait. Re the Border Collie, it sounds as though even that although Australia is the official country of development, overseas countries allow a lot of variants that the country of development does not. There is a huge gap between working border lines and show border lines here, but is that not the case overseas, then?

Maybe a voucher for a large online pet supplier in a card with your handwritten thanks? Try and find a breed realted card if possible. :)

Look at the wonderful gloss on that coat....full marks to the breeder/rearer for excellent nutrition and genes!!!

Yes it is and I really think the conclusive paragraph says it all: "Surely, as people who love this beautiful breed we should accept the Standard as it was established so many years ago, and respect those who worked hard to maintain it? We need to be responsible with this legacy and with the careful mentoring that has come down through the years. In South Africa we owe it to the first people who imported the Flatcoat from the UK in the 1960s to maintain the correct standard. Anything less is indeed hazardous to the future of the breed."

Presumably the skin is pink so it stands out as a bald spot and you are looking to colour the skin? I can't actually think of anything much that would be permitted in a show ring under the rules for misrepresenting a dog. Black chalk is allowable but you are supposed to brush it out before you go in the ring. I would probably use black chalk (hoping she is not a liver LOL) and not brush too vigourously. You don't want it so thick that it comes of on the judge's hands though! Is there anything you can do to encourage regrowth of hair on the bald spot or is it too heavily scarred?

That is really a stupidly worded question and the short answer would be "recessive" as has already been said. The long answer would be something like this: putting it in a spoiler to avoid giving Stressmagnet a headache

Good breeders know that colour (always excepting dangerous dilutes etc.) is really just the frosting on the cake after soundness, health, temperament and type. Good breeders also know that there is usually a sound historial reason in a breed for exclusions of colour and marking - sometimes it was just due to the job required, for instance you don't really want a spaniel or setter or riding hound with too much of a camouflage coat for it might be accidentally shot by a hunter, you might not want a herding breed that you cannot find among the stock etc. etc. Sometimes a particular colour was believed to have been linked genetically with other traits undesirable to those developing the breed (which may be the reasoning behind the flat coat standard colour exclusions.) Thus when a mating potentially combines excellent qualities in soundness, health, temperament and type but may produce a mismark or unwanted colour a good breeder will most likely proceed with fingers crossed that they get some specimens that are standard for colour and/or markings and will be prepared to find pet homes for any that don't. They would rarely, if ever, breed directly from a disallowed colour or mismark though.

He is one year old - the average lab is still emotionally a teenager and will still be testing the limits for quite a while yet. I would have drawn the line a lot earlier. Waking you THREE times for attention and cuddles in one night is not on. I would probably have locked him back into his crate after the first non-piddle excursion and not let him out until the usual time in the morning. He has to earn the right to those "big boy" morning starts - eventually it will click that if he leaves his crate unneccessarily while you are still in bed then he won't have that privilege of joining you once you're up each morning.. But it might be some time until he matures to that level - and you are only going to find out by trying and being firm when he abuses the privilege.

Use a rubber ute mat (they are HUGE and cover everything) ...but damp dog smell will get into the headlining and vinyl as well as carpet and upholstery so after a thorough cleaning, treat these with Scotchgard protective spray so that damp dog dander, droplets of creek life etc. have less of a chance to adhere and smellify. The Scotchgard will need to be renewed every 12 months or so.

You could ask her for a detailed opinion from her own vet, complete with prognosis amd suggested treatment, I suppose. I wouldn't be surprised if she has misunderstood the vet in the first place. But really, considering the contract and their refusal for a second opinion from your vet at your expense. I don't see what more you can do.It would just be nice to be sure about the puppy, though.

Ask for a biopsy....I suspect that due to the location this may require anaesthsia. Quite possibly your vet tried AB's first incase it was just an abrasion from a bone or something.

I am helping to organise our local one - more from an educational point of view than a fundraising one, albeit the fund raising certainly does happen. We are having all sorts of pet linked stallholders plus council will be there and we will be offering cheap ($20) microchipping for pets ( I think we did several dozen of those last year and are expecting more this year). More than anything else it is a great function to get the non-dog savvy general public out and about finding that it is quite a lot of fun to walk their dogs in company with their neighbours! :)