RuralPug

It is not impossible to train dogs and small rodents to live together. Having said that, I would never ever leave them unsupervised together, just as I would never leave a toddler unsupervised with dogs or cats. It is quite likely that he was just playing gently with them, but they, unaccustomed to a predator playing with them, have simply expired of shock. This is why, if you ever get small furry rodents again, get them used to the dogs by handling them (GPs) with the dogs at your feet etc and permit mutual sniffing to develop familiarity. How on earth was the poor dog to know what would happen? Don't punish the dog for your mistakes.

Hugs to all your family. What a terrible tragedy.

The issue of causing discomfort to other passengers is the biggie. There are too many people who think their dogs are well-behaved when they are not, and there are some that just don't care - would you really want to share a carriage with bogans flaunting a badly-reared fear aggressive dog on a three hour trip? Years ago, you could travel any dog as crated cargo in the guard's van. Today's regional trains simply are not designed to have any supervised cargo space. Even if you brought your own crate and parked it in the space reserved for bikes and surfboards, what on earth would you do with it at the end of your journey? Lug it about with you? I can't see an enormous demand for that, can you? I cannot see those issues being resolved any time soon. The minister has proved himself to be a total prat.

O bless you. Run free at the bridge, Billy. This is a story that deserves to be shared - sometimes we hear so much about the bad news, it is so nice to hear when something really good (your care and devotion) happens to someone (like Billy) who had quietly suffered for such a long time at the hands of careless idiots. PM sent asking for permission to cross-post.

Put a hungry echidna in the bag? Sorry, in a norty mood.

I'm not sure there is a big enough market in Australia for this? If you don't want to buy one in from overseas why not ask to have one custom made in the webbing of your choice? I'm guessing that if you could provide the end clips (say from a plain lanyard strap to suit your camera) then a custom leash-maker (cockerlover on here springs to mind) should be able to replace the webbing for you.

Or Huey, as in "Send 'er down, Huey!!" the bush rain prayer! I know its not very creative ...but I also like Matilda (Tilly ) for an Aussie bitch. ...or Sheila!!!

Or Huey, as in "Send 'er down, Huey!!" the bush rain prayer!

Loki is the correct spelling. Be careful what you wish for, however. You would not want a dog that lived up to that name!!! The boldness and intelligence part is apt enough for the breed, but the trickster evil prankster part is rather undesirable. I like some of the tribal names for the Rainbow Serpent for a bitch. There are as many names as there are Aboriginal languages for this earth mother, but the one I like best is Waagal (alternative spellings are Wogal, Wagyl, Waugal). I like this especially because any Aussie Terrier bitch is a Waggy Gal, all right!!! For a male, how about Karora, the Bandicoot god from Northern Arrente people??? I also like Cooee as a name, although it won't fit the god theme.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!

Well that could be a lot worse Linda! I suppose it calmed down even more since that pic? Probably all the bruising and swelling will do down just in time for the next op to puff it up again. I am due back on the 18th, wouldn't it be a hoot if we were scheduled on the same day again! JJ how unfair is it that a snake breeder gets the heebie-jeebies from little rodents! I can visualise you cringing as you stuff the little corpses full of medication or whatever before feeding them to your babies!

Oh wow JJ! You had me quite fooled with the scientific nomenclature - but they are Children's Pythons aren't they? Some friends of my kids used to have them. I'm not quite sure what you mean by the darker patterning of the Darwin sourced ones. The ones I remember were darker looking than that but their markings were quite blurry - sort of like a darker brindle in a dog compared with a highly contrasting brindle if you know what I mean. What I'm clumsily trying to say is do you mean the Darwin sourced ones have more vivid contrast? The one in your photo is very pretty. I seem to remember that the baby ones were vividly patterned but got blurry (technical term there ) as they became adult. I went looking for a website for pictures of baby ones to see if I remembered correctly and had to laugh when I found what seemed to be a really knowledgable website about breeding them - this guy said he didn't bother with cooling first so I thought he must live in tropical northern Oz but he was in Canada!! And why am I on the net in the middle of the night? Well I don't really want to go back to bed, my loving cat brought me a big fat fieldmouse for a present but absent-mindedly forgot to kill it first, not a pleasant awaking to have a small beastie trying to hide in your hair. So having leapt about uselessly for a while with the cat snickering at me I locked them both in the bedroom and told her to "deal with it". When I went back it she'd dealt with most of it and left a neat pile of mouse intestine and a head attractively arranged on my pillow. The spare room is cold, the computer room is warm...so here I am.

Wow just read through a marathon month's worth of pages...have been nastily crook for a few weeks but that's all sorted now and finally got Telstra convinced that my loss of DSL was their equipment not mine or my ISP's...tech came out to local exchange and replaced a component - volia in 12 flat minutes I have broadband back. Pity it took so long to convince them to send a tech in the first place. Tenties we are due for another update now after your surgery - how is it coming along and when is the next surgery due? JJ : camera out please can can we see pics of that rare pair that accompanied me on the trip from Adelaide last month? RJ are you raffling guesses as to the large fluffy rare breed you are getting? Can we have a hint like which group? Here's a stab in the dark - Bouvier?

So you don't know sex of puppy yet? Would help if we knew, not so much the breed, but the type; herding, terrier, gundog etc? At the moment all I can think of is Gilbert & Sullivan's lesser operetta "Patience" about a milkmaid, quite down-to-earth, who was the chosen object of affection of two competing poets. However Patience has no patience with poetry at all, and the slapstick begins. Character names from that include: REGINALD BUNTHORNE ARCHIBALD GROSVENOR COLONEL CALVERLEY MAJOR MURGATROYD DUKE OF DUNSTABLE and the chorus was Rapturous Maidens and Dragoon Guards Anyway, non G&S pup names reflective of Patience; Worth Th Wait Rainbows End Here At Last Time Lord Lady In Waiting Fashionably Late ETA I type too slowly! Great Minds think allike, Miss B!

No, sorry. You are thinking of Bulldogs, perhaps? It is a huggle of Pugs. (most times this is a pug pile on your lap, or as much of it as will fit, if no lap is availble then all 6 pugs will huggle into a single one of the nearby 8 beds.) A Prance of Pinschers. A Harem of Salukis. (must include eunuchs I suppose) And, of course, as all showies know, a Horde of Chihuahuas.

Gee that's hard, isn't it? If it was a wheelbarrow or something you could transport her meals to her and serve them from it so that she associates it with yummy noms, but that might not be a good idea for something you intend to transport a tiny bub in... (By the time bub is sitting up in it and waving rusks around, it will eventually be associated with yummy noms anyway. ) Hopefully one of the clued-up trainers will have a real suggestion to help you.

In the old days, I did all puppy vacs then I immunised yearly until age 8, then nothing. These days I do all puppy vaccs, one annual booster then the three yearly C3 plus annual kc nasal. I did titres annually for a couple of years, but then my vet confessed that the results could be skewed because a low antibody reading did not necessarily mean that the dog was not sufficiently protected. If my understanding is correct, then there only need to be a few antibodies "loose" in the system and if the immune system itself is strong, then they will multiply rapidly to meet the specific disease threat. I was told that a high reading usually meant that the disease had been encountered by that dog recently so the antibodies had multiplied successfully thwarting it. So if the dog hasn't encountered the disease in whatever time-frame before the test, it might look like they need re-vaccinating, when that isn't the case. Anyway, that put me off doing titres. I think a lot depends on breed/line history of sensitivity, how much and how often your dogs are exposed plus your relationship with your vet. It's not neccessarily one size fits all.

Another vote for waiting until you meet her - often they name themselves almost. But it is always fun to play about with names beforehand anyway!! Hmmmm, names to suit chunky square black brindle wirgglebutt: Teak (make it Mystique for formal occasions) Walnut (love to hear someone yelling that! ) Cube (spell it Qoobe to confuddle 'em) Grin (most SBT's seem to do that a lot, but maybe not a female name )

No double points for Class in Breed surely does not mean no double points for Class in Show?

x 2. The words "horrid and shocking" combined with the fact that it was in the news forum (I search all new posts, not by forum) almost made me pass it over. But I looked just in case there was a decent comment on crptorchidism. I hadn't seen any references to the study previously so I'm glad I looked. Not sure I really want to be a part of your study on people reactions, though.

If it's an allergy it will probably respond short-term to anti-histamines. Discuss this with your vet. If the anti-histamines do make a difference then you will need to start eliminiating culprits to try and identify the source allergen. Allergens can be the weirdest things: Common ones are flea saliva allergy (flea may not be living on the dog), various plants and foods. But I have also known of allergies "cured" when - the carpet in the house was changed - a different laundry detergent was used - a different dog shampoo was used - the dog bed/blankets were replaced with different materials

Best advice is get him to the vet. If he was mine, he would have been there long before this. Take a poop sample if you can. I would get a diagnosis first and then worry about health guarantees and breeder issues.

At several shows recently with a friends' tiny baby black pug couple of shows for socialization and a couple more where she was entered - little Miss Personality Plus had even the most hardened showies cooing and ahhing and non-showies were taking huge detours to get to her pen. We joked that we should start selling tickets, we would have made a fortune. He Who Wields the Spanners is always happy to hold a pug or two in the street while I dash into a store, he says they are chick magnets and more than once I have heard a squeal "Men in Black dogs!" and young ladies dash up to him and ask for a cuddle. He says, sadly, "But it's the dogs they want to cuddle, not me!" Pug addicts are a breed unto themselves, though. Last week I was stopped in the supermarket car park by a complete stranger. I had no dogs with me, but she had spotted the "Pug On Board" sign on the car and whipped out her mobile phone to proudly show me endless pictures of her own pug! I have been known myself to cross the street and accost complete strangers to "talk Pug".

Ooops! Will keep the vibes coming, though. Don't stress about the walking frame - if you need it temporarily while you readjust it's no big deal, 'cos the dogs already know to keep out the way, right? And if you still have it at Noorat, don't panic, I will be there at least one day, probably two and you can lean on me! LOL! Just had a visual ... now that would be double handling with a new twist!!!

Bulldog was Partridge's Ch Kama Hush Power (dog chall & BOB) Opp sex was Butt's Wantage Happy Wanderer Bullmastiff was Stevenson's Wideacres destiny (dog chall & BOB) Opp sex was Merritt's Bullmaster Desiree Frenchie was Parlett's Sans Tache Solo Sun (imp UK) (dog chall 8 BOB) Opp sex was Sans Tache Solo Sar (imp UK0 same owner, brother and sister pair, first champ show out of quarantine.