RiverStar-Aura

Stella is totally going to use all her cuteness against you!! She's beautiful!! Some dogs just go really weird after surgery -- super skittish or really wimpy. I'm so glad to read that after all your hard work that she's returning to normal!!! Keep the photos coming!!

Never mind. Turns out dogs need to eat about 2 kilos of macadamias per kilo of body weight before symptoms appear. In Zeus's case that's like 30 kilos of nuts. Well that's what my google search turned up anyways.

Can I ask what part of the macadamia is toxic to dogs. We have a macadamia tree in our yard bug it hardly ever produces nuts. When it does though there's not many but the dogs do run around chewing them. Mostly our nuts are have a soft green shell covering the hard inner shell. My dogs love chewing the green but can't break open the hard brown shell to get at the nut. I don't actually think they even eat any -- just destroy then spit out.

My two fruit forage and raid our backyard too. Strawberries, apples, tomatoes and lemons are fair game. Zeus eats the entire lemon (we grow the sweeter, less skin Meyer variety) but Kirah isn't too fussed. They had fresh cherries the other day from a friend's cherry tree and they love pineapple, banana, kiwi and anything really. If I can it it, it's fair game!

Also did you have the vet test for mites? My Poochie had skin burrowing mange mites (dermodactic?) that were revealed by a skin scraping. She used to chew bald patches on her back just at the base of her tail.

I'd be happy to see a whole pile of Reject Shop/Discount Shop cheap stuffed toys in the box and have more of the cost go towards charity personally. Perhaps if Drewe from Olly's Box is reading this it could be taken into consideration. The only reason I don't want expensive toys is because my guys LOVE destroying them and most are lucky to last 5 minutes. They get just as much satisfaction destroying $2 toys as they do some of the $20 ones I've purchased in the past. Maybe Olly's Box could look into a few different types of Boxes catering to those who want more exxy toys and those who don't?

Vebo have really good prices on quality products. Got my crates there too -- the wire and soft crates.

Great news about your two bubs Don!! Just be careful with soft crates as some are easy to destroy and I found out that Zeus learned how to roll his around by leaning on the sides. DDD I cant help but wonder if most small dogs Jane meets have been mollycoddled hence their aggression. It seems common for many toy breeds unfortunately. The above isn't aimed at you at all Don -- just wanted to clarify that!

Can we have some pics/vids of the Loonatic please or it didn't happen and she's busy being the perfect angel :D

It is hard though because showing is generally about dog aesthetics not their ability to work. Should modern Championship Shows develop to include a working test to prove the ability of the dogs too? That way if a Kelpie for example can't heard sheep but is an amazing specimen standard wise, it can't win BOB/BIS by default? It's certainly not an easy thing to work out that's for sure!

And see I find that distinction actually detracts from the standard of the breed -- these dogs weren't bred as show dogs. I can see how it'd be hard but yes, in an ideal world the breed champions would be both working line AND meet the show standard.

I'll always have the gorgeous Aussie Terriers in my life (even if their small size isn't really back friendly!) but I do have my heart set on a Foxhound and Saluki. I have a LOT more research and talking to breeders to do but I do hope that one day I'll fulfil this dream of mine.

See I guess that's why I'm confused too about the working vs show lines too. These working dog breeds were bred to work and developed through years of careful cross breeding etc in order to produce the epitome of a working dog. That should be what the standard aims for and there shouldn't be a discrepancy between show or working lines. It almost sounds as though the show lines of working breeds don't technically meet the standards because they don't make good working dogs ... I don't know if ironic is the word I'm looking for :laugh:

The 3rd and final Santa photo for 2014 -- I'm still waiting on photo 2 from the photographer.

Is that "special" in the spleshshal kind of way? *wink* I just love this thread with all its gorgeous Rotties -- I may just have to put in an order for one sometime in the future!

Zeus really didn't like his spider hat, but he found himself choiceless: Kirah shows just how much she loves her big brother Zeusling: :laugh:

I'm thankful everyday for Calypso; we were very lucky to find her and she's been the best cat ever! She was a $10 newspaper ad "white" kitten who we were told was 8 weeks old but later found out from our vet that he believed only around 4 weeks old -- we took her to the vet on the second day because my brother said she couldn't walk properly. The vet recommended a diet of kitten milk until she would tolerate solids but from the moment she came home she was eating good old Whiskas kitten wet food -- now she eats bloody everything and has a slight favouritism towards peanut butter toast (I don't think she realises she's supposed to be carnivorous!). She follows us around the house like a dog, comes when called and is quite often the first to queue up in the kitchen when mum yells out "tea's ready". She fetches, stays only in our backyard and doesn't wander because she can't get up the fence but she screams bloody murder like a banshee if her dinner is 2 seconds late!! :laugh: And the best part is that age isn't slowing her down at all. She's 13 and two months old and acts about 4 months -- hopefully we have many more years to come!!! As for the dogs ... Well ... They weren't really given a choice but to like being patient and photographed. Poor Zeus has suffered this from day one when I first brought him home at 12 weeks and I just continued when Kirah came along. I probably have become worse now as I do photo shoots for all major holidays (this year I've covered Aust Day, St Patty's, Easter, Hallowe'en and now Christmas). I don't know if the dogs really like it, but it makes me happy!! I need to upload their Hallowe'en shot of the year because it's friggin' hilarious!! :D

Yeah we have a few local places that organise pet Santa photos. This one organises donations to AWL through the sales of photos. :) Edited to say that Callie's actually harmless. She gets a really nasty look on her face but give her food and it's all forgotten -- she got some raw salmon for second dinner tonight!

If you all thought Callie was plotting murder before ... You ain't seen nuffin' :laugh: Santa photo 1 of 3 for this year with the bubbas:

Hahahahahaha!!! Awesome photos there Hankdog -- he looks super unimpressed!! Grumpette I just your Rotties; bloody hilarious!!

Perfume can I just talk to you about the pup being a carrier. This means nothing unless you're planning on breeding the pup -- being a carrier doesn't mean the pup has the disease therefore the pup is fine. It's only if this carrier pup was mated to another carrier there'd be issues.

^^ Yep what Mystiqview said. My Aussie Terrier is blue/tan but for most people who have no idea what an Aussie is, they're not going to say they've found a little blue/tan dog. She'd most likely be called black/tan or black/brown. List her as a colour the average Joe Blow would use.

If you're looking at studying the Cert IV through a TAFE rather than online, you don't have to be in paid employment -- a volunteer/work placement position is all that's required. I've got a friend who's just finished her Cert IV in vet nursing and she started off with work placement through her TAFE.

Arthur really is a gorgeous goofball. Just seeing that face on such a gruelling journey would be enough to make anyone keep going! Such a wonderful, feel-good story!!

I think that's the part of breeding I could never do -- send the puppies off. I mean I can totally understand the 'being over' the mess and effort of young pups but it must still be sooooooo hard to say goodbye -- regardless of what awesome homes you find for them. Give your gorgeous Loona (mash-up of Loony Luna) snuggle for me cause she's always been my sweet favourite!! Oh and give Nova huge snuggles and bum scratches too!!! More photos too please!!! :D