blonde

You guys are so sweet-thank you... Yes we have rugs and have bought massive amount of towels for his accidents inside but also for grip where there may not be carpet... and yes we will try the towel walking thing- its a great idea. Poor little boy has become so thin- I have been feeding him 4 times a day because the vet said small meals frequently but he is eating a large scotch fillet steak at every meal- cut up in bite sized pieces and hand fed lol- and chicken breast too- I know I am spoiling him by this food but why not- he deserves it- he has given me a lifetime of happiness..

Im hoping I am in the correct section of the forums-apologies if I am not. My little boy Thomas who is 16 (anyone else out there with a 16 year old pointer- and is it rare?) lost his 15 & a half year old sister last year (not from the same litter though)... but now he is 16 is is suffering from something I think the vet terms as spinal degradation and makes his back legs unsteady and painful. Last week he had a cyst removed- it was a difficult operation as they didn't want to put him completely under due to his age, but all went well. In the last 2 days though we have found him floundering on the floor when we have come home unable to get up- unable to grip the floor properly with both front and back legs , which then leads him to exhaustion... We literally have to pick him up from the back and put his feet flat on the ground. He walks around our property daily- several times.... one of our neighbours said we should put him down.. but Thomas still wags his tails- eats like a horse and seems happy doing his own thing-he has the will, but not the means... his sister Mary was very much the same-but in the end her heart stopped. I guess I am wondering what other dog owners do with large old dogs, that are difficult to manoeuvre -as opposed to a small doggie. His legs are so long, they often get caught up in eachother.. its such an awful thing to experience... although having said that I have my 11 year old cocker spaniel who suffers dilated cardiomyopathy , is very hard of hearing, and had late onset PRA and is now completely blind.. lucky I am home every day for them..

Well i have done a little research and their is a registered breeder with Dogs Victoria. O and i also found some other itneresting info from a Burkes backyard fact sheet so probably old, but it said at the time there were only 13 Komondors in Australia and only a few thousand worldwide. I wanted to make a decision between the Komondor , the Maremma, and the Pyrenese Mountain dog for a good flock guarding dog?? I guess i will post another topic to see which would be the best for me, but i guess now the Komondor is more or less off the list.

This thread is amazing-I am looking to get myself a Mareema (i think) becausea fox just killed most of my chickens the other nite, however I am hopin if anyone can tell me what would be the difference between a Mareema and a Pyranese Mountain dog-i have read the whole 11 paes and it hasnt been asked so i thouht i would. Also another question i have is if i wanted both a Mareema and a Pyranese would that work out well? Thanks

I have noticed we have no Komondor breeders on Dogzonline, nor registered with DogsNSW. Would i be correctin in assumin we have no breeders of this do in Australia?

I see, but i will have a better look tomorrow-had a long day today,& probly another lon day tomorrow too. I really have to get into the photobucket website to see how to send it across to other websites such as this forum.

Hmm ok am testin things out-i will see how big this picture comes out as it looks tiny as i write this.

O ok then, so i have to send it from the photobucket website to this one/?

Hi, I own 2 cockers- i used to have 3 but my girl passed away at 14. Anyhoo i also own 4 other doggies-all sleep in the same bed with me, hubby gets pushed out...so thats 6 dogs, one of them is a cross foxie/jrt-some type of little terrior-he is a rescue, and he gets on with all the other dos-2 are English pointers and one is a standard poodle. Now i HATE!!! to say this but cockers do have temperament issues-or perhaps maybe it's me!! , they really get attached to you and dont like others coming near you-well some of them do-one of my cockers can be really aggressive towards the other dogs if he thinks he doesnt want them near me-the other one doesnt have any real temperament issues, but he doesnt really know his place in the hierarchy. I truly think that with dogs that get really really attached to their humans (like cockers seem to), you have to put some hard work into it, when you bring a new do into the group.. i think it will work out just fine because your cocker sounds well adjusted. Also as others have said your cocker will probably love the company too.

Ok well I have now found this photobucket website -says me soundin positively ancient- but now i dont know how to get the photo's from that website to this forum-can anyone ie me a step by step instruction? Like from this point where i am writing-i go below and it asks "attach file" but it goes straight to my computer files-how do i get to my photobucket album...sorry to be a pain in the #@%!

Thanks everyone- i am not too computer savvy and have never been on photo bucket or flickr-but i suppose it's time to get with the times and learn soemthin new>>> Sheesh

Hi, Can anyone point me in the rite direction so i can learn how to post photo's of decent size-mine seem to be all small compared to what other people are putting up. I am keeping the size under 200 but then i see huge photo's that look great -and i am wodnering how do people do that...any help would be appreciated. Thank you

Thank you and you know he is still the same person on the inside

In the first of the 3 photo's that is just my grooming- a home job-i do not claim that the first photo to be a professional groom-so tufts of hair here and there from an ammateur in my opinion is ok... And again sorry my "G" isnt working the best

If she had called me and told me it had to go, and i have thought of this, i would have done one of 2 tthins, i would have daid leave it and i will work on it at home or i would have said ok go ahead and cut it-now if i had said go ahead and cut it then at least i woudlnt have been shocked when i arrived at the groomers to find him all shaved-see its the principle of what was done, and no courtesy call to let me know. I would have appreciated the groomer even more if i had been told what was to happen and then i would have one back knowin that this groomer respects what i want and doesnt do anything unless she calls me first. The sad thin is i really think this groomer was a very nice lady, and i will not bitch about her to my friends simply because it might have been a one of bad experience for me but soemone else may have a good experience-everyone has their own opinion so i dont want to say bad things about someone that is trying to make a living out of this, its just not me to do that.

I hope everyone understands the first photo with my longwinded reply was my poodle of how he used to be all the time, then the next 2 posts are of picutres of him on the bed now after he was groomed yesterday-i hope i am makin sense here.

Ok this is the 2nd photo i have of him clipped from yesterday

Sorry i could not attach more than one photo in that other post... Ok looks like i can only attach one picture per post?? Sorry guys

Ok perhaps i am going to flare up people again: when I say "disaster" i mean it as a figure of speech in a heading (as opposed to a regular sentence)-i think it has been totally taken out of context.. I see it as a horrible experience, sheesh if i call it a disaster I was sure people could see where I am coming from, but alas this is not the case. I have attached a photo of how he used to look about 6 weeks ago-just before we moved. I used to brush him every second day and still do bursh him every second day- i dont work and we live on property so i want to catch anythin that mite turn into a matt before it does, and the groomer i used to have would simply wash him and blow dry and brush him out-the groomer really was for the cleaning bit, not really for the grooming. So i dont think i am guilty of dropping off a matted dog to this groomer at all. Plus it was not a patch that was bandaged-the whole le had to be bandaged so that the bandage could stay on re the matting/knotting. The reason i took him to the groomer was for her to do what he used to have done. His back le had some sort of insect sting and had been bandadged and rebandaged and bandadged again and so was very knotted, but the groomer did spend some time telling me over the phone how she can take so many matts and knots out of dogs with this wonderful magical product-which is some kind of horse detanling product. I must say at this point we did not spend the whole 20 minutes with me whingin about how worried i was about my dogs hair being cut off. (Sorry my "G" isnt working on my keyboard so well). No the groomer had both my husbands and my number so no contact. And i did not have a go at the groomer for the way she did his hair, but i did tell her that i was unhappy that his legs had been shaved, to which she then started explaining to me how it would grow back etc etc-i guess i tuned out because i was upset. Plus she had her poodles running around so i was distracted by them too-she works from home. In my opinion if i want to vent then shouldnt i be allowed to on a forum? Also i really do beleive that the professionals that have responded to this thread are simply that-professionals-who perhaps lose sight of the dog owner who is an ammateur when it comes to terms and clip names which is what this particular roomer kept telling me-all these different clip styles., so maybe they should be aware of that-not all "regular" people know what you know in regards to grooming-ifeel a little overwhelmed with arguments against me.. and i have not been answring because i for some reason do not get any email messages saying i have had respinse to my post?? not sure if this is the normal thing-any insight on that would be appreciated. Ok well i am just getting my husband to try and take a pciture of my poodle-he is on the bed sleepin so not the best picture so my apoloies about the quality of picture as well in advance before i get bombarded with picture quality issues. Thanks for reading .

OMG today we took our poodle to a new groomer as we moved and wanted to find someone close to us. So Anyway I spoke to the lady on the phone for 20 minutes, then both hubby and i dropped him off-standard poodle, and said we wanted to keep long socks and hair on head and tail-we explained our he had a bandadged leg at the back because the vet put it on him after an insect sting got infected, and his hair got all matted on one leg. Anyway when we pciked him up-he was completely shaven, all his long hair on his legs/feet-the socks area-i am not sure of the correct term were all gone-she said that the back legs were too matted and so we had to start all over again so she shaved them, even though i spent like 20 minutes telling her how scared i was of going to a new groomer in case they cut my dogs hair off-i have 2 cockers as well. Also i ask her just to brush out the hair on top and she trimmed it into a ball-which i know is the correct way for the 'showring look' but it wasnt what i wanted. Does anyone think she should have called me first before she shaved all my poodles legs? I was so upset..i realise it will grow back but it's not the point. I guess i should have known that if she had 20 minutes to talk to me at this time of the year perhaps she isnt very popular for a reason. Anyway i needed to vent..thanks for reading

Many thanks for the information-very helpful.

Hi, I am not sure if this question belongs in this catefgory so my apologies if it doesnt. I am interested to know if there are different types of poodle coats...i am interested in a standard poodle, but it would be likely that i get one interstate so thereofre have to rely on photo's-a lot of photo's i have seen have puppies with a thick textured coat which looks great, then i have seen a photo with a feathery trype of coat and i dont know if its because it was just brushed or it it fine and not of good quality...any advice on what i should be looking for in a coat just from pictures??? Thank you

I have 5 dogs and 2 are constantly hungry little cocker spaniels that will eat anything-anyway my hubby ledft the pantry door open last week and we ame home to find my 5 pound (2.5) of hershey kisses all but gone-maybe a kilo was left when we caught the 6 year old cocker in the act!! He was bloated and couldnt hardly move-on top of that if you dont know what hershey kisses are they are chocolate-good chocolate-so we rang the vet ready to rush him down to energency but the vet said he wouldnt worry about it, anyway another 4 phone calls later we decided he would be alright for the nite-so the next 2 days he was doing chocolate squishy poo's!! You could tell he wasnt feeling well, but it was also obvious he wouldnt let anyone near the food pantry so no one else must have got to the food either...he is sitting on my lap now and fine-only thing is-and please dont judge me-or maybe judge me-your choice-my hubby left his office door open yesterday and we had a baby rabbit in it that wasnt eating to her full potential so we bought her in to feed her up to put weight on (pet rabbit) and my english pointer got in there and killed her-only thing is my cocker spaniel ate the rabbit!! And once again was bloated and full and slept the rest of the day and nite!! He is 6 years old with dilated cardiomyopathy so we really have to be careful with him-which we have failed with in the past 2 weeks-but i think it really depends on the age of the dog and health as well. Anyway that's just my input...i have made my other dogs-english pointers that are aged 11 throw up panadols that they got into when they were little with salt and water down their throats but vets now think that is not the right rite mix to use and advise soap crystals now-whatever they are??? O and my cockers are not fat, one is 12 kilo's and one is a tiny 10 kilo-he has a small frame just FYI.

1. What is my relationship with the breed? (ie breeder, first time owner etc) I Own the 2 love of my lives-2 pointers-both 11 year old, different litters. I live and breathe my pointers-they sleep with me in my bed whilst my husband in another bed!! but they do have their issues!! 3. How common is it in Australia? Shocked when someoneknows wat they are-always gettin called dalmations grrrr and one is yellow and white and one is black and white 4. What is the average lifespan? 5. What is the general temperament/personality? Ok well my girl Mary-she is super dooper high strung-as an 11 year old girl she acts like a 2 year old, but i do have 2 cocker spaniels she plays with consantly-always wants to play play play-whines a lot too, and very very demanding... very destructive and alos has separation anxiety. My boy Thomas is mega laid back and prefers to watch thigs from afar than contemplayte joinong into such childish games!! So 2 very different personalities!! Mary is a very jealous attention seeking person where as Thomas is only interested in food. Mary is a VERY fussy eater and has at times had us feding her via a spoon-they can train you well! They love to chase birds, dcks, geese anything-they try to climb up trees to get to a birds nest-yes een in old age. They bark and bark at our other dos if they are not "in" on the game. 6. How much daily exercise is needed for the average adult? Heaps some days, other days can sleep on the couch all day with you and its not a bother. 7. Is it a breed that a first time dog owner could easily cope with? Dependso on the owner and commitment. 8. Can solo dogs of this breed easily occupy themselves for long periods? NO!!!! I have lost 3 2 seater lounges, 2 armchairs, 3 double beds, one single bed, a massive amount of sheets that have been torn to shreds, (the firiture gets hewed to the wood if left alone for a few hours). Also they will eat paint off walls, if i go out, surf the benches for food even thought hey look anorexic!! I have lost car a car ead rest whislt i have been driving!!!! I have lost 4 rabbits-to which Mary (and this is mostly Mary) has broken into the door and gotten into the rabbits room-yes we taped it. 9. How much grooming is required? Hardly any but they shed like crazy. 10. Is it too boisterous for very small children or for infirm people (unless the dog is well trained)? They seem to sense young children tend to be dealt with gently, however in my experience tey have a tendency to give everone a handshake-as in paw up and if you arent looking they can give you a big ol' scratch down the face or le or arm, none of it intentional. Veryhappy dos if they get the attention-depending on the dog too... 11. Are there any common hereditary problems a puppy buyer should be aware of? Mary has not had any real hereditary problems but she has had a large cyst removed and her ear canal removed by a specialist as she was constantly infected. She also had a cyst in her eye..at 11 years old she has a less than 1 grade murmur-as in you can hardly hear it but you know its there almost. Thomas has had juvenile arthritis and suffers from it all his life, other than that nothing else-no murmur at 11. 12. When buying a puppy, what are the things you should ask of the breeder? (eg what health tests have been done (if applicable) and what is an acceptable result to those tests so the buyer has an idea of what the result should be) I think its harf nature halkf nurture-its better to look at the parents temperaments soemtimes to get an idea of how the puppies will be-not all the time-but Mary is exactly like her mother...also it alos depends on the environment they have grown up in..they are not suitabke as outsdooor stick in the garden dos-they NEED to be with their pack (you) all the time-but that is with so many gun dogs in general.

Hmmm..interesting, i don't know any collie breeders but i am thinking sbout getting one soon, so i wouldnt know who to contact to let know of the 'oversight'.