Baileys mum

Yep all 4 of my dogs will lick to a certain extent, but my old girl Jessie is absolutely obsessed with it, she will try & lick our faces, our feet, our legs when we get out of the shower & when we pull her up on it, she will then start on the other dogs, & lick there faces till they are saturated. Yuck!! (the other dogs all seem to love it though). My other girl Brandy will jump up to the back of our chair, & likes to lick our necks & then tries to stick her tongue in our ear She's a little bit of a comedian. The 2 boys aren't really too licky, but like to give us a kiss every now & then. :D

Thanks for your post, it has reassured me a bit, I can't help feeling stressed... I just worry that the dogs are going to think I've abandoned them & miss me. The sites i've been looking at look really good & they have play time sessions with the dogs to keep them entertained, so I hope the dogs actually have fun & not get depressed. I have to be happy where I send them.. or I will spend my whole holiday worrying about them & not enjoy myself.

Thanks for that, I think thats a really good idea. I think we will inspect the kennels on our short list & when we choose the one we like the most we might organise for the dogs to stay overnight & see how they go. We are going to a Kings of Leon concert at the Rod laver arena in March, so we might actually organise for us to stay in a hotel in the city that night & trial the dogs at the boarding kennel that night too.

I'm not too sure about that, & I might find it difficult for them to accommodate 4 dogs all together, & I don't want them separated into different homes.

Another question, I need to ask is about feeding. What happens if the Boarding kennel doesn't feed the food my dogs are used to? Is it alright for them to eat the kennels food? (what about upset tummy's? ) or is it better for me to supply them my own food? (my dogs eat Advance dry & raw meat) I know I sound like a stressed out over protective mother.

Have you considered a house sitter, I have done this before through housesitter.com and it was great. Normally it is retirees looking to park their caravan somewhere while on holidays, and also with 4 dogs a boarding kennel could be quite expensive. Other than that, My previous dogs stayed in boarding kennels quite a bit and were fine. Its probably pretty exciting for them at a boarding kennel with all the constant activity. A friend of ours also suggested a house sitter, but we wouldn't really feel comfortable with a stranger staying in our house. We aren't too worried about spending the money aslong as the dogs are safe, secure & comfortable.

Oh Ok showdog thanks for that, so the oldies adapt pretty easy then.

Hi everyone, My OH & I are talking at the moment of maybe taking a trip to Tasmania at the end of the year (probably October) Its been years since we had a holiday for ourselves, we have always wanted to see Tasmania & my OH has a cousin over there that he would love to visit. We would probably be going over on the Spirit of Tasmania, so we can take the car over, & we will probably book 6 nights in Tassie, so all up we would be gone for 8 nights. So our problem is what do we do with our dogs? We have 4 dogs, Jasper who is currently 9 months old, Brandy who is nearlly 3, Bailey who is 4 & jessie who is 13. They all live inside & are pretty pampered. I don't think the 2 younger dogs will have a problem being boarded, they are pretty easy going & if they can be boarded together they might even have fun, but Bailey is very close to us & loves his comfort, so he might find it a little overwhelming & would probably rely on Jessie boarding with him to relax him. Which leads me to jessie...Do you think she is too old to be boarded? For her age she is in fairly good health, she is nearlly deaf, has a little arthritis in her back leg, & currently has an ear condition at the moment which she will be having surgery for in the near future, so hopefully that will be cleared up by October. jessie is a pretty laid back girl, loves people & although she sleeps alot more now, is still very playful & doesn't act too old. She is very close to Bailey & would probably be alright if boarded with Bailey. So what do we do? The whole idea of leaving them & boarding them is very stressful to us, we don't really want to let them stay with family members as they have pets of there own & I would worry about our dogs escaping, (atleast boarding facilities are pretty secure) We have been doing our research & have short listed 4 establishments that might be suitable. Elcho park pet hotel in Lara, Tree tops boarding kennels in Sunbury, Kepala park pet resort & vern ryans pet hotel. We have not yet inspected any of these establishments, but looking at their websites, they all offer deluxe accommodation suites (which we don't mind paying the extra money for, if it means our dogs will be a little more comfortable ) they all accept older dogs, & they all allow dogs of the same family to be boarded together. We are planning on inspecting these establishments in the next couple of weeks. So I was just wondering if anyone could give me some advice & reassurance & also if anyone has used any of the above kennels, where you & your dogs happy with them. We would really love to have this holiday & we probably need it too, but if we can't find a place for our dogs, that we are comfortable with, then we will probably just forget the whole thing.

"Happy Belated Birthday" Grumpy!! ;) What a grand old man you are!! Sounds like you had a great day & I hope you have many more birthdays to come. Love from Nicole & the Aussies. -xxx-

Yep I have been using Advocate on all my puppies from 7 weeks old and have had no problems. Previously I had a dog get mite around 8 months old and was sick on the treatment the vet gave it so we took it off the treatment and used the Advocate every 2 weeks instead of monthly and it cleared the mite up without any problems. Even when free from the problem the hair still needs time to grow back. Quite a while ago now we rand the 1800 number to see if it could be given to an older dog, history not know, without testing 1st for heart worm and we were told yes, not sure if they still advise the same now. The only dogs I don't have on it are my bitches in whelp (There wasn't enough feed back about the product on pregnant bitches so I leave it off to be on the safe side) and my vet also advised they thought it was a good idea not to use on my bitches I had mated so I don't put the bitch back on it until the puppies are off her, I just use a different heart worm treatment etc in that time. I then put it on all pups at 7 weeks old even the ones going to new families at 8 weeks I haven't had any problems using the product this way and most of my puppy purchasers continue to use the product and I haven't had any reports of any problems from them to date. I would also want a vet to diagnosis 1st Cheers Lee Yes Lee, I do exactly the same as you. I take my bitch of it during gestation/lactation, but put her back on it once the pups are weaned. The whole litter gets treated at 7 weeks & I send a treatment home with them in their puppy pack. Most of my owners are also happy to keep using the product. :p

I weaned my first litter onto Advance rehydratable kibble & raw mince last year. All pups did really well on it, & I sent each pup home with a 1.5kg bag of it. Jasper the pup we kept has been fed Advance puppy /raw mince combo & raw bones for 9 months now & he has just thrived. My adult dogs have the Advance adult dry with raw meat & they also look great. :p

Yup! But these dogs have intelligence, character, liveliness, loyalty, and sensitivity, beyond all others. "Best dogs in the world" if you want to talk to their owners. Totally agree with everything you said. I could never be without a terrier now. Big dog in little dogs bodies, with personality plus!! That is a good way to sum up a terrier, except some of them are big dogs. But whichever size terrier you get, you are going to get a lot of dog. I am not a terrier person at all, they are way too much dog for me. The four greyhounds I have here in the house right now are less dog than one young JRT. Yep your right Greytmate, I'm so used to describing my own breed this way, that I sometimes forget that there are in fact larger breeds of terriers too. Yes you do get alot of dog when you get a terrier, & maybe some of them are not for the faint hearted, there is never a dull moment in my household & sometimes it can get a little crazy, but I wouldn't want it any other way. Having said that my particular breed are real people pleasers & can be trained quite easily, so most of the time they are a joy to live with.

The word terrier has been dropped from the Maltese. This was dropped quite a while ago. Yes I know the word terrier has been officially dropped, but that doesn't stop people from still calling them terriers, I just want to know where it originally came from, how did it first start? There is still so many Maltese owners that are adamant they have a terrier, & will argue with you if you try to tell them any differently.

One question I would like to ask is why do Maltese dogs get called Maltese terriers? How & when did this name for them start when they are not a terrier at all? Is there anything in their history that links them with terriers? I get so sick of tired of correcting Maltese owners that they are just "Maltese" & not a terrier, & I just looked at like I don't know what I'm talking about. Even the media & celebrity tv vets refer to them as Maltese terriers, it is really frustrating. Sorry for hijacking your thread Boronia, but this is just somthing that really annoys me.

Yup! But these dogs have intelligence, character, liveliness, loyalty, and sensitivity, beyond all others. "Best dogs in the world" if you want to talk to their owners. Totally agree with everything you said. I could never be without a terrier now. Big dog in little dogs bodies, with personality plus!!

Hi Boronia, I'm interested to know where you got your information about the Australian terrier description, because while yes they are a small rough-coated terrier, they are definately not greyish. They actually come in the colours blue & tan, steel blue & tan & grey blue & tan, solid red & sandy red. Ok I can now see you got the info from Muttaburra's link. Not exactly how you would describe an Aussie, maybe they are confusing the greyish colour with the grey blue shade.

I Hope you had a very "Happy Birthday" Maxie!! My sweet little Jessie (Aussie terrier x JRT) is 13 now. I've had her since she was 11 months old (rescued her from a work mate of my OH that didn't want her any more & was going to dump her at the pound) She has always been the sweetest little girl & such a loyal companion. She was our only dog until we got our first Purebred Aussie terrier puppy Bailey when Jessie was 9 years old. She has never once been jelous of Bailey or the other 2 dogs we have welcomed into the family since then. In fact she seems to adore her young friends & I believe they keep her going. She just loves mucking around with them & mothering them & the young ones seem to really respect her. She is going grey, has a little bit of arthritis in her back leg, & has been suffering recurring yeast infections in her right ear for about 4 years now, which has made her partially deaf. The vet has reccomended that she has surgery to remove her ear canal, due to polyps now growing in her ear. But at her age we are still debating if we should put her through a surgery as big as that. We plan to take her to another vet for a second opinion when we have finished her current medication. Other than this problem the vet thinks she is in pretty good condition for her age. She seems to still have quite a bit of energy & keeps up with the young ones around the property, although she does go into long deep sleeps too, & sometimes she sleeps so soundly that I have to check that she's still breathing. Yes I get emotional about her aging & the thought that she could leave us at any time, I think of all the great times we have had over the years & I can literally make myself cry over the thought of her leaving us. I also worry how my other dogs will cope when she goes. They are all really close to her, & fret when we take her anywhere (like when when the OH took her to the vet the other day, they 3 of them sat at the door whimpering & pining for her until my hubby came home with her) I know the best thing I can do for my sweet Jessie now is to just keeping loving her & giving her the best life possible while she is still with us. It's just so unfair that dogs have such short life spans. :D Here is a photo of my dear old Jessie taken about 2 months ago

You can treat with a topical treatment called Advocate. It is safe to give to puppies from 7 weeks old. It treats demodex mange, sarcoptic mange, most intestinal worms (except for tape worm) & heart worm. It can be bought over the counter at most vets & good pet supply shops. I've been safely using this product on my own dogs including puppies for years & have always been pretty happy with it. IMO I would still get the vets diagnosis that your puppies definately have demodex mange & not something else. Good luck with your pups.

Stupid owner for leaving the dog tied up, & stupid mother for letting her child pat a strange dog! Unfortunately the dog will now lose its life & the child will most likely be left with physical & emotional scarring because of these two stupid people.

That's wonderful Sway Sounds like Zeus is having a great life!

I can't say I hate any dog, but I do dislike & am a little bit fearful of my Inlaws Rotti bitch. She can be very nasty, growls at everyone except my Inlaws that dare try to pat her. Sometimes when we visit she will come up to you & greet you & even lick your hand, but if you put one hand on her she will start growling. I really dont trust her & its probably just been luck she hasn't seriously attacked someone. My Inlaws got her of a family when she was 12 months old, so I'm not to sure how she was treated in her first year, but she has always been quite a nervous dog & started showing this agressive behaviour straight a way. My Inlaws have never got her asessed by a behaviourist or got her desexed either which doesn't help She seems to have a false pregnancy every season, (takes all her soft toys into her kennel & treats them like puppies) If anyone trys to touch one of the toys she will growl & snap. I do feel sorry for her in way she really seems messed up & maybe she was mistreated when she was a pup, but I still don't like her or trust her. My inlaws love her though & she loves them, & they are atleast responsible enough to put her in a secure dog run when they can't supervise her or when they have visitors. I can't say I dislike whole breeds because every dog is different, & there is good & bad dogs in every breed.

What a little cutie!!

I'm pretty sure the vet has given her Topigen in the past, It certainly rings a bell, but I will have to dig out her vet records to be sure.

You wrote that earlier that she had it for quite some time now. I just thought that maybe the latest reaction was linked to a vaccination. We call it "ear career" in Germany. Quite an upsetting thing for dog and owner. It's like a cicle: bad ear - ear drops - better - stop ear drop - bad ear and back to start! Hope it'll be solved soon for your doggie! Cheers, Anissa Yep that's exactly whats it like Anissa, & when she first got it about 4 years ago, the vet told us at the time that she will probably never truely be cured of it,& that it will keep coming back. It's been pretty distressing for both us & Jessie.

Hi Nicole, I personally would not give the advocate on a monthly basis as this is weakening the immune system every time. When was her last vaccination. It's ver common to get these type of problems after a vaccination, that's why I ask. I would also stay clear of carbohydrates as much as possible. A meal of protein & fat and just a bit of veggies is much better for dogs that seem to have trouble with Mallassezia. And just a thought on the side: since this seems to be such an ongoing problem with those yeast infections, has your vet ever checked the thyroid? This kind of trouble sometimes come from a malfunction of the thyroid. The cortisone is will reduce any swelling but I would have guessed that an antibiotic would be needed, too. But maybe also get a second opinion. I find the idea of having the whole ear canal removed quite scary. Cheers, Anissa Thanks Anissa for your advice Jessie's last vaccination was about 18 months ago, however she has had this ear problem for years now, not just since she was vaccinated. We will look at cutting the carbs out of her diet & we will be getting her checked at Werribee, so we'll mention getting her thyroid looked at too. Thank you Nicole