tdierikx

LMFAO at that last pic... *giggle* Poor Juniper Bucket Head... lol! Please pass on a kiss from me, OK? T.

As with any training tool we use on our animals - if used correctly, there should be little to no damage possible... I like check chains for training myself. One of my dogs has a harness - but that's because she is mobility challenged and has a hyersensitive spot on her neck right where a collar would go - so regular collars are out for her... *grin*... the harness also allows me to give her assistance quickly if she stumbles. T.

I already have 4 dogs - 2 of whom are rescue "foster failures"... Surfing PetRescue would be dangerous for me... *grin* T.

The only photo that seems to be missing is the "money shot" photo... the front on full face head tilt shot... I'm sure you know the one... *grin* Can you mabe stick a pretty blue ribbon on the side of his head (top, near the ear for the jaunty look), and then get him to give you the head tilt while you photograph him? The above has worked wonders for a few of our bull breed crosses... lol! T.

Way to go Harry!!! Keep improving for you Mummy and Daddy big guy! T.

Harry - you need to stop scaring your Mummy like this... please stop being a princess and eat something to make her happier about the situation... FM - hang in there - he will come good in his own time. Sometimes they like to rub it in that they aren't feeling good and make you worry much more than you should. Is he drinking? If so, maybe try a little chicken broth with a small amount of soggy rice in it - feed a small amount a few times a day until his tummy feels like taking on more solid food. Try ice cream too - sometimes that has a soothing effect on a sore tummy - and he may have a bit of a sore throat from the tube during surgery, which could put him off more solid stuff... T.

I have a few of the orange Chuckit ultraballs here - those and the Cuz range are the only toys that my Lab and Camp Dog haven't killed yet - the Chuckit balls are nearly 8 years old now and still going strong. Been through all of my dogs and hundreds of foster pups too... The Chuckit balls are worth plenty times more than the fairly high asking price IMHO... if you buy them, you won't be sorry. T.

I'm not saying that it's "acceptable" - rather that the world we live in has become a rather litigious one, and that due to the fact that most pounds have a very limited holding time for the animals in their care, they have to be doubly sure that they dot all the i's and cross all the t's when they adopt out a dog to anyone really (not just people with kids). How the heck are they really going to say that dog X is going to be fine with kids after knowing it (in a stressful pound environment no less) for a limited period of time? Truth of the matter is that they can't guarantee anything - but Joe Public will be wanting some sort of guarantee that their kids will be safe around dog X... implied or otherwise. And you can bet that a huge public stink would be made about any pound that adopted out a dog that harmed a child - unwittingly or otherwise... and what would that sort of publicity generate for adoptions from pounds? In a perfect world... T.

Pounds and shelters have to cover their arses with regards to being sued if a dog they adopt out knocks over a little kid and hurts it - and that's why they blanket ban larger dogs for people with small kids. Simple as that... Rescues normally have more time to properly test their charges with various stimuli (like small kids skylarking about) in a more natural environment that pounds and shelters do, so our "rules" may differ a bit to theirs because of that fact. T.

My 14 year old girl was chipped at 5 weeks of age. Her chip is in the right spot still, and still working, but takes an age to register with all the scanners we've used to find it... it took me a full 5 minutes to find it the last time, and I know exactly where it is... errr! A pound would have no chance with one of their cursory quick swipes in the general area scans... We had a dog in rescue whose chip was found in the right rear flank... not many pounds would have found that one. Luckily the pound that had him knew to scan all over the dog - but even after they'd found it, it hadn't been registered by the pet shop that sold him some 2 years previously. (there are ways of tracking batches of chips... *grin*) Chips are useless if the person implanting them doesn't send in the paperwork - or the person tasked with entering same into the database(s) can't be arsed... and unfortunately this sort of thing happens a LOT! T.

Well done Vi! You have a very handsome "naked puppy" there... *grin* T.

We've had dogs into our rescue with chips in very strange places - they can move, but some pounds will only scan the shoulder area where the chip is supposed to be... Some pounds don't even have a chip scanner... which is even scarier... I agree with Anne - there should be ONE national register that ALL chip details are entered into. If you are holidaying interstate with your dog, and it goes missing, at least you may have some chance at having it returned. T.

There is definitely no personal bias when you think you have the most pretty puppy around Kirislin... it's actually very true... *grin* T.

Go Harry! The pooping is a good thing - hope you rang the vet and described it for them... they love that sort of thing... *grin* Easy on what you feed him for a few days while he's still healing, and in a couple of weeks time it will seem like a distant memory. T.

Even I'm not game to try to take on Tranter... *grin* T.

I voted No - but depending on circumstances, I could probably swing to a Yes... In this case, I would probably give the dog back to the original owner. They didn't even appear to know the dog was missing until they got back from holidays, and are quite distraught at the turn of events that occurred while they were away. The dog was obviously worth the save by the RSPCA (the home of the dreaded "temperament test") - many other dogs would have been long dead in the timeframes we are talking about here... I know that I'd be completely feral about getting my own dog back under these circumstances... but I also know as someone who has regularly been trusted to care for friends' pets while they are away, I'd have been frantically searching every pound, shelter, vet, clinic, street, alley, lane, park, bush, etc, to find a dog that went missing under my watch... just sayin'... Someone does need a sharp kick to the backside for this... and I'd be looking squarely at the "carer"... T.

Tragic accidents can happen too... what if Bella had a stumble somehow and smacked her jaw on the concrete? Just sayin'... T.

She is one of the most stunning little dogs ever Kirislin... T.

The first 48 hours after bloat/torsion surgery are the critical ones - sounds like all is going to plan so far, so fingers crossed he is good to go home tomorrow. In a couple of weeks, you will only have the scary memories, OK? Funnily enough, Harry probably won't... *grin* Hang in there, Harry is in good hands and will be home soon... T.

That's the funniest series of pics yet... lol! Love the dirty nose... T.

Am I right in assuming that cage dryers are used so that the groomer is freed up to start working on another dog rather than spending the time required to dry the current dog manually - thus increasing turnover in the number of dogs that can be groomed in a particular timeframe? The fact that 3 dogs (that we know of) have been injured at 2 establishments owned by the same person is telling, isn't it? T.

Parvo can incubate and become deadly within 48 hours... I have seen it first hand. I have also seen pups with vaccinosis present similarly to parvo and test positive for parvo (a false positive can occur if the pup has been vaccinated with a modified live virus vaccine within a week previous to testing) - but they haven't necessarily actually had parvo at all. Parvo or vaccinosis - the treatment is the same - the dog is put on a drip and supported while it heals itself. How old is your pup, and when did it have it's last vaccination shot? Was it wormed recently also? Sometimes a combination of vaccination and worming on the same day (especially if wormed with Drontal) can make small pups sick. The breeder has stepped up by refunding the purchase price, but this doesn't mean that they have admitted any fault for your pup being ill - they may well have taken every precaution and indeed sold you a healthy pup that just happened to manage to come into contact with parvo around the time you picked her up. No-one can be "blamed" for this happening - sometimes it just happens regardless how careful all parties have been. The good news is that your little one seems to be coming good relatively quickly. T.

Linda K - would you believe that the swooping bird shot actually came from using the Sports preset on my 60D - and as I shoot in JPG, the only post I did to it was a small amount of cropping and a little contrast adjustment... Cameras today are getting very good at doing all the hard stuff for us... lol! Basically all I tend to do is track the subject and make sure I have focus, and let the camera do the rest. I figure if it interests me when I'm looking through the viewfnder, then the resulting pic may be of interest to others also... *grin* So Alkhe - are you going to post some more pics... at least the Cotton-Top Tamarin one... it's really good! T.

I have a true blue Aussie Camp Dog here (literally born in an Aboriginal camp)... makes a Heinz 57 look purebred... lol! When people ask what breed she is, I say "take your pick, it's probably in there somewhere"... When we chipped her, it was a nightmare picking from only 2 breed selection boxes for her cross/mix - we picked ACD and Greyhound from memory, 'cos that's what she looked most like (although she's more Whippet sized now). There was no selection for Unknown in either box on the chip website when she was done... grrr! Mongrel and Mutt are taken as derogatory terms - and usually delivered as such by those using them to describe someone else's dog. Bitsa or Crossbreed are much more user friendly terms IMHO, and are a lot less likely to get you a negative reaction from the person whose dog you are describing... The fascination with labelling certain crossbreeds is because the average Joe would like to think that their expensive new dog is a particular "breed", as opposed to the mixed bag it may actually be... and the unscrupulous "breeders" of same will happily keep perpetuating the myth that their crossed pups are something special, and keep charging big bucks from the gullible buyers for them. T.

Thanks Pattycake... I was going for the cute baby shots there... *grin* T.