tdierikx

A lovely older neighbour of mine visited me the other night to tell me that her gorgeous little older Shih Tzu cross girl had passed away. A few months ago she had also lost her husband suddenly fom a brain tumour no-one knew he had. Holly was regularly seen out and about on her twice daily walks, and was one of the sweetest and most well looked after little dogs I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. My neighbour is a fit, healthy, and active 70-something lady, and has asked me if I could be on the lookout for a Shih Tzu cross pup (preferably female) in rescue for her. She is fully aware of the training needs of a pup, of their activity levels, and their penchant for being naughty or destructive at times. I can fully recommend her as one of the most perfect candidates for a puppy, and can vouch that her yard and house are well set up for a small dog. Any pup she adopts will be her constant companion. Shirley lives in SE Sydney (same street as me and Katdogs). So - if anyone has any young female Shih Tzu cross pups for adoption (in Sydney please), please let me know and I can forward your details to Shirley, OK? T.

Maybe PR could incorporate a different search function in the Members pages? Shouldn't be too hard to code it to search by a particular name so we can locate a specific dog more easily. T.

Yes Katdogs, you can tell our neighbour that I'm keeping Harper... and she is definitely going to be visiting your girls (and your new puppy when he arrives) on a regular basis... *grin* T.

Well done to all involved! T.

My disabled dog Pickles is a big hit with disabled children... somehow they all understand each other and that they are somehow different from most of us. Disabled children who are frightened of most dogs seem to like interacting with Pickles... T.

Some pet shop chains move the pups around various stores for "better exposure" if they aren't selling through the first store. Some will happily take "excess stock" to the pound when they are too big or not cute enough any more. Some will just euth "excess stock" that doesn't sell. They don't (or can't) send the "stock" back to the breeder... As long as "stock" sells, pet shops will keep ordering in more "stock" to sell to the waiting "market"... As the commercial breeder said on that TV show not long ago, he could sell many more pups to the pet shops than he does, because the "market" is there to sell/buy them. The only thing that may make a difference to the problem of live animals being sold from glass cages in pet shops is a concerted advertising campaign to educate the buying public about exactly where those cute animals come from, and what weeks or months spent in small glass cages can do to their physical and mental state. This sort of campaign doesn't need to have all the graphic images of overbred bitches in puppy farms that previous campaigns have had - as people tend to switch off when they see that sort of thing - maybe print media just asking the question "Where does that doggy in the window come from?" splashed on a half (or even full page) advertising spot - might make more people actually stop and think about it more... T.

One of the guys at work adopted a dog from Paws a couple of years ago, and another from Renbury. I've told him that he should send Denise an email with some pics to show how weel they are doing and let her know how much joy they have brought to him and his wife - I explained that rescuers really love updates, even if it's years down the track. He's going to do so... *grin* T.

OK - Harper is staying... *grin* All of the others are doing well, and should be ready for desexing next week... although we will have the vet check out Penni to see whether we can do her next week, or put it off another week for her. She has caught up nicely, but still presents as a little "younger" than the others physically. She is otherwise very happy and healthy and now gaining weight well and easily holds her own when playing with all her siblings. Daisy boo's babies were all desexed yesterday and are doing just fine. Samuel was the biggest at 4.7 kgs and Toby was the littlest at 2.9 kgs. All the others were well over 3.5 kgs... the vet said they were all really nice and healthy pups. Welll - gotta go and let the babies out for their morning playtime - Harper has realised I'm up and is telling all my neighbours about it... *sigh* T.

The little black boy from Daisy Boo's litter is also the biggest smoochie pie... he just melts into your arms and gives the best snuggles. He's just over half the size of the biggest pup in that litter, but can hold his own during play and feeding time... *grin* His name is Toby... T.

What is the dog resource guarding? Food? Toys? His human? I've had foster pups who have had to push, shove, and sometimes fight, to get their share of food as part of a large litter. What I do with those pups is to make sure they have food at all times, so that they learn that they are never going to have to fight for their share. I also have my own adult dogs (who know to "leave it")in close vicinity of the pup - so it learns that the other dogs aren't going to "steal" its food. Pups that resource guard toys get more toys than they know what to do with - they seem to lose interest in them as being "special" fairly quickly. Pups that guard their human can be a little more tricky, but I tend to physically ignore them when they are being nasty, and if needed, will separate them physically for a short time (like giving a time out) until they settle down. Most pups learn things rather quickly if they are inclined to want to please you. Did you get your pup from a registered breeder? Have you asked the breeder for some advice? Same if you got the pup from a rescue - ask them for advice also... T.

The cardboard out of the toilet rolls is a big fave here too... no nutritional value whatsoever, but completely digestible... lol! Seriously though, most dogs want whatever they think you want to eat... T.

Well done!! T.

Gumtree gets a heck of a lot of traffic... and we could swamp the listings with rescues at decent prices which may slow down some of the idiots offering up all sorts of stupid crosses for big bucks... *grin* Fight fire with fire, and get the traffic we seem to have lost via the new PR website. T.

The only thing my Lab won't eat is worming tablets... none of my dogs will. Any other tablet goes down with gusto. T.

She gets some couch cuddles every night... they all get a turn... They are all missing out tonight - I'm too knackered from cleaning the house and fixing the kitchen door that Pickles had almost chewed all the way though - took a 50x70cm piece of ply to cover the hole! They have a chicken wing each as consolation though... T.

When I saw her picture, I swaer I thought I was looking at my friend's dog... seriously - they could be twins - or at least sisters. My friend's dog can have some 'tude when put in an uncomfortable situation, but so do most dogs... T.

My nearly 7 year old Lab would eat until she exploded if I let her. She is a master of the "nobody ever feeds me" look too... ... but I have a much stronger will than her... *grin*... and though she's a bit broader than my liking, she is still much leaner than about 99% of Labs I've ever met. Probably why she's still so darned fit and active at her age... still crazy too... she would make Marley (from the book) look well behaved a lot of the time... lol! T.

Little bugger just screamed for 10 minutes straight when put in the pen with her siblings. Sat there and screamed while watching the door to see if I was coming back. Everyone else just toddled off to the bed and settled down... They've all had the run of the whole back yard most of the day, interspersed with me going out for cuddle sessions when I got jack of doing house work. Most of them had gone into the pen and off to beddies already when I went out to put them away for the evening... except Harper, who scampered up to me straight away when I came out the door... She's finally quiet and joined them in bed now... *sigh* T.

Ummm... the broken English makes me think.... SCAM! Sounds a lot like the ones that take your money then you never hear from them again... Run away! Good things come to those who wait, remember. A waiting list is good... T.

Lamb puffs (dried lamb lung) is a big fave here... but my Lab thinks anything I give her is yummy... *grin* I call her a Labrahoover... lol! I actually tend to treat my dogs with pieces of their dinner kibble - works just as well as other treats. T.

Daisy Boo's babies are all booked in for desexing this week... will be ready for adoption very soon! They are lovely pups and will not be hard to rehome at all methinks. T.

Ummm... fast losing my heart to our little blue fawn brindle girl... and she has picked me as her fave thing on the planet... Should I have another foster failure? I only have 3 other permanent dogs, and can fit another on the bed... and still will have room for other fosters... *grin* I used to have 5 dogs, and 4 IS my "magic" number really. Current 3 dogs are 13, nearly 7, and 2 years old. T.

We never recieved any emails either... but that could have been due to the problem with PR changing mail services and our web/mail host seeing it as spam. Personally, I haven't had any issues when listing dogs - I even created a few dummy ones when I was trying to fix the mail problem. I checked out the Q&A section - there is very little there in the way of answers to peoples' issues. I had a couple of workmates try to find dogs they would be interested in as a purely general public search - and they gave up after a couple of tries... and these people are IT professionals. The general concensus was that it's too hard to navigate, and things aren't presented logically, which makes the site almost useless for anyone looking for anything specific. I'm fast losing confidence in the new PR site as a place to advertise our dogs. I know PR is free, but Gumtree is actually starting to look like a viable alternative at this point... errr! C'mon PR - the backend hard stuff has been done - please get the people in who did the site and have them redesign the front end to something more usable for all, or you are going to lose your hard earned place as the site to go to when looking for a rescue dog. T.

First thing you might want to do then is to call the council that the dog was under when with this person and find out whether it has an actual order on it, or just a notice of intent to issue one. May I ask if the dog "became" an outdoor dog once they realised it wasn't a little pup any more? Withdrawal of affection can have bad effects on some dogs - and what is another worry is that it wasn't interested in at least checking out your pack once you went inside, but was more intent on getting YOUR attention... T.

Oh no!! King was a great dog in every respect... my heart goes out to Steve for the loss of his mate. When I did the course a few years ago, as a Rotti lover, I managed to get myself kisses from King... *grin* T.