tdierikx

I must say that the nine 4 week old crossbreed pups our rescue got from a pound were the easiest fosters I've ever had. At 4 weeks they are just working out their environment and learning all sorts of things really fast - introducing toys and lots of gentle handling (read cuddles), teaching them to be touched and manipulated all over, etc... those pups were the most even tempered and socially confident pups I've had the pleasure of fostering... and all of their new families are totally chuffed with their happy and friendly new little members. We rehomed them at 9-10 weeks by the way. Some older pups have learned undesirable behaviours from my experience - and that means much more work getting them back to being socially confident. T.

I used to be terrified and totally leery of anything small and fluffy - had met way too many pampered SWFs with nasty temperaments. Honestly people, it's NOT funny when your little feral tries to bite everyone and everything - and it's also far from cute. If any of my dogs (smallest weighs in at 15kgs) acted like that, people would be calling for them to be pts... grrr! Then I got involved in rescue... and have met and been smooched by literally hundreds of the nicest little dogs... and most of them were from the pound!! I still have a really soft spot for anything bull breed and anything REALLY big... T.

We can take as many as needed Darren - I can also pickup and drop some off to you if you like... will call you... T.

I'm pretty sure in most states the pups must be 8 weeks minimum - with first puppy vaccs at 6 weeks... T.

Gotta love the scruffies... she's beautiful! T.

Another fun one to play with is this one... http://wigflip.com/automotivator/ Enjoy! T.

My old girl Zeddy's chip seems to have gone deep - it where it should be, right between the shoulders, but you have to scan over the area a few times to find it. It was inserted over 12 years ago and might be getting old... ?? T.

Big grin and a few tears here too... T.

Being involved in rescue and living in an area bounded by 3 council areas - and thusly has 3 possible pounds an animal could go to - I once took in a dog that had been wandering the local area for 4 days. I called the local ranger who came and scanned the dog - no chip - and said that we could take her to the pound, or we could notify all 3 pounds servicing the area that we had a lost and injured dog (she appeared to have been tapped by a car or kicked in her back leg, and had a limp) and give permission for them to pass on my phone number to anyone looking for a missing Rotti girl. I took the second option, as the dog needed a nice soft bed to rest her sore leg in rather than a concrete pound kennel - and she got on well with my other dogs nicely. We notified Petsearch, put ads in local and city wide papers, notices in all of the local vet clinics and the pounds, etc... no-one called... We do have a reasonable dumpage rate of dogs around this area, and this girl may have been a victim of that - given that she was roaming the local area for at least 4 days and was scared and confused. She was a lovely girl with impeccable lead and house manners. She ended up developing a really evil cancer about 18 months later that we were treating, but sadly she went to the Bridge after a brave and gallant fight. T.

Once you have uploaded a photo to Photobucket, when you put your mouse over the photo in your gallery, it will show you some links at the bottom - click on the one that starts with [ img ] and it will save that link to your Windows clipboard - then go to the forum post here that you want to put the photo in, and right-click, then select Paste to put the image link into your post. I swear that once you've done it a couple of times, you will master it just fine. T.

Try covering his crate to make it seem like a nice safe den - and he can't see all the world passing him by. If at night and you are wanting to sleep, make sure one side of the crate has a view of you sleeping - that has worked for my foster pups before. Short training sessions with lots of praise - puppies have the attention span of a gnat... *grin* The cheaper kibble won't kill your pup or completely stunt him in any way, but if you can afford the premium brands, then I'd go that path at least until he's fully grown. The premium brands like Royal Canin have specialised foods for certain breeds like GSD's - give that a try. I feed my rescue foster pups Bonnie Puppy kibble, but that's more because it's affordable in large amounts - if I could afford to feed Royal Canin or the like, I would. If the feed is kibble and raw mixed, I'd throw the uneaten portion out and start fresh with the next meal. If only kibble, then it can be saved for the next meal. I wouldn't offer a pup the same kibble for more than 2 meals in a row. I'd have a vet look him over to make sure it's nothing you want to be worried about. I have a dog with a neurological problem who has super sensitive spots on her body - if you touch them, she goes into a mad scratching frenzy - makes picking her up to put her in the car a complete nightmare... *sigh* Firstly, you don't have to see worms in their poo or have them "scooting" for them to have worms. If you feed raw meat in the diet, you need to follow a regular worming schedule. Talk to your breeder or vet about what that schedule should be for your pup. As long as his drinking water is fresh every day, then he's not likely to get worms from that source. Oh yes!! You DEFINITELY have to post photos! T.

What a pair of spunks... awesome photos ruthless! T.

I don't like the kisses where they try to lick your tonsils, or licking my toes, but everywhere else is fair game in this house. If you don't like getting "kissed" by large dogs, or copious amounts of dog hair everywhere, then my house is not the place for you... *grin* I actively encourage Zeddy, my oldest girl, to lick any wounds I get, because she makes them heal faster and they don't get infected. T.

More photos of the fawn boy please... he's stunning - especially in contrast to his dark littermates... They are soooo cute! I bet they help you "waste" a heck of a lot of time every day... *grin* Can't wait to see photos of their first "solid" meals too - I can see food smeared over all of those adorable faces... T.

If you are using Easy Thumbnails to resize, then change the output image size to 800 or 1024 on the longest edge - see my settings below... <- click to see it larger T.

Run free Nelson... your human loved you so much... T.

I'm allergic to cats - they make me break out in hives... Doesn't stop me petting friendly ones though - I'm a sucker for punishment I suppose. I do prefer the "nature" of most dogs over most cats. Dogs seem to be more eager to interact with humans than most of the cats I've met. T.

Once you have the images uploaded to your Photobucket album, put your mouse over the image (on the Photobucket website) you want to share here, then click on the link with the [ img ] tag - that will save the link in your computer's clipboard - then come to your forum post here and right click and select Paste to insert the link to the image in your post. Feel free to hit Reply to my post with the tiger pic and see what the forum post will look like with the link to the picture. T.

So Ellie was originally from a rescue?? How long ago though? It could be an issue taking a dog back if it was adopted out as a puppy and came back as a 6 year old with need of some socialisation training... Ellie was not difficult for me to handle on the lead when a cattle dog came out to it's fence barking it's head off at us. She was excited and wanted to go over to to other dog, but the fact that she corrected with a tug and a "come on Ellie" has me thinking that she was more interested in trying to play with the other dog than to respond unfavourably and attack it. She is 33-34kgs, so an experienced hand would have her working on lead really well without paying any heed to dogs screaming swear words at her from behind their fences. She has shared accommodations with another dog in the past, so I'd think that maybe with the right doggie companion who could keep up with her play drive, she may actually be fine. Then again, a more mature person or persons who wanted a faithful, loyal, and loving companion dog might be a perfect home for her too. I could see her living out the rest of her days being a thoroughly spoiled princess... T.

I use Easy Thumbnails - free image resizing software that will happily do batch resizing. I resize to 1024x768 using a bicubic algorithm and set the jpeg quality to 80% - all of my images come in under 200k and are still very nice quality to be viewed on a PC screen. Nice size for sending in emails as well. I them upload the resized images to Photobucket - I have a paid account there so I can store as many images and have lots of available bandwidth for people viewing them - and post the img links in the forum posts... once you've done it a few times, it's dead easy... honest! The following pic is only 78kb... T.

Actually, she is pretty calm and tolerant when you get her off the rope. She happily let me put the harness on and walk her around the yard sedately. Didn't pull or anything - but I've noticed that a harness will have that effect on quite a few dogs - it's having something across the chest that seems to slow them down a bit. I've used a long lead looped to hang in front of the chest before, and that works well to stop pulling too. I have a sneaking suspicion that Ellie would be a lousy guard dog though - she's way too friendly... lol! T.

I think her overwhelming desire for companionship is what causes her to react to other dogs barking or lunging at her. I sensed no actual aggression from her at any point. She is a genuinely NICE girl who just needs a home where she can have company, be that human or another stable tempered dog to hang out with. T.

We recently had a Tibbie boy stay for a couple of weeks. He had great recall and would initiate his own sit up and beg if he thought it would get him a treat at dinner time. He also learned to jump into the trailer on the ride on lawnmower and ride up to the house rather than running behind it like the other house dog... one smart little lad. We also taught him to chase the wild rabbits, but he never managed to catch one... *grin* He also had a teflon coat - mud would drop off once he was dry... T.

Do a Google search on "Wandering Jew" - check out the pictures. If you have anything in your yard that looks like that, then it could be part of the issue for your poor dog. It's a bugger to get rid of too - I usually rip up as much of it as I can, then pour sump oil over the bits I can't rip up. Slows up the regrowth a lot. Does your dog eat from a metal bowl? I had a Rotti boy who would break out around his mouth in pimple like sores after eating from a metal bowl - we changed his bowl for a ceramic one and his mouth area cleared up nicely. T.

I've got a bit accrued but haven't opted to be paid yet... T.