silentchild

;) Love it, what a great read!!

Oh, and just a touch on the stalls... having them properly laid out would be nice! I went to an expo once where they had lots of fantastic stalls and stands with dogs and their breeders, but unfortunately the strange layout of it meant that some stands were blocked off by others and in order to get to them you'd have to intrude through the stands of other breeders and possibly jump over their knees as they sip coffee!! It made it almost impossible for me to go talk to some lovely breeders about dogs I was interested in because I felt it would be impolite to randomly cross over into the personal area of some other stands in order to get to my destination. So... yes, lots of stalls with a good, accessible layout! And at risk of going OT.. what are these Sebastian bowls that everyone seems to be raving about?

I agree with lots of stalls, large space (not cramped!) and fun demos to watch.

I feel you, I am lucky that my OH loves dogs just as much as I do - we both would much rather have dogs than kids! Family is a different story altogether, my family is of the 'dogs stay outside' mentality and should only ever be used as guard dogs. They can't understand it at all and everything my mum comes over she spends 98% of the time complaining about the fur, the smell, the fact that my dog is inside, why do I even have a dog, I'm spoiling my dog, I should get rid of her, etc etc etc. Same with most other members of my family AND my OH's family as well. I hate it, and I try to avoid having family over much now, as I just simply cannot bear the looks of disgust on their faces if Emma so much as blinks. You are right, it is tricky with family...

Thanks Erny, all your replies have been extremely helpful and informative. I think I will ask my vet about titre testing, although I am dreading the price they will quote me! I hope it's not too expensive, I'd be tempted to not test and not vacc altogether! As far as I know, the kennel cough vaccine isn't very effective and dogs who have been vaccinated against it still get it anyway, so if you do the vaccination 3 yearly, there's not much point in getting the annual kennel cough vaccinations?

That confuses me a little, so let's say the titre test comes back as "negative" - how then would I know whether my dog really does not have the required antibodies hence requiring re-vaccination - or if its just that the antibodies have simply retreated to a cellular level hence no need to re-vaccinate?? :p

Okay, so I know there have been dozens of threads on this subject already in the past, and I have gone back to read through them all - but I am just still a little confused as to what I should do in regards to annual vaccinations. My girl Emma has had yearly vaccinations all her life, for the past two years she has had C3 and the years before that she had C5. I learnt about the dangers of over-vaccinating a while ago and also about titre testing, and it's something I'd like to do but I am just a little confused.. Emma is due for her next yearly vaccination in a few weeks, and since her last vaccine was a year ago, I'm wondering, if I get the vet to titre test her this year instead of giving her a vaccine, would there even be any antibodies in her system? If she hasn't been in contact with a disease and her last vaccine was a year ago, would it even be worth titre testing? Should I titre test or just go ahead and vaccinate her or just do nothing and wait for another two years? We are also going away on holiday soon and taking her with us, so I was wondering does that mean we should vaccinate her just to be safe? What happens if I titre test her and the results show that she's covered - but then the antibodies drop off during some time after the titre test and between the next due vaccine? I want to keep her protected but also don't want to pump her system full of chemicals. She is also not a young girl anymore, she is getting on 7 this year and slowly turning rather grey. Sorry I'm so clueless - I just need some advice! What would you do?

My dog winks at me all the time! She's always done it, I find it rather endearing.

I too think it's fine as long as the dog gets the stimulation it needs to keep it happy and exercised. My large girl would be quite happy in an apartment since she generally loves to just lounge around all day in one spot and doesn't get stir-crazy at all if we miss walks - sometimes I think she would almost rather not walk! Where we live now we have a backyard for her to run around in but she just looks at me like I'm crazy. "Run?? Are you out of your mind??"

Rotty pups are adorbs as well! My girl when she was a pup :

All puppies are cute, but Dalmatian puppies and Shiba Inu puppies really melt my cold, cold heart.

This is terrible advice, and I sincerely hope the OP doesn't take your advice seriously, nor any other members of the public that may be reading this thread. I am by no means a dog trainer at all but even I know POKING an aggressive dog in the neck is just plain stupid and dangerous. The aggressive dog could turn on you in an instant. My opinion on the dominance theory aside, I think it is very irresponsible of you to give out such reckless advice on a public forum, and citing your credentials so that people will take your advice seriously.

I would classify this as an attack. Did the dog bite Lexie, or shake her violently? Is she acting strangely? I am probably erring on the side of caution but I am just worried that Lexie may have internal injuries if the attack was of a more violent nature. So sorry that you had to go through this, irresponsible owners who let their dogs run loose are far too common.

My old boy (RIP ) was supposedly a cocker spaniel mixed with some sort of terrier. till this day I will never know exactly what his cross was. He looks very similiar to this : What in the world... I'm curious as to what it looks like!!

I've seen that!! Also have recalled seeing something Boston Terrier like.. but I can't remember it and obvly one can't fit B05T0N TERRIER into a number plate lol.

Sorry to contribute to the OT discussion, but does anyone remember why they decided to cross the "Lebarnese" on Extraordinary Dogs? Couldn't a purebred labrador or Bernese mountain dog do the job the Lebarnese is doing? This is what the organisation says about the cross (from their website): http://www.mira.ca/en/our-dogs/8/the-labernese_37.html Hmm, that really didn't explain much, more or less all it said was the Labrador was unfaithful and the Bernese was faithful..... what???? I don't think either the lab or Bernese lives its life racked with doubt?? What does that even have to do with disabled people? And I always thought of Labs to be fairly loyal dogs. I don't even understand what this is trying to say, it's barely a concise, straightforward reason as to why they should be cross-bred - seems to me more like a play on words trying to articulately dance around the subject matter.

Sorry to contribute to the OT discussion, but does anyone remember why they decided to cross the "Lebarnese" on Extraordinary Dogs? Couldn't a purebred labrador or Bernese mountain dog do the job the Lebarnese is doing?

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Japan-Earthq...207835229228979 This facebook page has updates about ongoing animal rescues in the tsunami-hit areas. Warning : some videos will make you cry!!!!! The video with the two injured dogs completely killed me. :) And the story about the lady who didn't evacuate because they wouldn't let her take her dog, so they stayed for three days in a shaking house.. omg. ;)

Hahaha I love it!! They look like they are having so much fun as well!

Oooh those bowls look nice! Entering this.

Oh, if only this was in Melbourne!!! :rolleyes:

This got me in a flood of tears reading it at work. So sad.

I learned to live with the dog hair too.. and the drool and the slobber and everything else in between.. I've had dogs since I was a baby pretty much so I'm probably really used to the hygiene aspect of having dogs. I vacuum maybe.. once every two weeks. I've never gotten sick from having dog fur down my throat so it's just something I live with!

Oh gosh, so many breeds I'd love to own. I love my Rottie and Poms, but I'm already thinking what breed my next dog should be. Top of my list are Dobes, White Shepherd, Corgis, Irish Setter, Lappies, Border Collie, Aussie Shepherd, Collie... the list goes on! The one breed I'd love to own but will probably never happen is a Dalmatian.

Funny thing about Bark Busters.... I was walking down a street to get dinner the other day and a Bark Busters car was parked on the side of the street. A little dog was inside it. As I was walking down the street I could hear non-stop barking, but I didn't realize it was coming from the Bark Busters car until I got up to it. The dog barked endlessly the whole time, even after I had got my dinner and walked past again to head home. It was a fairly quiet street too, not like there was anything around to really cause it to bark. So much for bark busting...