silentchild

Is this Working Party full now? I would love to be involved, although I am just a simple pet owner and not a breeder by any stretch of the imagination.

This is very informative and interesting, thank you for sharing. My dog isn't on any fish oil, but she is on Glyde which contains Green-lipped mussel, makes me wonder if she needs Vit E supplements in this case..

I didn't get to make it to the event, but will try to make it to one of the wishing trees at PetStock this weekend.. just wondering & this may seem like a stupid question - I feel incredibly stupid just typing it, but can we buy the dog supplies from PetStock itself and place it under the tree..? Or does it have to be wrapped, etc..? In case I can't make it to PetStock, are there any alternative drop-off points, Cosmolo? Or are the trees based in PetStock only.

Not dogs, but I had an acquaintance who thinks that breeding horses is rape and cruel. To help her understand it's not, I took her to a stud to actually see what happens. After witnessing a mating she seems a little more understanding about the whole process. So the stud owner graciously offers to let her lead another mare over to the mating area and she angrily huffs, "I refuse to take her to be raped!" The stud owner just kinda gaped at her, and I was taken aback at her rudeness! Just... facepalm. Some people, once they have their ideas set a certain way, it's really hard to get them to open their minds a little. Sigh.

At risk of going OT, you'd be surprised how stupid some people can act around horses, I used to work at a riding school and the amount of stupid kids who would actually bend down and walk UNDERNEATH THE HORSE'S BELLY... despite having very strict instructions & demonstrations beforehand on how to handle and behave around the horses from the stable managers.. I can't even. And the moms who would stand around and admire the horses in their slippers and flip-flops :D while their kids ran around screaming.. *sigh* You'd think it would be common sense, horses may kick and dogs may bite, but some people just don't seem to get it..

To me, this sounds like an excellent breeder, the type of breeder I would love to get my dogs from. Pardon my ignorace, why would she be considered something else? Are any of those practices you just mentioned frowned upon in the breeding world? I agree with this too, anyone could spout any amount of rubbish and have the buyer believing they are buying from the perfect breeder, but once the purchase is made and dogs exchanged they could have been sold a dud and then it would be too late. I too personally would not get a dog from a breeder without a recommendation from someone, and I would be asking a million and one questions. I would also expect the breeder to allow me to inspect the puppy before buying, with a chance to see the sire and dam and similarly I would also be happy if the breeder wanted to inspect my home where the pup will be living and the subsequent living environments. Are MDBA-certified breeders in general good breeders, breeders that shouldn't pose any problems if pups are bought from them? I assume so because it seems that most DOLers are MDBA breeders, and most DOLers certainly impress me with their knowledge on dogs and breeding!

Very true, sad that some parents don't teach kids how to behave around animals anymore. When I was a child my first puppy was a little pom, not knowing any better my brother (who was incredibly young at the time) chased it around the room trying to hit it with a stick, while I tried to dog-nap it for a game of hide-and-seek (), my mother saw what was happening and went absolutely ballistic on us for lack of better words, and boy since then did we sure learn how animals ought to be treated!! (The pom lived on to a ripe old age & became my best friend throughout childhood.)

HAHAHA CRYING :D

Yeah they are extremely flexible. They can fold their head back to touch their back and their front legs can go out to the sides at 90 degree angles (like human arms). Neck: http://www.gluck.net/nln/images/neck.jpg Arms: http://www.gluck.net/nln/images/skadie90arms.jpg That is truly incredible...!!!!

Someone once insisted my rottie was a "young labrador" because her snout isn't a "typical Rottie snout".... :p Sure sure, why not.

Stunning dogs!! How are rare breeds even started in Australia? Is it simply just a case of importing them? I would imagine there would need to be a lot of procedures in place to register with the AKNC etc.

Back to the thread.. Lemon spotted Dally: Blue Dally apparently.. And a long-coat dally! I love dallies and I never knew these existed!

D: That's horrible, poor puppy. RIP. I wish more people would try to give behaviourist, rehabilitation and rehoming a chance instead of straight PTS. Then again a lot of people don't value dogs as living things, simply as convenient pets. It is sad.

LOL Ellz I may be in love with you. This thread has simply exploded! I do believe pink is a fault in Pomeranians! edit: omg sorry for the huge size... I don't know how to resize pics on this forums!!

This thread is amazing, I feel like I have learnt so much regarding colours. Keep em coming!

I work full-time, so most of the time when my OH is also not home, my dog is left inside for up to 8 hours, sometimes more. I leave her treats, toys, etc etc but she prefers to ignore them all and just sleep! (I live-stream her via webcam from work so I can see what she's up to.) She doesn't get a walk before I leave either, but as long as I play with her and let her have a bit of a run in the backyard after work, she's completely fine. Altho this may also be due to her getting on in her years, but even when she was left alone when younger she coped just as well. If you are worried you can always leave them something to occupy themselves with and make the time go faster, such as a frozen Kong. Good luck!

The sable collie and the mismarked labs are stunning!!! Does anyone know if this is a rare-coloured border collie, or am I mistaking it for a different breed altogether?

Killer Rottweiler, she will definitely bite and savage and maul you to death! Hide yo wife, hide yo kids, hide yo husbands.. In reality all she will do is probably lick you to death, maybe a bark or two. The number of times I've had people scream when my dog let out an unexpected bark... I guess the good thing about this misconception is that people tend to give us a big berth on walks. Although sometimes people see us and think, oh petite young girl walking a big dog, the dog must be super friendly and bombproof!! And then proceed to run right up to my dog-reactive dog from behind with their dogs and surprise the crap out of us. =_=

Thanks so much for the advice re. Metacam, she's finished her treatment course and is prancing & rolling around without a care in the world - you woudn't even think just a few days ago she looked like she would rather die than move - so all's well that ends well!!

Wow, some of these are lovely! So very tempting... Emma just has a scruffy old luggage tag with our numbers written on it, so it will be a perfect Christmas gift. Saw some personalized collars on etsy too, I'm not sure I can resist..!

Definitely puppy dreams! My dog is a chronic dreamer, it is really scary sometimes, she twitches and convulses so violently! She also barks, whines, yelps, growls.. it is usually quite easy to tell what kind of dream she is having! Sometimes her eyes will be open and rolling around or red - it is very creepy. Her legs will move as though she is running or walking.. once I swear she was dreaming she was eating something yummy, by the way she was licking and chewing! Don't worry too much about it, as long as your pup will wake up when you call him!

What a fantastic idea! I will definitely try to place something under a tree in one of the various Petstocks.

I wish I could vacuum mine, but she's completely convinced the vacuum is a dog-eating monster and disappears as soon as it comes out.

Slightly OT but pertaining to this topic, I am your average "confused member of the public", so I have to ask, how do you distinguish between an real, proper, accredited breeder and one who fakes it? Who should the breeder be registered with? The average Joe Blow wouldn't have a clue about prefixes and things like that, so apart from actually visiting these farms and seeing the dogs, just by looking at websites it would be easy to deceive normal people who don't know much about breeders into thinking they are buying from a proper, registered breeder. As someone who is not knowledgeable about breeding, I have a hard time picking out who are the real breeders and who are the byb and puppy farms when browsing websites as they all claim to be "registered" with impressive looking badges and prefixes. I do believe education is key here, so average people who are interested in buying a dog can be taught how to easily distinguish between real breeders and tidy puppy farms that put on a front.

Thanks for the well wishes everyone, she is doing wonderfully now and is barely in pain anymore. She's only had two doses of Metacam so far and I'm supposed to keep her on it for a week... however as she is out of pain now, I wonder if I should still keep giving it to her? Does Metacam have any bad side effects associated to it like Rimadyl? Sorry to hear about your dog, KateM. It is difficult when they develop problems in the joints and spine. I will keep that problem in mind and definitely ask for a X-ray if this ever occurs again. Did the pain for your dog just start suddenly overnight, or did it develop over a period of time?