wuffles

That scares me too Thankfully we don't meet many people like that out and about. On occasion Satch has spotted someone before me and run off to say hello, I always apologise but he is a DOG, not a robot ;) If a small fluffy tells him off he runs away ;) Anyway, my two love labradors

I generally don't mind when my dogs get rushed at by other dogs in off leash areas, as long as the body language is friendly. Mine are ok with it (but mine aren't small dogs so I understand where people are coming from). Both of mine also love labs and their physical play style. So at least there are some of us out there ;)

Agree with all this I also think it can be difficult to research and build up to something and really be excited about it, then get a rejection. A rejection is a rejection, no matter how nicely it is done. If I were a breeder I don't think I would have any blanket rules simply because I've seen good dog owners and happy dogs from all walks of life. I've met happy dogs that have no company during the day. I've met happy dogs whose owners work fulltime. I've met happy dogs who live with small children. I've met happy dogs who have first time owners. I've met happy dogs living in apartments... the list goes on.

GoldenGirl85, does your other dog swim? My little one isn't too keen on the idea, until our older boy goes in, and she will follow him. Especially if I go in with him. is a video of Satch and me at the river. Once we get all the way out he does swim, but you can barely notice as he's such a good swimmer! And here's video, not swimming as such, just playing in the mud this morning :rolleyes:

Max looks like he had so much fun, and what a good boy for coming back when you called him! Mine both chase ducks Took the terrible two to the dog park this morning and once again they found the mud. They had a great time so I couldn't stop them Thank God for station wagons.... I just gave them a quick rinse when we got home and they are now all pretty and sleepy, just like dogs should be

We had a baby bichon in our puppy class who did this almost the whole lesson! She was so cute. Sorry, no suggestions from me, I am having enough trouble just getting my dog to stay up for longer than a second

I have a large (but lazy) large dog and a young working breed... our house is small and our yard is small. They have a grassy (muddy) area (about 15m x 3m) as well as a paved pergola. Enough room to run round and round but not that much else. To be honest I wish we had a larger yard BUT they cope fine. It's a bit of work with the youngen as she needs her exercise and training but she is definitely not hyperactive or frustrated. After a big walk or run they spend the rest of the weekends lazing around inside. When we were looking for breeders, some flat out told us that their dogs would not be suitable for us... fair enough, their decision. Our lovely breeder gave us a chance based on our overall situation and I'm sure she is happy considering what a lovely dog our pup has grown into.

My little one toilets on command but she's allowed to wee wherever she wants on walks Our big boy (being a typical boy) pees on everything he sees. We do stop him peeing on letterboxes and pretty flowerbeds. Anyway, I'd just make sure your dogs don't pee on that particular nature strip again to keep the peace, but it's not a law

Both of mine got the Nobivac nasal spray, both sneezed but had no other reactions. They didn't even really look uncomfortable, just squirt, sneeze, and back to wagging their tails.

Canberra is a pretty expensive place so I would have said $130 is pretty good Our wedding is on the weekend of the Canberra Show with lots of interstate guests so I have been looking around!

:rofl: Great pics!

We are taking both of ours on our drive up to Brisbane (from Canberra) this year. We haven't really had any problems finding pet friendly accommodation, Google is your friend I just googled the places we might like to stay along the way with "pet friendly" or "dogs allowed". Last year we took our big boy to Bright, Harrietville, Mt Beauty and we had a great time. Heaps of pet friendly accommodation around there.

Yarrowfell, I'm in the ACT and would be very interested in this! Is it a 6/10 week course? How do I find out when it is going to be run?

I clean the spot with warm water, dab it dry, then apply betadine. Often. Until it clears. I imagine those who use curash would apply that instead of the betadine. Once it's gone weepy on my boy it's past the stage of just needing to dry it out so I go to the vet to get Neocort and maybe antibiotics I also make use of the Cone of Shame. Depends on the dog though

You can get roo tails at a few of the butchers at Belconnen Markets. The one next to Petbarn has them.

It's mandatory in the ACT, and when my girl was desexed, it was part of the piece of paper I had to sign and was explained to me that she would get tattooed It's quite obvious as her ear is white (pink skin) but she has triangular or rose ears so you don't see it often, just when he ear flips inside out occasionally. I am just happy that she can easily be identified as desexed. As far as pain goes, I would have thought it would hurt as well, but when Ava came home she didn't seem to have any discomfort around her ear. Even when I fiddled with it to clean the excess ink off the fur she wasn't fussed. Then again she was up and about the next morning and you would never have known she'd just had major surgery.

Oh Wizzle, she reminds me of my childhood dog soooo much. I used to have a pram in my bedroom to play with, and many times we came home to find Pokey curled up in there, fast asleep Another of his favourite spots was amongst all my soft toys :p

And for all you know, I could live there too. I am not against the ACT's residents. But I am dead against the trickery of political processes in this country. We have seen it before and we will see it again. If you have a beef about the legislation, then lodge a protest to the ACT politicians. If you don't understand what this is really all about, or if you are not bothered by it, then have a lovely ACT Christmas. Souff I wasn't implying that you had a beef with ACT's residents, I was just trying to say that I have a different opinion to most on here probably because I'm not a breeder. I understand what this is about, but to get a good understanding of the actual legislation it needs to be read alongside the current legislation... which people should do if they are going to lodge a submission.

And the ACT is also one of the only places in Australia that doesn't have BSL. Personally I like living in a place that actually tries to do something about issues that affect us... they might not get it right 100% of the time but it's nice that they try. But I'm not a registered breeder, and I don't understand the proposed legislation well enough to be up in arms about it. I see some things in there that I like the sound of. But what would I know, I'm just an "average" ACT resident

Agree I do worry about enforcement though. I don't think there are exactly buckets of money being thrown at Domestic Animal Services. The current system is pretty clunky -- for example, I registered my puppy before the age she was required to be desexed, and as it's lifetime rego, that was that. No follow up or anything to check whether the dog actually was desexed later on, even though it's mandatory.

I will try to make it with my two dogs, but it is a long way from where I am staying and it depends whether I really want to brave the Brissy traffic that day I lived there for 20 years before moving interstate but now I am used to Canberra where peak hour lasts for 30 minutes and "a long way to drive" is half an hour

Yes, I do agree and you have obviously put lots of work into your boy! I have spent a lot of time working on his recall (doing lots of call - reward - release) so it's much better than when we got him, but if I slack off even for a few days he's on top of it again. He came to us at 3 years old (he's now 6) and the foster carer warned us that he would not run away off leash, but wouldn't necessarily come to us either... not sure if he had it reinforced heavily at his old home or if it's just his nature. He's never going to be an obedience dog so although he still goes to classes and does a few training sessions a week, I will admit that I can't bring myself to put in the work it takes to have him 100% reliable He stays on leash unless we are in a safe, known area, and he spends most of his time on his bed -- exactly where he likes to be!

With Satch, it's pretty difficult because he is really hard to motivate. Sometimes he decides that lying on his bed inside is a better option than ANYTHING else we could offer him. Another example... I reward him 100% of the time for recalls, generally with "high value" food (he's not highly food motivated, or remotely toy motivated) yet he finds it MORE rewarding to sniff and pee on things, so often he doesn't come. You can call out "Satch, come!" and he'll turn around, look at you, look at the food in your hands, sniff their air and determine it's good food but... then he'll blow you off anyway Ava is a different kettle of fish. She was born to please and does anything that is asked of her. She sees a chance of working with her human as a reward in itself. Anyway, I know this makes my dog sound like a monster, whereas in reality he is a super easy dog to live with. 90% of the time he does what you ask without complaint. He needs firm handling at times but a dog who lies on his bed all day is the dream of some dog owners (Sorry, hope I'm not hijacking the thread, just hoping to give some perspective on differences in personality!)

My stubborn boy weighs everything up in his head and holds more value for "stuff" rather than "food" which makes it hard... "Do I want that treat more than I want to lie here on my bed? Nope!" "If I come when I'm called, I might get a treat... but will anything bad happen if I don't come and I just keep sniffing around here? No? I LOVE SNIFFING" "What are the changes of getting BBQ chicken if I do what they ask? Hrmm, pretty low... should I bother? Nahhhh...."

They have to be cute when they're little so that we don't strangle them. When they get older they are more tolerable so they are allowed to lose some cuteness ;)