RubyStar

Oh you lucky girl Ruby's birthday pressie is in the package I got yesterday. Decided to give her the stuffing-less duck with squeakers She's a new years day baby I bought mum a present, a clicker coil wrist strap thingy. It was hot pink! Got myself one too as I'm always dropping clickers And lock laces for me, will put them in today! Yep, I'm just a little bit excited over my parcel The shampoo I ordered leaked a little, so a few of the toys smell like yummy mango. Sorry RosieFT, your raccoon tail is one that has a lovely smell on it!

I would, but they are secret pressies for the dogs for Xmas and they might see me! I did give them a "freebie" when I opened the box last night. I gave them their arachnoid ball each, but then mum's dog stole Ruby's from her so I had to get a Kong Wubba out of the box to give to her and get Ruby's ball back. But Pippa somehow ended up with the ball again and chewed a knobbly bit off it, and now it doesn't squeak! Argh!!! There's 5 bucks down the drain Poor Roo Oh and I loooove their slip leads I bought! And so cheap!! Like $10 each I got the colours Ruby for Ruby, and Parfait for Millie. So pretty :D Hurrah!!!!!

I got a reply to my email with an apology for the delay in getting the tracking number to me (like they were planning on sending it to me :rolleyes: took my second email to get them to do it) but I received the parcel yesterday so didn't need it anyway The tracking they sent through told me it had been delivered (duh!) but what was impressive was it actually WAS shipped on the 16th, not the 8th, and it arrived in Australia on the 20th and to my door by the 22nd! They did say they are having trouble locating the tracking info for my second parcel so will send it through when they can get it. I was hoping it would be delivered today as it was ordered only a day after, but the postie has already been. Then again, I don't recall getting an email to say that particular order has been shipped now that I think about it That order contains a thundershirt, 2 of those clip on drink bowls for crates, and a ventlock tailgate lock. My Chrissy pressie from the parentals so it's no big deal if I don't have it for Xmas. It's not like I can spend Xmas day playing with them

My parent's one is black and yes, she's feisty but I don't have another colour of the same age to compare her to. The only MS I've met was a local lady at the dog park with her pepper and salt one. It was older so obviously calmer, and she wouldn't be promoting boisterous behaviour like I am I do a bit of training with her and she's very smart. Lots of shaping and even my mum who has never trained a dog before has taught her some tricks She is very well socialised with dogs of all breeds, and generally has no fear of other dogs, big or small (and is heavily supervised during interactions as she's so little!) We say she is a Labrador at heart in the body of a mini schnauzer (she's around my two so often she emulates them). She thinks everyone is her friend (human or dog), and loooooooooves her food. Warning: minis love to snack on small children. On a serious note to the OP, minis are lovely dogs, but very very boisterous as pups and would definitely jump and nip at your kids - one swift jump with no effort at all and they can easily reach their faces. My nephews didn't like her doing this as a real young pup but she is getting better at it and they adore her. Her name is Pippa but they call her Pooper

Just don't show the dogs how to use the internet with their debit cards - they may blow it all at Clean Run

Food might not be a wise idea with all that sand and water around? Just a thought But I remember your jelly slice and it was yum, so feel free to bring some Ruby goes for a swim for the fun of it, but doesn't go far out unless she has a reason to. That being either something thrown for her, or a human out in the water calling her over. So I'm sure she will go swimming with you if you want! Millie isn't a fan of water but will now go out to fetch her kong wubba or if I wade out and call her out she is sometimes enticed Are you bringing your guys? Who are you and what have you done with RubyStar???? Hmmm, possibly! To be honest, I've only been there once or twice and wasn't sure myself what it was technically called or what part I went to! Maybe I will meet you at your place and follow behind you as you're on the way anyway :p

I have some Chris Bach DVD's and I quite like some of the stuff she talks about. Not a fan of the props she uses but she has some wisdom to share in her seminars. She is a positive trainer and focuses on giving the dog usable information to teach behaviours. I recommend her stuff

yes it would be a wing, Tiggy. These are fetchindawgs remember!!

At this point in time, 8.30am Sunday the 8th works for me. Maybe even 8 am - gasp gasp I am suggesting an earlier time (doesn't mean I will actually get there by then, but if I aim for 8am I might be there by 8.30 ) The beach around that area I went to had dirty grey sand, but the water was nice. What is the sand like in that photo of yours, ST? Think I had the right beach!!

I have a card in the mailbox apparently for my parcel to be collected from the Post Office I had it sent to my parent's place as my dad is home until lunch time every day, and he was home when they apparently delivered it :rolleyes: I don't think it was attempted to be delivered to the house at all, they just thought they'd drop a card in the mailbox to get me to pick it up instead! This means that my second package should hopefully arrive tomorrow, I really hope so!! Just in time for Chrissy :D At least the dog's will have their pressies, and that's all that matters.

I'm saddened to hear they mellow out. The 6 month old we have is feisty as hell and I LOVE IT!! Makes for a fun obedience/agility companion. And yes, she loves to jump and jump high! Edited to add, that I encourage cheeky, boisterous behaviour (as it's what I personally want as a mellow dog to train in sports is harder work!) and she bounces off my Labs like she's on crack.

Was your first dog by any chance a Labrador? Just curious MS are great with kids, but like any puppy, can be nippy and jumpy and that is a training issue. I find a lot of people put less training into a smaller dog because the impact of inappropriate behaviour is less obvious. So are you prepared to get on top of something that is clearly an issue for you (the jumping) in something so small? To the person who said MS are snappy, you haven't met the right ones. Gorgeous little feisty breed, full of spunk, great with kids. I have nieces and nephews ranging from 2 months to 7 years and they adore my parent's MS. As do I, and I'm a "big dog" person ;)

Yes I did send it there. The team member who added their name to my reply was Evelyn. As I said, they weren't rude, but I was rather shocked by their reply and then still didn't provide the tracking number! They are usually very nice and helpful, I guess maybe Evelyn was sick of getting emails asking for tracking numbers and I was the unlucky one that was one email too many!!

Ya know, after hearing everyone getting their tracking numbers I just decided to reply to the email they sent me telling me to stop being so impatient. Grrrrrrr!!!!!

Email them and ask for it... thats what I did I got the email that afternoon. RS already did...and she basically got told to shut up, sit down and wait patiently for it to arrive I think someone had a severe case of PMS that day Yup! They weren't rude about it, tried to be polite in their wording, but the gist of it basically was STFU and wait you impatient Aussie!!!

Only one complaint there, there are no yellow lab babies!!!

When did you order yours, GussysMum? I want my tracking number so I can check mine, too *stomps foot*

no I can't say I have and the country where it's easier to adopt wasn't really the point I was trying to make But I did figure there would be way more children in need over there, rightly or wrongly Point is, there is always going to be dogs/children in need but we can't be expected to not have our own kids or get a puppy from a reputable source because of over population. Whether we adopt or not, over population will still be a problem. As long as I am not contributing to the problem then I won't feel bad that my next dog won't be another rescue.

Oh geez. What a disgusting advert. People should stop having babies then because in third world countries there are millions of children that need adopting. How selfish of us.

I made a couple of loads of homemade mince/vege/fruit patties in the food processor (or was it a blender? ) and then I spent double the time squeezing all the juice out of it so I could make it into patties to freeze! The whole thing was just slush! So I bought a juicer instead. Said juicer is still sitting brand new in its box One day I will get round to using it!!

My second dog is a rescue. Got her from a breed specific rescue org at approx 2 years of age. She has a few issues but nothing major, and has quite a collection of first place obedience trophies in the 2 years we've been trialling Rescue was something I said I'd never do, but for some reason I did Wouldn't swap her for the world, but I won't be guilted into getting more rescue dogs. My next few will be pedigree purebreds from reputable breeders, then maybe I will revisit rescue further down the track. Just my choice based on the fact that I feel sad I missed her puppyhood and I hate not knowing where she came from. I know of a few people IRL who like to preach about getting rescues and not from breeders, and it makes me feel like I can't get excited about a new puppy in their presence. Noone should be made to feel like that! Each to their own.

As amypie mentioned earlier, yours probably came through because the dogs didn't pick the smell up through the hard plastic casing, not because they are "allowed". There isn't enough staff to open every package so they have to rely on the dogs for a lot of it! Gussysmum's stuff will likely be picked up by the dogs and the staff may ditch the treat balls while they are in there, too Edit: I'm pretty sure you can get these treat balls in Australia though, the same kind, so someone must be able to import them! Treats in general that you can't get here would definitely be a goner!

Ahhh RosieFT, and endless supply of entertainment

I'm tempted to buy myself a little push scooter to take me down the hill to the train station in the morning. Beats me running it when 9 times out of 10 I'm running late! It would get me there sooo much quicker But I'd feel a little odd doing so

Christmas Trixie