Kirislin

5F6A7225dpp by kirislin, on Flickr Wanna Play? by kirislin, on Flickr 5F6A7223dpp by kirislin, on Flickr Let me out!! help me escape auntie Feather. 5F6A7217dpp by kirislin, on Flickr

Hahaha! They have a distinct odour that would give away the game very quickly... lol! Besides, Trouble and Pickles may be a little miffed at sharing with Tom and Ghost... hehe! Harper would probably love to have them sleep in the crate with her - she's a bit besotted with them... T. does anyone come to check up on you?

I wont tell anyone if you let them sleep on your bed.

I actually have just had my pen inspection for the 2 foxes I've got a pet permit in for... *grin* Here are some photos of Ghost - my Mr Sunshine... T. thanks for posting these. I am fascinated by foxes, although would be very annoyed if they killed my chickens. He looks young. I'm assuming because his activity will be limited you will have to teach him to have his claws trimmed. Are you allowed to take him out on a lead? I'm puzzled how in NSW they've managed to have fox rescue, I am sure this would not be allowed in Vic. In fact I think you'd get into alot of trouble here if you were found with a captive fox.I always wonder why their pupils are slits not round.

Pretty damn cute. What happens to the foxes, do they have to live out their lives at the rescue centre? Are you allowed to post photos of them?

Yes, I know of a few whippets who've done very well and have got to a really high standard. Jane Langton-Bunkers 2 Bonnymead whippets and Sharon Sempels whippet have achieved alot. I think IGs are a whole different story though.

I've had whippets for years now and have always found them to be easy to train. I dont mean for obedience or agility (I wouldn't know), I just mean the basic commands like sit, drop, stay, and a few others that mine know which just make them easy to live with. Now I have Neko the Italian greyhound who is rising 3 and her little daughter Secret who will be 13 weeks old on Friday. Neko is very different to the whippets and I have probably made too many allowances for that and she does alot of behaviours that I dont like. Barking at nothing is by far the worst, but when I call her to get her to stop it, if she doesn't want to come in, she wont. If she does want to come in or want affection she is very persistent but if not, then she just ignores me. I've decided I really need to make an effort as I know it is MY fault that she's become this way, and I really dont want to make the same mistakes with her daughter. Yesterday I asked Neko to sit, now this is a command I know she understands very well, but she just stood there looking at me, wagging her tail. Talk about NILF! She's reversed that theory and turned it around onto me, because as soon as I got a treat out her bum hit the ground as quick as could be! Recall at the park is no problem, I've trained her to come to a whistle and she's brilliant at that thank goodness, although there's always a treat at the end for her, but I dont mind because that is a time I really want her to come instantly, for her own safety sometimes. I'm going to take her daughter to dog obedience. I haven't been for almost 15 years, haven't needed it with the whippets but I would like to get a good foundation for Secret so I dont make the same mistakes I have with her mother.

thanks Snook, LG, DDD al99 & T. :D Depending on the weather and how I'm feeling this evening, we might go to dog obedience. I got us all geared up last night, Secret in her warm jumper, after checking what day it is on and we went down there only to find it all silent and dark. Very hard to get stuff off the internet once it's on there apparently, and the information was well out of date, so we'll try again tonight. I think/hope it will be a good safe place for her to experience new things in a positive environment.

Poor little fella, it's such an important socialising period for a puppy, I hope he can catch up and learn to be a good canine citizen, he's certainly got the cute part worked out. Good luck with him.

Yep, I've been away for a few days with my dogs and given this alot of thought. I've decided I will keep her. I've realised I've let Neko get into some bad, or at least annoying habits, probably because as a puppy she's cute when she does it, but it isn't so cute as an adult, so I'm making a real effort to train Neko out of them, with lots of positive reinforcement, and hopefully train Secret to never begin them in the first place. Whippets are so much easier!

I took her for her 4th walk up the main street of our town yesterday and because it was cold she wore Queensland Nannas knitted jumper. I dont molly coddle her, she has to walk like a fair dinkum dog, but damn she's cute! She pranced along side me at a pretty brisk walk, she's really good on the lead now, her tail was up and wagging and if she saw people up ahead walking in the same direction as us she wanted to catch up with them. I had a lady in a car yell out asking if she was a miniature whippet, and another lady parked her car and came rushing up to us wanting to know what she was and where she could get a jumper like that for her English toy terrier. She got lots of cuddles from pretty young girls. To all you young single fellas out there, if you want female attention get yourself an IG puppy. :laugh: Kidding, I dont encourage frivolous reasons for getting any type of dog. I'm starting to train her a bit more than I did with Neko. I think when I had her I was afraid of how tiny she was, and assumed I couldn't train her, but I'm going to try harder with this girl. Nothing special, just a few commands that my whippets understand which makes them easier to live with. She was 12 weeks old yesterday and is going in for her 2nd vaccination this morning. I'm just a bit anxious, I've heard that they can sometimes have reactions to their 2nd vacc. She's so tiny and it frightens me to think she will get the same dose as a great dane. I'm sure it will be OK, but I cannot help being a bit apprehensive. I'll be so glad when it's done though, then we can go everywhere and anywhere. :D

Thistle's got more clothes than me!

Please dont shoot me! The only one of my whippets I regularly rug is (almost) 14 year old Feather, and she even wears one in the house. The others dont need it. If I take them to the park they run around and keep warm. We rarely go there when it is raining. If it was to take them somewhere where they might be standing around outside on leash and unable to warm them selves then yes I would coat them. The rest of the time at home they're usually curled up asleep under a blanket. When I used to race my whippets, during the winter I would coat them when we went to the races to keep their muscles warm before a race. I would also walk them briskly before hand and rub their muscles but most of the time I didn't coat them. If they were shivering I would coat them, but apart from Feather I dont see it. The boys dont shiver very much at all.

I'm, wondering if your puppy picked up the lungworm at your house or at the breeders house. Do you live nearby. What is the incubation period? If you only just got him wouldn't it be more likely to have come from the breeders property?

yep, she was born in Newborough in the LaTrobe Valley and from then on where I lived was shaped by her. I had to have somewhere with land, even if it was a rented property. We moved quite a few times within the "valley" as it was known. I had her educated by a wonderful man in Tallangatta Valley who trained her gently long before horse whispering was in vogue. Just transporting her there was difficult, and getting her home again just as hard. Then I bought my first property, a new car and horse float so that we could have adventures together, and what adventures we had. Together we've been to the high plains, to the top of Mt Hotham, to Lake Tarli Karng, galloped along the ninety mile beach, swum rivers and nearly got washed out to sea and of course ridden part of the BNT. When I moved to Qld arranging to get her there was difficult and expensive, and a friend said why dont you just sell her and buy another horse when you get there? I was like.......really? She just didn't get it. Bringing her home to Vic was even harder because she had a foal at foot, it took us 5 days to get back and even that was really hard on them. I always suspected that the tick spraying they had to have to cross the border in to NSW might have had something to do with her son Rowdys premature death. I'll never know. I was so lucky to have them both. My whole life really from the time of her birth was shaped by her, and now she's gone I am questioning my lifestyle.

Ever since I saw this thread I am diligent about bringing in Tag and Pucks food bowls at night. I've no idea if rat lungworm is in this area but I didn't know about it before. I know snails and slugs come out at night and if I didn't bring the bowls in they's slurp around on them. Ugh!

My little puppy now has not only an old sock that I converted into a jumper for her but this cute hand made little number. Made with Love by kirislin, on Flickr

Look what Queensland Nanna made me! From Queensland Nanna! by kirislin, on Flickr Made with Love by kirislin, on Flickr

:laugh: Good luck with that!

I have some beautiful video of my first born playing too rough with his Mama and getting Spaniel slammed...which would be very gentle in any dogs language but boy did he get the message after 3 days of being told off! The other pups would avoid him because he was too rough prior to that but he has grown up to be the most incredible reader of young and adult dogs alike and plays perfectly appropriately with everyone. A great reason for keeping Mum with babies for as long as possible. Yes, I agree. The boy ended up being taken off mum at 8 weeks because he was too rough with everyone, but he still went to live with his family, his grandma, his uncle, his great grandma and grand uncle, so still got the socialisation he needs from a pack group, including 2 experienced mums, who dont take any nonsense from him. They're almost 12 weeks old now and I think Neko has stopped producing milk in the last few days, so little Secret was very lucky to have a natural weaning. Now it's time to start working on getting her pre baby figure back.

I love that. Sometimes you can see their actual toes and feel them bumping their heads around. Have you got a stethoscope. It's amazing to hear their little heart beats, so fast they're almost like butterfly wings fluttering. :)

I often read that people say it's the judges fault for awarding to certain kinds of dogs. So the breeders breed towards that. Then can the judges be persuaded/convinced to select for less extreme?

congratulations. She looks pretty damn cute.

totally off topic. Thistle your dog looks like she's lost an eye

I'd like to have seen them all in a group, although I suppose they'd need a very wide angle lens. That would be a disaster with whippets. They would all be trying to outrun each other and also hunt anything else that wasn't a whippet off the beach.