Tim'sMum

If vaccine is available that is. A friend had to take her dog to Japan last year, without the rabies vaccine...because there was a worldwide shortage apparently. He has since been vaccinated in Japan, because it seems they can't bring him back to Australia without it when they return in 3 years, despite Japan being free from rabies as well. Another friend moved back to Sweden and took her dog. She was told by AQIS that he must be vaccinated against rabies, but in Sweden, which is rabies free, it was actually not necessary. The only issue Sweden has is if people take their dogs on holidays to Mediterranean regions...dogs being taken to these regions must be vaccinated.

Mine too. Especially when I read what you have told your little boy. Poor little Lucky. He died with a full tummy, was warm and cared for...and you couldn't do anymore. Good on you K9 Angel.

Advantix is good for tick prevention, and if you live in a tick area (as I do too), you need to use something. Try a Preventic collar, rather than a topical application on this dog, when the symptoms settle down. Hope your dog recovers quickly.

She is well and truly 'at home'. I would be very surprised if she has been dumped/abandoned. Hopefully she is chipped and goes home soon.

This option...."Trap, neuter, release programs for unowned cats." NO, NO, NO! They may not breed, but they will kill to survive....and kill native animals and birds. They can get killed or injured on roads. They may suffer malnutrition, illnesses and injuries and have no vet care. I am sure that the life of a feral cat is not a happy one.

Paralysis ticks are certainly the worst in eastern coastal areas, and roughly in an area 20km from the coastline. Also in areas with a high density of bandicoots, which are their main host. Where we are, on Sydney's Nthn Beaches, it's 'tick central' unfortunately. I have used Advantix but also Preventic collars. Neither dog has had a tick (touch wood) while wearing the Preventic collar. You also need to check dogs daily. Thousands of dogs live very long lives in areas with high paralysis tick populations...so perhaps, if you use preventatives, you shouldn't let it influence your decision about where to live?

There are 10 species of tree kangaroo apparently. Cuscus are quite small...15cm - 60cm (6in - 24in) in length and 3kg - 6kg (6.5lbs - 13lbs) in weight. Just for comparison.... 1. tree kangaroo 2. cuscus

It's a Tree Kangaroo...native to tropical rainforests in Australia and Papua New Guinea/West Irian. The poor thing was probably trapped in NG and sent to China. As they do actually climb into trees...obviously some ignoramus has decided it is a 'koala'....or called it that to get a higher price. They would be hard pressed to keep a real koala alive for long due to their specialised diet. The predeliction of some Asians to eat something exotic/rare/endangered is bizarre and very, very damaging to wildlife, especially endangered species. :mad

I just saw your thread in General Staffyluv...and didn't know about Ollie. Huge :hug: for his loss. He had a good life, and an extended one...with all the love and care you gave him during his health battles. RIP Ollie...run free brave boy.

Well said Clyde....and remembering that this little girl is only 3, particularly an age when they do tend to push their boundaries too. For all we know this child has been taught how to behave around dogs and the dog may have been friendly initially? Perhaps it was just being hugged that made it snap into aggression, due to it's age and possible pain with arthritis? Our previous ACD was not happy about his hips being touched in advanced age, because he had arthritis in both, and as a result his patience with young kids seemed to disappear in his 14th year. He was fine with our kids because they knew his limits but we would keep him well away from others. I feel sorry for the dog too...his stupid owner has probably signed his death warrant by not clipping on a lead. Such a simple thing.

It's semantics....but 'mauling' doesn't imply a repeated attack. The word 'maul' means to injure and the journo who wrote the article was grammatically correct in using the word 'maul'. eg: if someone is 'mauled' by a shark it can be one bite. No different with a dog. I get the impression that you are brushing it off as not very serious....'simply debridement and suturing'....so therefore should not be described as mauling? :confused: Any injury to the face, especially to a child, can leave lifelong scarring.

What do you call a 3yr old girl having to have facial surgery....a nip or a 'love bite'? The definition of the word maul is: to injure or batter. Her face would have been level with the dogs and one bite can do serious damage to young skin, poor little thing. Stupid owner...allowing his dog to run into a yard where there are children playing.

Is there any way you can fence off an area with bird wire...not netting? We had an an incident with a Brown Snake and our Kelpie, that still gives me nightmares, at our old house (in Sydney suburbia and on a busy road). When we moved to a new house, backing onto a bush reserve, we had timber railing fencing installed along the back and we attached aviary or bird wire to the timber, and also sunk it below ground level. So far (fingers crossed) in two years, we have not had a snake in the yard, although other houses in the street have. Neighbours, who have two GR's found a Red Bellied Black in their frontyard last summer...fortunately not in the backyard or near the dogs. There is a creek running through the reserve and Red Bellies are common here. They are not as aggressive as Browns thank heavens.

Good on you for picking her up Fatsofatsoman. Hopefully an owner will be found and she is chipped. Sadly Kelpies tend to be dumped fairly often, so hoping this isn't the case.

If both incidents were with another breed or cross breed that was big and powerful....yes, I would be wary of that breed instead. It just happened to be Rottweilers both times when I have been seriously scared of a dog. The only time I have actually been bitten by a dog was a JRT....again lost but I knew the owners, seriously stupid people who let it roam. I had collected it once again from the busy road outside our house and it bit me on the hand as I tried to get it into my car to take home. I'm fine with JRT's but then they are small and can't do all that much damage. As for the 3 Rottys in the incident I described...one did not exhibit threatening behaviour and just seemed to disappear or wandered away? I remember seeing the 3 of them initially as we walked back to Oh's parent's house but I don't remember where it went, as my husband and I were pretty busy concentrating on the two who were confronting us. We were walking in the direction of their home, so I can only guess that they considered the paddock we were in as part of their territory? Our kids were small at the time and these dogs were well and truly big and strong enough to have killed them....any parent's worst nightmare. As for approaching the gate with my neighbour's Rotty, her owner felt her reaction was because I had gone towards her 'territory'. I had told him about the situation later that day when he came home. He has his dental surgery downstairs and she was there a guard dog (plus as a family pet) for when he wasn't home, to deter people from breaking in to steal drugs. He had thought the gate could not be blown open with the heavy latch it had, but padlocked it and the gate on the other side after that. I had met her numerous times when she was out with him or his son on lead and she was friendly. I know Rottys were originally herding dogs...but they certainly adapt well to be guard dogs as well. You can pick apart, analyse and find reasons for any confrontation with a dog...but as far as I'm concerned, any breed that shows the level of aggression I was confronted with, is one I will never completely trust and definitely never own.

I'm not scared of every dog of this breed as such...but I'm definitely on my guard with Rottweilers. Incident 1....A neighbour's Rotty escaped his yard and I knew her as a friendly dog. I grabbed a lead, called her over, clipped the lead on and walked her back to her house. She seemed relaxed and happy. As soon as we got down the driveway towards the gate (which had blown open), her body language changed and she growled. My blood ran cold. Knowing she had Hanrob obedience training I somehow snapped out a few commands and she obeyed me...while I opened the gate, ushered her in and hurriedly slammed it shut behind her. She was left with my lead attached. It scared the **** out of me. Incident 2....OH's parents lived in a rural area, across the road from a chicken farm. These neighbours had 3 Rottweilers. OH and I took the kids for a walk down across an open paddock to the river, in the opposite direction from the chicken farm and as we walked back towards his parents house the 3 Rottweilers were loose. One seemed OK but the male and another female stood their ground, with the male being positively scary...stalking body language, low gutteral growls. I picked up both kids and OH picked up a large stick, dropped his voice and told the dog to get back/go home etc..It didn't and continued to stalk us. We had to back up slowly, go back along the paddock to his parent's back fence, drop the kids over, then climb over ourselves. OH's dad rang the chicken farm. The owners were away for the weekend and their teenage kids had let the dogs roam. He told them that he would not hesitate to shoot any of the dogs on sight if they were ever allowed to roam again. As much as I always stop and try to catch an obviously lost dog, which I did a few weeks ago (a sooky la la of a GSD who was wandering back and forth across a busy road ) if it was a Rottweiler....I would just call the Ranger and not attempt to stop/catch it.

That's probably because people don't know where it came from. The puppy farm, where Krudd got his dog from, also sell....Shitese! :rofl: Now that is sad. Presumably a Shi Tzu x Maltese?

Bandicoots are very common tick carriers. We have them in the bush reserve behind our house and have bird wire fencing to below ground level to keep them out of the yard. Possums however are impossible to keep out. I have seen a large Eastern Water Dragon with a large tick under one eye, so I guess any living creature can be a carrier of them. After a friend's experience of having her Keeshund spend two long bouts at the Vet with ticks and switching to PREVENTIC collars....I now use them too. My friend had used Advantage, then Advantix and her dog still got a tick. His coat was kept short during summer but was still very thick and woolly that they missed the ticks. He did not get another tick after wearing a Preventic collar though. They used to live on the hill opposite us, well into bushland. We are in a very bad area for ticks as Clyde can attest. She used to live nearby. A neighbour was concerned about the 'nasty chemicals' in standard tick treatments and tried a new non-toxic 'herbal' tick preventative device (I don't know the name) on her elderly dog's collar. He died from a tick the next month. Nothing beats daily or even twice daily checking though...even when using any of the tick preventatives.

My Vet does it for $15...cheap! :D One dog is fine, the other has become a nightmare, even with the Vet and two nurses holding her. Next time she will need to be sedated.

This is exactly like my dog - cheeky buggers. What is guilt? Knowing that you are in the s**t for doing something naughty. I can guarantee Jed (our previous ACD) knew he had done something naughty when there was foam scattered right through the house or a disembowelled cushion in the middle of the floor...hence he would be hiding when we came home. He would be told off for being a 'naughty boy' and sent out to the backyard to do his 'timeout'. If that is not a form of guilt, what is?

My husband calls little dogs 'rats on strings'. I keep telling him that when we are old and doddery a 'rat on a string' will become a distinct possibility. As for that photo...it should be a warning for what steroids can do to the human body. :eek:

With the ACD we had, we would come home from being out and he would not greet us, but hide under furniture. It was then a case of searching for the naughty thing he had done....his bed or a cushion ripped up perhaps. Did he feel guilt? ;)

With a 4 million human population and with a possible 1 million dog owners/dogs(?) within that...there would have to be bites happening from time to time......but now with that child being bitten and dying a few weeks ago....the media are going to JUMP on every single little thing they hear in regard to someone (or dog) being bitten. I heard something today which is frightening. The source of this information is highly regarded both in the dog world and within Govt's. The Vic Govt is planning on adding MANY other breeds to the list including GSDs Rotties, Dobes...AND they are working towards a total ban on the breeding of all dogs as well as the stopping of dog interests such as in showing dogs...for the eventual outcome of no dogs in Victoria once those who are alive now have died out. This I believe is on paper now and is being kept on the QT from everyone finding out so they can bring it into eventual fruition . I think we all need to band together...every dog owner possible....to fight this! Sorry....but I can't see that ever happening. Dog owners VOTE! Dog breeders VOTE! Any government that even attempted this would be committing political suicide. I don't know where you heard this rumour...but it's rubbish and sounds like something PETA would put out. You cannot legislate against stupidity....so there will always be people with unsocialised dogs, and any breed of unsocialised dog will bite or fight another dog. I have had my GSD attacked by a GR at a park and a BC attacked a friend's dog at a park....both breeds that are not renowned for attacking. Any breed will have a go if it hasn't been socialised....and all the fear and hysteria over dog attacks will lead to more unsocialised dogs....and exacerbate the problem.

I have been thinking of you lately Horus, wondering how you are. I avoid Rainbow Bridge, as it breaks my heart, but something made me look in here. So very sorry to hear about Toby and I remember you saying how he was not what you expected when you adopted him. He has left a lasting legacy though...Dalmation Rescue. His last years have been very good years in your care. My thoughts are with you :hug: and with Toby. RIP Toby...he will wait for you at

Good to hear that there are reports on the radio. Hopefully someone, somewhere will hear the report and realise that 2 Rotties have suddenly appeared in a neighbour's yard perhaps. Fingers crossed and sending good thoughts for a safe a quick return of the dogs.