Tim'sMum

From a Qld Govt. fact sheet on Funnel Webs....it states that the neurotoxins injected by Funnel Webs affects humans and other primates but has little effect on dogs and cats. I had heard that before, so just checked to make sure I was correct. I wouldn't worry so much about the dog Gillbear....but more so for you and any other humans in the house.

Nickojoy.....I think the fines are VERY hefty. Try to appeal on the 'registration' fines if the the dogs are registered. If paying it all in one go is a problem, I think you can apply to pay it off in installments. Worth asking about at least.

It's the time of year for 'itchies'......especially if it has been wet and humid where you are. The itching may not be diet related at all.....but something environmental? Certainly check for fleas (I use a fine plastic human head lice comb to check...which can be bought for a few $ at any chemist). Also check for any allergy causing weeds, like Wandering Jew, in the garden or something different you may have used recently....like carpet shampoo or a new brand of dog shampoo? I find that bathing them with oatmeal soaked in the water helps itching. Tie a handful of oats into an old clean stocking and let it soak in a bucket of hot water. When the water cools use it to bathe the dog. This helped my old ACD who suffered from itching quite regualrly through the 14 years we had him. We never discovered what he was allergic to. I would leave the old girl's diet as it is. 12 is a good age and she is obviously thriving on it. Big chunky bones, like beef thigh bones, that she can chew but not swallow might help a bit with her teeth.

I wasted too much money on Frontline in the past. Advantix....(not Advantage) was the only thing that worked. My oldest friend had a nightamre with fleas and after 8 months of trying every flea treatment available on her dog and she discovered Advantix worked. I had a bad flea problem, even with Frontline, so tried the Advantix and it worked for me too. Flea Bomb the house too. You will also need to treat grassed areas as well....particularly anywhere that is sandy.

Have a compact book of recognised dog breeds handy....hand to them and ask them to look up Groodle/Spoodle/Cavoodle etc.. Or....put up a sign saying...."Please do not ask me to list your dog as a 'made up designer dog' name. If it is a X breed, it will be listed as such!"

Warriewood makes me cry just about. They do send the pups out to whoever wants to 'mind or puppysit' them for the night and they hold the amount of the pup on a credit card in case they are not returned. I don't know whether it is worse that they sit in the little glass boxes by themselves from closing at 5.00pm to re-opening next day at 9.00am.

Is the wind that strong up there GB?

He has rung Craig Murray, who is coming to the house. Hopefully her problems will be sorted. Thanks for the advice everyone.

OK...thanks Kavik. Beagie....I will look up GSD clubs for him too. I did suggest it a while ago, for her basic training but with his problems he didn't follow it up. She is such a nice natured dog and I want to see her remain that way. Thanks everyone.

Thanks Jigsaw. The 99498511 number would actually be very close by.

The boss has a GSD (byb bred) and she has just reached 12 months. She is developing some difficult behaviour...barking and backing off from strangers, generally acting quite aggressively, both off and on leash and it is worrying. I haven't seen this behaviour....so can't describe it in detail. She is very loving and affectionate with me. She is walked/exercised at a fenced off-leash park every day and has been since she was 12 weeks old....so is well socialised with other dogs and a variety of other people. I suggested that he would be best to find a Behaviour expert who knows GSDs well. Anyone know of a reputable one in Sydney...preferably northside? The boss was having problems with accommodation and personal problems and was almost forced to surrender this dog into rescue via me. That seems to be resolved at the moment and he has committed himself to being a caring owner but as I said to him, he needs to sort her problem out now while she is still young, because if he doesn't and he finds himself stuck for accommodation again, it will be nigh impossible to rehome her. Any help would be appreciated.

$4,000.....seriously, even with a 3 night stay at the Vets and X-Rays, that is totally OTT! It must be my suspicious nature.....but have you sighted the itemised Vet bill? To be EXACTLY $4,000 sounds a bit far fetched too. I would suggest that you ask for a copy of the Vet bill before you pay anything.

Itching...it's that time of year. Look for a reason for the itching first...fleas/contact with Wandering Jew in the garden/carpet shampoo perhaps? As for shampoo.....wash with oatmeal. Put a handfull of oats (porridge oats are fine) into an old clean stocking, tie it off above the ball of oatmeal and let it soak for a while in hot water. Once it is cooled enough, wash the dog in the water, using the oatmeal bag as a sponge. I used this method with our old ACD and have done so with our Staffy, Danni....who also has a bad case of the 'summer itchies' at the moment. I did take Danni to the Vet last week because her itching and scratching was constant. She had a Cortisone injection and her nails clipped too....for the first time. The Vet confirmed the use of oatmeal was a good idea. The one-off Cortisone injection had little effect on her as far as side effects (increased thirst and appetite) but did break the scratching/itching cycle.

Having a talk with the local Council is a must. As the cat was in your yard, you are certainly in the clear as far as the dogs are concerned......but it would be best to explain what has happened and that your dogs are always contained in a secure yard, are kept on leash outside the yard and they would certainly not attack this neighbour's children.

Our first dog...as children, was a Kelpie puppy thrown from a car onto a 2 lane busy road at peak hour. My Grandfather nearly got himself skittled trying to save Timmy. (And yes, our current Kelpie is also Timmy ). So even nearly 50 years later, humans still have not learnt to be less cruel. This poor, poor dog...she is as thin as a dog can be before death overtakes. Hopefully the RSPCA will do the right thing by her.

Fortunately the previous owners of our house 'possum-proofed' it after continuous problems with them in the ceiling, and even coming down the chimney. We have both BrushTails and Ringtails and they use the roof, the back deck and next doors roof as a highway. We have a huge paperbark tree shading the back deck and they hang out in there at night. Our solution.....keep the dogs inside at night, with no access to the deck. I have also squirted both possums and dogs with a water pistol.

One other point that deserves a mention to your friend.....grooming!!!!!! A Spaniel/Poodle cross (I detest the stupid made-up name of Spoodle) can have a shedding coat. It can also be an extremely difficult coat to groom...as can any Poodle cross. She will need to book it in to a grooming parlour often....and it WILL cost. Are they prepared for this ongoing cost? Friends purchased a Spaniel/Poodle cross (before I had a chance to talk them out of it) and a friend of their's teaches grooming. She takes their dog to her teaching sessions to show just how difficult he can be to groom. This dog is a nice dog (we mind him when they go away)......but he certainly did not inherit the Poodle brains, he is a total dimwit, likeable but 'dumb as ducks**t' as my OH describes him. If they are first time owners with kids...I would recommend a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel from a legitimate registered breeder.

'Yeah, (don't send it) come into the shop to donate, get sucked in by an offer of a prize....and then, while you are there, spend even more money!' What an absolutely disgraceful and unethical marketing ploy.

I adopted a cat (many years ago) and left her at the Vet for desexing, only to have the Vet ring and say that they found an obvious desexing scar when they shaved her tummy (she was a Persian) and pulled her out of the GA straight away. She had definitely been desexed and never came into season. I would have thought any Vet would have a fair idea if a scar was due to this dog being desexed already....eg: in the right position on the abdomen, stitch scars on either side of the cut etc.. Even after 5 years I can still see the straight scar of the cut and stitch marks on one of my dog's bellies....a rescue dog by the way and a failed foster. Apart from the cost of further surgery,which is quite probably unnecessary....I find it amazing that a rescue organisation would consider surgery on a dog that was not in good condition, having previously suffered a parvo like illness? Whilst every rescue dog should be desexed (and one of mine was done at 6 weeks, with which I have no issue) I think there are grey areas like this where a dog can be left in foster care for a time to ensure that is was desexed...and is given time to reach peak condition if the rescue organisation still insists on the surgery. Actually the money spent on the surgery could have been spent on an ultrasound anyway and would probably be a cheaper option....even if it had to be done at another vet. How can possibly unneccesary surgery on a dog recovering from illness be justifiable....especially when a foster carer is willing to keep the dog a bit longer and there are other ways of determining whether the dog had been desexed or not? I think Muggles was right in questioning the actions of the rescue organisation in this sitaution.

As Muggles said...she/he was willing to hang on to the dog for a while to see if she came into season. If ultrasound wasn't an option (cost perhaps?) then Muggles keeping her for a while certainly was....especially as she had been unwell. Not desexing is unethical....but putting an unwell dog under GA, unless it is an emergency, is also not exactly ethical.

Indeed. Definitely a winner for 'Quote of the week!' I keep getting this image of me serving up a plate of tofu and mixed veges to my Kelpie.......and the disgusted look I would get. This is a dog who will attempt to pick each and every pea out of his dinner when I throw any left over veges into his meat. He obviously despises peas....not much different to the kids actually.

If I was told by the person, who the OP started the thread about, that they planned to feed a dog a vegetarian diet...there would be no polite persuasion. Cruelty, which I consider this is, does not deserve polite persuasion....it deserves 'both barrels'. I would be quite happy to tell this person that they were a nutjob and add my earlier comment that it is 'utterly selfish and is basically an anal act of anthropomorphic idiocy'. There are many times when politeness is a necessity or preferable but also times when you have to call a spade just what it is...a spade.

I have the opposite problem. A Chinese lady in the area bush walks a lot and comes back through the park, often bumping into me and the dogs. She loves dogs and is not scared of them at all and often will find tennis balls (lost into the bush from the tennis courts nearby) and leave a pile at the park for the dog owners. Whilst my Kelpie, Tim, likes her, my Staffy, Danni, doesn't and has rather an extreme reaction, barking loudly at her, which is unusual as she is always friendly with women in particular. This lady seems rather unaffected by the reaction too...and will come over to talk to me. Unfortunately she doesn't speak English and will chat away in Mandarin/Cantonese or whatever dialect she speaks, as if I understand her...but I don't understand a word of it. It's not all that much fun, tightly holding the lead of a barking dog and nodding away politely as if I know what she is saying. I now try to avoid her, which is a shame because she loves patting Tim. I find lots of people, black, white or asian scowl at my Staffy...or I get the opposite with young feral looking men quite interested. The classic reaction was a young mum asking me how on earth I could have a hard mouthed dog like a Staffy anywhere near my children.

What rot! I'm sorry but there is no irrefutable evidence that a dog will 'thrive' on a vegetarian diet. They are not vegetarian animals. Why would someone even contemplate changing an animals natural diet just because they don't consume meat themselves? It's utterly selfish and is basically an anal act of anthropomorphic idiocy. Any normal person would feed their animal what it has been designed and has evolved (over many millenium of evolution) to eat. To do otherwise is NOT normal. I have no patience with nutjobs and fruitloops and if you look under my avatar you will notice that 'political correctness' is not my preferred stance.

I have a male dog, desexed at 6 weeks through a rescue organisation. His male hormones are certainly in evidence if his behaviour around a bitch in heat (our other dog - when we were fiostering her and before she was desexed) is anything to go by. OH kept complaining that the scene in the backyard was like a porno movie. I honestly don't believe waiting till they are 2-3 years would make much difference and it also doesn't depend on the breed. 6 -12 months is fine and shows a responsible pet owner. Desexing has more benefits than not desexing if you have no intention of breeding....apart from the risk of them impregnanting a female and creating an unwanted litter, undesexed males quite often become escapologists if there is a female in heat in the area.