ruthjones

Hi, Well I am a registered breeder and am about to take a few steps into the show ring, we are starting off with one pup in our local show. It is the Burnie Agricultural show and we are on the 6th October. I got our number back yesterday and a little info sheet etc, anyway, a total of 295 dogs entered, and my little miss Destiny is the only cocker spaniel (english) so now I am stressing even more because I will have no one to follow! A few groups are on the day before, so I will spend the day watching (and stressing no doubt) Destiny will be just over the three months of age criteria (whelped 2 July this year) so is in the baby puppy group. Given how young she is, how much will really be expected of her? she walks on the lead, sort of, doesnt stay in the proper location yet and stacking, well, that is still a masterpiece yet to be discovered by us (probably moreso down to me not getting it quite right) anyway, would love any advice! luckily I have a few generous souls that are willing to help me out, just not sure if they will be there on the day! Ruth

they are all gorgeous, sometimes choosing is a hard task! unless you choose them all lol

Anyone have any ideas of who might be able to help this boy find a home? He is on king Island, down in Tas, at the shelter. Ruth

Hi, Just found this add on gumtree http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/currie/dogs-puppies/home-needed-labrador-x-husky/1005326620 Anyone have suggestions of where he could go to be rehomed? Thanks Ruth

buddy1 - A friend is making mine, (Jana Berg) Andisa - I hope I have everything they need, want to make sre the puppies go as equipped as possible so everything starts off as well as possible appreciate all the feedback everyone! Ruth

buddy1 our pups come with litter blankets, specially made fleece blankets, double sided, embroidered with our prefix and our litter name (in this case, it is our Destiny litter) they also have a couple of toys, these items are kept with the pups for a couple of weeks to absorb smells and then distributed when pup leaves us. Families also send in a piece of clothing etc from their house with their family smells on it, their puppy is handled with that clothing as much as possible in the last couple weeks, therefore they are already acquainted with the smells of their new family (it goes back home with puppy) we also provide a pet tag with our prefix and my mobile number on it, gives a bit extra protection whilst awaiting their own tags to get made etc pups come with puppy packs from advance and royal canin (we feed a combination of foods) and petplan insurance for the first 6 weeks. all microchip records are supplied, including the transfer form, they just need to fill itin and send it, includes a id tag that matches the record in the database Have started putting folders together, which is drawing a few heart strings to tug at us! am considering whether to include their next dose of wormer (i.e. 10 weeks dose) not sure though as they should have had a vet check up on arrival anyway though! Ruth

ok, I am a breeder, I dont have a massive history as its only our first litter, but I have told all our families, that even pups going to other breeders will not leave before they are the full 8 weeks, one family asked if they could pick up puppy on Friday, they are 8 weeks on Sunday, and they still got a definite NO (which they were fine with) their vaccination would not be fully activated even a few days early, so at 6 weeks old, I would be very doubtful, our litter is currently 6 and a half weeks, yes they are 99 % weaned, but they are learning about what being a dog means! there is so much more than feeding that they get from their mum. Ruth

lol, for our prefix, I combined the birthplaces of my two founding cocker spaniels, Tanilba Bay and Forest Lake hence Tanilbalake was created, not usre if that method would work for you (our alternatives combined letters from our kids names etc) Have fun, it can take a while! Ruth

Geez, I must be terribly cruel then, my dogs do get crated. In the car Vet trips etc Heck, I must be inhumane, I am crate training my litter of pups! By that I mean that they have a small crate (pp20) in their pen, it's door is stuck full open at the moment (intentionally) W move on to actually having them in with a shut door for a few minutes each this week and gradually increasing it to a usable time. Even more horrific, all puppies that leave must go in a crate for the journey home and aren't allowed to travel loose! Anyway, I better go back to my dastardly deeds! Ruth

Puglvr Our contract is the adoption offer that we issue, we do not even accept a deposit until that is signed and returned, and that has the desexng and minimum care standard on it (I.e. food, shelter vet care etc) I keep the original and a photocopy will go in the owners folders Jr in oz Thanks for that, will look it all up and see if I can find where to get them from Thanks Ruth

Ok, should have added more info to my post, each puppy also has the 6 weeks pet plan insurance, new puppy toy, (from their puppy pen) a specially made blanket that has been with the pups and mum, Am also putting together a duplicate of records for their vet, I.e. copies of parents paperwork and DNA disease testing, worming and vaccination details etc, my contact deities for the vet to have on record etc. also have sample packs from royal canin and advance for each puppy. Jr_inoz, do you remember which worming company the pack was from? Would love to see if I could get one for my puppies to take with them! Mini girl, pm'd you! Some of this information is also sent via email to puppy buyers before they pick up pup, including:- Not to toilet puppy on the ground on the drive home, use newspaper and do not let pup walk on ground Puppies must leave in an appropriate travel crate etc, it is not safe for a puppy not to be restrained in the car If they arrive in time pups will also come with a collar from here with our prefix tag with my mobile number on it, if they have a collar with tag with them, (that fits, I think many are amazed how small the puppies are!) they can put that on here straight away, otherwise at least the puppy will have a collar and contact number on until they get one A suggestion that they consider attaching a bell at first, puppies can be very quiet (at times) and you don't want to step on them accidentally! Am thinking of adding info of good websites ( such as DOL!) as well? Ruth The pain of the upcoming goodbyes is only slightly alleviated by knowing they have fantastic homes. We have one boy left to find a home, have refused a fair number that just didn't feel right to me. My keeper girl, she stole my heart from day one

Ok, was walking my boy Socks (3 year old cocker spaniel) now he isn't perfect on a lead, but most definitely not aggressive (in fact he is a bit of a wimp, hides behind me if anything remotely scary happens lol) I had my two eldest boys, 9 and 6 with me, walking up the bush track, lady walking a smallish greyhound (didn't look close enough to tell if it was young or maybe a similar breed but smaller sorry lol) walks past in opposit direction, I automatically shorten my boys lead (I.e. remove any slack whatsoever but maintaining him in correct walking position) she however let's her dog all over the path, right up in my boys face (who by now is cowering behind me) then continues past like she owns the path, grrrr. I meanwhile, reinforce to my kids that you never talk or touch anyone else's dog without the owner there and asking permission first (they are used to this and can recite the rules by heart lol) Continue down the path, in about 50 meters another woman approaches, with a very scary looking dog, this dog is snarling, pulling hard on the lead, all over the place, everything the woman can do to hold onto the ruddy lead, and this is before they get anywhere near us! I take my boys and Socks off the path entirely, placing us about 5 meters out of the pathway, figure avoid the encounter, well, no, this dog (size of a lab but very solidly built and black) lunges so hard tht he is actually standing over my boy (yep, hiding behind me) as he drags his supposed handler (using the term very loosely) closer, this dog is terrifying me, let alone my boys (ok, so my boys are not incredibly brave either, but still) its biting thin air in its apparent desire to consume something, so the woman eventually drags the dog away and gaily calls back "don't worry, he wouldn't hurt anything, he is a teddy bear" I mean yeah right, who do you think you are fooling, certainly not me! Continue walking up the path and this giant white cloud is coming towards us very quickly, this one however clearly only wanted to play! So the beautiful Samoyeds owner then appears, and poor guy I think was expecting an ear bashing, I resisted though! Besides he had a second Samoyed with him, they were very beautiful, I was amazed how fantastic the coats were on them, I can see lots of maintenance wold go into that! Apparently he got both of them from the lost dogs homes, different homes, but the same time, so something a bit odd in that, but that is my assumption as I didn't think they were that common, we had a good chat about dogs in general, his questions soon exceeded any answers I could give, did though point him in the direction of this forum for more specific answers, figured it was one place I could guarantee he could find other owners of Samoyeds! So that was our walk, out of control dogs everywhere, some friendly, some that frankly shouldn't be in public without some serious help! Is it me or are owners just that out of touch with the reality of their dogs? Yes, I made a few assumptions about the dogs, but a dogs body language is sometimes fairly easy to read! Ruth

Hi all, We are putting together our puppy folders for our puppies new homes, if anyone doesn't mind sharing ideas of what to include info wise, it would be great, I know I need, Diet sheet Training tips Toilet training info What not to feed puppy (after finding out some people put the fruit such as apples etc into food processor for dogs, figure specify apple seeds aren't safe as the seeds would be exposed by the processing) Parents Regio papers and DNA test results for diseases Worming and vaccination details Safe travel information Photos of puppy birth to 8 weeks If anyone wants to pm me any of their info sheets as well it would be great! Ruth

In the spirit of learning: Some of the posts that are several years old, still hold important value to all of us The old favorite "so you want to breed" gosh I wish that was pinned! Whilst only breeders can post in here, anyone can read the posts, it would be good if there were a few easy to find threads to make people think things through a bit. An index pin would be good, maybe we could then list some of the topics we are constantly searching for, I.e. the goats milk threads, threads on some of the things that can go wrong ( we had a run in with eclampsia a couple of weeks back) I also wanted to thank everyone who has helped us to get to this point, those special friends, the fellow breeders that give you their number, tell you that you can call in the middle of the night if you need help, and meaning it! Thanks Ruth

I'm sure you have already done it, but have you put anything on gumtree about her? Also, a lot of the general public wouldn't have a clue what different breeds look like, so if you put a rough guess of her height etc, it could help. Stay positive, when we moved our boy socks went missing, we searched the neighborhood for days, eventually he was handed in to the lost dogs home (we had notified them he was missing) Turns out they apparently claim they thought he was a mixed breed stray without a home, even the dogs home doubted that, since he had had a very short clip 2 weeks before hand to help them handle the trip from Qld to Tas (it involved a kennel for a couple weeks, was fairly sure grooming wasn't high on their priority list) and he had a good leather collar with a shiny new tag with our new phone number and address on it! Both he and my girl had gotten out overnight (fixed tht hole very quickly!) but my girl was waiting for us in the front yard. Also, don't forget to contact the vets in the area, and also, anywhere there is a large amount of animals (kennels nearby?) oh, and pet shops and supermarkets, as if someone happens to obtain a pet suddenly, they will need to buy it some food. (these are courtesy of the lost dogs home's suggestions to me from our experience) If you can get a vet onside or something, you could set up a no questions asked return point, they may have second thoughts but don't know what to do without getting in more trouble? Ruth P.s. Patches and our beagle escaped about 4 weeks ago when our five year old didn't latch the front door properly, they turned up, ... Three houses down the road, Patches decided that was far enough apparently and decided to head back (she was about a week off whelping) the beagle being a pup himself stayed with her thank goodness!

As I said, I'm personally not even contemplating another litter yet, these ones are only 2 weeks old, I guess it was just that I thought it strange that their criteria is even tighter than the canine councils in general. I will be doing the insurance for this litter, I was just thinking how easily a breeder could forget that clause, then innocent puppy buyer tries to make a claim and it gets rejected (obviously in a future litter) as I said, I'm new to all this so I am looking at all the different plans and packs out there for everything and working out what is the best choices, in light of that, if anyone knows of any other companies that do the puppy packs etc can you let me know so I can see what the choices are. Thanks Ruth

Hi, I have been looking into this for our current litter and noticed they have a clause in the breeders agreement that reads:- 7. There is a period of at least one year since the bitch’s last litter. I'm thinking that could cause issues, that is less allowance than most state canine bodies allow, For my girl, she has a 9 month season, to abide by the pet plan rulings I would only be able to mate her every second season (not that I have plans to breed her again straight away or anything, just pointing out one situation) thus it would be a year and a half between litters, can you imagine if your dog had an 11 month season!!!! I bet if we were to ignore that clause it would be reason enough not to pay out any possible claims that puppy buyers may wish to make. What is everyone else's opinions on this agreement pet plan insists on? Ruth This is in regards to working out puppy packs for our little ones and if we are going to include this insurance as part of their packs.

Seems 5 is the magic number this month, congrats to myschafis and missy! Ruth

Dear Socks ( the new daddy) Sorry I ever doubted you. Love Mummy (Ruth)

The funny thing is that a friend thought it odd that they were so different to their mum, so I had to explain about the colour genetics behind them, I even got a private message on Facebook from another friend, asking me, get this, if I was sure she was the mum, I didn't reply, I couldn't think of a reply that didn't imply they were complete idiots lol!

Just dropped by to add a puppy photo, one is half hiding, thinks milk is better on the other side!

Our little family are all doing well this morning.

Hi all, litter of 5 born today, 3 boys, 2 girls, all pups and mum doing well.

I've got one Put one hand on each side of her belly, if you feel puppies moving around they are pregnant. Hey, works well at 8 and a half weeks in lol Other than that, my normal sweet affectionate girl turns into a real bitch towards any and all other dogs, none are exempt or free from her wrath! That look they give you that says " what the heck did you do to me" The constant mind changing of what foods meet their standards, (must be raw chicken, then yuck,who wants chicken, I want rc starter mousse, then, I really want that mince you were about to use for dinner etc) The clearest indicator to me so far seems to be the empty bank account the owners get trying to keep the girl happy! Ruth

Hang on, I know what going on, our old neighbors moved next door to you, ours was loopy, did the whole complaint thing and log book, she screwed up though, she used dates not only before me moved in but before my dogs were even born in her rubbish. We moved in and 3 days later had a complaint letter in our letter box, apparently whenever I would go on base (defence base) I would leave the dog alone and he would bark for hours, he was vicious and her son was terrified and she was pregnant and on bed rest (very active bed rest, she went out every day) The funny part is the dog in question was a 9 week old cocker spaniel, and I can lay my life on the fact he was never left home alone, in fact when I did have to go on base, the security guard would play with him in the gate office until I got back to the gate. We had the ranger visit, they asked to see our vicious dog, I laughed and moved aside so they could see the terrified puppy hiding behind my dress, they ripped the complaint letter they were meant to give me up on the spot, the stupid part was that she had this beautiful German Shepard a darling to everyone but couldn't stand her at all, was so glad when they moved! We got good neighbors then, the kind that signs for each others post parcels and gives them to you when you get home so you don't have to go back out to get them, they had the sweetest little girl who always called me "the lady" such a sweetie, if I was outside she would call out to me through the fence and chat to me, (they had a baby so mum was sometimes inside feeding bub) I remember very clearly the day she came and in a kid whisper told me to be quiet so she could catch the snake, it was just after the jan 11 floods in Ipswich so lots of things were on the move that wouldn't normally be, very quickly told her to go back to her doorway and phoned her mums mobile from mine, luckily her mum moved fast. Little miss wasn't happy with me "the lady was bossy to me" in her words, her mum forgave me! Anyway point being I hope your dodgy neighbors move and you get some good ones! But I bet you would settle for one who knew the difference between fact and fiction! Ruth