Ravyk

dandybrush, go and talk to a Tafe near you that does to Vet Nursing and ask about payment options. Most Tafes these days will do a payment plan for those who cannot afford it in one sum [which is generally quite a number of people]. Also talk to centrelink, they also might be able to help.

All very true! But for me the positives far out weigh the negatives.. cant wait to get this baby out of me and get back into it. It's a very hard (and severely underpaid) career but is super rewarding and I would do it over anything else. But just because you complete the vet nursing course doesn't mean you HAVE to be a vet nurse.. a few girls I know ended up in doggy day care, at kennels/boarding kennels, and other similar places. Even Cert 2 in Animal Care/studies would be a good place to start! Yes I'm not trying to put aside the positives, but just show what some of the down sides are. I find the role of a vet or a vet nurse or even a dog trainer has been severely romanticised by the general public into some happy fuzzy job where everything has a happy ending. I'm looking at studying Vet Nursing next year [if I remember to put my application in on time this time!].

You need to be really committed to the work too if you want to succeed and do well. What in part are you interested in? Vet nursing? Or dog training? Or some other area? I have a friend who is training to be a vet nurse. She says it is some of the most tiring work you can do and the most heartbreaking. She hates it when she they have to put down animals. And to top things off she had to help euthanise her own dog who suffered from a unrecoverable injury. I've helped out vets before on call outs to neighbours for larger animals. Helping pull half dead calves from cows isn't the funnest thing to be doing at 11pm on a winters night. Im sorry for going off on a tangent but what I am trying to say is, you will get covered in blood, sweat, slime and shit in most jobs with animals. It's not all about cuddling cute kittens and puppies and every story has a happy ending, which a lot [i'm not say you think this] of people think being a vet nurse or working with animals is.

maybe just put up a sign saying something like ' beware of the dog' - i think if you say something like 'beware of dangerous dog' and they nip someone, you can still get in trob 'cos you are acknowledging that the dogs are dangerous. silly really, since it's your property andyou sound like you are doing the right thing. but even a 'beware of the dog' could be seen as warning people that your dog could attack them, thus admitting to a dangerous dog because you've felt the need to warn people of the dog. Its stupid but these things happen. If I had to have a sign on a gate, it would say 'Please shut the gate, we have dogs'

Not to burst your bubble or anything, but it is an exceedingly hard area to get into and quite a low paying one too. Even volunteering can be difficult to get into. The work is hard and back breaking and at times heartbreaking, it's not all fun and games. Your best option is to apply for some courses such as NDTF courses in dog training or TAFE courses in vet nursing and go from there. Courses like these will give you a little bit more of a chance of getting into something.

We went along to Vets and Pets in the Park last year and the dogs had a ball! The dogs enjoyed themselves and there were lots on people and stalls to talk to and visit. Well worth going!

Oh wow. So you've had a dog with a broken leg before. Ever realised that there is more than ONE type of break? And 99.99% of the time Dog A with a broken leg will have a different break to Dog B with a broken leg. And unless you have x-ray vision, you cannot tell what kind of damage has occurred. Or what the long term consequences of working a injured animal could be. I know a friend of mine who broke her leg and walked on it for two weeks with not much pain before seeing a doctor who discovered a spiral fracture. She had a cast for almost 6 months. Why do you need to take this particular dog? It sounds as if you more than one dog. Take another dog then or go without a dog. You'll still learn a heap. The fact you seem to be intent on getting your dog to this clinic no matter what and disregarding the majority of people's advice of taking the dog to the vet because you don't want the vet thinking you are an idiot, it does make me wonder how concerned you really are for your dogs long term health and well being.

Aldgate Vet is a very good vet. Recommended to me by a GSD breeder, I have been very happy with her. She also desexed my bitch, which went extremely well and I was very happy with everything.

Yes I would feed horse meat to my dogs if I could get it. The zoos here feed horse meat to their carnivores, and are quite open about it too. They generally mention in their feeding sessions that it is horse. IMO feeding horse meat is VERY different to feeding dog meat. For one horses are much larger creatures, herbivores and the quality and amount of meat is a lot better than what you would get from dog meat. Horses have also been farmed for meat in other countries as a staple meat source and they are a good source of meat if you think about it. [opposed to those countries who raise dogs as delicacies] In India cows are considered sacred and are not eaten. Carnivore meat from what I have heard isn't as good food as herbivore meat but I will happily be corrected on that. Yes horses can be companions and are intelligent, beautiful creatures with different personalities. But guess what? So are cows or sheep and to an extent even chickens. The majority of people never have the chance to know a sheep or a cow as a companion, and hence have no objections eating or feeding their meat.

Hopefully the schools will listen. I had a similar issue with kids patting and razzing my dogs up through the fence while we were redoing the back [we live on a corner property] and the dogs had run of the front yard. I called the school as it is a local one, and the receptionist was really nice but said they cannot do anything because it is out of hours and we'd have to call the police if they did it again. They were nice enough though to print a notice in the school newsletter about the dangers of patting strange dogs over fences, etc and the behaviour from these children stopped.

It used to be said that having those signs is admitting that you own a dangerous dog. ;) It still is said, and apparently it can be used against you in court if your dog does attack someone. Yeah you do, we got a letter the other day saying we need to trim around our meter because they cannot get to it. ;)

can you block the gaps up at all? some pieces of ply wood tacked over the holes on the inside could do the trick.

Holden Commodore Wagon. Its not much bigger than a Sedan, just different shape. Quite easy to drive and decent fuel consumption [i went from a 4cyl manual 2 door, to driving a wagon with no trouble]. Heaps of room in the boot. We've regularly had 3/4 people and three dogs in the car, sometimes more. You can have a crate big enough to fit a GSD in open in the boot [this is coming from a friend who breeds GSDs], with room to store other things. VT series wagons go for around 3-6k. If you are interested PM me sometime and I'll ask OH if you can come around and try out our wagon if you wanted to know how one drives like.

I see no drama. ;) The dog should be checked out by a vet. Dogs are very good at hiding their pain. You have no idea what could be wrong with your dogs leg. It could be nothing, but it could be a lot worse, like a spiral or hairline fractures, torn ligaments, damaged tendons, etc. I have taken dogs to the vets for really small things, like having a wedged bone removed from the dog's teeth which I couldn't pull off and I have NEVER been made to feel like an idiot. Honestly, to have your mind at ease that your dog is ok should be more than enough to get over thinking that your vet thinks your an idiot. It's their job to look after animals and honestly I don't think a vet would think someone was an idiot if they bought their dog in and said 'my dog got stepped on by a horse and is now limping/not putting weight on the leg, can you please have a look at it?' No I don't think she should be made to run at the clinic. It's just asking for trouble.

Bicarb soda and vinegar should get the urine off, just rinse it well to remove the vinegar smell afterwards.

Huh? This is not the "teacup" size - this is the correct size for the breed. I have no doubt they come bigger, because nature works like that but a Pomeranian isn't meant to be a 5-6kg dog, it's meant to be a 2-3kg dog. No different than saying you'd like a Saint Bernard but that's a bit big so lets get one that is only 1/2 the proper size. Yes of course you can buy a Pomeranian that will grow to twice the correct size for the breed, but have a look at a breed that's meant to be the size dog you actually want to buy is the suggestion being made. ;) "Teacup" is a term used by puppy farmers and backyard breeders to make their runty undersized badly bred puppies sound cute and different so they can charge lots of money for puppies which could well be very unhealthy and abnormal. Appreciate if anyone could give me some suggestions of the small-mid size breed that best with indoor most of the time & can do short running & cycling too. People have given you some suggestions already, have you had a look at them? Just remember you need to be prepared to regularly groom a fluffy dog. My suggestion would be a miniature schnauzer but I don't know how well they'd keep up with cycling, someone else might know.

We have a Vac-sealer but the particular one we get, the bags work out to something like $1 a bag! Ours unfortunately doesn't take the rolls. I'll have to keep my eye out for the double zip bags.

What brand zip lock bags do you use? And do you have an issue with them leaking? Can't defrost them in the microwave. our microwave is stupid and cooks the meat even on defrost.

margarine containers?? or small plastic containers. (*i found chinese containers smashed when frozen so do not reccomend these) My other problem is bulkiness, I need to conserve as much room as possible in the freezer. With bags they can be flattened. Plus the meals probably wouldn't fit in marg containers, its done in 300 and 500-600g lots. Ah yes, had a few accidents with soup frozen in the chinese containers being dropped before they'd been defrosted double bag them?? Sorry i tel hubby to suck up the leaking lol but i do have a dog food fridge so not too bad I did tell him to suck it up. OMG he went on for ages about how horrible the amount of blood in the container was. I seem to have a pansy OH. I might try double bagging them with my next lot of 30kgs.

margarine containers?? or small plastic containers. (*i found chinese containers smashed when frozen so do not reccomend these) My other problem is bulkiness, I need to conserve as much room as possible in the freezer. With bags they can be flattened. Plus the meals probably wouldn't fit in marg containers, its done in 300 and 500-600g lots. Ah yes, had a few accidents with soup frozen in the chinese containers being dropped before they'd been defrosted

I don't see a problem at all. :laugh:

I am currently using zip lock sandwich bags to bag individual portions in, but finding they tend to leak when defrosting which OH is getting narky about [no idea why, I have the defrosting ones in an ice cream container in the fridge]. Can anyone recommend something better?

wazzat, email me at [email protected] and I can have a go at removing the persons legs.

You will find though, most the of the dog friendly camping places do not bait. I don't like the idea of soft muzzling a dog while away personally, but if you [the OP] do decide to go the muzzling option make sure you train the dog to wear the muzzle without it feeling like a punishment to the dog.

Totally normal. I personally don't take shank bones away, as they aren't particularly thick for weight bearing bones and generally come from young animals [one dog leaves it and the other dog eats them both!]. The only issue I ever had with a shank bone was Spot getting a piece of it caught on a tooth, which I had to remove by hand.