Starkehre

Doesn't look much like any Maremma I have ever seen. If I was the father I would be furious with the grandparents for not supervising the 2 year old toddler around dogs... any dog of any breed or size. Stupidity.

sorry to hear that .BUT it does raise another question (or two) Do vets just ask or do you request the ear to be tattooed? Do you sign a waver or something? That was why I raised this topic because at no stage had I ever been asked if I wanted the tattoo and because I thought it was for certain breeds and only done many many years ago I had never asked for it to be done. I guess the other side of this could be how do you see the tattoo? by this I mean do you see it as a worthwhile practise? or as a disfigurement? cruelty? ugly? or maybe something else ? Im sure Im not the only person out there who 'wasn't sure what it meant in the first place and had I been asked if I wanted the tattoo I guess I would have said yes but would have liked a different colour ----Im sorry but the greenie blue reminds me of backyard /prison tatts So if its not common practise with all vets does that mean if you request it THEY can say no? I think this has set me on alittle mission and I may just do a phone around and just see how many do and how many don't . Either way this has become very interesting and very informative I didn't realise there was this much to it As far as I am aware the tattoo is always done unless you specifically request for it not to be done... except in shaar's case, where they obviously erred :p You will never be consulted on this, the default is to tattoo.

I did not know about the tattong being done for microchipped dogs. Interesting. I am not sure if I am a fan of this or not. The problem I see is that there will always be many dogs that do not have the M tatto as the breeders of Registered puppies generally get the puppues chipped prior to them leaving for their new forever homes. Sure some of these breeders desex their young puppies, but I would say most do not. The puppies that are chipped without being desexed will not be sporting this M tattoo because they not been knocked out. Will people assume that bitches without the M are not microchipped, when that is not necessarily the case? I am glad that tattooing is not compulsory here in Vic as I will never have any of my dogs' ears tattoed. But that is my personal opinion. I understand why others like it.

Your poor mum and poor Gert. Must have given everyone a fright. My SP Rose (passed away earlier this year, bless her botton socks) never had a fear of storms, but as she got older probably around 11 or 12, she did start to get a bit fearful in thunder. Yes, it can be something that either worsens or appears as they get a bit older and a bit less secure in themselves, sadly. We do need to be aware that as our dogs age they can become a bit dottery and nervy in some situations.

OMG, that is so accurate to many real life situations. Amazing.

K9 Pro for me too.

Well, apparently my dogs are too skinny and I starve them. I am cruel because I train them and compete with them and it is not healthy. I am a bit of a sicko because I enjoy achieving titles with my dogs. ... this all comes from people I used to spend time with that have fat dogs that do nothing and die young. Some people just enjoy being nasty because it makes them feel better about themselves, when really they are simply jealous and lack self esteem. I feel sad for them. I live by the motto now that what anyone thinks or says about me is "none of my business". I don't hear anything about myself anymore because I do not listen to gossip or perpetuate it. Much better this way, as I do not get hurt.

... and I think she may be currently on hols down here in Vic... could be wrong

Interesting.... I am super fussy about whom I would ever ask or allow to look after my dogs, in fact we are the only ones who do this because we are far more comfortable this way. But even if I was happy to have someone check in on, feed, empty, etc a new puppy I might have, I certainly would never ask a 5 year old to do it. OMG No, no, no, you silly Not a pre-schooler. But her mummy, too. I did say a neighbour with a young pre-schooler. They make some interesting comments, like: "Puppies don't eat peanut butter, Mummy!" Oh yes they do. I have had mixed success with pet sitters. One couple didn't appear till 2:30 in the afternoon when they were supposed to let the dog out at 11:30 am. Turns out, the neighbour and her daughter beat all the others; hands down. Sorry, I misunderstood your post. Still, and of course that is great that you found that arrangement worked well for you and I am also glad it did, but mummy or not, no 5 year old would be going onto my property without me being there... and no this is not because my chosen breed is Rottweilers. I would be afraid the child would step on or pick up my puppy or squeal and flap it's arms around like children do. Alot of mummies do not understand what children should and should not do around baby puppies. Sorry, OT.

What an awesome way to cap off a wonderful year for you Smoothiegirl. Congratulations to you and Bronte. I am so happy you got that title pass in before the year's end, lovely feeling, you must be thrilled. I will catch up with you at either obedience, herding or agility next year or all 3.

Interesting.... I am super fussy about whom I would ever ask or allow to look after my dogs, in fact we are the only ones who do this because we are far more comfortable this way. But even if I was happy to have someone check in on, feed, empty, etc a new puppy I might have, I certainly would never ask a 5 year old to do it. OMG I am lucky. I work from home. And although my work can be between 50 - 60 hrs per week, in amongst that I spend a lot of time with the dogs, as I can and often work into the evening, occasionally doing all nighters. I am my own boss so I play with, feed, train, exercise the dogs during the day here and there. It works out very well as my work is very flexible in this regard. They come for trips to the factory, post office etc and it only take a few minutes several times a day to do some quality training. I appreciate my life every day. and I am much happier working from home than when I had a full time job.

Training? I have never seen training like that. Have you? Whatever she was attempting to do, what she was doing was abuse - she pulled the dog off the table times, she had it by the neck shaking its liver loose -the pup was very upset. I thought it ran out very well, considering. Strange that it wouldn't gait back to the judge Poor competitor had no idea what to do ... should have poked the judges eye out. Wonder what the penalty for that is? More experienced competitors would have, this one was not so experienced. There is visual proof. The complaint has been lodged. The licence will be revoked. The video was taken because visual proof was necessary to have the licence revoked. There is no proof otherwise. However that was one crap judge amongst good ones. Why should anyone give up with a promising judge because they found a crap judge. Show dog world - is horrified. The video was sent around overseas, and now in Australia. No, I have not seen training done like this before, but then I do not show Toy Breeds. Please note, when I used the term "training" I did so on reflection of someone elses comment that went something along the lines of ..... that the handler was receiving free and excellent training from this judge. I use the term "training" very loosely in my previous post and was in no way condoning the judges actions, as you would see by my post.

I used to use livermol on my dogs too (only cause I had it for the horses in those days) and never had any issue with tartar. Sorry, no suggestions regarding satin balls. I have never had to use them.... yet

Hi Jaysiin, you mention your puppy is 2-3 months. Between 8 and 13 weeks of age there is a huge difference. Do you not know how old your pup is? Is there a chance that your pup is only 8 weeks old? If by chance your pup is only 8 weeks old or close to that, you should not be expecting any walking except for maybe 2 house lengths at the most. And what may have occured is all these desperate attempts of yours have literally turn him off walking and the leash. It does sound like you are in way too much of a hurry to get legs on your dog for these long walkies you wish to do with him. I would take the pressure off for a while. Put the leash away for a few days or a week. Take him out and about in your arms and let him experience the big wide world. I understand how frustrated you are and at this stage it probably seems like things will never get better, but they will. I think with all this emphasis on leash walking and trying new methods "all day" is only goin to put things backwards. Personally I would be spending some quality time rebuilding that negative feeling that may have developed between yourself and the dog by doing so much work on something that is clearly not going "your way". It is perfectly normal for a puppy to want pats, games hugs etc at that age. That is not to be frowned upon. All training should be mixed up with fun stuff etc when they are so young. I know you have your heart in the right place, but it just sounds like you are taking this way to seriously and pushing way too hard. Stress less, and do some other stuff with him for a while. Keep the leash on whilst supervised for short stints as you have done, but leave it alone. Just remove it after a short time and treat. You may find in another 2 weeks he will have matured a lot and is ready for another go, but get some help selecting the most suitable method for your pup and stick to that one method for a while and stop swapping and changing. Good luck with him. You will get there.

I could be mistaken, but it appeared to me that the judge had a disgusted look on her face as soon as she saw the dog would not complete it's out and back. I too felt sick watching this. Sure it is possible that it may not have been as awful for the dog as it appears to me, but it is not the point. Judges should not do any training of exhibitors' dogs in the ring. Ihave seen and know of plenty of dogs that have been put off showing owing to judges over zealous handling... mind you none of it was as bad as this.

Sorry, after all that... I just realised that I didn't actually even comment on the specific OT question which was pertaining to the dogs being inside the house. They are inside and out. OH and I are happiest when they are inside with us. Unless it is too warm at night, they sleep in the bedroom with us. Once it hots up they go into the dog room which is cooler. They have their own futon couch in the living room and mats on the floors.

Mine waits for me to train the pups to stack and bait or have them going well as adults, then he rocks up to a show every six months of so, shows and wrecks a few dogs, for a few weekends in a row, then promptly returns to retirement. He must be getting ready to come back out, as he's been talking to Macy Wiggles about BIG's , for the last two weeks. Heaven help my poor Whippet. I so get where you are coming from RSG. That is hilarious. I try very hard to be open minded about OH doing obedience trials with our boy. He would like to, I would like him to, but he really doesn't have "the moves". And seriously, I am always very encouraging and would love him to just get out there and have a go, but because he has confidence issues also, it may never happen anyway. So, I will continue to do what we are doing which is me doing all the handling and training, he does all the strapping and we will keep talking about him handling "one day". I have an obedience trial to go to next year where I know we will end up with 2 of our dogs in the stays together. So, this coujld be a good way for him to get started. He has other people around him to copy from and feel under the radar around, so it could be the GO. Also, if he sort of stuffs it up completely, at least both dogs will see me out there in front. In fact the more I think about it, the dog he handles for stays will probably watch me the whole time anyway My OH is an awesome strapper. He puts up with me stressing very well.

Well, I have got to say that I consider myself to be very lucky in this regard. My husband and I have only been together and married for around 6 years. We both had large dogs when we met... he had 2 and I had 3... hence the Brady Bunch. We now only have 1 remaining of the original 5, but have still accumulated more again We are both pretty much on the same page with everything regarding the dogs. I guess you could say I am sort of "boss" of the dog stuff. OH knows I am somewhat "into" them more than he is with training and general day to day husbandry, so he is more than happy to let me pave the way with all of the main dog decisions. He is always happy with what I do with them and decide what they are being fed, how they are being trained, trialled, shown etc and just goes along with it. Sure it does mean I do more of the work, but he is also more tha happy to help out with them but will usually not instigate something unless I ask him to. He loves the dogs as much as I do. We are both happy with our arrangement and so are the dogs. I am also very lucky that OH loves to come along to all our dog events. He would like to be more involved in competing and we are slowly working on that. I really do appreciate that OH and I have a nice dynamic going between ourselves and the dogs. it works well.

Gorgeous photo Boke and a huge congrats on your lovely big and healthy litter and happy and healthy mum, Sienna. And how awesome that she popped out the sexes on order, what a good girl she is.

Hi Rebanne. Please forward me some more information. K9+ would be very interested on donating a sash for group 6.

:D

....when you share a thermometer with your dog

.....Poodlefan... Jed...?? :D

Couldn't agree more KKDD. I would much prefer pets in my rental than kids. The last time I had a family with youngish kids renting my property there was a ridiculous amount of damage done. Tiles smashed with something that looked like a hammer, plants damaged and so on. Being a landlord can be a mugs game.

Firstly, I must say that I do not advocate or recommend tenants doing the wrong thing... however, I am a landlord and I know that my tenant has dogs that she allows into my house and locks them inside when she is at work, without my permission. She does not know that I know this and I prefer to keep it this way. She always insists her small white fluffies live outside, but the agents and I know otherwise. When she first moved in, I told the agent that I would be open to considering certain pets inside the house, but the agent advised that I did not let the tenant know this, and that the tenant would probably do as she pleased anyway. The thing is that by law they actually can. Now, as a landlord you are (at least in vic) not able to do anything about it anyway. Tenants are unable to be evicted from the premises and you cannot insist they rehome their dogs. The law is set up on the side of the tenant. Does this annoy the hell out of me? Absolutely. These little dogs poke their heads through my beautiful 50mm timber slat blinds in what was my old bedroom in the first home I built for myself to live in. But there is not a damned thing I can do about it. So, I keep it to myself for now. The tenant is a great tenant in every other way and I know she will not find it easy to move and she will know she is on a good thing. so we just stay "mum" about it. She keeps the house tidy and looks after the place as if it were her own. There is a bit of a doggie smell inside, but that's fine. It can be cleaned later on if/when she moves. So, I guess what I am saying is that if the owner of the puppy can live with herself by doing ethically the wrong thing, lying about it and letting down the landlord by letting the dog inside the house, then nothing will happen to her or the dog provided she remains a good tenant in every other way.