PuddleDuck

Funny you say that Kadbury.The lady that lives across the road from me has had two cats that both lived to 21...that's 2 cats in 42 years.She's in her 70's now and isn't game to get another cat in case she as you said "falls off her perch" before she gets to her 90's.Her family are not cat people. SM maybe she could adopt a golden oldie from a shelter? There would be plenty of older cats out there looking for homes I'm sure :) My oldest dog was a lab x border who we PTS at 20 years and 11 months. I was so annoyed-really wanted to throw her a big 21st birthday party!!!

The booties will distract your dogs from the cold for long enough for them to chew them off ;) We take our guys to the snow yearly-both double coated breeds ( toller & GSD x kelpie) and the first year I spent a FORTUNE on jackets and other keep warm gear for them and the first thing we discovered is they were much happier playing out in the snow all nekkid!! The toller rolls in it constantly and sticks her head down all available holes and burrows, and my Doofus just eats it. Constantly. (avoids the yellow stuff, thank god!). If you can make them a nice cosy den (box, covered crate) which is enclosed on 3 sides and top, with the open side facing away from the wind, and has blankets to snuggle into, they'll be fine. They are tougher than we realise!!!

Is the shelter close to you? If you do decide to go ahead and try a behaviourist, maybe talk to them about if they could take him as a day boarder, either for free or subsidized cost?

Big frozen ice blocks with treats hidden in them are great too! Fill a container halfway with water, let it freeze, add a layer of treats (kodi goes nuts for canned cat food!) then fill the container the rest of the way and freeze. We would usually get a good few hours of quiet time out of them :) Also even though you can't afford a behaviourist now I would go ahead and book now for when you can. Some of the best ones are booked out months in advance!

Scary story with happy ending.... Growing up I had a pitty x cairn called riff who was gorgeous but deep down a complete feral. He lived at dads and we had a verandah with a 1 metre high railing. The verandah was about 10 meters off the ground. Riff was inside one day, saw a possum on the rail and pelted out after it. Possum saw riff and jumped into the tree off the verandah. Riff jumped, over the railing, missed the tree and hit the brick path 10m below. Dad freaked, bolted down and grabbed him and went bolting to the vet with a conscious, but unmoving terrier cradled in his lap. Dad loved riff but wasn't one to pick up the dog, but he was completely freaking. Gets to the vet after calling on the way, completely panicked, runs through the door with riff cradled in his arms, where the vet was waiting, expecting a mangled mess. Riff looks up, saw another dog, leapt out of dads arms and strutted over looking for a fight, 110% ok! The dog was so shocked at dad picking him up that he froze. Vet gave him a quick once over then looked at dad, laughed and said 'mate, if you go through the door to the consult room it'll be about $300. If you leave now, it's free' Dad slunk out with a very merry dog who leapt into the back of the ute and barked happily the whole way home He was an amazing dog-the only time he hurt himself was when he went swimming out the front (waterfront) and broke his leg after being hit by a boat. Didn't slow him down, he swam out and hopped over without a single complaint

Depends on the doctor....sometimes I think my vet would almost be a better option ;) :laugh:

Rebanne I don't think your question is rude at all. I totally agree with you and TW. No one is mounting a personal attack on the OP but rather asking a genuine question that IMO is important when someone is offering behavioural advice. One of the catch phrases on this forum is 'consult a professional behaviourist', with good reason. Generally even the professional trainers who offer advice on here will put that in posts responding to behavioural enquiries. Similarly if someone asks a medical question the advice will be given with a 'please take your dog/cat/toddler to a vet first'. It is near impossible to 'diagnose' over the Internet. A lot of people here have seen well intentioned advice taken wrongly and so this can lead to a note of caution in any threads about behaviour, not just this one. JMHO, of course :)

LOL tell them to google God knows what'll come up if they go home and google 'troll retriever'

You are right erny -my dad is a big believer of the media and I remember after he met our friends pitty (and absolutely adored him!) he asked me what breed he was I told him he was a Pitt bull - dad freaked and said 'I don't want you seeing that dog-they are the ones that kill people ALL the time-stay away from him!'. He calmed down quickly but it was sad that his knee jerk reaction was panic. Luckily he was a gorgeous dog and a wonderful ambassador.

Poor guy....but still kind of alarming! When i had a pitty people assumed it was a lab cross :laugh: We get it a lot with kodi because she is a mismarked toller with a lot if white around her head/chest/legs. The usual conversation is: Them: oh what a cute dog! She's a border collie cross right? Hubby (mutters to me): FFS just say yes and walk away Me: no she is actually a (sigh) nova scotia duck tolling retriever Them: a what? Hubby (mutters): it doesn't matter! Me: a toller. You might not have heard of them, they are still quite rare in aust Them: no. It's clearly a border collie cross Hubby: yeah, sure! Anyways, gotta go! Me: no, she's a (sigh-honestly WHY do they have such a long name!) nova scotia duck tolling retriever. Purebred Them: laughing, lady, I know dogs and someone is pulling your leg. There is no such thing as a troll retriever Me: no, she's a.... Hubby (interrupts): oh hell we're late. Sorry but we've got to go (grabs me by the collar and hauls me away from the person who is now laughing saying 'i can't believe someone convinced that idiot she was buying a purebred trollers. Come on labradoodle let's go home') :rolleyes:

Naaaawwwww!!! She's gorgeous!! **tries to convince self I don't want another baby....yet** ;) ZF I have a 6 month old and we are INCREDIBLY strict with her and the dogs. Of course my first priority is my daughter, but to a lesser extent I see it as protecting my dogs too. If they never have the opportunity (and I mean literally NEVER-if I walk 3 steps away from the baby and they are inside I stay between them at all times or put them in another room, etc. We are conscious every second of where our dogs are) then I will never have to have them PTS for hurting the munchkin. It's at the point now where she wants to touch them and if I call them over they get the 'no! It's a trick! Don't go near the baby' face on. My older boy is happy to get pats from her though if I'm holding both of them. She thinks they are the funniest things in the world and regularly cracks up when she sees them-SO cute!

still waiting for a reply please :D ditto! Me 3!

I dunno she can't have gone on as long as this thread ;)

Well at least that makes it easier to bath him :) :laugh: they wear you out don't they ;) My boy was only home for about a week when he learnt to open the latches on the crate ... I had to put clips on them so he didn't open the crate at night ... When he was still little we used to keep both dogs separated on either side of the yard during the day when we were not home to supervise but every afternoon when we got home both dogs were on one side of the yard. Couldn't find any holes so we thought the older boy was jumping the fence - so we extended the fence. It was only after I was home sick one day that we worked out the younger dog was opening the latch on his side of the yard and letting the older dog in so they could play. Now if they need to be separated for any reason ... I use a padlock on the gate as he hasn't worked out how to remove them yet :laugh: He can turn on the garden taps ... so they have to be turned off and the handles removed. Sounds like my Great Dane X I kept being told by the neighbours that my dog was out and every time I got home he was happily at home in bed :) since I've been on holidays he has proven just how he got out.... under the gate through the wheel track that he has been making deeper each time it rains now at least we know and now we have to cement the driveway to keep the ingenious dogs in Now that would be a sight to see. Did the owners ever find out and come up with a solution? Um, sort of. They used cheaper rope to tie him up and let our dog continue to walk him every day :laugh: everyone knew but no one minded My very first dog got out one day and got picked up by the ranger at the end of our drive. Same time the next day he did the same thing. He loved going in cars and for the next few months met the ranger out the front of our place at exactly the same time to go for a ride. Thankfully we had a nice ranger who used to drop him back on his way home each day

I spent a good 15 years of my life saying I never wanted kids, only dogs and horses. I was absolutely adamant. When I turned 28 the desire for a child knocked me off my feet and now we have a baby girl. Before she came along, our dogs were our 'children' and got showered with toys, treats, and unlimited attention at their whim. We planned around them and made anthropomorpholical (sp?! And possibly i made up a word!) excuses for their behaviour, good or bad. Now, our daughter is our child and is the light of our lives. The centre of our universe shifted the moment we held her. We still adore our dogs, but they are our dogs and our treatment of them and expectations of them match this. They want for nothing, but they know where they fit into our family. I believe they are far happier (and their behaviour certainly indicates so) and I think I have a far better relationship with them now. As someone that hated when people said 'you don't know what you are missing' I can see it from both sides. IME nothing, NOTHING, has ever come close to the joy and fulfillment I get from my child. I wasn't a kid person really, though I preferred babies to little bratty chatter boxes! I would be happy to have many more children now. I think the people who say 'you don't know what you are missing' fall in to 2 camps, people like me who are amazed by the joy of it, or people who feel better and validated knowing others are making the same decisions as them, be they for the right or wrong reasons. I know people who would have been better sticking to dogs, or really, goldfish. Or pet rocks. I admire people that regardless of their decision are confident in themselves enough to know the decision they have made is right for them. Having kids seems to be an accepted social norm. But there are always going to be people that feel a 'norm' is not right for them and good on them for recognizing it! It doesn't hurt me in any way for you not to have kids, any more than it doesn't hurt me if gay people marry or your dog has a bigger wardrobe than you. If it makes you happy, thats all that matters. JMHO :)

Every year when we take them to the snow about 2 hours into the trip Kodiak works out how to use the button to work the electric windows in the car. We have to lock them or she spends the next 8 hours playing with them We used to live next to a couple that had a GSD they would tie up before they left for the day. Our terrier would wander over 15 minutes after the left, chew through the rope (in the middle) then pick up the end still attached to the GSD and spend the rest of the day holding the rope in his mouth and leading the GSD around the properties

Dammit that's what I was going to say :laugh:

Doofus can smell mentos a mile away! Bear has to get up before sunrise, go outside and lie on her bed for a few hours watching the world wake up. She is wide awake while she does it and will happily spend a few hours meditating on the wonder of it all

Kodi sleeps under our bed, directly under me with everything tucked carefully under the bed (noes, tail, feet) otherwise I'm likely to step on them accidentally! She moves outside just before dawn and lies on her bed, awake, watching the world wake up for a few hours. It's like meditation! Doof sleeps wherever....usually winds up on a dog bed in the lounge room by 1am Neither are allowed on our bed

My guys can't have bones either. Same problem. I have found beef tendons and cow hooves work well though. The only thing I'm surprised at with the vets behaviour is that he didn't put the dog on a food that is sold in clinic. But the vets I worked for were very commercially minded

Part yard, part house. Part of our yard is blocked off and hubby is gradually turning it into what will be a play area for bubs. Inside we just close the bedroom doors. The toller spends most of the day lying on her back with her legs in the air watching the world go by upside down. I do have moments where I wonder how bright that dog is..... ;) :laugh: Doof just sleeps and follows me around, getting under my feet constantly! We put in the dog door cos of his barking and it stopped immediately

Kodiak cos she was a fluffy little brown bear Doofus cos, well it makes sense if you meet him (he was buddy when we got him but everyone kept saying 'you are such a doofus, buddy!' so I took the advice and fixed his name) :laugh: Turtle is Darwin, cos of all the turtles that got eaten on Darwin's voyage Bearded dragon is Komodo cos I ran out of dinosaur names For me, I name them after another animal, or just something that makes me laugh

I completely agree with the OP-it sounds like autism or autistic spectrum. One of the hardest things about these disorders can be because there is no outward appearance of this disability, people tend to look down on you for the child's behaviour. Yes, in this instance the mother should not have had the child at that sort of location. But it is hard to control kids with ASDs and you cop it because people just assume your kid is out of control. They often cannot help the behaviour, just like a blind person can't help accidentally getting in your pathway. As I said, I totally agree that it was not a good place for the mum to be with the kid. But just some perspective regarding the behaviour from someone on the other side. Sorry if I'm not making much sense. I'm very very tired!!!

If a blind child walked into your path, and inadvertently tripped you and startled your dog, would you be as angry?

Naaawwwwwww!! WA they are so cute! Thanks for posting the pic but I got distracted by their gorgeousness :D Last night we had a storm. I was feeding bubs, doof tried to break the door down then tried to get on the bed with me. He was shaking so much the whole bed was shaking. Had to get hubby to take him out so I could get herself to sleep which took ages, then went and wrapped wide bandages around his chest firmly which calmed him down. Got him settled, reassured bear that he is a moron and she doesnt need to be scared of storms, went to brush my teeth and then the bloody alarm in the communal garage went off because it was flooding and the pump was being stupid, so everyone woke up and got into a state again.... Fixed pump, calmed everyone down, went straight on eBay to buy a thundershirt :laugh: Just one of THOSE type nights!