PuddleDuck

We feed twice a day. Kodiak apparently can't digest food unless she wanders over to her bed and lies on her back with her legs straight up in the air, for around half an hour. That toller has some really special quirks! Doof doesnt give a flying piglet about food. It has no obvious or immediate affect on him at all

Chubbsie if your cat, which you feel along with all other cats deserves to live the life outside and wander free, decides in its wanderings to visit my backyard, and my dogs kill it, whose fault would it be? Your or mine? (not taking the piss-genuine question)

I have a pig in mud one. Not renting, just got sick of opening and closing doors! I love it-it is one of the best things we ever bought our dogs!!!

Ooooh can I come meet you/him at the royal?! We have a toller and a kelpie x shepherd at the moment. I'm well and truly at capacity (2 bedroom unit with me, hubby, baby, dogs, cat, bearded dragon and turtle...!) but it never hurts to plan ahead! (ie need time to convince hubby!) How are they offlead? The only thing I can see as an issue is that once a year we go to the snow with the dogs for 2 weeks. Mine love love love it! But I don't know how a pharaoh would go there. In saying that I thought my wuss bags would be most unimpressed with the cold white ground but the go batcr@p mental the whole time we are there and get annoyed if we put their rugs on He's just so purty!!!

He is soooo gorgeous!! But...Sorry carlo...that's not enough...need more :D Pharaohs are definately on my 'one day' list. and if you want to educate me more on the breed that's fine too ;) :laugh:

The bag is lovely....but what we really need is more photos of your gorgeous dog!!! Hint hint ;) :D

Is there a good local agility group? One thing that helped the kids in my family who were scared of dogs was to let them put doof through his paces on mock agility courses. He doesn't need to be touched, just point at the jump and say 'over'. Then kick the soccer ball. I think it made them feel in control and it seemed to build their confidence. Soccer worked too, with a rule of you must kick the ball immediately (or he will rush it). He is the favourite goalie now :) My other rule is that 'sitting is how puppies say please'. My dogs are calmed in a sit (Kodiak is a slug when you pat her') so I tell the kids that if they aren't sitting, they are being rude. And what do we do when someone is rude? We ignore them and walk away. So it stops them interacting with the dogs at the wrong times (ie when they are mental!)

Doof was a week when we went to thredbo and came back to Sydney 'via' albury to meet kodi and her breeder. Since then we take them to the snow. Kodi was 4 nights when I had michaela and I obsessed about her the whole time. Before that, only 1 night, EXTREMELLY unwillingly :laugh: Aside from the snow I'm not someone who likes to travel-it holds no interest for me. If it was important I would have made sure kodi was comfortable with nights at grandmas from puppyhood

I really do believe there should be a 'shit happens' clause in the constitution. Followed up by a 'suck it up, sunshine' clause!

I love the name Gibbs! :D Highly considered it for my dal. Along with Dexter and Skylar! xP My old frog's name was leroy jethroe :) Dexter and shrek are on my future names list. I want shrek to be a clydesdale but I need to win lotto first :laugh:

My old girl was called Kerry and within a year of getting her one of my bro's was engaged to a Kerry and another was dating a Kerry. Family member didnt like the girls (horrid gold digger type girls with many kids from different fathers.) was prone to calling out 'Kerry!' at family gatherings and when the girls would turn around he'd say 'no, wait, I meant the bitch. No wait, I that's all of you. The one that eats pal' Worked though. Kerry-dog was around till 20years 11 months, the girls were gone in no time. It did put me off giving pets people names though. Thankfully I've not met a human called doofus!

We got up one morning and couldn't find doof, called him, panicking, searched everywhere, finally found he'd managed to wedge his fat butt under the bed. Thought it was odd, hubby left for work and came in 2 minutes later to say someone had broken into the garage and his car. I always thought doof would bark-damn dog could have at least had the decency to wake us up so we could hide too!!! When I was about 12 dad got me a squidgy teeny puppy who we think was a pitty x cairn. First night home, dad had a friend staying that came home late and dad had asked him to check on me when he got in. Apparently dad woke up to a ruckus, came tearing out and found his mate with our teeny weeny puppy hanging off his pants growling furiously. Dad had forgotten to tell him we had a pup and riff launched himself over as soon as the guy stepped in the room. Riff spent the next 14 years protecting me-dad thought he was the bestest dog ever, even tho riff bit him every time he yelled at me :laugh:

At least you acknowledge the person who was bitten is the victim, though like the others, I'm not sure why you blame the victim for being bitten. It makes me wonder if you also blame victims of crimes for being victims. it makes me wonder if mace owns a dog who bites and blames it on other people who accidently stay within it's trigger zone. I was sitting here wondering if mace owns the dog in question, or knows the owner! PP sorry to hear about your friend. Hope the owners are found and charged

Hooray!!! Such great news!!

Oh Clyde, am so sorry you are going through this. Lots of fingers and toes crossed here

Sounds like vestibular to me too. I've seen a few dogs with it and had it myself. It's awful-I had to hug the walls everywhere I went or I'd fall over, constant sea sickness and hard to lie in bed. It really made me appreciate how hard it would be for a dog

iPhone gremlins

My toller gets just like this if the portable washing line (one of those indoor clothes airer things) that is usually on our deck blows over in the wind. We get home and she is squished into the furthest corner of her bed inside panting and visibly distressed and you have to coax her out and cuddle her for a while before she comes good. It took me a few times to work it out, now I take one look at her and know its blown over. She generally goes and 'wooo-woooooos' at it once I put it up again and then feels better when she has told it off! If there is no medical reason for it, sometimes the most random thing can set them off with anxiety.

That would have been the most gut wrenching moment ever. Thinking of you.

Yep that's the one

From Baghdad with love is great too I just finished re-reading a dogs purpose *happy sigh* I loves that book

I use a local one in winter but try to avoid them. We used to use one of the first ones around and both doof and my old girl wound up with foot infections. When I popped them in to my vet he said 'oh, are you using xyz, because we are seeing a ton of dogs with a fungal infection on their feet and the only thing they seem to have in common is having baths there' Put me right off!

My first dog was a serial escapee. The general consensus was that he did it cos he could-he used to eat (yes eat) through the colourbond fence at the kennels, climb through and spend the whole day sitting on the other side when we went away. He used to get out of our yard every day and sit at the end of the drive. One day the ranger came past and collected him. Bozo thought it was great and made sure he was sitting at the end of our drive at the same time the next day to be collected. And the day after that. And the day after that... Fortunately the ranger was lovely and in the end started collecting him from the end of the drive each morning and taking him for a spin all day, then dropped him home to us on his way home. Bozo loved him. So did my parents

Wouldn't the opposite apply to dogs though? I would want my dogs to be very comfortable with strangers approaching them in case they ever get out. I wouldn't want them to panic and attack someone or run away. Yes but I think it needs to be controlled. Around here people with kids in prams will shove the pram right into the dogs face so their kid can "pat the nice doggy". Kodi went through a period of hating prams because she'd been shoved by them so many times.

You see, I don't get that either. Like another poster my daughter has exceptionally blue eyes and people always comment *. As a baby, people would often stroke her head or touch her cheeks etc and it's just never bothered me. Same with touching my tummy when pregnant, people are just trying to share some joy. I think society is becoming so intolerant and cold towards strangers. I guess it's my country upbringing of being friendly to passersby, people at the shops etc. * Off topic even further but people comment so much on my daughters eyes that now when they say 'what blue eyes you have', she replies "I know, they're the bluest eyes in the world" Out of the mouth of babes. She has come to seriously believe it as she has grown up with strangers telling her that all the time. No, I'm not intoleratnt and cold...but one time a guy came out of a public toilet, wiped his hands on his pants and tried to poke his fingers in my 6 week old mouth, and in the shopping centre a lady sneezed into a tissue, then with the same hand with the tissue in it stroked my baby's face!!!! It's left me wary of people who approach. i wnat to protect my babies from other peoples feral germs. I'm exactly the same willow I wont let people near kayli if I dont know them. Firstly because you don't know where they've been but also cos if I'm out with one of my nieces/nephews or a friends kid who is a bit older I NEVER want to give them the impression it is ok for a stranger to come up and touch you! I see it as part of the whole 'stranger danger' thing Sorry to be OT!