PuddleDuck

Great news to hear Jed's condition has been upgraded! I hope this is the start of things looking up. Magnus, your mum is going to be OK and its safe to come out. She has a long recovery ahead of her, and you are the best friend to remain at her side as she recovers both physically and emotionally. To Jed's friends and family, thank you for taking the time to provide us all with updates. I'm sure it doesn't need to be said, but know that she is loved and missed and has the hopes and prayers of hundreds behind her every step of the way, for as long as it takes. For all of those wonderful DOLers and others providing so much help. support, everything, thank you. I feel so blessed and lucky to share this corner of the universe with you.

There are no words. RIP little ones, and healing thoughts and vibes to Jed...you are such an important member of my favourite community. You are so loved and we will be with you every step of the way on your recovery.

I think that sounds pretty awesome! Are they the same as the dogs that can sniff out the point of origin/cause of a fire?

Wow Mita - I wouldn't have picked a Tibbie for that sort of work - although I can see why it would make sense. I often wonder with the customs dogs, particularly the labs, you would think they would crush a lot of the packages the have to climb over and sort through ValleyCBR, Heavypaws thats awesome! And gotta say, SuperHero Powers is a great name

A friend and I were talking about dogs that have special jobs - guide dogs, assistance dogs, search dogs etc. I know of a toller owner in North America that does avalanche search and rescue with her Toller - its amazing what they can do! It got me thinking that there must be heaps of dogs out there with amazing jobs that I dont even know about....so - whats your favourite dog with an amazing job?? I know we don't have the risk of snow avalanches here - but what is the most awesome job for a dog that you've heard of in Australia, and why?

OK, if you insist :cool: ***trots off to tell husband to make room on the bed for another puppy***

Yup, had to do it many times and it's always worked. The only time I've had a problem was when the dog came from behind and I didn't have time to get between them. I do the same as well, always step up and give a growly "GIT OUT OF IIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTT" and they usually bugger off. If the dog showed signs of human agression instead of just trying to get to my dog, I would probably still get between them - my dog is my responsiblity. It is my job to keep them safe, and I'll stand between any threat and them whenever I can. I know its probably not the smartest thing, but its just the way I am, and so far we've been alright! A side story - When I was younger my horse and I were getting bailed up by an ACD that was loose around the corner from the stables - Jimmy (my horse) was petrified of dogs and I was young, getting upset and convinced he'd make a run for it and it'd all be over. I wasn't riding, just had him on a lead beside the road having a pick at the grass. When the dog got about 5-10m away from us, he ripped the lead out of my hand, charged past me and chased the dog down the road, then came trotting back to me so I could catch him and went back to his eating. For the rest of the time I had him, he was petrified of dogs, just as he had been before that day. It was a truly amazing moment....he could have easily taken off in the other direction which was honestly what I was expecting!!! One thing - I'm also 99.9% aware of what is around on walks - I wont go to an offleash park and its rare to find an unleashed dog in my area - usually a quick shout of "mate - there is a ranger round the corner, put a lead on your dog. He almost caught me without a lead and he's giving out fines" has people putting their dog on a lead - although I wonder what they think when they get around the corner and there is no ranger there . I dont really want to have an argument with them about leashing their dog, or talk to them about it. I just want their dog on a lead. I find if I am out walking with other people they tend not to pay as much attention as I do - they dont look ahead and get a surprise when there is a loose dog in their face, which probably scares their dog a bit as well.

Definately worth seeing a trainer. I have some friends with dogs that pull like crazy and they all swear by the sporn harness. Apparently its brilliant for dogs that pull. I've not used one, but one of the dogs is large and slightly nuts and it makes a world of difference for him

What a beautiful story, and a lucky partnership. Thank you for sharing - so inspirational.

I was attacked by a bassett hound about 6 years ago. At a kennel I worked at, he had a severe case of food agression and no-one had told me until after I spent 10 minutes fighting him off. It was quite horrid at the time (ears, loose skin and teeth flying everywhere ) In hindsight, it gives me a good laugh, such an unlikely breed. Do I like bassett hounds now? Not overly fussed on them (sorry to all who own them, I'm not wanting to have a go at them, just to make a point). Would I own one? No. Do I think they should be banned??? Absolutely not. Whilst my (very short) experience with the breed was not a positive one, I can understand that like all breeds, there are the right owners out there, and a handful of idiots. Unfortunately its the idiots that leave the memories. At the same time I was also working around an ex-fighting rescued pit bull who was described as having been "blooded". He was a scarred up gentleman, with a bad front leg from a break that had never been treated properly. He was trained to attack dogs and people. And by attack, I do mean severely. I have, never, in my life, met a gentler dog. He lived at the stable where I kept my horse, had people coming and going all day, other dogs coming past his yard, and I never once heard him growl. He was a dog that had every single reason to be human and dog aggressive. I remember one day wandering through his yard with the girl who ran the property and he was hiding under some bushes and wouldn't come out. We walked onto the back deck and there was a TINY hole in a rubbish bag that had been left there. Someone had called him off it and he'd gone and tucked himself away immediately. When he came out he was initially submissive, but back to being himself quickly. (And of course just want to point out that he was kept under dangerous dog conditions and very very carefully handled etc)

I think it would be sort of like driving a car with no comprehensive insurance, having a crash and calling the insurance company to take out a policy before getting out of the car to see how bad the damage is. I dont think there are any insurance policies that would cover it. Hope things have improved overnight

I think that precautionary xrays would not be covered - however if those xrays were part of a diagnosis for a condition requiring veterinary intervention. I think that all of the procedures you want done would be classed as "optional" not "necessary" veterinary treatment and as such wouldn't be covered. Kimigirl is right though - if you are going to have diagnostic xrays taken, make sure you take out the cover first or any conditions which were diagnosed as a result of the xrays (and hopefully there would be none!!!) would be classed as pre-existing. You will need to submit a full veterinary history with your first claim.

Are Banksia park and ACA the same?

That was my thoughts as well Stormie - for us DOLers, it probably seemed like they could have gone harder at it. For Joe Public - would too much more have just pushed them into the "I can't handle the thought of it" category? It also felt a bit like the RSPCA were testing the waters a little - they only recently released that report on puppy farms. I will say it was more balanced than what was in the PDE doco - at least the other side got to tell their story I wont be going near any business Steve Austin associates with in future. I reckon Perdy might have it right there

Is anyone else surprised by Steve Austin's statement for selling pups in pet stores? I didn't realise he was on the oodle side of the fence. Quite well done though I thought

I've only ever flown a dog domestically, so not sure about where or how to pick up, but my best advice is to take a towel or 3! Kodi had peed in her crate and was a bit gross when we first picked her up, then when we got in the car she spewed all over me, twice. Someone else to drive the car is also handy, so you can be spewed on

Bwahahahahahaha :p Absolute gold! Good doggy

Human toothpaste is designed to be spat out, not swallowed. From memory, it contains high levels of flouride which can cause stomach upsets if ingested. The special dog toothpastes available are designed to be swallowed, as most dogs won't rinse and spit after having their teeth brushed ;)

I give it every 6 weeks as well - it does say in the instructions its fine, plus it saves some money, but most importantly I like to limit the amount of drugs that the dogs are getting ;) I do have to put a reminder in my phone for it - it is a bit harder to remember than monthly.

We use Sasha's for Doof - he tends to jar up after chasing the ball or running around a bit - usually seems to hurt his back. Since he was on the sasha's he hasn't jarred up once, we are really impressed with it. It does stink like you would not believe but the dogs love it dry over their kibble. We ran out recently and they both refused to eat without it!

Binx, I'm definately 100% happy after making a claim. To be honest, it was less than 6 months from when we took out the policy to when we made the claim and I was worried that they might have knocked us back trying to claim it as pre-existing or something. Don't get me wrong, I wish it was less than 3 weeks to wait to get the refund but now its come through and I'm booking us and the dogs in for our winter vacation with the money As I said before the main reason in taking it out was because my brother's dog just had a $8,000 spleen removal (which turned out to be completely unwarranted but that it a different story), and they've had another dog with a $16,000 heat stroke previously. I knew if I was in that position, I'd be selling the car, hell, our home if I had to (which was worrying the hell out of my husband!). Regardless of who you end up going with I think the cost is entirely worth it for the peace of mind.

Hey Rottylover, totally understand - I was a bit nervous of them when I read your posts too! I just thought I should share my experience because they really were lovely and helpful for me. I hope your issue is all resolved now If you don't mind my asking, what condition were you trying to claim for? Mine was a straight lump removal with no previous history, and no other lumps noted on Doof, which probably helped a bit too.

I have to say - I'm with Bow Wow Meow and just processed our first claim. We took out the insurance late-ish last year after my brother's dog needed an $8k surgery and I panicked over what would happen if that was our dogs! They cost less than 90c a day for both the dogs (we did choose a $500 excess). Doof had a fast growing (and thankfully benign) tumor in his elbow, unfortunately it was actually under the muscle so the surgery that we expected to be under $500 was actually well over $1000! We first noticed it around Christmas, so not too long after the insurance started. When we first put the claim in after reading some of the comments in here I was worried that they wouldn't approve it. We sent it registered post on Monday and got a courtesy text on the following Thursday saying it had arrived and we should recieve details of the assessment within 3 weeks. I called a few times (not all relating to the claim, needed to update credit details etc) and found the staff helpful and really nice, the one day I couldn't get through to them I left a message and was called back within an hour. The claim was approved last week and I was able to have it changed from a cheque refund to a direct refund to our account with no problems. As I said I was a bit worried after I saw some of the comments on them but I found them fantastic to deal with and very efficient. All up it took exactly 1 month from when we sent the claim to when the refund was in our account.

I second that, we used to have heaps of problems with them in the pantry at our old rental and bay leaves drove them away straight away! They can get into anything so even though you assume something is airtight they can probably still squirm in. Another thing to bear in mind, this may not have happened at the distributors level. It may have occured during transport - the life cycle of these bugs are really quite short and they could have been travelling next to a box with some other infested stuff in it.

Doofus...well....if you met him, you'd understand why