Muttaburra

Thank you so much for sharing, and very sorry for your loss. She sounds a wonderful dog.

Yup! But these dogs have intelligence, character, liveliness, loyalty, and sensitivity, beyond all others. "Best dogs in the world" if you want to talk to their owners.

Sorry to rain on your parade Bayview - Roland Reserve, not so big and overpopulated at times, tidal variations also limiting access. South Mona Vale Headland, - fine, except for a treacherous cliff, that ball chasing dogs and adventurous dogs have lost their lives to. Manly Queenscliff - over populated. Narrabeen - Progress park, Garden Street, - No fencing alongside a busy road, the creek filled with all sorts of nasties. North Narrabeen - Deep Creek Reserve - Infested with Paralysis Ticks - very exposed in summer heat. Come on Manly and Pittwater Councils....... Dog recreation (people recreation) needs to get better than this ! :birthday:

What a treasure, they seem to have such wisdom and resolve. Lessons in love eh?

I live by that rule as well PF, Elvie and Clover pretty much do as they please these days. Lucky they are both pretty well behaved dogs . Kirty i think my Tinny will live forever just to bug me, she is such a loon . My handsome man ...... What a doll!

What a beautiful dog, how you must treasure her, thank you for posting.

Aww, what a lovely story, thank you! Maxi does decline walks now sometimes too, and yes, as other posters have mentioned, he is just a tad spoiled! Really enjoying the stories and pictures of our "senior citizens" My auntie once mention how my grandfather (her father) used to say ........ never fall in love with an animal..... I asked her what that meant, and she said that she thought that "animals have such shorter lives than ours", so then I began to understand his meaning. Wishing all you well with your "Senior Citizens". Thank you for sharing.

here's the teeth

Thanks for Maxi's birthday wishes everyone, anyway he got a couple of new toys and some lamb mince for dinner, whilst we settled for cake and wine Here's a recent pic of him, sometime his gums draw back on his teeth when he sleeps and looks quite funny.

I was thinking along the lines of "earth" dog, and terra meaning earth. ter·ri·er (tr-r) n. Any of several typically small, active breeds of hunting dog originally developed for driving game from burrows. [Middle English, from Old French (chien) terrier, ground (dog), terrier, from Medieval Latin terrrius, of the earth, from Latin terra; see ters- in Indo-European roots.] http://www.thefreedictionary.com/terrier

Thank you for your kind thoughts, and for sharing your lovely stories.... Maxie had some lamb mince for dinner, and extra long walk and is now resting peacefully on my pillow. He also got two new toys to play with. Bless his heart.

So sorry for your loss, she sounds like she had a good life with you.

Today was Maxi's 11th Birthday, have had him since he was 2 years old. If he conforms to the breed norm, he may still have some good years yet, but now it seems so finite. When I walk him and Gracie, people stop and make a fuss over Gracie (too cute) then turn to Maxi and go "Aww, say hello to the old one" (sniff), or "he's getting old now isn't he". ;) Thing is he is still very active agile, still loves a ball game, or any game really, and does not act old at all. His eyesight is dimming, and his face is all grey. Once people used to stop and exclaim "Oh what a pretty boy!", but his lovely "beagle boys" black eye mask and tan trimmings have all faded. I am sure he knows that people don't fuss the way they used to. He is so special and I adore him so much, and my love for him will never fade and only gets stronger. Happy Birthday Maxi :D

Just a heads up. Stumbled over some info about human studies done in Holland and higher mortality for patients with severe pancreatitis (pre existing condition). It is also not recommended for very ill people, so there might be some caution needed with treatment of dogs too? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probiotic (yes the ref is wikipedia but please use the provided references if you need to check it out further)

That's how it looks to me too. I'm sure both my Jacks would love to give me a dental cleaning if I let them. Another thing I notice common in Jacks is sticking out their tongue a lot when being sooked, and also a bit of licking thier own front lips/gums.

There are also some good arguments that the "World food shortage" could be greatly ameleorated by reducing waste. And not just waste of "excess food" that restaurants and comsumers throw in the bin. Other kinds of waste include poor land and water management. Other factors include the economies of the world, farmers still dump tons of crops, cut down their orchards, let their fields lie fallow or "under-produce" when under pressure from low prices. Some cannot even afford to harvest what they grow. Most food shortages are due to management issues.

The motivation I would have for teaching a dog tricks would be more to do with mental stimulation for the dog. Mostly that involves extending natural behaviour of the dog or combining a series of short exercises into a longer one. I agree with Kirty's post that it also can be a part of play, dogs will play together, so why not play and train as an enjoyable activity for people and dogs.

Thanks for your post. "The Forgotten Form of Pollution Each pooch sqanders 0.84ha of land per year on grain and meat productions while world food supplies for humans struggle to keep pace with population increase demands. Already educated people are making a conscious choice not to have a pet, and so reduce a serious environmental pollution." The above words themselves might be considered a cause of pollution. Seems like a very one sided argument. I would imagine the grain and meat in pet food would mostly be "off-cuts, offal, sinew and bone", in other words parts of the animal that is not for human consumption. I take it the author of the quoted comments won't require any of the following, and nor should any dog owners provide it for him/her. They won't want to be found by a dog in a search and rescue mission. This person won't mind the demise of society as we know it, if their were no Customs sniffer dogs to help protect our country from contraband and drugs. They won't want to eat meat themselves, since without the working dogs, meat would be so expensive, only the very rich could afford it. Someone they care about won't be comforted by a by a hospital assistance dog. If they lose their sight or hearing, then they won't want to benefit from an assistance dog. Of course they will need a very expensive medical insurance that we all will have to pay if we "get rid of dogs", this will be due to the increasing risk of heart attack, high blood pressure, diabetes and many other diseases that can be reduced by owning a dog, and all the diseases that come with inactivity from not having regular exercise walking the dog. There would be more poison pollutants if "ratter dogs" were not used. This list is by no means exhaustive.

Natural Immunity is unreliable, since the immune levels can drop from season to season, in other words a dog immune one year may not be the next, so the word is from most of the information sites is to use prevention if there is a risk. My advice to anyone would be to read everything you can about them, and when moving into or visiting a new district, contact the local vets to see what the prevelence of ticks are in that area. For the last 8 years, my dogs and I have lived in one of the highest infested areas around, each year scores of people get caught off guard and most vets are flat out with treating affected animals, quite a few don't survive. The distribution of them is fairly clear cut if you see the map, Preventatic Collar and Adavantix can be used if you are not sure about an area. Sometimes these preventatives do not kill the tick fast enough to avoid symptoms. If you are in a Paralysis Tick area, the only way to ensure that your dog is not host to a tick, is to do daily or 2wce daily checks.

Also the Tick Alert Group that used to have a website, now have their electronic information pages archived at the National Library of Australia at this link. http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/45523/200911...g.au/index.html Here is the Paralysis Tick Distribution Map Description Ixodes holocyclus distribtion map.png English: Distribution map of the Paralysis Tick of Australia (Ixodes holocyclus) Date 1 January 2000(2000-01-01) Source Roberts FHS (1970) Australian Ticks. Yeerongpilly QLD. Author Adapted from Roberts FHS (1970) Australian Ticks. Yeerongpilly QLD by TAGS Inc, Bill Conroy & Norbert Fischer Information available from this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixodes_holocyclus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixodes_holocyclus The above link is very comprehensive, since most of the "tick alert (tags)" website info is now here, their own site has closed down. You could look at this site. Symptoms vary with the individual and can progress in a different order. Also they can crawl right inside an ear, between webbing on toes, inside the anus, and under the gums, so if you are in doubt is best to seek vet attention. http://medent.usyd.edu.au/fact/ticks.htm The initial symptoms of tick paralysis may include unsteady gait, increased weakness of the limbs, multiple rashes, headache, fever, flu like symptoms, tenderness of lymph nodes, and partial facial paralysis. Tick paralysis develops slowly as the tick engorges, which will take several days. Despite the removal of the tick, the patient's condition typically will continue to deteriorate for a time and recovery is often slow. Undetected ticks are another possible reason for any prologed debilitation and should always remain a concern. Improvements in modern medicine and the development of a tick antitoxin have prevented further deaths from tick paralysis in the last 70 years. The antitoxin is available from the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories. Despite these developments, a few cases of tick paralysis in children are seen at major hospitals each year. Additionally, ticks take a high toll on pets every summer. see also http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/pests/paralysis-tick/ The clinical signs in early cases of tick paralysis are non-specific and can sometimes be extremely difficult to distinguish from other disorders, particularly if there is no evidence of tick attachment. Additionally, whilst typical cases develop quickly (usually after 3-6 days) and deteriorate rapidly (within 1-2 days), there may be considerable variation to this. Some cases have been known to progress from stage 2 to stage 3 over as long as fourteen days (Fitzgerald, 1998). Sporadic cases present "out of season" - for example they are ocasionally seen in the middle of winter in the Illawarra. Ticks may also be acquired by pets taken to holiday areas and returning home to a location where local veterinarians do not expect to find tick paralysis (they might expect snake bite, for example, to be more likely). Another problem is that it is not unusual for an animal to show signs and deteriorate even when a tick has not been found- this is probably because some ticks may drop off or be scratched off by the animal and yet the toxin may still be causing increasing signs of poisoning for up to 48 hours later. Therefore when an animal presents with any of the signs below and is known to have been in a paralysis tick area in the previous 4 weeks, an open mind would consider the possibility of ticks being responsible. * Change in voice or bark (usually muted) * Coughing * Hacking (throaty cough) * Retching (straining as if to vomit) * Licking repeatdedly (Maskiell, 2000) * Gagging * Loss of appetite * Lethargy * Groaning sound when lifted * Vomiting * Regurgitation * Salivation (drooling) * Noisy panting respiration (early) * Slow grunting respiration (later) * Wobbliness * "Swimming" weakness- splayed frantic "paddling" in sternal recumbency on slippery surfaces * Weakness in hind limbs * Asymmetry of the muzzle * Pupil dilation (especially in cats) * Ocular discharge, pin-point pupil * Faecal incontinence or diarrhoea * Pain and lameness * Focal Dermatitis * Anxiety, hypersensitivty, distress * Paralysis

Sounds like that, and/or related to separation anxiety, our family had a Labrador that would pull the clothes off the line when no-one was home, and a lot of other antics. They are playful, boisterous, naughty and intelligent.

That's all I've ever heard, and with bonding with each other rather than the owner, and that can potentially make training more difficult.

It does not look like a tick to me. I might be wise to get a needle aspiration of it at the vet.