Robbi

After havingthe pleasure of meeting Dory on Sunday I think you can tell people she is 100% gorgeous and a purebred cutie and quite the social butterfly As the owner of the worlds biggest Whippet I have had my share of people telling me he is definately a Greyhound, when I point out I know both his parents, have his papers and that he was shown as a puppy they still wont believe me :p I have people tell me when I walk my elderly Kelpie" isnt it time to put her down" and poor old dog comments galore, these really upset me more than anything else as I know my old girl and know when the time will come I dont need strangers making assumptions that because she is slow and stiff and blind that she has no quality of life :D

What a lovely afternoon, all the dogs behaved so well,I returned a very tired Jackie Chan to my mother, she loved the stylish coat Yogi has slept all afternoon! The pups were all very cute and it was great to meet Fran :D

I love cows, I am looking out the kitchen window at my eight year old"poddy calf".....lol Dougal is now a great, big, fat Black Angus bullock, I have had him since he was a few hours old and he still thinks I am his mum. I made sure he was castrated by our local vet once he got "bully" and I taught him to walk on a headcollar and lead rope when he was a couple of months old, he still walks placidly next to me. I wish my house cow was as placid. Thankyou for giving the little guys a chance to live, cows are very special, peaceful animals Chockie my milking cow and Dougal my big baby boy

All my dogs have always been de-sexed and I have had a variety of combinations- male/female, male/male/ female, male/female/female and female/female and never had any problems except when the two bitches lived together without a male and boy did I have a few fights, two fights ended up with BIG vetbills and these girls had lived together for years but they were both quite dominant in nature, one was a Kelpie and the other a Staghound they were best friends 99% of the time but something would trigger a fight and they would try to kill each other, one fight was at the beach, they were playing together and running around when Charli knocked Jess accidently and Jess bit Charli on the neck causing blood to pump out, Charli pulled half of Jess's ear off I rushed them back to the car and drove like a maniac to the vet with them happily sitting on the back seat licking each others wounds(my car looked like a blood bath)

I just checked the Mt Gambier Council website, currently they have no impounded dogs The SEAW also has no dogs available for adoption at the moment but they do charge $150 for their dogs, this is to cover the cost for the de-sexing, I wonder where this guy is? ETA- Sorry I must have misunderstood this thread, I thought he was at SEAW, they dont release dogs without de-sexing them, I am a bit confused

I am glad you are going, I feeling awful seeing that I started the thread and I now haven't been able to go myself hopefully there will be a good turn out of people to show their support. I may be sitting at work but in spirit I am at Goolwa.

Well I am sorry but I dont think culture or ignorance is an excuse for cruelty-Abuse is Abuse which ever way you look at it. If the dogs in Afghanistan are living in ideal situations why is it that in Helmand province the American and British soldiers have started an organisation called Nowzad dogs, to try and ease the suffering of the dogs and already 80 dogs have been adopted and flown out of Afghanistan. On the upside, a vet for the Royal Veterinary Corps has been vaccinating and de-sexing local dogs around Kabul and giving leather collars to owners in exchange for the barbed wire ones, his article was published in a recent HSI newsletter.

Thank you a friend told me about the memorial service but couldn't give me any directions to the memorial.

This Saturday 26/6 at 11am there is going to be a memorial service in Goolwa, South Australia for Herbie, the bomb detection dog killed in action in Afghanistan. the general public has been invited to attend with their dogs. I would like to attend this service but I cant work out where the actual memorial is in Goolwa, can anybody give me directions please

No, but they can be very, very inhumane. I have a friend serving in Afghanistan at the moment, he asked a local why none of the dogs have ears, apparently it makes them more aggresive having their ears cut off. The dog fighting problem s endemic in many muslim countries and in Afghanistan it is a public holiday for the biggest dog fighting day of the year, apparently by the end of the day 100,s of dogs are killed and maimed. Religiously sanctioned animal abuse is stil abuse. When the taliban came to power in Afghanistan, the pets were rounded up and taken from peoples houses and burned on a large pyre by the religious zeolots. I read a book about a family who managed to smuggle their dogs out just before the dog killings began. The koran however has a subclause about dogs, it says about all dogs being unclean except Salukis, who are classed as the hound of Allah and not really dogs but something very special and quite okay to share a tent with.

Jed, I wish we could take some of your grief and pain away from you, please know that you are truly an inspirational woman to me and I am sure everybody else here on dol, the loss of your dogs is heartbreaking. On the more selfish side, thank goodness you are well enough to post, some of the bsl threads turned quite ugly without your voice of reason and wisdom.

The MDBA has the ability to unify dog owners and breeders into a cohesive unit to fight bsl and other dog related issues that crop up in Australia. To often as dog owners we turn on each other and our different breeds, this plays straight into the politicians and medias hands as we come across as a non professional entity rather than a force to be reckoned with. I have a strong belief that with MDBA we now have the people with the experience and wisdom to stop bsl in its tracks and an organisation well worth joining. I have always thought that regardless of which breed or interest in dogs a person has first and foremost one should love and have an interest in the wellbing of ALL dogs, this is something which I believe MDBA embodies.

What happy, healthy little guys you have there. I am sure that you will find loving homes for them all, thankyou for giving them a far better start in life than they would have had

Top Spot Kennels between Mylor and Echunga have always been where we take our dogs. They have a website if you would like to take a look at them http://www.topspottdalmatians.com/ I cant recomend them more highly, they cope with my different dogs and their different needs/whims

:D I agree Kiisindra, Jed you have always been a voice of reason and intelligance, compassion and common sense. As a community we carry you in our hearts and thoughts each and every day, at any moment you are never alone as somewhere there is a candle burning, a positive thought and love being directed at you. We weep and grieve for the loss of your beautiful dogs and we will be with you every step on your path to wellness.

I also have been using a front connecting harness on one of my dogs and I would like to re-iterate the ops point that they really do work. It seems too simple and I keep trying to work out the leverage system etc but I also think it gives the dog nothing to lean into. I have had a few leash re-active moments with Abbie whilest we have been on walks and I have been simply able to turn and walk her in another direction since we have been using the harness, actually her re-actvity level seems to be dropping dramatically with the harness and "bar open, bar closed" approach

Romeo(Yogi) was exhausted by all his puppy molesting and has slept all evening. Abbie apologises for doing her tassie devil impersonation and promises to be more polite after doing her scholars in collars course. Jess is still in front of the pot belly and doesn't know what fun she has missed out on It was a great day and lovely to meet some new people and dogs, Frosty is adorable and Yogi is in love with a certain young Coolie lass(sorry Rosie, he is a typical fickle male)and I would have smuggled a very cute chow home with me if I could

My darling Kelpie Jess is 17 years old, she is blind, deaf as a post and on metacam for her arthritis but she is still top dog here and loves a little walk or drive in the car. Here is a photo of Jess at a dol meet in Adelaide a few months ago.

My son is 10 years old and he just adores Yogi Whippet and finds him easy to walk on the leash, great dogs for children, as long as children are gentle and dont take advantage of the Whippets gentle nature. I dont worry too much about rugging Yogi in winter as I find he doesn't get out of bed

I have a strong Bull Arab x and tried to just keep her in a flat collar, then we moved to a martingale collar and she was still strong, then due to a recomendation I bought a front connection harness and it is the best thing It was an immediate and drastic change, we now have no pulling or lunging on our walks, it is so simple but it really does work for us

I remember about eight years ago(?) There was an entire litter of Borzoi pups stolen in South Eastern Victoria. They were never seen or heard of again. We must all think the worst of society and guard our dogs from thiefs and others out to do harm to them unfortunately My dogs are in the house when I am not home even though I live on a rural property.

As the sun breaks and the mist starts to lift for another day, I go outside and feed my old horses. Every morning I take you with me in my heart Jed, for I know these will be the moments that will heal you in the future, the quiet moments with horses softly whickering for their hay, dogs snuffling through the undergrowth enjoying the morning smells in the dew, birds calling noisely in the trees.

In a perfect world people who have surrendered pets for pathetic reasons should be banned from any further pet ownerships. I wonder what excuses dogs and cats would use if they were allowed to surrender their owners(although dogs being so much more forgiving and loving they probably wouldn't) -my owner doesn't feed me- my owner doesn't walk me or ever let me out of a prison cell/yard-my owner hurts me, is cruel and heartless-my owner ignores me for days. Sorry that was a bit off topic but I just cant fathom what pi$$ poor excuses our wonderful rescuers must have to listen to on a daily basis

RIP Troy, you were very brave.Watch over your little owner from the bridge We have such monsters in our society, words fail me

Nibblies and a thermos of coffee sounds the way to go I will bring sweets(chocolate) and a thermos.