FranVT

I am so sorry Flashsmum, I have tears in my eyes, goodbye you big beautiful gorgeous girl.

AHAHAHAHhahahahahahahahahahahAHAHAhahahahaha :thumbsup: That is fantastic! I am laughing so hard!

Excellent point Tony, of course I would have worded it more diplomatically, I really wanted to put emphasis on thinking VERY hard and people taking a good hard look at themselves and their situation and doing breed research before picking a puppy, not just impulse buying. I really want to use Atlas as an example of a misunderstood dog who, with some firm handling and good leadership and a fair amount of training, is a wonderful companion and a great pet. Was certainly a learning curve for us, I want to inspire people not beat people over the head about it.

Yep, skipped over that part, fair enough. I haven't had Luuka long enough to actually personally experience her shedding, she certainly doesn't/won't shed as much as Atlas (she is covered in his white hair, sigh), but fair point.

Yeah, a lappie! :laugh: They are awesome and not too "foofy" - not that our poodles ever were either though. PS. lappiemum good work sneaking your gorgeous pics into another thread I just noticed little Princess in your sig too! ;)

This morning in my local paper there was a story on the front page titled "Dangerous Rocky Dog Deported to NSW". This dog was one of 3 seized from a property in my town after a woman was mauled in September last year. She required surgery and 60 steel clips and 20 stitches to patch up her wounds. The other two dogs were destroyed, but this one was sent to Lismore. The local council in Lismore has been notified, as well as surrounding councils. In the end of the article, there is this statement from local council (here): "Mr Dawson said animal control was an area council was concentrating on improving as new legislative requirements come into place. 'We are spending more time on animal management than any other area within the organisation. We readily admit we are not yet on top of our game but we are absolutely committed to making sure we get on top of it over the next year or so.'" What I would like to do is write a positively-worded, non-inciting letter into the editor about possible options / ideas for the local council. The things I want to highlight / suggest / comment on are: More focus on good socialisation / puppy pre-school / obedience training which is offered VERY cheaply in our town and run by VOLUNTEERS at a local dog park. Backyard breeding and buying from petshops on impulse which could be contributing to out-of-control dogs Solid education of children about how to interact with dogs (tied up dogs, dogs in utes, how to avoid being attacked) That's all I can really think of right now, seeing as how I've only had half of my coffee and just read the story. I would really like further suggestions and ideas on how I can make people take notice. I have a feeling (just knowing the journos as I sort of do) that they will actually interview me rather than just take my letter. Perhaps Atlas, Luuka and I will be stars? ;)

Oh of course, god I am silly, of course it's the bigger one for boofhead here! I just bought the one the vet told me to without thinking it was kg weighted Will grab the smaller one sometime, am going to start her on Comfortis when she is 14 weeks.

I have a question about Capstar - it says that I can give it to a puppy over 4 weeks as long as she's more than 11 kg! So does that mean I can't give it at all, or could I give Luuka (4kg) a quarter of one or just nope not at all? She doesn't seem to be flea-ridden it's just that she had a bit of a bite at her tail before and I'm paranoid.

My vet said that she was skeptical when she first heard about it, so she did every single bit of research she could possibly do, and she is sold on it. She thinks it's great. She has had fantastic success with it. Now I just gotta wait until after Luuka is 14 weeks old :D

And I still maintain that why the dog bit is important. Were you there or have you seen the child since it happened? Asking because of what you have wrote about the bite on here. I recall poodlefan asking you a similar question which remains unanswered a few pages back. Hmm.

That's interesting, can the sharp bits on the prawn heads hurt the dogs oesophagus though?

Umm okay is it weird that most of the photos I have of me & OH with Atlas he is sleeping? OH took the first one of me napping with Bull Terrier snout in my face and I took the second one of Atlas who got tired while waiting for daddy to finish with the thing-that's-fun-to-chew-that-mummy-and-daddy-kindly-own-lots-of and come play.

In the local paper here the other day I saw 'wolfhound x dane puppies' not the most unusual mix but after the ad the words "perfect Christmas gift" were printed in red.

That is an excellent point. I will ask the vet about it week after next when I bring her home. I guess you can't give it to puppies? It's not recommended for use in puppies aged less than 14 weeks. Great thanks for that info!

That is an excellent point. I will ask the vet about it week after next when I bring her home. I guess you can't give it to puppies?

Okay so Atlas has access to water in a clam pool during the day but we empty it before and after Frontlining him - which we haven't done in awhile because in my opinion Frontline is RUBBISH these days. I've been recommended Advantage. We have fleas in the ground here (applying permoxin as soon as I can get my hands on some) but we are quite vigilant with flea-combing him. He loves being flea-combed so we make it a nightly ritual and usually only find 1 or 2 on him. It will be much harder with the new puppy though because she is dark and double coated. So if we used the Comfortis could we skip the Advantage or would it be better to use them together? Sorry that was a bit longwinded...

Rappie, can (or should) the Comfortis be used in conjunction with something like Advantage or just used by itself? Will the Comfortis kill adults that jump onto the dog and bite or only ones that are on the dog at the time of the administration of the tablet?

I agree, I don't give a rats about the cost if it works. We've found Frontline to be totally useless on our bull terrier. We find the best thing to do is bath him relatively regularly, use Capstar for acute use and flea comb him regularly. These days I am only finding 1 or 2 unless he goes down to the beach house where they hang out in the sand. Yuk. I am getting a black/tan Finnish Lapphund next weekend and the fleas on her will be harder to see than on our white bully! So I want to make sure the yard is permoxin'd before I bring her home. Can you get permoxin from Bunnings? I will be de-fleaing the whole house this weekend and washing every item of fabric that could possibly be housing the little mongrels.

Okay I have been through this whole thread and it has been incredibly interesting and informative! I have a couple of questions, mostly though I was wondering if someone could give me some tips on how to get Atlas to stack on command? He is pretty good at 'stand/stay' (not perfect but pretty good) but how do I get him to stand properly? Just physically correct him each time so he's stacking properly and hope he picks it up at some point? Use the clicker when he's doing it correctly? We are in the shaping phase of clicker training right now... wait should I be asking this in the training forum? If so, sorry :D

BAHAHAHAHAHAhaahahahahahah ... classic.

The Gold Coast. I will pick her up on the way back.

Oh my god, tears are coming hard, I too want to just gently cuddle that gorgeous pup and tell him everything's going to be okay I do not understand human beings at all

COOOOL I will ask him about it when I'm there! I pick her up the next day after our second lesson! Lol fair enough! I am hoping the 2 (maybe 3) lessons I do down there will be enough to sort my brat dog out, I think it will be, well actually I think I need to be given the right skills to use to be a better leader / handler and I'm a quick learner I'm sure I'll be right!

I TOTALLY would, except that I live a very long way away from Steve and it's not very convenient! If I can do it by distance I will. The puppy preschool at my obedience was really good - this time I'm going to keep going into beginners straight away (or as soon as possible) though

2 weeks today! I can't wait!