BCPuppy

Eileen, I recently had a donation for quake animal rescue returned unclaimed and have redirected it to ARK. Thank you for posting this link.

RIP Jay Jay, gone to join the angels over the bridge Hugs to you k9angel and young Jack

:DRaw for me. If you can utilise freezer space and afford to buy a little in bulk it is great. I love Leonards pet mince, they usually let me have 5kg for $6. A pet food place also does their miss labeled roo meat at less than half it is in the shops, at $1.50 for 400g, have to buy a box of 24 though. Chicken necks are really cheap, as are frames & wings, most of the big chains do bags of offcuts/ends/scraps for aroung $1.99-3.99 kg, dont always look in the pet food area, quite often they are in the human food area. Chicken livers, any cheap offal on special or markdown. Cheap sardines are good, try them on small quantities first until they are used to them. Vegies & fruit I buy the cheapest and whatever is out of date or bruised and process to a pulp and freeze. Any leftover scraps of meat, vegies, rice or pasta from our meals go into her tub in the fridge, pan juices and gravy which she adores too. It does take a little more effort and I still weigh out and bag up most of her meals for a week at a time, but have been doing it for nearly 2 years now and it is not a chore! She gets around 400g per day, (bones, mince, vegies) one day a week is just bones (big chewie ones), and fish one day instead of mince. I recon it costs me around $2 a day for food. Other than vegies I only shop once every 4-6 months, mainly as I am in a remote area, thosein the city will have the advantage of being able to shop around more and take advantage of specials. I also buy all my treats online, some great bargains to be had. Shop around and as always there is lots of advice here especially if you decide to feed more raw, change them slowly if you do. Good Luck

Oh Lord I am crying buckets here, I feel for you, I have never been in your position and pray it will be a very long time before I am. Thank dog for all the Dolers and their wonderful support, all I can offer is cyber hugs and I will light a candle for you and your lovely boy, I hope you both find the peace you seek.

There are some people some children and some dogs I dont want to share my dining with! There are some smelly rude ones in all of them! I do miss being able to sit on the Freo cafe strip and have a nice coffee and watch the world go by at the end of a good walk with my girl. I think it should be up to the individual business if they allow pets in al fresco areas. We rarely get to the city these days and when we do there are few places to go that we can both enjoy.

Bless you for giving an old soul such love and care for the end of his days. Run free Billy boy and hear the birds and see the flowers over the rainbow

Lots of good advice, I worried about Marlin as she has very BIG hair I try to make sure that she is combed every couple of days to minimise the undercoat, shaving was not an option. She has now gone through her second summer, and we have lots of days where it is over 40. She is very good at finding the coolest spots, we allow her inside so she is happy when the aircon is on, she likes the deck when the breeze is up, and spends lots of time in the bathroom on the tiles. I worried about exessive panting, but the vet assured me it was a normal cooling mechanism. We are lucky in that we can take her to the beach daily but the clam pool and lots of shade.work for her too. In fact for a time the ocean was too warm - 30degrees! Fans are good too. Ice blocks are great, I use butter containers, and sometimes put a little stock in the water as well as treats. On days when even the clam pool water is hot just hose his belly and legs down. I did buy one of the gel cooling pads from daily deals, and they do work but she will only lie on it with a towel over the top, she just moves everytime a spot becomes warm. I have been known to rub ice cubes on her belly which she thought was divine Walks are only very early morning and evening, even then sometimes it was too hot and she would let me know by dragging her feet behind me with head down It will soon be cool again and your puppy will love it, there are lots of people on here with long and double coated dogs living in the tropics, they do adapt. Gorgeous looking boy btw!

I am sooo jealous. Awesome story I have followed from the start. Sarbi is definately a heroine.

Aww that is so sweet. He was obviously sent to help you at this trying time. Hugs to you all, I hope things get better for you.

How wonderful they both survived

Mainly tiles, and some floorboards for us. She has her own beds but likes tiles for their cool. One large rug in living room, was tearing my hair out trying to keep it clean of long BC hair, discovered that a tile grout scrubbing brush does the job brilliantly, its like a heavy duty scrubber but only a couple of rows wide and fits onto a screw in swivel broom handle. Quicker than getting the vac out every day, and now only steam clean rug around once a month.

WOW hasnt this got involved! OP I would like to tell you about my experience. I am in country WA and do not have the luxury of being able to easily visit breeders. When we decided to start looking for a puppy I contacted several around the country expressing our interest and giving them some brief details about ourselves, our lifestyle and expectations. Most did not reply, some replied they would not have pups available for some time, but we had 3 who invited us to contact them even though they had no pups available. We opened dialogue with all of them, two by email, 1 invited us to telephone and gave us suitable times to ring. I had long conversation with a lovely lady who asked me heaps of questions about us and how we lived and what we knew of the breed, and answered my many questions too, she would not promise the sex or colour of a pup, but would put us on her waiting list, and explained she preferred to match pups temperment to the buyer and if we decided to go ahead would expect a deposit when the pup was 4 weeks old. She also sent me lots of information by email after she agreed to put us on the list. The other two breeders had similar dialogue with us by email, one asked us to fill our a form she had prepared with lots of questions on it, we also were priveleged to be put on the waiting list for one of her pups. ventually after about 4 months I got the wonderful phone call to say 'we have puppies, are you still interested?' From then on we had regular contact from our breeder, allbeit not by email as her computer blew up:), I learnt to guage the right time to telephone as she was often very busy with two litters and a rural property! I also remembered to contact the other breeder to let her know I was an expectant puppy owner and got a lovely email back wishing me lots of luck. We had to fly our puppy interstate, and she arrived with two other puppies in the most deluxe cage you have ever seen, right down to the bumper pads around the sides, the breeder was in constant sms contact with me from leaving home in Queensland, to putting them on the plane, and so happy when they arrived in Perth safe and sound. We send photoes every few months and we received her limited papers once we sent evidence she was speyed. I understood that breeders put lots of time and effort into their pups and only want the best for them, also that many of them are very busy and receive lots of enquiries from tyre kickers. I was willing to prove to the breeder that I was worthy of one of their pups, expecially for a working breed that I had little experience of. I had to have patience when the breeders computer blew up and could not get any pictures, and the fact that she had a life too and a busy one at that, and an anxious puppy buyer was not top of the priority list:D OP Please take a deep breath and cut some slack, if you do not get a reply move on and keep trying, there are wonderful people out there who will be more than willing to help you with your desire for a pup, get to know them and go all out to convince them you are the right person for a pup that they have invested much time and love. Have patience and remember that there are more prospective owners than there are puppies. Our breeder found the best match for us in a pup, she is the most loving laid back little girl, and we love her dearly.

Oooh I wish, Marlin runs a mile if I even open the cupboard the Dyson lives in

I cant stop crying at this footage, so caring and loyal, I hope their owners survived too, so glad they are getting attention. Clearing my paypal account to donate right now, i hope it will be of some help.

Would not entertain yearly HW injection because of bad reports both in Aus and the US, my vet did suggest it but I declined and he did not push it, why take the risk. Suspected my girl had mild problem with Advocate so switched to Sentinel Spectrum. We are in a heartworm area, I have no problem remembering to dose monthly.

All of the above, never had skin kids, so the feelings that the fur kid aroused were so unexpected She wasnt even supposed to be mine, but our bond was instant, I had never experienced such unconditional affection and trust, she makes me happy even on the worst of days, has made me laugh more, clean less, walk more, take more time to relax, and has saved many arguments with the OH

RosieFT & ncarter Thanks for the input people, not completely settled on camping so I will have a look. Dont know about chooks, she has never met one! She was OK with a duck on the other side of the fence tho! As for the cold it will be a nice change This summer has been so hot and humid up north we are over it.

Hi fellow sandgropers. We have finally organised to have a holiday after all the hard work building new house and are looking at hiring a camper trailer and spending 10 days down south west WA in May. Has anyone got some recommendations for pet friendly camping and places to explore? Would love to hear everyones experiences, this will be the first time we have camped with her and are really looking forward to it.

How about carrying a bottle of water and bowl and next time you see them stop and offer a drink, I have done this before to be able to strike up a conversation, sort of 'oh isnt it a pain when you forget water for them in this terrible heat' and I continue babling on and throw in a gentle suggestion of walking at a cooler time being better for both two and four legged walkers. Hard when you dont know all the circumstances. I am lucky to be able to walk on the beach as often even at midnight, it is still 30 degrees and we would never get a walk otherwise! so a cooling swim and short walk is all we can do in summer here, especially with a dog with 'big' hair .

My girl still enjoys a tug of war with her lead occasionally But as soon as it is clipped on she behaves as she should. Early days yet as the others say, lots of good advice on DOL, sounds like you are doing everthing right! It is so much fun seeing them learn and achieve. Best advice I can give is enjoy her and take lots of photo's

Catch of the Day has pack of 6 x 375ml bottles of Pet Life Natural shampoo for $19.95. I bought before and seems quite good.

http://www.abc.net.au/rural/wa/content/201...site=brokenhill Bloke being interviewed on the radio said he knows who these people are but refused to go the police with his information

Check out steps made for caravans in hardware stores, they are light and easy to carry around. Not just for the oldies, I use a single one so my girl can jump into the ute without too much effort, otherwise she just waits for me to lift her in I covered the bottom of the legs with some material so it doesnt slip.

How exciting you are getting a puppy :D My girl was already eating some raw mince with rice and vegies, and chicken necks when I brought her home at 8 weeks, but she also had kibble. Reading the Billinghurst books are a great source, lots of info here in DOL, and will help you decide which way to go. I went with raw and have never regretted it. Slow introduction of new food is important for sensitive tummies, and that will be your most challenging time. Eventually you can work out a weekly menu to include all the right things, quality meat, offal, fish, suitable bones and any supplements you feel you need. I give omega oil, and yogurt daily. My breeder advised leaving a bowl of kibble available for free feeding as well, but she stopped eating kibble alltogether after about 6 months of age, so now only gets it in her kong occasionally. She has thrived, and is a solid, lively, healthy girl. It is great that you are doing your research now, sounds like you will eventually have both dogs on the same (raw) diet ;) Good luck, and have fun.

RIP beautiful girl, you were much loved. Dont beat your self up Crispy, we all try to to the best we can for our pals and somethings do involve risks that we cant allways know about.