The Ark

Having a poultry flock, and a great fear of all things viral I have a great love of Virkon-S - a viricide which apparently kills any disease on the face of the earth. I haven't been able to get it while we've had our pups, though - everyone is out of stock. It apparently kills things that even bleach won't. I really wish we had a completely separate whelping/growing area. Our pups are in our entry-way, which we don't use while they are there (we use the garage door instead). However, their mum goes out to the front yard to toilet/relax, so who knows what comes back in on her! Our dogs are all vaccinated, and the one dog we have from a pound (dumb decision, but he's now safe) I had swabbed for parvo and found clear. I am aware that every time we walk out the door and back in again we are potentially tracking germs in, and tried not walking on the pup's flooring to limit their exposure, but now they are allowed to have little "adventures" in our living area so all quarantine is out the window! I still shower and change clothes if I go anywhere especially risky (eg. the vet, a farm where dogs may not be vaccinated), wash my hands before touching the pups, and wash/change clothes if I've been interacting with our others, but I figure that's all we can do. Ideally I guess you would have them in a completely separate area until 8 weeks, with the mum toileting and playing in an attached area where there have been no other dogs. I'd be interested to hear what others do with other show dogs in the household (or any dogs, for that matter) because I guess any dog can cross the tracks of a parvo-infected animal on a daily walk. My min pin that I show is obviously an inside dog - he doesn't have direct contact with the pups (same as Nessa) but is still in the house, and has access to the areas that the pups now get into occasionally (not at the same time, but they are still "sharing" a space).

Hi Piper! Bunnings stuff is great! I went there to buy stuff to make a whelping box, when the closest one we could find was Adelaide (close for you, I guess), and ended up with a kids' sandpit kit. It had all the timber pre-cut, brackets, screws - everything I needed. 1/2 hour to assemble it, then painting (took the longest) and it worked a treat! Jazz looks lovely - very switched on! Where is she up to with herding? Deb

Grooming table on ebay Theres a 2 berth show trolley on the DOL classifieds too. Oh I forgot I kinda did get something dog related for xmas. Technically my xmas present was my 4-berth trailer from the OH. Steph - How can you forget a 4 BERTH TRAILER???? ;) I think that counts as a dog-related Xmas present. I turned one down - my darling husband suggested that we could possibly get one, but I have spent, way, way, way too much money on animals ("spent" sounds like I've stopped, which isn't true ) so I said no. Our car is going to be pretty crowded soon though with a Maremma pup, one or two Aussies plus poor little Chester squeezed in somewhere - and before you offer, Bec, I'm sure you would be happy to take Chester for me, but I'm not sure he'd travel in the right direction on the way home....

Thanks Sammy!!! Have a great day all.

Merry Christmas, Newbies!!!! Bugger - my Christmas emoticons won't open!!! (Imagine lots of dancing Santas & sparkly bits here :D ) I look forward to seeing everyone next year - and meeting many new friends! Deb :p

2 points, thats just not fair is it? No shows here, starting 2010 at hilsbro around jan the 15th I think! I know! Only two for Riley and 3 for Holly - Holly got the last 2 BOBs and Riley the two RuBOBs, if Riley had taken one BOB instead he would have had his title and been retired from the show ring - he doesn't like showing much. I've only titled one dog so far who was Ruby, hers here mostly 6 or 7 point challenges (one 11 pt challenge that titled her at the Royal though) so titling Holly and Riley is going to be so exciting! I know a few people that only needed a handful of points before the new year to title dogs, some happened some didnt! It's SO frustrating - little Chester only needs 100 points! Almost there! Hopefully all your lovelies will be Champs come January. Deb

Holly has such a gorgeous head, Lyndsay! Red merle are probably my favourtie but then I'm biased!

I'd be really interested in this too. I was just thinking that a scooter would be easier to fit in the car than a bike, and didn't realise there was a special "dog scooter" out there! I have a min pin who needs to go fast to burn off some energy before doing any satisfactory "walking". I figure a scooter might be good for this. (Sorry for getting your hopes up regarding a useful reply to your post, paddles - just wondering the same thing as you )

I'll be a maybe....

Can't wait to see Toby with a little sister. ;) Poocow - I know where there are some really nice blue merle Aussie pups that will be ready soon.... ;) ;) (Not that I am wishing Top any ill health )

She's cute - but look at her BIG SHARP FANGS!

He's very cute, Freckles - and I love the name! See you at Morisset (hopefully). :D

Hi everyone, I'm just attempting to post a photo of my Maremma girl, Lurgenglare Aurea. I chose this thread because it feels the safest! Yay - I think I got it! Deb

Well done Taite and Two Spirit! It's exciting, isn't it, getting those first points!

More action here! Congratulations Rascal, Chopperlodge & Partipaws - and sorry to hear of your foal, Chopperlodge. All of the puppies are so beautiful. There has been mention on here of noisy pups - ours had a very noisy day yesterday, too. Vivi has been out of the box a bit so I'm not sure if she is a bit hot, or sore from feeding, or just over motherhood altogether! She is eating and drinking so she seems fine, and the pups are all making good gains. At least 2 of our boys will pass the 1kg mark on their 7 day birthday tomorrow. They put on 103g and 106g yesterday. We have had a very easy time of it with our very first litter - Viviane just seems to be a natural mum and is doing an awesome job of fattening the puppies and cleaning them (haven't seen any poo on them since the very first day). Is there some "rule of thumb" with pups about doubling birthweight by a certain time, or any other clues to weight gains? As long as they are gaining I guess that's okay. Deb

Hey Sammy. We are with Maitland Dog Obedience Club at Largs on Sunday mornings. Will PM you.

Yay Morgie - not far to go now!! How old is Morgie, now?

Hi Dotty, Glad to hear the leash training is going well. I need to get my BWF (Maremma) girl on lead properly soon.... Puppies are awesome! They are so gorgeous, each and every one (even our little white pattern black tri girl, Misty). Here's the link to our photos of them - http://picasaweb.google.com/GODOPTOM/VivianeSPups# We are keeping the red tri boy - he is going to be my hubby's new obedience buddy. I really wanted a girl for showing, but unfortunately a white pattern black tri isn't going to meet that criteria so I'm not sure what to do now. The blue merle boys are going to be beautiful - each one has lovely colouring in very different ways. Just not sure that we should be keeping two boys from the one litter. I am looking forward to meeting Peach in the New Year - and have heard through our obedience club that there may be another red merle baby girl in the show ring as well. Exciting times for the Aussie newbies!

The things that make my skin crawl in this thread are not the spiders but the LIZARDS! I am fine with spiders and snakes (don't want to cuddle them, mind you, but can appreciate their beauty) but LIZARDS - HUGE PHOBIA! I guess I'm not scared of them, just can't bear to look at them and couldn't possibly touch them - they give me the heebies. Spiders are safe at our place unless they are redbacks, or I get sick of walking through their webs in the morning. I do like huntsmen, and will generally leave them alone. If they make it into the bedroom they just get carried outside. Is it true that dogs don't react to redback bites?

Wow, this thread took some catching up on this morning! Congratulations to all who have had litters in the last couple of days since I've had a look. The puppies all look so beautiful. :thumbsup: Our own litter of 5 is going nicely - big weight gains for most of them so far. A couple are still gaining but lagging behind a little so I might watch them to make sure they don't get shoved out. A big thanks to Aziah for all of her online support while we were whelping! As newbies, your moral support and advice was greatly appreciated!! :laugh: Good luck to those still waiting. Deb

Congrats to you too, KR - great gender arrangement there! I haven't had any sleep at all as we are still waiting on Vivi to deliver her last pup (unless she's got some more hiding). I'm really hoping this last pup is a girl, as we have 3 blue merle boys and one red tri boy, but our only girl so far is a non-standard coat pattern. They are all cute and wriggly and nursing well, though, so we are very happy!

Photos of our pups so far can be seen here; http://picasaweb.google.com/GODOPTOM/VivianeSPups#

I just had a shocker when I read this - I was reading through and saw "fingers crossed you get bob".... so I thought "wow, Steph must be looking at getting a male field now, although bob is a funny name...." :D So I went trawling back through all the posts trying to find one where you mentioned looking for a new dog.... only when I didn't find one did I work out what Bec meant! Go Ch. Morgie (almost)! Deb

Martin Strong was my suggestion, too! Although, now we are about to have our first litter here any day I have found out that the vets at Motto Farm are only on-call until 10pm at night!!! After that the phone switches through to some Newcastle Emergency Animal Clinic at Broadmeadow which is a long drive for us if Viviane has any whelping problems in the middle of the night. That was a bit disappointing.... One of our friends is a dog vet at Belmont Animal Hospital. You also get good treatment at Sugarloaf Animal Hospital (Mark Simpson) at West Wallsend, but I think the prices there may be on the high side (I'm happy to be corrected on that). Deb :D

I do it. Just check the dosage rate on the small dog packet, and make sure you use the correct dosage when splitting the big tube. Of course a rep is going to say "don't do it"! If you can't find a packet with the correct ml/kg dose rate then just google it - most products will have a data sheet accessible somewhere online. I tip the whole tube into a small container/test tube, then use one of those syringes with 0.1 measurements on it to make sure I get the right dose for each dog.