The Ark

Oh my goodness you are copping it there, aren't you! I won't complain about the tiny little bit we've had here. BTW - I have now announced in the Aussie thread that Ava is going to be a big sister! We have Aussie puppies due around 6th January, so feel free to pop in there for photos.

Good luck, ishy. I don't know much about grooming beagles, but have you tried chalking her paws/legs to help make them look whiter on show day? I hope it's not too wet for you, and that you have a great time! Congratulations on your successful first show with Oberon, pixie_meg. It is a bit disappointing when you don't have competition - I've often been in that position with my min pin and my Maremma. It sounds like Oberon was very relaxed and happy so that is great!

Note to self: hide all softdrinks AS WELL as all poultry over Christmas period............

;) You are clever!

I've got a copy of the show and started watching the first bit – will try to finish it tonight. What I saw was very interesting although the voiceover and music was a bit dramatic. Made me giggle. When I was reading/watching "My Sister's Keeper" I was intrigued about the service dogs that can 'smell' when their owners are about to have a seizure and give them a warning. Extremely cool – but kind of weird at the same time. Sometimes I stare at Elbie and wonder what he can smell and whether he's overwhelmed by how smelly we are. On an unrelated but sort of tangential issue, Elbie and Hoover have totally different smells! Elbie has Traditional Dog Smell. He smells like a dog. Hoover on the other hand, smells almost like grass and herbs. I initially thought that it was because he was on the breeder's diet when he joined us and was from a farm but he still smells herbal even after all this time. Haha. Maybe that explains why he's so chilled and laid back, too. Last night OH was making a Christmas present and was using a heat gun – Elbie went absolutely bonkers and Hoover gave one sympathy bark in support of Elbie but was otherwise completely relaxed. ;) Niques: Your wish for an Australian Shepherd can be granted! I believe the Ark might have an upcoming litter in the near future ;) Imagine how cute James would look next to his Aussie Shepherd Sibling. :p The Ark: Haha! It does look like the Canberra thread sometimes but only wuffles, Clastic, KumaAkita, Primedogs, CleoJ and I believe foxyboi are in Canberra. The others are from Other Parts of the country. Your dogs are beautiful. Our two have gone on only two walks during this patch of wet weather but they seem to keep themselves pretty entertained by chasing each other around the yard/house and chilling out. I am very admiring of devoted dog owners who take their dogs our regardless of the weather – OH and I are not like that :p I guess we're lucky we have two couch potatoes who don't get destructive. The toileting problem has been partially resolved by taking them out one at a time on lead. Yes … there's usually no malice intended … it's kind of an unconscious way to make oneself feel better. I also used to see it a bit at school when I was little … white kids would bully an ethnic kid and then ethnic kid would go and bully a weaker minority kid ;) Oh well. I am so glad that the thread didn't implode with toxicity like some threads do. I don't have video footage unfortunately but Kuma definitely goes running around in the offlead area at Dog School with the other doggies but the funny thing is that quite often when he comes to a standstill, he finds himself draped with little dogs. * In other news, to my relief, the rescue group was happy with the video of Patch – who I agree could go well as a Pluto. To my relief, I was able to put together a short video for the other 'urgent' rescue dog, being . I had almost no photos or description of her so the video is very short but I hope it's enough to show off her pretty eyes, pretty colouring and lovely affectionate nature. It's so much easier when I can see the dog in person and OH can take photos and I can take the video footage. We'll be visiting one of Kate's foster carers this weekend to take footage of two foster doggies My humble apologies for assuming everyone in here lives in Canberra (too lazy to go and check out everyone's sigs ). The videos you put together for the rescue doggies are wonderful, KTB. How lucky they and their foster-carers are to have your help. ;)

Hi Canberra people! I've been assured I won't start a fight if I come in here, so I've popped in to post some pics of Ava's family as requested. Firstly - here are her two brothers. Dragon is the blue, Tally is the red. And here is a pic of the two boys with their mum, Vivi. Vivi did not feel like having her photo taken at that particular moment. :D

I did comment, but thought the same thing afterward. We need a calm, well-worded response that will hopefully invite the programme to spend some time righting the wrong. Nothing radical and heated.

I could cry after listening to this. :D And I like Richard Aedy (usually). How much damage is done by idiots such as Adam Elliot with throw-away lines such as "purebred dogs are in trouble because of all the in-breeding", with absolutely no evidence required to support the statement? That has cost the pet industry/BYB/puppy farmer NOTHING and there's their message out there yet again for all to hear : Crossbred good, purebred bad. (Big, big swearing session going on here.......) :) ETA: Thanks for bringing it to our attention, Gail.

With a large mixed pack we have found it vital to have areas to separate particular dogs. We are lucky in that we live on 2 acres, and thanks to my Dad who has done a lot of fencing for us we now have several outside areas available to different groups of dogs at different times. We have 4 Aussie Shepherds, 1 Maremma, 1 greyhound, 3 mini pinschers and 1 foster (terrier x) at present. The two male Aussies spend most of their time in their "paddock" with the Maremma as they can cope with her play and they can run and dig to their hearts' content. The female Aussies tend to be in the front paddock/house yard at the moment and happily share with the terrier x (now that he knows Stella is boss). The min pins are inside/outside in our back house yard with the greyhound as they all get along very well. The terrier does NOT like the greyhound so they can't be left alone together. Obviously the little dogs aren't safe running around with the big boofy Aussies in case they get stepped on or squashed, so they are separated unless I am with them. It all turns to fun and games when one of our entire girls is in season - then there is a large dog run that we use (6 foot fences) and we make more use of spaces inside the house. And it all changes again when we welcome a new foster dog as the dynamics are always different. Food - with different breeds/sizes we feed each dog basically a dry diet which suits its needs, supplemented with fresh meat & bones. We have switched the older, larger dogs to Uncle Albers which is extremely affordable and seems to work well for them. The min pins are cheap to feed because they don't eat much, so they are generally on Advance/Eagle Pack, as are any dogs that have special requirements. We were going through a bag of Eagle Pack once a week which was terrifying, but now we are using Uncle Albers that has probably wiped $70 a week off our feed bill and the dogs are doing just as well. Bedding - is a struggle with lots of large, chewing dogs. Because we have close neighbours I shut all of the dogs up at night (except for the youngest Aussie who is the ONLY one who can be trusted not to bark). At the moment, the Aussie boys & the Maremma sleep in the dog trailer in our big shed and they LOVE it. They can't wait to jump in. One Aussie girl sleeps inside with the terrier, and all of the min pins share a crate inside. The greyhound has her own soft crate (bargain buy from Catch Of The Day). Walking - my husband walks one or two dogs daily, as do I when I'm in a routine (not at the moment). We are lucky that they have plenty of room to exercise themselves, but we realise this isn't the same as a structured walk so we try our best to get each dog out and about according to its needs. Different dogs get out and about at regular shows and obedience training, so we are able to socialise and entertain them that way. Each dog gets individual attention in one way or another, whether it be with a walk, a play outside or a snuggle on the lounge at the end of the day. They all seem happy! :D

And to add fuel to the fire (slightly OT) I just watched an excellent episode of Cesar Millan where he worked with a rescue organisation which was getting breeding dogs out of a couple of puppy farms to rehabilitate and rehome. There was quite a strong whiff of extremism about that particular rescue organisation, however the episode made quite a clear distinction (in one short section anyway) between puppy farmers who treat their breeding dogs as a commodity, and ethical, registered breeders who raise their puppies in their homes and keep their adult dogs as members of their families. They briefly interviewed a registered breeder of German Shepherds and showed her puppies romping in the grass and being cuddled by lots of people in contrast to the footage of the farmed dogs in their stinking cages. :D

I can bet if you did a survey on the people who have signed this, very few of them would have any idea just what they have pledged to support and what the consequences are for the average ANKC or other registered breeder in this country. So, once again, why aren't "we" (the registered breeders and other CC members) out there telling them the real facts instead? (And I know this is exactly what is being discussed elsewhere).

There are over 20,000 members here. We all individually talk to a lot of people. Word gets around. Okay - let's all work on that then.

It's good that it's rehashed. Good for you for getting another discussion happening on the issues currently facing the dog world Thanks raz - but yet again we're only talking amongst ourselves.

There are quite a few threads on just that running at the moment. I know - I didn't really intend for this thread to rehash all of that. I just saw a little spark of "something happening" and decided to share....

So how do we, the members, regain control of the bodies who are supposed to do this stuff for us?

Okay, I see the danger, sure - but why don't we (the reputable breeders, the canine councils) have ads up there instead extolling the virtues of supporting reputable breeders? We don't. All we can manage is to talk about it amongst ourselves and while I know "ourselves" on DOL includes many non-breeders and dog-loving members of the general public there are still many more who don't know DOL exists and so therefore don't have the benefit of our "in-house" discussions.

RSPCA whether people like the organisation or not has far more of an audience and message 'reach' than a lot of organisations so a message coming from them actually does 'mean' something. The Ordinary Person recognises the RSPCA 'brand', advertisements and the RSPCA is actually a first stop for many people I know when they want to get a pet. It's a part of the general community in a way that a lot of other organisations (including DOL are not) so a message from them actually does have a degree of persuasiveness that another org might not even just by virtue of the fact that it has a wider audience. Of course we could all just continue to gripe and grumble about it here on DOL and sooner or later the power of our minds and Collective Discontent will inevitably shift and manipulate the Jungian Collective Unconscious thereby precipitating an anti-BYB/Puppy Farm Zeitgeist among the Masses by Osmosis ... Ommmm ... I can feel it happening now ... Or not ... I missed this while I was busy with my own lengthy reply. Well said, koalathebear.

I did not say that. I just dont think an rspca ad at the top of a page will make the average Joe put two and two together. Gee you're reactive. Why start a thread if you're just going to get all sarcastic everytime someone responds with a differing opinion. Sorry raz - it's just that we seem so busy on here bagging things while the average Joe isn't a part of any of our discussions so is none the wiser about the issues we discuss. All our brilliant ideas on here count for nothing in the right-here-right-now, so at least this ad is SOMETHING out there right now, while we're all still just talking about what to do, so I don't think that can possibly be all bad. And I understand the worry that reputable breeders are getting tarred with the same brush as puppy farmers (I am a "breeder" myself), but I think if the public just starts to ask the right questions we will eventually shine through. And yes, I am reactive - just ask my husband.

Okay. Much better we do nothing then.

I'm not so much applauding the RSPCA's campaign as just being pleased to see SOMETHING at the top of the screen that might make one or two puppy buyers think twice about where they are buying their pup from. That's all.

Yeah I knew we'd go down this path......

I was just doing my weekly browse of a certain online animal classified site and there is now a big RSPCA ad at the top advertising "closepuppyfactories.org". It is quite eyecatching as it has changing photos & text fading in and out all the time. I know we do a lot of RSPCA-bashing on here, but I was pleased to see that ad looming at the top of the screen - hopefully at least some people will notice it and ask questions of puppy advertisers. Just a few would be better than nothing.......

Then take it up with the countries who have the lousy standards!!!! GET OFF THE AUSTRALIAN BREEDERS BACKS! The animals to which you refer are a food item and the breeders cannot dictate nor enforce what happens to the animals once they land on other shores. If you feel so strongly about these issues take yourself to those countries and seek change where it is needed and see how you go there. Souff Ok Souff, to try and vaguely get back to the initial topic - I hope if i delved back through your posts I wouldn't see you in threads discussing the exports of whole registered litters to Japan damning these breeders. To follow your logic then what happens to the pups when they get there is none of the breeders concern and everyone on here needs to shut up and get off the breeders backs. If anyone here has a problem with the way the pups are treated once they get to japan, they need to take it up with japan. It's none of the breeders concern as to what happens when they get there Sorry, but this is an awful way to think. Of course it is the breeder's concern - breed a pup and you are responsible for its welfare. I am amazed that you actually think it is okay for a responsible breeder to think that way.

Does that mean you can get a friend to do them then, if you can't do your own? We had a friend do our Aussie pups and had no problems at all. I have since bought one pup (from Victoria actually) who still has her front dew claws and I curse them every time I groom her for a show!!!!