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Digby experienced a first world dog problem just yesterday. Digby: I sat on the lounge to look out the window at the naughty beagles across the street, but the blinds were closed My humum opened the blinds for me, but then the sun shining in was too bright for my eyes and so I never got to watch the naughty beagles

I think its close to useless to get into arguing about individual cases of either healthy or unhealthy dogs of any breed. What would be the most important information would be to know how many individuals of a particular breed are affected by a certain health problem. It would be difficult no doubt, but surely it would be possible for breed clubs to gather such information. Imagine how useful it would be? Firstly it would allow pedigree breeders to have stats that are relevant only to pedigree dogs, thereby eliminating byb purebreds from the analysis. That would mean that pedigree breeders could say here is the evidence that this breed, when carefully bred, rarely suffers from xyz health problem.

Marmaduke and Chestnut, Hero of Central Park are two that my kids like as we'll as Beethoven :)

Gosh how awful She is legally allowed to take photos though. But what a nasty piece if work she is. It is such a shame that she could only see the shape of his body and not a lovely well behaved dog with a responsible owner. I would resist any temptation to retaliate to her and try to show her and explain to her what a good boy he is. It might fall on deaf ears of course but i feel that if you retaliate things will just get worse, and she will be more convinced that he is a risk. Good luck I hope you don't have any problems because of her actions.

Farewell beautiful Toby I always admired the photos of Toby, you kept him in such amazing condition RV. Very hard to lose a young dog, my heart goes out to you.

Oh Farewell dear Grumpy I loved reading about Grumpy in your posts Sheridan. I am sorry for your loss.

I don't have a ute myself, but lots of people around here do and many of them have good crate set-ups for their dogs. The crate are bolted on and most of them are covered in shade cloth. I haven't seen what people use for the bottom of the crate, I guess it must be rubber matting or something similar. Often I'll also see some sort of drinking device attached to the side also. I think sometimes it is just a frozen drink bottle that the dog can lick the condensation off the outside.

Wow that's awesome! Thanks for letting us know :) Will have to check out whether the extra large is big enough. I have actually never been to the Riverina Co-op before, sounds like I've been missing out!

That is so wrong :laugh:

I'm very sorry for your loss

Yum yum! You are very awesome Stan!

Flashsmum, Delta is partial to a bit of horse poo too oh that is hideous!

Poor Bruno! The only thing I know about pancreatitis is that you have to keep the fat content of the food you give him to a minimum. I think a fatty meal can bring on the bout of pancreatitis. So I would stop the chicken frames for a while as they are pretty fatty :) It's hard when he is underweight because the natural thing to do is to choose some fattier foods to feed him. You might want to PM Dol member Stormie as her dane got pancreatitis and she is a very knowledgeable vet nurse :)

I love my dogs very very much, and every now and then they put that to the test. This morning at the dog park Digby was digging around in the sand pit. I didn't think anything of it until I realised he'd unearthed cat poo and was gobbling it up. I called him to me but too late the poo was eaten. But as he came close I realised he had an extraordinary amount of it smeared across his mouth and some stuck in his jowls That's when he decided to shake, and I got a cat poo and drool shower Thanks Digby, I love you too. Anyway please feel free to add your disgusting stories, even if it's just to make me feel better :D

nawww that was lovely <3 what a great team they are

I think it's great that she has taken these two on and that she is taking them out and about places However, I think she also may be doing a little too much, too soon, for dogs who have been undersocialised. She probably needs to build up her relationship and communication with them before heading out on adventures with them :) It can be very overwhelming for undersocialised dogs to suddenly be taken on a tour of so many sights and sounds that they haven't really experienced before, and if they also don't have some basic communication and trust with the human then they will come up with their own way of dealing with things, which in this case sounds like barking. The fact that the barking has gotten worse, makes me think that she should maybe just stop the walks until she gets in contact with a trainer, and spend the time in the house or yard training sits, stays, drop, and leash walking as dogs need to be able to do these things in a familiar environment before they can do them anywhere else :)

I'm quite glad you've asked this question as I have noticed the same thing! Admittedly I don't go around inspecting every dog's paws, but I can't remember ever seeing a dog that doesn't have webbed paws.

I agree with coogie and rebanne :) I definitely understand and sympathise with the way you are feeling, and being told those things would not be very nice at all. But I think a compromise is a good idea, after all these people are your family and they are important too. Having good family relations is worth it's weight in gold I think. Having said that, I'm not saying you should be pushed around; but making sure your dog is clean and that the fur around the house is at a minimum, making sure the dog is giving her space and being well behaved, and maybe outside or in another room when people are eating would all be reasonable compromises I think. Also I think these things could go a long way to changing her attitude, much more so than if you lay down the law with her. The more chance she gets to see that your dog is well behaved and that you are a responsible owner the more likely she is to change her mind :)

Oh I do really sympathise, it get's very tiring hearing those same comments again and again. I walk two giant dogs and sometimes people think i am walking them for their entertainment only, and I will get stopped so they can make their joke to me, some of them are very rude too! I like you try to be gracious about it, and 99% of the time I am, but occasionally I give in to my impulses and roll my eyes at them or say "whatever". The one that drives me most crazy is "who's walking who!?" when clearly my dog is walking beautifully beside me with the lead completely slack

That's beautiful persephone :) to Mitchell, what a good dog

Absolutely...but it isn't fine to want a breed of dog to make YOU look a certain way.....there's a big difference. definitely!

It's totally fine to prefer a certain look of dog, its just that its also really important to make sure that the breed characteristics suit what you want to do with your dog, so it's great you are doing all this research :) I don't know much about boxers. But I thought I'd just put some links up of some other dogs that have a masculine sort of look, and maybe one or two of those would suit going to a dog park and the other things you want them to do. Although I don't know heaps about some of these breeds either so couldn't be certain whether they would suit you. Black labrador (pic below). A black labrador especially can look quite masculine. They are also known for being social towards everybody, dog and human. But I've found them to be protective when the time comes. They do aslo tend to bark quite a bit if someone knocks on your door etc, which i think you might like? http://www.happyblack.com.au/album.asp#photo100 German Shorthaired Pointer (pic included). Maybe not masculine in a stafford kind of way, but I still think they are masculine. Chesapeake Bay retriever: http://www.dogzonline.com.au/breeds/profile.asp?dog=38920 (I don't know much about these guys). cattle dog: http://www.dogzonline.com.au/breeds/profile.asp?dog=62218

that is so weird! Could it be some sort of machine that someone is using outside your place, and it's a bit distorted?

when my dear Mr Darcy ripped his nail off, the vets put some anti-septic on it and banadaged it. I found I had to keep the bandage on for a while otherwise he would knock it and make it bleed again, which I was worried would really slow down the healing. I put a sock over it to help keep the bandage in place. But I guess you do need to be careful it isn't getting too humid in there. Certainly sounds like you've been through a bit of an ordeal! I hope it all goes smoothly from here on in :)

thanks Noisy :) while I know that things like Sasha's blend won't do any harm, I'm pretty sure there is no evidence that they prevent the development of arthritis, only that they help it once it is already there, that's why I'm tentative about putting him on a supplement that may not be benefitting him at all (if he doesn't have arthritis). Thanks for your idea of the physio or chiro, that is a fantastic idea :) yeah that's right Jules, although they do have trampoline beds in there to use. He has been there four or five times before, but this time he was there for a longer period than he had been before. Wow Pebbles, I'm glad you worked out what the real problem was! It's not that I'm unhappy with the diagnosis - it wasn't even really a diagnosis. The vet said that she thought maybe she could feel arthritis in his knees, but that she wasn't sure. So I'm just reluctant to take action on it when she wasn't really sure that's what the problem is. After reading what everyone's said I'm more inclined to start him on something because it sounds as though he might have it, its just that his lifestyle here means it hasn't showed up before. I don't think I'll go down the GA and x-ray route unless things get a bit more complicated or confusing. For the moment I'm going to see if he goes backwards at all once he's off the anti-inflams. And then probably start him on Sasha's blend or similar after that.