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I usually have my girls and their litters in the dining room part of the kitchen, but my last litter was born in the spare room as I had 2 girls whelp a few days apart (one in the kitchen, one in the spare room). I prefer the kitchen as it is naturally a busier area, which exposes the pups to more. Both rooms were set up in a similar manner. Lino on the floor, home made whelping boxes (one box was made new for this litter, it had higher walls for a bitch who likes a cave environment), heat lamps, set up where natural light was maximised and puppy pens allowing the bitches to have space away from the box. Neither room had curtains so I bought some rubber backed curtain material and pegged it up so I could keep the cold out during the night. When the 2nd litter were 3 weeks old, they were moved into the kitchen set up with the singleton puppy and all became the one family. Spare room set up (whelping box wasn't set up at this stage and more lino went down on the carpet) Whelping box in the spare room Kitchen set up with all the pups

Our family dog (15 year old golden retriever) had an 'episode' a few weeks ago where all of a sudden one night she was unable to get comfortable, paced around, refused food and was vomiting. I took her to the emergency vet and he diagnosed Vestibular Syndrome, which thankfully, she has now recovered from. I hope its something as 'easy' with your old girl

Probably in the minority, but I'm against this idea If I'm home and there is a fire or emergency, I'll risk my own life to save my pets without a doubt - however, I would hate for emergency services workers to risk their lives for my pets I don't think its fair to ask strangers to do that, as much as we love our pets. Thats just how I feel about it - I'd rather be missing my dog than have someone's family be missing their Dad etc

I emailed Dogs Vic when I went through this a couple of years ago and this is what I was told: With the written conditions of the syndicate they can be as simple or complex as you wish. Some syndicate members send in very brief written conditions that basically state all signatures required for all transactions, except show entries and that’s it. Whereas some other syndicates have furnished pages of conditions, even down to what food the dog should be fed and how often the dog should be groomed !!! What you need to do is look at what situations may arise in the future that would require agreement by the syndicate members and draw up conditions around that. For example, if the dog is male & is going to be used at Stud, who will receive the stud fee / what percentage, that type of thing. Just remember that once a dog goes into syndication all members own the dog equally and all signatures will be required to amend the conditions at a future date. Hope that helps

One I struggle with is the initial entry being more than the subsequent entries and exactly what that applies to. When I enter a particular club's shows, if I have dogs in different names (ie co-owned or I enter my sisters dog along with my own) I have to pay the full cost for each entry in a different name - even if I send them all together with one cheque. Apparently the cheaper entries only apply to 2nd/3rd etc entries of dogs in that particular persons name. I've entered shows held by other clubs and they don't mind whos names the entries are in. Doesn't make much difference but the few times I've forgotten, I've had to send cheques off for the $4 or $5 extra which is a pain. Its never written on the schedule how it works so I have to email show secretaries to find out

Our family dog was a goldie (she's 15 now ) and when I moved out I got a GSD, with more following. Both breeds are intelligent, active and loyal - I find goldies more laid back and soft than GSDs. My GSDs want to be a part of everything I do, whereas our goldie would just be happy to be there and watch. There can be huge differences in temperamants and attitdues in different bloodlines - I've met some absolutely nutty goldies and couch potato GSDs! Whichever breed you decide on, make sure the parents are both hip/elbow scored and have temperaments you're happy with, and work with the breeder to find a puppy in the litter that has the attributes you are looking for. Good luck

Why do they single out the one particular breed? I understand there blood is different, but is there something special about their skeletons... Surely the draining of blood is classified as some type of abuse? There's plenty of greyhounds that no one wants. The draining of the blood is destressing to hear about, but when you consider the dog is going to be PTS anyway, and how other peoples pets could benefit by having blood on hand in case of emergencies - I'm not against it. The dogs are sedated and don't wake up, they're not aware of what is happening to them or suffer.

My first GSD was a male, and when he passed away I got a puppy from his litter sister. The puppy obviously had the addition of her sire's genetics and looked nothing like my original dog, but her temperament was near exact to his. I've got a son from her now and he's very alike in temperament to his mum/uncle also. I think some bloodlines can throw the same strongly and others are more easily influenced

For the prog tests I've had done, the vet takes blood from the bitch and sends it off to a lab for reading - then the results are faxed back. I would be worried about the accuracy of a 'prog test kit' - the vet should only need to stock the correct tubes to put the blood in for the lab. Good luck with the AI

So I was on the right track, I had the blunt ends with the rubber bits in the little mesh pockets at the top, but the poles are extending waaaaaaaaaaay past the fabric on the other end to get the pins anywhere near the end of the poles! ;) Thanks a lot, I look forward to the help! ;) Do you have the poles crossed over in the middle? The extra length is to make the curve but I found mine was easy to put the pins into the end of the poles. If you still have it attached to the car, I'd take it off just to see if it makes a difference and really bend the poles up to get the pin to fit in.

Correct..............now tells us Shyla hasn't got a good temperament Carlibud???. Shelle has explained exactly what GSD's do and they often don't realise their strength over small dogs until it's too late and as Shelle has told us first hand, they can and do often play too rough And there are plenty who do realise their strength and do play nicely with small dogs! There are small dogs who play too roughly with large dogs also - its about finding the right combination. I bred the GSD in the photos that Pixie posted, curled up with the JRT and I know he has excellent prey drive and yet he gets along well with his little friends and cats too.

Poor Tyson Sending him get well soon vibes

I'm sure The Land newspaper is/was giving away a kelpie pup recently too Edited to change newspaper name

I've got a GSD with steriod responsive meningitis - but it doesn't sound like thats the type your friends dog has, as when my boy was put on the large doses of cortisone he came good very quickly. If it does end up being the steriod responsive kind though, I'm happy to share my experiences if it helps Hope Harvey gets better soon

Black Bronson, why don't you start you own thread?

I had peices 1.2 x 1.35 in my whelping box and they didn't fit in my front load washing machine (its a 6kg I think) but washed up really well in my mums big top loader. I folded them in half with the fluff on the outside and then tucked the top down once it was in the machine so it was all in the water and they came up great

I will take it somewhere to get looked at down the track (though I think its quite dead) but at the moment, I'd rather put the money towards a camera that will be a sure thing and work, rather than potentially paying out and not getting a working camera if mine can't be fixed - if that makes sense. Thanks for the replies, looks like I've struck gold and will have a new camera shortly

My 350D died over the weekend I don't imagine it will be worthwhile fixing - but at this stage I'm not in a position to upgrade unfortunately. I was wondering if anyone here had upgraded and had a similar model that they wanted to sell? I don't need lenses, just the body. Thought it was worth a try asking here, I'm very lost without my camera! ETA Don't mind what it looks like, rough is fine as long as it works

The question is though, are these wierd and horrible hindquarters detrimental to the dog, or just not pleasing to your eyes?? I was sitting at the bitch ring most of the weekend, and that judge worked the bitches hard. The dogs who had weak hocks or overangulation just didn't keep up and were put further and further back hence it wasn't promoted as being ideal. I heard the dog judge comment, of a dog in the Open class placed in the 3rd group (lowest placed) that he was a lovely dog but as a judge and warden of the breed, he couldn't place him higher due to undesirable angulation of the hind which they cannot be encouraging. Its been said in past threads that GSDs cannot run, are falling down blah blah etc - I accept you don't find the look of the GSD's back end pleasing Tollersowned, but did you find this to be the case over the weekend? That the GSD as a breed is unsound?

It can work, but you need to have a good think about what you're going to do if it doesn't. Bitches can be friends for years and all of a sudden have a tiff and from that point on, not be able to stand the sight of each other. I've got 2 GSD bitches who hate each other with a passion, and we've had 2 very serious fights - I am forever double checking doors etc now so its a constant stress. One of these bitches is fine with my other GSD girls, plays and runs with no problems but I never leave them together unsupervised or drop my guard. Will you be ok with building a run to keep them separate, or rehoming one if that doesn't work? A male would be easier in many repects. Male GSDs a bit sooky smooches many times

Peperone sells 1x1.5m pieces for $30 which is $10 cheaper than the Wolves Den for the same size. jerojath I had newspaper under the vetbed in the whelping box also - interesting that wetness would make it hot.

You won't get booted out or anything, but keep in mind there will be lots of dogs and people and most of them will be busy and not all friendly (dogs and people ) You might not be able to get close to ringside to watch with dogs either, depending on how crowded it is with gazebos and people. I'll keep an eye out for you both on Saturday, would love to meet Zoe and Shyla 6 more sleeps

I bought vet bed for out recent litter (now 5 weeks old) and wasn't sure which one to get either - so I bought both! I haven't noticed much difference between the green backed or rubber backed with the puppies. When I've put it down for the adult dogs to lay on (on lino), the rubber backed does seem to be better as if they jump on it, it doesn't slide around whereas the green backed does. Haven't noticed any difference in drying time between the 2, and didn't have either of the problems Ellz mentioned above. I found the puppies got traction on it well, dried overnight if not sooner and a wet hand gathers up the fluff and dog hair from mum easily to leave it clean.

You can also get the plastic strips to seal the edges - I think it irons on? No good for chewing obviously, which is where the metal channel would be useful I got my Dad to make extra tall walls on this whelping box, because my bitch likes a 'cave' - but you can see the plastic strips protecting the edges on the top, and we sealed around the door with some kind of varnish/paint Oh and it might seem obvious, but see if you can make the floor with once piece. My original whelping box has a join in the middle and even though I seal it up with new silicone each time I use it, the movement of the bitch in and out seems to move it enough to spilt it again.

Karen Hedberg has written a good article on HD here: http://www.gsdcv.org.au/sites/default/file...dberg2002_0.pdf Some points of note are: "Hip Dysplasia is a polygenetic condition, ie. many genes affect the outcome. The more genes affecting a characteristic, the harder and slower it is to eradicate or affect the characteristic, and the more environmental effects come into play (diet, weight, rate of growth etc). Where there are ways to measure the condition, then progress can be made in controlling the effect of the condition in the overall population eg. Hip Dysplasia - X raying of individuals and their progeny." and "Broader expectations should be given to the public explaining while we as breeders can try as hard as possible to breed “normal” hips (and elbows), we can occasionally turn up bad results due to the polygenetic basis of the conditions we are looking at." Sorry to hear about your GSD. Did you take her to someone who is familiar with the breed and experienced in doing hip xrays when she was diagnosed?