Jennt

Our Charlie is an inside dog. He's a llasa x bichon and he is what I would class as between a small dog and a medium dog and although he LOVES a walk he does not suffer for not having one - particularly since he is very good at persuading someone to play with him and his squeaky toys inside (or outside) quite frequently. He has a never-ending supply of toys to play with each day so he doesn't get bored (he loves loves loves his FuzzYard toys and they just last and last and last where the other toys get mauled and unstuffed. He's inside when we're all at work/university/school and then when someone is home the back door is left open. Generally though he only chooses to go outside by himself for toileting otherwise he is "glue" to whoever is home. I'm very happy with this because although we live in Sydney we live right near the bush and we know that there are snakes lurking (pretty obvious when you find brown snakes in your pool filter box...) and I don't want to leave him outside for a day and come home to a dead dog... When everyone is at work/university/school he spends from 7.30am to 3.30pm at home with no door open to the outside. He is 1.5 years old and very well trained (although it probably took 8 months to be this good) and will hold on until he can go outside. We do still have a puppy pad on the floor of the laundry "just in case" he has a problem and I do remember to show it to him every now and then to remind him :-) PS: Charlie definitely is not a depressed dog due to lack of light - we live in a very light, open plan house...

So Charlie had a serious run in with a tick last summer (full shavedown and serious vet bill) and now the weather has been wet and warm and I'm worried they'll get him again. The last time the tick was on his butt and from reading and listening to other tick stories that seems to be the most common area where they're found. Charlie, being a llasa bichon cross is very very hairy and I really don't think that when I'm putting the tick stuff on the back of his neck it really spreads right down to the rear end effectively. So, is there any reason why I can't put it on his back closer down to his rear end instead of the back of his neck? regards Jenn

Maybe I should move to VIC.... I could do with a whinge - and the dog could do with a playdate! regards

I live on the upper-north shore (sort of) and would love to have a Lagotto, but we don't have a large yard (our Charlie is an inside dog) and I'm under orders from the rest of the family I'm afraid... No second dog or they all leave home .... mmmmm, let me think about this some more...

I agree with the previous poster. You need to check your policy. I am also insured with PIA and got my renewal in the mail today. It lists what level of cover I have and what is covered on the back side of the policy... regards

Hope everything was OK. I'm in the same suburb, but would already have been at work in the city by the time u posted :-(

Charlie gets kibble/dry in the morning and B.A.R.F (raw) at night. He's happy and healthy...

Rays Camping have a sale on at all their stores at the moment :-)

I usually go to Pet Barn at Dural (Round Corner). They are really friendly in there and dogs are welcome to come shopping too! They always have treats behind the counter to give the dogs (with the owners permission first) and my Charlie LOVES LOVES LOVES it there. They are even VERY patient if your dog pees over the floor multiple times (even if he's just gone at home) - I obviously know this from first hand experience! The other place I visit frequently is that same one at Castle Hill with Ned the resident dog. I've NOT ONCE seen Ned move an inch when I've been in there though... I've always thought he'd make the ideal bean bag at home.

We can offer the two for $85 - thats to come in, pull blood, transport etc. If you wanted a consult with it, would work out about $110 Sounds good to me. We're in Cherrybrook so I know we're nearby... Won't need it until this time next year though as we're only just due to take Charlie for his 1 year booster.

My husband laughs and says that our dog has more toys than the kids did when they were little - he's probably right! Charlie is an inside dog most of the time - we live in a snake area and I'm not willing to leave him outside all day when we're at work. He has soft toys, rubber toys, food puzzle toys, toilet rolls, paper towel rolls (both empty). His favourite toys are the soft squeaky ones. So my advice would be to buy dog toys - buy one a week (maybe 2 a week to start with). Keep buying them every week until you think you can't fit any more toys in your house - then you should be OK... ;-) NOTE: As I was typing this he was on the couch behind me playing happily (and chewing) on his soft koala and his soft giant flea... looks like he's got his sheep ready to join the game at the other end of the couch.

When I brought our puppy home last July no-one knew he was coming - including my husband. The reason is because i knew that we would never agree to having a dog (we'd always been cat people and I was actually scared of dogs). So I brought this fluffy thing home and everyone was mad - but I knew that "fluffy cuteness" would win out and I was right. So the dog does jump on our bed and sleep on our bed, but only until I turn out my bedside light - then he just jumps off the bed and sleeps in his soft bed on the other side of the room. When I turned out the light initially I would say "off" and then put him down off the bed. Now all I have to do is turn off the light and he just gets up and jumps off - husband is VERY VERY impressed... regards Jenn

Why not try something like BARF instead of whole bones? BARF has fresh meat, vegetables and ground bones in it.

One of our teenage daughters has Down Syndrome and right from when we brought Charlie home he has behaved "differently" around her. With the rest of us he is boisterous and mischievous, but around her he is considerate, calm and watchful. When she tells him to leave her room he does (not like the other 2 teenagers who he'll just tilt his head at lololol).

You may want to read/listen to this... The Dog Who Loved to Suck on Toads http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6376594 I'm doing a first year anthropology subject called Drugs Across Cultures and last week the lecturer played this before the first lecture. Made me thankful that I don't live in a cane toad area... Guess you have 2 ways to go - acceptance or trying to get rid of the toads. You may find the challenge of preventing the dog from doing this is too much if they have already figured out it gives them a high... I know there's other threads on here about how to get rid of cane-toads. Maybe do a search for those? regards

We're in the north-western suburbs of Sydney (Cherrybrook to be precise) and our young guy picked up a tick on Christmas Day (!). We think in our friend's backyard in Castle Hill. He's OK now, but it was not a good experience... When I picked him up from the emergency hospital the day after Boxing Day they had at least 2 other dogs in there with the effects of ticks. So we've learnt that it's not that uncommon in our area. We also learnt that using Frontline Plus every 2 weeks obviously did not offer the protection that it's supposed to... I'm still using the Frontline Plus but am now also drenching him with Fido's Rinse Concentrate once a week (although it supposedly only offers protection for 3 days). With all this rain and the humidity I'm actually a little happy that he's a big woose and doesn't like going on the wet grass! Having said all that - noone else we know has had a tick problem in the area though... we were just the "lucky" ones. regards

Toys, toys, more toys! Raw bones are good too. And read everything you can and learn about training not to bite.

Great news! And nice to hear she's doing OK after the surgery.

Don't stress, it should come out in the next day or so. Mine have eaten an assortment of foam, toy stuffing, etc. Toy stuffing looks hilarious in poo. But, how funny If it was me, I'd be putting him in the pool to test his floatability. Can he swim? Perfect time to teach him LOLOL. Thanks for the reassurance. He can swim but maybe now he can float higher :p

Turned around about an hour ago to find our Charlie lying on his mat happily munching away at a small red-coated polystyrene ball. It must have been in the bag of christmas decorations that were left in the corner... So, I can just tell that my blood pressure has gone up and now we're watching the dog again... It seemed to have broken into very small, soft pieces, so I'm hoping it will just travel on through the system and he'll have very light poops tomorrow ???

GREAT NEWS! We are picking him up at 5pm! He's obviously improved hugely because the vet nurse told me she's sure he told her he loves her! She also said that the vet has said to apologise for the quality of the clip (it was nearly midnight when she did it) and that the only difference between a good haircut and a bad one is 8 weeks... uhoh...

So I phoned this morning. They found the tick on his butt in the end, which is one of his trimmed areas. They didn't find it before they clipped off all the rest of him though :-( The woman on the phone this morning worried me with her "oh it's early days" comment though, since the vet last night was so positive. I'm supposed to phone back at 3.00, but will call just after 2.00. Last night they were saying he could be home this evening, but I'm not so sure now... Thanks for the kind words. I'm feeling lonely without my shadow (I'm his master around here), but my husband is surprisingly mopey today...

Glad she's home... Regards

Thought Charlie was a bit lethargic this morning due to spending yestrday racing around with his best friend Scruffy at our friends place. But he gradually got worse and lost use of his legs. Took him to Baulkham Hills emergency hospital at about 10pm. They're sure it's a tick, but like me they couldn't spot it. He's in on the drip and they're shaving him off to try and find it. I actually had trimmed his front, face, butt, and stomach this morning, but he's a llasaxbichon so there's still an awful lot of fluff to get through :-(

I'm not sure about the regs in Tasmania, but in New Zealand it's legal to shoot possums because they are not a native animal and they are a pest and a threat to the nativeanimals. Tasmania may be in the same position?