darlingdog

Well I read here how your dogs have become more gentle with sick people, our experience wasn't quite like that though amazing just the same. My father in law used to visit with us quite frequently and the dogs loved him, he's a very gentle man. One of my dogs is quite introverted but always loved the father in law when he came. Anyway, father in law came to visit and my dog wouldn't go near him, sat in front of his chair about 2 mtres away and just barked and barked at him and I could not get him to stop, it was really weird ! Father in law was so puzzled, kept saying but the dogs love me usually !! Two weeks later he was diagnosed with parkinsons' disease and 6 months after that with dementia. That dog KNEW there was something not right with him.

Here here, well said.

Well if Steve can teach me he can teach anyone As far as the harnesses go I see no problems with them. If it means that an owner can walk their dog then that can only be a good thing. But my concern with a harness is how do you correct the dog or get their attention if need be? I'm sure I could put Kei on a Sporn/no pull harness and he would find it aversive enough to walk on a loose leash BUT when he sees another dog he goes into complete overdrive. At the moment I can give him a couple of light pops to bring his attention back well before he gets to the screaming, lunging stage (and believe me, if he gets to that stage he will pull through anything -including a prong collar). But how could you do this with a harness? In Kei's case I think he would break it if I couldn't bring his attention back and he got too worked up! Re being able to break it, I don't think that the cord would break but certainly the plastic click clack thing ( for want of a better word !) might. On mine where this thing clicks together there are also 2 dee rings so I put an extra clip on these just to be sure so it then has that clip as back up if the original one fails.

The sporn harness hurting the dog ? What a lot of rot ! If you were having such success with it then ignore your trainer and continue with it. Used one for the past 4 years for play walks and provided you have the cords well covered with sheepskin or similiar of course it does not hurt the dog ! Why change something that works for you. A trainer is there to guide and educate you not make all the decisions for you !

So lets at least celebrate what is going right in this particular instance instead of immediately jumping on to what is still going wrong behind the scenes. I'm sure you are heavily involved in rescue and that weighs on your mind in that you are so overwhelmed that it's hard to see the glass half full. Think how much better things might be if more men like him stood up to be counted in the running of things. I know that this shelter is not the norm so lets applaud them for the change of culture and support the staff there in the pride they now feel for the job they do.

Amazing, a feel good story about a shelter That man is a wonderful human being and his blood's worth bottling as my old mum used to say !

We have a mulberry tree and a cherry guava tree and the dogs always pick their own fruit !!

I know you state you don't want a rescue dog but from your requirements I think a greyhound would be perfect for you and your lifestyle. They come to you after being fostered and having been retrained so you shouldn't have big probs with them and as ex racers they usually have been exposed to people etc. Just a thought.

Thanks for posting this, sometimes we just need reminded of the things that really matter ! Cheers.

I also have a puller when out walking and the sporn harness is brilliant, no pulling whatsoever and I would highly recomment it. Re the cords rubbing the armpits, I had this problem also. Go to a saddlery and ask for some sheepskin covers for horse halters. These will slip on to the cords easily and you will have no more rubbing. I put a stitch in each end to stop them slipping.

Hi Mila's mum, no problem I will do that now. Cheers.

What a load of dog crap. It's money - pure and simple. Why the hell arent they desexing before offloading dogs anyway? I live in Queensland . I'm not a breeder just a pet owner. I had decided I had room for another dog here and wanted to help one out that was in need as there is no formal breed rescue for my favourite breed. A bitch was on Blacktown pound web so a DOLer close by to Blacktown went to see her and put in a bid on my behalf. We had no idea of what to tender though would have been happy to tender whatever was necessary to get her out of there. I was also horrified to know that she would not be desexed before leaving. We were not successful and I was so worried that she would go to a byb or puppy farm but fortunately my DOLer friend stayed around and met the people who had got her and it was a lovely family which was a big relief to us. The whole experience was just ridiculous, like raffling dogs off in my opinion and really needs looking in to especially the entire dogs and bitches being let go back out into the community to breed even more for the pounds and shelters. I have since adopted from the RSPCA in Sydney who went to a lot of trouble to try to find a rescue for this pup (he was not deemed suitable for general adoption) . One of the other breed rescues they contacted had my details and so he came to live with me. I notice there is a lot of condemnation of the RSPCA on some of the threads. The ladies in the Sydney shelter went above and beyond to find a home for my new pup and my experience of adopting him from interstate was very positive unlike the experience with Blacktown pound. I hope those of you who are local can put pressure on your council to make some big changes. Cheers.

I lost my old german shepherd last year. She had hip displaysia for the past 7 years so I was used to her being not really sound and she was also on the same regime of drugs pretty much as your boy. She then started dragging her back legs and struggling to get up more then usual. Turns out she had a degenerative neurological disorder quite apart from the hip displasia, that almost exclusively affects GSD's. . I would suggest that you ask your vet if this could be the problem now. Best of luck, they are such wonderful dogs.