Mrs Rusty Bucket

What about police, if she can prove ownership, she should be able to report them stolen, and get the police to help her collect them. Or is that just wishful thinking? If the police won't help, can she just go get them?

Kiesha It's not much of an effort in dog training to me either, but it is amazing how many dogs I meet that couldn't do that list at all on lead or not. When I call my dog, i often get about six dogs lined up. I feel like Victoria Stillwell. It's been a lifesaver for one little dog with small dog syndrome - who likes to rush and confront much bigger dogs. I call him and he turns 180 and comes at high speed. If only my own dog was that reliable. Sigh. She's nearly there but not as good as the little one.

Hi Ness I think linking the authorities up with a video would work better. And you could use your other dog for the aggression test since the test doesn't specify which dog sitting quietly with handler. The system is a little nuts. But they are trying to get at least one independent assessment of the dog's abilities which I think is a fair thing. What if the obedience school was killer attack dog. Not sure I'd want those dog to get a discount on rego. And plenty of the dog clubs allow for dog aggressive dogs, that are otherwise well behaved. Ie ones that would fail the last test. I know quite a few that have titles. And I wouldn't want my dog to greet them. She does keep forgetting though.

I did several things. I took the puppy out the second her nose hit the floor - especially in any corners of the room like behind the chairs. I did not let her in until she'd performed. I don't care how cold and wet or hot and windy it is, you're not getting back in side until I get something out of you. I set the alarm to take her out twice each night for the first two weeks. I ran a lead from her under me when I was sleeping so she couldn't sneak out on her own. I think a crate would have helped here. She did go in a crate when I couldn't supervise for the first few months like when I was washing dishes or making dinner or shopping etc. She supervised me in the bathroom. Sigh. I think we had two maybe three pee accidents total - all my fault and a couple of poo explosions - ie tummy upsets so she couldn't hold even tho she wanted to - explosions happened close to the back door where I normally let her out.

My dog has passed. I get discount for - passed obedience, microchipped and desexed. Takes rego under $20pa - but I do like the lifetime rego system in NSW better. The list required is all on lead * stay for 10 seconds * walk at heel for 5 metres * recall to handler from a distance of 1 metre and within 3 commands * sit - within 3 commands (or down or stand depending on dog ability eg greyhounds don't have to sit) * not aggressive when 2 metres from a dog which is sitting quietly with its handler. I'm not sure who the accredited organisations are - maybe ask the "government of SA, dog and cat management board" since the certificate paper has their name on it. I imagine all the obedience clubs can issue one of these. At SADOC (my club) - you can get one on request from the chief instructor after your dog has passed grade 3, though apart from the aggressive thing - most of that stuff is way easier than grade 3. Not that I have an aggressive dog. I'm pretty sure if Ness had asked the right person at the club she would have got one. Rob did mine. Chris is chief instructor. And it's a for life thing. Once it's on the council computer - you don't have to show them it again. I imagine you might have to find all the evidence if you move and have to register dog in a different council though. sit-sit-sit, come-come-come - arrrgghhh.... I'm pretty sure Unley council runs an 8 week course that gives you this certificate at the end, but it costs more than joining my dog club for a year (10 months of classes). Similar deal with the Delta trainers. I'm not sure about recommending SAODC at the moment because - after puppy is 6 months old they do "yank and crank paddock bashing" with slip collars mostly. I know that Dover Gardens is in the process of changing to something more rewards based cf Susan Garrett and friends. I have seen a puppy that trained with Noarlunga Obedience club and was pretty impressed with him. I don't know if they do yank and crank or not. And I like the way the dogs work that come from Para Districts. So I guess it kind of depends where you are and what style of training you want to try. And when is convenient to do classes.

In addition to first list. We've got a number of cross breeds in all height categories. short: tenterfields Theres a youtube of a chinese crested doing agility in Europe somewhere. Medium ACD and ACDx cocker spaniel welsh springer spaniels Large munsterlander boxers dobermans dalmations and some tall BCs bearded collies standard poodle smooth collies rough collies GSD USA Agility Brace. Including two keeshund

I was going to recommend you, Snook. You have a nice camera and some great shots...

There are very few bull terriers and it's legal to have them - so most of them would be registered - you'd think. The scary looking cross breeds - anyone who claims they own a pitbull younger than abou 8 years - can't legally register them (not allowed to buy, give away, keep undesexed or breed), so probably don't bother and generally don't care about complying with rules they think don't apply to them. So when there is a dog attack reported (NSW has good stats) - people call all the scary looking cross breeds "pitbulls" or "staffy" or "staffy x" whether the dog actually is or not. Given that pitbulls are not on the ANKC breed registers, it would be hard to prove what the given dog was. After all, if we're not bothering with law, why would we bother with record keeping and paper work either, especially as that should also get the "breeder" in trouble too. If it's a black and tan scary looking dog with a short nose - it gets called a Rotti, and if it has a long nose and longer coat then it's an "alsation" and so on. It's very rare that there is any follow up with any actual evidence or even a dna test to give a clue about what the breed is. I own a cross breed with short coat, muscley build and semi erect ears and all this talk about banning these is really horrible to me. I can't imagine her mauling anyone or anyting to death - though I think she has the lawn mower man fooled.

My fave Brunos are the plain dark. But I also love the honey truffles, the rum truffles (even tho I don't like rum), the grand manier truffles, the kirch truffles... And I really don't like sausage rolls, but I can eat Bruno's sausage rolls hot or cold, no need for sauce - plenty of yummy spices already in. And really light flakey pastry. Shame about cupa... was a nice artsy crafts centre. Bruno moved from Narrabunda to Mawson because it is less of a detour off the Monaro Highway for the Sydney -> Thredbo travellers. And I detour off the road from Adelaide to Mudgee/Sydney to pick up truffels. I guess it depends how much you like fine chocolate.

My brother and I have tried to teach his children how bad it is to run away from a dog squealing or screaming - but unfortunately - that's what kids do - either in play or fear. Run around squealing and flapping their arms. And it's hard to get these kids to believe you when they're looking at two different dogs that really don't care if they run round squealing. Sigh. So it comes back to the dog owner to do the right thing. Again. Banning the breed won't work. They can't even identify pitbulls reliably now. And there are plenty of other breeds way higher on the bite list. It used to be that people were terrified of GSD and Rotties. But I don't hear anyone calling to ban these. And I see plenty of people cross the road to get away from the savage ACDx - and nobody is asking to ban them either. I swear some of these big scary attack cross breed dogs are just to compensate for some men's lack of manhood.

One chain of puppy selling pet shops has recently decided not to support "puppy farms" and instead is taking puppies from BYB. So they mostly have "accidental" litters of SBTx or farm dog bitsa in their perspex walled cages. I did notice that one food court that I walk through to get from A to B - had one of these chains in it, and it has since disappeared. And good riddance. There is still another one across the mall though I think that one has puppy mill puppies. ARRGHH. My dog is such a good ambassador for pound puppies - I got her from AWL and she's such a friendly dog - people are amazed you can get a friendly dog or a 10 week old puppy from the shelters. Don't all those dogs have behaviour problems? Erm, no!

Aussielover Maybe they could check out some UK dog shows and meet some of these dogs face to face and see what they think. I can't tell a Brittany from a Welsh Springer looking at them - ok the Welsh springer are more often that sort of apricot - tan and white and Brittanies come in more colour varieties. The temperment is different - the ones I've met - the Brittany is a bit more independent - likely to go off and do their own thing than the Welsh Springer - definitely a velcro dog. For easy care coat - you can't go past the Vislas though I do also like the smooth (short coat) collies - though these can be tall. I've seen some short labradors but never a small one. And I don't think of them as velcro dogs - unless you've got food in your pocket. And I know quite a few mud loving/seeking labs.

http://www.dlg.nsw.gov.au/dlg/dlghome/dlg_generalindex.asp?sectionid=1&areaindex=DAIDATA&documenttype=8&mi=9&ml=10 That's the NSW one. As far as I know - NSW is the only state with mandatory reporting on dog attacks. The breed ids could be guess work and the stats would be skewed by unregistered dogs ie it's possible that unregistered dogs are included in the bites as a percentage of registered dogs of that breed (or dogs that look like that breed or are claimed to be that breed). In the latest report (March 2011) The biggest biter is the NFI breed followed by SBT or SBTx on the latest NSW report - but the SBT are also one of the most popular registered breed of dog. On the big report at the bottom of the page the SBT is further down the list as %of breed registered are biters - except a very significant percentage of biters are not registered or never identified. But the Labrador - is much further down the list than SBT - given there are a comparable number of them registered. Ie very popular breed of dog. The other popular breeds that are biters - are all the farm dogs. Hmm. I got me one of those. It's going to kill me in my sleep - arrrghhhh....

I think it depends how old the kids are - there are some sad bits in it but no bloody in your face stuff like you see on the after 8:30pm TV. I heard someone on the radio say her 10+ yo boys loved it. I liked it but I don't think I could watch it again because of the sad bits. There were some fun bits too but I kind of wanted all happy endings instead of some happy endings.

It's a shock to see those Brittany dogs without tails. Wow. And ten years ago I probably would have been surprised to see them with tails - go figure. On the criteria - I mis-read this one as they wanted not they didn't want A strong herding instinct or high prey drive would also not be suitable Eg we want - medium - trainable - good at endurance/long walks - strong herding / prey drive Oops. that would be - not strong herding and not prey driven. Ie don't want it herding the neighbours sheep or digging up hedgehogs in the woods. The sheep dogs can be trained to leave sheep alone. They have to be. Ie they have to be able to stop herding on command. A lot will happily develop other obsessions like tennis balls instead. Terriers - most of them would probably want to dig up the hedgehogs and some would pick fights with badgers. This is an old story about two Cavs that were trained to do endurance dog test. (20km) http://www.caninebodyworks.com/et.htm

For the crate, it's wonderful she likes being in there. My crate rule is - if I give the go in the crate command - "Crate", then she's not allowed to come out unless I tell her to. But if she puts herself in there, I might still give her treats for being in there, but she can let herself out any time she wants. So if you want her in the crate and she's already going - use your command word, and make sure you call her out when it's ok for her to be out. The amount of dog food required should be written on the pack and the low end of the range is usually enough. I agree with everyone else 1.5 cups seems like a lot. what the others said about toilet training, try to get her going outside. Mine had a one or two explosions she couldn't hold when I was out and they were always right next to the back door. There was a couple of pee accidents when I was home - but they were my fault for not spotting the signs before she was fully house trained. Ie nose to the floor sniffing and/or circle work. Before mine was 14 weeks old - I set the alarm and took her out at 1am and 3am (bed time was 10:30pm we went out then, last feed was 6:30pm and we went out then too) just to make sure there was less chance of accident during the night. There were no night time accidents. Lucky me. And I was pretty boring about it, took her out, told her the go potty command, stood around and waited, and then repeated it when she went and praised her - no game - straight back in to bed.

Welsh springer spaniel? They're a little bit finer boned than the Brittany Spaniel. Mind you most of the Brittanys I've seen are very over fed around here. Must be those big brown eyes are hard to resist.

SecretKei That harness doesn't have a front attach point that I can see - so she wouldn't get any extra leverage from the pivot point. A dog would be able to pull very hard in that. I have sometimes clipped the front attach harness to the flat collar for a bit of extra security. And I have sometimes used two leads. One on the harness or flat collar and one on a head halter.

Do puppies get one vax shot or three these days? When I got mine in 2008, she'd had one vax shot but needed two more boosters, and then two weeks after that to be sure they would be effective. So that made her about 16 weeks before she was safe to be where there might be virus or dogs that were unvaccinated. So I would be asking questions too if I saw a 10 to 12 week old puppy in a place frequented by lots of dogs, but I wouldn't be telling the owner what to do unless they asked - the closest I get is suggesting they check with their favourite vet about the one shot or three and the safety time. Another thing that people don't seem to know about puppies (shoot me - I didn't), was the vague rule of thumb for exercise in one session is about 5 minutes per month of age. So these people would bring a 2 month old puppy out, and wonder why it wouldn't move much after 20 minutes. Crash and burn, that's one tired out puppy. Mine is probably going to have dodgy joints when she's older - just like me. But my least favourite thing at dog parks - is the owners who think it's fine to let their puppy - dog charge up to any other dog they see. Rude and can provoke dog fights - not to mention owner fights.

Visla? of the hunting type dogs - they're one of the smaller ones, especially the females. farm dog bitsa - they can be trained to have an off switch beagle - though I'm not sure about the easy to train, they are eager to please. munsterlander - there's one at our club competing obedience and agility, gorgeous dog and very eager to please the boss.

Hi KL The only time my dog looks like slipping out of the harness is when she rolls over on her back and sometimes slips an elbow under it. If she's pulling away from me - which almost never happens - it hooks behind her elbows and discourages effort there. I'm not sure how you'd go with 40kg of lunging dog - but someone I recommended it to went from not being able to walk her Rotti to being able to hold the Rotti with one hand and roll a smoke with the other. It does depend a bit on owner and dog - like all tools - it doesn't work for everyone. Some of the delta dog trainers sell them so you might be able to try one out to help you decide. Otherwise - I guess you'd need to talk to Steve C. This isn't going to be a problem before baby but also after baby ie lunging dog doesn't work well with pram either. And much as I have managed to train my dog not to lunge at cats, there's always something new - eg horse, alpacca, possum...

Hi KL You're not at fault http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/caa1998174/index.html Item 16 is the most relevant one but that lady broke multiple sections of the act. As far as you not being able to walk Sasha safely - your husband will need to pick up the slack here. Or is there any chance you could try some walking dog tools that would give you extra leverage when Sasha gets excited. For me - the front attach harness works really well. http://www.softouchconcepts.com/ Gives me extra leverage - like a wheel barrow lets you carry more weight - the harness has a pivot point and gives you more strength to turn the dog around. Or prong collar - but for that - I'd recommend getting lessons from Steve Courtney at k9pro.com.au in how to use it effectively. Although depending on how you ask - it may be that you have the baby before you get in to see him. Do point that out, he's got a soft spot for kiddies at the moment.

If I was going that way - I would stop off here http://www.brunostruffels.com.au/ And then stop off in one of the nature reserves on the way south and eat all the truffles and pastries... If you can find Point Hut picnic reserve - that's nice. I'm not sure if Tharwa Homestead, Cuppacumbalong or Namadgi national park would be pleased to see dogs but there are lots of other open spaces and Tuggeranong is bound to have a fenced dog park somewhere - although the one at Lake Ginenderra (north side) was a bit boring. There is also the space dishes at Tidbinbilla

My dog hates traffic, ie any road with more than one car on it - or cars travelling in different directions. It's not the car itself she's frightned of, if there is one solo - she sometimes tries to greet it (ARGGHHH). It's when there are a few going way too fast (more than 30km/h). She doesn't like walking on footpaths either. Won't take treats or other distractions. Bizarrely - she's not bothered by the giant trucks and earth moving machines on Victoria Park at the moment but freaks out when we get near Fullarton Road (2 lanes each way and busy). If I want to walk around that side I have to put her on lead well before we get there. I could try desensitising her to busy roads but I think maybe being afraid of them and prefering to stay away is a good thing. Only one problem is if she does decide she must cross one, she waits for the first car to go by and then tries to bolt.

My dog was / is also prone to separation anxiety. I can stash food around the house for her but it's almost all of it still there when I get home. Only the very special treats like roo chews are gone when I get back. And that's an improvement on when she was younger, when she wouldn't touch anything. It's been good for the furniture. I don't tell her I'm leaving but my actions do - getting my coat and bag and keys. She usually goes to bed and stays there until I get back. Sometimes I want to take her with - and it's a bit hard to get her off her bed like she doesn't believe me. When I get back - I go straight through the house and open the back door to let her out for a potty break and I don't talk to her or look at her until she's done. I think this helps. Some people really enjoy the mad party with the dog when they get home - but it needs to be on your terms eg go out the back - have potty break and then have mad party with permission or on command. Harper Don't let a few posts that rub you the wrong way stop you from getting the good stuff on here. There is an ignore feature so you don't even see the posts of people who really upset you (intentionally or not). You can do this by clicking on your own user name (top right) and selecting the bottom item "manage ignored users", you can either paste or type in the user name that you want to not see the posts of (you will still see they posted, just not the content). Hope you hang round and get into a bit of dog training. Poodles can be extremely clever and fun to train - obedience competitions were originally created by a poodle owner to show off how smart their dogs were.