Mrs Rusty Bucket

Play is a good topic for an assignment. I think I could write a squillion pages on it. Note - I have no professional qualifications to do so. 1. it's fun, it makes whatever you're doing pleasurable. If you can incorporate play into training a dog - it's more fun for both of you and in my opinion - more successful. 2. it's probably not so different in the "why" as with humans and their play and sport. 3. Play - helps with social skills, and physical fitness and skill, ie life skills. Some things dogs do (Turid Rugaas has written a fair bit and Paul McGreevy in "a Modern Dog's life" has also ) http://www.canis.no/rugaas/ http://sydney.edu.au/vetscience/about/staff/pmcgreevy.shtml the bow - is a play invitation or initiation - ie all that we do after this is not to be taken as rude and bad (doggy) manners. the response - either another bow, or to leap at the other dog or to ignore and look away if no play is desired. Alexandra Horowitz has written some good stuff on the subject too, there's a link to the full paper on this page http://www.barnard.edu/psych/faculty/Horowitz/research.html Does the dog have in mind a goal? Hard to tell. My dog likes to go until she's knackered or the other dog stops. She doesn't always try to win, in some cases she deliberately goes slower so the other dog can keep up, and she takes turns in who is "it" in a game of "chase me". She has much more highly refined rules of play than other dogs I've watched. She only plays as hard as the other dog is willing - so with little dogs - there is generally no touching, just lots of chasey, and no running so fast the other dog loses interest because it can't keep up. With bigger more robust dogs, they hang off each other's cheeks and ears and neck and trip each other up. Occasionally there is an accidental prang but mostly they roll, and leap up for more. Frosty spends a lot of time in the "kill the antelope" neck (or collar) hold with some dogs, usually they're having a rest while she pretends she's won (I think, but I'd be guessing). When they're good to go again, they get up and she does not hold them down. My dog also lies down and does a double front paw slap with her front feet, and howls to get attention when she wants to play. Doesn't always work. She sometimes does the bow/paw slap and then runs hitchem skitchems in tight circles and figure 8s in an attempt to get the other dog to chase her. She runs with her head up, and her tail between her legs, and it's the funniest thing to watch (apart from her commando crawl roll over greeting technique). And some dogs play far too rough with her, and don't quit when she gives them all sorts of unhappy signals, like running away with her head down, her tail between her legs and her ears down and back. Also when she chases other dogs (herds them in play) sometimes she barks and growls and sometimes she does it all silently. And she does the same thing with the same dogs. Eg there is a dalmatian she likes to herd, and she makes a lot of noise doing it. And there are a couple of kelpie xs she plays with, and they make no noise together at all. Also if she has a tug toy, if the other dog lets go of it, she will bring it back to them to continue the game. And if another dog challenges her for the ball and it is serious about it, she always gives it up, but she does like the game of chase me for the ball, that stealing one triggers...

Hi DBT, I think Jo is planning a little dog meet for the 2nd Sunday - and you could bring a big dog on lead... Esky I understand KHM keeping Rosie away because Rosie just sulked after she was stopped from running around, and there were too many dogs in one space for her to cope with. I kept Frosty in lead too because her recall had gone AWOL. But I still had a good time. I didn't see any dogs being torn apart or rushed to the vet, though there were a few loud doggy scoldings, no teeth were used in anger as best I could tell. Nobody ignored their dogs and allowed them to continue being naughty - so I'm not sure what you mean by awful dog manners. It would be helpful if you wrote what your expectations for good dog manners would be at a dog park/on the beach. The beach wouldn't make a lot of difference to that. Except there might be more room to spread out. You'd still need to keep your dog on lead if it decided not to come back when called and hassle anyone else there (not just DOL people). All Had a nice walk on the beach this morning - but it was already 30'C by 8am... eek. So is that two votes for the beach and one for changing the Sunday? And a bunch of don't care wheres?

So it's stinking hot, I thought those of us with home net would be on it, since being outside would be like being oven baked slowly.

It would be nice to be able to "ignore" certain sections like the disturbing news section. There are definitely some things I don't want in my face.

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=badingredients I have more respect for this page. It explains why in less frightening terms why something is to be avoided. I would feed my dog rabbit, but not rabbit food - so not sure what a study on rabbits has to do with dog nutrition. I would not feed my dog half a kilo of dry dog food either - it's too much. My biggest worry about beet pulp would be the sugar content. Soy in moderation is probably ok.

People attribute human feelings to everything including inanimate things like boats, the ocean, cars, the TV, the oven. People even project their own feelings and anxieties onto other people. Ie they imagine how other people feel without actually having any real idea. Sometimes you do know cos they told you and sometimes you guess all wrong. The person is not stroppy and angry because you did something wrong. They're out of sorts because they put their back out and are in pain, or someone important to them just died, or they have a big exam tomorrow, or the last customer - not you - was a PITA. We don't just anthropromorphise our dogs. And I think we do it because it makes life easier to understand or even because it helps us manage our own feelings ie one might get a little less frustrated with the washing machine if we imagine it's had a hard day and that's why it leaked all over the floor.

My dog wears a purple collar and is frequently mistook for male. She even rolls over and spreads her legs and people still call her a "he". So I think it's going to make stuff all difference what colour collar the dog has. I think a royal blue or cobalt blue would look good with honey / gold lab colours. But so does purple and the blue-greens and some reds. It's pretty bad when a show judge can't tell the difference between a male and female.

I usually have a back up plan when taking my dog to a new place that is someone's home, eg a crate or the car (big crate). My dog can be a little weird and uncomfortable when a new dog visits her yard, but she's fine with most dogs on neutral territory. But I find taking her to BBQs can be fraught with peril, the main one being chop and chicken bones. If these people aren't willing to respect your feelings I wouldn't have their dogs at your place, or take your dog to their place again. It's just not worth the stress.

To start the ball rolling... My dog - seems to be growing up. Another dog jumped on her (last wednesday night) and growled at her when she was in a drop position. And she sat up and loudly told the other dog off - successfully (it backed off). So it may be that she will no longer tolerate rude dogs jumping on her and growling and will stand up for herself when her previous way of dealing with it was to be quiet and still or run away. She is a ball thief, which can upset dogs that are possessive about their balls. She will return the ball on command. She has also been known to do some counter surfing for food hence my desire to keep food on tables in a way that is more difficult for dogs to help themselves. Ie with lids on. Helps keep the flies off too. And while at most places she comes when called, she doesn't do this very well at DOL meets. And I am completely open to requests to keep her on lead, and leave the treats out of reach, and not use a ball etc. And I don't mind if people let me know if she's crapped somewhere and I didn't notice. In fact I will pick up most dog craps that are where I think people (myself) will walk. And I frequently forget to ask owners before letting her greet other dogs.

Updated to say - given only two of us want to go to the beach and I think 24'C current forecast is a little cooler than I like breakfast at the beach... We do the same place (main st) and time 12:30pm ish, with clam shell if Sparky cat comes, and hose if I remember. Or buckets. We can talk about variations on the theme when we get there. I might bring food cos I like eating but it will be in a box with a lid... as usual. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?show...t=0&start=0 So after the last one, there was quite a lot of discussion about how to continue and KHM did not want to organise or be at the next one. So I thought I'd write a post to see what people think, given our plan would be a meet next Sunday Feb 6th for lunch. Discussion starts on page 34... http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?show...p;#entry5063755 Personally I'd like a change of venue (More room) and time (less burning sun) eg beach at 8am, and/or change of protocol eg all food in containers with lids, and all dogs on lead unless we come to a group consensus about who goes on or off lead. Maybe those of us who want to come can say - if our dog has any issues that need to be accommodated eg no balls, no treats, all on lead... Some of our dog club rules are - * all on lead all the time (unless passed grade 5 and in class under supervision of instructor). * no allowing a dog to greet another dog without getting owner's permission first because quite a few dogs there are aggressive for various reasons. * no giving another dog a treat without owner's permission, some dogs are allergic to all sorts of stuff so it pays to ask, and some will start fights over food. If we choose to stick with the same venue maybe we could bring our own tables and chairs and Miss Squish could bring her fence again, just in case the space is hosting other bbqs again? Thoughts people, I'm open to ideas. PS It's going to be stinky hot tomorrow, I'm planning to go to West Beach in the morning (sunday 30th January) at some early hour. Horses are supposed to be off after 8am and surf club opens for coffee at 8:30am, and given it's going to be stinky I might just plan for 7:30am for a hour's walk, with some of that on lead if there are horses around. http://www.seabreeze.com.au/graphs/sa.asp Not much tide so will probably walk into the wind from the surf club (end of West beach road) and then back to the sailing club (end of Burbridge/Brabham) or boat ramp depending what way the wind is when I get there. If there's no wind, and the tide is low enough I usually head for the boat ramp - for something different. There's usually loads of parking around the surf club at 8am ish. And if you go down the ramp at the southern side of the surf club you don't even get sand in your shoes. I'll happy to switch to Tennyson beach if anyone else wants to go (if Bully posts which street that's closest to).

Saw something pretty funny this morning. Our cricket oval grounds keeper gave a roll of poo bags to a GSD owner - chatting with the GSD owner who took his eyes momentarily off his dog. Who crapped next to the cricket pitch. I couldn't believe they're having a conversation over poo bags and neither of them saw the dog do the poo and neither of them were making a move in the right direction to clean it up, so I walked back with my dog (on lead at the time - so she couldn't sneak one out without me noticing) and yelled at the grounds keeper - cos I knew his name and not the other guy. Pointed out the fresh steaming pile - and grounds keeper said "I'm not picking that up". And I point to the other guy and say "it was his dog", you're all good to go with poo bags... and he picked it up. We're pretty good at our oval helping with spotting. Mine frequently sneaks one out when I'm picking up a "Kharma crap" (the one you pick up so you don't step in it next lap). Occasionally we get someone who doesn't want to pick up and I pretty much do what Freudhund does. However we do have an owner of two small and somewhat DA jack russells who walks at my fave beach and actually chucked the poo bag I gave her to pick up with INTO THE SEA. I don't think she should be allowed to own dogs the way she treats them either. But I don't know how to get council onto them. If I can get close enough to see if they're wearing their rego tags, I could ring council I suppose. It's a lot easier to get someone for an unregistered dog than not picking up and they're frequently the same people.

I've accidentally? trained my dog to go in her crate if she wants what I'm eating. Crate is at the end of the sofa, I sit on the other end of the sofa to eat my dinner (no dining table in house). Evil hound can actually sleep at the end of the sofa and ignore the fact that I'm eating. But if I get the promite and toast out, she's in the crate - quick as. And I usually chop one crust of the toast up into little bits and as I eat, I give her a bit "high and at the back" - as far as I can reach anyway. So if I'm eating something she wants - in the crate she goes. I generally don't let her lick the plates I'm eating from because she gets the wrong idea and tries to lick plates while I'm still eating... Don't want to encourage that thought. And I generally lick my own plates - no left overs here. Occasionally I will put a plate I've used in dinner prep (eg the raw egg and cheese mix from carbonara making), in her dinner bowl and release her to lick that, because it makes washing it up later so much easier. The main thing I do to try to reduce dog hair in food problems (and dropping boiling water all over her) is encourage her to stay out of the kitchen/food prep area, but I'm not as consistent as I should be about that.

So are they going to fine the people who feed the possums, and the people who squish them with their cars? Road kill possums are quite common around my area. We also have problems with possums around my dog club. I don't think anyone feeds them, but they don't get hunted much either. And it is very hard to persuade my dog she may not eat possum poo or chase the possums. I've nearly got her to ask permisson before lunging after the neighbourhood cats, too.

Have you told your phone service provider? They can use the phone's gps to find it. And they can stop anyone else from using the phone.

I've just been on "holidays", "tour de rellies" would be more accurate. Took dog with us. Most awkward moment was having lunch with two ancient aunties in country town pup. Parked dog in her crate, outside under a tree in the shade, where I could see her from my table. All good. Well she did schmooze a few of the locals but none of them opened the crate. And she did not bark her head off for the duration - wow. All the rest of the time she stayed with me pretty much. And seduced several cousins into allowing dog into their "no dogs allowed inside" houses. And she got sniffed by a pet sheep. Did not enjoy that much. And she barked at the bull that had been put in a house pen because he'd been fighting with the other bulls. I think if a bull could laugh - he did. And she stayed on the safe side of the fence. Other holidays - involved long plane rides and quarantine - found nice boarding kennel for her to stay instead.

So top down, the brown one (Hoover) looks slightly better than the black one. The black one looks a lot like my dog (must try to put some pix of my own up). Can you feel doggy ribs ok? That would be the main thing I'd go by. I can just feel my dog's ribs, if I push fairly firmly, but not if I just run my fingers along, so we have a ways to go. And I've got some work to do on my own flabby butt too but not much, just that toning up... Bring on the hockey season...

Well the average people look in pet shops. Same as when they're looking for cars. But the smarter ones go to the clubs to find out what's good. And the breed clubs could do PR by getting on radio shows, doing talk back, doing a stand at a shopping centre or the beach or sports grounds, visiting schools, ringing up reporters and helping them write an article or three etc. But do you really want people impulse buying puppies without doing the prep work that goes with it. A lot of average people are using the internet, so they should be able to get the ANKC breeder lists and show lists up when they search for (poodle) puppies. But ANKC doesn't come near the top of the list so maybe they need to adjust their web page until they do have "puppies for sale" or how to buy a puppy etc in their website information. DOL comes up but given the blue staffy lists - not sure that DOL is the first place I'd look for a breeder. Then again - I go to the pound.

There is someone near Victor Harbor SA who advertises poodle like puppies for sale on gumtree and they say they're a registered breeder. I rang up SACA and asked them and they said no way is that person registered with them and no reputable breeder (eg member of SACA) would sell via the trading post or gumtree or even breed without having potential owners lined up in advance. The trouble is that buyers who don't know any different don't understand the difference between "registered as a dog breeder with the local council" eg local government authority, and "registered as a breeder with the Canine association or kennel clubs". And the puppy mills, and petshops and gumtree sellers can easily print out "breed" certificates that look nice but are probably fraud, or they hand over "vaccination certificates" and call them "papers". So the buyer thinks they're getting a puppy with (pedigree) papers, and they are getting papers but not ones that will help them if they want to show dogs. If they never try to show the dogs they may never find out.

I volunteer I like helping out, club asked me to help out too. Well they asked everybody. I think I'm on the committee this year too, but not sure how that's going to go because so far all the meetings since November have clashed with other things I've had on, that are a bit hard to get out of (like my sister's wedding). I like helping out at the competitions because I learn so much. More than if I just spectate. Only downside is there is no room for me to bring the dog and help because I have no time to spend with the dog when I'm helping and I don't think it would go down too well if all the ring helpers and the judge had their own dogs around and in my case barking its head off in that super squeaky pissed off bark.

What the others said. My dog is ok weight wise and she looks fine from side on, tucks up nicely at the back - like yours. But from top down and rib test - she fails, eg for competition (agility) she needs to lose about 10% body weight or me and the vet guess about 2kg (from 23kg) down to about 20kg or so, when we can feel the ribs easily and see a waist from above. It is a little harder to tell with my dog than a kelpie because mine is ACDx and they're usually a bit stockier or broader - but that doesn't mean no ribs or waist tuck seen from above. I can't tell from your photos whether the ribs are there or the waist.

Have you asked AWL or RSPCA? I think either of my vets would do time payment if I asked them nicely - because I am a regular customer. In fact both of them offer to "send accounts". I think. I always pay so I can't remember. I know I owed one of them money for a short period of time but that was because I went direct from the dog walking park with no money to the vet, and I paid in full when I collected the dog after she vomited up the gladwrapped sandwich. There is also a finance service that Snook found out about when she was looking for a way to cover vet expenses before pay day. That's another possibilty - ie get a personal loan or short term cash loan - there are people who do that for you so why ask the vet to do it - its not their thing. Vets must hate having to pick and choose about things like this because they can't afford to be known as "the charity vet". Ie they wouldn't have time for paying patients. I imagine most of them would do some freebies, but would be unlikely to say so over the phone. Eg you find a dog that's been in a car accident and take it to the vet - some will fix it up and then find the owner and ask them to pay, and if owner has no money - then pay as they can would be better than nothing. PS some horse vets I know - were always getting money in installments. They'd have had not enough business if they didn't. PPS what about Roseworthy college - they've got a vet school now... PPPS http://www.adelaidevet.com.au/our-services have a payment plan called "care credit"

Aidan2 It makes no difference to the rule if you're holding the lead or tethering it to the bike - both are outlawed. There was a loop hole that allowed the passenger to hold the lead of a horse (for example) while in a car - but they closed that last year. I think the fire trails are ok, I'm not sure. The chances of you being sprung by law enforcement there are tiny. But the definitions page includes "road related areas" which includes footpaths and some shared cycle paths. I think the aim of the rule is to prevent injury to rider and dog and anyone else who might happen to be walking or cycling nearby. So as best I can tell - limited to private property. But you gotta weigh that up against the chance of being injured or being caught. I think it's much less dangerous where there are no cars around or if the dog is not actually attached but does a good "heel" so if you have to wobble around a pothole or rock or other person - it's easier for the dog to keep out the way. We used to have one extremely clever heeler x kelpie who would run along the footpath, and knew to stop when the bike stopped and knew "left" and "right" for which way to go at corners - but didn't go until the bike did and stayed with the bike... brilliant. But you can't do that now. And it doesn't help that all Australian cities have loads more cars on the road than they used to. Got a friend who works in traffic management and he has stats on it. It's astounding and our basic infrastructure (In Adelaide) has not changed enough to keep up.

The rule is part of the "australian national road rules" introduced in 1999. All states and territories had to enact their own version of it or they would not get funding for road maintenance from the Federal Govt. It was back when John Howard used to blackmail? the states into doing what he wanted. So road and road related areas - include footpaths and bike paths that are publically owned and shared by bicycles and pedestrians. There's a long list of definitions. I do believe the same national road rules introduced some other stuff like compulsory bicycle helmet wearing when cycling, and default speed limit of 100km/h anywhere not sign posted - and that was not popular in the NT. I think the NT either opted not to enforce the speed limit rule outside city limits or they made some variation that allows cars to continue to do whatever they like. But I'd want to check before I drove fast in the NT. A lot of SA, and NSW roads now have 110 sign posted where the roads are in good enough condition. Cesar Milan promotes riding your bike with your dog as a way to exercise the dog, and I was so looking forward to doing that... bleah. I do believe Cesar says - check your local road rules but nobody seems to do this. It's like "Don't try this at home"...

The vislas I've met - are happy go lucky, probably bomb proof but a long way off "laid back". Well I suppose the older ones are laid back (plod calmly along) but I think that's because their joints hurt.

http://www.thelaw.tas.gov.au/tocview/index...rm=road%20rules Cesar Milan has a lot to answer for.