Mrs Rusty Bucket

There's a few on pet rescue, including a 14yo Koolie girl.

Yep. We've had a few interstate puppies that were sold to SA as microchipped. Only to find out at a subsequent vet visit that they weren't. Most of these were oodles. So that would be an Australian consumer law fail? And maybe a federal fraud fail. At least there is something more tangible and black and white that whether or not the breeder dogs and puppies were being kept "humanely".

First straight line ... 11am at Virginia (corner Park and Tozer) - Saturday - tomorrow even. Torn - do I take evil hound lure coursing or do I show up for hockey so I can qualify for finals (and then I have to show up for finals)... More info here. https://www.facebook.com/groups/294441020692066/

I think we need to do something in SA to be more in line with the Eastern States... Compulsory micro chipping before a dog or cat can be rehomed for money or free, would be a start, and easy to enforce. Not sure about compulsory desexing. But I'd like all dog owners to pass a licence test - a bit like the car learners permit - so they can demonstrate they know the basic rules/laws regards owning a dog. And if they then get caught ignoring the rules, they can have their licence to own revoked, and dog rehomed - depending on what rule they broke and how much trouble resulted.

I think the people you have to win over are your immediate neighbours... So I'd be taking the cutest best behaved puppy you have around and door knocking your neighbours, and explaining to them, that you've applied to keep extra dogs, and if you can't then the cute one will have to be PTS (or something suitably tragic). Make it really clear that if they have any problems at all - with dog things - they can come around any time or put a note in your letter box and you will be glad to do all you can to sort it. (even if that means helping them find the night barker three blocks away - because your dogs weren't home when some dog woke them up). I think neighbours who know that you are willing to listen to any problems they might have - rather than get defensive or aggressive about it - are less likely to complain. And if something does go really wrong, they are more likely to talk to you first before they go to the council. I went round with my dog when she was a puppy and door knocked and introduced my dog to all my neighbours. Mostly in case she escaped, but also so they knew I'd be willing to listen. Occasionally one of them will let me know they heard my dog barking (from inside the house) just so I know... One in particular - but that's when she's rung the door bell - well DUH. No complaints at all - even from the dog hater across the road. And he's been known to write nasty notes and leave them in letter boxes or send them to the local paper.

Could be - but I see a dog upside down to the one you see... ie I would put ears where you marked tail, and tail where you put ears... and nose where you have the back legs. And front legs where you have the other legs. So it looks like a dog jumping from the top right to bottom left of the picture. Not sure about the heart bit. That looks more like a whippet head to me. (ears at the top).

OutofSightHound Why are the muzzles sized by dog weight? I would have thought nose/skull length or girth would be more appropriate? Still want to train my dog to accept muzzle before asking her to run in it. Or I'm going to let her go and there's going to be a lot of rubbing face in the ground instead of chasing the lure.

I think there is a variation of yawning and licking that means "relaxed dog". It would depend a bit on what she's doing with her gaze and how relaxed her mouth and eyes are. Or she's doing all that because she wants you to relax. Ie it's something a dog will do to try and calm down their owner or another dog. You could be in a feedback loop - your dog notices your anxiety so she does calming signals to try to calm you down, and you get more uptight because you think that means she's anxious, so your dog tries harder to calm you down. Maybe you could try some relaxation exercises and slow breathing and not staring at your dog quite so studiously and see what happens (out of the corner of your eye). You can try mimicking some of the yawning and licking (and looking away and sniffing the ground) too and see what happens (that can have quite amusing results). I play a game with my dog where I face her and square up and stare at her and take a few stalking steps at her, and then I turn side on to her and crouch a bit, and pretend like I'm about to bolt. Sometimes I do a bit of licky yawny when I turn side on too. Usually sucks her right in up to me and often gets a play invite.

Oh, I haven't got a muzzle for evil hound, wouldn't want to surprise her with one either. Lots of loading up the end with treats. Does anyone have a link to somewhere that has suitable muzzles for "racing".

There is a recommendation that you don't bring small fluffy dogs to the Germantown road oval track. Hi OutofSightHound - Frosty's bitch here. Small rant - someone told me not to teach my dog to chase a bundle of tshirts because then she will chase the small fluffies and kill them. As if I could stop her from chasing the bundle of tshirts and that she can tell the difference between that and a dog perfectly well. Then again - she's not a sight hound.

ooh dog training rants... my sin = CRAP - continuously rewarding ambiguous performance. There are times when my dog uses me like one of those pigeons pecking the bar for a treat - she pokes my hand and I deliver without even thinking about it (eek). But if I can make her work harder - she performs better and stays interested longer - which does my head in. I'm trying to change from the vending machine treat dispenser to the pokie machine payout on good and great performance only. So rant from yesterday - lady standing with cute fluff ball of a dog that was really excited to be there and was bouncing around like a yoyo on a string lead. Owner punished dog over and over for jumping and getting to the end of the lead trying to be friendly and say hello to everybody and when it settled and sat nicely next to her - she did NOTHING... I said "look your dog is doing what you want - quick - give her a pat now"... which set the dog off again... but we waited and it calmed down and stopped jumping on me and I give it a big greeting pat, and suggested the handler might "look for opportunities to reward". Doesn't have to be a treat, but FFS praise and pat when your dog get it right - don't ignore it.

Around here, underground cables, water and gas pipes get marked out with different coloured spray paint. Ribbons would be easy to see in the day time when most people are at work. And they don't leave evidence trails like txt and emails do. Though I think if police had reason to search the 4WD and found a bunch of coloured ribbons or stickers - that matched the car thief ring in the area, they'd still have a lot of explaining to do. It's just a bit harder to prove.

I don't but might be visiting in November.

Gallomph I like the concept but their website design makes me want to scream with frustration. I really don't want magnets anywhere near my stuff unless I put them there, because magnets ruin batteries, some hard drives and most credit cards. And I don't like pockets that sit over the nipple / breast. And I cannot figure out how they can get all the stuff they suggest into the pockets where they suggest without making a very lumpy outfit or one you cannot tie your shoelaces when wearing. Ok back to normal transmission...

I use an ordinary bum bag with at least two pockets. I bought a black dog? treat bag with one of those snap shut clip thingies - but found it really hard to use unless I left it open, and that had problems with theft by dog... I put a zip lock bag with the high value (usually a bit soft and gooey) treats in the front smaller pouch and another zip lock bag with dry in the bigger pouch at the back, and then I usually transfer this bag to one of my pockets. I am experimenting with getting / using a multipocket sleeveless jacket like fishos use, but the first one I got - had Velcro not zips on the pockets and no way to stop the treats falling out or being stolen and the other pockets were too small to be useful in any way I could think of. Too short for pens, and too small for fish hooks (you'd get stabbed trying to get them out). I got a second one, and it's been on the clothesline for a month after I washed it - because it still smells like mothballs and acetone and kero combined. Yuck. the best treat dispensing jacket I had - had square pockets over hand shaped pockets - so the treats were in the outer pockets and the hands were warm in the inner pockets and it also had a bunch of other pockets inside the jacket you could put your phone and keys separately and without stabbing yourself when you bent down to feed the dog. But that jacket is dead now. I've also been known to stuff bits of roo ribbon down my sock to produce at the end of a chain of tasks, and also to use an open or closed box of treats. depends a bit what you're training.

If you had a do over... I guess the dog didn't learn that the baby was no threat. Or part of the pack to be protected. One dog got it, and the other didn't. If I was planning on bringing in a small child into my household (I think my dog would handle this better than me), I would practice being around small children a lot with my dog well ahead of time when I had plenty of control over the environment. If the dog was being uncomfortable about it - I would try to make a connection of all the good things the dog likes - being only available when the baby was around. Or only when there were screaming annoying rude (but not touching) children around. Sort of NILIF + Premack = all good things come from/with/in presence of the baby. So the baby lights up all the joy centres in the dog's brain instead of all the competition and resource guarding brain bits. But I think it would be hard to reprogram the dog now, and given you did about 3/4 of it before and that didn't work... I don't know that it would this time. If you can find the right behaviourist to give you a "all good things come from baby" plan that you could manage to implement without keeling over from exhaustion... then may be you could try that for a month and see (dog would have to be in their crate all the times you couldn't supervise), but otherwise... If I was in Sydney - I'd give Steve Courtney at k9pro.com.au a ring and discuss ideas with him. Always when things go to hell with my dog - I look at what I'm doing that might be contributing and try to get video of what is going on so I can look at it more independently to see stuff I miss being in it. It's hard if the problem is intermittent but easier if you know what to set up to trigger the curled lip (there's proably a bunch of other signals the dog makes before even this).

I'm thinking - maybe she edited out the play fun stuff? That's me being optimistic. I guess that's what hot house puppy training looks like if they don't have play breaks? I don't think Susan Garrett would approve of zero play / balance breaks.

advertising for sale stuff that is illegal to sell is against their policy. So my complaint post would go something like - it is illegal to sell or own this type of dog in Australia and if you do not take this down within 24 hours, I will report you for knowingly facilitating an illegal act - which is also illegal. If they're not selling what they advertise - then that's fraud which is also illegal... And I suspect all their ads are scams / fraud. (and provide some links to support your claim). once you've told them it's illegal and provided the relevant government law link - then they are knowingly assisting an illegal act - which is also illegal. and it's all against their user agreements. They're probably very under resourced when it comes to reviewing complaints like these - but you could upgrade and contact the owners of carsales.com.au more directly by email. Where are we? carsales.com Limited is located Level 4, 449 Punt Road, Richmond VIC 3121. We can be contacted by phone during AEST business hours on (03) 9093 8600, by facsimile on (03) 9093 8698 or by email at [email protected]. And given they are an ASX listed company - complaining to the regulator of companies http://www.asic.gov.au/ - may also help. Personally given how dodgy the qu !cksales is, I would also be avoiding c4r sal3s.

I can understand why your partner is fretting. I used to shove my puppy in a crate when I was out. That was before I knew about crate training. The most important thing - is not to reward the puppy for "carrying on" so I play a game that is akin to a kids play ground game "what's the time mr wolf" or "creepy up" ie if the puppy is misbehaving - I back off turn and walk away, but if the puppy is behaving how I want, I approach and reward with treats through the top or let the puppy out. Puppy is supposed to sit and let me attach the lead first, but we're still working on that. She doesn't bolt out the door - which is my strict criteria. The other thing I do that I think helped - was I'd set the puppy up for me going out and then I'd go out and shut the door and then I'd go back cos I forgot my sunglasses, and then I'd go out, and then I'd go back cos I'd forgot my umbrella and then I'd go out and then I'd remember I'd forgot... repeat for coat, notebook, last minute pitstop, lunch, coffee thermos, chair, phone, turn the iron off (I have one that turns itself off and I haven't used it for years. .... And I'd also go out, walk around the block and listen for noise... and I'd tell my neighbours, and check back with them if they heard anything... Essentially - you do heaps of repetitions of what you want, only reward the good behaviour, and start with really short periods of time and build up by varying amounts more or less - but increasing the average time... And some puppies just don't get over it. And then you have to try other things or consider doggy day care or someone to visit at lunch time or maybe even another (calmer) puppy (though you'd want to be careful about this, sometimes a second dog can make things worse).

It could be sold online somewhere - but that wouldn't make it legal. And pretty sure most auction sites (except maybe the ones in Russia and China and Nigeria and similar places), would require the products being sold be legal to be sold - ie no stolen stuff, and no stuff that is illegal to own or sell. They have a report link for stuff that seems dodgy. http://www.quicksales.com.au/content/0012005/help/common/safetrading/safetradingcentre.aspx

That is amazing. Lots of terms Susan Garrett uses in there eg "sit pretty" and "say your prayers"... I just wanted to see the little thing wag its tail and play but it looked so serious and intense the whole time... more than the most intense border collie.

I'd forward the links to the fido scam watch government site. They can forward to customs / relevant state police if they think the dogs are real. But it's more likely a scam. PS I thought most auction sites had a report this link on them.

If you're travelling... The beaches - especially the ones around Tennyson - semaphore - they're all off lead all the time in winter, and before 10 and after 8 in summer/daylight savings time. Victoria Park racecourse is off lead - but you are supposed to have your dog on lead when there is organised sport - within 50m. There are a few hazards - it's not fenced, it often has noisy model airplanes with yummy lunches stashed close by, and model cars, and pedal prix, and nut job cyclists, and joggers who don't understand that like children, dogs don't always look where they're going (and don't even say anything - they just crash), and nut job dogs. And owners who don't pick up and bags that split when you do try to pick up (yuck). But mostly we have a good time - because it's huge and people are spread out. Burnside has Hazelwood park - which is off lead away from the playground (greenhill road near Glynburn road). There's quite a big place out near Golden Grove, not far from the hockey club. https://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=Golden+Grove,+South+Australia&hl=en&ll=-34.819423,138.697371&spn=0.008667,0.013368&sll=-34.985965,138.701955&sspn=1.098128,1.711121&oq=golden+grove&hnear=Golden+Grove+South+Australia&t=m&z=16 Modbury sports reserve off Ashley ave. There is a big area there that is dogs off lead. And a track along the creek which may or may not be off lead. There's an area in Stirling somewhere. And I've used Mylor oval - which doesn't seem to get used for anything else and there is a track that runs off from one end of it.

for the short dogs or short armed... a wooden spoon with long handle and peanut butter stuck to the end or mash of sardines or whatever your dog likes... The first vid showed using thumb and forefinger to dispense treat, and the other three fingers to catch the dog's cheek. Which was developed into using the whole hand and separately delivering treats in position (ie so the dog does not have to move out of the correct position to get one).

so how do you get from "holding your dog's cheek" to something that looks legit in competition obedience? my dog will follow my hand around - so long as I'm keeping the reinforcement rate up, but that's not the same as an off lead heel with no treats and no hand (or normal hand swinging walk).