Simply Grand

This doesn't really warrant a thread probably but I couldn't think of another thread to post it in so why not. I was down at the beach today (Burleigh Heads) and when I arrived there was a man on the grass foreground area with his BC girl and her 4 babies (she had 8 but 4 had already gone to their homes). Puppies were 8 weeks old today apparently. They (apparently) had their "needles and health check" yesterday at the vets. So today they were playing in a high dog, human and who knows what else traffic area with half the people who walked past patting and playing with them. They were happy, healthy looking confident little pups who had a great time but, yeah.... Mum was lovely but was running around off leash in an on leash area (there are plenty of off leash areas up here and the council seems pretty reasonable to me, it pisses me off that people do the wrong thing and potentially risk that for the rest of us) and she loved fetching sticks but would snatch them out of hands and the owner (and the parents) were letting kids play freely with her. I had a lovely play with the puppies and mum because hey, they were already there and I am dog deprived at the moment with mine all in boarding but I walked away biting my tongue when a lady asked the owner what breed the tan and white pup was (the other 3 were black and white) and he answered "same as the others, Border Collie. There were 2 tan and and whites, they call those ones Coolies".

Quinn refused to get out of the car in the rain the other day. We'd already gotten caught in it while we were out and she's not a huge fan of water so by the time we got home and it was still raining she must have decided she'd had enough of getting wet. I had to lift her out and cover her with a towel to get her to walk to the house *eye roll*

She sounds like a great breeder :) And you and your girls will get teeny baby puppy cuddles PS. Keep beating those odds, I definitely think you have the attitude to do it ;)

I love it!! The music choice is fantastic :laugh:

So sorry SM, I hadn't realised your cancer was terminal, makes me admire your amazing attitude to life even more :) I'm glad your sister will be coming to help you out. I don't know a lot but I'd think DOL would be a good place to start! Joining the state CC (are you NSW, can't see on iPhone) and the Westie Club (surely there is one). There must be a way to have overseas Champions recognized by the ANKC. Good luck to you and her sorting it out :)

Welcome GenY, congrats on your new puppy :) I'm no expert so hopefully others more knowledgeable will respond. Re the bacterial infection, I'd suggest yes, get a new bottle of Malaseb, you want the active ingredients at full strength when you're treating an active infection I'd think. I suppose it depends on how big the infection is but if the vet has said twice weekly it probably is enough, although I know of plenty of dogs with skin infections having Malaseb baths every second day so I imagine three baths per week wouldn't hurt and might be more effective at getting things under control. Re. the Demodex, I've generally only been involved in treating it with daily ivermectin but that may well have been with more severe cases (shelter dogs). Interested to hear what others say about the Advocate treatment but if Advocate does kill mites quickly for the month period it should be effective fairly fast. As I said, I'm not that experienced with it though so see what others say!

I think your conclusion is correct, but not for the reasons you think.In a culture where dogs live in small apartments, are taken everywhere including cafes etc, and often carried on public transport. By necessity people have to buy small, heavily domesticated dogs who have been bred for placid temperaments. Because Australia has a heavily rural modern history, even our urban dwellings have traditionally had huge back yards, and we tend tend toward s an "outdoor" lifestyle, we have tended towards different breeds. (Often working breeds not far removed from their working ancestry.) Not only do people not worry about lack of "social niceties" in their dogs but a tendency towards guarding property or people is often seen as a good thing. I was in Europe late last year and I can assure you that just because the people have smaller houses does not mean they buy and own smaller, more heavily domesticated dogs. In fact I saw more primitive type dogs there than I ever have and they live in apartments, go on public transport, etc The difference here? Their dogs are trained and expected to behave. People take responsibility for the actions of their animals but they also seem to be aware that a dog is still a dog and will behave as such. I didn't see one child rush up to a dog while I was there, or anyone else trying to pat another persons dog without permission. Nor did I see one off lead dog the entire time. Quiet frankly, it was refreshing. Agree. Same experience here all over Europe. They usually don't desex either but hey look no accidental matings! My Finnish friend has Samoyeds in her tiny bed sit. They are very well behaved. When they go out it's into the forest for hikes, into town for a coffee...they take them everywhere, always under control. The dogs are trained to perfection. I was coincidentally reflecting on this this afternoon. For the last couple of weeks Quinn has been coming everywhere with me because its been an issue to leave her at my mum's house, where I'm staying, when I'm not there. So she is out with me a lot of the day while I do various things. It's way too hot to leave her in the car anywhere so everywhere she's allowed she comes with me and if I have to go inside somewhere she's not allowed she is tied up in the shade somewhere. Im also spending more time finding different, interesting dog friendly places to exercise her rather than doing the same walks and visiting the same parks, as was our normal routine. Even in this short time she has become noticeably calmer in interesting environments, less OTT excited about meeting new people, and more settled and happy to just lie around when we are at home. She has always been very attentive to me but I think is even more so now, maybe because things are unpredictable for her so she's making sure she keeps a close eye on me. I can see how if that was how all dogs lived all the time there would fewer problems.

I wanna see the pics too! ETA it's kinda weird when people you don't actually know know your dogs isn't it? (Not in a bad way, just weird!) The other day someone commented about a lost Sheltie in Queanbeyan, where I've just moved from, saying 'is that Riley, whose mum also has Saxon and Quinn?' and another person tagged me and said 'that's SG's dogs but I don't think it's RIley'. It was so weird, two unconnected people thousands of Kms away talking about my dogs :laugh: Then here in Qld someone came past and said 'can I pat your dog?' (Quinn) 'We saw her from our apartment across the road the other day and had a conversation about her'. The joys of having noticeable dogs! (And constantly yelling their names in public )

You guys have prompted me to download Watership Down. I think I saw it as a kid and I definitely remember we had an illustrated book as children (was it originally a novel??) and I remember having an uneasy, sad feeling about it and that one was called Hazel but I don't remember the details. ETA my sister's dwarf lop who stayed with me for 6 months while they were travelling used to chase my two cats off. He never did anything to them but they were scared.

So tired of this pluralistic BS. If a person commits an assault, we don't just shrug our shoulders and say "oh well, all people have the potential to be aggressive." ALL dogs most definitely do NOT have the potential to be aggressive. What we perceive as "aggression" (anthropomorphism) is a function of breeding, upbringing, and training. Dogs that have been bred for security work, some forms of hunting, (and yes fighting) often have "aggressive" traits bred in. Unfortunately dogs bred "wildly" or carelessly bred without regard to "temperament" may also have these traits. It's like responding to a fatal white-pointer attack by saying "all fish have the potential to be aggressive." No that would be like pointing to a dog attack and saying "All mammals have potential to be aggressive". They do, whether or not a pigmy shrew would inflict severe injuries is another matter though. :laugh: They absolutely do. Some of the nastiest injuries I've had from an animal have been from rabbits. They're cute but if they're in a mood, those claws (the same ones that can dig very nice burrows) are perfectly capable of excavating human flesh. The OH's rabbit goes one further and kills sparrows that come into her house. Oh definitely ! I was just pointing out that "one shark = all fish" is very wrong compared to "one dog breed = all dogs". It would be "one shark = all sharks of that species" ;) Guinnea Pigs can cause some damage too! As a child my entire thumb nail was bitten off by one! A small Lorikeet tore up my fingers the other day as I was catching him to take him to the vet because he was injured. He was most definitely being aggressive. I got what you meant about that comparison ;)

:laugh:

I do this too. We won the water bowl at Saxon's puppy preschool (for musical sits :D ) and it's soft fabric, super light and clips onto my treat pouch. That H2O4K9 looks great though.

Exactly

So tired of this pluralistic BS. If a person commits an assault, we don't just shrug our shoulders and say "oh well, all people have the potential to be aggressive." ALL dogs most definitely do NOT have the potential to be aggressive. What we perceive as "aggression" (anthropomorphism) is a function of breeding, upbringing, and training. Dogs that have been bred for security work, some forms of hunting, (and yes fighting) often have "aggressive" traits bred in. Unfortunately dogs bred "wildly" or carelessly bred without regard to "temperament" may also have these traits. It's like responding to a fatal white-pointer attack by saying "all fish have the potential to be aggressive." I disagree. All dogs do have the potential to be aggressive. The threshold varies, but if I beat, starve and torture my dog he would react with aggression at some point. Dogs need to be treated more like dogs by the general public and given respect as such, of course they're a domestic animal but still an animal and not something we have bred into submission and can expect to tolerate everything humans, other dogs and co can throw at it. Absolutely. All dogs have the potential to bite if the circumstances are right, including small, highly domesticated ones. Whether that makes them 'aggressive' is questionable but legally it certainly would.

Denali, I've PMd you again :) Also just putting out the call again for whether anyone may be able to take Quinn for a little while? I'm hoping I won't need to, I should find out about a couple of houses I'm hopeful of getting tomorrow but in case they don't work out it would be great to know if anyone might be in a position to have her.

Baby Ronin :love:

That's awesome! I love how it says 'the perfect gift for your dog' as though the dogs are gonna enjoy it

They are sooo adorable!

Oh sorry, in that case the rescue did make the responsible decision with her, which must have been difficult but had to be done.

Do you think it comes down to dogs that have a drive to run flat out? As in they all could physically do it but many don't try to run at full speed? Wouldn't surprise me at all that sighthounds and BCs regularly do though.

Yes, I think most dogs can be rehabilitated after an incident or poor upbringing (for lack of a better term) with the right knowledge and commitment from the owner/carer. However I do believe there are some that are born with major temp issues. I've seen a number of puppies between 6 & 8ish weeks old snap into SERIOUS aggression towards humans in certain circumstances and there's just no way they could have learned that behaviour at that young age, it's in them. I've worked for months at a time with several dogs that after a bit of work were fine with me within the shelter environment they'd become used to and ok interacting with others as long as I was there controlling the interaction. Once they bonded with me I would have trusted them not to hurt ME no matter what I did to them and to take my lead as long as I had complete control of a situation but they weren't safe in circumstances other than that. They were just too far gone. They are the hardest PTS decisions. where you've seen so much progress and seen the good side of the dog, but you have to be honest with yourself in that you cannot control everything in real life. Sounds like the neighbour's attacking dog and the Doberman OsS spoke of are/were in that category and unfortunately were rehomed anyway Most dogs aren't though and are amazingly resilient with the right help :)

Oh and Poppy looks like she's having a ball :D

Oh Saxon does that when racing across the park to get back to me for a treat :) I didn't realise it was a sighthound trait, just thought it was him going as fast as he could on little legs lol. ETA just to clarify, Saxon isn't a sighthound, he's a poodle x malt.

Great photos Ronin looks like a great swimmer. I'm jealous! I've been trying to get Quinn swimming now that we're living on the Gold Coast but it's slow going. I've managed to persuade her in up to her chest if I'm in too but most of our beach activity consists of me swimming along holding one end of the long lead and Quinn walking alongside on the sand at the other end of the lead

So cuuuute! Maybe there's some Aussie Shep in there giving him the fluff and the mini tail :)