16Paws

Gave pup her chicken frame tonight. I think she was a bit confused at first but after a few tentative licks and nibbles she got the idea. By the end I felt a bit more confident that she wasn't going to start choking and she was running around holding it up like she does her fave toys It took her a good 10 minutes to polish it off which was about 9 minutes longer than I thought it would last.

We were looking for somewhere to stay recently and had difficulty finding anywhere suitable. Many of the options appear to be rental/holiday houses with 7 nights min stay with fancy gardens and furniture. Our young lab still has a lot to learn and letting her loose in someone's garden would not result in a relaxing holiday for us. I was also concerned about the spread of disease, etc as not one of the places I looked at asked for any proof of vaccination. Our lab is 90% outdoors so I'm turned off a little by the thought of dogs running around and doing goodness knows what on the furniture, beds, floors, etc (irresponsible pet owners holiday too) and there was no mention of how the places are cleaned. If a rental which allowed pets indoors also advertised a high standard of cleaning and disinfecting I would feel much more comfortable. A pet minding or 'look in' service would be great. We would bring her bed and bowls but maybe a small supply of things which may be easily forgotten or run out quickly (poo bags) I like the idea of having a hydrobath or some kind of dog washing facility available. Info on local 'dog friendly' attractions would also be useful - off leash parks, off leash beaches, vets, pet stores, groomer. :D Dog treats on the pillow instead of after dinner mints :D

Thanks everyone. We've bought a couple of chicken frames to try.

I've spent a few hours reading about which bones you should and shouldn't feed your dogs. I'd like to be giving our 7mo lab an occasional bone but I'm cautious what to give her after she had an obstruction from something else last year (she puts absolutely anything and everything in her mouth! ;) ) I've narrowed it down to raw chicken bones of some kind as these appear to be the safest, but the general opinion seems to be the bigger the dog, the bigger the bone. She is a chewer and not a gulper. Advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks for the replies everyone

Our vet remembers who we are and seems to genuinely care for the wellbeing of our pets. He is very good at explaining conditions (in laymans terms) and always provides more than one solution. The clinic staff are friendly and sincere. I don't think we've ever left feeling doubtful about the advice we've been given. They are not product bias (i.e. they never try to sell a particular food, etc but instead discuss the advantages and disadvantages of all options). It took them about 2 years to start pronouncing our cat's name correctly Probably the down side is the comfort of the clinic, there is only a small waiting room with an L shaped bench so it can get tricky trying to keep animals separated.

I'm wondering if anyone here has used or is using the Pet Loo (black box with astro turf on top) and what your thoughts are on how well it worked (ie. smell, ease to clean, etc).

I don't know about other people but I was happy to see that so many votes were againts the issues I have with our lab. Makes me feel a bit less of a bad parent

It is the permit you need for having more than 2 dogs on your property. I did ask if the permit was for specific dogs (i.e. I have a, b and c living here) and the lady I spoke to said it's just a general permit, it doesn't detail the specific animals you keep. I think it's strange that a permit would apply, if I was pet sitting for friends or family during the year I wouldn't expect to require a permit...

I called the Brisbane City Council this morning to check if I needed to apply for an animal permit (the permit for having x amount of dogs or x amount of cats) to foster multiple animals and apparently yes you do have to have a permit if you will have more than 2 dogs or 3 cats. I don't mind having to pay the $209 but it seems a little... innappropriate that foster parents would be required to apply. Curious what people think of this and how many of the foster carers here actually have a permit... *edited to clarify what the permit was for.

Hope noone minds I'm joining in a week late. I'm so impressed with everyone's photography that I thought this would be a good challenge to improve my own. Week 2: "Nothing like a good chew"

We took our girl to 2 different puppy schools, checked out a third and ended up only going to one which we continued on with puppy school level 2 and basic obedience. The third puppy school we didn't like the 'feel' of at all. The instructors seemed not very knowledgeable or ... confident and choker chains were in full use (which frankly made me feel sick seeing how rough some of the owners were being with their dogs). The 2nd puppy school was good in theory, it appeared to be setup very well, they had a mini agility course, little off leash pens, would apparently introduce the dogs to all sorts of everyday items (umbrellas, horses, etc - we didn't get that far) and an award winning trainer/owner. The trainer we had was a young woman who didn't seem to know what schedule to follow and wasn't very observant of the pups. We had 2 aggressive/unsocial (hard to believe it possible at 12 weeks of age) pups in the group and in the 2nd week our lab got attacked by one of these dogs after which the trainer picked up the offending pup and soothed and stroked him and even gave him a treat as 'time out' for bad behaviour! This happened at the start of the class and ruined the whole experience for us. Our usually bright and friendly girl spent the rest of the class cowering behind our legs. We left feeling very angry at the way the attack was handled and discontinued our attendance. Class size was 10-12. The final puppy school we attended was great, it was outdoors but secure in cricket picth/cage (not sure what they're called), the instructors were all knowledeable and the pups were made to work for their play time. Play time was very, very supervised with pups let off leash one by one until the trainer was sure everyone was going ok. Rough play was corrected with a silent time out and play time was short, around 5 mins at a time. I think the classes had around 8 people.

Our lab's best friend is a a female cattle dog a few months her senior - they've had regular meet-ups at a local park since ours was around 4 months old. Neither of them play as well with any other dogs. She also loves golden retrievers but I think this is because they are the only breed that let her jump all over them while lying on their backs...

Inline with the NCIS theme... Ducky Kate Semper (as in Sempre Fi - don't know spelling) Ari Abby Jen Jeth

I have insurance through Medibank as we're already members for human health insurance. Cost $380 p/a and has already paid for itself as I received just over $500 back on a $800 bill 4 months into the policy.

Another way to do iceblocks - we fill glad sandwich bags with water and dry food, seal the bag and freeze. Then you just peel the bag away and give pup the iceblock. Another fave of our pup's was a treat ball, I think it was just from coles or woolworths. Fill with a portion of pup's meal and it's a good 15-20 mins of stimulation. It might not sound like a lot of time but for a little pup that's a fair bit of effort. Papertowel rolls are a little more durable then toilet rolls but supervision is advised with this 'toy'.

I've seen underage puppies at both Chermside and Toombul PP on numerous occasions but each time there was a sign in the window stating the pups were too young to be sold - very little consolation really but perhaps with pressure the shop could ensure they do not go to new homes for a few more weeks...