FD26

Just wondering why the staffyxpug is entire?

I got a quote from a fencing place, as the shipping is pretty high on all the ones put together - and still $2,000!! So, we'll see I suppose. Might look into getting some welding gear, as it's my OH's old trade and might be the cheaper option. Or it may have to wait a few months. I still don't know what sort of work I'll get, it may very well be part time or night work anyway.

We are all animals, but I think there is only one (and I am open to correction here) who kills for pleasure. I think it is important to acknowledge that dogs and cats kill for pleasure. We see that sort of thing here quite regularly - dogs killing stock, not to eat them but because it is fun, they go into drive, they get a reward for that drive by the chemicals released in their brain. I have a 10 month killer JRT X Chihuahua in quarantine at the moment who killed chooks on the property he lived on - didn't eat them, simply killed them and ran over to the next one. Doesn't change the horrific nature of what happened but humans aren't the only ones who kill for pleasure. No, but our "breed" sure as hell has the level of consiousness to stop us from doing so. It is a worry to think of the next step these people will take...I really hope they're caught now. I don't understand it myself, not one bit...I could (in some alternate universe) be driven to kill an adult human, but never never an animal. I can't even kill mice when they decide to take up residence in my house, heck, I've been a vego since I was seven!

Just disgusting. I can't imagine how the owners would feel :laugh: It's hard enough losing a pet, but in such a way? Jeez that's rough. I hope they find the people who did it...

At least he did get jail time. How disgusting are some people? Imagine what he'd do to his ex-girlfriends' children if they had any? Or would that be different because they're people? GRRR

Same here! Perhaps we're just multi-dimensional people I love the way that it's another American study using "nuerosis" as a basis lol.

I wouldn't know what the x was, but I can definitely see Bull Arab in him, especially in the headshot!

It would sure make headlines if he did! Our family dog Buddy is a King Charles, I can't imagine anyone being afraid of him (except his smell when he finds a dead animal to roll in on my parent's property...whew, not nice). Silly mother Should have let him loose after her and then told her it's funny to see her run like that

We'll be getting our staffies around the same time! Mine's due to come home in the beginning of March. Good work on naming him already, we're still very stuck on that one!

oops, repost.

My siamese x is notorious for suckling. It's quite annoying at the moment because she has gingivitis from teething and stink breath lol. I've heard as well that it can be from being taken away from mum too early, however with siameses it's a common occurance regardless - just a quirk of the breed. The only advice I've been given is redirection when she's doing it, but honestly I don't see the point most times as there's no harm in it and it's rather endearing.

Pavers work great, just lay them on a bed of sand. Sounds like a job for a good waterproof kennel for sure A solid roof for part/all of the run too would help with heat and rain. Dogs cope reasonably well with dry heat provided it's not way over the top, humidity is the baddie because they cool by evaporation and I'm sure you know how well evaporative cooling works in the tropics Clam shell pool of water, frozen containers of water and plenty of deep natural shade will help. You can buy moveable dog runs if you want, come in sections, so you can take it with you when you move. What's the set up like for the removeable dog runs? Yep, we've got humidity too. No points for guessing where we live now...lol. Our last staffy seemed to cope fine with it, though, as long as he had a steady supply of water. On really hot days we'd leave my son's sprinkler on for him, too...he hated actually being in the water lol. Hopefully this guy will like it a bit more. Wowza, just had a look here http://www.dogruns.com.au and geez they're pricey. I reckon I'd have to go back to work to afford one! LOL

Actually something like that might just be doable. Perhaps we could use the garage as a back up for bad weather if we set it up right. I imagine while I'm not working he'll go in there for short periods when I'm out anyway. If we can't get it cool enough we have another room that's virtually empty that would do the trick as well, and be air conditioned completely - the laundry isn't an option as it's too small and has a sliding door that even my older cat can break through lol. There's a corner of our house a bit like a large enclave where the back door to the garage is that might work nicely, although we would have to figure out something for shade...maybe a mesh covering? The only other problem with it is that there's a concrete path that runs through it (and through most of the yard except the grass in the middle), so we couldn't dig under that...I wonder if we could get something secure on top of it. I'm a bit hopeless with DIY, by the way lol.

When we're home the dogs aren't in the runs, they're out to go where they please within the fences, so yes they are outside the whole time when we're not home (except when the weather is insane, when they're inside with the aircon on). Personally I wouldn't leave a Stafford, adult or puppy, loose in the yard all day even the best yard in the world - way too many things that could happen up to and including some loonie chucking bait over the fence (yes, that is the ultimate in paranoid) To stop a determined dog digging rocks on the ground won't be anything like enough - dig down 12-18 inches, fill the trench with either concrete or lay wire mesh and refill. It will get us through the puppy stage, though...while we're out here with him. And, being defence, we'll likely move before he's an adult. But thanks for the suggestion, if we're still in the prediciment down the track we'll definitely look into securing it better. I wouldn't leave a staffy alone in a yard now, either...especially as a pup. When I reported what had happened to the council they commented that staffies are notorious for getting loose, and they pick up more of them who have than any other breed.

We won't have a problem with it being cold! But, the heat I do worry about. We have an airconditioner out there though that we can use or we could get fans, and we could also leave the screen door open as it's secure (grated, and locks with a key). That way he would be able to look out as well. We're renting (through the army) so we won't be able to do any concreting unfortunetly, and again with the weather I worry, as we have a very large covered back veranda, and when it rains (which is often) it's not unusual for it to rain sideways and cover the entire area. I suppose unless we had a kennel in there. But would it be able to be secured without concrete?

The best thing to do is to make your yard completely dog and puppy proof. Not just for your dog but for dogs trying to get in. I have quite a big front fence that is locked whenever I am not home. It is to keep other dogs and people out more than it is to keep my dogs in. I just don't buy the excuse of "my dog accidently got out" ( i know you didn't say this , just making point) I have two SBT's and they are very important to us and thus they are protected not from themselves but outside things. A 3 foot fence would keep both in as they are not escape artists, however a 6 foot fence keeps eveything else out. While the puppy is young put together a temp dog run using the mesh panels from Bunning, for 300 bucks you could build an awesome run that will last forever and be able to be moved , folded up etc etc etc. Our yard is puppy-proofed. We have a combo of chain-link and colourbond in different spots, all 6 foot, and where there's chainlink with dirt underneath, which is only one spot (and also on the side where we've had problems with a dog previously) we'll be putting large rocks to make it impossible to dig under. Our house is brand new, and the fences are all secure. But, regardless..he won't be unsupervised in the yard, we're just too paranoid now. We had believed it was secure before, but it didn't prevent our previous staffy from being killed in an attack. The room under the fence was remarkably small - I wouldn't have imagined he could fit more than his paw underneath, and it was created in the matter of half an hour by the neighbouring dog - who knows what else could happen if our new pup and the other dog were determined. Especially now this other dog has "won one battle", know what I mean? I don't even let my son and his friends play down that side of the yard now... I'll get my partner to have a look into the mesh panels though, thanks. With a dog run, though...won't they be outside the entire time, or is their some way to attatch it to the inside like you can a cat run??

We're getting our pup in 6 weeks, and while I'm home all day at the moment I may be returning to work soon. I'm trying to figure out suitable accomidation for the puppy if he's at home on his own for say, up to 8 hours a day (although this is obviously a guess at the moment). Although our yard is fully fenced we've had problems with neighbouring dogs in the past, and living in the 'burbs we actually have a total of 5 adult dogs in adjoing yards. Therefore he won't be allowed outside on his own until he's mature, so the backyard is not an option. We obviously wouldn't let him have the run of the house, and even if we could when he's older we have 2 cats so they'd need to be supervised together as well. They cause enough mayhem on their own lol. Our best option at the moment is the garage - which is a double garage that we can clear out for him, and make quite cozy. But, does anyone have any better suggestions? I've heard a bit about dog runs, but I'm totally clueless as to how we'd make one and whether that would be a good idea considering where we live there's often unpredictable, extreme weather.

Awesome! Good news for everyone, especially the pups. You gave a couple of links to articles, I agreed with lots of things they had to say. Some of it was overly-simplified and I cannot imagine this approach giving the best outcome if they are hard and fast rules but my area of expertise is not puppies. I'll be back bugging you for more training advice soon! Although this guy will be going to obedience school, so hopefully we'll pick up a lot there. My biggest problem with training is convincing my partner that he needs some help with it. Our last pup responded really well to my commands, but when my partner would tell him something he would just sort of look at him confused. So, we need to sort out how to work as a team I think. I'm not sure if some of it's because I'm home more often, or if it's just that he's not too good at sticking to the same words/tones...I think he sees his dogs more like people lol. With my previous dogs, the main focus was always on getting them socialised because they were breeds that had a bad wrap and needed a lot of attention in those areas. I never tried to get them to do "tricks" or whatnot because honestly, they just didn't seem interested, and I suppose I wasn't either. But, with staffies I feel like we can get a lot more out of the pup, so I'm hoping to expand my skills there.

Oh wow, that's pretty good then. Which insurance do you use? Maybe it's something to consider for our new puppy even though we haven't used it for our cats. Cats seem to cost a lot less when they need to go to the vet...and being indoor cats it's usually a very rare occurance.

I know what you mean...we tend to always think that when we have emergencies come up as well! Our younger kitten spent a week at the vet right after we got her because she had such bad diahreah they thought she had a case of agressive worms. Turned out to be that she just has a sensetive stomach, but at the time the insurance would have been nice to have! But, then when I look at it rationally it just doesn't seem to be good value...

Great resource! I had to get some for my cats from the vet yesterday and I paid more for the 3 months supply than they're charging for the 6 month supply on here! Didn't even know you could get them elsewhere, how silly am I?

We've never been big fans of pet insurance. It seems to me that for what you get back you're better to pop all the money in a savings account instead. Sure the premiums aren't too high, but when you have multiple pets, it gets a bit much. For us it would cost in excess of $70 a month. It seems wiser to hold onto that money incase of emergency. What does everyone else think?

I'm so jealous that you get to visit yours! Ours is all the way in QLD! Holding out for the next pics though... awww thats hell far hehe i get to vitist mum and dad dogs til the pups come and then im aloud to visit our pup we lucky coz the breeder is about an hour away from me yeh our breeder is only 5-10 min drive from my place, just got home from their, our boy is getting so big, 21 days and 1.5kgs and such a little cutie. and btw Thunder is an awesome name. here is a pic of our boy. Awww, he's gorgeous. Love the white paws Our last guy had white paws..

A lot of people wait months or even years for the right pup.. and most will tell you the wait is worth it. Yes, we did before. It's been a big process for us here though, after losing our dog. Full of lots of emotion about whether or not we were ready..and the sheer quietness of the house. Anyone who has cats will know what I mean when I say they're great...but they're no dog lol.

Good for you- you stuck with us and all our 'bludgeoning' !! ..and now we will be annoying you for photos of your new little one in March!! Congratulations! Haha, like I said, I have a "determined" spirit lol. I'll be more than obliged to send a gazzilion pictures!