Little Gifts

I have an almost 15 year old and this year she needed the steroid Prednisole. She developed every single side effect in the book and it was awful for her and us but please hear what everyone is saying - this is a drug that needs to be tapered off. You cannot just stop it. I don't know the technical reason why but there is a good reason. So please continue the doses as prescribed but you can also call your vet for their professional advice on how to manage the affects on your dog.

Very sad for the owners but what a beautiful gesture on their part! Jo, is the pic I have added the type of wheelchair you are talking about? And is it presently in Victoria? I am an Assistant Fundraiser with Craft for Paws Fundraising Inc. We are a fairly large Australia wide rescue support organisation (also linked in with another similar group) and there could be an animal in rescue who could benefit from it for a dog in forever care due to their mobility limitations or age. Or if it was a doggo up for adoption of course the equipment would go with the dog. Would you like me to put a post up and see what comes of it? Happy to wait if you'd prefer to see what comes from your post here first. I know we have a DOLer who runs a seniors rescue group but I think hers are all littlies. Another Vic based place you could approach is Life of Pikelet. They take on a lot of health compromised animals and would know others doing the same.

Life goals!!!!

The ones Bunny uses are Fluent Pet and when I googled the term other brands showed up. I've also seen people selling the Fluent Pet ones on FB.

Like Boronia we used a child's slide to make a ramp for the bottom of our bed (ours a lot less fancy!). We since got a handmade timber and carpet one from our local tip shop that looks much better! I would also suggest you get a blue light. I am on a doggy dementia page and a lot of people use them at night to keep their oldies settled. I actually like sleeping with it too. I got mine from Bunnings as I wanted a plug in style. There are 4 lights in the set but we only use 1 or it is too bright. I've included a link to it. Previously we used a light you USB charge that I got from Amazon. It was great but had to be recharged every 2 days. We also tried a battery light but it chewed through the batteries too quick. I don't know why these lights work but they provide low level light for a dog getting on and off a bed and my dog wants to sleep right down the bed now as close to the light as she can get so she obviously likes it. She doesn't get up now at all. One other thing we bought (I got mine off Marketplace) as one of those kid barriers for one side of my bed as my girl would use the ramp to go up but jump off and I needed to stop her doing that because of her poor joints. Just like when people get old and need mobility aids, some of our dogs do too. https://www.bunnings.com.au/lytworx-colour-changing-puck-light-kit_p0181967

Not true. Every rescue could tell you a story of a backyard breeder surrendering past their use by date breeding bitches and past their sell date older pups with some bogus tale so they don't have to pay a surrender fee. One of my foster fails was a pup surrendered along with 2 siblings and their 14 year old mother. She clearly had dementia and did not teach the pups good social skills. All 3 pups had serious behavioural issues. Just one story amidst thousands and just for my breed.

This article made my blood pressure rise - that journalist barely bothered to source any credible info for the story. "AMA's report found that in 2021, the typical Australian pet dog was most likely a young, medium-sized purebred, acquired through a breeder." What the f***? How about some facts there from those working on the ground rather than from their highrise offices? And one of the sad photos used looks like it was taken of street dogs in Bali.

An American friend of mine fosters dogs for a group who brings them over from poor parts of Europe with stray dog problems. Here in Australia there is an amazing group in Cairns doing vet work and taking in unwanted dogs from Thursday Island. The logisitics of doing things like this is not easy but those strays have no hope otherwise.

So despite the vast financial coffers of the RSPCA and access to funding sources by many local councils, the responsibility still falls on volunteer based and unfunded independant rescues to save more lives? Did I get that right? The day the RSPCA get their proper comeuppance for all they don't do for animals I will be incredibly happy.

I have no issue with a quality breeder making a comfortable living from doing what they are good at and dedicated to. But sadly it is the dodgy puppy farmers and back yard breeders raking in the dollars whilst pumping out poor quality puppies and spending as little money as possible on their breeding dogs and bitches and their care. Who do so many people not care either about where their pup comes from or the quality of the pup they are paying thousands for? It makes no sense to not do your homework when spending that much money on something you should have for 10+ years. They probably spend more time choosing their new tv than they do a dog.

One of those times when you wished dogs could talk and tell you where they'd been for all that time.

Here is a bit more about the dog and owner. States dog is a rescue (like he couldn't have known everything about it) yet has it out and about unleashed? Dumb. And I get he immediately left with the dog but if he had've had a leash on him the dog could have been secured away from the horse and he could've returned quickly to welfare check the horse and give details to the owner rather than meet with park management several days later. Another reason why parks and dog parks are so unsafe - stupid owners doing stupid things. https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/reality-tv/surprise-owner-of-bulldog-that-attacked-horse-revealed-as-reality-tv-star/news-story/0b97d822812d2f671c6815eac7e8985d

This is one of those times when I'd be asking my vet for recommendations for a specialist to assess him. If you live rural they may also be able to do some of it by phone or video and work with your local vet for more testing. I have great vets (and it is a vet hospital) but there comes a point when they need to refer over to someone with more specialist knowledge and experience. I hope they can work out what's going on for your boy.

I'll be interested to hear how it goes AH!!!

Someone is selling a set on Facebook Marketplace. You could check the main site to see the price difference. I've seen them for sale on there a couple of times. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/822736381974956/?ref=search&referral_code=null&referral_story_type=post&tracking=browse_serp%3A61153712-32b2-4895-867f-4bb1c02edb0f

Dog ownership increased over Covid so it stands to reason dog attacks would also increase. The book should be thrown at anyone trying to secrete away a dog that has caused an attack rather than take resonsibility for its future security. You can still love your dog and give it a good life but you also have to keep everyone else and their pets safe from it.

@WanaHavanese Two buttons I'd like for Jonah are actually please and bored. He is such a gentleman with lots of self imposed good boi rules that I'd love to see if he uses/thinks please (it may have been taught to him before he came to live with us). And bored because he seems pretty cruisy in his old age and isn't into toys or much cuddles. I can't even really encourage him to come for a walk around our big yard like our other dog either. But he loves car rides, outings and of course walks. If I take him to an appointment I try to find a different and empty dog park for us to try out on the way home and I can almost see his little mind thinking oooh where are we going now! I want his life to be as full as I can offer. A treat button would be worn out in a week. He already has a strategy for this that he thinks we don't see right through!

You can only control so much. I'd like to think they gave her a great life for most of that time and then their circumstances changed so drastically they did the right thing and rehomed her as soon as they could. You and I might have handled it differently but that is the part we can't control. One thing I'm thinking a breeder could always do maybe 3 months after rehoming/selling/adopting out a dog is to check the microchip transfer has been successfully done. I'm seeing it with lost and found dogs on FB all the time - still in breeders name years after rehoming. Could be an indication of people who say all the right things but don't live it or could just be a technical issue but either way it is not ideal for the dog. And it actually happened to me too. There was a hiccup on paperwork with one of mine and the microchip people never contacted anyone about it so my doggo was in limbo land in their system for over a year.

I still vividly remember going to an info session on laboratory testing on animals back in the late 70s as a teen. I don't know if all the things I saw were true (and I wont explain them here) but I was horrified at the blatant suffering, particularly in regards to cosmetics testing. I really thought we'd stepped away from some of it and found new ways. 4,000 beagles say obviously not.

I don't think I can deal with that either. So many beautiful dogs harmed. How does rescue handle that many dogs at one time?

@Anne I've watched lots of Bunny vids over the years as I find it fascinating. She does actually seem to understand words and sentence structures and communicate back. There are more dogs and vids besides Bunny too when you start down the rabbit hole. I've actually thought about trying it with Jonah for a while now. He is a dog with supposedly simply needs but I know he has a lot of rules for himself too and really seems to conciously think and choose his behaviours at times. Not sure if that was due to how Duane trained him but pei are also known to be an intelligent thinking breed. He has a particular strategy he tries on every night for a treat and we can literally see him thinking he's won and suckered us in again! If he had a treat button would he just push it or would he go through his ritual of deceit first? I'd like to see if I can discover some of what goes on in his head.

I was using Canidae kibble but keeping some Black Hawk tinned on hand. All of a sudden I can't buy Canidae so have gone back to Black Hawk kibble this time around. Waiting for it to arrive so will let you know what I think. We stopped buying it because the quality seemed to be waning (we found some weird stuff inside the bag once too).

I saw this last night and loved it! Go Lexie!

It's funny how different our dogs can be socially. If we go to a pei meet up Jonah has to circumnavigate the whole park and pee on every single little thing while Stussy has to run straight into the biggest pile of dogs to say hello. Eventually Jonah comes back to say hello to the humans and sniff his doggy mates and Stussy needs a time out in a quiet corner because she's gotten way too excited with all her new friends. The outcome is of course the same - two very tired dogs!

This was Tempeh too. Hated leaving the house! We just worked around it and found other ways to exercise her physically and mentally at home - why torture her with something she doesn't like? I do regret not trying Nosework stuff with her though - I think she would've enjoyed that but again, it would have to be at home. One human thing I did start doing with her though was talking to her a lot. I've never talked to my dogs before but we saw some animal communicator (I know, I know....) and they said she would benefit from being talked to. She did and now I talk to all my dogs far more than is probably normal! Stussy of course is deaf and Jonah doesn't care but I still do it! That is probably the most humanising crime I still commit.