mumof3

I want to add a rescue kitten to the family, either now or in twelve months. Not sure yet.

Thanks guys! Bathies tomorrow!

Hello dolers - quick spot of advice if you please... How soon after applying Advocate pour on can you bathe a dog without affecting the working of the chemical? Miss Molly went and found something smelly after her Advocate was applied yesterday....

Hugs and best wishes to you redkidsmum. All the very best to your family, and yourself as you face putting your lives back together.

Well, follow your instincts dogperson. It's often a good way to go.

I don't know if I agree with this. Because, in all reality, is being humanely PTS better than MAYBE being skittled by a bus? One of those tricky situations in which there is no easy answer. Perhaps not patting the dog is the best idea. Just ignore it, then maybe it won't come near you eventually. Of course if you do call the Council and they contact the owner, then he may right his ways and contain his dog - if you're lucky. You can't fight every battle, much less win them all. Sometimes, if you are not sure of the right way to go, it is best not to take any action at all for a while. Sleep on it for a bit. If there is still a problem in a month, think again what you should do.

Only one dog, (I only have one), but I find I can also push a stroller, and tow a toddler on a bike and supervise a 6 year old on his bike. It is not very relaxing. Once, on the way home with our puppy, who is very confident and playful with other dogs, a dog who roames the street near her home approaches us. She is a harmless dark brindle staffy, quite old. But she scares the kids, who start crying (all three of them), and she excites my puppy who runs around and tangles up the rope towing the toddler bike with my legs and the stroller. It was quite an effort to get going again, with the happy staffy running around gleefully, my pup doing mickey flips and the kids all upset... I don't go that way now.

As a landlord, these are two very relevant points. 1) We are worried about the condition of our property. Many of us have left management to a property manager. In my case, I don't necessarily feel ok about letting the property manager decide whether or not a particular pet owner / pet is a good risk. So I've got a blanket "no pets" policy. Also, our property has carpet, which I think means no pets in a rental property too. And the property manager simply has to do what I say. I'm not interested in meeting tenants. The property is 1000's of km from where I live, so it is impractical too. I prefer the distant professional relationship with tenants. Owning a rental property is after all, a business. And it is a business which we have put in ALOT of hardwork to be able to achieve. We, like many rental property owners, are not independently wealthy people, just very hardworking ordinary people who invested young and worked like mad to build something for our kids. We only have one rental property, so it is a large chunk of our personal assets ( our largest single asset). There may also be insurance issues with pets - Ive never looked into it. Landlords hold insurance against the damage tenants may cause and the loss of income when they don't pay rent or skip out on a lease. It would possibly be dearer if you allowed pets. And additional claims drive your premium price up too. My point is, if you can mitigate these fears, and show a real respect for how valuable the asset is to the owner, then you may be off to a good start. And, our property manager has a scheme where tenants with a good rental history get cheaper rent. We always go for these tenants. The reassurance that the property will be cared for, and that the tenant will pay their rent is worth alot more than bagging the greatest amount of rent per week. So, good rental history pays dividends to tenants, on a number of levels. Incidentally, to keep our very good tenant happy we allow them to choose an improvement to be made to the property every year.

That's a great story. thanks for sharing. Real kid rises above the odds story. Bet it built some character. Sometimes the hardest times we look back upon with affection, or at least a greater appreciation of the good times.

We hired from Budget recently, at Brisbane. They said that the car had to be returned in a clean condition ( as per normal), and that was about it. They had no qualms about us having a dog, as the onus was on us to return the car undamaged and in a reasonably clean state. If you return a car with damaged upholstery / smell, dog hair everywhere, they would just charge you extra. So I took our dog in a travel crate. The car was safe from her. There was no drama at all. If you feel like taking along a dog, getting it wet and letting it climb all over the interior of the car, I'd say that isn't the best plan. We were careful to look after the car. Our dog made less mess than our three kids.

Without reading the entire thread, my suggestion is to search through the shelters for a very old, partly blind, three legged blue heeler. (that's really meant as a joke in case anyone takes it the wrong way)

The very good Scott Lithgow book (can't remember the title, but it might it is someting to do with Working Dogs - perhaps someone else can suggest), has a good section on the raising of working dog puppies. Importantly is teaching from a very early age the ability to calm down from stimulus. So, say in a week old pup, slightly agitate (not in a cruel way, but just maybe brush its back against the grain of the hair slightly roughly, just to raise a slight brain chemical response), then calm down again with gentle petting. This process strengthens neural pathways / processes that are important in calming down and particularly in kelpies and collies, it can be very valuable to have a dog that has a good ability to calm themselves down, not just excite. I would say good and kind handling (the above process is not to be in any way unkind), is especially important in working dog puppies. They should be handled well, kindly and strongly from birth. I see no reason why a working dog shouldn't live around the house, and shouldn't have toys. I see every reason why dogs should be given something appropriate to chew on, rather than be permitted to get into trouble for chewing the wrong things. The main reason I can see why working dogs may not live around the house is that there are often quite alot of them on a property, and having 10 or even 3 dogs live in the house is not everyones cup of tea. I would expect a good dog to be well adjusted, know the rules of the household and trustworth with children, but of course this is not always the case and not all working dogs are given an ideal upbringing or chance in the world at all. Unfortunately there is alot of old fashioned training, management and opinion out here in the bush, with regards both dogs and horses. New trains of thought are making an increasing impact though, and are clearly the way of the future - they simply tend to get better, more reliable results.

Starting to get a little windy here. Surprisingly we still have power. We fully expected damage on the coast to cut our power supply during the night. It was even calm enough when I got up to quickly take Molly out to the toilet. It is supposed to pass just to the north of us as a cat 2 during this morning. Not much rain. Reports seem to be that major damage and loss of life has been avoided. Haven't heard much out of Mission Beach yet though.

Lorraine, I've just read your thread for the first time. I've also just finished a book which amongst other things discussed how it came to be discovered that animals can detect cancer, and other illnesses in humans. I'm probably way off the mark, but just an idea, and please don't worry unnecessarily. Have you had your own health checked? I don't mean to say you are going mad. I mean your physical health. Go and have a good physical at your GP. I don't know what you tell them. All the best. I'm sure it's nothing, but it was just a thought that jumped into my head when I read your thread.

We're in town. It is all hussle and bustle here. The council has gone beserk cleaning out table drains. There is a persistent gentle breeze coming from the North East. It gives me the creeps. We should be fine, really, we are going to go through nowhere near as bad as the coast. But we don't have the same building regs. The place next door is full of loose sheet metal and corrugated iron (there was an old hoarder there who died last year but most of his rubbish is still there). I think we are as well prepared as we can be really. Not sure where the line is between sensible preparation and going overboard. I've got about 8 sliding glass doors leading into each of the bedrooms and living areas from the verandah. I'm considering taping them. The verandah is protected by these plastic sliding windows things. They are pretty strong but I don't know if they are strong enough for this. If they go, the glass doors are unprotected. If a glass door breaks, that really leaves the house quite vulnerable. Perhaps I should just go overboard and then be glad nothing much happened.... Sounds like a bad storm that hit your place. We get those freaky storms too. Gusts up to 140kmph etc. This time it is going to be that windy for half a day. Wow.