Pretty Miss Emma

I'm guessing it's a Victorian beach (as you profile says Vic!), where might this be???? I'm always looking for places where there aren't too many other people so my dogs can have some fun!

Glad the dog is going back to them but it does bother me their flippant statement that overtly implies that small (3kg) dogs can't be aggressive just because they're small so their bite won't do as much damage in the first instance, it's an attitude I hate seeing - they're only little what damage can they really do. So hopefully the dog never does demonstrate any of that behaviour and gets to live a long happy life!

I think there is someone there but I can't exactly remember their name. I want to say Kim Lim, but I think that's wrong. Definitely Kim someone though.

At what age (in general terms) are dogs fertile? I'm guessing when bitches have their first season this indicates fertility. But what about dogs? I only ask as for the first time in my life I have an entire dog/animal that I am not intending on desexing in the near future, so I haven't ever had to deal with any associated issues! My friend who often babysits the dogs has an entire bitch & obviously from now when she has a season we will have to keep them apart, but he showed no interest in her last time & he was probably about 5 months and then so it just got me wondering.

Back then when the show was filmed shelters like LDH were subject to the 28 day rule, which most certainly would have contributed to the kill rate then. Obviously that now no longer exists so that can't contribute to the reason for high kill rates. I know people have lots of issues with them, but it is good to remember the people working with the animals certainly don't like that they are put in a situation where they do have to kill them (and they aren't often in a position to do a lot about it). I know a lot of people who work in shelter environments who really just want to do the best by the animals in their care and get really down when people have at go at them about killing animals whe really it is out of their hands. Back to the show, I really do hope the guy did take in some of what he seemed to learn and maybe changed his practices a bit. I think it would be interesting for all these shows to do a follow up some significant period of time later to see what really sticks with the participants and if they do make change or if they go back to doing what they always did.

Kenzie's BFF, who also happens to be Hamish's girlfriend, made about a 2 second debut on tonight's show! None of us actually have any association there any more but we used to work with a trainer who worked there who was brilliant. I'm guess that the show was filmed close to 18 months ago seeing as though she was still a pup and she well and truely isn't a baby anymore!! I didn't see the first episode but like others have said I guess with all these shows there will be things you agree with and things you don't!!

To get Kenz to stay closer off lead I did a couple of things... When she's about 10m away from me I say her bridge word and she comes back to me to collect a treat. After a bit of practice at this she doesn't often go further than 10m or so as she's waiting too hear the word and come collect a treat. I do as you mentioned and practiced recalls when she wasn't too far away. I heavily reward every time she comes to me when she's off lead regardless of whether she's asked to or not (because she has a history of not coming to me and going too far this seems to encourage her to not go too far from me!). I turn recalls in to a game. She is asked to "come", when she gets to me she gets a treat, then I'll ask her if she's "ready" and say "go", she races off with me running beside her, then I turn and run in the opposite direction and as soon as she catches up to me she gets a treat. Then I tell her "ok" and she will tottle off and then I start the game again always running in a different direction so that she can't predict exactly where I'm going to go. She loves this game and we play it for about 5-10 minutes each time she is let off lead, but I don't often let her off lead for much longer than this anyway. Another thing I have done with her is hide behind trees if she doesn't come when called. Then she starts to worry where I've gone and races back to find me. I don't really like doing this because I know it upsets her a little bit, but I have to say it was very effective when I started doing it and I don't do it particularly often (only when she really ignores me). I sort of think if the dog is ignoring being recalled then it doesn't find it fun (the rest of the world is more fun!), so it's a matter of figuring out what your dog finds more motivating in terms of recall than the rest of the world!

My old Emma came from a litter with a "royal" theme. I'm not exactly sure what her name was (she came from RSPCA but then I found out which litter she came from) but we think it may have been ***** Royal Princess. The breeder I got Kenz and Hamish from themes the litters they have. Kenzie came from the "halloween" litter, so she is **** Trick or Treat. And Hamish came from the "me" litter (after his Dad's name), so he's **** Look at Me. I got to have a say in both their registered names, but that is probably also be cause they were the first to leave the litter each time!! Oh and their call names have no relationship at all to their registered names!

With my old Emma she developed a bit of a smell in her last 6 months or so. I think in her it was her diabetes and then also she had renal failure which obviously doesn't happen overnight so I think that was a big contribution to the smell she had. I didn't actually even notice that she smelled until after she died and my house started to smell a bit different 2 or 3 days afterwards.

Some people gave some recommendations in here

There's very few places that will take a diabetic dog. I enquired at about 10 places in Melb when I went away last year and only 2 or 3 would take a diabetic dog. I was lucky in the end and didn't need to use a kennel, so it didn't end up being an issue! Can't give you any feedback on Vern Ryan's. As for MOrnington Lodge, haven't used them but know people who have and they say it is great (it's probably one of the only places I'd put my dogs after all the enquiring I did!). The associated cat place is supposed to be good, I'm pretty sure that's where my brother left his cat when we were away earlier this year. Another place that will take diabetic dogs is Woof Purr Nay in Narre Warren. There is also one in the Eastern suburbs I just can't remember the name at the moment. I'll see if I can find my old thread about kennels!!

I don't see a need for the word no to be used in what you described - he now has probably associated the word with starting to bark so in his mind you are cue-ing him to start barking. I would just distract with something else and I would also use the walk off on him theory that was mentioned above, no point barking at you if you aren't there to be barked at!

Weight is one part of the issue, but as per another thread I had the other issue is with her anal glands so I need her to be doing some big poo's!!! I do actually try to use her dry food for training purposes most of the time, and I think we have reached a point where she is not as hungry as she used to be (I'll go with the stomach shrinking thing Pers!) but I still need her to be moving some stuff out her back end to try and deal with these anal glands. So I'm really wanting the calorie free food as much for that purpose and not wanting weight to go on her. I'm actually thinking the brown rice might be the go!

Ok, I'm not talking about dog foods here. But I'd love to see a list of the foods that are basically calorie free for dogs when trying to get a bit of weight off them but bulk up their food. So far I am using bran flakes, psyllium husk, chopped veges. What else is there?

I'll second Animal Eye Care in Malvern (and their out patient clinics) for any eye related issues! We became like best friends for while with my Emma and I couldn't have asked for more caring and professional people to deal with.

This is exactly as it happens in my house!!! Except my BC's are 6 months and 3 years!! Other than that I would write an identical description!

Bully sticks all the way. I rarely buy pigs ears now, they are a bit of a treat but they get through them in about 5 minutes. I'm waiting on 2kg of bully sticks to be delivered and the dogs will be sooooo excited!!! Oh and with the long ones I've just bought I should get them chewing for a good 20-30 minutes on them!

I would say it depends on the way the disease is transmitted and also what hygiene practices you put in place. When I was volunteering with shelter animals I made a point of always changing having a shower and changing my clothes before interacting with my own animals. I was working on the theory better dafe than sorry even if it is only minimal risk (this was especially true for me when I was working with cats who had flu symptoms!).

Doesn't look like a purebred to me, but it does look a great deal like the beagle x cavalier I met yesterday.

I think it's a really good question wolfies mom, I find it a bit of an ambiguous term. So I'm going to be interested to see what people have to say. There are so many things about dogs so how do you find all of them to make them better!! I do think my breeders have done well with my latest little boy though - he's everything I could ask for both in terms of conformation (except for one thing, but he's still growing so that's ok!) and temperament (I couldn't have asked for a more delightful little boy!!). So I guess they're doing well in bettering the breed!

Hi all, Well I haven't read up on the whole thread because you've managed to get it to 31 pages!!!! I just wanted to add my words of encouragement! As some of you would know my Kenzie is reactive, well now in some circumstances I can say "was" reactive!!! So I just wanted to say keep sharing ideas and be persistent with your training, it will work in time. Over the last little bit I've noticed a massive change in myself... It used to be when I would walk Kenz we would have issues and I'd come home and feel like crying because it was so frustrating and I didn't know why she was as she was and I just wanted to have a nice calm walk with her. Well now we're at a point where we get home from a walk and I nearly burst in to tears of pride, because she walked past the dog barking behind a gate and just looked at the bus and when the stranger walked towards us in the dark she just darted behind me and let them go past with no incident!!! It's really nice to want to burst in to tears for these reasons!! So keep up all your good work and figure out what works for your dog and don't forget that sometimes they do take a step backwards before taking the leap forwards. And in the end it will be so worthwhile!! This will be a very useful thread for many many people!

I'm unable to go this Saturday but have received all my tickets etc in the mail. If you would like an additional entry ticket and a car park ticket please let me know before about 5pm today and I will put them in the mail to you and hopefully you would get them by Friday.

My understanding (from the information that my council sent to me when I requested it) is that registration fees should be providing these things to support animal ownership. Animal control (as in the ranger who deals with complaints, picking up lost/stray, providing pounds, etc) comes from rates as do all other community related services. That's been the big irk I've had in my municipality, they publish that registration fees are paid to do all these things but they do none of them and they don't even provide any real animal management support (which all rate payers are contributing to).

Thankyou everyone!!! Lots of learning going on here for me!!! :D

the judge chooses his top 8 (from all the BOB )and then whittles it down to his top 4 As in, all BOB show up today and they choose the top 8? Or do they sort go back through their records or whatnot and then just the top 8 go in today? But thankyou at least I now know a bit more about why not every breed is in the group judging!!