Pretty Miss Emma

Moved over to general from off topic, as per a recommendation!! Hi all, So I have a new car after my last one being written off. This one doesn't have a cargo barrier installed (but I do have the old cargo barrier which I can get installed). But I'm tossing up the idea of leaving the cargo barrier out but having puppy bars installed. Kenzie is strapped in every time she's in the car anyway, and I'm thinking that possibly puppy bars might give me more versatile space. So if anyone would like to share their opinions on the pros and cons of having puppy bars I'd love to hear them. The other thing I was wondering - where do you get them?! My friend Google has told me of a place in Ferntree Gully in Melbourne, is this the only place? Thanks in advance! New question also in the mix - can you take them out and put them back in? Or are they semi-permanently one or the other?

When I had my old girl she was on a coctail of a few things just for being old. She had a fish oil capsule daily, sasha's blend (or similar) and also was having cartrophen injections periodically. It all seemed to help in terms of aches and pains. I also became quite vigilant about temperature in her last few months. She always wanted to sleep at the front door (as the 3 beds she had weren't good enough!!) - so that meant a carpet mat, plus a towel, plus another dog mat as I didn't want her joints getting cold. Even on hot days she was happy to sleep on these, she just wanted to sleep at the door! I also had her wearing a coat when the temperature was a bit cooler even though she was coated, obviously you would be used to coats but for me that was a big change for to make - being aware of the temperature and putting a coat on her even if it wasn't going to be "cold". But everyone else has given good advice!! The other thing I did with my old girl was an annual blood test and also urine test (in the end she had diabetes and other stuff so we had to do this more regularly anyway, but it's good to do so that the vets have a baseline of her general health and it is easier to see if something crops up). A dog I work with has just been changed on to Metacam and it's like she's done some anti-aging! Some days she is a pain to deal with because she's behaving so young and spritely as compared to being the old lady she was!!

Agree as mentioned above. Medical information is especially important. If I leave my dog with someone who does not know everything about her they get a ~2 page document that covers feeding (amounts, times, location, command), play information, emergency phone numbers (vet, me, emergency vet, other people who can make decisions regarding her outcome), any relevant medical history (or recent obs that may be relevant), pet insurance details, information for when walking (I have a reactive dog!!) and commands (the word and in some cases the hand signal and what the behaviour should look like). I do go a bit over the top, but my last dog had intensive medical requirements!! But if it is saved as a document it only takes a moment to update it to be relevant!! People who look after her regularly do not have to get this all the time!!! I reccently house sat and looked after a dog, I have to say more information is better than not enough - I was missing information that would have been very useful in terms of dealing with the dog day to day. Also something that I think could be important in some circumstances might be information on training methods - my dog does not do well with aversives in many situations and she is very sensitive if yelled at (or if someone is yelling angrily near her even if it's not at her), so that is important information for people who look after her. Yeah I do go over the top a bit don't I??!!! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

In my municipality they don't. I know of someone who had reported their dog missing, was contacting council & pounds about every 2 days & visiting to try & find the dog every few days. They did this for weeks, along with posters, flyers & a FB campaign. Eventually a member of the public rang them to tell them they had seen council throw the body of the dog in the back of a truck (hit by car) about a week after the had first reported it missing. When they rang council to get confirmation they were told "yeah, we did pick up a dead white dog" - why they couldn't have been told that in one of the numerous phone enquiries they made between when council had picked it up and when they made that specific enquiry who knows. I agree with what someone else said, council make it compulsory to microchip your animals so they should be checking any animal they find for a microchip. Maybe that means sending out the AMO instead of clean up crews. At least in my council that would mean the AMO's would be doing something productive for animals & their owners!!!

Emma Border collie - pedigree 12.5 years when I had to make the decision (although I only got her when she was 9 - so no where near enough time together). The reason I had her PTS was kidney failure, although she had been diabetic for 18 months & in the 6 months before she was PTS she had numerous complications and surgeries for cataracts, had pneumonia & also a prolonged hyperglycaemic episode - so I don't think any of that helped at all.

I struggle to find a range of breeds!! Have a BC, used to have another. Aussie Sheps are my 2nd breed of choice. After that there's none I want to keep at the moment, although lots I like to look at. I can't even make a decision at the moment between a BC or an Aussie for my next dog, and I want one fairly soon!!!

Have also stayed there and it was great! But the fencing makes it sound even more great! When we stayed we were 2 people & 4 dogs (1 was a 9month old pup too). Di said she'd rather have people there with their dogs rather than some of the kids that have stayed because at least the dog owners looked after the places and tidied up!!! Will have to look in to going back again.

Maybe they need to try and do some bonding type activities together? Things that were recommended to me involved lots of hand feeding and lots of on on one work. For me it was a totally different circumstance (I had other stresses with my old dog and the pup sort of just had to deal with life) but once I started doing some of those things I started to see that we did have a bond and then it just became a better one. I also found that when I started walking the two dogs separately that helped us a lot also (on several levels but the bonding one particularly) - even though it might be a bit more time it isn't that much more I found they didn't need as long a walk when they walked separately as we were able to do more things within the walk. Maybe they could also try doing trick training with the new dog? If it enjoys that sort of thing. Or agility or obedience. Something where they get to have one on one time. I don't think a bond is just automatically there in a lot of dogs, I think that you need to give them something that is special for you and them (mainly when there is more than 1 dog). I have absolutely no basis for saying this other than what I have seen in my own household and a few friends. While I would give anything to have my Emma back, the bond between Kenzie and myself became stronger than ever when I lost her. And going through all that certainly gave me some ideas about how to introduce a new dog/pup when I get one to ensure that it has a good chance to bond with me. I think something else to think about, is it actually bothering the dog? Is the dog happy where it is? Are it's needs being met? This might be a problem that the owners see but it's not actually impacting on the dog. When it comes down to it they really just have to do what they feel is best and if they feel they can't meet the needs of the dog then maybe rehoming it is the right option. I guess the other thing that comes to mind, what was the reason they got the second dog? I don't think I answered anything here but maybe just posed more questions!!!

Generally no it doesn't. It goes to the government unless there is a specified "costs" in which case it goes to whoever paid for legal/treatment/boarding/etc of the dogs (in cases of cruelty it would be the RSPCA). The courts rarely specify for "costs" to be paid and even when they do they are not even close to what the true amount that was spent is. When it is a "fine" that money goes to the government to get spent on whatever the government spends it on! So who knows in this case, I'm not sure what "compensation" would fall under. But it is good to see that it is a decent amount in comparison to other cases, I know in Vic most cases only get about $1500-$3000 as a fine/costs/etc. So while I don't think it is a big enough blow to the hip pocket it's better than it could be and hopefully the amount doesn't decrease due to an appeal further down the track.

Can sympathise, and can only reinforce what everyone else has said! On litter training the kitten - I had one like that once and she ended up being confined to a large dog crate with 2 big litter trays this meant that there was no way she could miss. After a couple of weeks like that I took out one tray but she was still confined whenever I couldn't watch her. Any I treated her like a pup - carried and placed in litter tray after sleep/eat/play and about every 30 min - she eventually figured out it was the only place to go!

I always use a house sitter. But it is someone I know and trust. If I can't get them to come I usually send dogs to go and have sleepovers with friends and have a neighbour come to feed/check the cats. So far it's all worked. I have looked in to a kennel and there is only 1 or 2 that I would use and only if every other option had been exhausted!

I've done quite a bit of enquiring in to both courses and know people who have done both. to be honest the NDTF course sounds a bit more balanced, while Delta sounds quite one sided (Delta also has a system of continually changing what you need to have to be "qualified and listed" as a Delta instructor, so I know some people who aren't affiliated with them anymore because of the continual need for update courses which are costly from what I've been told). But anyway, in my NDTF enquiries I do recall someone saying that in the practical sessions they expose you to all different methods of training and training tools but you aren't obliged to use any of them. I could be wrong but I'm 99% sure someone who has done the course or possibly the administrators of the course have told me this. The other thing that has turned me off Delta is that the 5 day block only happens in Sydney now - it just puts cost totally out of reach having to travel to it, get accommodation for me + dog on top of the course cost. Maybe they'll change that component though.

I used to use a Gentle Leader Easy Walk harness with Kenzie. It was great and certainly helped me get to a point where I was able to transition her out of it and not get my arm pulled off. We now use a Halti in places where we are likely to encounter dogs due to her reactivity, but this is because I had first mostly trained her out of the lunging (she still reacts but it is very rarely a lunge anymore) - that Halti seems to calm her in general when we're walking and distract her. This means that in terms of her taining in regards to her ractivity she is generally less likely to react (obviously we have methods for conditioning her and training her to be less reactive). I can now walk her on a flat collar so long as we have distance between us and other dogs and she won't react, and if she does it is a short spurt and she calms quickly. The other thing is, I use a martingale on her at obedience and agility training. I don't particularly want to use the Halti in these places (as I want to compete with her eventually so don't want her used to training in that environment with a Halti - but if you have to you have to!) and I find the martingale works really well. She doesn't pull in the same way she might on a flat collar, if she reacts she calms quicker, I feel like I have a bit more control than the normal flat collar. So I don't know if any of that is useful to you at all! But that's sort of what we do. I'm considering trying her on her harness again (more as an experiment just to see what she does and if she reacts any differently). I guess the other thing is I'm reluctant to walk her with other dogs if I think we're going in to an environment where she will react, I need to be able to give her 100% at times like that. So when I had my old dog I would walk them separately so that each could have the attention to the issues they needed attention for (and that really helped Kenz a lot in terms of dealing with the reactivity; also because there was no competition for the front spot the pulling decreased drastically!).

Kenzie - I wanted a Scottish name and it means something along the lines of son of the handsome one even though it is a unisex name and I've used it on a girl!!! And she is a gorgeous girl!!!! My old girl who is no longer with me was called Emma, that's the name she came with, but it means whole or universal - and that actually suited her to a tee as she really was the whole package for the 3.5 years she was with me. Cats - Oliver (it just suited him!) and Poppet (no one would let me call him stinky Minky so he was cute as a little poppet!!)

I think I love Stevie!!! If you ever need a blind dog babysitter...... :D

It was a result of frustration yesterday and not seeing the forest for the trees I think! The Yahoo group was next on my list of places but just didn't get there last night. My record keeping hasn't been so good of late, it was excellent and then I let the records slip. But will be more strict with myself over that one. I think we will need to go back a step so that we can move forward and maybe after obedience will have to be the time to practise - I need to have a good hunt around to see if there is somewhere else close to here I can get to where I won't also have to contend with the issues in the park across the road. I think part of the issue is I also need to reset my expectations and try not to get frustrated over it!!! It just got to really bugging me yesterday!!!

Ok, I'm asking everywhere about this as I feel a bit like we've hit a brick wall! :laugh: So our 2 x 2 training started really well. We have quite a bit of value for the 2nd set of poles. A few issues with Kenz looking back to me rather than driving forward, but if I move with her we seem to be able to get past this so I know it is something we will be able to work at. Struggling with angled entries - but that is because of space limitations in my yard so we can't really practice that a great deal and I won't take her to train in the parks around here because of the number of people that let their dogs run up to her and that ride their dirt bikes (illegally) through the park! SO I am a bit limitted with my training environment. Anyway the thing that is getting me at the moment though... getting her to 4 poles. She can do them in the 1-7 position with about 1.5m between the 2 sets. But I'm really struggling to get her to the next bit. I've tried doing miniscule moves but it all seems to fall apart. Do I just persevere? Do I need a different approach? Do I just need to have more faith in my little dog that she can do it??!! I don't know. We've just been practicing and I've stepped her backwards a little bit in the hopes that doing that might help me move her forwards!!! I guess if you have advice or even just words of hope I'd love to hear it!!!!

What day is it on? Myrtleford is so pretty!!

I would think you could treat this a bit in the same way that I deal with grass seeds - every time we go out somewhere that there is grass seeds we sit down and have about a 20 minute body search of every possible location there could be a grass seed and also a brush out. My BC had a good groom before summer and her coat was much easier to manage and also for me to search for grass seeds. I don't know about ticks because we don't have any here, but I'm super vigilant on looking over her skin anyway. The BC's I know who have been shaved off have very thick coats when it grows back, it almost seems wooly, and they have wavy coats (don't know if that is just them or if it is the clip). I'd say if you can avoid it then do so, but you don't want a tick on your dog so like someone else said you do have to weigh up the options.

I believe there is no quarantine period getting in (I'm not saying that factually though) but I believe there are vacc's and testing to be done, it's coming back to Australia that is the big problem. My friend ended up having to leave one of her dogs there for nearly 6 months due to testing coming back with problems (thought to be a false positive as the samples had to be sent O/S for analysis etc etc), she was at the point of being able to do one more test and if the dog wasn't cleared to come back to Australia it was going to be PTS as there are no boarding facilities over there, you need to rely on friends and vets who will offer short term boarding. The other thing to consider is that there is a great deal of animal neglect and cruelty over there, it's just to do with culture and there are rescue organisations that are trying really hard to implement education programs to try and change attitudes. But I'd be wanting to know that the dog was secure at all times. It is really only expats who treat their dogs as pets, the nee-Vans tend to treat them as guarding animals and very few believe in them being pets - although I think those perceptions are slowly changing. As for socialisation, like someone above said it would depend on their social circle. Also vet care can be be hard to come by. I think if you wanted behaviour training stuff there probably is next to none. There are some expat vets that work over there with the rescue organisations. If they intend to come back to Australia they will need to think about the testing and quarantine requirements. (Note - all of this probably also depends to some extent which island they are on)

Agree!!! I spend a lot of time talking people out of my favourite breed of dog!!! So many people find that really ironic, I view it as helping people think about what they really want in a dog other than good looks!

Look in to GOTafe (I think it's Gouldburn valley but search GOTafe and something should come up), they do quite a few things by distance. Don't know anything about them other than they seem to offer a lot by distance but it may be worth looking in to.

They offer one here - it's not cheap though! I think one of my friends did this, also just for her own interest and found it useful.

I have one of those doors for Kenzie - couldn't be bothered getting up and down to open the door! She loves it, and the fact that she can now race from the front door to the back fence at full pelt!!! And it's holding up really well considering she flies through it!!!! (and when I say really well there is no sign at all of wear and tear!). I bought mine off ebay and I think it cost me about $200 or so. Best I've spent!!

Thanks BC Crazy!!! :D