koalathebear

We take our dogs to the dog park every Sunday morning - they always have a blast. We often see the same faces. It's never too crowded at that time and the dogs and owners are always well-behaved. Once Dr Harry had an event near there so there were a lot more dogs than usual so we left when there were more than six dogs in the yard. There are always heaps of balls around the place but we've never seen any problems - we just keep an eye on any new owners/dogs we don't know and make sure we're comfortable with the behaviour. There are frequently young children as well and I'm a bit dubious about people who leave their dogs or children unattended in the yard (to answer a call/to read a book/to chat with friends) but we just keep an eye on things and we've never seen any problems. I think behaviour in a dog park is no different than anywhere else - be considerate, be vigilant, be careful, be polite, leave if the situation is not to your liking. After all, the purpose is for the doggies to have fun and enrichment not to create added stress for the owners.

More on the tolerance of Hoover: And They are very cute together.

She is adorable and very eager to please. Only 7 weeks old but so smart and trainable

He is VERY patient with her :laugh: A Kelpie with his guinea pig Puppy paws Awwww

Learning how to sunbake from Hoover

I think you can add more than 2 photos now which is nice

Yes! There were to be No new fosters till the new year!!! Rationale 1. Apparently the Gujarati New Year starts in October :p 2. This was an emergency ... Yes, we are suckers.

Does anyone know if it is still possible to upload video?

This is Frida the wee border collie puppy who arrived at our place on Saturday evening for a couple of weeks of foster care. Elbie and Hoover are bemused but are being very patient - although they do tell her off when she gets a bit pushy More about pictures and videos of her at the foster blog here. She seems to be doing well and I like how smart and cheeky she is. She will definitely keep her new owners on their toes!

Heh heh. My husband comes to agility class to hold one of the dogs when I'm running the other dog. He helps us set up and put away the equipment - and has noticed that all the heavy stuff gets left to him.

I also find in rescue that there's more female rescuers than male rescuers. Dog sports also seem to have more women - but presumably ownership is probably roughly equal! :)

Diesel before his very long road trip to Melbourne ..

Awwww - he's gorgeous! :) We said goodbye to Diesel today I really hope he ends up with a wonderful home. I thought temp caring would be easier than fostering but at least with fostering I get a say in the dog's forever home. With temp caring, I just send him off to his next foster carer and then, no idea where ...

We started fostering recently and have recently rehomed two gorgeous doggies - Ollie (9 month old Kelpie x husky) and Nova, a 2.5 year old Kelpie. Both families are absolutely gorgeous and are soooo in love with their dogs and send us lots of updates. I kept a very detailed blog about both dogs, Ollie's tag is here and Nova's tag is here. In both cases, the families read the posts very closely and asked a lot of questions. A lot of foster carers might not have such detailed information for you to read but you can ask lots of questions. When we took Ollie out to meet his prospective family, we were cautious about the fact that the family already had a 9 year old ACD female who could be quite possessive and also had two young children (five and one). We spent quite a few hours there, meeting on neutral ground, going for a walk (swapping dogs and handlers), letting the dogs have controlled play. Then we watched them in the backyard, then in the house. I wrote up a 'user guide' about settling Ollie into the new house, including the commands/tricks he knew, his quirks and areas for improvement. We also loaned them a crate to help him settle in faster so that the transition was easier for him. With Nova, we had a long chat with the prospective adopters about the sorts of things they were looking for in a dog. He wasn't quite ready for them because they were not experienced dog owners so we kept him with us for another two weeks for training in the areas that would make him settle in more easily at their home (they both worked full time etc). One weekend, we took him to their house and walked him around, introduced him around the house and yard and when they all seemed settled - we let him sleep over their place for the weekend - again with a borrowed crate and they had our contact numbers in case of an emergency. When he came back, we could tell that they were already crazy about him. :) We took him back for another week of training and then dropped him back for his trial adoption - again loaning them a crate. We had much more detailed notes for Nova because the family was not dog-experienced. Also, there were a few things we hadn't exposed Nova to yet like fireworks, thunderstorm, lawn mower, kids' razor scooters so told them to be on the look out for that sort of thing. In both cases, only 6 days into the trial adoption, both families decided to adopt. We let them know that we were fully contactable at any time - even after the trial period was over and that we'd take the dog back if there was an issue. Both families went and bought their own soft crates because it was such a great way to settle the dog in. So for us, we worked at making sure the families felt comfortable with the dog so it wasn't such a big shock when the dog came into their homes. So ask lots of questions, pick a group that has a trial period, try to see if you will get a degree of support/assistance if you need it etc. Good luck with adopting a dog and good on you for giving a dog a second chance :)

Line Kelpies :) Diesel's trip to Melbourne was delayed by a day so we have the handsome fellow with us another evening

Kelpie Trio

I think in her last post, garnali wrote: "Weston Creek vet have taken her as I have recently had KC at home here."

I'm so sorry to hear about Rogan :'( It's very hard to say goodbye to our dogs when they are such dear family members Diesel's gorgeous. I'm also surprised he didn't get any local interest. He's completely untrained and very boisterous but he has a beautiful temperament - zero aggro towards humans, totally fine with our two dogs - very very soft mouth when taking treats and very eager to please. He has a very beautiful nature and every time he manages to catch your eye - he gives you a huge goofy grin. He is totally ball mad which is hilarious.

Meet Diesel, the Kelpie cross - formerly Yard 12 at DAS. He's a bit of a spunk :) We're just temp caring for him until he makes his big journey to Melbourne to his foster carer but he's gorgeous Here he is keeping me company as I make salted caramel blondies :) No idea what his other mix is - maybe rottie? He has a very, very soft mouth - takes treats very gently. Very friendly with humans, very well-behaved around other dogs. Just a very nice temperament all round - untrained, but shows a lot of potential.

Thanks betsy! The house seems a bit empty without fosters but we are going to take a break for a little bit. It's been a very interesting and rewarding experience!

They are so cute. I always love the 'puppy stacks on' photos :laugh:

Nova last night: Nova on the way to be dropped off at his new home His new family were ecstatic to have him dropped off this morning. They were all ready for him. We live only 10 minutes away and they have our contact details in case they need to ask any questions. They texted to say that he was doing well - had gone on a walk, was squeaking madly on his toy. They told me that he's already a member of the family. I think that it helped that Nova had had the 'sleepover' last weekend :) Today, we also saw Ollie again :) We went to pick up the crate we had loaned the family and we brought Elbie and Hoover for a playdate with Ollie and Pip. The dogs had a blast!! They also gave Elbie and Hoover a present and a beautiful drawing. Ollie's doing really well and is clearly a much beloved member of the family.

AWDRI has a lot of wonderful dogs - the young puppies go very quickly but there are also a lot of young, beautiful dogs. We just placed our second foster from AWDRI earlier this morning. You can see photos here. The first dog Ollie, was a Kelpie cross and has just been adopted. The second dog Nova, is a purebred Kelpie. He's been dumped twice, was completely untrained and neglected but in only two weeks he learned how to be a beautiful family member, learned how to sit, drop, spin, beg, speak on command, crawl and learned how to sleep in a crate. It was amazing how fast he learned and it was just awful that his previous owners had clearly never put a second of work into him. The whole sporting outlet/needs lots of physical exercise thing is not true at all. We've had family emergencies before and our 2 Kelpies have gone for weeks without being walked and haven't gone bonkers. Not ideal I know but for these breeds, as long as they have a lot of human interaction, mental stimulation etc you actually don't need to walk them every day. People mistakenly think that you can tire out a Kelpie - you actually can't :p Scout and Mavin are gorgeous. I also had my eye on Gringo but he's become a failed foster :laugh: I also rather like Tanner, although he's not a puppy :)

About to drive Nova off to his new family for his 2 week trial adoption. Nova's video for his last evening with us - he perfected his beg last night! In his very short time with us he showed us how smart he is by learning how to drop, stay, spin, beg, speak on command and crawl and he was also crate trained. He also stopped barking when left along in the backyard. Best of all, he has put on some weight, got a nice, shiny coat and has learned to play nice with our doggies. His new mum and dad texted me last night to say that they wouldn't need us to lend them a crate when we brought Nova today because they ordered a crate already and it arrived yesterday - along with a comfy dog futon. Just in time! Paws crossed that the adoption goes well. I'm of course feeling very sad - these dogs spend a lot of time with us - but also very happy for Nova.