koalathebear

Niques: love that shot of James and his cousin. James is really growing up! He has come a long way from his Little Wombat days. KA: As to dog hair being a condiment .... Sigh... OH was using tupperware containers to house his LEGO as he was assembling the Falcon. When I got them back, they were full of dog hair!! Lots of rinsing and scrubbing ensued. Hope Kuma's not limping anymore! It's stressful when our dogs aren't 100%. Elbie was sneezing like crazy the other day and we were debating whether to take him to the vet. He'd probably have to be sedated because there's no way he'd let a vet stick stuff up his nose and look up his nose ... the sneezing has settled down a lot but he's still a little more sneezy than usual. ;) ravenau1: Oh dear - how stressful for you, too! I am so glad Astrid is better. Hoover for a while had a habit of throwing up at night - we'd hear horrible retching sounds like he was trying to cough up a furball the size of a Kelpie and then we'd look in the crate and he'd sitting there doe-eyed with a little pile of vomit in front of him Fortunately his tummy seems to have settled a lot so I hope Astrid settles, too. She certainly looks very lovely and pensive in that photo. betsy: ziggy is such a happy and smiley dog - especially hiding away in his den ;) wuffles: thanks for all those travel tips. I suspect we won't set out for our trip until perhaps autumn so that the doggies don't melt in the car. It's a lot of planning and organising and given that we have a sedan, it could be very challenging so we're thinking of hiring a car for the trip although if dogs are prohibited in hired cars then we'll have to rethink our plan! lilli_star: So glad that poor dog ended up with your brother. I really don't think that I can ever understand how people can treat their dogs so shamefully. There's something very trusting and innocent about the way our dogs look to us and to betray that trust is just awful. :D Good luck with sorting through all the stuff ..I know it's very taxing work ... ;) We have been busy getting things sorted out. Lots of admin. On the plus side, our new phones arrived and OH and I have had lots of fun playing around with our apps

Edited so as to remain on topic. I've deleted the rest of my post but this is still relevant. Before you actually 'enter' the dog ownership world, registration doesn't mean a whole lot because it just means that so and so has paid fees and filled out paper work with yet another regulatory body ... It's actually just plain confusing. Before we actually 'entered the dog ownership world' like many people, we just assumed that if you got the puppy young enough and looked after it well, it would turn out the way you wanted it to. ... Also, to be perfectly frank, even now after having entered the 'dog ownership world', the fact that a breeder is registered still means very little to me. Whether it's ANKC, WKC or whatever - it is actually nothing more than a threshold consideration because there are so many factors I would now take into account before getting a dog. Registration is a box that must be ticked but recommendations from other people I trust would be just as critical. Finally, it would be whether I liked the breeder on a personal level, whether he/she was pleasant and approachable and was willing to share his/her knowledge with me when asked.

I think you're doing very well. We didn't really start any training with our two when we first got them - even Hoover who was already 11 weeks when we got him. We were just concentrating on house-training and mealtime-manners. Once both could wait for food, then we started with the obedience and tricks.

I'm not sure about anyone else but it seems like the desexing issue goes through trends. In recent years, desexing is almost seen as a bad thing from the actual dog's perspective but we seem to need it from a societal perspective otherwise you end up with unwanted dogs. It's so hard to get a clear view on the pluses and minuses of it because depending on what you read, there are a large number of pros and cons for early vs late-ish desexing and these days, a lot of people out there are electing not to desex at all and want to keep their dogs entire i.e. they are making a conscious choice, not that they can't be bothered etc.

The fencing is for the safety and well-being of your dog. It really is a commonly held misconception that Kelpies need to run and run all day and I hear it so often it's not funny. We have two Kelpies (and yes even though one is a cross, he's crossed with a border collie which is also a pretty active breed), they're both from working lines and we don't live out on a property ... they live in an extremely suburban backyard and are very happy, non-bored and non-destructive ... They do run around like pork chops on occasion but while Kelpies can run all day, but they don't need to if they're kept sufficiently occupied. Our dogs don't even get a walk every day but they go to weekly obedience classes and their 'job' is that they get obedience and tricks training every single day ... Although my experience with Kelpies is limited to my own two, from speaking with other Kelpie owners, Kelpies love companionship, things to do, food and having a job to do. Free-running for the sake of running is definitely not a prerequisite to Kelpie happiness ...

"itbulls are definitely not illegal in Australia. As PF has pointed out, they're quite legal in the ACT. And the NT I believe. I played with a beautiful, beautiful one a few weeks ago that got along beautifully with small children and wee dogs ...

Thanks for the tip. The recipes seem pretty simple and my dogs are little piggies so will eat anything - I don't have to worry about a critical audience ... although I will feel a bit goofy cooking for my dogs.

I really love our local vet. The vets there are all great (and big fans of Kelpies) and the regular staff are also terrific - they know Elbie and Hoover very well and are very caring in their approach. The surgery often has work experience students there who are a bit clueless but they're very well-meaning. The regular staff (vet nurses/receptionist) always fit us in immediately when there's an emergency - when Elbie cut his paw at 10 weeks and a few weeks ago when Hoover's eye was reddish and had a discharge, we didn't think it was a big deal but they told us to bring him in immediately because eye problems can be serious. We had time issues so they let us drop him off there and pick him up a few hours later even after they were closed. When Elbie was wee and had ringworm, they didn't charge us for the check-ups to see if the ringworm was getting better.

My in-laws gave me The Small Dogs Doggy Bone Cookbook By Michelle Bledsoe. It's very cute and comes with a mini-sized cookie cutter shaped like a doggy bone. Has anyone tried any of the recipes and are any of them any good? Most of the items use flour - any ideas as to whether white flour or whole wheat flour is better for the dogs? Thanks in advance.

Just wanted to wish you luck with whatever you decide. It's always difficult to make a decision based on internet viewpoints - only you know what's suitable for your personal circumstances and it's great that you're arming yourself with as much information as possible. You're giving much more thought to dog ownership than many other 'average' dog owners probably do!

Thanks so much for all the responses - all very helpful. We're not able to go quite yet - probably intending to go when it's a bit cooler and hopefully less crowded but there's lots to plan and think about. For instance, perhaps we could hire a station wagon for the trip and not use our sedan. The plan is to not take the dogs to all the various tourist attractions but pick perhaps 2-3 towns along the way where we could stay 1-2 nights as a 'base'. These would be near a dog beach so that the dogs could go for a nice walk and play every morning and we'd leave the dogs in the enclosed yard of the villa/cottage etc for a few hours while we went off to scout the nearby dog-unfriendly tourist attractions. Then when we were back, we could go for walks with the dogs nearby - they won't know that they're missing out on tourist attractions dancinbcs - I love that you went to Bendigo and Ballarat, too because I've always had a hankering to go there and see the goldfields stuff and the Chinese historical traces. Your list would be very much appreciated.

Thanks for the link - some really great-looking places along the way! :D I'm not sure when we're going but we'll pick low season or something ... Any places you particularly recommend? I've heard some towns are better than others because some are too touristy. I'm also wondering whether pet-friendly means that they have fenced yards for the dogs or whether we'd have to tether the doggies or something.

I'm planning a trip along the Great Ocean Road at some point in the future. We would be driving from Canberra and with two doggies in the backseat :D Safe with car harnesses and backseat buddy of course! I know that there are websites that you can look up pet friendly lodgings but I was hoping for some tips from anyone who has done the Great Ocean Road (and with dogs) so that the touristy recommendations are also dog-friendly ... We'd probably put aside a week or so for the trip - including the drive to and from Canberra. We don't need to stop over in each town etc, for instance if there's a town along the way with great things to see and do plus a very nice pet friendly beachside villa that would be great. I'm looking for suggestions about which towns are best to stop at along the way - which sights are nicest, which places are dog-friendly. We have two soft crates so the dogs are happy to sleep and chill-out in those along the way. Also - given the looooooooong drive to and from Canberra, which towns are best for the rest stop post-Canberra and pre-Canberra Thanks very much in advance.

minxy: kyojin has the most plaintive and adorable face! In the second ad, he looks like he's soliciting donations: "Please give generously this Christmas ..." lilli_star: I was silly and put ice cubes in the indoor drink bowl. Hoover went over, dunked for icecubes and tipped the bowl of water everywhere. OH was not impressed The dogs are loving them though - Hoover grabs a cube and runs off to his crate to crunch noisily. Elbie pushes his around with nose and tongue until Hoover comes back and steals that one, too... Niques: Those photos are gold - I LOVE how flyaway James' ears are. It's like he uses his ears for propulsion or something!!! Ava looks like she's plotting evil mischief here: James: "When I grow up, I want to be a staffy." They look like they're about to sing a romantic (albeit muddy) duet: Satchmo looks soooo long-suffering in so many of those photos. What a hoot. In other news, my two are shedding so much! I'm thinking of shaving them bald or something.

We had the same problem with our first so called Backseat Buddy. It had no holes in it so we had a real problem. We then bought another one that has holes in it for the buckle/clasp to come through and now our dogs are fine - although Elbie has a bad habit of opening the window :D

Happy Birthday James! Can't wait to see the photos - there will be a lot of cuteness going on in those photos I'm sure Poor Satch - he's probably never had a trip with so many playful puppies in his life! Despite the thunder storm last night, it's very warm today. The doggies have been playing with ice cubes and a giant minced beef ice cube thingy ... It clearly tired Hoover out because he has been lying like this for the last 10 minutes and seems to have no desire to move.

Niques - good to see you back again! I have been wondering how you and James have been going! We want photos of the squishable one. ;) Orca and Monkey are mostly for Hoover at night-time and he is not very destructive of his toys unless he uses them for tug with Elbie which is why they're both still intact. If we let them be 'day toys', both toys would be quite de-stuffed by now I'm sure. wizzle - great news about the holiday! How wonderful to have a dog that's so easy to be dog-sat by others! I just couldn't imagine being able to hand our two monsters over to anyone to mind because while they can be total couch potatoes they can also be rambunctious whirling dervishes! Look forward to seeing all the photos on facebook!!! minxy - glad Kyojin's ok and sorry you had that scare. I think we all have a moment of 'eek' with our pups now and then. We live near quite a large road which is why I just don't want our dogs offlead. Their recall is actually pretty good but it only takes one moment of seeing something that is just TOOOOO fascinating for us to end up with a tragedy. Any recent photos of Kyojin? :D New Years Day Yum Cha was very pleasant! Thanks for organising KA - I'm mortified that despite the fact that someone in the group owned an Admiral Ackbar mask and someone else knew the correct pronunciation of 'Trandoshan' (i.e. Bossk the lizardly bounty hunter from Star Wars who was Boba Fett's bud - Boe-bar mind you, not BOBBA) I have won the prize for Most Geeky ... Oh well. Regrettably, it has always been my fate to be the Most Dorky in the Room ... In other news, we had a HUGE thunder and lightning storm last night. Not just the usual heavy rain with rumbles of thunder and lightning. The lightning was amazing and the thunder was so loud! wuffles I thought of you and Satch and wondered how his Thundershirt was going - you are so lucky you're still in the Great North! Elbie did remarkably well but there were two MASSIVE thunderclaps that seemed to resound through the silence and were like huge explosions - Elbie barked like crazy during those two, then whimpered ... then went back to his crate... Hoover barked twice in sympathy with Elbie but was completely unphased by the thunder storm. Our little farm dog is fearless, I tell you! He thinks that the Dyson is a toy and attacks it like a cat with a mouse!

:D Thanks for saying that Haven. I wanted to say something but didn't feel like starting the new year with an argument. Most of the other comments were constructive and helpful so I was a bit surprised by the left field nastiness of the breeding comment. I always feel a bit sorry for dogs in the back of utes - especially the flat bed ones ... They always look so uncomfortable trying to keep their balance and sometimes their tether is too short and I don't like seeing them tethered by the collar. I don't think I've ever seen them tethered using a harness - but then again, these are working dogs and I suspect putting a harness on a working dog would be inconvenient given that in the country you need it to hop on and off of the ute...

Our two are fine in thunderstorms now (Elbie used to look a bit stressed during thunder storms) so I was curious about how they'd be around fireworks - they haven't experienced them before. In the yard where they could hear the fireworks loudly, Elbie barked a bit. After we let them into the house, Elbie barked once or twice - Hoover barked once in sympathy but was unfussed by the fireworks. Then they settled down and were fine. We have a LOT of dogs in the neighbourhood so there were a lot of distressed dogs barking last night.

But of course! :D My favourite posts are the ones that talk and think about our dogs. Although you could of course post another productive "other dog owners are stupid/inconsiderate/evil" post because there's always a dearth of such posts around here and they always end so well ... I always roll my eyes when I read another post ostensibly bagging out other stupid dog owners but are actually just implying that all dog owners should behave like the OP of that post ... I'm constantly picking my eyeballs off of the ground from all the rolling But to go back on point, I know that as dog lovers we're always at risk of being accused of anthropomorphising our dogs and attributing to them motivations/emotions/thought processes that they don't actually possess but I do believe that some dogs are capable of quite a lot of situation analysis. For instance, Elbie's the much more hyper of our two dogs but he's much more savvy and good about reading us than Hoover. He anticipates very accurately and he's usually more polite and respectful. I haven't decided if it's something he observed and learned along the way or if he came pre-programmed with this ability. Then again, Hoover's younger so perhaps he'll pick it up as he gets older.

Corvus - as you already know, I always enjoy your posts - they're thoughtful and well-written so I hope you aren't deterred or put off in any way ... Given that none of us are Dr Dolittle and none of us speak Dog, there's nothing to say that your interpretation of your doggies' behaviour is any less valid than anyone else's here on DOL ... It's like how I know that dogs aren't supposed to be capable of feeling remorse/shame and they are just using appeasement behaviour but sometimes I could swear Elbie gets instant 'guilty face' whenever he does something naughty

I was just thinking of you today and how we 'met'. I met you back in August when you posted to Elbie's herding thread. betsy and dandybrush I met here on the Elbie thread. CleoJ I met when we first went to enrol Elbie at obedience class. I met KumaAkita when I asked about moving house with puppy. I met wuffles on my thread in which I vented my frustration about US dog owners criticising me for leaving Elbie alone in the yard because they felt that dogs owners should never be left alone in the yard ... I cannot remember the original threads where I 'met' wizzle, Clastic, lilli_star, ravenau1, Niques and minxy! :D I think I saw you around the traps on various threads. Thank you to all for being so wonderful! It's been great sharing stories, photos and rueful experiences here on DOL whether Purely Positive or not so much I'll see you all in the new year. For me, 2010 was a very variable year. I'll always remember it as the year that we lost my dear Papa Koala - I will always miss him. There were also many good things, we got puppy #1 and puppy #2. We bought our first house. I was able to spend a lot of quality time with family and I've met some really lovely people this year. Elbie and Hoover are barking at the fireworks, so we've shut them back inside - can anyone ever desensitise their dogs to fireworks? Hoover keeps falling asleep like this: Which is better than this: I've almost rolled over the poor thing on more than one occasion! ETA: Ooops. What I meant to say was - Happy New Year!!

Poor Orca! Today is soooooooooooooooo hot. Both doggies were given baths. Both doggies were very unimpressed.

Loved the footage of Raz, Ava and Satch. The comments about dogs playing is interesting to me. Being relatively new to dog ownership, I hadn't really watched dogs playing together before. For me, it was difficult to know what was play and what was aggression. Especially as Elbie's quite shy around strange dogs. Watching Elbie and Hoover playing though - they spin, they leap, they prance, they could play bitey face for ages ... Sometimes with all the growling and biting they sound like they're killing each other but then I turn around and they're both fast asleep against one another. Hoover has a favourite thing where when Elbie's sitting in the grass chilling out, Hoover will get into his Kelpie crouch and slowly make his way up the stairs in a crouch as if he thinks Elbie can't see him if he moves slowly. When he gets close enough, he pounces and then the two of them run around the yard like lunatics. I can't believe how fast they are with their circles and twirling. Neither will play the same way with other dogs as they play with each other though. betsy - good luck with Ziggy. It's always tricky when non-doggy people come to visit. My brother loves dogs but is horribly allergic so can't visit much anymore even when loaded up with antihistamines. I have a cousin who is a bit afraid of dogs so we have to keep the doggies back... cleoj: Haha. Yes, very reminiscent of poor Elbie. I too have been missing obedience classes, mainly because I worry the doggies are getting bored. We've been taking them for their mealtimes on a walk to the local oval to do some obedience work there and running around. It seems to make them happy. I bought a target stick online the other day and OH was horrified because he said if I'd just told him, he could have made one for me instead of buying a stick with a ball on the end of it from an etailer ... :D Elbie is perfect with the target stick although he will go out of his way to find it and nudge it with his nose. Hoover is so cute with it because he realises he's supposed to touch it with his nose, but sometimes he can't resist the temptation to try to eat the ball. Hoover has two favourite toys - monkey and orca. At every opportunity, Hoover will run into the bedroom to retrieve either monkey or orca, run down the corridor, down the stairs and into the entrance area where he will plonk himself on the ground and play with orca or monkey. In the mornings when I hear scampering, I blearily ask OH: "Is that Hoover with monkey again?" Anyway here is Orca: It looks like we are subjecting him to hideous torture but what happened was the other night, Hoover threw up in his crate and we suspect he may have got a bit onto Orca, so just in case, we tossed Orca through the washing machine and then he had to be dried ... Poor Orca, he looks a bit distressed.

All such beautiful puppies I can't believe how huge Lacey is at 12 weeks!~!!