ravenau1

No! lol, I don't even have my puppy yet and I am looking forward to her being grown up. My Hubby is looking forward to puppyhood, I just want to get through it

I just LOVE Siamese cats! I had a fair bit to do with them while I was growing up and to this day I can't see one without my heart just melting. I am sending kitty snuggles to her lol.

~shudders~ I've never even seen a real live one! Thank goodness we don't have them here, well, yet anyway!

She is gorgeous! Whatever she is

I used to rent to a lady with a dog. The dog did WAY less damage to the place than her grandkids did

That's pretty much our problem with the cats. Our vet says it's best for them to do it every three years, but we need to put them in a cattery for a couple of weeks every year and they require 'up-to-date' vaccination (yearly). I'd happily do a titre test (presuming you can get those for cats too!) every year if they would take the results of that as proof of the cats immunity.

I know it's not dogs, but I presume the protocol is the same. When we had our cats vaccinated earlier this year, our Vet told us we now should go to 3 yearly vaccinations. It was the first I'd heard of it.

Our German Shepherd was always on the lean side, never overweight.

My Malamute used to catch doves 'on the wing' in the back yard all the time. Our vet advised to keep up with regular worming, other than that it really wasn't a problem.

My family Shepherd lived to be 13 or so. For most of her life my Mum made all her food, meat, veggie peelings, rice etc, all cooked up, in her latter years she ate canned dog food and kibble along with scraps. She was an outside dog, though I used to get up early on a Saturday morning and sneak her into my room lol. edit:typo

The cat has the warmest spot - not surprising! lol

I think we will be exercising her well away from other dogs, just in case! She will only ever be outside when we're not home normally, and when she's in heat she won't be unsupervised outside at all, will make sure to remember to take the pants off when she wants out, otherwise could be messy lol. We have done a lot of thinking about this and reading/talking to people etc and have decided that for us anyway, the pros outweigh the cons as far as waiting to get her desexed. Thanks for your replies It's appreciated.

Love it Photobomber Elbie lol

We had a cat door put in the window of our spare room, then built an enclosure outside. Our cats don't have access to the whole house when we're out or asleep, but the one room plus the outdoor enclosure is plenty of space for them when we put them out. There's furniture inside the room for them, and out in the enclosure there's logs and platforms and such.

This is where we hit a bit of a wall with the initial breed we were thinking of. My OH refused to get a dog that we hadn't met at least one of the parents personally, and the breeder. I suggested that he fly interstate to do that but since I can't fly and he point blank refused to leave me even for a few days (he has terrible 'Separation Anxiety' no idea how to train him out of that) that idea was a bust too. I think he's yet to fully understand that this sort of thing is 'part and parcel' of life in this country (he's an import ) where our rather small population base is spread out over such a big area. Where he comes from you can drive across his entire state in 3 hours. 3 hours driving won't really get you that far across WA But anyway, it turned out really well for us as we found a fantastic breeder in WA. But I'm hoping that for the future he will come to see that flying a pup in from interstate is really common, and not a 'big deal'.

Yes, I probably should have mentioned the breed! A Dobermann Great, thanks! At least a km away, that makes sense! I'm relieved to find a way to exercise during this time as three weeks is a long time. True! I guess I have visions of male ninja dogs creeping around to the theme of Mission Impossible There's not many dogs around here at all, that I've seen anyway. My neighbour has two small fluffies, I don't know what breed but they are both desexed and the only other dog I see is a lovely Golden Retriever that gets walked every evening. Never even hear other dogs barking. Those panties are great, I think I can probably get my Mum to knock something similar up. I'm already paranoid so she definately won't be left unsupervised during that time. Luckily I only work a weekend day and my OH works during the week so there can always be someone home. Thanks for your replies, you've allayed my fears a bit

I hope it's ok to post this here, I figure the breeders here will have the most experience dealing with this. And as I understand the rules a non breeder can post a question and reply in that thread. If I'm incorrect, please delete or move After much discussion with my breeder (and yes, I am WAAAY ahead of myself as the pup hasn't even been conceived yet, but I like to be prepared!) about the pros and cons I have decided that when I eventually get my dog she will not be desexed until at least after her first season, longer if practical. I've never had a dog that wasn't desexed at around 6 months of age before and I am a bit nervous about this prospect. Please excuse me if my questions sound silly! She will mainly be an inside dog, the plan is for her to sleep in our bedroom. How much 'mess' is normally associated with a bitch coming into season? What do you do when your females come into season, if you aren't currently breeding them? Any tips on how to cope? She will be inside as much as possible during, even though we have a secure yard I know that male dogs can be determined and sneaky! Thanks

Great pics!!

When the Man waked up he said, "What is the Wild Dog doing here?" And the Woman said, "His name is not Wild Dog any more, but the First Friend, because he will be our friend for always and always and always." Rudyard Kipling

So many dogs with allergies! Quite surprising.

Haha! The first dog I owned myself (that wasn't a 'family' dog) was a very strong willed Alaskan Malamute. He kept me on my toes but it was great, I loved how I always had to be two steps ahead of him and I loved the kind of mental challenge he gave me. I think he was a perfect choice for my first dog Everyone is different, and different people can handle different things. Just because a person has experience doesn't automatically mean they are a good dog owner.

For $600000 I would want it to do the housework and cook every night!

I saw this on the tv news last night. Interesting the differences between that article and the one linked. On the tv they said that the dog wasn't being 'aggressive' as such, but that it seemed to be out of control excitement. That the parents of the children involved had asked the owners of the dog to not put it down but the owners chose to. Also the dog used to belong to their son, who passed away last year.

If BYB equals someone who breeds but doesn't show (as I seem to recall reading somewhere on here) then every pedigree dog my family or I have ever owned has been from a BYB. Never had any issues.

I used to have an Alaskan Malamute, and he didn't drool too much (though he was mouthy when excited so I used to get stickied then lol) except when every night I used to take him for a walk and not far from where I lived then there was a small deli/cafe and the owner just LOVED my dog. He used to save a cheese sausage or other tasty snack for him (cheese sausage was his fav though) and as soon as we hit the bottom of the street the cafe was on he would start drooling! It would get everywhere lol. Then he would drool a puddle on the ground while waiting for his snack when we got there. I am sure that the owner of that place thinks that Malamutes are incredibly drooly dogs since that's the only state he ever saw my dog in. I love that little hop into the heel position, he's just a bundle of energy, isn't he lol. I love the twitchy play dead too.