whiskedaway

My OH is looking at building me/buying and re-fabricating a dog trailer. I want something with a wardrobe so that I can fit my show trolley in it which is quite large (I bought it so that I could fit both my Husky and Lappie in it) and the gazebo, though the gazebo isn't quite as important to fit in. I thought about having it underneath the dogs, but I am worried that it might make the actual dog compartments too high up for the dogs to jump in and out of safely. Is anyone able to show me some photos of their setups? Also what other must-haves are there that I might not have thought of? We want to have double doors so that the outer doors can be opened when the trailer is stopped, and obviously well insulated. Thanks!

Completely agreed. I don't think I realised when we bought Halo how lucky we were to get a main registered bitch owned outright, but it's very obvious to me now. I like being able to choose what happens to my dog, and I know my OH would NEVER allow me to purchase a dog in co-ownership. I don't know if I'll breed yet, that's a long way away yet, but I am just so glad that someone took a chance on me. The only way purebred dogs will continue in the future is if someone takes a chance, and if I ever decide to breed I will take a chance on others that I think are worthy as well.

We're training in obedience, agility, endurance and sledding with Akira and obedience, herding and confirmation with Halo. No titles in anything yet but my dogs are very young so that's what we're working towards.

As Megz said, I had the same question when I got Halo and sent it to DogsSA. I was already a member, but you do need to be a member to have the dog in your name so send membership form at the same time and they'll process it together (I did this for Akira).

I keep mine on puppy food until they're between 10-12 months old. Akira stayed on it until she was 12 months, and the reason for that was that she was still developing muscle so I wanted her to have as much protein as she needed to do that because she's an active dog.

My neighbour informed me that no one would dare attack me when I'm walking Akira because I look like I can't control her. She pulls like a steam train and while she'd actually run in the opposite direction of strangers, she looks like a deterrent.

Mine does that when I save them to the briefcase and print all at once.

I think yes. Going to shows and bringing Akira along was how we ended up with Halo and showing ourselves. Now Akira comes along for a day out when Hales is showing and she loves the atmosphere. She spends most of her day in a crate but she just likes being there.

Yup I love TTG vet too, they're our regular vet now. I haven't been to the Modbury Adelaide Northern vet since we had the Vizslas (!!!) but that was only for an emergency visit and it was so long ago I can't remember what it was like.

Fish or seal might also feature. It does suggest that Sibes might be expected to be more tolerant of a high protein, high fat, less cereal based diet than many other breeds. Yes, definitely, didn't think of that. And I think that's definitely the case - Akira has issues with chicken, which would be fairly unlikely to survive in such a cold climate, but she thrives on her new salmon based kibble. We keep her cereals down, and she gets a small amount of kibble and then raw mixed in at every meal.

Sibes traditionally had to survive on little food while still running for long long distances, and this is still in the breed today. We closely monitor Akira's food intake, because she doesn't need much at all and if she gets too much she puts on weight easily. Their food would have been meat, primarily small animals caught themselves/by their humans.

I have managed to escape unscathed, thus far :p I didn't make it Me either.

Oh Woofen, I'm so sorry. I hope you get the results quickly.

Awww, so cute! Have you picked a name yet?

Completely agreed. As babies, keep them on whatever their breeder was feeding them for a while - it can upset their belly if you change them over too fast. When you do change them over do it slowly over a week or so. The other thing to remember is that sometimes different dogs should be on different food - both of mine are on ProPlan, however one's on Puppy the other on Sensitive Stomach. When the puppy is an adult, she'll go to Adult or Performance, but most likely won't be on the same as my other dog because she doesn't have the stomach issues. It really does depend on what the dog does best on.

Oh that sucks Diesel's Mate. I didn't realise you were there, otherwise I would have come looking for you. When's your next show? I'm out every Saturday for the next few weeks.

We bought polar fleece blankets from Kmart - cost $8 or something for queen sized ones and we just fold them up and put them in the crates. Comfy and they don't try to kill it (though Hales likes to rearrange hers so it's in a ball).

Awesome thanks!

So glad to hear Astrid is feeling better and Indie is still eating.

We have to be careful what we use because of Akira's belly, so we use kabana and cheese. Soft smelly foods are my favourite to work with, and both Akira and Halo will do anything for a piece of cheese. Cheese is normally an agility treat and kabana an obedience one. Halo gets small pieces of beef liver for showing - it's not too smelly so she doesn't go nutso over it.

I'm showing so won't be there. Lots of specialties on the long weekend.

Doesn't bother me either. The only thing I object to is when a judge is rough, especially when it's a baby. It took me a little while to get my baby past the fact that the judge at her second show scared her half to death when going to mouth her.

Too bad I'm not down south, that would be awesome. That said, we buy a big bag of bones from our local Foodland for about $4 which isn't too bad.

Hey Molly, I own a lappie and a husky and I actually live in a townhouse. My dogs have a fairly large yard to run around in as well, though we do lots of other things with our dogs - agility, showing and obedience to name a few, and they get daily walks. Lappies do really well whenever they get to be inside with their families, so they would be fine in a townhouse with adequate exercise

Oh yes, they definitely would. And birds. And mice. And any other small animal you might let them chase. I was thinking though on property they'll pick up more burrs than in a normal yard, and you'd have to groom a little more often than you'd normally have to. Halo obviously still has puppy coat, but whenever we take her to footy the burrs are a nightmare. Akira doesn't pick them up though, so it's hopefully only a puppy coat thing. Parrotpea, my lappie is extremely trainable (though I have a Husky who is not, so anything else is more trainable! ) and grooming isn't bad at all - once again, the Sibe gets a lot more grooming, but even she is only groomed once a week. They are working dogs, so their handlers in Finland wouldn't want to be dealing with a coat that needed to be groomed every day. And Spitz are fairly clean dogs, their coats drop out most of the dirt that they pick up (Akira can roll in the mud and a few hours later be nice and clean again) and they don't have a doggy smell unless they've rolled in something feral.