Remarkabull

Port Macquarie in NSW has no limit. As long as the council are not receiving any complaints about your dogs then you can have however many you want. When I lived there I had 5 dogs and I rented! Real Estate had no problems with it and neither did the owner of the property. It was a fairly dog friendly place, there were a number of beaches that were for dogs (and leash free areas too), and heaps of lovely places to walk your dogs on lead too.

My JRT is a fantasitic hunter of all things rodent (naturally!) but my old Dobe used to catch mice too. He was a skilled hunter and caught and killed many mice in his time. My cats are good at catching mice but they play with them and then lose interest before they kill them and they end up getting away . If I ever notice that the cats have a mouse then I get the JRT to take care of it. Although my daughters cat escaped the house late one afternoon a couple of weeks ago and took off and wouldn't come back (they get locked inside at night) and when we got up in the morning there was a dead rat on our back patio so she has the killer instinct too!

I have been in contact with Dxenion by PM and I have sent a email to someone in Defence requesting their assistance in this matter. I will update as I receive any new information. My OH has been in contact with the Ranger and was told that we 'may' be considered an exceptional case (OH kept on and on about how the dogs are a part of our family and not just a pet that lives in the back yard and that by denying us the permit he was condemning one of our family members to a very uncertain future, possibly even death) and has agreed to give us until September to put together our application for the licence (OH is going away for 3 months soon, hence the extra time allowed for us). I still don't like our chances but at least we now have a little time up our sleeves. Thanks so much to Dxenion who has been a fountain of information and has done the things that I should be doing but am struggling to ATM.

On to it already As far a an 'epidemic' goes apparently Palmerston has more dogs than any other Australian city in comparison to it's population. It was just the wording that the people at the council used while I was talking to them. There are a lot of people who walk their dogs off lead around here and seem very 'relaxed' about cleaning up after them. I understand that it is a problem, but it's not a problem that I contribute to and me having 3 dogs in no way impacts negatively on this area or this council.

Thank you all for your replies. Dxenion has pm'd me some info and is being a wonderful help. After the events of the last week I am fairly useless ATM and can't think straight. PF - We will definitely make plenty of noise about this, I am NOT losing another dog any time soon and we will do everything we can to get this approved. OH has already mentioned the media thing and I'm sure once he gets home this afternoon he will get straight onto dealing with this problem. It infuriates me that I am trying to do the right thing and yet I see dogs every day running loose on the roads, crapping everywhere and generally causing problems and yet I'm the one who is given a hard time by those in power. My dogs are never out of the yard without being on a lead, we clean up after them and they are not serial barkers. In fact while I was typing this reply, my Dobe went nuts at the back fence and when I got up to look there was a kelpie looking dog at the fence with no lead or owner to be seen! :D

I went to the council chambers today and spoke with the manager in this department. He said that our circumstances would not be considered exceptional as there a large number of defence families moving to the area every year and that they are rejecting the majority of these claims now as a way to 'discourage people from dog ownership as Palmerston has an epidemic of dogs'. Palmerston council and Darwin Council are separate and have different by laws re dog ownership.

I mentioned this to my OH and we will do this if the application gets rejected. I have a friend who is staying with us ATM while she is looking for a rental, when she moves I can register one of my dogs at her address as she doesn't have any dogs.

We had all of these dogs when we arrived here. My OH is in ADF and he was posted here but the ranger has told us that that is not a good enough reason for us to be able to keep all 3 dogs. Dogs are 4, 2 and 1 years old. My bitch is desexed, the 2 year old Malt x Shih Tzu is getting desexed next week. We are not sure yet if we will desex the Dobe (no reason to, we don't have any entire bitches, nor will he have access to one) but if that would make a difference in the application then we would have him done too. ETA We are in Palmerston City Council area

Considered that but the rangers here do alot of driving around and looking in yards and if we were caught out then I'd say that our chances of getting approved would be completely zero. Anyway, I have already been to the council and given them my details so I'm sure that they will be 'checking up' on me now, so there is no way to avoid going through the corect procedures now.

Is there any way that one could fight a council ruling on the keeping of more than 2 dogs. I am going to go through the correct process and pay for a application for a licence to keep 3 dogs (not re-fundable even if rejected) but have been told by the head ranger that he would not expect it to be approved in my circumstances. Apparently they are not 'exceptional' enough. If it is denied what other options do I have, if any? Can I take it to court and more importantly what would my chances of success be?

I do understand what you are saying, but I have to add that I know what Jazz was like when she attacked other dogs in the past (3 times over her 9 years). She wasn't just telling them off or trying to disipline them, she had every intention of killing them. I have no doubt in my mind that once in that state she had every intention of killing Odie, hence the decision to PTS. I never thought in a million years that she would do this to one of my own dogs. She had never shown serious aggression to any of them in the past and there had been no prior incidents to indicate that there was a problem between any of them. You are right in that if it were Acheron that she had attacked then she would probably have come off second best and there would be some wounds to deal with but no death, however it didn't happen that way and although I still love her and will miss her terribly I could never trust her again, even if she was never allowed to interact with the little dogs again how would I know that she couldn't/wouldn't do the same thing if the opportunity arose either with my own dogs or someone elses? A dog is a dog and maybe what happened is understandable for dogs behaviour but I am a human and I could not live with the chance that it may happen again, even if she spent eternity with the best trainer/behaviorist/bloody dog whisperer there ever was and was not a risk I was willing to take. The decision was made quickly and without doubt that it had to be done but it was certainly not done with any thoughts of 'revenge' against Jazz, it was for the safety of my other animals and for our peace of mind.

I was bitten by a dingo on Fraser Island about 25 years ago too. Again while waiting for the barge. I was at the back of our 4WD with my dad, we had been feeding the dingos (I know, I know) and when we ran out of food all but one went away. The one that stayed became very agitated and bit my hand. To be honest I am surprised that more people have not been bitten as they were very bold and would openly approach people, even allowing a pat here and there, but would become agitated when the food stopped coming. One barge was delayed because there was a dingo on board! He was going from car to car hoping for a handout and they had a lot of trouble getting him off so they could leave for the mainland.

Sorry, the Dobe in the first pic is Acheron, he is still with us. He was one of Odies favorite playmates. I will put a pic of Jazz up later, they are all on my Desktop computer which is currently not working.

We are all ok, still in shock to some degree and still asking ourselves how and why this happened (I know we will never have the answers to that but it's hard to stop wanting to know). I am feeling very tired and drained and am always thinking about little Odie and how we keep expecting him to come bouncing around the corner with his ball and hopping up on our laps for a kiss and cuddle. He was an amazing little dog and we were very lucky to have him. I can only hope he is waiting for me somewhere and we can all get Odie kisses once more. Jazz was a very loving and affectionate dog with people and we still love her and will miss her so much but I do have 3 other dogs, 2 of which are small breeds (under 7kg) and 3 cats and I could never again trust her. Jazz had attacked other small dogs in the past (never our own though) and given what happened and her past behaviour there is no way I would have re homed her. What if she did it again? Thank you all for your kind thoughts (for those of you who had them) RIP Odie and Jazz, I love you both and will miss you more than words can say.

Hubby and I have just read through all the responses, both of us with tears streaming down our faces. Thank you all so much for your sympathies. This is indeed a tragedy and a huge shock. We keep playing the what if game even though we know it won't make any difference now. My youngest daughter (10) just came to me and said she wishes it was just a bad dream. She is taking it particularly badly as she had a very strong bond with Jazz and is missing her very much. Again thank you all so much for your kind words. Renee

Absolutely nothing different at all. Jazz was DA with other dogs but not ours. We called her a cranky old bitch because she would grumble at all of our dogs occasionally but would never go looking to start anything. She would occasionally snap at Acheron (1yr old Dobe - entire male) but he just ignored her or kept annoying her because he thought it was a game. Odie was the last dog of ours that would annoy her in any way. He pretty much ignored her most of the time because she wouldn't play with him.

Thank you all. I haven't stopped crying since I found out it was Odie. It's even more awful because it was my own dog who did it. My OH is so angry with himself because he would normally come home and then pick me up when I finished but today he came straight to my work and waited for me. The poor kids are blaming themselves too, the dogs are separated during the day while we are at work but the kids obviously let them out together when they got home from school. I keep telling them that it is no ones fault, just one of those horrible things that happen.

Just as I was about to leave work today my OH got a phone call from a neighbour that our 9 year old RR X Amstaff had attacked a small dog. He didn't have too many details other than that my youngest daughter had turned up on his doorstep in hysterics saying that Jazz was attacking a dog. We rushed home as quick as we could and another neighbour came straight to us and told us that Jazz had killed the little dog. I was thinking that it was one of the small dogs that are always running outside their yards and that one of them went into our yard, but he then informed me that it was Odie, my JRT X Chi. I immediately fell to my knees, crying. It didn't seem real that she would kill one of my own dogs, a dog that she had lived happily with for 3 years. I still don't know exactly what happened as the kids were terrified and tried very hard to stop her from hurting him but she was not going to listen to anyone in the state she must of been in so they are not entirely sure how it all started. The poor things keep telling me how they tried to get her off him but they couldn't. We had Jazz PTS this afternoon. I couldn't even look at her or say goodbye. OH had to take her for me. I know there will come a time where I will grieve for her too but at the moment all I can think of is Odie. Odie was such a good little boy. He had a huge personality for such a little dog. He loved everybody and everything and didn't have a nasty bone in his body. I'm going to miss him so much. He didn't deserve this ending and I only hope that wherever he is now that he has someone to throw his ball endlessly and a lap to curl up on. I love you Odie and we will all miss you so much.

Thanks for replies guys. My friend only has one child (14 year old boy) but there will regularly be friends over that have 2 young children, hence why I asked. She has not owned a purebred dog before and seeing as I don't know that much about RR's (they have always reminded me a Dobes though so I love them and think they are beautiful) I thought I'd check here to find out some general info to give her about the breed to go with what I've told her about why getting a dog from a good breeder is a good way to go. I wanted to know cost so I can use it to compare with what a BYB dog may cost initially to what it could cost in the long run in comparison with paying more initially but having some kind of health guarantee.

I have a friend who is very interested in getting a RR puppy in the next year or so and I am doing a little research for her. What are they like with younger children (toddlers)? Are they known for trying to escape or wandering (we know they can if bored but I mean is it part of their personality/temperament)? Are they generally good with other dogs? What is the average price of a pup from a good breeder? (I don't want her to get ripped off) Thanks in advance

Different rules here too. My Maltese x Shih Tzu is allowed on all furniture and he sleeps in our bed. He doesn't malt at all so no hair left behind and he is just generally quieter, usually just goes straight to sleep. The other little guys (JR and JRX) are loud and active and will play games on the leather lounge so no go there. They also malt alot and I don't want that much dog hair in the bed. Doberman and Multi Shit (the one allowed in the bed) both sleep inside. Doberman has a bed beside ours and is happy to sleep there the RRB x Amstaff and the JR and JRX sleep outside, can't trust the 2 littlies not to get up on the bed when we are asleep! They all spend a lot of time inside with us when we are home but during the day while we are at work they are all outside.

How do you know?

I'm not saying that breeders shouldn't have that right, however I'm not the one that took it away from them and I don't understand why it is such a huge deal. Honestly I really can't see that whether or not my dog, or anyone's dog for that matter, has a tail, how that makes him (or her) less than or ugly or bad looking. The law is not going to change, what good is it to keep trying to hang onto something that is in the past. In 20 years everyone will be used to the way docked breeds look with a tail and I bet that the owners of these future dogs don't feel like they have been cheated or denied something. It is just a tail for goodness sake. In the grand scheme of things does it really matter that much? If it causes so much of a problem for someone then I really feel sorry for that person. They must have little else in their life if this is such a point of contention for them. ETA I really don't want to argue about this and I seem to be having a problem with making my point understood. I am not against docking, I LIKE THE WAY IT LOOKS, however it is not something that really matters to me. Life has plenty of bigger things for me to be so up in arms about.

Well I don't really need both my arms, but I really LIKE having them! Personally I like the look of a docked dog, and if it were legal then I would happily buy a puppy that had been docked. I don't think docking is cruel (if done properly) and I don't agree with the reasons why it was banned. However, why can't people just say that the reason that they like it is because of the way it makes the dog look? Why does everyone have to come up with arguments about injuries (which I doubt happen in the epidemic proportions that some would like us to believe) and that it is better for the dog etc. Just admit that YOU (no one in particular, just those that feel this way) prefer it docked and it visually pleases you. How do you all feel about circumcision? Boys don't really 'need' it, it looks much neater without it. Similar argument AFAIC, boils down to personal preference and I know what I'd prefer if I had a son, but I wouldn't try and justify my position by trying to convince myself I was doing him a favour by having it removed.

I can't imagine adult amputation of a tail is any more painful than any number of surgeries that may be necessary if a dog were to injure a part of it's anatomy, say a leg for example. If the argument that is going to be used is that docking is preventing injuries then why not remove their legs too? In all the years I worked as a vet nurse I never saw a dog come in with such a severe injury to the tail that it needed to be docked and a lot of that time was in north west NSW where the number of hunting dogs is huge.