disintegratus

I live in hope, but not much! :laugh: I know my dogs love me, but I just don't think they're the heroic type. I love them anyway :D

I'm surprised that they operate like that to be honest. I would have thought they would all expect payment upfront (unless you're a long time customer), considering how willing many people are to dump their dogs...

It is sad, and extremely touching... and reminds me of the time I thought I'd conduct an experiment to see what my dogs would do if something happened to me. I was walking through the house and just collapsed, I lay there for 10 minutes. None of them cared, one of them tried to sit on my head.

I think they can also put a fake eyeball in, so it doesn't look wierd. :)

I agree, out with the eye. It eliminates the risk of the inflammation returning, and I think you'll find he adjusts quite well. My parents little jack russel copped a swipe to the eye from their cat, when we went to the vet we found out that he'd been blind in his other eye probably since he was a young pup, so was now completely blind. They opted not to remove the eye, but it settled down in terms of inflammation etc. He's never regained vision, but he gets around really well. He doesn't even have a problem going out and about to unfamiliar places. Admittedly he now walks a little oddly, he holds his nose down to avoid bumping into stuff nose first, but he's happy and healthy :)

Not so much instigators as antagonisers here. Harley is very vocal during play, and his play bark is a very piercing stop-it-or-I'm-going-to-stab-someone kind of a bark. We have had limited success in curbing it, but he gets so focussed on play with the others that it's difficult to redirect his attention. Because he's also been belted around before, he won't bark when he's close to a person, so it's even harder to catch him while he's doing it. The other day, I watched the dogs playing in the yard, then watched Thundercleese as he deliberately got Harley all riled up, and just teased the hell out of him with the toy. He'd put it down, turn and start walking away, but not let Harley close enough to get it. He kept doing this until Harley lost it and started barking, which would usually be the point when I would come out and reprimand Harley. What a turd! Classic "little brother" behaviour!

Our girl does this kind of half squat and cocks her leg at the same time. My favourite is when we all visit my parents place. Jack lives there, so has to wee on all the places to prove it. Then one by one, all the dogs go through and wee on all the places. Repeat this several times, and I'm surprised every visit to my Mum's place doesn't end up with a vet trip for severely de-hydrated dogs!! :laugh:

Sometimes I think my dogs are just regular naughty dogs, don't understand human speech (especially words like "sit", or "NO!" ) Other times, I am convinced they understand a lot more than I give them credit for. For example, if Thundercleese is lying on the couch, and I say "Who's my good doggy?" His tail starts thumping crazily. However, if I say in exactly the same tone, "Hey, Thundercleese, who's my ugly doggy?" tail starts thumping when he hears his name, but stops as soon as I say "ugly doggy" It's not his fault, he's wierd looking, but I love him anyway :)

My Rotti Zehra's best friend ever was a boxer we met at the beach once. I think it was because we finally found a dog that was stupider than her!! :laugh: They had a wonderful time running and splashing with each other, getting distracted, then finding this awesome new friend! Then Zehra took the ball off him, actually walked up and took it right out of his mouth and he just kind of stood there vacantly... then was like "hey! You've got a ball! Let's play, stranger!!" Then they had a wonderful time running... etc I agree that it's play style/in your face-ness coupled with the naturally confrontational stance of boxers. Find other boxers or rottis and they'll have a blast! :)

Something that worked for me was getting a treadmill and training the dogs to use it. When I had an operation and was completely out of commission for a while, it was a godsend. I would put Thundercleese on it, set it up so he was at a fast trot (he set his own pace, as if I had it going too slow he would go straight through the front of it) and he would happily trot along for 40-50 minutes at a time. Mine is a people treadmill, but an extra wide and extra long one, and has a little magnet thingy that you cliip to your clothes, and if the magnet comes off (ie if you fall off the treadmill), it stops the motor. I would clip that to his collar and have him running in the next room while I was lying in bed. I'd know when he'd had enough (or if he'd fallen off, which happened sometimes because he's a bit of a spaz) because the motor would stop running. It's got nothing on a real walk, but it did physically wear him out for a while. Another thing is, does she know how to settle? My guys all know that inside the house = sit down quitely on the couch. Perhaps you could adapt that, for example, she's allowed to go crazy when out of the yard, but inside her yard is quiet time.

I've had to kick the dogs out of the bedroom when it's "adult cuddles" time. Otherwise, without fail, one of us will cop a lick to the foot or similar, or if you happen to glance to the side of the bed, there's at least one dog, just standing there staring. It's very offputting.

I have read this entire thread, have followed it since it started, but been unable to post as I could not find the words to express my outrage, sadness, disgust. Cazstaff, I am so truly sorry that this happened to your poor boy. Obviously a very much loved member of your family, such a deplorable tragedy leaves a gaping hole that is impossible to fill. My thoughts go out to you, and as others have said, you and Buddy have not been far from my thoughts these past few days. I hope that in time the hole in your heart heals, filled with precious memories of your beautiful old boy taken too soon. I commend your strength of character in standing up for Buddy's memory, and making sure these cretins are brought to task for such a disgusting and avoidable breach of their duty of care. If I could lend you my strength, it would be yours in a heartbeat, as I'm sure all here on DOL would. I can't imagine the heartbreak you are living right now, just contemplating something like this happening to one of mine takes my breath away, but to actually have it happen is incomprehensible and entirely unforgivable.

We used to have a couple of tins of pal sitting in the pantry that had been sitting there for years. I actually have no idea where they came from, because you couldn't pay me to buy that stuff, I'd rather they starved for a day before I fed them that drivel. Eventually I realised they were about 2 years out of date, so I fed them to the rats. If we run out, which hasn't happened yet, they get leftovers. I'll pretty much do a fridge/pantry raid and they get whatever looks good enough/looks like it won't kill them. I'm not too concerned about what goes in to them for a short duration, they're usually fed a decent quality dry food, plus they eat the mankiest god-knows-what they found in the yard on a regular basis. If I was completely strapped and had to grab them something from the supermarket, I'd just get a couple kilos of whatever meat was cheapest.

Sorry, completely inappropriate, but the "old school methods" had me envisioning tying a live cat to the dogs neck, which struck me as hilarious (to be fair, my brain tends to view things in a very cartoonish way, so it was pretty funny :)) The only thing I would suggest (and the only thing I have behind me is my own experiences, so I'm totally unqualified to give you a decent solution) is to start slowly. If it's possible, start with maybe being able to see the object of their murderous intent (cat, chicken etc) outside a window, and just praise and treat etc for calm behaviour, gradually moving closer, outside on lead, then offlead etc. Try not to freak the critters out, because it's heaps more fun to chase something that's running than it is to sit down quietly and get treats.

That's really sad, Persephone, I'm sorry to hear.

Yep, in our house all bins are behind closed doors, I've had to start locking the garage because the dogs figured out how to open the roller door. I didn't have a problem with this until I was cleaning up poops and found one with a ziplock baggie wound through it (the kind I use for the ferret's meat and then throw in the rubbish bin in the garage) I counted myself extremely lucky that didn't end up with a very expensive vet visit, and lock the garage door religiously since then. I haven't found a solution apart from removing their ability to eat stuff by not leaving it out/not allowing access to bins etc.

Sorry, I got a mental image of you scratching a large muscly tattooed guy behind the ears and him flopping down on the ground like dogs do... :laugh:

I'm a sucker for other people's dogs, even if most of the time they just remind me how well behaved my own are!! :laugh: I usually engage the person before asking to greet their dog, and when I greet the dog, I always approach the dog, but don't initiate contact. That way, yes, I'm getting "in it's space" but am paying attention and allowing it ample time and space to move off if it doesn't want to interact, or to display any signs to indicate that I should move off. My favourite was a while ago at a macca's out in whoop-whoop somewhere, an absolutely beautiful Dogue de Bordeaux, almost adult sized but still a pup, so I chatted to the owners, greeted the dog and established that it was as attention-starved as my lot (I bet!), so I crouched down to give him a good ear scratching, and was not prepared for him to be a leaner. I fell on my bum :)

I love those retractable leads... but only for my ferrets :) I don't think they've got any place on a dog at all. If you want your dog to "run free", teach it a good recall. Definitely not appropriate at a vet clinic. I can't say I've ever had a problem with other animals at vet clinics. That said, usually when I go it's very quiet, and one of the vets I go to has a huge waiting area, so I can get space if I need it, and most other times, whatever animal I have is small enough to be kept out of harms way in a carrier or bag etc. That said, the one time I had to take Thundercleese to the vet, I took him to the local with a tiny waiting room. He was muzzled, and sat in between my legs and I held his collar rather than his lead. I don't want to take any chances, especially because other people are idiots. Regardless of which adog I've got with me, when the consult's over, they go back to the car then I come back in and pay, because I don't like not being able to pay 100% attention to what they're doing and what's going on around them.

Mine get access to the house, usually with the air con on as our house heats up awfully, unfortunately they have very little shade outside. They have the shrubs down the back, and near the sides of the house depending on time of day. They used to have a lemon tree, but the ungrateful buggers knocked it over. They get nice big ice blocks, the new favourite is 1.5 litre ice blocks with a "my dog" sachet in the middle. I got a bunch for free and wasn't sure what to do with them, so frozen summer treats seemed like a great idea. They also have a couple of clam pools, which they do use, and a huuuuuge dirt patch that they manufactured :) They also have about a thousand water bowls scattered around the place, if I have to go out at least one of them will be frozen solid, if not, I check them periodically to make sure they stay cool.

Slightly off topic, but has anyone used Nathalia boarding kennels/cattery? I can't seem to find anything about them on DOL.

Well, Looking at my lot, it looks like black and tan are the orders of the day! :laugh: I like dogs with black points of some form or description. I'm not a huge fan of reds/fawns etc. That said, at the end of the day I don't really give a toss what colour a dog is. :)

Mine were all good, a few barks here and there, but not too much stress. Fireworks finished by about 5 or 10 past midnight, at about 12:30, Zehra went nuts and started barking her head off. She's a bit slow on the uptake sometimes! :laugh: As much as I joke about her being dim, she does that a lot, something happens, then about half an hour after the fact, she gets riled up. I can't figure another reason other than she's slow

I don't have too much of a problem because all my dogs are big. People tend to avoid big dogs, which works well for me. It's great idea in theory, but a lack of public awareness coupled with natural stupidity are likely to make it next to useless. The vests are a great idea as well, much more clear cut, and if I do begin to have issues with people approaching me, I'll look into getting one. And to those saying that an aggressive dog of any type should be muzzled in public, and that "problem" dogs should not be out in public at all, how do you propose we fix their issues? Thundercleese for one hates wearing a muzzle, it stresses him out, and a nervous, fear aggressive dog being further stressed is exactly what I want to avoid happening when I'm working with him.

I think it's slightly different, but I think cats can be declared a menace and then must be confined to the owners property.