LisaJ

I book mine and my dogs flight with directly Virgin at the same time. Melb-Syd rtn. Call Virgin and find out their price.

Swedish Vallhunds are smart working dogs, they need to have a fair amount of intelligence and capacity to use it independently or they would have been of little use on the farms in Sweden. They like to think of themselves as team members in the family, if you are the human in the family this means you will have to work out how to get the best co-operation from your Swedish Vallhund. In my experience they are easy to train, easy to live with and will give anything a go. They make sure I keep my sense of humour and challenge my lateral thinking - both are things I appreciate. They get on well with other animals, like to maneuver animals around a bit if not directed otherwise (this is their original use). They are keen rat and mice catchers. They like to be with their owners helping with household chores, garden tasks, bushwalk, sport activity, wine/beer and movie on the couch. Being shut out from the family and their humans for long times is what they like least. They feel at home in the bush, on the beach, in the country and in town. My Swedish Valllhunds have canine friends amongst Chihuahuas and Great Danes and anything in between, they frequently visit old people and young kids, people with and without disabilities. In short they are PERFECT.

Any Vet can draw the blood and send it to pathology, obviously a pathology lab doing titre test.

Have you googled "Canine pappilomavirus"? A fair bit of info, if it is of any use I don't know.

A quick google search gave this http://responsibledog.net/human_dog_bond.html Food for thought???

Do you have any link to this? Would be intersting to learn more about it.

I have no experience with NZ hedgehogs, my experience with hedgehogs is with the Swedish ones. Our Bernese Mountain Dog used to go really clucky over them. My terrier x corgi, didn't go clucky - he just did the terrier thing. Only got the opportunigy once. The hedgehog survived with a scare and minus some spikes. Dog showed no ill effect what so ever. Some blood from his gums and a couple of spikes caught between his teeth. Takes more than that to deter a terrier cross from having interest in hedgehogs.

At the Northern end of Luddenham Rd, close to Mamre Rd.

Read up about bloat whilst you call your vet straight away for further advice.

This happened to me some 20 yrs ago. Except that I think it was more a case of the previous owners seeing their old dog with his new owner (me). The dog had lived with me for about 18 mths and we had formed a strong bond in that time. Previous owner would like hime back, I said I had to think about it, left my contact details and never heard from them. The dog lived with me for another 8 yrs before old age took him. This was in a very small community and I don't know how they could have missed seeing him and me as we spent a lot of time out and about.

One of my neighbours firmly belive I have Sweetish Woofhounds another of my friends call my dogs the Bonsai Alsatians. I don't really mind either :D

Body language - human or dog - is interesting. If I walk away from a "class" having one more piece of information it is worthwhile IMO. Just the discussion here on this forum has possibly made somebody think a bit extra about their dog's communication modes, have off line conversations/discussions about it and do some more research, maybe even get a book by any of the "specialist" people mentioned in this thread. Those who have no interst or already know it all or is of the opinion that the facilitator lack experience on the topic will not attend any "class". In a class on reading dog body language it will obviously be challenging to pitch it at a level 100% suitable for all participants however the people attending are there of their own free will with a positive mindset, a willingness to listen, consider other's experiences and a great interest in dogs. Jumabaar and corvus About quietly plugging away - How do you eat an elephant? One bite at the time.

You can contact the pet transport companies (Jetpets, Dogtainer and others that I can't recall names of at the moment ) for domestic as well as international price estimation. In the past I have dealt directly with Australian Air Express when my dogs have travelled unaccompanied interstate. AQIS website http://www.daff.gov.au/aqis/cat-dogs will give you information about requirement for importing dogs from NZ and other countries.

Your dog knows how to swim - no need to teach him. :D Let the dog have fun at the beach and explore, he will decide when and if he is comfortable and confident enough to swim. Placing a dog in deep water, for no good reason other than to satisfy your own curiosity to see him swim, is not a good idea , in my opinion. For some dogs it might take several months of beach visits before they decide it is time to swim and others go straight in and head off in direction of NZ.

:D Funny - I have flown 5 dogs internationally, from way south to way north on earth and the other way too. Two of them I listed as small cross bred dog cause that was the truth. From memory I think I had to sign a declaration that the dogs didn't have any of the "prohibited" breeds in their parentage. Prohibited as defined by the country of destination. I never went through an agent though and last time any of my dogs travelled international was 2.5 yrs ago so things have obviously changed. Good to know if we ever decide to go international in our travels again.