fuzzy82

Not sure it will have much effect. I have some friends who got the same type of mutt a couple of months ago. They've done fostering and owned dogs before, so they're familiar with how many unwanted dogs there are around. So when they told me the breed they'd chosen I checked out the breeders website, thinking maybe they'd picked a good one (meaning one that wants the mix to be recognised as a breed and therefore does the right thing). There was no mention of any health tests, and specifically hip and elbow scoring, so I brought this up with my friends. Their response was that they were aware that the dog should be health tested, and they had asked the breeder about it. The breeder had informed them that he/she doesn't check hips or elbows, and my friends decided to go ahead with the purchase anyway. The dog is a very nice dog, she's cute and placid and seems quite stable, but it's obvious that the breeder did nothing to socialise her and has done absolutely no basic training (like housetraining). So these people know about overpopulation, they know about hip and elbow testing, they know the breeder should be doing it, and they still chose a mutt from someone who doesn't do the necessary tests.

I find the new search feature much slower to use too. Before it was just 3 clicks and search, and that was it. Rather than reducing the amount of clicks involved, they've increased, which isn't good web developing. Not to mention that the light grey font they now use for the search features makes it nearly impossible to see the text, which further complicates the search. I shouldn't have to move my head around in order to read the different options. When updating a site, it should be simplified as much as possible, meaning making it more intuitive, faster and easier to use, and reducing the amount of clicks needed to get where you want. I can't understand why the state option is now part of the advanced search. The old search feature had everything that was needed, and there was no reason to change it. Even if they changed the site, they should have kept the search feature the way it was.

My vet at Lawnton uses it, we were there just the other day for it. Strathpine Vet Surgery, bit closer than Kedron :)

Just make sure you do the block training in Melbourne, not Sunshine Coast. I was quite disappointed by the Sunshine Coast block training, but I've heard good things about the Melbourne one.

My local pet store has been selling shelter animals for years. There is a big poster explaining how the adoption process works, and it all sounds good to me. I don't have an issue with it.

I don't like watermarks on images, and it doesn't stop people who REALLY want to steal them. I would display smaller file sizes instead, and disable right click on the image. They can still steal them, but with the small file size, they can't use them for anything.

I used to feed Canidae. Artemis is also very good, along with TOTW and Orijen (not sure if the latter is available here in Australia). There is also processed raw food, like BARF, and K9 Natural, which comes frozen or dehydrated. The dehydrated version doesn't need refrigerating. Not sure why you want to add dry food? Is it for convenience or the nutrition? If it's for nutrition, I use the processed raw for that. I feed mostly prey model raw, but for peace of mind to make sure they're not missing any nutrients I sometimes feed some of the processed stuff. I wouldn't go back to dry food now.

I transported my cats from Europe to Australia when I moved here, and they didn't travel on the same plane. There are set routes for transporting animals, I think it's via Frankfurt and Singapore, and because they have to leave at least 4 hours before loading them on the next flight, there is a wait in Singapore. When you go from Europe to Australia, the wait in Singapore is about 28 hours because the connecting flight leaves Singapore less than 4 hours after the flight from Europe arrives. So unless you're connecting through the same airport and spending the same amount of time there to get on the same flight as your animals, you will be on a different flight. It's not like domestic flights, with international flights there are lots of rules for transport animals because of the quarantine laws of various countries. having spent the fisrt 22 years of my life in the UK, I'd say you were wrong on all counts there. Maybe it differs between different areas of the UK and who you meet? I've been to UK at least 10 times (I've lost count) and I find the people really miserable.

I love the drop-in style classes, where you pay per class and attend whenever you want, or you pay a set amount and attend as many as you want until you reach the next level. I don't like how dog training classes are held ridiculously early in the morning on weekends. I wanna sleep in on weekends. I prefer the classes that are held in the evening on weekdays, but I guess for families weekends work because they're up early anyway. The size of the class doesn't really matter, as long as there are enough instructors to come around and talk to everyone in the class at least once per exercise, and if there are issues they should have time to hang around for a few minutes to try to help. If you spend the whole class without any one on one time with the instructor something is wrong. I think it's also really important to encourage people to have frequent play breaks, not just between exercises, but several times while working on one exercise. And when you're standing around receiving instructions for the next exercise, people should be encouraged to get down to their dog's level and give them a scratch, or put them away in a crate. Personal space between dogs is also important. For the class we're currently doing this was emphasised during the orientation night where we went there without dogs, and everyone whose dogs need extra space were encouraged to let everyone know. And speaking of orientation night, I think that's a good idea too. You're not distracted by your dogs and you go over all the rules and get to ask questions etc.

We called them the day Thomas died to ask about cremation, and they provided us with some details. Hubby says he told them it was a cat they had treated that had died, but they asked no questions and didn't say anything about sorry they were for our loss or show any sign that they cared at all. We haven't spoken to them since. He didn't die at the vet's, he died at home, so we weren't actually at the vet's to talk to them about it when it happened. It was the lack of treatment at the vet's that I feel lead to his death.

It was the board I contacted, just got it wrong in the title.

Are you sure you would want to stay in UK? Hubby made plans to move over there with his cat a few years ago (before I met him), but because of the quarantine thing he decided against it. Then the cat died and he went over for 6 months, or that was the plan, but after 3 months he was so miserable he decided to come home. It's a different culture, people aren't as friendly as here, they whinge a lot, the weather is miserable a lot of the time, and even though he had friends and family over there he was so miserable he ended up not even wanting to leave his flat most of the time. So unless you've been over there before and know you'll really like it, or if you're only staying temporarily anyway, I might send the dog off to live with family for a bit while you get settled in. The dog doesn't travel on the same plane as you anyway, so it doesn't matter what flight she's on. As for the flight, it should be fine. I have transported cats from Europe to here, and they had to be quarantined for a month, and they were fine. The thin air on planes means they sleep most of the time.

I don't know, I didn't know it was a membership system. So if they're not, how would I complain?

It would have been the board I emailed, I found the website for it and clicked the contact link in it, and read all the info about complaints etc. I just didn't remember the details correctly, sorry. If they want to cover their arse, it's a bit weird that they say to email them before lodging a complaint.

In June we lost our 13 year old cat, Thomas, very suddenly. I felt and still feel that the vet didn't show enough concern and didn't do everything they could to treat him. In fact, I'm unable to go back to this vet because just the though of going back there is very upsetting, and we now use a different vet. A couple of weeks after we lost Thomas I went to the AVA site to see if there was any way I could make a complaint against the vet. I found the appropriate form and read through the guidelines and everything, and was about to fill it out. But then I thought maybe I didn't have a good reason to complain, maybe I was just upset and wasn't seeing it clearly. It also says on their site that if you're not sure if you should complain, email them and ask. So I emailed them and told them the story and asked if I could complain or not. There was no reply for several weeks. I left it for several weeks because I thought maybe they're really slow in replying to emails. So about a month later I forwarded my original email and added to it asking why there had been no reply. This was over a month ago now, and no reply. So I'm not sure if I can complain, they say to email them, but when I do they ignore my emails. Are they just trying to get out of the paperwork that a complaint would involve? But then, why not tell me that I had no reason to complain? I could just lodge the complaint anyway, but I'm reluctant to because I'm not sure if it's worth of a complaint.... So what are you supposed to do?

I've only had a quick look at the ingredients, but it looks the same as Dr Billinghursts BARF to me. If I was feeding BARF, I would be happy to feed either of them. I find that Big Dog tends to be more expensive, but that could just be where I am.

It was pretty good, but once again didn't really explain what other options people have.

I met the handler of this dog a few weeks ago, it's pretty cool stuff. I have a soft spot for scent detection.

My dogs meet all the criteria, except they're not purebred. Oh well :)

I got mine from here: http://www.clickerdogs.com/crate_games.php Yes, the shipping is a bit costly, but it was cheaper than anywhere else and I figured it was worth it. And I had a 10% discount code at the time so that helped....

You could keep her inside when you're at work so she can't go over to your inlaws?

Is it possible that it's a learnt behaviour and he does it because he gets attention? I heard of a case of that one time, the dog wasn't actually scared, it was just attention seeking. They fixed it by ignoring all of the pathetic behaviour and only giving the dog attention when it acted more confident.

The mini american shepherd was previously known as the mini aussie shepherd. They changed the name a couple of years ago.

That's funny :) I believe Susan's approach to this is to release the dog out and then do fun stuff on the outside too, like great treats or a game of tug or something, and release often to build value for releasing too. If the dog doesn't release on the release word, you close the door as if they made a mistake, then open and try to release again. Repeat until the dog releases, then reward for the release, and on the next few reps build more value for releasing. Not sure if you'd do this with a puppy or a dog who is new to crate games though. I wouldn't run out and do weird stuff to get the dog to release. You don't want to build movement and distance into the release, as you might want the dog to stay in the crate when you do that in the future.

The chis I've worked with have been smarter than the GSD's and JRT's I've worked with...... Pretty sad when you come across people, and trainers of all people, who think chis can't be trained. Well, they can't be trained with that attitude!