erinonthefarm

Agreed, I watch the today show, but Carl has zero affinity with any animals- I remember him looking worried about holding a pet rabbit when they were in Warwick! My puppy gets approached by everyone bent over (crouching) with hand out. He then barks and I explain that he is frightened by their approach and they are better to ignore him and wait for him to approach, but they by then are already backing off thinking he is aggressive. The average australians attitude to dog safety is pretty bad.....

So does the docking rule apply to imported dogs?

I would have liked to have seen how my puppy behaved yesterday, as on the very first day he was left outside home alone we had a huge storm that blew the doors of our generator shed and the wind and rain came in horizontal hitting the windows 3m in from veranda of our house so he didn't have anywhere dry to sit! I was 200km away doing grocery shopping and had no idea till I got home poor boy. I hope that everyone in the cyclone zone will bring their dogs in, mumof3 it is strange to have a cyclone so far inland is your property ok?

I own Dobes, my first was a black and tan bitch with a docked tail, she was a fantastic running partner and was very sooky at home, great with other dogs, kids, horses and chickens (!), definately extremely athletic. I think that a six foot colourbond fence may not keep an entire male dobe contained as Trinity was an excellent high jumper, but was desexed and small at 25kg, and we had to put a hot wire on the tops of our fences for a while to stop her jumping out. She ran away from our house about three times when we were away at work and once jumped off the second story of my parents house (without any damage somehow?). She was a total nutter, but there was no contest for me when getting a new puppy what breed it was going to be. If you go with a Dobe, be prepared for giving it loads of mental stimulation until it's old enough to go running with you as they really do go all day. Don't know about Ridgies, but there are potential health problems like Dillated Cardio Myopathy and Von Willebrands that your chosen breeder should screen for. Good luck with what you decide!

My Parents are up there, I have pleaded with them to leave but they are staying with their two dogs. I am so worried, hope everything is ok

crate! especially at night if the TV is on or the radio to mask some outside noises.

Hi I'm having the same problem, I have put it down to the fact that my little boy never does anything quiet with Sniper and plays lot of games where there is running and screaming. I have had to explain to my boy that he is over exciting Sniper and needs to tone it down and have some quiet time. We are still working on that so atm I just step in and end the game by separating them when it's too boistrous. I try to encourage my son to take Sniper for walks around the yard on his lead, feed him, throw a toy instead of running around with it. I fortunately have a fenced front and back yard so puppy can be in one yard and son in the other. I am not worried though, just one of the challenges of having kids and puppies together, both with totally normal behaviour

Thank you. I have had these sorts of discussions in other threads before, and have done quite a bit of research on the topic as my dog is very important to me. I'm not convinced that dogs (and particularly males, with females it seems closer to 50/50) are physically better off after being desexed but thankfully in this country everyone is still free to reach their own conclusions so long as they are not hurting anyone else. My dog has no behavioural problems that would be solved by desexing - ie he doesn't roam or want to roam, he is fine around other intact males and I have just learned that he is still as responsive as ever to me around entire females coming on heat. He is also a large dog and is still under 2 years, so even if I was going to desex him, I would not have done it yet. I would never let him breed as he is too special to me, and I would be worried that anyone who wanted to breed a xbreed would not provide the right of home for these sorts of dogs. For the most part, you do not come across bitches in heat in public especially at an off-lead beach, this being my first ever... so for me the risk of this has not outweighed the risks of desexing (in regards to both physical and mental changes). I still advocate desexing to the masses because their is an over-population problem of which I'm aware, and the majority of people unfortunately have not taken the time to properly understand their dogs and so the less urges and drive their dogs have the better. I'm not a believer that there is one right way for everyone here and so long as my dog is not causing anyone any problems or contributing to the over-population problem, I think he's fine as he is. I agree, you sound very responsible with your boy, it's unfortunate that you can't stop everyone who is irresponsible from using public dog areas, there sure is some fools around. I don't see a problem with the bitch being on heat (I was unaware it was prohibited), the problem is more that anyone who doesn't have sufficient control of their dog shouldn't be using an off lead area.

I think five hours in the middle of the day would not be terrible, my puppy is 4 months and asleep on and off between 9am and 3pm and doesn't do much when he does wake up. Before and after that he has hypo episodes and would go destructo if I left him alone then. My last dog as a puppy was left in the laundry while I went to work for a couple of hours and did take longer to toilet train than my new boy, but she seemed reasonably happy and didn't totally destroy things. A good food stuffed chew toy or a bone will keep puppy busy for a while and I'm sure they will just chill the rest of the time.

I was wondering the same thing but assumed the dog to be young and not desexed as he was still growing. I have the same concerns with my dog (he's only 4 months ATM but later down the track) but he won't be being desexed until after 18 months.

I have had three dogs from puppies, but with my current puppy I tried crate training which I didn't do with the others. It was amazing, one week to virtually accident free! Not a single poo inside. Also very handy for keeping your dog close by when they are resting or having a quiet chew on a toy, without sticking them out of sight in the laundry, or even just having peace of mind that they aren't eating your pot plants when you are not looking. When we stayed in a B&B last week, Sniper slept in it, and I don't think we could have taken him there without it. Mine has castors on it so I can roll it from room to room if I need to, and as its an airline crate with sort of two plastic halves with mesh windows, it's a bit darker inside for rest time. I them!

I was interested in an older dog too as another option, in my original post I did ask about that but no one replied about that so I'll be interested to see if anyone has any ideas.

What about an australian cattle dog? They are pretty low maintenance, and low energy for a working dog from what I've seen. People recognise them for being protective and they are very smart and loyal. Only issue would be extra socialisation to overcome their natural tendancy to trap visitors . Go to some dog shows to see what appeals to you too- There are hundreds of dog breeds but you need to meet quite a few individuals and their breeders/ handlers to get a good grasp on what their personality is like.

Sniper goes in his crate, as a 4 month old puppy who is quite big already we have had a few "jumping in dinner plate" episodes. If anyone goes into the kitchen he stands around waiting for things to fall off the bench or lies on the ground yipping, groaning and rolling around, generally making sure he is being noticed . I am not adverse to doggie dish washers, but OH thinks its gross! I wash up to a higher standard than him though.

Thats disgusting, It's easy to hate some people

I loved Marley and Me (cried and cried at the end) I have just read Last Dog on the Hill by Steve Duno, Non Fiction ATM is K9 Professional Tracking by Resi Gerritsen and Ruud Haak

In alice springs there is a great nursery with a cafe called the Water Tank. Doggies very welcome and coffee is very nice and has won barista awards. Gloria Jeans, while not the best coffee around, does allow dogs at outside tables. Darwin for coffee you would have to go to Parap, Fannie Bay, Cullen Bay- I have seen dogs at cafes there although when its 33 degrees and humid I don't enjoy coffee that much anyway

We holiday in Townsville with our dogs every year, there is a huge dog beach stretching from Rose Bay to Palarenda (maybe 10km long) I have also had plenty of coffees with Trinity on the strand near CBD. I live near Alice Springs NT and it is very dog friendly, the crime rate is so high nearly everyone has a dog . I also just spent a night at MollieJay B&B Alice Springs, a beautiful cottage that is happy to have dogs indoors. Same as for Darwin, lots of dog beaches, dog parks but caravan parks in the territory don't seem to like dogs so accom is restricted to smaller places. I lived near Melbourne a couple of years ago and I recall there being no problem with having my dog with me in most places. Ingleburn/ Maquarie Fields in SW sydney has a nice reserve on the river that you can take your dogs swimming and bushwalking.

Have you considered a house sitter, I have done this before through housesitter.com and it was great. Normally it is retirees looking to park their caravan somewhere while on holidays, and also with 4 dogs a boarding kennel could be quite expensive. Other than that, My previous dogs stayed in boarding kennels quite a bit and were fine. Its probably pretty exciting for them at a boarding kennel with all the constant activity. A friend of ours also suggested a house sitter, but we wouldn't really feel comfortable with a stranger staying in our house. We aren't too worried about spending the money aslong as the dogs are safe, secure & comfortable. I think most dogs without major separation anxiety love boarding- I'm sure you and your pooches will have a great time

Have you considered a house sitter, I have done this before through housesitter.com and it was great. Normally it is retirees looking to park their caravan somewhere while on holidays, and also with 4 dogs a boarding kennel could be quite expensive. Other than that, My previous dogs stayed in boarding kennels quite a bit and were fine. Its probably pretty exciting for them at a boarding kennel with all the constant activity.

Why is Australia so different to Europe- I was stunned to learn how many places allow pets on public transport, accomodation ect.

Well they mustn't like their breed very much to do that. Isn't showing dogs meant to be about the improvement of the breed?

I know exactly what you mean. I don't think I could handle more than two dogs in our house, two is a perfect number for us. Initially it IS a lot of extra work but pretty quickly, it isn't that much extra work once the dogs get settled. We were taking Hoover out for regular night time toilet stops for a few weeks but he was able to hold it through the night quite quickly and both of them are very happy to 'sleep in' these days so there are no more early morning wake-up calls because of the dogs. My OH was probably cursing my desire to get a second puppy when he was standing out in Poo Corner at 3am in the midst of a loud pouring thunder storm … Also, two dogs equals twice the poo so clean-up can be quite hard work It's a real possibility especially if the second dog is a young puppy. For that reason we make sure the dogs do have lots of 'apart' time. We might take one out for a drive and leave the other one at home, they have separate training sessions as well as joint training sessions. Sometimes I take one out for a walk while the other is playing in the backyard with OH. We've made a real effort to do training 'near' each other so that when we start at obedience class, the dogs aren't distracted during class if they catch a glimpse of the other dog – you can see some 'siblings' lunging at one another instead of concentrating on class. The other thing about training is that OH and I split dog duties 50/50 – that goes for home duties and also obedience classes. Some people are amazing and are able to take one dog to one class and the other dog to another class on another day or even do all their dogs at one class but I couldn't do that so I'm lucky that OH takes one dog and I take the other for the classes. In any case, photos of your current puppy would be most welcome He's smiling! I am going to get my OH to read your post about poo corner, maybe they can start a support network ;) . I think even if I wait until next year, it takes that long to find a good puppy sometimes, and see what my circumstances are then. I will just have to be content with browsing and one clever, beautiful puppy for now.

Thanks everyone, I probably should have worded it differently, I do want another dog for me too! My OH better look out when we stop moving around because then I won't have any restrictions ;) just kidding though, I do find Sniper a lot of work, we are doing 4.30am wake ups atm and that x 2 doesn't sound fun. My sensible side knows it's better to succeed at keeping one dog happy than failing with two, but It's so hard to stop at one........ I have spoken to OH and as his work is quite flexible with times, we could do alternate shifts so Sniper isn't home alone as much if we move. CW EW - I definately do NOT want to go through the teenage phase with 2 I still remember from my last Dobe's teenage years! Koalathebear - I have read other posts about your dogs, and I do like the idea of 2 dogs being playmates for each other, I never thought about how they might develop a preference for the other dog over the humans. I think I will think on this further, see what our plans are next year.. Oh and I'm on a rapid learning curve with dog ownership, so don't want to overdo it right! Thanks again everyone

I agree, only that my time to be a stay at home puppy mum is running out, and would one dog be bored on his own when I have to return to work? What do you do to keep your dog occupied while you are away from home?