monique.c

Thanks for the info, I never really thought of that. We leave the collar off Snowy when he is in the backyard because he gets hotspots easily and the collar rubs his skin sometimes but I will tell Nadsy to take Sappy's collar off him when he is in the yard too. Just thought I would give everyone an update as I thought it was a crazy coincidence that I stumbled upon this post :D

I'll pass that along, just a quick question though, why is it a choke hazard? I thought the point of these collars is that they don't actually fully choke because even when they are fully tightened they are still as loose as a regular collar? or is it that it might get caught on something? Just curious

agreed! Hey Everyone, I was bored and looking through old posts when to my surprise I stumbled upon this post. This might be hard to believe but Andrew and Sapper are currently living with myself, my partner Tim and our puppy Snowy. We took Andrew (or Nadsy) as he is more commonly known in when he got back from Afghan, my boyfriend is good mates with Nads and was in afghan with him. Sapper is an awesome dog, so friendly and massive and he is a best mate to our 5 month old golden retriever. He's also a massive sook (in a good way) so laid back and chilled and lets our puppy climb all over him with no complaints. Here are a couple of recent photo's of Sapper (or as I like to call him Sapper Dapper Doo or Sapprador)... We took him to the beach about a month after nadsy got him and he was really scared of the waves at first and was also scared of the dam at my boyfriends parents place but now he loves the water. Nadsy and Kez were so appreciative of the hospitality of the Tapua folks, they were raving about the dinner you guys put on for them. Anyway here are some photos :rolleyes:

i got mine of Ebay very cheap $15 including delivery I got the same deal I think. So happy with it, i figured even if it was a fake it didn't matter because it was so cheap. Pretty sure it is the real deal though and even if it's not it works like a dream. I was really skeptical about how much hair it would take out but there was seriously enough hair to fill a couch cushion and that just from a 4 month old golden retriever. We got it to get rid of some of his undercoat so he would dry out easier in the wet/humid weather and hopefully not get any more hot spots... Hope it works for you Here is a link to the ebay listing Ebay Furminator Listing If this size isn't right I am sure you can find the other sizes in the sellers other listings.

These Photos are great, here's a couple of our 5 month old Golden and his best mate, an 11 month old Black Lab

Thanks, it was so hard at the time and if you told me back then that I would be functioning pretty much normally in 6 months I never would have believed it. It is always so hard when it happens suddenly or violently like someone else said. I'm so sorry that you lost your best friend too.

My 16 week old Golden pup loves the water, at first he did the whole raise the front legs out of the water and splash a lot technique but now he is swimming much more naturally. We didn't have to coax him into the water at all, he loves it, but that is what he is bred for I guess. Here are a couple of photos, one when he was quite little and then one from today

Hope you son has a safe trip. My boyfriend got back in July after doing 6 months over there as a combat engineer driver over there. He tells me that they definitely appreciate getting packages over there and that it is awesome getting stuff and also great for their morale knowing that regular people in Australia are thinking about them and supporting them... Wish I had seen this thread earlier, I would have definitely sent a package over for an EDD.... might do one in a couple of months when all the treats they got for christmas have run out..

When you lose someone you love it does feel like you will never be happy again but it will happen. One of my best friends (human) was killed in June and at the time all I could do was cry pretty much all day, then it got to just crying whenever I though about him or he was mentioned, it slowly went down to not crying as much and now 6 months on, while I miss him everyday and wish he was still around I am dealing with my grief, when it happens though you feel like you will never be happy again and how could you possibly every have fun or laugh again when they aren't here. But I agree with other people, you might want to go talk to someone about it, because if it happened in September and you aren't feeling any better now it might be a good idea to talk to someone who is experienced in counselling people who have suffered a loss.

Playing COD and teaching the Afghani kids Aussie slang is pretty much the only thing to do during time off. Yeah this is what I have heard as well and also making the afghani's teach the Aussies how to swear in their language too... gotta have some fun I guess

I forgot to answer this! The wobbler is a North American thing only I'm afraid but it is available on ebay It's extremely cool and Elbie has a lot of fun with it. We alternate between the tucker ball and the wobbler and he's deeply entertained. Hey, I really liked the look of the Kong Wobbler too and thought I would just look on google to see if you can get it in Aus, here's a website I found it on Kong Wobbler in Aus Link It's $33.95 on this website, not sure about postage though, you would probably be able to find it on other websites maybe too...

I found this on another website "To send a care package to an Australian Soldier in Afghanistan, you need to purchase a "BM" size box (weighs 175g itself) from Australia Post, they cost $2. They'll give you some customs forms which you will also need to fill out. The address you need to send the package to is below. Make sure you seal all the edges of the box with packing tape. If the box after being packed ways less than 2kg, Australia Post will send it for Free. “An Australian Soldier” Op Slipper AFPO 13 Australian Defence Force SYDNEY NSW 2890" They get heaps of vegemite and tim tams so although they are appreciated other things such as beef jerky or lollies, toiletries etc are very much valued

yes you can , i put the original post on here last month for people on this forum to send care packages to the EDDogs over seas, loads of people sent over packages for the dogs, scroll back through and find the topic heading "care packages for our troops" and it has all the information you need, it is a bit late to send for chirstmas but to send in general you should be ok, for the EDDogs was the main reason for putting this information on here as the dogs are the ones that noone really thinks about Thanks for that, I might put a package together in the new year with treats and toys and stuff. The dogs do such a great job over there, one of the dogs Sarbi was missing for ages and ages over in afghan and she was found by an American soldier, she is back in Aus now after 6 months in quarantine in the UAE. I went to Herbies funeral in july, he was an EDD killed in action on the 7th of June along with Jacob Moerland and Darren Smith, the funeral was lovely, it was pretty similar to the memorial services they held for the boys who were killed so it was really nice that the army recognises the work of the dogs, Herbie's ashes were given to the wife of his handler too which was really nice of the army.

My partner was in afghanistan for 6 months earlier this year and he got a couple of care packages from various community groups, as well as the ones his family and I were sending him, he said that they all really appreciate getting care packages, especially from people they don't even know. It's so lovely that you heard back from the soldier you sent a package too. In my opinion I probably woulnd't hold out too much hope of the others replying though, especially if they went to boys because boys probably wouldn't think to write letters back you might get some replies from other women soldiers though, they are probably more likely to write a letter back. Sometimes it's hard pressed getting the boys over there to write a significant letter or facebook message, they are too 'busy' in their time off chilling with their mates or playing call of duty on their computers... I was just thinking then, I wonder if you are allowed to send care packages to the Explosive Detection Dogs working over there?? That would be nice, I might try to find out whether you can...

hahah certainly looks like it.... doggy x-rated films...

Ok thanks, I will finish the course, thanks for the input.

Hey Everyone Snowy my golden pup had a couple of hotspots last week, we took him to the vet and she gave him a cortison injection, neotopic h cream and antibiotics. It has been about 5 days and the hot spots have all healed now. Just a quick question though, the vet gave us antibiotics (cephalexin) and we have been giving him half a tablet twice a day and she said to give them till they are all gone, but we still have about 10 days supply left and his wounds are healed, should we still give him the rest of the antibiotics? I don't really want to give him more medicine than necessary. Thanks for any help you guys give me, i'm happy to keep giving him the antibiotics if he needs them but just wanted to get other people's opinions.

Haha yeah I know, doesn't really suit him, but my partner wanted to name him after a friend of ours whose nickname was Snowy... our pup has white on his chest at least but he is definitely going to be quite dark, both of his parents were pretty dark, Simba might have been more appropriate but it's kinda funny that he is named Snowy but isn't white... His hotspots are pretty much all cleared up now, I was surprised they have healed so quickly. I bought some curash and apple cider vinegar yesterday though in case it happens again, thanks to this forum we know what to do now and hopefully won't need to take him to the vet next time ;)

Our puppy snowy loves eating passionfruit, he found some in the garden and played with it for ages before busting it open and eating the insides. He likes mandarins and celery too

Yeah I was going to leave it a day to see how it went and I am so glad I just made the decision to take him to the vet that day, we didn't even know what a hot spot was... Here is a face on pic

I mixed some roo mince with my dog's dry biscuits and he absolutely loved it, went nuts over it, I just mixed in about 2 tables spoons with his biscuits because he doesn't seem to like just dry biscuits and he was eating like a champ. I have heard that it is better to give dogs than beef mince but obviously not as their only food...

I am pretty sure (but not 100%) that dog's are allowed on beaches on leash however they are not allowed in the flagged area at all. If you want to venture up to the Sunshine Coast there are a couple near my mum's place. At Mudjimba beach they have a leash free dog area between flags 59 and 60 (south end of the beach) and at Coolum Beach near Stumer's Creek there is also a leash free dog area. Hope this helps

Someone else just recommended bi-carb to me too So glad I found this website, I am glad we took our pup to the Vet because we really didn't know what to do at the time but now if it happens again I know what I can do to hopefully prevent it from getting too bad that we need to take him to the vet, otherwise it will get very expensive! plus he really didn't like the whole experience of getting shaved. So thanks to everyone, here's a photo i took of snowy's back that I just took, they seem to be healing up pretty well I think...

If we separate them the pup doesn't eat much, it is only when it looks like another dog wants his food that he seems to want it, we don't really want this to be his attitude but we also don't want him to not eat. We were feeding him Advance Puppy Large Breed Growth but he really wasn't interested so we swapped him over to Proplan Puppy Large Breed and he is on a mix of about 90% proplan and 10% advance at the moment because we mixed the new one with the old one. We usually mix his dry biscuits with some kangaroo or chicken mince on an egg at night....

Thanks everyone for your replies The sores seem to be doing much better today, have given him his antibiotic and cream and just washes the areas in some diluted betadine. He seems to be happy enough, we are distracting him from scratching with lots of attention and a yummy bone to chew on. I will buy some curash to have on hand in case it happens again. I bought a 'moisture magnet' towel from the pet store today which is apparently really good at drying them and claims to 'pull the water from the animal's coat' so we will just have to be vigilant about making sure we keep him as dry as possible and drying him thoroughly after we take him to the beach or let him swim in his shell pool