Alkhe

I was after a recommendation for a friend a few months ago too - I recommend giving the CKCS club of Vic a call. I got some great advice about who had litters available, upcoming etc. Good as a first port of call :)

I guess he's now a Post-Greyhound? :laugh:

I recommend Puppia too - provided you get the right size, they fit really well and don't slip. They are actually very similar in style to the pic you posted, and seem to be durable and good quality. Pretty colours and patterns too If you can find a shop that sells them you should be able to try them on I'd think, they don't come in packaging or anything.

Another vote for etsy here - be careful though, that place is a money sink. I have to limit the amount of time I spend on there, there are so many gorgeous things!

I would seek legal advice - I doubt it matters where you are, you should always be given grounds for any action taken against you. What did the piece of paper (that the council gave you) say?

Ruth has a blog which I often accidentally spend hour reading.. :laugh: http://www.ruthlessthings.com/blog

What about mixing some sardines in to get him to eat it? Sardines give my dog diarrhoea but I used to feed my foster greyhound a tin every few days when he needed condition put on him - he LOVED them. In fact, I've never met a dog that didn't love sardines. Perhaps even mixing the oil or brine or juice in with the dry food might make your cavvy eat, even if he doesn't eat the actual fish?

He's about 2 feet height wise and weighs 24 kg. Oh wow, he's quite .. small then, he seemed much larger from the first pic :laugh: I keep coming back to look at him again. God I'm pathetic. Hamilton is a perfect name for him too!

He actually looks like a small and less coated Bernese Mountain Dog, but that's one of those suggestions that was discussed in that 'breed misidentificaiton' thread :laugh:

Oh god, he is so beautiful! I'm only adopting seniors from now on, not interested in puppies - seniors are so wonderful Does he have a name yet?

:laugh: me too, I've been known to run home from the tram stop to get back to my dog faster..

Ohhh that's almost brought me to tears!!

Now, that's the kind of breed combination identification my boyfriend would be responsible for. Hm, looks like it has some wolfhound in it, it must be a wolfound x jack russell. Oh, that one's got the same markings as Toby, he must be a mastiff x poodle.

There are two that live around Brunswick in Victoria I believe they're bother and sister, though one's just had to have nasty surgery on her leg. They're lovely dogs actually, and I'm not really a terrier person at all. We have a bunch of Cairns at my dog park and to be honest, based on my experience with both breeds so far (which is limited to er, 8-10 individual specimens!), I'd take a Scottie over a Cairn any day of the week.. :laugh:

I have read on Patricia McConnell's (dog trainer, author, etc) blog that something that (apparently) always works is throwing treats at them. I've never had to do it myself, and am not sure whether in the heat of the moment I'd be able to, but according to her, it does work. And it's stuck in my head as something to do if in this situation, since reading the post many months ago. She is one woman whose opinion and judgment I trust See the article here: How to stop an approaching dog in an emergency.

I know exactly what you mean Paddo Pup, it's so hard to not smother them with affection when in actual fact that just makes things worse. I'm a sucker for dogs, it's terrible. :D And even though it's been 5 months since you got her, it's still early days - I'm sure she'll get better with time anyway, as she gets more and more settled with you.

:laugh: so true!!

I know what you mean, dogdogdog. I wrote a blog post thing about it on my website, and a woman I work with came over to speak to me about how her friend is a vet there, and really genuinely cares about the animals, etc. I don't doubt that she does; I don't doubt that most of their employees are wonderful people who are trying to do what they think is right. However, that doesn't mean that overall, it's an ok situation!

That's terrible. Shame on them that they don't allow you to register them truthfully. Do they allow 'bitza'? What if you spell it "Bitser"? Until I was about 13, I thought that Bitza was an actual breed... (I also thought that 'anon' was a prolific and long lived poet and writer though :laugh: )

Oh wow, I just found this thread - what a beautiful dog and such a lovely, caring owner! I'm so glad it went well for her :)

Yes, lavendergirl that was a great post! Thanks! I'm not sure about Reconcile either, but my mum has a little dog who is on Clonicalm and has been for about 6 months. He didn't have separation anxiety as much as generalised anxiety which sometimes translates into fear aggression. Rudy didn't experience anything like the side effects you have been describing, and in fact I can't think of any real side effects. It's not like he's a completely changed dog on the medication, but he does seem more relaxed, particularly when we are out. He is still an anxious dog, but nowhere near as bad as he was before. That said, Rudy was never a playful dog anyway, and has a number of er.. "issues". He came from (in hindsight) a dodgy backyard breeder, mum got him at 5 weeks (!!!) and at the age of 3, he escaped and was gone for 6 days. After that, he was never the same, and we have no idea what he got up to, apart from covering 5 LGAs and running his little pads ragged. So even if he were to have some behavioural side effects, they wouldn't be as strange the behaviour he displays sometimes ANYWAY. I second lavendergirl's recommendation of the ThunderShirt, too. Rudy has one of them and that thing really IS unbelievable. I wish he could wear it permanently, it's almost like he visibly relaxes when it's on. I thought it was some kind of voodoo cr*p when I read about it but honestly, if you haven't given one a go, do! They're amazing. One other thing that I've heard can be helpful is a diffuser, which emits some kind of calming pheremone. I can't remember what they're called (which is really unhelpful, I know!) but the vet suggested this to mum as an expensive option that may be worth trying. Apparnetly you plug it into the wall and it does its thing. A woman at my park has a cocker spaniel with TERRIBLE Anxiety and a host of other problems that have now been diagnosed as related to an acquired brain injury, and she said that the diffuser was completely useless for her dog. So I'm not about to recommend it based on that, but who knows - horses for courses! Perhaps speak to your vet about altering the medication and changing to Clonicalm? I'm not sure of the difference and whether there's a particular reason that Reconcile was prescribed, but those side effects, particularly licking himself to the point of bleeding, sound really horrible

Yeah, absolutely! It doesn't matter if it's on the grass, footpath, someone's yard.. pick it up! God, people are revolting.

I've got an easy one, really, with a toy poodle. Though I do seem to often be clarifying that she's not a teacup, and that actually there's really no such THING as a teacup poodle or pom or anything else. Sometimes I get the 'oh.. a .. poodle.. *insert eyeroll*' thing, to which I just reply 'yep! isn't she great?' :D And a few times I've been asked whether poodles are "prissy", or as "prissy as they seem to be". I'd love to know what that's supposed to actually MEAN ... I just say no, in the same way you'd say no to someone who asked you whether you like to torture animals. :laugh: Thankfully I do get a lot of people saying "oh wow, you never really see pure poodles around these days" or things to that effect

Pookie, have you had any luck with finding a lawyer or anything? Any updates?

Ignacio!