Life Of Riley

I find it terribly sad that these kids will never know the love of a dog. My 4 year old son has been taught that not all dogs are friendly and he always asks before patting a dog, but he loves our 3 dogs and they all adore him.

I have a fence jumper, she amazed us at being able to jump a 10 foot colourbond fence, the only thing that stops her is a roof. We now have a 5 metre x 20 metre yard for her with a shade cloth roof which has stopped her for the last 18 months. I didn't want to chain her up and this still allows her the freedom to play in a yard. We were lucky she has no idea about digging so she has grass in her yard. We considered having her PTS but with a lot of work and Prozac she has become manageable. Fence jumpers are not a dog I would ever consider rehomable, especially if there are aggression issues.

The Newfoundland Club of Victoria has them for sale, check out their facebook page.

We are in a semi rural area and we don't have a huge problem with snakes, in 18 months we still havn't seen any but they are around the area, there are a few farms which have seen snakes. We check the yards before letting any dogs out but my partner says that because I am so obsessive about our grass looking like a golf course the snakes have no where to hide. Our yards are 20m long by 5 metres wide and we have 28 of them and a large 80m x 5 metre yard so it does take a while to check them all.

I just opened my boarding kennels, it was a very long and expensive process. We were lucky that the property we purchased had the kennel building as it was previously used for greyhounds but it still cost around $100,000 to renovate the kennels, kitchen, do all the fencing, advertising, concreting, council permits ect and that of course doesn't include purchasing the property. The permit process is long frustrating and exhausting. I listened to what everyone told me, I am a vet nurse so I have a lot of contacts in the animal industry. I had a list of everything I wanted and then i had to be realistic and decide what was essential. We are a small kennel that have 20 - 30 dogs at a time, We decided that seperate grassed exercise yards were essential as we don't mix dogs from different families and clean facilities were the top of our list. Ultimately you will never please everyone, decide what is important to you and stick with it.

My newfie only wears a light coat when in the rain and isn't too impressed when I put that on her :)

Im so sorry to hear about Lola, my thoughts are with you.

I think some dogs do enjoy the company of other dogs however in a boarding environment I don't think it is in the best interest of the dogs to have them mixing with unknown dogs. I am opening my kennels soon and it will be my policy to not mix dogs from different families, which will turn some people off boarding their dogs with me but after talking with an animal behaviorist I believe the risks are too high. Not all boarding kennels are bad, in my research to open my kennels I have come accross some wonderful kennels.

Looks like an Iris cyst, my dog had one years ago, I took him to the eye specialists and they zapped it with a laser.

Malaseb Shampoo has always worked for me.

My Newfie had elbow surgery with Charles Kuntz from South Paws, that was 15 months ago, Charles was wonderful and my girl recovered perfectly, we have had no problems since.

I told my OH I wanted a newfoundland and he said no so I said I wanted to get a horse and I was allowed to get my newfoundland

I have always done everything I can to prevent my dogs getting out, I had 8 foot fences and padlocked gates and yet my neighbour knocked down our fence with an excavator, lucky my rotty Riley knows his boundries and won't leave the yard, Riley went and slept in the house. Hate to think of what the council would have done to him had he left the yard.

I have a client that since her dog was attacked she carries an air horn, she said it works but i'm sure it would scare every dog in the neighbourhood.

This just happened to a lady I know who has 2 chocolate Labs, both are fantastic well socialised and obedient pedigree Labs and she had the council called on her whilst she was down the beach because someone thought her dogs were pit bulls because of the colour of their noses. A lot of stupid people in this world

Looks like staffy and american staffys are included. Check this link, very scary times.

Hi PP, I hate to ask but why don't you need them any more? Casper is on 4x100mg Phenomav tablets per day so I'll happily take them off you if you still have them. Let me know how much you want for them and I'll PM you my address. Thank you. Unfortunately our old girl passed away over a year ago, she lived to 17yrs so had a long and happy life but we have no need for the tablets now that she is no longer with us anymore. PM your address and I will send them to you.

I have 2 full bottles of Phenomav 100mg that I don't need. They expire in October 2011 and January 2012 If anyone has a dog on Phenomav 100mg and wants them send me a message and I will post them to you, I'd hate to see them go into the bin.

I still have 4 of these balls I don't know where you are in Victoria but I am in Pearcedale, near Cranbourne if your local you can pick one up or I can send it.

I got my Newfie when my son was 12 months old and my Wolfhound X came along 6 months later, my Newfie was a puppy the Wolfhound was a year old. As long as you train them not to pull on the lead walking isn't a problem, I got out a dog trainer to help me with the training (not jumping, not pulling and recall) and setting boundries so the dogs also knew their places in the house and were easily controlled, both dogs are fantastic with my son they are probably better behaved than him as well , I know a few people thought I was crazy but with a bit of hard work any thing is posible. My dogs are around 60kg and 40kg

I know quite a few people that have had the same experiences at Keysborough

I steam clean my carpets every 2-3 months with the machine from the supermarket, i use a mixture of Biozet laundry Liquid and Pine O Clean lavender fragrance. The Biozet is an enzyme cleaner so breaks down the urine really well and as I am a bit obsessed about cleaning I add in the Lavender Pine O Clean makes the whole house smell lovely :D My old house had floor boards which was so much better, hopefully I will have floor boards in this house soon.

My Newfie is now a year old as well , we introduced a rescue dog into our home a few months ago (Wolfhound X)and within 30 seconds they were best friends We also have dogs regularly coming to stay and have never had a problem. Our Newfie just loves other dogs, I do find the smaller ones are a bit scared of her but come around really quickly as she is so gentle with them. I would also recomend an adult dog of a similar size if you will be leaving them alone together, the 2 year old Newfie sounds great, has he had his hip and elbow xrays? If the breeder is close by I would try and get a play date set up for them first just to make sure

My dogs had a shade sail in their yard until they decided to use it as a trampoline, I nearly fell over when I walked outside to see my Newfoundland and Wolfhound X jumping around on top of the shade sail It got moved when my Wolfhound X Tilley realised she could use it to get out of the yard two weeks after I got her and took herself across the road to the pound, they thought it was funny that she walked up to the office and walked in to say hello. Now there is nothing near the fence line that she can use to get over the fence.

My insurance has paid out about $6000 for my dog, she was lame and got xrays done at my regular vet and then went to the specialists for CT Scans and endoscopy. I have also had a few other smaller claims of $300 - $1000 Insurance paid out within a week of receiving my claims. My vet bills in the first year have easily cost what my pet insurance would cost for the next 10 - 12 years.