PetSitters

You could almost drive over and pick him up from Adelaide to Ballarat? By memory I think it cost us under $400 when my husband drove from Adelaide to Melbourne and picked our little one up including a motel stay overnight, food etc, just a thought? We had considered this, but the puppy won't be have full immunity from its six week vaccinations and i'm loathe to set it down on the ground enroute to do its business every hour or so. Am i being overly protective about vaccination immunity? As long as my husband is allowed by AAE to lodge the dog himself, him picking up the puppy while he's in Melbourne for work, will be the cheapest option. His work pay for his flights and we only pay for the dog and the hiring of a car to get to Ballarat We didn't put him on the ground outside on the trip, same reason with vaccinations, my husband let him out of the crate and had newspaper down in the back of the wagon

Another Nikon here, recently purchased a Nikon D7000 from a Canon 450D, still learning how to drive the Nikon

I am so sorry to hear such dreadful news, it's devistating and thinking of you

It's a good thing if the policy is policed and acted upon which is often the downfall of good intentions when there is little scrutiny of the adds unfortunately

You could almost drive over and pick him up from Adelaide to Ballarat? By memory I think it cost us under $400 when my husband drove from Adelaide to Melbourne and picked our little one up including a motel stay overnight, food etc, just a thought?

Yes, I have seen some Vonforell dogs in their pedigrees and thought perhaps some were English lines, quite a few prefixes in the Macklin lines I hadn't heard of before? There is a breeder in rural SA that also has some of the Macklin type lines and produces a lot of pure blacks. I don't know of their actual working ability but I have always heard that temperament stability in the these lines are exceptionally good

What a cute clip hey

Yes, in order to breed a GSD of correct temperament and structure and maintain the breed's integrity, the Germans have put a stringent testing process in place to ensure that non compliant dogs are not bred with faulty traits reproduced. The GSDCA here in Australia who are supposed to uphold the German testing process only complete a 3rd of the requirements of the German Breed Survey which allows faulty traits to slip through what effectively is a quality control net and be reproduced to the detriment of the breed. The German requirements isn't easy and takes a lot of work and/or money to train, prepare and pass such a survey which is probably too hard for the average GSD breeder to undertake so the GSDCA don't do it, hence easy for the breeders, but detrimental for the breed. Personally I would be surprised if the majority of highly rated Australian show dogs had the integrity to pass a German breed survey to be honest and would suspect a large number of our breeding stock put to the test would potentially fail? What's Don Burke got to do with dogs anyway, isn't he supposed to be a gardening expert thank you for explaining that. yes mr burke is an expert on everything haven't you heard?? I don't think it's in any way constructive to allow a gardener to comment publically on dogs and be taken seriously, perhaps if the subject is dog's lifting their legs on his flowers there may be a point to his discussion otherwise that would really be the extent of a gardener's dog knowledge IMHO

You have complete sympathy from me. This 'wild' fence-rushing is nerve-racking for people walking past with their own dogs on leads. There's always the chance that at least one dog, will make it over. Which happened to you. I cannot understand how someone could dismiss that behaviour as 'play'. One of my GSD's is DA and reactive and the amount of times when we were just starting to make some progress in his training, it only takes one rushing dog to put us back 10 paces and my dog starts arking up again Ok,his reactivity is my problem to sort out, but the annoying factor not only is it scary and ruins what was essentially a pleasant walk, the off leash rushing dog owners are breaking the laws anyway

Yes, in order to breed a GSD of correct temperament and structure and maintain the breed's integrity, the Germans have put a stringent testing process in place to ensure that non compliant dogs are not bred with faulty traits reproduced. The GSDCA here in Australia who are supposed to uphold the German testing process only complete a 3rd of the requirements of the German Breed Survey which allows faulty traits to slip through what effectively is a quality control net and be reproduced to the detriment of the breed. The German requirements isn't easy and takes a lot of work and/or money to train, prepare and pass such a survey which is probably too hard for the average GSD breeder to undertake so the GSDCA don't do it, hence easy for the breeders, but detrimental for the breed. Personally I would be surprised if the majority of highly rated Australian show dogs had the integrity to pass a German breed survey to be honest and would suspect a large number of our breeding stock put to the test would potentially fail? What's Don Burke got to do with dogs anyway, isn't he supposed to be a gardening expert

I don't think you can say much really, only offer advice if asked for. I ruffled the feathers of an aquaintance once when she was waffling on about her "pure bred" Groodle, those silly oodle names really annoy me made out to be something special, but having a say tends to cause friction and not worth the potential grief. Perhaps this Cocker X has a better home now which is a good thing

I too hate that situation which is not improving in the areas I work, in fact I think it's getting worse at times with off leash dogs rushing at people in a public place with owners who cannot control them. On the flip side the other day, I came across a guy with Border Collie off leash playing at a small park near a walk way and thought to myself "oh here we go, another off leash dog" The BC saw us and started to move towards us, the guy recalled, the BC did an about turn back to the owner's feet and dropped as we walked past. Wow, "how good was that" I thought, an off leash trained dog that behaved it's self with an owner who had their eye on the ball

My boy is a full working line dog of Vonforell/Yultzen lines, grandson and line bred on Fax vom Grenzganger. Fax was one of the highest rated sporting/working GSD's ever imported to Australia producing many excellent sporting and police/service dogs. Mine is very close to what the breed standards of a GSD determines and we are very happy with him to date. He's quite aloof, confident with good handler focus and easy to train in drive, but not the slightest bit reactive, no DA or HA whatsoever, calm in a passive environment and not fearful in strange surrounds. He's lively, rather dominant and wants to play "all day" if you are up for it, but is also a nice affectionate pet who can switch off and relax if need be. I don't think Maklin GSD's are renouned working lines, Beychief breed some full working lines and working/show mixes, Vonchienloup are generally working lines. Mindfreak Kennels who bred our boy, Vonforell, Voncheinloup, Yultzen, Vontama, Raennik are some of the kennels who concentrate on working drives and quite often produce all black dogs like ours.

Here is my working line dog, he has more the original looks

I am not a behaviourist and don't claim to be, plenty for me to learn in that area, but I have obedience trained and worked in animal care for 27 years and have 2 GSD's of my own, but some of the regimes I see prescribed for behavioural rehabilitation in certain dogs to me is off the planet for what is trying to be achieved and the reasoning behind the system prescribed after working with and assessing the dog myself is more left of centre IMHO