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There are heaps of interesting things to study in Animal Science. I started it by distance this year but had to drop out as the first two subjects were Chem and Bio. Bio I can cope with but the Chem was too hard and fast and I was not coping at all mentally! But if I could bypass chem and go straight to the stuff that got me interested in the course in the first place, Im sure I would have loved it I was really looking forward to the reproductive stuff and the genetics.

I listed 10 and got the one from about halfway down the list. I really really really wanted my first choice (Dalluxe, a play on dalmatian and my surname) but maybe becasue it is too like the real word deluxe it got rejected. I would definately follow Sandra's advice though. I would have done that if I had known I could have :)

I live in one of the worst places for ticks in Aus (as does Ellis) and it's either Advantix, Frontline, or tick collar unfortunately. Pro Ban was HUGE here and we still get customers lamenting the loss.

I think it depends what vaccine you get? Cleo only has records for 2, 1 at her breeder and one with me then 12 months til her booster.

Hope you have lots of fun! I got my husband hooked, I'm the crazy dog one of us both and now he wants his own dog to show! (I said only if I can still get my dally pup next year, and he backed off damn it! I would have loved 2 puppies in the next year!) He even critiques me and the other handlers! But I have SO much fun :) I wish I had a whole lot of dogs to show because going a few hours down the road is not economical for one dog, and a neuter at that! lol. The best bit has been that I now know how to handle properly and can now confidently move forward with an entire dog next year. (p.s I love sneaking a look at the other rings. At the last show we were at we were halfway between our ring (toys, terriers and non-sporting) and the working dog and utility ring. Aussie sheps were SO GORGEOUS! And the collies and the shelties....)

Cleo is my special girl. I can't describe the bond we have, we read each other's body language and just making eye contact we can read each other. She's still a cheeky little monster, she's been a challenge to me, but in the last year we've come closer than I ever though possible with a dog. She also cracks me up so much. She's such a princess, she doesn't sit on the ground in the sun, she sits like a little sphinx on the outside table. She farts randomly and looks perfectly innocent. Not to mention the Dalmatian smile that I get every day when I get home from work :)

That's $100 more than it cost to have my female 20kg dog spayed in a regional town, the only difference is that I wasn't told about consultations. I had to go in the day after for some vaginal bleeding but that was fine and nothing extra, and 10 days later for stitches removal and that was fine too (included in what I had paid) I wouldn't say you're being ripped off, as vets have their own reasons for their prices, but it seems a lot to me.

It really depends on what brand you're feeding. I can't remember what amount Cleo had now but you do reduce the amount of kibble if you give extra in the form of meat/barf etc. The recommended feeding amount is really just a guide, I would follow it and adjust accordingly - that's what I've always done.

This thread has made me think that maybe if I get harassed on my walks again, I should take photos and leave a little note in a letterbox. It hasn't happened for a little while now (because I avoid that area) but I was approached by a barking JRT coming from it's house 200m away. No owner in sight, I just had to keep shooing it and keeping myself between the 2 dogs at all times because sure it would start something and Cleo being 10kg heavier could quite possibly hurt it more. I've also had a dog (another little thing) run out of it's house where it had just had a bath, sniff then attack Cleo. We were walking past on the opposite side of the street minding our own business! The owner ran out with a towel and apologized but I was peeved. Then I was walking to the Post Office the other week and a little Boston crossed the road and approached us barking. Again I just stood between it and my dog and started stomping and shooing it. The owner came out of the PO and apologized. I don't care if I look like a nutter, I'm not letting my dog get attacked! I think because we're a small coastal village, and our council is 1/2 hour away, people don't know and don't care about the rules. I love that we have an almost empty beach to run my dog on, but I detest the attitude of most people around here about their dogs.

Do they still make it? Their website doesn't work anymore. You could try feeding real yoghurt, it's probably a heap better nutritionally. Agree. How could the good cultures in the yoghurt dog food still exist after being cooked? Even if they had a fancy way - I'd still rather give real yoghurt. We used to sell the sister (pet store) product of that called Biotic Plus and it was a fail - hardly anybody bought it. We couldn't even move it at half price, didn't help that I hate selling cheap food that is priced like a premium.

Haha I had sales today that made that look average lol :) Great to see so many dogs, cats and even birds getting spoilt!

It's off everything except marked specials (and anything else that specific store may exclude). We've sold out of some dog foods, most Advantix, some frontline here in Coffs and I didn't do a big enough order to compensate (PS. I'm a stock controller in a Petstock store :D )

Agree with this. For me, no point in having a dalmatian that can't run for kilometres and kilometres - that is what they were designed to do. So for me, doing an endurance trial (20km run) and possibly doing agility as well will be quite important for dogs in my breeding program. (Of course i don't think BB's could do a endurance trial with their facial structure)

I've recently headed down this path myself - this is my story - I've always been interested in Dalmatians, but never had one until 2 years ago when my husband and I found a little girl on DOL after her show home had fallen through (we shared a birthday, I saw that as a sign and went ahead with her). Prior to this, I did 6 months hard core research on dallies and had made contact with a breeder (different to the breeder of my girl). I had no intention to show or breed, I just wanted a little spotty friend. Then I got her. I loved her and I thought, if she was destined for a show home anyway, I could show her and learn the ropes. The breeder agreed to me showing her (we are a few states apart). So I went along to a show, made my first contact with another dally shower and then....I let the original breeder I had made contact with that I had a different puppy (the litter was delayed for several reasons) and we started a dialogue and she's now one of my greatest friends and my breed mentor. Long story short - my girl is desexed through no fault of her own. I just felt that it wasn't fair to her to keep her entire if I wasn't 100% ready to breed. I show her in neuter classes and I now know the breed and different lines very well, have several contacts in the breed, and know EXACTLY where my breeding goals lay. I'm getting my foundation dog or bitch next year, depending on how many nice bitches are in the litter of my breed mentor (I'm finally getting one of her puppies!) so overall the journey to start my kennel will have taken about 4 years. I already have a prefix, I wanted a certain name before anyone else may have but I missed out on it anyway but I have a prefix to my name which is one less thing to think about down the track. So, my story is slightly less orthodox with starting with a bitch that a breeder happily let me show as I wished, but this is not her first breed and I got the slight feeling that she didn't care what I did. My breed mentor though is invaluable, with her help, I taught myself how to show my dog, sending her tons of emails and photos. Sorry for the novel!

Is there a reason the vet said not to even let him outside to pee? Are you in a bad parvo area? We took Cleo to the beach (very empty beach) for those weeks waiting for the vaccs to kick in, below the tide line it is safer. It's very critical that Casper gets used to the world around him, have you got dogs that you know are vaccinated to play with? I used my family's dogs in their backyards and at the beach.

I had a dog die after eating a fish with a stingray barb in it. The barb pierced the blood vessel in her tongue and she couldn't be saved, the vet even came out at 9pm-midnight to help and didn't charge us a cent. The fish was a whiting though, and was not intended for human consumption. Dad fed Nala a fish every night as he did his security rounds at the marine park we lived at. It was a one in a million freak accident though.

I think there are 3 possible causes 1. the product has a funny feeling to the dog 2. the product which makes the fleas go into a biting frenzy before dying is making some fleas bite (that you can't see) 3. the dog is actually having a reaction. Reactions to Advantix and Comfortis are quite common, I hear about it a lot as we sell the products at my work. Kinda sucks when we live in one of the worst spots for paralysis ticks in all of Australia and most people hate to use Frontline here because they haven't had success in the past!

He's gorgeous Lhok!

My Dal is the complete oposite. Today for instance Georgia didn't get out of bed except for a toilet break. :laugh: And this is about as much as we've seen of her lately. I know she's under there somewhere. Could Georgia come have a quiet talk with Cleo please? Although she's currently curled up in a ball in bed...I sometimes take her for a decent walk, come home, my back hurting coz I've pushed my limits and she goes and does zoomies!

I have fun stuffing Kongs - anything the dog can eat goes in there! She's had the simple - peanut butter and philly cheese but also sardines + tuna + cottage cheese + peanut butter. Needless to say, didn't last long, she LOVED it! Maybe also try (in summer) freezing some diluted chicken stock or broth with some kibble in there. Doesn't need to be in a Kong either. At my old work they would freeze fish in ice cubes (ice cubes the size of buckets mind you) and the seals LOVED them. Not only dogs enjoy those sorts of treats!

gremlins

I'm usually hesitant to suggest my own breed but if you want a real running companion, can't go past a Dalmatian! Of course, would need to be over 12 months before any serious running but my girl could run all day. They're a dog that needs exercise or they can be destructive but my girl gets less exercise in winter and is not too bad. She has a lovely big yard to run around, and a companion to play with. They can be great with kids, my girl finds them strange because we are a young couple with no kids and she's had minimal exposure. But I'm part of a dally group that regularly posts photos of their spots and their kids happy together. Of course, proper supervision always. They also have some special needs with their diets (just can't eat things like certain proteins (eg Beef) and organ meats coz they get urinary stones) but it's fairly easy to manage really. Girls are better than boys in that regard.

Wow, does sound like a great breeder yay for Monday! I hope I'm there when you visit :)

That's a little too close for comfort. Got a dog show in Kempsey next weekend!

A guy who works in the bike shop next to me, and a welder mate of his have made their own, originally from (good) spare bike parts. I've had a go on it, with his husky girl and found it exhilarating! Little bit scary coz it was so fast but WOW. Looks like that first photo. He's looked all over the net, talked to people who do the sport, got the right harnesses and created something amazing.