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Love it =] loved the other ones on the website too.

I've only ever had girls while I grew up, and now my dog is a girl. She lives with my OH's family dog, another girl. They get along well thankfully. Because I've never had boys, I've never really felt an attachment, but now that my mum has a male mini schnauzer - i'm a little bit more likely to get a boy as a pet. He is the most loving and snuggly dog, totally unlike all other dogs we've had, all different breeds. I know his breed plays some part, but I think his gender does as well. Cleo is not a snuggly dog at all! That's the only thing I would ever change lol. She's affectionate, but its a quick rub past, not a cuddle.

Dalmatians have to be my most favourite, but there are many other favourites, dallies just top the list. SBT's are probably my least favourite, met plenty of beautiful ones and friendly ones, and I live with a staffy x. But just not a breed I would ever want to own. I also don't love small fluffy breeds, but my mum has a mini schnuazer that I do love for his personality, but would never want to own for the dread of constant clipping. But I definately do not HATE any breed (that would be impossible!).

Well I have my original dream breed now (dalmatian), but we've started dreaming about other breeds we'd like to have now that we've decided to put our showing/breeding dreams on hold. We'll come back to dallies probably when I've left work to be a mum, a few years away yet! So in the meantime: -Finnish Lapphund (top of my list) -Cocker spaniel (2nd on "our" list) -Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever (OH's no. 1) -Border Collie -Aussie Shepherd -Tibetan Mastiff -Great Dane -Saluki (omg, we have a 3 legged saluki cross that comes into my work - GORGEOUS!) -GAP greyhound -Weimeraner Pretty sure that's our list of "we will have one day" dogs. There are more we'd like, but these breeds we'll probably actually have at some stage. We are planning our future home to have plenty of room for dogs =]

I agree that it seems like a huge amount of chemical to put on a dog. That's why I was surprised when Bayer said it was safe! I would never normally recommend it, but this one customer was basically being told by her husband to get rid of this troublesome dog (it wont eat normal food either, probably because she cooks it human food but thats another story) and she needed SOMETHING to kill ticks and worm him that wasn't a tablet.

Stevie is a Pug, what exactly would be different in using advantix instead of advocate in that regard? she has never had a problem with advocate? Advantix has an ingredient for the tick killing component that HAS caused issues in some small breeds. UNfortunately, you don't know until you try (maybe try a single or 3 pack before forking out for the bigger pack). Be armed with the knowledge that if your dog does react, just wash if off IMMEDIATELY. It's not just little dogs either, my workmates 50kg rotti can't handle it either - goes mad scratching it off

Im on the mid north coast of NSW ("tick central"). I use advantix for fleas and ticks and interceptor for all worms. Just one less pill/chew to give really! And yes, advocate and advantix CAN be used together - Bayer has given that advice to a customer of mine after she went through EVERY other chew and tablet on the market for worms (including a whole 6 pack of interceptor chews)

having a crate trained dog really paid off for me too when I had my dog desexed last week. She too is always moving, but she doesn't mind the crate. I always encourage people to have a crate.

Can't offer too much advice on staffies, Im dalmatian lover myself, but re. the flying, my girl came from Tasmania to the mid north coast of NSW at 10 weeks of age. She was very happy and normal when she arrived, peed on my leg when she said hello but hey, she was an excited pup. The pet freighting companies know what they are doing :) Hope that gives you some peace of mind if you do end up flying a pup in.

Sorry to hear about Coco. That's what I want. To tell them I'm so sorry I let this happen to them. back. I just hope she knows that I tried to do my best by her, and by giving her to a family friend with a big farm with a dam and a GSD called Zar, I hoped she would have a better life than living in suburbia (she was a kelpie x husky). At least I have a little peace knowing we saved her from death row once, and she had a longer life than she would have had originally.

I'm sorta glad my dalmatian can't be mistaken for anything else =] I get a little annoyed when people do get it wrong, hey I get annoyed when people spell wrong (although I myself am a culprit, and yes I get annoyed at myself). My parents' next door neighbours, a girl I went to schoool with, have a "shih tzu x maltese" from a pet store...it's the size of a chihuahua and looks nothing like a shih tzu! The maltese part I think is correct. I told them what I believed, and that they pet store they bought her from is not really to be trusted. I love meeting new breeds, but I hate being mistaken, so I usually ask and don't assume...unless it's obvious - like a dally lol.

I wish Coco would visit me. She died at 6mths, 2 years ago this month. My current girl Cleo just turned one, Coco would have turned 2 in November. They would've been such great partners in crime and sisters, even though they would have come from such different beginnings. Coco has never visited me, in dreams or else. I have a strong feeling that she may be with Cleo in some form though, egging her on. They have the same cheeky spirit. I am so sorry that I wasn't there with Coco when she passed I wish she would come so I could have peace about her ending.

Haha I work at a PETstock, first thing I did when this stuff came in store was check the ingredient list and was not impressed (this was the one with the yoghurt). For a so called "premium" it has a lot of filler and a more expensive price than I would put on anything of that quality ($96 for a 15kg bag). Apparently it's a Petstock only line, after it sitting in store for a couple months and not selling (I just couldn't recommend it) we traded it to another petstock for some other stock. The only one in that line that I would feed would be the sensitive skin one, because it has less filler. Just my opinion, I try to avoid fillers wherever I can, which is what I base my opinion on, because my dog hasn't done well on high-filler/wheat filled products before. Every dog is different though :)

Sounds very much like the rubber itself breaking down...I've never seen this in a newish Kong though. Any way it could have been sitting in the store for a long time?

There are 2 dogs living here but only one is mine (live with the in laws). I reckon we could go another dog easily, but they wont let us. I always thought I'd want a few, but then I visited my mentor who only has 5 dogs (and she had 10 pups at the time), and I looked at my 6 cockatiels and I realised 2 things. 1. Pack Dynamics, I never really realised how in a bigger group, some dogs just will NOT mix. I knew it could happen, but only when I saw how they needed to be separate did i realise. 2. I got too many birds, too quickly and they just didn't get the attention they needed as handraised birds. They're now VERY happy in an aviary but they're not humanised anymore. I wouldn't be able to give 4 or more dogs the attention I could give 3 or less, just something I don't feel I could do. And my chosen/heart breed is the dalmatian...having more than two or three MAY drive me crazy.

I don't like all the pro-oodle articles that seem to appear in each edition, I even asked them why they insist on promoting these dogs so regularly on their facebook page, and just got fobbed off Refused to renew my subscription after that I second this. I looked forward to buying it every two months and then I read an article about choosing a breed or something and it had the "pros" of choosing purposely bred oodles. I was disgusted and gutted that a magazine with potential such as this one (this is the only dog mag sold in my home town) would sink so low as to promote that, especially when they are, at the back end of the mag, promoting real breeds. The editors always seemed to be people who loved their purebred or rescued dogs and I've voted with my money, now buying Dog News. Less articles but no oodles other than real poodles (who are gorgeous as they are!)

Cleo had issues like that a few months ago. I feel it was a combination of her not agreeing with the ProPlan (first food she's had with wheat in it) and sandflies/mozzies which were really bad at the time. So I changed her food and we installed a bug zapper and I sprayed Permoxin at dusk when the bugs were worst. I must say she improved a lot after this. Dallies don't look good when they go that browny colour. Aloveen shampoo and conditioner didn't go astray either =]

My dog is like "practice" child, I believe I'm not ready for children yet at 21 years of age, but I still have maternal and caring instincts that I need to fulfill and Cleo is a willing "fulfiller". That doesn't mean that she is babied (hard to baby a 22kg dog will endless energy anyway) it just means I provide the best care suitable to a DOG, i.e premium foods, having money for veterinary care should the need arise and being there for her social and exercise needs. I think it is cruel to deny a dog its "dogginess" and treat it like something it is not. We (well the majority of people, hopefully) would not treat a child like a dog, so why treat a dog like a child?

Bigger breeds worry me more, but I definately still worry about little dogs that are clearly aggressive, approaching me and my dog. It's never nice, and I don't want my dog to be affected by their bad behaviour. I guess I've never had a bad "big dog" experience, but plenty of little dogs have rushed us and made me very angry (I have to control my 20kg dog, but they get away with anything)

They've been notoriously hard to get into contact with. In a year of working at petstock, I've seen a EP rep once, all the other reps from other companies come through every month. Its a very poor record.

Check with your Vet regarding what the hormone levels are doing pre-season and what the hormones will do post-desexing. I researched this when I was working on my Avoidance Motivated Aggression thesis and I know there is a period where the progesterone hormone is dominant. Sudden drops of progesterone, which occurs when a bitch is desexed, can result in the female dog experiencing emotional disturbances such as depression, irritability, nervousness and aggression which in turn can become learnt behaviours. So the theory is that it is best to avoid the period when progesterone production is peaking when thinking of desexing. I'm not a Vet. Just something I have read. Thank you. I will see if she does come into heat this weekend. If not, might visit the vet, get his opinion and go from there. I don't want to make this any harder on her than it might already be.

Maybe you could bring her along to Agility & start her agility career I will be soon! Is there training on Sat afternoon? I have this weekend off for my birthday, so might pop down to the oval if it is on? Obedience is on Saturday afternoons & they are soon starting (14th April) a new session of Canine College which is obedience & an intro to agility. You will need to ring & book for that. We have a dally at Agility now. Agility is held on Monday nights at 6.30 & usually they like you to have done Canine college first. Come down on Monday night & have a look & meet everyone The club is also getting into Rally-O too, I think. Aw, I wont be able to come on this Monday, its my birthday dinner =[ Does it run on Easter monday? I've talked to another lady from the club, can't for the life of my remember her name, she quite regularly comes into my work, but she's explained what I need to do re. canine college. Cleo is coming into heat (fairly sure, she's showing every sign) so I will probably miss this round of canine college. If she doesn't come into heat this weekend, I may try and get it done sooner (would like that!) Anyone have any opinions on desexing a bitch who may be coming into season? I know its more costly etc to do a bitch during her season, but does the same apply if she looks like she's about to begin, but not bleeding? She's only slightly puffy, but a bit sooky too. It's exactly 6months since her 1st season. Sorry Sheena, I've hijacked the thread

It really has nothing to do with believing Novartis (or any other manufacturer) It comes down to common sense, the law of physics and several other factors. You have a small chew, for arguments sake the size of a 5c piece The ingredients as per advertised dosage's are blended with a suspension mix. There is no way anybody can be sure of the dispensation of all ingredients once the chew is pressed into it's form. There is a good chance there may be an even percentage of all ingredients throughout the chew, however it could be 55% one side, 45% the other, maybe top heavy or bottom heavy. It is like making meatballs, you add an onion to the mince, mix it up, you are happy that it is mixed well, but no matter how hard you try you will find it impossible to have all the meatballs you make the same ratio (meat to onion) unless each ball was made individually by weight and volume, even then the composition within that ball will be different from half to half, or even quarters. I hope that makes sense… (the more onions the better IMO) I totally agree with you, this is what I tell my customers! I will NEVER risk it with my dog. The amount you save in chopping up a larger dosed chew v.s the potential risk and vet bill is not worth it. When I tell customers that they can't guarantee that they'll get an even 50:50 blend, I'll get snorted at, or shut down, or ignored. But I persist with each different customer. As I said, I might not believe the companies 100% (just some things some companies say rub me the wrong way, not Novartis btw) but I do place a lot of faith in what they tell us. I'd like to think I have good common sense too :) Even if that gets rewarded with scorn most of the time.

Maybe you could bring her along to Agility & start her agility career I will be soon! Is there training on Sat afternoon? I have this weekend off for my birthday, so might pop down to the oval if it is on?

Yep, I work in a pet store and if people mention to me that they're going to cut it up for smaller dogs, I always say "I don't recommend that you do that, I can't stop you, but just so you know." because Novartis tell us that it shouldnt be done. Im not sure I 100% beleive Novartis, but Im gonna cover my butt and never recommend people do that.