Mel@Marengo

We had a family dog years ago, kelpie cross, had a back led cut off at 4 years old, lived to the ripe old age of 20. Used to tell kids who asked why she only had 3 legs that she kept on jumping the back fence and we didn't want to tie her up. :laugh:

have you noticed how much more expensive the sachets have gotten? i used to pay around $2.30 a pack; now they're around $4 I just bought the system today and yeah 4.50 or something like that for the sachet. the price is getting over the top considering i can purchase a 1kg tub of Jalna for not a lot more (around 50 cents more) and i don't have to make it myself Once you have the kit , you don't need to buy the satchels, just use use a few spoons of good quality yoghurt add milk and some powdered milk, or use greek yoghurt like sandgrubber said, much healthier. Mal loves licking out the containers, thats all she gets. Most dogs are probably like most people, attracted to the sugar.

Why can't a dog understand words, we are pretty sure our dog does, the other day my wife was in the garden and she told the dog to wake me up and we would go for a walk, she has never been given that command before but went running straight inside and woke me with her front paws. if I was asleep on the couch she would normaly just give me a quiet sniff, I dont posture when I am talking to the dog we both talk normally to her.

A tube of cream, a rubber glove and me holding her by an uplifted tail. It didn't really work for me or poor old Spiff, just something that had to be done.

I had a Kelpie, lovely girl called Spiffany. She got pollop's as she got older, they would bleed and they were like a big pimple, took to the vet a few times and he would squeeze all the crap out, but then he just gave me the tube of cream and showed me how to do it, amazing how trusting a dog can be when they know there is a smacko's at the end of it.

When your looking for accommodation google the town you want to stay and the words pet friendly, disregard stayz , takeabreak ect. as these sites charge a fee for listing on the site and another fee for nights stayed. If you look a bit harder you will find properties with there own website that will more often than not be cheaper than what they are listed on stayz as they are not paying fees. Also if you are looking at booking a place in peak times such as Christmas or Easter, many properties will block out these dates on the stayz website as they will be booked out anyway, we only use these sites when we need them.

Met a Kelpie the other day, she was 19. They just don't live long enough do they.

It must be frustrating from the accomodation provider's point of view to have to deal with those who don't respect others' property, that's for sure. That's a whole different discussion about why people are so inconsiderate though! I'm just going from my recent experience, and I did have other requirements for the accomodation as well - it had to be suitable for two couples, not one couple and kids, for a start. In the end I booked a place down your way, and I'm choosing to leave my dog with my parents, partially because of the general inability to find a place that would let her inside at night even in her crate, and partially for other reasons. Leaving her outside at night in the cold and wet wouldn't be fun for the neighbors, me or her, and I am rather disappointed. In a broader way, I also find the general lack of rental properties which allow pets rather offensive. It's not a problem for me, but it's tragic how often you hear of pets having to be surrendered because the owners have had to move and couldn't find a rental property which allowed them to bring the dog or cat. I knew someone who was refused permission to get a pet turtle in a tank, and had a surprise inspection from the real estate agent the week after the request was refused to check that they didn't actually have the turtle! I see your problem trying to find accommodation for 2 couples, that is a market that we have noticed that is lacking. So anyone thinking of getting into the business that is a niche market. Unfortunately promising to keep dog in a create does not quite cut it, we once had a breeder(so he said) who promised to keep the dog crated as this was where it was happiest anyway, as we had reservations, we thought being a breeder they would be responsible pet owners, well they loved there dog, enough so they slept with it under the doona the stains from the slobber and the hair in the bed told the story. We don't get many people like that though, we let dogs in the room and on the couches, just not on the beds or in the bath(scratches), I wish it was a perfect world cause then we wouldn't need rules or boundaries would we.

I have traveled around Australia a few times and I find it to be very dog friendly, it is a bit hard in cities and around national parks though, but that's okay for us though as we don't go near cities or National parks. I would like to go to some national parks but the reason why dogs are not allowed even on leads is that when a dog leaves it's mark on the trail it disturbs the native animals and it is there habitat and we have to respect that. We are lucky, we live in a small town where our dog is welcome in the newsagent, hardware and the surf shop, it's against the law to have a dog inside where they serve food, but all the cafe's and pub's allow dogs outside. Dog's are allowed on most beaches, we have more of a problem with human poo at some of the beaches ie: Wicked vans free camping get up in the morning and crap on the track to the beach. We have over 200 places offering accommodation in town about 20 of them are dog friendly(we own one of these) to different extents, half of them are very friendly the other half I would say that they will tolerate your dog to get your business. You have got to understand also that a business is put in a pet friendly category because it allows dogs it is up to you to sort out what level of dog friendly you want, there are a lot of cars that are categorized as 4wd's but you would not take them off road. If a place of accommodation has rules you don't like move on to the next one, we have our rules and we consider them to be common sense,when we first opened we had people ring up and ask us to bend the rules and being real softies we would, and most of our bad experiences have come from people we have bent the rules for. So that is why some places seem not so dog friendly, it is just what they are comfortable with but they need to advertise in a category so you know they at least allow dogs. I thought I would just give you a bit of a view from the other side.

Thanks again for the info, we will probably go with the Proban. Can you also use another tick treatment along with that like fronltline(Just to be safe).

Thanks very much everyone for the advise, sounds like a bit of a hassle owning a dog in tick areas.

It's not being made anymore cause they can't source the active ingredient. I just bought 3 bottles so that will keep me going for a while. Hope it's only temporary, but sounds like it could be the end for Proban It's the only thing I trust to keep the paralysis ticks off. I saw it online in tablet form is this the right stuff?

Thank's Why has this proban stuff been taken off the market , is there side affects?

Thank you, we have rung the vet in Eden and gotten details about treatments, they were the ones that alerted us about the problem.

Hi , my partner and I are going camping along the N.S.W. coast in August and we have heard the ticks a pretty bad this year. Are ticks a problem north of Sydney? I would appreciate any tips you could give us, thank you. We could be going as far up as Yamba.