Weasels

Doesn't surprise me tho, my girl will try to lick sunscreen off me when I put it on my legs.

The cute is strong in this thread. My favourite photo with both the rogs in it:

Thoughts are with his family and friends/coworkers. He was also probably the best friend dingoes will ever have.

Aw what a lovely thread to wake up to I'm going to take a camera out on my walk now! Dandybrush does Razzle's nose get sunburned?

Love it. If Weez is feeling ignored he will put his front paws up on the back of my computer chair and just stand there on 2 legs until I pay him attention (maybe a nose-poke if I am too slow). He also groans every time he lays down for a rest like an old man (he's 18 months :rolleyes:) The Fox does a little 'butt-rub-dance' where she will lift her back leg on the side you are patting, and arcs around so she is hitting herself in the face with her own wagging tail. I'm sure there are lots of other that we don't even notice anymore since we see them so often Fox is a bathroom-door-guarder/find-a-toy greeter and Weez is a tissue shredder too. ETA: oh, and B-Q's comment just reminded me - Fox goes CRAZY when someone twists up a teatowel ready to swat a fly. She runs in circles, barks, jumps up, before you've even tried to swat anything. it's very strange to watch.

:D

Just one quick point on this statement: it could mean 51% are greys, it could mean 99% are greys either end of those percentages will have a big effect on how much the unique upbringing will affect the analysis (which only Corvus knows).

I should have just waited for the more articulate artillery to arrive I find this a rather charming comment. I'm trying to work out who it was you were hoping to offend. Who's trying to offend, me or Aidan2? I don't want to offend anyone, just trying to spread a little love (particularly in the direction of scientists), and break down the 'us and them' approach.

Aw thanks Aiden2 I guess no-one likes being called a weirdo outsider just because of what they do for a portion of their day It's a bit like being called emotional and biased because your observations are based on experience, not data. ;) Nothing wrong with being emotional and biased, in fact I quite enjoy it in my off hours :cool: All I was saying is that scientists can't use anecdotes in a statistical analysis (except maybe sociologists, but I'm not sure how they do that). I think I have the same level of common sense, life experience and emotionality as the average person my age, the only difference is that when I see wild animals I have a strong desire to extract their DNA! :D

Aw thanks Aiden2 I guess no-one likes being called a weirdo outsider just because of what they do for a portion of their day

I count myself lucky that I escaped academia and got into consulting then To say science is flawed is to say humanity is flawed (which it clearly is), since the society we have built is inextricably linked to the discoveries made using the scientific method. I'm sure people in every profession have used their skills and position to get what they want at the expense of others. Banking, medicine, politics and puppy farming spring to mind. Of course, as in broader society, jerks are in the minority, and most people just go to work every day thinking 'how can I best do my job today?'.

Yeah but those are physicists. Totally different ;)

They already exist to some degree Weasels - they called universities. ;) Some young folk go in to one end and never re-emerge. It's just a job tho - I consider myself a member of the public and community, my OH is a tradie, I mingle with all sorts of people. I hope I don't end up finding a hidden cache of unemerged young people in the basement now Great there's some nightmares - 'night of the living undergraduates!'.

Absolutely, and people are always looking at how animals use plants to find new drugs. It's just that you can only follow so many leads, I've seen many PhD students start out happy to take on any new project and do free work for people, but it's also a good skill to know when to just stick to doing your main project well. Now I have a mental image of us all living a hermetically sealed town with 'scientists only' written at the gate, looking mournfully out at a community we can never be a part of

No flaming here. I was just being pre-emptive. It's still early in Perth and I'm a little sensitive until I've had a few cups of tea :D

Wow. This thread has certainly fired up since I checked it last! I haven't read the whole thing, but I have some thoughts. Ok... (dons flame suit) Having recently completed a large project on an emotive subject and with community input, it can be a tough gig sometimes. If you say that 'on average, across the state of Qld, there are more of x species than y' then you will always get a handful of people saying "but I saw a y up the street just last week! Bloody scientists in their ivory towers don't live in the real world etc. etc.". I always appreciated chatting to people 'on the ground' for my own interest, but there was no way I could use what they were saying because a) they aren't a statistically significant sample, b) I can't verify what they are saying and c) I can't integrate it with my other data. At best I could use it as a thinking point for further research, but since I was doing a nation-wide survey I didn't really have the scope (or the time) to focus on local issues. A broad study is just that, the details of individual samples are SUPPOSED to get ironed out so we can see what's going on without perception biases of things we have personal experience with. Regarding scientists being poor communicators, honestly after a couple of years I pretty much gave up. The last straw was a media interview when I stated that 'there are more of x species in Qld than in other states' and they got a follow up interview with someone saying we therefore didn't have to worry about wiping them out. Of course people watching casually then assumed that I had said that and I was a horrible animal-hater. sigh. If I could go back and give my first-year self some advice it would be to just shut up and tell everyone I'll discuss it after it's published. I'm not trying to give Corvus advice, it's just something that would have made my life a whole lot easier and let me focus on finishing my project instead of getting caught up in side-issues. TLDR: Scientists are people too :D

Well done GayleK & good luck Superminty! I generally didn't get stressed in the tests by assuming that any mistakes were the dog's responsibility to fix After all, he's at work and I'm on my weekend! I might feel differently when we start trialling and there are points to be lost tho. Both our kelpies have had 2 practices on ducks over the last couple of training sessions They were very confused to start with but on their second run especially they really got the hang of it and it was just amazing to watch their laser-focus on controlling every duck with such subtle adjustments. Weez has a pretty good 'that'll do' command on sheep but he did not want to leave the ducks until I dragged him out on a lead! They both really enjoyed it, and we humans did too :D

This describes my current pair perfectly although they're both pretty nosy I guess. My girl is sooky and loves pats but doesn't like to feel enclosed, whereas my boy is happy to be hugged, picked up (also known as 'seizing the weasel'), sit on your lap etc. - a total teddy bear dog. My Mum was always very insistent growing up that we have girl dogs and boy horses, and muttered about boy dogs 'peeing on everything' But I'd be happy to have either. Oh, and my girl (desexed) does still cock her legs on some things (mostly where another dog has just peed), although nowhere near as often as my boy of course

Hmmm, maybe can you fit a few dog beds/old quilts on the laundry floor while you're out, so it is like a big kennel? somewhere they can feel safe and cosy without being distracted/woken by birds, bugs, wandering cats etc.? I must say tho I'm not really qualified to help, since my two were out having a little bark at dawn the last 2 mornings : Although to be fair the first time was in response to the cat chorus next door. ETA: my main strategy for quiet day-time dogs is to never leave them at home alone unless they've had their morning run/fetch, off-leash, for about an hour. I give them a frozen kong or bone when I go out, and by the time they're done with all that they're pretty good at sleeping the day away. I'm lucky however that my job lets me start work a bit later so I get all this done in the morning, I realise it's not feasible for everyone.

Mine are indoors, with a dog-door in the laundry to get out if they need to. I find that if they can laze around on the couches all day they are much more settled. Occasionally they will go out an bark but much less than if they were always outside right next to all the exciting/frustrating suburban noises. Do you have maybe even one room with outdoor access that you could designate for dogs, maybe pick up a cheap couch or throw some old blankets on the floor? Also I'm thinking the tarp could go either way, it could stop them or it could make them more frustrated. Worth a try tho I guess?

Any particular reason you need to use a martingale? Might it be easier to just use a slip lead or a clip-on collar that doesn't rely on the dog's cooperation quite so much?

Ok, That was just what I was told in a seminar at a science conference. I have no personal knowledge or observation so I'm fully prepared to admit it might be wrong. Sorry about your dogs The people that work on these things know baiting isn't the best solution which is why they are researching alternatives like maremmas/guard llamas/guard donkeys, behavioural regulation by encouraging pack structure, and other bait types/ delivery methods.

Sounds like cyanide in an M44 ejector. They configure the ejector so that dogs and foxes are the only animals with the jaw strength to pull at the device enough to release the squirt of cyanide. It's a good system (as much as any of them are)

It's my understanding that although a 1080 poisoning is very unpleasant to watch, the animal actually loses consciousness early in the process so the suffering is less than it may appear. There is a new poison in development (PAPP) which acts faster and is more humane, plus it has an antidote if a pet/working dog gets one. It's a very long process to get it approved though. The target-specificity has more to do with the delivery system. The 1080 is put into meat so the main animals of concern to take baits are quolls and birds of prey. Several studies have shown that baiting has no noticable affect on quoll populations, the main concern with birds is them moving them around so the bait may end up outside of the designated (and signposted) baiting area. Burying fox baits is a good way to reduce non-taget bait takes. Shooting is a more humane solution, but dogs are difficult to sight and it's not sufficient to really tackle the problem. Trapping can get more dogs but it's a time-consuming process that requires a skilled individual to do a good job. Rightly or wrongly, our wild dog control in this country relies heavily on baiting.

Aw I would've loved to have gone on Wednesday to see the working dogs and herding demos - stupid work Congrats to Mirawee tho! I also noticed a couple of BC's I know through herding in the results list - Yay Sooty and Sweep!