Roova

Just in case people don't open the link in Janba's post - a website called Snopes says that information is false. Word for word, it's an email which has been circulating since 2006 and the advice is said to be folklore and may not work. I've used a Tick Twister before and thought they were so great we now have them at the Medical centres I work for (unless the ticks are absolutely tiny).

I think the issues is more the total lack of planning and preparation before someone who supposedly loves their dog, lets it have puppies. They seem to have no idea of potential whelping problems which put their pet in danger and Im sure some think the puppies will be fed by the mother for 8 weeks and therefore cost them nothing. I'll bet the majority put no research into making sure the puppies are going to be healthy and well socialised either. I too think breeding of the family dog will never go away, due to both greed, naivety or ignorance but in most cases the puppies seem to find homes. It's often once they're older they find their way to pounds, probably through lack of training and socialisation than anything wrong with the dog itself. Some people make out back yard bred dogs are going to keel over with every problem under the sun but I don't think that's always the case. I'm sure there's plenty who live their lives as well loved pets although I'm sure a percentage end up with health/genetic problems like purebred dogs do. Everyone wants to complain the general public are ignorant but how do you begin to train a population in dog awareness?

Im not sure I agree with that statement. French Bulldogs for example, are worth around $3000 which is pretty expensive for most people. Especially if you have a mortage, children and well, a life. Just because that's an out of reach price for some, it doesn't necessarily mean they wouldn't have the money to take care of them properly. I worry that wellbred purebred dogs are going to become out of reach of the average person leaving bybers as the only option if someone is desperate for a certain breed. Ten years is not a great deal of time for some of the prices to have risen like they have. The average pay packet wouldn't have increased by 400%, yet the majority of dog prices have. I wonder how high they can go before some breeds become only for the elite

If they're used to sleeping through the TV on, they possibly thought you were just watching COPS or something!

Probably a silly question but have you tried restarting your computer? Sometimes it can reset itself and fix odd things happening. Does your laptop /computer have a memory card slot? I pull the memory card out of my Canon, put it staight in the laptop and copy my photos that way. I then don't have to worry about software to download the photos. Hopefully you can fix the problem, don't computers drive you crazy sometimes!

Assuming everyone on the forum owns a dog I think it gives an insight into dog ownership. Its interesting that so far females far outweight males as being a member of a dog forum :D Does that mean males aren't as interested in chatting and learning about their dogs? It also shows there is a large percentage of full-time workers so that could show breeders and rescue organisations who don't accept people who work full time, that they're cancelling out a large percentage of the dog loving population. There could be lots of ways of interpreting the info instead of writing it off as non dog related.

What a night! It's a shock when you realise your dogs may not keep your house safe, it's happened to me too. A few years ago someone came through our back door between a sleeping Bullmastiff and ACD and managed to take off with laptops and mobile phones. Dog's didn't make a sound! Im sure the Bullmastiffs snoring covered any sound he was making Hopefully what happened last night isn't a common occurance for you.

I remember when crossbred puppies were mostly free to good homes and now some can be $1000+ which is probably the most massive rise of all! Edited to say how embarrasing...maths is not a strong point obviously!

I enjoy looking at different breeds and contemplating what breed might make a good second dog one day. I've been looking at English Toy Terriers and tonight stumbled across a Burke's Backyard factsheet written in 2002. It said the average price was $350 - $450. The only breeder I've contacted so far sells her puppies desexed for $1600. Based on $400 as an average price 10 years ago they've almost doubled in price every two years since. Yikes... I wonder how much they'll cost in another 10 years? It would be interesting to find out what other breeds have had a big increase in price over the past 10 years. Do the larger price increases tend to be breeds where there are more health tests required now? Are there any breeds where the price has stayed pretty much the same?

Thanks for replying and for your ideas :) Im a bit relieved to hear it's a Frenchie thing Huga, I've been thinking what can I have done so wrong that she still won't go outside of her own accord. Whenever I see her go to the toilet outside (if its not our morning and nightly ritual) I always say 'do wees' and give lots of praise. Its obviously not specific enough for her to realise inside is not a toilet though. Im not sure of the best way to approach full crate training in this regard without stressing her. Because of her timidish nature Im sure she would see it like a punishment if she was put in her crate when it wasn't bed time. As it is, when I say 'bed' she heads in there with head down and a slow walk....like I'm making her walk the plank! If I closed the door on the crate she'd probably be crushed! I can't give her things to keep her amused in there because she only plays with toys and chews things when she's with us. I leave stuffed kongs and toys out for her during the day and they haven't moved when I get home! When we're home she happily runs around with toys and plays by herself. Poor little poppet, I feel sorry for her that she must be so bored during the day. I think I'll try the advice to keep her on a lead and take her out every half an hour and see how she goes... Goodness, I think I've given her life story now Edited to say sorry Meh I missed your reply while typing this. Thank you for the advice I'll take that on board too. :)

I have a nearly 13 month old French Bulldog, Maggie, who I need a bit of help with. Maggie joined my partner and I as an 8 month old, mainly outside, ex show dog so I was aware she wasn't toilet trained. She is fantastic and I love her so much, but I'm a bit lost with toilet training her. After 5 months she poos and wees inside all the time. I've only had puppies before and toilet training was a piece of cake! She is outside during the day when we're at work but inside with us every other moment. The door to outside is always open so she can come and go as she pleases. Our bedrooms are carpeted so are off limits as she poo's and wee's in them when given the opportunity. She especially likes going in our bedroom if I forget to close the door. This morning it was open a crack and I just found a lovely soft poo (in two different areas) along with a wee. Lovely..sigh. If I'm in there she stands in the doorway looking in as she knows she can't come in so the poos and wees happen when we're busy doing something and she realises she can get in there. I've never managed to catch her so she's pretty quick about it, the little bugger! We also often find a wee under our dining table (right near the door leading outside) or in our hallway. I'm obviously doing something wrong, or not putting in enough effort somewhere but I don't know where to start with an adult dog. So far every morning (from day one) the first thing I do is let her out of our laundry where she sleeps in her (open) crate and we both go outside and run down our verandah to a grass area and I wait for her to go to the toilet. I generally say 'do wees, do wees' until she goes and lots of praise etc. I do the same at night before we go to bed and beside that she can go outside anytime she wants. That particular routine is down pat and she's quite quick at going. I think one of the problems might be that she is quite a submissive dog and she sticks to me like glue. Where ever I am, she wants to be so maybe she's going inside because she doesn't want to go outside, by herself?? I hardly see her voluntarily go outside unless we're out there and then she'll happily sniff, play, run and go to the toilet etc. I would really love some advice on what I need to do/change/manage to help her learn to go outside. We have to get the carpet's cleaned soon because of all the messes I've cleaned up but it's not much use if she keeps going on them

I don't live near Durack but googled 'pet friendly accomodation durack'. First response is an old DOL thread! Durack accomodation Can you call the show organisers? It's probably a common question and they may have a list of local places. Google did pull up a lot of responses so could be worth taking a look.

They also haven't stated what type of Vet visits were had by the purebred dog owners and if all those visits were claimable, ie accident or emergencies which could be misleading. If more people with purebred dogs have appropriate checkups, get their dogs desexed and vaccinate when its due that's going to obviously mean they'll be spending more at vets. Im reading into it that the inferance is the vists are because of poor health but that might not be the case at all!

The Norwich Terrier one is very cute and funny. Wish my favorite breeds were on there!

She's so gorgeous! I can see she takes her role as super model very seriously too :D

Wow 11 colours! The silver/grey is quite eye catching. I wonder how many of these colours are showable in countries other than Australia?

What a great positive story! Your puppy is absolutely gorgeous!!

Good on you for being proactive and providing constructive feedback to the surgery. Can I suggest you do provide your name though, as they may very well want to reply and thank you for letting them know! It sounds like they've already spoken about the 'shy' puppy so will probably know its you anyway. If you keep your letter matter of fact and give examples of what you thought they could have done better, and a compliment if they do something well, there should be no reason they would ever treat you differently. Some people give feedback by walking, so they're lucky you're going to the trouble of letting them know you weren't happy with their service. I work with someone who once had an argument with a Vet's practice manager over a bill (the Vet told her one amount but she was charged $200 more after the work was done). She paid in shock but after ringing to let them know she wasn't happy she got a refund and an apology from the Vet. She told me she doesn't care if they don't like her, she likes the Vet and she'll be returning anwyay! :D Good luck with your puppy, its scary when a person attending lessons knows more than the instructor! Its a shame because those lessons could be setting a new puppy owner up for future success with their dog.

OMG how adorable! Thats just the best photo!

Wouldn't it depend on what the dog does whilst at the show though? Going from crate to ring and back again might not necessarily be great socialisation. I imagine the travelling, sounds and being exposed to different dogs (even if from a distance) would still be of some benefit though.

Really lovely photos which show your gorgeous puppies off so well! Its nice to see them up close. Charm looks like she had a ball doing whatever it was she was doing to get so muddy :D

Here's a Kikopup youtube clip on "No pulling" which might also offer something for you. Good luck

Hi Sky, may I suggest you also ask this question in the French Bulldog thread? Its quite active so will have more people looking at it. Here's a link for you: French Bulldog Thread Im not experienced enough to give you a decent answer but I agree you definitely want to find the right breeder to at least improve your chance of a healthy long lived Frenchie. The way your dog is raised, diet / environment etc would also contribute to the age of the dog. One of the questions I asked the amazing breeder I ended up getting Maggie from was the longevity of her dogs. She has multiple generations still going strong which is fantastic. They are actually pretty active dogs and if you keep them fit I don't think you'd have an issue going on long walks and short jogs. I don't know about jogging continually with them if there's a chance they could get too hot because being a brachycephalic breed they aren't going to have the ease of breathing a longer snouted breed might. Im pretty sure there was an endurance event last year won by a Frenchie and owner though! Im not the best person to give advice on toilet training either because I do have issues with Maggie. At least once a week I'll find a wee in the house. Normally its in the hallway but sometimes she'll venture into my bedroom (where she knows she's not allowed to go) and she'll wee there too. Every now and then she'll poo as well as if to say 'take that!'. Maggie is on her own here while we work and seems to cope fine. She sleeps away the day as Im sure most dogs do and is inside with us when we're home although she can go outside if she wishes. She has loads of things to chew and play with during the day but touches none of them. They're left in exactly the same postion when I get home as they were in the morning (unless of course she's just really neat lol). I feel sorry for her because she must be bored but I don't know how else to encourage her to play and chew them. Im sure Frenchie owners in the other thread would love to help you, and Im sure you wouldn't be sorry getting a Frenchie. They are awesome!!

OT sorry but I find the dilutes on that site very pretty! Hopefully not a stupid question but are they allowed in the show ring?

This is what is in the link. It wasn't through people aggression but through breaking up a dog fight.... A DOG which bit off a woman’s thumb is also believed to have attacked her son and they are both being treated in the same Melbourne hospital. The South Albury woman, 64, was flown by air ambulance to St Vincent’s Hospital yesterday morning after having her thumb severed by Axl, a Neapolitan mastiff, on Thursday night. Her son, 37, had already been admitted to the same hospital after having been bitten on the hand and needing plastic surgery. The mother was undergoing an operation in St Vincent’s last night. Axl’s fate remains unclear with Albury Council ranger Darren McFarlane saying it would be up to the owner, who is the son’s girlfriend, to decide. Mr McFarlane, speaking alongside Axl at the Albury pound yesterday, said the dog was “a victim of circumstance”. Despite encouragement, Axl did not move from the bed in his cage, and when put on a leash and brought outside the cage, did not respond when other dogs barked at him or when a camera flash went off in his face. Mr McFarlane believed the dog had “no aggressive motives in it”. It is believed that the mother had intervened in a fight between Axl and another dog, also a male, which was not desexed. Mr McFarlane said if people wanted to separate fighting dogs they should use a bucket of water, a hose, or another implement which ensured distance, and if grabbing a fighting dog they should do so from behind, never by the neck. “I’ve been doing this for 17 years and I know an aggressive dog and he certainly is not, he just reverted back to animal pack nature,” he said. “He has shown no aggression at all towards us last night or today.” Although a neighbour of the mother and son said he had contacted the council the day after the first dog attack, Mr McFarlane said there was no record of any call. He said the owners could have taken the dog to the pound or vet to have it put down after the first attack. “It’s not a council issue because the dog hasn’t attacked a third party.”