pepe001

I used it for both cats ad dogs. Definitely a knockdown with no residual protection. When I found the cat was crawling I did Capstar and then a monthly treatment the next day. I had no bad effects.

I used to take my dog to work when a public servant in Canberra and so did my boss. But only on weekends when no one else was there but us. I also used to take my dogs to work when with CSIRO at night. No-one cared and they were my protection when late at night in a big empty (and sometimes scary) building. Walking to the car in the dark was also horrible without a dog.

I bet if you did a survey of the public then most would agree with the sites definition. The only ones who consider a pitbull to be an APBT are dog fanciers who know what the breed standard is. I even met a girl a few months ago who said she had lost her pitty. I asked what colour so I could keep an eye out. She said óh she is coloured like a blue heeler'. I questioned this and she actually had a blue*rotti but apparently that also constitutes a pitty???? I never saw the dog but she said so many people said it was a pitbull then it must have been.

I have seen horse yearlings raffled at breed shows. But most (maybe even everyone) who buys a ticket actually want the horse. Tickets are sold at the national show.

As already said it is a microbat. They hunt moths and insects at night and catch one approx. ever 7 seconds. When the sun rises they generally roost where ever they are. So it was probably in your house and the sun came up so it went to sleep. Definitely don't let it touch you as they carry bad human diseases. Grab it in a towel and pop it up in a tree (doesn't need to be high) just after dark. It will fly away. I get them here in the stables quite often.

Many reasons. Because it was invented only a couple of years ago and is virtually untested. I don't think a year worth of trials makes a product safe. Also death by Hendra is very very rare. The cost - a few hundred dollars for a vaccine that has been around for a year so no idea how long it lasts. For me the first reason is enough reason.

The first 6 years of my daughters life was made complete by two friends. Both died of old age last year. She couldn't have been raised by a better pair of dogs. Gentle, kind, obedient. If she was outside playing we always knew where as there was always at least one dog standing near her. Maybe I should have planned better and get more appropriate dogs. They were a working line shepherd and a large black mastiff cross. I have her first steps on a photo. Standing nude in the back yard being held up by holding onto a dog toy held in a dogs mouth. A photo of her feeding a GSD a banana little piece by little piece. A calm gentle mastiff or GSD sure as hell beats a silly jumpy lab. Nothing against labs but these so-called-experts pretending to know what people want annoy me - as I'm sure they do many others.

I am looking for a club in south Brisbane that allows people to use a halti in class. I have a friend who wishes to start obedience and had a bad experience with a club (not sure with one)where the instructor made her wear a check chain and aggressively yanked her dog enough to make it cry. She is not interested in returning to that one but would like to still take her dog to general obedience classes just for fun. I helped her with a halti (as it is a big dog who needed more than a flat collar) and she walked it around calmly and without pulling. Dog is quite a soft dog and already knows the general commands. I have done some googling but not started ringing as decided to ask here before I did that. Any suggestions?

I recommend working labs from Firefield in Tassy. The breeder, Barry Baker, is a successful dog trainer.

Everyone always says dog fighting but surely it would be easier to go to Guntree and pick up all the free staff/mastiff/bullarab crosses. If this story is indeed true could it be for (what makes me sick) meat. Not trying to be racist but I'm sure a Chinese/Korean etc man going to Gumtree would get quite a few knockbacks from those giving away dogs so easier to steal. When selling roosters I used to always get Asian men trying to convince me they just love roosters as pets and they do live in Brisbane??? We now kill all our own roosters so we know they are humanely killed.

Lovely story. But I am a bit disappointed to not see those little black/n/whites giving the sheep a run (shelties). I am only 40 minutes away so will be in touch and come down with my border X. She works my goats by herself and occasionally helps me with teh cows but she and I would love to actually know what to do.

We will never change the public - pitbull means any bully breed to everyone except an actual APBT owner/breeder/enthusiast and always has. Maybe these people should only call their dogs APBT and not pitbulls to differentiate. Or the APBT Association change their name if they don't want it used as the cat is already out of the bag. I met a lovely tan bitch once who was called a pitbull but in the next sentence the owner said it was a English Staffy cross Amer Staffy so a pitty. I think we in the dog world need to get over the name and work on fixing the problem of aggressive dogs. I don't know how but no good getting upset over something the won't change. This also happens with any breed of many animals. Any small goat is called a Miniature Goat. Very annoying when looking to buy Graded and Registered animals and every one you see for sale has nothing to do with registered mini goats and no comon ancestors. Any horse with a dishy face is called an arab. A small chook with short legs is a 'pekin'. I have got sale photos of pekins that are so far from what a pekin is it isn't funny - but they are called pekins.

Just to add another thought to stop you feeling guilty about rehoming an not-quite-suitable dog. I had a rescue GSD and he was a good dog but we just didn't bond - I had him over a year and even had him CD titled, competing in agility and did some tracking. One day a friend asked me to help her find an adult GSD - I didn't even think of my boy. That night the light bulb went off in my head. The next day I took him over and offered him to them. They kept him and he became their 'heart' dog and was fabulous for them. All of his niggly annoying habits disappeared. I didn't suit - they did. My boy had the most amazing life after moving into their family.

Just what I needed to prevent the discussions from going any further. Thank you everyone. I made the same points but didn't know the cost aspect. Hopefully that will stop his thoughts from running away even more.

Has anyone taken a dog to NZ and back ( 2 weeks later)? Hubby wants to take his 'potential (ie he hasn't got one yet)' dog on holidays. I have read both NZ and Aus websites re import/export and it seems easy enough. Anyone done it and have bad or good stories to tell, plus cost if excess bagage (labrador - 30kg dog I guess)?

Beagle??

Depending on how 'adventurous' you like your holiday this place may suit. http://imbilkayakandbike.com./htm/bush_cabin.htm You would need to ring the owner and discuss if suitable for your dogs and yourself. About 2hrs north of Brisbane.

I have a horse electric fence (mains powered - not solar) around my yard and paddock to protect goats from wild dogs and keep goats in. It is backed up by a dog fence. Occasnally, one of the dogs touch it, yelp and don't go near it again for a while. When you say hurt - it is not like a kick or a cut - there is no residual pain. It is shock because it comes from no-where and is not expected. I have touched them many times testing them - and this is high powered cow fences. I would buy a solar or battery one (if mains no good)and run a wire around the base of the fence(about nose height). What is more important his life or a milli second zap?You will need an earth for it to work - some people forget this.

Don't get me wrong I also don't take unnecessary kiling of horses lightly. Hence while I have 4 ornaments walking around my paddocks and care for a dozen ex-racers with a lovely owner who says they worked for her so have a good home for life. But I do disagree with some things said here re killing racehorses for meat. I think a vaste majority would take a killing box more easily and with less stress than any cow or steer. Theer are animals that have spent their lives living in boxes, transported in tight horse floats, have lots of noise and husle and busle going on around. The doggers I have seen (2) lead the horse in an open metal box, stand in front and pull a trigger, then drag the body into the cuttng floor. I don't think they are stunned in Oz (but I may be wrong). The thing I do disagrre with is the sometimes long transport they go through. This should be more tightly regulated. I have been to a few dogger sales and it is right about not just racers. All kinds and sizes are there. Some very nice horses (that are often picked up cheap, retrained and sold on) but some really should be destroyed. Every animal breeder must cull to keep the standard. It just happens that racehorses have a very high standard so culling is a very high proportion, and added to that the money involved makes it worse. Chook breeders cull anything that is not right. I have done that although only for health reasons the others I give away or sell, many dog breeders cull those not up to scratch. I hope in this case cull means sell-desexed but lets get serious for some it isn't. I think many racehorse breeders also hope to rehome their failures but there are just too many. So that is the real problem - too many horses and not enough suitable homes. Yep, the story about Deposer made me cry as well. Very very sad he went that way. I have too spent more than one occasion standing in a yard tears running out watching horses loading up to the doggers truck. Once was three mares and the dogger gave the foals to a lady who asked to have them after the dogger bought them. He walked in and lead the mares onto the truck while the foals screamed for their mums in the yard and mums neighed for their babies. So often I wish I could go and buy the healthy ones but unfortunately I am not in a position to do that. But many people do.

Deposer, the race horse mentioned in the article apparently wasn't sold to the meat-buyer by the racing owners. He raced in Hong Kong and was sent back after he retired to be rehomed. 6 mths later he was seen and photographed at the dogger sale. The owners went to great expense to bring him home and it just unfortunate the new owners chose to dog him, or maybe he was unable to be rehomed due to temperament issues, or maybe he broke down. Only the people who sent him there to die know that. But if the racing owner wanted to dog him it would have been done in Hong Kong, not here. As a horse owner I don't see a problem with using the meat for whatever as long as the animal is killed humanely.

I believe pepper spray is illegal in Aus and actually not available.

I would put 'possible Smithfield Blue Cattle Dog cross' and then a description. Yes there are Catahoula Dogs in Aus. Look at RSPCA Noosa for 3 youngsters. There was some imported a few years ago in Central Qld for pig dogs. I have seen quite a few around. Some look crossed with danes and some have the wolfhound type look about them. But he doesn't look like he has that in him to me.

I recently (just before the flood) had a nasty bushfire scare. Kids lit a fire a hundred or so metres away. I was given only 5 minutes by my husband to pack up the house while he went off to fight to fire. In that time I packed 3 goats, 40 pekin chooks and chickens, a dog and a cat ready to go into the car. Plus a daughter. I decided to leave 3 older goats and the 20 or so laying hens. I felt terrible making this decision but they just wouldn't fit and I couldn't catch the chooks anyway. I ran around the house and took our computers, accounts etc file, box of grannys stuff and a box of toys that daughter packed. Nothing else was important. Luckily the wind changed and the fire didn't reach us. But what I did work out - where the hell are leads when you want them? I usually have lots of leads - they are everywhere. Nope could only find one so had to drag goats along with bailing twine that cut my fingers. We also are in the process of scanning all photos and storing elsewhere. Ditto with insurance etc file. And having a box of leads and other 'need now' stuff stored somewhere safe. As for the original question. I have a daughter so she takes priority no matter what. But the dog is usually close to her anyway so easy to grab. With no notice, the goats would stay as they are too difficult to get out quickly and chooks also would die. I would leave all horses if unable to evacuate as one doesn't float and I wouldn't leave her alone. This would only be fire as they are in a flood-proof paddock and probably good with fire as it is eaten out. Dog and cat would come with us. I don't believe my husband would leave the dog and would carry her anywhere and probably take anyone out that told him to leave her.

When I worked at a grooming salon the groomers did it as part of the wash/groom.

Everything in your post screams out to me MINI POODLE. Nice size with kids, look cool when well groomed, fast enough for agilty and smart enough for obedience and agility, if unable to walk a run around the back yard with kids will keep him entertained.