LisaCC

To be honest I researched a lot about the pup I'm getting trying to find an estimated price, and the only things I found were American, so not much help here! The internet doesn't always help. I never asked a breeder the cost, but most replied with the cost of the pups anyway, if by phone within 10 minutes and if by email some were in the first reply most were in the second. The breeder I'm going with told me the cost after I had a good chat with her at the show where I met her.

That sounds like a good one Sujo! The one we took Sam too 11 years ago was like that too, when there was play it was short and incorporated. The obedience club doesn't do puppy classes unfortunately so I'm stuck with the crappy vet ones if I want to. They are hoping to do puppies but apparently no-one will rent them a place to be able to do it. So they do beginner obedience from a minimum age of 13 weeks.

I'm jealous of all the DOL people in Victoria who get to go to that awesome Dog resort, Kepala I think? What an awesome place to have doggy play dates!

I agree that some puppy preschools are good and do have their merits. The ones in my town though aren't, I have a friend attending one (which is apparently the "good one" in town too), they did 5minutes of teaching Sit, and then let the puppies free play. I can think of much better ways to socialise my pup. I will be going to beginner obedience instead when it's a little older.

I went searching on the weekend :) But I only have the choice of that one or "Home schooling". It wasn't the greatest but I'm still happy with them, they said they follow Delta training. I've heard good and bad things, but I think I'll do my own training and use the club as well. Decided against all the puppy preschools here though, they are all terrible. I can't see why I would spend $150 for 4 weeks of play time.

Yep, I know plenty of farmers that are fairly rough on their dogs, but if they are sick they will rush them to the vets no questions asked. I would be calling the RSPCA too, surprised the vets didn't actually.

Perse, I'm pretty shocked I managed it :) Checquered I know that feeling, I've killed succulents . Sheena yes I think its a beautiful rose, I love red roses but this is the only one. Two others which have survived and have buds on them should be a peach colour and a white. When I go back home to Mums place next week I'll go searching for some photos she has of one of her standard White Iceberg roses (her garden has a border of them ). Every year or two this one plant decides to grow only one flower bright red! One year it was just one bright red petal on a white flower, another there was a 50% red flower! I've never seen it happen more than once a year, but I think it's pretty cool.

How exciting Dekadent, Got any photos yet? Thats beautiful Tara, either way I think some things are just meant to happen, obviously Abbey was one of them :)

I've got so many photos of Sam, I need to make a photo album. I did put some of my favourites into a nice frame but I haven't been able to put it up yet

Bugger about the rusting, I live nowhere near the coast so haven't had that problem I'm just frustrated because I I don't have a dog for another 3 months (crossing fingers), Mum threw out our old one years ago, I bet they don't bring them out again for another year or so!! Ah first world problems :)

Thank you :) I don't know where my lack of green thumb comes from, my Mother is an amazing gardner. Her gardens are just immaculate!

So I'm really bad at growing plants as in I have killed things like chives and shallots! Over summer my housemate decided to "prune" our standard roses because there was wasps in them (I was away for the week and thank god she didn't get attacked). Even I know this is a bad idea (not just because of the wasps) in the middle of summer, she mauled them! But I came back and decided to see if I could salvage them. I pruned them properly, with the whole leaving the V in the middle etc, and then put some shade cloth up so they wouldn't burn. Two haven't grown back at all I hope that they get better over winter. But the others have grown and look what came out today!! This is the first plant I've helped grow all by myself that didn't die! This may seem like nothing to most people, but this is makes me very happy :D

Just got the Petbarn catalogue, they have Pro Plan 12-15kg dog food on special, and you get a free Pro Plan storage bin as well! I love the Pro Plan bins, made out of metal with nice sturdy clips, they always run out before I get them though! For Dalmatian lovers they have a big Dally on them :) They have the same deal with Science Diet too, but its just one of their Petbarn plastic bins but I'm not sure how good they are :) For cat lovers they also have the Pro Plan deal going for 3kg bags of cat food (still with a storage bin)

Thanks Teekay, I can't wait till I can look at photos or anything that reminds me of him and smile instead of cry.

I hope your Sammy is ok. Just as T said, labradors have stomachs of steel! My Sam had x-rays as a pup because he swallowed my sisters keys.. luckily they passed but you should of seen the other things they found in there!! Best of luck to you and Sammy

Going to suggest the same thing! Some dogs LOVE carrots :)

this prompted me to have a search of CC's threads, and I looked at about 3 or 4 of them , and I'm really surprised she thinks she hasn't got any useful info from here. And indeed I saw you respectfully responded in all of them SG :) I thought the same thing Raineth. I particularly thought the grooming thread was pretty useful, for me too :)

Dotdashdot, thats lovely :)

"I want a labrador because they always seem so calm and relaxed"

I have a book somewhere with little stories about dogs on every page, most a quite funny. This reminds me of one. It was about a man that bought a "Rare mountain dog" from some country, and when he went home and took it to the vets he was told it was a bear cub . Not sure if it's true or just an urban legend but I've heard it outside of this book too.

Thanks everyone , Raineth she will get that tummy scratch, and lots of snuggles to go with it!

Yea I saw that, but it also says GIANT RAT in the address. If they think ferret = Giant rat, doubt they know they are actually Mustelids.

I'm just honestly interested in how this trainer is going to train this, seems to be going completely against natural instinct. Goodluck to you if it works though.

Jules I think you are spot on, if the other pups had survived I think it would of been too soon, but this puts an extra two months on top of that wait. Not a long time to wait for the pup after this long, but a good amount of time to have with myself to think about Sam. As Tikira said, Sam is probably up there picking out the right pup for me, and strange enough the matings took place the following days after I lost him, I wonder if reincarnation happens in dogs .