LisaCC

Summerset Park is behind me, its quite large. Across and down the road a bit from the Robin Hood pub. Yea thats my lab boy in my profile. He might not look like it with his skinny head but that was from an illness.

Me too Tara8430, Even on lead if Im not looking at my boy and he notices something icky like a dead bird, he will gobble it up before I even notice.

Good idea.

Baits someone has placed. Council have not placed them, council are trying to find them.

I just ran into a lady from the council in the park behind my house. She was out looking for baits and told me that the council has been informed of baits throughout parks all over Orange NSW. Apparently in the last few days 3 dogs have taken the baits, and one of these was on Wirraburra Walk, the leash free area behind Duntryleague golf club. She said they will soon put out an official warning telling people to not let your dogs off lead ANYWHERE. The baits the council have so far found are meat stuffed with rat poison. There are horrible people in the world, lets hope no other dogs are killed or sickened by the baits.

That would be great for people who are thinking about getting a bull breed for the first time too :) I have always had this dream (that will never happen) that if anyone wants to own any dog (or cat or baby etc etc) they would have to go to a workshop like this one! Kinda like how you have to have licences for reptiles or some birds. A girl can dream.

My boy has done the opposite of this. He got into a routine of always turning left out of the gate. Tried going right, dug his heels in and wouldn't move, kept taking him in a big circle to turn and slowly made it smaller everyday till he went the right direction. Maybe your boy decided he didn't want to follow routine. Perhaps follow his way for a bit, but then instead of turning around, walk around the block back to the normal route. That is if he will let you lead at all.

Yea I heard somewhere that contagious yarning was originally a greeting, apparently you won't yawn back to people if you don't like them I don't know about anyone else but I yawn just reading about yawning! But I do know that yawning lets you intake more oxygen than a normal breath :)

Thank you for this post! I haven't heard of it before, but it makes sense, I get chronic throat and chest infections and even normal honey helps relieve the coughs. My partners ACD girl has picked up kennel cough so I will be passing this info on

Hi Impatiens, Sorry about the late reply. I'm actually at my mums house now so I might go out tomorrow and grab a photo of the banksia rose, it wont be a great photo though as I only have my iPhone on me! Im getting an Australian Shepherd pup well hoping to, mating is scheduled for just over a week if I remember correctly. Such a long wait!

Thanks for the tips, I'll grab those clean run books next pay! I tried looking for the Michael Ellis range but could only find videos, any idea where to get them from? I might go look in a book store within the hour. Thats good to know about the crate training, everything I've read seems to say that the pup needs to be in it at all unsupervised times for toilet training But I have heard good things about 'Crate Games' I'll look into that as well. And that makes me feel better that you have them for a pup you don't even have! Maybe I'm not too early after all!

I've got a long wait for my Aussie pup, and thinking I'll spend the next months reading up. I hope to get into Obedience and Agility, I have done obedience before without trialing (a good 8 years ago when we HAD to use check chains ) but never agility. Is there any books you guys recommend for putting down a good foundation. I would like to get the pup started with clicker training as I have used clicker training on zoo animals and I am always amazed that it can work on animals from tigers to wallabies! It must work wonders on dogs! Also am I guessing correctly that pup will need to be crate trained in order to compete as an adult? Is it possible to crate train while having the dog outside while you are not at home? I would not feel comfortable having a dog crated while at uni/work when I have a very secure yard with plenty of grass and under cover areas with no poisonous plants for pup to get into. I've still got a long wait but I like to be organised :)

I really hope that thunderstorm went around Mildura

Thank god, that actually scared me quite a bit. Sometimes you should remember old cliche sayings 'Don't judge a book by its cover'. However I do agree that 6weeks is too young to be using an electronic collar, but if it's legal in QLD there isn't much you can do except maybe try to talk to the owners and educate them.

Ok this is confusing me. Are people saying its actually LEGAL to steal someone's dog because you subjectively think its being mistreated? We were reported to the RSPCA when my lab was sick and extremely underweight, all sorted out rather quickly when we gave proof of his continuous vet treatments. But his illness can pop up again at anytime. Should I be worried if he gets thin again that someone could come in and legally steal my dog because they might think I'm starving him? I have no problem with people contacting the RSPCA, I would do that myself, but taking the dog yourself, how is that legal???

Silver fox is the very same species as red fox. Not subspecies, but a form. Something like a panther and black panther, same species. I know that, I'm talking about the domestication that has happened with the silver form. It's been a very interesting experiment of you want to look it up. But like with Domestic dogs, I wonder if they will get the subspecies classification at some stage. Not the silver strain, but the domesticated version of the silver strain.

Oh and I did appreciate the first instance as the lady did seem quite genuine and acted politely, I would much prefer a warning then to end up with a pup with a bad temperament. I was more shocked at the attitudes of the two ladies who where laughing and pointing the breeder out in eye of other people.

Thanks for all of your replies. I've been very busy today do I haven't been able to check any earlier. I was luckily enough to have already done my research and was just hoping to meet a few select breeders there to meet in person. And im very happy with the breeder I'm still in contact with. The reason I was asking the secretaries in the first place was to point me in the direction of the right ring. I'm glad to know that it isnt common with the officials. It was quite off putting, more to them than the breeder. Also for the person that mentioned Labs, The lab in my photo is my old boy, but I'm not actually after another lab, going in a different direction :)

Im not in the show ring scene in the slightest (Maybe one day in the far future), but I have recently been to a few shows looking for breeders. At two separate shows I have had women who I think are called the secretaries (The ladies that sell the programs etc) tell me to specifically stay away from certain people in the breed. Everyone was very helpful and pointed me in the right direction. One instance the two ladies seemed to be genuinely worried about the behaviour of the dogs from one breeder. The other instance involved a lady going through the list of breeders and stopping at one, said who they were and then said 'Oh no not her, you know her bitch snapped at my dog once' her and a second lady then laughed quite a bit. The breeder in question was actually near us and was quickly pointed out and I got a 'Stay away from that one'. This actually seemed quite malicious with all the laughing. I was wondering if this was common knowledge that this is happening at shows? I appreciate that people are giving opinions if they are warranted, but I can't help but feel some people may just have grudges. Also I can imagine this being more common within exhibitors if some are upset about losing or something, but I was a little shocked it was coming from the secretaries who seemed like very nice ladies.

Wolves and dogs, different subspecies but definitely the same species. Off topic but I wonder if the domesticated types of Silver Foxes have yet to be classified as a separate subspecies of Fox... Hmm Google Scholar is my friend.

Just saw the ads on tv, 6:30 tonight on Channel Seven Sydney news, they are interviewing the boy who was attacked.

Thank you :)

Thanks everyone, sorry I haven't replied. He is still getting exercise, Small walks down to the swimming hole everyday and a lovely swim. If he still wants to run. a few throws of fetch (until he decides to stop) and maybe even a game of hide and seek :) I've done some research on NZ green mussel extract and that does seem very good. I will also check with the vet for some penetrating horse liniment. I will hopefully be able to source some wool this week to make a bed.

I have ADHD - I save my limited attention span for topics that interest me :laugh: Plus the abstract is meant to tell you the basics anyways, to let you know if you're interested in reading more. I wasn't. So I didn't. Heres a hint: If you don't want to read the whole of a study, look at the last paragraph of the results and always look at the Discussion before you close it! They often have the most interesting parts that aren't in the Abstract.

This is brilliant! You should write it up and get published