Flippy Dog

I used to check loose dogs tags and call the owners and I have taken dogs to the pound or rspca in the past, then I stopped for two dogs one day with no collars, they gave me signs to say don't approach, I got back in my car (my young kids were inside the car) and left. I think I called the pound to search for them. Those same dogs over 24 hours attacked several people and one ended up shot dead. I have never stopped for a stray since. I wish I could but not after that. I see lots on Facebook which state the microchip is not registered or details not up to date which is sad. Without knowing why a stray is loose its hard not to give owners the benefit of the doubt, once. I also don't understand why lots of people take the stray home and feed it. So many pets are on special diets and a few extra hours are not going to kill the animal, except in an extreme case in which a big feed probably could kill a starving dog huh, no win situation.

I always wonder if a dog has simply managed to get out as it is too easy for people to think their yard is secure and become complacent with checking, or for somebody to think they have latched a gate properly when they haven't. Having said that though, I know a person whose dog was actually stolen by their tenant (dual occupancy block) a few days after she had 'done a runner' which she then sold to somebody she knew in another town. Thankfully social media tracked down the dog and the person who had purchased the dog contacted the real owner and returned the dog without asking about the reward or a refund as they were going to ensure their friend the thief repaid the money to the innocent buyer who didn't think to check the microchip etc. still too many people who don't bother about things like that sadly. At least in this case theft was proven and dog returned safely. Hmmm, also knew a person who told me that before I knew them they got sick of seeing the same stray dog on the street and started caring for it on and off and then decided to keep it and had it desexed too. No, I don't think much of a person who does that even though the dog is safe and spoiled rotten. I had a dog go missing twenty years ago and I still cry for her and want to know what happened to her so taking in a possible stray is also not really okay.

Saw another product at the pet store this week, an electronic tag called Mitey Shield and according to staff its supposed to be good for ticks, even paralysis ticks and fleas. Has anyone tried them or heard good or bad on them. They look expensive but if they beat paralysis ticks... I think I saw a price of $65 for the one for small dogs but can't be sure and don't know how long they work for, vague memory the staffer said four months but less for fleas maybe.

My whippet Obie has a Whippetwear Cocoon bed and he looooves it, took him a few weeks to work out how to use it but a few treats just inside it and he was 'in like flynn' funniest thing is when he's inside and the small white fluffy lays on top of the entrance trapping him hahaha. Definitely a great buy for me as in winter he will even go sleep in his own bed instead of nosing under the blankets of my bed :)

Thanks gillbear, just had a pm this afternoon and looks like I've found a home for it with a rescuer in the ACT afterall and since I now have to travel up again in the new year, she won't miss out :) I just didn't want to waste something so useful and my fostering days are over for a fair while now, I'll track another one down when I am in a position to foster again.

I have an enclosure I used to use when fostering kittens which I would like to donate to an ACT Rescue group. It's sbout 160cm tall so a good size, have only had up to four young kittens in it and once a mum n bubs, when they weren't running round playing in the lounge room :) Has the shelving and ladders and a couple of litter trays, hasn't been used in over two years and never had kittens with diseases/illnesses so no known diseases. My two cats still like to sleep in it on the odd occasion if I leave the door open to it, they are disease free too. Is on castor wheels for easy moving. Does have a little bit of surface rust in places and needs a hose to get the dust off. I can't attach a photo on the iPad as I don't know how to resize on an iPad but happy to email a photo. I am travelling to Canberra tomorrow, Sunday 21st of December and enclosure will be available for collection from Fraser until Tuesday 23rd of December. If anyone wants it please let me know, rescue groups only as I'm donating it not selling it. If no interest in it before I leave the coast tomorrow morning then I will leave it at home. Sorry if I'm not supposed to post this here. Cheers

It might be worth going and asking the aged care facilities what their requirements are for pets as therapy to visit their sites. Where I work it's more a case of well behaved well controlled pets and of course on lead. As far as the human volunteer, lots of paperwork for criminal record checks etc which can take up to a few months from getting it, completing it and then the facility processing it. Our residents are as excited at seeing pets as they are children and the enjoyment they get out of just a quick pat of a dog is worth a million dollars. I'd love to see more people bring their pets in. I have a lovely lady who used to have boxers and my whippet is about the absolute polar opposite face of a boxer but she loves his visits and looks forward to every time I take him in. If you think Ernie would enjoy it then I totally recommend dropping in and finding out what the facility requirements are. I have no issue with training courses and qualifications, but you may find Ernie has to be a certain age to do the test. Last time I looked they had to be two but that was a while ago.

When I moved out of home I spent hours on the phone to breeders and a small fortune on books ordered from America and then finally, I put a deposit on my very first dog, an American Staffordshire Terrier. She was a fantastic first dog for me, she loved people, loved dogs but wasn't real keen on training or showing so she got her Australian title, a Canine Good Companion Certificate and then we dropped out of all that stuff and just enjoyed life until she passed away at nearly twelve. I have had three AmStaffs, a gorgeous rottie, and currently still have a small white fluffy, a sheep dog and the spoiled rotten Obie, whippet of mass destruction, another lunge succumbed today :) I think today's AmStaffs are different to 20 odd years ago and are not perhaps as suitable for first time owners who haven't grown up around dogs. Here's my first AmStaff, Zoe aged three, she's about four weeks pregnant in this pic, I kept one pup, Bindi, she's the second photo and was probably my heart dog. Excuse the quality, photos of old photos.

Hi kc, Don't feel bad, my cousin lives in the same area as you and I and she can handle her dogs feet and play with them and everything, except clip them, he's five now and she takes him to the vet for sedation on a regular basis, takes him home (I think) and trims his nails. I don't think she stays for the vet to do them, just gets the sedation done. Admittedly he does tend to rule the house a bit so I don't know who has trained who but there is no way she can trim his nails and the vets can't do it without sedation either. Good luck, I hope you get a solution, just wanted you to know others do have sedation done. I'm blessed with dogs that accept it, thank goodness!

I can also vouch for the girls at the local pound/RSPCA, and the rangers here that I know are pretty sensible too. I don't think you would be the first person to adopt a dog you were handing in that wasn't legally yours. Only reason I've seen a dog not placed on hold for a prospective home is when the prospective home was not good enough. It used to be 8 days for unchipped dogs, 14 for chipped. Could you 'plant the seed' of keeping the dog because you're becoming attached to the silly dog and perhaps talk about how friendly it is and how loving and that there's not a mean bone in it's body. Maybe that it would lick somebody to death first so maybe she would be best not to spend anymore money on it since she wants a guard dog after all, and maybe eventually she would sell to you for a minimal amount, and yes, as others have said, definitely have a receipt of sale ready so all she has to do is sign :D

I read the book about these dogs, The Lost Dogs, the beginning was gut wrenching, made me cry but I kept going and the success stories and these wonderful people that worked so hard to save so many dogs and the futures the dogs had was incredible. Thank goodness for these people that got in and helped the dogs. So glad Hector had such a wonderful seven years with kindness and love.

I've got a few of the water feature bowls from nurseries in my yard too. I told the nursery what they were for and they just said make sure I give them a good wash first and pointed me to the sealed bowls. Never had one spill but I've also never had a dog try.

Sorry, I don't know how to link, was reading the local free paper and came across a classified advert promoting a Facebook page called Protect Shoalhaven Dogs and appears to be about petitioning local council to put on more rangers to deal with stray dogs and dog attacks etc and makes reference to ...you guessed it breed not deed. I'm not bringing it to attention to create angst between DOL users, just thought some in this region may be interested to read it. The page appears to have only been created a week or so back as a result of a dog owner having her beagle attacked and hearing other people don't walk their dogs for fear of strays. I'm all for responsible dog ownership and being in control of your dog when outside your own property but I'm not into punishing by breed. Having had my on-lead whippet rushed as a six month old pup at an off leash beach the first time ever I took him near a beach I got a huge fright, thankfully no injuries, no future behaviour changes in Obie, but I am hesitant to walk my dogs because one of my others is frightened of other dogs. I was happy to walk her on lead until a very boisterous friendly big dog broke away from her handler and raced up to Flipp who I jumped in front of like a mad woman worried she would bite the loose dog due to fear while yelling to the other owner that my dog was frightened and her friendly dog might get bitten if she didn't catch it. All good in the end and she was apologetic and understood the reason her friendly dog wasn't okay to rush my scared dog but end result, another dog I dont walk, for others safety. Thankfully I have access to a farm for plenty of ripping and racing in safety. So, back to the newspaper ad, I thought the petition would be interesting to read but seems very light on detail, here's a bit I've managed to copy and paste, stupid iPads :) "Dog attacks can result in tragedy for all people and animals involved. By helping support this petition, the Shoalhaven community can get the local council to commit to further action in controlling the issue of stray dogs. Such action can include more available rangers patrolling the shoalhaven region, stricter laws when dogs considered of a dangerous or restricted breed are involved, ensure all owners are adhering to the council approved policies of pet ownership and off leash prohibited area guides, and making sure all domestic animals are in homes both safe, happy, and secure. Please make the Shoalhaven rural area a safe place for all animals and people. You can also comment and tell of your experiences with stray dogs on our Facebook page: "

I wonder if it's the little female 11 week old JRT pup on their Facebook page which is listed as having been adopted on 9 October? Facebook is Clarence Valley Council Animal Pound, i hope I understood correctly that this is also Grafton, it did link from the Grafton page.

I was starting to think my boy was the only vacuum dog that wasn't slowed down by a slow feeder bowl. Obie is a whippet vacuum too and I took to scattering his food because the slow feeder bowl didn't slow him up at all. I also still feed two of my dogs near each other but only when I am standing in between, Obie learned easily not to go past me to the other bowl. Edited to add there is a dusty slow feeder bowl in my cupboard if you want it.

I always enjoy Ziggy updates through the forum, I suspect from his looks and personality and all you mention that there's a fair amount of Amstaff in him :D he's a gorgeous boy. If I can work out how to do photos from an iPad I'll pop some photos of my old (long ago crossed the bridge) girls and a boy who I still miss and love dearly all these years later. I make up for missing them with Ziggy fixes of course Yes stressmagnet, I am with you about the big oversize beasts that are around these days. I think my last Amstaff, a boy, would have been oversize and not as well proportioned as I feel an Amstaff should be but he was the dearest soul and snuggled up with the cats and the swf. He was a fatty boombah puppy but looked heavy in build as he grew, sadly he died tragically at six months my heart broke that day and that's why I can't think about another Amstaff.

Yeah, if only we had crystal balls and could guarantee what would be produced when we choose the sire and dam :) that would be worth more than winning the lottery!

My favourite girl from years ago was about 17 1/2 inches (44.5cm) so well within the preferred height for a bitch being 17 to 18 inches, and she weighed maybe 23 kilo. She was what we used to consider a good weight for height. Her mum who I also owned was 19 inches and was about 21 kilo, she was the taller lighter built version and while she was ok, I had hoped she would stay within the preferred height and be a little more solidly built, but not be huge like the massive dogs I've seen in the last ten years. While the standard says weight should be in proportion to height, I still don't believe people should be breeding 23 and 25 inch dogs when the preferred height for males is 18 to 19 (46-48 cm) Just because it is only a preferred height doesn't mean a reputable breeder should go for a way oversized dog just because it's in proportion. I remember meeting a breeder whose eight month old male pup was already 34 kilo and I didn't like it at all, it's legs were as solid as I imagine a mastiff pup of the same age would have been. Sorry Taliecat, I don't mean any disrespect to you or your boy, I just wrote how I feel, not about your dog, personally I think we have a standard and should be aiming for it not disregarding it because it says preferred height instead of maximum height. It's also why we have main and limited register, because we breed to improve and we know there will always be pups in a litter that don't have good enough conformation or temperament etc. Whoops, should add my heights may be out because I haven't looked at standards since I was showing 20 years ago that's why I'm still talking inches :)

Persephone, may I ask what you use for bedding instead? Obie and Flipp both shred beds as well as soft toys and a few lounges now, I'd love to use something else for bedding that's soft and snugly for Obie being a whippet. Flipp has more chubby to her so is happy with old blankets on the old lounge. I don't mind picking up disembowelled toys but bedding every day is driving me nuts. I'm the neighbour that has been known to vacuum the backyard to clean up the snowstorms! I just use opshop blankets , both wool and that polar fleece I guess your boy needs something soft for his bony self - what about a trampoline bed with a blanket "nest" ? Thanks Persephone, hmmm, I have to fit it in his crate for when I'm at work but maybe I can pick up some old lightweight doona style blankets at the op shop for him, thanks for the ideas. I may have to simply continue picking up stuffing, we've been using the Costco beds, huge and the last three were only $34 each for a rotti size crate but haven't seen them for a while now at Costco only smaller and dearer.

Persephone, may I ask what you use for bedding instead? Obie and Flipp both shred beds as well as soft toys and a few lounges now, I'd love to use something else for bedding that's soft and snugly for Obie being a whippet. Flipp has more chubby to her so is happy with old blankets on the old lounge. I don't mind picking up disembowelled toys but bedding every day is driving me nuts. I'm the neighbour that has been known to vacuum the backyard to clean up the snowstorms!

Nowra sends their animals out to various vets for treatments and desexing etc unless it's changes in the last twelve months but I'm pretty sure they still send them out. I still regularly see their van doing the vet run of a morning...when I adopted my two kittens they asked me which vet I would prefer to do the desexing and I picked them up direct from the vet, even as a volunteer I was not allowed to take them to they vet for desexing as the rules were you could not have your new pet till it was desexed. Nowra has a treatment room, where they vaccinate and microchip and worse when they have to. But vets never used to visit, call-out fees may have been the reason. Canberra RSPCA has in-house vets and the public can take their pets in for treatments and desexing etc which I think is used to subsidise the animals they have in care and some of the rescue groups used to provide desexing vouchers with adoptive pets to take them there to be desexed. Hopefully now they have to be desexed before the rescue groups send them to their new homes.

Hi Hawkeye, I hoped I read your other post right, I suggested a walk through the dog show so you could show your partner some Collies and maybe even ask some show people about their experiences with the breed and suggests some breeders to research. Can I ask if you went, how did you find it? After reading this thread I thought about my first experiences with shows and realise it can actually be off putting so I hope you had a better experience than I did many years ago. Seeing a DOLer offer to meet you there and introduce you to Collie people sounded like a very warm opportunity so I hope if you got there that it went well. Wasn't there a thread earlier this year on how registered breeders might consider reviewing their marketing and advertising of their dogs to be competitive with BYBers? I'm not wanting to start an argument but I thought maybe this was along similar thoughts, if so many people look for a dog by online searching and they come up with easy access BYB pups, maybe registered reputable breeders could use marketing and websites to reduce the perception that show dogs are a whole different world? I've spoken to breeders who just wanted to tell me how expensive their dogs were to buy or breed so the litters would be soooooo great and how many wins the dogs have had etc but at the end of the day that's not the information I wanted or what I think the regular pet dog owner wants either. I have owned pedigree mains registered dogs and crossbreeds, their first and most important thing was to be loved family pets regardless of where they came from but yes, I did feel it was a scarier and more difficult thing to find a pedigree dog.

As I drove out of Canberra yesterday afternoon I noticed they had a big dog show on at EPIC, I think it's usually a three day show being the long weekend so maybe go to the showgrounds tomorrow and see if there are any being shown and chat to the owners when they are not busy getting ready for the ring. I think the more info you can get from owners the easier it is to find the right breeder, get lots of advice and recommendations from those on here with the breed and if you can, get to the show so you can suss out your chosen breed and others that might catch your eye too. Take your time to get the right up up too, and use your gut instinct, of a breeder doesn't feel right find another. Good luck :)

I think if it attacked another dog or a human I might vote differently. My first dog had an insane prey drive but never towards another dog or humans. Edited to add that I'd definitely be trying to buy the pup from them :)

That would be awesome, I'll get some more information about greys as therapy pets and living in facilities etc and while my boss is showing interest get her more interested and then suggest we have you come visit. I'll be more than happy to sort you out for lunch and a cuppa. That's such a nice offer, my boss loves dogs so she's not against it, just the massive paperwork trails these things create. Me, I just see those resi's smiling and nurturing the dogs. I'll pm you but it won't be for a few weeks unfortunately as I am about to have time off and so is my boss but I will be in touch.