YippeeGirl

Every photo I take of my girl Nike makes it look as though she is up on some adoption site needing rescue :laugh: This was her wanting to go out with the cats.

It sounds like in this article they were not complying up to not that long ago: At the time of the incident the dog was not being kept in the enclosure he was supposed to be either. I guess I wouldn't want to be the owner of a dog that sounds like it just bites people indiscriminately. A meter man isn't exactly a threat that needs to be neutralised.

Sounds like another case of owners being irresponsible if he has bitten someone else and has been out roaming around. That is certainly not the breed of dog I would want to meet out on a walk.

Dogs are all individuals as well, and they can have a wide spectrum of personalities even within the same breed. I always joke that our youngest was oxygen deprived at birth as she has some very unusual behaviours. Watching her interact with other dogs it's like she cannot quite read their body language properly and this tends to land her in a lot of strife. We thought she was either deaf or blind for a while when she was younger as she seems to have some difficulty in recognising people even if they have met her before. She can also almost completely zone out. Like you will be talking to her and giving her a pat, and suddenly she will just switch off and you might as well go lavish some attention on your pet rock. Whether dogs can be diagnosed with autism in the same sense as a human is, remains to be seen. However, I do think that there are certain dogs that are just wired differently from others.

Poor cat. A lot of breeds of cats are very affectionate and bond very strongly to their 'people'. I often think our oriental and Siamese are more attached to me than any of the dogs. This quote in particular rubbed me the wrong way. A cat is a living creature, not an ornament. Then again cats seem much more unpopular than dogs. I do wonder if it was a beloved family dog being sold with the house whether or not the response would be more outraged. I hope they are just selling a cat that looks similar to Tiffany, but I can't imagine a reputable breeder or rescue would agree to handing over a cat in a situation like this?

It always seems unfair when you see owners who only buy their dogs from BYBs/pet stores, feed crap food, and only take their dogs to the vet to be desexed and euthanised, and they never seem to have any problems with their dogs. However, I do wonder if the less you know, the less you can see when something is wrong. For example, we had no idea what bloat was until our German Shepherd died of it when we were away and my mum took her to the vet to get a necropsy. We also thought our previous dogs had nice coats when they were being fed a lower quality diet. Looking back, they were always dry/coarse feeling and had a lot of dandruff. A lot of people don't seem to know what a healthy dog looks like. We regularly get told our dogs are underweight, but heaven forbid you tell that same person their own dog is terribly overweight. I doubt those labs have lived a happy life. Surviving is not thriving. You should take comfort in the fact you gave your whippet a better life than they have lived.

Our dog Ares is the resident toy destroyer. We will start off with a brand new toy, and suddenly the legs and arms will be gone, the eyes missing, and if left long enough you will come down and find just an eyeless head sitting on the kitchen floor. I can always walk through our backyard and pick out what toy is in what poo :laugh: We now have two toy boxes. The broken toy box where all the half-eaten toys go, and the 'good' toy box where new toys are kept and only let out under direct supervision.

That's terribly sad. We've seen some near misses with cars and small dogs on the main road near our house, but never a fatality. Our next door neighbour had a senior terrier that would escape their yard after their other dog passed. Our street is very quiet but I still went out there whenever I noticed her and put her back in because it would have been awful if she'd been hit. Sadly it seems like those sorts of owners never learn from these sorts of tragedies. I was simply aghast at how many cats my mum had in her youth that met a grisly end. She said it simply never occurred to her family to keep their cats indoors

Sometimes when we run out of mince for the dogs (human grade from Coles as one does), I find myself thawing out all our old steaks we purchased and never ate. I think they ate eye fillet once as I was really getting desperate. Almost all the meat in our weekly shop is for the dogs :laugh: I once had a lady ask me what I did with four packets of turkey mince, and luckily she was a fellow dog lover although a few heads did turn when I said what it was for. I wouldn't say our dogs are spoiled in the sense we dress them up in clothes and carry them around in handbags, but I think they are certainly more spoiled than the average dog I see around our suburb.

We have a pony club that is at the local off-lead park near my house, and we are in the suburbs. I would think if you were going to let your dog off-lead, it should pretty reliably recall even if it sees something strange like a horse. Otherwise what happens if an animal like a kangaroo goes past as a lot of dogs will chase them? It is interesting when I read horse forums, to see how different their opinions are regarding off-lead dogs.

There's a park near us where dogs must supposedly remain fully on leash at all times. Once we were walking our boy, and we came across an owner with an off-lead dog. Turns out he didn't even have a leash with him! He had to hold his dog's collar while we walked past and the whole time his dog was going crazy trying to get to ours. I have seen dogs chasing kangaroos there, which is so frustrating because I don't want some harassed kangaroo attacking me or my dog because it feels we are a threat. I also get really annoyed when people walk their dogs off-lead down our street. We once had an off-lead rottie break the back of our elderly cat down by our side gate (which is quite a way into our front yard). The next morning at the exact same time I saw a man with what I believe was the same dog walking it again off-lead past our driveway. He would have had to have heard me screaming when I saw our cat being attacked I wish I'd had the sense at the time to confront him about it. We have a reactive dog. I don't care how 'friendly' or obedient your dog is, if it's somewhere that dictates a leash must be used... put your dog on a leash!

Our three (German Shepherds) would make have a bark, but I would think they would most likely let someone into the backyard. Two are show dogs so used to being handed over to strangers, and our big male just loves everyone. That makes me feel sick as it was just so brazen. I couldn't imagine what the owner is going through right now. Hopefully the person who has stolen the dog doesn't have anything nasty in mind.

One of our previous dogs got in with our guinea pigs and killed them. I think killing a small prey animal like a guinea pig or rabbit, is not behaviour that is deserving of euthanasia. The only exception being if the dog got onto someone else's property and started attacking and killing their livestock or pets. I would definitely try to discuss alternatives with the owner. Euthanasia may be a knee-jerk response. Some people can get quite emotional, and may see this sort of behaviour as their dog 'murdering' the guinea pig. Therefore, their answer (crazy as it seems to me) is to get the dog put to sleep. I probably would suggest a breed specific rescue, as I imagine if the dog was to kill another guinea pig in the future, the response would be the same as it is now.

The magpies around here absolutely hate me and my dogs. I have this particular magpie that swoops me even outside of breeding season. I find the magpies aim for me rather than the dogs, possibly because I am the tallest target. I was bailed up by a plover in the reserve near our street and my dog was completely oblivious to the fact this bird was trying to get her. In the end I got away just by throwing sticks at it and waving the end of the leash around my head. I think just being vigilant goes a long way towards preventing your dogs from being swooped. If I hear or see a baby magpie and its parents I won't go any closer unless they are magpies that are familiar enough with me that they are not threatened. Other than that, I take a tennis ball on a rope and swing that around and it sort of deters them from getting in close enough to make contact. Then I just eyeball them and walk backwards as fast as I can to get away.

I also use the blue one in the photo for our old cat's medication. The tablets are ridiculously small and most have to be cut in half or quarters. I've had no issues with it, but I was using a knife and scissors before, so anything was an improvement. I just put the tablet as close to the bottom of the v as it will go and then cut. I'm not sure how accurate you have to be with most medications when it comes to cutting them. I would assume there must be a small amount of leeway as it would be difficult to get a perfect 50/50 cut.

We have three German Shepherds and while we don't have any small dogs, we do have four cats. I probably would never be comfortable leaving a German Shepherd alone with a small dog. They are big, and all it would take is one bite or a moment's clumsiness (German Shepherds can play incredibly rough) and a small dog could be hurt. It does depend on the individual dog, but even our placid as anything male does like to chase our two girls down and ram into them with his toys. I don't know if he would adjust his play style all that much if the dogs were smaller as that is just how he is. Also, be careful when using the words 'old style' and 'straight back', I see a lot of BYB who are breeding out of standard (not in a good way), oversized dogs that have crappy temperaments, but who lure a lot of unwary buyers in with those exact words.

Yes it's sad. People always think German Shepherds (the breed I have) should be massive. However, usually I find they are either grossly underestimating their dog's true weight/size, or their dog is overweight. There's no way I'd be alpha rolling a dog I didn't know. Our dogs don't care what I do with them, but there are some dogs I have known that would certainly take exception. When we were at the vet not that long ago a puppy class in, and one owner of a very small dog was talking about how they were biting their puppy to show it who is boss. I almost died laughing on the spot.

Our elderly neighbour kills her dogs with kindness. They have all been fat, poorly socialised, and have all had terrible manners. Her previous dog was an under-socialised, backyard bred, dog aggressive, white boxer. The poor dog was grossly obese but whenever we mentioned it to her, our comments would be swept aside. Of course, she always thinks our dogs were skinny, so whenever she was babysitting our previous dogs, she would overfeed them. One of our dogs died of bloat while she was babysitting it, and after telling us she completely cleared out the fridge because our dog was sad, we do wonder if that had anything to do with it. Her present dog is this mixed small breed who is overweight by at least several kilograms, has a multitude of fear issues that are never addressed, and has some sort of allergy that results in her almost constantly scratching herself raw. Her toilet training seems to have vastly deteriorated, and I think she also has a problem with her back end as she will often yelp if you touch her there. This dog is certainly not mistreated in the sense that she is abused or neglected. But I would say that this is certainly not a very comfortable or fulfilling existence for her. We are very good friends with this neighbour, and we have tried countless times to help with her dogs. We have purchased Applaws dry dog food (she is a pensioner) for her to try as the dog gets fed Beneful and human scraps such as buttered toast. But she always tells us her dog won't touch any 'proper' dog dry, most likely because she still continues to fill her up on scraps. When I was looking after the dog for several days, the dog didn't get any extra food but the dry I put in the bowl. She wouldn't eat it the first night, but it was gone when I came back the next morning, and in the days following that. However, as soon as the neighbour comes back, the dog refuses to eat the food and is instead given human scraps and crap quality dog food. She also starts having accidents in the house again because the neighbour doesn't realise you stay out with the dog until it goes to the toilet. We gave her a list of questions to take to the vet about the dog's allergies. She was given some tablets, and my mum had to give them to the dog because she would snap and bite her owner. In the end, it went nowhere and the poor dog still scratches herself almost non-stop. The son and his family who also live with her, recently picked up a doodle looking thing from somewhere. When it came it was all cut and bleeding from being badly clipped. However, they haven't had it clipped since and every time I go over there I tell them that their dog needs clipping soon as she is going to start getting matted. I doubt they even brush the poor thing. Sadly, some people just seem content to wallow in their ignorance. Nothing you will say is ever going to get through to them. I know I will never change my neighbour's mind. So I just don't talk about the care of her dogs any more. I've never seen anyone being physically violent with their dogs while out. So I'm not sure what I would do or say in that regard. As a petite woman, I would probably be quite scared to confront a strange man or group of people who are abusing their dog in such a manner. Sorry I did not realise my post was so long :laugh:

We have three dogs at the moment, two girls and one neutered boy. Our male gets along with everyone, but our two girls have had a couple of fights in the past, and so we have to keep them separated now. Since we only live in the suburbs on an average sized block, life has definitely gotten harder. On a bigger block I'm sure it would be easier to manage, but it can be frustrating when you let two dogs out together and the remaining one starts howling up a storm inside at the indignity of being left behind. I also imagine that it depends very much on how easy each individual dog is to live with. Our oldest two are great. Unfortunately, our youngest is a terror child. She definitely disturbs the peace a lot around here. She has an unpredictable temperament, and a tendency to resource guard, and it's only that our male is so placid that there aren't more fights. With three dogs and two humans, someone usually does have to get left out or left behind. Personally, with the breed we have, and the kind of owners we are, I preferred it when we just had the two. It was a lot easier and I never felt like I was spreading my attention too thinly amongst them.

Our area has hardly any bins to put dog poo into. We used to have a couple in the reserves/parks on my walking route but for some reason these seem to have been removed. One of our dogs always has to poo right at the start of the walk, so we always turn around and put the poo into our bin before heading off for our 'proper' walk. Otherwise I usually carry the poo in a bag until I can find a council bin. I don't like putting rubbish into other people's bins, especially if they have just been emptied as I don't like dog poo sitting in my own bin for a whole week until it gets collected again. I don't know why council doesn't install more bins. There's so much dog poo when I walk around our streets because a lot of people don't want to pick it up and carry it around for several kilometres until the next bin.

There are definitely responsible small dog owners out there, just as there are irresponsible large dog owners out there (saw a husky roaming the streets the other day with no owner in sight while I was out walking one of mine ). It just seems that there is a difference in attitude in regards to recognising and dealing with things like aggression in smaller dogs, than there is bigger dogs. I shake my head when I see videos on Youtube of small dogs being deliberately fired up and provoked by their owners because getting a dog to snarl and react aggressively somehow becomes funny when the dog is only the size of a cat. I feel for the dogs in these situations as owning a fear aggressive dog who can be quite vocal, I know how difficult it can be to get those sorts of issues under control. However, just because the dog is small and more easily controlled, doesn't mean that these issues should be swept under the rug, and this is something I see a lot with the 'average dog owner' (the kind of dog owner I am talking about doesn't post on DOL). They are dogs, and deserve to be treated like dogs.

I watched this program last night, and based on the owners talking about their dog yapping at other dogs, I suspected that they weren't just attacked randomly while out on a walk. Unfortunately, when they were sitting in the waiting room and the dog was barking at everything in what some dogs would consider quite a confrontational manner, it didn't seem like they had learned much at all. Some dogs just have a very low tolerance for that sort of rude 'in your face' behaviour. Two of our German Shepherds will not put up with rude dogs. They don't physically attack them, but they will snap and growl if boundaries continue to be pushed. It's why I don't take them to dog parks or areas likely to be frequented by people with dogs off leash. Too many dogs out there have bad manners, ignorant owners, and I know with the breed I own, my dogs are going to come off the bad guys regardless of who started things. Even though it may seem like bashing of small dogs, one has to admit that there is a double-standard for dog behaviour. If your big dog even so much as looks at someone you get questions of whether it bites. However, people seem to think it's almost amusing when some small dog is going rabid at the end of its leash. I'm acutely aware of how much damage my three could cause if they attacked a person or dog. Our two bitches have fought in the past and it is terrifying, even though it was more bark than bite. However, this should not mean that bad behaviour from smaller dogs should be tolerated because they are less likely to cause serious injury.

Our two cats are on prozac (I know they are not dogs but their problems were also anxiety related) and it has worked wonders for them. In my experience it has just taken the edge off without making them appear lethargic or 'drugged up'. Anxiety in pets can be so difficult to cope with. Medication definitely has its place in managing it, and can sometimes just give you that little bit of ground you need to turn the problem around. Hopefully, you find this is the case with your lovely girl. Not sure how long it is supposed to take for the prozac to work. I think the vet said it may take a few weeks in our cats before we would see results, but I'm not sure if the same applies to dogs.

I am a German Shepherd owner and I have to say that the current breed survey test (at least the one I have seen here in Melbourne) is laughable. Your dog would have to be practically deranged to fail it (I'm not talking about the conformation aspect although that too makes me roll my eyes) and I really don't see how passing it is any indication your dog deserves to be bred. A dog that is being walked around a suburban street runs into more testing situations than that every day. I have show bred dogs and have been to shows before, and it saddens me to see how a breed that is supposed to be working dog first and foremost, can have individuals out there whose only achievement is that they were born with good conformation (often highly subjective in itself) and can gait around a ring. I always say if every dog in that show ring then had to go and perform in an obedience/agility phase afterwards, many would probably fare quite badly. I love German Shepherds and it does hurt me to see how many people have a bad opinion of them. I agree that just because a dog is 'straight-backed' and 'old-style' (from what I have seen online this often seems to mean oversized and of poor colouring) doesn't mean it deserves to be bred either. Form should always follow function. I believe at some point this was what conformation classes were originally intended for. However, it seems that in many breeds there is now a divide between those dogs that can work and those dogs that can show. Some days I can understand why many of the dog owning public think show people are a breed of their own!