Gertrude139

I am a domino admirer, feel free to post more of her too :D

I love Stan pics and stories, he is such a character. Thanks for sharing :D

My only comment would be maybe add your name to the contact page, unless there is a reason you deliberately didn't. I personally hate calling or emailing someone when I don't know their name.

Mine are outside during the day, they usually stay on the deck which has a covering over it. We have also let them dig a hole under the deck to sleep in where it's nice and cool. One uses the clam shell type pool the other won't touch it, even if they didn't go in it though I would still have it as an extra water source in case they empty their normal water bowl. The other half of the pool has sand in it, on hot days I wet the sand the whole way through which gives a cool spot to lie on. Also frozen treats are good and sometimes I wet their undersides before I leave for work but both of these's wouldn't really last long.

Definitely breed info. I was looking up a bunch of breeder sites for a fairly rare breed the other day to try and find out how people described the temperament of their breed in their own words rather than just reading the standard. Not one breeder site I found in Aus had a breed info section, I was really dissapointed. A more general comment, keep it clean. Nothing harder to navigate than a messy site with bits of info and links squished in every where.

There is a certain thread on this forum at the moment which has me absolutely obsessed with domino lappies.

When your humans forget to thaw out one of your gourmet raw mixes for dinner so you have to have their steaks for dinner while they have vegemite on toast.

Congrats impatiens! That is a great accomplishment.

I drove 4 hours each way for my pedigree pup, twice. Would have gone twine that distance or more if I needed to. I personally had never owned a dog before, as a family my parents and sister and I had raised 2 guide dog pups but that is all the experience I had with dogs. I filled in a 3 page questionnaire, to me it didn't feel at all like they were suspicious of me, it felt like they wanted to make sure their pups had the best homes possible and to make sure the prospective owners new what they were in for. I think I actually probably gave more info then they were looking for because I was still trying to make sure I would be a good home and if someone more experienced than me thought that it wasn't right for me then I wanted to know. For the amount of info I provided the breeders they must have given me 10x as much back. It isn't like thanks for your life story here you go have a pup, it is a 2 way street. I feel like if you can't be bothered to answer a few questions to get a pup how does anyone know you will be bothered to look after that pup to the best of your ability for its entire life. I had no idea where to look at first. I think I literally googled Siberian Husky and went from there. Club pages and gumtree/trading post were the first results and after reading about possible genetic conditions and temperament issues in dogs not bred properly I decided a pedigree was for me. I was curious as to whether any of the so called 'registered breeders' advertising on gumtree had done any eye and hip testing and sent a few emails asking if "all vet checks done" included them - surprise surprise not one response and most of the gumtree pups were advertised for more than I paid for my pedigree. At the point where I decided I wanted a dog however, I never would have imagined I would get a pedigree. I'm not really sure why but I think it was that sort of unattainable mentality and a false perception that it would be way more expensive. It didn't take much investigation though to realise that it was not the case. I did research on different breeders and had in mind a handful that I really liked, one of them put a puppy listing on DOL and I inquired and it all went well from there. I also have a dog now which I got through rescue, I would not feel comfortable adopting straight from the pound. I don't feel guilted into it at all. I don't have any real reason why I would need a predictable dog, they are pets for me. I don't need to be able to trust them around stock or children as I don't have any so a rescue suits me fine. I have also received just as much support from the rescue as I have from the breeder. And I think there is more distrust then there might have been in the past but sadly I think it has to be that way now. Unfortunately I feel sometimes and application form has to be geared towards being able to weed out the liars who will try to say what they think you want to hear as to deliberately deceive. If you have nothing to hide it shouldn't be a problem.

I think this blog by K9pro gives a good starting point RAW diet in Steve's house I had trouble getting my newest addition to switch to raw but have found the Augustine Approved recipe a winner, and they love the taste of the supplement. Augustine Approved The Augustine one is quite high in veggies which means higher in sugar than I would like so they don't get this many veggie every meal. But it was great for getting my fussy munchkin to eat raw.

I had been following the thread then realised that most (not all) of the posts are as you have said above, which probably aren't helping the OP to feel good about either option. Given that I was in a very similar decision making process at the end of last year and have now ended up with one pedigree and one rescue I thought I would share. I feel for the OP, it is a hard decision and you always want to make the 'right' decision.

Poor little Sid give him a hug for me. Definitely contact the breeder as quickly as you can. Inform them of the situation and ask for their advice and I don't think they will see it as an accusation, just let them know you want the best for him and thought they may have some words of wisdom for you. Ask them for a recommendation about the food and possible supplements as well, especially if they have dealt with this kind of problem before. My last lab pup had a prolapsed rectum at around 12 weeks of age, she had been having loose bowel movements as well and had spent a night on fluids at the vets around 2 weeks earlier when blood was discovered in her stools (wasn't parvo). As she was a guide dog pup we had to do what they recommended, the guide dogs feed only Advance kibble normally but from memory she had a few small meals of plain soft boiled rice then with some BBQ chicken added (meat only no skin) before she went back onto Advance. In her case though the vet opted not to do the surgery so no stitches were put in, so Cid's food requirements might be different as he has had the surgery. They said it can be genetic and if it was genetic in her case it would be likely to keep happening, luckily it was not and she was fine afterwards. Due to the bowel problems she had been having since we had got her (she was already sick when we got her) the vet thought she would probably have problems for a while but they were wrong so hopefully it will be the same for you.

I own a pedigree which I got as a pup and a rescue who is older. Originally I wanted to get two pups at the same time and the breeder said they would not sell me two at the same time and recommended I wait 9 months before introducing another. I decided for my second dog I would get an older one from a rescue which had him in care for a month and had been temp assessed etc. I love both of them equally and haven't had any problems with the one from rescue but; I think for your set of requirements that going with a pedigree is the way to go, and probably a pup since you are waiting to do specific training with it and you may not be able to find a mature dog in your time frame which suits all your requirements. I think you can get a rescue which will be fine with your children, I wouldn't recommend direct from the pound, but through a good rescue organisation you shouldn't have a problems with that. To me the biggest risk you will be taking is the unknown genetic factors which may affect/prevent the sports you want to do. From what you have said though, if it were me I wouldn't be getting a pup now. Seems like you have a great pup which will be coming to you early next year so I would be waiting for that one rather than trying to rush to get one settled in before it arrives. I would wait and see how it goes with the new one then maybe around the end of next year start to think about another one. Who knows by then you might have seen another breed that you would like to have a go at competing with rather than having two of the same breed. Or maybe you will decide that you definitely only want to compete with one and so rescue becomes a more viable option for your situation. And in the interim you could always look at fostering so that you have a dog around now. Whatever you do though you need to feel that it is the right decision. Do not let others pressure you into making the decision they want rather than the one you feel most comfortable with. Good luck!

oooh now I want a panelpop too!

I also found brilliant prints quality was quite good, although not the cheapest.

Wow they are so big already! And all soooo adorable. Loved the mammoth photos as well.

That video is horrible to watch. I thought the video would end in something horrific, so glad it didn't but so sad for that poor dog. Recently at the dog park I go to there was a young boy who arrived with his Grandmother and a lovely elderly bull breed dog. The dog was carrying around a soccer ball in its mouth (as big as it's head) and the child was following it around the park kicking the ball as hard as he could whilst it was in the dogs mouth. Every now and then the boy would miss the ball and end up kicking the dog as hard as he could in the face, all the time thinking this was funny. The poor elderly dog was not fast enough to get away from the boy. It never retaliated just changed direction every time he kicked to try to get away. I told the boy could he please not kick the ball whilst it is in the dogs mouth because he might miss the ball and kick the dog and hurt it and his response which he yelled at the top of his lungs was "it's my dog and I can kick it if I want to" Such a lovely dog, came up to me and leaned in for cuddles while I gave it a back scratch, tail wagging furiously, broke my heart to think of what it must go through at home everyday.

Stunning! Congratulations on your handsome pup Katdogs

Wow that is terrible of the RSPCA to not check the chips, they would have scanned them to get the chip numbers anyway so as if you wouldn't check the details! I'm not an expert in this area at all but there are definitely different costs for adoption vs owner reclaim. And I imagine that even though this isn't your typical owner reclaim scenario, that is how they will be treating it. In saying that the person who surrendered them would have paid a surrender fee wouldn't they (In NSW yes I'm not sure about SA) so a higher fee doesn't make sense since they had not vetwork done. I would be pushing the point that if they had checked the chip to begin with like they are supposed to then they wouldn't be in this situation at all. Can the breeder not go through the regular adoption process if it is cheaper that way? Or get a friend to do it then transfer to their name?

Is there an ombudsman you can contact (or threaten to contact)? I do the same as MUP. I figure if I have a bank account with the same amount in it as what I would pay for pet insurance, then if there are never any illnesses etc the insurance company doesn't have my money and if there are illnesses I have some money saved up. The risk is if something really really bad was to happen there might not be enough saved up. I hate having to fight insurance companies for payouts as well, they just try to make it as difficult as possible so you will give up and not claim IMO. So in one way I have more peace of mind without paying for the insurance because at least I will never be in the position where I have paid heaps of money to be covered and then end up having to pay the bills anyway.

CAMERA!!!

Athena has been playing santa's little helper :)

OH! look what you reminded me of. She found this rabbit head at the park and ate it all. EWWWW But at least you didn't have to touch it! That one looks fairly fresh compared to my possum as well...

I have been silently observing this thread and have ready every post as it has progressed. I know nothing about greys and thought it was not my place to comment. But I have to say please please please read the whole Pound Rounds thread. If you still want to deal with them after that then I'm sorry but that says it all.