Brookestar

Victorian legislation changed about 2 years ago and only since then have shelters that are associated with pounds been allowed to have dogs in foster care. Council pounds are required to operate a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week service, and many of these shelters do not do that. One also has to question at what cost some of these animals are kept alive. I know of a 15 year old dog, with crippling arthritis and other chronic health issues, that has been kept alive by GAWS in Geelong. It was not placed in foster care and was dying a slow and painful death. I know people who went in, adopted it and then took it to a private vet to have it euthanised. To them it was the kindest thing to do. GAWS was not until the laws changed able to have foster care. The new management came in, AFTER the change of legislation. SAVE a dog has different aspects to it. The pound is not no kill and never has been. The shelter is no kill. They choose which dogs from the pound enter the shelter. I would agree that some shelters are doing a much better job than others. One also has to consider that before the change in legislation in Victoria, ALL pounds were only allowed to keep dogs or cats for up to 30 days and after that they were required to euthanise them. If they didn't the faciilty would face million dollar fines and forced closure. This law was enforced by the state government. Different states have different laws in place as to how long animals are required to be kept for, if they are stray. Some are only a matter of days, not allowing the dogs to even settle in the environment. Victoria is 8 days, NSW is 14 days if the dog is microchipped. No one can rely on ringing a shelter to see if they have the dog. The way one person describes a dog will not be the way another one does. EVERY single shelter advises you to come in and check and the Lost Dogs Home website and staff will also say the same thing. They can give you basic information over the phone, but it is up to you to check it out. I remember well doing an agility class with my dog at the LDH one night about 5 years ago, and a desperate owner sitting in the car out the front, waiting for it to open in the morning. She was advised to go home and to come back at opening time, but from what I heard they did not leave the whole night and to be honest I think I would be doing the same thing. And of course as others have said, one has to consider why the dogs end up in shelters in the first place. Microchipping is compulsory in Victoria, along with NSW and QLD. To my knowledge it is still not the case in other states. That is the best way of making sure the dog is found, although my dog also has on a collar with up to date contact information. I doubt that she would ever stray and I ensure that it would not be possible, but it is not a chance I would be willing to take. As others have said, ALL costs associated with getting an animal out of a pound are government legislated ones. If you are not happy with them, talk to the government.

double post, wont let me delete, sorry!

Most dogs will sleep during the flight and there would only be a maximum of 3 animals anyway. If the dog is comfortable with the crate there would not be any problems. They would need a purpose built one, usually wooden is required, pet transport companies can do that for you. Just get the dog used to that crate and they will be fine. There are special liners for crates you can buy that will absorb and liquid accidents, and leave it totally dry and so the dog will remain comfortable. If the dog is fasted they are not likely to soil the crate. There are special non spill water containers you can buy which will ensure water stays available at all times. You can also buy water bottles, much like they use for rabbits or other small animals, that they can suck water out of. If you put vegemite or something on the end of it, they will suck it off and discover water as well!! Some states in Australia will allow small animals to travel in crates on public transport, that can help to get them used to differnet noises, etc if that is a concern. Taking them in other cars, not just one car in the crate can help. Driving through car washes, while the dog is in the crate will also get them used to loud noises. Dogs do really travel fine. Just do not sedate them under any circumstances, they are not able to keep themselves warm and can struggle to regulate breathing. No dog should ever be sedated without someone watching them at all times. If you have both a rabies vaccination and titre test, and keep them up to date for the duration of the trip, you would only need to do the other tests in the 30 days prior to coming back to Australia. Hence it is important to keep not just the vacciations for rabies, but also titre testing up to date as that will enable the quickest possible return to Australia should it be neccessary. In the 30 days prior to travel, worming, tick treatments, some other vaccations and blood tests need to be done. They cannot really be done aheand of time unless you know when you are going to travel, But the rabies vaccination and titre test are the key, as they allow you to travel anytime within the next 12 months, so just keep them up to date. With careful planning the dog will be fine and will cope perfectly OK. Half the battle will be remaining calm yourself. Within Australia there are some brilliant pet transport companies that can help.

I'm with pet plan. I have a flat $100 excess, but I get 100% of everything back after that. Pet Plan is also the only one that will pay the vet directly and as a pensioner that was essential. I do not need to know that I will get back 80% of costs on a $5,000 bill. I need to know that I will have a set amount to pay, $100 and that they will pay the rest. But that is for me. I have in the last year had for the first time UTI, which I could not claim on as the total cost was $99. But small costs of up to $100 are much more affordable for me, than knowing that if I had a $5,000 bill I would only get $4,000 back. Trying to find that $1,000 would be too much for me. I have claimed 3 times with pet plan. The first time took forever, but it was the vet they were paying and not me. Part of it, was that the vet had not handed over previous records, which they asked for. The second time I had a check in the mail within the week. The third time I claimed 2 weeks ago and have still heard nothing at all. Pet plan does cover things which others will not. They do cover vacine preventable conditions, providing the vacines were up to date. I know a person who got a claim back for kennel cough, as the dog was vacinated. They will cover dental, which others will not, again providing you have had an annual check up. They will cover some prescription foods, etc. Providing you have had the coverage from the start, they do not exclude things once they have been claimed before, which some do. They also have the excess per condition, not per claim. You can choose to pay higher excesses and have lower premiums. As others have said read the polices very very carefully and choose what you want.

I know people who have used the Melbourne one without any issues at all. Of course it is not an ideal environment and visits at all of them are limited. This company does exist that can go in and walk and play with the dogs twice a week, which will naturually help the dogs and give them extra contact with humans one on one. Although it would be at an extra cost. They do offer services to ALL the quarantine stations in Australia, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth (which is small and incredibly hard to get into) http://dogwalks.com.au/ Also important to remember that there are limits to what toys the dogs can have, they have to be safe for them to use alone, nyla bones, kongs, etc are what would come to mind for me, and so making sure the dog is familiar and comfortable with them might help as well. If a dog has never played with those kinds of toys before, they may be less likely to. They all have both night and day runs, the night ones being quite small, the day ones quite large. You can provide your own bed for the dog if you like, you can provide food for the dog, or you can get the used to the food they will be fed before they enter the facility. Sydney will not allow dogs to enter the exercise yards for the first 7 days, Melbourne will allow it if they have been cleared by a vet. That will require someone to take them to the exercise yard, which a person can do during visits, twice per week.

There are good and bad breeders with everything. But any who sell to pet shops are not good. I find it pathetic that any pet shops can be seen to be as suitable. It should be illegal to sell dogs in pet shops. Personally I refuse to go to any pet shop that sells dogs. Dogs do not belong in those tiny cages. And try toilet training a puppy that has been raised to toilet where it sleeps. At an absolute minimum the law should require all dogs sold from pet shops to be desexed first. It is required for those from shelters, who do do some basic checks, ask questions, give advice about different breeds, individual dogs, etc. No such minimum requirements occur in pet shops. I certainly know of a breeder selling to a pet shop, but they do so, as they would never allow anyone to see the parents, or how they are being kept. They just churned them out each and every cycle, but only registered every second one to get some extra money from them. The pet shop was paying big bucks for them and selling them off at an even higher inflated price. The council and RSPCA knew, but the way the dogs were kept was just meeting the minimum standards, so nothing could be done, other than giving advice and recommendations, which they could not care less about. They reported them to the kennel club but nothing was done. I once saw a pet shop sell a group of overseas students a bordie collie puppy. The girls had been quite responsible, saying they needed one that would not need much exercise and would not grow any larger, as they were living in a small flat. They were reassured that this breed is really small, requires very little exercise and would be ideal for a small flat!!!!! The lengths that pet shops will go to are beyond me. And of course they keep backyard breeders in business. They take on dogs are riddled with worms and fleas, and barely alive, give them treatments, feed them up and then sell them at massively inflated prices. The BYB keep doing it, as they can and even if they are not paid, but most are given about $50 per dog, they still have no reason to desex the dogs or keep them apart at certain times, as they have a cheap and free way of getting rid of them and no expenses involved. Shelters would not take so kindly to such actions. I do however know people who have bought dogs from pet shops saying but at least I know they are going to a good home this way, what would happen to them if I didn't take them. And while it may be a valid point it only keeps them in business and that defeats the whole purpose. There are thousands of dogs desperate for new homes in shelters if they want to rescue them.

I don't know where that information is coming from. All the information I have seen and read and heard is that the dog had never been walked and was never outside of its yard. I know people who lived in the street and none of them had EVER seen the dog. Socialisation was non existent. A well socialised dog would not have done what that dog did. The family of the girl that was killed was playing in the front yard. They saw a dog coming out and run, they were scared of dogs, all dogs totally. They run inside and the dog followed. This is normal dog behaviour. The NUMBER ONE rule when being confronted by an aggressive or unknown dog is to stand still and not move. Movement is what makes a dog act unpredictably. In ALL pet Education programs in schools children are taught to stand still and not move. I personally know of children who have responded like that and the parents told them to do the opposite. The children stood like a tree, as they were taught to do, while hte parent freaked at the front door, too scared to move. The dog which was growling went up to the child, sniffed them for a while and moved on. There is NO excuse at all for what this dog did. BUT one wonders if things would be different if there was more education in the community about how to respond appropriately to strange and aggressive dogs. The vast majority of these attacks occur on people from other cultures, who are the least educated in how to interact with dogs. Perhaps if we started having the pet education programs that are a standard part of the preschool and primary school curriculum in ESL (English as a Second Language) classes we could start to get some of this information out to those communities. There are also a number of schools and preschools in the surrounding area where this took place that refuse to have the state government pet education program come into their schools, as they believe it will cause children to not fear dogs and to try and interact with them. The number one predictor of a dog bite is fear. I am not for one second saying this family is to blame. There is never any excuse for a dog bite. Problem is one wonders how different the situation would have been if they had responded as we know we should when confronted with strage dogs. NO dog bites for no reason. They bite when they do not understand anything else that is going on. While I'm not totally in favour of BSL, primarily as I believe it is the training and above all socialisation of the dog, the handler on the other end of the leash (a dog is only as good as the person controlling the dog) and that you cannot reliably determine which dog is a restricted breed. the fact is APBT do have a lock jaw bite and once they take hold they do not let go. This is a biological response for them, bred into them. It is what allows them to be used as fighting dogs, and they do continue to be used in that way. Other breeds have had voilence in them in the past, but they have specifically had it bred out of them. No such evidence exists of any such specialised breeding taking place for ABPT. This is the argument of the RSPCA. German Shepherds are the classic example. The ones that were in existent came from aggressive and questionable stock. That stock was eventually wiped out, not just here, but world wide and new non aggressive stock came in its place. As for wanting to prove a particular dog is non aggressive, something along the lines of the American Temperament Test Society, test would be the way to go, but we have no such tests in place here. In the US it is very true that those APBT that sit the test do incredibly well, but they have lower numbers sitting the test in comparison to other breeds of dogs, and that is as a percentage of the breed in the community. The vast majority of APBT never sit the test. There are a higher percentage of other breeds sitting the test. Hence to say they pass has no impact, as so few sit the test. It would say something about the particular dog, not about the breed in general. One could however say the same in relation to other breeds. As for photo's of the dog, I don't know that any were necessarily taken. The owners consented to the dog being removed and euthanised immediately. They said it was a bit pull cross. They pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and were mortified at what had happened. They also agreed that they had not trained or socialised the dog. No one involved in the case has questioned the dogs breed, ever. The dog was registered with the local council as a labrador and they admitted the dog had no labrador in it and they had deliberately lied when registering the dog.