Her Majesty Dogmad

There's also a 12 year old female Foxy that I think was surrendered, it's heartbreaking ...

Over the years I housesat quite a few houses and never charged anything, walked the dogs/fed the cats and I was lucky to get a box of chocolates, I did it to help a friend and because I loved caring for animals!

I haven't had one for a couple of years but it was $60 per day, maximum of 5 dogs and no walking etc. I was mortified to come home and find that the housesitter hadn't picked up any poo for a week ... I could cope with the no walking policy but no poop scooping was a bit much. I supplied all their food too by the way.

Less of a risk with a young and fit dog, really far better than bringing more puppies into the world. If she needs a Caesar then that will be more risk and very costly to you in vet bills. I've had a few emergency desexings of older dogs (think 8+ yrs, including a 12 and 14 yr old) and they've all been OK.

Common in rescue when we are taking older female dogs (who have never been desexed and sometimes they've obviously had litters, sometimes they haven't - according to the vet). I've had 2 this year already.

There's risk in everything - keeping your dogs undesexed is a risk of an "oops" litter which is what has happened here. Not trying to end the pregnancy but allowing it to go on also poses a risk to the dog's health. If it had been me, I would have taken the injection to give an early chance of stopping the pregnancy and if that hadn't worked, I'd have aborted the puppies early on - as a rescuer, this is my preferred option with rescued dogs however sometimes it is just too late. It's too late now so read up on the internet how to manage puppies -it's a lot of hard work and you need to monitor the mother very carefully as well as the puppies, there'll be vet costs and so on to meet. Once the puppies are old enough, please get them desexed before rehoming them so this situation can't be repeated. Rehoming them will also be challenging - finding owners who are responsible and committed. Staffords and crosses thereof are massively over-represented in the pounds so now that you've bred them, I believe your responsibility extends to the point where you might need to take puppy(ies) back in a few months or at some point in the future.

Melzawelza, you and I won't agree on this or pretty much any other subject. "Love" is not enough to make a good dog owner and comes in all different forms, it can prove totally inadequate when caring for another being. Who said I was advocating punishment for people? More education and resources would be brilliant and no petshops and puppy farms, no oops litters, more people going to registered breeders that really know their breed and can make a match between individual puppies and owners would also be better than just picking dogs on their looks and ending up with an unsuitable match. So glad you have found some "progressive" rescuers to work with, I'm sure you'll get it all sorted out at some point.

People need to be more knowledgeable about what it takes to be a good dog owner, far too many a clueless owner out there, very clueless and very irresponsible. Rescuers see the very worst - en masse - on a constant basis, I really think that would change anyone's viewpoint on this area.

I might do my own version, my bed usually looks a bit like the first pic minus the supermodel ....

Are we talking about Pound Rounds here? That is how they operate but I don't know of any other groups doing that, highly risky and has ended in many problems for people and their pets.

Well with all I see as a rescuer, I wish Australia would make it a lot harder for people to own pets. Many people leave their dogs with mouthfuls of bad teeth and yet complain about their breath. Goodness knows a trip to the vet for a check might explain it but they often don't want to spend any money on their "beloved Jimmy" and explain it away due to age etc. People get breeds of dogs because they like the look of them - the recent calls I had for the Toy Poodle I rescued were a major eye opener. Clueless people - either wanted the TP because they thought it was cute or they wanted something that didn't shed. I got her in a horrific state and was not going to ever let that happen to her again. More stringent ownership requirements might also prevent the sort of calls rescue gets such as yesterday's from an 84 yr old with no one to help her should anything go wrong - bought a petshop puppy 2 months ago and can't cope - now that's a surprise. Dog had to go right away ....

I decline politely and say that I run my own dog rescue and that's where all my money goes. Some people collecting think the RSPCA IS the only valid animal rescue and it isn't - I don't say that however.

My apologies, I thought that the LDH was the LDH wherever it was. It's a shame to lose anyone doing a good job for the animals in need.

They sure do ...Jess had an incredibly strong bond with my mum, she was a velcro dog with my mum from day 1 (Jessie was getting sent to Australian Cattle Dog Rescue and was in a boarding kennel when we met her and adopted her). She was standing on my legs during the drive from Canberra from Sydney and at one point I swapped seats in the car with my mum. Jessie stood on my mum's legs and was glued to her for the next 8.5 years. Last year my mum was very sick and went through cancer treatment with long stays in hospital. When my mum was home, Jessie was incredibly protective of her. If any of us walked into my mum's bedroom, Jessie watched us like hawks and even growled softly at us sometimes! She didn't want to leave my mum's side, even to the point of her just about wetting herself sometimes! Jess was a real character, pretty eccentric and totally different to my other dog. She was such a vocal and noisy dog, so even with 2 dogs still here, the house is eerily quiet now. I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your girl . If you don't mind me asking, what kind of symptoms did you see in her before you found out she was sick? Jessie was sick a few months ago, but the vet never knew why. Although I'm no expert, it wouldn't surprise me if that was when Jess's problem started. It was a while ago now (2010) but I think she had some minor stomach upsets and times where she wasn't interested in eating different things (which she hadn't been like previously). She seemed less tolerant of the other dogs and started to struggle with walking, seeming tired. She seemed to be tripping up on her front leg sometimes, some of these things you can put down to old age but she wasn't that old (I rescued her from the pound and she was already chipped). I had her 2.5 years which made her around 11 or so. In the last 2 weeks of her life, she began vomiting food regularly, it was very digested and would happen in the middle of the night. I was in and out of the vet regularly for check ups etc, she'd had a total collapse when I'd only had her for a short while so I was always fearful that it was going to happen again and there was never a diagnosis of what caused it. She remained interested in playing ball which was her obsession, until the last day and I knew it was time. I miss her very much still, she was a wonderful dog in so many ways.

I just followed the link and looked through the page - I didn't realise the Lost Dogs Home had pulled out of there and it is now run by the council - letter states that rehoming rates have improved since the LDH left, no surprises there ... It might mean that they will work with rescue now, the new manager had previously been at the Queanbeyan Pound too.

Sadly there are definitely cruel vets around - people find it very hard to believe but not all vets become vets because they love animals ...

Absolutely vile, he should be struck off and stuck in jail and used for medical experiments.

Council CAN but Gosford council WON'T, they are beyond pathetic The GM of GCC didn't even have the decency to reply to my email personally. did you call the DPI yet?

I know it is mostly nature. If it was true that temperament was mainly linked to "nurture" then my house would have been full of nasty/savage/threatening dogs for the last 10 years or so. I've had so many cruelty cases that it defies belief. Some of these dogs have endured long lives of cruelty and yet, I've only been bitten by a couple of foster dogs and one was definitely due to a neurological issue.

Have you tried Googling Boxer Rescue in QLD or finding a Boxer club?

There wouldn't be too many breeders of Pharoah Hounds, maybe do a Google search for one as they may have waiting lists.

I didn't get a reply from the Club but maybe they went and got him? He has not appeared on the list today.

That is correct - I still have the vile neighbour next door who poisoned my dog - he lived to tell the tale but the immediate vet bills amounted to over $3000 (in 2001) and his health was forever ruined. To my horror, whenever I told someone about it most people said "was your dog barking too much?" He wasn't - he'd been debarked before I ever found him in a shelter. I also do not wish to endure what a friend has just been through for 6 months of her life following a complaint about her dogs barking, by a neighbour to the local council. It nearly gave her a nervous breakdown and her life continues to be extremely difficult, trying to remain a dog owner. My dogs are just about the sweetest most well adjusted dogs you could find - one has been here for over 11 years, another over 5 years. Some are fosters from very cruel situations that need lots of tlc and help to move forward. I have a long list of what I consider cruel, including but not limited to: not grooming your dog for years on end so that it can't see or move it's limbs and is in considerable pain and distress, not feeding your dog, leaving ear/eye/skin infections to fester, not providing flea protection, beating your dog, chaining it up, never walking it and many other things all of which I've witnessed regularly as a dog rescuer. Whilst I'd prefer not to use this method to deter my dogs from barking, until my neighbour does something very simple to prevent their dog from getting to the fence (it cannot be done on my side), there will be barking and I won't allow it to go on unabated on my side as I consider it seriously puts us all at risk.

Not at all, I was thanking you for the support! I hadn't understood the post properly and suggested something that wasn't practical under the circumstances. :)

Thanks Kelpiecuddles, I shouldn't have bothered replying