Her Majesty Dogmad

As someone who has owned a house full of rescue dogs for over 12 years and been rescuing myself for 8 years, most of whom were truly wonderful dogs, I still wouldn't recommend that you go straight to the pound as you have children and a list of specific requirements. Go to a rescue who has their dogs in foster care (and not for 5 minutes) and assess them thoroughly with other animals and children. I would recommend that you do not get a dog that is dog aggressive as this often causes issues for people - even if you only want 1 dog. I have been rescuing Italian Greyhounds for 3.5 years now (as well as other dogs) and from a fostering point of view, it is wonderful to know that they all have the same gentle and loving temperament and are not normally a problem with other dogs. There may be an odd exception that I'm yet to come across. I like that predictability of temperament - that's very important to me. In your situation I would definitely consider going to a breeder, depending on what I wanted to do with the dog, because it is preferable to have all the healthchecks and know the temperament under certain circumstances. Sometimes breeders have dogs returned that are just as deserving of a good home!

That's hilarious!! Yay for Bobby finding such a wonderful home! :)

I pay the vet to do any of mine that are nervous ... just couldn't cope if I made a nail bleed.

It may not be the BH causing her to poo more often, it is most likely one or a combinatiion of the ones above I have bolded. My two BC'shave been on BH for 2 years now. They poo twice a day & it is always firm & easy to pick up, but if I give them more than a couple of dried liver treats it gives them "the poos" & I stay away from anything "pork" as this will do the same thing. I agree with this. Recently I started to give on of mine Dentastix before I had her teeth cleaned by the vet and she put on weight quite quickly ... After the dental she couldn't have anything like that of course and I've cut down and within a week she'd lost .2 of a kilo which is significant when you are small! Although some of those items may sound healthy, I think they all contain heaps of fat and additives and that might well be causing the poop. That said, you still want to be able to give hyour dog some treats but just stick to low fat options and natural things.

He seems a bit young for a lypoma or wart. Is he licking at it at all?

Sounds potentially life threatening, you can't guess with this sort of thing and with everything closed on and off over the next week, you are really better to be safe than sorry. Hopefully it is something easy to deal with.

How old is your dog? Could be a few things but some of mine have age warts. Previously I've had dogs with "Lympomas", harmless fatty lumps but every lump should be checked out by the vet. Even harmless lumps can turn cancerous at some point.

Well if anyone is interested in adopting these two little boys, I'm an expert house trainer and am willing to walk someone through the whole process and provide as much help as needed! I'm no Chi expert but they are on the challenging to train list alongside Italian Greyhounds and I have plenty of experience with housetraining them so am sure it can be done. :)

What stupid f-----g morons those parents are. The child is going to grow up with entirely the wrong perception of how to treat animals. From birth, my siblings and I were taught to treat animals with kindness, all animals. If we were bitten or scratched by the cat we got told off because we'd brought it on ourselves - sometimes as children you aren't quite gentle enough - it is the parents' job to make sure you are supervised around animals at all times. My manager bought a Dachsie puppy and her son was 5 at the time. She left them unsupervised but caught her son and his friends throwing the puppy off the deck for a bit of fun. Luckily she stopped it before the puppy was injured or killed but it only takes one throw sometimes ... So many fools around.

Not sure how many people will remember "Ellie" the German Shepherd cross, originally a rescue dog who ended up living on a rope for a year? Towards the end of 2011 I discovered her plight - the original rescue group didn't take her back -and I eventually found her a foster home with a view to adopt through a PAWS enquiry. Her foster carers fell in love with her and kept her. She is very loved and they just sent me this photo with something she got for Christmas - a "mini me" like toy! K9Angel was a wonderful support to me and Ellie and visited her regularly to give her some love and walks until we found somewhere for her to go as I could only make at weekends. Tdierx kindly took her to the vet one day and other members sent her toys and treats, she basically was living a very sad life indeed with little or no attention and had never been walked in the years this family owned her. She was large and strong on the lead but that was no excuse quite honestly. Also remembering the wonderful "Juice" who brought her wonderful Bull terrier "Bon" over for me to introduce to Ellie and see how she was with other dogs! Normally I post little or nothing on the large dogs I assist but Ellie was different and DOL members helped improve her life considerably, until we found her a suitable spot.

A colleague at work for whom I do some work told me he'd bought his "Pekapoo" from his vet. I asked if his vet bred dogs and he said "no, he buys them in" - i said do you knwo where he's buying them in from - puppy farms? I then risked my future relationship with this person by explaining all about puppy farms. There is no way I could keep quiet about it, being a rescuer. I just hope he's educated now and wouldn't repeat the purchase - unlike another manager I work with who just purchased a second petshop puppy, even after my explanation about puppy farms following the first purchase (all done on a whim of course).

No and to my shock/horror, my vet adopted one of my foster dogs to keep his dog company (and knows ALL about rescue and pounds etc) and then promptly purchased a puppy from one of his other customers who was breeding "Schnauzerdors" - they were advertised on the notice board and I saw the owner bringing the pups in. Next thing I know, the vet is walking down the road a few weeks later with one of puppies and I said "is he sick" and he replied "no, no, it's my dog" .....

There is also Beagle Rescue in VIC.

just spoke to a wonderful breeder in VIC, she was aware of one dog in the area needing help but not two so she's getting straight onto someone who can go and see what's happening. The CCR breeders are active in rescuing their breed although it's very rare to find any!

What about breeders in VIC? Aren't they a very rare breed? Usually the breeders have a waiting list of pre-approved people. I'll have a look at the front of DOL.

very sad, poor little girl

It should be part of any Greyhound Rescue to get a green collar as a top priority.

Rescue is very hard at the best of times and you really need to know what you are doing, especially when you have your own animals and then take rescues in. This is particularly true if you pick a breed that is known to have a prey drive. You need someone you trust - if you don't do it yourself - to really test the dog and have facilities to separate them, should any problems arise. My advice would be to call an experienced Greyhound Rescue and discuss with them how they do things, maybe call Janet at Greyhound Rescue in Sydney, I am sure she'd be pleased to help you. I run my own rescue and have worked within rescue groups for many years, when you go it alone it's a huge undertaking and you do need a great deal of experience, a network of support and lots of time and money to make a go of it - and be fair to the dogs you take on, making sound judgements based on knowledge.

Far too young, i've never heard of it in Kelpies before, so many are very long lived. Koko was the most amazing dog, i love the red kelpies and I loved this film ... Gone far too soon. RIP sweet man.

Here's the contact email of the NSW Weimeraner Club Rescue: [email protected] Maybe the Weim rescue in other States might also be a good place to look. Also, have a look at the front of DOL for Weim breeders, one of them might have had a dog returned for some reason.

I've just bought a 15kilo bag of All Natural Dried biscuits online from Priceless Pets. Depending on which one you buy, it now costs $100 or $110. I've never had a dog dislike it and the biscuits are small in size. I guess it's not that cheap but it is really good for dogs with sensitive skins/ear/eye probs and that's why i've just bought it again after a long break.

I have March flies too and they can make a mess of the poor dogs' ears. The best product I've found is "Muscoban" - it comes in a spray bottle and you just spray on the dogs ears or wherever's getting bothered and it's fantastic. I gave some to my neighbour for her Mastiff boy as he's been chewed each summer and really suffered. He was covered in flies when I went over the first time but within seconds of the spray going on they'd disappeared. Saw him again last week and not a fly in sight! I searched for it online and bought it that way, haven't seen it for sale anywhere else.

She's lovely, a real cutie. What a shame you have to rehome her - have you looked at working with any local rescues to find her a home?

Photos would be really helpful as these types of dog can vary so much.

My Italian eats poop, her own and the other dogs. i keep putting pineapple in and she stops for a few days and then starts up again. Worse than that though, she occasionally brings in a bit extra for later and wraps it up in the sofa cover or with my doona - EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK. I have little sense of smell so have to find it by surprise ...