Her Majesty Dogmad

PAWS have a home that sounds lovely in Orange (ref checks all good) but we always do a home check as well. It is for a small dog and I can give anyone the necessary pointers. Please send me a pm if you can help. If we can rehome this little dog then of course we will have room to rescue another dog and the pounds in Sydney are getting full. Thanks very much in advance. The foster carer is all ready to drive her dog from Sydney to Orange but only if all is safe.

Perhaps it could be worse, my friend owns a young Vizsla and they live near the harbour in Sydney - a lot of people going fishing there and although there are public toilets available, people sometimes take a dump wherever they feel like it. Her dog rolls in it and she said it is really hard to get the smell out of his coat ... I do poop patrols twice daily as I have a poo eater, pineapple only works for a while and then she starts up again.

Greylvr, I totally agree there. Sadly a lot of the "new" rescues popping up of late are saving anything CUTE with a pulse! Dogs that are really nice but NOT "cute" are being passed over for "cute" dogs with serious problems both behavioural and medical! I'm also angry that problems like severe seperation anxiety get described as "like to always be close to their human" or "must be only dog" if the dog has serious agression issues. I think its not fair on all the rescues doing good things, and then having their work undone or picking up the pieces for rescues that just wanna save it becasue its CUTE without thought for the animal or new owners. I wouldn't only say it is dogs that are "cute" - far from it. Although beauty is in the eye of the beholder ...

None of my dogs would like to be separated from me. What breed is she? Perhaps it's a breed that is known for anxiety, ie Poodle, i'd be interested to know.

If anyone can help with this, pls send your info by pm to me. Thanks in advance.

I think you are right - I have been running Italian Greyhound rescue (we rescue and rehome nationally) for the last 3.5 years and most of our dogs are rehomed in Victoria.

Greyhounds have a hard time of it unfortunately. I love them and have rescued them or helped facilitate their rescue on several occasions, including earlier this year - a particularly fine example of the breed, gentle with all animals. Last week I was trying to sell calendars for Greyhound Rescue at work - most of the time the responses were not positive, people simply don't like the way they look or worry about their hunting instincts, the muzzle really scares people when you walk a grey down the street so the green collar is vital - obtaining it differs from state to state. As for keeping track of the dogs, in NSW one of the groups I work with puts their details on as the secondary contact - it's all explained to the owner at the time of adoption. If the dog gets lost and the new owner cannot be reached, the secondary contact is the rescuer. It's also in their contract that a new owner must contact them before taking a dog to the pound or rehoming it themselves. However, this is no guarantee, you just have to hope that people do the right thing. A few years on and many can't seme to remember where they got their dogs from - i know this from speaking to many owners who are advertising their dogs as needing new homes. It did appear that the dogs must be potentially aggressive if they could not live next door to other animals. Not sure how else this could be viewed. Surely if they'd been tested as OK with other animals, they could live next door to them?

Add fresh pineapple to his dinner for a couple of weeks - it does stop some of them but sometimes they start the habit again. It'll never stop them eating other dogs' poo when you are out walking - eeeeeekkkk.

I should have clarified, I feed my dogs dried food but never dried food only - i use it as a base and add the other things I mentioned in my previous post, so that it is moist etc.

I don't agree with feeding a dog dry food only, would you like to live your whole life on dried biscuits? I doubt it. When you've got past the puppy food, ensure your dog has plenty of good quality variety - meat, fish, veggies (check they are not toxic ie onions) and so on.

what happened if they moved? Look at GAP and GSN closely. Might not be any need to reinvent the wheel. GAP are the only ones who can issue a green collar in Victoria. And what if neighbours changed, bought a new pet, had someone to stay with a small pet and so on? I would consider such aggressive dogs - no matter what breed - to be unrehomable. They would be euthanased in my rescue - that would be the responsible thing to do because no matter how hard you may have tried, you are putting a very aggressive dog back into the community which is placing everyone else and their pets at risk.

How very frightening but oh so typical of PR.

Poor little things have probably just lived in the house/backyard and never been out OR they barked when taken out and the people stopped going because of it. It's called "on lead aggression" and you can work on it but definitely need the dogs taken out one at a time. I've trained elderly dogs - these two have many years ahead of them but it will take time and practice so hope your friend is up for that. Get harnesses, teach the dogs to "sit" - this could even be learned from the internet - you can find out how to do anything there! When walking one dog at a time, when you see another dog coming you distract the dog by getting it to sit and feed treats. Or walk in the opposite direction. I saw this on a dog training show and retrained my terrible 7 yr old Foxie who was horrendous on the lead. It took about 2 weeks. He had ruined all my walks as he set off my other dogs and made it unpleasant so it was well worth the effort. I'm near St Ives if they need doggie advice! They need to take great care with treating the dogs for ticks as St Ives is one of the worst tick areas in Sydney. Can recommend groomers if they need.

I have a house of 5 oldies, 3 on medication which is pretty exy but I wouldn't have it any other way ... I also rescue oldies when I can and find them lovely homes - once i've got their vet work done which means I can't do it too often because your bills very much outweigh your adoption fee - i don't usually charge one but don't always say that in my ads.

A rescuer received a call today asking them to take three small and elderly dogs - one of whom is aggressive. They were rescued by a relative who has now passed away. Usual stuff - noone in the family can take them, not even 1 dog. They wanted rescue group to take them and rehome them together, when it was explained that would be most unlikely as they are 12+, the rescuer offered to help in another way and got abused and then hung up on. Most people get like that when you say you cannot take the dog because .... if you even finish your sentence you are lucky, before the abuse starts.

Royoni Kennels are listed as Cocker Spaniel Rescue in NSW and maintain a waiting list, you could give them a call, you never know: Royoni Kennels on 02 9606 8093

I've been there with the herbs myself, couldn't get the dog to take them so stuffed them into naughty things like cheese and even covered something in honey once ... I'm sure it's that and not the other foods which does make it hard. In July, Iggy Rescue took on a dog who turned out to have 2 kinds of cancerous tumours. We removed 14 and were told that more would come and we couldn't keep removing them and he'd only have a few weeks as it had most likely metastisised. Our foster carer had 6 more tumours removed about 6 weeks after his other surgery(after much discussion and consultation and we said no more after that). We sent carer and dog off to the All Natural Vet at Russell Lea in Sydney who prescribed the similar natural diet and herbs. Luckily this particular dog does eat them and he's the picture of health, 5 months later. No more tumours have appeared and we are all hoping for many more months. It's hard but give it a go, providing he's getting quality of life.

Thanks so much everyone. This is the little dog I fostered last Christmas. Unfortunately the owner is also very unwell and I think it has all become too much. I'm probably going to have him come back to me and am hoping I can get him well again.

That is absolutely spot on ...

Sorry, it is Demodectic.

I've got a very sad case and wondered if anyone has had any success in using alternative methods such as Chinese herbs? I've had some great results from the use of alternative methods over the years but this is my first experience of mange. This dog was rescued at Christmas last year and he was on antibiotics, Ivomectin and regular Malaseb baths for a couple of months. Then the skin scrapes gave the all clear finally. The mites were never on the surface so scrapes had to be done under anaesthetic usually. The dog is a wonderful little boy and he found a wonderful home. Unfortunately the mites have returned and the prognosis isn't looking good. The owner is devastated as to her he is the world's most perfect dog. Just thought I'd see if anyone had any experiences they could share.

You could bath him and do everything possible to make him acceptable to your family but quite honestly, it won't be enough. They don't like dogs. In the UK we had dog hating relatives come and stay so we put our dog into boarding kennels. He was very ill when he came home - never again will I do this to my pets so that someone can come and stay. It's your house, your dog is your family. If they don't like that then they really do need to go somewhere else. I can't believe how people want to stay with someone and enforce their own house rules - how dare they. I don't like youth hostels and sharing rooms with others so guess what? I don't stay in them. It's quite simple really. A former friend of mine claimed to like dogs but only liked them if they were outside and looked like a Kelpie. This person hated visiting my house because i have my dogs inside and told me it was dirty etc etc. She'd sometimes tell me that she didn't like a particular dog (usually an abused one) and I should get it put to sleep. Heartless and totally without compassion is how I think of this former friend ...

I've just rehomed two small dogs to new homes and had a couple of insights into their previous owners. 1 was a poodle cross, aged about 5. He was probably crossed with a terrier and showed behaviours from both poodle and terrier. He had two fascinations - 1 was with a ball, he was the best retriever of a ball i've ever come across - if you dropped it on his return he would pick it up and put it back in your hand. "Fetch" and "Find Ballie" were two commands he knew well, that was it. He wasn't housetrained and was matted and dirty with broken teeth. His second fascination was when you were drinking a cup of tea, he'd want some. So my best guess was he belonged to an older person, i've had a few dogs from older people and they've often been after my tea. He found a wonderful home with 3 adults and their large and friendly rescue girl. With my other little dog, he's a cruelty case with a very bad skin condition and he'll be on Bondi Vet next year. He recovered enough to go to a special home that doesn't mind if his bald patches grow back or not and have had epxerience of dogs with skin problems before. The day before I took him to his new home, he was just outside the back door waiting to come in, he didn't move so i went to step over him and he screamed in terror and fell over on his back screaming with his paws waving. I could have cried. It was obvious that someone had probably kicked or stepped on him before. I'd had him for over 2 months and had never seen anything like that from him before although he'd slink under the table if i told my other dogs off for any reason. Poor little guy.

I'd happily put this sick person to sleep, she's such a useless article.

Ah, don't worry rescuers, Kylie lobbed this one to me. I rang the person and gave them a good explanation of why they shouldn't do it. The sad thing is, they are absolutely resolute. I've since sent them an email with 10 reasons why not to breed, some of which I'd already gone through with them .... Sadly for me I went through the same scenario only last Saturday night, another very ignorant person who also won't stop. What to do with morons?