Scottsmum

:laugh: if that's the criteria, this would be somewhere around the 30th bath, not the third! I should be honest. I only did it because she rolled in one too many dead things. When my nose says it is time, it is time! XD I try to go by the nose too. The only time he's washed if he's not overly pongy is if he's rolled in brown things or if I see a flea. A single flea sighting launches me into "flea protocol" which is a bath and treatment for him, a full clean of the house (and bomb if practical) and ALL bedding & jumpers washed on the very hot cycle in the machine (ours heats to about 90 degrees I think frm memory). (PS - Don't wash squeaky toys at that temp - LOL) He had one the other day as he was a bit pongy - he's brilliant and white again now. As for nails - I do them when ever I think of it - he has black and white nails so I usually just trim a tiny bit off each of them - as the black ones scare me :) Other than that - we're low maintenance. We leave a dog towel on the back step so he can have wet feet wiped as needed after a dewy morning and occasionally we'll get a spot / sponge bath with an old face washer.

Yes I know Aus. has similar / same ban - I just assumed they we're completely non-existent. Dumb thing to assume, I suppose. If you cant import them - and that includes sperm and eggs - who / how / why were there Fila's being shown - it's not like you can pretend it's not a Fila if you're showing it as one (as I have heard some people do with their APBTs) - or where they here before the ban was bought into place?

You can get them in petbarn. :) and my vet used to carry them too - not sure if she still does

Can they come in? Are there any here?

I can't see exactly why they would... Scottie has two crates at the moment - his metal foldable crate - which absolutely needs a bit more cushion in it and his flight crate - which is currently in half - so it's like a big tub bed. I think he probably prefers the tub / flight crate (which reminds me of a big cat carrier). At night he usually picks it - despite it being out in the laundry. But I think that's possibly to do with cushiness factors. I have no idea if or where you can hire crates. Maybe have a look on gumtree for cheaper second hand crates or carriers? Things I like about my wire crate: it's robust, has two doors, is *basically escape proof, folds flat. Dislikes: we got a big one, it cost a bomb, takes up a lot of room. We bought a cover for it - more cost - but we needed it. It does need padding for my old man who likes his luxury. Good points for the flight crate - while it doesn't pack down as well but more bed like, secure, has a clip on water system. You might get away with a large cat carrier?

popped in earlier and had a look at the update. Was wondering if she could have / would be interested in the smoothie thing WestieMum used to make Mac? Or possibly some nutragel as discussed here recently?

Gap - love it so so much.

:/ Keep us updated. I think we've got something brewing here too. Keeping a watchful eye over the next 24 hours. Fingers & paws crossed for Amber.

Yep. I acknowledge that these things certainly do happen in Australia as well. Wasn't trying to say it didn't. I'm just saying I'm finding Palmerston North very different to Marrickville. :D That said - I've been walking dogs in a different suburb to home this last few weeks and holy crapola - they're certainly not chaining their dogs over the other side of Palmy. Never in my life have I been so happy that these dogs don't seem to realise they could clear a 4 foot fence in a flash. I've had to black list two whole streets for fear of being eaten - so maybe it is just my little bubble. But all in all - I find it very restrictive. Here's the dog map issued by my local council. Red is dogs prohibited, yellow is off leash, green is on-lead. I tend to stay away from the yellow area along the river in 6 & 9 - while it is off lead - its often really busy and it's a shared cycle path - I have nightmares about Scottie crashing into a cyclist. We tend to drive about 20 minutes out of town to go to another off leash if I want to give him some time to romp on a long lead - but we've stopped going there as it's not well maintained and last time we went he got covered in paspalum. Anyhow - I'm derailing my own thread. As Podengo said - Lots of attacks here lately.

possible I pulled the wrong part from the act. I didn't read it all. And yes - there have been two big attacks here - within a number of days of each other.

Did I miss the name announcement? Hard to keep up - I keep getting distracted with puppy videos :)

Um. I can't see a real problem swapping between the two. I understand the differences but BARF and Raw are basically the same thing. Depending on which brand of BARF style food you get you can get a small amount (eg Vets All Natural comes in a 1 kg packet - which isn't all that much - unless you're feeding a chihuahua I suppose. It's not really the same thing as committing to buying a 40 kilo bag of kibble. Anyhow.. that's my opinion - I can't see too many issues swapping straight away.

Think it depends on the kennel to a large extent. I know someone who was using a well known kennel based in sydney - every time the dog came back it had hives and really bad diarrhoea. When pushed they admitted to feeding their own food - not the stuff supplied and also giving the dog medication to calm it down on at least one occasion. I'd heard not so good things about the particular place but would never use them after that. On the flip side I know of a kennel which is spotless, each dog is screened by the owners who live on site and instructions are carried out to the letter. A vet is on call and with in walking distance. They're in hot demand and it's almost impossible to get on their books. You basically have to know someone and have a good word put in for you! Ah. Cool. I really think this is a good idea. It can be hard to find someone but once you do - you're kind of set. The owner of the dog I mention above went to a few breed specific facebook pages and posted some "doggy play dates wanted" adds - they were clear - we'll day sit for you - you day sit for us. We can do overnights - on the proviso you do some too... That worked pretty well for them for a while. (Full disclosure - the dog ended up being re-homed it was all too much for the owner)

Mine is black and white. My Dad, for a very long time only owned black cats :) and my mum is still waiting for "ginger" coloured clothing to come into style

I assume you mean another dog? I really would love another one but could not imagine getting another one until I had this one under control and it still won't solve the problem of boarding when I travel for work. No definitely not a dog. A human house mate. I would note recommend that. I've seen it go wrong too often. Assuming everything else makes having a flatmate possible - you're basically looking for a live in nanny for your dog in this case. I'd be looking for a trusted friend to take the dog when you're not home, or building a good relationship with a house sitter who can be left with instructions around routine. On top of other sensible suggestons re: routine etc made in this thread.

Lots of others will be able to give you better coat care tips than I can. I do have a furminator & dont like it - I find it too hard to use on an old, small, short haired dog and they're known to be harsh on coats. As for living with fluff... 1) Learn to embrace it ;) 2) invest in some sheets & towels or a really good quality car seat cover / crate your dog in the back of the car. We have a yars - it has a sheet on the back seat full time and then we swap out two towels - on on the actual seat and one on the back bit as needed. 3) cover the furniture 4) I have a lint roller - but have also used a roll of plain sticky tape (the wide stuff) is best to run over clothes. A damp face washer is also a handy tool. and 5) we had a broom for a while with a special name (can't remember what) but it was basically a rubber broom they use at the hair dressers. It was great for removing the very find fluff from our three long haired cats.

Thanks for your response. Lots to think about there. :)

Awesome :) the new ones look great

I can't stress that it's just my initial view of the dog culture. *My incredibly varied and extensive 5 months worth of experience* AND while I wasn't always an inner westie - I call myself a country girl - I have most recently spent 4 years living in Sydney's inner west. BUT yes - I am finding the dog culture here in my region VERY differnt. We have whole parts of town where dogs are restricted, lots of markets and "CBDs" of towns of all sizes, cafes too (link) I can count 10-14 dogs on my street and I'm sure only one (other than Scott) is walked often - I see it out every 3-4 days. Someone casually mentioned to hubby at work the other day that they thought it was odd he walked his dog so much... and so on. But I do want to stress - this is one persons view of one area - and I think my suburb is a bit different again. It would be remiss of me to say that the whole country is like my little 'burb. The flip side to that is I can count at least 3 independent pet food shops, a few groomers, a petbarn (its animates here) + a tonne of feed shops in town and a huge number of vets in a town of 90,000- the animal industry is very well serviced - so maybe I'm just missing something. Annual rego is compulsory here - not sure if that weighs in to your comments but - just FYI. I see what you're saying. However, I think in this case it's more of a a knee-jerk reaction - there's been a few really horrific attacks here in the few months I've been here - and the most recent ones have both been "pitty types". I've thought about this a lot - and often thought I'd put my flack jacket on and ask. Maybe today's the day.... If its OK to select a breed based on it's type or traits why is it not OK to also base legislation or controls on them for the same reasons? I own fox terrier types because I like what they offer - in terms of temperament and looks. I think malinois and weimaraners are incredibly handsome dogs but I would never own a Mal based on their breed specific traits - and a good mal breeder would NOT sell one to me. One day I might have another Weim in my life - but I'd have to think long and hard about it I'd never own a Maremma either - based entirely on their breed specific characteristics Greyhounds / sight hounds are muzzled in some cases. Yes- I know that's pretty old fashioned and we've moved away from it I get this is a huge over simplification - but why is one kind of breed selection or discrimination OK but BSL is not? Why is it not OK to ask for Greys to be in muzzles or ...

Very cute. I'm glad you figured out the photo posting thingamajig. :)

Yeh. I'm not so sure I'd want to be targeted as owning a menacing dog, put my hand up to say I owned menacing dog or otherwise. I mean I read the act & see how it's defined - but *In my opinion* it's a bit like calling yourself a dickhead. Usually you don't know you're a dickhead, or if you are you're not going to freely admit to it or appreciate being told you are one ;) All that said, while I'd like to see the stats to back up an amnesty on registration - I think any program which offers discounted chipping and desex is a good thing. As a side note, I've noticed a trend over here of LOTS of BYB - a lot on purpose (lots of dogs offered "at stud" in facebook groups) but also a LOT of whoops litters - we had neo mastiffs x Whippets going for $80 here the other day and something which looks like a British Bull dog x a big mastiff type for $40 ... I dunno - maybe Aussies are more keen to try and give a trendy name and sell the cross at a 'Profit' ... but what ever way you look at it more microchips and less gonads has to be a good thing.

I did a bit of reading on the reflective ones blankets last year and found a page (don't remember where - I'm terrible with bookmarks) which suggested they're no different to using a foil blanket or one of those foil backed screens you use in your car to block the sun. They compared them to the foil blankets often found in first aid kits. So I'm happy enough to say "not a gimmick". I used a cheap foil lined blanket last year - under the plastic tray in Scotties crate with his bed, mattress and blankies on top. No idea if it made any difference but it can't have hurt and similar to part two of your comment above - it's about the layers - I think I said much earlier up in the thread I look to my Dads camping tips of layers and getting off the ground. I gave it to my parents when I moved and the cats love it too - mainly because it makes a funny crinkly noise I think - it gets padded on a lot :laugh: I'm too scared to go down the electric path. We have two snuggle safes (they are incredible - I highly recommend them) and I usually try to get good quality blankets for mine to nest in. Going to try and get a good grade (second hand) sleeping bag this year now we're in a colder climate...

Not entirely sure who, or what defines a "menacing dog" - or who'd call their dog one voluntarily - but this is still a great deal. It is open to anyone in the Council area - so 'non-menacing' dogs can be done too. I hope it gets good uptake. Edit: found out what constitutes a menacing dog. Territorial authority may classify dog as menacing (1)This section applies to a dog that— (a)has not been classified as a dangerous dog under section 31; but (b)a territorial authority considers may pose a threat to any person, stock, poultry, domestic animal, or protected wildlife because of— (i)any observed or reported behaviour of the dog; or (ii)any characteristics typically associated with the dog’s breed or type. I'd love to have a conversation about this? Thoughts? Good idea? Bad Idea? BSL question at post #6

cool Teekay:heart: