Snippy

Just measured Jester up for a new harness as his EzyDog one just isn't cutting the mustard. Had a nasty incident the other day with it and I can confirm it is pretty easy for dogs to get out of if they so choose. I was thinking of going the Ruffwear Headmaster but I do also like the idea of the Julius K9... decisions, decisions. Anyway does 32" or 81.5cm sound right for a Samoyed chest girth? Just wanted to check first. I know they are deep chested... it just shocked me for the K9 harness he would only be a size 1 whereas the Ruffwear he is classed as a L/XL. Maybe someone with a large breed dog could help out :)

Just read through this thread with interest. Absolutely adore all the canine models. You all look lovely, darlings! Had a good look through and after considering what it was i wanted from a jacket, decided upon a Hurtta raincoat for Jester. All I want is a waterproofer. Obviously he doesn't need warmth with all his fluff. Yes I know, double coat and water protective outer coat... but sometimes it is nice to NOT have to towel off a dog every day after walkies. As he is white, I went red, of course Measured him from shoulder to hip and voila, exactly 55 cms. Hopefully it is accomodating for a deep chest but from what I have read on here I don't think I should have any worries. Also, Crazy Sales has a sale on the jackets at the moment. It's not as good as the $45 someone mentioned paying for them earlier on (I am not sure what size they were referring to either) but it's better than paying full price.

I just noticed how many emoticons I used. I guess I must be feeling emotional right now lol.

Oh my :) Thankyou everyone for your lovely comments It really is nice to hear :) I have just gotten home from the hydrobath station. Jester's white and bright shampoo arrived today and I was itching to use it. He has come up lovely :) Such a shame that my bleached BC has completely the wrong conformation for his breed VM Oh well. Them's the breaks! BC my dear you are too kind :) I do so like you ladies sense of humour, makes me giggle. PS: Clean super-fluffy pics tomorrow (of the dog)

My bad, sorry guys. :o :o :o

Sorry, didn't realise there was already a thread for this story

Puppies are the best I can say this while Jester is not in the room (even though he technically is a big puppy). Yes, as people have listed there are many less than desirable situations that can occur with toilet training, bite inhibition, socialisation and obedience. It is so much easier to teach all these things to a small version of your future dog and to instil in them what polite and respectable behaviour is from the get-go than to try and do it with an older dog. As someone who has just adopted a 15month old puppy who had NO training, NO socialisation, NO obedience training, NO grooming training (and bites) and would soil my loungeroom mat (problem fixed)... Thankfully due to my ability to study from home I have been able to saturate him in correct habits and now people think he is the most polite, relaxed creature they've met. I think about all the other dogs I have ever owned. They all came to me as puppies and all of them were so much easier to teach. The worst part for me is separation training. Hearing the little pleading squeaks as you leave the room. Breaks my heart. The rest of it I can handle! I for one am extremely puppy clucky at the moment and have been for the last couple of weeks :laugh: Maybe Jester needs a little Sammy companion... :D

Lol. Messy? Not if you do it correctly. Piercing a capsule with a pin gives you a tiny hole through which to applicate. You don't need to use much. More precision, less waste. Excuse me for offering a cost effective way.

Sexual curiousity is one thing. You can be curious and never actually act upon said curiousity. I am curious about a lot of things but I don't go out of my way to explore them if they are illegal or blatantly (or minorly for that matter) unethical. I think that is where your defence/argument/whatever it is falls down. Bottom line: someone with a highly responsible job in a medical field has shown that they have one more than one occasion made a serious error of judgement. Subsequently one must ask the question, how many other times has she made errors of judgement? I agree with your point that there are other things that we humans do to pets ie. deprivation of liberties such as environmental enrichment, interaction, correct feeding, correct healthcare. Solitary confinement is indeed very mentally damaging to a dog/dogs and there are certain breeds that respond to such isolation in much the same way they would to physical violence. Yes, quite some years ago methinks. There is a massive difference between a human being attracted to a human of the same gender and a woman who on more than one occasion pimped out her dogs AND FILMED IT holding a position of responsibility. Again. You draw a very long bow. To compare a Vet performing a common AI stimulation practise (for an expensive and often unsuccessful venture at the best of times) to someone pimping their dogs out is ill-informed. To suggest it is the same as bestiality is ridiculous, whether or not the bitch found it satisfying is irrelevant. The other people in question travelled from Clare Valley to Ovingham. That's at least 135km travelled (one way) to have sex with a dog being pimped out by a person with a highly responsible job. This nurse not only pimped HER dogs out, but filmed it. I'm sorry but there is no way in the world that is even close to the same as a Vet performing a common AI process. I actually find that assertion extremely offensive. Well perhaps when we learn to translate canine to human language we might just be surprised. Until such time as that happens, I will remain fervently against such abhorrent behaviour and any who sympathise or condone it. Also, there are other threads on this forum that address other forms of cruelty to animals.

Not long enough. Exactly what I thought. There are names for people like this that a decent person would have to place exclamation marks and asterisks in if they were to post it. This kind of thing make me SO furious. I agree with people who are saying let them suffer. I say feed him meatballs with ratsak in. Let him see for himself how it feels to bleed out.

Something I have seen work on cats is a vitamin E capsule pierced and the contents massaged into the area.I have no idea if it works on dogs, but it is something that you might be able to try. :)

Thankyou LabTested :) I am completely besotted

And a few more. :laugh:

Happiness is a tired, salty, sandy Samoyed!

My burrow!

Jester thoroughly enjoyed his day out at the beach yesterday. He got to spend time with his mum and dad (me and my partner) of course, my brother and his GF, got to do some landscaping and was even stopped by a woman so she could have her photo taken with him. But mostly he enjoyed paddling and sniffing. :laugh:

I just spent half an hour writing a response to this, in the meantime there have been a gazilleon posts and now mine seems superfluous. Like this post. Just wanted to have a grumble :laugh:

I'm glad you raised this point. I was wondering that too. My boy is only 16 months old so I wonder if that has any bearing on the prices? Well fingers crossed for both of us being filthy rich!

Oh goody! So I'm not the only person who does this :) I talk to Jester all the time. And my cats. My cats all have a zillion nicknames/pet names aside from their actual names. Jester... well I say things like "Good morning my handsome boy and how are you? Is that a waggy tail for me? Why thankyou! I hope you slept well. I think maybe we should take you outside for a toilet break." Yeah I pretty much chat to him all day. He doesn't seem to mind. He just gives me a Sammy smile. Studying from home atm and it's quite lonely while my partner is away from before the sun's up til after it's down.

Interesting comments. I think it is sad that people automatically assume everything is a crossbreed. I take Jester to the beach every weekend and I too comment to people about their dogs. Today I saw a lovely Fox terrier (NOT A MINI an actual NORMAL SIZED ONE!!!) I was so pleased. Oh and I saw a Manchester terrier and the lady who had it said to me "thank god, someone who doesn't think it's a kelpie cross." I can sympathise. People always think Jester is a Husky Yesterday we were driving along and someone tooted their horn at us so the dog would look at them... Really not helpful when there is a learner driver at the wheel. Today we got mobbed at the beach... one lady actually had us bailed up so she could take pictures with her ipad and then she got out her phone and called her friend who was down the street to come and take a photo of her with the dog...

Thanks to everyone who contributed with a constructive reply I am pretty happy now to take steps with getting the fluffaluffagus (Jester) insured. :laugh:

I think just be honest with them. Let them know what happened last time and just say you were confused. Sometimes they will realise they have made a mistake and correct it. See if they offer you a satisfactory explanation for why you were charged that much last time and if they do, then problem solved. If they don't then you need to be assertive and tell them that you are not happy with being charged unfairly. State your reasons and understanding of their charging policy. It seems rude to me to not have the courtesy to give you the time you paid for (or at least half of it) and if there was no reason to keep you there for longer than the half hour, imo some sort of price reduction is in order. I understand, as you also said, that specialist vet consults are pricey. Time for expertise and all that, but a good vet has "bedside manner" and that should extend to having the courtesy to either: spend the time with you/on your pets or be fair on pricing.

Coles nappy bags. They are a pretty purple colour and have a powder fresh smell. Plenty of room for the "large numbers" :laugh: They come in a bundle of 4 packs within the overall package. I always have one lot in my car, one lot in the doggy travel bag and a pack each at the front and back door of the house )for quick deployment

I understand your point, but if you go and look at the other insurance-related threads on this very forum, you will find there are those who would rope and tie their insurer and there are others that are completely happy. As far as being wary: believe me, I am. That is why I have asked the questions on here in what I think to be a fairly neutral place ie. if they stink, then others will alert me to this! :laugh: Thanks for your reply! Wowser, that's quite an increase. Thankyou for your feedback, it's really helpful That caught my eye too...

Hi all I (like many of you) have been looking around at pet insurance recently. I had a look at a few of the common ones like RSPCA, Woolworths, Petplan. I also looked at Prosure and PIA and a couple more I forget the names of now. And now I am utterly confused. :laugh: One that caught my eye was Bow Wow Meow and I was wondering if any of you have had any dealings with them? On paper (ok, screen) they look ok. A quick quote online for a 16month old Samoyed returned me three results: Accident plan only: $20.95 monthly Accident plus illness: $39.42 monthly Major medical (accident plus illness) lower premiums, higher excess: $32.92 monthly They also had a choice of benefit limits $8000 or $12,000 and a few excess options. Pet insurance aficionados; does this seem good/bad and why/why not? They certainly seem to have their PR sorted out. I found them through productreview.com.au. They were the highest rated pet insurance company (when I looked) and seem to get a fair amount of positive feedback. Any feedback that wasn't positive was given a comment from a spokesperson as well as an email for them to follow up with, which (although it benefits them by making them look responsive)is a good sign IMO that they are at least willing to make the effort to look like they care. I also took a look at the CANSTAR site and found an interesting PDF It was for Feb 2013 though. Pity there is not a newer one.