ellejaytee

Ugh. It's like when I see Pomski's, and people go crazy over them. Yeah, they're cute, but any consideration given to the health/potential issues of the dogs? Someone on FB was selling Maltese X JRT the other day, and charging top dollar for them. She got a lot of hate over it, and she said that without cross breeds, there would be 'no dog breeds left'. What?

Thanks everyone for your helpful tips and links! :) Didn't know about the council requirement for a certain length of lead, but great to know, and something I'll definitely check out.

Well, don't do what we did and have a civil conversation with the neighbour whose dog is doing it....it's been a year of absolute rubbish, all because we asked him to clean up after his dog and he denied it was his (even though we'd seen it, and he always lets it out unrestrained to poop ANYWHERE but its own yard, I see him walking it off lead in a park where dogs aren't even allowed, pooping and leaving it behind). He's slandered us to everyone in the street over this ridiculous issue, and he intentionally antagonises our dog by banging on the fence, playing with a squeak toy (by himself, not with his dog, I've also heard him stand on it when we've been outside), and he lets his dog bark and bark (encourages it). I recommend a little camera - Kmart/target sells little action cameras for under $30. Pop it in your front window and you'll soon have your culprit! It is an offence to not clean up after your dog and there are fines for it. Had I have known how much of an idiot my neighbour was, I'd have done this first. In my experience, people who don't clean up after their dogs really don't care how you feel about it otherwise they wouldn't be so disrespectful leaving it there in the first place. You can also buy Citronella spray for the purpose of deterring cats and dogs, I've seen it in Bunnings before. Spray this around and hopefully it will deter dogs from your lawn.

It totally sucks that your dad even has to deal with this. I love dogs, but I totally understand that not everybody does, and people need to respect the laws and have their dogs under control in public to stop them from approaching people. I too am wary of unrestrained dogs. When my dog used to be naughty, running/jumping at me (when he was a young pup), I had a small breath mint tin that had about 4 5c pieces in it, and I would shake it when he wouldn't listen to me and stop what he was doing. This usually got his attention and he would run away from me. Of course, the reaction depends how the dog acts to loud noises. He could also try an ultrasonic dog deterrent, they're really cheap on eBay, just not sure how effective they are in deterring approaching dogs. The hide of some people, abusing your dad for 'making the dog worse'. Sorry, but the dog's territory is at its own house, not the big, wide world outside of it. People should be able to go for a walk and not be harassed by unrestrained dogs, hence the leash laws!

I was thinking of getting a long lead (15m or so) for our malamute, we live near a big oval where it would be great to have him on a long lead so he can run around like a crazy dog and play fetch in a big open space. Would be great for teaching recall in a different environment (although I would never have him off lead anywhere that wasn't secure). We would use it when no people/dogs are around. The leads that I have found online don't seem quite strong enough. We use a short, leather lead for walking (as well as a flat, solid leather collar), and it is solid - riveted together with a solid clip on it which has withstood some serious pulling/lead breakdancing/lead biting. Any suggestions for something solid for this purpose?

I went overboard for our malamute, but I didn't have to buy for anyone else! He's got a Santa sack full of toys, an oinking pig, a Kong jumbler, another ball that makes noise when it rolls, a big flat raccoon toy with HEAPS of squeakers in it, a ball on a rope, a squeaky hedgehog (the one he has, he is obsessed with, takes it with him everywhere. It's already had minor surgery to stitch up a hole!), probably more I can't even remember! I can't wait till he opens them! Partner wants to cull some of his old toys but I can't bear to part with any, I think it's good to give him variety and put the toys on rotation. His toy box sits on a table and he often puts his front paws on the table to pull something out to play with!

Thanks everyone. We opted to watch and wait, cooked him up some chicken and rice to settle his tummy which he was all for! If he didn't go for that, he was going to the vet. We had him rest most of the day, then by night time he was ready to play and back to being his cheeky self again. Thank goodness! The last couple of mornings he hasn't been that keen on food, but like Willem mentioned, he probably doesn't need it. His breakfast and late night meal are fairly small portions, it's his 5pm feed that's the bigger one and he always eats that. It has been cooler lately, but I think a couple of 40 degree days in a row has put his body in 'don't need food' mode. We'll still offer it to him just in case.

We woke up to find our malamute had thrown up a fair bit - just bile with not much else in it. He was a little bit weird yesterday, quieter than usual but bright enough - wanted to play, did zoomies. He had eaten a bit of grass in the morning then thrown up, just foam and grass, then wasn't interested in his breakfast, but he tends to get a bit like that when the weather warms up. We feed him his tea at 5.00, then a smaller meal later at 11.30, just because he was vomiting before breakfast because his tummy was empty, and this cured the morning vomiting. He was pretty sleepy last night, but he had been playing, digging and splashing around in his pool (we change the water daily, as well as his water buckets). He's not interested in food again today, he's just laying around the backyard looking sad His bowel movements have been normal/solid - no blood or diarrhoea. He is up to date with all his vaccinations. We frequently check the yard/fences for spiders, particularly redbacks. Any ideas? He hasn't had anything new in his diet, although he had a few treats throughout the day yesterday because he hadn't eaten (chicken necks, dentastick, some little treats - nothing he doesn't usually have). We gave him a cow's ear but lately he's just been eating half of it and leaving the rest, I suspect it's just been too warm for him to enjoy it. He ate both of his meals last night. He's just sad, tried to give him some treats but like his breakfast, he's not interested. Just put some (xylitol free!) peanut butter on one of his treats, he's licked all of the peanut butter off and dumped the biscuit, after walking around grunting with it in his mouth (standard). He's still cheeky, bright eyed, gums and teeth look fine. When is the right time to panic? Could it just be an upset tummy? Safe to watch and wait? Are dogs like humans in that once you're sick, you just don't feel like eating or doing anything? Poor puppy, which he could talk and tell me what's wrong.

Totally agree with this. My first thoughts after the initial report were that the dog saw something moving at the fence and grabbed it. Still stand by this theory. It was something out of the ordinary for the dog and just latched on. I notice the family of the little girl are calling for people to pay attention to their fencing, they're not calling for the dog in question to be PTS (not that I've read anywhere anyway), which is absolutely reasonable. But seeing the picture of little Thalia, really hits home how much her life has changed forever. It's now putting a face to this horrific story. It is odd that the dog hasn't been PTS, but there is something missing from the story.

I love my dog, love spending time with him BUT I think that allowing dogs into Bunnings is a bad idea. On one hand, for tradies that take their dogs to work and have to run in and grab something, it's cool because they don't need to leave their dogs in the car/ute, and their dogs are usually used to meeting lots of people. But I fear that people will take their dogs to Bunnings just because they can - regardless of whether it's a situation that will bring stress to their dog. I can recognise that taking my dog there would be very exciting to him, it's a new place with lots of people and potentially lots of dogs, and his excitement is very intimidating to people. Also, he has had very little socialisation with kids, so I wouldn't put him in that situation. I think allowing dogs in stores (beyond pet stores) is a disaster waiting to happen.

I only heard about this for the first time today poor Wags. We used to send our boy to doggy day care, not anymore (he got expelled for being too noisy one day). It's only now that he doesn't go that I think of all the things that could potentially go wrong. I looked at FD's Facebook page, it looks like a great facility at first glance, but there are far too many dogs and not enough supervision for such a large facility, also, the fencing doesn't seem adequate. I feel so sad for the owner of Wags, can't imagine the heartbreak of not being able to take her beautiful dog home alive and well at the end of the day. And what a horrific end RIP Wags

My malamute ate Yoda's ear, so now have a single eared Yoda. It was quite a big ear too. Didn't see it come out the other end, and it was almost a year ago. He has this plush cow, and both its plush ears and horns when missing, then appeared in his poop a few days later! Another time I caught him pulling nails out of the fence but THANK GOODNESS they were all accounted for, didn't eat any. I had to do some detective work because there was one missing nail, went back through all my old photos where the fence was in the background to find there was never a nail in that hole!

We have a neighbour we don't get along with. We did initially, but things went sour (of all things, when we asked him to cleaned up after his dog when it poops on our front lawn). He denied this, and has spent the last year slandering us to anyone and everyone. So we don't talk to him anymore. What's strange is our malamute's reaction to him. He's never really liked him, even when he used to be okay. But lately, if our dog hears him creeping around the side of his house, our boy gets raised hackles and barks, and he never gets like that with anyone! Our other neighbour that we get along great with, he never barks at her or her son, he loves them. He'll often go down to the sandpit where he can put his paws up on the fence and get a pat. The only time he barks at her house is when there is someone visiting he's never heard/seen before (she had a visitor the other day that he didn't know, he popped his head over the fence and our boy went ballistic). So I wonder if it's that he picks up on our dislike of our bad neighbour, or if he's always known something we didn't?! The hackles thing, that's new. Does anyone else have a dog that reacts this way to certain people?

The right answer for when our dog will be okay to be off lead is NEVER! He's an Alaskan malamute, and they aren't known for doing what they're told! Especially not when it comes to recall. He would spot something and be off like a flash, returning when he feels like it! He is pretty good with recall in the yard, but outside of it I'd never trust him to come back.

So sorry this happened. I hope your dog makes a speedy recovery. I have a friend who adopted a dog, and she and the owner had been attacked by a ridgeback, which meant that from then on, the dog had major leash aggression. Of course the previous owner wasn't totally honest about this, my friend figured it out pretty quick when walking her, and she was snapping and snarling at dogs who were in their own yards. Thing is, take the lead off and her dog is a really friendly, sociable dog, she just feels vulnerable on a lead and tries to get the upper hand before anything's even happened! She's been working with a trainer on this issue. It's a tough issue to break because the previous owner didn't do anything to try and sort the issue out, just stopped walking her It's great that you're trying to find ways to ensure her emotional scars are lessened. I think play dates with other friendly dogs is a good idea, try to build up her confidence a bit. I hope you've reported the attacked and seek full compensation for the vet bills. My partner was walking our malamute in a park when someone let their hunting dogs out to run around. Partner freaked out and got away as quickly as possible. It's frustrating that as a responsible dog owner, you keep your dog on your property, keep them under leash control when you're outside of your property, and others just think that anywhere is their off leash dog park.