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.

I never wanted kids. For my partner and I, our dog is our 'baby'. Yeah, he's not human, but we give him everything. He's the light of my life. I have nephews I adore, I love watching them grow and develop their own personalities. But I also recognise just how hard it must be to be responsible for these little people. They are such hard work. My sister takes it all in her stride, because having kids was something she really wanted. I've just never had the urge. But for me, I'm happy with my dog. Could not imagine my life without him.

Having an Alaskan malamute myself, I have heard about these breeders. Far too many of their pups have devastating conditions for it to be non- genetic. I have heard that a lot of the time, they weren't even sure who the sire was, so the hip scores (if they even had them) would be irrelevant. The issue is that had these people been ethical breeders, they wouldn't allow dogs to be bred that shouldn't be. Litters would be planned. A lot of the ethical, registered breeders don't breed very often. These breeders were pretty much a puppy farm, but with the registered breeder title, and it's beyond disgusting that they were able to devastate so many people and dogs. So many people would have thought that they were doing the right thing by going through a registered breeder. The undescended testicle is not so much of a big deal compared to the other issues, our boy was cryptorchid too. Yes, it was a bigger, more expensive surgery. We told our breeder but didn't expect anything out of it other than to let them know. It can happen, no ill feelings about that at all. I do think the penalties are not harsh enough. I'd like to see all the owners of affected puppies reimbursed for their expenses. Nothing would compensate for their loss, but it sucks that they are left repaying a loan for a dog that is no longer with them.

Haha! Yep, I do this! Show him my hands and said 'all gone', then he'll look suspiciously at my pocket, sometimes even coming up to sniff it, then he'll sit in front of me and give me 'the look'!

I have a natural born puller - Alaskan malamute. We don't use anything but a flat leather collar and lead. He does tend to pull initially so I just change directions until he stops pulling. Had tried a halti on him, but even though I did a lot of getting him used to it in the back yard, he still hated it and pawed it off, somehow getting it stuck on his front leg. Changing directions randomly is more effective for us.

Anything over 25 degrees. We have a malamute so are very conscious over him getting too hot. Even on a day that was 16 degrees, I got hot and sweaty and called time on the walk. I always physically check the ground temperature to see how hot it would be on his feet.

When we first got our malamute as an 8 week old puppy, I had severe puppy blues even though I wanted him more than anything. He gave me such a hard time with biting. My partner had the authority with him from the start so it was much easier for him. I didn't even want to come home from work in those early days and couldn't see how things would get better. But they did! I can't wait to see him when I get up and can't wait to get home from work to be with him. He's a total daddy's boy, and it has taken a lot of work for us to build that mutual respect, but it's so worth it. I never knew what I was missing in life until we got a dog. But those early days were REALLY tough.

My partner couldn't stay when he had to have his malamute put to sleep. He was utterly distraught. It was 7 years ago and he can't forgive himself for not being there. It tears me up that I didn't insist I would stay with him. I try to take comfort in the fact that he had spent a week at the vets before that so he got to know the vet and the nurses, but it still eats away at me that we weren't there for him

Alaskan Malamute: their most difficult quality is also their best - stubbornness, back chatting (I just now had an argument with my mal - he wanted to eat his bed, I told him not to and he wanted to argue the point!). They do have a real independent streak, they like to do what they want to do and always think they know better. But they are fun to train because they're so damn smart and mischievous, sometimes they just decide they want to do their own thing. But you always need to follow through with a command. The mischievousness - the other night, I turned on the outside light to see what our dog was up to. As soon as the light came on, he had been laying with his head up, then laid completely down on his side. I went over to see him and he was doing that dry mouth thing like he had been laying down for a while. Turns out he had been digging the grass! They're so cheeky. You'll have him sit and wait for a toy, then he'll suddenly look up at the sky, and when you look to see what he's looking at, he'll grab the toy and run away with it. A malamute is my first dog, and the early days were SO hard. He was a very bitey puppy - just to me. He took a real shine to my partner from the first day. So it's been far more challenging for me to establish myself as a pack leader. Because they're not usually in it to please you, training has to be fun with lots of edible rewards. The fur: oh my gosh, the fur. It's shedding season again and the brushing is never ending. All the pictures you see of mountains of fur are true. Also, tumble weeds of fur in the backyard. Not the kind of dog for people who care if they accidentally ingest half their dog's coat in their food. The amount of brushing required is severely understated, we do it every day this time of year. The digging: you will never train this out of them. You may be able to redirect their impressive digging skills to somewhere other than the grass. We have a big section down the back that is just rocks and dirt, as well as his sandpit. Right now he's got about 6 holes in progress. If you can't give them a large designated area that they can dig to their heart's content, be prepared for excavations anywhere and everywhere! In short: challenging breed, very stubborn, cheeky, excessively shedding, but oh so much fun. I'd never have another breed.

Unfortunately no, you can't do that. Doing so would be fraudulent. There is no way a chemist would be willing to put your name down for a pet's medication. I would guess that the chemist would sell the medication to the vet, the vet then dispenses it to your dog. I work in a medical related field, and often when people have no benefits left on their private health insurance, I've been asked whether I can just put the claim through as another family member's on the card. Absolutely not. When it comes to medical related stuff, including medications in your case, everything has to be done by the book. Another option, probably one you're not keen on if you're happy with your vet - can you call other vets in your area and find out what they would charge for the same medication? It might just be that your vet is charging you what the medication costs them, but you never know until you ask around. Our former vet charged something like $220 for a check up for our dog and antibiotics. A friend took 2 dogs and 2 cats to her vet, they all had check ups, vaccinations, and 2 got antibiotics for less than what it cost us just for antibiotics. It's worth shopping around especially if this is an ongoing cost.

My vet also recommended the thumb in the bottom of our mal's mouth thing to. I don't recommend. He'd just bite down on my thumb. When he was a pup, my hands were cut to pieces from his little razor sharp teeth. He gave me a really hard time! I never recommend smacking either, that just escalates the situation. When I play with my mal, sometimes he grabs my clothes, and sometimes he accidentally pinches my skin. The other night he got me good and I yelled 'stop!' out of pure shock. He can so tell the difference between pretend angry and real angry! He laid down and relaxed for a few minutes. Our dog trainer recommended a shaker tin- I have one of those breath mint tins with about 4 5c pieces in it. Have taped the lid shut so they can't fall out. When our boy was really naughty, I'd shake that tin just once at him and say 'NO!'. It amplifies the 'no', and he'd take notice. You can stand up, fold your arms and turn the other way and ignore when she's biting. But if she's as cheeky as my mal, she may just bit the backs of your legs/ankles! What works better than anything is time out. This means no humans, no toys, no fun. We totally ignore him - don't even look at him. If our mal is being naughty - jumping, digging the grass, not listening, he goes in to time out for 10 mins, then he can go back to his toys once he's calm. Some days he'd be going into time out 3 or 4 times a day, now it's once every few weeks. They do grow out of that very naughty biting stage, eventually!