Better Late

Like I said on the photo you posted on FB yesterday, that face mask! She's truly stunning, I love how serious she looks. Any chance of a cuddle when I come up in September? :D

Isn't Alice supposedly a dingo cross? :/

My partner, the dog and I are driving from Central Vic in September to see them! That's a twenty hour round trip, three 2hr sessions and a cabin tucked away in the woods. I literally couldnt be more excited and its months away! I'm sure you'll have an absolute ball and learn loads :)

From this article (http://whostheboss.pets4life.com.au/index.php/farmer-dave-knows-about-working-with-dogs-but-who-really-is-the-boss/): "As head of our important team of behaviour teaching dogs Matilda gets free reign of the Centre, and really does an incredible job of managing each of the yards of dogs." His 'credentials' include growing up around "dozens and dozens" of working dogs on a property, training search and rescue dogs, being a behaviourist...but nowhere is this actually proven or backed up. I also just came across a video of an activity at the centre called 'Dam Splash'. There are about twenty to thirty dogs of varying breeds and sizes let through a gate into a huge paddock with an enormous dam in the middle, and they can just run around willy nilly and "enjoy themselves". I'd say this is where Wags met his end

I have been asking this myself for a long time now. Its the eternal question. You'll drive yourself mad trying to find an answer

There was a post on Facebook recently about potential dog thefts occurring in Bendigo, or at least the suspicion of marking specific properties with yellow paint on wheelie bins. There have also been reports of a suspicious man hanging around the dog park and approaching various owners, enquiring about whether the dog was for sale and following them a way when he was rebuffed. Not frequenting the dog park myself I cant say how true this is, but in a year and a bit of living here its the only time I've heard of it. It's sort of made me wonder though, Bendigo has SUCH a high prevalence of wandering/stray/lost dogs that I wonder if they even need to 'mark' properties at all, and they're just taking advantage of an opportunistic situation, if indeed its happening here

I had to stop reading the comments too I would never personally leave my dog at one of these facilities, hell I cringe and have to step away from the computer when I come across trainers who take dogs on for training without their owners present! These can often be the same people who offer 'daycare' services. There are so many things that can go wrong, it just makes my brain hurt.

This is doing the rounds on facebook at the moment as Kavik said. There's a lot of too-ing and fro-ing about the differences between the owners story and the story from the centre in question. Regardless of what occurred after the fact, its a damn shame that a dog has died.

In cahoots with eachother! Not exactly a 'naughty' dog moment, more a opportunistic discovery due to a forgetful human (me), but I had to madly dash out of the house when I thought I was about to miss my bus. I'd left the sanitary rubbish bag on the couch having had the intention of putting it in the wheelie bin as I headed to the bus stop...but in my panic I didnt. Caught the VLine train to Melbourne, had dinner with the family, drove home with my partner and opened the door to a torn open plastic bag with bloody tampons and pads strewn across the lounge room!!! Bonnie is now affectionately known as Tampon Breath.

Sadly, I do! And will for a long time, so I suppose its a blessing in disguise. I also have Refresh Night Time gel (formerly Lacrilube), ingredients are liquid paraffin (42.5%) and soft white paraffin (57.3%) - would this be safe to use too? So I'm sure you'd know that Chlorsig is useless after 4 weeks once opened. I suffer from styes and use it regularly, it is just available over the counter at the chemist. Yeah, I always date mine and get a new one once I'm about three and a half weeks post opening. Learnt that lesson the hard way!

Sadly, I do! And will for a long time, so I suppose its a blessing in disguise. I also have Refresh Night Time gel (formerly Lacrilube), ingredients are liquid paraffin (42.5%) and soft white paraffin (57.3%) - would this be safe to use too?

We'll be going on a long roadtrip in late August/early September to NSW from Central Vic, so as well as intending to do a pet first aid course, I'm getting a first aid kit ready for Bonnie. Not only for the trip but for general use as well (I am aware a doggy first aid kit/course is NO replacement for professional vet care but I'm the kind of person who needs to have all of her bases covered in case of emergency). I like the St Johns kit as a basic template, but would be interested in what others might have in their kits additionally? Such as rectal thermometers, charcoal tablets, vaseline, any unusual items that you've found work well for specific purposes. What does your kit consist of?

Signed up and I'm keen to start it in a few days, looks pretty good. Thanks for the heads up :)

I haven't been well at all lately and have been mostly bedridden. Today, albeit with some effort, I managed to join my partner and Bonnie for a walk at our local showgrounds. We've been working on her recall every day inside as well as outside on walks (on a long line), but this is the first time I've been able to see her off-leash as the oval is fully enclosed. Well, I was in for a treat. Not only did she nail a 50m away 30second sit-stay, off leash, but she was off chasing a magpie which was about 250m away, she got 200m away at full stretch and I called her back. She spun on a twenty cent piece and came galloping straight to me and we had a party. I cant stop thinking about it! I was grinning from ear to ear and am so, so proud of her. These past few months have been such a big learning experience for us as she's our first dog, but its moments like these that I absolutely treasure. She's now conked out on my lap, which is only a recent development. Tell me about your favourite doggy moments!

I'm the same as both of you, it really is very isolating feeling like you're in this little separate bubble with your dog. I'd even considered making a facebook group and sharing it here so we could reach a wider Australian base and share photos and the like...something probably exists already though I'm sure. BC we're slowly building her confidence, its taken us a little while to get a handle on her behaviour around strangers as we live two hours away from all of our friends and don't know anyone up here, so we don't get people in our house super regularly. But now we understand and the other day made serious inroads, I was so happy with her! Its all been a serious learning experience haha Our Emily Larlham dvd arrived today and I binge watched while I was sick in bed, took six pages of notes in the first hour, and have learnt SO much already. I cant wait to keep watching. I'm attending a dog aggression seminar in August, heading up to see K9Pro in September because we're super interested in their Training In Drive program and the behavioural psychology aide of things that will no doubt help us massively. I also can't wait to meet Steve as I honestly look up to him a lot, he is part of the inspiration behind me enrolling in the NDTF Certificate in dog behaviour and training. I've learnt so much in the past five months that I really want to help others with their dogs. I'd love to work with a rescue organisation and help dogs that come through with behavioural issues on their path to being rehabilitated, meet with potential adopters and let them know there's a plan in place and they have my full support as clients if they choose to take the dog on. I also want to offer a service where I can go with people to pounds/shelters and advise them on the type of dog that would suit their lifestyle, and what kinds of dogs to pretty much avoid unless they're experienced, as if I knew then what I know now I wouldn't have come home with Bonnie. But you live and learn! That's my little thesis, I feel like I've found a new...I guess, calling in life? I have a long road ahead of me but plan on getting a heap of hands on experience through volunteering at shelters/obedience clubs, doing as many courses as I can and going to lots of seminars. My life would be so empty without my little doodlebug and I want others to see the hope there always is and help them achieve their goal of even just walking down the street without an exploding dog :)

Oh BC that is so wonderful to read, you've done so well and worked so hard with Stella and its a credit to you that she's come so far :) Had a win with Bonnie today, my partners aunt was in town and stopped by for coffee and cake. We told her to just ignore the dog, act like she didnt exist at all and don't look her in the eye. I was a bit tentative as the last person who visited is selectively ignorant with our instructions and has been growled at/cowered away from after doing the opposite of what we've asked. Bonnie was great with this visitor though, she only gave a half-hearted growl once and I just put her away to allow her to relax. After about half an hour I let her out and she was super happy just to sit on her mat, right beside our visitor, and chew on her rope toy & throw it around playfully while we chatted. It was so wonderful to give her that choice and let her work it out for herself. She was super super playful after the visitor left and we had a huge play, she's now conked out on my partners lap and has never really been a lapdog. Very happy indeed.

Better Late - your email bounced back. Is there anything missing from your email address? I used [email protected]. Oops, my bad! It's [email protected] :)

Bumping this because according to Bonnie I am an evil, calculating wretch who expects her to urinate outside. When it's wet and cold and has been raining since 8am. Fine. FINE! Give yourself a UTI! See if I care! (Please please just go? I care. I care a lot, my bank account also cares. Please?!)

I'm tooing and froing with my Thundershirt at the moment. We've only had it for a couple of weeks and while it was nothing short of incredible in the very beginning, I think it may have stretched a bit as it seems looser and doesn't seem to have too much of an effect. We bought the polo version. Bonnie gets all wiggly and waggly when I bring it out though, I'm just not too sure about whether I want to keep persisting with the polo version or try the original.

Oooh! My email is jbage @ gmail.com, I'm certainly keen to check this out. Thanks for letting us know :)

Just thought I'd put this in general so it might get a bit more coverage. We have a reactive girl who we are doing counter conditioning with but we don't actually know anyone in Bendigo, let alone anyone with a neutral dog that could help us. Are there any willing DOLers from around the Bendigo area, or do any of you know anyone who lives up this way, that would be kind enough to help us help our girl? To help get her used to both people and other dogs, you'd be rewarded with chocolate or a caffeinated beverage of your choice :grin:

My boofhead needs her walk rain or shine or she's a nightmare. Usually average about 4kms every morning, we bought her a wet weather jacket from Pet Stock but mistakenly got a size too big. She looks hilariously cute in it though so I haven't had the heart to go down a size :laugh:

We got both front paws done last night. Pinned her down and gave them a good tidy, poo poo me all you want but I was not taking her nonsense any longer and was over the long nail gouging. She hasn't had them done since we got her in December, we kept saying we would but then seeing how she was with strangers I just wasn't prepared to put any groomer through that, so we just kept putting it off and putting it off. Ah the joys of being a novice dog owner. So I bit the bullet and did her myself, and now I don't think I'll ever pay for it! I'll do the back nails tonight and go again in four or so days just to keep the quick receding, Dober Dawn is awesome!

Dremeled one of my little horrors nails for three whole seconds today after being entertained with some truly petulant antics. Life is so hard when you want ham but the only way you're gonna get it is by quitting with the BUT I'M A PRINCESS act :laugh:

HazyWal, Bendigo has leash laws and wandering dogs can attract a fine of $221 if out during the day and $295 during the night. I googled the same for Ballarat but didnt come up with anything! Surely they must have some sort of fine you would think...perhaps someone else might be able to find it/let us know. And I'm with you OSoSwift, no wandering dog on my place would leave if busted. I'd prefer a LGD over an alpaca any day.