karen15

And some scanners don't pick them up. When I got the cocker scanned, the first scanner the vet used found nothing. She got another one and it found it straight away. That's cause for concern if the dog finding body, council, RSPCA etc only scan once or have aged dodgy scanners.

Have you tried this site http://petaddress.com.au/ I think it is the site I used to find the register my adopted cocker was on and then contact them to update her details.

Oh my, what a handsome little chappy :D Sometimes doing the right thing, like reporting the breeder, is hard. But by doing it hopefully you may save others from the heartache you have gone through. I hope young Ronan brings your family years of happiness. They really are the best dogs!

Story above said it was an on lead area where the girl was attacked but I must say, I get a bit worried when I see prams and toddlers in big dog park. While peoples' own dogs might be fine, it doesn't mean all dogs are.....

What breed is she? I'd reduce the quantity of all three components.

I think we managed it! The westie was easier. I ended up using a #6 comb on the cockers belly and that worked well. Did the clipping, then stripping, which blended the edges and finished with thinning shears and scissors. Should stay debris free now. I don't use the combs every groom, probably do them every third (proper groom with clipping is done every 4-6weeks). I will endeavour to scissor on the in-between grooms.

I would recommend checking out Ellz above. Her staffords are just beautiful :D

They have less than 25% of the dogs in Australia - 4.2M in Aust vs 950k in Sweden. The noted attitude to dogs also seems to be different to Australia - 90% are purebred, expensive to buy and represent considerable financial investment for owners, dogs are considered members of the family and occupy high status in society, owning more than one dog is uncommon. The final paragraph is a good summary. In Australia attitudes are markedly different. In spite of laws re microchipping being in place for some time, dogs aren't microchipped. Lord help a vet if they forced people to obey the law and chipped animals that needed it. Desexing, my staffy was desexed at 11 due to testicular cancer. He never wandered, made puppies, acted agressively or any of that crap. He was well raised and socialised and exercised daily. Me being responsible doesn't mean other people are. If existing laws were actually enforced ie microchipping, I think that would go a long way to reducing pound numbers. Making breeders responsible for their pups / dogs that end up at pounds doesn't sit well with me. The dog owners are the ones responsible for the animals at pounds etc. Their attitude of animals being disposable commodities is the root cause of the problem IMO. It us also where Australian attitudes differ to the Swedish (based on the above post). In addition the noted attitude towards law obeyance - chipping, leash rules- is different to Australia. You only have to go out in suburbia to see how many people don't think the rules apply to them. So in the end, if people can't moderate their own behaviour and follow existing reasonable laws, the law makers will take a much more prescriptive approach and tell them to do it. That is only effective if the laws are fully policed ie if visit vet MUST be scanned for chip and chipped if not done, council rangers at parks to fine rule breakers and scan dogs for chips etc

The Boston terrier bit may not be as wrong as initially sounds. My recollection is they were a type of bull terrier.

I have read if you use something like chicken wire in a loose roll that snakes get stuck. Its because they can't go backwards, something about their scales I think. Not the most helpful description but you might be able to google. As to angles etc, I don't think that would help much. I had to shoo a huge python of the road the other day (reached both sides of a wider single lane road). It could lift it's head, unsupported, quite a distance off the ground to climb. I've seen little tree snakes do the same.

I keep changing my scissor grip to the correct way LOL Do you hold the hair with a comb to help? Sort of like the hairdresser does? I've spent the last 12 months enforcing that she has to stand when I ask. Initially she'd stand briefly then sit or lay down. So now she does stand I can at least see the belly to try and trim it :)

And so it should be Starkehre. It is miserable for a dog to itch all the time. I remember the corgi we got from a breeder. She ended up having mange mite, which I believe is something that is inherited. She was on injections for life. Someone we knew had bought a corgi from the same breeder. Had itch issues for ages, mum mentioned the problem ours had, and sure enough it had it as well. Nic, on top of grass there can just be plants in the garden that cause reactions eg wandering dew. My staffy used to react to that, as do I. Personally I'm allergic to hibiscus plants. Come up in a god awful rash even where it hasn't been in contact. Never occurred to me until I moved out of the place with a hibiscus plant at the front gate. As soon as I no longer touched it daily, I stopped getting a rash.

Sorry Nic, no idea. I hope you can find something to help.

Why isn't the vet keen to medicate to assist? My westie puppy was a little itchy when I got him. Knowing westies are prone to skin problems, I was onto the vet right away. He got antihistamines as needed. Initially daily, but if he wasn't looking itchy I'd give a few days off and start if i thought he was scratching too much. He only needed the first bottle of 60 tablets and has been fine. If he'd been left to itch, I think it would have become an issue. I know with my allergies, scratching feels so good while you do it, but as soon as you stop, the itch returns worse. The trick is not to scratch in the first place. Is the puppy in antihistamines or something to help ease the itchiness?

After my staffy I got a westie. They may be a bit small (up to 10kg, 10") for what you are after. I found a young cocker spaniel to be his buddy. Cockers are around 15", 15kg. To be honest, side by side there isn't a huge difference between them height wise. The cocker seems to be a similar size to other cockers I see, so she isn't a midget :) We get a lot of "aren't they gorgeous" on our walks :D I groom them myself and it isn't too hard. Hair grows back if you make a boo boo LOL

The initial post sort of sounded like my horse under sedation. For a 16 - 16.1hh horse, he gets the sedation equivalent of a mini, without the opiate LOL At that level, I have to stop him suffocating himself by getting his tongue stuck to his soft palate. Easy enough to do. Get his head up, open his mouth, mobilise the jaw and swallow. But can't leave him unsupervised until he starts to stagger around and nibble.

That's handy Gruf. I've got a cheval mirror that can go in front of the grooming table. Something I would never have thought of and haven't read reference to. Thanks! ETA at this stage, her hair is a bit like mine. Curly, fine and thick. As the coat grows the curl is less. Stripping and growth on the back has got that quite tight, straight and short. The hind quarters seem to be coming along as they lengthen. The longer they are, the coarser the coat and the lesser the curl.

Thanks for the link fbaudry. I'd read the site early on, but now we have hair it's probably got more relevance! I honestly can't get scissor trimming. I'm just hopeless. Doesn't help dog likes to resemble a puddle. Her legs are super fluffy, which looks cute. All grooming I've read says front edge of front legs should be smooth. I'm happy for them to be 3" columns ;) The hocks and down are work. As hair is growing I think its easier to manage, but we've still got lots of volume. When it was shorter I used thinning shears without much luck, but again, now we're getting length it may be time to revisit.

I take prednisone for really bad insect bite allergies. As in when I get bitten, give it two days and the site blisters. Most recent ended up larger than 10c piece and the blisters oozed for days. Really attractive. I think after 3-5 days on prednisone you have to wean off. You can take for longer periods (my dad is on it long term), but to get off after eg 2 weeks, you half dose for a week, half that dose for a week (so 1/4 original dose) then go to every second day for a few days then every third. The Dr gives instructions :) Usually I try fexo first as I prefer to save preddies for when I really, really need them. As far as I'm aware there's no limit on how long I can use the fexo. Normally a week does the job.

The cocker spaniel is growing her coat very nicely. She's now at the stage that I need to take a little length off her undercarriage as she's picking up debris on our walks. My problem, being new to grooming long haired dogs, is how to get the lines on the undercarriage nice and even and well shaped. I'll no doubt have the same problem when her hind feathering gets to a good length. Do I use a comb on the clippers? I currently use a #8 comb over 10 blade on her front legs which works well. I have all combs 1-8, so have lots to choose from. Clippers are wahl KM2 (I think that's right). Or do you scissor? I don't seem to be able to get outlines very consistent scissoring. It's not a huge issue, hair grows back, but I would prefer not to butcher our hard grown coat :)

I have a westie and a cocker, both of which could fit your desirables. The cocker pulls, but if you got one as a pup you'd be fine. I've got many pics with them sleeping on the couch or bed with me.

Have you googled apartment friendly dogs? I did that the other night and there's lots of pages with suggestions. Some I thought wouldn't work, but some breeds were consistently mentioned, the griffon being one. They would be the ones I'd check out further. But if your heart is set on a griffon, it might be better to spend time checking out breeders :D

Beware the lamb flaps. Got them once for my staffy and he had to stay overnight at the vets as they got stuck and caused a blockage. Vet said never feed them again, so I haven't. Good marrow bones are very fatty and I've always fed human quality mince. Just regular beef mince (ie the higher fat one) for the staffy and cat. For current dogs, the westie finds fattier foods upset his tum so they get turkey, chicken or pork and veal mince. That's better for the tubster cockers waist line too. Some people over feed their dogs just so they can say they have a xx kg dog. As long as your dog has a waist and isn't rib showing skinny, then it is the right weight for itself. Once you lose the waist, they're overweight. ETA I always feed raw mince and bones, plus dry kibble. If he's leggy then he will probably fill out in the next year. That happened with my staffy. He shot up and looked skinny and awkward. Then he filled out wonderfully and muscled up. The muscle can only come from work, so you need to exercise. He was 20-21 kg in his prime, which is bigger for a staffy. I had a vet say, in an awed voice, oh my god, he ripples when he walks! (actually that was the visit for the lamb flaps, and the first time he'd been to this vet). She'd not seen many that weren't overweight and that were solid muscle.

I live in a unit, but my courtyard is approximately 200 sq metres, which is big. I've got a westie and cocker spaniel. When I moved in I had an aged staffy. The yard would not have suited a young staffy, but was great for a less active 10 yo. Even though we have the lovely courtyard, I still take the dogs out daily to park and for a walk as it is good for their mental health. The lady next door has a much smaller courtyard and has two greyhounds who are inside all day. They seem to be fine with that. She takes them for a daily walk and they have access outside when she's home. Honestly we have a lot of dogs in the complex and none are an issue. Down the back there's a number of indiscriminate white fluffies. You never hear any of the dogs being nuisances. There's also been pugs and pug crosses.

Maddy, I've seen a horse use a bunny as a football. Started out cute, horse discovered bunny in paddock, stomped, bunny ran, horse ran. Bunny stopped, horse stomped again, both ran. Soon bunny stopped running when horse stomped so it got poked with a horse nose - goodie, bunny running again. Soon that stopped working, so horse kicks it like a football and runs after it. I wasn't expecting that! Wasn't my horse. Mine was just weeeeeeed we're running here and here and here. Wwwwwweeeeeeeee! I was only new to owning horses and never thought to see one play bunny football. I removed the deceased bunny when they started to sniff around, thinking knowing my luck they'd try to eat the darn thing. Don't get me wrong, I know horses kill dogs etc, but horse just seemed to be playing chasey, like they do with other horses, and certainly didn't strike at the bunny. Eta that is an interesting dichotomy really. If a horse, being a prey animal, kills a wandering dog, it's the dogs fault for not being contained and harassing stock. But if a dog kills something, there are issues.