rubiton

Just be careful touching a sleeping dog - thought the dog was awake and touched her shoulder and she whipped her head round and then woke up. She was moritifed and immediately went into submissive dog mode but she had been asleep and had paniced when touched. We usually just call her or snap fingers or something (with normal hearing dogs will wake up from dreaming most of the time).

Basically any DSLR will do the job they are all good and will take good photos on the auto settings. The kit lenses mentioned should take shots that you need until you decide what type of photos you prefer to take. Best thing to do is go to the store and pick up various cameras to see which ones feel the best to you. IS doesnt make a lot of difference til you are going over 300mm zoom or are using very low shutter speeds however it can be handy on very windy days or if you are being pushed around in a crowd. Al DSLR cameras have a high enough MP count to take good photos that can be enlarged. Personally if I just wanted a good DSLR camera for normal snapshots I'd stick with teh base models eg 1000D, if you want something that will also video as a secondary function I think then you have to look at the more expensive ones. If you want something that will take good photos without the hassle of getting different lenses the high end point and shoots often have a lot of the settings of the SLRs are are a bit smaller than the SLR cameras (my point and shoot also does video - not quite good enough for sports but takes others shots just fine).

Kaz there are no publicly known rescue groups/rehoming places in Adelaide outside the RSPCA and AWL (apart from GAP but that is breed specific). As explained by casowner there are no 'pounds' as appear elsewhere either. I have seen a internet based group that seemed to be a private rescue group a couple of months back but there are not the well known rescues that seem to be around in NSW.

Try F8 - better depth of field if its sunny. ISO 400 and it should pick a fairly high shutter speed. As I said make sure the focus points are on a dog you can always centre crop later.

Might also note that in Adelaide the Animal Welfare League acts as 'the pound' for most areas so there is either the RSPCA or the Animal Welfare League when you are looking for animal refuges in the city. There is also one at Hahndorf but dont know too many details (such as a website).

Either offset the dogs and take on an angle or take a wider shot so they are off centre but can be cropped later (that way you focus on one but ensure the other is in the shot)

If a dogs diet is sufficient why are so many having fish oil added?

Most dogs will be territorial but its an individual thing on what they will do if they think someone is up to no good. Our dog - a lab x - is fine with people in fact loves meeting them when out with us BUT she was not happy the day the bloke on the skateboard came flying off right at us (hackles up barking as he came at us - it was an accident and he was embarrassed to stuff up but dog didnt know that), or the day the garage door was open and the ranger tried to knock on the front door (he did eventually but he reckons she had him worried) and she wasnt happy the day they built a pergola on the house behind us as she patrolled all day around the fence. Then there was the time she was sitting there growling at night and when I looked outside a group of uni student age people were settinga huge box of cardboard on fire in the driveway next door. And most criminals will move on if a dog is at te property as its easier to go somewhere a dog isnt than see how far a dog will actually go defending its proprty.

The eye thing - dogs do it too. We've always made our dog think when it comes to showing us what she wants (even though we know) such as dinner time if looking hopefully doesnt work and she has to make it obvious in her mind she'll grab her food ball and dump it in front of us. So looking from us to the bench where food is and back is nothing unusual - thought it was her but at a bbq last week the little white dog did the same when we were on the way out stood next to the table looked at us looked at the table where the food was and back to us. Horses also follow what you are looking at too had one carrying on once and then I realised if he kept rearing up and going backwards he would trip over the little roped off area directly behind him - obviously I changed in demeanour and where I was looking to slight panic and immediately horse realised something had changed and immediately stopped carrying on. Interesting comparision in the pointing experiment but one thing they did get wrong some dogs do 'point' think about the 'Pointer' breeds and had even seen our dog stop and stare and have a front leg in a half pointer type stance. Perhaps its part of the group hunting that was mentioned.

And in addition to the show there was an ad - Inspector Rex new episodes are back as of next week!

The 'Cone of Shame' would stop the licking.....

Some dogs can actually be injured and sore for days across the shoulders and back from another dog jumping on or humping them. Same as attacking any dog trying that with mine especially as she's been hurt before (sore for a few days from one that jumped up and tried to mouth the back of her neck) - will find itself getting punished by me. That's not being 'under effective control' therefore who is the owner of the other dog going to complain to?

In the 70s the family lab x lost teh use of his back legs he was only 6. Vet said no hope put him down - parents said not likely and they took him home and threw balls for him. Ball crazy dog he eventually got the strength in his legs back - no idea what the problem was but no one did fancy checks it was just based on what the vet thought. 80s - they would give them drugs to stop gastro, parvo and you had to give daily tablets for heartworm prevention. However the afghan struck with kidney disease and there was no treatment at all just kept them going as usually til you couldnt. Afghan was I think about 14 when she was put down and the lab x 13 and both were considered extremely old (the lab x was fine never a problem and then got sick two days before he died and the xray just showed dots everywhere). Golden Retriever lived til about end of 2000 and he was 17 but as an older dog he had adenodes/adenomas/something like that ulcerated lumps under/around his tail brought on by male hormones that had to be removed by surgery benign but still ifethreatening as an open wound that would not heal, had his backend that eventually was very weak and had other issues. Our dog is now 11 a lab x and would be a cripple if not for science that was not around even in the 80s - cartrophan, joint powder not to mention special kidney food, etc but science has meant that its not unusual for dogs to be in good condition past 10 when in the past they would be considered on their last legs.

OK also known as Lowerpro Neoprene camera straps - they have disappeared. The only listing I can find say ;no longer available' yet this product is so wonderful. Straps that come with the camera feel like a piece of wood pressing on the neck. So now I have to try and find an alternative version. Has anyone tried any of the ones that are around? There is an Op/Tech series of them, Tamrac seem to have the most common to come up in a google search and then there seems to be various types. All Im looking for is a nice normal basic camera strap where the bit on your neck is the bouncey neoprene not the horrid materiel the ones that come with the camera are made of. I did get a canon padded one due to a free offer 12 months ago but its nowhere near the bouncey ones for comfort. Link below is to the no longer available listing http://www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au/prod1529.htm

Postie did the right thing but although the dog jumped and barked there is nothing to say it would have bitten outside the panic at being caught up. Therefore dog is menacing but not guaranteed bite through just protecting property however - Owners need to be advised they wont get any mail until it is safe for the postie to do his job with a mailbox he can access safely. If the dog was jumping up then the mailbox is not in a safe place. Dont see why dogs need access to the front yard in 98% of suburban properties - I've seen one house where the 'yard' is in front of the house where the driveway and mailbox is and even that house had a very big fence with a gap for the mailbox. Dog should be contained to the bacl of the property.

OUr dog - on her back under the flow of the aircon. My aunts dog though lived outside always and lived to 15 or so even despite those low 40s Adelaide had - they wouldnt even let it have access to the laundry. So if they have shelter and they are use to being outside they will cope. However if they are used to being inside with the air con like us they would suffer more if left outside in the heat even with shelter.

Its using the tool you have - Nikons are too big for me but then when my 40D had to be fixed and the 50D was having issues I was leftto take big race photos last May with my 350D. That little camera did a great job and got shots I needed but for me with horse race finishes I only had the choice of 2 or 3 shots instead of 9 or 10. And you cant get the race run over again so I need gear that will get the photo and hopefully a range to pick from. The 7D did a fantastic job with the horse fall on Sat and with the one fence I gave it yesterday (from teh pics Ive seen so far) - it was no better than the 40D on the victory gallop but I have changed a setting slightly to see if that helps for its next test at the races. But I cant see why non pro photographers would need something like a 7D its a very good camera but very very exact so if you set it up wrong its not going to perform to its best. Better to buy a cheaper body (theyall take good photos) and get better lenses. Its the lens that gets the image ultimately. I had a lens cause hassles on saturday as it was too slow to focus on a moving object. 40d was fine with the big lens on Fri & Sun so obviously its the small lens that made the difference.

I'd actually say any DSLR will do the job as you've mentioned but you just need to get the right lens for that type of photography - no idea what that is though as I take action shots and the 70-300mm works brilliantly for that. If it doesnt move rapidly you dont really need the high frames per second sporting type cameras, if you are not plannign to take pics in dark places or at night then ISO isnt an issue, dont go out in pouring rain, dust so weatherproofing not vital. Some models have video but if you dont need that even the 1000D shoud be fine. No need to spend extra if you wont use the uextra features.

Yesterday and today were teh first time I had to get good pics out of the brand new 7D now I've had the 350D, 10D, 40D (and lets forget the 50D) and they were nice easy set and forget type cameras. I can wave the 40D in the general direction of a horse and it gets the photo. I love that camera. But today the small lens had issues with what I needed it to take photos of (moving horse in very dark conditions) - a few photos looke very average. I also had the new 7D with me with the 70-210 lens bigger than I needed for most spots but plenty of chances to test it out. Well the 7D did most of the day and while there were a few OOF (out of focus) pics I think it may have been the rain or I didn't quite get the chosen focus spots on the right spot as it seems it corrected when I did. The 7D is also aimed at the sports photographer so a lot of the settings relate to getting better photos of action. However it is very sensitive and you do need to read the manual and the magic lantern guide and then have an idea of what the settings exactly need to be - very easy to stuff up and have the pics not work. The 550d is probably more like my previous ones without the full list of fancy settings the 7D has. Go to DPreview compare the two cameras and decide if teh 7D's extra features actually would be used by you as otherwise you may be buying a camera that is more technical than you need. For action I use zoom lenses - the one that stuff up today wwas a 24-85mm not all that good for action but great for posed stuff. I prefer the 70-300 for action but thats come back from Canon and is waiting for me to pick up so am currently using the 70-210mm lens on the 7D.

Here is a handy link for trying to work out a price for stock photography stock price calculator First time I was asked about photos it was from a publisher in the UK and they nearly sounded apologetic that they could only offer x amount per image. Only it turned out to be quite a good sum as the australian dollar was still around 35-40c per pound so yes I just times by three. Since then I've had one book written by a friend so that was a photo for book and credit but they did me some huge favours years before so thats ok (not some stranger) and another was by a womens publishing house who initially asked for stories from women for the book and I helped them with two other photos for that I got a credit and quite a few copies of said book but again We were invited to contribute stories so they didnt ask for free photos straight out and I think there was charity of some sort involved. More recently I had two photos in another coffee table type history book and for that they asked me to quote a price then when that was ok they just asked for the high res image and to send an invoice (there was a agreement to sign too - this was bascially the rights of usage). AS for the other question from teh OP - high res jpeg is fine for publishing. 3mb looks better than 1.5mb but it doesnt have to be huge to come out well in a magazine or book.

last year our dog had to stay inside on her own from 6.30am to I got back about 8.30pm. OH was in Melb and I had to go to Melb for the day. She was fine - more concerned about the fact it was past tea time than needing to go outside til she actually got out there (dont worry there was a plan if for some reason I didn't get back). She carried on a lot more the week before when left from 9am til about 8.45 pm. Trick is to plan and make sure they've done everything in the yard before you leave.

As a price comparision I was took the general market price for a second hand 50D is about $650 so if its a good 50D $500 is a good price. Dont like the camera for sports but would be fine as a snapshot type camera (too clunky and I just dont like it compared to teh 40D for sports)

lens is suitable. I use my zooms to take still shots, moving shots etc. You have to use the right settings for the camera - though the 40D you pretty much set it on ai servo and get the actual settings right wave it vaguely in the direction of the subject and it takes brilliant shots. I prefer to use aperture F8 as it still isolates from the background and if the subject is moving its guaranteed tghe background is blurry when you freeze the dogs action. The one that finally produced on the 7D was the old 70-210mm but I think my yard isnt big enough for the 100-400mm to be effective with the dog coming straight at the camera

Any lens is suitable. I use my zooms to take still shots, moving shots etc. You have to use the right settings for the camera - though the 40D you pretty much set it on ai servo and get the actual settings right wave it vaguely in the direction of the subject and it takes brilliant shots. 7D you need a degree to work out how to get the settings just right - would only suggest that camera if you have a big interest in photography and know how to use manual and what all the dials etc do. Took a while before I got the shots I expected from my new 7D when we took pics of the dog in the yard, at the park, cars on the road, etc and even now still milling over a few settings (have bough a magic lantern guide to the camera but hasnt arrived yet as hoping its a little more in depth than the manual).

To OP - Is you dog therefore healthy? Why not just be grateful its wasnt anything nasty and your dog shoudl be ok once she is over the op. Yes it would have been nice if the lab results had been correct but sounds like both lumps are gone and tested clear. Mine had to get her teeth cleaned and she had a couple of lumps taken off the same time (different ones to the first ones that were found as is turns out) - added a few weeks to recovery due to their location but turns out they were apparently fat lumps and I was just relieved to find out that she was OK and the removed ones were not something more sinister. In her case the vet would have recommended just monitoring but since she was being knocked out anyway for the teeth the lumps were added to the surgery in case they had of required removal later and that would have meant a second op (yes it was extra expense).