kelpiecuddles

My kelpie is small and wears a 50cm coat so i don't think 70cm would be completely impossible for a male lab, if it hangs over his tail by 5cm it won't matter. On that note has anyone found a coat style that seems to work better on dogs that HATE coats but are getting old and starting to feel the cold? She has two and one she just stands there literally for hours and won't lie down with it on, the other she will wear but you can tell she's not happy and it's only very light so doesn't keep her much warmer anyway...

OK thanks, we worked out that the only time we really have barnies here is over resources so as long as the kids don't throw a single piece of something really yummy that takes more than a second to eat on the ground we are fine. I'm hoping that the new one being a puppy will help too and in my experience bassets are quite placid pups and tend to just roll over rather than push an older dog so hopefully things will work out no matter what comes our way!

:laugh:

I know it is considered harder to keep girls together and wondering whether those who do have three or more girls can tell me if they've had any particular problems and whether there was any special management you put in place to try to keep everyone in harmony? I've been chatting with a breeder recently and he mentioned one of his girls will be bred on her next season and it sounds like there's a good chance he may offer me a pup out of that litter(co-owned). (he actually offered me an amazing pup out of his last litter but it was too soon, even this one is a little sooner than we planned). It's going to come down to which pup/s are considered show potential and then out of those which will suit our needs but it could easily be a girl and I'm trying to get my head around how well that will work. I don't think my basset girl will be an issue but my kelpie is getting older and a bit funny about in your face dogs. We definitely had some fussing when my basset hit that 'coming of age' time and this one will be a show dog so will be entire too.

I can't see texta actually providing sun protection to be honest, it's only an ink on the skin doesn't actually provide any real protective layer. I'd go sunscreen or a dot of zinc cream

Worth a try WM. You wouldn't knw they'd been there, heck they are in my house every day and if I put their beds away and vacuumed that corner you wouldn't even know we had dogs!

Wow, that's ridiculous Dogmad!

Haha, yes, an Outlander so lots of airflow :)

If she's playing rough it's probably better if she uses up some of her energy on a good walk anyway!

I never charged when i was housesitting either, I saw it as a little holiday away from home.

I just wanted to suggest that if you are planning to give the pups to friends/family and can't afford all the desexing, etc yourself have the new owners pay the money to cover this cost direct to the vet, then before going to the new home the money is there and you just need to take the pup in for it's necessary vetting.

Thanks Nekh. The sorts of things we want to do with our future dogs are more like SAR but trailing in bushland settings not so much USAR in rubble and stuff like the SARDA dogs train and like a couple have been trained by Steve up in Sydney. So it will be man trailing moreso than tracking but as I said at this stage I'm a raw beginner so I want to start practicing with Josie so that I've got some of the techniques worked through better before we get the next pup. :) I'm looking at the last 6 years of living with this breed as having been my initiation of sorts and now I want to step up to a serious basset in much the same way people seek out a dog specifically for agility. The best part is my husband is totally on board too so between us we'll be able to really get things going. :)

In NSW if you provide a stat dec to council they will register the dog as desexed so it's also possible that somewhere before the rescue told a fib and that has carried down the line.

Fbaudry which one of those would be considered a beginners tracking one? Thanks DD :)

Thanks DD Well a foodie dog is definitely not an issue with bassets LOL. So I think I'll be looking for a pup who is following it's nose much more than it's eyes. Josie does get excited if she sees a kangaroo if we are out walking but once the kangaroo disappears she puts her nose down and tries to follow it that way so that's probably not a bad thing. :) I'm really hoping the trainer will have an experienced dog with them when i go to this workshop in July.

As far as choosing a puppy there is a reasonable chance that this next pup could be the foundation of our own lines as breeders in the future and we wish to purpose breed for tracking(although this is something that is quite ingrained in the breed any way, although some lines are stronger than others as with everything) So it's of great importance to us to choose a pup that not only shows good conformation but has a temperament that is good for training too. :)

The closest club is over 2 hours drive away from here unfortunately.

Actually they will happily sleep in the boot area of the car, hadn't thought of that, and it isn't likely to be even warm let along hot. Good back up plan Ish When we travel interstate they have slept in the boot while I slept on the back seat.

Yes but we are travelling from Jervis Bay to Northshore Sydney, stopping at Thirroul to do some training so it's too far to go all the way back home to drop her off before travelling to Sydney.

I did write another thread but I'll put this here too. Wondering whether anyone has any recommendations for books, websites, etc that are good to help a beginner get started? We are booked in with our current basset to do a half day tracking workshop in a month or so which will be great to start understanding how to go about it but there is no tracking club around here so I will have to do ongoing training by myself. Even more excited is that after a very long conversation with a basset breeder who breeds lovely, quite athletic bassets I think there is a good chance we may welcome a new basset to our family in the next 12 months, it will be a show dog and also I want to train for man trailing from day dot. If anyone has any smaller harnesses or anything that their dogs no longer use I'll be looking to buy for while the pup is growing still. :) Any tips on picking a puppy for tracking work greatly appreciated, with any luck we may have more than one option from this amazing litter so once we weed out which ones aren't possible show dogs the next step in choosing one will be to look at temperament for tracking.

My basset is going to her first tracking training day soon and I'm VERY excited! I've also been in talks with a basset breeder who breeds good, athletic bassets and there's a good chance we may add our next basset from his next litter later this year and tracking will be on the agenda with that pup right from day one so I want to really get my head around it as we don't have a club here so I'll have to start training on my own. Mainly we want to train for man trailing down the track, was wondering whether anyone can recommend any books or even websites that are very good for a beginner to get started.

The training we are going to is in Thirroul so I need something between there and the Northshore Sydney area.

It would be great if we could find somewhere to stay that will allow us to have them there, they are so quiet and so used to travelling so they'll just sleep wherever I put them when we go out, they won't be any trouble.

That's an option as I guess they would be less likely to take issue with them being vaccinated less often. Might be a good back up but I'd prefer to have them in a home type accom as neither of them have ever had to stay overnight at somewhere like a vet or a kennel.

I'm trying to find a way to make this work. There's a possibility that my basset's pet therapy test has been moved to Saturday the 24th of this month. Would be fine however my mother is flying up from Melbourne to Sydney and we've arranged to stay in Sydney that night and our accommodation isn't pet friendly, to drop her home first before going to Sydney would make it at least 7 1/2 hours driving! As she isn't considered 'current' with her vaccinations as I don't vaccinate yearly I can't put her in a kennels(and quite frankly I'm not a fan of kennels any way) so i need to find a homestay type option or similar for her. Wondering whether anyone can reccommend someone, for at least her and maybe my kelpie too(kelpie will fret if left at hom alone so I may have to resign myself to bringing her with me as well). We'll be coming up from Wollongong and staying I think near my sister in laws family who are at Terrey Hills so somewhere en route would be great if possible. Other option is that it may be possible to change our accommodation if anyone can reccommend something in the ku-ring-gai area that will allow us to bring the dogs, would have to be OK with us leaving them at the accom though as we are going out to dinner with the family(I would just put their beds in a bathroom or similiar and they'll just sleep the whole time we're out).