kelpiecuddles

Oh I agree it needs to suit her, I just feel a little concerned about the statement of 50 being considered 'older' :laugh: I met a couple of lovely chihuahuas the other day that belonged to a family, they were confident and outgoing and well trained, i also met a couple that used to do agility where I trained my dog! I think as long as it wasn't mollycoddled and was properly socialised a chi could actually work quite well. Certainly they aren't what i would call rough and tumble but the ones I met were happily fetching a ball for their kids and tearing around like little loons in the park. LOL

I'd take her back and simply comment on how lovely it's been to have her visit and wistfully say that if they are ever moving or whatever and can't keep her then you'd gladly offer her a place. Then fix the fence so she can't come through and leave it at that, you may find that after a few weeks they get sick of actually having to look after their own dog and they offer to you anyway.

Has he got fur inside his ears? If he does it might be worth plucking his ears to let them dry out a bit better

If you can't find a vet to help then i would follow the dosage instruction on that page and see how you go. The antihistamines widely used off label for dogs have a very large safety margin.

My mum's dog was on Claratyne for many years, as advised by her vet. Not positive but pretty sure she had half table per day and she weighed about 16kg.

I'm also a little blown away by the idea of 50 being an 'older lady' LOL. My mum's in her 50s and gets up every morning and goes to the gym and walks every night, she'd have no trouble taking on and training pretty much any breed you threw at her. :laugh:

Sigh, i've drooled over your collars so many times ruthless, sadly collars like that just don't work for my saggy necked basset But if you ever add thin tag collars(the ones that are like a leather necklace) to your range I might be interested.

Can I suggest that if you are looking at scenthounds and you are wanting a calmer dog then definately consider a basset hound over a beagle. I would describe a basset as all the happy of a beagle with a little less of the crazy and they can't jump fences. :laugh: Beagles are lovely dogs but are a lot busier than a basset, will need a lot more exercise and are less inclined to just chill out. Our basset is absolutely phenomenal with our kids and I honestly have never met one that wasn't happy to just stand there and let a child scratch them behind the ears(I'm sure they exist somewhere but I'm yet to find one!) the wait for a basset pup will probably be longer and they are more expensive but definately worth it if you want an amazing family dog. Size wise ours is 24kg but shorter than my kelpie so although they are considered a large breed it doesn't feel like living with one. If you want to ask any more questions regarding bassets feel free to give me a yell, at the moment I think I'm the only active member with a basset. :)

Sadly I've lost many that wouldn't come over to me. Something I've now taken to doing is leaving a little container of dry food and a spare leash under my car seat, that way I can throw out a handful of food and that sometimes gets an unsure one.

I'm almost certain the law states that dogs must be 'under effective control' and if the owner can't adequately hold on to them whether they are on lead or not then they are not under effective control

They are a great source of vitamin c and highly recommended for smll animas like rabbits so probably good for the dog too. Lol

This is how we got our old cat! She basically moved in with us and decided she didn't want to go home. We just played it that we didn't mind her coming for visits and if they ever needed someone to care for her we were happy to. Eventually they just asked if we wanted to keep her.

Might sound weird but I would also suggest that if you are on facebook join up with the Aussie labrador breed pages, show newbies pages, etc and just get involved in conversation, chat and learn. I've been doing this for about 18 months now and one amazing breeder who I don't even know in real life has already offered me a pup, timing was wrong but that pup has gone on to big things! I'm hopeful now that when the timing is right that breeder might have something that's just what I'm after :) Good luck!

I agree with this but will say they do have fabulous personalities and are amazing with kids :). Mine loves her toys, i never really taught her to fetch but I have no doubt she would(she tries to steal the toy off my kelpie when she is in the midst of fetching it LOL), recall is harder with a scenthound but I can comfortably let her off in relatively contained areas and her recall is pretty good, I pop her back on a long line when i notice she's getting more distracted. Scenthounds do follow their nose but frankly if they got out it would be my kelpie that would lead the charge, scenthounds follow their noses if they get out, other breeds follow their eyes or their ears or just gleefully trot down the street till they find something interesting to roll in, it all comes down to good fencing.

What are you wanting to do with the dog and hoping for in terms of exercise levels, trainability, intelligence, etc? There are many breeds that suit the requirements you have suggested but that number will decrease once you narrow your requirements down a little more.

I think whether you could use it without the strap would depend on whether he would pull them off? You could start out using some childrens size socks with the toes cut off and see if he'll tolerate them and go from there.

I would also do lots of nice things in the laundry during the day to get her feeling like it's a good place to be, always give her meals to her in there and have a stash of treats she really likes and just throw them on her bed during the day so that when she goes in there she is rewarded. Rather than chasing her I would put her on a lead and walk her in there constantly treating too and then reward her again for sitting and dropping on her bed.

I recently had a fairly animated discussion with a group of people on a local facebook page when someone asked for advice on when to desex their dane. Some of the responses were downright scary(such as letting her have a litter first!) but so many people said their vets insisted on desexing at 5 months regardless of breed factors, etc. Myself and another lady did our best to give her some links where she could get some advice from people who had actual breed experience rather than just taking the advice of a bunch of randoms on facebook.

Yep I think brindle is good for whatever reason. Even my son who has always grown up around dogs and never had any specific breed funniness from me met a brindle staffy for the first time the other week and immediately jumped on to the trailer and said something to effect of that he was worried it was going to bite him because it was stripey and scary looking I nearly slapped him(ok so not really) and quickly informed him that staffies are basically one of the happiest smiliest breeds I know, he quickly got over his silliness LOL

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/man-in-hospital-after-dog-attack-in-montrose-20140325-35gb0.html

Actually if my dogs were in the house all the time they would rarely see me, most days I'm out doing yard work LOL

Yup, my local rescue says they are 'no kill for healthy rehomable dogs", they make no promises for dogs that are very ill and can't be reasonably treated or not considered rehomable for serious behavioural reasons

Even as a pup my basset would do that, I think maybe I have a 'look' that says "just you wait until you're invited" LOL It's not something I ever really trained though, they come over to see what I'm doing, wag their tail at me and smile and then go back to sleeping in the sunshine, they do sometimes potter in but never for long, we have long lush green grass and sunshine, I'd be lying out in it if I had the time!

In that case I would, my girls will go to anyone and my dad loves them so there is no worries like that with ours.

I think if you aren't certain that people would know what you wanted done then it's worth including them. I know for certain my parents would take our girls as they are quite fond of them so I haven't worried but if they weren't able to and things were a little less certain then I would.