Dog_Horse_Girl

Unfortunately, not everyone is capable of learning about responsible dog ownership. This situation is repeated, daily, all over this country. There are just so many idiots with dogs and it's not illegal to be stupid. I would have thought, re: the pitty, that the council would require evidence of breed rather than simply accepting the word of the owner that it's not a pitty? I just feel very sorry for this bitch, it's not her fault she's a pitty and it's not her fault she's got stupid owners. But she may end up paying the ultimate price anyway.

If the landlord approved your application, and it's only some of the body corporate members who have refused consent, I'd be taking it up with your landlord again. Remind him/her to remind the remainder of the members that s/he approved you ALL to occupy the property and that s/he will be incurring a financial loss because you will need to vacate the property if the dogs are refused permission to stay. I'd be putting a bucket-load of pressure on the remainder of the owners. These sorts of people seem to be power-hungry when it comes to tenant's rights to quiet enjoyment. Do not re-home your dog/s because of this: you had an approved application in your favour and you moved on the basis of that acceptance by this property's owner. Too bad for the body corporate members who clearly don't like dogs! If they force you to move, then seek payment by them of all your costs incurred in the move. Watch them back off if you send them a letter of demand to that effect. :D Good luck, I hope it works out for you all.

I've been using SB with Ruby for about six weeks now, no real improvement to speak of. Her issues are ruptured cruciate ligament (just repaired a week ago), mild HD, arthritis (she's 9 yrs old now). SB hasn't helped her joints at all, she's just as stiff and sore as before the SB started. I've heard joint guard is better so may try that next. She will be having cartrophen for a while as she recovers from the surgery...she's currently on rimadyl but even that's not helping much so I'm upping the dose from today to see if that helps (she's on half the dose she's had previously so I'm resuming the earlier dosage). She's going back early next week for a re-check and stitches removal. I'll also start her on physio to improve her range-of-motion because she's so limited at the moment.

Update: Ruby's doing fine...wound is fine, everything is normal so that's great news. I'll take her in next week for the stitches to be removed and another check up, plus we'll go through the physio we need to do for her. Happy news!

So we have a [hopefully minor] glitch: the wound seems to be a bit too 'gaping' and has been a bit oozy (mostly blood type fluid). She's going back first thing tomorrow for a wound check...fingers crossed it doesn't need re-stitching and it's just us being overly concerned. She seems well enough but better to have it checked out. Will update once the verdict is in.

Really pleased to hear that Ruby has come through fine .... I checked in on this thread late this afternoon and was hoping that it was not because of anything bad - so I'm relieved to hear all is well. Regarding the teeth. I use Colloidal Silver for many different purposes, but one I didn't know of was for keeping teeth clean and gums healthy. My sister's dog (Monty) is 12 or 13yo now (Bearded Collie) and in recent times had to have a few rotten teeth pulled. He had the remaining teeth cleaned also, but the Vet pointed out the gingivitis and suggested using Colloidal Silver to clean them with (using one of those rubber finger tooth brushes for dogs). My sister reports that all the gingivitis has completely cleared up and his teeth are staying clean and his breath doesn't smell anymore. Monty, for whatever reason, has never been into chewing bones, which of course doesn't help the teeth cleaning process. Perhaps the Colloidal Silver tooth brushing might help Ruby as well? That's a great suggestion, I'll look into that Erny. Another update: Ruby's home! She was a bit sooky last night but has settled well. At the moment, she's resting in her crate. The wound looks good, no irritation or inflammation other than what you'd expect from a surgical wound site. She's on Rimadyl and antibiotics and goes back next Friday for a check-up. She's still lame but has been able to extend the leg somewhat which is an improvement on the range of motion prior to the surgery. We are very pleased, not to mention relieved, that everything has gone so well.

Quick update: Ruby came through surgery all right - no reaction to the GA or induction agent. The knee has been repaired but Susan did say Ruby's exceptionally lame so it may take a while to see any improvement there. Susan also gave Ruby's teeth a good clean because Ruby's not been able to enjoy raw bones (except the occasional fish head) due to the food allergies. That should improve her breath somewhat! :D She'll stay in overnight, so hopefully home tomorrow morning. She's resting comfortably and the crate is still set up from the last surgery...so when she gets home, she can continue to recover. Thanks for the well-wishes - please keep her in your thoughts as she goes through the next stage of recovery and rehab.

Please keep Ruby in your thoughts today. She's booked in for the cruciate surgery that she was supposed to have in December (when they found the tumor and removed her spleen). We're using a different vet due to costs and it's thanks to DOLer's recommendations that we've found Susan at Anvet. Ruby has had three bad reactions to GA and/or the induction agents used in the past six months - there has been no explanation and different drugs were used the third time. So I'm really concerned at this point. But the cruciate has to be repaired as she can't bear weight on the leg at all. Please send positive vibes Ruby's way - firstly that she doesn't have any tremors or seizures while under, and secondly that the surgery on her cruciate goes well, and thirdly that nothing else goes wrong. This poor girl has been through so much in her life - we call her the "million dollar dog" because she's had so many vet bills and had a lot of things go wrong in her life. She's 10 this year...we're hoping she'll be around for another 5 + yrs as long as she's well and happy. I'll post an update when I can.

Go to Bunnings and buy one of their compost containers as they are wire mesh and perfect for containing a pup. The key to house training is consistency and diligence. If you can't watch, confine. Confining a dog to a whole room isn't going to help the dog learn that the toilet is outside but confining the dog to a crate or pen will do the trick as long as you're consistently letting the dog out to toilet and ignoring any mistakes.

I think that for a smaller dog, a plastic crate (think airline approved) is safest and most comfortable. I've got three dogs and the smallest one travels in her airline crate while the others are harnessed and ride in the back seat with a back seat buddy designed to stop them falling into the footwell or jumping into the front seats. This arrangement works well for us even over long trips - think a road trip over a week or so which is what we've done several times now. I don't know enough about soft crates and car travel but I thought the soft crate was not designed to be a safe way of transporting a dog. Someone else may be able to shed more light on that point though.

I'm so sorry to hear your sad news. Wishing your boy all the healing energy I can muster. One of my work-mates just lost her dog to cancer...and one of mine had a (thankfully benign) tumour removed along with her spleen late last year. It's an awful thing.

I'm in my mid-40's and growing up, we had cats and dogs. The cats were always desexed and as young as possible. The dogs were always desexed around 6 mths of age. We never had an oops litter and didn't know anyone who did either. Most of our neighbours dogs and cats were desexed...the rest were probably a combination of good luck and good management. There were rarely any issues with roaming dogs but cats were allowed to "be cats" or in other words, were left to roam the streets day and night. I guess I considered our cats more "disposable" for that reason. Our first two dogs were both strays...I think my parents tried to track down owners and got nowhere. I know both dogs were taken to the vet for a once-over and then booked in for their desexing ASAP once we were advised that nobody had reported them missing. From memory, the council had a pound arrangement with another council and I'm sure the strays were registered there just in case somebody was looking for them. Both were really good dogs: Penny was supposedly a cattle dog cross and Jerry was more than likely a GSD x BC - the smartest dog I knew back then! These days there are too many people willing to make a buck from unscrupulous breeding and the pet shop chains are only too happy to take on litters and give the "breeders" enough money for the pups to ensure the idiots keep breeding their pets. Years ago there wasn't any money in having pups and in fact, most of the people around us avoided breeding their pets because they didn't want to have to either re-home or PTS the resulting litters. Having said that, I'm sure there were drownings and the like...I suppose (just like today) some people just didn't want to desex, while a few really couldn't afford the surgery but loved their dog none-the-less. Oh, and I also think that multiple dog households are far more common today than 40 yrs ago...so there might be a much higher dog population today than back then.

I'm waiting for the larger size to become available and then I'll be buying two. I haven't heard anything about it, good or bad...but for the price, it's worth a try.

Our three dogs have been inside dogs from the time we adopted them. I'd prefer to know they're safe and secure inside than be constantly worrying about whether the greyhound had eaten any toads, whether Ruby was running around like a loon (damaging her already injured cruciate) or barking all day, and whether Molly felt secure in the great big yard or overwhelmed by too much space. We have tiled floors and while the house is open-plan, we have installed baby gates to separate the spaces. Ruby and Molly are kept together (neither wears a collar - just in case) and the greyhound is separated. I've come home once to find Lilly with the other two and a gate pushed over...but I think we must have had storms that day. I recently started working shifts so can be away for up to 12 hours at a time and the dogs cope all right. I let them out just before leaving. I've trained them to go on towels if they can't hold it and I leave plenty of towels around (plus puppy pads) just in case. Ruby won't go inside unless she's got a tummy upset (rare), Lilly and Molly both use the towels and are very good at not messing up the floors.

I left a comment as to the ridiculousness of this proposal. Since when is it an offence to own a dog and have it in a yard on private property? Bloody revenue raising and overly bureaucratic BS from yet another local government authority with too much time on its hands if you ask me. Why not address real issues rather than make up some crap about dogs doing what dogs are supposed to do: alert people to their presence?

My understanding is that the APBT and crosses are not banned in this local government area...so hence they are permitted to be kept. They may be a restricted breed, but each LGA in QLD has the ability to allow them to be kept and may impose additional conditions on the owners who keep them. I feel so sorry for the elderly woman who has had her life changed as a result of an irresponsible dog owner. No dog should be roaming into anyone's front yard. The report I read stated that Police had shot one of the dogs on site as neither dog was allowing paramedics onto the property to help the victim. The second dog was removed by council officers and is being held in the pound.

Looks like I'm crazy. ;) Oh dear. I'll be forced to stay in my usual haunt when next I'm down Mexico way.. that's the place with the hot and cold dog shower. You could just dump 2 of them PF? Then you could still stay Someone supposedly running a "pet friendly" motel actually suggested that to me once. :p I asked whether they suggested a similar thing to people travelling with children. Didn't THAT go down well! :D :D You know, there are plenty of people who have dogs instead of children these days. I just don't get why some people think it's perfectly acceptable to make rude and/or insensitive comments about us when I'm fairly sure if presented with the same number of children in a family, they wouldn't want to be so bloody rude. They might think it, but wouldn't express it, if you know what I mean. We had a number of fantastic holidays in VIC including with the dogs at pet friendly places where the dogs were welcome inside with us and NOT ONCE were the dogs an issue with any of the properties we stayed in. I guess times and perhaps attitudes have changed in just a few short years. That's really sad.

Wow! That's one way to lose a heap of business in one thread without even trying. Are you implying that anyone with more than one or two dogs is crazy? I would suggest that you consider removing the whole pet friendly tag from your advertising because you seem to have a lot of conditions which go along with permitting guests with dogs to stay in your property. We dog-lovers do get peeved when we see a property stating how pets welcome it is, then we go to book and are told that we have too many dogs, the wrong breed/s of dogs, or that they aren't sure that our dogs wouldn't cause problems for either themselves or other guests. What do you mean by some of us being "hard core"? I have no idea what you're saying there but I feel it could be insulting to some. I guess this is why it's so bloody hard for us responsible, caring and motivated dog-owners to have a holiday or to travel with our dogs. We are seen as being crazy because we love our dogs?

I'm sorry, thought you were just joking around. Well it's got every thing a good motel should have, guests so far have said that it has been all that they could ask for and very comfortable. It hasn't been rated, but by the old scale I'd say it's rated 3 1//2 to 4 Nope, Chewie would probably like to stay at your place with her three skin-kids + the rest of the family. I thought you said the rooms aren't big enough to accommodate kids as well as adults and dogs so I'm unsure as to why the questions were even asked if it's not suitable to her needs. Then again, it's not going to be any use to us because of the slightly silly restriction to 2 dogs. This sort of thing comes up from time to time when people advertise their property as being "pet friendly" but then they place rather silly restrictions on guests with dogs, such as only allowing one dog, only allowing "lap dogs" (all three of ours consider themselves to be lap dogs, does that count???), and dogs only permitted outside in the guest's car or chained up to the car. Yes, they're all super-dog-friendly places! If you really want to offer genuinely dog-friendly human accommodation, perhaps start with asking yourself WHY you want to appeal to this market and WHAT you really have to offer everyone who would like to holiday or travel with their dog or dogs. Why is your property better than others in the area and how can you make yours better if it's not? There is a great resort in the Gold Coast area which is purpose-built for dogs and humans to stay together. It is quite similar to Best Friends from looking at both property's websites. And when I last enquired the GC property didn't restrict dog numbers per guest/cabin. Just something to re-think about if you really want to attract dog-loving guests because there are lots of us with more than one or two dogs in our family. I wish you lots of luck!

That's a real shame. We have three dogs. We like to travel/holiday with them. So your place is definitely out for us on that basis. Surely in the holiday accommodation business, council regulations don't stipulate dog limits for guests in the way they do for permanent residents? Just a thought.

It's called Market Research, Chewbacca. Yes, I recall that the OP distinctly said they weren't looking for free advertising but were interested in what dog-loving guests would like to see in their holiday property. Gosh, Chewie you can be incredibly tunnel-visioned when it comes to comments about kids. The OP has the right to decide whether to allow kids at their property or not, in the same way they have the right to decide whether dogs are allowed. The problem is that so few pets allowed properties don't cater to children that those of us without kids are hard-pressed to find anywhere to take a break. We don't have kids because we don't like them - just as there are people without dogs because they don't like dogs. Why would we not only hand over our hard-earned dollars to buy a holiday but also grin and bear it when we are forced to co-exist with children? People have the choice to holiday without dogs, cats, horses any other type of animal, yet so few choices keep kids out so that non-kid-friendly people have somewhere to stay. Do you really think it's OK for parents to bitch about us non-parents wanting time away from kids - all kids? Because frankly it annoys the heck out of me that parents feel they have an open-ticket to all places with kids in tow regardless of what everyone else might find annoying in the process. If you want to have kids, nobody is stopping you. However, when a kid-free property comes along, why not just let it be? It's as if you have to make "poor me" comments every single time the child-free topic is raised, isn't it? I wonder why that is...

some people Chewy, there are already a gazillion pets allowed places which cater to people with children. It's so nice to (finally!) see a few places which exclude kids. If you didn't have kids, I'm sure you would feel like a break somewhere that doesn't welcome them at least some of the time. :D I know I get tired of hearing other people's kids screaming, I get tired of tripping over someone's kid's toys left in hallways, I get tired of dodging prams, and I really get tired of parents whining about their kids' behaviour. But that's just me. :D ETA - I just read that kids are allowed. So I'm going to sulk over that because it's not kid-free. Therefore we aren't likely to ever visit. Just in case.

Yes, it depends on your dogs. I have three (greyhound, staffy, mini foxie) and all three were raw fed until recently. Due to a variety of reasons/causes, all are currently on a dry food diet. Greyhound is on Purina One (dry, supermarket brand) and is doing okay on it; she does very well on the Royal Canin Sensible Medium but I can't justify the expense and you'll see why when I tell you about the other two! The staffy has a number of health problems which has meant she's had a really restricted diet for nearly a year. She's now on Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach, which she's doing well on. Before this she could only tolerate fish, sweet potato, roo mince, turkey and the occasional piece of dried liver. So the Pro Plan is a really good food for her at the moment and it's expensive but I can justify that price given the situation. The mini foxie loved being on raw but it resulted in her toileting inside overnight nearly every night. We had to stop that somehow. So when we were moving interstate, I tried her on the Royal Canin Indoor Mini Dog. She has done so well on it that I'm reluctant to put her back onto raw. But again, it's an expensive food (but for a dog of that size, its' manageable). There is no chance that all three dogs could do well on the same food. So if your dogs aren't the same breed, and sometimes even if they are, you may find that one does well on one food but the other doesn't. BTW- I would love to get them all back on raw...we just can't at the moment.

I've used Priceless Pets for ages thanks to a DOLer's recommendation some time ago. Now that we're in Brissy, I can actually go to their vet practice to buy...so I save on postage (but then again, I have to drive there...it's about 8 kms from home, I think). Wouldn't shop elsewhere for heartworm and flea/tick products.

Hazel knows how much she is loved and missed. She was a pretty special girl...and nothing will take away that place in your heart where her memories will stay forever.