Sheridan

Me too :D When I was overseas apparently Andy sat at the front door for the first 4 or 5 days waiting for me. Eventually they all settled but the moment I walked in the door they were all over me as if Mum didn't exist - poor Mum!! :D I must admit I doubt I'll go away for quite so long again - I miss them too badly and I don't sleep well without the soothing noise of Mac snoring! ;) Oh, I wake up if I can't hear Grumpy snoring and Mini sighing in their sleep.

I like vets that listen to me. After all, I live with my dog, they don't. Sorry to hear your dog's vet didn't take you seriously, luvsdogs. It's very rude. The vets we see learn very quickly that I tend to be Research Girl and they explain everything in detail. I think I'll take Grumpy for a mental health check up soon. He is becoming vaguer and more needy. His latest, which started two nights ago, is that he needs to be bribed every few inches to his bed. Previously, he'd take one or two but now it's every single step, even with chicken. westiemum, how long did the vet say the Vivitonin would take to kick in?

I pine when I go to work ... #alsopathetic When I went overseas in 2003 for three weeks, I rang every day to see how my dog was. Mum would say, 'He's fine, he's fine.' My sister rang me and said flatly, 'They can't even mention your name to him because he goes looking for you.'

When Grumpy had the reaction to Tramal, I thought I was going to have to put him to sleep. His breeder was very supportive. I have no idea what the time was in China where he lives but he was pretty much there at the other end of the email. I wept buckets because I really did think I would lose him. Now he's 15, I know our time together is limited but it's now been four and a half years that we've been together and outside of his grumpiness, he's pretty healthy. I remember to thank him (and Mini) every day for coming to live with me. Now he's 15, he also thinks he's a bit special (my anthropomorphisation) and thinks I'm going to give him a treat each time I go into the kitchen. I said to him before, 'Just cos you're 15, don't think you're going to get something; that was so four days ago.'

I've begun to say 'special needs' rather than 'issues'.

I take staycations because Grumpy is difficult to get anywhere and has to be in a travel crate in the back seat. This leaves no room for Mini. Previously, he was fine to travel and went to Victoria and SA with me with no problems.

Grumpy doesn't lose weight. He's at 20 kg, which is okay, but as he gets older, I'd like him a little leaner. Less dinner, I think although sometimes he doesn't finish it anyway.

My sister came around the other day and asked if my dogs had enough beds. They have a kennel each, a trampoline bed, a bean bag, a couch, and Grumpy has a mattress that someone gave him. Nominally, they sleep in their crates when we go to bed but sometimes Grumpy puts on his stubborn act and refuses even after being bribed. I'm looking at having step made that's big enough for him to get on my bed (so probably small coffee table-ish size). The alternative, which I got a resigned shake of the head from the vet for, is to buy a bed that's closer to the ground. He can still fairly easily jump up on my bed but sometimes he misses and I worry about him jumping off.

I've recently put Grumpy on Sasha's Blend and give him green-lipped mussels for treats. I haven't noticed much difference except that Mini won't eat her dinner unless I put a sprinkle of Sasha's Blend on her dinner, too.

Nobody deserves to have windows broken, it is what sometimes has to happen to release a dog from a car. I am not sure why you keep posting. You asked what other people do with their dogs, we told you, and you seem to take it as a personal insult. We don't do what we do with our own dogs with your needs in mind. We are talking about days, not evening or night time. Nobody really cares what you do with your dog when you go out for a Pizza, and if it's dark, nobody will notice your dog anyway, unless it is barking its head off. As long as people know how hot it can get in a stationary car with no ventilation, they will probably choose to avoid doing that to their dog. Nothing you said has made any difference to that. I hope people have taken away something useful from this topic. As I pointed in an earlier post, evenings can be quite warm.

With my two, it often depends on the weather whether they get a walk or not.

Just you wait. It's all 'I'm a bit demented, Mum, can I sleep on your bed?' and 'I'm a bit demented, Mum, but another of those bikkies will make me more alert.'

Edit Can't be bothered.

Grumpy and Mini both transitioned very well and quickly, Grumpy, in particular. The previous owner didn't do the best clean up and actually left some old dog poo in the yard, which made me but Grumpy spent days exploring the place. Took no notice of me.

There are two of us. Holy Dog. As mentioned above, barring some cataclysmic event that kills the two of us dead on the spot, one of us would always be able to duck away to see to the dogs. In any case, we can see our dogs - there is a glass door in Dominos. This is surbuban Canberra, not Sydney. I'm not even sure why I'm having this incredibly ridiculous discussion when absolutely nothing you say is going to stop me having my dogs wait the five minutes in the car in the evening on the occasional days while we pick up our pizza from Dominos 10 metres away ... Good grief. But look, it's fine - I'm sure everyone thinks that they're a better and more responsible dog owner than everyone else. Yes, don't we.

Because it's seriously only five to ten minutes and if you knew the Florey carpark, you'd know that we can see them at all times. If it the shopping trip is likely to be any longer than that, then they get dropped home or one of us hops out of the car with the dogs and sits on a bench under a tree ... Given that what I'm referring to is a short side-trip along the way home, there's really no point going home and then coming back out again. Besides, OH and I enjoy hanging out together no matter how brief the duration Anyone who knows us personally knows that we would never do anything that puts our dogs in harms way. We even go home early if there's a thunder storm because we worry about the dogs. I'm not trying to say that people should leave their dogs in a hot car, I'm just trying to say that the fact that some of us do have our dogs alone in the car for a few minutes now and then in strictly controlled circumstances during summer evenings does not necessarily make us bad owners but if someone does want to come along and try to smash our car window in then Lay on, MacDuff. You cannot control the time you're away from your car. You just can't. 'I'll only be a few minutes' doesn't work when there's 10 people ahead of you in the queue and the checkout operator also has to serve the smokers who come in, so instead of just 10 people there's 15, and then there's the one who has something that needs a price check and there goes another 5 minutes, and so on.

Well given that we generally only take the dogs out when there are both of us, even if one of us got caught up with something, I'm sure that the other could go out and tend to the dogs. Of course one can never account for all unforeseen events and a giant meatball of catastrophic proportions could fall out of space and kill us both, thereby condemning our dogs to a sad and lingering death. In any case, 7pm in Canberra is usually not THAT hot and I am pretty comfortable our dogs can last for 5-10 minutes ... But to save time, I'll report myself to the RSPCA now... Really? Well, it's 6.30-ish now and it's 28 degrees in Canberra. Obviously, you live in a different Canberra to everyone else ...

Thank you, everyone. I am very proud of my grumpy man. I baked some lamb, peas, and mint bikkies for him yesterday (baked and baked and baked) and they were a big hit. Mini also gave them the paws up. Today, we all very tired, but that doesn't stop them following me everywhere. What are you doing, Mum?

Exactly. Black Russians were bred as guard dogs but are said to have Airedale in them. Irish, Kerries, Wheatens are all larger, leggier terriers too that don't go underground. To me a terrier is a fearless hunter of small game or vermin with a wiry and alert appearance and personality. The irish, wheaten and kerry do go underground. They flushed out badgers in Ireland (those badgers had big holes, problems for farmers), as well as being general farm dogs. Have you seen this video? Rabbits and badgers, featuring kerry blues. It's obviously for the camera but that's what they did.

Who do you see?

There are storms. There shouldn't be storms on a man's birthday. He is not impressed.

In such cases, public opinion is often the best artbiter.

It's the Grumpy man's 15th birthday today. We went for a walk early and he had a special treat of cabanossi (which we'll probably regret later) then it was time for presents and a run around the yard. Despite being the Grumpiest Wheaten Ever! he's an utter joy in my life, alongside Princess Mini. Here's a couple of photos from this morning. Princess Mini felt so exhausted she also had to have a rest. Now I'm going to make some mussel biscuits and it's a testament to how much I love my Grumpy man because they're stinking out the house. He's a good looking boy, my Grumpy.

If this was Grumpy, I'd be saying that he was a cunning little bastard who knows how to wind his mum around his little finger.

Pretty girl. She looks good!