All Activity

I’d like to add that is all too common (with any size dog or problem behaviour) to not consider or only give lip service to medical conditions, including but not limited to anxiety disorders or chronic pain or discomfort of any sort. I know many little dogs whose toileting mishaps were solved with anxiety medication and/or analgesia. Sometimes it’s a rapid behaviour change because they very much knew what to do, they were simply too worried or sore to do it! We do our dogs a tremendous disservice when we write off a behaviour as normal just because it is common in a particular type of dog. As an example, imagine you’re a Toy Poodle or Chihuahua with luxating patellas, or perhaps a Dachshund or French Bulldog with IVDD. Your human thinks you should be perfectly fine walking down slippery stairs to toilet in the rain, when it hurts and feels sketchy at the best of times. They don’t make the connection because you can toilet outside some of the time, and you can run around when adrenaline or happiness mask your pain. They might not realise you’re in pain at all until you’re in such agony that you yelp or stop walking entirely, and even then they might call you dramatic.

I have had so many little dogs over the years and some are absolutely religious about going outside - rain, hail, shine, whatever. Sometimes if we are have persistent and heavy rain, I will block off access to the stairs to stop them going out and getting soaked. I do have a deck that at one stage I called the pissoir because when one starts, others find it very difficult not to join in. Others, even of the same breed, are unreliable, to say it nicely . I am currently fostering a little male Pomeranian and he is pretty well prefect despite having not had the best upbringing. Because my dogs are all on different meds, I feed them separately and he generally eats in the bedroom. On occasions, I have forgotten him (I know, dreadful ) and when I open the door he bolts for the outside and I haven't found any messes. Others, as PL says, you can spend ages in the yard with them only to have them come upstairs and wee inside. I call fully housetrained a dog who will let you know he/she needs to go outside if the door is closed. But, yes, I believe certain breeds are more difficult to train.

I've read the American vet had a history of abuse towards animals. Can't recall the details as it was the internet after all so I didn't read to much into but you never know

I've been told Italian Greyhounds are very difficult to house train.

edit - sorry - triggering information.

Yes, it's said that some small breeds are difficult especially when young. Spend an hour outside seemingly fine, then come back in and pee on the floor. Housetraining to a point where they are reliable is absolutely possible, it just might take longer than others. Not sure why. You do get the occasional 'No way am I going out in the rain!' sneaky poop under the dining table type thing but small breeds aren't alone in that. Ultimately, as you've demonstrated - they respond to routine and supervision (and sometimes just some human company for reassurance). At any age, it's exactly the same as house training a puppy. Sending her home, where her owner's skill set may be different - she'll probably backslide unless you train the owner too. I find established markers (both male and female) to be a bit stubborn with the last of that habit.

I have been caring for a relative’s small dog for several months. My relative took her in three years ago as a young adult dog and quickly discovered that she wasn’t housetrained. She made a little housetraining progress and lapses went from daily to a few times a week. Now that she’s living with me, we mostly avoid lapses by monitoring and management but I doubt if she’ll ever be reliably clean in the house. This is outside my experience. My puppies graduate from the management stage to being reliably housetrained very quickly. Google (that fount of all wisdom) tells me that this breed and several other small breeds are notoriously difficult to housetrain. Is this true? Are some breeds more difficult to housetrain or is it because people manage their housetraining differently? Do housetraining tools like pee-pads, for example, send the wrong message?

The Diana effect? Hound people for headlines. Recently a vet killed himself after being criticized about a horse he sedated and was coming too. It floundered towards him and kicked it away or something like that. The attacks so bad he couldn't cope

There was a post accusing Kangala of stringing it out so they could make more in donations. The person (American I think) said they've trapped loads of strays and never took so long. Always someone online who knows better!

Yes asal, very rude. Angry attacking of Kangala who did all the leg work as if they could do better.

Gee one was rude, demanded why haven't her humans on a plane already to pick her up, citing she would. As to the press invasions. Obviously no lessons learnt about rights,

The photos I saw on the brumby page were koalas in a commercially planted gum plantation being clear felled with no effort to remove them first. My grandfather 's business in 1940's was felling for timber and firewood. He NEVER cut a tree with a koala in it. No one was allowed to harm a koala Tragic isn't the same now!

There is some video footage of Valerie. She looks amazing! https://www.facebook.com/kangalarescue

Lets not forget that had they brought in suitable skilled rescuers they likely wouldn't have paid them a penny to do days of heartbreaking work to triage, save, euthanise, rehabilitate or relocate any of the koalas, so cost was not a factor in their decision. Probably what was was outsiders seeing the reality of what had happened and how many koalas were harmed and lost. Decisions weren't made about the koalas - they were made to suit the humans, as usual.

Ummm... pademelons aren't generally found high up in trees. (tongue in cheek comment there) What isn't really being mentioned is how much foliage was (or wasn't) on the trees that the koalas were spotted and shot in. If they were all virtually leaf free, then I suppose spotting koalas in them would be easier than usual. That said, triaging from a moving platform at a range of 30 metres or more via binoculars would still be an impossible task, don't you think? Also, if the fire damage in the area was so extensive as to render the trees leafless, then it also stands to reason that undergrowth would also have been removed by said fires too... which should have made on foot incursions to the area less onerous than when the area was in full vegetation, yes? So I'm calling bullsh!t on the supposed reason for deciding on aerial culling as being "too hard" to get to on foot. Pretty sure there were at least dozens, if not hundreds, of wildlife rescuers completely willing to trek in there and do the job with less totally lethal outcomes for at least some of the animals that ended up being killed - and those that did need to be euthanised would have been given some dignity in their deaths. T.

I couldn't agree with you more. Poor management is being kind to them. All they needed to do was to get the rescue groups involved and who knows how many could have been saved. Rescue groups are hugely experienced and would know how to triage and humanely euthanise those who did not stand a chance. I really and truly sickens me how people talk about a "humane approach" when what they really mean is that it's too hard, let's just shoot them all. Although it is a long time ago, this reminds me of an incident when I was volunteering at Sydney Dogs and Cats Home. There was an outbreak of cat flu and the manager of the Home couldn't be bothered to try to manage the situation and said to have all the cats killed. The lady who was in charge of the cats came into the office where I was, obviously in huge distress, and gasped out to me, "They are killing my cats." Luckily before the wholesale slaughter of the cats could take place, the owner of the veterinary hospital to which the Home was attached took charge and put in isolation practices and dealt with the outbreak. Some people are not suited to manage difficult situations and it would seem that people in Victoria are certainly in that category. As for that ridiculous person who was so pilloried on social media, well I agree what she did was totally stupid, but why isn't this horrible horrible event all over social media? How anyone could contract for a job that involved sitting in a helicopter and shooting little animals is beyond my comprehension. And assessed at 30 metres!!! FFS!!!! I would be hard pressed to tell a Koala from a Pademelon at 30 metres let alone whether it was in extremis or not.

To my understanding, they would not have starved to death if allowed access to the plantation nearby. It's poor management and for goodness sake ... the carry-on over that nitwit who picked up a wombat for tiktok .... but we're shooting our koalas instead of better environmental planning.

Death by starvation may be worse. How many animals we loose to unceasing growth

yes, true. From The Guardian Deakin University associate prof Desley Whisson, a wildlife ecologist who specialises in koala management, thinks it was a “merciful, compassionate response” in the circumstances, and one made despite the repercussions. “It’s political suicide,” she says. “It would have just been easier for them to walk away and not do anything.” “This is quite a drastic response,” she says.” But if you’ve got helicopters flying over an area and you see hundreds of koalas that are burnt, or covered in fire retardant, or otherwise showing signs of distress, I think you would want to make a decision to put them out of their misery.” Palma says while the organisation would not like to see aerial killing of wildlife become the norm, euthanasia should be carried out using the approach that causes the least stress to the animal, as humanely as possible, and always be scrutinised. Is aerial culling accurate? Todd says koalas were euthanised only after being individually assessed first, often at less than 30 metres, supported by use of binoculars and other optical aids. He says an initial aerial trial – supported by a ground-based veterinary assessment – demonstrated that aerial shooting was both accurate and humane. According to Todd, a wildlife vet’s assessment during the trial showed that “all koalas assessed and euthanised by the aerial team during the trial were in very poor health and would have continued to suffer in a deteriorating state of welfare if they had remained alive”.

Hope all goes well for him

Booked into Surgery May8th . fingers X

Sadly... yes it's true. T.

I can hardly type these words. The horror, if it is true, is unbearable. I have seen reports from many and varied media outlets that the Victorian Government authorised the shooting from helicopters of Koalas in the Budj Bim National Park, citing they were in danger of starving because of recent bush fires. The reports say approx 750 Koalas have been killed.

Oh ok. I didn't realise she wasn't sighted until recently.

I have an older RC Collie on it, she has been on 4 weekly injections for about 9-10 months now. I was told about the possible side effects at the time, and also met a collie owner a few months ago who was very anti the drug as she felt that is why she lost her collie (they developed cancer after a couple of months). It is scary, but it honestly has made such a positive difference to my girl that I won't be stopping it unless something changes with her. My girl is an old lady - she still plays (albeit only for a little while), and gets very excited when she hears the lead (walks are just a slow potter now with more sniffing than walking) and still has an amazing appetite - so quality over quantity at this stage. I am dreading the day that will ultimately come, and can only hope it is a few years away yet. But is this drug helps, then I will keep using it until (if) it causes her a problem Pic just cos