♪♫LMBC♫♪

Theres always an excuse to dramatize a non event, they do it all the time. If it wasnt this it would be something else, and who is hurt by this kind of garbage reporting ? Our innocent dogs. Now they have hurt the name of the Rottwieller, who sounds as though he was in his yard, never mind the fact that the little guy was allowed to roam around looking for trouble, never mind the other dozen that happened the same way in Australia that day. IMO the dogs are not the focus of the story here, but rather the children, and the readers empathy to how they would be thinking/feeling if their family dog had died. Who cares who's to blame? The kids should be the focus of this story. Judging on the comments that were left under the article by readers, I think its pretty clear that the focus was on the "evil rottweiler" who supposedly caused the problem. Comments such as all these kinds of dogs need to be destroyed/banned/blah blah blah just like any other dog attack story.

Dogs are very adaptable. I can't offer you any baby related advice because I don't have kids, but I can say that if you start re-training Ruby now, she will quickly get used to sleeping somewhere else and it really won't affect her much, if at all. The important thing is that you make any changes to her routine well before the baby comes home, so that Ruby doesn't associate the changes with the new baby, and also so that adjustments can be made gradually with no rush.

You do understand, 16Paws, that the 'cat trap' doesn't harm the cat? It just a cage where the door shuts quickly behind them when the cat goes in there. Then the Council comes, picks them up and they go through the pound process. If the cat is microchipped, the owner is contacted. And yes, the owner pays the fine for their cat wandering in the first place, just as owners of stray/escaped dogs do. If your cat got out and someone trapped it and rang the rangers you should be pleased, because it means someone is helping to prevent your kitty becoming hit by a car or encountering some other danger. I can guarantee that where we are living now (with my OH and ten high-prey drive dogs) a cat wouldn't survive 5 seconds in this yard so you should be thankful it gets trapped and taken to the pound in one piece.

Well, I can understand that, but as sad as their situation is, there is no excuse to allow a dog to roam. The poor family who own the rotty will now suffer as well, if their dog is targeted as dangerous. The dog could have been hit by a car, anything. I would have thought they would want to keep the dog confined to save themselves more heartbreak...

I buy lamb shanks and offcuts from Coles, but I just feed them whole, I wouldn't bother cutting the meat off. If you're going to do that, you're probably wasting your money buying them in the first place. Apart from bones I also give him mince (any kind, whatever's on special), sardines, and occasionally he gets a chop or something that's past its use-by date

That is strange, I would have thought that if you paid for xrays that you would be able to keep them...

From the way it was written, I got the impression that the dog was out, and went up to someone else's fence. It says that the dog ran and hid under a car, then at the end the grandmother says "He usually stays in the yard."

It would have been very sad for those kids if the poor dog had died. Hopefully it will be kept in the yard or on a leash now.

Yes, there have been studies that looked at the amount of land that would be needed to supply the current human population with enough protein from vegetable sources to survive. Even if every square inch of suitable land on the planet were used (including remaining animal habitat), it wouldn't be enough. So, a decrease in human population would be needed.... I suggest members of PETA should put their mouths where their principles are, and go first! Do you have an links to these studies? That theory seems bizarre to me. I'm a vegetarian that doesn't go around parading my opinions, in fact I'm the only one in my household that doesn't eat meat lol. But I still like to quietly dream of a day when we don't eat meat anymore, as a species. Its a nice thought, but unfortunately, humans are designed to eat meat. Some people can survive on a vegetarian diet and some (like me) can't. I was vegetarian for about 8 years, and I constantly struggled with anaemia. My body just couldn't digest enough iron from vegetable sources, I was on a very specific diet to try to get as much iron as possible but it just didn't work. Even iron supplements didn't help, my body just can't absorb them ;) So I need to eat meat to stay healthy. And to be perfectly honest, I like meat

yep yep yep yep yep Its not all doom and gloom people! Yes, but that's not at all what the video looked like, and most people who saw it on TV wouldn't bother looking up the website.

My sisters dog was bitten by a brown snake, all up the bill was over $8000, including after hours consults, 5 night stay at the surgery, tests, and anti-venom. Its not cheap lucky, the dog survived and is now perfectly healthy. I should say though, that it was pretty bad to need so much treatment. My sister came home from work to find the dog unconscious, no sign of a snake anywhere so they would have done tests to confirm it was a brown snake. It was touch and go for the first few nights and the dog was very lucky. I imagine it would have been cheaper if it hadn't been so bad.

Yeah she kind of contradicted herself with that one. First she says, "you must see the parents, if you can't, don't buy the puppy" then the next thing she says is that "some" petshops are ok?? She shouldn't be on tv talking about things like this if she can't back herself up. She should have just said, "No, you shouldn't buy from pet shops".

They crossed a Labrador with a toy poodle? Um..WTF?? I have to say, I am a bit disappointed to see Dr. Katrina promoting cross breeding

My sisters dog was bitten by a brown snake, all up the bill was over $8000, including after hours consults, 5 night stay at the surgery, tests, and anti-venom. Its not cheap :D lucky, the dog survived and is now perfectly healthy.

You could throw tofu at them Somehow I don't think it would have the same effect...

I have an idea. Lets find out where they are planning on setting up their office, then we can stand outside and throw blood at them, like they do at KFC Or we could just cut to the chase and blow the place up.

It is my opinion that the life of a human is always worth more than the life of an animal. If milking rabbits can stop the suffering and pain of people with this condition, and improve their quality of life, then I can't see a problem with it. If it was your child or another loved on suffering from this condition, wouldn't you do anything to help them? Animals are used to benefit humans all the time. I hope those who are against this don't ever eat meat, milk, eggs, honey or anything else produced from an animal, or use any vaccine or medication that has been produced using animals.

'Darcy' is apparently a Scottish/Gaelic name, which is very fitting I think But I didn't know that until after I named him, so it was entirely coincidental It suits him though...

I lost it with her a bit today when she told me that they'd been walking him in the heat. Hopefully she learned a lesson about that at least. Dad knows he is overfed and he does try to cut down on his meals, he feeds Sam most nights because mum is at work. But its hard when she keeps giving him extras throughout the day. And apart from that Dad doesn't really care much. My sister and I both tell her all the time that she needs to change the way she looks after him but she thinks we don't know what we're talking about. I guess we just have to keep at her...

He was, but my parents only took him to that vet a couple of times, on my recommendation. But they don't take him there anymore because he charges more and apparently doesn't know what he's talking about As it was he had to do a lot of convincing for them to have him desexed (he had prostate problems). They have gone back to their old vet because it is cheaper there. The vet they see now has never made mention of his weight or any of the problems my vet picked up. But then, they are the same vets that do the checks and vaccs for the local PP puppies, and encourage people to BYB... ETA Rozzie according to the vet it was heatstroke.

She is a bit overweight but not huge.

I could try the letter, thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, given his age and current condition it may be too late to change anything even if I could get through to them. I'm visiting them today with Darcy, and she took one look at him and said I can't be feeding him enough because is too skinny. He looks exactly the same as he did last time she saw him, but she thinks that since we've moved out of her house he has lost weight. So not only does she not look after her dog properly, but she also seems to think I am incapable of looking after mine

Both mid 40s, dad had lots of border collies growing up and is really good with training etc but he was a farm boy so his view on dogs is they are just dogs. Mum loves dogs but she just doesn't understand their needs and she seems to think they are just hairy humans. I know she loves Sam but she has no idea how to do the right thing by him

I have always had issues with how my parents look after our dog. He is almost 11 years old. He is overweight (he's a border collie, weighing almost 30kgs) he struggles to walk because he is starting to develop arthritis (hmm, wonder why ) obviously the extra weight doesn't help. I have been telling my mother for years that she is overfeeding him, but she won't listen to me. She knows she's doing the wrong thing but refuses to feed him less because she thinks that somehow, he will think she doesn't love him anymore. He doesn't even eat it all anyway (a clear indication that he doesn't need so much food) but she will stand there with him and try to get him to eat it all, because apparently, the only reason he doesn't eat it is because he wants to get her attention Along with his nightly meal (which is way too big anyway), he also get several treats each day, as well as food scraps and leftovers. I tried to tell her that, now that he's older he shouldn't eat so much, but I got in trouble because no one is allowed to say he's old. In summer, he struggles with the heat but she won't let him in the house in the air-con, because god forbid she might get dog hair in her precious house. He would probably be ok if he wasn't carrying all that extra weight. He does have shade but it hardly makes a difference in the weather we've been having. They also clip most of his coat off because they think it will keep him cool. I have told them that they shouldn't do it because his coat provides him with insulation, but apparently I don't know what I'm talking about. They won't take him anywhere in their cars, because they don't want hair on anything. So if they need to take him anywhere they put him in the back of the ute, with nothing but his collar and leash to secure him to the tray. The ute gets parked outside in the sun all day so it must be hot in there too and they don't even put anything down for him to stand on When he was desexed recently, I insisted on picking him up myself because they would have just put him in the ute, even after just having surgery Now here's what has got me really annoyed today. Mum just told me, that they had to rush him to the vet the other day because he collapsed during a walk. Well WTF do you expect when you walk an elderly, overweight dog in 40 degree heat??? I would love to take him home with me and take care of him but technically he is mum's dog, so there's nothing I can do. Its just so sad because he could easily have a few more years left, but I don't think he has long at all because he is not looked after properly

I think you'll find that most of them won't cover you for a pre-existing complaint anyway. It also depends on how old your dog is, some have an age limit. I have insurance with Pet Plan, I've had it since Darcy was 8 weeks old. I haven't had to make a claim yet.