♥Bruno♥

I gave in and listened to it. To me, it sounds like a dog? Bruno does a similar very very low growl when strangers come. But it could also definitely be a man. Tough one. Thankfully your dogs were a big enough deterrant for them not to enter the house. Definitely report it to the police.

pot, kettle...black! Some people have balls to de-rail threads and use judgements against people they know nothing about, except the "research" they have read. Several people in a FIFO situation have replied, but you have chosen to ignore them, because their comments are logical and don't back your stupid judgements. So what about people who want to buy a dog, then seperate and the dog spends one week with each partner? How is that any different to spending time at a kennel? At least in a decent kennel you know the dog will be well cared for. In someone's home you have no idea what happens.

Yes we've had a couple of dogs die from rat bait poisoning. Never had one survive, but that's not to say your dog wont make it. We use Bromakil, so depending on the type of bait ingested and how much would depend on the outcome. I hope Sally makes a full recovery, sounds like you got her to the vet asap which might help her chances.

Oh FFS what kind of sick loonie would be in a burning house and think 'hmm...dog or child...hmmm DOG!' Seriously, you need your head read if you truly believe that is what you would do. You obviousy have no human contact apart from the internet so see your dogs as your family. Guess what? As much as we all love our dogs, they are DOGS! Animals! Not human! How would you feel if someone had to make that decision, between you and their dog? What an absolute twit. Honestly.

Oh killing wombats is terrible! I had no idea. We don't even have wombats in WA (or koalas, or platypus!) so I guess I am oblivious to the damage they can cause.

Camel meat is lovely, we ate a lot of that in Broome. Nekhbet - your comment about farmers poisoning native wildlife that eat their crops? Do you have anything to back that claim up with? Sounds quite stupid to me actually. Native wildlife, (I assume you mean kangaroos?) doesn't make much of a dent at all. It is the mice plagues that do damage over East. And if you are talking about kangaroos, you are either referring to hobby farmers who grow crops on a very small scale, or I've missed the point completely, which is possible :laugh: We have lots of kangaroos and emus on all our properties and yes they do eat the crops, but not enough to even consider wasting time or money poisoning them for.

lovemymutts - it defeats the purpose to have a working dog tied to the back of a ute while working. They jump on and off as told/required, to stop the ute and unhitch them all the time and hitch them back on is just not feasible.

Our dogs basically live on the utes. I guess they dont drive long distances on roads on the back, so we never tether them. We have found it is much easier on a dog to slide off a tray than be tethered and hang themselves trying to jump off. However if I was driving on open roads I would use a very short chain and some sort of rubber matting underfoot.

Wow, I just caught up on this thread! Such a wealth of information in here, thanks to everyone for sharing. We have decided against the idea of using Maremmas. They just aren't suited to our needs, but I am in such awe of the work they do. We are currently building our sheep numbers and are close to 30,000 at the moment, which means by this time next year we may be well over 40,000. We don't feel that it is feasible to run as many dogs as we would need to, to ensure stock losses are reduced to a point where the dogs are paying for themselves. This is mainly due to the mob structure we run and the paddock set up. However in the future who knows! We are looking into the possibility of trialling the Maremmas on just the stud flock, so maybe 5,000-10,000 sheep and seeing how they go. But this will be in the future, once a lot more research has been done by us. Like most things with farming, it comes down to cost vs benefit and at the moment we can't justify it. Total bummer for me, but I think a lot of it is the fact that I just love dogs and love the thought of having more

I don't think the person is re-homing the dog due to the incident in the news recently, more that the dog has slowly been getting more aggro and their JRT was hurt badly the other day by the dog. I had messaged her and she said that she had rung up quite a few pounds and shelters herself and all of them told her to PTS So that's what they did this morning. Very sad story and not something I have ever had to deal with before, on a personal level. Thanks for all the advice anyway, I do appreciate it.

Someone on my Facebook just posted that she needs to re-home her dog. It is a 6 yr old American Staffy, female, de-sexed, microchipped, 22kgs. Great with humans but not good with other dogs. I don't know anything more at this stage, but I thought I would ask on here to see if anyone knows of any suggestions? The dog is located in Melbourne. I can ask the owner questions through Facebook. I just asked if she is from a pet shop and she said 'not from a shop, we know her parents though" Not sure what that means. She said they have to get rid of her as they have 2 staffy's and a JRT too Is anyone interested or can you give me some helpful advice to pass onto this person.

84 dogs does sound like a hell of a lot though. If he was a legitimate reputable breeder, don't they aim for quality over quantity? (I'm not a breeder, thats just an assumption) Keeping and maintaining 84 dogs would require a lot of work, and more money than a job at a pet shop could supply you with. Not saying he is a puppy farmer, but you know what they say - if it walks like a duck and it talks like a duck, it's probably a duck?

So sorry to hear this Jules. RIP Brock, a very special dog

Thanks Steve! Ok, I did have the total wrong end of the stick! So really they are treated like sheep, not like dogs (don't mean that in a negative way). Obviously they would receive different food, but apart from that, they just hang about in the paddocks with the sheep. The Dunlunce case study is just amazing. Have printed it out for hubby to read

Thanks espinay and persephone, for the links. I am on shaped speed at the moment (damn crappy satellite internet!) so will check them out at an off-peak time. Thanks again for the info, I really do appreciate it.