Gayle.

Megan that's a hoot, don't even think it. Dogs that like to get out are hard-wired, nothing to do with ownership deficiencies (except lack of tack-sharp eyes on fence maintenance). We have two dogs whose aim and mission in life is to get out, they revel in running off for big adventures (or just for the hell of it). The joy in running away is exceeded only by the joy in coming home. It's how they are. Rheneas on the other hand hates even going for walks: "What, leave our perfectly good house, are you all mad!!?" Our three love the new home, purely love it. Doesn't stop the wicked two from seeking escape to go just that bit further. I share your distress when they do manage to take off. Sick with worry and all that at the time, then the adrenalin-sickness feeling afterwards. Young Rheneas is a life-saver, he always rushes to tell me if the black dogs have run off (even if it's just down the paddock after our own resident rabbits). Hard to believe they are all well over ten years old. Take heart (and fix the fence). Agree with every word of this. Ripley has gotten out 3 times this week.....we thought we had it beat as he hadn't escaped for a few weeks, but he's obviously figured out another method of climbing the fence (6 ft of it). Whenever we find him, whether it be on the corner nearest our house, or way down the other end of the village, he's enormously pleased to see us, hops up happily into the car and settles himself for the ride home. None of the other dogs would even contemplate leaving the yard without one of us. Isaak won't even set foot out the front door unless he's glued to my side. You just never know what scary things could be lurking in wait to frighten a big black dog! Our dogs have an awesome yard....it's about 1500 sq mt of fun, shade, shelter, lawns, gravel, concrete with toys scattered far and wide, fish ponds for paddling in, a sandpit for digging....it's a dogs paradise. And Ripley loves it, I often look out to see him having loads of fun out there. But he gets a bad case of wanderlust and he's off for a neighbourhood visit.

I've got two DINOS.....Dusty is to certain dogs (mostly young males) and Shae is to every dog and a lot of humans. She's fine if she's off lead, but on lead is a whole other story. She gives plenty of warning signals but if they keep coming, she snaps. I have to be very vigilant and keep other dogs away from her and warn people not to try and pat her while she's on lead.

That's awful. We have a serial escape artist (Ripley) and I know what it's like to feel your blood run cold. Yesterday we spent 2 hours looking for him when he wasn't in the yard when we got home, we found him with some people about 2 streets away. Fortunately they know him and were keeping him safe til they had time to bring him home. We don't know how he's getting out. He has now earned himself an extended stay in the courtyard while we're at work. It's not because you're a bad owner, they get out because they can. Little buggers.

Twice daily here. Mine get a raw chicken leg each for breakfast and their kibble or main meal (sometimes raw bones) for dinner. I do it this way for better weight management and it seems to keep them on a fairly even keel.

Leave the dog inside to sleep, tell your husband this is how it will be from now on, and enjoy your happy, quiet dog. She's part of the family, she wants to be inside with her family. At 5 months, she is too young for a shock collar.

Limit register doesn't prevent unscrupulous breeding, if someone wants to breed with a limit register dog they can. They just can't register the puppies. I'd bet London to a brick that a good number of backyard breeders got their start with a limit register dog. All it really prevents is that particular dog being shown.

I never thought of collies as being a rare breed as I grew up in a neighborhood of Uk immigrants and the collie was often their breed of choice for the family pet. Then a few weeks ago I was driving through town and saw someone walking a beautiful black tri collie and I slowed down to look and it suddenly dawned on me that it's a very rare sight these days to see a collie anywhere outside of dog shows. Pity, because they are a wonderful family dog.

Feild Spaniels are awesome My friend owns and shows a feild spaniel (I have handled her in the ring a handfull of times aswell) and she has the most DEVINE temperment! You have to watch your lines as some can be abit skitty but the good ones are BRILLIANT! Fields are the best Not that I'm biased or anything LOL. As my friend said above you do have to be careful with lines and be prepared to socialise them within the first year to ensure they meet new people, dogs, situations etc. But thats the same with all breeds to raise a well balanced dog. If you were in my state I would offer to meet my girl. There is a lovely breeder with similar lines in SA that you would be able to contact. No, they are totally accepting, will be a couch potato if you want them to be! Would you like to tell my Aussie that All I can say with the higher energy breeds is research and talk to your breeder about the best pup suited to you. There are chilled out Aussies and there are also those that like to go go go! Ripley would never be a couch potato. He is a mover......he loves to run more than anything and he can run all day, given the chance. Dusty, on the other hand, wouldn't move a muscle if she didn't have to, she's the ultimate easy-care, lazy persons dog. The other two are in between.....easy going, exercise or no exercise, they'll be happy either way. So yes, it definitely depends on the dog. Dusty is easy to live with but her laid back (lazy) attitude extends to performance, so she's been retired from showing and from obedience and she pooh-poohed herding as all to yucky for a princess. Her main goal in life is to lie at my feet and look adoringly at me, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Gee, I hope you're not in any tearing hurry to get a puppy, some of these breeds are really quite rare and pups aren't often available.

Ther are only a handful of them in the country and I believe the waiting lists for puppies are very long. A rough collie would suit, and if you want unusual, a merle would tick that box. Aussies are great, but then I'm biased, Finnish Lapphunds are gorgeous too and similar temperaments to Aussies. Only one of my Aussies needs constant exercise but even he is content to miss a day here and there if its wet outside. They are all good with kids but the females are a bit more gentle and a bit less. Lunch than the boys.

To be honest, I've never had a judge that's given me advice and/or encouragement. They usually just ask "how old?" then give instructions as to where they want you to run. Most of them are very respectful of the dogs, a few aren't but none of them do much talking.

My dogs don't have sheets on their beds but they do each have a rug that I change weekly. I doubt they'd care if I didn't but they sleep in our room so the linen-change rules apply to them as well as us. When I'm baking, the only one that's generally inside is Dusty, she likes to be right on hand just in case of spillage, or if a taste tester is required. She's good at that and I consider it part of her caring nature.

I got told once my daughter was spoiled because I cooked her breakfast every morning. I actually thought feeding your kids a decent meal was part of good parenting. My dogs are my world, I've already lost one prematurely and I would give anything to have him back so I can spoil him more. My dogs all know the word "enough" and take notice of it.

Entire males aren't all raging, fighting balls of fury. Mine isn't anyway. He's sweet and lovable and outgoing and friendly with other dogs. He instigates play nicely and displays good manners around other dogs. I find the dog of mine most likely to cause a fight is the neutered female, it seems she has trouble reading other dogs body language.

I have a desexed male and female, and an entire male and female, all live in perfect harmony. Not sure why you'd expect there to be a problem.

Dogs are really good at hiding their ills, I would not hesitate to get him checked. You know your dog better than anyone else. FYI and not intended to scare you, but the day before Benson died of kidney failure, he ate his breakfast and dinner, drank normally but was quiet and a bit "off". Never in a million years did I expect that he'd be so ill.

The day I titled Benson in the ET. It was the culmination of 6 months of training, it was a beautiful morning and it was one of those perfect experinces that come along so rarely. I was intensely proud of him, he was the first dog I ever titled in anything and it was such a joyful time. I will treasure the memory of that day for the rest of my life.

He definitely does look like a puppy! Shae often gets mistaken for a puppy and people are very surprised when they ask her age and are told "Almost 6", then usually think I mean almost 6 months. She's very compact and she has a very pretty head, which keeps her young looking I suppose. Whatever, I think she's absolutely gorgeous.

I suppose one thing very different here to the US is the lack of natural predators and the lack of rabies. I still couldn't come at crating a dog all day, when Isaak was little we blocked off a tiled area for him, placed a crate there with the door propped open so he couldn't shut himself in or out of it, and he learnt to go in there for a snooze but he wasn't confined to it. When Dusty stays inside, she has the whole house to herself but she's very trustworthy. The worst she ever did was sort the rubbish for us. My husband is American though, and he says he's never heard of people crating their dogs all day, the dogs he owned or knew were treated the same as our dogs.....outside during the day, indoors of an evening.

I work full-time so my dogs are on their own from 7am-late in the day......my shifts are all different so I could be home by 3.30pm or I could be home by 6pm. My husband is self employed, he's home a bit more than me but still out most of the day. But our dogs have each other. With 4 dogs, I don't really feel a need to provide anything extra for them to play with although they do have a few toys, tuggies etc lying around outside. I don't leave food for them, that would lead to fights (they only get bones under supervision) and I don't feel the need to provide them with anything special to enhance their day. However, we do have a pretty nice set up for the dogs, they have a HUGE and very secure yard (made even more secure when Ripley learned to climb the gate), lots of sheltered and shady areas, a fishpond which Isaak swims in, an orchard which sometimes provides them with rabbits to chase and plenty of interesting places to poke around in.

Dogs get used to what they know. Mine are used to being outside in all weathers, but they have plenty of undercover areas and shade, and nice thick coats for when it's cold. On the weekends when I'm home, they prefer to be outside although if it's raining like it was yesterday, I bring them in. But at 3am this morning, it was pissing down rain and two of them who were sleeping in my room, wanted to go out and then didn't want to come back in. Go figure. They are still out there.

Hmmm, I must be a neglectful dog owner then because at 14 weeks, Isaak was haring around with the big kids (unsupervised) when I was home and on weekends, and at 15 weeks he was with them permanently, outside. They come inside to eat dinner in the evenings, then go out the next morning for the whole day. Every day. Bad me. But then I used to let my kids walk to school on their own when they were like 9 or 10, so I was probably a neglectful mother too.

My daughter, at aged 20, decided she wanted a pet, much to my absolute horror. I've had dogs all my life, and she'd grown up with dogs and cats and had never shown the slightest bit of interest in them. Well, she couldn't get a dog or a cat because she was renting so she got a rabbit. I nearly flipped.....a rabbit! Timid and shy and requiring very, very gentle handling. But to my complete surprise she took to pet ownership like a duck to water and researched the best way to keep a rabbit in a flat, joined online communities of rabbit owners, became very knowledgeable about rabbit ownership and has turned out to be an excellent, caring and committed owner of her little lop eared bunny.

Crated all day? That is awful. When does the poor dog get to be a dog? We moved so our dogs could have a better life outdoors.....more space, more interesting stuff to do, less traffic etc. The times I've had to leave Dusty inside because she's been in season (Isaak is entire and I don't want puppies), she has tolerated it but by the time we get home, she is champing at the bit to be allowed outside for a run around, a wee and just a good doggie sniff and play. I just can't imagine crating a dog all day, I can't even imagine kennelling them for long stretches of time.

I would probably avoid the "this is what will happen if you buy this puppy" doom and gloom scenario. She can and will buy the puppy with or without your input, and she'll justify the purchase as she is already doing, with excuses and quite reasonable (to her) examples of healthy dogs. So, I would encourage the purchase but from a more respected and better researched source, then encourage her to be a very responsible, very committed owner and try and get her involved in online forums, Facebook pages dedicated to her chosen breed, clubs and activities suitable for the breed she owns.