Gayle.

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They are filthy, disgusting things. Kill them, don't move them or keep them away.

Get a deep plastic container with straight sides. Put a bag or two of chook food inside and leave where mouse is overnight. Check in the morning, lift the bags of chook food out and you should be left with a number of live rodents who got in the box but can't get out. Get your dog and go "Sic 'em Rex!" (or Benson, as in my case) and the mouse problem should be solved promptly. If your dog's not up to the task (Dusty isn't, she does the girly thing....jump back and go "eeeek") get someone elses dog or go save a cat from the pound and put it to work. We have now dealt with 6 mice with this method, in the past week. Benson is now known in our house as "The Mouse Whisperer".

You can get something very similar from Autobahn for around $35. No way I'd be paying $275 for one, you can buy a very swish fitted car seat cover for that amount.

No, no, no. I taught this to one of my dogs and he started to bark constantly because he thought I WANTED him to bark! He drove us friggin' crazy!

No. Mine have an awesome backyard, and each other. By the time I'm halfway down the driveway, they've turned their backs and are heading off to start their day, doing whatever they do when I'm at work. On the days I'm home, they get mighty offended if I dare interrupt their routine with suggestions of walks, or play, or coming inside.

Some of you just don't get it. Each time one of you comes on to the DOL forums and makes a post, or responds to a post, denigrating people who enquire about buying a puppy, making fun of their emails, slighting their questions, making excuses........you are publicly displaying to potential buyers just exactly WHY they shouldn't be making enquiries with you and possibly other registered breeders. It just one more nail in the coffin. And it's no wonder they then choose other sources to make enquiries from. DOL is a public forum, there is no cone of silence that keeps the words in, the posts are viewable to everyone, not just those who post here and not just those who are DOL forum members.

If you treat all enquiries as if they are tyre kickers and time wasters, eventually you can guarantee you'll have none. Enquiries, that is. And if you keep posting stuff like that to DOL threads, it might even happen sooner.

Someone at work was advertising JRT x Chinese Cresteds, the email ad included photos and they were the ugliest puppies I'd ever seen. They had tufts of wiry hair sticking out of an almost hairless body. You know those "ugliest dog in the world" photos that do the rounds from time to time,......these puppies would have been right at home amongst them. Also met a pug x lab, weird looking dog, it looked like a bit of both breeds cobbled together.

Exactly.. Such a comfort to potential puppy enquirers to know they are going to be treated as if they are any or all of the above, before they even make contact. Yeah, it's no wonder they go eslewhere.

Do you feed her bones? Shae came to us as a rescue, and she had quite a build up of tartar on her teeth, but a regular feed of raw chicken pieces and various other raw meaty bones had them sparkling clean in no time. I was speaking to a vet on the weekend who said she always recommends raw meaty bones for teeth cleaning before anaesthetic and manual cleaning.

Generally meat meal is a concentrated, quality form of protein, not to be avoided. Meat by-products are things like chicken claws, feathers etc....anything from the animal that's not meat but ends up in the cooking pot. Not necessarily bad, but if you don't know the percentage of by-product to actual meat, it's hard to make an informed choice. Try sourcing Black Hawk Holisitc in your area (Google it to find suppliers). Top quality locally made kibble with an excellent ingredients list.

My lot get Black Hawk Holisitic, I pay $75 for a 20kg bag (I buy 2 at a time) and it;s locally made, top quality kibble and when I get a new batch, you can smell the freshness when you open the bag. As long as I can get a locally made, first class product that my dogs love, I won't be touching any imports.

.Ummm...most people just want to buy a puppy, not a lifelong relationship with it's breeder. Mentoring for show puppies, yes maybe, but mentoring for pets? Why? To answer all those questions that puppy buyers who are new to dog ownership have. A cursory glance at the "Puppy Problems" forum will demonstrate what the need is. This forum has been providing support to puppy buyers without a supportive breeder from the get go. And I'd say some of them have bought pups from very supportive breeders but want a wider variety of responses or ideas than from just one person. Some breeders house their dogs in kennels and the dogs never enter the house. Those breeders might not be the best place to start with questions about sleeping places for the pup, the first nights whining, or house training. While I think it's probably nice for breeders and buyers to keep in touch for a bit of early support, I'd hardly call it mentoring.

.Ummm...most people just want to buy a puppy, not a lifelong relationship with it's breeder. Mentoring for show puppies, yes maybe, but mentoring for pets? Why?

What I found amusing about the original story was that no one wanted the surplus puppies when they were lab x poodle as they were mutts. Then Wally Conron came up with thr name Labradoodle and all of a sudden, there wasn't enough pups to go round. So, what's in a name?

Your answer to this reply should have been....Sorry I was after an ethical registered breeder!....that is bullsh!t as suggested go to a few shows and find a breeder that you like..first impressions...and go from there. There might not be that many dog shows in WA, and there might be no ACD's shown there, even if there's a show on soon. There aren't many shown in Vic, which is one of the states with the higher number of entries and more shows, so it's likely that there are none or very few being shown in WA.

We left our 8 week old puppy in a tiled area of the house, crate with rugs in it (and door open), toys, water bowl and a little bit of kibble. He could see the other dogs in the yard, and could see out the front window. That started the day after he came home, neither of us could take time off work so as hard as it was, we just had to leave him. The first few days my husband came home when he could he's self employed so it's easier for him), but after that he was on his own 8-9 hours a day,. He's now a year old and he's fine....no ill effects at all. Our previous puppy was left in a run in the back yard, with kennel, toys, water and other dog on the other side of the fence, from 10 weeks as I'd taken 2 weeks off work to settle her in. She got used to it. She's 3 now, and she's absolutely fine. Just start as you mean to go on. Pups are resilient, they get used to their new life, and you'll find that after being left during the day for a while, the growing puppy will find it's own routine and might be a bit put out when you're home and want to play when he's usually taking a nap!

This is harping back to an old problem. If a breeder has an email address as a contact, they should answer their emails. No excuses, it's just plain rude not to at least acknowledge an enquiry. If they don't want to answer emails, they should not have an email address as a means of contact.

There is a really top show breeder of ACD's advertising a couple of pups on DOL at the moment. She is from South Australia and I believe she is very highly regarded in the breed. She certainly has some lovely dogs. It's not that difficult or expensive to fly a pup from another state. I have had a pup flown to me from SA, and also an adult dog from WA, both came to me sight unseen (well, I did see photos) and they were both exactly what I was told they'd be.

Also too, with the breeds that were created by crossing other breeds, the creators had a very clear indication of what they were after, and a very real reason for using the dogs they did. And generally, it was not the "look" of the dog, it was the working traits, resilience etc, rather than appearance. The breeds used....such as the Dalmatian used in the creation of the early heelers, contributed to how the dog looks today, but they weren't used for their looks, they were used for what they could bring to the gene pool. In the case of Dalmatians, I believe it was their endurance traits as a carriage dog, but they also ended up contributing the white ticking in the ACD's coat.

I have always had 2 females but one has always been a neuter. My current pack is one neuter bitch, one entire bitch, one neuter male and one entire male. The ONLY two who don't squabble are the girls. The boys squabble over who's going through the gate first.....then both get told to quit it, neither of them are. The entire female squabbles with the young entire male when he misbehaves, which is often. The two neuters squabble over food. But the two girls never say a cross word to each other. My previous dogs were both female and they loved each other. The only time they'd have cross words is when they'd been to the groomers and they didn't like the way each other smelled.

Well said Steve. Having worked with and trained many of these dogs, I am yet to see a bad one...temperament wise! They are very much a lovely natured dog and exceptionally easy to train. I do hope they succeed in becoming a recognised breed. After all, isn't that how all the pure breeds of today started out No. Some breeds, yes, but not all. A lot of purebreds came about through selective breeding from a "type" of dog, not from crossing already recognised breeds.

I thought the name "Australian Service Dog" was being touted instead of Labradoodle.

I used the webform on their website. It was a public holiday (Australia Day) and I expected a response the following day but I'm still waiting.