Gayle.

Benson killed a 6 week old chicken a few weeks ago, my fault because I didn't realise it had escaped it's run before letting the dogs in the gate, I simply didn't see it in the long grass. But Benson did and he picked it up in his mouth, I told him to drop it and he did but it was too late, poor chickie was gone. And I have no illusions that he'd kill the rest given half a chance, he is way too interested in them. It's up to me to be more vigilant. Benson is however, the nicest, friendliest dog ever. He just likes chasing chooks and likes the squawking noise they make when he catches them.

A dog with a vasectomy is no more a neuter than a man with a vasectomy is a eunuch.

Pounds and shelters are notoriously bad at guessing breed mixes anyway. How many times do you see Mastiff cross on a pound listing? It seems anything big with a boofhead is a mastiff cross. I wonder if they'd even know what a purebred mastiff looks like? They are an uncommon breed and would hardly be responsible for all those big boofy mutts in pounds. I once saw a little white dog listed as a Coton Du Tulear cross. Must have been imported semen that created that dog.

Probably one of the best and most honest answers I've ever seen on DOL.

Whitka, keep March 27 free. There's a members comp on at Morwell, I will enter Dusty and Isaak and you can handle both if you like. It's a relaxed, casual day, great for learning and really good fun. There are 2 comps so you'll get 4 goes in the ring.

That'll be mine. Challenging. Stacking Isaak is like stacking a lump of jelly, he tends to sag at one end and wobble at the other. He is very beautiful though, so at least you'd have a nice dog to start with.

I'll enter Isaak in some shows after I come back from my trip to SA (March), then you won't have to drive far, just to my place and I can drive the rest of the way.

Yeah, you can handle Isaak for me. I need to show him more but I don't like handling so kind of put off entering shows.

This is way OT but interesting given the topic. I've heard of pedigree cat breeders who keep a vasectomised tom on the premises to service the queens they want to keep entire but aren't wanting to breed from at the time. Entire female cats have to mate or they will get pyometra by about their 3rd or 4th call, so some breeders save a tom destined for the green dream, get him vasectomised and have him keep the screaming ladies happy. Certainly a nice job for a man cat if they can get it!

Isaak is co-owned with Linda, his breeder. He was offered to me after his daddy Twister was killed, as he is the only black tri boy Twister sired and he looks just like him. He is 10 months old, bit of a brat right now but completely and utterly gorgeous. Shae is the first Borderton dog I have ever seen, I am incredibly impressed with her temperament. She went through a lot of changes and some huge upheavals in the past few weeks and she just displays this calm sweetness and takes everything in her stride. She was a bit bewildered when she came off the plane but once I had a leash on her and took her for a short walk, she was fine and ready for the next phase of her life. She's so little and cute I just want to smoosh her pretty little face all the time.

In the case of competitors sledging off at each other, well I think that's pretty awful and shouldn't be condoned or accepted, but in the case of verbal abuse of show officials, that is NOT ON and definitely should be punished. And it's usually pretty easy to hear who the culprit is and they usually have quite an audience.

And how would you propose such people be removed Gayle? Bouncers? That would make the shows interesting and more of a spectator sport than they currently are. Maybe the kennel clubs, canine clubs etc could start upholding the "sportsmanlike" sections of their codes of ethics. Stop tolerating it, stop condoning it and start bringing it to everyones attention that so-and-so displayed unsportsmanlike behaviour at xxx show and is therefore banned from entering their dogs in any more shows for x amount of weeks/months.

ACD x Border Collie? The white markings indicate possibly some BC.

I've seen behaviour of that nature from adults in all kinds of places - ask anyone who's ever worked in a service industry. :D The only behaviour we have any real control over is our own. You can expect all you like but some folk will invariably disappoint. I dont' see why we should let them ruin our enjoyment of what can be a very pleasant hobby. We can tut tut and shake our heads all we like - it won't make some folk behave and I'm dammed if I'm going to retreat and leave the field to them. You're not wrong there ...my 18 year old daughter recently began a part-time job in a Hotel (Pub) kitchen and she says the head Chef is forever throwing a tantrum and usually the gravy boat along with it!! The head chef does it because he gets away with it, because he's ALLOWED to get away with it. If he had no staff to wait tables and deliver his dishes for him, if he had no kitchen hands to do his menial tasks, if he had no customers to cook for, he'd soon mend his ways or he wouldn't have a job. Behaviour like that is only tolerated because that person is able to wield that power. If the nasties, the tantrum throwers, the rude assholes at dog shows were removed from a few shows, they'd soon start being pleasant or at least keep their mouths closed. They do it because it's tolerated. It shouldn't be.

There is no quarantine in a lot of other countries. The main reason we have quarantine regulations in Australia is because we're an island nation and its the best way to keep diseases out. In most other countries though, as long as there is proof of current vaccination requirements, animals can just arrive the same as people do.

Tlc check my other thread, her story is on page 3.

Occasionally rescue Aussies come up via the AusShep yahoo email group and there were actually two others at the same time I was looking for an adult dog. Unfotunately as they become more well known, so does their opportunity for needing rescue. Fortunately we have an excellent Aussie rescue network in this country . Mostly via breeders who will take dogs in and carefully rehome them then follow up to make sure the rehoming is sucessful.

She was advertised on the DOL mature dog listings as being for sale, although they gave her to me. I enquird about her because she was a neutered bitch and I though that would be the best fit for the family. It wasn't til I spoke to the breeder on the phone that I heard the whole sad story.

They went to Dubai. They took their two small children.

Benson is my smart one.....sneaky smart, extremely clever and I gave up doing obedience with him because of it. He astounds me with his problem solving and the thought process that must go into his antics. Dusty, on the other hand, doesn't have half the brains Benson does so she's the better obedience prospect.

Isaak is totally in love, he follows her around like a bad smell, to the point where he's an annoying pest. It's like a teenage boy with his first crush, he is so cute! Dusty is pretending she's not here, and does a certain amount of dominant posturing but is also getting more and more curious and I've seen her occassionally lick Shae's face or let Shae lick hers. They sniff each others bits and each day they are getting more relaxed with each other. Life rolls of as usual for Benson, nothing much fazes him. Shae is starting to get more and more integrated.....at first when they were all in the backyard running around, she'd follow behind. Now I notice she is up front more and "part of the gang". When I go outside, she now comes running straight up to me instead of hanging back while the others get pats. The play in the paddock is interesting....Benson and Dusty love the frisbee and Isaak loves chasing a tennis ball. Shae made a token effort to chase the frisbee but wasn't overly interested, but when I threw the tennis ball, she went after it like a rocket, scooped it up first go and brought it back. She clearly loves chasing a ball, so Isaak has competition. Dusty has NEVER chased a ball, god she wouldn't lower herself to something so mundane, but she will now run with Isaak and Shae and herd Shae away from the ball so that Isaak can get to it first.

She is here: http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?show...214633&st=0

Her first owners said all the right words, the breeder thought she was going to a suitable home and they got her as an 8 week old puppy. The novelty apparently wore off and this bright, intelligent, sociable little dog was left neglected in their backyard. She proceeded to try and attract attention by barking, whining, digging, destroying and at 18 months they took up the breeders offer of taking her back no questions asked as she was out of control. The breeder took her to the vet to be assessed as her behaviour was apparently beyond anything he thought was re-homeable and the vet nurse fell in love with her and asked if she could have her, she thought her husband (an animal behaviourist) could get her under control. The breeder signed her over and that was that. Four years later, the vet nurse contacted the breeder asking if they knew of a suitable home for the dog as they were moving overseas and couldn't take her with them. The breeder advertised on their behalf but by the time the owners were due to fly out, a new home hadn't been found so she went back to the breeder. That was the same day I emailed them, so they basically kept her for a few days to make sure she was suitable to be rehomed (no aggression, gets along with other dogs etc) then offered her to me. They said they had lots of enquiries about her but they wanted her to come here because we have other Aussies and know the breed and they felt she had the best chance of a good life here. Her behaviour is exemplary, she displays all the right submissive body language, she walks beautifully on a lead, she doesn't appear to have a barking problem and she's a lovely calm dog. The second owners obviously did the right things by her and trained her to be a nice dog, but I can't believe they wouldn't go the extra mile for this little girl and take her overseas with them. Anyway, their loss, my gain.

One of the very early Australian Shepherd breeders who had dogs a lot of us see featured in the pedigrees of our own Aussies, has taken up breeding "Miniature" Aussies. No idea what she hopes to achieve as they aren't recognised in the US or here. I have seen some smallish males....not mine though, must be the diet or something but both my boys are monsters. There's a little guy at our obedience club who's not very big...he's slightly smaller than Dusty so he'd probably be around 19 inches.

ravenau1, Australian Shepherds aren't Australian. They're American, so you might like to point that out to your relatives too.