Gayle.

I have just applied for a prefix, I submitted 5 choices with my first choice at the top, and the rest with no preference. Good luck on getting your first choice.

I thought in another thread you said your prefix was Redblaze. Or is that the name of your dog?

I've just taken delivery of 5 litres of Ozona, a smell neutralizer. My cat peed on some furniture and I'm trying to get rid of the smell, nothing else has worked but I have high hopes for this stuff. http://www.odourgo.com.au/ It was about $57 inc delivery for 5 litres.

I know where you're coming from, but until Australia seriousy gets its act together in terms of neutering and control of cats, euthanising a feral colony buys you about six months before another feral colony moves into your attractive cat-habitat. If the OP's own barn cats aren't enough to ward off visiting ferals, then euthanising what's on her property just opens the way for more cats to move onto her property. Arguably, having her property support a small colony of non-breeding ferals prevents intact ferals moving in and successfully breeding because the habitat supports them for long enough to have litters - or worse again the habitat has enough food and water to allow them to have larger litters (e.g. four kittens instead of two). So her choices are: Do nothing, and harbour feralpalooza Euthanise the ferals... and euthanise the ferals again in six months (which may be a problem after a while if the OP is a cat-lover) TNR the adults and rehome the kittens, hopefully establishing a small colony of neutered ferals and that's it for her property for two to three years (the average lifespan of a feral cat with someone looking out for it). But yes, in a perfect world, I agree that there would be no roaming cats impacting on Australian wildlife. Keep euthanasing. Feral cats are not more important than the family dog, they're just not.

Nooooooooo!!!!!! Feral cats should never be neutered and released, cats do not belong outdoors in Australia unless they are confined to an area where they can't kill our beautiful wildlife. An enclosure, a cat-proof backyard or indoors. Feral cats should be euthanased.

Have another look in your shed and see if my missing cat's in there, will ya?

It's a very long way from Toongabbie, which is where Dee_al and I live.

I moved on May 4th and on May 2nd, I updated all our pets microchips.......7 of them. And I did it before we moved in case one of them got out from the new property and got lost.

Trap the feral cats, have them humanely euthanased. They have no place in society, and should not be placed above the importance of a family pet.

My words to describe a situation where a property owner has a feral cat colony, and is prepared to permanently remove animals that threaten its existence. Even if those animals are the family pets. That is wrong on a number of levels. Or am I missing something here. Family dogs are not less important than feral cats.

Feral cat sanctuary? Sanctuary? When did feral cats get rights? As much as I love cats, feral ones should be humanely euthanized. They have no place here.

I haven't read much of this thread and hardly any of the responses, but the more I think about these subjects.......breeding, selling and care of puppies and dogs, the more I think our society needs to change to accomodate the needs of dogs. At the moment, they seem to be more and more excluded from society......no dogs in shops, no dogs on beaches, no dogs in rentals, no dogs in markets, no dogs in family areas, no dogs in hotels or holiday accomodation.....the list is getting longer and longer. European countries have a different attitude towards dogs, they are welcome pretty much everywhere and are treasured by society as part of the family....not just by the family that own them but by everyone. I wonder if their dumpage rates are lower. I would love it if Australia had that attitude, cos I reckon a lot of the problems we currently have would barely be heard of.

I think Sherel, the distributor in Vic will sell it in 1 kg lots. There is no secrecy surrounding the food, if you want to know anything about it, email Sherel or one of the other distributors and they'll answer your questions.

Once you've bought one or two purebred dogs and gotten involved with the "dog world" as most DOLers have, it's relatively easy to use the contacts you've made to source your next puppy. But for someone wanting to buy their first dog, it's not easy to know where to start but pet shops make it a bit easier by having cute puppies there in the window, so they just go there and buy one. And places like PP make it real easy because they ALWAYS have puppies there, lots of them, very cute ones, lots of different types and colours. So a range to choose from. Years ago, when I was a kid, the local pet shop only had puppies occasionally, I think they came from someones pet dog who'd accidentally gotten pregnant and the owners sold the pups through the pet shop rather than advertise in the paper. Mostly though, cross-breds were given away free to good home. When I was first married, my brother-in-law had a mate who's parents owned an Old English Sheepdog bitch. She got out and had a fun time with the lab next door and the result was a litter of fluffy golden and white puppies. These days they'd probably be landed with a stupid name and sold for $1000+, those days they were considered not worth any money and I ended up with a lovely puppy for free.

I am feeding the adult formula to my 7 month old Aussie pup. Purely because it's convenient to feed all the dogs the same thing and not have to have a different food for the puppy. Plus I am confident there is nothing in this food that can harm him and I'm also confident that it's a far better quality food than a lot of the "puppy" foods being sold in the supermarket. I simply feed more of it to him than the adult dogs. He is doing really well on it, he has the thickest, silkiest coat ever, he's growing really well and he's a lovely, bouncy, healthy boy. One thing I've noticed with all the dogs is that they no longer have that slightly "dirty" doggy smell to their breath that they developed when they were on lesser quality kibble. Their breath is now odourless, as it should be.

The ultimate working dog. Hard at it even on a Sunday.

Yes we should. I've been saying it for years.....the way to beat puppy farms, doodleschnoodle breeders, pet shops etc at their own game is to PLAY their game, but with better ethics. Promote, promote, promote. Right now, the canine councils, the breed clubs, the kennel clubs, they're preaching to the converted. Start preaching to the public in general, give them a better place to buy a good dog from, be a friendly ambassador for purebreds, tout the benefits of purebred dog ownership, but not to those of us who already know about it, we don't need toi know it again and again. Yep, I'm often out and about with an Aussie in tow. I always take a dog into town with me if I'm not going in for work or a long shopping trip. People often ask about the breed, usually they've never heard of them or think they are Border Collies, but it gives a great opening for promoting purebred dog ownership.

I got to pick all of my dogs show names. The breeder had named our first boy Benson and it really suited him so we kept it, but one look at him and the name Darktown Strutter jumped into my mind and stuck. So when we were asked what we'd like his registered name to be I offered up that suggestion and I still love it. It suits him as much as his everyday name does. My next pup was a girl and when the breeder asked what we wanted to register her as, we tossed around a few ideas but didn't really have any themes to stick to, or words the breeder wanted in there. So we decided we'd go for an Australian-American theme as that is what our household is. Her everyday name is Dusty, after Slim Dusty....I think he is an Australian legend and I loved the name. She is registered as Tahoe Rose.....for Lake Tahoe which is one of my American husbands favourite places...and Rose is for her dam who was Amber Rose. Puppy number three came from the same breeder as girl puppy and once again we got to name him, but this time we had a theme we needed to stick to. Puppy's sire was named Twister and was killed tragically when the litter was two weeks old so to honour him, the entire litter were to be registered with Twist in their names. Immediately we settled on Twist of Fate, because had it not been for a certain chain of events, this beautiful little guy would be someone elses. His everyday name is Isaak because we just liked it, and three of us tossed around various names til we all tried that one out and decided it fit.

Rather than starting off talking to breeders, she may be better served talking to lab owners and ask about their dogs background, the breeder they purchased from, their level of satisfaction with both the dog and the breeder etc. etc. because in all honesty, a breeder can tell you anything and you have no choice but to believe it. But their best advertising, and those who can give the feedback a potential owner needs to hear, is a pet owner who has bought their pup from a breeder.

I would be inclined to break the walks up into 2-3 shorter ones per day. I think the weight loss will be faster and the diet he'll be on will be more efficient....and the dog will be more comfortable.....with smaller bouts of exercise. Plus it will place less stress on his joints until he's lost a good bit. Maybe try some swimming too, if you have a convenient place to take him to.

Thanks. Wow, big entry, must be some sort of specialist judge or something.

If someone has a catalogue, could they please look at how many Aussie Shepherds are entered tomorrow? I am not going, although I entered. I have a minor puppy dog and an intermediate bitch. Their numbers are 16 apart. Now that is a huge entry for a metro show, let alone a country show. On the back of the envelope I got my numbers in, someone had written German Shepherd, I queried it with the secretary and she said yes, they'd been entered as Aussies. I am curious now to know how many are actually entered. Last time I showed in Morwell there were three entered and only two showed up. How wet is it there? it's been drizzling all day out here but Toon is usually a lot drier than the valley.

This morning I had to carry a 20kg bag of chook pellets from the house, down a 3/4 acre block to the shed it's stored in. Husband was in the shower and I needed to feed the chooks. I used a trolley he had bought in Officeworks,........it folds down flat to about the size of a laptop, and is designed for strapping bags, briefcases etc to and carting them around airports, large office blocks etc. Worked perfectly! Good luck with the food, I can honestly say that Benson has never looked so good as he does on this food. His coat is healthy and gleaming, and he is trim and muscular. He is the one of mine with the worst coat and the one I have the most weight problems with as he's the only neuter, so he is a good benchmark.

As cruel as it sounds, wouldn't the vast majority of pregnant mutts in pounds be better of euthanased along with their unborn pups? Cos once they've whelped, you no longer have one homeless dog, you've just added a whole lot more.

I don't think she actually is interested in showing, but its an option open to her, and at least she'd be getting an opinion she's paid for.