Gayle.

Actually, it's not true. I have four pedigree dogs, and if I didn't have them it doesn't mean I'd be rescuing four dogs because I wouldn't. I wouldn't have any dogs. So my dogs are not taking up space in my house that four dogs in rescue could be using because I'd never get a rescue dog if it didn't have a pedigree. Same with my cats.

Unless registered breeders are now in the business of breeding mutts, there's no way they contribute to the population at my local pound. I check the inmates photos every day in hope of finding my missing cat, and the dogs are a mix of staffy x, jrt x, Lab x and generic pig dog along with a sprinkling of pit bulls, fluffy x's and the occasional American bulldog. Rarely is there anything that remotely resembles a dog with a decent pedigree. I didn't put them there and I won't be made to feel guilty for not wanting to own one of them.

Love the poodle, but the corded Havanese looks like half the matted mutts in our local pound. That's a breed that definitely looks nicer brushed.

Very much the same with Fauves when they are shown in France - even in England they are not as groomed as they are becoming in Australia (which will only continue as we show more in the American style). When we had the English breed specialist judging last year she actually told me (very nicely) to never again scissor my dogs' tails. Stripping the coat out is fine but anything involving scissors or clippers is an absolute no go. They also prefer a coat that hasn't been washed for a while to show the true harshness than a clean coat full of product that brings the harshness back so I'm told. What did you do to their tails? I can't imagine Fauves needing scissoring anywhere unless they grow fluffy bits behind their ears. (Do they?)

They aren't the most attractive of dogs...a certain novelty value as a show dog maybe but if I were going to have a big dog whose coat took that much work, I'd rather have an Old English Sheepdog. At least they're friendly. I wonder how often that one gets to go outside. Not often, I'd bet.

Yup - I've heard it's quite common. Perhaps strip her coat out and see how it recovers? Would clipping them make it worse? Sorry, I dont have aussies but am a groomer. Do NOT under any circumstances clip or let a groomer clip an aussie. It will stuff the coat completely! Buy a furminator, they are cheapest on ebay and give the bitch a reallllly good bath and blow dry with a high powered dog dryer and once she is completely dry attack her pants/feathering with the furminator, do not do it wet or you may cut the coat! I was just going back through this thread and found this. I now have some experience to comment on this. Shae came to us in Feb 2011, completely clipped off, almost to the skin in some parts....her coat was very short all over, almost like velvet. I was horrified and thought for sure it would take two years and a couple of seasonal coat drops before her coat came back to normal. By mid year, she had a good growth and she was set for winter, by August she had pretty much her full coat back and it is sensational. She has an absolutely beautiful coat.......straight, silky, luxurious and easy to look after. And she has lots of it, and it's not woolly at all. So clipping this particular dog did nothing but give her a short coat for a period of time. It certainly didn't ruin any part of her coat.

I've never really trained a dog to use a crate but they all accept them happily at shows and events. Ripely came to us trained to sleep the night in a crate and he puts himself in it when I tell hIm it's bedtime. The other dogs sleep on beds in our room, not in crates though. I can see the value of dogs sleeping in crates, or being crated for short periods to keep them out of harms way. But to lock a dog in a crate all day, then all night is, in my opinion, quite cruel. But your mileage and opinion may vary.

Does your sister know how much Poms bark? She probably should spend time with one before she commits to owning one. Gorgeous dogs but they would drive me crazy.

Dusty doesn't do dress ups. I told her to pretend the Santa hat was a princess crown but all I got was her very best evil eye. My husband says Dusty doesn't need to talk cos she makes her feelings known all over her face!

No, the discussion was around not being able to have Artemas as the registered name because there's a prefix owned by someone that's similar.

Heres our Xmas pics for this year. Isaak didn't make it to the group shot because he ate Shae's tinsel and started on her pom pom before I turfed him back outside. Dusty looks hugely unimpressed with the whole deal, and Shae looks like she should be advertising Christmas in a shopping catalogue!

My last puppy had the crate to sleep in during the day, we propped the door open so he could go in and out as he wanted. No way I would crate a puppy for 7 hours. I wouldn't crate any dog for that long unless it was overnight.

Yep, and if the litter was named for a theme, you'll know at a glance if you ever come across the dogs litter mates.

He went just two days after Benson. That was a terrible week, there were whole lot of DOLers said goodbye to their dogs that week.

My dogs don't smell, and if I'm showing, the show dogs get cleaned from the skin out the day before. I'm always conscious that a complete stranger will be putting their hands all over my dog and I don't want them to come away with stinky hands. And showing a dirty smelly dog is akin to going to a party in your filthy gardening clothes.

Don't you feel sorry for the judges who have to put their hands on those stinking dogs?

What grooming did you do? How were they to handle?

The Komondor sounds....to me......like overkill for this country. We don't have any natural predators such as wild cats, wolves etc that would require such a large and aggressive guardian.

That video was really cute. I'm impressed that not one of them looks the slightest bit happy but they all just sit there and take their punishment like good little dogs! I have a couple here that I have to keep one hand on at all times or they'll make a run for it.

Pulis are gorgeous and they look amazing when they are doing agility with all those cords flying. I don't think a Komondor would be a good agility prospect, he'd be too heavy in body and too anti-social in temperament.

From the ANKC standard: He has an imperturbable courage in the guarding and defence of the herds entrusted to him and the property and home of his master. He attacks silently and enduringly. He regards his territory as his own property and will not tolerate any other living creature in it. His nature is suspicious. During the day, he likes to keep a lying position enabling him to control his area. At night, he is always on the move. Combined with the size (minimum 70cms for dogs, 65 cms for bitches) and that massive matted coat which would probably stink to high heaven if it got damp, I don't think that breed would suit many people looking for a pet.

A black one would be a Puli. They aren't common but they're well represented at dog shows. They are considerably smaller than Komondors.

My friend got it for me, she gave me two bottles of it. It's a bright tangerine colour and smells lightly citrus. It brings their coats up a treat. ETA: it's made by Kelco and it's highly concentrated.

Yep, my dogs will come into the shower for a wash (even if you don't want them there). I try to only do one at a time though.....they're Great Danes and it can get squishy I can't imagine a GD in the shower, now that would be a sight. The water pressure in the tru blu ones is really quite good and there is a range of different settings the nozzle can be on to make the water faster or slower. Gayle I definatley know what you mean about the time factor, having bigger dogs it would take ages. I find if mine just need a freshen up I can do all 4 in about 12 minutes. At home it takes much longer, Is the purple horse stuff you use called glo white? I use that on my white girl, it's great, I only use it about once a month as I do find it dries her coat out, I have to use extra conditioner when I use it. Yes, it's Glo White. I usually only use it on the show dogs to make their whites gleam for a show, and I pour it into a shallow container and dip a nail brush in to scrub them with. But I had some left over from the last show bath and I used it on all of them so I could wash the container out. Today I used Filthy Animal shampoo on their coloured bits, it smells gorgeous. Specially combined with coconut conditioner.

The dog wash here is Tru Blu. They are quite good, just expensive to use, especially for double coated breeds. I had it down to a fine art where I could do 2 for $10, as long as I had someone helping me. But that would be a cursory bath, really just a spit and polish. Today, they got wet, then shampooed with the main shampoo, then scrubbed on their whites with purple horse shampoo, then wetted down some more because the shampoo recycles through their coats til they are clean right to the skin. Then rinsed. Then rinsed again but this time with a nice coconut smelling conditioner which was also recycled right through their coats. Their faces all got a good scrub as did their paws. To do that in a Tru Blu place would cost me around $20+ per dog, just for the time it takes. The bath-mate contraption cost me about as much as giving four dogs a thorough bath at a public dog wash, and I don't have to drive anywhere to use it.