poodlemum

Would anyone be willing to draft a letter that we can send to Opposition candidates expressing our concern and asking what, exactly, the Coalition policy is? The RSPCA (and especially Hugely Wirthless) have a good publicity machine going, and everyone here knows they hate registered breeders so we need some way to combat their propaganda.

Not to me personally but with two people that I know well and it ended in tragedy for both. A close friend has a bitch that would kill one of her others if she was allowed to get close enough. She has done some serious damage to two of the other bitches and it was only through very quick actions, that she didn't kill them. They don't call bitches, bitches for no reason. They aren't capable of human emotions but they have long memories, can hold a grudge and appear to save it up for when you least expect it. They can switch from appearing to tolerate each other one second, to killing each other the next. From my own observations many dogs will put on some bravado, puff themselves up and carry own with lip curling, growling and the like. The bitches that I've seen go another, have given far more subtle warming signs and I know one bitch whose only indication she's about to go off , is pricking her ears, followed by laying them. Miss that signal and it's on. I've always said this, too! My foundation bitch, Sascha, HATED other bitches, apart from one of her daughters (we figured it was because Sally was just as evil). I never had any to-the-death fights between her & another bitch - learned very early to recognise the signs of aggression but nearly had one between her & her son.

Great news - I know what a worry it is when one of your beloved dogs is sick!

Glad Chase is mending - might see you both around Bairnsdale sometime!

- my boys certainly THINK they will - try telling them Poodles are water dogs! They don't really get "walked" as such, as they have 2 acres to run around in. They are inside at night, when we're out & any other time they want to be.

The first litter I ever bred (in partnership with my ex-husband) was a nightmare, mainly because of bad advice & shonky practice by the Vet we were using Had you had any practical experience with whelping a litter with another breeder (same or different breed)? No practical experience - we did a lot of reading Did you do it alone or with the help of a mentor? We were mentored by the breeder of our bitch Was your bitch a maiden too or had she had a litter previously with another breeder? Maiden Any things in hindsight you would have done differently or things that you would definitely do again? Definitely!! The next litter we bred was much better - we had a different Vet and were much more relaxed about things in general What was it like raising the pups? The Vet advised us to bottle-feed the pups at about 2 weeks - in hindsight this was totally unnecessary and resulted in 3 dying from aspirated pneumonia. I say unnecessary because the same bitch had no problem feeding subsequent litters. How did you find homes or choose which one/s would stay with you? We did not have any problem placing the puppies - out of a litter of 8, due to the poor advice and the vet botching the tail-docking, causing infections which killed another 2 puppies from renal failure, we were only left with 3 puppies. One went to our breeder, in exchange for a white puppy who became our foundation Stud Dog, and the other 2 went to the 1st 2 people on our waiting list. As you can imagine, the whole experience was shattering, not to mention expensive. Looking back, I am still amazed that we decided to continue breeding but I'm glad we did, as all subsequent litters were incident-free, apart from 1 swimmer puppy. Obviously I can't mention our original Vet's name here but he's still in practice and, in my opinion, he's no better than a butcher!

Or you can use this resource to search all Victorian Public Libraries & borrow through your local library: http://www.llv.net.au/zportal/zengine?VDXaction=Navigation

I also have "Give Your Dog A Bone" - very well-worn copy which also must be about 15 years old. It's my "Bible" and I recommend it to all my puppy buyers.

A couple of years ago I had a bitch who was a few days late whelping - I was a bit concerned about her and took her down to my Vet's late one afternoon to see if he could tell me what was going on. He said that things seemed to be progressing normally and gave me a card with his mobile number on and told me that if I was at all worried about her during the night to give him a call As it happened, I needn't have been concerned as, like all of the Standard Poodle bitches I've had - she just spat out her puppies quite easily - obviously I had just miscalculated the whelping date

Keeping you & Chase in my thoughts, Kaffy

Awww they're such cute white fluffs! Don't be put off... You're in Vic right? Come meet Kairu one day.. Grooming isn't that difficult.. You may need to groom them to get them used to the brush and teach them to stay still hopefully.. Most of the breeders I've seen are either in NSW or qld.. Not sure about Perth.. Let us know if you decide on a bub I must admit, I was surprised, as ones I had met before had been good-natured. I would just be careful who you buy from, as obviously someone is breeding from a line with bad temperament! I realise they are not indicative of the breed (I've heard of a Standard Poodle who had to be muzzled at Obedience, as he was very DA, and that's definitely not a Poodle trait)

Hope I don't get flamed here! Just hoping you have researched your breeder well & seen the parents and siblings - probably ok, since you're in WA - just that I had a really BAD experience with Japanese Spitz who were very DA. There was a couple who attended the same Obedience Club in Melbourne as I did who had 2 Japanese Spitz who were so aggressive that I would have been put off the breed for life, if not for seeing CWEW's Emmy!

Forgive me saying so, but that's the biggest load of codswallop I've ever seen!!! I've been a registered breeder for over 17 years and have ALWAYS had to do some advertising to sell my puppies (possibly because I don't show). I think that SACA saying that borders on defamatory - implying that anyone who has to advertise must be a BYB.

Sending Poodle hugs to Chase

I miss the Vet I used to go to in Melbourne - he was lovely

I would agree with this - I had a Bitch who had four (reasonably large) litters but you would never know to look at her - she used to "get her figure back" very quickly!

hehe - having had a GSP in the past I can totally relate to that

The few times I Instructed Beginners I liked to take several breaks for socialising, a bit of play etc. Instructors have to recognise that young dogs can have a very short attention span & that persisting in training a bored dog is counter-productive! I liked to place much more emphasis on the socialisation aspect, with just a bit of basic Obedience thrown in.

I agree 100% with this! Unfortunately, many Instructors are lacking in imagination and just follow the set training outline.

It's an unfortunate fact that "Beginners" class is going to be a bit boring. Many Instructors will make the whole class work at the level of the least accomplished dog, which can be hard on a smart dog who already knows the exercises. The answer is not to drop out, but find an Instructor who is ready (or able) to promote a dog who knows the exercises - at the higher levels the class gets more interesting. When I was Instructing I never liked doing Beginners because I found it boring to instruct, as well :D I preferred the higher classes where I knew that all of the dogs had a certain basic level of Obedience and I could get the class doing some different things - even basic Agility work, to keep it interesting.

Speaking as a breeder, I would certainly appreciate being informed!

If he is otherwise healthy and reasonably fit, I would just treat the symptoms and not worry to much about taking him to the vet. My Vet told me many years ago that KC was the equivalent of a human cold and not dangerous unless the dog is very you, very old, or in poor condition.

Hmm - well I would tend to agree with LMS - MY dogs live inside (mainly) because they are part of my family - DerRottwieller - do you have children and, if so, do THEY live outside- I'm sure they are messier than dogs! OH, & if I had Labradors they would still be inside!

Saw this on Facebook, as well - hope you had a POODLICIOUS day :laugh: ;)

OT - but Akira looks like she should be a member of "Kiss"