DeltaCharlie

I used to always leave a clamshell full of water in my backyard when I lived in Sydney. It was there all year round. That way I knew that on hot days they not only had somewhere to cool off but they would also never run out of drinking water. Ours are crated inside these days and there is no way we would leave a clamshell full here. Too much of a risk that a hot snake is going to enter the yard in search of water.

When my ex and I split I kept Cody. It wasn't even really discussed to be honest, I think we both just always knew he would go with me. I was the dog person, I had pushed to buy him in the first place etc, I was the one who did all the walking and training etc. BUT the determining factor and the reason it was never really contested by him- Cody was bonded much more with me than he was with Phil. Mind you, when all the goods were split equally by monetary value, Phil gave Cody a value of $250 :laugh: I would have been happy to give Phil everything else to be able to keep him, he was worth a hell of a lot more than that to me. If the dogs could speak- who would they choose? Regardless of official paperwork, money and time spent with them, dogs will always have their favourites. My flatmate and I have 9 dogs and some of them are "mine" and some are "hers", and that doesn't necessarily correspond with their paperwork. Its just by individual choice of the dogs.

I've lost count of the number of times I have watched him out there and thought to myself "if I can still run border collies in my 80s I will be a very happy person". RIP Keith

Speak to Jimmy at Cardawan Pets in Queanbeyan. Tell him Bec and Tammy sent you :) His meat comes in every 2nd Friday (off pay week for public service, ie a few days ago). It is minced fresh that morning and usually arrives about 1pm. Anything not sold fresh he repackages into smaller bags and freezes so you can always buy smaller quantities at other times. The meat is so popular that he is now buying over 600kg a fortnight to keep up with demand and has just started to get chicken in too (it used to just be beef or roo). Sometimes it is minced, sometimes it is diced but its the same meat just not always prepared the same. When it is diced you can see just how good the quality is- looks like steak we would eat ourselves :)

I understand that, and to tell you the truth I wasn't aware of the situation. Has the information you provided changed my opinion of the place- hell yes! Will I knowingly want to buy from there in the future- no! However, I know how easy it is for these threads to go off track. The OP asked a question which was simply "what is the quality of the meat like and is it worth buying?" So, I wanted to put all other feelings aside and simply answer the question that was asked. Yes, the quality of the meat is great. Yes, it is worth buying, as shown by the fact we have driven 6hr round trips to buy it. Others reading this (now and in the future) won't necessarily share the same thoughts on the issue and still need to be given factual information on the quality of the meat.

Oh and there is also a place at Llandilo that sells all the varieties of pet mince, although I suspect that they may source from Burns anyway. Could be wrong though, the prices were very comparable to Burns and good quality stuff.

Ethics and opinions of the guy aside, the meat quality is very good and I have never had a problem with it. When I lived at Penrith I used to buy 10kg chicken, 10kg kennel (chicken/beef mix?), chicken frames, and roo occassionally. I have also bought straight beef and been very happy with it. I know there is no guarantee what is actually put in there and horse may be an ingredient, however, given that we have 9 dogs (some with gut issues who get sick simply by changing their water), the fact that we have never had a single issue after all this time speaks volumes about the quality of it. Put it this way, I moved down near Canberra 4 years ago and we still make the occassional trip to Sydney with a big esky specifically to buy meat, then turn around and come back home. 6 hour min round trip. We don't need to very often these days as a local guy has a new contact where he sources great quality meat for us, but if we are in Sydney on a non-weekend, non-trialling day we will still call in to get some. If it is just chicken you are after there used to be a place at Liverpool (I used to drive past it when I taught at Mt Pritchard), possibly on Elizabeth Drv (?) that had incredibly cheap human quality chicken products and they also did a pet mince that I found was really good. I used to buy 5kg of carcusses, 5kg chicken wings, 5kg of chicken hearts (for the cat mainly) and it was all $1/kg. Their pet mince was 50c/kg. The chicken place inside Nepean Square (Centro now?) opposite Coles also used to do chicken bones for 70c a kilo. Depends on whether you want to give bone stuff or not. Also the big fruit market thing on the highway at Minchinbury do a pet mince that is actually all chicken, I think it is 70c/kg (or at least it was when I worked at Colyton 6 years ago).

We will always x-ray and are so glad that we did last time. Link whelped during the Queanbeyan Floods and we were essentially trapped in with only one vet that could possibly be accessed in an emergency. We had x-rayed her the day before so we knew that she was only carrying 4 puppies. Given that, we were able to monitor her and knew that once the 4th pup arrived we didn't have any more coming and could relax in terms of finding a vet for an emergency c-section during a natural disaster. You just never know what is going to happen on the day and I would rather at least know how many puppies I am expecting.

All 7 of our active trialling dogs visit the vet (who is also their chiro) every 6-8 weeks to ensure they are in tip-top shape. I could just imagine us trying to carry in 7 BC sized crates and set them up somewhere in the waiting room LOL The theory is probably good... but in practise it sounds ridiculous! One advantage of taking 7 in at a time is that the idiots standing by the door tend to move to allow us access and strangers are more reluctant to bring Fluffy over to say hello to a pack that large! We are such regulars though that on the few occassions we have had a sick dog being harassed or unsettled by noisy children etc they find somewhere quieter for us to wait. The waiting room, while small, has a divider set up through the middle so we can move to the other side and separate our pack from the people coming in.

I have always done parvo and distemper but never bothered with hepatitis. I didn't know it was possible to do a parvo only test, although given that those 2 are done at the same place (hep is sent overseas) its just as easy to do both and be sure. I don't think it would make much of a difference cost wise.

SK are they the ones that need you to put water inside? I have some that look like that (bought at Homeart years ago) which are great around the house but a pain to take to a trial as they are just too heavy when filled with water. Otherwise I may check them out :) I have had my eye on those cleanrun ones and considered them a few times. Never got around to buying them though...

It scares me to think of the implications for the Aussie cattle industry if their dogs cannot be used effectively.

So sorry to hear this RV. He was one of the novice dogs that really stood out for me at the WA nationals, not sure what it was about him but there was something I liked. Then I discovered he was a DOL dog and that made him even more special :) RIP Beautiful Boy

A few of ours have had it after a particularly fat bit of brisket (acute attacks). They are still fed a raw diet but don't get fatty bones and not much fat on their meat. Not sure if she feeds rice/pasta etc but a holistic vet once mentioned to us that pasta and white rice can be very bad for dogs prone to pancreatitis. They generally won't cause an attack themselves but something in them (no idea what) can build up in a dogs system and then the next time they have something fatty it pushes them over the edge. I know of someone (no connection to this vet) who had a dog with chronic pancreatitis that switched their dog to brown rice and have had no issues since.

We have 7 working border collies here that spend the day in a crate while we are at work. They cope with it just fine :) Honestly, that does amaze me :) So long as they are doing stuff while you are at home, which by the sounds of things these dogs do (2 walks a day etc) then there is no issue crating. Mind you, ours get used to it from a very young age, but even adult fosters etc have adjusted pretty quickly. People think Border Collie and assume they are always on the go and never settle- couldn't be further from the truth :) Ours are currently sound asleep all over the loungeroom LOL Mind you, if we were to ask them to work they would be up and ready to go- perhaps that is where the misconception comes from :D

I heard of a dog just the other day who has just been diagnosed. She was going in for surgery yesterday (?) to remove what they could and consider options once they saw what they were dealing with.

We have 7 working border collies here that spend the day in a crate while we are at work. They cope with it just fine :)

I have a Mr Whippy :) Called him that as a pup, made myself laugh, and it has stuck ever since LOL I used to know a male GSD called "Sit". It is amazing how many people ask a dog to sit when it is nearby- they don't usually expect to be showered in love and kisses though :laugh: From memory they used "down" as their command for sit :)

You could enter agility,obedience, tracking etc but not conformation shows.

Or feed thick, edible bones straight from the freezer. Charlie is a shocker when it comes to gulping large chunks of bone so he gets the thick,knobbly end of brisket (not the thin rib part) still frozen solid. He takes ages to grind all the little bits off and I've never had an issue. Delta lived on frozen bones for the first few years until she learnt to chew them properly, even now if I suspect she is quite hungry I will feed frozen. Egg shells are a good source of calcium too :)

She wants to breed them they are only 6 months old or something atm so she cannot trial them yet , but she wants to breed later on...... I told her its a horrible Idea but I get classed as a dog loony for telling her so....some people cannot be told. I am just happy that she is going to be stimulating their minds properly instead of leaving them in the yard Well that's a shame then I really need to stop being the optomistic, think the best of people person that I am :laugh:

B-Q you could definitely get Quinn onto the sporting register which allows her to remain entire (provided they have sporting register in QLD...) She would just need to be registered with a recognised working border collie registry, the ANKC provide a list of those they recognise. In theory your sister could join the NSW sheepdog workers Inc, register the dogs (only $5 each if parents are registered, more if they are not), then register them on sporting register with ANKC. Could become an expensive venture though, depending on current fees with each association. It's supposed to be more for working-lined dogs though, not really the typical avenue for your average un-registered BCs. I too was wondering how we jumped from not wanting to desex her dogs to breeding un-tested litters Some people would rather not desex, simple as that. Doesn't mean they are going to be pumping out litters.

Actually there are heaps of opportunities in NSW. ADAA hold a few comps a month on average and ADAC run 1 each month (I think). ADAA are mainly in Sydney and South Coast (Wollongong/Dapto), with a big 4 day-er at Tamworth each year. ADAC are only in Sydney.

One of those Malaysian dogs? Can't think of their names but starts with a T and the have a blue tongue like Chows :)

We have 9 dogs and they are all confined while we are at work, and I am not ashamed to admit that. We live on a property, we have snakes about, we have dogs that do not get along, we have idiots that would injure themselves if left to free run together all day, we have escape artists, we have stock in neighbouring paddocks, and most importantly... ... we quite enjoy coming home to dogs that are still alive and in perfect physical health. They are not crated because we like to them to be miserable, they are crated for their own safety. They are in no way neglected and it does not make us irresponsible owners. In fact, I think it would be incredibly irresponsible of us to leave them free running together unsupervised where anything could happen and we would not be there to take immediate action for the welfare of our beloved dogs. They are all in large crates or runs, with plenty of space to stand up, stretch, move about and have free access to water. Those that will use them have toys and chews for amusement. Some are in together. Once we are home everyone is out and about; we usually try to do some training with them, take them for walks, a swim in the dam if its warm, or just generally spend quality time with them. At night, young dogs are confined until they are mature enough to be trusted not to get up to mischief or annoy the older dogs (and us) who are trying to sleep.