~*Shell*~

Thanks everyone - Trinity really is just the most gorgeous little thing!

I'll have to get you to pronounce Suomenlapinkoira for me one day Armahani! I'm not sure if someone had asked this but roughly how many lappies in the country at the moment?

I would love to go to a Kepala meet one day - too bad I'm in sydney! The dogs always look like they have heaps of fun! Too bad Zero's the fun police

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to photograph this gorgeous little one today. Trinity is only 8 weeks old but has personality plus! Definitely my kind of puppy (minus the whole not-a-spitz-breed thing) And one of Terranik having a cuddle (lucky thing!)

You always get more views than replies on the photo thread - lots of people just like to perve on other people's photos! You definitely need to post more. Your family is gorgeous! I'm loving your hair btw!

I had to go to the bank at chatswood the other day which is just across from PP - there were "oodles" everywhere. They had a japanese spitz x toy poodle. I wasn't even game to go and have a look for fear of losing it at them!

Awesome shots! Thanks for the tutorial - I haven't tried it before but I think I will now. Shame I don't have time this weekend!

You have a gorgeous family Jules! I don't think I've ever seen Leroy before but he's a gorgeous looking cat!

While I rarely take Zero to off leash parks (the dog beach is the only place we do go unless it's to training which is off leash), I do regularly walk through an onleash park where there are sometimes off leash dogs. One day there was a dog that managed to get free of his leash and proceded to run up and attack Zero while the owner called to me that he was friendly. Unfortunately, this is one of many experiences I have with people telling me that their dog is friendly when it's not always - if the OP's lab had run up to Zero like that, I would probably have had a moment of "maybe it's not friendly" panic. Zero is usually able to tell me who is a good dog to avoid though (or at least who I should avoid when he's around) so it would have been pretty short lived. I don't like Zero to have uncontrolled interactions with other dogs - hence why I don't take him to off leash parks. I like to be able to choose who he has "play time" with and they're all dogs I have known for quite a while. In fact, most of them are DOL dogs!

Oh great idea KHM, definitely worth trying I third this! Steve was awesome when I was having problems with my sibe. Good luck with it - they're a handful but so very worth it!

Only having a little bit of sand and dirt go through the cover would be better than having Zero sitting on the seat I guess. He's not a move around in the backseat kind of dog. When we're moving, he's usually lying down or sitting trying to get his head as far out of the window as the tiny crack I wind it down by will allow. It's only in the boot that he moves around alot - damn fussy dog!

Easily - I don't want to put him in there though because he stands up when we put him in the back of the wagon (a friend's car) instead of settling like he does in the back seat. With his hips the way they are, I don't want to put the strain on them trying to balance in a moving car would and if I was to turn a corner suddenly, i could seriously hurt him if he was to fall. Besides, if I have his crate in the car with us, it will be in the boot and because it doesn't lay completely flat, he wouldn't be able to be in there with it. Cheers Ams! I'll have a better look at them tomorrow. For those prices, I could at least try them before I try to get holes cut into the backseat buddy! It's quality is the main thing - but the company is also australian, you can get a fleece version of it and minus the no seatbelt holes thing, it's exactly what I want. I wonder how hard it would be to put holes in it. There's got to be someone around here who could do it. I would love to be able to use the anchor points in the back like you do Corvus but I won't be able to reach them under the boot tray so it's not really an option for us

That's what I'm using now but even the most expensive picnic blanket doesn't cover what I need it to cover - Zero's very big and his hair goes everywhere!

Hey all, I'm in the process of buying a brand new car and I really want to be able to protect the seats from the pitter patter of (not so) tiny paws. After having taken the seat covers off my current car to discover paw prints on the seats (it happens when you have a wet and muddy dog!) I would really like to protect the seats of my new car. Zero currently wears a ruffwear harness and then has a leash-thing which attaches him to the seatbelt clip and it really works for us. The backseat buddy doesn't allow for being able to use the seatbelt clips without unzipping it and exposing the seats (which i don't want to do with a wet and muddy dog!). I was told to attach him to the head rests but in the new car, the headrests are designed to pull out of the seat without much force at all so the back seats can sit up against the front seats when they're folded down (without the head rests). This means that if we're ever in an accident, chances are he will come loose and injure himself. Are there alternatives to the backseat buddy that are of the same quality but allow me to use the seatbelt clips? I've searched online and can't find anything. As an alternative, someone suggested that I attach him to the same clip as you would attach a car seat in back but I am getting a boot tray (to protect the false floor from scratches) and this will cover the clips in the boot.

I would - imagine if your dog's body is the one that helps hundreds of other dogs. Even if it's just contributing to the cause, it's still a part of it. I would donate Zero's body but I would want some time with him before anything happened. I would also like to have his ashes back when they've finished their research on him because I'd like to scatter them somewhere that he would like.

Wheeeee - I sold my corolla today so hopefully I'll be in a new x-trail really soon. I'm just waiting to hear back about a quote and then I'll be able to put a deposit down on the car. Yay!! As soon as I have it, i'll drop you some photos TLC - it's by far the best car for us and I'm very excited about it.

Who did you buy it from? Try contacting the manufacturer to see if they'll fix it. If not, contact an electrician. If something is tripping the safety switch, it would be easy to fix. I'm very jealous of you btw. I would kill for a heated hydrobath!!

Call the RSPCA!! Zero has partial blindness from blunt force trauma to the eyes. He has problems seeing in the dark but he does just fine. I'm pretty sure he'll end up totally blind but as long as he's happy and coping, I'm not going to have him PTS over it. I don't really think it would change all that much for him. His sense of smell more than makes up for the eyes at night so I don't think it would be a problem during the day either.

I know nothing about nikons but I do know about grey-market and having dealt with a store (harvey norman) and a couple of grey market importers (DDP and DWI), i'll take the grey market guys anyday. They were nothing but awesome when I bought my 50mm 1.4 and my speedlite - much better than the people at harvey norman and the local kodak store. I wouldn't buy in a store now anyway. The few things I want at the moment are all minimum $500 more expensive at stores. In the case of my 70-200mm, it's minimum $800 more at a store.

They're trainable! Very very trainable! ETA: and like showdog's breed, they're not stupid... they will go to lengths to prove that you are though!

I have a preference but I would never let the colour overrule the personality of the pup. IMO personality and temprement are the most important things to look for in a litter.

I met Zero at 2.5 years old - i wanted a quiet dog because my neighbours had noise complaints about their dogs barking and I wanted a dog I would be able to have around without having him be in my lap all the time so I looked at sibes. I met heaps of them for months and months and eventually I was told about renbury having a few of them at the time. Zero was the only dog in the entire place who wasn't barking - he was just sitting in the middle of his pen, on his own, doing nothing. The girls told me he wasn't very friendly and didn't want anything to do with people but he wasn't aggressive so I took him out and he paid a little bit of attention to me but nothing much. He looked horrible (obese, blowing coat, bad diet before) and my heart just bled for him - when they told me he was due to be euthanised that afternoon, i put my deposit on him then and there Soooooooooo glad I did. While I could have murdered him several times, he owns my heart and I think he knows it. It hasn't been an easy journey but it's been more than worth it to see what he's like now.

I really like the black mount... that being said there is something to say for the white!

I had to put my gorgeous dobe girl to sleep at 5 years old. The whole family stayed with her through the entire process. I wouldn't have it any other way. She was completely calm about the whole thing - she had probably suffered some kind of stroke so she would go from manic with glassy eyes to completely normal and back again in a few moments. Our vet said it was probably something to do with brain damage due to the stroke and damage to her neural pathways because of it. Her brain just wasn't firing the right signals to the rest of her body causing seizures. We were lucky in that she spent her last half an hour or so on earth in her normal state (after a huge seizure) - she had her favourite toys with her and her family there so she just wanted to lie around and have her tummy and ears rubbed. It still makes me tear up to think about her - I have no idea what I'll be like when Zero passes. Danika was just devine and I loved her to death but Zero is my heart dog. I cry now thinking about what it will be like to lose him.

My favourite of mine is the 50mm 1.4 - my favourite that I've had the chance to play with is the 70-200mm 2.8 IS. That and the 24-70 2.8 are the next on my list. I'm currently trying to decide between my trip to thailand or new camera equipment. I think I might go with the camera equipment.