tdierikx

Joe picked himself a lovely forever home today... yay Joe!! T.

Woohoo!!! 2 Pei's rehomed in one weekend... awesome work everyone! T.

"Chateau de Puppy Sniffer".... LOVE IT!!! Hahahaha! T.

Way to go Clancy!!! Well done PS! T.

The getting out and having a go at another small dog isn't good... maybe it is best that Sage is given her wings if she's not safe around smaller animals. It's just so weird that Sage fitted in well in a multi dog home (mostly larger dogs, but there are a couple of smaller dogs as well) in her first foster home - AND she had a litter of pups with her then. One would have thought that those tendencies would have stuck out like a sore thumb in that home, but she settled in fine. That's what has me so confused as to her behaviour now, and am asking if it's possible to have the "DOL member approved" behaviourist check her out. Dogmad - what did you think of Ellie's reactions to challenging/barking dogs when you were helping her out to find a new home? Remember that you also had first hand experience with Ellie in the flesh. What would you have recommended for her if you hadn't met her and had only read that she would pull her hardest to go over to the other dog? Whatever course Holly's Mummy takes from here - now that Sage has escalated to escaping the yard and attacking another dog - she has my support, respect, and sympathy. Holly's Mummy - please don't feel pressured by my asking if Kathy can assess Sage - if she is impossible to contain and you can't see Kathy for a while, then you must do what you feel is right, OK? T.

Just browsing through one of the online selling sites and found this ad... There is a similar one for cats/kittens as well... contact names and phone numbers are in the ad. My understanding is that the legal requirement is to take the stray animals to the pound, or call a ranger to do same, or hand in to vet clinic to forward on to the pound. Am I wrong here, or is this ad calling for people to break the law? T.

With respect dogmad... if I hadn't personally seen this actual dog interacting perfectly fine and normal in a multi dog home, I'd be agreeing with your advice here... but the truth is that I KNOW that she has lived and can live with other dogs without incident. I just hope that Holly's Mummy can stretch to an assessment by Kathy before making any decisions based on people's opinions on an internet forum. If a highly regarded and recommended behaviourist feels that Sage needs to be given her wings, then at least all options have been explored, and Holly's Mummy won't have any "what if's" after the fact. Holly's Mummy - you are doing everything you can for Sage, and none of us are in your position - you have my respect and support no matter what the outcome for Sage, OK? T.

The problem is finding a safe area where Sage can be allowed off lead in the general vicinity of other dogs - just in case her issues are not lead related and she needs to be quickly corrected or stopped from engaging in undesirable behaviour. No-one is going to offer up their own dog as an off lead test subject for a dog that displays aggression or extreme excitability on lead as described by Holly's Mummy. I know that my own dogs are somewhat more reactive when on lead, but a soft tug on the lead or a word from me can correct that... what is happening with Sage seems to have gone quite a bit past that stage though, as she doesn't appear to be able to be corrected fully when she gets into her "zone" of inappropriate behaviour. Sage's previous foster home had a large pack of dogs most of whom were somewhat larger than Sage, and had been exposed to many other fosters over the years - the regular pack were well conditioned to new dogs being introduced on a regular basis, and as such did not react unfavourably to initial unsettled behaviour from the newcomers - and the newcomers invariably just settle in and become part of the pack just fine. Holly's Mummy's situation is a bit different... T.

Nice shots! Loving the one of the dappled one's back with the hat in the background... stunning! T.

Ummm - you just need a bigger bed... *grin* Alternately, you can get a smaller bed for yourself so that there is plenty of room on the other bed for the dogs... lol! T.

I've personally seen Sage in a pack situation... and she had pups at the time to boot. I even had all of the dogs (including Sage) milling about me while doling out treats - which can sometimes lead to tears if the pack isn't well balanced. Sage appeared to know her place in the pack and was only reactive to one dog, who tried to push her constantly - her reaction was not overtly aggressive in that case, more of a wrestling and argy bargy thing with no teeth from either dog. She played well with everyone else, human AND canine. If you can afford it both time and money wise, can Kathy have a look at Sage? If she says that Sage is not "redeemable" at this point, then I would say 3 for 3, and do the right thing for Sage (pts). If I had not seen and handled Sage myself in the above scenario, I'd be with everyone else and advising pts now... You have my complete support no matter what you decide for Sage. T.

Awww... that last photo needs to be printed out and framed... gorgeous! Good luck Charlie Brown!! T.

It depends on how nasty your neighbour wants to get about it... Legally, you are not liable for the vet bill... but in the interests of neighbourly harmony, paying something towards either the vet bill or to helping secure the fenceline so it doesn't happen again is never a bad idea. My neighbour's cat got into my dog pen and didn't survive the experience - my neighbour then decided to go on a crusade to complain to council about my dogs - tried to have them declared dangerous, then tried to complain about them barking (was another neighbour's dog), and when all of that didn't work, she resorted to throwing baits over the fence. One dog died, and another spent 4 days in hospital, before she was satisfied she had evened the score... T.

We all have a "trial by fire" padraic... hang in there, and you'll make some really great friends around here... honest! T.

Even when people don't necessarily see eye to eye on particular topics, this place can bring them together when it is needed... which is pretty amazing actually. T.

I found the Jumping NSW website that had a few shots from the Camden Show on it, so I rang the contact number on the site and offered to put all of the photos on a disk and send them to her... which I'll be doing this weekend... *grin* T.

Dogtainers are awesome! Did you arrange it through the Sydney guys? They are usually happy to help out rescues with reasonable rates to transport dogs - we've used them quite a bit and can't fault their service at all... and the guys who do the Sydney driving are completely lovely, they really care about every animal they have on board. T.

I blotted the number on Rocky's pic in PSP - thanks for the offer of doing it for me Snook... Here is the lovely Rocky... T.

Well - by the time the battery was charged, we were losing light fast... most of the plant shots were in my neighbour's front yard and partially shaded by their house. I was also not 100% stable footed for some of the plant closeup shots, so the VC works pretty well on the Tamron lens... hehe! The closeup of the little old Maltese dog was in shade and I was looking down because she was sitting on my feet - she adores me for some strange reason... I'm actually really loving that one myself... T.

Plants/flowers... Not loving the reds... grrr! This fellow was fun to try to get in focus... A couple of closer in shots... ... and the last one... full zoom... I reckon once I get the hang of the new kit, I'm going to be VERY happy with this new toy... *grin* T.

Ummm... Katdogs... the really nice one of Rocky clearly shows your phone number on her collar tag... I'll email it to you, OK? And all the Jodie ones were really blurry, so I reckon we will have to try get some better ones on Sunday... As for the first round of test photos - here are the better ones... oh, and I have only resized them down to 1024x683 - no other post processing. My very first photo had to be of Pickles - she's such a camera tart! This one is better overall focused... Fern the foster pup... I love the fact that the nose AND the eyes are in focus in this one... I have a few more of plants and stuff coming...

Well - some of the test photos turned out OK, some were barely so-so, and some were downright nasty... lol! I think I'm just going to have to play around with the lens and settings a bit more - the new lens works differently to my Canon lens, but I've noticed that the new setup is definitely faster in decent light on Sports mode than the 450D - the whole thing is also a little heavier than my 450D setup, so tracking it about is going to take some learning... I'll pick out some of the better shots to post and be back soon, OK? T.

Puppies can be as much work as you make them really. The other thing you need to be mindful of is your own dog's needs - she is a toy breed, so larger crossbreed pups may be a bit much for her - they can be really rough when they play! Small breed pups could be a goer though... she'd love bossing them about... lol! I've fostered entire litters of large breed pups while holding down a fulltime job - the trick is spending as much quality time with them as possible, so that they learn that human contact is a good thing, and also a little bit of basic training goes a long way too. My own dogs are larger breeds, so they really enjoy getting silly with large breed pups - they can do all the crazy play stuff with impunity when they have some pups to entertain - we call it "socialisation training"... *grin* If you are hankering for another foster, maybe give varicool a call and see if she has any more fosters for you. I'm sure she can find something... T.

Thanks Snook and tlc - just downloading some test pics I took just now... they looked quite nice on the camera screen, so I'm hoping they will also look nice on my 23" computer screen too... I need a new card reader - this silly one has suddenly decided that whatever it's plugged into is USB 1.1... takes forever to load photos. I know it's not the USB ports on the PC because every other device recognises them as USB 2.0... T.

Thanks KumaAkita... a girl needs some retail therapy when she's just hit "middle aged"... errr! T.