RubyBlue

My girl has always had some anxiety issues but the last couple of weeks it seems to be really playing up again. I think its reached a point where I need to start being much more proactive in my management of it. Today, whilst at dog club I left her alone in the car with a whole lot of food whilst working my other dog and was very surprised to find it all untouched when I got back (to me this speaks volumes as she is a very food motivated dog). I have also seen a huge increase with the amount of pacing and nervous panting and she doesn't seem to wag her tail or smile as much. I've ordered a DAP collar, which was unfortunately the wrong size, so will have to wait until another one comes in. But I am seriously considering medication, as I think it has reached the point where her quality of life is becoming an issue. I am after some recommendations for veterinary behaviourists in Melbourne (preferably eastern suburbs) and some experiences of medicating dogs. Thanks.

This That episode gave me the heebie jeebies. I've seen that cat before but got chills watching it with the stone angels association.

My dog brought me a chewed up packet on New Years Eve just past. Off to the vets and $600 lighter for 6 weeks of Vitamin K for two large dogs. Thankfully they were never even symptomatic. Eventually found out that my neighbour had put it down whilst they were on holidays with their dog and hadn't thought it could get on my property. The whole thing is well and truly over now and the dogs didn't even know what all the fuss was about. I am sure your girl will be completely fine. The worst part about my dogs whole ordeal was that the older one had to stop her zydax injections.

My girl had a lot of trouble with pain after her mastectomy, laying down pulled her stitches tight so I had to hold her in a stand so she could sleep the first night. Tramadol can produce some interesting side effects including shaking, panting, glazed over eyes and hallucinations. I had passed off a lot of the symptoms in my old boy as dementia until Milly had the same reactions. Its scary watching them struggle when you cant do anymore to help them. Hope you managed to get some sleep too last night.

Begs the question why anyone would want 1080 around in the first place. There has got to be more humane ways to dispatch animals. He definitely had some in his mouth but I don't think he managed to swallow any. It sounds like the LD50 for 1080 is quite low and its now 5 days on and if he is sick he is doing an extremely good job of hiding it (even managed to score his first title yesterday :) ). So hopefully that means that that one can be ruled out.

My not so little man got his first title yesterday after passing his test 3 up at Ballarat. He ran the entire track and my fear of getting pulled into a tree didnt come true - he pulled the two trees the lead got caught around out instead..... Thankfully there were no kangaroos on his track. I found out afterwards that there was a whole lot of them standing watching on the first corner the day before and upset the previous dog. Unfortunately no joy for Milly with her 7. She started so well but missed the first turn then got stuck on the acute. Seems a few dogs had some trouble going from one type of vegitation to another this weekend. Oh well her champion title will be all the more sweet when it comes now. The food and atmosphere was fantastic and Im dissapointed its all over and back to reality.

I tried to reply to this in the online comments but couldnt then sent them an email explaining the error message i got and asking for advice. They have not yet replied.

So far so good. Hes still his usual nutcase self. I was thinking if it was rat poison I'd be starting to see some sigbs by now. I was pretty sure he didnt actually eat any though. Im not ready to let out a sigh of relief just yet. A friend from the park who happens to be on the parks committee and incidentally also a doler said she'd look into it.

So any ideas where to get it tested? The council said it was expensive to get done so wouldnt do it unless dogs started getting sick.

I live in a very suburban area. Id be surprised if anyone could get 1080 here. Plus dog is thankfully not violently ill. Im more worried about warfarin or some type of rat poison. You can buy it at the local supermarket. Already had to deal with this at the beginning of the year...and the local councils use it for rabbits and foxes in westerfolds park. The chicken didnt look like it had been thrown up. How bad is 1080? Its been in my fridge all day.... :/

Thanks guys. So far he seems completely fine. This was at a dedicated fully fenced dog park that is nearly always busy. The chicken looks like wing tips and was buried just under the surface of some loose soil/tambark. There is a bin nearby. It just doesnt seem like something a dog owner would do. I called the council and they said theyd send someone to look incase there was more but unless dogs start getting sick they're not interested in testing the meat and told me to chuck it out....Ill freeze it for at least a short while I think.

Found some raw chicken buried at the dog park this morning. Or more accurately my dog found it. I don't think he ate any but I will be watching him very closely to be on the safe side. I gathered up all the pieces I could find and now have it sitting in my fridge. Any ideas what I should do next?

Got my numbers in the post today - but not the catalogue. I guess I can pick it up on Saturday?

I did it with Milly through Delta for a while. I found it very satisfying (although some of the peoples stories were heartbreaking - particularly the younger ones) but though my lack of time and Milly's health upsets stopped going. I would like to do it with Dyson when he gets a bit calmer.

I did it with my pup. Worked fantastically in our case. Hes now 18months and in all the highly distracting environments we frequent (off lead dog park, beach, creek, etc) I can count the number of times he has not immediately whipped round and come charging in on one hand. Of those few times he did not immediately come there is only one time when I went and got him, the rest he came on the second cue. I maintain his recall with high value food and good timing - ie most of the times I call him I am 99.99% certain he will come straight in.

For ankc tracking they are just required to acknowledge the article. We put treats in the socks and the dogs forage through them, that is the start of the indicating behaviour. In a trial you are required to indicate to the judge that your dog has found an article. As the dog is often way ahead (and in my case my eyesight isnt great) you cant see article so the judge is happy if you think your dog has found something in the area they asked the article to be left. Both of mine have independently decided to pick up and carry the article. It seems a lot of gundogs do this. Other peoples dogs just pause and sniff before continuing.

Is the mesh small enough that a toy poodle couldnt stick its nose through. Itd have to be rather small to work in that situation, I dont think chickenwire would work and aviary mesh isnt as cheap. Which brings me back to my point - how far should the average person be expected to go to protect against the really obscure things that could possibly happen? I have really tall solid wood fences with trellis on top but there is a gap under the gate (so that it can open and close) there is no way my dogs could do anything with that unless someone let their little dog stick its nose underneath. Should I really be held accountable if it does happen?

Are you suggesting that - as a dog owner - every time you walk along the road and see a gap in a fence or pool fencing that you should keep your dog away from the gap? With the gap that I've seen on the news, maybe this owner DIDN"T KNOW that there was a dog behind it that would take it's dog's face off. I'm sure if she'd even had the slightest inkling that would be the result that she would have kept her dog well away - perhaps even as far as the next bloody suburb. No, the responsibility lies with the owner of a dog that has gaps in the fencing, so close to a public footpath. They should be fixing their gaps. I walk my dogs along the road each day, footpath is wide enough only for 1 person. My dogs sniff the grass, by fencing. I don't expect them to turn around with half a face left, as a result of that. I'm quite sure they could tell from their side of the fence if their dog was agitated by people/dogs walking on the other side of the fence. It wouldn't be rocket science to figure it out. I do.. I never walk the dog so close to a fence that he could touch another dog behind the fence. And yes, I will walk on the road if I need to. My dog, is my responsibility to keep safe. I wouldn't allow him to sniff grass at a fence either. To me that is just annoying a dog behind a fence for no reason. It is easier to keep walking to the park or a house with no dog and let them sniff there. We have dogs next door that rush us as we walk past and although they are behind a fence, it only just comes up to the bottom of their chest, so they could easily step over it (not to mention the gate in the front yard is never closed, so they can just walk out if they really wanted to). They have on occasion come rushing out at us but a swift kick action or a loud 'get' usually sends them both back into their yard. I still maintain we can't lay blame anywhere as yet because all of the facts are not known - we have one side of a story. I am not saying it wasn't the other dog owners fault, I am just saying we really don't have enough information to lay blame. Hopefully this horror story will make those less responsible owners realise that they need to fix gaps in their fences. Hopefully it will also make others realise that just because there is a fence there, doesn't mean their dog is safe - it is up to us to keep them safe, as best we can. To be perfectly honest as an owner of large breed dogs I would not think twice about a gap like that. It certainly wouldnt have crossed my mind that a freak incident like someones little dog sticking its nose through a tiny little gap and getting hurt would happen. As others have said, as renters we dont get to determine the type of fencing, at the moment it is it is hard enough to get a rental that even allows dogs - you take what you can get. I certainly dont think it is reasonable to expect everyone to go boarding pickett fences up on the off chance that a passer by will allow their dog to put its nose through the gaps. The phrase 'make it idiot proof and someone will make a better idiot' comes to mind. What is a reasonable expectation for people to do to prevent others from putting themselves (or their kids/pets) at risk on or near their property? Id hate to see commonsense thrown out the door - as it is the world already has a large number of people who demand their rights but think nothing on their own responsibilities.

I just got a springer and took both dogs out at the same time. Weight for weight, the bike and I only just come out ahead of the dogs and yet I still managed to control them. I looked at a walkydog but given my boys strength and desire to pull didn't think it was going to be strong enough. The bike tow leash demo with the dobe didn't exactly fill me with confidence either.

Why can't they put the dog outside when she's got food? Not beyond the realms of possiblity that she will be at risk from the dog before this is over. There's a lot of things they could do but suggesting them won't help if they don't want to listen. I should have been clearer before. I meant how does your son feel about reporting the dog? Perhaps having the council come around and discuss the financial implications of having the dog land a bite might make them decide to do something - seeing as the financial aspect seems to be the responsible adults only concern.

How does your son feel about it?

Would love to read the frustration one too if you don't mind.

I went last week too.....Milly sooked the whole time but apparently just sat with them and didn't really react to anything but her heartrate went up during the thunder and firework tracks. Dyson fell asleep - and it turns out he's afraid of needles (I held him and big macho boy let me take his full weight, turned his head away and whimpered when the needle went in lol). Both dogs played with them but Dyson didn't like the doll much apparently. Hopefully I'll get to see the video soon - Its a wonderful opportunity to know and actually see how your dogs will behave in that sort of situation.

Interesting RM, Megan and DD. All the search and rescue training I have seen involves air scenting, it was explained to me that this was done as typically in disasters there is no track...the victim is buried under rubble/snow/whatever. Often they have to find people without knowing the target scent and have instead been trained to locate people based on the bacteria on their breath (and can do so for several hours after they have died - then cadaver dogs are brought in) or at least so I have been told though I am curious how they know what the dog is apparently smelling. The dogs search without the hindrance of a handler and when they find the victim they run back to the handler and alert then lead the handler to the victim. I have also been told that the police train their dogs search out and track the freshest scent so it is important that the area the perp. was last seen remains uncontaminated.

I don't move in agility circles so it doesn't surprise me that I've never heard of them before, but do you agility guys know of them? I know agility is bigger than a lot of other dog sports but I'm am still surprised that there would be enough interest for there to be two (or more) organisations and their affiliate clubs running trials.