mr.mister

I was thinking the same!! I think I'm going to start using the term wiggly rice now; sounds heaps better than maggots! might make me think twice about eating rice in the future though... ;)

YUMMY. It must smell like irresistable cologne to them or something... I've remembered another one, though it didn't happen to me I was working there at the time I got the full story. So, I used to work at a herb farm as a herb packer, there were also some guys who worked the farm and drove the delivery truck. So.. the bosses have this gorgeous Aussie x called Wylie, who absolutely adores riding in the truck. So Dave, one of the guys who works there, has to make a delivery down the range in Cairns, and of course Wylie had to come along. Now Dave has a bad habit of treating Wylie to meat pies when he goes for truck rides, and this particular time it must have been a curry pie because it obviously didn't agree with Wylie and resulted in what is now called by all the workers the 'Amazing Exploding Dog'. Driving along the highway at 80km/hr in a truck it's obviously quite hard to stop, plus this really happened quite suddenly. Anyway, Wylie, sitting in the passenger street, became very distressed and seconds later projectile diahrrea'd all over the inside of the truck. Somehow Dave manages not to crash the truck in shock and gag reflex but to make matters worse what happens? A cop comes up behind and puts the sirens on. So, Dave manages to find a spot to pull over finally and you can imagine the scene, Dave rolls the window down as the cop approaches (he was just doing a routine breath test) and the cop is nearly bowled over by the wave of green stink that barrels out. So there's the cop, trying not to pass out, Dave, (who has a very weak stomach) gagging, and Wylie panting innocently, now back to his happy self, having exploded. Surprised the cop didn't issue him a ticket for offensive stink. :D

This wasn't the dog's fault, but still disgusting! When I was a child my mother bought me a poodle puppy, and one day we went to take her with us to a friend's place (she'd only been with us for a little while and was still 'adjusting' to certain things) so my mum gave her a big feed of raw chicken wings and then we popped her in the car and left. I had her in my lap when she started looking distracted and walking all over me. She put her head over my shoulder and as I was cooing to her and saying 'what's up, cutie?' she shoved her head down my shirt and vomited all her semi-digested dinner down my back. Needless to say we made an impromptu pit-stop with me playing the screaming little girl and mum wiping it all off my back with a wet one! Lucky that wasn't too hard because the bits were mostly still solid... yum.

More posts, please? I'd love to learn more. I've always admired zois and told myself that if I were to have two 'staple' breeds, after the BC, a zoi would definately be my next choice.

Hi there, had my first time in the ring handling someone else's puppy just recently.. (in order) 1. Almost missed my call 2. Couldn't get the stack right 3. She kept sitting down 4. Found the sausage in my hand completely uninteresting. 5. My pants kept falling down!!! :p 6. Owner had to take over for me. Oh deary deary me! I can look back and laugh now but it was quite embarrassing at the time! I have officially popped my show handling cherry.. and not without my share of dramas LOL.

yes, i suppose it should be looked on as a positive that someone would even offer that. I can imagine though people saying to them, 'nah, don't worry about it, we'll take them whole' to not pay the extra $100... anyway, sorry OP, i return the topic to you!

oh no, I completely forgot and missed it

A little off topic, but I saw an ad in our paper for a litter of mini foxies - $250 'unspaded' and $350 'spaded' "Yes, I'd like my new puppy spaded, please...."

Whoops. Totally didn't read that quote properly. Ignore my reply.

Your own records basically. Back when I was involved we had paper records only, and I still had those until recently. Nowdays there are programs much like dog pedigree programs. You would record the birds ring number and year and that is its ID as such. And if you buy from a good breeder, then you would be able to get your birds pedigree. They just dont look quite as impressive without names. But I am sure you would list all their wins. I bred a couple of Grand Champions and had some really good wins. I miss the birds, but can no longer keep birds due to having developed an allergy to them! Thanks. I assume it might be a similar thing with chooks and other feathered friends? Does anyone know about rats and guinea pigs though?? As I've only just recently become interested in the whole thing I don't know an awful lot about the ins and outs of pedigree papers for chickens and general fowl, but I do believe they have their own ID's in the form of their leg bands and the breeders have pedigree documentation as well as breed recognition with Poutry Fancier's association and various breed clubs. It isn't like dog pedigrees at all, but they do have their methods. Probably it would be best to contact a club to get a more accurate description, and I wouldn't quote myself.

Don't feel guilty :D As far as I'm concerned, if a dog has everything they need and are set up for the night (which I'm sure you did) it's completely fine. The time you were away would have basically been when you would normally be sleeping, anyway.

I can speak for pedigree chickens. You see, many backyard chooks these days are hybrids, bred for prolific egg laying. However, I believe the statistic is that 3 breeds of livestock are lost each month, due to the fact that hybrids are so popular. There are many rare, beautiful breeds that are also good egg layers, that really need to be preserved. I was originally going to buy hybrids, but have decided on buying not only purebred but 'breeds in need', so to speak - rare breeds that are at risk of extinction. People may think, 'well, if I don't have a rooster and don't plan to breed, how would I be preserving rare breeds if I bought them?' The answer is quite simple really - if there are people out there willing to buy these endangered breeds, there will be people out there breeding them. Poultry clubs tend to be particularly friendly, helpful people passionate about preserving pure breeds and more than willing to help out newcomers. I myself recently attended a meeting for the Bendigo Poutry Club and they were all such lovely people, who gave me contacts for breeders to bred good examples of the breeds I'm interested in. Heck, I may even join the club and show my own chickens someday I would also add that I think the view on purebred cats is similar to that with dogs. Many people can't be stuffed desexing their moggies, who end up going out, breeding, and producing more strays and crossbreds for shelters to deal with. If I were to get a cat, it would be much the same as my dog policy - either registered ethical breeder, or a rescue.

Great post. I've been around all sorts of dogs all my life, especially as a child and have been nipped twice - once out of actual aggression by what the owners called a 'miniature longhaired kelpie' (um..) and the second time by a GSD I always played with in the park - well really I should say she mouthed my hand trying to get the ball, and though it hurt I knew she'd meant no harm and minutes later we were back playing together. A lot of people just tend to believe media hype, but others I can sort of sympathise with their fear. I close friend of mine, when she was a child, witnessed the neighbour's GSD kill her maltese. Since then she's always feared them and disliked them, and though not all GSD's are like that at all, who can blame her? It would have really scarred her. Having always been attracted to larger dogs I have always loved, been around, and played with GSD's, dobes, rotties particularly (my sister owned two and they were both the biggest lumps of sooks on the planet) and bull-type breeds. None have been aggressive to me and I have only had good experiences with them. It is such a shame that these breeds get such bad reps but until all the irresponsible or ignorant owners out there step up and be responsible, they will unfortunately keep their bad name.

That is fascinating.. ;)

Definately. I held up a ball for my dog once (stupid) and he accidentally got caught on my hand trying to grab it. Luckily I wasn't a young child that could have suffered worse injuries. Of course as the parents of these kids weren't there to see it it can never be guaranteed whether it was an attack or just an attempt to grab the toy. Supervise, supervise, supervise - can't be stressed enough!! Poor kid, poor dog. (edited to make my sentence clearer)

Thanks everyone for the great info.

Hi there, I was just thinking the other day about desexing and was wondering what people have to say about desexing an older dog (let's say.. 10 onwards, or something like that)? I believe that some breeders do desex their retired show dogs, and was a bit curious as to whether an older dog may have more risks involved with the operation rather than a younger animal. Of course there is a percentage of risk with any operation, just thinking would an older dog be more 'sensitive'? My question of course not only applies to show dogs but also to older dogs in general; for example an old stray who comes into a rescue with a spay/neuter policy or a pet dog who is at risk of developing testicular cancer or something like that. I guess in the end it comes down to the general health of the individual dog, but am curious about peoples' thoughts. Hope that wasn't too confusing!

One day, a friend of mine was patting my BC, when he jumped up to lick her face. It happened very quickly, and without sound, but he misjudged his lick, so to speak, and accidentally nose-butted my friend in the lip. It split her lip and drew blood. It was in no way an aggressive move on the part of the dog, but a misjudgement. Did that make him a dangerous dog that needs to be PTS? Of course not. It was an accident. It could have easily happened with a child in the same situation, it was lucky though that we were looking, or perhaps we would have jumped to conclusion and thought he'd nipped her. Of course, my friend was an adult and was able to state that the dog had in fact butted her with his nose rather than nipped her. Also, I was brushing my BC one morning when I must have gone over a very tender spot on his thigh - not entirely sure why it had been so sensitive, further inspection showed no bruising, abrasions, swelling or tearing, and he wasn't lame. Just must have been a sensitive spot. Anyway, when I brushed over his thigh, he let out an almighty 'roar' of pain and lunged his head at where he was hurting - stopping just short of nipping me. It had never happened previously nor has it happened since; it obviously hurt him a lot though and through simple pain reaction the body's first thoughts were to do whatever possible to stop the pain, which could have meant a nip. He went very submissive after that and as I said, it never happened again. I of course took extra special care to be very very gentle when brushing that area in the future. This does not excuse anyone or anything, just putting it out there as it appears that no one actually saw exactly what happened in regards to the salon. The victims as said are the child and dog and the blame I feel can fall on the charges of both of them. (the charges, meaning, the people looking after them) If the dog has been in there for years with no problems, I can only assume that he isn't a ferocious dog that should be PTS, but it was just a very unfortunate accident. Hopefully the dog will escape with his life and his owner will be wiser now, and properly contain the dog so that even if it was an accident, it won't happen again.

And the plot thickens further.

I don't think anyone here has said the dog should be allowed to be free inside the salon. From what I've read over the entire topic, people disagree with the situation of the dog, and disagree on the situation of the toddler. I am not saying Lisash is incorrect in her statement but of course this is the internet and without seeing it first hand, I have no idea what the real story is and being human am more likely to follow the article than word of mouth whether one or the other is correct. Dog should have been restrained and far away from any customers when it was eating the bone, let alone been there at all. I think most of us agree on that. However I still feel that a child as young as that needed to be kept away from the animal as, at the end of the day as previously stated, the dog was there, no matter how much we disagree about it being allowed in the salon. I have experienced first hand how fast a dog attack can be, once owning a nipper, but it still remains, by what it sounds like, that child was in very close proximity to the eating dog - obviously close enough for there to be no reaction time for the parents, and for me, that's too close. Of course it isn't my child but if it was, no matter how blase and 'she'll be right' the owner was, I certainly would be keeping a distance for the safety of my child as I know too well how unpredictable a dog can be especially when it comes to resource guarding. So from what it appears to me: Dog owner had confidence in the dog that it would be fine, sadly not 100% dog savvy and thus was overly relaxed. Parents obviously not totally dog savvy, thus believing the dog owner and being more relaxed. Both these situations come from ignorance. Is ignorance an excuse for either party that one was right and the other wrong? Certainly not. As I've said before I feel terribly for the little girl and my belief that both parties were at a certain degree of fault certainly doesn't change that.

And that is why the child should have been next to the parent or being looked after by someone. Wouldn't have happened if the child had been restrained from walking to the dog in the first place. If you know your child is a runner (I was) then keep them on a kiddie leash! I was always on a lead and it kept me safe from things like this. I agree the dog shouldn't have been in the salon, but it was, and both parties should have acted accordingly to prevent this.

I have to agree with Ashanali. Perhaps the dog shouldn't have been there, loose, but when you walk into a salon and see a big dog sitting there, wouldn't you feel inclined to keep your child close? I can understand older children being able to sit in a salon without constant adult supervision, but really, letting your toddler wander up to a big dog that was eating?? Young children in this case should always be kept close and constantly supervised - it is certainly not the job of the salon staff to constantly chase after your kids. The salon owner was an idiot for allowing his dog loose in the salon. The parents IMO were irresponsible allowng their very young child near such an animal without adult guidance particularly when it was eating! Now very sadly that girl will probably have a permanent scar, and the husky will probably be pts all due to irresponsible idiocy on both sides.

Poor little girl. Hope she's okay. What a shame there wasn't more supervision going on (I'm assuming no one was watching while she approached the dog). The animal will probably be destroyed.

I've always been an advocate for no dogs up on the furniture, so our boy slept on his own dog bed in the living room, tethered with a long lead.