Mrs Rusty Bucket

Hi Animal House / Caz I've got something to add. Evil hound is doing well, except these days she HATES all Poodle Crosses and I have a scar on my leg that looks like a vampire got me from when I got between her snappy self and a rather old and decrepid poodle cross who had done zero to deserve her "special" attention. She spends a lot of time on lead now. And today I got another email from the insurance company saying they had made a mistake in the policy they emailed out to me - and I will "shortly receive an updated and correct version" of my insurance policy details. So I s

Hi all I just got my renewal. It was up from last year 20% to about $950 for my 11 yo cattle dog mix. It has gone up between 20% and 30% every year whether I had a claim or not. This renewal also had the co-payment go up 20% and the cover reduced from 80% to 60% and the payout limits have not changed since I first took out the insurance nearly 11 years ago. It has increased over 400% since I took out the policy and the cover has been steadily reduced. So today I ring up the number to cancel it. I wait on hold about 2 minutes to talk to a human and have to poke some details o

thank you Scottsmum and Persephone I have passed on the info. The family has a lot of thinking to do. They have had dogs before - I think they've got one now but it isn't specifically trained to help with the autism symptoms (not sure which ones need help - I didn't want to get too nosey about it).

Autism assistance dog - can anyone recommend someone who can help train this kind of dog in NSW. I have a friend who lives in Young who would like to get a dog to help his daughter - needs to train it to be good in crowds. We're also looking for breed, and breeder suggestions or rescue people who would have something suitable up to about 1 yo (tho I told my friend it might be more difficult to train a 1yo for this). I suggested a beagle. he likes the idea of a Jack Russell - so anyone who breeds really laid back JRT - would be worth asking too. The daughter is very good at

my dog prefers to drink from the running tap than the bowl under it... she won't drink water from any bowl when we're travelling or at competitons. I get round this by having a bottle of yogurt and water mixed. I also get her to drink from a sports drink bottle that I squeeze so she can drink out of the "running tap"... And she doesn't like drinking from a bowl that another dog has spat in.. and her best friend for each unit of water she drinks - leaves a unit of spit behind in the bowl so they can't share. But find a really menky bucket of water that has been breeding mozzies and alga

I am a bit late... The dog and cat management act and regulations were "updated" in july last year but as best I can tell the rules about attack haven't changed much. There is a defence against the attack rule - about the dog being reasonably used to protect person or property but the wording is very vague - theoretically a dog ought to be able to defend itself against an attacking child. But with these things dogs are guilty until proven innocent and have very few rights. Parents are crap at supervising toddlers - if you go by the number of toddlers that drown in their

I have a cattle dog cross. She has met the occasional cane toad and pretty much left it alone - but every dog is different - you'd want to supervise (no licking). She's not good with snakes... I haven't given her the opportunity to find out if she will deal with them the same as cats she doesn't know ie stay out of reach and bark a lot, or if she will have a go. She likes to carry mice around and then let them go unharmed (mostly) same with crickets (tho they didn't always keep all their legs). But another cattle dog I lived with would dispatch rodents no problem. So diff

Yes avoiding blue to blue matings is a good idea. But there is still the problem that the blue does not meet the breed standard and if the black dog had a blue parent - you still have a higher risk for problems that go with that colour. You should be concerned about that part. What is "reg testing"? Have you actually seen any of the documentation? Maybe "reg testing" is only to check fertility - and not about preventing genetic problems in puppies.

Yeah there was one with the dog licking its nose. I get the exact same expression - when my dog wants something ie food... and she knows there is food to be had. And i can't tell from the photo whether the dog is looking at someone with food or looking away from something that makes it feel uncomfortable or it wants to appease. If the quiz said that the focus of the dog's attention was where the camera is - then maybe I would have scored higher... but erm I couldn't tell if the dog was looking towards something upsetting / exciting or away from it...

@Little Gifts I am continuously surprised at the limitless supply of stupid people. I have indeed seen people with babies having picnics on the ground inside of quite small dog parks. I don't know why. Maybe they brought a dog and wanted to be somewhere it couldn't nick off if it was off lead? Around here - it's often not clear that it's a dog off lead area. And dogs are often off lead when and where they are not supposed to be. When evil hound was a puppy we were at the beach playing with a kelpie that I thought would help me bring my dog back to me as I had very little if any

I got 12/19 and I would have some good arguing about the interpretation of some of the photos. If there was video that showed movement that might be a little bit easier. eg were the ears really up and back or down and back? was the mouth really relaxed or not? were those eyes wide open or not - I don't think so... stuff like that. ie sometimes I didn't think the description matched the picture so I got a lot wrong. Plus my dog - I know her and some of the descriptions do not result in the behaviours suggested... especially the submission type ones.

PPS this seems to be the original version - haven't listened to the recording yet but... https://www.3aw.com.au/neil-mitchell-should-children-be-banned-from-off-lead-dog-parks/ Neil Mitchell 3aw talking to Neil McMahon - journalist and clueless dog owner. This is the kind of thing that makes me wish dog owners had to pass a written test before they are allowed to own or look after a dog. To show they know how to care for the dog and they know the dog rules and they know where to get help for training if they need it.

Ps this is a good reframe of the problem - from the grumpy dog owner POV he just wants to say hi https://kamalfernandez.blog/2017/09/22/he-just-wants-to-say-hello/ I would post a link to Susan Clothier's article - which is now an e-book with help for the rude dog owners and "free" - if you hand over your address details and etc. FFS. found a better link. I don't know why it didn't work the first time. https://suzanneclothier.com/article/just-wants-say-hi/

our beaches are definitely shared areas - people who come to just enjoy the beach usually have no clue what the "dog rules" are unless they own a dog. Most of the dog owners have no clue either. So I leash my dog every time we go past children, and often if we go past anyone that does not have a dog tho it's pretty easy these days to keep her away from those people, and on leash if I see bicycles !!! or the local ranger or garbage ute or other vehicles. And for every poodle cross except the ones she is friends with (which confuses the hell out of poodle crosses she's not friends with

every summer at my fave off lead beach - there are mass crab deaths after hot days... and the Labradors have a great time cleaning them up. The main problem would be over eating. Puffer fish - definitely kill a dog. Dead crabs - not so much.

I've seen them used successfully - you have to do the right training and you have to have a dog that is not "collar smart". Personally - i think I'd rather not. It does mean putting an electric collar on your dog and teaching them the "escape" method ie to escape the zap - you must come back here... I'm thinking if you can train that - you can train them not to nick off. It is possible depending on the collar - for a frightened dog (eg thunderstorm) to blast through the fence pain and keep going and then the collar will be out of range - but they can't get back home cos they will be

or even the original article...with better pictures eg a dog in an MRI - new book for the christmas list now... Study on dogs and love and food https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/science/gregory-berns-dogs-brains.html Dr Gregory Berns, 53, a neuroscientist at Emory University in Atlanta, spends his days scanning the brains of dogs, trying to figure out what they're thinking. The research is detailed in a new book, What It's Like to Be a Dog.

I never got to see the power hour... might have been done on an internet free day. The final IYC video is still up on the FB page as best I can tell... The FB Page "Free Dog Training Workshop" https://www.facebook.com/groups/freedogtrainingworkshop/ Susan Garrett Q and A (take the spaces out if you're cutting and pasting the link to another browser like I do) The link works if you're on the facebook account where you have access to the page ie only members of the page can view. ht tps://www.fa cebook.com/susan.garrett1/videos/10213848677949959/ https://www.facebo

what - like this one? Samoyds are lovely dogs.

Hi all Ian Dunbar Q and A about an hour good stuff 5 mins in reactive dog stuff about 18 mins in (maybe earlier) how to layer up foundations... first you do this then this then this... about 34 mins in - he talks about puppy fear period - the science is bad on this (tiny sample size, appalling setup of experiment, no control on variables) - ie no evidence for that. But lots of good evidence for the importance of "socialisation" from the second the puppies are born - that gentle handling and good experiences with humans is very good for puppies future relationships with

I didn't think shearing or crutching could be done without mustering... erm I'm sure someone will tell the reporter (spot the city slicker).

i'm completely biased in favor of Susan Garrett's training - mods might delete this cos it's a shameless plug But she's doing something called an "its yer choice" summit - with so far about five or six videos going through how to train its yer choice. If you search "free dog training workshop" on facebook and find a big purple banner - that's it. And there's links in there to her webpage for it which has links to all the videos in order (and that will cost you an email address) and some reading material too. Eventually (in about a week or so) she will open up recallers

I think most people want a dog that is easy to house train (out go most of the little dogs and puppy mill specials) easy to recall or train to come when called (out go beagles and most of the spitz and sight hounds) peaceful and tolerant - ie not likely to bite no matter what (oh dear - no terriers) will stay with you and not chase moving things like cars, bikes, joggers... (out go most of the herding breeds At this point there's not many dogs left. And I usually recommend a gold fish. Sometimes a greyhound - because there's usually no expectation of recall with

Hopefully less mites and lice on the true free range chooks here ie stocking rates of 1500 per hectare (not 10,000 per hectare like coles and woolies redefined free range).

that would be close to double the adelaide prices at the moment. I also found that driving a 100 series landcruiser at 110km/h does horrible things to my fuel economy too. Ie I have to fill up more often. I guess we're being a bit Nularbor focussed... When coming from Melbourne to Adelaide I like to detour via the fast road to Geelong and then cut across towards Coonawarra and stay at my cousins place - they do a farm stay near Poolajelo (called Ardmeen). I follow the Aspley Border Inn on facebook (since my cousins and surrounding farmers took it over) and really looking forward to havi