Simply Grand

Aaww, how gorgeous!

Quinn has had two "crushes", even as a puppy she's always been quite sensible in her approach to other dogs, happy to interact with them but quite calm and mature. Her first crush was on an entire male 7yo Boxer, every time she saw him at the dog park she would go all silly, run up to him with the low, wiggly body and waggy tail going on, lick his face and jump all around him. He'd mostly just ignore her :laugh: At our new dog park there is an entire male 10yo Rough Collie who is her new crush, she does the same silly behaviour with him :) She is entire but she hasn't only done it when she's approaching a season, it's whenever she sees them, and she's met plenty of other entire males who she's not at all interested in. There are also other dogs she likes to have a game with but doesn't do the flirty thing with them

Oh, he was a gorgeous little man run free Poncho. Hugs keetamouse

Hahaha! Love his "trying to look innocent but actually looking highly suspicious" face :)

That's so funny. I love the big Rotty "upstairs I go, whoops, straight back down I go" when the little cat just sticks it head out :laugh:

Oh my goodness, Salt and Athena are GORGEOUS!

Thank you all for your kind words It is always sad when we have to euthanase, thankfully we rarely do, but Jess was an extra special one. I would have absolutely loved to adopt her, not to save her but because she was a wonderful dog, but it just wasn't viable. I won't forget her though 

:laugh: So cute! Jed I wish my dogs would just buy petrol once in a while for the car we have...free loaders!

Bahahah I thought I was going to open the thread to find a pic of a puppy flying through the air :laugh: I'm afraid I'm no help as I've never collected a flown pup.

Today we said a very sad goodbye to a beautiful long term shelter dog. Jess was a very striking two year old Rottweiler. She ended up in the shelter with both her mother and her two week old baby daughter due to some sort of family conflict and the people never came back for them. Jess did a brilliant job, presumably as a first time mum, of raising her little singleton baby, producing a happy, healthy, well adjusted puppy who is thriving in her new home at four and a half months old now. Jess was fiercely protective of her baby and was a formidable sight when warning people she didn't trust not to come near, but once she trusted you she trusted you completely with both herself and her puppy. Once her puppy had gone and Jess had all the attention back on her, she would welcome her trusted friends by rolling on her back and wriggling around asking for tummy rubs. She fancied herself a lap dog if you sat down and would sprawl her 32kg self across you :) Unfortunately it was quite clear that Jess had not been well socialised. We wonder if she left the back yard before she found herself in a shelter as a new mum. If she had, it probably wasn't often. She was wary of everything and didn't know what to do with herself around strangers or other dogs. Sadly, Jess's instincts seemed to tell her that if she was really worried she should go on the offensive, and however much you love them, a Rottweiler on the offensive is indeed a scary prospect. Jess and I worked very hard together to build her confidence, to have her realise that the world isn't too scary and that people and other dogs are nothing to worry about, and might actually be fun. She came so far using positive association conditioning and became a super star at the "look at that" game. I learned to read her and what I could ask of her and she learned to trust that I wouldn't put her in a position she couldn't handle. It was almost enough. If she could learn to do that with me, just maybe we could get her to the point where she could responsibly be rehomed to a suitably experienced owner... Then came the kicker. While working with her we noticed that Jess had a pretty wobbly walk and on thinking about it, there were a couple of times when she'd reacted as if she may have pain in her back end. This week x-rays confirmed she had bilateral hip displaysia with arthritic changes on both sides. It broke my heart but I had to agree that as a shelter we could not ethically rehome a dog with a serious health issue who had also shown aggression towards people and other dogs (although she never did any harm). So today Jessie went to the Bridge She had a beautiful day being spoilt rotten by her shelter family and was in my arms at the end. I'm so sorry you didn't get the life you deserved Jess, but I hope we gave you many happy moments. You touched a lot of hearts and will not be forgotten. I'm proud of you and I love you xxx Edited to add a picture of my gorgeous girl.

Quinn says not good enough Nova, don't you know that anything you get hold of should really be pulled apart to investigate what's inside it! The tree is a good start :)

What a sweetie. I think Bonnie is a great name for a Sheltie. Love Georgia sticking her in the photo going "i'm here too!" :)

I knew Nova was being too good to be true! Aussies are not supposed to be well behaved, non-destructive puppies :p

Now that I think about it, the only time I've washed cats was if they'd had diahrrea (sp?) and got messy around their bottom, which I've needed to glove up and and scrub with my hand to get out anyway. I agree that cats don't generally need baths.

I was trying to remember here I had heard/seen something similar, I'm pretty sure it was on an old Harry's Practice episode actually, Dr Katrina demonstrated it for pet owners as a way to bath their cat. She did it pretty gently, and from memory had the carrier on its side in the bath tub then scooped water over, different from spraying the cat with a hose! I can see that doing it gently like that might be better for some cats that get really distressed being washed than tying to hold it in a tub or sink when it really doesn't want to be there.

Soooo sweet! And no, a dog that turns to mum when he's unsure rather than takes matters into his own hands =

Wow! That is pretty amazing! Provided he can toilet ok and and whatever owner he ends up with is prepared for the challenges to come ( and that he may have a shortened life span) i'm ok with it, he looks pretty happy and is interacting well with the other dogs. Dogs continually amaze me with how adaptable they are :)

Fellon Ford Fowler Forte ("strong" in French) Faizen Flea ;) Franklin I like Force as a name, shame on the man!!

An experienced behavioural trainer I work with says that dogs rubbing against people in that cat like way are showing dominance (or attempting to). It made sense to me knowing the character of the couple of dogs I've come across that do it and the situations in which I've seen them do it...

The trouble is though temp testing can only assess the dog's behaviour in the current situation, they can behave very differently once settled in a home environment, and of course continue to be influenced by their circumstances (training, management, treatment, owner expectations etc) as time goes on. It is possible that the dog only displays those behaviours towards strangers and/or when out and about so the owners feel they can trust the dog at home and with their own child... Certainly not a risk I'd take with a child though, at least not without an expert assessment and a rigorous training and management program

yes, I've been looking for a dog with legs!

Awww, Jake Elf is so adorable :)

I suspect plenty of people, not least the cat's owner, would actually give a toss if it was a BC or a JRT, although I agree the media may not. It doesn't matter whether it happened on private property or not, unless it happened on the dog owner's property unfortunately the dog and its owner are in the wrong. You said that your dog would go for the throat and kill the cat but I assume that as a responsible owner you would actually have had your dog on lead while out and would do whatever you could to prevent your dog from mauling or killing another animal, even a cat, or would have it safely contained on your property so it couldn't get to other people's roaming cats (unless they came onto your own property of course). Whether we like it or not, in many places, including where this incident happened, people actually do have the legal right to let their cats roam and expect that people's dogs won't be unattended and able to maul them.

Happy birthday Miah! Enjoy your party, lucky girl :) Wow, 1 year old already, and what a year it has been for you Jules, I've no doubt Miah was meant to be part of your family xxx

Eeee Henry! Too cute :D