mita

I've got one of these portable dog pens where the panels clip together & you can assemble them in various shapes. Or keep them in a straight line, for a fence. I use it to make a fence around the shed- front, to put the tibs in, when tradespeople are working in the house. I think 4 ft height is tallest it comes in. That's the height I've got. http://www.bowhouse.com.au/p/453700/pets-e...oat-finish.html

Kaffy, I'd be thinking the same as you. For that purpose... shutting out view thro' fence... some people just use rolls of that dark plastic weed matting. But I'd be looking at that screening stuff made up of rolls of bamboo 'poles'....which is rolled out & attached along the fenceline. Comes in various heights. Pics of what I'm talking about on this page...scroll way down. (I have no idea about the company on the website....just wanted the pics). http://www.tropicallifestyle.com.au/bamboo-fencing.html

Can't resist posting a pic of our first Tibetan Spaniel girl. Retired champion showdog, happy clean little pet, selected as a therapy dog at a children's hospital ( one key factor was her breed), & nominated for a pet hero award for alerting people to a lost toddler in a perilous situation. I notice that another totally trustworthy breeder, in NSW, has a desexed, beautiful young adult female tibbie for adoption to a good pet home. http://www.dogzonline.com.au/breeds/mature...tan-spaniel.asp

I'd agree....depends who it comes from & about what. But I have mature tibbie girls who have true buddhist temperaments, so I have no experience of their behaviour being criticised. They're better behaved than I am.

My apologies, S & C, if I'm saying something you already know anyway. But just a reminder that the small companion dogs, like tibbies, need to be in-house dogs (with access to garden, of course). They're not 'dog for the kids' to be left in the backyard. And I meant to say onya for steering the family away from a petshop purchase. Not easy sometimes, especially when people are immediately keen to get a dog....& they actually see a cute face looking at them in a store.

Just across the water in Tasmania, a highly reputable Tibetan Spaniel breeder has a 12 months old male pet Tibbie (desexed etc) for an excellent home. He's lovely natured, used to children, toilet-trained & obedient. The breeder's children have taught him tricks! Sad circumstances for former pet owner, means his thoroughly decent breeder is seeking him a new home. You'll find contact details here. http://www.dogzonline.com.au/breeds/mature...tan-spaniel.asp If your friends would like some info on Tibbies & their nature, this page is spot on! http://www.tibbies.net/history.html

4Paws Animal Rescue http://www.4pawsanimalrescue.org.au/index.html Sippy Creek Animal Rescue http://www.sippycreek.com.au/ Fraser Coast Dog Rescue http://www.frasercoastdogrescue.com.au/index.html (DOLers, please note that 4Paws is presently urgently asking for foster-carers for some small dogs, with likely short-term stay. If you're anywhere near the Sunshine Coast & hinterland area, this is a good group to volunteer with.)

Why not ask experienced and successfully run rescues in your general region to provide some mentoring? Not that you'd want to duplicate exactly, as there'd need to be wiggle room for circumstances & stage. Especially look to rescue groups that have good working & PR relationships with local council and community (including businesses). Two I'd suggest are Sippy Creek animal rescue, in the Caloundra area. And 4 Paws Animal Rescue in the Nambour region. Visit their websites to sample how well they're set up & established. And to get contact details. I've had reason to speak to 2 people in the key role at both rescues....& they had all the rescue values in spades. Sippy Creek actually has a shelter, while 4 Paws works on the foster-care model. Both have excellent links with their community. A smaller, but with good rescue values, is the group who do the Fraser Coast dog rescue. Any enquiry dealings I've had with them, have impressed me, too. I'd have to recheck their correct name for you. Found it....called Fraser Coast Dog Rescue. But I don't know how this group is structured.

Fantastic news! Must have been great work by the vet work. Misty sure is a cutie.

Kyliestar, I don't want to be rude to you, because you're only expressing your opinion. But there's lack of logic in what you've written (in bold). You say you can't understand how 'you' (I guess you mean 'some person') could pick that 2 dogs walking on the street were from a breeder like the tibbie one I described. Of course not, that would require that 'you' would be a mind-reader! I've said that people admire my tibbie girls because they look beautiful (& they also have outstanding temperaments). The people usually haven't a clue as to their breed (still uncommon in Australia) & would have no way of knowing if they came from the man in the moon. I went on to say that sighting my girls leads people to talk to me about them. Then I said I give them information....& even carry some because it happens so often. I also went on to say that our ex-dumped little mixed-breed dog, Gran & pound-puss, Sarah, have equal status in our family as members to be loved. Decent breeders of purebreds look for pet homes where the animals are loved for themselves alone. In fact, the breeder who first gave us a tibbie deliberately didn't tell us about the prizes she'd won... nor the fact that she was the first tibetan spaniel to win Best Puppy in entire show in a major dog show She told us that after we'd adopted her. When asked why, she said she knew we just loved her for herself. She wasn't interested in adopting her dogs to people who were totally into status. And the two other breeders who've given us tibbies, never said a word about prizes when asking us to take them as pets. They told us all about their personalities (& were proven to be spot on) & any stories about their lives so far & anything we needed to watch for. The other point about purebreds, is that the registering of pedigrees makes it easy & accessible to track their relatives....if a health problem comes up. When my tib started to have bowel upsets recently, one of the key factors in the vets' diagnosing that it wasn't a bowel disease (usually genetic link) was fact that the totally honest breeder knew of no other dog in the depth or breadth of her pedigree that had such a condition. Turned out to be a processed food intolerance brought on by eating a strangely textured treat. So easily fixed with a natural food diet.

Kyliestar, I get what you're saying. But note I did not claim that p/b dogs from my breed of choice had some scientifically impossible 100% contract of never having any health problem. We can't say that about even the healthiest human. I pointed out how the breeders of my breed of choice work at reducing the risks, by deliberately widening the gene pools in making decisions about breeding. In fact, they have an international working party on health, with representatives from various countries (yes, Australia is included). I recently got wonderful assistance re one of my tibbies who's turned out to be pretty intolerant of processed foods. Now on a simple to apply natural diet, she's fine. It's the pure-bred registering system which allows a network like this to exist. As to this adding up to a pompous & stuck up attitude towards dogs. The dogs in our family are valued equally wherever they came from. Gran, our little black mixed breed dog, that was found thrown from a car as a puppy, lived until she was nearly 23 yrs of age. Much loved. Irony is that the breeder who first retired a champion tib to us, as a pet...used how Gran was treated as the best reference. She said that people who'd love and care for a little mixed breed stray, would equally love her little ex-champion. Our cat is an ex-pound cat & is loved just as much as our ex-champion tibbies. As to money, that breeder told us that the price for her champion tibbie was whatever we could afford....as she believed that a good pet home was priceless. The other breeders who've retired champion tibbies to us, asked for no money....the good pet home was all they wanted for their dogs. Needless to say, these breeders got sent very healthy amounts of money... which they deserved for all the work & thought that had gone into breeding & raising those dogs.

Agree. And we keep having gabfests about what should be done to promote & inform the public about purebred dogs. My tibbie girls attract a lot of attention. Surprisingly, for small dogs, even from men. A tib pet owner told me how a business man, smart in his suit, came hurrying across a busy street dodging cars, to get to her while she was walking her tib, Charlie. He wanted to know what that amazing looking little dog was. Public interest happens so much with my tibs that I carry some print info about the breed & how to find a good registered breeder. People are generally gobsmacked to hear that my girls are champions retired to us by their breeders. Lovely thing is that most people interpret this as an act of great trust...which it is. Annie gets special attention because she came from Sweden. That always gives me the opening of telling people how the Australian tibbie breeders go all out to widen the gene pool. And how there's a truly amazing global network of breeders who welcome communication with pet owners. Have any issue re a tib?....& the best of Australian & international breeders will offer info/advice.

I like the show. It's TV entertainment. So it doesn't present each case as if it were being played out in a post-graduate vet practice program. Each case is little more than a summary, without a lot of detail. I'm not surprised to hear that Chris, the male vet, originally graduated with honours. He's got attributes of someone with the brains to do that. He also seems to have genuinely warm social skills. Whatever he looks like.

That's an excellent suggestion to immediately take the pair on a walk...& back thro' the gate together. I've certainly found that doing things that both dogs like, together, really helps them bond.

One two occasions I've had to introduce a new adult female tibbie (retired from a breeder) to our home where there already was another adult female tibbie (also originally retired from a breeder). In each case, the new tibbie girl was the one with the stronger personality. For a few months, there were a few minor hissy, girly fits. But our tibbie girls live a very social life....love going out, love sitting up of the back seat of the car together. They go & do everything together. As a result, I've found that the hissy stage is followed by their bonding very, very strongly. They become devoted to each other. If one is up on the deck, or in the back seat of the car, she gets restless until her 'sister' joins her. Our biggest worry has then been how one misses the other terribly if something happens to the other.

Found a great critique of R. & B. Vale's case that a dog leaves a much higher carbon footprint than a Toyota Land Cruiser....from the horse's mouth. A US website devoted to cars & information about the various models. A real petrol-heads' heaven. And this is what they say, after describing the Vale's case (bless 'em, their field of knowledge is cars!): Let us point out a few obvious criticisms: According to Department of Transportation figures, the average American drives nearly 15,000 miles per year - so you'd need to nearly triple their figures to get an honest estimation of a Land Cruiser's impact. That changes the math drastically. Second, the dog eats replaceable resources - we can grow more food. The SUV burns fossil fuels...and we can't grow more oil. The study also didn't take emissions into account. On the whole, it's probably not a reason to give up the dog just yet. SCORE: Folk who seriously know about cars 1 Architects 0

I checked out the qualifications of these writers, Robert & Brenda Vale, to see what scientific studies they've done....or scientific papers they've had published in peer-reviewed journals. Found their area of expertise. They're architects & teach at the University of Wellington. Note...architects. Not scientists. There's a guideline that students at universities are taught. To recognise when they...or someone else...has moved beyond their field of expertise. Those 2 folk are perfectly free to give what opinions they like, based on whatever they quote as evidence. (All of us do that, which is fine.) But those opinions are outside their field of expertise. So this thread features an article purporting to give scientific information, coming from a podcaster who's not a member of a science faculty. About an issue which was written up in a book by a couple whose area of expertise is architecture. No published scientists standing up so far.

Agree, CBL. Shortstep, I also remember this stuff being peddled some months back.

He's probably chortling to the students in media studies...that attacking sacred cows, motherhood or pet dogs, is the way to get instant attention in the general media.

I looked up Matt Smith's bio. He's a podcaster at La Trobe, not on professorial staff. Once worked in radio. Also says he's freelanced & will do 'silly voices'. So this is not coming from someone in a science department. A single factor being given as a cause in a complex scenario, was a giveaway for that. There's compelling evidence that dogs contribute to better health & well-being in humans... and to very effective means of doing all kinds of work. So the subsequent saving of energy & resources, factors dogs in, as on the 'green' side. http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/matt-smith/

The ANKC (& the associated state kennel associations) should do PR to differentiate their contribution to dog breeding... from that vast number from other sources. Yes, the registered breeders produce a fairly modest number of puppies, but the evidence is that they tend to produce quality in certain respects. (Like socialisation of puppies to be better companion dogs & more control over their litter numbers with far less accidental ones). Also the system of registration allows for better health & temperament controls. It has to be got into the public consciousness that 'breeder' is not synonymous with 'registered breeder'. And that being a registered breeder requires other efforts than just pumping out puppies for sale. Registered breeders follow an established Code of Ethics as part of membership in a professional (not a commercial) organisation. Where standards rule! For example, the ethical guidelines squirreled away within Dogs Qld information are blooming brilliant. If all dog breeding from all sources had....& followed...guidelines like that, a heck of a lot of issues relating to dogs would decrease.

I don't want to alarm you, especially as you say you have no option of moving. But what about your own health? Can it be affected by this contaminated soil? For those reasons, I'm glad that you're gradually working with the sand and/or pavers. Is there a government agency that would provide support for how you can deal with a problem like this. It's also a community problem as soil is picked up by the wind, runs off with rain & there are callers to your house. I think you're doing the best you can in a heartbreaking situation.

I'm getting the mental tremors every time I read something re the animal laws or administration of them...in Victoria. There's always some measure of overkill (interesting choice of word). Have you seen that Bureau's web page? Very, very heavyweight! It made me think....but what does this mean for people & their animals, everyday? http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/nrenfa.nsf/L...A256EDD0082EDF1 I'll take matters state by state, re laws, attitudes & priorities. Here in Qld the RSPCA includes reputable rescues as one of their recommendations for dog buyers (& for purebreds, find a responsible breeder). Their aim is to get their own 'inmates' fostered out in private homes, just as traditional rescue does. Best thing for companion animals.

Goodness! Funny thing is that I found, only yesterday, the Bureau of Animal Welfare in Victoria & wondered what they actually did. And what it meant for people & their animals in their real lives. Now I know. Doesn't seem to have much of a clue about how rescue operates & how it's done so, for a long time, in cooperation with pounds. There's been no major problem the Bureau's needed to wade in and fix. I could be very wrong, but it sounds like someone is making up work to do....at a desk.

Google Animal Care & Protection Act Qld (2001). Pull up the PDF file & read it. You'll find an Index to guide you. The QCAT Act that is mentioned as one source of external appeal, can also be located by just googling Civil & Administrative Tribunal Qld. There used to be a plain English version of this legislated appeal process on the (then) Dpt of Primary Industries Qld website. IMO all legislation that affects people should be available somewhere in a plain English version. We need to be able to understand the laws that affect us. JB, I don't know about Qld being a model. Every state has to go back & look at what its basic animal cruelty law says. Appeals/reviews need to be built into that. And it also depends on what other external appeal bodies already are in a particular state. The addition of the QCAT body in Qld is new. Time & use will tell.