mita

New veterinary products can only go on the market after a regulatory body's looked into them & approved. That's the Australian Pesticides & Veterinary Medicines Authority. They have a website & produce gazettes with up-to-date info. The APVMA's gazette for 7 October, 2014, has a section on the Nexgard products, saying that they 'have before it applications from Merial Ptd Ltd for the approval of the new active constituent 'afoxolaner & the registration of 4 new products'... they're the Nexgard Chewables in 4 dose sizes. At the end of that section, the APVMA says they are 'satisfied data from trials supporting the efficacy of the products adequately demonstrates that if used according to the product label directions, the products are effective for their proposed uses.' But the law requires that they add a time frame where submissions objecting to their being approved, can be sent. They give a cut-off date of 28 October. You can read the full section yourself, if you want. On pp 59-61 of the gazette. http://apvma.gov.au/node/12246

The context seems to be that Pope Francis was comforting a little boy who told him his much loved dog had died. I think he was acknowledging the strong love & bonds we have with our dogs. And where there's great love, there's 'heaven' whether in a believer's sense, or the metaphorical sense of the non-believer. Science supports that those extraordinary bonds exist with our dogs, bringing something special to both humans & pets. So no argument from me... where there's great love, 'heaven' (whatever a person means it to be) comes, too.

Also, re Dogmad's suggestion to contact Rescued with Love. Here's their link. http://www.rescuedwithlove.org/

I agree with you about the hair thing, Perfume. Just my experience, but the shorter hairs stick in, like pins. While the longer hairs sit on the surface & are easier to pick up. As to a 'next breed', I'm a true Tibetan Spaniel tragic.... stuck to tibbies now for life. I probably need treatment for obsession. :) But I do have reasons!

This was reported in Brisbane's Courier-Mail. Brisbane's Mater Children's Hospital & Royal Children's Hospital, have combined to make a new, huge Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in the Mater Hospital grounds. The child patients will be allowed to have their pets come to visit.... in a special area. A little boy from our family spent some time in the Mater Children's. When he was still asleep after an operation, he heard the nurse caring for him talking to us about her golden retriever. His eyes shot open & he wanted to know the goldie's name....and he told her how he owned a chocolate lab, named Barry. He would've been so chuffed to know that Barry could be brought in to visit him, after he got out of intensive care.

More excellent ideas. Good to see them spread around.

Great idea. Excellent question, sars. Very relevant to a lot of people who now live alone. We have a friend who lives alone in the next suburb, with 2 much loved cats. I've told her that in any emergency I would care for the pusses.... who are inside cats. So if she had a card like that, I'd be happy to have my name on it as contact person for them.

Thanks so much for that information, Diana. Sorry to go off topic... but the seizure alert dogs in the UK are indeed awesome. Our friend read the information on that training program's website... & she was so impressed and excited. The owner of one of the trained dogs gives her experience of epileptic seizures ... & our friend could relate so much. And a very strange coincidence.... our friend has always said she can't remember the 15-20 minutes before a major seizure when to everyone around she is totally normal. The training page said that the dogs are able to tell that a seizure is coming on, about 15 minutes before it does. So there must be some biochemical change even in that period that the dogs can tune into.... but not humans. Our friend said if she had a dog that could do that ... it would give her time to get safe, like sit down or call someone.

And so is she.... a responsible breeder who doesn't take homing her animals for granted. I like her requests for documentation which I've always offered to give upfront anyway. Anyway, it's your call ... as someone else suggested, move on if you're not comfortable. Everyone doesn't have to think & act the same.

from me.

Double post.

I'm delighted to see this study re Diabetes Alert Dogs. Hope you get lots of support. Bit O/T, but I'd love to see dogs trained in Australia to alert for epileptic seizures. We have a dear family friend who's seizures are hard to control... & we were looking at how dogs are trained in the UK. With envy!

Couldn't agree more. I expect to be interrogated by a registered breeder who really puts care into their dogs I've always anticipated the kind of interrogation I'd give if if I were such a breeder. So I've provided a lot of the info on the OP's list upfront.... in a summary of what I'm happy to give, if wanted . Everything from our history as pet owners, information & contact for our vet, lifestyle, descriptions & photos of home environment & how the doggie will live....& even references from long-term dog-loving neighbours who have high standards about pet ownership. And I give the breeder the right to say that it wouldn't match a particular dog.... in other words to say 'No'. I love how caring breeders like this keep tabs on their dogs. One of my girls came from a breeder in Sweden to a breeder in Australia.... who retired her to us when her show career was over. God love her.... the Swedish breeder recently contacted me to find out, in the nicest possible way, what her life was now like living as a pet in the sub-tropics. No wonder she's a beautifully natured, well-socialized dog. BTW that Swedish breeder was no slouch... one of her dogs won best of breed at Crufts. But she cares mightily that her dogs will have secure, long & happy lives as a pet. Lead me to the interrogators, I say!

I loved the episode, especially how posh Margaret bonded with the greyhound. Great scenes of the grey calmly sitting beside her at a music recital and at the art gallery. Lovely dog who was a great example of its breed.

I'm so glad Jane's already called.... & seen a battle in action. So she can tailor strategies to what's actually happening. I totally agree with you that training programs which are one size fits all are not useful.

Beautiful photos of a very special grey & very pretty kitties.

So sorry for your loss. Alfie was so gorgeous ... & what a happy life you gave him. I love his chocolate 'habit' ... looks like a wrapper might once have gone down too. He's still lighting up lives all the way from the Rainbow Bridge. No wonder you loved him so much.

Yes. When I saw a dog in a car on the top, unroofed parking area of our local mall on a boiling hot day ... it was lucky that there was a police beat inside the centre. There were 2 officers on duty & I told them about the dog & its location. They were fantastic... they only paused to grab their caps & were out the door like a shot to deal with it.

The nice thing, DD, is that we can continue to follow Arthur on that Facebook page. He's a truly lovely dog who knew lovely people when he met them.... & wasn't going to leave!

DD, there's a pic on the Facebook page of Arthur coming out of his travel crate at the airport in Sweden. There's also s pic of him with his adoptive Swedish family. https://www.facebook.com/peakperformanceadventureracingteam?fref=photo I asked my tibbie, Annie, who came from Sweden, did she have any advice for Arthur. She said he's lucky he's got long legs for being in the snow (not like us little guys!). :) . And the first thing he should look for in his new home is the fireplace... where he can snooze away the winter & dream of his great adventure https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=688496864599737&set=gm.881101715241644&type=1

The bloke was right on one point only ... when we take our dogs out into public places we can expect all sorts of things. And that would include a bloke like him lobbing up... who wouldn't cooperate when you tried to negotiate the situation according to your dogs' needs. He seems to be totally vacant on that last point. I tend to agree with juice about aiming to interact softly, softly & keeping stress levels in check around our dogs. BUT that's my armchair advice .... I wasn't there so in all honesty I don't know how I would've responded for all my good intentions. Bottom line, you tried to negotiate & got stone-walled. Definitely stress-provoking!

I'm so sorry that you & your dog had to go thro' this. But I totally agree with every word you wrote.... especially how even what seems like the best dog, owned by usually responsible owners, can act unpredictably. And your subject line warning is spot on...about not letting kids walk large powerful dogs....or really dogs of any size... that they'd be powerless to control when something bad happens out of the blue. I hope your experience that you've described so spot-on will be read by lots of people as a cautionary tale from real life.

Perfume's OP talked about her frustration at being directed to a website that either didn't have the information stated...or was no longer in existence. My point, speaking only for myself, is that there's more useful things to do than wasting energy on frustration. And the main one, in this case, is to directly speak to breeders (by phone or email), whatever the state (or even existence) of a website. My reason being, the bottom line is what a breeder actually does with his/ her dogs. That's where their quality rests. And the p/b dogs we've adopted bear that out.

Ditto!! It's bloody rude to direct people to a dead end! Speaking only for myself, I see the point as what the breeders do with their dogs. And they're the people I want to speak directly to... if I want information. Some have brilliantly maintained websites, others not. No doubt the first smoothes the way & gets a lot of basic information over, immediately. But I'm still willing to go past the less well maintained or designed website to a breeder him/herself. Just on reflection, three of my beautifully bred & socialized purebreds came from breeders who were not madly into websites... but their reputation led me to them. Two others came from a breeder whose website was exemplary & whose dogs proved equally well bred & socialized. Which is why I won't waste energy on getting frustrated by websites... I save it for talking with breeders (if they're willing!) about their dogs.