Little Gifts

So the answer really is it is not ok for a dog of ANY SIZE to act aggressively in public towards a human or other animal. Letting it act aggressively in its home environment (unless of guard duty) is giving the dog mixed signals about acceptable behaviour in public so is not funny and not ok either (for that dogs future). It is also not ok for an unpredictable dog of any size to be off leash in public where other strange dogs and humans might be. It is not ok for dogs of any size (on or off leash) to greet other dogs or humans in a threatening manner, to not respond to owner commands and to not understand and respond appropriately to the signals being given off by the human or dog they are trying to greet. Not every dog will like each other just as not everyone loves a dog jumping or slobbering all over them just trying to say hello. But correction when it is clear the behaviour is wrong is what is important here. Is there anything in the above that us owners/humans are not responsible for? Our dogs act as we let them act. Fine if it doesn't ever affect someone else but unless you can guarantee your dog will never escape from its prison then it is the humans that need to take responsibility for our dogs actions and reactions. It is about time we started vilifying owners when horrific dog attacks occur rather than the dog itself (or worse, its breed).

In the 13 years I've been here a family of interbred chi's have lived across the road from me and roamed constantly from their yard because the gate is left open. I've been attacked several times as has 2 of my dogs by them. Postie or mail box delivery people or anyone stupid enough to walk by also get a serve. They also come over to my front yard to toilet. If their family are out at night or away (they take long holidays and someone just comes to feed the dogs) they bark incessantly. They drive my dogs insane. I complained to council only once when my old SBT (now passed) was badly injured in a scuffle over me and I know the owners know they are pushing it because they hear my dogs go off and hear me telling their dogs to go home so they whistle them back. But they just don't get it. They are lovely people (Romanian) but everything they do is done on the street. They have a lovely and huge house, garages, carports, verandahs, a pool and a cabana out the back but still everything happens outside their front fence. Thye own one of the houses next door to me so you regularly see the dogs walking between houses and the family simply yelling across the street to one and other. Awful to say but they are now down to only 2 chi and when they pass on I will be happy.

I made up bandanas for Peiradise and they say Adopt Me! and have a pei pic underneath. We also had some for our aprons with our name and another image on them and I will be making some for our supporters soon for public events. I will admit I don't do it very well but I print the name and images in reverse on my printer onto iron on paper. I previously bought the paper from ebay and they didn't last more than 2 washes before peeling but my current batch were from Spotlight and more expensive. I hope that means they will last better! And I am now making my bandanas just triangle shapes rather than folded squares as I've already gone through quite a few!

YAY! Sounds like it went well!

Waiting impatiently to see how you went.......you are probably worn out!

This is a blatant plug to sell more custom made dog coats, with all monies going to Peiradise - Shar Pei Rescue Qld. Peiradise volunteers, supporters, foster carers and adopters become part of one big family and that family meets up every couple of months for a Peinic. It is hilarious to see people come to the park and their jaws drop when they see so many shar pei in the one place all happily doing their own thing! Our next Peinic is on this Saturday, 11 May at the Nudgee Beach dog park, which is on Nudgee Beach Road, just past the boat ramp. The Peinic is starting at 3pm but I plan on arriving by 2.30pm in case anyone wants me to measure up their dog for a coat (or even bring fabric or handknitted coats to look at/try on). Plus you get to marvel at all the pei AND meet a few DOLers that perhaps you haven't met before! More info on the handknitted and custom made fleece dog coats (including pei-jays, aka pyjamas) can be found on the following thread or by following the link to my FB page. My contact details are also on FB so I know you are coming and what you need me to bring or do. http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/248731-hand-knitted-and-fleece-dog-coatspyjamas/page__gopid__6193448#entry6193448

No trying them on yourself Coogie!

Ams has previously taken in pei from the RSPCA up here, including ill ones. I think it is about the local relationships and people willing to work on them rather than the organisation, which I think has some concerning ways of doing things.

Aphra I've mentioned this before but rescue really needs to try and link up with statutory children's foster care agencies in each state (often this is outsourced to non-profit organisations and managed at a regional rather than central office level). They run recruitment drives for foster carers regularly, which include information nights. Not everyone is cut out for fostering children once they hear more info about the types of children they might get placed with. There is nothing stopping a rescue group arranging to give a 5 minute presentation at these info nights and leaving brochures so that if fostering children is not for everyone then perhaps fostering an animal is. Abuse and neglect of children, spouses and animals is often linked. If cold calling then I'd try the regional office foster carer coordinator and put the idea to them and see how interested they are. Many frontline staff are also animal lovers. Before things got a bit anal up here it was not uncommon to have people's dogs come into work. I know mine did on numerous occasions! One manager also used to foster care wildlife and would always be carting around a bird that needed feeding during meetings or she'd have a baby mammal stuffed down her top. I'll fill out a survey too.

Glen her mum was in long term foster care where she was very happy. She was very active still for her age but also had dementia. Sadly she has gone over the Rainbow Bridge now but was very spoilt and got to do some wonderful doggy things in her time with Peiradise and her amazing and committed carer. I got to play with her several times and my foster pups got to visit her as well (although only Dweeb tried to get her to mummy him!). Edited to add that the SnuggleSafe worked a treat last night! I put it in the middle, down the end of my bed (under the doona) where Tempeh likes to sleep and she slept on top of it all night and didn't wake me once! Nor did I wake up blanketless or covered in shivering dog!

I think she's had a wonderful day and tonight she gets to try out her new Snugglesafe warmers! I hope she's not expecting the same level of attention tomorrow!

Even though she is Tang style we doubt she is pure DD and there was some mention of bull arab in her. I always think she is very tall but next to other pei she still looks like a pup so apart from her freckles and odd skin colouring she looks like all the other Tang kids! Don't you hate how grotty your house can look in photos? My kitchen has not yet been renovated so it always looks super special in pics with its 70z cabinets and peeling vinyl!

It's kind of her own version of the butterfly - also an exhausting stroke! Very funny!

Minimax that is hilarious! I've changed it to toys.

And if you have ever wondered what all that extra skin around the face and mouth is for, it's for accommodating big balls!

One of the first photos taken of 'Dimples' and 'Dweeb' when they first arrived as our foster pups. Don't they look cute!

My foster failure Tempeh was surrendered to Peiradise along with two littermates and their 15 year old mother last August/September. Given the average life span of a shar pei is 10 that was terrible enough in itself. According to the original owner/breeder, the pups were supposed to be three months old but at a vet check Tempeh was found to have all her adult teeth which would've made her five months. We usually only foster young male pei but as Ams was getting her new dog Amnesty we took Tempeh (then Dimples) and her brother Roan (then Dweeb) to foster. I fell immediately in love with Roan while my sister thought Tempeh was beautiful. I carried Mr Sooky La-La everywhere while Temp was the more adventurous and independent one. Roan rehomed in October. Tempeh had some interest and went on a trial placement which she did not like one little bit. It seems she's already become very bonded to us and was not interested in living anywhere else! That's a shar pei for you! So she became our first shar pei foster failure and we love her very much. She fits in perfectly with the other dogs here and makes us laugh. We are constantly learning new things about her (she doesn't know how to keep herself warm) and she's learnt new things from us and the other dogs (last night she 'spooned' for the first time!). I often look at her and get a shock thinking 'where did that third dog come from'? She has not been here for long but also seems to have been part of our lives forever. And there was a time when I thought her legs would never stop growing! We don't know her proper birth date but we decided it would be 1 May every year, so today is her 1st birthday! She has spent the morning tackling some rawhide chicken drumstick thingy, surrounded by her new toys, on my bed of course! Perhaps later today she will abandon her endeavours and I can get a more joyous photo to commemorate the day! No party hats for her though - she doesn't do dress up (much to my despair). Photo taken this morning.

I think there would have to be a factor of seniors no longer being able to care for themselves let alone their senior dogs being part of this situation given our ageing population. We've talked on DOL in General about making arrangements for your dogs if you could no longer care for them. I think a lot of retirees don't do that and not all extended family are animal lovers or able to take on a pet themselves due to renting, etc. There is a lady up here that I sometimes see at jewellery making classes who works with elderly people being admitted to care facilities and she regularly needs to contact one of the rescue groups about rehoming their pets. It is one of the reasons they delay going into a facility for so long and causes them a great deal of distress. Of course neglected senior dogs ending up in pounds and rescue is another story. It could be an elderly owner who has been incapable of continuing it's proper care due to physical/mental health issues who has slipped through the system's aged care cracks or it could simply be yet another uncaring bastard who should never own a pet.

That sucks! There has to be oodles of dodgy old tracksuits out there needing a better home! Hope thing still go well for you on Sunday.

Catherine Tate lover by any chance? I use that line all the time!

Slightly different approach here - I use fluro armbands (also from Kathmandu!) on myself and the dogs harnesses so that if a car is coming from behind us we will be easier to see at night. Mine are fluro green and you push a button and it either flashes a red light or shows a steady red light. I don't tend to use the flashing side of it because my dogs would never be running loose at night. I just use it to be more visible to cars. This is the newer version of what I have - I got mine very cheap during one of their sales: http://www.kathmandu.com.au/active-armband-light-green-white.html

I want to ask an honest question. Why would you work for the RSPCA if you didn't have an affinity for animals? The pay can't be great and the working conditions are not necessarily temperature controlled or always hygienic. You would be dealing with some unpleasant and some emotional people. You would also be seeing some ugly things (injured, neglected and dumped animals and ones being pts). Based on this you'd have to think the staff were animal lovers and passionate about the wellbeing of animals or they wouldn't stay in the job long. So is the issue really with the 'organisation' and how it operates rather than the staff? It's policies, the amount of money it raises and how it raises it? How it spends it perhaps? What exactly are people unhappy about because when we lump it all in together I don't think it helps those staff who are trying to make a difference and do the right thing. I'm only asking this because nothing will change if we aren't specific about our concerns. I stopped volunteering with them because the staff at the centre back then were not as responsive to the animals needs as I was happy with. I felt I was there to provide back up support to staff but ended up with my hands tied by stupid rules about what we could and couldn't do and the staff didn't seem to care that those rules impacted on the animals. For instance I could arrive at daybreak and clean cages, change bedding and change water but someone office based decided volunteers could no longer be trusted to feed the animals (despite a fairly easy to follow guide in the runs). So I was supposed to socialise young, very hungry puppies or walk rabidly hungry older dogs, all who would not have had food for 17 hours. They hardly put their best face on to prospective adopters in that condition. Things may well have changed so I'm not going to hold that against them unless I have personal experience again that it still occurs. But I am also unhappy about their very high euthanasia rates and don't accept that they are the only rescue body that takes on the worst cases. Anyone working in rescue has seen what they have seen. I am unhappy about their use of dogs they have euthanized in advertising material unless they also note that the dog has not survived its abuse. Do not mislead to make money. And I am not happy that as our key body there to protect animal abuse for all creatures great and small, with their millions of dollars of incoming funds each year they still don't seem to be fulfilling their main purpose - following up complaints, identifying animals at risk and prosecuting offenders. The other stuff they dabble their fingers in which dilute their mandated role should be outsourced. If they are our peak body then I want them to stop being a toothless tiger. I also think they have become too top heavy as the organisation has grown, same as what happens with federal, state and local govt bodies as they broaden their business scope. As individuals I'd like to think they try but as an organisation if they have money to put ads on prime time tv then they also have money to do something practical about our two biggest problems - the crime against dogs that is BSL in Vic and puppy farming throughout this country. Companion animals being bred in farm environments is abuse on a mass scale. It costs the RSPCA a fortune in vet and rehabilitation work (without even considering what it does to the dogs) so how can that not be a priority to stamp out? BSL is abusive to innocent dogs in so many ways I can't even go into it. Why are they not being the voice for those seized dogs with no history of aggression? Why are they not ensuring they are being cared for adequately while they await their fate? Where is that informed voice that is needed for animals in this country?

I too can't come to terms with the idea that an abusive childhood results in the need to perpetuate violence on others - human or animal. I abhor violence for that very reason. And to find rope and take the time to tie an animal to a clothes line so you can beat it like a piñata shows some level of conscious decision making was happening to me. He needs help while he is in prison. OT but linked - my sister told me a story of someone who has endured years of domestic violence and her partner recently found out he suffered a serious health issue and has blamed the pain of his (previously) undiagnosed condition as the reason he was violent to her. She believes him. Sure, I could imagine a person being grumpy and anti-social in response to continual physical pain. I can even imagine some shouting/yelling when it all gets too much, but violence? How does hurting someone or something innocent make your physical or even psychological pain feel better? Even if you have actual mental health issues and black out or disconnect during the abuse then it doesn't and once cognisant again the person is likely to feel even more traumatised by what they have done. Violence against an innocent party is just an excuse for unacceptable behaviour that needs to be learned to be controlled or you don't get to be free in our communities.

Fantastic photo and yee-ha Trixie!!!!

Just magic!