Little Gifts

I thought the same Jaxx. I remember seeing some man with a GR or lab pup on an Aussie show (Bondi Vet maybe?) that had to have frames around all its legs and they had to be screwed regularly to make the limbs straighter. I cried thinking you can't explain that kind of ongoing pain to an animal and I doubt I could do it because of that - how much intervention is too much? The dog seemed to accept things quite well though and still ambled around like a pup. What the Bionic Vet is doing is very informed and ground breaking stuff for animals. It did not seem experimental. He is very clear on why he is doing it and at what point he stops and has lots of technology available to him to do it. The show on that cat and how quickly it recovered mobility - even jumping on its first use of its new legs, was quite amazing. It showed no signs of pain and even the vet was shocked at its progress. Not sure I could do it but the cat now has a life that wasn't possible before. For some owners and animals it will be the right thing to do.

I agree with you Anne. My position on things was that the dogs were alive and in need and that the time to pts them has passed but I was a little scared to say it. I think breeders and rescue have every right to decide if an animal is viable enough to live according to their own beliefs, values, ethics, whatever you want to call it. I've read on here about breeders doing everything possible to save a pup without knowing if it would be healthy long term. Same with rescue spending money on very ill animals with no guarantee of long term health or survival. Everyone does their best at the time. Having worked with physically and intellectually disabled young people I would readily take on an animal with special needs meeting the costs and doing my best in conjunction with my vet to know when human intervention wasn't enough. I can't be the only person willing to do that for an animal. I can totally understand the arguments presented against this idea when there are so many dogs in need, but my personal values mean that once something is alive it deserves a chance. For those of you who have watched the video I am surprised by the strength and mobility of two of the pups but the third one looks more dependant. That dog's future concerns me more than the other two at present. I also wondered what someone like the Bionic Vet would be able to do with their missing legs? To me I would want to know what is happening inside their skeletal and muscular structures and if their organs were ok before deciding on pts, but accept that others see things differently.

You went from an afghan to a crestie?

That makes me so sad. That's all Wags's life was worth?

What I think is odd is that the owner rang the police and the police told her the dogs had been seized. The council does not have powers over and above the police. The police are the only party that should be able to enter private property and seize something under legal grounds and they'd need a court order to even do that. Our legal system is based on innocent until proven guilty so council by laws do not have the power to contradict that either. If the owner had been made aware of the allegations and agreed to keep the dogs safely confined until an investigation proved it was them only then could the council seize those dogs legally. My older sister works on land rights legal cases. Not Indigenous land rights but those where say a council or some environmental plan tells a farm owner what he can and can't do on his property. Numerous council by-laws and state govt laws (expect in Qld) contradict our constitutional and contractual laws and they threaten us with powers they don't really have. Unfortunately not many people fight this stuff as it needs to go to the highest court. So at its very basic with this case - the council enters a binding contract between this owner and her dogs if they accept her registration for these dogs ie they are accepting that she is the owner of these dogs. Under constitutional law they are not recognised law enforcers so they are in fact trespassing and stealing her property by entering and removing these dogs without her approval. It's an interesting area of law.

Molassesslass you live in Logan and I live at Beenleigh so I'd be surprised if we didn't have the same type of gecko. I have asians at my house and I know this because when I was a kid we had the native ones and they look very different (more rounded). The native ones would have a heart attack if discovered in the house by a human but would gather round outside lights eating the bugs. They have the ability to change colour to blend into the walls and background. I've got loads of asians here (no natives) and they only started to develop after I stopped getting an annual pest control so like someone said, if you kill off their food supply then they will move elsewhere. So get the pest control people in but don't mention about the geckos! I have had a ssevere asthma attack from pest control spray so prefer the gecko system but don't have a problem with the dogs. I do know someone who is terrified of geckos and can't sleep if she thinks one is in the house, so we all have our little likes and dislikes. For instance blue tongues scare the crap out of me!

carrying a full basket of wet washing my then staffy pup got in the way and I fell butt hard onto the concrete trying to avoid standing on her. I promptly developed an abcess on the base of my spine. Felt like a alien trying to claw its way out. It started to leak and I had an emergency op on it then had to have drains hanging out of it for 7 weeks then some pigs bit put back inside the clean drain holes so I wouldn't spend my life as part sieve. That was 3 years ago and the worst part is that the abcess ate a third of my core body muscles so I will become incontinent from both ends as I get older! YAY! Still love my naugthy dog to bits though. She was only a rescue at the time but is my heart girl.

I can see where you are coming from Fifi. People expect perfect specimens of the breed coming from a breeder but would still be horrified to think of a breeder pts'ing a deformed dog. But in reality what else can you do with it? Like you say, if you tried to sell them or passed them on to a shelter then you'd be damned for not taking responsibility for what you created. But if you personally bred and decided to keep and raise these pups (or sourced suitable forever homes for them yourself) then I doubt rescue would have a problem with it. Don't know enough breeders to say how they would feel though. The main difference here is that rescue willingly takes on many dogs with less than perfect bodies when they have no other option. To rescue, these pups are already alive and if there is someone out there willing to make the necessary adjustments in their lives to raise these otherwise healthy dogs then they deserve the same chance as any other dog. These pups don't necessarily know there is anything wrong with them and if they have the strength to get around with 2 legs or can successfully be fitted for a cart then some would say why not. Rather than a different set of rules I think it is a different set of circumstances responded to under different sets of values. Breeders breed with a specific purpose while rescue rescue in a response to a need.

Wonderful news! I'm very happy for you, the family, Sid (who better get used to having his picture taken!) and of course Lola. I still miss seeing Harry on DOL but look forward to seeing lots of Sid! He is a total cutie pie!

I agree. Think about the common things we complain about - they relate to an owner's management of their dog, not the dog itself. So of course everyone gets punished when things go wrong because the bad owners don't give a toss.

This will sound gross but when my dad was a kid he was a King Scout and spent a lot of time roughing it in the bush. He caught a snake in a creek one day to eat and when he gutted it open out popped all these live frogs! And when we were older we used to have green tree snakes by the house and they'd swallow the frogs whole - we'd hear the frogs screaming. So I'm sure Archer's froggy is dazed but fine!

I think dogs are still considered more in terms of being working animals than pets in Australia and that it goes back to our farming heritage. We've never really had kings and queens in their finery strutting their lawns accompanied by their pampered pooches over here. We all come from working class people who owned very little, had practical jobs and worked hard. Dogs were meant to be outside and eat the left overs. They weren't pampered and either served a purpose of guarding the family/house or being work dogs on the farm. You spent your hard earned money on making a better life for your kids, not any stray animals they might bring home. And now we are the result of all that hard work. We are having less children, have higher needs and wants, and more disposable cash. What can we spend it on to make ourselves feel good? Having travelled in third and first world countries, particularly the older european countries, loads of people own dogs in the UK regardless of how big a yard they have and they even take them on holidays, including overseas hols. Dogs have shifted from being owned only by royalty, hunters and farmers in these older countries to being owned by the 'common people'. These dogs now live warmly indoors in lovely kitted out crates and get taken for walks even in the most ghastly weather. Travelling with your pet is so normal that I don't think I have stayed in a B&B in England that didn't accept dogs. Imagine how heavenly that would be here! No phoning around and searching the internet desperately for somewhere you can take your beloved fur babies. I can't however imagine any of us taking our dog to say NZ for a holiday but that is in effect what the English do when they do their warm weather trips in Europe during the summer for thousands of extra pounds. But even these countries have expanded what is acceptable in terms of dog ownership. I'm sure regular pet owners of the previous generation didn't spend money on pet insurance or consider the Bionic Vet a viable option for their lovable cross breeds either. So I think we are just a few steps behind is all. I think we are undergoing a shift in Australia and some of it has to do with people having smaller families (inc extended families), with pets now finding a space within the family unit rather than sitting outside it. I think as a society we are just not as advanced in our relationship between man and dog yet and that we are at the cross over point - hence all the rules to still try and keep a safe distance between the two species in public. Maybe in another couple of decades here in Australia we will be able to take our pets on public transport (like in London), keep them with us in our retirement villa, irresponsible pet ownership will be openly frowned upon and the companion animal (rather than the old working dog) will be valued and embraced by society and not just a few animal lovers. But let's face it, at present, for a land girt by sea we have an awful lot of beaches off limits to dogs. That sums it all up for me.

We bought a beach shade - which is like a half a tent, from an op shop for $5. We use it down the beach and camping but depending on the height/size of your puppy pen you could rig one up around part of it to give extra shade and rain protection as they are quite high and long. They are designed to withstand some wind and they can be pegged into the ground as well. If you have an Anaconda nearby I think they have them in their current catalogue new for about $20? You could go and have a look at one set up and see if it would suit? My other suggestion is to look for old tents at an op shop or on ebay as the top of a dome tent with the flexi-poles, pegs and tie down bits might also be a cheap option. They don't resell for much.

Three dogs (one of the shep/husky mega shedding variety), two messy sibling sisters and lots of messy visitors in our household. My poor mother got conned into buying a door to door sold upright Kirby with boxes full of attachments for $3,500. Gulp. Anyway my Wertheim was in the shop for repairs so I borrowed the Kirby (and instruction manual) and fell in love. It converts to a carpet shampoor. It converts to a hand held. I converts to a sander (not that I have a use for that but some might). So I did what any normal person would do and got a second hand one off ebay for only $350!!!!!!! I spent another $100 on ebay getting some of the missing attachments, lots of original bags and shampoo fluid but that is still way cheaper than what I would've paid for a new Dyson or Wertheim! The thing I've discovered about the Kirby is that no-one seems to know how to use them properly (including my mother still) so they don't use the accessories and they hardly even use the vacuums themselves so a second hand one is often like getting a new one. Apparently they last forever and I have noticed a big difference in the amount of debris they pick up over my Wertheim. They also fluff the carpet back up. They have a headlight. What's not to love! If you don't mind reading a manual, pulling it apart and adding other bits and pieces you will actually find it does the jobs it says it will very well. Heavy if you have to lift it up and down a lot of stairs though.

Sandgrubber my dad - an animal lover all his life, was followed and attacked by a dog and had a big chunk taken out of the back of one leg. He could see it was going to happen but couldn't do anything about it and had nothing to fend off the dog. Now he doesn't like animals much at all. I know it is a fear thing. Even with our dogs he doesn't want them coming too close and wont pat them. Attacks can change people psychologically as well as physically. Lots to be lost from such an event and not much to be gained really for the dog or people involved.

I have been thinking about this case still and checking in on people's opinions. I said in an earlier post that if any of my dogs attacked and harmed a human being I would have no hesitation in pts. I stand by that still. Having been on the receiving end of a home invasion my dogs at that time went beserk and chased the intruders quickly from the house to the degree that one broke an ankle falling from a window. My dogs did not make contact with the three individuals involved but if they did I would expect them to stand guard over them at the very least and perhaps to nip/grab onto their clothing at the very most. I would also expect with the training they have to return to me and leave the offenders if I gave them a command to 'leave' and 'come'. Even under those kinds of circumstances. I would not ever expect my dogs to physically attack someone even if they posed a threat to me, so why would it be ok for them to physically hurt someone out in public when I'm not around and they aren't needing to act protectively? If they do then to me that indicates an unpredictability and I believe that most people would not be committed to managing that dog appropriately for the rest of the dog's life. In five years time they may just forget to close the gate and the dog could do the same thing again. So stress, threat, duress, whatever confronted this dog made him a danger to people and moving him to the bush (as suggested in another post) is just being in denial. Animals and people need to be able to live alongside each other safely under a range of conditions. I have also been in a situation where I tried to restrain a stray dog from going on to a busy road. The dog growled at me indicating it was feeling threatened so I moved back. I think most dogs give indications of how they are feeling before attacking and if not then again you have that unpredictability factor.

I can just hear that poor puppy screaming not knowing what it had done. I hope he heard it too and it haunts his dreams.

I adore, ADORE my dogs. I chose not to have children so when I talk of family the dogs are part of that. If I felt one of my dogs had been wrongly accused of something serious would I fight it? Of course I would, and I would do it with fact and persistence. But, if one of my dogs 'accidentally' attacked another human being whether they caused a serious injury or not I would put them down without waiting to be asked. Dogs need to live side by side with humans and if they become unpredictable and a threat to humans then they have crossed a line. You can never guarantee a dangerous dog will not be a risk to others for the rest of its life particularly when you don't minimise the dangers by desexing, training/behavioural work and secure containment. It is not always enough just to love a dog. This is a very sad situation for all involved but Prodigium you and Rocky have shown you are not dog experts simply by having a bitch on heat around an entire male, both of which got off your property fairly easily. There were bound to be consequences to what happened next despite how much you love your animals. Learn from this experience and please try and listen to the advice of experts regarding dog behaviour because most pet owners (including myself) know very, very little of what our dogs are capable of. And if Kunsah is still out there somewhere then the minimum that should happen is he is desexed, has a behavioural assessment by a qualified person and is kept in a secure location. Another 'accident' is not acceptable. Your bitch should also be desexed so you don't get lured into easy money by back yard breeding. Leave the puppy making to the professionals.

This is a beautiful story. Even though he has the bone cancer it is still beautiful. All dogs have to pass on at some time and even though you might have Mack for a little less time than you'd like your love and care now far surpasses anything else he has experienced with previous owners. This is the time he will remember and this is what he deserves as a companion animal. To me that is beautiful. I am glad you found each other. (and yes there is something in my eye right now....) Alyson XXX

Please don't flame me for this because I am commenting on QLD and not VIC but housing commission (known as social housing up here) work on a priority list so a homeless person is certainly identified as having very high need. And the kind of accom offered to a single person is different from that offered to a family so they wouldn't be competing or bumping each other off the top of the list. I always worry with homeless people because how does someone let them even know if accom becomes available unless they can afford a mobile phone or they have someone who can recieve mail on their behalf? Often people think they are on a waiting list but they have come off it after not responding to offers of accom or providing all the paperwork required. If you are speaking to her again encourage her to contact housing again or to get her social worker to do it on her behalf. There are inherent problems with people with mental health issues remembering appointments or being able to maintain a tenancy, taking their meds, etc. A lot of people living rough also find it difficult to follow the rules of shelters and govt. Certainly owning a pet doesn't exclude her from crisis, short term or long term accom assistance but she is obviously fearful of being parted from her dog and a shelter will still have health and safety concerns for the other residents (ie no dogs sleeping with the people). The other thing you can check with Housing Comm in your state is if there are any community housing organisations that you can provide her information about. Community housing is operated by non-government organisations for marginalised people and often it is short to medium term with the view of getting people out of a crisis and into longer term accom. It also enables people not good with dealing with govt a community based option. Often people living rough have a range of support needs and all these can be case managed by a community org. Hope this helps in some way. Good on you for caring. It is hard to see people like this.

Thanks everyone! Guess I'll be checking out the yucky meat section this weekend!

HugUr she gets chicken necks regularly. Pers what do you mean by 'meals on the bone'? Are you talking about a bone that still has a lot of flesh still on it? Is there a specific type of bone you'd recommend? We do bones but not ones with much meat so that could be a good idea to try.

I've just noticed that a couple of teeth up the back on my 3 year old SBT are looking a bit blech. I got a couple of different tooth brush styles and some poultry flavoured dog toothpaste to give them a clean. She is fine with the toothbrushes (the finger one seems best) but she ran off as soon as she tasted the tooth paste. This is a dog that eats anything and everything if not monitored but she doesn't like poultry flavoured toothpaste? Well that's a new one and I know what I can rub on things she shouldn't be eating now! So I was wondering what other options DOLers could suggest. Can you use normal people toothpaste? She has licked some off the bathroom floor before so I know she likes the taste but that doesn't mean it is any good for her or her teeth. Is there anything natural that can be used or any pet toothpastes that might be more minty and less poultry? I am reluctant to use a product in their water due to health issues for an older dog who drinks most of the water in this house. And yes she does get bones and pigs ears and the like - her front teeth are beautiful but just a couple up the top at the back look icky.

As a pup my pied SBT was called a border collie.

Very sorry for you and Jack. The heat can be brutal but I know that Oscar had the best home ever with you and your family. Icy peas! Nummy-num.....