Skitch

I am sick to death of the half arsed approach most Australians have to pet ownership when it comes to cats. Owning a pet is about enriching your own life while providing that animal with the best care possible in exchange for its love and companionship, is it not? How then is buying an animal and allowing it to roam completely unsupervised at the mercy of dogs, cars, cruel people, etc in any way responsible? I do not understand it at all. If cat owners loved their pets enough they would provide them with a safe way to exercise outdoors rather than just letting them come and go as they please and hoping they make it home for dinner each night. Don't even get me started on the environmental damage that cats do, not to mention property damage..

Poor little thing really hope he will be okay Make sure you give your son a big cuddle in the morning too, I bet he feels so guilty and sad as well Goodluck, I hope this thread is full of some better news in a few hours

My dogs truly loved each other. Sadly we lost Jess (the big white/brindle one) 4 days ago. Our poor little IG is not at all coping, none of us are really!

Poor daisy, that is so scary. I've never fed osso busco bones because they always look to big and hard to me (if that makes sense, lol) and now definitely never will! Snook we used to give lamb neck bones to our old dog who was about the same size as justice a lambs neck practically everytime we left the house she never had a problem. I know alot of people wont give bones to their dogs unsupervised at all but I think it really depends on the dog and how careful you want to be.. for instance I wouldn't leaving our IG with a bone alone because he's got a history of choking and is just a finnicky little thing over all. But a dog like Justice I think would be fine

If this is still available in a couple of weeks (doubtful :/), I'll be in touch! We were looking to buy in ridgehaven but have decided to rent for a bit again instead. What sort of lease are you looking for?

I prefer the girls for the simple fact that I'm forever forgetting my dog has a willy and keep going to rub his belly! Ewww lol.

As an owner of a sighthound (well.. kind of. An italian greyhound Lol) I dont really find the generalization that they are timid to be offensive at all. In fact, I'd probably agree with it to some extent! My own dog is very, very shy.. we have done all that we can to make him outgoing as possible but we didn't adopt him until he was about 16 weeks and found out after that the breeder had never taken him outside. Completely ridiculous.. so I think that he'd be shy regardless of what breed he was but I do have to say that all of the other small sighthounds we've met (whippets, IGs, etc) have been varying degrees of shy/timid. Alot of the big sighthounds I've met haven't been shy at all though.. I'd hazard a guess and say it's something to do with the way small sighthound owners behave around their dogs ;). Rather than timid I think the smaller sighthounds tend to be incredibly sensitive/reactive to their environment.. they are very easily offended so to speak! Lol

Amazing photos! We partied too hard here last night.. no one could drag themselves out of bed at 6:30am to drive to Virginia lol! But I'd love to come along to the next one. Amazing photos the dogs look like they really enjoyed themselves ! Boomer went okay at the JRT lure racing.. better than I expected, anyway lol! The JRTs were really revved up so were very noisy and bitey - Boomer got a bit scared and didn't really want to run away from us lol. Sook!

I'm off to the JRT lure coursing with Boomer tommorrow! If he isn't absolutely useless at it we will come on Sunday too !

Stunning dogs! I'll agree that Aussies are a fantastic breed and I'm NOT biased ;).

Any rewards for a dog that runs in the opposite direction of the lure? I have a feeling my intelligence challenged IG might be up for that one :p. I didn't get a chance to ring the JRT club today but if you're happy to talk to them I'll leave it to you Jacqui . Im not sure about any other lure coursing tracks apart from the one the greyhound club has.. but a google search turned up this old thread http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/201114-line-lure-coursing/ I'll send PeiPei a PM and maybe that will be one more dog to join us .

I was going to ring the JRT club tomorrow to find out about their lure coursing day, I'd be happy to ask them if they'd be interested in loaning out their equipment for use by other groups if that's helpful? Not sure what their equipment is like though, bit hard to tell from the pics

To me it sounds more like a vaccination reaction to me. So long as it's not getting bigger and the dog is otherwise well do not be too concerned - a bit of swelling is common and the size of an m&m is a very small swelling I can feel the microchip in my elderly dog these days.. It is migrating towards her elbow! Lol

Is the list being made only for large dogs? I'd like to be added to it if an Italian Greyhound would be welcome

What a shame

I've got to admit I was wondering the same! It seems really strange to me and almost a little cruel.. but it would be better than ending up with lots of ear infections later down the track.

http://www.jackrussellterrierclubsouthaustralia.com.au/JRTCSA%20Gallery.htm There are even some pics of JRTs doing lure coursing on their site ! I dont know too much about it yet but I'm keen to give it a go with our Italian Greyhound.. not sure how he'll do at it but it cant hurt to try Lol

Found the little pamphlet thingy in the bottom of a showbag finally Lol! It is the Jack Russell terrier club of SA that run 'Lure racing/Fun Days' and it says that all small breed dogs are welcome. Going by the schedule on their website it looks like the next one is on the 24th of September http://www.jackrussellterrierclubsouthaustralia.com.au/JRTCSA%20Events%20Calendar.htm Perhaps those of you with larger dogs could try giving them a ring and seeing if there is anything out there for you that they know of. These are the numbers listed on the website as well as on the pamphlet I got at the Royal: Telephone: (08) 8284 1792 - Mobile: 0449 752 027

Yesterday while I was at the show we checked out the dogs SA stand and they had a small pamphlet on lure coursing run by the Jack Russell club of SA ! I haven't got the pamphlet handy but I do believe it said it was only for small dogs.. but I will post the details here when I have it because maybe if you get in touch with them they might be able to help you

Interesting.. I too was going to attend the Adelaide rally but am now having second thoughts having read this. Will be doing some further research before offering my support I think..

My small dog does it whenever he meets a new dog and he is generally very friendly and playful - usually he does it at the same time as wagging his tail and whining excitedly . So I dont think it necessarily means aggression, it could just mean that he's excited

That's alright, doesn't bother me at all!

Thanks so much everyone for the input, much appreciated ! Going by the prices here we got a really good bargain then! Twin tank heated for $800 . We picked it up last night! Originally we were going to pay a bit more for it but it was a bit dirty and one of the heating elements appeared a bit slow and the guy was just keen to get it off of his hands.. I guess we were a bit lucky! It's a 'Hydrobaths Systems' one which is an SA company that has now gone out of business and is in really good physical condition, no scratches or bumps or anything and the pump works fantastically and is not very loud. It seriously looks brand new now that I've given it a real good scrubbing to remove all the dust from storage. Yay! I'm trying to find somewhere we can get the 'slow' element replaced and get the pump serviced to make sure it is okay.. does anyone know where might be a good place to get this done? Thanks

I was wondering if anyone could tell me what would be a reasonable price to pay for a secondhand hydrobath? Specifically a twin tank heated hydrobath that is in good condition Thanks in advance!

I have no words. I feel really sorry for that lady, she didn't deserve that. Part me really hopes that you are embellishing the truth and didn't react quite so badly and with such foul language. In short, yes I think you were very, very wrong to say something like that to someone expressing concern about your animal. How was this particular woman to know that you had been pestered about your pups vaccination status prior?