disintegratus

My pugs do this too I can't believe he ate a part of my body Watch it, now he's got a taste for human, he'll turn on you, and devour your toes while you're sleeping!! :laugh:

I had never heard of a snood before, so I googled it. I know they are functional etc, but my god they made me laugh!!

Mine will get a face lick in if they can, but they're not usually allowed to coz they're all super-gross, all the time. Zehra I think has OCD, our couches look like they have been peed on multiple times because she obsessively licks them, will lick a patch for hours if we let her. She also will lick any bare skin (and sometimes clothing) if she gets the opportunity. She does stop trying if you tell her "Don't touch me with your tongue" :laugh:

Bones has just started nibbling on hands. If I'm walking around the house with your arms relaxed, she will sneak up behind you and start nibbling really gently on my fingers. I don't know where she's picked up that idea from, but we're putting a stop to it, it's so annoying!! She also likes to settle really close to me, usually behind me where I can't see her. Standing in the kitchen cooking? Guaranteed I'll step back and trip over her. She used to sit behind the computer chair when I was at the computer, but she's been rolled on a few too many times and now settles down under the desk. I wonder if she'll keep doing that til she no longer fits? Thundercleese likes to be touching me whenever possible. If I stay in one spot, he'll go settle on the couch, but if I'm moving around the house, he has to be close to me, touching some part of me with some part of him.

Thundercleese got to a certain age where I assume an influx of hormones caused him to start humping. Mainly he humped Zehra's face. Since she's a "special" dog, I didn't really think that was an appropriate thing to do, it's not fair to go around humping her face when she lacks the mental capacity to know what he's doing or put a stop to it. So we got him desexed. In hindisght, it was probably a little early, he's now 4ish, and still squats to wee. Sometimes he tries to cock his leg, but still squats while doing that. He's a wierdo. :laugh:

I had a really close bond with my parent's dog Jack. We got him when I was still living at home, just out of school and didn't have a job, so was home all the time with him. That was a truly amazing bond. Then I moved out. It was actually okay for a couple of weeks because I left all my stuff at home and moved out gradually (I moved around the corner when my sister and I bought our grandmothers house.) I was still taking him to training and spending heaps of time with him, but then I packed up my (our) bed and took it to my new house. Jack wouldn't talk to me for weeks. I'd go over to Mum's house and he'd run up to the door, see it was me and turn around and walk away. Then one week at training, Jack cocked his leg and peed on me, in front of the whole class! I'm aware that I'm anthropomorphising, but I swear that was a calculated act of revenge for moving out and taking his bed away. Now he has to sleep on a dog bed, like a dog!! I really miss the bond we had, and I know there's nothing I could do to get it back. I don't think Jack has ever truly forgiven me for it, even though he's talking to me again. We had a couple of incidents with my boy Thundercleese. When my sister and I moved house, she said I couldn't keep my ferrets inside any more because they stink. She was also opposed to me getting a large aviary for them because she thought they were ugly. So I got them a walk in chicken coop. Apparently fox proof, but not dog proof:( Thundercleese killed one of my ferrets, would have been playing with him because he adores the ferrets, but 40kg vs 1kg, that had to end badly. So I recognised there was a problem, and I put panelling over the top of the mesh that formed the sides of the coop. I didn't have enough timber to finish the job, and so I fixed it temporarily which was fine for a few days, then I went to bunnings and bought some more fence palings. Came home to another hole and no ferrets. Found them a month later when we had blocked drains. That coupled with his Fear aggression issues really made me resent him, and I was almost at the point of having him PTS because I was not enjoying him and we were both miserable. He overloves me, but at that point I wasn't having a bar of it. I couldn't forgive him for what he'd done. The problem was I couldn't take a break from him either. He's too big and strong for my sister to handle and she's not interested anyway. She likes the idea of getting new animals, but after the initial "yay" phase, it all gets left up to me. I'm glad I didn't get him euthed though. I've managed to forgive him (mostly because I eventually realised that at the end of the day it's my fault, I should have seen the problems with the chicken coop and I should have listened to my gut saying it was an inadequate option and gotten a decent aviary regardless of my sister's opinion) and we are strongly bonded again. :)

My parents dog is like that. Jack is a BC x Lab pet shop puppy, and he was mine. When we got him I was just out of school and lazily looking for a job (read: playing playstation all day instead of looking for a job ) so he was with me 24/7. I trained him, and he was AMAZING. I didn't even need to give him a command half the time, I'd say his name to get his attention, and (probably through observing my body language) he would know exactly what I wanted him to do, and he'd do it. I have never had that kind of bond with a dog and I probably won't again, and it upsets me that I had to leave him behind and have now lost it. He never had any issues at all, but he's always been intolerant of rude dogs. Then when I moved out and my parents wouldn't let me take him, they have been systematically ruining him. Because my Mum stresses out when a dog approaches them on walks, Jack's learned to be defensive on lead. She reprimands him for growling or displaying other warning signs when interacting with other dogs, so he's learnt to go from calm and relaxed to full defensive attack without warning when a dog approaches him. The worst part is, he's starting to learn this kind of behaviour towards people too, because Mum does the same thing when people approach, or when people come over, he just gets shoved outside "to avoid issues".

Mine's great. I had to drive to the middle of nowhere to get it, but it only cost me $250, and I'd hazard a guess that it retailed for well over $1000 when new. It's got one of those safety device thingies, a little clip on a string with a magnet that when it's removed the treadmill stops going. I clip it to Thundercleese's collar, and just potter around the garage or backyard, if I hear the treadmill stop I know he's gotten off.

oops, sorry, quadruple post somehow

oops, sorry, quadruple post somehow

oops, sorry, quadruple post somehow

All of our are quite clearly neglected, abandoned for days at a time and never shown any human affection, as displayed by how desperate they are for it when you walk through the front door. Thundercleese has many fear issues: other dogs, people, plastic bags, remote control helicopters that no longer fly straight because he stood up to his fears, clicky pens. brooms etc. I've also just about given up trying to teach him "stand": he's fine if you're walking and you "catch" him in a stand, no issues. If he's in any other position, apparently "stand" means "cower and wee a little bit". I've had him since 8 weeks old, so god knows why.

I actually use a people one I bought off ebay, it's an extra long and extra wide one, and is big enough for my big boy Thundercleese to gallop on (I'm not kidding, he freaking LOVES the treadmill, and if I don't set it high enough, he actually speeds up enough to go through the front of it, so I have to turn it up to about 14km/hr and he will happily gallop along for ages :laugh: )

I have often wondered about the pasts of some of ours, although I only ever use "he/she's a rescue" as an excuse for not knowing what breed they are:) The rotti x Zehra is an odd one, picked up as a stray by the pound, she flinches, yelps and runs at brooms/sticks etc, but then so does Thundercleese whom we've had since a pup and never hit him with either. He's only ever been hit with a cricket bat (by accident by my partner's then 5-yo) and he's not scared of cricket bats. Zehra I think has been well-loved in the past, she has always been very accustomed to sleeping inside, on beds and couches etc. She also has a nice trick of sneaking into the house very quietly, finding somewhere quiet and out of the way to sleep and not get noticed while the others are getting kicked out for causing havoc!! :laugh: She is also scared of trucks even from far away, and of cars and other traffic when very close. I think she spent a bit of time on the streets, as she was skinny and grotty and unkempt when we got her. Harley I know a little of his history, he used to belong to a friend of mine, who was, I would say fairly heavy-handed. Wouldn't beat him per say, but was short-tempered and not suited to a dog with such high energy (he's a dobe x kelpie) The friend then moved away and left Harley with his grandmother (elderly woman even less suited to that kind of dog) and her dog, and old cattledog x. She went to live with a family member, they couldn't deal with Harley's exuberance, so he was re-homed. apparently that fell through, and somehow or other Harley ended up at Morwell pound. I went to pick him up, intending to hold onto him until we found him a home. 3 years later... :D Harley is highly strung, and (a term I learned on this forum, and was grateful to find out that other dogs do it as well :D ) is very "sticky": he gets fixated on things. He will follow the cats around literally 2-3cm from their bums, but if they turn to face him, he runs away. He stares at my rat cage all night, but again, if confronted with a rat, he turns and runs. Luckily, the cats have gotten used to him, and the rats don't care one way or the other! Actually the other night I was watching him, and one of my boy rats was teasing him, and they were actually interacting with each other. It was very cute :) He HATES walking on lead. Is well behaved, but spends the whole time with his tail down or between his legs. He's slightly better with a harness, but not great. He loves the idea of going for a walk, it's the part where he has to walk on lead that he hates. Unfortunately, now that he's getting older (he's going on 9 this year I think) he's starting to become "deaf", that is, he can no longer hear the word COME, so he's not allowed off the long line until his recall improves again.

I don't think you should report it, I think you should leave it up to the victim, or at least find out the full story. For all we know, the dog may have been contained inside, in a room that did not lead directly to the outside, but the tradies may have let him out. I understand a person's responsibility to keep their "dangerous dog" contained (the dog IS in Victoria, it quite possibly only sneezed at someone to be declared dangerous) However, I know from first hand experience, that tradies don't always pay attention to things like that. For example, there have been several occasions where I have had all the dogs inside with me because they needed access to go in and out the back gate. However, they were also going in and out the front door, and not bothering to close it properly after themselves, on several occasions I had to go get either one of the dogs or the pig off the front porch after they'd pushed the flyscreen open because the tradies had failed to shut it properly.

Can we see, please? :laugh: :laugh: DD you could see if I could work out how to post a photo but in the meantime you can see them at www.collartags.com They are brilliant. Sue Ooh, they ARE cool! I need to get a tag for the new pup (she's got a temporary $2 jobby with home engraving on it - YUCK!!), and I do like my dogs tags to match, so I might have to get some for all of them :D

What's wrong with people with shotguns??? Badly worded, I wouldn't go after the people with shotguns, are you crazy?!?! They've got shotguns!!!

I have wanted to take the leap and work at the pound, but I don't know if I could do it. People make me mad at the best of times, I'd probably go nuts and start taking my frustrations out on every person I saw with a shotgun. So I wouldn't be working there long, I'd probably end up in jail! I take my hat off to the people that do though, they'd have to be bloody tough! Glad your Nanna got her fuzzball back though That's really great:) As for the release fees, they are quite steep, and I think that's why some dogs that do end up there don't get to go home, which is really sad. That's why all my dogs have a tag with our phone numbers on it. People are much more likely to call you before surrendering to the pound. So far, I'd estimate that their tags have saved us well over a few hundred dollars. Not that I let my dogs wander, but at the old house, Harley got out about 4 or 5 times in less than a week because he decided lattice was tasty and I couldn't fix it fast enough! Funnily enough, one of the times I got him back was from the same guy whose dog I'd returned about 3 times because his neighbours had torn down the fence with their renos! Talk about Karma!

:laugh: All so true! I love that it's not just me that gets excited by the consistency of faeces! I'm pretty sure that's something that people that don't like animals will never understand :laugh:

Slightly OT, but we went to my parent's holiday house at Rye over the weekend, I took our Rotti x, and my sister's mates brought their 6 month old bull arab thingy (god knows what's in her). She's awful. Doesn't know her name, does whatever she wants and has no concept of being reprimanded. She also decided to take issue with our rotti x, who was being a really good girl and didn't retaliate until the pup escalated it (read: didn't know what was going on because she's a simpleton :)) When it escalated a bit, I jumped right in to separate them, and everyone was saying things like "oh, but you could've gotten hurt" etc. My response was that doctors are cheaper than vets. Later on my sister said "I love spending time with other people's dogs, it reminds me that our dogs actually are really well behaved" I swear at that moment I could practically hear them destroying stuff 80-odd kilometres away! :laugh:

Mine aren't particularly photogenic at all. Either that or I'm just not good at taking photos (probably both!) Every time I take a photo of any of them, they end up looking like I'm running an ad campaign for either "The Special Needs Dogs home of Victoria" or shooting an add that starts with "for just a dollar a day, you too could feed a skinny dog like Thundercleese" It doesn't help that they spend all their time in the dustbowl. I mean backyard.

I can't say I've heard much about it review-wise, but my 3 adult dogs are on Kirkland Signature (the costco brand) and they seem to be thriving on it. Shiny, healthy dogs that don't fart nearly as much as they used to!! :laugh: The pup is on Black Hawk holistic puppy, it's the first time I've used it and I'm very impressed! For the first couple of days she was on the kirkland signature because I don't have a stock of puppy food lying around just in case I find a puppy and we were expecting her to go home, then I tried a small bag of Canidae but it gave her the runs. Swapped her onto Blackhawk, and she loves it and no runny poops!! :D In the future I'll probably look at swapping all of them onto Black Hawk, but when 20kg lasts about a month if that between 3 large dogs, it gets a bit pricey.

There's a house down the road from me that has 4 (sometimes 5) little dogs in the front yard. Securely fenced, but they go MENTAL whenever someone walks past. To be honest though, it doesn't bother me, and there's a few houses around me with dogs in the front yard, I know where they are, so I know to avoid them if I'm not in the mood to deal with it. If I am, I use them as training tools for my big fear aggressive boy. They've worked wonders! Sometimes, we can walk past the "house of a thousands yaps" on the same side of the road without going over threshold :D I'd probably be a little upset if they put their dogs in the back yard. I was using them!

No pics yet, but I'm in the process of teaching Bones, the new pup, the basic commands and the "rules of the house" (no eating our stuff, no weeing in the house, try not to stand directly in peoples line of motion so much etc) So far, she's got "sit" worked out. It's a great start. Unfortunately, she seems to think "drop" translates to "sprawl out on the ground, preferably on my side or back, taking up as much room as possible", then she gets indignant when I don't give her a treat for doing that! :laugh:

It's a bit of a "rock and a hard place" situation I think. On one hand, at least she gets a chance at a new life, which was never guaranteed if she stayed in the pound in the first place. Secondly, surely now that she's "famous", if she doesn't work out there'll be other people wanting to adopt her? On top of that, at least they're raising awareness and helping dispel the "secondhand dog" attitude. But on the other hand, it stinks of the same kind of attitude that sees the RSPCA spend thousands fixing a mutilated kitten to boost ratings and get money/sympathy, meanwhile killing thousands of healthy cats and dogs that no one sees. I feel sorry for the dog in question though. From the pound, to a house full of idiots, barely has time to settle in there, then onto a new home? Poor thing won't know what's going on:(