WeimMe

In my narrow experience, the purchase price of a dog is the cheapest cost.... If he did the math, surely he'd realise that $300 doesn't even come close to covering all of the expenses you have with a puppy - with 3 lots of vaccinations, chipping, desexing and training. Not remotely close.

I think that sometimes, especially with first dogs, people don't really fully take in all of the negatives about their breed of choice. With my first, I imagined she'd be beautifully trained, and therefore her size and strength would not be an issue (hah!!). It's not until you have owned the dog for a while that the reality of it really sets in...that the gorgeous dog you have is also capable of pulling you over, refuses to listen to you and, in my case, lays down and refuses to get up if she's wearing a halti! Thankfully she did eventually learn some manners! All you really CAN do is laugh...and be prepared to be patient and work as hard a necessary so that you eventually have a nicely trained dog. My little cross breed pup is proving to be more of a handful than I have anticipated also...but this time at least I know that with perseverance and work there is light at the end of the tunnel. I think that people like your husky owner really need those obedience classes - it's good that she is there :)

Amazing, isnt it. About time people woke up and smelt the coffee. That segment was just a plug for buying puppies from pet shops. Very disappointing. That is what I took away from it too. "Don't get scammed - buy a nice puppy from a petstore!"

I had photos sent to me from two scammers. All were stolen from other websites/blogs, and where they stupidly sent multiple photos, they clearly were not the same dogs! They usually claim to be AKC registered, and it sounds all very official to the average person on the street who doesn't know anything about Australian purebreds dogs.

Ha! Look at their faces "We couldn't help ourselves!". Hope whatever it was wasn't too expensive...

And there goes another potentially wonderful home for a dog....just like the one I had to offer, and the one the OP has/had as well. I can see that you are passionate about what you do, and I recognise that rescue is a thankless and endless task, but most people who want to take on one of these unwanted dogs are not bad people, and probably not bad pet owners either. Otherwise they'd have gone straight to petstore to buy a cute fluffy puppy. Although that is probably where a lot of them do go after being found unworthy for whatever reason. I think the percentage of dogs living in absolutely perfect homes is probably quite small.

When I was looking for a puppy a few months ago and checking some of the popular online sites realised that probably about 60% of the ads on there were from scammers. They really are everywhere! They are pretty easy to tell from the real thing with a simple google image search on the photo and on first contact they have pitiful english, a sob story, a big list of questions they want you to waste your time answering, many references to God and then many excuses as to why you can't see the pups in person, even if they are in a neighbouring suburb. I quickly learned that most of these ads are for dogs that don't exist from Nigerian scammers or puppy farmers/puppy brokers who are trying to sell tiny 6 week old pups. It's really quite disgusting.

Vomits and runs with my Weim - she was never able to tolerate bones. Later we discovered she has an issue with fatty food and cannot tolerate too much. There are other alternatives to bones for teeth cleaning if your dog can't handle them, not quite as good in my opinion, but better than cleaning up vom, poo and icky bum fur!

Well most did not even get back to me, and this is the home I had to offer: Me home all day. The dog can go in and out all day as he/she pleases. Dog sleeps inside in my room on dog bed. Never surrendered a pet. Have had existing pets since pup/kitten - now aged 11 (dog) and 12 (cat). Both in good health for their age. One child, aged 10. Quiet and has grown up with pets. Large suburban yard, fully fenced and secure. Vet references. And I was quite happy to pay the going rate. Don't know what the problem was... but apparently I was lacking somewhere. I could have understood it if it was just one dog, but 9?? I would love to know what the problem was. Anyway, the RSPCA or pound are not quite so rigorous with their questioning/judging and you don't have to wait for them to call you so if you really have your heart set on a rescue dog that might be the way to go. We would have done that ourselves if not for being concerned about how the dog would get on with kids & our other pets. I felt that the risk of bringing home a dog that wasn't suitable for our situation was greatly reduced with rescue as they've been fostered and most of their traits are noted. Or you could always put your name down with a nice breeder :)

Aww that pic made me go a bit teary :) He looks like a beautiful dog.

Finally spoke to someone there, they said they had called but left no message. The dog I wanted was on trial, and although we had a lovely long chat, left me feeling like our entire lifestyle was under judgement. I realise that screening is important and applies to everyone not just everyone 'else' but yeah, feeling put off right now to be honest. ________________________________________________________________________________________ This was my experience too. I understand that they want to find a great home for the dog, but the feeling of being scrutinised and judged is quite unpleasant, especially if you are private kind of person. I ended up getting a cross breed pup from an "oops" litter who needed a home and would otherwise have gone to a petshop, even though my first preference was for an adult dog as I was just so over it by the 8th or 9th dog. Hope you have better luck going through DOL'ers :)

I thought her ad sounded great. If I had been looking for a dog I would have liked that you have been honest in your recommendations for the best kind of home for her. I can't imagine anything worse than having her go to someone who could not handle her at all and end up being surrendered again.

At the moment a young woman with a baby and a toddler walks down the street every day with her off lead staffy which runs from one front garden to the next and chases any cats that have sought refuge in the bushes. ______________________________________________________ I really hate seeing this kind of thing. I regularly encounter a woman with a very energetic and completely out of control staffy (on lead) who yanked his way loose to get to my dog and just about toppled the pram over. Thankfully, he was friendly but all the same.... Not very smart..

They're your dogs - you can charge whatever you like for them. No need to justify the price to anyone. The price is the price :)

I find this really interesting as I was not interested in "putting my dog in a cage" the first time around. Now we have a second dog, I thought I'd try crate training him to assist with toilet training and I'm kind of sold on it. In fact, he's in there right now eating a chicken wing quite happily. He'll go to sleep and not come out again for about an hour and a half when he wakes up. It's nice knowing that he's not off somewhere doing a sneaky poo in the corner or eating the legs of my couch. I only chose to go this way because after all the reading I did suggested that dogs feel quite comfortable in their man-made den and that it can aid with puppy training and I must admit that for my pup this does appear to be the case.

I am thinking that I may have him take the monthly chew or just keep up the advocate until he is fully grown and then start with the annual heartworm shots. So many chemicals - it makes you wonder how any dogs ever managed to survive to adulthood way back before we had them.

Who could know. The foster carer that I did get to meet up with told me that they were not returning calls/emails because they thought that a friend of theirs wanted the dog. Don't feel too bad if for any reason you get passed over. I learned from that particular person that they had knocked back applications simply because they didn't like the attitude of the prospective owner. After all this time I would personally be assuming that either the dog is no longer available, or that for some mysterious reason, you are not deemed suitable.

Same thing happened to me - about 6 or 7 times. I eventually gave up on rescue. I "thought" I had a good home to offer but apparently either something about my application rang alarm bells with them or they were just too busy to get back to me. Either way, you have to REALLY want that rescue dog and be very persistant, patient and prepared to fill out a lot of forms and be open to a lot of scrutiny. Also, best not to get too attached to a dog until you are actually taking him/her home. The one dog we did get to meet and were basically told that she was ours, was given to someone else the next day due to a office bungle. The dog may even have been rehomed and they just haven't updated the site. That happened to us a few times also.

Those pooor owners - how distressing for them to have to see that. It's a good thing that the pup was not badly injured. Dog parks terrify me. So many times there's someone there with an uncontrollable dog with "issues" who believes that they have as much right to use the park as everyone else. I had to stop taking my dog years ago after one to many narrow escapes. A lot of people who used to frequent the dog park in my area did so because their dog was too aggressive to let leash for a run and they believed in their heart of hearts that all dogs need a good free run so this was the next best thing. Shame about all the other people's dogs also using the park. I completely agree with the comment about putting a puppy in a dog park being akin to throwing a toddler into a rugby match. You just never know what kind of people/dogs you are sharing that enclosed space with.

Does she associate a word with eliminating? If you used "go pee" or whatever when you were training her, maybe you could try putting her on leash, taking her to the spot where you want her to go during the day and giving the command and treating until she gets the idea that it's OK to pee there. I have to say I am a little bit jealous... I'm starting to think my puppy will never make the connection that outside is for peeing, not just any old place.

Why is this inquest focussing on the breed of the dog, not on the circumstances that it's owner kept it in and how it was allowed to escape? Why is the dog, and not the owner the focus of this whole thing, if not to allow for more BSL to be implemented _______________________________________________________________ This! While I can understand why pit bull owners are concerned about their breed getting yet more bad and possibly unwarranted publicity, what on earth does the breed of the dog have to do with this? Any dog can be dangerous and sadly, this particular one was. On every account, this tragedy was caused by the owner of that dog and they should be held accountable.

Actually, scratch that. I see that the dogs don't like the kids anymore than the kids like them and that is a recipe for disaster! Direct them to the nearest hotel :)

Eep! Doesn't sound like a fun Easter break at all. I guess you'll have to put the dogs outside if the kids are that scared...although I must admit that if they were coming to stay at my house I would probably tell the kids to ignore the dogs and it would be business as usual. If the parents had a problem with that, I'd suggest a hotel! After all, as long as the dogs are trained and friendly, there's no reason why they shouldn't be able to stay in their own house as they normally would. I am kind of mean like that...

My girl's worst offences include eating the corner of a wall (she was bored maybe?), destroying a french door scratching to get in and tearing up our newly installed irrigation system (which I suspect was purely for the joy of it). Thank goodness she eventually grew out of it!

Crate training is not mandatory - it's just very handy to have sometimes, and don't feel like a failure if you either choose not to crate train for whatever reason. My older dog isn't crate trained and turned out just fine :) I will say though, it is handy for toilet training, and containing puppers for short periods so he can't destroy your house but there are other ways you can do both things. That said, I have just crate trained my puppy and this is how I did it. He was 12 weeks old when I started and the process took me a few weeks to get to the point where he was happy to be in there as I wanted only good things associated with the crate. I left the door open and allowed him to get in the crate himself. When he would fall asleep during the day I'd pick him up and put him on his bed in there. - I fed him all his meals in the crate. - Put his bed in there for daytime rests (he had a pen for when I had to go out, the crate was only used if I was home at first). - Hid small treats in his bedding in the crate for him to discover. - Used the crate to keep his toys in. - If I gave him any chewy kind of treats, it would always be in the crate to encourage him to lay quietly for longer periods in it. After a while he would happily go in there himself to rest during the day, eat his meals, chew his pig ear and fetch his toys etc. Then the crate became his bed at night instead of the larger pen. He didn't seem to care at all that the door was shut and did not cry at all. After sleeping in it for 3 or 4 nights, I started using the crate for short term confinement during the day if I had to go out (for periods of up to 2 hours). Since you have bought the crate, you might as well persevere with getting him used to it. Other people have no doubt had much faster results than I did but it was important to me that he didn't develop an aversion to it as he is a VERY stubborn puppy! Good luck and keep going - it really does just take time.