Steph M

Frontline the possums? I kid, poor little piranha! :p I know you can get yard sprays/powders, or chat to an exterminator? Don't forget in your haze of crazy cleaning that pup needs to have been washed at least 24-48 hours before putting a spot on on, for years I popped it on straight after a bath and only recently found out I was wasting it... haha. Maybe something to deter the possums might help?

Hope it clears up a bit! This weather sucks!

I would accept that my very exuberant puppy gets a deserved snap when he's wound up and being too much. He has on several occasions and I've always told the owner he probably deserved it (which he usually does, from my observation. Even when I miss the initial interaction, I trust that dogs speak dog better than I do and I know Gus can be way too much!) I actually attribute a lot of the dissolution of certain annoying behaviours, like the licking of other dogs all over and the jumping about on dogs, to older dogs at the park giving him a growl or a snap. No contact has ever been made and he's always bounced right back and been as happy as Larry after.

They look good to me! I was waiting til Gus was closer to full sized too. Will be on the hunt for a good price now...

Gertrude I was just looking at a City Farmers catalogue and they have those exact same pom pom collars on sale at present. They are called Spectrum Christmas Collars and are on sale from $6.39 each (20% off and I'm assuming they come in different sizes). Should have known to ask you, LG! :laugh:

Is there a separate run for partners who can't be trusted to behave with other people? :laugh: Gus is all ok with the face-humping, might serve him right!

No, Gus and Rosie haven’t (not sure about Sarah and Collie, but I suspect not!) I was discussing this with Brooke in the car this morning, he’s a dork. Me - ‘Sunday we’re going to the canine country club, so will have to get the car seat cover clean and dry…’ Brooke – ‘What? What is a country club for dogs?’ Me – well, there’s a nice clean pool and lots of grass…’ Brooke – ‘do I have to wear a suit?’ Me – ‘What? No!’ Brooke – ‘….can I wear a suit? I want to’ So if you see one bedraggled girl with two loopy dogs and a boyfriend in a suit you know I lost the battle. (Potato salad will be made this weekend, hope no one objects to bacon in their potato salad! I’ve got soft drink, cups and some chips and things under control!) Gus is being a bit of a knob-jockey this month. It's time for the boys to go I think... he's taken to barking aimlessly at people and things for attention, so just a heads up to ignore him if he's in moron mode.

They're pretty sickly sweet when they're not kidnapping my underwear and bringing the loudest squeaky toys to bed....

Not sure! The photographer had them but I’ve seen similar at lincraft and spotlight etc, might even be worth trying the $2 shops too!

Everyone's dogs look so cool!!!!! Gus and Rosie do Xmas...

I saw this yesterday and had to laugh. Very clever.

Ruby will tell her when enough is enough, and as long as you're there to seperate the two it looks like they will be besties! So cute!

I wish you hadn't all thrown it in the bin! Haha. We were interested in giving it a go too...

HAHAHAHAHHAA!!! He is so cool...

I bet he is not the first, nor will he be the last to pee on that....haha Glad he's on the mend!!

What about chicken livers, bones or hearts etc? Or do they fall into the bad catergory? If it's just white muscle meat I imagine it could be done but you might miss a few vitamins. I'm no pro at all, but I imagine this could be the case...

Crap! Wish I'd known about this!

We go by approx 2% of the dogs body weight to start with, so for a 30kg dog I would feed about 600g of raw for the day and go from there. If you know your Whippet x tends to have a faster metabolism (i.e. you need to feed her more than the recommended amount of dried food for her body weight) I would start her off on a bit more. Genius! That's exactly what I needed. Haha.

I just go by their weight and how they are looking. If they are putting on a bit much I reduce the quantities. Wisdom eats about 1.5kg of raw a day, so I can feed a 'complete' meal each day. Daisy eats less than a third of that so I feed a complete meal over the course of the week. So for D one day I might feed her a turkey wing, the next day some meat/sardines/egg, the next day a piece of brisket etc. Very good point, but a starting point is where I struggle. Having one almost 30kg clunking retriever and one slender, but muscly, barely 11kg whippet x I wouldn't know where to start as a base! I wish there was a really good chart that said X amount per KG of bodyweight. If anyone has one I'd be your best friend! Haha. I have looked and found nada!

Not Piranha? :laugh:

My real worry point is the quantities, I always think am I feeding enough, not enough, too much… that’s the trouble with dogs who I suspect would eat their way out of a meat-filled swimming pool. We did the VAN for a while but the smell of it was foul! Plus the advance prep is a PITA for someone so disorganised as me. I’ve been considering raw for a while but they seem to be balanced well at the moment so I have a bit of time to do some reading.

Few links to the Facebook events if anyone is interested! Treibball Training in drive Canine Massage Some of these look really cool! I had no idea these were even run. Hope the links work...

May be a retriever thing! I caught my old Lab "playing" ever so gently with mice that he ended up accidentally squishing. I once saw him carrying one like a puppy! He would get so upset when he realised they were dead. This was a few months ago now. But the single most collaborative moment between dog and cat. Cat bought in this moth and they both sat there pawing at the poor thing til it stopped moving….then Gus ate it… He does love eating things though, not as much as Rosie. This morning we lost a bra and Brooke’s runners….he’s unimpressed though I would like him to put them away more… We’ve lost pen lids, bottle caps… One of Gus’s brothers just had surgery to remove a metal leash clip he chewed up and ate. It was huge! Terrors!

I agree and I like to think I have the ability to take a step back and think rationally about things, but sometimes this doesn't happen. I;E in an emergency (real or percieved). IMO this incapacity is easily exacerbated by a lack of clinical knowledge, understanding of jargon or just unwillingness/inability to question authority figures. I know my grandmother has a chubby 16 year old cat with a myriad of other random issues recently got stung for a full teeth clean and removal of a skin cancer on her ear. At 16 that wasn't likely to be what kills her, and surely the risks of anesthesia are greater than the cancer. Her other cat, Lucy, lived til 14 and when she passed, quietly in her sleep while being boarded at the vet while Grandma was away, they called to ask her if she wanted an autopsy and the nurse proceeded to ask if she was sure she didn't want one 'for peace of mind' It isn't so much me I worry about, but there is a huge ageing population, most of whom were raised not to question professionals like doctors etc. I know my grandma certainly falls into this category. It isn't exclusive though. I've also been stung (pardon the pun) for anti-inflammatory shots for when Gus got stung by a bee. I didn't see it so thought better safe than sorry as it was right on his mouth and I worried if it were a wasp and he'd swallowed it or an allergy or something it could be dangerous. They offered the shot before I was even told 'it's just a bee sting' Happy to pay the consult fee to be told that, but rather annoyed I didn't get the option to decide on the course of treatment, which would have been home and some stingose. It's a position of power and it saddens me to think it might be misused and your love for your pet might cause you to be taken advantage of. Personally i would rather die than be left with a mouthful of manky rotten teeth why should an animal have to suffer just because they are old. There is an element to quality of life- some cancers are painful or distressing for the animal (ears can become very ulcerated and painful) and if the teeth are bad then why not take off the cancer under the same anaesthetic. I have seen a 20 year old dog have a dental, it was done carefully and said 20yr old dog was brighter than ever 2 days later. Age isnt a disease and it should be used as an excuse not to treat conditions that are fixable. For the most part I agree, but a little tartar is different to a mouthful of manky teeth, and a slightly darkened spot which could have been a cancer or could have been anything else (by the vets admission) to me says watch and wait, she’s not a well cat and frankly is nearing the end of her days, but she has always been kept very well and had a dental clean about 2 years prior by the same vet and really struggled coming out of the anaesthetic, as she did more so the second time round. I would agree totally if she had a mouth full of rotten teeth and a big sore ear, but it wasn’t the case from what I saw in my position as chauffer. Haha. It’s gotta be case by case, surely. Maybe more chicken necks and less wet food would have been a suitable course of action too? In a lot of cases too, age does make a difference to how well procedures are handled and I think that needs to be taken into account too.

Totally understand, Lhok. Not offended at all, just hoping to make things seem a little less bleak for you guys. :)