Leah82

too cute teekay :D

OH MY GOODNESS They are all sooo freaking cute!!!!!

haha try being there in person, both me and OH's sister mentioned he might end up in our handbags when we leave :p

he's such a good little boy, already knows his name after 3 days and is taking himself outside to go to the toilet

and I've been told I'm his personal groomer so I need to figure out how to make sure he doesn't end up being a woolly fluff ball like Collie

Puppy pics! forgive me for the overload but we're probably not going to see him for a few weeks so we went a little crazy :p

and as you can see here they have decided to call him Harry :)

despite these pics he was a bugger to photograph, whenever he noticed the camera he would bolt towards it resulting in this...

and turns out he is from an unregistered litter. mum and dad were both tested for PRA and FN but unfortunately dad was actually on the limited reg despite mum being quite successful in the show ring, I can't remember the full story around that one...the puppy was very distracting

Week 36/52

puppy cuddles are scheduled in for lunch time tomorrow, the in-laws live nearly an hour away so they are not really the 'drop in any time' type of parents

Will definitely be bringing the SLR and be taking lots of pics. I've previously had a black rabbit so I know the difficulties around getting good pics of black animals

Wondering whether it will be safe to take my dog out and about this weekend - was planning to go down to either the Glenfern Valley bushlands or the beach.. now that your Collie is sick I am getting worried! My girl is unvacced for KC too and as I am leaving her to go on holidays soon I really can't risk having her sick at all.......

I called our vet and they haven't seen any more cases than usual. Maybe just steer clear of dog heavy places

Well Collie is definitely sick, seems to be getting worse over the last couple of days but he's still active and eating well.

Annoyingly that's put a stop to our lure coursing plans this weekend and Kepala next weekend

I don't know when the last time Collie was vaccinated for KC, I don't think he has been since his puppy vacs. Sarah was vaccinated for KC by the rescue before I got her so that would have been March/April last year and so far she seems fine. Although I can't help but cringe when her and collie are playing licky face :p

Puppy!!!!!!

OH sent me this picture yesterday and said next to it 'Cute?'

Not knowing what he was going on about I called him and said 'Did we get a puppy?!'

His response was 'Kind of' :p

So anyway this little guy now belongs to the in laws so I suppose that makes him family :) FIL got him as a birthday present yesterday

I tried to get his registered name out of the in laws yesterday but all I managed to get out of them was that he was on the limited register which means he's not for breeding and therefore apparently doesn't have a registered name *sigh*

I'll ask to see his papers when we go over for puppy cuddles on the weekend and see what I can gleen from them :p

God dammit I'm going to have to cancel our Kepala plans, It's been aaaages but yet again something has come up.

Collie has decided to get sick, and while it doesn't appear to be full blown kennel cough (possibly just a mild case) I'm sure you would all much prefer he and Sarah stay at home

and for anyone that was going to join us for Lure Coursing this weekend we will obviously have to sit that one out as well.

updated list

List of Dogs

Snout Girl- Bert, Sally, Bruce and Poppy

Steph M - Gus and Rosie

pip 1981- Dakota (and human baby Elliot- maybe Daddy Ed and big brother Jeremy)

Terri - Didi

deadsheep - Bronson, Cassie, Kane and maybe Hannibal

Malcolmus - Shakur + Soka

List of Food

Snout Girl- something vego for bbq, meatballs, pasta salad

Steph M - Potato Salad and Sausages.

pip1981- crunchy noodle salad, soft drink (I can bring my supplies bag if that helps SG?)

Terri - Bread + something of the cake/slice/sweet variety

deadsheep - chicken skewers for bbq

Malcolmus - bread/rolls/marg

I'm going to go and sulk in the corner now

You have a gorgeous pack, and all the colours of the rainbow :)

it sounds like he spends a lot of time in the laundry. A crate might be a better idea if you want to prevent him having free reign of the house all day and night and it will reduce the damage to your laundry

well Collie was making an interesting noise this morning, kind of like he was trying to bring up some phlegm with his mouth closed. Of course KC was the first thing that came to mind because I'd never heard him do that before but he only had the one episode so it's possible something else had irritated him.

Either way I'll be keeping a eye on both of them tonight and no walkies till I'm sure they're ok

and a just in case FYI we were at Gardiners Creek Reserve in Burwood on Saturday and Aranga Reserve Dog park in Donvale on Sunday

and just as the weather is starting to warm up

What's the incubation period like for kennel cough?

I completely agree that you should charge and $5 is nothing for them considering the cost of the equipment that allowed you to take the shot, not to mention the experience you have as well.

I have a friend that would take photos of motorbike racing and live gigs, she got really good and spent a lot of money on lenses, but it annoyed me that she would give her photos away for free. People would request her to show up at gigs and take photos and she would hand them all over for nothing. Haven't seen her in awhile so I hope she's finally charging

I'd reply to your uncle and say 'If that's how most dogs were raised there would probably a lot more happier dogs out there' :p

My mum raises her nose at our dogs being inside, last time they stayed she was convinced her clothes smelt of dog when she got home. Dramatic much

And of course the dogs were not allowed in their room, they even sleep down the other end of the house.

My boy got taught at the age of 6 to cock his leg by our then recently adopted girl. Obviously not living up to his breed name as a 'cocker' spaniel :p

He was entire till about 10 months as well so obviously wasn't doing it before then

They both now cock to mark and squat to do a normal wee as well

Wow, I hope you have an awesome trip gapvic and enjoy all that authentic Italian food :) I was never a big fan of mozzarella until I had proper buffalo mozzarella in Italy, and then there was the to die for gelato in Florence.... excuse me while I wipe the drool off my desk

Anyway speaking of spring, this one is a little different for me but still keeping with the theme with Sarah in the background :p

Week 35/52 - Spring onion flowering

I agree Leah, I have incorporated a lot of our own games of choice, including at every exit point of the house and yard, and this has been hugely successful, but also put us a bit behind :) but that's ok.

I really need to do it with the cars too. She's not too bad, but its not as good as it could be.

I'm sure you'll get there in the end with Collie :)

I wonder if it could be useful for him to wear a thundershirt maybe?

we tried a Thundershirt for his separation anxiety before we got Sarah, I think it worked for 1 day :p

I'm focusing on getting him better in the crate at the moment, he does like the crate but it's definitely not an anywhere any time kind of solution, he's not happy if left alone in it as I found out last night after about 45 minutes of howling, barking and pawing at the crate door in the spare room (he won that round, the crate was moved next to the dog bed where Sarah was, peace and quiet after that)

I ordered another crate today so at least I can get him and Sarah sleeping in separate crates and then I'll start mixing up the crate locations over night before introducing some day time quiet crate time

I have a question. You and your brother who I assume are both still living at home are planning to get a dog, but who gets the dog when you move out?

The life expectancy of a Samoyed is around 13 years and I'm guessing you won't be living with your mum until your 34.

such great rotti photos

I think Brandiandwe has actually worked a little reverse psychology on you all and she's getting exactly what she wanted :p

But to show that I'm not immune here's Boston... a neighbour's baby rotti x amstaff

ok thanks, I thought it was a bit weird and foster mum is a newbie to dog ownership so I'll let her know when the little guy comes back for a bath.

My experience with de sexing is with cattle and involves a very little rubber band

I assume there's no parvo risk, the dog is 7 and is being fostered through Animal Aid so one would hope he's was quarantined for a period and is up to date with his vacs but I will make sure to disinfect everything tonight anyway

Wow, what a great job they did.

It's not often you see projects like these actually come into fruition, and in only 2 years!

I'm interesting in the process for de-sexing male dogs when they come into rescue. Would you generally go for a full castration or just the snip (vasectomy) and if you generally prefer one are there scenarios where you would go for the other. E.g. if the dog is malnourished would you go for the shorter procedure to reduce the time they are under anaesthesia

I assumed castration would be used in 99% of cases however I had a foster dog over last night to get clipped. He had just been desexed and foster mum was under strict instructions from the rescue not to bath him for a week or so, so she asked if I could just remove the bulk of his hair so she can get a better visual of his condition as he's quite underweight, and he was a bit muddy and knotty. Anyway as I was clipping him I noticed balls were still intact and he had a small incision between the testes and his penis, so I'm assuming he just had a vasectomy even though after introducing him to my dogs it seems he has a propensity for humping.

Interested to know other people's thoughts

Collie and Sarah look so soft in that photo Leah. I want to stroke them :)

Sarah was definitely getting lots of cuddles last night, I just want to take her to all my new customers that clearly don't do any maintenance in between grooms and say with a little effort your dog could be this soft and cuddly

I am officially very behind in the recaller's games

Turns out trying to start up a grooming business outside of my normal working hours leaves very little time for anything else

But on the plus side we're having fun with our own games of choice built around everyday activities (walking through doors, dinner time etc)

Sarah's confidence in continuing to improve which is great. I can see her thinking about things rather than just reacting and I can't remember the last time she scared herself walking down the noisy hallway.

Collie is still a pain in the butt wanting attention all the time and his barking any time a stranger walks in the house is more of an issue now that we have people coming and going a lot more but it's all work in progress.