Jemmy

It makes me sick to my stomach. Especially the photos of so many varying sized dogs running together. Of course attacks can happen with any size dog, but I'd be concerned about a group zooming and a little one getting completely mowed down.

If you call the rspca they will redirect you if they can't help.

A lot of the descriptions will be quite technical as good registered breeders are health testing, and working on improving their breed. They show or work their dogs so they can ensure their stock are sound and do what they say they'll do. Someone else will phrase it a lot better than I can I'm sure. My Luna is not a show dog, she's our pet. But she is from excellent lines, and her parents had the appropriate health tests and had been showed. We could have bought a cheaper dog from a backyard breeder, but I have the support of my breeder if I have any concerns. I know that the health testing has been done. And I know that she's a good example of her breed, and her parents have been judged to be excellent examples of their breed. To me those extras justify the additional cost... Her registration paper says so much more to me than that she's pure bred.

Dogs are really amazing. I was reading recently about dogs that will detect blood sugar spikes in diabetics, and I think a study of them correctly pinpointing cancer. Hope the news is the best it can be, given the situation.

Pretty much what suziwong66 said: you said your pup was being distracted by the environment, introducing the leash to limit the pups range will reduce distraction by the environment. Will putting a leash on your puppy make it wee? No, but it will put you in control of what else it can do.

I don't think you're unreasonable at all.

I know my local council will door knock the neighbourhood to identify if any other residents feel like the barking is a nuisance.

Luna seems to know that there are 4 alarms before OH gets out of bed. She sleeps through number 1, groans at number 2, and commando crawls up the bed for a snuggle between 3 & 4 :laugh: She will also eat half her dinner, then carry her bowl back to her bed to finish it off.

Luna grumbles and groans. I knew GSD's were talkers, but she's not just a back chatter, sometimes she sounds like a grumpy old man. If you roll over in bed and accidentally nudge her she groans like a person that you've tried to move while sleeping

You sound like you'll be great owners, good luck with your search!! And good on you for doing so much research beforehand. A well chosen GSD *could* be a good fit, but I have to agree with what others have said...the shedding is insane. If by short hair you mean low maintenance, well they fit in with that. But it's not a lot of maintenance on the dog because it just drops itself all over everything. Everything. I love Vizsla's and think they could also fit in very well with your household. I don't know enough about boxers to have much of an opinion.

Oh that's unfortunate westiemum, I had trouble finding any this morning on my honey expedition and the health food store only had a Tassie made one. The ladies at the health food store thought I was crazy for buying it for my dog She enjoyed it though!

This thread and especially your post, are quite timely for me as I've been monitoring Luna for symptoms as she was exposed to a strain that is resistant to the vaccine... And we've had a broken sleep as the cough began overnight. She's still eating with gusto, so I'll try the honey to ease her throat.

Could it be so that its obvious for future reference how the same dog was used to sire litters in (for example) separate countries?

We keep our litter trays in the laundry and installed a cat flap in the internal laundry door.

I bell trained Luna quite early on... And then at about 6 months of age she figured out she could pull the bell off the hook and run around the house with it You've inspired me though, I'm going to have a look around at what items we can use for new tricks!

Yikes! Poor Ernie, he's really putting you through a bit at the moment. Hope all goes well this morning

I'd love to get Luna a rain coat, but she is normally in the backyard when I'm at work until OH gets home, and even though she has cover he gets home to a drenched German Shepherd because she just loves to frolic. So getting her a rain coat for our walks seems counterproductive if she's just going to go and get herself all wet anyway.

I've been wondering too :)

He's a cutie. We should have a head tilt thread!

Oh Ernie! What a silly duffer, hope you're feeling ok SM. Not sure what to suggest, but am sending sympathy.

A pin cushion... Pins and all. I'd been making a crate cover and had put my pin cushion on the kitchen bench. I didn't think she could reach things on the bench at the time. It was one of the tomato shaped ones, and she obviously thought it was a ball for her! I got out of the shower to the insides all over my lounge room (sawdust) and bent pins everywhere. I thought surely she couldn't have eaten any, but took her to the vet anyway. Sure enough, 6 pins came up on the xray. Had to wait for them to pass, and we all know that means inspecting poop

Thanks Maddy! I'm actually in Launceston, so that's solved all my problems. You're a gem :)

Unfortunately even human consumption offal isn't allowed. From the DPIPWE website: Do not feed dogs uncooked or cooked offal (eg liver, heart, kidneys etc, even if purchased from a butcher for human consumption. Commercially prepared dog food is fine. http://dpipwe.tas.gov.au/biosecurity/animal-biosecurity/animal-health/sheep/hydatid-disease I'll have a look into the fish though, thanks!

Hi guys, I've been trying to research a raw diet as I'm contemplating switching Luna over...however it is illegal in Tassie to feed your dogs offal. Offal seems to be suggested in every raw diet I've looked at, so I'm just wondering if anyone has suggestions as to where to go from here? Thanks!

How are you going now?