Willem

indeed, fantastic shots!

...can someone be so stupid?...she might be just a public media junky hunting for attention ....or maybe she should spend less time on Fakebook and should walk her dogs more often...

...just fill it with compost ...the weight will prevent it from tipping and he will love to play in it

...as simple as it looks like, I'm aware that it adds actually real quality to my life....life is short, but having those moments makes a difference...

...starts with checking and disposing her pooh she left over night on the lawn...how many?...how big?...firm?...all good this morning... weather muggy, not too hot, some rain drops...at the start of the walk we met her lab friend - trained basic obedience before allowed some sniffing, kept on moving, she did another pooh (firm & healthy)2 wees...reached the off lead area. This morning there was cattle at the fence - what an opportunity to train heel, stays and recall. We paraded for at least 15 minutes along the fence, a few bulls (calm) just 1-2 meters away - she did well....kept on walking...on the way back we bumped into her other lab friend (somehow she loves labs) and we gave them a run...good opportunity to check the recall (I have to give her 10 out of 10 - she's really good). Walked home together, last sniff (the other lab lives up the road)...and hopefully tomorrow we do it again.....pretty much a perfect morning walk and now I can enjoy my second cappuccino and start work ...

...wrt highlighted text: increasing?...why?...the drug might also have an impact on the 'compromised communication' between the 2 dogs - without the drug her body language might become clearer for the other dog...as a kelpie some kind of intensive training (without disturbance from the beagle) might help her to maintain a more balanced spirit, e.g. all the dogs in our agility and obedience classes showed a significant more balanced behaviour after a relative short time (4-5 months): nervous and shy dogs became more confident and calm, over-aroused dogs (like ours) settled down and focuses now 99% on the training...all of them grew with the 'job'.

a lot will depend on the breed; some breeds are just more easily excited and more energetic than others...and some breeds are easier to train than other breeds...and if both dogs have to live together under one roof you also have to consider whether they match: recently there was a thread here about a beagle and a kelpie, and it seemed to be not the best match causing the owner all sorts of trouble.

...than I don't think it is vet issue...seems that he just arranged it for himself; I would sleep at this spot (camping mat) a few times so I would be able to catch him on his way...after a few accident free nights I would barricade the area so it doesn't become accessible for him. Depending on time of the accidents changing the feeding time might also help. Consider also: with 14 month he might have just made the change from puppy to adult and therefore might need significant less food!

Yep! no...only domestic dogs are man made; there are a lot of other dogs out there where humans didn't interfere much with breeding, e.g. dingo. I though it was obvious we were referring to domestic dogs. ...the Carolina dog became a domestic dog after his discovery, but wasn't man made...same can be said about the Canaan dog...or the Jindo...these are all dogs shaped by their natural environment and not intentionally by humans. Humans domesticated them respectively use them as pets or work dogs after recognising their values.

how often do you walk him per day?...how long?...does he use always the same spot in the house?...is the stool firm?...or running? when we got our BC I put a dog flap in the laundry door and she used it from day one...

Yep! no...only domestic dogs are man made; there are a lot of other dogs out there where humans didn't interfere much with breeding, e.g. dingo.

anyone knows whether the color depends on area?...or is the color / pattern of the offspring of any brown snake unpredictable?... the one we had in the garden definitely matches the dark one in the left upper corner of the pic, however, it had a distinguish black head which juvelines have (it ws approx. 30 - 40 cm long).

you made some statements here which I assume you won't be able to verify: e.g. ...attacks declined in the US: while this Wikipedia source'only' lists the fatalities, it clearly indicates that the numbers are rising... ...desexing makes a big difference????...you will have difficulties to verify this - according to this theory Norway must have one of the highest dog attacks records as they don't allow and promote desexing...

wrt 2.19 - setting the thresholds at 8 years: shouldn't this threshold depend on the breed?...8 years is pretty old for e.g. a great dane or dogue de bordeaux...?...

years ago we found this one in the garden...snake buster who picked it up said it was a juvenile eastern brown...while it looks totally different to the pic in the previous post I read and heart that they come in all color patterns... it was more greyish with a distinct black head...and no red but more whitish-grey belly...

...and that's why we all still believe the earth is a disk...we bloody stupid mortals ....

...our dog had a very distinguish barking, my wife and I noticed it straight away that it was somehow different...and when we came out she was just baying and circling the area where the snake was hiding. Normally she attacks mice, rats and huntsman without barking - very carefully so to avoid getting bitten, but this time she really kept the safe distance. I can only hope she will keep this behaviour. Next week I will try to contact the breeder to find out whether her parents show a similar behaviour regarding snakes...saying all this: I wouldn't count too much on the 'inbuilt danger alarm', she might have just been lucky.

Running a snake over will kill it - no need to skid. But it dies slowly... so it could still bite until it stops moving. Same problem with chopping the head off or cutting the spine but leaving a still wriggling actively biting bit lying around. If you must do that - make sure you put the head where the dogs cannot get to it. loose coils of bird netting will also dispatch snakes but that's a slow and horrible way to go so if you must do that, make sure you check the netting twice daily and arrange for removal of any caught. ...wrt violent shaking: I thought more of it as a last resort once you tried to catch a snake with bare hands (attempting to get the safe grip just behind the head) and it suddenly comes out of control - a bit much to get to the car, start it, place the snake in front of the wheel and run it over :laugh: ...however, this DIY snake catcher will make direct contact with hands obsolete...

https://pethelpful.com/dogs/Snake-Dogs wrt the article: I'm not sure whether rattlers are really so dangerous - I appreciate getting warned before they strike, so I can't see the need to kill them...?... However, I like the idea of this homemade snake catcher in the embedded clip...pretty simple, cheap and safe... The other bit of information I'm contemplating about is the 'violently and repeatedly shake that should disrupts the nervous system of the snake by injuring the delicate spine'...so if it happens that one day you have a snake in your hands and it is suddenly out of control: shake it baby - and let me know if it worked :D ...

...a little much of 'tenets of organic physics'...and a little bit much of a pseudo scientific approach for my taste by attempting to 'paint a big picture that only reflects - IMO - a very distant, theoretical and single opinion'...guess that's also a way to kill a thread :) ... without going too much into details, just stating that this 'apocalyptic regime of the KCs' goes on for over 150 years is neglecting - and therefore misleading - all the development in research / science over the last years. E.g. medical findings like DNA checks etc. just weren't available in the past, not for BYBs, nor for KCs or other breeding programs....I'm pretty sure that this and future findings will affect all kind of breeding programs (not only canines) in positive (and knowing mankind also negative) ways. In other words: blaming an organisation for health and /or other issues evolved from lack of knowledge at the time doesn't help much... ...of course, you could also write a study with 200 pages about Christopher Columbus responsibility for Donald Trump becoming a serious candidate for the next US president...

I guess you left the huntsman no chance, they have pretty big fangs and if you slap it while it is sitting on your skin ...the fangs have to go somewhere...well, makes you quite unique, I assume there are not many out there who can wipe 'bitten by a huntsman' from their bucket list :D ...

wow...how did you manage this?...did you step on it or sit on it?.....I had Redbacks crawling over my hands and Huntsmen dropping from the ceiling on my head (when I tried to remove them), but I never got bitten. I heard that white-tailed spiders can be a little bit nasty...and of course the funnel webs, but I actually never saw a funnel web spider here in the Illawarra.

...my wife freaks out when she sees a snake or a spider...no matter what kind of snake or spider. Once I got a call at work that she saw a snake in the study - at the time the study was our storage and you could hardly open the door because it was full of 'rubbish'....I drove home and spent 2 days looking for this invisible snake; all I found were a few lizards, and she saw only the tail, but she was 1 Mill percent sure that it wasn't a lizard but a snake :) .... wrt Huntsman: she knows they are the good spiders, eating all the cockroaches, Redback spiders and are pretty shy anyway - I think it is hard to find a record that someone has been actually bitten by a Huntsman...but no, she can't stand them and they have to go too...

Doesn't seem to be a problem inside the house or in the backyard. Runs around no problems, no limping no trouble getting up. Also doesn't explain why he doesn't stop on the way home, only on the way out. At times i notice his tail between his legs when we are passing the train station - I know he is afraid of loud noises so he doesn't like the train passing by. Places away from the train station where he stops, his tail isn't between his legs but I see him looking around to assess the surroundings. But he hasn't had a bad experience in those places. how close is the normal walk from the train station and the tracks?...it might be that the vibrations (you might not feel it) triggers some fear; if you have the option to drive with him further away from trains and tracks to a nice park ... beach etc. you could verify whether it is just the area...

normally I use something like a long PVC pipe or a cardboard drum for the transport of drawings (what's the correct English term for it?) ...place it in front of the snake an try to chase it towards the pipe / drum - as it is dark inside they normally go for it. However, this time I had to use a longer paint roller handle (without the brush) and had to force the head down till I could place the pipe so close in front of it that moving into the pipe was the only way 'out' for the snake...it was a pretty lively specimen ...nearly jumped out of the bucket in which I put it after I caught it....the snake buster picked it up in the meanwhile. snake alive, dog alive...no one bitten, happy days :D ....