kelpiecuddles

I like that breeders make an assessment of which pup/s they thin would suit you. When I got my basset she was one of a large litter(11 or so from recollection!) and he chose two pups that he thought would suit our family. I then sat and watched all the pups play for about 30 minutes before I decided for sure, it's so much nicer to have a dog that suits your family than one that's the 'perfect' colour but is a poor fit for you!

I work in a pet store and I call them mongrels when talking to customers :laugh: I mainly care for the fish in the store but sometimes I find myself stuck in a conversation about the puppies, conversation often goes as follows: customer: What sort of dog is a 'groodle'? (because of course that's what the store puts on the sign) me: it's a mongrel, a cross between a golden retriever and a poodle. customer: Oh, I see, so how big will it be? me: It will be big, about so tall *gestures somewhere up around my waist* customer: Oh really, wow we didn't realise it would be that big me: yes customer: but they don't shed do they cos they've got the poodle in them me: well actually because they are a cross breed you really won't know whether they will shed or not until you see how their coat turns out customer: *wanders back out the door... LOL People assume anything crossed with a poodle will automatically be non-shedding and small?? The store really has it's work cut out for it selling puppies with the current staff, we aren't afraid to tell people their situation is completely unsuitable for X breed and one of the staff there is the local contact for AWL and we have a registered breeder/showie plus me on staff. We've made it as far as getting AWL cats in to the store, it'd be nice to be able to have us as a rehoming contact for dogs as well instead of selling puppies.

The ones they are talking about in that link may be bomb detection dogs, what Nekhbet is talking about are dogs trained in bite work and holding offenders, slightly different prior occupation...

If ones not working switch brands, the active ingredients are all different and the fleas in your area may be more resistant to one

I've got three kids and have had three dogs over the last 9 years while raising said kids. It comes down to slow and steady introductions and teaching both the dog and the child the correct way to interact. At this stage it's too early for the pup to be in close proximity to the baby, a bit more training to teach pup how to be gentle and you can start some carefully done introductions and that will also help your bub to learn how to interact properly with the dog. Start by separating the two of them using a play pen or similar, the advantage here is that if you are in the middle of something and the phone rings for example then you can quickly put your baby down somewhere safe and secure where the pup can't get to him. then work on teaching the important basic commands to your puppy, sit, drop stay and 'gentle' and also not to jump up on people, don't allow him to get away with putting his paws up on you for a pat or 'boxing' at you which is fairly common I have found in bull breed puppies, if he wants interaction from you he first needs to sit and be polite. When he can sit politely for pats and be 'gentle' then you could start sitting your baby on your lap and have someone else keep an eye on pup while you do some introductions and teach your baby to pat gently with an open hand. If anyone tells you your baby is too young to learn how to be gentle they are wrong, I've raised three children who have never pulled an animals fur or ears and it all comes down to close supervision and careful teaching from a young age. You'll get there, it may take a little while but don't feel like you can rush it, it needs to be done right for the best interests of your baby and your dog. One of the best things I did was teach my dogs that they had a spot that they were expected to go to and that they needed to stay there unless I invited them off, it meant that as they got older I could have the dog on it's mat and put the baby on the floor in the same room under close supervision. Excuse the nudie bum in the photo but it's a good one because you can see the corner of the raised playpen that I had set up, the dog wasn't usually put in that place, he was normally on the other side of the room, for some reason that day I had moved him. I had been sitting on the floor and got up to take the snap

Well he was going to share it with his siblings...

Who didn't eat my baby :p

My son cooked a gigantic omelette for dinner and then promptly dropped it in the dogs bed where it got covered in fur Is it OK to share it between the doggies? They'd end up getting the equivalent of 7 cooked eggs each(no onion or anything)

Turk is 8 years old, if that's about the time frame since they bought the program that might be your answer TF. In my experience the defence force is incredibly slow implementing things like this and it may have taken this long to get the assessment program off the ground.

Just wanted to say welcome to the forums and best of luck finding your perfect pooch :D I used to live just out of Gisborne, it's a lovely part of the world :)

Sascha is the same age as my son so she would have only been about the same

Found this last one

Well we've completely derailed this thread :laugh:

Wish he was that easy to keep under control now! Believe it or not that baby is 9 years old now...

Yep Sascha :) Remember my little fella snoozing in the dog crate

Oh wow Clover, so long ago LOL She's a smallish red and tan kelpie, I found some photos a while back, will see if I can find one ;)

She'd have no trouble finding a person if they were wearing a Lady Gaga meat dress, not getting distracted by the smell of kangaroos, other dogs and small children who might want to play is a whole separate challenge :laugh: I don't doubt what you are saying though, I had my boxer X mastiff sheep herding at one stage and one of the other (DOLers I'm pretty sure) was herding with a dingo that day.

Sounds awesome Nekhbet, I think that's what it will come down to here. Sounds like as long as the dog was properly proven through titles or whatever that they would consider approving it for use through head office. I've never even seen a dog track in real life though so at the moment it's a lot of reading and then a very careful choice of breeder and puppy when we get to that point. My current one just doesn't have the motivation or interest but not surprising given I deliberately discouraged it LOL

I'd love to train dogs for SARDA Nekhbet but unfortunately they aren't in NSW. I'm a very active SES member and we do a lot of wilderness searches in this area so a good SARDA dog would be an amazing addition to the team! By the time I get my next basset/s my kids will be much older so I'm thinking by then I might be willing to do a bit of travel to do some training in Sydney or Canberra and talk to SARDA about whether we might be able to get some expansion happening :p

$1200 I work at a pet store that (to my distaste) sells puppies and that even shocks me!

On my train line then :p

I never saw them at Coles, only Woolies. I don't usually shop at Woolies either so I used to make a special trip for turkey necks :p

Yes but this isn't a nervous dog that is causing problems, this is a happy, well adjusted dog that others are having a go at, doesn't really work that way around unless there is an issue that Snoopy21 isn't seeing.