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thanks :D. My obedience club does not let puppies or young adult dogs do any jumping/agility training until they're fully grown because of risk of injury to growing bodies... but never knew it was to growth plates.

Ok this may be a silly question but what is a growth plate? Was it caused by the fracture or was it there to begin with? :oops: A good idea to hold back on the surgery. This is one of your bubs here and not to be taken lightly... I don't blame you for wanting the best person available for aftercare etc.

Hobbit, hope Guy's op goes ok and he's back chasing the evil goats in the next few months (it takes a while to recover from that sort of surgery doesn't it?).... have some money from my money tree, though what the Aussie dollar is worth compared to the US you can use it to decorate your Christmas tree :wink:

Also forgot to add: that site (Dalmatian Club of Victoria) also has pics of Dals doing agility :D

Yellowlabs, Dals also have a (very controllable) health issue: they can sometimes have a uric acid anomaly which causes stones to form in their urethra. I believe it can be controlled by diet though. All in all Dals are gorgeous, intelligent and ACTIVE dogs who have unfortunately become the target of BYBs and puppy millers due to 101 Dalmatians and its popularity. Have a look at this link for more info... [url]http://www.dalmatian.asn.au/dalmatian.html[/url] hope this helps!

Another reply from the govt re: consumption of pets... 8) "The Premier has asked me to thank you for your letter of 18 October 2002 concerning the human consumption of companion animals, and to reply on his behalf. "As the matter you have raised is the portfolio responsibility of the Minister for Agriculture, the Hon Keith Hamilton MP, I have referred your letter to the Minister's office at the Department of Natural Resources and Environment for appropriate action. "The Premier thanks you for bringing this important matter to his attention." Wonder if he gets re-elected (and he surely will) if anything will change? :-?

Does anyone else think it's a little immature to be creating different names etc and completely go sick at everyone else? Y'know, I wouldn't do that even if I couldn't be tracked by my IP... it's just really... well, stupid! :roll: Sometimes I understand that you may have to tie your dog up, for whatever reason... I could have tied BK up when he knocked over the fence but instead I chose to leave him inside the house when I was out and then taking him back to dad's so he could play outside and I wouldn't have to worry about him escaping. That's just my way of doing things, I would still do it that way because he wouldn't do well tied up and he'd either kill himself trying to get loose or get loose (he is incredibly strong) and go out and get run over. :( I don't like the idea of [i]anyone [/i]tying their dog up... but if there is no other possible alternative what can you do? Letting a dog live out its days on the end of a rope is a different story and should NEVER happen. Aroura I know you would never do that, you love your doggies too much! None of us are "perfect" pet owners but we all learn new things every day and that's the main thing, we learn how to do things better so our pets can lead good lives.

Koolie... she is very pretty! :D Hobbit- I am so confused by genetics and even more now. Please don't try and explain it to me... cos I will never get it... :drinking:

:lol: Annie is nuts!!! Meant in the most affectionate way of course... :wink: Does she have an obssession with people's mouths and heads? Tomson likes to think he's a parrot and likes climbing up on our shoulders, winding his way over our necks like a scarf (if he's not careful he WILL end up being made into one :roll: ) and then going back down the other side. He also likes to try and lick/mouth our mouths when we talk. (we do not let him do this, it's a bit yucky!)

That's great Nikki, it would have been a fantastic experience. Schutzhund is something I would like to do one day but I have to have the right dog with the right temperament first, and that probably won't be for at least 5 years. I think there is only one club in my state but luckily it's in my city (though on the other side of town, and I don't have a car anymore). I am thinking of going down there and checking it out and having a chat to the schutzhund people. :)

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: If I could take them all in I would... and so would most people here... :angel:

[quote name='Mei-Mei']I have a friend whose German Shepherd used to ring the doorbell to come in the house. No one ever taught her this behavior; she just picked it up on her own. Can you imagine the first time he went to the door and it was the dog? :lol:[/quote] :lol: Clever!! I wish Blitz knew how to do that. When he used to escape and go up the park in the mornings he would come back and bark at the front door to be let in, if only we'd had a doorbell I could have trained him to use it!

[quote name='gooeydog']I'm not much of a hunter and nobody else can stand her cocky attitude long enough to work with her.[/quote] Ha ha ha ha! You have just summed up the dachshund temperament! :lol: Tomson is a lot like that, he is pretty hyper (ok well he's only 1yr old) and will chase anything that moves. Cats go a bit weird with laser lights too... we used one on Evil Mulder and he was almost hypnotised by it. BK wouldn't even notice, or if he did notice, he wouldn't care. He's not interested in chasing things that don't have 4 legs. :roll:

Hey Nearstorm, I don't think you offended anyone, well you didn't offend me anyway... I can see your point of view but I guess to anyone who works at a shelter and knows of the daily hell some dogs have had to endure they want to make sure the dog goes to the best possible home where that sort of torture or deprivation or neglect does not happen again... try not to take it personally... there can be times when people may overstep the mark and I suppose when you think it begins to be a personal attack that's when you should get pissed off.

Belle is beautiful! :D I remember [i]dissecting[/i] rats at school. I would probably cry now if I had to do that. We had mice in yr 7 that we could take home if we wanted, my lab partner took ours home with her and one day one escaped and ran into a mousetrap a few days later. :( Rodents are cute and all but I don't like cleaning cages. One of the reasons I will never get a cat is because I hate the smell of kitty litter and cat poo (and because it would die of shock if Bk wanted to play with it, read: herd it, bite its ankles or jump on its back). I like birds and we get a few native birds (rosellas, lorikeets, galahs, cockys) flying over the backyard and occasionally stopping in the trees for a meal.

BK's favourite toy was the axe which he used to pick up and swing around when he was really hyperactive... nothing else would do... on other occasions he would pick the axe as his "toy" (he was never into toys or balls or frisbees) and get up on the outside table and chew the handle while sunbaking. I had a semi flat soccer ball that I gave to BK as a toy and he used to prance around the yard with it in front of Rinny to make him get up and chase him. Rin's favourite toy was the tennis ball and every so often BK would beat Rinny to it and get the ball to make him jealous (Bk never chases balls!); he would never bring it back but run off with it and start tearing it to bits while Rinny would look at me sadly. My friend's Border Collie, Jake, woke her up one night barking and carrying on like there was a robber in the backyard... turned out he was barking at his new bed she'd put in his kennel, he didn't like it at all and refused to go inside his kennel until she got rid of it and gave him back his stinky worn out bed.

I'd never chain BK up just because I'm too scared he'd strangle himself. He has mild separation anxiety as it is and I would think tying him up outside in the (now indestructibly fenced) yard would make him worse. :( As SJD said you really shouldn't have a dog if you can't contain it safely in your own backyard...

:D Oscar (one of the dachshunds) had a sort of excuse- he some health problems in his later years (which could have been caused by obesity?) including diabetes, heart murmur (not sure if he had this from birth, but I don't think so as it wasn't picked up until he was 10) and something wrong with his liver- so he was all puffed up and fat-looking. He and his brother Fritz were also a LOT bigger- taller- than Tomson (the new boy) is, Tomson is 12 mths old and not fat... yet. :o He's a bit like Annie I guess (gooeydog), doesn't stay still long enough to gain any weight. I have some new photos of him but have to go round to mum's and scan them!

Geez, this is what happens when I don't get on the board for 24 hours?! :wink: Not meaning to sound like a sheep here ( :wink: not meaning to excite Hobbit)- but Horsefeathers et al have got it all right. It doesn't matter how much you spend on a dog, you don't use it to recoup any costs... dogs are not money making machines, they are pets first and foremost, even with good breeders their dogs are all treated as pets. Our first two bitches had champion pedigrees and cost an arm and a leg to buy- but no way were they ever going to be bred from. BK is a mutt anyway, but even if he was a champion ACD with a pedigree as long as my arm I'd never use him to recoup costs or anything else. He's destroyed more things than I can remember but you grin and bear it, it's part and parcel of owning a pet. His good points more than make up for any damage he's caused. There are more than enough dogs in the shelters who are the results of monetary experiments gone awry. Take a look at your local shelter and try not to be saddened and sickened by the human race, whatever its intentions. :(

[quote name='deepseasnake'] I think its because our dogs are all fat and spoiled :D[/quote] :lol: you've never seen the dachshunds my grandpa has!!! OK, well that makes sense Hobbit. :) I thought it might have had something to do with showing vs working? But I suppose they already have the split with the breeds.

Does anyone know why American versions of some dog breeds are larger than others? eg. US Dalmatians are larger than Aust. Dals, so are heelers and I think Kelpies too. American Labs are bigger than English ones too aren't they? Is it something in the water? :wink:

The best thing you can do with a dog who is reacting badly to fireworks is to ignore them, or pretend everything's ok and nothing weird is happening (although all you want to do is cuddle them!). Bk get all excited when he hears fireworks. He runs around and barks and whinges and carries on. He does this with thunderstorms and blimps too, he thinks if he barks until it goes away he's scared them off and then goes to his bed all satisfied with himself. :roll:

:lol: yeah the goats may very well be the guilty ones in this case... poor Hobbit, how can one blame the defenceless doggy when it was the evil goats!!! :wink:

Celery seed tablets (available from any health food shop, or health food section in your supermarket) are excellent for canine arthritis sufferers. Rinny was on some mainstream medication for his arthritis which wasn't doing much good to alleviate his pain, we put him on celery seed and the improvement was amazing... unfortunately he's too far gone now for anything to be of any good but the celery seed was great when he wasn't so old and sick. Bonnie my aunt's Beagle also takes celery seed for her arthritis (she's 14) and she bounces around like a puppy now. Don't know if it would work for hip dysplasia though...?

i signed. :)