Friday 24 January 2014

Pomsky's, Labradoodles and more... What are you thinking?

I can't stand it when I see posts saying “Look at this Pomsky” and then have THIS PICTURE
I’m not anti-crossbred dogs even though I’ve been involved in pure bred dogs my entire life - I’m against “designer dogs” and their “breeders”
Why you ask?
Designer dogs originated with the labradoodle, now in theory this dog is a brilliant idea - orginially thought of by Wally Conran, an Australian man who originally started breeding labradoodles - through careful selection, genetic testing and research - to create a dog for use by blind people needing guide dogs but were allergic.
His regret - not the creation of the dog, but the way the dogs have been used and abused as gimmick’s. He could have a litter, would test them all and maybe 3/10 would be hypoallergenic - yet here we have people selling entire litters claiming them to be great for people with allergies and having less problems than many purebreds.
Why do people think their dog will have less problems? Because they hear less of it. Backyard breeders will happily cross any breed with a poodle (and more it now seems with the Pomsky craze) and claim to have healthy, great puppies. These people are selling them for more than most pure-breds will cost and doing so without going into research of genetic testing, hip scoring, elbow scoring, testing for CLA, TNS, CL to name a few. Most (note, I say most, because there are breeders who are just as bad as backyard breeders) breeders will test for known genetic issues within their breed and will happily tell their buyers what’s been tested for and what’s known to be an issue within certain breeds. This then gets mistaken for pure bred dogs having more issues than their cross bred counterparts, when in fact much of the time it isn’t true.
Now the fact that many of these designer breeders go into it for the “profits” is insane. I have been around pure-bred dogs for my entire life, and their breeders and I’m yet to meet anyone making a profit - the amount of money, time and love that goes into finding a good dog for your bitch, doing all the relevant tests, caring for a litter, the trips to the vet, the importing of dogs (I know great danes that have been imported for upwards of $10,000 to improve a breeding program and expand the genetic pool in Australia) etc etc etc. Does NOT create a profitable business and most breeders are so selective with their puppy owners actually reject half the enquiries - or lead them on to breeds more suitable for their lifestyle.
So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE wake up, smell the roses, stop supporting designer dogs and in turn puppy farms and pet shops (another two topics I could rant on for days)

If you have any questions, please ask me - I won’t ignore you and will try to answer to the best of my ability.
Just please do your research before committing yourself to support a dog, make sure you’re ready to commit and check out rescues and responsible breeders - NOT just the ones in your area *both rescue and breeders*, this is a big decision, often you have to travel to get what’s right for you and your lifestyle - you don’t just go out and buy the first car you test drive, why should you do the same with a puppy?

Monday 6 January 2014

It's been a bit quiet down here...

So once again I've neglected my blog for too long... Luckily not all that much has happened since November.

Here's what's up (in dot point because... laziness and boringness)

  • I finished all my exams (P's make degrees)
  • Decided I'm deferring uni for a year
  • Had an excellent Christmas (minus the fact I managed to come down sick starting Christmas day and all boxing day)
  • Had a quiet new years just chilling out recovering from being sick over Christmas
  • And have been working full time over my holidays (it's hectic tourism season so I've got plenty to do) in preparation fooooor
    • AN ADVENTURE
So the plan is so far - flying to LA for a week or 2 where I'll go to Disneyland and keep myself amused with exploration, from there I'm heading to NY and then working  at Summer Camps  for a few months before I head up to Canada to see my brother in Whistler and maybe stay for a bit - might work, might not... it's all wait and see at the moment :)
 
One of the few photo's I've taken - from my Great Gatsby themed work Christmas party

Sherlock waiting for Santa... Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!

Keep on keeping on x



Monday 18 November 2013

Just a bit of life...

So since the last update I was living a hectic life and since then I've mellowed out quite a bit. I've still been partying (typical uni student)  - the main being Halloween where a bunch of mates came over for pre's and we headed into uni where there was a tequila bar, haunted house, and silent disco - much fun was had! Except for the face Tinkerbell had a vial of glitter and we're still getting glitter on everything 3 weeks later...

Since then I've been preparing for exams (first on finished today!) and working .. that's about it, in my time off I've just been chilling on the beach and hanging out with the cool kids (pretty much everyone above)

If anything exciting happens I'll keep someone updated... somehow...


Keep on keeping on :) xx

Thursday 3 October 2013

Cliff Dives and Nerf Wars and Concerts Oh My!

So I've had a pretty hectic September that hasn't really slowed down until just now (and that's because it's raining and our trip got postponed!)

Here's a little of what I've been up to

On the First of September myself and a group of mates got up at 5am (after a big night out) to go to the beach and watch the first sunrise of Spring - and it was definitely worth it! The water was ice cold, the sand even colder but the weather was perfect and the hash browns and coffee for breakfast were the best I've ever eaten!!

From there I had an insane two weeks of uni where I had 5 assessments due in the same amount of days (and me being me, left them til last minute) but thankfully they're over now and I had something amazing to look forward to that was the awesome time of Efterski!

What is Efterski you may ask - a four day long festival at Thredbo NSW with big air comps (100ft jump!), bands and end of ski season shenanigans!
We saw awesome bands and DJ's such as Rufus, Alison Wonderland, Kele, Pluto Jonze, and Hermitude to name a few!! The weekend did not disappoint, the atmosphere was awesome, people were just there to have a good time and chill out at the snow and in the heated pools and spas and dance til the early hours of the morning (the drive home Sunday was exhausting!)
 

Next up in the wondrous adventures of me was a few concerts at uni - I saw Kingswood and Jinja Safari - both did not disappoint, and were cool enough to chill with us afterwards and just chat which is awesome :) that's probably my favourite thing about gigs at uni - how easy it is to just hang out with the bands and have fun
 Kingswood

Jinja Safari

And it's not over yet! Next thing I know I'm heading up to Sydney for 2 good friends 21st birthdays which were amazing fun but had a bit of excitement when across the road there was suddenly 6 cop cars, a riot van and 2 ambulances!! Apparently there was a brawl and it wasn't even 9.30pm yet... and people wonder why I don't like going out in Sydney on a Saturday night.

The next weekend I had yet another 21st (this one back in Wollongong) which was great fun we danced the night away after drinking all the different flavoured vodka infusions you could imagine!


From there I FINALLY got to mid semester break which hasn't slowed me down at all! So far I've been to Wattamolla cliff diving - which is an absolutely stunning place and the weather was perfect - a toasty warm 30C

The next day battered and bruised I headed into uni as a part of the Red Banditos to compete in UOW Arena where we loaded up our Nerf guns (2 suitcases full between 5 of us!) got geared up and set maturity levels to 100000% and ran around shooting each other for 5 hours! We won the longest shot competition but didn't make it to the final round to win the title



Aaaaand now we're finally at today - it's raining so we cancelled our beach trip, and doesn't look like we'll be going to the firetwirling tonight either, which is alright cause I might finally be able to catch up on some sleep and relax my sore muscles!! Then do it all over again as the weather warms up!



Keep on keeping on! xx






Thursday 8 August 2013

A bit of spontaneity never hurt anyone...

So I've had quite the interesting month, this last week especially.
While I had no money, I still managed to do lots of fun things and then I got paid and all hell broke loose!

It all started when Nan took all her granddaughters out to lunch at Aqua in Sydney, I have never eaten such amazing food and doubt I ever will again! I had an absolute ball catching up with everyone and eating perfectly made food - I had baby octopus, some fancy named steak and tiramisu shaped like the opera house!


From there I had a generally normal month, hanging out with people, chilling on the beach and uni and work - then this week happened.

I decided to get a haircut... I went from 
to ...
It's so incredibly short and I absolutely adore it! Though now I actually have to go to the hairdresser more often to get it cut...

I also did this -  !!!! Parents were most definitely not impressed, but I don't even care, I love it and it looks amazing (that pic was still fresh so shiny, swollen and red.)

This weekend I'm heading to the snow with a group of mates from uni, my new snowboard gets its first trip out and here's hoping that the snow is semi-decent!! But it should be an awesome weekend!

Keep on keeping on... xx