It's a Pug's life...

Mishka's a bit popular...

We know we've already introduced you to Mishka, the amazingly talented Husky, but she was very popular with our on line friends and with so many new people joining us on a daily basis we couldn't let anyone miss out!

Check out Mishka showing off her amazing talent!

Have you ever heard of....

…The Redbone Coonhound? 

This stunning dog is a strong hound but had little known about its ancestry. Years ago most racoon hunters owned a red dog that they used for tracking and treeing racoons, all that is known is that they called their dog a ‘Redbone’. Over time a few breeders who were both series about the dogs and the sport started a campaign to produce a hound with exactly the right characteristics to be a superior coon hound. They made sure that this breed would be true to the other known ‘Redbone’ in both colour and conformation. Breeders throughout the USA desired a hound with more speed and a hotter sniffer dog. The first breed of dogs were known as ‘Saddlebacks’, their background colour was red but most of them produced black saddle like markings. With selective breeding the black saddle was bred out and the solid red became known as the Redbone Coonhound. It is believed their ancestors were Foxhounds with possible a cross of Bloodhound thrown into the mix along the way.
 

The Redbone Coonhound are a courageous and reliable hunting dog. The average around the 30kg mark and are a lean dog, growing to around 55 – 65 cm in height. 

What breed of dog can you see in the Coonhound?

Guess Who?

 

'I can give you a hand to steer the Black Pearl!'

Pom Pom Poodle!

- A very delicate and stunning Poodle cut.

 

The Poodle's distingushing 'haircut' is well known throughout the world but did you know the reason for this cut?

Yes, it is a faboulous hair do but the true reason behind the haircut was to improve their swimming abilities. The Poodle was orginally bred and used as hunting dogs, their main purpose was hunting water fowl and for this reason their coat was cut leaving 'pom pom' like features over their joints. This way, their thick coat would protect their joints from the cold.
Their name, 'Poodle' also reflects their orginal purpose as in German it means 'one who plays in water'.

Though today some create a little bit of art...

Gemma & Frodo - Jump on board this great event!

Good Morning to all our lovely friends, 4 legs and 2!

Things, as always, are going excellent here at Dogs Country Club and we are very excited to spend the long weekend with new and old friends!

We've come across an excellent event that will be running shortly and we just had to share it with everyone!

DSAMP - Disabled Surfers Association Mornington Peninsula are a fantastic group that help to teach disabled people, of all ages, how to surf and have a great time in the water.

So what can you do to help?

DSAMP are running a Disabled Surfing Event where they need volunteers to head down and lend a hand. The event is open to all, willing to help and join in! Everyone is invited, any age, surfers and non surfers - help is needed both in the water and on the beach and it really will be a fantastic day for all! So if you're able to lend a hand or know of a Disabled friend of family member that would like to join in, here's all the details you need;

Where to go?

Point Leo Surf Life Saving Club. 

Foreshore Western Pde, Point Leo.

When?

Saturday February 9th & Saturday March 2nd.

9am - 1pm.

What to bring?

If you have your own wet suit that would great, there is a limited number of Wetsuits and Rash vests provided.

Cost?

Free BBQ lunch will be supplied for all attending. For any Disabled Surfers wanting to particpate there is a small $10.00 participant & carers fee.

If you're interested in this fantastic event or have any other questions, contact Ashely 0417 362 983.

 

Dog of the Month - Saint Bernard.

We all the Saint Bernard is a large breed of dog - but these guys take the idea of large to a whole different level!

Tess is considered the average size for a Saint Bernard, averaging around 70kgs but Benedictine takes the cake on this one, she is the largest Saint Bernard ever recorded, weighing in at a massive 143 kgs!

Major F. was recorded by the New York Times in 1895 as the longest dog in history. According to their reports, the Saint Bernard measured in at 8 feet and 6 inches, that's 2.59 meters!

Some days it's just too far away....

How similar are we?

We all love our pets and a lot of the time we can begin to 'humanise' them and try to adapt them to live the same lifestyle as us, but how similar are we to our canine companions?

Dogs have a digestive tract that is almost 3 times the length of their body. For this reason it takes them about 10 to 12 hours to digest dry food and around 5 hours to digest raw food.
Humans have a digestive tract that roughly 30 feet long and we can digest food in about 2 hours.

A dog's field of vision stretches out to 250 degrees, whilst humans can only see about 180 degrees. 

In total, dogs will sleep about 12 hours a day including all their little naps. Humans average 6 - 8 hours sleep a day.

Humans have a pregnancy period that lasts about 266 days - dogs on the other hand only last 63 days.

The average heartbeat for a dog is 70 - 100 beats per minute, though smaller breeds have a quicker heart beat that can get as high as 140 beats per minute. In a normal, calm state a humans heart beats around 75 beats per minute. 

Ever wondered why Fido is so agile and quick? The human body consists of 206 bones while a dog has 320 bones!

Dogs have approximatly 1700 taste buds on the tip of their tounge, this allows them to detect bitter, sweet, sour, salty and tasty things. Humans though, have about 10,000 taste buds but ours aren't all on our tounges. They are spread out throughout our mouth, under the tounge, in our cheeks and the roof of our mouths also. There is also a few in our lips to pick up on salty flavours. 

Have you ever heard of....

A Leonberger?

This very large, muscular working dog was established in Leonberg, Germany in 1846. Their original breeder, Heinrich Essing, is believed to have crossed a Newfoundland, St.Bernard and the Great Pyrenees Mountain Dog. The result, the Leonberger, a dog that he wanted to resemble the look of a lion. Over the years, the Leonberger was owned by many royal families and were imported to Russia in the 19^th century. Like it did for many breeds, World War II almost brought extinction with only a few dogs left. A number of German’s came together in 1945 and were able to re establish the breed.

They can now be found all over the world and are easily noticed, with their huge body and thick coat the resemblance to a lion is noticeable. The main feature on this giant dog though, is their thick main. With males, their mane can take up to 4 years to fully develop and in females is less obvious. Males can get up to 80cm tall and around 77kgs, females around 74cm tall and weight around 59kgs. They are quite a smart breed who likes responsibility and a role to play.

Guess Who?

 

 

 

 

 

'Tell me baby, who am I?'

Did you know...?

It is actually a myth that dogs are coloured blind. They can see colour but just not as vividly as humans. Their coloured eye sight is similar to that of ours at dusk time. 

Gemma & Frodo - meet our friends!

Good Morning everyone!

We hope that everyone made it through the warmer weather safely. You can be rest assured that all our guests at Dogs Country Club enjoyed a splash in their pools and plenty of cool areas to relax in.

We love showing off our Resort here but the thing that really makes us love it most is all of our guests we get to meet. We have some very special friends that visit us quite regularly and we thought we'd take the opportunity to introduce you to a few, we know you'll fall in love with them as much as we have!

This is our good friend Basil. He is a Lagotto, which is quite an uncommon breed. They are a water retrieving dog - which means for the past few visits Basil has had a ball jumping our pools and throwing his toys all over the place!

This is our very good friend Max - or as we call him 'Gibbo' . Max is a Labradoodle and he has made many many friends during his holidays at Dogs Country Club - we couldn't imagine what it would be like here without him.

Maddie is an adorable  Miniature Schnauzer, as you can see she loves plenty of cuddles and kisses with staff and enjoys a good belly scratch session with Gemma!

Alex is one of our fluffiest guests! He is a very large Pyrenean Mountain Dog and give some of the best polar bears cuddles around! He is the best to have snooze with in the sun with Frodo but is also very gentle during play times and following Gemma around!

Thanks for letting us show off some of our friends to you. 

Enjoy your weekend,

Gemma & Frodo!

Dog of the Month - Saint Bernard.

We've all fallen in love with our beautiful dog of the month, Tess the Saint Bernard but she isn't the only famous Saint .....

Barry der Menschenretter worked as a mountain rescue dog for the Great St Bernard Hospice. He was born in in 1800 and died 14 years later, it is believed that he saved over 40 lives during his time as a rescue dog. As with all breeds, his body structure was different to those of the Saint Bernards we know of today, he body was leaner and coat a lot lighter in colour. During the time that Barry worked the breed remained unnamed and it wasn't until 1865 the breed began to become known under the name Saint Bernard.

 
Barry's presevered body on display in the Natural History Museum



And who forget the all famous movies, Beethoven, with the main star a stunning Saint Bernard played by Chris. He appeared in both Beethoven 1 and 2 but sadly passed away not long after the second film. A number of other Saint Bernards were used throughout the other films.

 Chris, better known as Beethoven and his girlfriend Missy. 

Dog Smart.

Nana & Kaiser

Meet Nana the Border Collie and Kaiser the Bengal, two adorable friends who are really putting the Dog vs Cat scenario to the test....

Tell us who you think the winner is?!

Have you ever heard of....

….The Panda Shepherd?

The Panda Shepherd is in fact still a German Shepherd but is piebald colored. They are still a very strong and well proportioned dog yet the coat is 35% white with the remainder being black and tan, though the blood line doesn’t have white German Shepherd throughout its ancestry. This piebald color has occurred in a single German Shepherd bloodline. 

The Panda Shepherd has very little difference from a German Shepherd other than it’s coloring and the single blood line was bred through two pure German Shepherds in the U.S.A. The parents of the litter were a pure black and tan sire and a pure black dam. The entire little were pure black and tan except for the one Panda female, who also had two pure blue eyes. Many tests were conducted to determine how such a strange thing could occur. Both parents were deemed to be pure German Shepherds and neither had white German Shepherd blood lines. After this, the same parents were breed and produced another 3 litters, all pups were pure black and tan. 

The Panda pup, named Frankie was bred, once matured, to a traditional colored black and tan. Out of the four pups she bred three turned out with the Panda coat but did not produce the blue eyes that she did. 

 A common black and tan Shepherd with a Panda Shepherd.

Guess Who?

It seems last week's photo was a little too easy, let's try this one!

E = mc ??



Sweat like a pig?

Ever wondered why your pooch can run for ages but not even break a sweat?

The only sweat glands that a dog has are between their paw pads!

Gemma & Frodo - back to work!

It may still be school holidays but when you are in charge of a big operation, like we are at Dogs Country Club & Kennel Resort, there's no time stop until the job is done!

Today's top priority is to relax in our Luxury Penthouse Retreat and make sure all of our new couches and lounge chairs are at the comfort standard that our guests require! We also must make sure the air conditioning is working throughout all rooms at the correct temperature and that we get a clear picture on all the flat screen T.V's. Once we are satisfied that our Penthouse rooms will meet the needs of our guests it's time to venture off and check all the pools for our guests. With everyone having their own pool in their play yards we need to make sure the temperature is just right to help everyone cool down on the warmer days.

Then it's off to bed for us after a very busy day of hard work - make ourselves fresh & ready to do it all over again tomorrow!

Have a great weekend!

Gemma & Frodo.  

 Checking the cricket scores - T.V's pass the check!

 Arm chair passes Frodo's check of approval.

 I'm sure if this lounge chair is right...

 .. no it's perfect! Thanks Gemma!

Tess - Dog of the Month.

Our January Dog of the Month Tess would love to fill you in a little more about her breed and background so you can get to know this beautiufl giant a little better!

The Saint Bernard is a large, strong, muscular dog who is considered a gentle giant. The breed was founded by St. Bernard de Menthon back in 980 AD and was bred by the monks. Originally only the short coat was bred as the longer coat seemed to collect icicles in the colder climates. They were used to travel through the dangerous Alpine pass between Switzerland and Italy and quickly became popular as rescue dogs to save people from avalanches due to their excellent sense of smell. The Saint Bernard was able to smell a person under many, many feet of snow and when they found the person would lay onto of them and lick them to keep their bodies warm.

They are an extremely loyal breed who are eager and willing to please. They are very tolerant with children and their gentle nature makes them a great family pet. They are a highly intelligent breed so training and socialisation with other animals and people must begin at a young age. You need to teach them that you are the pack leader from the start while they are at a manageable age. A disobedient, uncontrollable Saint Bernard is not a fun pet, as they can grow in excess of 90kgs! They make a fantastic watchdog, their size and deep bark is a great deterrent. They do drool, especially after drinking or eating! As a pup not too much exercise is advised until their bones are well formed and strong enough to support their solid frame, though as an adult as long daily walk is a must to keep them mentally and physically stimulated. They do suit well to apartment life as long as they are exercised regularly, they are able to live outside though prefer to be in with the family. They must be closely monitored in the warmer weather as their body is built for the cold.

Being a large dog, Saint Bernard’s are prone to bloat, this is when their stomach twists and if not treated quick enough will result in death. Like all broad chest and large breeds it’s best to feed them a number of small meals throughout the day instead of one large one. Grooming of both the long and short coat is an easy task, combing and brushing daily and only bathing when necessary. Their coat produces water resistant oil and regular bathing can strip this oil away. They only shed twice yearly. 

Thanks for reading - Tess.