These are the dog days of Australia's permanent campaign, a rolling partisan battle that began in the weeks after the Copenhagen climate change summit, when Mr Abbott mounted the Liberal comeback, and has gone on pretty much uninterrupted ever since.

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"They worry we might put a merry-go-round or a hot dog stand in their front yard, " he said, rolling his eyes.

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Unlike The Doors and the Rolling Stones, who had bad-boy images, Three Dog Night was perceived as All-American boys.

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"They are coming closer, collecting food, rolling over, even allowing petting - in some instances the behaviour is more dog-like than fox-like, " says Dr Roger Mugford, an animal psychologist who runs the Animal Behaviour Centre.

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