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Can I recommend not getting two puppies at once? especially in a breed that can be difficult with other dogs. They may get along great as puppies and then become nightmares once they are fully mature. I do not have experience with Shar pei so I won't comment specifically on them but I do have experience with Akitas and if they are anything like them you won't know their full personality until they mature around three years old. --Lhok

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-17/nsw-coroner-recommends-dog-owners-be-licensed-after-child-mauled/104830856

By KC do you mean Kennel Club England? On your dog's pedigree are the colours of the dogs mentioned? It is possible, depending on the colours of the grandparents that you could get some washed -out unhealthy looking and non-standard colours from the combination of Ay and d genes. Is there a recommendation that blue should only be bred to black, as there is in the Great Dane? Colour should usually be the last thing you consider when breeding but because you mention blue, are you familiar with colour dilution alopecia? The most important thing before breeding would be to know as much as you can about not just the proposed parents but also their relatives. I put it this way: the dog you know and love is just one hand of cards in a big deck. The relatives will show you what other cards might be in the deck but when you breed you will be shuffling those cards and hoping to get only the good ones.

Colour i cant help as im not sure how simple it is in Staffies without knowing colours in pedigree. As to the COI it again is as simple as lower is better & hopefully no breeder goes by that theory alone . I do know in the UK many have that mindset yet within my breed dogs in a pedigree of hips scores up near the 30 OMGno BAER testing but brag about the COI being low has truly screwed over the concept on know your pedigree

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/pets/fatal-dog-attack-on-baby-prompts-call-for-change-to-pet-ownership-rules-in-nsw/news-story/e09c85a63faed636f176c779f0e6cbaf

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00133-z?utm_source=Live+Audience&utm_campaign=790d82fcd4-nature-briefing-daily-20250116&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b27a691814-790d82fcd4-50644548 The article is not intended to be about dogs, or Australia, but if it comes through Anti-Venom is going to be both cheaper and easier to store.

I chip away. "Don't run. Don't yell. Let the dog approach you if it wants to."

According to a Google search, the sweat glands that produce body odour smells (ammonia, etc) don't mature until a person hits puberty. Young children sweat, but it's just water and salt basically, so smells different to adult sweat. Regardless, proper socialisation with humans of all ages during a pup's development should negate that factor as being a trigger to chase/bite children... but won't reduce bites due to other child interaction causes, like squealing, running about idiotically, or uncontrolled annoying of the dog by a child. Children need as much social education as dogs... probably more methinks. T.

Never heard this before about the smell but have heard about kids yelling and running which the dog may not have been used to. Some people still think any sign of fear, which could be shyness or aggression, indicates the dog has been abused (aw, poor thing, we won't upset him by training him) rather than just unsocialised.

Yes. I found that interesting as well.

Is this true? I had not thought about it!! makes sense if so . "Dogs identify things by smell predominantly, and children under the age of eight haven't developed sweat glands yet, which means they do not smell like us. "That rottie did not know that little girl was, in fact, just a tiny human."

Off-lead areas still have rules as to their use. All off-lead animals must be under full control of their owners by law. Maybe certain off-lead areas might have rules rethought about the sharing of the space with small children - if the area is regularly used by small children, then maybe dogs should be on-lead in that area, or children could be excluded from that area. A little bit of common sense can see both groups catered to effectively. T.

They could stabilise the leg with a splint to give time to find the owner. I've personally seen a dog's leg with a femur shattered into 5 pieces put into a Robert Jones splint to stabilise it until surgery could be performed a few days later. I have also stabilised a goat's badly broken leg with the same splint method until it could be seen by the vet the next morning. T.

I'm intrigued to find out what colour puppies would be produced if someone bred a kc registered blue bitch (white cross on chest) and kc registered red male (white front paw) both got amazing bloodlines. With there Inbreeding Coefficient (COI) only being 3.6 percent. Which i believe the lower the better.

No idea at present Harley but good suggestion for me to look in to. He already has another vet appointment next week for us to discuss where to from here. Thank you!

Could his issues be related to his liver? I hope Albert recovers quickly.

Since being back on the chicken and rice he has been fine again. I've got some more of the Hills gut kibble (decided against the RC because of the ingredients being more grain heavy) coming tomorrow. After we finish that I'll trial him on some BH salmon and see where things are at. I will get rid of the BH chicken kibble I think as it seems to be the core of the problem. But I guess we will soon know if there is a real medical problem lurking. And due to ongoing water issues I remembered we've got a water filter that was gifted to us a while back and we will install it in the kitchen over the weekend. Hopefully things will settle for all our tummies!

its on again right now if you want to watch it channel 72 in nsw

I shall do some googling.....

megaesophagus? most likely not but something to think about

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-15/rottweiler-attack-expert-criticies-off-lead-move/104820064.

So made a huge mistake watching this, the program still on. Ridiculous that over 24 years and still a trigger point rspca nsw are called to two lost dogs, the younger German shepherd puppy hit by a car, "leg badly broken, requires immediate surgery BUT without being able to contact the owner for permission to operate by law, they cannot operate. Unless they can get the owners permission to operate, the puppy will have to be put down". LAIR'S, LAIR'S, LAIR'S they took my stringy, took three skin plugs so big they had to put two stitches in each of them. An operation according to the above , by law they cannot do without my permission! done solely to try and find proof he had sarcoptic mange, even though the seizing inspector had already been told by my dogs vet that he has blue gene alopecia, they told the then Minister for Agriculture Richard Amery, That they "had seized him because the dogs vet had no records of testing the dog" Despite the fact that the dog had been stolen at 1pm on Sunday November 1999 and never been in contact with the dogs vet until Monday morning when Richard phoned demanding they return him as he only has blue gene alopecia, (Richard rang them every day for the 13 days they had him demanding his return) he had diagnosed he had it when he was 4 months old and he began to show short hair along the top of his tail and topline to his shoulders on an otherwise long coat pup, bit like a mini lion. A condition that bears NO resemblance to either demodectic or sarcoptic mange, yet their own vet not only had never heard of blue gene alopecia but refused to even look it up or believe the dogs vet. They lied to the Minister for Agriculture to justify almost killing my dog. When they finally exhausted their attempts to find something they could charge me with I was finally called and told I could pick him up. He was foaming at the mouth and their idiot vet admitted he had no idea what was wrong with my dog and offered to "examine him at your cost" I kid u not. taken straight to his own vet he was found to be suffering pneumonia and a torn trachea from his vet opinion, an oversize trachea tube being forced down . Dogs nsw Liaison Officer Alan Candlish had tried for 13 days to get the dog returned. He said he had never been treated so rudely in all his years of dealing with rspca nsw. He formed the opinion, The difference being as Alan Candlish the then Liaison Officer for Dogs NSW told me, "you have seriously pissed off someone with friends in very high places in the rspca." A year later I did accidently learn who that was, interestingly that person is still a member and breeder of dogs nsw and used to play with him at the chihuahua club meetings as he always came with me. I noticed an add for that kennel only yesterday here. Was heard at a show that even though failed this time would not give up getting me kicked out because I dont show enough to be considered an ethical breeder. How I learned who almost sent him to his death. walk to the drum of the thought police or pay the price of persecution has been the mantra ever since for so many for way too long. 19 years of "where these smoke there's fire" (that was the date of the last time someone here wrote that about me) because I spoke up about being stupid enough to go public my dog had been stolen by the sacred cow rspca On a happy note, the Shetland pony in Victoria, after all the drama, "will or wont she have to be put down!" They took her to a horse vet,( non rspca.} but taken to him and asked by them to work on her feet. and surprise, surprise, even though they could not contact the owner, was still given a general anesethic (remember nsw, same program, said they cannot without owners permission as without it poor puppy will have to be put down) he operated to reshape her hooves after he had removed the massive overgrowth hooves. Learned a neat trick to help a foundered pony, after trimming the hoof much as much as the vet could during the operation and she was back on her feet, cut a block of polystyrene for each hoof, taped it to the bottom of the hoof and the ponies weight squashed it down and thus fitted to the bottom of the hoof protected the sole from the ground so pony could walk pain free until the hoof adjusted . Lucky pony, only the front feet were overgrown. Often is all, front and back.

I did wonder about all the animals , but hadn't thought abought horses etc !!

Poor Albert - hope it can be sorted soon - for everyones' sake!

Since joining with the rescue group I'm with, I've been feeding all my fosters Savour Life kibble and raw food, and all of them have done really well on it... nice stools and a lovely shiny coat... even the tiny foster puppies do well on it. The added bonus to feeding Savour Life is that they donate 50% of all their profits to rescue... and our rescue has been funded for surgeries, and also gets regular donations of the food for our dogs in foster care. When I had the staffy mumma with 7 babies, Savour Life donated a massive amount of kibble and raw for them specifically, along with a few boxes of all manner of yummy treats. My previous foster arrived with an upset tummy and within a couple of days on the Savour Life had lovely stools, no tummy grumbles... and her breath improved 100% also. It could be worth giving Savour Life a try. You could get a small bag of the kibble and maybe a box of the raw patties and mix them for Albert's meals and see how he goes. If he does well, then larger bags of the kibble are available. You can get it from Petbarn. T.