Sandra777

Could be wrong but I believe the Bulldog standard was completely unchanged from at least the early 1900's until just a couple of years ago after the PDE debarcle. The standard was (I believe) unchanged - people's interpretation of it was not

First stop would be his breeder. Talk to them, talk to the breeder of his parents and even grandparents if you can. If humanly possible get them to see your dog in the flesh, not just photos, so they can get a first hand feel for his temperament and drives. I know nothing about GSDs but a fair bit about breeding dogs for specific working traits (Guide Dogs, a bit different to working GSDs :D ) and honestly without meeting the dog in the flesh I wouldn't be interested in using a working line dog in a working line programme unless it was trained to a high degree and successful in whatever line of "work" I was breeding for - so the next question would be - what is he trained to do and is there any formal competition/trial situation where you can compete/show him off through so others can gauge his worth in his field so to speak.

An older dog certainly sounds like it would fit your lifestyle better. No it's not impossible to raise a pup without a lunch time visit, but it's certainly going to make everything to do with the pup's training much more drawn-out. If you leave the pup inside it will learn to toilet inside because it has no choice, if you leave it outside (probably not an option in most places) you run a big chance of it learning to bark at all sorts of random things. I would suggest either a rescue or if you want a specific breed, contact breeders as many have to part with an older dog that hasn't worked out for breeding or showing. I say rescue rather than straight out of a pound because with a dog from a good rescue you will get some idea of it's temperament and training, a dog from a pound could be just a nightmare waiting to happen, a rescue dog will have at least had some screening for temperament issues and probably some training. Good luck with your search - don't be surprised though to come across the belief that if you are away from home for more than 2 minutes per day you are a "bad owner" - some people have very unrealistic standards

Depends on why you chose a Collie (Rough or Smooth) in the first place. I can never see me owning a dog of unknown origin because I like my breed and haven't found another with the same mix of traits. Other people of course have different tastes and requirements. Whatever you do you should do it because it's the right dog for you, not because you've been guilt-tripped into "rescuing a dog"

I have heard of pups born 24 hours after the rest and being fine. It depends on whether the placenta detached early - but if it did the pup would most likely be born dead.

Bit cold so dogs are better off sleeping in a kennel & run instead of a completely covered up crate? I've lived where our hot water system reguarly froze solid overnight & we had snow at sea level - now that's cold :laugh:

Not exactly sure how a kennel is a better bed than a well set up crate - which is all it seems OP is talking about. As a long term containment method yes a kennel and secure run is better than a crate. Our dogs have runs with kennels where they are during the day when there's no one home or when they need to be separated. At night, they're crated on the patio (or loose inside). They can't be crated inside the house because there's not enough room. Makes no sense to me to set up little kennels up on the deck for night time use when they have perfectly good kennels and runs out in the garden. They can't stay in the outside kennels at night because we have cane toads, mozzies & LOTS of bats, so come dusk they're put to bed surrounded by mozzie coils, bug zappers and tucked up under blankets. The crates are on ply so the cold/damp doesn't come through the concrete under them, they have different bedding according to their chew-factor and until they're old enough to hold on all night they have a very small area of a play pen at the front of their crate for midnight accidents. They're let out to pee before we go to bed and out again by 6.30am, so it is definitely just for sleeping. Putting kennels and actual escape proof runs on our patio would be nuts in our situation - escape proof runs for Staffords means Fort Knox :laugh:

I would assume then that you have dogs who have more than one or two pups on average As someone has already said - 6 litters of 1 or 2 is a totally different thing to 6 litters of 10, or even 4 or 5. OP - if your bitch is healthy and in good condition I wouldn't mess with her hormones. Even if you decide after this litter not to breed from her again and do have her spayed, IMO you're better off giving yourself options. Going forward maybe a crate is a better option than gates that can be left open/climbed - afterall it's only for a few days that you really have to be ultra-careful.

Council registrations I assume you mean :) Considering nothing on that show even vaguely reminded me of a Maltese you seriously have to wonder about what else council statistics are saying!

Throw away the crate cover and buy a heavy weight wool blanket from the salvos shop - it will cover the crate and lie on the ground beside it to stop drafts. I know the noise you mean & it's very annoying - take the tray out and replace it with a sheet of ply, the plastic or metal tray won't stop cold coming up from under the dog in cooler weather.

Please, please don't buy an unregistered Stafford in Queensland, we have BSL here too you know

Some other suggestions - Woofbix from one of the chain stores - kmart? big w? target? is meant to be quite good - said to be the plain pack version of some reasonably well known brand :) Forgot, I have also used Uncle Albers which would probably be as cheap as you can get, produces very large poos but the dogs did well on it - seems to be quite oily/fatty which doesn't suit all dogs.

I feed Bonnie Working and am very happy with it. They get raw meat too & if she does a bit of looking around she could probably get some bargains as long as she has a *little* bit of freezer space (for example we pay $1 kg for chicken bodies, they come in bags of 8 or so). Bonnie Working is around $40 for 20kg and my very active dogs do great on it. The adult is a bit cheaper but doesn't suit my dogs - might suit hers? Coprice is cheaper again and some people swear by it - mine weren't big fans and they'd lick the paint off a board if you told them it was food :D The only problem would be if any of her dogs have allergy issues she might be limited to what she can feed. Personally I'd consider Science Diet to be a way crappier food than Bonnie :laugh:

Gee so sorry jerry lee - I had no idea you had comprehension problems. I will spell it out slowly and carefully. OP already has 3 dogs who play rough and tough. A Stafford's play style is also rough and tough What method of play do YOU think the Stafford puppy growing up in these circumstances is going to learn? Personally I thought it was fairly obvious but apparently not.

Do you mean a Staffordshire Bull Terrier or a generic brindle pound mutt "staffy"? IMO no correct natured SBT is going to play nice with a bunch of Dobes who try to do a tough guy act. Staffords tend to like to play games involving wrestling, leg biting and charging into each other and other random objects in their environment at high speed and seeing who can stand up afterwards, all the time growling and mouthing like tasmanian devils - probably not the ideal playmate material for dogs who already think they can "play rough".

What about hydatids? My dogs don't have any of the risk factors - scavenging, rural, contact with wildlife, fed raw offal - so would never be in a position to pick up the eggs. Most city-dwelling dogs would have a nil chance of being infected either. Rural dogs, working dogs - absolutely, no argument need to be treated. Which is why people need to understand the risk factors before they make a decision. When we lived rurally and had stock our dogs were religiously treated for hydatids never fear :D

Intestinal wormers are not a preventative - they kill the worms that are present in the dog at the moment in time, they don't prevent anything. I agree there are millions of people who take medications to keep their illness at bay - however if the dog IS NOT ILL why give it anything at all. I assume you are aware that Frontline & Advantage no longer work in some areas because fleas have developed (evolved if you like but I doubt this is actually correct) which are immune to it. I assume you are aware that parastic immunity in sheep is a major issue on many farms - flocks of sheep carry worms which are totally immune to entire spectrums of worming products. I assume you have heard of the super-bug in hospitals which is immune to all but a tiny very expensive group of antibiotics. I have had dogs given the annual heartworm shot and I won't do it again. Nope, none of them had any problems but I have read enough to realise that perhaps doing it again would tip me into the realms of when a problem might happen - and if you've just chucked a year's worth of chemicals into a dog it's impossible to take it out again if something goes wrong. I would not ever not use heartworm products where we live but I would never again risk even the smallest possibility of doing a year's worth of damage in 5 seconds. It's so simple to give a chew once a month, it's a no-brainer to me. Yes you should definitely follow a vet's advice over some random internet site, no one is suggesting otherwise, however you need to educate yourself as to what to ask your vet and to see if perhaps your vet actually has as little knowledge as you do. I have personally met vets who have been practising for 5 or 6 years and NEVER seen an entire adult male dog in their clinic - how much experience with dogs in general do you think these vets have had?

Mine get heartworm every 4 weeks in summer an 6 weeks in winter. Bitches with puppies & puppies under 8 weeks old get wormed every 2 weeks, pups 8-16 weeks get wormed 3 times in this period. Adults aren't generally wormed - once or twice a year I do a scoot around and pick some samples for a fecal count and if necessary all will be wormed, but generally it's not needed. If your dog has access to wild animal poo or has close and continuous contact with children I think this regime would have to be less casual but intestinal worming every month is overkill to me in almost all circumstances.

Another one with no bowl in the box. In the first day or so it's close enough that she doesn't actually have to step out of the box if she doesn't want to, but after that it's a couple of meters away. Even those hook-on ones can be spilled, why make even more work for yourself :)

18 months for a Stafford bitch If they are purebred Staffords the dog and bitch should be roughly the same size - there's not a lot of lee-way in the standard anyway. Last caesar I had to have done was $1100. Few would get it that cheap at 6pm on a Sunday - looking more at 2k + at an emergency afterhours clinic. Dog & bitch must have their DNA status known for L2 & HC - either tested themselves or with papers proving they are clear by parentage OR if one is a carrier, the other must be clear & all pups DNA tested to identify the carriers. Stafford puppies are very hard to sell at the moment even to total idiots! Except if they're rare blue english staffys of course - so rare 1/2 the Staffords in Australia are blue Even for them, prices are dropping like a stone

I want one

Sadly in some circles Toy Poodles x Miniature Poodles are a sought after "designer breed" I know they're registered as different breeds but the average joe bloggs couldn't tell you which was which since most don't even understand Poodles come in "Standard" let alone which is a Toy and which is a Miniature :laugh: I had someone assure me that my dog couldn't possibly be a Poodle because "they don't come that big". Er, no, she couldn't possibly be a Poodle because she is a Portuguese Water Dog

Talking about made-up breed names, my local pet shop has Tibetan Speagles for sale for Christmas Ah, the very rare Tibetan Speagles - they're eagles from Tibet with feathers like spaniels I believe. Lovely species, increasingly endangered in the wild of course due to the demise of their primary food source - the extremely rare Black Maltese Terrier.

In addition to what others have said - I would suggest a behaviourist with experience in bull breeds. Staffords can be hard-wired slightly different to other breeds afterall they were originally bred to fight and it is still in the genes of some. Feeding two adult Stafford bitches together - you are one brave brave person! This sort of fighting is extremely unlikely to turn into any sort of human aggression however if they were to start another fight and your children tried to stop them it could be very nasty. Keep the bitches separated AT ALL TIMES until you have got some on-the-spot advice. Good luck