Sandra777

I would avoid additives for the pup - feed plenty (as in about 50% of the diet) of edible bone. Depends on the size of the pup, edible could be from bashed up chicken necks up to whole turkey necks. Meat alone is not the natural diet of a dog and will do a LOT of harm, IMO it would be better to get a bag of edible meaty bones than a bag of a best mince in the world. Pet mince can be the leftovers and be totally unsuitable (and half rotten) or it could be minced chicken frames which are OK but IMO don't have enough meat for a puppy - plenty of good bone though! So check what is in the mince and ask the butcher for suggestions. Your vet will almost certainly tell you to feed dry food - do you feed this as well? What does the breeder's diet sheet tell you to feed the pup?

Absolutely do not even consider the idea of buying a pup without papers - especially in Victoria. Both parents have to be registered on Main Register, the owner of the mum has to be an ANKC registered breeder and the pup will have it's own set of papers (not always available when you pick the pup up, they can take some time to arrive). Council registration is totally different and irrelevant to what you want. Buying a Stafford pup without papers is gambling with that dog's life and with the emotions of your whole family. Don't even go there! Both parents should be tested for L2-HGA & HC which are both DNA tests OR be "clear by parentage" which means their parents were tested and both were clear. This gets a bit confusing admittedly, but ask and ask for the answer to be explained if you're not too clear on genetics The other biggies in Staffords are: PHPV is present at birth and is definitely genetic, there could well be a DNA test for this within the next year or so. In serious cases the dog can go blind very young (6 months old). Unfortunately, two unaffected parents can produce an affected puppy but the best a breeder can do at the moment is to breed unaffected to unaffected and have the pups tested at 6 or 8 weeks of age Distichiasis is an extra row of eyelashes which points in towards the eye ball. Bad cases can cause ulcers and obviously cause the dog a lot of pain - surgery to remove the eyelashes sometimes has to be repeated to be successful and is expensive! This is inherited but how exactly is not 100% proven yet - and again two clear parents can produce an affected pup but breeding unaffected to unaffected is the best a breeder can do at the moment. This isn't always visible at 6-8 weeks and can occur later (up to a year or more) but usually bad cases are apparent at a very young age. Allergies. Unfortunately many will have you believe Staffords are a breed prone to allergies. In truth - poorly bred Stafford are prone to allergies, but carefully bred ones aren't - ethical breeders don't breed from dogs with major allergy issues! Demodex. Again, it's believed in some circles that Demodex is part and parcel of Staffords. Not so with ethically bred dogs! With both allergies and demodex of course you can get incredibly unlucky and buy a pup from generations of good breeding and still end up with a problem - that's the way nature works some times, but you lessen your odds a lot of funding your vet's new BMW by asking specific questions of the breeder - do they breed from dogs with skin issues, did the mother of this litter have demodex or "puppy mange". Ask ask ask ask! As for waiting - yes you could wait a while, or you could get lucky. For example I have a litter here now, 9 weeks old with a male pup still available because a) he's a boy b) he's black brindle c) I'm fussy about where he goes and d) he's on limit register and I won't sell him to someone who suggests they might want to breed from him even though he's being sold as a pet. Good luck - take your time, you'll have 14 or so years with this dog, make sure it's the right one! PS - avoid people who refer to their dogs as English Staffys - there's no such breed! ETA: $800 - $1100 would be a normal sort of price range from good breeders. Do NOT pay more for a "special colour" because none of them are.

Doesn't mean it's not dominance as she's only just getting to an age where she's an adult herself and is starting to decide she is the dominant one. Me, I'd put money on her being in season soo too

To the best of my knowledge you need a certificate from an AQIS vet stating the dog isn't one of the "banned" breeds. As for living in NZ, the "menacing dog" classification isn't really spelled out anywhere (not like the Victorian laws). Honestly, as long as the dog has been allowed in to NZ there's very little chance it would be classified as "menacing" by any council, however there are SOME councils that are much worse than others - Rotorua & Waipa in the centre of the North Island come to mind (at one point Rotorua was classifying NZKC registered Amstaffs as "menacing") while others are much more interested in deed not breed and will tend to wink an eye at a well behaved dog regardless of it's appearance.

Five litters huh? There's accredited breeders in Queensland who breed 5 litters in 2 or 3 months

He doesn't need to physically touch the ground - the fence touches the ground so will earth him.

Staffords - definitely the "rare blue" - but I think the "rare blue pied" is catching up rapidly. Amongst people that actually know the breed I would say a true rich mahogany brindle is much admired, and MUCH rarer than the rare blue

Not in all breeds. In SOME breeds the entries at UK shows are consistently lower than the same breeds in other places in the world...

Don't just blame it on NZ - this is the UK system too (except they have 3 CCs not 8) It USED to be 12 CCs in NZ, and many moons before that 2 or 3 (can't remember) and one had to be won in each island (2 main islands LOL) The system really does annoy me as my bitch won CC & BiS at the largest speciality show for our breed held in NZ, she got 1 point. The person who chose (as is their right of course) to go to an all breeds show the same day with no competition, got 1 point. I like the South African system - usually 1 point with an extra point (making it a 2 point CC) for entry numbers over a certain amount (varies by breed I believe)

Patellas can be checked at a very early age, was this done? If the bitch was sold as show quality then you SHOULD have run away, very fast! No one can promise show quality in a puppy - show potential yep. Are luxating patellas known to be a common/wide spread fault in your breed? In some breeds they're quite rare and if someone ends up with a pup with bad patellas this is really just a matter of bad luck, but in a breed where it's pretty common then there should be certificates and testing involved for parents and puppies. If I had sold a bitch to someone for them to either start or progress their kennels, if ahe turned out to be unsuitable I would replace her, but only after I had received a vet's desexing certificate and some sort of specialist's certificate if it was for a medical condition that she was unsuitable

Nope - dog and bitch CC is worth one point regardless of the number of dogs or bitches present. BOB is worth nothing more. 8 CCs with one over 1 year old uner at leats 5 different judges = Ch. Pups under 6 months old aren't entitled to be awarded a CC but can be best dog or best bitch (and win BOB) Has it's good and bad points like every other system

Nearly 8 week old pups here and mum looks like a mangy rug With a short smooth haired dog, so long as the skin isn't scaly or red then it's quite likely the bald bits will fill in within a day or two. I wouldn't groom her too hard for a while, give the new hair a few days to come in before you get rid of the old coat too much. Obviously if she doesn't start filling in the bald bits within a few days then it could well be worth popping her along to the vet, but nine times out of ten they're fine.

What does your stud contract with the stud dog owner say? Me, I wouldn't be signing a stud form for anyone until I received my stud fee and I don't care what the ANKC may have to say about it However with a pup-in-lieu-of-fee arrangement you NEED everything to be in writing. What happens if there is only one pup is just the first problem. This written agreement should include a clear statement about when you receive the signed form.

OP - how do you know she isn't worried about your puppy. It could be the breeder is being non committal until such time a specialist's diagnosis can be supplied. The puppy could have a serious heart defect because you have done something to cause it. I'm not saying you have and I don't mean to upset you I'm just saying in this day and age it's unlikely a breeder is going to leap up to take "the blame" for a problem which they have no information about (no specialist report as yet) and which may not be any fault of theirs. Just as an aside - a registered breeder is not the same as an ethical breeder and I would frankly be surprised if an ethical Toy Poodle breeder sold a total novice a "breeding quality" bitch puppy with no strings attached, so what does your contract say about health issues and how they are to be dealt with?

Citronella collar - off ebay. Was about $75 all up from memory. Unfortunately citronella collars don't work on all dogs, but are great when they are effective.

Good luck, I hope the specialist can answer some of your questions. Donatella, you are being totally unrealistic. If the pup didn't have a problem while she was in the breeder's care and didn't have a problem at her first vet visit with her new owner then to me that means either both vets are useless, which seems pretty unlikely since one of them has now picked it up OR that the puppy has acquired this problem as she has grown - i.e. she was not born this way. Breeding a living thing is not the same as manufacturing a new car or toaster! If I bred this pup I would probably refund some of the purchase price depending on the specialist's diagnosis, and I would probably offer to pay half the specialist's fee so both me and the owner could find out what is going on and go forward. I don't think $1300 is very expensive for a Toy Poodle from good bloodlines is it?

You can usually tell by what else the judge does, what they are actually judging on

You're kidding, right? This is the wording from the National Dog Annual on the front page of this very website: "MAKE NO MISTAKE this beautiful gloss publication will be sold in newsagents around Australia and a physical copy sent to All Breeds dog judges in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and selected Asian nations." Where do the bulk of judges who come to Australia come from, I wonder?? Sorry, but the cynic in me wonders why else would some people will advertise, if not to bring certain dogs to judges' attention? Even the magazine recognises it. Let's just see how many "not very good judges" there are, after the magazine comes out I for one will definitely care about their opinion, because I care about my breed. So you actually care about the opinion of a judge who doesn't know the standard and judges according to what they saw in the latest magazine? These are the judges whose opinion I care the LEAST about and this is because I care very passionately about the future of my breed and don't intend to leave it in the hands of judges who are so influenced by the latest glossy magazine that they are, basically, corrupt. There's no argument that some people advertise lovely pictures of themselves so they will be able to influence these judges - but a good judge isn't influenced by these things and surely it is the opinion of the GOOD judges that people need to concern themselves with. There will always be people who are easily lead - be they school kids, all breeds dog show judges or soccer moms

The more money you have to throw at any sport or hobby doesn't guarantee you success and in many cases doesn't even make you even with someone with talent - and breeding great dogs isn't a science, it's talent all the way. Yes, having the money to import semen from a top stud dog helps - but generally someone with the ability to breed great dogs will be able to find the money to do this once and make a difference - those with lots of money will often do it lots and if they don't have the associated talent then they may as well tip it down the sink. The straight $$$$$ to buy an adult top winning dog/bitch is a short term way of getting lots of pretty ribbons. If the dog/bitch isn't any good as a producer then it really makes zero difference if it cost $1 or a $1,000,000 - five years after it's retired it will be forgotten. If you have a great dog which is genuinely great on it's own, nearly every time the advert will show the dog that way - it's the ones that aren't necessarily that great which tend to be advertised with the associated props Personally I'd rather magazines/websites/ANKC put rules in place about advertising dogs/puppies with attributes they simply do not possess - champion bloodlines when there's 1 champion in 5 generations (either side) "perfect to standard" when it's twice the desired weight and possesses not a scrap of breed type - all stuff that confuses new comers and leads to a lot of disappointment for people who could well become stalwarts of the dog show world.

It's a free country. Yep some people make sure the photo of the person is nice and clear but if judges are going to be influenced by this then they're not very good judges anyway so who cares about their opinion?

The system works OK in NZ and I don't have an issue with it either way really. Often the judge will just have a little play with the baby, sometimes they will run them. Yes it can be a easy way out of avoiding refusing a CC, give best of sex to the baby and it's not entitled to the CC so no one can whinge about the excuse given. I can see why it wouldn't be ideal in some cases in Australia where it's a LOT hotter and in some breeds the numbers are much larger (so making for a long day for a baby anyway). I've had a number of dogs over the years awarded best of sex while babies (in good sized line ups) and they have all gone on to title and a couple have later won under the same judge when older so I can only suppose in these particular cases the judges did genuinely like them even though they were very young, but I have been to some shows where the baby has been best of sex and the adults are frankly woeful so you have to wonder if these were examples of the judge taking the easy way out

Agree - but can someone who only breeds ordinary dogs even a specialist? Not to me

Poor baby - but kinder than having her in pain

Can you use real turf instead of fake grass until she's older? This could help prevent confusion. During the first month make a point of NOT being with her 24/7 - use this time to teach her that being alone is OK. Being alone is not a natural state for a dog so if you bring her home and let her be with you all the time she is going to be very stressed out when you suddenly "abandon" her to go back to work. Oh yes and the breed is Cavalier King Charles

Does the pup use the leg normally? I've seen a fair few pups with "uneven" looking back legs at this age and they all work out OK in the end Yes it could be something serious, but if the pup uses the leg normally and is in no obvious pain I would be much less concerned about it.