Sandra777

Answered No for the last question because I still show, but I think "I still show" could be an option?? Some judges ARE face judges and the faces could win with a 3 legged gas stove on the lead. What sort of pleasure these people get out of winning like this is beyond me - and what "reward" the judge gets for it I never want to know! Some judges simply lack the knowledge so follow what they've seen others do - whether it's right or wrong. I have shown a number of big winning dogs over the years and definitely noticed that when I was campaigning the big winner and showed under certain judges, everything I took in the ring won regardless of it's worth in the line up (none were 3 legged gas stoves, but some did beat superior dogs). I don't bother giving these judges an entry a second time because to me winning when you shouldn't is as bad as losing when you shouldn't.

I don't increase the amount of food my bitches get until they are 6 weeks in pup anyway, so at this stage I wouldn't be concerned. Provide her with FRESH tempting food that you know is similar to what she is used to and don't fuss if she refuses to eat as much as you think she should Is she one of those who is "too busy" to eat? If so you may have success with confining her for an hour or so with her food. Above all - don't make a big fuss and stress about it!

If a dog which is terrified and refuses to walk on a lead turns up at an SPCA shelter 9 times out of 10 it's put down because it's ''unadoptable'' so Mr Worthless doesn't have any moral high ground there. Equating human life (we don't operate on people then kill them) with a dog's life is AR thinking, dogs aren't little people! So long as the animal doesn't suffer before or during the operations I see nothing wrong with using dogs (and probably cats) which were destined to be put down anyway. Sad fact of life is there aren't enough homes for all the dogs and cats churned out by careless and stupid people.

Saw two crosses just last week. One was blue merle, the other red merle. Dane/Bull Arab/mastiff-type pigging dog crosses, only puppies but big kids! The red merle looked like she was made out of crushed velvet and just gorgeous! Seen a couple of purebreds in NZ, lovely dogs in the right hands.

Ipswich allows four on 2000m2 or more with no permits.

You can buy battery operated electric fence units quite cheaply - they're best run off a car battery though they do also work off D sized batteries. Go to a farm supply place. If you believe your "staffy'' will attack a person for real - not just jump on as someone else has suggested - then you have a much bigger problem than fence jumping. Use it discretely if it is illegal to use in your state, dumb law - would they rather the dog got out and was killed by a car?

The scheme isn't touted about being about traits it's touted as being about genetic diversity. Typical nonsense talk from people appeasing the lunatic element while actually achieving very little. Genetic diversity in and of itself isn't automatically a wonderful thing that will solve all problems like a magic wand. Most of the lunatic fringe wouldn't know genetic diversity or a COI if it bit them on the butt. Introducing an unknown dog which is almost certainly only one or two generations away from registered ancestors anyway so, in theory, could be a full brother or sister to the sire or dam of the dog or bitch it is mated to, doesn't do a thing to introduce genetic diversity. The blurb states that - it's all about genetic diversity. And the requirement that the dog be approved by 2 ch show judges as being representative of it's breed is a guarantee that the style of dog which is winning in the ring will be the style of dog which is accepted. You have DNA tests to prove this? And has there ever been a definitive study of how high a COI for a SPECIFIC breed is too high? And how do you decide at what point high is 'too high" if there are no ill effects. Some populations of wild animals are highly in bred and if a breeder was to breed that tightly AND cull as strongly as nature then how is this intrinsically harmful?? What is the breed average COI world wide or even country by country for each breed?

Most people on here who have DNA'd their dogs for breed have come back with hilarious or just plain rediculous results. Me - I wouldn't bother, but if the money isn't an issue and you aren't going to worry too much which way the results go, then there's no actual harm. DNA testing by swab is really really easy and if you can follow basic instructions you can do it yourself no problems at all.

All the gum thumping about genetic diversity makes no sense to me. Yes there are breeds which have ''native'' populations far removed from the KC population - Basenjis, Anatolians (sp!) and Working Kelpies and Cattle Dogs come to mind. But in the majority of breeds which seem to cause such angst amongst the scare-mongers in the media the unregistered dogs come from registered stock, so introducing an unknown dog into the population in these breeds is actually more likely to increase the COI if the truth was known. There aren't any great unregistered pools of Bulldogs or Pugs or Cavaliers lying around anywhere in the world that would pass the conformation test required AND not be one or at most a couple of generations removed from KC registered dogs. As another thought if all the KC Basenjis, just as an example, come from the Congo and all the ''native'' dogs come from the Congo then how widely different genetically are they in reality?? Yes dogs bred in their "native'' environment for their intended purpose are more likely to be healthy in themselves (the affected ones die) but this doesn't mean they're any more healthy when it comes to recessive genetic issues particularly than the KC registered ones - afterall the genetic problems in Basenjis (as an example) didn't just appear when a KC rego paper was waved around!

Sorry you lost your dog. I have lost a dog to Lepto too - my dog was vaccinated. Don't beat yourself up about not vaccinating your boy against it as the Lepto vaccine is not always reliable - Lepto isn't a virus so the vaccination doesn't work very well and doesn't last very long either. It's a horrible disease and a terrible thing to see your dog go through.

If it's just flat black spots on the skin it's perfectly normal. A lot of whites start out looking really pretty and clean and by the time they're two people compliment you on your Dalmatian cross It'd be pretty unusual for a dog to develop that many ''suspecious'' spots in such a short space of time so my money is on pigment spots.

Ring and ask to speak to someone in charge. If she did it to herself then at least the staff should have NOTICED!!!! Dogs in new places and situations do things they wouldn't otherwise do, so it could be just one of those things that can happen, but no one noticing - grrrr If it looks like marks from another dog, complain big time (assuming you specified she was not to run with others)

Yes and no. You can see structure at birth - the main bones are much more obvious and that really never changes. Type I would say depends on breed and bloodlines, and stuff like eye colour and ears obviously have to wait. Last three generations in one family I've picked at birth and been right. Last litter (different family) there were two really obvious picks at birth, one has panned out so far (only 5 months old though), the other one turned out to be a major disappointment at only a few weeks old, developing a fault I haven't had before so couldn't say if there was any tell tale way of picking it at birth or not, but the rest of him is just as I would have predicted.

Before OH was OH he had an adult dog and bought a pup (co-incidentally off me but OT there ). She was a pest of a pup and the adult dog was a gentleman who would never tell her off. OH lived in a small one bedroom house, everything opened off the lounge room, and trained her that she was not allowed in the bedroom, adult dog was. When he got sick of her the older dog would go lie in the bedroom, right in the doorway and they would end up lying virtually nose to nose but he would lie just far enough back that she couldn't touch his nose without going in to the forbidden bedroom. They're smart sometimes, and can be trained to do all sorts of things!

Those ''crazy amounts'' seem to be the going rate though for the fluffies When OH is with me I'm not allowed to look as I may cause a riot, but the other day I went past our local shop in the mall and they had short coated random yellow coloured rats they were selling as "staffys'' for $950. They were mutts, and not very good ones at that - you can buy a fabulously bred reg'd Staffordshire Bull Terrier for that sum. Another one that advertises on line a lot sells ''staffys'' for a bit cheaper and they are usually distinctly hairy and look suspeciously like Kelpie crosses with the eye set, face and fluff. People are idiots and make assumptions about things they know nothing about (like the price of a GOOD puppy!)

A bit briefer than what I was going to reply! OP - so when you come home you disinfect your shoes, change all your clothing and wash it in special anti-viral wash? IF there is parvo in your area YOU can bring parvo into the house just as easily as a pup can catch it from going out themselves. There are precautions and there is paranoia, and I would say you have either misunderstood what your vet meant or your vet is a paranoid nut job! IF there are any nasties in the grass in your backyard, the other dog, or any person that walks on that lawn, will track it up on to the pavers, so whatever is there is going to be on the pavers anyway - or if there's ticks or fleas they'll just wander on up by themselves anyway.

You're moving house? No guarantee the new house hasn't had a parvo outbreak so I would definitely be waiting. It would be nice for the new owners/tenants in your exisiting house if you made them aware of the parvo situation next door. They might be waiting impatiently to move in to this house to bring their new puppy home - would be nice for them to have the facts in case.

I would ask the breeder to keep the pup another 2 weeks so it can have another vaccination before you bring it home. Any ethical breeder would be happy to do this rather than risk the death of one of their babes. You shouldn't be astonished if they asked you to pay for them to keep it though - and the vaccination.

My own dogs - fee at time of mating. Other people's dogs I prefer to pay the fee at the time of mating but if the stud dog owner prefers to wait until pregnancy has been confirmed that's OK too - I don't get any paperwork until the fee is paid anyway.

I would call him slightly light - not skinny or scrawny. 1 cup of supercoat isn't much - if it agrees with him and you want to continue with it try (slowly!) upping his food until you can see he is gaining a little weight. Doesn't matter what food you use - all dry to all raw - you feed a dog as much as it needs to maintain a good weight, ignore what the bag or your neighbour says, every dog is an individual, just like people! If he was mine I'd give him chicken carcases or meaty bones at least a couple of times a week (assuming he doesn't have digestion issues) as these are great for adding a bit of weight.

:D Get a life. OH and many of his family are pig hunters from waaaaaaaaaaaaay back. Don't have any serial killers or spousal abusers in their family. Feral pigs should be exterminated. They do untold damage to wildlife and land and carry disease in some areas as well as being bloody dangerous animals to have wandering around a national park. A GOOD hunter doesn't want to risk his dogs by allowing them to bail or hold a pig longer than absolutely necessary, and neither do they wish to inflict unnecessary pain on the pig, they hunt them because they love the sport, not because they hate the pig. Perhaps if people left their ivory towers and went and saw the damage pigs can do they would understand feral pigs don't look or act like Babe. :D

YES!! Option for solid wall between the two sides would be nice - right down the length of the trailer or just 2 bays if a 6-8 berth - travelling two dogs/bitches which don't like each other is impossible for me in our 4 berth with it's mesh dividers

See you there

Has she recently bathed the dog - shampoo residue can cause that sort of flakiness. Anything the dog could be getting actually on it's ear to have the same affect.

Shaving wouldn't help as it's the undercoat that will be keeping him warm. Has he shed properly this summer? Get a coat rake onto him and get out as much undercoat as you can. In the meantime, ice to chew and a damp shady place to lie in a cross breeze - be that wet towel on tiles with a fan going or damp sand under a bush outside.