Sandra777

How do general specials work ?? This isn't something you enter (sorry if you didn't mean this) General Specials is Best in Show, Best Puppy In Show etc. To compete your dog first has to win Baby Puppy of Group, Best of Group or whatever. As i have a baby puppy are there any other classes i can enter besides just her age class?? You could put her in Baby Puppy Sweepstakes if this was offered, and later Puppy Sweeps, Junior Sweeps etc if offered. In some states once she's over 6 months old you could enter her in Minor Puppy and Puppy and Australian Bred and Open if you wanted to but in other states you can't and frankly it's pretty rare to do it.

Cages similar to this are pretty common in NZ - usually solid though guess because it's colder? - and the exhaust isn't generally considered to be an issue. Being rear-ended, definitely! The cage under the stock truck is a very common way of transporting both stock dogs and random other dogs that need transporting too.

You may want to have a look at the Portuguese Water Dog. Very smart thinking breed, ''non shedding'', adore being with their people and are really great companions for someone who wants a dog that needs to be worked with and who is willing to utilise a dog's brain power. For showing they are a fair bit of work but the wavy's especially are not meant to be 'perfect' like Poodles, Bichons really need to be for the ring so easier for a novice to achieve a reasonable result in the coat department. They are pretty rare in Australia so patience and research would be required.

A lot of it is media hype. I'd bet in most cases the dog which has escaped it's yard or is not on leash is NOT ''randomly'' attacking, it has already displayed behaviour that suggests it would bite/attack if the opportunity arose but the owner has missed it due to ignorance or simply because they pay little or no attention to the dog. I'd also bet that in most cases of ''family pets'' attacking the dog is not a pet at all - it is kept separate from the family, it is a lawn ornament not a pet. The difference between Pet and Resident Dog is one of Karen Delise's (sp!) key factors in attacks. Attacks by small fluffy dogs don't make the media so it may well appear that it is only certain types of dogs that are wandering around randomly attacking people but it doesn't bear a lot of resemblence to reality. ETA: Nekhbet can type faster than I can

I am reminded of the rep from the Siberian Husky club that expressed astonishment at the tragic death of the baby in West Australia a while back. Claimed they'd never heard of a Sibe doing such a thing before, which displayed an appalling lack of knowledge of the breed. Sibes are grossly over-represented in the deaths of very small babies and don't appear at all in stats for deaths of children older than about 6 months. This is obviously some sort of anomaly in the breed and for a representative of a breed club not to know this is frankly a bit scary. No I don't know how they could have spun it to avoid the press going nuts so perhaps they just said they'd never heard of it to stop the witch hunt.

The two breeds have quite different temperaments - it'd probably be useful for them to visit a couple of breeders of each before deciding on a breed let alone a breeder

1 Not sure what you mean - do you not have the gazette to look in?? If not, then a lot of shows have their schedule on line, if that fails yep, phone the secretary 2 & 3 You pay an entry fee for each class. You can only enter one BREED class with your dog (1, 2, 3, 4 etc) You can enter however many sweepstakes/property classes your dog is eligible for. With a baby puppy I would only do a sweepstake & their breed class - you can practice outside the ring and often that's better than inside the ring because you are more able to concentrate and not get all flustered if it goes wrong. That said, don't over practise and make it boring - babies should be having fun at shows. See you Saturday

Even with ventilation, a box trailer would be very hot as the floor isn't insulated and the heat off the road can be horrendous. If you go ahead with the idea, get something insulating to go under the crate - you can buy a mat-like product from Supercheap or Auto One (can't remember which!) that is used by people doing up older cars - it deadens sound and insulates. Great for dog trailer floors too AFAIK it's not illegal to transport a dog in this way provided it is properly restrained and not distressed. Me - I'd be leaving the dog with family or in a boarding kennel. Sooooooo many things you do on holiday where you can't take the dog, leave it at the camp site and you have to rush back to ensure the dog is OK in the heat, or it starts barking at the neighbours and you get evicted Too hot for most dogs much of the time, constantly have to make sure the dog is secured and not in the sun, has water, dog can't go to the beach, dog can't go to the pool, dog can't go to the lake. Doesn't really sound like a relaxing holiday to me (and my holidays mostly consist of going away to dog shows!)

Conformation showing isn't the be-all and end-all but IMO it is essential to participate in some form of competition where the success or otherwise of the produce of your breeding programme can be measured against the produce of other breeder's programmes - be this herding, agility, obedience, retrieving or whatever. Breeding specifically and solely for the pet market, no matter how careful you are in your selection gives you no way of grading your success or failure. You sell a puppy to someone and they think it's a great pet - well sorry but a lot of people think their pet is great even if it's neutrotic, bad tempered and untrainable! Health and temperament should always come first regardless of why you're breeding, so breeding dogs with great temperament and heath stats is barely the start.

I would think it quite likely this dog has never attacked a child before so there's a bit of dramatics in this, but I find it quite difficult to believe the dog had never displayed any indication that it might Dogs which attack children OR adults shouldn't be drawing breath - forget about muzzling them in public

Depends on the size of the pup I guess, but I've always used those human nail clippers with the little handle that you have to turn around before they work - no idea what they're called! - easy to hold and virtually impossible to hurt the pup if it starts squirming.

I lost my heart dog over 15 years ago and her memory still brings the odd tear here and there. As long as you aren't wallowing in guilt or depression then grieve as long as you need to. Anything more, I would seek professional advice.

Google ear cropping & Doberman & USA and you'll probably get pages of pictures and info about the after-surgery care required.

Poor boy. Would like to know where they got the dog from? I honestly doubt this dog never showed any sign of this sort of behaviour before - is this why it was passed on?

I have had two Staffords with lung cancer - yes both OH & I used to smoke The first one was fine until literally 12 hours before she died, did absolutely nothing to suggest she was ill in any way (she was 9), then suddenly couldn't breath, had collapsing episodes and was PTS the next day while under anasthetic to investigate the problem (the vet suspected a growth of some sort - her lungs were basically non existent) The second one was 13 and it started with a lump on her wither. I asked for her to be sedated & xrayed and without my permission they operated and removed a lump the size of a man's fist from between (and around) her ribs and her shoulder blade but the vet said they couldn't get it all. She lived another 4 months without a lot of issues (no breathing issues) and no medication except for the last 3 or 4 weeks some days she couldn't stand up easily so she got 1/2 a disprin (on vet's advice) as she needed it. When she couldn't move from one spot of sunshine to the next I had her PTS. My personal choice is not to persue chemo for a dog. This might be different if the dog was 2 or 3 years old because none of the affected ones I've had have been young. IMO it's such a toss up as to whether it will work or not and you can't explain to a dog why they are suffering or encourage them with hope for the future that it is my choice not to aggressively treat them when the cure has the potential to be as bad as the disease. Just my view and I don't pass judgement on people who see things differently. Whatever you decide it will be difficult.

So do I.

I have had 2 dogs die of lung cancer, one lived her whole life in our house the other came into our house when she was 2 and left when she was 8 - the whole time they lived here we both still smoked. Co-incidence??

And the ever-popular Cairns Terrier. Obviously likes a more tropical climate than the Cairn Terrier

Rockwheeler cross

Cleft palate without a hare lip is perfectly possible. Cleft palate with such a tiny hare lip that it's undetectable in a pup so young is also possible.

If she has a cleft palate I would not persist with her myself. Her mother is most likely to reject her if this is so, especially with so many robust puppies. If not then up the supplementation and/or make sure she is feeding from mum if you want to continue keeping her with the litter - don't just assume.

This particular dog is owned by a volunteer but she is virtually a full-time volunteer and could be considered an unpaid full time SAR personl she goes to so many places Koalathebear, try contacting your local SES and see if there is a dog handler you can link up with and chat to. The Stafford I mentioned went to a training day, everyone was a volunteer and they came from all over the place but met quite regularly and were happy for others to come along and give it a try with their dogs

I don't think it's right at all, but I really don't know what you could do about it. Perhaps stop and have a chat about how you love Staffords and perhaps mention how hot it is and take it from there.

Dog on human attack I would intervene and to hell with any injuries. Dog on dog, well that would seriously depend on what the owners were doing (assuming at least one was present). Big/healthy stray dog vs small/old dog being walked by old/infirm person I would intervene without a second thought. I wonder where everyone lives - I haven't met a stray dog when out walking for over 2 years.

I know one of the dogs at ground zero in New York was a Portuguese Water Dog which is hardly a ''traditional'' working dog in this field. A number of SAR dogs in the USA are rescued pit bulls - and some drug detection dogs too (particularly border control rather than the ones going into people's houses) A friend took a Stafford out with the SAR on one of their training days and he was brilliant, it's HER who's not built for agility or speed You can buy a Belgian or GSD from lines proven to produce good SAR dogs, good drug dogs, good protection dogs. These dogs have a much higher chance of being genetically better at these jobs; than any random dog from a non-traditional breed, they haven't been bred for the particular traits required. People dedicated to SAR want a SAR dog (they may well have other pets too obviously!) and don't have the time to take the chance that one dog will not turn out - you could spend several years training only to have the dog fail at the last hurdle so why not lessen the odds by starting with the best available ''raw material''? With a lot of the volunteer SAR people you would have to think that some of them may have got in to the dog side of it because they had a suitable dog (whatever the breed) but with some of the more professional outfits it would be more likely they get a dog to suit the job rather than a job to suit the dog.