Pit Man

This is always a tricky one. If you keep denying contact she will remain in puppy like mode much longer. Dogs teach each other boundaries. She needs to learn if the other dog objects then she is taken away. Not scolded as she would see that as resulting from the other dog. A check chain would help you control her, don't know if a haltie would fit this breed properly.

Sounds quite reasonable. Will have to try it in the future.

I refuse to purchase any product from any org that supports bsl and encourage others to do the same.

There are two ways to overcome this, flooding and desensitisation. I have no experience with flooding but have read when it works it is brilliant. Problem is if it doesn't work, you've ruined the dog. It involves putting them in the stressful situation until they eventually calm down. I wouldn't recommend it unless you do a lot of research and can control the dog. Flooding refers to the rush of the body's chemicals as they flood throughout the body. In people we call it confronting your fear. If you hate snakes, stay in a room with snakes. Desensitisation involves standing by your dog who is tied up so they can't get away and have someone circle at a distance moving in all the time. Never approach head on and avoid eye contact. Keep feeding your dog until they become too focused on the other dog then stop. Do this daily. Took about three months doing it once or twice a day until her circle of aggression got so small they could sit next to each other without fighting. If your lunging with the dog it feels your joining in as well. Have you tried a check chain or haltie? Halties are good but our dog realised if she turned and faced us she could pull away and we lost control. Hope this helps.

G'day, Eddy here. A month ago there was a forum topic regarding DNA testing which you might like to read through and maybe add a post or two. As the topic progresses it's revealed that Genetic Technologies and MetaMorphix seem to be in a pre-commercial phase in regards to genetic testing to allow verification of breeds but also to a non-pedigree dog, also know as a bitsa, verifying the mixture of that breed to better assess the suitability of the dog, plus they also mentioned through this research it may soon be possible to offer a genetic test which identifies a dog’s temperament, and also was mentioned "Identifying the "mixture" allows people to assess the temperament of the dog and understand the potential behavioural characteristics," said George Sofronidis, Manager of Animal Diagnostics at GTG. Anyway the start of that topic is via this link address:- http://forums.dogzonline.com.au/index.php?showtopic=81748 Hi Eddy, What they are actually identifying is closely related dogs which happen to be from the same breed. If they test the same breed from different countries then they would get different results unless they came from imports of the original stock. If they they can identify 250 breeds games over, there aren't that many in the ANKC. It wasn't that long ago scientists claimed they'd found the aggressive gene in APBTs. All BS of course.

Wow Athena, I think you killed the thread dead with that one. Damn good explanation on the trot!

Hi Ultima, You pose a tricky one. My understanding is this, prolonged inbreeding is not a problem provided you rigourously cull the unsuitble dogs. As affordable vet services to the general public is relatively new, nature culled pretty heavily in the past. Most breeds are no older than 200 years and yes now they do have problems, especially if there is a small gene pool. My own breed the Amstaff has regularly opened its studbook in the US to pitbulls to increase the gene pool and try and eradicate genetic problems. I know other breeds do the same thing. Furthermore, working breeds continue to have good health due to rigorous culling. Dogs cannot be identified by breed genetically despite what some scientists claim. What they are actually identifying is closely related individuals as you explained. Dogs in different parts of the world do look different eg boxers, so we breed for different aspects of the genome. As for the genome adding new genes, I have never heard of that before. Environments will select for different genes being expressed, but if the genome were to grow on it's own, it's pretty mindboggling. Cheers