dancinbcs

Agreed, the only litter I ever had any trouble with toilet training was a litter of three born during a prolonged heatwave and they had to be kept indoors in the aircon for most of the 8 weeks. The outside litters basically toilet train themselves by going away from their sleeping area, out onto the grass and continue to go out to a grass if they are then moved to sleep indoors when there is only one left. I cannot even comprehend all the poo in the morning from a 6-8 week old litter of 6 or more BCs being in the house, let alone a bigger breed.

Most large breeds are raised outside and even medium breeds go outside from about 4 weeks because it is simply not realistic to give them enough room in a house. My BC litters always had half a suburban yard during the day with a large outdoor run and shed at night. The main reason to keep them indoors until 3-4 weeks is convenience for the breeder. Simply ask the breeder if they normally give the puppies some individual "in the house" time to get used to household noises as many breeders do this as routine. Socialisation usually depends on how many people come to visit the litter. A lot of people that live alone or just a couple do not have many people coming and going in the house anyway so being indoors or out wouldn't matter.

You can't see the eardrum in a dog anyway because the ear canal has a 90 degree bend in it. All you can see with an otoscope is the first half of the ear canal. I'm not sure how good the cheap ones are but the ones the vets use are very expensive. They told me that when one of my dogs did not appreciate being poked in the sore ear by a novice vet, so he grabbed the otoscope out of her hand and spat it on the ground. Maybe have a chat to the vet about which one to get and ask them to show you how to use it.

What an idiot. If the two guys had stopped still after the first bite the dog probably would have stopped too. Yelling and screaming would have just made the dog react even worse and feel he needed to up the anti. I do feel sorry for the neighbour who tried to help though.

I haven't owned either but know plenty of people who do and not one of them would contemplate taking their dogs to a dog park, not even the ones with highly obedience trained SBTs. As plenty of owners have said to me, their dog is unlikely to cause trouble but if a another dog challenges it they are sure they would never back down or give in like other breeds do. With many other breeds a scuffle ends in nothing more than a lot of noise and spit with no injuries, until one dog gives in the other walks away.

Are you sure? That sounds enormous. I think my girl is around the 14-16 kgs mark Im sure they vary between sexes but 25 kgs sounds way over. I could be wrong, I have a 24kg male Stafford Breed standard for SBT is 11 -17 kgs so 24 kgs is way oversize or extremely fat.

I always use vetbed but not the rubber backed one which is a lot harder to wash and dry and warmer to lie on. For my heatwave litter I put flat frozen cooler packs (the sort you can wrap around a bottle) in the box, wrapped in towels and the puppies could lie on them if they wanted to.

Why are you so sure it isn't allergy related? I have just had an 18 month battle with one of my dogs who reacted to the heartworm injection then a flea plague and simply could not stop itching and chewing after that. He was scratching great hunks of hair out and constantly chewing his feet, if you stopped him he would sometimes lick where he was lying until you looked away, they would chew himself again. Cortisone helped for a while then all his coat started to fall out from that. After that we tried Chinese Medicine and after 12 months of many Chinese concoctions he is almost back to normal with a huge shiny coat and very little scratching or chewing. I am now at the point of weaning him off the stuff for the itch and using other herbs to normalise his immune system again.

The first Bull Terrier I ever saw would have been about 1970 but they were a rare breed and never allowed to roam free like other dogs at the time. In the 70s I used to walk my crossbred dog all over the district and their were plenty of loose dogs but the only one I ever had a problem with was a Scottie who lived around the corner and he was small enough that a swift kick would make him back off enough to get past the house. By this stage terriers were out of favour so there were not many around except for "minnie foxies". No one ever got attacked by a dog if they were walking in the street. We also had a Lab who had moved in on us from next door and when they left him loose he used to bail up passing dogs but never did any harm. I can't remember ever seeing dogs really fighting or causing injuries and they were pretty much all entire males. A friend's dad who had greyhounds said the only dogs who ever hassled the greys when he was walking were Labs. GSDs were about the only serious guard dogs and they were always well confined. When I started showing in 1983 Bull Terriers had become a bit more popular but SBTs were rare. I cannot recall if there were any at shows at that time or not, when or why they suddenly became so popular. At the time some country shows were flat out to get 10 Terriers entered in the group when the other groups would have 100-150. Pitbulls and Amstaffs didn't really arrive till about the mid 90s and when the Amstaffs were first shown there were some incidents with the dogs but even more so with the owners who often seemed more aggressive than their dogs. Some of the terrier people were not at all happy about the breed being introduced to the group at the time. Thankfully since then some long time breeders of other breeds seem to have taken an interest and managed to produce some dogs with better temperament so as the numbers increased the problems decreased. Boxers have been in Australia since about 1948, so they are certainly not a new bull breed in Australia. I wouldn't classify Boxers as a Bull breed and didn't use the term anyway as it can take in breeds like Bulldogs and Bullmastiffs as well and to me they have nothing to do with the "Bull" Terrier breeds the term usually refers to, who have completely different temperaments being true terriers. Bull Terriers, SBTs, Amstaffs and APBTs used to be collectively termed " the fighting terriers" and there were several books available with that in the title. The term is now considered politically incorrect.

The first Bull Terrier I ever saw would have been about 1970 but they were a rare breed and never allowed to roam free like other dogs at the time. In the 70s I used to walk my crossbred dog all over the district and their were plenty of loose dogs but the only one I ever had a problem with was a Scottie who lived around the corner and he was small enough that a swift kick would make him back off enough to get past the house. By this stage terriers were out of favour so there were not many around except for "minnie foxies". No one ever got attacked by a dog if they were walking in the street. We also had a Lab who had moved in on us from next door and when they left him loose he used to bail up passing dogs but never did any harm. I can't remember ever seeing dogs really fighting or causing injuries and they were pretty much all entire males. A friend's dad who had greyhounds said the only dogs who ever hassled the greys when he was walking were Labs. GSDs were about the only serious guard dogs and they were always well confined. When I started showing in 1983 Bull Terriers had become a bit more popular but SBTs were rare. I cannot recall if there were any at shows at that time or not, when or why they suddenly became so popular. At the time some country shows were flat out to get 10 Terriers entered in the group when the other groups would have 100-150. Pitbulls and Amstaffs didn't really arrive till about the mid 90s and when the Amstaffs were first shown there were some incidents with the dogs but even more so with the owners who often seemed more aggressive than their dogs. Some of the terrier people were not at all happy about the breed being introduced to the group at the time. Thankfully since then some long time breeders of other breeds seem to have taken an interest and managed to produce some dogs with better temperament so as the numbers increased the problems decreased.

I have had plenty of horse experience including dressage, jumping, riding newly broken horses, taking large numbers of beginners out on mountain trail rides and handling unbroken stallions as well as broken ones while being used for breeding. You do get the odd idiot that thinks they know more than they do and they come to grief but as a general rule most people know their limitations and err on the side of caution whereas with dogs it seems the odds are reversed.

I would definitely support the idea of a licence for owners to have different categories of dogs in relation to size, breed, neutered, entire, breeding, etc. That way the irresponsible yobbos would never be able to get powerful breeds with the potential to do serious damage if they bite. Common sense should be enough but clearly it isn't. If we compare dog ownership to horse ownership the horse owners come out on top for common sense. If you are buying a horse for your kid to learn to ride on you do not buy a green broken, 17hh Thoroughbred Stallion, you buy a size appropriate bombproof horse or pony. If you want own a stallion you get lots of experience with them and make sure you can keep one secured. Yet people go and buy totally unsuitable dogs for their situation and experience and wonder why things go wrong.

But it is not recognised by FCI, KC, AKC or ANKC or the governments and I seriously doubt that the majority of Pitbulls in Aust would be registered with them. I did also mention in my posts crossbred Pitbulls not just the supposed purebred ones. If these dogs are registered with the APBT registry in the US and they are so sure that none of those dogs were involved in any of the serious attacks over the years, why didn't they get together with the Amstaff people to get an exemption for their "registered" dogs from the BSL?

How can they be papered when they are not a recognised breed unless they are registered as Amstaffs. All appeared the same size and shape as the Amstaffs at shows except they were all red/white with red noses which is not an Amstaff colour. All the same as the many that populated my neighbourhood for many years, including the one that bailed me up just last year then went for, knocked over and injured an elderly lady walking her dog. In this case she was lucky as two good samaritans jumped straight on the dog as it got her to the ground and one shoved her walking stick in it's mouth as it tried to get to her head. Unfortunately the idiot owner turned up and took the dog while the lady was being treated in an ambulance and we were all still waiting for the police.

I have to totally disagree with this statement. Entire male dogs are shown week in week out, all around the country, along side each other and bitches in season and there is very rarely any problem with aggression despite large numbers of dogs being confined to a small area. If what you said was true, every dogshow would be one big dogfight. If all of those dogs were off leash and left to their own devices with a bitch on heat present, you don't believe those dogs would begin to fight amongst each other? What do you believe the reaction would be? Peaceful interaction? Are the handlers not managing any potential aggression by handling their dog appropriately? ETA: I have personally been to dog shows where fights have broken out between entires when they were too close to each other and owners had to separate their dogs. Are you saying this never happens and is quite out of the ordinary? There are always lots of in season bitches at shows and most dogs, while interested in the bitches, ignore the the other dogs. Dog fights have happened at shows but they are extremely rare and one of the main offending breeds is Amstaffs, especially when they were first introduced. Since then the breeders do seem to have done a lot of work in regard to breeding for better temperament. Many of the smaller terrier breeds would also fight but among the other breeds the only one that comes to mind as having multiple fights over the years are Akitas. There are several breeds that might threaten or even occasionally grab another dog that gets too close at times but if the other dog submits, there is no fight or damage which is normal canine behaviour. BTW, I was in no way comparing Greyhounds and Pitbulls, just the scheme that exists to allow Greys to go without muzzles. Surely a similar scheme for Pitbulls and crosses would be better than the Victorian solution of just requiring them all to be pts? I make no apologies for my dislike of Pitbulls and their crosses, as my several interactions with them have all been negative and despite seeing many breeds over many years they are the only breed I have have never encountered a friendly and non dog aggressive one.

I have to totally disagree with this statement. Entire male dogs are shown week in week out, all around the country, along side each other and bitches in season and there is very rarely any problem with aggression despite large numbers of dogs being confined to a small area. If what you said was true, every dogshow would be one big dogfight. I believe in one report the owner admitted to police that he had registered his Pitbulls as Amstaffs which should never be allowed without papers to prove it, so he has already broken many laws. Thankfully the dogs were pts so they can never attack anyone else or reproduce but the owner should have the book thrown at him. We have sufficient BSL laws but they need to be enforced more and expanded to cover crossbreeds of this type. I am very thankful for these laws because the number of Pitbulls in the streets around my area has dropped dramatically but there are still some here and I am yet to see one wearing a red/yellow collar or muzzled while being walked so people are flaunting the law. I would actually like to see all dogs of this type required to undergo a temperament test, including one for DA and if they pass maybe they could issued with say a green collar and be allowed to live as normal desexed pets, any that fail could then live by the current BSL regulations. It could work like the one for greyhounds who pass the test to be allowed in public without a muzzle and allow those that claim their Pitbull is no threat to anyone or any other animal to prove it.

I agree about being furious with the owners. Being furious with the dogs and labelling them 'vile monsters' does nothing and only promotes the idea that these dogs allowed themselves to be this way when, in fact, the owner has allowed them to be this way. The owners didn't have a high enough fence to contain their dogs, the dog's behaviour is genetic And therein lies one of the main problems with Pittbulls and Amstaffs and their crosses. They are extremely strong and agile with greater jaw strength than most other breeds. Nothing short of a heavy duty weldmesh pen with solid roof and concrete floor, is guaranteed to contain them if they decide to get out. Like many agile breeds they are more than capable of jumping a 7' fence, like other strong breeds, they can barge through colourbond panels and like Bull Terriers they can easily chew through chainwire. All this combined into the one dog. I think anyone with a Pittbull, Amstaff or cross of these is having themselves on if they believe their dog absolutely would not attack a passing dog if they got loose from their yard. The problem is that passing dogs are usually attached by a lead to an owner who can get caught in the crossfire so it doesn't matter if they are HA, they are still dangerous to anyone who walks a dog as well as being deadly to the dogs being walked. Sure they can be trained to behave when the owner is around and desexed ones are generally less likely to start a fight but most will finish a fight rather than give in or let the other dog submit as other breeds do. They may be no more likely to bite than other breeds but when they do bite they inflict horrendous damage due to their jaw strength and tenacity.

Substance is genetically determined and there is no way to predict it in a puppy of any breed or to change the genetic outcome. Her parents are the best guide to what she should end up as. It is perfectly normal for a 5 month old puppy to by gangly. Do not try to push her growth, stick to what the breeder recommends. Many bitches do not fully mature until they have a litter, so if she to be desexed she will probably never be as stocky as a brood bitch.

About 7 year in the ground. VACCINATION SHOULD BE MANDATORY! In NSW it it mandatory by state law that all puppies have to be vaccinated, wormed and microchipped before changing hands at no less than 8 weeks. Doesn't matter if they are free or not, it still has to be done and anyone not doing it should be reported to council.

This is what I was originally thinking, maybe all these chemicals have dried out his skin or ruined his immune system. I just didn't know it it was a plausible hypothesis. I've not heard of CHM for dogs! I had some for pregnancy years ago. Where did you get it from? I use Lyn at Alternative Therapies 02 9606 8922, in western Sydney but she does do phone consults as well. If you want to try a natural diet start with raw mince and add some rice and a few veges like pumpkin and zucchini put through the food processor. Meaty bones are better than mince but the mince can get them started on eating raw. You could also try chicken wings cut into jointed pieces, rather than a carcass to start as well as eggs and canned fish like sardines or tuna. Don't worry about balancing the diet for a month or so, when you can do more research on it. The object is to get rid of the commercial food.

Once you get a bad flea infestation the dog's immune system can go into overdrive and make him react to lots of things he never reacted to before. I had this problem with my boy last year, finally resorting to dreaded cortisone to settle things but then he reacted to that. Now after more than a year of Chinese Herbal Medicine we are almost back to a normal dog. He actually improved on Black Hawk but I still feed mostly raw, so it is only a small part of his diet. A vet I used to go to always recommended a complete raw food trial for a few weeks for any itchy dog. At least half needed no other treatment. If they were still itching after that he would look at other causes.

I find that sometimes alternate seasons are fertile in bitches that cycle every 3-4 months. I have had them come to my stud dogs, miss on the first attempt but conceive with no problems on the next season. In many cases letting them have a litter will sort the hormones out and lengthen the seasons but not always, so be prepared for her to possibly come back in when the litter is only 6-8 weeks old. My last one that had 4 month seasons went to 5-6 months after a litter as did her dam who we mated on her 5th season at just 22 months. If you have a convenient stud dog it is worth a try to just get a mating this time. If not prog test her during her cycle and find out what is going on.

As liver shunt is not a recognised breed problem there is little you or the breeder can do to avoid it happening again. It may be a random congenital problem or it may be hereditary but the mode of inheritance is not known. It would however be wise for the breeder to not breed the parents together again. If either parent produces it again to another partner then they would know it is hereditary and should cease breeding with that line. I am glad the breeder asked for the vet's details. It is better that they hear the diagnosis direct from the vet and at least they are interested. Hopefully they will also offer to refund the purchase price of the puppy regardless of the outcome. A link to some more interesting reading about liver shunts. Liver Shunts

This will take time and patience if he was not separated from his mum and the rest of the pack until 13 weeks. He has never had to be alone and 13 weeks is not a great time to try it for the first time. They need to leave him alone in another room for just a few seconds at a time and gradually build up the time before even attempting to leave him alone outside. If the outside problem is mainly at night they might want to get his eyes tested by a specialist as well. Dogs that do not see well at night can be very spooked about venturing out alone.

Good news that he has stabilised a bit to give you some more time to seek the opinion of a specialist. Get all the info you can before making a decision. I too hope the breeder is supportive but am a little concerned as they sold you two siblings in a very demanding breed and that is not something most good breeders would ever do.