dancinbcs

It was an great seminar and Pat is so entertaining to listen to. She has one more to do in Melbourne this week but told us after the seminar last night that she does not plan to come back down under again. She finds the flight too long, so those of us that saw her this time were very lucky.

You can lifetime register your dog with the state govt at any council or agent, it doesn't have to be your actual council. For example, Renbury Farm animal shelter have the contract to act as the pound for several different council areas and dogs can be registered there that are going to live in any area. I register mine there because the staff know what they are doing better than the council staff do. I could however go to say Coffs Harbour or Wagga and register a dog that resides in Sydney. It doesn't matter where you lodge the registration so long as it is registered within the state.

The Companion Animals Act that covers the whole of NSW does not allow any council to apply limits to numbers unless a complaint is made about a particular dwelling. If a complaint is made the council can resolve the problem as they see fit. Dogs are actually not required to be registered with the council but with the State Govt and the details of which dogs are registered in the area are passed on to each council by the govt.

This is the first I have heard of "black dog syndrome" but I can understand that black is an unlucky colour for some Asian people. When I worked at a shelter we never had problems with black dogs, it was brindle, plain short coated tans blue speckled or white with heavy ticking that were less likely to find a home. Personally I love black animals of all kinds and have owned not only black dogs for many years but also black cats and a black horse. My only stipulation is that they need to be a true black, not a dark brownish or washed out colour. Nothing else shines like a true black coat. I like black because in both dogs and horses, it is actually a much rarer colour than brown. Black may be common in some breeds of dog but across all breeds the majority are various shades of gold, tan or brown. I would be happy to have a dog of just about any colour except brindle, merle or speckled, none of which I find at all attractive in any breed.

Not low shedding, but low coat care would be a Smooth Collie. Collies make wonderful family pets, are easy to train, medium size, get on with other herding breeds but aren't anywhere near as energetic as a Border Collie. A Rough Collie would be perfect except the coat does need grooming of about half an hour a week (plus baths when required) but the Smooth variety would be less than that. It never ceases to amaze me the number of people who want a dog but restrict themselves to a handful of non-sheddig breeds that need expensive clipping and grooming, rather than looking at all breeds and be prepared to do a bit of brushing. Most pet owners are not up to the grooming of an OES but many long coated breeds are no more work than the shorter coats that shed all the time. I wonder if the OPs friend realises that most non-shedding breeds need professional clipping and grooming every 6 weeks for life.

If they get really pushy, refer them to another breeder you don't particularly like and let them deal with them.

With so many shonky breeders of Toy Poodles around, I suggest you start with a few successful show breeders and go from there. If they don't have any puppies they should be able to refer other reputable breeders who may or may not show their dogs. A dog show would be a good place to start talking to breeders.

I have had dogs stop growing in height any time from 6 to 18 months. It is an individual thing with each dog, with some growing early, then stopping and others growing more slowly for a longer time.

A 90cm or 36" crate is fine for most BCs for transport or shows and is ok for smaller Borders to sleep in but I would not put my male (who is not quite at the top of the size standard) in one that size to sleep all the time. A 36' crate measures 60cm or 24" tall and wide and that is just a bit small for my male to sit and stand in without his ears touching the top. He sleeps in a 36" crate in the car when we travel because that is the size that fits in the car but if I needed a crate for him to sleep in all the time at home I would go for one size up. Most Borders sleep stretched right out, not curled up, so they need a crate wider and taller than they are, sitting it standing, to the top of the ears and long enough for them to lie stretched out flat on their back with their legs extended.

I prefer to disturb the bitch as little as possible when they are born so don't really touch them much until they have all arrived and the bitch has settled. I check for the sex, note down the markings and leave it at that. Once they are all settled or there is a long wait between puppies, I put the scales next to the box and quickly weigh them before giving them back to the mum. All of my bitches have been very stressed if any of the puppies are moved to anywhere they can't touch them in the first few days so I tend to leave them be as much as possible. I do make early preferences but try not to and do a full assessment at 6 and then 8 weeks. The only things I cannot pick with my breed is how big they will grow and how high the ears will lift. Other than that I have never been wrong assessing my litters or anyone else's.

Wishing Chester a full, if slow recovery from his surgery. The toughest part is the essential rest so it can heal properly but the few dogs I know of that have had elbow or shoulder surgery have made a full recovery.

I had a Border Collie many years ago that had gout with very high uric acid levels and crystals forming in her joints. I know this is only supposed to happen in Dallies but my girl definitely had a uric acid problem. The only way I could work out a diet avoiding purines was to feed her canned salmon or tuna, vegetables, dairy and home made dog biscuits without any meat in them. She lived on that combination for a whole year and never looked better. How coat was amazing and the uric acid problem settled down. We monitored her levels with blood tests every few weeks and eventually weaned her off the diet as the uric acid levels returned to normal. From memory we had to avoid meat (especially organ meat), chicken, stock cubes or any concentrated stock and sardines. Most fish cat food contains sardines so that was ruled out and we resorted to pure canned salmon or tuna for humans. Milk, cheese and yoghurt all helped to add some variety and keep calcium levels up and the veges provided vitamins and fibre. The homemade dog biscuits, to give her something to chew on, were multi grain and flavoured with malt or molasses . At the time every dry dog food contained meat or chicken but these days, one of the newer fish varieties might be alright if they don't contain sardines.

I live an hour east of Brisbane Dancinbcs (by the way you forgot to add the 'g' in your siggie :-D ) check out the Southern Moreton Bay islands http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Moreton_Bay_Islands and we didn't flood in the Brizzie floods either (and I know that last sentence is grammatically bad bad bad ) Fair enough, except this breeder is not on an island but is actually west of Brisbane. My siggie is the first 6 letters of my prefix with BCs on the end and there is no "g" in the prefix because it is a combination of parts of names, nothing to do with dancing anyway.

The health survey is still open and information is collected every day. Will there ever be a report that we can read? and if so when? As a breeder how do I find out about what it says about my breed? Yes there will be a report and when is variable depending on breed - we discuss various issues with some of our breeders to help them to assess any potential risk factors in their breeding programs and we have a private breeders forum which can be used to do that. In the short term at least the information from the health surveys will only be available to our members. The fact that the information would only be available to members was not stated when we all took the time to participate in the survey. If I had known that I wouldn't have bothered.

Talking with parents of other children with behavioural problems. like Shyfig, will be an immense help because the rest of really don't understand what it is like to be in that position. And don't feel guilty about thinking sociopath thoughts. A lot of sociopaths do start out with problems like this and if their parents do not take it seriously and get help early they end up being a major problem to themselves and society. Your son may not be headed down that path but he does seem to have a problem of some sort and early intervention can work wonders in so many behavioural problems.

Sorry Dancinbcs, I'm a bit stupid today.....what were they trying to breed? I assume they meant to say "high drive" but who knows because they want to sell for show, competition and pets. No one needs a high drive pet. It is a new breeder that has achieved zero with the dogs they have so far in any type of competition and the lines they have are not what I would consider high drive anyway. No matter what purpose you need any breed of dog for, a highly strung temperament is highly undesirable.

Good idea. If it was caused by running her with another dog then I would be complaining and expect some sort of compensation because it should not have been allowed to happen. If she did it by chewing the wire in her run then you can't do much about it except realise it will probably happen if you kennel her again. Some kennels won't take BTs, Amstaffs or Pitbulls because they can so easily chew straight through chainwire. I have seen a chainwire run completely detroyed overnight by a BT at a boarding kennel and it caused quite a bit of damage to it's face in the process. The only safe enclosure for one that wants to escape is solid heavy duty weldmesh that is too thick to chew.

I do agree that the limit register has been used the wrong way. It was originally intended to stop dogs being exported by dealers without the breeders consent and to stop anyone breeding with dogs with obvious faults, like undescended testicles, blue eyes in breeds that don't allow it, or dogs with bad conformation. The intention was never to prevent any new breeders entering the world of purebred dogs. Any litter that is all limit registered is a wasted litter, contributing nothing to the future of the breed, yet there are constant ads on DOL for breeders that buy all their breeding stock, only sell dogs on limit and never seem to keep anything themselves. These are not the type of breeders we need for the future. In some litters there will not be any dogs worth breeding with, most litters will have at least one stand out and some will have a few worthy breeding candidates, so it would be hard to set any sort of number that should be main registered. The rule of thumb for improving a breed is to only breed with progeny as good or better than the parents. If only we could mark microchip records with "not for export" and large scale puppy farms were outlawed then breeders may again feel confident about selling puppies on main again. Even here on DOL if any new person expresses an interest in becoming a breeder, they are jumped on and interrogated, told all the negatives and never given any encouragement. The majority of registered breeders only ever stayed "in dogs" for about 5-10 years, showing a few dogs and breeding just a few litters. Without new breeders constantly coming into purebred dogs the numbers will continue to decline rapidly.

I miss seeing well bred Maltese of good temperament. Would be interesting to see how many Maltese pups were put on to the Limited Register in 1987 and in the following years. The practice did not stop unregistered breeders using Maltese to produce crossbred SWFs in their thousands but I suppose it kept the competition down in the show ring. Souff edited for s & g I really don't think the showring has much to do with Malt numbers. Even when they were at an all time high with registrations there were very few shown. Keeping a Malt is a full show coat is not for the faint hearted and as a result they have never been a popular show dog, they were always much more popular as a pet so they could be scissored or clipped off to a more managable coat. For some reason the show dogs need a coat that drags on the ground so they lead rather restricted lives with their coats rolled up in "crackers" to protect it between shows. No one keeps a dog in show coat when it retires from the ring, they are trimmed back to at least clear of the ground so they can run and play like normal dogs.

Grammar errors make me laugh but outright stupid comments in dog ads just leave me I have seen an ad for my breed and they think they are located 1 hour East of Brisbane I hope their dogs can swim. Another one strives to breed "highly strung" dogs. Why would anyone want a dog from them?

Some interesting statistics on ANKC registrations 1987 Toy Group – 15775 Aust Silky – 2425 Cav KCS- 2085 Maltese- 2008 Pug-522 Terrier Group- 10021 Amstaff-0 Bull Terrier-3359 SBT-1913 2010 Toy Group – 10134 Aust Silky – 273 Cav KCS- 2942 Maltese- 315 Pug- 1495 Terrier Group-11770 Amstaff-1625 Bull Terrier-977 SBT-4695

Don't be fooled into thinking that one methodology is more right than another - it doesn't matter what I or other breeders do or don't do - each breeder is different; all that is ultimately relevant is what the breeder of your preferred puppy does. I charge quite a bit more for a Main Registered puppy Vs Limited Registered puppy. You're paying for bloodlines, knowledge, travel, importing, extra support, guarantees etc even at 2500 - 3000 per pup you are getting a bargain. For me the notion that all pups cost the same to raise and therefore all pups are equal in price is a furphy. Works for some, good for them. Doesn't work for me, so I don't do it. Rare breeds like yours that involve a lot of imports are a whole different scenario to numerically strong breeds like ours. The op is after a show Border Collie and this is a breed with practically no imports. We export far more than import because Australia has the best show Borders in the world. I think most breeders charge considerably more if they export a dog for breeding because they are losing that dog from their gene pool here and the breed costs much more anyway in the countries we export to. BCs sold locally though are all sold at the same price regardless of register and colour. We prefer not to penalise anyone that wants to show by charging them more and if they don't want to show they don't get a main register dog. Getting new showies into a breed with big numbers is very difficult because it is so hard for a novice to win even a class with a good dog, let alone title it. A rare breed can go out week in week out, pick up points and end up in the group line-up even if it is mediocre, so showing them is a lot more appealing to a newcomer.

I don't remember the one I had shedding much if at all. She did grow some longer curls that sun bleached and needed to be trimmed. She was just a pet that had lived on a farm and she could lie around if there was nothing happening or run like the wind when let go in the park. In the really hot weather I ran the dogs at night and would lose sight of the curly because she had no white markings like the BC. One call would bring her thundering back through the dark, more often then not to send me flying because I didn't see her coming. But she had a great recall. Oh, and she could also hop a 6' fence in the blink of an eye but never ran away. The Curly breeder I went to, looking for a show puppy before that, used to both show her dogs and work them in the field. This was before I got my first Border 28 years ago and at that time most breeds, including BCs did not have any division between show and working lines. My first BC bitch was sibling to 8 champions from 4 litters and the rest of those litters all went onto farms as full time working dogs.

Curlies are one breed I looked at getting years ago and then I minded one for a friend for 6 months. I don't find them reserved but they are much more active than Labs and Goldies. The one I minded was a good match energy wise for my Border Collie. They are very full on, active working dogs and they really do need access to water on a regular basis to be happy. That is why I didn't get one as I am not really a fan of water activities. The coats are very easy to look after with a weekly brush, occassional trim and you always let them dry naturally after a bath or swim, so no dryer needed.

Our vets wouldn't need a ga to x-ray something like that. They even did my girls spine last year with two different views with no ga. I would be getting an x-ray first to rule out anything urgent like bone cancer, then look at chiro, cartrophen, acupunture, etc once you have ruled out actual damage to the bone.