Diva

My dogs refused to eat it.

I’m so sorry

Mine don’t care. They don’t pay any attention to other deliveries either. They don’t care about any stranger who comes during the daytime unless I appear to. Also a breed thing, sighthounds.

I haven’t followed this closely. Perhaps/probably they should be penalised in some way for taking him in in the first place rather than calling wildlife folk? Maybe part of any money they make should go to wildlife rescue. And I’d hate to see the publicity and social media encourage others to do the same, I think that is a real concern. But taking the bird now feels like a poor welfare decision for the bird. If it can’t be released why not leave it where it is and advise on how to maximise its welfare in situ. It feels like taking it is to punish the humans but not so good for the bird , particularly if it comes and goes now at its own choosing.

We recently have had wild dog/dingo sightings. Local govt people who should know tell me the wild dogs around here are 75%-85% dingo by dna research. They have only come since the feral pig and deer numbers have kicked up. And I have decided to resist peer pressure and not let ‘my’ shooter go after them. Only cattle on our place, and hundreds of kangaroos, wallaroos and wallabies. I reckon the dingoes are doing their bit to control total grazing pressure. We abut hundreds of hectares of state forest and national park. Closest neighbour with sheep is several kms away and has great double fencing all round. I don’t know if I am doing the right thing or how long I can hold out, if neighbours start losing stock I will have to shift probably. But it’s an ecosystem out of balance, and a top predator has its place.

The traumatic effects on the owners of attacked dogs seems to be vastly underrated or uncared about. My own dogs are big, but watching two German Shepherds, running loose in my suburb, trying to get ‘get’ my on-lead six month old pup left me with lots of trauma - if I hadn’t had an older dog with me that fought back hard they would have had her, for the attacking dogs paid no attention to me trying to stop them. It was just the scariest of several attacks in suburban streets over the years, twice we even had passing motorists rescue us, as the owners of attacking dogs were so useless. These days I doubt I would stay on my feet in the face of that assault, so we don’t walk locally anymore, I drive to walk which is crazy. We ‘should’ be safe walking on a suburban street. But nope, entitled p***ks let their dogs off lead everywhere. Just keep your dogs on lead in on lead areas, it’s not much to expect.

I got kicked in the face by a dog that was jumping off the bed, and got a black eye. Was a bit hard to explain convincingly to non-dog people. But most big dog owners just nodded, .

That’s a scary prophecy, I once minded a Chi for a weekend. Too much dog for me!

I’ve tried hard to find a smaller dog I’d want to own to make the practicalities easier as I get older, but there isn’t one. I really only want to own Borzoi, which I have had for decades, and Belgian Shepherds, which I used to own but don’t have the lifestyle for these days. So I guess once I age out of those breeds I’m done with dogs.

They exist around here. They are not restricted in the ACT. I don’t think they are in the NT either. You wouldn’t know they were banned in adjacent areas of NSW either by how commonly I see them. Whether they are completely ‘pure’ I can’t say, but they look it.

It’s pretty hard to give advice off a short description and not knowing how hard she is biting. She might think the play is too rough, she might be worried about someone getting hurt, or jealous, or she might just be overstimulated by it and acting out. Some dogs do act like the ‘fun police’ and break up rough play. I think the owner needs a good behaviouralist to make a home visit and observe what is going on. They will probably recommend management to remove the risk in the immediate term and desensitisation to reduce the arousal level and teach alternative behaviours. But with kids involved it needs expert help.

Maybe try calling Dogs Victoria and asking if they know of any. Or if you are on Facebook there is a group called Australian Dog Show Newbies which is good for such questions. I believe that Peter Frost used to run some at Bulla, and I think Ashley Reid used to give lessons somewhere not far from KCC Park. But I am not Victorian and haven’t shown for years, so am a bit out of touch.

Well I’m not really ‘starting’ with anyone. Just expressing some thoughts as the thread asked. I didn’t know that transcervical can’t be done with older semen but it is heartbreaking if so. That genetic material is so precious.

I can’t answer the club question from an Australian perspective - the breeds that interest me are too numerically small, so are the clubs and they don’t have that kind of capacity. A question for the bigger players. I don’t think a test for heterozygosity is an answer in itself though. How to best use the diversity within a breed is a bigger question than that. Some US breeders did get together to get a population genetic diversity study done for my breed- through UC Davis and Better Bred. It found a healthy breed despite - or maybe because of?- limited haplotype diversity, including as I recall some unique in their database at the time. The first report was disappointingly poor to me - suggested that Australia had a genetically distinct population. Based on my dogs. Which at the time were mostly direct Scandi and USA imports. No-one checked their origins with me before writing that significant conclusion. It affected my personal view of the credibility of the study. Final report a bit better but still felt detached from the coal face. I don’t think the study has been used much if at all to influence breeding decisions. I still test. I no longer subscribe to Better Bred, not worth it for me, but I did run the numbers on potential matings before dropping it, and I might join again to use the program at some point. But my experience with that study is partly why I think a lot more science interpretation is needed for real impact. For context, I have a science degree and a lifetime of working in the public policy:science interface. Pathways to influence and end user adoption are issues in many public good type areas where there are lots of small actors. It is a skill in itself. Not unique to the dog world.

I agree with selecting away from physical extremes that harm health, and changing the show emphasis on those extremes. It’s already happening and has for a while, but in a patchy way. I also agree with Rebanne about breeding to older dogs, especially in breeds where issues aren’t testable. Arbitrary breeding regs work against that. I don’t think selecting for less extreme types will trickle down to the wider population of pet dogs being bred though. Not anymore. Just take a look at the extreme Bully industry. Plenty of pet dog breeders have embraced unhealthy extremes and are not influenced by the traditional show world - they just call them elitist snobs and get social media applause for it. Double Merle long coat teacup Frenchie anyone? They are so ‘special’. But back to the purebred world, I would like to see more education for show breeders on how to manage genetic diversity and how to best use current science to improve population health - need some genetics educators that can look holistically at all issues and opportunities, not just test by test. However that kind of knowledge brokering needs resources, and the purebred world as a collective, at least in Australia, doesn’t have the kind of money people assume it does.

As far as DogsandTheMob’s link goes, I agree. I got out of that ‘one perfect ideal’ thinking by seeing my breed across the world and listening to different breeders’ views. I don’t like all the types, but I can appreciate their virtues. And our breed standard has room for all of them. The big kennels’ distinct lines have largely disappeared for economic and demographic reasons, but also because people tend to look down on line breeding and strive for more genetic diversity so blend types more readily. (And, less positively, popular sire syndrome.) Oddly, I think what works for genetic diversity at the individual level works against it at a population level- those separate lines served a good purpose in maintaining distinct gene pools within a breed and population level diversity, instead of the current trend towards a mishmash. As far as focussing on modern demands, to me dogs are becoming like fast food. A market dominated by a few generic, mass produced, well marketed ‘brands’. The trend to devalue breed standards and history, in favour of the generic, sh*ts me to tears. What we lose is not easily regained. Yep, breeds have always adapted and so they should, but in my breed those aristocrats did a damn good job and I don’t want the focus to be on changing the breed to make them suited to the ‘average’ modern pet dog household. They never were average, they never will be common, they are far too big and hairy to be convenient, but what they bring is enriching, precious, and highly valued by those who are looking for something other than Maccas. I know some standards are dodgy around health issues, but ours isn’t. It promotes a functional dog and I don’t think anything is to be served by messing with it. Apologies for such a long post!!

It’s just how our federated system of government works. It’s a state area of responsibility. Getting states to standardise systems or harmonise regulations takes a heap of facilitation and incentive and I’d say that no govt has seen a compelling enough benefit to drive it. States rarely self-organise to harmonise. Usually when it happens it is because the Commonwealth takes a lead and inputs effort and $$, and the Comm do so because there is a compelling national interest argument or they have to have the states help to deliver a legal responsibility of their own. In dogs, there isn’t sufficient reason for the Commonwealth to make it their problem when they have no head of power and no economic or political driver. They have done their bit with the border and biosecurity controls. And the individual states can’t see enough benefit to drive it themselves. Lots of issues like that.

I usually pop the ones not going outside while I take whoever is to the car. Then I go back and let the others inside. It’s just to avoid lots of ‘pick me’ excited behaviours around the door. They have quickly worked out that routine and don’t seem to worry too much when they can’t actually see the lucky one go. They are very good in the house, never any accidents and damage is confined to a cushion becoming a toy from time to time. I can live with that. Mine have no separate anxiety, just lots of desire not to miss out.

Your email doesn’t sound like you were trying to get to the bottom of anything though. It doesn’t contain any questions or interrogate the issue. Just lots of ‘you failed’ and ‘I expect more’ type comments. That doesn’t tend to lead to constructive responses and putting myself in their shoes I can see why. Their response reads to me like a busy and confident vet acknowledging the mistake but letting you know that they would be very happy to not have you as a client. How much that matters depends I suppose on how easy vet behaviourists are to find and whether the current one gives favourable rates to the rescue.

I’m amazed the vet dropped the script off in your mailbox. That is great service and it wouldn’t happen here. Nor could I ring and expect to get them on the phone- they ring back if it’s a complicated matter but mostly exchange messages through the nurses. Vet practice is hectic these days. Tbh, it sounded like you were complaining for no particular purpose except to reprimand them. It didn’t seem that you were seeking any obvious outcome or redress, you just wanted to list their faults. Maybe to put it on the record for the rescue? It would have been better for them to have given a more sincere apology but I am not surprised they suggest you go elsewhere. They likely care a lot that they made an error, but probably not much about your complaint. I don’t think pursing it would get you anywhere, if their reputation is strong a one off error that has been acknowledged and that led to no consequences isn’t going to count for anything much. Good job on picking up on it though, the little dog is lucky to have you looking out for them.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-20/dog-found-five-months-after-fleeing-car-crash-broken-hill/102997988 some heart warming news for a change

In this case I wouldn’t go too far down the path of assuming the dog had no prior history of aggression. Still a lot to be learnt. There is a public document that says the dog was so reactive that the female owner needed a prong collar to walk it in public. I don’t know what that means for human aggression - most dog reactive dogs, as far as I know, are only that way to other dogs, but there is a trainer somewhere who may have insight. Absolutely agree that necropsies need to be part of the investigation tho’.

I have a friend who lives locally and told me some of it the day after it happened. It’s partly why I am so confounded by the incident. No obvious answers.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12642811/amp/Dog-attack-Allens-Rivulet-Rottweiler-Tasmania.html A lot more info in this article.

Thanks DogsAndTheMob, I’ll have a look for the interviews. It’s the appropriateness of the response stuff that interests me, why they target who they do and why they escalate. I’ve owned very large dogs all my life, but their social conflict resolution has always been more like a ballet than a fight. Actual harm done within a household is just beyond my experience and understanding.