Diva

LOL, that's hilarious. I could do that. Nevermind doing it when you are watching, I'm going to wait until you are handling something behind me

Well it took me a second to get over the mental picture of you stroking your daughters lover on the head, but assuming you are talking about how dogs react - mine don't like the 'thump thump' type patting on the head much, but they love having their ears played with or me stroking the top of their noses. I think it's about the type of touch as much as the location, and how much they trust the person doing it.

...now that's a technique!

Thanks everyone. The general consensus seems to be that I need to leave room in front to move into or move the dog out of lineup and forward to create space. If I see the same handler behind me again, I ask him to leave more space before we enter the ring. And be more assertive in telling him to back off if none of that works. I did consider loudly asking that he get his nose out my arse, but I wasn't sure that was quite the done thing .

Thanks Yarracully. It wasn't a huge deal this time, my dog was unsettled but not freaked out. I just want to better equipped to deal with it next time. And to look professional doing so .

I didn't think to move her into the ring and out of the line, that's maybe what I should have done. I am pretty sure just moving forward wouldn't have helped and I did say something quietly when his dog's nose was up mine's butt, but it made no difference. That's why I went to move behind. I'd like to have some techniques up my sleeve in case I get suprised by someone else. I'm thinking maybe I can teach mine to hold a stack with me standing behind them, to claim the space. Angelsun, you are right I should have spoken up more firmly. It took me by suprise really, I usually show more locally and those handlers with the breeds that end up behind me here don't do it. Thank goodness.

LOL. That's exactly what the person with the breed in front of me said. I was aware of course that it was quite likely just a story, but if they wanted room I didn't mind giving it to them. If I had moved forward in this case I think the guy behind me would have just followed me, but leaving space to move into is a good tip generally. Thanks.

I don't usually use supplements. The only one I have used from time to time is a fish oil or other omega 3 source.

I'm wondering if some of the experienced handlers on here can give me some tips please. I'm very lucky in the breed and group rings locally. There are some highly competitive handlers but they have never interfered with my dogs. Everyone has been very courteous in the ring to me here since I started showing, especially in the breed, and it's appreciated. But at a recent show elsewhere I had someone in the group ring doing a lot of crowding and apparently deliberate interference and I need some advice on how best to handle that because I don't have much of a clue. I'm talking about stacking very close behind me, stepping very close to and brushing against my dogs rear, running so close when my dog was stacked and they were being run-off for group that I had to lean over my dog to save her being brushed against, and letting their dog stand on a loose lead sniffing my dog's butt when the judge was looking elsewhere. I'm a bit naive in this stuff. I always assume good sportsmanship. But the sniffing only stopped when I went to stand behind my dog, just the move to do that had him respond so it wasn't that he was unaware. It was an experienced showie too. And the interference was so obvious that several people commented to me about it afterwards. So I need some advice on how to counter that kind of crappy behaviour without stooping to their level. Should I teach my dogs to stack with me standing behind them, just for these cases? Speak up and complain loudly so that the steward notices? Turn my dog around and face them? How do the good handlers deal with it?

I'll add my 2 cents worth. 40% vegies seems very high to me. I seldom feed more than 5-10% vegies, you may well want to do more than that and many do but 40% seems on the high side. I doubt it would cause a problem in itself, but it displaces other nutritional sources in the diet. By all means feed most of the meat on the bone, eg RMB's, but if they are not all that meaty you can add some pure muscle meat source, something like heart is good, probably pet mince too but I don't use mince much. Too much straight bone too often without enough meat accompanying it can cause things like constipation, and doesn't give enough nutrition. 5% of the diet should be liver. That's important. Another 5% or more is ideally another offal source, like kidneys, brains, pancreas - kidneys are the easiest to get. Eggs and sardines are good occassional additions. Variety in meat sources is also important - feed as many different meat types as you can conveniently and cost-effectively get and your dogs like. Aiming to use at least 2 different meats a week including at least one red meat is good, but more is even better. Remember that you are aiming for balance over time, as in everything in the right proportions over a week or so. Don't feel you have to knock yourself out trying to make complicated single meals thinking every meal must be perfect, if it feels really really complicated you are probably getting carried away

That makes moree sense to me - a fright to the dog and misdirected response. But we need someone with experience in human directed agression, I guess they'll be in here sometime.

OK, fair enough. Certainly my sighthounds would never attack me or any other human because of some noise, no matter how arousing or annoying, even the most high prey drive. Jump up in excitement maybe, but never attack. But I've learnt from these threads that prey drive seems to manifest very differently in non-hound breeds, so I think I'm no help. I just get marks for trying Forgot about the last bit of your question - I think you can direct prey drive, and also suppress it's expression in circumstances you don't want it. But that's a pretty extreme scenario you are talking about for my world. If you were talking about a guinea pig squealing and getting attacked, well I'd feel more able to understand.

I don't think there is enough info in your post to judge what the motivation is. If the animal attacked was making the noise I'd say quite possibly, but it doesn't read like that is the kind of case you mean? I also have never seen prey drive directed towards people in the high prey breeds I know, although I suppose someone will have seen it in other breeds.

Seriously, after this foretaste I don't think I'll bother.

I'm not passing judgement on the speakers. But I sure am on what you are posting. Making statements as fact that are pure assertion, or just purely wrong. Maybe you are reiterating what was presented at the seminar. Perhaps you aren't. Either way its been very, um, let's just leave it at disappointingly illogical and demonstrably ill-informed.

I doubt it. Cute sells. Ugly but nice nature isn't going to move off a puppy farmer's website shopfront anytime soon. On the other bad temperament is hard to show, and hard to live with if the breeder has several dogs. I don't think purebred breeders are ignoring it. If anything, temperaments have become better over the years I have been an observer of the show scene. Oddly enough I often criticise breeders for their priorities. But not for increased breeding of bad temperaments. I just don't see it. What is the evidence for these assertions?

When I got my first pure bred dog back in the eighties none of the breeders I spoke to were concerned that the pets they were placing were desexed at a young age. Not to say that no breeders at all were, but apparently not a lot or I would have run into some. But then the increased farming of dogs, and especially F1 Hybirds, for profit came along and breeders became worried about pups ending up in that circumstance. That seems to me to be what has pushed the early desexing focus the most, at least outside of the rescue area. Most breeders I know - and admittedly I mostly know those with larger breeds - would rather not desex young. Not because they can't tell temperament until age six, I think that's another great exaggeration - but because they believe its better for the individual dog to wait until maturity. But it becomes a balancing of risk And no I don't think it's at all unreasonable, Corvus, to expect people wanting a dog to do their research. And especially if they want a pure bred they have no more experience of than seeing a couple and thinking they look good. They are choosing a companion they may spend 10 or more years living with - of course they should do research!

And if they met their dogs exercise, training and social needs they wouldn't have that. Sure, some individuals in some breeds aren't well suited to suburban life - and all breeds and individuals should be homed with an eye to the best match. But if an owner can't see beyond the cute puppy to the real essence of the breed they are buying that is not a fault of breed diversity. Breeds are part of our cultural heritage. How superficial it is to think we should just throw that away so someone can have a dog that looks like a Beagle or a Husky but acts like a stuffed toy.

Tassie - I've been trying to access the aussie breed standards but obviously their servers aren't coping with current demand, I just get a white error page. I just checked a dozen standards without a hitch :D Maybe if you can't access them wait until you can instead of making false assertions regarding them? I think there are issues which can arise from too much of a focus on show ring success, especially if judges favour the flashy dog over the more breed typical, or breeders get blinded by ribbons and point scores. But to suggest that breeders get together to work out what temperament traits they want in a breed just smacks of such an ignorance of documented breed history, of such a 'lets reinvent the wheel as if we discovered the issue' mentality, it's actually a bit breathtaking.

That's just rot for the ANKC standards, I hope the rest of the points made were better informed than that!

English Toys are mentioned back on page 3 - two entered.

It looks great, what fun they are having. My dogs would love all that snow - not sure I would though!

yes, what he said. When I was walking my first male Borzoi off leash in a quiet parkland area (yes he had recall) and some looney jumped from behind a bush, grabbed me where he shouldn't have and tried to push me off my feet, the dog returned unbidden, sent the guy flying and stood between me him. If the guy had drawn a knife or a baseball bat, who knows, but he thought it wiser to retreat. I'd never rely on it, but boy was I grateful.

Personally, I'd like to see more variety in the meat source, not all chicken and more red meat (in addition to the offal)

There are only 20 'zoi for the Royal! Even that is great. 51 Whippet entries at the Royal, I think it's the largest breed. 14 Irish Wolfhounds!