Diva

" buying a purebred means you have killed a pound puppy". My retort was greeted with much surprise and hurt, I think she was used to people agreeing she had the moral high ground, not pulling her off her high horse (politely of course)

I wouldn't try it with my girls either, rather be safe than sorry. LOL, no, I wasn't suggesting anyone try it. I think it was so striking because it was a bit unusual. My girl certainly didn't share with her pack mate until the pups started eating, then she was quite happy that 'aunty' interact with them, under my watchful eye of course. I was welcome from the beginning, other people were welcome baby sitters from day 2, the cat was a tolerated visitor from about 1 week, but my other bitch received visiting rights a lot later than the rest of us. Eminently sensible.

Thanks. I was hoping 1 m was enough, but suspected not

I think it makes people feel heroic and virtuous. Whether that bears any resemblance to the reality appears irrelevant. Good for getting dogs rescued I guess, which is great, but to me just another way some people use dogs to address their own emotional deficits. Might need to crack out my flame suit, but I have seen it play out in ways that are not good for the dog.

That make sense to me Raineth, if I had to pick one behaviour indicative of chronic abuse it would be learned helplessness.

Yes I am sure, apart from show demand they look to have the makings of a popular family breed. I have been following a fb friend in Europe who has 2 Borzoi litters atm - 17 borzoi pups is a lot of puppy. Happily both mums share nursing duties, apparently not minding if it is one of theirs latching on or one from the other litter. My 2 are fond of each other but I am not sure they would share bubs like that.

I think this is the important point. Often times a lack of socialisation and exposure, or a nervous temperament, might be interpreted as a result of abuse but no actual physical abuse has occured. Or there has been one single adversive incident, but occuring at the right time emotionally to make a big impact on a puppy. If people think the behaviour is a result of abuse, they sometimes treat that as an excuse instead of just working on the behaviour. I edited this because I just thought of a good example of single event learning - when I had my first dog, I forgot one day to put the garbage bin out for collection. And I am ancient enough for this to have been when the bins were metal and men got off the truck to pick them up. My helpful garbo decided to go in the gate to get the bin, the big friendly pup gallomphed up to him. The garbo panicked and threw the bin lid at his feet, and the pup got an awful fright and ran and hid. For his entire life until we moved to green plastic bins this otherwise well balanced, very social, dog was scared of any lifting of the metal bin lid. Not garbage collectors or men, just that lid. You would think he had been repeatedly bashed with it, but he hadn't. (and btw I learnt to padlock gates). These days I would realise he was in a puppy fear period and counter condition the emotional response - back then I just avoided exposing him to the lid. Pretty sure if he ended up in rescue (I and all my family would have to have been dead, lol) people would assume he had been bashed with a bin lid.

A female Borzoi got 2 groups, a young male Borzoi the third. Both Clovelly bred and owned.

well done

I was speaking generally, Diva, and not in reference to this particular case :) I didn't quote you, why would you think I was responding just to you? People were talking about the pound in Canberra not being well known, which is a good point, but not in this case if the dog had history.

This dog had been impounded before according to the article, I doubt its owners were ignorant of where the pound was or how the system worked.

Great news :)

How high should snake exculsion mesh be?

Not a hang up at all - only sensible IMO. Plenty of small dog owners agree with you. :) So do plenty of big dog owners. I avoid off lead play with littlies. It doesn't need an aggressive incident for damage to occur with a big size difference.

It is yet another lesson that you need to go look in pounds yourself if you are looking for a missing dog. Don't rely on staff to tell you if they are there, look.

Mine have had a few lipomas over the years as they aged, they are harmless and have distinctive feel I can recognise. Movable and round sounds not too scary, hope it is just a cyst or something.

I take into account where it is, if it feels attached to flesh or movable, how quickly it appears to be growing etc in judging urgency. Every lump is vet checked, whether I treat it as an emergency varies. But I have never had any turn out to be malignant yet. Had a scare two weeks ago but all OK.

I would take her to the vet for the injection, I believe if you intend to keep her entire it may affect the timing and fertility of her next season, but that would still be my course of action. I cannot comment on the risks associated with the size difference.

I don't wish for new laws, just that the current laws are complied with. Those who breach leash laws can in no way be considered responsible owners. There is no more room for a loose dog on our suburban and city footpaths than there is for a drunk driver on our freeways, it is that fundamental a public safety issue. If people continue to think they are above such rules, we will end up with more and more outright bans, and they will be deserved.

For 20 or so years of dog walking I wasn't worried by charging dogs. I had had big dogs with excellent social skills, and I have reasonable dog skills myself. I knew most charging dogs weren't going to run in for an actual fight, and those that did my dogs could handle, either defuse with calming signals or stand up to. Then a couple of years ago I was out walking two young dogs, one maybe 7 months, the other a year older. And 2 unaccompanied GSD's came charging across several hundred metres of open ground to attack the puppy. They didn't listen to me. They didn't even acknowledge I was there. They didn't pause to check us out before closing in. No owners in sight. I couldn't physically fight them off. I was battling just to stay on my feet in the melee. If my older girl hadn't fought them off, the pup would have been history. I believe in hindsight that they were prey motivated; they saw the big fluffy white pup as prey. When my girl told them unequivocally they needed to go through her to get the pup they took off to look for easier pickings. Her fighting skills were amazing, I knew they could, but I had never seen them use that speed and power in anger before. Despite my best efforts, when large loose dogs come charging I now have to fight to stay calm. I am able to do so only because if I don't my girl might feel she has to protect us again, and I don't want that load on the shoulders of an essentially gentle and soft natured dog. Several times since we have been attacked by single dogs, twice so dramatically passing motorists stopped to get help us get free. Some days I personally don’t have the intestinal fortitude to risk it, and we drive somewhere else to walk or don’t go at all. It is almost a post-traumatic stress, not easy to overcome. I reported all the major incidents, but the only time the authorities showed any interest was when I knew the address of the attacking dog as it had come bursting out of the front door to run across the road and have a go - the other times they basically said nothing they could do.

Long lines and extendable leashes may not meet your legal obligations in an on-lead area anyway, sometimes the regs stipulate maximum lead length.

Yes, I knew how you were using it, I didn't even need the italics. I took your framing and used it to make my own point, which was that statistics across population are not what resonates with the average person, indeed they are essentially irrelevant in the public debate. I entirely agree that we need existing laws enforced in full.

Trouble is I can choose to stay out of a dark alley. I can't control someone else's dog bursting out of a door unless I stay off the street altogether. I think the general public get frightened by these kind of dog attacks because they are in broad daylight, on people just walking down the street, and so apparently random. Human on human attacks that are stranger based and random scare us in the same way. Domestic violence or attacks from a known person don't cause so much angst because we all feel some control- we believe it won't happen to us - but this could have been anyone on the street that day. I don't find the comparative stats make much difference to people's thinking about the risk, it is particular types of unmitigatable risks that cause a reaction.

I am not so sure of that. I was around in the 70s. News got around a lot slower, but something like this still made the print media across the country.