poodlefan

Patella luxation isn't a "disease" at all but a consquence of certain structural issues in the dog's hind legs. Its as endemic in crossbreds as it is in any breed you care to name. Selection for different structure would be as effective as banning inbreeding. Indeed, once you've got a structure in Chi's that mitigates against the risk of PL, you "inbreed" to increase its occurence. But not under the new world order you don't.

Don't you just love it.. .the hunting down and elimination of "inbreeding" purebred dog breeders will fire up while any BYB can cross any damn breeds they like and that will be just fine. So all those crossbreds with luxating patellas, hip issues, liver shunt (not uncommon in a certain very popular SWF cross) will continue to be produced. Or will they.. because without the purebred base stock, there won't be any definable crossbreds. Hope the pounds will be ready for the massive influx of dogs bought with the expectaion of certain characteristics and offloaded when they won't turn out that way. My "inbred" Whippet came from a litter of 9 (so much for inbreeding depression) and has had one unscheduled vet visit - for a skin tear after going through a wire fence. But hey, all those non-inbred dogs with cherry eye, skin allergies, dodgy knees, HD, ED, and other conditions - far superior from the point of genetic health. Seriously what a crock. As Steve keeps saying, its not genes that are the issue here but selection. And if you breed shit to shit, you get shit no matter what the breeds involved.

However, in this case I'm not asking the dog to perform a desired behaviour. I'm reinforcing it NOT performing an undesired behaviour. We're not putting silence on cue here. If the device is only producing treats a few times a day, I don't see how a dog is meant to link barking with a treat not being produced minutes or hours later??

Top four placing in each class or the entire show? Frankly I've seen many worthy dogs not get a place in a class at a speciality. When you have 25+ in a class, that's a given. How would it work for rare breeds or breeds that don't have specialities? And where's the evidence of all these ANKC registered purebreds ending up in pounds??

For sure, but if done correctly, could also produce some great results? I think the low uric acid Dallies are a great example. I believe that one of the Neurologists also believed that Syringomyelia could be removed from Cavs with the introduction of another breed like a Jack Russel, to improve the skull structure? So lets take a breed renowned for its low prey drive, high bite inhibition and high bite threshold and cross it with a breed that has high prey drive and lows for both of those other characteristics. How suitable will each of the offspring be as the gentle, placid family pets that attract the CKCS's legions of fans at the moment? The answer is no one will know. I don't call that a good outcome.

And whelpings tell me otherwise. If you mate two totally unrelated merle dogs or Overo marked paint horses, the result may be lethal white offspring - that happens whether or not the parents are "inbred". Mating any animal to another which carries a dominant gene will produce offspring that carry and display that gene. If genetics was easy, we'd have this stuff sorted by now. I'm not averse to changes in breeding practices by the way. I am averse to the idea that one change (abolish 2nd degree breeding) will solve the issue. I can tell you that the biggest genetic lotteries of all come with mating two different breeds.You tell me if you mate a breed selectively bred for a low trigger to bite but a very high level of bite inhibition to a breed with a very high trigger to bite but very low bite inhibition which of those qualities the pups will inherit. The offspring might will be more genetically diverse - and some of them will have very low bite triggers and low bite inhibition. Just what we want to have as family pets? This is a real example by the way. My personal view is that much of the time we don't know what we're producing with breed hybrids. So the idea of introducing "foreign" genes into breeds can produce highly undesirable results.

Not any more.. I've kicked a LOT of breed tyres over the years but I think I've found the breeds I will stick to: Whippets Poodles (Miniatures and Toys) I am lucky enough to have many friends who have their own preferred breeds that I like but don't necessarily want to own.. Mostly hounds and gundogs. Borzoi and Irish Wolfhounds are wonderful dogs but I can't see one getting through my dog door I NEED someone I know to get a Bracco Italiano() for me to smooch but I do prefer to live with dogs that don't have flews ;)

1.8m black cyclone mesh sounds like the go.

1. Report the incident. That sounded like a pretty serious dog and you did well to get Kobi out of it as you did. 2. Just make sure to socialise Kobi as soon as you can with dogs you know will behave appropriately. Its scarey when it happens, isn't it.

I can tell you right now that the genetic lottery is no more certain in an outcross. Mate two dogs of different lines and recessive genes can still deliver a whammy.

What is suggests to me is that we don't have a clear understanding of the links between breed characteristics and other genetic issues. What's where in a DNA chain is still a big unknown. We do know that there are links between some colours and health issues. We could reduce a lot of health conditions by banning all black, black and tan and white dogs.. is that somewhere we should be heading?

You know those massively obese dogs you see on the news sometimes. They're usually loved too. Love is not a substitute for meeting a dog's needs. Most understimulated dogs have mental health issues of some sort or another IMO. As I said initally, it was great that John Grogan hung in there. I'm only sorry that all the tolerance didn't translate into a better result for dog and family in the early days. One positive thing I suppose is that anyone who's seen the film will know what a young, bored and untrained Lab can be like.

It had no scent. The cold spray was delivered onto the dog's neck, not near its nose. It was an interrupter that was mildly aversive. They added lemon a while later so that people could tell whether or not the collar had been triggered. If this new device scales down to only delivering a few treats a day, how much incentive is that for a dog not to bark? Is the expectation that the dog will hang around the device all day waiting for it to deliver a treat?

That wasn't my point. Marley didn't necessarily need a different, more experienced owner. He needed one that didn't write him off as stupid.

What on earth are you on about?? How can the ANKC recognise a dog if there aren't any here. Are you suggested that unregistered dogs be imported and used? If you're talking about dogs that don't carry a gene, that's one thing. There are plenty of disease free Dals in the country. Lets not lose sight of that.

I do not think anyone denies that, I certainly do not. I believe ANKC breeders care greatly and want to breed healthy dogs. However being committed to health and good at applying test to diseases, is not the same as addressing the underlying issue of why so many diseases have become so common in our breeds that is necessary to develope all these tests in the first place. Have you ever considered the possibility that one partial reason for this is improved veterinary diagnostics that can both diagnose specific conditions and identify genetic components for them. A classic comment from my vet in an issue I experienced with one of my dogs.. "he's a purebred so there's probably a genetic component for this".. You know what, there are genetic components to many issues in dogs regardless of whether or not they're purebred. Amazes me somewhat that with all the changes in nutrition and the chemicals dogs are exposed to, any issue a purebred has is generally considered to be inherited. Not always...

Yes. Agree. It will be interesting to see if Australia follows. Ok so I guess that means that the disease free dals are still not allowed in the ANKC, so all pups bought from ANKC breeders do not have the diesase free gene. So what will take for the parent club to do something, it has been 20 years? Maybe we can have the honor of following the UK and US pathway to change. Prime time evening TV coverage, followed by a government inquiry into the welfare of breeding in the ANKC. The Gardener and the RSPCA doing the morning TV rounds and all ending in government panel of experts writing a formal letters to the parent club saying game over now. . I don't see how disease free Dals can be allowed in the ANKC registry if there are none in the country. If the dogs are registered by the CC in their country of origin, they'll be registered when they get here.

Now there's a statement by a person of credibility that needs to be picked up and run with. Don't expect Mr Burke will acknowledge that any time soon though. Wouldn't suit his purpose at all.

I once taught a "repeat beginners" class of about 8 dogs.. every one an adolescent Lab or GR. Gee we had fun!! Light bulbs came on for all of them.

Maybe we're coloured by our hander training experience Espinay. I've seen plenty of instructors come off the paddock shaking their heads and saying something to the effect of "nice dog, shame about the handler" Some see an owner who'll stick by their dog through thick and thin (and I commend that). Others see what might have been... vive la difference.

But WAS Marley "different"? Labs like Marley find there way into detection work all the time.. High drive, high energy and bored and destructive in 'pet' homes that don't meet their needs. Suggesting that Marley was living his life 'left of centre' might be one way of explaining it. Sounds a lot less attractive to suggest that perhaps he needed more from his owners than they gave him in his early years. I wonder what Marley's breeder made of it all.

One trainer... not the whole training world. Most trainers would probably tell them they needed a few private lessons. And lets not forget we've only got his side of the story. I've heard plenty of statements from handlers that were somewhat coloured to put it politely.

Telling them might ramp up the situation. Just DO it. From the sound of things the rangers won't be having any issues finding them.

I absolutely guarantee that will manifest in a more confident handler next time out.. and a better dog performance as a result.

I don't think its a riduculous idea. I simply doubt its efficacy. Would I buy one? No. I fitted jet spray collars (not citronella) to my barking boys for a few months after a barking complaint. They haven't worn them in a very long time but I've not had a complaint since the original one. One collar is now with someone with a Pharoah Hound that's been barking up a storm - and again its working. They wouldn't work on some 'tougher' breeds but they sure did the job on these dogs. The idea of having to have this device fuelled up to dispense treats every day for the rest of the dog's life doesn't seem to be a better proposition to me. The aversive tackled the problem. This device won't. You can already buy a device that can be timed to cough up rewards. Its called a manners minder. I do wonder how obsessive some dogs could become about it.