poodlefan

Another lovely dog.. Jo Kramer's had a good day!!

me too! I have DCC. Ch Taejaan Caught in the Act (Kramer/Rule-Steele).. very nice dog.

Can't wait to hear the Whippet results!!!

Are you suggesting that every BC/JRT cross in a litter will be the ideal combination of temperament and conformatiom for flyball? You can put that idea to bed for a start. It simply doesn't happen. Lurchers are generally not first crosses btw. Poor breeding practices do not provide sufficient justification IMO to desert long established breeds in favour of unpredictable combinations of breeds that generally do not come from the highest calbre of breed representatives in the first place. To suggest that going to a puppy farmed first cross (for the most part) will guaranteee a better chance of temperament and conformation is simply not the case. God knows, most of us have seen our share of temperament and conformation disasters in DDs but of course courtesy of the media we don't tend to hear as much about them. There are plenty of wonderful DDs. There are plenty of wonderful, healthy, sane purebreds. If you think purebreds are so prone to issues Corvus, why do you now own two??? If purebreds are such disasters, why is crossing two of them supposed to solve the problem? Shit luck shouldn't see generations and hundreds of years of selective breeding ignored in favour of dogs that come with a bunch of claims that many simply can't live up to.

Just watched that - look to be Bostons and an elderly Stafford. Lucky escape for the occupants - the house looks trashed.

So does my Whippet. Perhaps because he wasn't socialised with rabbits but has been with small dogs.

Not in this Territory if you want to hunt them and kill them using dogs.

Perhaps not but I cannot name a purebred dog whose development stopped at F1 crosses and that in which a very great deal of it's physical and temperament characteristics don't conform to a pretty narrow standard. A dog that ranges in size from small to large, can have a raft of different coat types, and a raft of different temperaments is not a "breed" and should not be advertised as such, nor acquired with the idea that you've got any real certainty about what sort of adult dog you're going to get. For those breeders aspiring to move beyond F1 crossbreeding for profit - go right ahead. But FFS change that god awful name and settle on a breed standard that's not as wide as the Nullabor.

Damn paparazzi!! All a dog wants to do is have a sunbake and the lenses get trained on him. Happy birthday Whippies!!!

Is the park a designated offlead area? It's ilegal to let your dog course/kill live animals where I live. That said, if dogs are exercising in designated offlead areas and there are rabbits, its damn hard to stop them doing what they've been hard wired to do for centuries.

I don't know but have always found Ozentries very helpful if you need to contact them.

What WILL Lola do? Does she sit readily?

If you cannot convince your mother to stop doing it then cut the food back further. You might want to rethink that notion for a start. If he's being fed extra and "often" then either you or your mother need to cut back.. and I know which one I think will have more success. Your mother is sabotaging your efforts and killing your dogs with kindness. Time for an intervention before poor Rascal blows a ligament or develops diabetes and/or your mother turns your next dog into a porker.

If he is significantly overweight, I agree with your vet. Switch to a diet or lite food. Even Supercoat (which a friend of mine feeds and swears by) Lite is only 8% fat. You really need to do something to get this weight off. You're shortening his life otherwise. Is anyone else in the house feeding him treats... I'd not be in the slightest bit surprised if someone was sneak feeding him out of "pity" If every dog in your house is overweight, there's a systemic issue somewhere - with you or another family member or both.

Serious question.. are more heavily spotted Dals and those with darker ears (like your avatar dog) less likely to be deaf? I know coloured ears are an indicator of hearing in another mostly white breed.

At the risk of Sandgrubber raining fire on me because "I hate the breed".. the current craze for chocolates. Don't get me wrong... love the colour but do a casual browse for litters avaliable and conclude for yourself how many dogs are being bred for that characteristic first and foremost by folk who don't seem to do anything with their dogs. Ok thanks Wasn't sure if you were referring to the "silver" colour- they don't seem to be big here in aus yet thank goodness! I don't profess to have any understanding of the genetics of Labrador colour breeding but from info posted here by those who do, the 'silver' required crossbreeding to create within the Labrador. Oh, here's another example of colour breeding in a breed I know better. In the showring, flashy parti-colour Whippets dominate. I was told by an Australian breeder and judge of the breed that in the USA where parti-colours dominate even more than here that parti to parti matings are resulting in dogs with more and more white and that deafness is now cropping up in the breed. Actually, in some breeds there are colours I would avoid and in many (not all) breeds I'd avoid blue and white because the colours do seem to be linked to increased health issues.

At the risk of Sandgrubber raining fire on me because "I hate the breed".. the current craze for chocolates. Don't get me wrong... love the colour but do a casual browse for litters avaliable and conclude for yourself how many dogs are being bred for that characteristic first and foremost by folk who don't seem to do anything with their dogs.

Pet shops sell smoked bones for the same reason they sell puppies - customers will buy them. Splintering issues aside, the larger bones are slab fractures waiting to happen.

At least you don't have a rainbow of colours and a wide range of markings to consider ;)

I think there's a difference between "deciding factor" and "primary reason for purchase". I certainly respect colour and marking preferences (hell, I have them) but its hard to watch someone standing into danger with a decision based on colour as the primary reason for selecting a pup and heaven knows, we've seen members end up with heartbreak as a result. And once again, you need go no further than blue SBTs for the most prominent example. Breeding dilutes to dilutes in any breed is fraught IMO and merles to merles is the same but hey, you get more of the desired colour that way so what the hell... Colour is the gift wrapping... and a beautifully gift wrapped poor example of a dog is still a dud. But there are those keen to exploit puppy buyers who "only want a [insert colour here]" and charge like wounded bulls as a result. As a laconic friend of mine once put it "you can't put a shine on a turd". Colour breeding is highly controversial in quite a few breeds so a puppy buyer stepping onto Australia's premier purebred dog forum and making statements like "I'd choose colour over health and temperament" shouldn't be surprised if people who are watching good breeds go down the toilet due to colour breeding have something to say about it. Ditto goes with approaches to breeders along the same lines. In some breeds colour is predictable. In others its a lottery. Good dogs come in plain wrapping and its hard as a breeder to listen to folk who only want colour x and can't understand why you can't breed it to order. In Whippets the saying goes "pretty doesn't catch rabbits". Bears keeping in mind. I'm only delighted I'm not an SBT or Labrador breeder - they seem to be two breeds badly afflicted with colour breeding atm. Poodles also have it as an issue.

That's exactly what a bone spur is (but get a vet diagnosis). When a bone is healing, any areas of 'weakness' may result in additional bone formation and that is what a bone spur is.

I think colour preferences are natural. I don't think they should be rated more importantly than issues like structure,health and temperament though. And breeders who breed for popular colours (or supposedly "rare" ones) in a breed are responsible for sending breed quality down the toilet every time. ETA: I have a Whippet in a colour that I'd never have selected if I'd had choice of many and now I love it.

You can edit the title by opening your first post and pressing the edit button. If the dog is still favouring the leg, I'd suggest you ask your vet about the possiblity of a bone spur having formed on the surgery site or perhaps to have an x-ray done to see what's going on.

I would feed this dog in a crate and I would never allow my kids to feed him or interfere with his food. What an adult human can instil in a dog and how a dog will regard a child near its food bowl are not one and the same. I'm not suggesting for a moment that your children are at risk but this pup has displayed a hard wired behaviour that can be managed, but in my opinion never extinguished. Enforcing rules about your dog, your children and food never being in close proximity at the same time may prevent tears down the line. Same goes for visiting kids and meal times. Crate the dog. The swap game is great but not every situation will see a higher value resource available to the dog. An ounce of prevention... Personally, I'd be thinking about returning a pup that resource guarded if I had young kids.

If you cannot watch the puppy, put him outside. No chance of accidents then. Every accident creates more.... two pees a day inside is two too many. Sorry to be less understanding than some other posters but you will not successfully toilet train a pup that has regular accidents inside and frankly, you don't have unlimited time to do it in. So if you cannot watch puppy and you are not crate training, put him out.