RuralPug

Brilliant googling Anna! Gorgeous breed! Wow if you can get it established here it will be in great demand for game birds! I was surprised but pleased to see that the Kelb tal-Fenek is actually the Pharoah Hound, although it sems that some Maltese breeders are unhappy with the way that the breed developed in Britain and Europe. I could find very little on-line regarding the Kelb Tal-but that appeared reliable. It would be fascinating to find a bit more history on the Kelb Tal-but which appears to be closely related to the Chihuahua (which of course is from the New World so on the face of it seems unlikely. Could it be a parallel mutation/regression?)

Oh but it's worse when something you are tugging (vaccum cleaner, suitcase on wheels etc) sticks slightly and you automatically command "Heel!"

It happens here too. Sometimes rescue workers can negotiate a surrender only to have the vet tell them the dog is too far gone, organs have shut down too far for recovery and euthanasia is the only kind action. The ones that are successfully treated and rehomed are not the ones that make me cry...

Yes, please... I am assumimg that either the Pharoah-type hound or the Talbot-type hound is the Hunting Dog you refer to? Surely neither the Maltese or the bob-tailed Chihuahua-type dog would be the national hunting dog? ETA _ OK after reading your other posts I can see that it is the orange and white hound that is the Maltese Hunting Dog, or I suppose Maltese Hound in English(?) but please do tell us something about the other two as well.

Just a coincidence but I saw her male doppleganger tonight at obedience. 7 month old GSD x lab, his black and tan litter brother was there too. Will interrogate the owners next week as to the purity of the parents...

It doesn't seem like two years ago... such a tragedy. RIP little ones and glad you survived, Jed.

She is stunningly gorgeous - they make a great pair!

Trembling accompanied by panting could be a stress reaction? Not sure how that could affect her coat but if she is suffering from too much serotonin this could produce trembles. I would probably try Rescue Remedy as a gentle way to treat that. What can't hurt is an immune system booster (google commercial booster products avaialble or I'm sure DOLers will be happy to tell you what has worked for them). Your gut feeling that it is some sort of internal imbalance is probably correct and if you assist her immune system to work at peak her body may be able to rebalance itself and all the symptoms may disappear. If that happens, you may never ever know exactly what the inbalance was but you will have a happy healthy dog which, if you are not a breeder, is all that is important. Boosting the immune system is one of the reasons that dogs can have spectactular health improvements after changing to a BARF or raw diet. ETA: forgot to mention that since she has been back and forth to vets and specialists I assume that diabetes has been tested for and ruled out? It can cause a number of her symptoms.

JJ please don't close the thread! Where would I lurk then? I only have a few of you on my FB list so I would miss out on all the stickybeaking I do! Love your new crocbubba, doesn't look like the flight and trip from the airport has phased him much!

To answer your question about heartworm, it isn't necessary in all areas. Where regular frosts kill mosqutio larvae, then the disease is not prevalent. In some areas the resident mosquitoes do not carry and spread heartworm. I can assure you that in some parts of the USA heartworm is a huge killer of unprotected dogs. Some vets are money hungry and will try to sell heartworm protection when it is unneccessary. Also, depending on the body weight of the dog, sometimes daily or monthly tablets (available in supermarkets, petshops and online) are preferable to a once yearly injection. I would contact every vet in your area and any obedience club too and just ask if they think that heartworm protection is necessary in your area. Or tell us your region and let experienced DOLers advise. Of course, if you travel with your dogs, it may well be necessary to have them on heartworm protection even if your home area is safe. Sorry, not meaning to take the thread off topic, but just wanting to answer the question.

If Tower Hill reserve is more than a couple of acres and there is plenty of birds, lizards, mice, grasshoppers etc. it would not surprise to me to find that pet cats have moved in and are starting a new generation of ferals. Local ranger would probably be able to have an informed guess. Where I live (surrounded by State Forest) feral cats have been breeding for almost a century. Some of them are the size of bobcats or bigger and prey on wallabies mostly. I have spoken to people who've sworn they've seen panther size ones, but I don't believe that.

LOL JJ Kitty would be seen as lunch by half of your pets, and would probably go a-hunting the other half!! When the sugar glider arrives, make sure you name it "Puss" - and don't let the bigger snakes and the croc go hungry when the little glider is about!!:laugh:

Both towns have a decent choice of vets including some excellent ones. It is pretty much of a muchness re local shows, but Ballarat does have the advantage of being only an hour and a half away from Bulla, so it's quite easy to do city shows there. Bendigo is a little more centrally situated and probably in easy reach of more country shows than Ballarat, if that is your preference.

Hah! Cheddar will do anything for a treat...well almost, "stop drooling" he will never be able to manage. I taught hin to "speak" on command, or so I thought. However, after my cochlear implant surgery I discovered that the command "speak" simply caused him to open and close his mouth, like a goldfish. Oh dear. Retraining took a while but was finally successful.

Clever boy. He knows what to when he is tyred.

I felt quite comfortable doing the same with a Milbemax tablet last week. The tablet is for 5 - 25k dogs and I have a 6k puppy who is too big for the under 5k tablets. The recommended minimum dose per kg for both active chemicals is on the pack and by chopping one tablet in half I was giving him double the minimum dose in both, quite sufficient IMO. I really didn't want to give him four times the minimum which is what a whole tablet would have been. EF typos

Actually looking at your list of wants, I think the age you get is more important than the breed. Most breeds can be energetic and destructive as pups and/or adolescents (including fawn pugs!) You need to think about getting an adult rather than a puppy - that way, no matter what the breed you will know exactly what you're getting in advance. So go for the one you want (Keeshund) but ask for a desexed adult. You might have to go on a waiting list but to get the perfect companion it would be worth it. Second in my opinion would be a cat-safe Greyhound - you may have a shorter waiting list there. Good luck in any event!

LOL Three corded phones here. I can't use any of them though, being deaf!

Good work team! Tenties are you going both days at Colac? I am only entered for Saturday I'll look you up then!

He might need a belly band for a while. Take it off when he goes outside, put it back on when he comes inside. (BTW this is a monotonous task if you have a dog door and they come and go as they please.) Of course you already know to use an enzyme cleaner on the spots where he has peed inside (but I'm putting it in for general interest).

True. Marrow or excess 'hard' (visible and unmarbled) fat is usually the culprit. If you ask the butcher to saw the marrow bones down the centre to expose the insides then you can scoop out most of the marrow before feeding it to them. If they get the runs with offcuts then trim off most of the visible fat before feeding them to the dogs. If a dog gets the runs when feed the mince of a particular animal as well as the bones then he is probably reacting to those proteins so choose another meat. If however, he tolerates, for example, beef mince just fine but gets the runs when given beef bones - then marrow is very likely the culprit.

It isn't so much this, as each gene only encodes for one protein or RNA, but that the genes are grouped together as chromosomes and inherited as a block. Plus genes that are close together on a chromosome are less likely to get separated if a 'reshuffling' event occurs (what we call 'tightly linked') - therefore offspring are very unlikely to inherit one without the other. For example if a gene for 'black' and a gene/genes that regulates dopamine or serotonin production are right next to each other on a chromosome it would be almost impossible to inherit one without the other and colour may well be linked to temperament. Since the dog genome has been mapped we could find this out fairly easily, but I'm just not sure how well the brain biochemistry genes that we understand actually correlate to a complicated thing like temperament. It could be studied though, by creating a panel of all the candidate genes and seeing which ones are more or less active in dogs with a certain temperament. I suspect though since it's likely to be a combination of genes, and then environment plays such a big part, it would be a tough one to nut out the statistics on. This. Also bearing in mind that genes are not wedded to specific chromosones but can drift - therefore in one line you may have the serotonin strength of production gene complex next door to to the melanin depth of production gene complex as per the above example, where in another line these two genes amd their modifiers are on separate chromosones or further apart on the helix because the reshuffle has, against the odds, broken the tight link. Where the first formation is more common in a particular breed, then you will get that anecdotal wisdom that says "in this breed blacks are smarter and have a higher drive than goldens or tris" but the second will also occur in a different line so you will have someone else say "No way - I have a black that is the most laid back one I have ever known." And when it turns out that laid-back blacks are quite the norm in that line, then you have a fair inkling that it is more likely to be a gene reshuffle than environment. But you need big samples over quite a few generations to come to that conclusion.

Think you might of read it wrong RuralPug. 7 groups per show = 7 donations of $50 per show ;) ;) Whoops! I read it as 7 x shows $50 each. So if there is 7 x $50 per show donated, then the club will have $140 for 14 sashes, $140 for class in show prize and $70 for 7 x class in group prizes? Will look forward to seeing the breakdown of figures so we can understand the reluctance and then take steps to overcome it. I tend to agree with BB, it will most likely be either financial or a perception of financial (e.g. a lot of extra work for secs for very little return).

Clubs need entry fees for a lot more than just sashes and awards they have to hire grounds and equipment, pay judges and stewards fees, transport, accomodation, meals, pay VCA fees, print catalogues etc. etc. Forgive my ignorance but there are a lot of classes clubs don't bother to hold, limit, state bred etc. and there must be some reason...is there a maximum number of breed classes they are permitted to offer? Is it the extra judging time? Could a club secretary please come into this conversation and explain the reluctance to hold these classes?

Nothing to stop you just popping in to a show for a catch up and bringing the mini-JJs with you, when there is a local show that coincides with a free day - only take a couple of hours and no pressure if you are not entered!