Aussienot

I know it's trendy to bash the RSPCA, but please read the story first before you blame them. The reason they did not re-home her are there if you want to put forward an informed opinion. "An RSPCA treating veterinarian said Roxy would have been in severe discomfort and suffering from undue stress for several months."" This is why they did not try to re-home the dog. It would have have been inhumane to attempt to medically pull this dog back from an extremely bad condition. ''Extremely emaciated'' possibly means kidney and liver damage which is not reversible. When a dog gets that gaunt, it may not be possible to reverse. She also had a skin condition which added to the poor prognosis. I also remember not too long ago the RSPCA being crucified for saving the badly damaged kitten Shelley. She never reached adulthood, and it would have been kinder to euth her. I think the owner should be in for a world of torment, but feel sorry for the RSPCA officers who had to deal with this dog. It's a heartbreaking thing to do.

My German Shepherd knows the rules of play with small dogs, no biting, no paws, you can chase but you can't catch. He's learned to be very dog social. He happily spends time with a Maltese x Shih Tzu, a toy Poodle and a miniature Chihuahua as easily as he plays with bigger dogs. But it took a heap of training and quite a long time of very careful intervention. I would never let him be exposed to an out of control biting puppy of any size. It's not realistic to think any other puppy would not react to being attacked by any other dog, regardless of size. Sydoo may not be a dog expert, but the post was right on point. Your friend needs to learn how to train his puppy. Why don't the two of you go to a puppy school together? You'll still need to carefully supervise and separate when you are not watching, but it would be best if you want the dogs to live under the same roof as adults. Stop the problems now, and you'll have a much more peaceful future. If your friend does nothing to train the Maltese, keep your GSD totally separated. Do not expect your pup to act more mature and tolerant just because he's bigger.

Not news, but I guess we don't have a category for fame seeking behaviour.

My female dog Tarot (pictured left) believes she is made of sugar and will melt if rain falls on her. She also refuses to pee in wet grass. She knows better than to go in the house, so I drag her out and hold an umbrella over her while she toilets in the flower box. The alternative is that she doesn't pee for about four days, so this is the best compromise we have come to.

[quote name='poochmad' post='4993730' date='1st Dec 2010 - 01:27 PM' Hmm, are you suggesting that it some type of fraud? That the 'breeders' claim the dogs were stolen (but really taken by their own people) and then profit again when the pups are 'located'? Interesting (and sick) concept. Maybe. With the last three cases I wondered if there was more to the story. But it sounds like litters are occasionally stolen from honest, responsible, registered breeders, too, so maybe it's more common that I realised, and only the shonky operators go to the media.

There have been a number of these type of thefts in the news recently, and more often than not the ones going for the public sympathy vote seem to be from homes breeding purely for $$$, not from responsible breeders. I wonder what the link is?

I'm pretty sure this thread went way off the rails a long time ago . . .

1) Get it in writting, a stat dec would be best, that she is giving ownership the dog to you. 2) If you do take posession of the dog, have her scanned to see if she is chipped. If she's already chipped, see if the vet can check the CAR to see what breed she is identified as. If not, great! 3) get her microchipped at the time of desexing, (less stress from the injection if she is out for the surgery anyway) and specify the breed x that she might be. 4) Re-home her responsibly and legally

You are using terms like "she thinks she is the boss" and "learn some respect". If you think about training as a power struggle, and view her actions as disobedience which must be stopped, you are bound to fail with her. She sounds like a high spirited, hard dog. She can probably withstand any punishment you hand out, and it won't affect her behaviour one bit. With a high spirited animal if you constantly crack down, you will get nothing but rebellion. To create a working partner, there will need to be respect and understanding from both team members. You can be the boss and she can be the employee, but both members of the team need to be working from the same playbook. So, you need to find some way to motivate her to work with you. Another vote for talking to k9 pro to help you find what motivators work. Training in drive will do this. The triangle of temptation is a great way to start. Eventually work the distraction of horses into the meal time routine. It will be a lot of work, and you may want to think how much you want to invest in your relationship with her. She may turn into your best working dog, but it won't be easy.

I had an Irish Setter once who as a puppy was not focused enough ( putting it kindly) to eat. She'd be hungry, I'd put food in front of her, and she would start chasing butterflys. She'd come back, put her head down like she was going to eat, but halfway down discover her feet, or stare at the stars, anything but actually eat. My vet kept reassuring me that any healthy dog who is getting food put in front of it daily is not going to willingly starve to death. I was sure she'd be the except that proved the rule, but she did survive. Some dogs just have weak appetites and slow metabolisms. And any dog who does not finish a meal is getting too much food. Dogs are programmed to gorge and fast. If a dog is leaving food, he's way overfed. Don't worry about the amount, and dont' look at the recommended amounts. Just look at your dogs figure and weigh your dog regularly. If the weight is good, you are feeding the right amount. Of course the dog food companies are going to tell you to feed too much. It's in their best interest for you to use more.

The units can get really hot, it worried me too at first, but they never caught fire or stopped working, so now I just ignore them. I think in a strange, multiple dog environment that is really stressful, like a vet clinic or a shelter, so many dogs are throwing off stress hormones that one little diffuser can't compete with the compounded history of stress. In individual homes on one dog who is in a familiar environment, better results can be seen on some dogs. I think it is more effective on mild to moderate situational anxiety, and not a cure for full blown phobias. I use them at dog daycare when a new client comes in, particularly if the owner describes their dog as timid or it is a breed that tends to stress easily. Some new dogs that I don't expect to seem to settle easily. That may be a DAP effect, but since I don't know the dogs beforehand I can't really say.

It can be hard to tell, and the difference are sometimes subtle. Dogs mimic fighting when they play. Dogs in play will usually move around a lot. They will change positions every 10 or 20 seconds. One take the biting role, then the other does. Dogs trying to start something will usually bite and hold and try to always be on top. If the play is not changing constantly, or if one dog is always on the bottom, I'd step in. It's not always 50/50, but on balance both dogs should be giving as good as they get. Chasing is ok, lots of dogs play chase games. It's what happens when the dog get caught that problems occur. If the dog gets caught and rolled, or is held down, not good play. If the same dog is always being chased, that's also not a good dynamic. I've always taught the command Time Out as a way to cool down escallating play. edited to add: I'd not allow the mounting.

I agree that in the right hands it sounds like Q could be a great performance dog. Not dissin' the dog. Or the owner. But realistically, how many people do you think are out there who know how to manage a high prey drive dog in suburbia, and know how to train to deliver drive satisfaction? Or that small number, how many would have no other dogs, and no small pets? How many would have the motivation to invest the time and money it will take to work with a behaviourist to rehab him? How many would have really secure fences, and live in an area where Q is unlikely to have access to any other animals? How re-homable is he in the real world? Since you know the dog. I had a similar dog once. He was a full time job for a couple of years, and was probably the best dog I've ever owned. But I never considered him re-homable. Some dogs just aren't.

So sorry that your attempt at free advertising did not get the result you desired. Good luck with getting rid of him, and remain happy with your denial that your cat-killing dog has any problems that need sorting out befor passing him along. Maybe next time pay for advertising and don't post it on a public discussion forum if you don't want it discussed.

Should you desexed your pet? Most science says yes. There are a lot of positive health benefits and some behavioural improvements, and management of the pet is much easier. What age to desex? Much more controversial. Read a lot, pick the argument you like best. Edited to add: At 12 weeks, he won't be the same next week. He's a puppy, he will change rapidly whether you desex or not.

If this dog has such high training, exercise and management needs that he has exhausted a knoweldgeable, experienced, committed dog owner, is placing him with a family that "might" take up obedience or agility such a good idea? Why is he going to do better there? What will they do differently? It seems to me that way you have described his behaviour would not suit the average family. He has problems, and while you're solving your problem you are passing his along. Maybe this family is extrordinary, but my guess is that this re-homing is not a permant fix for the dog.

No link between knowing the parent and not knowing and sickness, not sure what you were getting at there. Car sickness very common. My worst upchucker eventually grew out of it. What I did was determine his threshhold, which intitially was about two minutes. So we'd stop, walk around, let him settle or be sick, whichever. Then we'd try again for two minutes going home. Goal always was for me to stop and get him out of the car before he chucked, so that I could sever the mental link of get in car, vomit. Gradually we developed a tolerance of about 45 minutes, which meant I could actually take him places. He never really got beyond 45 minutes, but after about a year the problem mostly dissapeared. Very inconvenient, and a huge time committment, but eventually it worked.

"I'd grab that poop, run up to the owner and throw it at them while saying here, you forgot something." LOL, I actually did this once. So tired of the same dog owner using my nature strip to let her dog poop, and letting her dog mark on my newly painted fence. I was gardening, saw her dog poop and as she walked away, so I grabbed it up (was wearing gloves) and ran after her, calling out, You dropped something. When she turned around to see what it was, I grabbed her hand and dropped the poop in it. After that, she always crossed the street so that her dog did not toilet at the crazy lady's house. Still never picked it up. Got to come down on there should be penalties/fines for not cleaning up after your dog. I always pick up after the daycare dogs, and am paranoid when I see other dogs poop on the grounds surrounding the business. Who do you think will be blamed? My business. So often I end up picking up other dog's poop. And it irritates the crap out of me. Although once, I did find a two dollar coin in the poo, a tiny bit of payback. DNA profiling is way over the top, but I understand the sentiment behind it.

Beautiful, thanks

The RSPCA have full access to the CAR, so that information is readily available for them to troll and use as they see fit. No asking necessary. And even if they did see a large number of microchips identified to one person or business, so what? Nothing enforceable, (yet) about producing thousands of pups for sale. Reeks of white anting to me.

I run a dog daycare, and would never have more than 4 or 5 dogs together, and that's only once I am sure there will be no issues. Happier with pairs and trios. With puppies, I keep the number together to 3 or 2. In a crowd, you can't be sure who is learning what. Two puppies, one calm adult can be a good thing. Learning social rules, learning how to play, learning how to calm down. Learning that just because there are other dogs around, it doesn't mean you can lose your head. 15 puppies would be a lot of crashing and bashing. Not necessarily any learning about manners. Great exercise for Labradors, Boxers and Staffies, not so good and maybe terrifying for less physical pups. A puppy free for all is not socialisation, it's survival of the fittest. Free puppy playgroup? Find a couple of friends and organise it yourself. You supervise, you make sure your puppy is having the best possible experience.

Don't they look beautiful in their Delta bandannas. I'm sure they will continue to make you proud.

Wow, who does your dental work? Open up and say Ah Yes, someday your paws will be this big

Sigh, once again for those who feel strongly but don't know what this thread is about . . . It's not labratory testing of animals. The dogs being used are going to die either way. The are not perfectly healthy humans who have a home to go to. I thinking of starting a petition to improve the training opportunities for veterinary students.

It's not live ''animal experimenting'' as far as I understand it. Dogs that were going to die needlessly are anaesthetised instead. This allows veterinary students under instruction to practice on real animals. Then before regaining consciousness the animal is humanly euthanised as would have happened anyway. The animals feels no more pain than they would if they were humanly euthanised, and instead a senseless death, some good comes from it. I want my vets to have real world experience. I want them to practice their incisions and stitching on real flesh. Sorry, not going to sign a petition to stop this practice, and just have the animals killed and dumped in landfill as they are now in most places. Yes there is a problem with unwanted animals in society, but ending this worthwhile program is not going to help that issue. True animal experimentation on live animals is worth protesting, though. In many cases there are viable alternatives, and certainly for non medical purposes, like cosmetics, I'm against it. Yes a lot of dogs who are euthanised could be considered 'adoptable' by a bleeding heart. I think this is just scare mongering and contradicts my understanding of the criteria for selecting dogs for the program. And your disclaimer does not wash with me. You posted it, you own it. Can't take a position, use emotive buzzword and then wrap yourself in a neutral disclaimer.