Wobbly

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: Sri Yogi Jarrah. Yeah we went 1st thing this morning, the vet was great, he thinks its muscular (and he's right - the anti-inflammatories he gave us worked wonders), but he couldn't rule out ticks so he wants us to keep checking just in case. Ooh I'm scared of chiros, one sent my husband into parasympathetic shock once, it was pretty horrific. You definitely need to know it's a GOOD chiro! The wheatbag idea is agood one Tdierikx The anti inflammatory has worn off a bit so she's not moving around now, I'm gonna have to do some digging around DOL to find some sedentary environmental enrichment activities for her for when the medication is making her feel sprightly. I know there's a fair bit of information on that in these forums. Peanut butter kongs, beef stock soaked chew toys and the like, she'll settle happily down to anything that involves chewing or licking so I should be able to keep her from moving about too much.

She's feeling a lot better, the vet must be right with the anti-inflammatories. Now that she's feeling better the trick will be to keep her quiet, might need to go get more peanut butter XD OMG how the hell am I gonna keep her quiet for 5 days. Sedate isn't really in Jarrah's repertoire.

Rescue dog! The fosterers know their dogs, so they can match you with a dog who has the right personality for your household, that way the breed can be a nice and (possibly completely unexpected) surprise XD

Thanks for your concern guys. I will convey all hugs and well wishes to her! She'll love that. My friend just happened to have a hot water bottle with her, so I've filled it and wrapped in my husbands bath towel (it smells like him, I thought she'd like that better than a freshly washed one that smells like detergent) she really seems to like it! Might have to keep an eye on it and check it every 10 mins or so since the sleeping bag she's also laying under will hold heat from the water bottle and I don't want it to get too hot. I need to keep away from googling her symptoms, it's way too worrying.

O thats a good idea Persephone, I might get her one today. She's all wrapped up in a sleeping bag right now, looks quite cosy (but still so sad and miserable poor girl)but I bet she'd love a hot water bottle.

Just back from the vet. She isn't well at all. Very, very subdued this morning. I am very concerned. The vet thinks she's perhaps hurt her neck, she's very stiff in that area, and resistant to turning and especially to putting her head up. The walking problem being a result of the nerves going from the shoulder down her legs. He says usually tick poisoning starts in the back legs, when for her it seems to be her front legs she's having some trouble with. He said though that some dogs present differently so do keep checking her for ticks. He gave me some anti inflammatories/analgesics, which I drizzled in fish oil, so she gobbled that up. Appetite is still good at least. Prescription is to keep her quiet for the next 5 days and keep a very close eye on her. The vet has an emergency number which I won't hesitate to call if she takes a turn for the worse. Thanks for your support "D Hopefully that anti inflammatory makes her feel a bit better.

O that's a possibility, the water is very cold and she just leaps in and swims hard, that could defintiely pull a muscle or something. Thanks! Might be an idea to keep her calm tommorrow in case there is something like that I don't want exacerbated.

OK I'm a bit worried. Jarrah is under the weather. It's difficult to tell how sick she is because she can tend to hide lower grade malaise, she's a very stoic little creature by nature. The behaviour that's not normal: I have a friend visiting, normally when friends visit (especially this friend) they get a very effusive greeting. This time, although Jarrah got up to meet and greet it was a pretty lacksadaisical greeting. My friend bought her a toy, normally something that's greeted with a joyful game of tug and chase, but she just lay down on her side with it in her mouth. She's normally a dog who lives to play so this sluggishness is very unusual. She's walking when she'd normally run, or at least trot. Her gait is not quite stiff, but definitely not fluid like normal. She's still waggling and eating though (nothing would ever stop her waggling). I'm happy to note she still has her appetite, she's eating with less gusto than usual, but not turning down treats, which makes me think she's probably not feeling too dire. Definitely under the weather but I think (hope) not in distress. The stiff gait made me think ticks, although the freezing weather makes me wonder? We are in the Central Coast - I googled and found a thread here that says paralysis ticks are active in winter here, something I wasn't aware of. I can't find any ticks on her but I've put advantix on in case there's one hiding somewhere inaccessible. No swelling no obvious injury or tenderness anywhere as far as I can tell and she's all up to date with her vaccinations. She hasn't eaten anything weird today, the only thing I can think might be an issue is that she did a lot of swimming this afternoon and may have swallowed the dam water and perhaps that's made her unwell (although the dam water is pretty clean and never caused an issue before). Basically the fact she's eating eases my mind, but the lack of fluidity in her gait is cause for concern. Otherwise I'm just waiting to see what tommorrow brings, hopefully she's A-OK by morning, but if not I will ring the vet and take her in. Advice and suggestions most welcome.

OFC Minx, I didn't mean to imply anything bad, all of the above (except substitue the "thick coat" bit for "tenacious courage") is true of my breed too, a long history of baby sitting, police & military work (S&R), as well as a herding dog (yes really). Not to say they can't be great with other dogs - you can see plenty of pics of Jarrah mixing with other dogs in the APBT thread in the breed sub forums. But with any breed it pays to know the breed history and to realise that often really does have an impact on the dog's behaviour, and manage socialisation accordingly carefully.

I'd take both an Akita and a Rott in a heartbeat, also probably a Curly Coat retreiver. XD Except I can't, a multiple dog household that includes a Pit Bull isn't a proposition I'm sure I could manage (it can be done ofc, but it's not so simple as with other breeds). If I could choose any, any, any breed in the world it would be a red Dobermann. But I'm never gonna find one in the pound, so most likely I will never get one. Good luck with the Akita, they are an amazing looking dog. Remember they were used for dog fighting, so socialise the pup carefully.

Yay!!! Petey the Pit Bull is in there!!! Awesome list XD

If you want a Rotty, and you know you can provide a good home for one, get a Rotti! It's your life, you only get one, enjoy it with the dog you want. Who cares what other people say, it's your dog, not theirs. And because you'll provide a good caring home, it'll be a good dog, and all those people saying negative things now will grow to love him.

I have a home for it with a DoL rescue already! Its gonna help lots of dogs find the help they need!

Hi I have a spare dog crate, it's a nice one, black laminated wire, barely used, good for a medium size (Amstaff size specifically) dog. My dog has decided she only really likes her plane crate, which is fine, so the wire one is superfluous to our needs. I'm in the Central Coast (Umina area) i'd prefer you to pick it up if possible, although if you're close by I can probably arrange drop off it off if really needed. I would prefer to give it to someone who is a rescuer/fosterer on these forums. But I'm negotiable on that. If you could make good use of it, please post here and I will PM you my phone number so we can arrange pick up. I will be away for the weekend, so I probably won't be able to get back to you till Monday.

I am really interested in why the negative responses too. I have found it great. Jarrah is strictly not allowed to interact with other dogs there, it's their policy for the staffy/amstaff/pit bull breeds, and I prefer it that way. She's OK with other dogs now, but I certainly wouldn't trust her with with them unless I'm there to supervise.

Anyway, in retrospect my response was good, I just held the bone down for her to sniff so she knew it was a good thing not a bad thing, and in my mind i was thinking "WTF you silly dog, as if cringe from a marrowbone". She reads my mind through my body language, so she'd have got the right message there. Wasn't till after we left the petshop I started to wonder where she learnt to cringe & got disturbed about it.

O wow, I am glad I posted this. Coz I didn't think of these things, I just immediately assumed that cringing occurs due to abuse, and I was so upset. Good have my peace of mind back. Thanks guys. Yes her eyesight is really not great. I have always had to make sure her fetch toys are bright colours so she can see them.

O thats so good to hear! She's never been headshy before, and she's incredibly robust and healthy. It's only happened the once - yesterday - and it just really freaked me out, because Ive never seen it before and because she has been in a few kennels over the past few months. If it doesn't happen again I won't worry about it. Thankyou!! I guess I just worried because she really is generally the most confident happy go lucky dog you could ever meet in your life, so it was quite out of character behaviour.

ooh nice idea Ruthless, hope you and your doggies are well! I just donated. :D I did it on my husbands credit card coz mine's in the car and it's raining cats and dogs out there right now, so if the winner's Adrian, that's us! I love the Lover not a fighter print, thats awesome!

You've played with my dog I bet, she's been in there a few times. This is the kennel I use, and I'm happy with it. The times she's been there she's always run in with a great big grin on her head, so if she likes it that much I'm happy with it! Most tellingly when I pick her up she's all happy, happy, joy, joy as if I never went away, so thumbs up from me for Terrigal Pet Resort. I've definitely had issues with kennels, some are obviously really horrible, but this one I think is one of the good ones.

Well heya Dolers. Been a long time since I visited this corner of the interwebs, I have been very busy! Hope everyone and their canine friends are well. I just wanted to share my perplexity, and outrage with people who understand and will sympathise. So the backstory is we have just travelled around Australia for 7 months in a Land Cruiser camper. It was amazing, and Jarrah and ourselves had an absiolute blast. I would highly recommend it as a holiday option you can share with your pet, there's a wealth of campsites that allow dogs in the majority of the most beautiful spots in this country. Which brings me to the point of this epistle, which is unfortunately of a grim nature. Because we wanted to visit some areas that don't permit dogs though, we inevitably had to kennel her here and there. Most of the kennels were fantastic, but evidently there's been a rogue operator in there too. So yesterday, I was in the pet shop buying Jarrah a marrow bone with Jarrah herself standing by my side. As i pulled the bone out of their freezer it swung maybe 15 cms from Jarrah's head and she cringed, I mean seriusly cringed. Down on the ground, tail between her legs, terrified Exactly like a dog who's been beaten round the head with an implement. Well I've certainly never hit her with an implement, neither would my husband, he's a very gentle soul. Since Ive never seen her cringe like that before I'm concluding its from a new experience. There's a chance it's from her old days before I got her from the pound, but that was 4 years ago now, and the only issue she ever had from that was with brooms leaning against walls and she's entirely over that now - doesn't give brooms a second glance anymore. I really don't think this cringe is a hold over from her life before us. I have never seen her do it before, not in the entire 4 years Ive owned her, and I'm sure I must have done a lot of swinging implements like bones around her head in that time. So I think this behaviour came from one of the kennels she was in. I'm trying to work back in my mind to see if i remember any funny bahaviour from her immediately following a kennelling to see which one it might have been. Im just outraged. To hit a dog over the head with some kind of implement is bad enough in itself, but especially worse when it's not your dog and you are being paid to keep it safe! I wanted to share my distress at this, and also sort of hoping some DOLers with more knowledge of dog behaviour might chime in. Can I fix this? I don't want my dog to cringe like that when I wave marrow bones (of all her favourite things in the world) or any other object near her head.

Devil's advocate here - how could they possibly know if it didn't work? Dog bites will occur by chance. By banning a breed you are aiming to take out bites that occur at some statistically significant rate due to high-risk animals (a big ask when you look at it that way). If you're banning breeds every second week you're never going to know either way, bites just don't happen frequently enough to satisfy any statistical jiggery-pokery you might apply. I'm not gonna get into this argument, I learned here on this very forum that the BSL hysteria is such that even the most logical & rational argument will not penetrate people's minds when they have decided to pursue a course of willful ignorance. IMO, all I can do is present evidence that proves that hysteria ill founded. Eventually, the people who ARE rational & intelligent beings will see the in the mounting evidence the truth of the matter - eg people like Poodlefan, and I hope to Dog that amongst the lawmakers the same rationality & intelligence is present. The great unwashed, ill-educated & willfully ignorant like Matthew will never be convinced & I wouldn't bother trying to argue with them.

This thread needs a dose of real life Pit Bull footage. The kind of every day interactions between kids & their APBTs that happen in hundreds of thousands of households across the world, every single day. There are literally thousands of Clips exactly like this on Youtube, so I just took the first 4 that popped up. What happened to the poor little girl who inspired this thread is an absolute anamoly, this is the real face of Pit Bulls: They're just dogs, like every other dog, everything they do, whether good or bad, is a direct result of the owner's handling & training of the dog.

This is one for those who agree with BSL (Matthew). This is where BSL went in Italy. First they banned all the usual suspects - Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, German Shepherds, Dobermans etc. But the dog bites & deaths continued unabated, so more breeds were banned. Eventually they ended up with over 97 breeds banned. That list of breeds banned in Italy included: German Shepards Bearded Collies Border Collies Rough Collies (OMG they banned Lassie dogs! ) Smooth Collies Welsh Corgis (!) Kelpies Belgian Shepherds Australian Shepherds Australian Cattle Dogs Schnauzers (minituare as well as standard size) Boxers Shar Pei Dogue Bordeaux Bulldogs Pyrenean Mountain Dogs Newfoundlands Saint Bernard Dogs Still the bites continued.... Eventually Italian politicians realised that BSL just didn't work & repealed it in it's entirety. Much the same thing happened in Holland. Does Australia have to go down the same route as Italy? If it does, don't make the mistake of perceiving of your dog as safe just because it's a labrador, or even a Pointer. I bet the Border Collie, Corgi & Miniture Schnauzer owners in Italy felt pretty safe. Until BSL targeted them too.

This is terrible. My heart breaks when I read stories like this, for the poor little girl, for her family, and also for all the people who own good dogs - friendly, gentle APBT looking dogs who will be even further demonised as a result of this incident. The tragedies in cases like this ripple out in ever expanding waves, from the initial horror of the little girl having her life stolen in such a terrible way to community backlash causing innocent dogs who would never harm anyone being seized & PTS. Understand dogs are individuals, and that aggression is independent of breed. It's a result of both nature & nurture, some dog are gregarious & friendly, some are fearful & aggressive, the breed is irrelevant. You can't blame the breed. The owner is to blame: 100% absolutely. The particulars in this case speak of an avalanche of owner stupidity & negligence. Obviously since they own the dog, they must've known he had a propensity for aggression toward humans, yet they persisted in keeping him in a suburban neighbourhood. WTF? Why is this dog in suburbia to start with? Noone has any business keeping an aggressive dog of any large powerful breed in a suburban neighbourhood. The dog was obviously not kept adequately contained (even the best natured dogs should be kept well contained). Keeping a dog contained is incredibly simple, I don't understand how you could mess that up. Yet this fool owner did. The whole scenario was a tragedy waiting to happen. The owner should be jailed for negligent manslaughter. The fact remains though - something needs to be done, and fast, children dying like this is absolutely unnacceptable. It simply shouldn't happen. But blanket breed specific bans are ineffective, and manifestly unfair to good owners with good dogs. Each dog must be assessed on it's individual merits or lack thereof. Personally, as the owner of a dog that could easily be fairly classified as "Pitbull Type" I would not be averse to her being temperament tested by a genuine expert (I mean a real expert - like Steve K9 Force or someone with a similar breadth & depth of experience & qualifications, not some council appointed clueless bozo). I know if my dog were to escape somehow, the first person who expressed interest in her on the street would be treated to a grinning, waggling, effusively friendly lick fest. She'd happily go with anyone who was friendly to her, which is great because it means she'd end up being taken to a vets & scanned for a microchip & thence returned to me quickly, no problems would ensue. Given the undeserved bad reputation my girl & dogs like her are unfairly saddled with, it would be nice to have an official piece of paper to prove her of sound temperament and no danger to anyone. In that case the dogs need not be banned, people would be happy to register their dog as what it is - A Pit Bull or a cross thereof. IMO it would be far safer to have ALL large powerful breeds registered with council, so that their whereabouts, temperament and containment conditions are known. Current legislation means that owners use subterfuge & either don't register their dog, or register it falsely, and use every trick they can to evade council guidelines on responsible dog ownership & containment, which can and & does lead to tragedy. If legislation were such that owners would reigster their APBTs & crosses, then the dogs could be temperament tested & the good gentle, friendly ones could live like any other pet dog in the community, and those with a poor or suspect temperament could be dealt with (adequate containment, regitered as Restricted/Dangerous & all appropriate restrictions applied & policed by council. Tragedies like this wouldn't occur.