OSoSwift

Very handsome little man there Bedazzled. Will he be coming to Albany??? I hope so then I can get feral baby Kelpie cuddles

Oh really?? I thought I read in the link you gave me that you do....will go off and read again that is good news then Now to try and get Lewis not to fidget after the recall!! Can't even twitch a finger or he moves! Thanks for that bedazzled, might just take you up on the offer. She is normally rock solid so I am hoping that it comes back. Today Lewis forgot how to recall properly, so am running through what I was doing and how he was reacting in my head and I will try a few different things tomorrow and see what happens. Bloody dogs always breaking something!!! Will persuse this link

Some amazing images. It brings home just how much damage and how much water there is out there. Gallomph I am sorry your house has been flooded, I hope the damage is the least amount it can be. Good luck

Oh really?? I thought I read in the link you gave me that you do....will go off and read again that is good news then Now to try and get Lewis not to fidget after the recall!! Can't even twitch a finger or he moves!

For those that do free feed, what would happen if your dog needed a GA??? You would have no idea when they had last eaten and how much. I would have thought that could cause complications?? Mine have set meals and eat in seperate rooms or crates or dog runs.

The annoying thing is 8 weeks ago Rommi's SFE was perfect! Little bag, oh well she will remember again with time, just hope it is in time for Albany! I was really suprised by Lewis as standing still for any period of time is a challenge, never mind when someone is tounching you. I think his showing has helped him though as he is used to having hands over him while standing??? Not sure but I hope it stays that way! How does everyone go with returning around the dog after the recall????? Lewis thinks we are doing something like platforming and tries to swing his bum around as I walk around him??? Why do they just not do a finish? that bit is easy, the getting him to plant him bum while I walk around is harder.

I think you are being too emotional Annie - no-one is saying the puppies are products they are saying to get people knowing about our puppies we need to get them seen and out there. The saying is sell the better product, push it get it in the fore front of people minds. They think puppy then ANKC breeder a moment later. No-one is saying a puppy is a handbag. And calling a puppy a sentinel being reminds me of a particular organisations saying............................. I think we all agree we need to get people thinking ANKC rego'd breeder when they are looking for a new puppy, not puppy farmer who has been researching and knows all the right things to say to get people thinking they are the right place to go. I guess it all starts with us as individuals, always be approachable, answer emails politely ( yes even the idiots to a point if they really are dumb you can be a little more forceful!) be happy to talk about our breed. I take my dogs for walks through town to get the mail. I get stopped every single time. I always factor in more time to talk to people, these people could well be the loving homes that I am looking for to place a puppy down the track. If I don't have time to talk I don't take them. The ANKC or even breed clubs - where there are breed clubs - need to place adds in the trading post, quokka (wa paper) and the pet for sale sections in newspapers, each week. Get the name out there get it second nature.

In my limited experience once they have had a fight it will intesifiy. Mine got to the point they would growl if they walk into the house bit of thier dog runs at the same time. I put a tarp 3/4 of the way along the middle panel. You could try ringing a behaviouralist.

Thank you :D So hows the training coming along? Are you looking forward to the Albany trial - not long to go Had a small break and now back inot it :D Got a couple of things that need refining, but I was so impressed with Lewis's SFE - he didn't move a muscle and he hasn't done much on it!!! Rommi however!!!!....... launch, jump all over, lick, what SFE oh yeh right sorry forgot..........oh look person and they are coming over to meeee, yes pat me, I love you..What???.... oh yeh SFE......sorry forgot!!! She did eventually remember. I did forgive her due to having no work for the previous 8 weeks due to her sore toe/knee. There are two other people coming over with a Goldie and A Stafford for CCD.

Thank you

Some months ago - September maybe?? Someone - I think from memory Terranik - posted the rules changes that had happened. I have had a look through but have not found the post as yet. I am interested in the changes for CCD and Novice as they are not up on the DogsWA website as yet. If someone could re-post that would be very helpful. Many thanks ;)

Don't you hate it when they become all brave at the vet and then you go home non the wiser to when you arrived. Fingers cross she improves and just has some tummy pains that go away.

That looks like a flatter foot but not a foot with sprung toes. It can be one or more toes and they get very flat. So far I have managed to avoid them but have had sprains and dislocations.

Definately sounds in pain. Hope all goes well at the vets. Good luck

I hope you don't mean you would poison the dog. Dear god, that is sick. I can understand people shooting a dog who is attacking livestock. Personally I cannot understand poisoning a caught dog in a trap. I find that quite disturbing. Agreed. If and animal needs to be euthanased then it should be very quick,baiting is extremely cruel and painful and I shudder to think anyone on here would even think of recommending it. I hope your neightbours situation is sorted quickly and the dogs that did it are found quickly

Unlike other dogs, the Maremma is a guardian breed. Unlike other guardian breeds, the Maremma "tasks" as a last resort. Unlike a Maremma that is not raised properly, they are simply not interested in chasing down other animals. I am excusing here the puppies that were overly playful with the penguins they were ignorantly placed to guard in Victoria. The best, and classically accepted, description of the "the Maremma is 'aloof' -- disinterested but not inattentive. To witness a Maremma's responses, on property in comparison to off property, is truly something to behold. In three years, with adult and puppy dogs, they have had the run of five acres and the adjacent surrounds without incident. However, I digress. Purely, by chance, while out riding my bike, I found a fence that was an absolute masterpiece. There were two paddocks for goats, one 150 x 25 metres and the other much larger. The tension posts and stays were without exaggeration, Beautiful. The square fence wire, parallel and perpendicular at all points. A single strand of barbed wire ran 1200mm above the ground all the way around both paddocks. I was shocked and stunned at the work that had gone into such a magnificent fence. This is a dog fence. My point is: if you are serious about protecting your livestock, then a half hearted, I'll just shoot the dog if it gets into my yard, is contemptuous of both the livestock and the dog or any other animal. I am not sure, that in the current environmental climate, we can afford that luxury any more. So what about the 'chooks'? The idiot should have shut the gate. Lesson: don't let this person look after your chooks. ETA I will get some pictures of the goat fence. It is something which should be shared. So you still maintain that is ok for your dogs and anyone elses to roam in an area where others keep livestock?? Unbelievable arrogance, ignorance and stupidity. Keep your dogs on your own land, that is your responsibility as a dog owner. I haven't had a lot to do with Maremma's, there are some farmers here using them with sheep to protect against wild dogs of which we have a lot. The Govt has given the shire money to built a dog fence - which by the way would leave a goat fence for dead! These Anatolians were bonded with livestock, they lived with sheep, goats and horses. The bitch had young puppies and the owner would not believe that her dogs had done it as the farmer could not catch them but had talen photos. at that time she was the only one in the district that had any flock guardians. They were also over 50kms from home. The did eventually return homesome days later. Fast forward a few months down the track and the were roaming even further afield in summer with grain trucks on the road. The bitch got hit by a truck and killed , the male was guarding her as you would imagine. My dad was called as he was the closest to try and move the bitch off the road until there owner could come, he couldn't get out of the car. They were over 70kms from home. The owner had to accept her dogs were then roaming. another Anatolian here could not be contained onto her 200acres for whatever reason, but never worried anyones stock, that they know of. Why should I have to pay for a fence that cost 5 times more than the fence I have which more than adequately keeps my cows in, because you cannot keep your dogs home. I have lived on farms for years. In the last 12 years I have had Dobes, Staffords and Whippets. I have NEVER had a dog roam - not once. Why?? because they are appropriately contained. If they did and chased stock and got killed then I take the blame for that squarely on my shoulders

I don't think it does due to different anatomy. This is why dogs, cows, horses can run, jump buck etc and we can only waddle and barely even walk at times towards the end. Gravity gives our pelvic floor a hammering. Their belly muscles get a hammering

If my dogs were to roam and get shot by a livestock owner/landowner I would only have myself to blame for allowing it to happen. Dogs do not have to be physically able to kill livestock to do damage, chasing it's self can bring about death, stress mismothering etc. If we found dogs and no stock issues they got one warning from dad if they came back they were shot. If -as we came across one day- killed, mauled and very distressed sheep, the neighbour also had many killed and injured sheep and lambs then they were shot asap, no warnings. Our own dogs was chasing somelses agisted sheep on our property, which it took a little while to figure out, that dog was dispatched by my dad when it was caught in the act after months of us knowing a dog was worrying stock but had no idea it was our own. Imagine as a teenager going out and finding 53 sheep that either had lambs at foot or were ready to drop, torn apart scattered across the paddock not all of them dead at that point. These were the boarding school sheep, very friendly and much loved. Someone's Lab X and shepherd X decided to go and have a play one day, they of course had never done it before. Too late for us and our sheep. A farmer has every right to shot a dog that is worrying stock regardless of breed that is worrying stock or it on his/her property. If a dog is roaming and gets shot it is the owners responsibility. Pewithers I have seen what two Anatolians can do to someone pigs in a short period of time, I am sure maremma's are capable of similar if they decided to. If your dogs roam and they get shot YOU are responsible for that.

Here it is optional as far as I know, but haven't had anything desexed for a while now.

I have had a male Dobe who was shocking at eating, as was a friends. The bitches would eat a wooden table leg if it stood still long enough. Some males can be a bit harder so I would use his meals and get him to do something for every mouthful. I know exactly how you feel I had the same shock to the system with my male Dobe!

Amanda, from your post it sounds like there is a research project afoot - am I understanding this correctly? Also, what age is considered "early"? There's already research on it - I haven't time to dig it out right now sorry, but I think some links to the research have been posted on the forum before. At least one study shows that the earlier a bitch is spayed, then the more likely she is to develop incontinence. But no matter when they're spayed, spayed bitches have a much higher risk of incontinence than entire bitches do. It's due to the lack of estrogen after spaying which causes downregulation of adrenergic hormone receptors on her urethral sphincter, making the sphincter less responsive to the hormones that cause it to clamp shut. Research also suggests that larger sized bitches are also more likely to develop it than smaller bitches. Hmmm interesting all mine were large breed. Maybe the Whippet will be small enough not to be as much of a problem?

I agree with Staff n toller, give yourself a few days off and relax. GIve him lots of attention when he is "good" even though he can't be "bad" because he is just being a perfectly well behaved dog, even if that conflicts with what we want them to do. I think you are maybe feelign let down because you have waited a long time for your puppy, you have been reading and learning and wanting to do it all right and wanting to do all this fun stuff you have been reading and learning about. Each puppy is very different. Speaking from experience Male Dobes can be fickle little things sometimes and it can take a little while to figure out what turns them on. If he is on a raw diet get a bum bag or something you can wash and use that or put his bowl of food on the bench and feed a him mouthful after you get him to look at you, move a step or get distracted then look again, if he responds to his name, sits etc. In the first week I would be chasing only things such as a split second of "what?: when you call him, if he looks at you (even by accident) mark and reward. If you don't have your clicker use a word. Make yourself extremely rewarding to be around and a little unpredictable as in he never quite knows when he will get marked and a small treat. if he lays down near you inside mark reward etc. Goodluck and try to relax

I would no longer use Stilboesterol but when I had my older Dobe bitch it was pretty much the only thing available. Incurin and Propalin I don't think have the same potential issues. My bitch will be desexed once she is older to avoid pyometra issues and potential mismatings, but not until she is older. Incontinence is a real pain in the backside in a house dog, and I would prefer to avoid daily lifetime medication.

Yep Rubystar I agree. Or as I call it the in, round and out showing experience Good company is why you keep going back.

The age he is will depend on wether he had his last vacc at 12 or 16 weeks. But it is due 12 months after his last vaccination. After that you can go the trienniel, continue with yearly or titre test.