RubyBlue

What about a murray river curly coated retriever. Not recognised by ANKC as a breed yet but I believe they are trying... http://www.mrccr.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_River_Curly_Coated_Retriever

If it was me and I was feeling physically threatened or emotionally harassed Id be looking at getting a restraining order...that way if they come within 100 meters (or 200?? I forget) of your property they will be arrested. Its a bit of a process but well worth the effort. You should start building up a rapport with the police, and making a log of their visits and how much money they are taking, its easier to get it through the courts if you have a long list of documented incidences. Alternatively make sure you're in a creaky rocking chair with shotgun on the porch when they come calling :) just kidding...probably not a wise decision. Nor would I be setting the dog on them. Anything could happen and you could be risking your dogs life or beautiful temperament.

I need a like button for this. I want a go at showing not to win just to have a go and experience it. I think you need to be involved in a sport to be able to learn and understand it. I currently have no idea (or at least only an outsiders idea) of what goes on, what is looked for what is considered good etc. I have no interest in breeding. On a completely different note - I dont understand why you need mains registered dogs to show. As has been pointed out a few times there is a difference between showing and breeding. You dont need mains reg to enter your dog in any other dog sport....(to my knowledge). What makes sense to me is that all dogs start off life on the limited register then following successful campaign of whatever sort and health tests an application can be made for that dog be transferred to mains to be bred from. I think that might stop a lot of people who have a family pet (on mains reg) who have no goals for the breed, breeding it just because they can. There seem to be a lot of ads on DOL that look like they might have come out of that situation.

Hmm - dont know much about lilly pilly and can't find anything obvious in a quick search. All that I have found is that the fruit is a common bush food and apparently makes nice jam. I can't find anything that specifies cooking it first or any other treatment which is often necessary to destroy toxic compounds. From what I have found it seems to be perfectly safe for humans and frugivores to eat. For dogs.....well... there are a few fruits/seeds/blubs which humans can eat that are extremely toxic to dogs or cats. Personally if they were my dogs I'd be dissuading them from eating it. I have a healthy respect for what plants are capable of and would rather it not be my animals that are the first in any anecdotal study on the species specific toxicity of lilly pilly. I would definitely not be letting him eat any unripe fruit. The plant vigourously defends expensive parts (ie new growth or reproductive parts) this is why unripe fruit often tastes revolting. Once the seeds are fully developed then the plant attracts dispersal agents by making the fruit sugary and brightly coloured...the theory goes that animals that see in colour do so to be able to identify ripe fruit. How used do you feel now!!! :)

Haha - I shouldnt laugh but when I started reading your post I thought you were a member of my group who were walking this morning and almost exactly the same thing happened to us. We were all walking our dogs at the time and passed a property where two dogs rushed up at the driveway gate barking...we all commented that it wasn't very secure but kept going where we walked passed the footpath gate and one dog...a bulldog almost came out underneath it at us. We walked past quickly commenting that our dogs (two labs and two GSDs) could all fit under that gap and that that was very concerning. We went round the corner (it was a corner block) and had almost completely passed the house when the two dogs came running up behind us. I was at the back and the closest and as I turned around it was almost on me so I kicked out at it and connected the toe of my boot with its head. At this point all four dogs were trying to get at it and I was doing my best to hold mine back and ready myself for another kick. It eventually though wiser and turned back. I had not realised at the time that one of the ladies in our group had tripped and fallen over as she'd turned around and the other guy was helping her up. I have looked up the address on google maps and will be reporting them to the council. I understand that a lot of dogs are territorial but that property was in no way secure and the dog got out after we had passed and followed us around the corner...I also feel that it is necessary to tell the council incase the lady that fell over has been injured in anyway. I was a bit worried that despite the overwhelming odds of 4 larger dogs and 3 people against it, it took that dog a very long time to back down and turn away. As far as what to do in the moment...I've had a few occasions and have always reacted instinctively and my reactions have always been very assertive and I am quite prepared to be aggressive. Any dog that wants to go my dogs (or anything else I feel protective towards) will have to be prepared to put up with as much pain as I can possibly inflict on it - maybe not the right approach but its the way I feel and react at the time.

Most fruit seeds and kernals contain either amygdalyn or prunasin, both compounds break down to release HCN. HCN is toxic to all cells which is why plants store it a harmless form ie bonded to a sugar moiety. Usually the compound does not degrade unless it is in contact with an enzyme stored on the outside of the cell wall. Unless the seed or kernal is is chewed or crushed sufficiently to breakdown the cell walls the HCN will not be released. Additionally there is a threshold below which your/your dogs body will detoxify the HCN. I don't know what this is for dogs but im sure that they would metabolize things differently to humans. Personally, unless your dog has a habit of chewing and eating fruit seeds on a regular basis I wouldn't be too worried. Of course keep an eye for any signs of being sick and take him to the vet. Hopefully that helps - yay finally something useful has come from my degree.

Don't get a labrador if you don't: - like getting socks and shoes displaced around your house and garden - want an extremely large collection of acquired tennis balls - have fast enough reflexes to catch items swept from the coffee table

My dog is usually fairly aloof with people until she gets to know them, some of the people she meets can be a bit full on for her and she usually if anything hides behind me, but there is this one guy she absolutely hates. She does the full show: growling, barking, charging after him the moment he turns his back. She has done it to him and him alone on several occasions now. He is in my opinion an absolute saint. Really gentle and generous and I am really embarrassed by her behaviour. He is always interested in the animals that I have brought in but to me, on closer scrutiny, doesn't seem to be able to relax around them and whilst she has encountered people who are nervous around animals before I doubt anyone of them has really wanted to approach her... I dunno ....this is the best explanation I can come up with. I respect her opinion on other dogs far more than her opinion on other people.

It is currently withstanding my 14.5 week old lab puppy....but only just. He is already around the size of an adult cav and literally launches himself at the sides of the pen. So I think you will probably find it more effective at containment than me. I have attached lino to the floor which helps it keep its square shape and am thinking that I will soon buy another one to add as a lid. He only jumps up when someone is there....and I tend to only leave for him for any considerable amount of time once he is tired. It easily contained and still does contain my friends 10 month old collie puppy but he has a lot more respect for boundaries than my puppy does.

Looks a bit like Milly when she had a lump and the surrounding mammary chain removed. She was very swollen and bruised... and the stitching was the same. She was in a lot of pain!!! Im pretty sure she wasn't on antibotics either, when I questioned it the vet said about it being a clean wound??....just to use betadine to bathe it. It don't remember it smelling though. It'll never hurt to check with a vet, even if its only for your piece of mind.

Ditto. In fact I am getting a second crate tomorrow because my older dog keeps trying to sneak into the puppies crate. I guess she still sees it as hers :laugh: Without a crate and pen Id be spending a small fortune on repairs. Much like my parents did with our first lab.

Still keen to go tracking? Ive PM'd you....

We drove from Adelaide to Melbourne when our last dog was only a few months old. He traveled really well on the backseat with us kids. The only thing we noticed was that despite several stops he didn't pee or poo until he'd spent a few hours at our new house - and then he peed and peed and peed and peed and peed...... It might be worth teaching a toilet cue to over come the possibility of a puppy not wanting to toilet outside of its territory.

Simply smelling it on their breath is bad enough to make me retch :S

Hmm - Ive had many bites and scratches over the years and still have many scars from them. But only had to deal with one small infection. I may have been extremely lucky or you may need to give your immune system a kick up the backside. I tend to keep up with the betadine and cleaning until its fully healed and unless it is actually bleeding or going to get really messy (in the garden or cooking) I don't cover it. If I do need to then I try to uncover it as soon as possible. My doctor gave me the same advice when I tried to amputate my thumb. If its hot or throbbing then its infected and probably too late for betadine. Worth going to a doctor to get some antibiotics. Ive heard of people needing hospitalisation for bites and scratches so take it seriously and deal with it sooner rather than later.

True. Though, given that Greytmate said "Cross breed dogs will never be better than pet quality" I only needed one example of a crossbreed dog which had become more than just a pet to disprove that blanket statement

It depends on what you define as 'better'. You can carefully assess any adult dog, regardless of breeding, to determine it's worth according to a set criteria. You do find good pet dogs in ethical rescue, because if they get a bad dog come through, they will not put it up for sale. It's all about why you buy the dog. Cross breed dogs will never be better than pet quality, and so if your criteria is higher or more specific than pet quality, or you need breeding quality, you need to buy a purebreed dog. The logic works if you look at numbers. Careless breeding can produce a wide mix of desirable and undesirable traits, and only once the dog has grown up can you separate the wheat from the chaff. So inefficient and so tragic. Pure breeders are able by careful breeding to produce a much higher proportion of dogs of a specific quality, and they sell to a specific market that wants those qualities, and while there are no 100% guarantees, the numbers work in their favour. Probably not a good idea to say such things when there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chips_%28dog%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rip_%28dog%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rags_%28dog%29 Quite a lot of SAR dogs are also crosses, and I was told that the preferred military dog for Vietnam was a black kelpie/lab. Watch "send in the dogs" quite a few working crosses there too.

You are very brave and generous. He is lucky to have you.

Not a huge factor for many but if you are really having trouble deciding then having the breeder be in the same state as you can be a benefit. For me it meant that I could visit her dogs and then my puppy several times before actually picking him up. Or as both breeds meet your criteria and go and visit a lot of breeders from both breeds and then pick the breeder and their dogs that you like best and go with a puppy from them. Good luck. Cant wait to hear what you decide on

But for pets? That is unethical. I hazard a guess that the majority of pet owners are after health and temperament and that their 'breed' choice is based on aesthetics or "so n so's dog is nice - lets get one like that". Ethical for me is knowing that the puppy was bred and reared in good conditions and is free from any inherited conditions. ETA apologies for my inability to quote correctly...

Our local rag often advertises them. There were 10 or 12 this week because of Xmas and with the exception of a couple of them all were staffyX. One was a jrtX.

Awesome pictures. Looks like the dogs had a great time

Hmm - if the dog was aggressive then why are the council being so secretive about the autopsy report and cctv footage.

Jackson had trouble with his back legs on the polished floor towards the end of his life. I wrapped some offcuts off the non-slip matting you can buy around his feet then held it in place using some velcro cable ties. Very cheap, worked a charm.