jacqui835

Some breeds are bred to bark to do their jobs. Many Livestock Guardian breeds for example are bred to bark as a warning to predators that they are on duty. It is a trait that helps it do its job and is very typical of these types of breeds. This behaviour is perfectly normal and acceptable in a working or rural situation, but in a suburban situation is often 'misunderstood'. I have also found that in suburban situations where there is a lot more moving around 'out there' a LGD may bark a bit more than they would with a bit more space around them, because as far as they are concerned, there are a lot more 'potential predators' moving around their environment. Some dogs do bark more than others, and it can depend a lot on environmenal management, but I wouldn't 'mark down' an LGD because it barked a lot. I would be more likely to 'mark down' (from a potential breeding perspective) one that wasnt interested in barking and would be looking closer at its natural working ability (or possible lack of one). Other breeds are also known for their barking. The Pumi for instance specifically states in its breed standard that it is 'rather noisy' Thank you, this makes sense.

Sorry, I missed this. Here is what is written in the link; "Grapes or Raisins Although the minimum lethal dosage is not known, grapes and raisins can be toxic to dogs when ingested in large quantities. The symptoms are gastrointestinal signs including vomiting and diarrhea, and then signs of kidney failure with an onset of severe kidney signs starting about 24 hours after ingestion. The amount of grapes eaten varied between 9 oz. and 2 lbs., which worked out to be between 0.41 and 1.1 oz/kg of body weight. It has been reported that two dogs died directly from the toxicity, three were euthanized due to poor response to treatment and five dogs lived." Perhaps apple is a better option (without the seeds) as it is sweet, my dogs love peices of apple and carrot. Thanks. Definitely won't be lowering my vigilence then. I just have no idea why he's so obsessed, he doesn't like carrot or apple :S

For anyone else who is truly interested... Interesting articles re Pet Overpopulation Scroll down on the right and you will see links to lots of academic articles about desexing dogs.

What would you call an unresolvable behavioural issue? Anything that is impacting negatively on the owners or the community and that the owners feel may be unresolvable. I would agree, only problem is a lot of owners think a dog barking or escaping is an unresolvable issue so dump the dog at the pound. I've seen it too many times. I just feel that this is making excuses. I don't mean you personally lavendergirl but owners who just can't be bothered working on behavioural issues. These people need to get it through their heads that when you get a dog you are making a commitment, for the dogs life, to training that dog and dealing with any behavioural issues. If you dont have the time, inclination or funds to do so you shouldn't get a dog. This should be done before they bring home the pet though. I started with a puppy, and it was only ever a case of teaching the right things and maintaining that. That's much easier than repairing problems. But it's also easier because if you are training your dog from day 1, you have a much stronger bond. When people say they don't have time to address the needs/issues of their dogs, often they are saying, I don't care enough about this to invest time/money. They didn't understand the dog to begin with, and so they have a limited bond/relationship with the animal. First sign of trouble shows up, well, where's the incentive?

Very sad topic. I voted other on both options (though I wasn't so aware of the feral cat problem prior to reading through this thread), and education for people about dog ownership. For the person who posted about desexing being mandatory in Norway, you have your facts mixed up. In most Scandinavian countries, you need a really good reason to have your animal desexed - they view it in the same way as tail docking etc. For anyone who is interested, here is an article that talks about that: Neutering in Norway I see desexing as an attempt to treat a symptom of a much greater problem. It's true that if all dogs and cats were desexed, well we would have very few cats or dogs very quickly. But surely no-one here would try and claim that entire dogs don't make good pets, can't be controlled, trained whatever. There's not a single desexed dog at my new training club, and yet they are competing for some of the highest titles achievable by dogs. If our goal is merely to reduce the number of pets in society, then mandatory desexing could achieve that (if enforced harshly enough - though that would be very costly). But if our goal is instead to achieve more responsible pet ownership, well I would prefer to take the money it would cost to subsidise desexing and police/enforce the policy and use it for an aggressive advertising campaign - detailing the benefits of pet ownership, the responsibilities associated, likely costs, development periods - what to expect kind of thing etc. Or maybe not advertising, but free or strongly subsidised 'training' sessions. Maybe both. Maybe you pay a tax on pets that helps to cover some of this. I'm not sure, I'd need to think about it more. It's possible that the majority of people should never be pet owners, and that dogs and cats should only be owned by a few lucky people but that concerns me, because then how could we hope to sustain healthy gene pools in all the breeds we have? And I have seen first hand what pet ownership can do for people, so in my mind, I would be desperate to try and improve the homes and improve people's understanding before I threw in the towel and supported policies to try and drastically reduce the number of companion animals. Something has gone wrong in Australia when it comes to pet ownership. We don't see it as a priveledge, as potential benefits on offer if you devote the time and energy, we see them as lesser creatures that can be used to entertain children/adults for a while. And yet many don't even understand the dog, they humanise them, they think they're doing as much as they can for the dog by spending all this money, letting the dog do what they want, giving the cat 'freedom' etc. These are people that want the best for their animals, they just don't know what that involves. And then yeah there are the low-lifes who couldn't care less, who do want pets for the wrong reason. So there needs to be harsher accountability for owners. If your pet causes problems, doesn't get exercised, trained etc well we need to change our definitions of abuse and if we did that, we would stop a lot of people from being able to create problems. People need to understand that yes, pets are possessions, but training, exercise and socialising are more than desirable, they're essential.

I do think it can be ok to 'hit' a dog (or child) but I don't think it is ever acceptable to hurt a dog (or child) - in my mind there is a difference. How do I think it can be alright to hit a dog? Well because you can't always explain everything to children or dogs (try explaining to a dog why they shouldn't chase a cat on the other side of the road) what they need to understand is that for whatever reason (maybe it's dangerous for example) you find something completely unacceptable and are very angered and upset should they perform those actions (run across the road, try and pull things off the stove etc). But I think what your housemate did was wrong. For smacking to be an effective punishment, the subject needs to trust you, and to not want you upset or angry. My dog isn't scared when I hit him, he knows I would never hurt him and he certainly doesn't run and hide from me afterward. He is just sad because he knows how angry I am at him. Secondly, the subject most know what it is that you disapprove of. We can say to my dog, "get off the road," and he will run onto the footpath. So if he steps on without permission, well he gets a smack, and he knows why because he leaps off the road once he realises he's on it. But I think without meeting these criteria you run the risk of creating a dog that fears humans and learns to use physical means to resolve their problems (same thing happens in children). If someone hit my dog and he wasn't either attacking them or their dog, well I would be very angry and let them have it. I'm sure I'd be even worse if it was a child.

I certainly advocate debarking as a desirable alternative to euthanising, or causing a nuisance. But I did wonder, reading through the posts about people wanting to show dogs that had been de-barked, well it made me worried because well one thing I would not want is a dog that barked incessently for no acceptable reason. If someone has tried everything, but their dogs still bark, does that seem abnormal to anyone else? I'm not saying that dog doesn't deserve to live and have a good life as a pet, but should it been shown as an ideal example of the breed, or worse in my mind, bred from? I mean is there any breed that despite training and proper exercise and housing conditions where it would still be 'ok' and within the standard for it to be barking to the point where surgery and the removal of body parts would be necessary to make it 'normal'? I have never met a dog that was an incessent barker that in my mind had been trained properly and had its requirements fulfilled so it's not something I know a lot about - I'm just curious. We have plenty of dogs in our neighbourhood that bark half the day (thank Dog I'm not there) and at nights but they're never walked and ignored in their yards so I don't think it's a reflection on the nature of the dog. But a dog that barks despite having everything that would make other dogs happy and 'normal' barkers, well does that not seem like the symptom of a problem to anyone else?

Was going to say one of my sister's papillons used to be a very active dog. He could have easily managed 9km hikes. The female was never very sporty and a bit too timid in large spaces to be a good hiking dog, but so small (like 2kg) that they could easily carry her. But the male used to accompany my sister's partner on his bike rides of over 10km and loved it. They desexed their male at 2, unfortunately he no longer derives the same pleasure from exercise - Shaun goes bike riding alone now, the dog will follow him about 100m then turns and goes back home. He's almost 4 now, still a young dog so I'm not sure what happened there.

Definitely report him - you can't threaten to poison people's dogs, there are avenues to go through if you have a problem, and if you're the only one with the problem (ie the council deem you unreasonable) well then maybe you need to consider moving or something... I mean if he can't stand to hear 2 dog barks, he probably needs to move to the middle of nowhere. If it had been me I would have thanked him for his confession as now if anything happens (and you report this incident), they'll know who to go to.

I would love to spend all day with my dog, but unfortunately he is alone for about 10 hours every day. Our neighbours keep an eye on him, and according to them, he sleeps about 60-70% of the time and then spends the rest of his time either watching them play with their guinea pigs, or hunting mice/birds in the backyard. We give him a bone almost every day too, either turkey or red meat and that gives him something else to think about. When we get home, we do about 30mins of exercise, then 30mins of training/play. On Wednesday nights now he has 3 hours of training/play. We do 30mins of exercise in the mornings too. And weekends I spend 95% of my time with him - beach most weekends, tracking and training Saturday morning but I wish I had a job where I could take him with me. Esky what do you do that lets you work from home? - I'm very jealous...

Very scary. My dog is a very fussy eater, but he has a thing for tasty fruits. So if I've just eaten a nectarine he likes to lick my fingers afterward etc. One thing I have always wondered about, and apologies because this might be a bit OT, but why are grapes bad for dogs? My dog has an obsession with grapes, and will eat them if he can. He has never had any symptoms from eating them, but we have taken him to the vet nonetheless and they make him throw-up.

What a terrible weekend, glad to hear she's doing well now. Just out of interest, do you know if the plums were bad for her, or was it just because she was eating the seeds too?

Damn kind of wish I'd gone now... knew I'd regret it lol

Well I am a huge Cesar fan, and when I heard he was coming to Adelaide I thought I would go for sure. But then my partner (born and bred in Adelaide) told me that from the venue we wouldn't be able to see much and it wouldn't be worth the money because we wouldn't see anything we hadn't seen on tv. Has anyone been and what did you think of it? I have 1 hour to decide whether to buy tickets or not, there are only a few left in the B range.

Love love love this movie

Well if you feel you know your dogs I'd go with that. I left my doberman in a very small yard (a split terrace type place) with two papillons whilst I was at uni for 6 hours. Now I didn't feel good about it but had no other option available to me at the time, last 3 months of uni, suddenly homeless due to mother's new bf etc. But I wasn't worried about my dog hurting the papillons, I just felt bad because it wasn't enough space for him. My current dog I know I can trust around cats and dogs no problem but prey animals definitely not, not even supervised. My last dog (family dog) I could trust around anything except other dogs. Really depends on the dog, and if you have any doubt, don't risk it.

It gets me every time But to be honest, it's not a great movie, that clip is in my opinion better than the movie itself (ie the only redeeming feature is the doberman).

Lol if the dogs were only ever on screen at the same time as Mr Darcy that might explain why I never noticed them before...

Well I figure I can't be the only one who loves seeing dogs in movies, so I thought I would link some of my favourites and maybe other people would know of some good ones too that I haven't seen before. Firstly, my all time favourite, the Doberman in Eyes of an Angel The German Shepherd in Bad Moon I probably should post a quick warning that if I had to guess, both movies would be rated M - MA and the videos, although only short clips of the dogs could be a bit scary for younger viewers.

Aww he looks lovely... Has he left you now?

Don't worry, you are definitely not alone. I don't think I could sleep if my dog was injured and sad at the vet. And my work took a while, but they now understand that if they want me they have to accommodate the doberman too lol (and by that I just mean we go away together some weekends for 'team building' exercises, and they always make sure Sammy can come). It wouldn't be enough for me to just have Sammy (ie I need people in my life too), but I wouldn't be happy without him either. There is a special spot for your special dog, and just like dogs can't fill the spots for partners, families and friends, no human can fill the spot of your dog.

Exactly - it's quite odd how inconsistent his statements are sometimes. Sometimes it's "the best dog is a oodle" and sometimes it's "don't buy from pet stores" and sometimes it's "pet stores are great - thats why I bought a surprise puppy for the newscaster this morning" ... should make up his mind. Surely this has to be a bit of a step in the right direction though? If someone is breeding and raising 'oodles in their home well that's still a much better start to life than being in a pet shop where you have to defecate where you eat and sleep right? There is debate over the whole situation with BYB's (I certainly won't be going into it again anytime soon on these forums) - but the sale of live animals in petshops and spending all that crucial socialisation/bonding time away from people is undeniably bad.

:rofl: Nice one Penny!!! Only time I've been embarrassed was by my Afghan Hound. He knows beeping the car horn draws attention. Everytime I'd pop into a shop for a minute, he'd jump over into the front seat, and start beeping. First with beep, beep. Then a beep beep beeeeep. Then eventually he'd graduate to just "beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep" People in the shops all got to know him. It's not everday one sees an Afghan Hound in the drivers seat with both front feet on the steering wheel. My dog has learned to use the horn too, I hope he doesn't 'graduate' to doing it like that though! At this point he'll do it once or twice until he sees me coming, then races back to the back of the car where he's supposed to be.

This thread has made me lol, especially the first story... This particular post however reminded me of a most embarrassing incident. My dog unfortunately likes to eat my hair if he can find it. Well you can probably see where this is going... Unfortunately this resulted in a bit um, how to put this eloquently... getting stuck. Poor poochy was most distressed and was trying to spin around to see it but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't 'dislodge' it. So we grabbed a doggy bag and had to pull it out - it went on for longer than expected but Sammy seemed very grateful once it was done. The truly amazing part for me though was that some of the onlookers were surprised that we had helped him, they remarked that had it been their dog, it would have been the dog's problem. It was not a fun task but there was no way I could leave poor Sammy in that state.

I feel embarrassed admitting this, but poo patrol is a weekend activity. I don't get home from work until 6:30pm and then between having to prepare dinner and exercise poochy, well it's hard to slot it in. And I'm petrified of funnelwebs after one chased my partner's thong one time as he walked towards our front door so I can't go out at night anymore lol. My dog eats mostly raw with some premium biscuits so it doesn't smell too bad. He also does a lot of it when we're out because there's nothing like a good run to get things moving, which then gets picked up as he does it so there's just the morning ones waiting for us come the weekend (he goes twice a day). Our yard is also massive, 1/4 acre and he likes to do it up the back in the bushes if he does it at home so you can't see or smell anything from the back door.