melzawelza

I'm so sorry you've had to experience this and I don't have much nice to say about your management that will seemingly happily euth normal, healthy dogs. A vet like that certainly wouldn't be getting my business.

Refuse to Euth, discuss other options, offer to take dog and further assess to rehome, refer to local pound/shelter if it is progressive and would give the dog a chance. No way would I be euthing this dog.

The Amstaff and APBT are genetically identical but have been bred along different lines for some time now. The Amstaff was created from the APBT without adding any other breeds. They last opened the studbooks to APBT in the 70s. I guess it's worth thinking of them similar to the 'show line' and 'working line' GSD. They're basically the same breed but have gone down different paths. And yep Leah's right, all around Australia where the APBT is restricted the Amstaff isn't. Aus is an anomaly though - every other country that has implemented BSL includes Amstaffs under the 'pit bull' banner. Everywhere else but the UK also includes the Staffordshire Bull Terrier.

Breed assessments are to do with the dog's appearance only, not behaviour. You might have seen another dog that was reclaim or rescue only because of behaviour.

Savannah has to be breed assessed as the Council has specifically requested it for her. The other dogs don't need to be because the Council didn't feel it necessary. It's all totally subjective really and just depends on how the individual officer on the individual day feels about that individual dog. By all accounts she's a lovely, lovely dog so even if she comes back as a cross breed she should pass her temp test. Leah many, many breeds have red noses, and any mix of any of those breeds could produce a short coated, medium sized , red nosed dog. A red nose is not any sort of giveaway that a dog must be an APBT. Nor does lack of a red nose mean a dog isn't an APBT. You're right though in that that 'look' is what seems to draw attention in this country. Seems here red nose = APBT, any other colour nose = Amstaff. The Yanks can't wrap their head around it when I'm over there talking to them about it :laugh:

Allowing a search for breed is pointless when talking rescue dogs. 90% of the dogs on PetRescue are mixed breeds with the 'breeds' listed a total guess and based on visual ID only - which is incredibly unreliable. It hinders adoptions. A dog listed as a Kelpie X might be the most chilled out dog in the world but most people after Kelpies are more likely to want a more energetic dog. People wanting a higher energy dog won't be interested in this 'kelpie X' and people wanting a chilled out dog certainly won't be putting 'Kelpie' in their breed search. Dog is hindered in finding it's home. Looking at the individual is infinitely more helpful.

Really depends on the individual dog :) Depends on your current dogs and their behaviours too. You may need to be cautious while the GSD is young just for the reasons Kavik said - big boofy puppies could be too much for the littlies and unintentionally hurt them.

I guess if a whole section of the population sees all-caps as yelling it's maybe preferable to avoid? I've also read that linguists have found that putting things in all caps actually makes it harder to read because it's much more blocky and uniform. You might find for that reason people are skipping the all-caps block of text which has important info you're wanting to convey.

Hi guys, Team Dog is running workshops aimed at first time foster carers, or carers that could benefit for a little more information to help move the dogs in their care and prepare them for adoption. There are three practical workshops, held at Renbury, and a theory held at Campbelltown Library. If any groups feel this could be beneficial to your carers please feel free to let them know about them. We've priced them very competitively to hopefully make them accessible to most. Practical 2 has sold out and there's only one more spot left at practical 1, so the quicker they book the less likely they are to miss out :) The last practical also has four handler positions still available at this point, for people to bring a foster dog along with some behaviours they might be having trouble with. They need to email us with the behaviours they need help with and we'll let them know if the dog is appropriate (don't want to double up on issues). Book here

No fences doesn't make someone unsuitable to own a pet. In the USA in a lot of places it's almost unheard of for there to be fenced yards, and people also keep dogs in units. If the dog is given appropriate exercise on leash on the street and off leash where allowed then someone without a fenced yard could be a great adopter. Of course, the person needs to understand this and not just let the dog out the back unleashed, but if they do and they're realistic about the situation there's no reason to have a blanket rule like 'no fences = no dogs'. Having blanket rules and not looking at individual situations means lots of lost adoption opportunities which means less dogs getting rescued which means more euthanasia. My interstate aunt recently wanted to adopt a little dog at Renbury farm that had a hold on it from a Sydney rescue. It had two days left on its hold to be adopted before it went to the rescue. I had to rush her to get everything in place (flights etc) in that two days rather than advising her to just apply through the rescue as I knew they wouldn't give her the dog as she doesn't have fences. Needless to say the little dog is happy as larry and living the good life.

Is the rescue the kind of rescue that blanket knock out huge groups of people as 'unsuitable'? (I.e no people that work full time, no people with/without another dog etc etc) It seems odd to me that a group would get such an enormous amount of 'bullshit' enquiries that the benefits of PetRescue would not be worth it, unless they were the type that turn away anything that isn't in their minds 'perfect'.

Sigh. ACT police officer who fired OC spray at tethered dog to be counselled, retrained

Just spoke to Petplan for another matter and got them to tell me what my increase will be when renewal comes up in April. I have been paying $41.11 per month and it'll be going to $55.97. Still a big increase and if I hadn't read this thread I'd be pissed about it. But after reading this thread I'm stoked that it's only that much :laugh:

No advice on the phantom pregnancy but just had to say that she is the CUTEST! I love CC.

Only crates I buy.

Good point, Ams. So does the menacing order still stick interstate? Genuine question I have no idea :/ Not automatically, no. There were amendments to the Act in Nov 13 that now allows Councils to declare dogs menacing or dangerous based on them having an aligning declaration interstate, so if a Council finds out that he was Menacing in Qld they have the option to declare him menacing in NSW. You couldn't do that before those amendments. The only relevant registry in NSW is the NSW Companion Animals Registry. If they identify and register him on this then there's no reason for a Council officer to run his chip through one of the private databases.

I've listed my NSW pets on the Australasian Animal Registry as well.

Brave guy, he's very lucky he wasn't seriously injured putting his face into the middle of a dog attack Glad he and the dog are fine. Hopefully the attacking dog can be found and reasonable measures put in to place to prevent it happening again. Hope that dog got vet treatment too.

The general community see BSL as restricting a breed of dog that they can't be bitten by if they don't exist. If BSL was abolished and a child was killed by a newly imported Fila, they would argue had the breed remained restricted, the child would not have been killed by a Fila and probably would be still alive. It's a big risk for a government to abolish BSL as it's probably not anti BSL supporters who will cause them election defeat. Personally I don't see BSL as an easy thing to abolish from a political stand point? The destruction of dogs on appearance is stupid, ok check them out but if they pass a temperament assessment that should release them from concern IMHO It's been abolished all over the world. In almost every single town and city in the USA (less than 2% of the Country now has BSL), and in fact sixteen states now have preemptions which means that no town or city within that state can ever implement BSL. Germany abolished it following a study showing the targeted breeds were no more aggressive that the control group of golden retrievers. The Netherlands has... so many places have abolished it. We will too, it'll just probably take another ten years. After being in the States two years in a row I would say we are where they were ten years ago as far as animal welfare issues go.

I agree, it's unlikely that any case could be made but that doesn't stop people from being extremely nervous in the current litigious society w live in. There are some vets that will stand up for what's right and do it but they're few and far between. Intelligent people are against BSL because it doesn't work - dog attacks typically rise under BSL. That includes any breed it has ever been imposed on (of which there have been many all around the world). We aren't in it to 'free the Pit Bull', we're in it to change the harmful and incorrect belief in the general consciousness that aggression is a breed problem, not an owner problem. Until we get out of this mindset we'll never move forward and actually start putting a nice dent in our dog attacks. Places around the world have no BSL and have well resourced and legislated animal management programs, and enjoy an extremely low dog attack rate. We don't need different laws for certain breeds, it's completely unnecessary. The UKC dual registers dogs as both APBT and AmStaff so you can quite easily bred a litter that are both Amstaffs and APBT.

What they have done in support of their Pit Bull case is fingered working breeds....excellent, so they have dobbed in GSD's, Rotties, Dobes, Belgians and the like to free the Pit Bull......what's sort of idiots are we dealing with in anti BSL regimes I ask Plenty of people who do not agree with BSL also don't agree with blaming other breeds. I certainly don't and it drives me nuts too seeing as it plays into the BSL mindset. You can't say 'all dogs are individuals and dogs shouldn't be judged by their appearance' and then say 'Maltese are way more aggressive anyway!!'. It's ridiculous. You can't judge whether BSL is worthwhile or not based on those people though, that's crazy. There are groups now trying to educate the masses and move them away from this ineffective advocacy anyway. Team Dog is one of them: Consider Your Language If you're sick of hearing about 'Pit Bulls' then you should be against BSL. It's been proven time and time again that it actually drives up dog attacks in the areas that it is implemented and that there is also incredible media bias in reporting attacks with the words 'Pit Bull' much more than all the attacks with dogs identified as other breeds. If you want to see less dog attacks (which I'm sure you do, because anyone living in a community that has dogs wants to see a reduction in dog attacks) then you wouldn't be supporting BSL in any way. There is such an enormous volume of evidence now as to how much of a global fail this approach has been, that it's impossible for anyone to still cling to this model as a solution and retain credibility. So why don't their members who are legally empowered to free dogs from death row sign them off as Amstaff's and release them? Personal liability worries. They are scared that if they sign off a dog as an Amstaff and then the dog is involved in some kind of incident that the authorities will say it's a Pit Bull and they're liable for signing it off. In NSW breed assessors are protected from liability - it's written into the Act. Not so in Victoria.

Would love to give it a go with my girl. I'll PM you.

I've heard of the one at Shane's Park! Do you know if they have a website or deliver? I'm right in the southern suburbs of Syd so it's a very big hike up that way for me.

Oh man, your store is amazing mumof4girls!! Just started feeding mine raw about a month ago. I wish I had something like that here in Sydney

Team Dog's thoughts here All the comments, shares and likes are pretty heartening that people really do get it. Text here: