melzawelza

A friend with a Whippet has one. He loooooves it.

Bloody awful and totally unacceptable. Concerned me too, although to be fair, the dogs could have had a barking complaint or something like that - doesn't have to mean there's been a previous attack. The fact that they were known at all though, even if it was for barking, suggests ongoing mismanagement from the owner.

Used them on Saturday for the first time to ship my Aunt's new rescue puppy up to her (Sydney to Cairns). Had a great experience. Lovely customer service even though I had a million questions, they applied a rescue discount which I thought was lovely, and the whole thing went very smoothly. Very reasonably priced too.

I don't know, it sounds pretty negligent. If the motorcylist was traveling at over 100kms/h and it hasn't said they were speeding or anything like that it must have been a highway. It says she stopped in the left lane, which I assume means there was nowhere to pull over like most highways so she stopped in the actual lane. That's pretty negligent. Sad though, she meant well. ETA: oh, it actually says it was a highway, too.

What a darling :)

I'd like to know how it is decided that a dog is a dingo or dingo cross if it's isn't chipped as such. That's what you need to look in to. If there is nothing written in to the legislation about HOW to go about identifying breeds then it's unlikely you're going to run into too much trouble. SA has restricted dog legislation but as far as I'm aware people with bully mutts don't have much problems seeing as there's nothing written into the legislation that allows officers to declare a dog as such.

See - that is the difference between fat and not fat. No one expects Labs to look like conditioned APBT's or Greyhounds, just for them not to be carrying loads of excess weight and to have reasonable muscle tone. Your dog is gorgeous Tapua and it's disheartening to hear you've lost points for the dogs being 'too athletic'!

Me in Dec 13: Nice of someone to prove my earlier prediction correct. :laugh: Classic.

Absolutely. But some shelters (acting as pounds in Vic) are now refusing to release to Army due to "welfare concerns". Frustrating but it is the reality. A relative of my ESS has been working as a bomb detector dog in Afghanistan. Yep, I've heard a couple of shelters/rescues say the same thing and it drives me mental as most of the suitable dogs for the Army are the ones that go nuts in the shelter and aren't fantastic pet prospects either. Cos it's much better to kill the dog than give it a great working life satisfying all it's drives.... Don't get me started….. :laugh: You and me both.

Absolutely. But some shelters (acting as pounds in Vic) are now refusing to release to Army due to "welfare concerns". Frustrating but it is the reality. A relative of my ESS has been working as a bomb detector dog in Afghanistan. Yep, I've heard a couple of shelters/rescues say the same thing and it drives me mental as most of the suitable dogs for the Army are the ones that go nuts in the shelter and aren't fantastic pet prospects either. Cos it's much better to kill the dog than give it a great working life satisfying all it's drives....

The Army get a lot of dogs from the pound - all kinds of dogs, they're just interested in crazy ball drive, not breed.

Adorable, aren't they. He is such an incredibly well adjusted dog, even immediately upon release from 8 months in the pound. Extremely social with dogs, people and other animals. Makes his seizure, the cost to both the Council and the public, and the fact that BCC removed him from their borders even more ridiculous.

I'm willing to put money that Danielleheather is another incarnation of Amax-1, M-sass and all the other identities he's had. I picked it after one post when he came back as Amax-1, lets see if I've got it right again :laugh: ETA: at least the bumping of this has reminded me to post that Zeus (now Daxter) has his own facebook page for anyone that would like to keep up with his shenanigans: https://www.facebook.com/daxterspage?fref=ts There's some pretty cute pictures on there:

That's interesting that they chose not to use the no-kill label then if they could. Not sure the definition you quoted is so widely accepted in the community, as it differs from the one used in many circles (including students in companion animal services), for whom only a rescue group who seriously screen their intakes can claim to be no-kill. To me, un-adoptable or non-rehabilitable leaves the door open to very subjective interpretations. The young dog I have in mind recently (and there are other cases) was perfectly fit, healthy but in need of far more training, stimulation and exercise that could be provided in a shelter environment. Being a very common cross, excitable young male just didn't appeal to any potential adopters and sealed his fate. There is a lot of confusion about the term in the general public and in animal welfare circles. People hear 'no kill' and assume that no animal gets the green dream - ever. This of course would be totally unrealistic and so often people frown at 'No kill' or are quick to say 'we're not no-kill, we're LOW kill' because they don't actually know that the person who created the term and also the steps that it takes to achieve no kill differentiates between the idea of 'killing' and 'euthanasia'. It's entirely possible SDCH aren't aware of what the actual definition is or choose not to use it because others might take it at face value and believe they never give anything the green dream. They also probably don't choose to use it because they aren't no kill when it comes to cats. So really they can't define themselves as a no-kill shelter. But their results for dogs only would be considered no kill. Personally, while I like the idea of the term once it's explained, it causes way too many problems. I can't think of a better alternative though. Sorry to hear about the dog that went down, it's really hard as a volley when you get to know them and they don't make it out. One thing I think SDCH could improve on is getting a better home-based foster carer network going so that dogs like that are able to be further assessed away from the shelter environment and given the opportunity to shine.

I'm sure that happens more often than we'd care to think. I know people that have worked there including one who left due to the euthanasia rate but hey, who am I to disagree with Melzawelza or Danny's Darling? their stats are online for all to see, it's nothing to do with me: http://sydneydogsandcatshome.org/about-us/statistics/ I'm not sure how long ago your friend worked there but their euthanasia rate was very poor prior to a few years ago when they joined the Getting to Zero initiative, which is very similar to no kill. They've really turned it around since then. fbaudry regardless of what they label themselves as they meet the definition of a 'no kill' shelter when it comes to the dogs in their care - last year they euthanased 5% of dogs, only 1% of treatable dogs in their care were euthanased. That is no kill. Whether they choose to use that label or not is up to them. It's a different story for cats, and always will be at all shelters while we can't Trap/Neuter/Release.

Thanks for your reply and I respect your point of view. I guess this comes down to the 'form follows function' or 'function follows form' argument. The idea that a dog that has won a conformation show but hasn't actually worked is an ideal specimen over a dog actually doing the work is very foreign to me, so we will probably never see eye to eye in that regard. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, as it always is.

I'm not quite sure if this was aimed at me but I was the only other person that replied to you so I think it must be. I'm not saying I know more than anyone - I'm posing questions. If the Labrador in the OP of this thread is the best possible type of Labrador for it's job, why don't the dogs actually doing the job look like that? Why do only the show dogs look like that? There is such disparity between the two - if the fat dog in the OP is correct why wouldn't people use dogs like him to do the job?

And yet, the dogs actually doing it don't look like him, or have as much weight on them as him. Interesting.

If you get your rulers out, I think the dog pictured would prove to be properly proportioned. I suppose if you own a weedy labrador, lacking in bone, and in bad condition, you may think this particular Labrador is too fat and too low. Reading the standard shows that he is correct. I wonder why I've never once seen a Labrador that was bred to do it's original function, and that actually does it, look like the Lab in the OP. Could it be that a fat dog wouldn't be much chop working all day?

I think there is confusion about what the term 'no kill' means. The correct definition as per the person who created the movement is: "A no-kill shelter is a shelter that saves all healthy, treatable and rehabilitatable animals. A rule of thumb is that, to be no-kill, a shelters saves more than 90% of all animals received.[5] Ideally, No Kill would mean all "adoptable" and "treatable" animals are saved and only "unadoptable" or "non-rehabilitatable" animals are euthanized, but 90% is the threshold." The no kill movement brings the term 'euthanasia' back to it's dictionary definition - to release an animal from suffering that can't be rectified. Typically less than 10% of the animals that come in to a shelter are truly untreatable, and as such the threshold is put at 90% (but this can of course be improved on depending of what that 10% is like and some places are saving even more than 90%). A no kill shelter euthanises animals that are behaviourally or medically untreatable, but it does not 'kill' - which is putting to sleep healthy and adoptable or medically or behaviourally treatable animals. Looking at SDCH's stats they absolutely meet the definition for 'no kill' when it comes to dogs in their care.

WIW & Haredown Whippets - the dogs you've posted are clearly healthy, fit and gorgeous. No one is saying that all show dogs are fat - just that there is a definite and obvious trend, particularly in some breeds, for dogs to be shown and win while overweight, and this is concerning.

Thanks Gillbear hopefully we hear from her. We have vets that work with us providing lower cost care so we may be able to negotiate a more reasonable price and then do a fundraiser to cover the cost. Would like to keep her dog at home with her - I would imagine he is a big comfort to her being so unwell.

Ricey, I think a lot of people have abandoned DOL when it comes to discussing or working on BSL issues because of the mind boggling responses that are often received and flood the threads (WIW posts are a perfect example, and of corse Amax-1, m-sass and all the other names he has gone under). It's sad that a dog forum is one of the least productive places for discussion and action on BSL but that is the case nonetheless.

This. Also interesting that all the Labs I have seen that actually do the work they were bred for look a lot more like the yellow that Tdeirikx posted than the dog in the OP...

Fat doesn't mean strong. A dog doesn't have to be racey to be fit and healthy.