Mrs Rusty Bucket

Josh You might want to investigate stuff related to training animals - tho it may involve extra study, and anything related to basic animal care - eg grooming, dog massage, first aid. And have you considered farm work on a place that runs animals? Sheep / wool farm or cattle farm or horse racing industry? Or if you want some insanely hard work and ridiculous hours - dairy. And then there's the stuff related to national parks and wildlife, and biological studies and research - ie going out and surveying fauna. I've done a few trips helping do surveys on various animals, some with the South Australian Museum and Adelaide Uni scientists. Cost me money but I learned heaps. And we got to study critters in the wild. Boarding kennels that can offer some element of dog grooming (so a clean and trim dog goes home with the owner) and some training - so you can get the dogs to do what you tell them when you need, and some boarding kennels offer basic training - tho I have a hard time seeing the point of training the dog without the owner - apart from just general management stuff like to walk with you where you want to go. So you might want to investigate some study along the lines of NDTF (National Dog Training Federation) that covers many different dog training techniques. It would be easier and cheaper to set up a dog training business (don't need your own real estate) than a dog boarding business (do need your own realestate with the right facilities on it)...

Tralee I think she was bitten, just not blood drawn... I'm not sure dog was intent on doing serious damage - given no blood. But that doesn't matter, if the dog put its mouth on Alyosha's person - council do take that seriously. At least my council did when similar happened to me.

what a mess. the dog is starving - RSPCA could help with that. the dog is human aggressive and dangerous - council or police could help with that. kids not being looked after or kept safe (from the dog for starters). police would help with that too - and call whomever it is that checks this. not reporting it - will cause the least amount of stress for the family now, but it doesn't look like it's going to end well at all if it's left how it is. I think I'd phone the police and ask for a community liaison person - that knows who to contact about all this stuff. And can maybe go round and have a diplomatic chat about social responsibilities caring for children and pets. And help them with some extra resources or respite care help. Question about not reporting - how would you feel if you find out the dog has attacked someone more seriously and you hadn't said anything?

High tens? Is that a polite way for saying he jumps all over everybody?

Is the dog microchipped - that's the best way to ensure you get your dog back if something goes wrong. If I'm out walking with my dog - I have a flat collar to carry her rego disk and clip the lead on. If she had a big neck and a small head, I'd have a limited slip collar (eg short chain and a wide band of something not chain like webbing or leather). These are also known as martingale collars. I don't use the all chain slip collar as that really destroyed my relationship with my dog. She hated going for walks for a long time after I stopped using it too. If I want control when we're out and about - if she spots something at +10 distraction level - then I use a front attach harness. that clips the lead to her chest (not her shoulders). When I'm at home, she doesn't wear a collar unless we're training something. You can grab by the back of the neck if you have to. Especially a hairy dog. Does pay to pair that with treats tho. Sometimes you don't want to use the recall word when the dog's being naughty, you just want to get hold to stop it (eg fence running or barking). Too many dogs wearing slip/choke collars get strangled. Wasn't there a thread in here recently about how one at a dog groomers got killed because it was wearing a choke collar and fell off the grooming table when the groomer went out to answer the phone?

When I lived in Canberra, one of my friends at the time swore by them, he would commute up from the coast through all that windy hilly stuff and back in the dark. The sort he had was the high quality whistle, ie when the car gets going - they make a whistle noise. But when he had his (mid 1990s) there was a cheap sort that did nothing or didn't last long or both, and a more expensive sort that was more sturdily built and worked as far as he was concerned. I suggested getting some for my brother who did a lot of country driving in the dark - and he said they were useless. So I didn't bother. He'd hit a lot of roos - not fun. I never got any. I did find that slowing down to 60 or 70km/h at that dusk time of the night - helped me avoid a lot of roo prangs. Ie they had a fair chance of judging your speed correctly if you were closer to 60km/h (or max speed of a fast animal). If you were going a lot faster, they'd panic and jump right in front of your car - just as you got level with them. Hard to avoid that. And if I saw one roo hop across the road in the distance, I'd back off as fast as I could without risking a skid or a car up the bum, because I'd be willing to bet he had 10 friends hopping a bit behind him, and they tend to just keep going after the first one, especially if they get frightened. Mostly I try to avoid travelling at night where there are a lot of roos and not quite enough cars.

I frequently joke about dog swaps with people at the park, when my evil hound is lined up in front of them and their dog is lined up in front of me - cos someone else's treats are always better. A few people have asked if they can take my dog (who is fawning all over them) home. Every now and again I give them the lead and suggest they try it. They don't get very far. She will stay with someone on lead waiting for me to come back but she won't go for a walk without me. I do think she'd hop into anybody's car tho. She'd get quite upset if I didn't get in too.

http://kb.rspca.org.au/39/ RSPCA has a lot of stuff on how to raise a puppy - mixed in with a lot of stuff your idiots didn't do when choosing a puppy.

I just use the "new posts" and "my content" links so it doesn't matter a lot which bit of the forum a post is in, unless I'm trying to find it for a reference a week or two later.

If you have to hand a dog like this over to strangers, I would make a laminated panel of info - what the condition of the dog is, and what you'd like done for her and when (put times in) - and I'd cable tie that to the crate. And I'd try to talk personally to the people who will be looking after her. And maybe say something about rewarding those who help. Or stashing $20 with the water bowl or somewhere they'd only find it if they help as requested.

This seems to fit here somehow Ferrets sold as poodles. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/08/ferrets-rodents-sold-as-toy-poodles-argentina_n_3037094.html Unless you love ferrets - an imaginary puppy might be better.

Just seems dodgy that she thought she was enquiring about a dog already in Adelaide and then gets a reply that says it isn't in Adelaide it's in ... (Griffith in Cameroon).

Have you checked this is not a scam? To get you to part with money up front for an imaginary dog? by a guy that is probably in Nigeria? http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/247883-is-this-a-scam/ lots of lovely dogs locally for you to check out face to face on http://petrescue.com.au

I really ought to have another go at reading this, it probably has some good stuff for me, cos we have a lot of "don't wanna don't hafta" and "just gimme the treat NOW" going on in our training. I have discovered some awkward things by accident. eg mince beef reward in teaspoonfuls - will result in evil hound remembering an accidental training session, and running out of the park and across the road to check to see if there is any more mince beef to be had. ARRGGHHHH. But at least I know how high value that stuff is now. She won't eat anything else if that is available. If the ball is available - she won't play with a tug. If food is available, she won't fetch / hold the ball. Tho we are working on picking up stuff in exchange for food. Before that - I'd try dumb tests like - putting a bunch of different food out to see which she'd take first. What she did was - start at one end of the line of food and just work her way along until it was all gone. No decision or preference required as far as she was concerned - it was all good. But ask her to *work* for a reward and you soon find out which ones she likes best. Frustration theory Book by Abram Amsel called "Frustration theory: an analysis of dispositional learning and memory" http://tinyurl.com/3prxey9 There was a previous topic that I posted the links in. http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/228291-love-those-training-epiphanies/ Abram's book - hopefully dol forum post parser won't make it into a link so you can cut and paste it. But that's what the tinyurl is for. books.google.com.au/books?id=-5YpdzQW6WgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Abram+Amsel&hl=en&ei=JS2cTv3DKsbdiAK94LyyDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

Steve - that's like the worst ever lottery win. Hopefully with new technology - your kids can avoid passing the problem on or there will be tech to manage it so it doesn't interfere with their lives. Hapsburgs had a lot more than one genetic problem to deal with. Genes are tricky. Sometimes getting rid of one problem - causes other problems. One gene can express with something really bad and something really good. My dad actually got my mum's blood type checked - before he agreed to marry her. There weren't DNA tests available then but I'm sure he'd have done that too if he could have. We do have some nasty genetic problems in our family - that various offspring will need to watch out for. And I think we (humans) may end up with more genetic problems - given that some pheromone studies suggest a man and woman can have the best "chemistry" with a partner of the greatest genetic diversity - unless she is on the pill and then she will pick a partner with the least genetic diversity. I'd love to see the follow up study on that, the one that checks actual couples, instead of just t-shirt sniffing. There is so much more to know in this field. I just know that puppy sellers that claim "multigenerational breeding" to guarantee traits and also claim "hybrid vigor" at best - don't know what they're talking about and at worst - are fibbing in the name of marketing. You just have to google some designer breed names - to see web pages with this kind of fib on them.

Another thing that can cause high cholesterol in humans - is low vitamin D. So if his vitamin D is low (below the middle of the ideal range) you might want to consider supplementing that. Or getting a bit more sun in the mornings and afternoons. Vitamin D + cholesterol = most of the chemicals a body needs to function eg hormones and etc.

Inbreeding did not help many of the European royal families. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prognathism#History

Is your chi a normal weight for his size or a bit on the cuddly side? I can't remember which organ (liver, spleen, kidney...?) breaks down fats - but if he's skinny, maybe one of those is not working as well as it should? What did the vet say about it? There's quite a bit on Dr Google about fat in blood stream for humans. Not sure about dogs.

So if you cross two different breeds, puppies known as an F1 cross (I think), then I think you get a greater genetic diversity. Which is theoretically genetically superior as in there is a greater spread of "mutations" or variations or adaptations or something - so if there is some sort of adverse event (not enough food, too hot, too cold) then it is more likely with a genetically diverse population that enough will be able to survive what ever it is and breed. Some farmers also argue an F1 cross of sheep or cattle - gets you bigger healthier animals - which might explain why a poodle x GR can be bigger than the biggest GR or poodle. I think you have an almost equal chance of getting smaller animals. There is also a counter argument to select to minimise faults so you have a very small gene pool but they don't have any unhealthy mutations (like haemophilia). However a group of animals (or humans) with a very small gene pool is prone to mass death if they are exposed to something they're not adapted to / vulnerable - eg the Koala populations on KI - limited gene pool, unlikely to do well repopulating NSW - they will just get sick and die of the first NSW koala virus they get. The most obvious argument to toss at your hybrid vigor people eg the poodle cross websites that claim "multi generational" and "sound health with a hybrid vigor" - is that as soon as you get away from the F1 cross and start crossing the cross breed puppies, you start limiting the gene pool again, and you lose any advantages of "hybrid vigor" after the first generation. So "Multigenerational hybrid vigor" probably qualifies as an oxymoron. If you stay with the F1 cross - you can't guarantee any kind of desirable outcome like coat type or allergy rating or even temperament. The original lab x poodle breeder was sorry they ever came up with the gimmick name. In the wider animal kingdom - a creature like a mule - might be bigger and stronger than it's parents, but - is usually unable to breed. Hybrid sterility. Which is sometimes a good thing. But the edges of species does tend to be a bit blurry. They're having to rename whole plant and fish species and families at the moment.

Mita - that metro dog article is great. I liked this bit best... Toy poodles, in my experience, need a lot of entertainment. I knew one who would Houdini his way out of the most secure enclosure and take himself for long walks (hours) around the neighbourhood. It's the sort of thing you have to warn your friends about if they offer to dog sit your cute poodle.

About the vets - there are so many vets I know among the dog obsessed... So I do know some households where there is a vet around the home and at least one dog club... and we do feed them... They work pretty hard on whatever needs doing - so not too much of a bother.

staffyluv there is at least one study that says that less training is more effective. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxhZ2lsaXR5d2F8Z3g6MjI4OGI2ZjI0MmQ3YzFkYg&pli=1 That thing is in a very hard to read format - I wish someone would slap the scientific paper publishers around with a graphic designer or 10 and some copy writers. There are reasons why magazines and newspapers format their stuff the way they do. It's easier to read and understand. The summary was that the dogs that got trained on a task weekly - learned faster than the dogs that got trained daily. And remembered better. But the way I interpret that is that if you do three sessions a day on boring one thing, the dog loses interest and gets bored (so do I). But if you have 2 to 5 minutes sessions and each session is on something different - so that your sessions on a particular thing end up being "weekly" sort of - then your dog will learn faster. So there are many ways to break down any training task into lots of little things, and also to throw in a fair bit of trick training - ie break down one trick into tiny pieces, have a new trick a week and weekly review of old tricks. It also trains your dog how to learn new things ie teaching your dog and yourself how to deal with small doses of frustration and persist in trying to learn is good. I'm trying to teach a reliable retrieve, but only working on that - gets both of us frustrated. I think she just stole all the fresh Kleenex out of my pocket - sigh. I should get off the computer and work on some moves. Each session - should be set up so your dog has the best chance of success, and then - when you're getting 80% success - you can up the challenge. I got an academic article on frustration in here somewhere too. if you want it.

TCM I hope you're educating them as fast as you can, so they're ready. Because if they get their cute puppy and they're not prepared for all that goes with a puppy, they're going to blame you for choosing the wrong kind of puppy - when all puppies need guidance and a vigilant eye for toilet time. I'd point them at dog star daily - before you get your puppy so they can start doing a bit of reading up. It's good they're asking an experienced person to help - so make sure they know it's a bit like having a baby, their life will be different when they've got a puppy. petrescue has a puppy search by state - so that might be a good place to start. Sometimes they have JRT puppies and sometimes they get a heap in from a raided puppy mill. But if your would be puppy owners want "bomb proof" it might be easier to go to a breeder whose dog temperanments are known and reliable, or a mature dog. I think a cavalier KCS might be a good place to start - as far as I know - they're not known for needing heaps of exercise, and they're not usually big time destructo dogs either. So that would make things a little easier. Pugs are prone to eating what they should not - like garden pebbles.

At least the RSPCA is checking chips over there. Not here, based on what I read in DOL.

It's too late for you now, but might help someone else with them... My brother's dog had some lumps on her, and my brother rang up his insurer (one of the H group), and discussed what was planned and asked how much they would pay back on that. And the girl on the phone said - 80%... so when he got his claim stuff back and they were offering to pay about 20%, he referred them back to the phone conversation (with dates and names) and they coughed up some more money. Still wasn't the whole 80% but it was much better than before. I suspect if he'd ever needed to get any more lumpectomies for the dog - they'd have paid nothing, but the girl on the phone might not know that... if she says 80% without asking any questions... then they have to pay 80% - since all calls are recorded and all.