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I prefer dogs with tails too, but I think they are actually aid communication between dogs too. I'm pretty sure there was a study done proving this, but I'm not sure where that information comes from - possibly a Stanley Coren article.

So it was passed and failed on exactly the same criteria? No, dogs with ectropion and entropion might be noted as part of an eye test but unless it had resulted in damage to the eye the dog wiuld still be given a clear certificate. However, both those conditions are disqualifying conditions under the Kennel Clubs new breed watch program.

So you think playing with the ball when really excited would teach him better control. I worry that it will do the opposite. He was such a crazy little monster when I brought him home with next to no impulse control at all. I have a whole series of photos of him between 4 and 6 months that are nothing more than shots of him chewing my shoes while I was still wearing them and shots of him with the lens cap in his mouth tugging for all he was worth. My previous dogs were BCs but I have never had a pup quite this hyper before. However, he is so much improved and I don't want to jeapordise the conrol he has learned.

*sigh* I don't have video footage, nor am I likely to get any as there is only him and I. He obviously only gets to the end of the lead, but it is a definitely charge. His body posture is the same as when he is seeing the neighbours cat out of the yard or when the postman puts the mail in our mailbox (NB: postman is perfectly safe on the otherside of a 6 foot fence). Head up, tail up and a flat choppy run with the back end tucked under. It is very different to his normal run, which has a lot of bounce to it. I have seen him do it once off lead at the local park when someone stepped on a dogs foot. On that occasion he stopped a couple of feet away, barking, and stopped and came back to me when I called him. But of course, it was the first instance so he wasn't overstimulated. It is also very close to the way he acted on the two occasions we have seen dogs fighting (if scraps where no blood was drawn could be called a fight), except two dogs fighting tend to move around more so he wasn't stationary and barking. I suspect that I am making the problem sound worse than it actually is, but I dont' want to minimise the problem either. It's a little frustrating because we have been going for several months now without problem, but the new year always brings an influx of new dogs, including some who are dog aggressive or easily over stimulated like mine. After Easter, the situation will resolve itself, but it will of course reoccur next year if I don't find a way to resolve it.

Thanks everyone for your responses. I think I can at least see a place to start with him. The real problem is not the reactivity but he fact that he has limited ability to self regulate and is prone to overstimulation. I can't play fetch with him because it always ends up with a 20 kilo dog leaping about my ears and snatching at the ball. His excitement level also escalates very quickly. The counter conditioning works well for situations like joggers where the stimulating event happens once or twice in a session. It doesn't work so well for situation with repeating stimuli like classes with reactive dogs. He also isn't exsctly reactive toward other dogs. In response to their noise, yes. But his barking is always directed at the handler, not the dog. And of course I don't clicker train. I tried but I couldn't manage to coordinate clicker, leads and rewards.

I guess I don't understand how to even get the LAT working when he isn't reactive in other situations ie the only place he has this reaction is during classes so how do I get him to associate the LAT with things that make him reactive. If he was reactive to visual stimulus, we could do it no problem but with noise (particularly random and unpredictable noise) I can't see a starting point.

Just after some advice as to the best way to handle noise reactivity. For the most part, his noise reactivity is fairly mild. Things like thunder, fireworks and traffic don't faze him, but he will start and look at you sideways at odd noises like a blown raspberry, he used to bark at me when I sang and he will bark and chase if my sister's kids rush past him shrieking. However, he is easily settled in all these cases. He is also however reactive to the sound of other dogs distress, which can be a problem when working with him in classes. He will settle initially but repeat incidents wind him up further and further until even a pace change will set him off. We are working on some general calming exercises but I am struggling to implement things like "look at that" since the time between him hearing the noise and reacting is so short.

Toy - Papillon Small - Miniature Schnauzer Medium - Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier Large - Old English Sheepdog Giant - Leonberger Ask me tomorrow and I'll have a different answer, particularly for medium sized dogs. I could have listed at least 10 in that category.

You don't have to be a vet to hear a dog that can't breathe quietly at rest, to know what obesity is, or ectropian or entropian or excessive skinfolds. You don't have to be a vet to see a dog that can't get out of the way of its own hocks to sit easily You can see it at almost any dog show and until now no one in a position to act for change has done a damn thing about it. Breeders and exhibitors and dog shows got us to where we are... do you HONESTLY think that those who have more invested in the current breed standards and judging are the ones to lead us out? The future of purebred dogs is ON THE LINE here. If we don't want to see entire breeds banned for health reasons and extinct soon after then drastic measures are called for. I will wait for the dust to settle but God knows someone had to do something and the KC has. All I can say is that the dog fancy has been a hothouse for these issues for a bloody long time and frankly if you don't see a problem with some breed standards then chance are you are part of it. The PR generated by breeding for dogs that can't live comfortable, healthy lives is a hell of a lot worse than the PR for dog shows. Come on you are preaching to the converted - I just think the system they used to do it sucks. The trouble is they tried the carrot approach 25 years ago in 1986 when they revised breed standards and undertook an education program for judges. The end result is that 25 years later many of the breeds are more extreme than they were to begin with. Is it any wonder they felt they had to use the stick now.

What were these people thinking, putting a dog up with these problems. I am sure they would be breeding from it as well. No wonder people see registered breeders as unethical. Imagine the pain this dog was in. I have to wonder about the judges along the way also... In the first instance you should probably wonder what is fact and what is fiction ? I guess we'll all have to wait and see. I'm not expecting much truth from either side, given the complete lack of transparency in this process. I don't know if you google "clumber spaniel chervood snowsun" you will see photos ( including some from the breeders website) that make it pretty clear why the dog was DQed. I would call that transparent.

Fiona - papered Irish Setter - 13 years - arthritis. Jester - unpapered border collie - 15 years 9 months - degenerative neurological disease Lady - unpapered border collie - 17 years 2 months -'degenerative neurological disease Liam - border collie/spaniel mix rescue - 13.5 + - melanoma

My Wheaten loves fleece. A couple of Christmases ago he very kindly made me a snow scene in the living room out of some Corriedale top.

Thanks for posting this, Sheridan. You might be interested in the link below, if you haven't seen it already. It has a number of photos of early wheatens, including a series on puppies born in America (on the preservation page). The puppies seem to have the typical harsh puppy coat until the sixties or seventies where upon the puppy coat style changed. http://www.irishwheaten.com/ I am not certain that it is as simple as the dogs with poor coats being sent to America but rather that the Americans bred for a squarer body shape and prioritised that over coat type. It looks like the dogs being bred in Ireland had fairly consistent coat types. They probably also started with a small genetic pool and they definitely had problems with over use of popular sires. (Not that popular sires are a problem unique to Wheatens or Americans). Another source told me that all but a handful of about 400 American champions between 1979 and 1983 had one particular sire somewhere in their lineage.

It isn't common sense at all. Just a primitive human instinct from the days when humans were few and animals plentiful. That urge to protect our genetic legacy is still strong. Leaving aside the child-dog-fire situation, there are plenty of situations where I would prioritise the life of an animal over a human. Mostly they involve protecting endangered species in places where humans are encroaching on what little territory they have remaining. I also imagine there are plenty of families out there that would prioritise the life of their milk goat or dairy cow over the life of their second daughter. It's an interesting question anyway.

There's more of a difference in fees between desexed and entire dogs in NSW. Desexed dogs are only $40 for lifetime registration but entire dogs are about $150.

I think the problem is you have some frightened people backed into a corner. While it is a good thing that society tries to protect children, the pendulum of responsibility has swung too far in one direction and there is an expectation from parents that their children should be at extremely low risk, even while they fail to supervise them properly in public. The weight of consequences is also mostly on the side of the dog owner and they are hefty even for minor infractions. It is not that most people don't care about strange children, but they are part of a faceless mass of humanity and not a fully realised creature with their own personality in the same way that your dog is. (Especially when they are theoretical internet children.) I don't see it happening anytime soon, but some more balance on this issue would be better. If people, weren't afraid that their dog would be put to sleep on the basis of a single bite, particularly if the bite was provoked, then there would be far less fear and anger all round. It would probably translate to calmer dogs too.

Olle is kept inside while we are out. Mostly because he was raised in an apartment and is therefore an inside dog but also because he is inclined to bark. He does not have the run of the house however and is confined to the back part of the house with the kitchen/bathroom/casual living areas.

Olle is kept inside while we are out. Mostly because he was raised in an apartment and is therefore an inside dog but also because he is inclined to bark. He does not have the run of the house however and is confined to the back part of the house with the kitchen/bathroom/casual living areas.

And if the child comes up and kicks the dog or waves garden shears in its face, is it still the dog owners fault? Because both those situations have happened to me and in both cases the parents were so negligent they barely looked up up from their phone call. If people can't control their children, they have no business taking them to the dog park. Most parents are responsible but every now and then you meet some who are negligent or just plain stupid. On one occasion we met some people who had brought their dog phobic child to the park so she would get over her fear. She alternated between screaming and sobbing the entire time, which made even a couple of dogs I would have considered fairly bombproof reactive.

Oh dear something else to keep an eye on. I do keep an eye on them as I with all of his toys. Fortunately, Olle doesn't really chew his in a way that would lend itself to the development of a point.

I use nylabones and deer antlers, but Olle much prefers the antlers.

I know people think the Kennel clubs should not hand hold people regarding the ethics or their breeding decisions, but I think it would be better long term if they did. I suspect the current situation has arisen because criticism of other breeders is seen as poor sportsmanship, but the general public is becoming more aware of some unethical practices and the health problems in some breeds. So I think the day is coming when outside authorities will step in to police these things if it isn't done internally. The UK kennel club has taken a few steps in this direction so it can be done.

Right but if you read the post. The dog didn't run up to the attacking dog and start barking. It was running, the other dog was aggressive, her dog barked and the other dog broke its lead and attacked.

See I think that is a massive overreach. The dog was running yes, but that does not mean the dog was running directly at the other dog. What's more a dog even a greyhound should be able to run by or near another dog without being attacked (assuming it is an appropriate area for off leash running.) My own dog does exactly that ( often accompanied by one or more playmates) and as long as he is not interacting with dogs without permission he should be free to do so without being molested. In fact our parks are so crowded that there are multiple dogs running back and forth chasing balls or frisbees or stick or each other.

I wish people on this forum would stop attacking the victims. Nowhere does the OP's statement suggest his dog ran up to or rushed the attacking dog, nor does he say his dog was the one to initiate the conflict. In fact, he specifically says that his dog started barking in response to aggresssive behaviour from the attacking dog. It is not ideal in that situation but well within the bounds of normal. Yes, the OP would be partially responsible if his dog was off lead in an on leash area but this is just an assumption. In my opinion, any dog that attacks so violently with so little provocation should be muzzled when in public.