emgem

Wow, that's a complete misrepresentation of what people are saying. It is about expectations and risk. What they are saying is that there is no such thing as a guarantee regarding dog behaviour and if you allow either your child or yourself to pat a strange dog without consulting the owner you are accepting the risk that you or the child may be bitten. The truth is the guy JD in mentioned in the first comment actually believes that children should be able to go up to a strange dog and hit or kick it or pull it ears or tail without being bitten. Which quite frankly boggles the mind and with those kind of attitudes I am not surprised kids are being bitten.

Wow, that's a complete misrepresentation of what people are saying. It is about expectations and risk. What they are saying is that there is no such thing as a guarantee regarding dog behaviour and if you allow either your child or yourself to pat a strange dog without consulting the owner you are accepting the risk that you or the child may be bitten.

I think there is a problem with people having expectations that a dog won't bite. It is far better for the general public (read anyone without a lot of experience with dogs even the average dog owner) to expect that they need to be cautious of approaching a strange dog. Which doesn't mean that reactive dogs should not be muzzled when in public. However, illness or injury can make a dog act out of character and this maybe the first signal to an owner of a problem. For example, there is a lovely old GR bitch at the off leash park I frequent who recently became a little snappy with the younger dogs. Turns out that she had a touch of arthritis and now that her pain is under control she is back to her old self.

I think the frequency has a lot to do with his and my reluctance to engage. Until I got this breed I had no idea just how grabby people could be. We get comments everytime we go out and somedays it seems we cant move for people wanting a chat and a pat.

+ 1 This has been a crazy summer for us. On top of the usual people approaching because he us cute, fluffy and bearded, we had people wanting to say hello to Snowy after the release of the Tintin movie and in the past couple of weeks have started to meet little girls who want to say hello to Sandy.

For males at least, the rush of testosterone at sexual maturity speeds up the closure of the growth plates. That's why dogs and men neutered before sexual maturity tend to be taller than average, but most of the height increase is due to extra length in the long bones. It wouldn't cause additional muscle development.

Don't forget that you have a toy breed. At six months she would have been physically mature or very close to it. I had my medium/large chap done at 5.5 months to make the registration deadline, but he gained another 8cm in height and 6 kg in weight afterward. He has also been quite slow to mature mentally, though that may be a breed issue. If I had the decision to make over again I would wait and risk the fine.

My pup is a terrible counter surfer. He has quite strong back legs compared to other breeds I have owned, so despite the fact that he a medium size he manages to nab things shoved right at the back of the bench. On one memorable occasion I had put a cheesecake out on the bench at the back where I thought he wouldn't be able to reach it, so I would remember to take it to work with me. I was changing my shoes in another room and noticed that he hadn't followed me. I came out to find that he had managed to snag the glad wrap in his teeth and was slowly edging the cheesecake toward the edge of the bench.

My pup is inside but confined to the back part of the house with the kitchen and casual living area. He was raised in an apertment, so he is an inside dog.

My dog refused to go on anything but grass when he was a pup - very frustrating considering we were living in an apartment in the city at the time. The poor thing had a 10 minute walk to the park every morning before he could pee. He didn't start lifting his leg intil he was about 15 months but about that time he started to pee in other places.

When my dog spent more time by himself, I would stuff cardboard boxes with newspaper and a few treats and seal them with masking tape. I mostly used them to distract him as I was leaving, but if your OH is in and out he could parcel them out from time to time. A bit messy in terms of clean up but he likes ripping them up.

As an epidemiologist, I can tell you that the Great Dane Lady doesn't know her arse from her elbow. The research methods used in the Purdue study are entirely legitimate and similar methods would be used in human studies of the same nature. Those looking at cancer risk factors for example. . And it is a good study with a reasonable sample size and has done a multivariate analysis (ie they have cross referenced all the factors to see which ones are still significant when you add them all together.)

Cos wheatens are the prettiest (aside from kerries!). Teddy bears but wif teef. I don't know about yours but mine came with lots and lots of teeth. Good thing he started using them a bit more judiciously about the same time they got bigger. And Kerries are stunning, but I love that Wheatens are allowed to be shaggy.

I currently have a wheaten terrier and had an Irish setter as a kid neither are what I would consider particularly onerous in the grooming stakes. Five to 10 minutes every other day is all it takes to keep the coat in good condition. Though I do pay to have my wheaten groomed 4 times a year.

1) Soft coated wheaten terrier 2) Border collie 3) Saluki 4) English springer spaniel 5) Red and white Irish setter

A fair few of my pups teeth ended up embedded in my foot. I have half a dozen that I found by stepping on. He also lost one of his canines while playing with another dog, freaking out both the other dog's owner and me in the process due to the huge amount of blood.

I rent and am a landlord and have not found that first come first served is how rentals operate. At least not in inner city Sydney. Most agents will give people until lunch time on monday to get their applications in and then present the best four or five to the landlord (assuming there are that many of course.) I would try to have a chat with the agent at the inspection or if you have trouble in that direction take someone chatty and personable with you. You want the agent to remember you favorably when they go through the applications. I provided a resume and references for my pup. Just a one page document with background about him ( and the breed as most people haven't heard of them) and our regular routines. The agent said that the landlords were impressed and reassured by my knowledge of my dog and the time spent in activities to entertain and train him.

I think that is mostly how the newspapers reported the verdict. The actual amounts awarded are quite low, which suggests to me that the judge apportioned most of the responsibility at the parent who let the child roam. Having said that there is a trend in newspaper reporting never to criticise the person (or guardian) of someone bitten by a dog ie it is always the dogs fault. A few months ago there was a boy attacked by a dog in north west sydney. Newspaper accounts made it sound like the dog just leapt the fence and attacked him. Word on the street (read at the dog park) says that the kids were tormenting the dog shortly before it attacked them. Naturally word on the street is not the most reliable of sources, but the account makes more sense that way.

Have you tried checking the council/shire websites. That's what I do when travelling.

I don't hate cats, but I find them increasingly demanding and annoying as I get older. Possibly this is because my family all like Sismese cats, which are known to be extra demanding and also very loud. Also, hardly anyone is responsible enough to keep their cats inside their property, so they wander the neighbourhood killing the native wildlife And crapping in my yard. And I wouldn't mind so much but my dog eats the poo and they don't bother to work them. Worms wiggling in the bottom of the water bowl is disgusting. And if that isn't bad enough there are three little monsters that routinely attack my dog on our walks. They launch surprise attacks from behind fences and under cars and live in all directions so are nearly impossible to avoid. They have drawn blood on two occasions but the council officers tell me that they can't do anything.

It's not about the children or the mother, but about the dog. I am not advocating that people should be encouraged to take on animals that they cannot afford or control. What I am suggesting is that assitance be provided in a few extreme cases so that fewer dogs get killed each year. Looking over the history of seized dogs financial difficulties seems to be the main reason that people don't comply with council requirements. There are very few dogs declared dangerous each year (from the NSW stats). The numbers and the number of people in that kind of finacial difficulty would probably equate to less than one case per council per financial year. Hardly, a huge expense. I do think that the ability to have a pet is a necessity rather than a luxury. I don't think landlords should be able to discriminate on the basis of whether or not people have pets anymore than they should discriminate based on whether or not people have children, and I say this as a landlord myself. I also think that pet ownership should be taken into consideration as a necessity when setting benefit limits and I made the direct comparision to TV because the government already considers that a necessity (as they do personal computers). Personally, I think that providing assistance to people so that fewer pets are handed in to shelters and at risk of death is a good thing. But I can see you think differently.

Wow, I admit to being somewhat flabbergasted at the miserly responses here. I disagree that governments, particularly local governments do enough to assist those who are socially and financially disadvantaged. However, I did think since it was the dogs life at stake rather than the mother or children's happiness that people on this forum might have been more compassionate. Yes, people should be responsible and no, they should not get a pet if they cannot take care of it. But pet ownership is a long term thing and unfortunately people's circumstances change. Sometimes the law changes. Don't forget once a dog has been declared dangerous or a restricted breed ownership cannot be transferred, so if the current owner cannot afford the new fees or security measures the dog is killed. I think there are measures that councils could take to help people keep their pets, particularly in the case of dogs who have never been aggressive but have been declared a restricted breed and dogs who have only displayed agression toward other dogs. Councils could reduce the fees, give payment plans for the fees, provide loans so people could afford fencing, allow the once of transfer of dog ownership so the dog could move to a more suitable home and in rare circumstances provide money for fencing etc. I really do not think it is too much to ask in exchange for a life, even a dogs life. Also when they calculate benefits for people, they make the assumption that people should be able to have a TV or they would be materially (read socially) disadvantaged compared to the rest of society. Since more than half the Australian has pets and pet ownership has clearer benefits than TV ownership, I think it should be considered a right.

Sadly, she probably couldn't afford to fulfill the council's requirements, or she is renting and the landlOrd wouldn't let her. There are sadly lIt's of reasons why someone might not comply with the councils request. That has nothing to do with being stupid or not caring about the dog. To be honest if governments are going to make these kinds of laws they also need to provide financial assistance to those to who those who need it.

Emgem is a partially phonetic representation of my initials. I use it other places as well.

Thanks so much for the reassuring responses everyone. I've never had a dog that masqueraded as a giraffe before so it is nice to hear that other people do.