Jake-K9

I didn't watch it all but of what I saw the only thing I would disagree with would be the throwing of the frisbee. It would be much safer to be using a tug or something held by the handler (or even just not actually throwing the frisbee) as things that are thrown can be unpredictable if they bounce an odd way or get caught in a gust of wind or something, and then Fido ends up on the road and under a car

Phew!! The malinut and I have just completed week 1 day 1 of the c25k (couch to 5k's jogging) program, I am a bit of a nerd so I got the iPhone app... we had tried last week but I bombed out about 20mins into the 30min workout Rather proud of myself right now, the malinut could prolly run for another 3hrs but I am bleeping knackered! LOL

Be careful about using human spray, I made that mistake with the malinut at work one night, they were trying to carry him away! I had nothing else with me so I sprayed my spray onto his legs where the shorter fur is cause that's where they were all over him (about 10 up each leg) - it worked to keep the mozzies off him but he reacted pretty badly to it, big nasty red welts all over his legs and he lost a fair bit of fur... I kept the illium cream up and it went down really quickly but took a few weeks to properly heal and he is still missing patches of fur

Completely irrelevant but I keep scrolling past this topic and reading it as 'Umbrella Snake'... Interesting mental images at 0400.... O.o

Puppy listings from DOL homepage (45 of!) http://www.dogzonline.com.au/breeds/puppie...les-spaniel.asp And mature dog listings (11 of) http://www.dogzonline.com.au/breeds/mature...les-spaniel.asp Don't give up, your 'one' is out there somewhere

Apart from rehoming the dog or getting rid of the rabbits/guinea pigs my only suggestion would be to completely deny it access to any of the other pets - fence off a separate section of the yard for them so the dog can't even get near their enclosures. Preferably with some sort of solid fencing so even though the dog will still be able to smell them it won't be able to see them running around and therefor they wont be as big a temptation. Only other options would be using electric fencing (very dangerous for the kids) or an e-collar (very time consuming as the dog will need constant monitoring to teach it to leave the other animals alone).

Went past the Brassall park this arvo about 5:15, there were quite a few people and dogs there but instead of being all clustered together they were well spread across the park and the dogs all seemed to be pretty happy running around together (from what I could tell going past at 50kph lol). I've allready posted up the times that I can make it, and I'm easy with dates

I feel your pain! My malinois is exactly the same! And anything I pick up off the ground of course must be because I'm planning on throwing it for him, and he flicks into prey and starts dancing around like an idiot >_< And I don't even need anything in my hand to trigger him off, I can close my hand over nothing, with him watching, then all I have to do is go "what's this?" and make like I'm going to throw something, and he's off.....

Damn, I didn't actually read the description... Wonder what on earth caused him to initiate? The mind boggles...

Hahahaha! I dunno why the cop was driving back and forth though, prolly would have made things worse, dog looked like he was having a great old game of tug!

Looks like they only want show dogs >_< Unless they're lumping obedience, agility, tracking, other sports, etc into "Non Conformation Competitions".... PDF entry form with rules available here: http://www.cccq.org.au/Events.ashx?id=201

I often go past the Brassall park around 4pm and I haven't seen that many dogs there (I gotta admit I haven't paid *that* much attention, but when I do see dogs there is often only 1-2). I would need to be leaving about 4 or shortly after to get to work on time, so an early meeting (say 3 or 3:30?) would be great for me, depends how long you want to play for - I'm not sure I'd want to train the malinut for too long at a time... It'd be nice if there could be more than just the two of us there though, I'd feel kinda bad doing our own thing and leaving you & pup all on your own in the enclosure, LOL, but at the same time I don't want my nutcase bulldozing her straight off I need to get his obedience back up to scratch before we start introductions - which hopefully shouldn't take too long - but I think we will start off with the malinut being held very firmly and just being allowed to sniff and say hello without going totally burko (he is not the sort who gets aggressive when held)... so really all you'd need is to have your dog on a lead so if nutcase starts getting too excited you can gently take her away We'll see how we go I guess EFS :/

This was discussed in a thread not so long ago. A dog's name doesn't mean anything to them other than a cue/command that you want their attention / want them to return to you. Plenty of rescue dogs have no doubt been given new names, so it's definitely not an issue for the dog.

IMO you DON'T want a Personal Protection or Security dog to make any decisions on when to attack or defend on its own. The dog needs to be trained to only activate when the handler requests it, or on certain pre-trained cues such as the handler being knocked down. Otherwise you have a potential liability. You also don't want a dog that thinks it is pack leader, or the dog starts to make decisions on its own. You want the dog to be pack second, and happy to step up when asked to (such as if the handler becomes incapacitated, but this must be trained for). I can't say I know much about selection and raising of these dogs as I haven't had all that much to do with training, but I've been around them and people who have worked them for several years now. Though at a guess you'd want to be picking a pretty bomb-proof pup with good nerves though, and then neutralise the hell out of it.

It's a basic FACT that there is no way to predict the behaviour of an untrained dog in a given situation. Buying another dog of a different breed is not going to fix the problem. You may not want a 'personal protection' dog, but ANY dog is going to need SOME training to react reliably in a confrontational situation. It is entirely possible to train a dog to bark and bounce about on the end of its lead on command without teaching it to bite, but you'd want to enlist professional help to do so to ensure you still had a stable dog and didn't just confuse the hell out of it. Even then there is no guarantee your dog would continue to stand its ground if the barking didn't work. A dog that WILL RELIABLY protect when it comes to the crunch needs a LOT of training and confidence building, and has to be taught to believe in itself that it can overcome the threat (by biting and fighting it - and/or smashing it with a muzzle) and needs to be shown over and over again that it CAN win, because if that dog has any doubt in its mind whatsoever about its ability to overcome the threat, when push comes to shove, it's going to bail... Sure, there are some dogs out there who will step up when threatened, but there is no way of knowing until it happens. And a dog who barks and growls at a person who is threatening verbally may not hang around if the person starts getting physical. Even a dog who is game enough to take a bite, will most likely only nip with the front teeth and may not hang on. And if the dog itself is attacked, kicked, hit with a stick, etc, then odds of fido doing the bolt increase dramatically. It's one thing to go for a walk with a large scary looking dog - enough to make MOST people think twice - but it's another altogether to RELY on an untrained dog to defend during a confrontation. Think about it, if someone is mad enough to have a go at a person walking a large dog, there's a good chance they are drunk or high on drugs and really aren't going to give much of a toss unless the dog shows it means business! Anyway, that's my rant for the night... looking forward to seeing if anyone actually carries through with getting their dogs tested, and how the results turn out...

I would be interested in coming along, but the malinut would not be allowed to play to begin with. His obedience is great at home and out with no distractions but as soon as there are other dogs around it goes out the window >.< If you are going somewhere that is fenced we would probably just work outside the fence for a while and then when I get his obedience back under control I will start allowing him some play-based rewards, but will need some time to teach him to be gentle - he looooooves other dogs but just wants to play chasey at a million miles an hour which is generally too much for most other dogs If people would be happy for us to come along and there are some calm dogs that we can gently introduce him to that would be great - but I'd really want people to understand what we're doing and not just rock up to a random dog park session where Joe Public has no idea... There are a fair few fenced dog parks around the Ipswich area, the one near me in Brassall next to Ipswich High School seems to be pretty good, I haven't really looked that hard at the others. As far as puppies and vacc's go you are running a risk in any public area. Some might be better than others but you just never know who has been down there We also work night shifts so early mornings would be a better time for us, or weekend afternoons around the 3-4pm time (work starts at 4:30 of a weekday and 6 on weekends), but if times don't work out then we'll just give it a miss

Given the malinut's love of water & other dogs and his good looks, I think he'd do well as a surf life saver... ROFL Either that or a professional swimmer, or maybe even a circus acrobat! He'd be the one doing the high dives off the trapeze or something, the nutter My career doesn't come close to being anywhere near as exciting...

Yep, amazing isn't it? It's always been a pipe dream of mine to one day be able to compete... can't ever see it happening though...

The OP says that they are making the post because they read the info as part of a survey, yes, but Steve seems to be the only one who is posting anything in regards to what should and shouldn't be allowed to be nominated, everyone else has said why they think rescue in pet shops is a good or bad idea... The only actual question asked by the OP was do the dogs live in the pet shops. EFS

If you look closely the dog seems to have a brindle colouring, which to me would say Dutch Shepherd If not a Dutchie, then most probably a cross-breed of some description, as to the best of my knowledge Germans don't come in brindle!

Er, WTF? I don't think this thread was ever actually about nominations for the awards, at least that's not how I took the OP... It would seem most others have taken it as a debate as to whether rescue animals should be allowed to be sold/promoted in pet shops, not whether said shops should be eligible for nominations. If we remove the means for puppy farms to make profits then wouldn't they cease to exist? If we educate the public and promote registered ethical/responsible breeders and rescue animals, perhaps the public would stop buying oodles? If they walk into a 'pet shop' and all they see are ads for breeders and rescue animals, instead of cute cuddly 'take me home now' kittens and puppies, and the staff in the pet shops were trained to educate instead of spinning some bullcrap spiel about how wonderful oodles are, the world would be a very different place...

I take a camelbak for myself if we are walking for any length of time or if it's hot, I just hold the tube down and squeeze the bite valve so the water streams out and my mal drinks out of that

I think if done responsibly it's definitely a step in the right direction. By responsibly I mean the animals being desexed and the potential new owners being checked, as well as maybe some anti puppy farm / BYB info on display in the pet shop. A lot of people don't know any better and think pets come from pet shops, so if they rock up to one with some older dogs there (and the stories of how they got there "surrendered for x pathetic reason", "found wandering no chip or tags" etc) and info on the plight of the poor pups who usually wind up in pet shops on offer it might help open some eyes!

Perhaps <insert name of dog who has gone to the bridge>'s Ark? I can't really come up with anything to beat what has allready been suggested

Oh if I do get one (I've now seen the price, need to save a bit!) it'll mostly be used for distracting the pain-in-the-buttois while I am trying to do my boots (cleaning or putting on/taking off) or if I am attempting to do something else in the yard where I don't need a ball shoved in my face every 5seconds, LOL He gets ample play time both at home and when we go to work and I have been trying to get him to the river at least twice a week so I wouldn't be using it as a primary source of excercise! I do love the one in the video though, looks like it has taken some effort to set up and program, see where it lowers again when the dog tries to take the ball out? Awesome job