Moselle

Oh dear.. Moselle do you understand the difference between a "firm opinion" and the LAW? You are missing the point Xavier. Do you understand that there is no law that forces people who no longer want to keep a dog to hand the dog over to the pound? A person has all the rights in the world to rehome a dog to whomever they wish and if the OP has the paperwork as proof that the dog was rehomed with him/her....THE LAW HAS NOT BEEN BROKEN. Ummm, there is no paperwork of ownership, what are you talking about? The law has been broken because someone found something then decided to keep it, by law you are not able to do that. "The dog was abandoned at a friends neighbors house. They had moved and the dog was left there for 3 days without food or shelter. So I took her home..." AND NOW you....don't just cut and paste whatever suits you....why don't you quote the bits where I constantly emphasised that the OP should approach the former owner and ask for her to sign over ownership of the dog!

Why put her down? I never got the impression the dog was so timid it was suffering. There are plenty of timid dogs around that lead happy healthy lives. She may be timid because she was abandoned, is pregnant, and is in a new home with strangers. I disagree that this dog should be put down. As stated peviously, this dog does not belong to the OP so it would be against the law to PTS anyways. Danielle, no matter what we say it is all going to prove futile. To say that I am DISGUSTED with your comment Danois, is an understatement! What hide to suggest that the dog be put down! Obviously the dog is not that timid given that the OP was wanting to keep it BEFORE finding out that it was inbred, seems to me that that is the only reason that the OP has changed his mind. Danois...would you have suggested that the dog be destroyed if it were a purebred? I BET NOT !!! this is a forum where people give their views. who are you to be disgusted with what anyone says. keep you personal insults to yourself and stop your attacks on forum members when they dont agree with you Oh of course, you YET AGAIN.....saying that I am disgusted is NOT a personal insult, it is merely an adjective to describe how I am feeling. AND IT IS well about time that you learn the meaning of practicing what you are preaching, you are hardly one to boast about being open to other people's opinion....

Why put her down? I never got the impression the dog was so timid it was suffering. There are plenty of timid dogs around that lead happy healthy lives. She may be timid because she was abandoned, is pregnant, and is in a new home with strangers. I disagree that this dog should be put down. As stated peviously, this dog does not belong to the OP so it would be against the law to PTS anyways. Danielle, no matter what we say it is all going to prove futile. To say that I am DISGUSTED with your comment Danois, is an understatement! What hide to suggest that the dog be put down! Obviously the dog is not that timid given that the OP was wanting to keep it BEFORE finding out that it was inbred, seems to me that that is the only reason that the OP has changed his mind. Danois...would you have suggested that the dog be destroyed if it were a purebred? I BET NOT !!!

What do you mean by not letting the pups go to a new home ??? Very sad, if you cannot afford the desexing, why did you consider keeping the dog in the first place? Poor little soul, I hope that she will find someone that will give her the love she deserves.

I agree 100% in all that you have said . I have seen this with my neighbours and it really frustrated me. Young kids playing with small birds, dropping animals, expee cted to look after birds which, of course, they did NOT, constantly subjecting animals to stress, etc etc. Some parents can be so nonchalant and don't seem to care how their kids go about treating animals, most upsetting. When these projects are entered into there has to be responsibility from 3 parties: the child, the parent, and the teacher. We have kindergartens through to high schools that have been involved in joint animal care for years, very successfully, particularly at holiday times when the classroom creatures have to go to the childrens homes. They get returned to the classroom at the beginning of term .... in good health. If a teacher knows what they are doing with animals and children, then it will be OK. There will always be parents who let the side down, but I believe that these people are in the minority with most creatures ..... with the exception of the tadpoles. Ah yes, the smelly slimy bowls of taddies were sometimes a sight (and smell) to behold. Slack parents and slack teachers should never be involved in any animal projects. But give the good teachers and the good parents the credit where it is due though please! They DO teach the kids responsibility about animal care and many children have benefited from the experience of having the responsibiity of caring for the animals. I could safely say that the good parents are not in the majority and meanwhile the animals are made to suffer ;) Animals are not to be used as an experiment. TO throw an animal into a home that may not be all that keen is asking for trouble.... Edited to add.....what I mean by "good parents" is not to say they are not responsible parents to their children BUT they simply may not be a primary example when it comes to animal care or may be too busy with their own doings to truly bother....

Apparently, microchipping a dog in SA is not mandatory BUT I am in favour of such! It should become mandatory, I was under the mistaken impression that because it is compulsory in Victoria the same applied to all other states, this is not the case http://kb.rspca.org.au/Is-microchipping-ma...nimals_287.html

WOW, too many assumptions here, typical..... Don't you think you are taking things a little too far in assuming that the OP is wanting to breed as a matter of habit? How do you know that the bitch is unhealthy? she may be timid and yes....this can be passed onto the puppies but that is not always the case.....personally I would opt to desex the bitch if she is not too advanced in the pregnancy, different story if she was advanced....I could not bring myself to do that then. Owning an aggressive dog is a concern but where there is a will there is a way....and it is possible to ensure that the smaller dog is kept out of harm's way. The one thing that I find totally exasperating is when people here with a firm opinion take it upon themselves to completely turn things around and literally make wild assumptions just to win a point, let's stick to the facts, shall we???? Perhaps the OP cannot bring him/herself to abort the pups? Comeon, lets not jump to too many conclusions.

Oh dear.. Moselle do you understand the difference between a "firm opinion" and the LAW? You are missing the point Xavier. Do you understand that there is no law that forces people who no longer want to keep a dog to hand the dog over to the pound? A person has all the rights in the world to rehome a dog to whomever they wish and if the OP has the paperwork as proof that the dog was rehomed with him/her....THE LAW HAS NOT BEEN BROKEN.

Yes espinay, I get the drift now but this does not apply to the OP; the OP knows who the dog belonged to, heck....what is the problem with the OP going to the vet to ensure that the dog is or is not microchipped, if it is not.....the next step would be to approach the former owner and get that person to sign the dog over so that there are no legal repercussions in the future...... Making sure that there is a witness that can verify that this has taken place is an added plus. If the knows the OP, the OP also knows her. who is to say they will not change their mind and want their dog and the puppies back? who is to say they will not ask her for money for the pups as without a document stating the dogs have been transferred to her, they are not legally hers and the original owner can still claim posession. The OP has put herself in a very difficult position legally. HENCE THAT IS WHY I SUGGESTED THAT PAPERWORK IS SIGNED THEREFORE ELIMINATING THOSE RISKS !! Heck, am I not clear enough

WOW, too many assumptions here, typical..... Don't you think you are taking things a little too far in assuming that the OP is wanting to breed as a matter of habit? How do you know that the bitch is unhealthy? she may be timid and yes....this can be passed onto the puppies but that is not always the case.....personally I would opt to desex the bitch if she is not too advanced in the pregnancy, different story if she was advanced....I could not bring myself to do that then. Owning an aggressive dog is a concern but where there is a will there is a way....and it is possible to ensure that the smaller dog is kept out of harm's way. The one thing that I find totally exasperating is when people here with a firm opinion take it upon themselves to completely turn things around and literally make wild assumptions just to win a point, let's stick to the facts, shall we????

Yes espinay, I get the drift now but this does not apply to the OP; the OP knows who the dog belonged to, heck....what is the problem with the OP going to the vet to ensure that the dog is or is not microchipped, if it is not.....the next step would be to approach the former owner and get that person to sign the dog over so that there are no legal repercussions in the future...... Making sure that there is a witness that can verify that this has taken place is an added plus.

It not up to what is always the right or wrong thing - you cant just decide you are going to keep a dog without making sure the owner is the owner and has signed over ownership. The pound process is in place to prevent people making assumptions about whether the dog is homeless or abandoned or not. thats FULL STOP. Its against the law and no matter what your personal views are you can not advise someone on a public forum to break the law. That is what I was trying to clarify, Steve. I wasn't sure if there was a law stipulating that upon finding a dog, one has to hand it in to the pound. If there is such a law then I guess it is a case of doing what the law requires when one finds a dog and has no idea who it belongs to but in Sicks3's case, he/she knows who the dog belonged to therefore I can't imagine any laws being broken if he/she approaches the former owner and gets her to sign the dog over. Handing the dog to the pound in this case is totally unecessary and there is no such law in place that forces someone wanting to rehome a dog having to hand it over to the pound, one can rehome one's dog to whomever one wishes.

Is there a legal process in place? Is one obliged to hand a dog in to the pound? Or are you just assuming there is.....??? Sicks3, given that you do know who the dog originally belonged to, why not approach the former owner and get them to sign the dog over to you so therefore the dog would then be legally yours, no ifs or buts and no need to hand the dog to the pound! You cannot rely on human nature and you just never know if the former owners are going to change face in the future so do your bit and you won't have anything to worry about. As for the pound or shelter doing the right thing? That is NOT always the case and I won't go any further right now....

I would not agree that an unmicrochipped dog belongs to noone. Ideally every dog should be microchipped BUT if a dog is not microchipped but is a very much loved member of a family and one day through someone leaving the gates open, the dog wanders out and is lost and someone collects the dog....the dog does not belong to them UNLESS they go all out to find out who its previous owners are. If they do make all attempts to search for the dog's former owners and nothing transpires then they are entitled to keep the dog, I wouldn't be insistant that they hand the dog to the pound in that case. Heard one too many horror stories of things gone wrong with pounds.

I have also been faced with the decision of either allowing my dog to have puppies or to abort them, I chose the latter which consisted of having my dog speyed......mind you, the deed had only taken place 2 weeks earlier hence, as Kirty said, they were nothing more than just tiny embryos. In my case, I was living in Suburbia and had briefly stepped out to get a couple of items at the supermarket and the dog next door dug a HUGE hole under the fence and got to my little girl (cavalier) he was a border collie but even if he had been the same size my decision would have remained the same as I just did not want to have an unplanned litter. I was most upset that I wasn't told of what transpired until a week later and couldnt get on the phone to my vet quick enough to book her in. I don't think I would have had the pups aborted if the bitch was advanced in her pregnancy though.....BUT I was able to afford the cost for emergencies should she have required such; the risk of a C-section is very real and it IS expensive so you have to be prepared for that, you also have to make a point of being at home when whelping time is near, what happens if you are not home and she is ready to whelp and a pup gets stuck in the birth canal or she is unable to whelp for a variety of reasons? This could place the bitch's life at risk.

then I suggest you stop posting what you don't know about and its not a good idea to encourage people to break the law in a public forum I did make it clear that the dog should be taken to the vet to see if it has been microchipped. I also did say that I wasn't sure as to whether one is legally expected to hand the dog to the pound.....if that is the case then I would be doing just that but if it isn't a legal requirement then I would prefer to cover all avenues to make sure that it doesnt belong to anyone. What I meant by saying that this cannot be policed is that I shudder to think of the number of people that do lose their dog, microchipped or not, and never find it again due to someone not taking steps to locate the owners of the dog. I was multi tasking and I should have worded what I said more appropriately. In the middle of clipping my maltese and she is screaming murder, quite frustrating.....she is such a drama queen.

I could be wrong but if she has the dog scanned and it isn't microchipped and she then proceeds to locate the potential owner by placing ads in the lost section as well as the internet....I can't see how this is wrong, don't know whether one is legally expected to hand the dog in to the pound.....and even if this was the case it cannot be policed anyway unless the dog is microchipped and is scanned sometime down the track.... If the bitch was a purebred dog expecting puppies from another purebred dog, would you all still be of the same opinion that she be speyed whilst expecting?

;) How did he manage to slowly get rid of the cats? Now this is a guy that is definitely a control freak or she is simply a subservient type, heck I would not put up with that for one second. Some women are easily manipulated by men.....not all women though :D

silks3, take the dog to your local vet and have the dog scanned as there is a possibility that she may have been stolen, went missing, etc etc. and the real owners would be fretting for her, if she isn't microchipped you could try to locate the owner, that is if the people that have abandoned her are not the original owners. I wouldn't go through the pound system but would go out of my way in making sure that she is indeed abandoned and that noone is desperately looking for her. If noone turns up for her and you do want to keep her bear in mind what the other posters have said, a mother dog is very protective of her babies and this could prove problematic with your akita, make doubly sure that they are kept apart esp after she has had the puppies; do not leave them alone together as of this moment on when you are not around, you would be taking a big risk at the detriment of the little dog. Is she showing signs of expecting or is it the early stages?

What exactly do you mean by "disposing of the pups when they are born?" You will find that in cases where the sire is bigger than the bitch, she will still be able to pass the pups with no difficulty whatsoever. C-sections take place all the time even though the sire is of the same size as the bitch, I have been told this info from a family friend who happens to be a vet. What breed is she? If she is in the very early stages of pregnancy, I would opt for her to be desexed, if she is advanced I would allow her to have the puppies and then find good homes for them. Don't ever give puppies away, more often than not...there is no such thing as "free to a good home." Sell them for a fee but never for free.

I agree 100% in all that you have said . I have seen this with my neighbours and it really frustrated me. Young kids playing with small birds, dropping animals, expee cted to look after birds which, of course, they did NOT, constantly subjecting animals to stress, etc etc. Some parents can be so nonchalant and don't seem to care how their kids go about treating animals, most upsetting.

What an enlightening and intelligent post, quite a breath of fresh air, it is definitely a case of having to work out compromises. There have been a couple of moments when I would have liked to have more dogs in the house but at the end of the day I realise that he has a point in not wanting all the dogs in the house and it's not only because he is a clean freak but because he knows that I am one also and doesn't want me to slave after the dogs 24/7 which I would be doing, now let's get the vacuum cleaner out, perhaps a mop soaked with deodoriser wouldn't go astray, mmm the walls are looking a tad yucky....etc etc.

My thoughts exactly!! My first husband wasn't an animal lover-consequently he didn't last long . Husband number two( coming up to 24th wedding anniversary) is as the quoted poster said 'on the same page'. I don't get the whole 'not allowed' thing either.....being 'not allowed' to do something should stop when we reach adulthood! My OH recently buried my beloved old 15 year old dog with much tenderness & care.........good ones are worth waiting for! No two people can be exactly alike Debyork; as so far as not getting the "not allowed" factor.....well, is that to say that one should consider oneself a "free agent" when in a relationship and go about doing what one wants irrespective of how the other feels? Showing a little consideration goes a long way, being selfish and expecting to have one's way in all facets of a relationship is definitely not the way to go....Yes, I do wish I was allowed to have more than 2-3 dogs in the house, ideally I would love to have 4 dogs at any one time.....not any more than that at one time though, my OH prefers I stick to the 2-3 dog margin, this does not mean that our marriage is dysfunctional, far from it. There is one thing or two about him that I wasn't too happy about and he was obliging so it isn't a one way street here at all. :D

What breed is it? is it a pup or an adult dog? How does your friend treat the dog? It all sounds strange...

Agree with all of the above esp treats and toys made in Australia as most toys that are made in asian countries are downright dangerous, treats like rawhide contains arsenic so I would never sell rawhide if I owned a pet shop. Oh, and a trollies so that one can place heavy bags of dog food in a trolley before walking up to the front desk instead of pet shop owners magically expecting that everyone has superhuman strength.