K9Nev

can you explain what this is??? FR is a dog sport which was developed to test dogs for working ability before breeding. The dogs are tested in obedience, protection, food refusal and jumping exercises. It is similar to KNPV and makes Schutzhund look like a glorified obedience competition...oh wait up a minute. You would have buckleys of getting french Ring accepted. The ANKC won't accept the glorified obedience sport of Schtuzhund. These are terrible sports and teach dogs to be savage and bite people and become dangerous, and anyway dogs weren't designed to perform these functions they were designed to dance, and catch frsbies and stuff. If these sports were introduced it would be interesting to see how many dogs would be suitable for breeding. Not many I would think. The strong show focus of some breeds has well and truly damaged their ability to work like the breed was initially designed to do. But hey they look pretty. In the best interests of breed preservation and quality control from what ever angle I look at the situation of Schutzhund training and testing, there is no "valid" reason IMHO for why the sport presents such supposed major issues from the groups who should be in support of it???.

Well, if you say it doesn't generalise for your dog, I'll just need to take your word for it. I've never had that problem. If a dog can trot along nicely at my side off a leash, then I've never personally seen them start pulling simply because I've clipped a leash onto their collar (I'm talking about attaching a nice loose leash, of course, or even attaching a line and letting the dog pull it - if you stick a leash on and start tugging at your dog then I imagine that would entirely change the way he perceives the situation). But if your dog walks nicely offleash & then gets confused when you attach a leash, then I guess you'll just have to train through it if you are interested in doing so, just like any other type of distraction. I don't really know what else you want to hear? I agree Staranais, a dog that will trot along in a relaxed heel off leash will do the same on leash. We have always trained and conditioned a loose leash walk first, then dragging a leash where the dog thinks they are still restrained which then progresses to off leash work. I don't think I would be brave enough to train the opposite way round and begin training off leash first up................I hate chasing dogs around that have no recall

I don't think it is? To me, good off leash reliability is pretty much the ultimate outcome of not relying on any tool. I mean, if my girl walks nicely at my side off leash on request, then it's going to be a pretty easy step to keep her doing it when I put on the leash, no matter what tool she's wearing? I'm confused, now. My old boy wore a leash about once a month until recently when I hired a dog walker to come once a week. He is brilliant off-leash, walks quite well on a loose leash for me, but pulls like a freight train for his walker. I got her a front-attaching harness, problem solved. The walker is not the pack leader. That's quite common for a dog to exhibit different behaviour with a person other than their primary handler.

Interesting point Corvus which I have seen a few times with competition dogs. But I don't think those dogs have really been taught to loose leash walk properly. Most of their training are specific routines which they do well, but often I have seen the handlers allow a bit of relaxed fooling around on leash after training which I think contributes to their leash behaviour. They will formal heel on leash, but in a relaxed state, will pull, dart around and misbehave.

I have never used a front attaching harness, but I am trying to understand how it works. A seasoned cronic puller isn't going to suddenly behave due to having a harness strapped on, so is it the aversive action of the harness coming under tension when the dog pulls acting as a correction, or is it applying a mechanical leverage advantage to restrain the dog's forward movement to control the dog more effectively???. Does the dog back out into loose leash walk on the harness or does it still run at the end of the leash with a reduction in pulling ability to the handler, seems like walking a far less powerful dog???. Sorry for the techo question, but I am just trying to establish in my mind what the harness does

We spent a lot of time and research for a puppy suitable for dog sport which we got him from Victoria and our little boy who is 4 months old now is absolutely immaculate, better than we could have ever asked for He's not the type of puppy that would suit everyone. he's high in drive, mouthy, dominant and bites with those needle sharp teeth , but his nerve stability, unphased disposition, outgoing nature and trainablity is truly amazing for such a young puppy, like he has done it all before in a previous life Little things like throwing a ball in the backyard, 2 throws and retrieves and he's worked it out if you drop the ball we will throw it again. I am used to chasing puppies around and luring them to bring a ball back , but this little fellow seemed to know already how the game works best and worked it out for himself. We have had some really difficult puppies over the years that have been very hard work to train when young, but this little boy every time we train and play, he learns something and responds the way you are looking for. I think we get better at training puppies the more we have and the more we learn from previous mistakes, which may account for the next puppy that seems to respond better than the last, but our little guy is just perfect for us Great to see so many people happy with their puppies and reading their stories.......terrific

I have heard the same thing a few times that often the rangers don't know the legilsation well and have only a general overview. When a question arises regarding authority, often they ask a more senior person who doesn't really know either but collectively they form a comfort zone of what they believe can and cannot be done. I remember an incident a few years ago I was told about, where a ranger attended someone's home to seize the their dog and the owners said no and shut the door in the ranger's face. The ranger called for police attendance and when the police arrived, the dog owners came out with a copy of the legislation pointing out several things that the ranger hadn't complied with which prevented seizure of the dog. The police agreed and wouldn't take action in support of the ranger and nothing could be done about the situation from a council perspective. Sometimes the council and rangers bluff people thinking they are applying the legislation correctly when in fact they are not, and makes you think a bit if someone is demanding that you hand over your dog and does pay as a dog owner to have a good insight into the legilsation controlling dog ownership sometimes I think

Thanks Jaxx'sBuddy, I will give them a call and ask the question.

Our family for many years have had only Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds. We have had 3 Goldens and still have an 8 year old boy, all 3 were food aggressive with bones especially, resource guarding, one in particular we could never get near him with a bone and gave up trying to reshape his behaviour. Compared with our GSD's it seemed to be a Retriever trait, unless it was just our individual GR's that displayed excessive resource guarding behaviour Our Shepherds won't go near our Goldy if he has a bone

Does anyone know of any particular vets that routinely conduct titre testing in Adelaide???. Our vets wouldn't commit to doing a titre test when asking about it and were more interested in telling me about the inaccuracy of the titre and the importance of annual vaccinations and the suggestion that titre testing is VERY expensive to conduct. I am interested to titre test my dogs and would prefer a vet that can do it and isn't so negative about the process. If anyone can suggest a "titre freindly" clinic in SA, it would be much appreciated, thanks

We got the laboratory urine analysis back this evening which indicated a minor prostate bleed with semen enzyme traces in the urine. The vet told us this situation is common with young entire males that are sexually inactive and nothing to be concerned about at this stage as no cell abnormalities or infections were evident which is thankfully is a good result.

No, they haven't yet, just asked for a urine sample as he is displaying no ther symptoms. He hasn't spotted since yesterday morning and still seems fine. Went for a walk this morning, peed on every second bush as usual with no effort and all looked normal, definitely no visible signs of blood in the urine and no signs in his behaviour indicating an illness or any pain etc. I guess we will what the laboratory test shows up tomorrow???

I see no reason to desex my entire male, so why SHOULD I desex him? More to the point, how are *responsible* owners of entire males going to contribute to puppy farms and the like, in ANY way? It would be interesting to know what percentage of owners keeping entire registered purebreeds become involved in backyard breeding practices. The people I know that have bred their dogs in a BYB fashion, which isn't a lot of people but a few, have always used unpapered dogs sourced from BYB's, not from registered breeders. No doubt it happens, but how common is it???.

I am wondering if anyone has experienced this before???. I have a 3yo entire male GSD seemingly in perfect health. I closed our doggie door flap last night due to some stormy weather and kept the dogs inside. Early this morning, my GSD was jumping around in excitement in the laundry as he normally does when letting him out first thing for a run around. Whilst he was out the back, I turned on the laundry light (it was still dark) and noticed some browny coloured spots on the floor which looked to be like a diluted blood or diluted poopy colour, about a dozen small drops about 5mm in diameter???. I wiped them up which looked distictively brown on a white rag and had no real smell at all. When my boy came back in, I checked his bottom, feet and gave him a check over and found this browny discharge around the covering of his penis I went out with the torch and found where he had peed which looked normal, no blood or brown anywhere to be seen, he was energetic and hungry and didn't seem ill or sensitive to touch at all, but I rang the vet who asked me to try and get a urine sample and bring it in which I did. No other discharge occurred all day other than what happened this morning and have never seen this happen before. His urine was a bit dark looking when I finally competed the mission of trying to catch some, but was clear enough, like a ginger ale sort of colour. Anyway, the vet tested the urine, I don't know exactly what or how they test at the vet clinic, but they said there was something abnormal there but didn't know what it was requiring a laboratory test which I naturally authorised. The vet rattled off a whole list of things, like urinary tract infections etc, then mentioned bladder cancer also which gets your mind in a bit of spin trying to remember what she said and take it all in. I won't get the results back until Friday which seems like an eternity waiting to find out what is wrong. I guess that many of us do what I tend to, and start serching the web for symptoms that match with this "C" word in the back of your mind doesn't help the anticipation???. Medically, we are doing what is required and have acted on things immediately to find out what is going on, but in the mean time, I am wondering if anyone else had experienced anything similar???. The dog seems absolutely fine and completely as normal, doesn't strain to pee or have any urinary symptoms associated with infection etc and apart from seeing those drops this morning, I wouldn't have any indication there could be a problem. Any ideas or experience would be of great support, thanks