equerry

And yet boxer breeders drown their white ones at birth, yet they are the cause of the white forever wanting more and more bling. Its like on the weekend I was reading the trading post on line and the weekend shopper, the amount of poodle somethings, cav something elses for sale at extremely high prices astounded me, and purebred breeders struggle sometimes to justify their prices and horse breeders trying to get $1500 for young stock is not uncommon, and yet gullible dog buyers will pay $700 for a beaglier (beagle/cav) WHAT??? doesn't make sense, the same as buying for colour doesn't make sense, but it happens in the horse world all the time. What does it tell me, people are stupid and shallow, but breeding for colour is even worse, type, soundness, temperament should be a priority not colour.

I think you can be stung any which way you go, there are some good byb, and some shockers, there are some good registered breeders and again some down right awful ones. Mine have been a very mixed bag, my GSD I got from a very good breeder and she was a darling and healthy from day one to till very late in her long life. My boxer again i got from a very good breeder, she was a darling but had dreadful health issues her whole life and cost me thousands. My second boxer walked in off the street deciding that our place was much better than where he lived, after lengthy discussions with owner, he was desexed and lived a long and healthy life with us, doubt he was from a good breeder. My OH's cattle dog and kelpie/border crosses were from byb, both lovely healthy dogs and both lived a grand long life. Our stumpy tailed cattle dog was from a pet shop, one of those impulse buys, she was quite sick for a short time early on, then never ailed another thing till she died in her sleep at 14. Our Rough Collie was from a friend, also a registered breeder, he never illed a day in his life apart from a broken leg thanks to one of my horses and died in his sleep at 17. Our current dog an Aussie Shepherd was from a registered breeder, healthy as, but extremely timid, dreadfully timid and a fear biter due to it, great around us, great with my daughter, great with other dogs and cats, but not good with strangers, never had a dog like it, but then we got her at 6 months and the seed was sown. So as I said, don't feel bad, we have all been there done that and personally although I despise puppy farms and pet shops, there are a good few byb breeders around and I for one would buy of them again.

A good read that all should read, and I guess the old adage be careful what you wish for certainly rings some bells here. Though I don't think he should hang his head in shame, its a pity that so many unscrupulous people have taken advantage of what essentially was someone trying to help others. Pet shops are the worst for promoting DD and charging enormous amounts for these mongrels, and puppy farms should be banned end of story. We have so many lovely breeds to choose from I just cannot understand why we have to keep trying to reinvent the wheel, happens in the horse world as well, they are just not clever enough yet to make up catchy names for them. Yes I know that most of our 'purebreds' are blended varieties, heck I only found out by chance on here that my Aussie has Pyrenean mountain dog in it??? (someone correct me if I am wrong), but how many more invented breeds do we need?

I don't want to leave a feral cat problem for the new owners either, the neighbouring culprits have been reported, they now have a litter of mongrel pups as well, all of which I believe they are keeping without desexing sigh..... Why can people not get their animals desexed, its a one of fee and not that expensive in the whole scheme of animal ownership, over its whole lifetime its pittance. HugL, no one told my GSD that she had to have a high prey drive either, she would have loved to have been a lap dog, sleeping and being by my side was her preferred past time, my old cat years ago had her extremely well trained.

Thanks to all those that understand how hard my decision was, decided it was pointless to let a few with big opinions to send me packing as I love dogs and am enjoying the forum, understand why they are so against my decision in a way and are convinced I must be a hopeless dog owner, they are dog lovers like we all are and want the best for dogs. Hard also to explain the situation in full on a forum, so much happened that it would take pages and pages to go through it all, so you try to condense it and in doing so you paint yourself in a bad light depending on your writing skills (obviously mine are awful), but it would have been nice if some read my posts fully and correctly before replying, the dog was not badly trained, we had him 3 years with a multitude of a cats and ferals prior to the first cat killing incident, it was only when the second JRT arrived on the scene that things turned, anyway been over and over it, those that think I am a dreadful owner and don't deserve a dog, so be it, you haven't managed to scare me of as there are too many nice people on the forum to run and hide. We are thinking now maybe another cattle dog, had two over the years, really lovely dogs, good around the cats, good around the horses, great with our daughter, loyal and relatively easy to train, and tough as, would love a pug or a border terrier, but the OH is not so keen, my dream of owning another GSD will be put on hold for now, this dog is for our daughter, and if we get a GSD I will claim it for sure, also means we can take a little bit of Australia back with us Will just make sure its from a good breeder, will also make sure it is a puppy so that it can get used to the cats at an early age. Good news is we have rehomed all the kittens, managed to catch one of the feral females, she is now desexed and part of the family, the other two feral females are still a work in progress, we have borrowed a cat trap from one of the neighbours but no sucess as yet but early days, not sure what will happen to these two as they cannot be rehomed as they are extremely antisocial unlike the young ginger we have adopted, who we just picked up and brought inside, no need for a cat cage for her, pts may be the best option, will talk to the welfare group once they are caught.

Yes Jed, coaches name begins with P, have moved a long way away now so have moved on to another coach, P's dogs are a hoot, though seeing my OH's big wb geldings face as he cantered down the long side of the arena to find a Cav lying in his way was priceless, it was like, OMG what is it, do I jump it, avoid it, stomp on it???? They all seem to survive ok, luck I guess. I am always worried about little dogs around the horses, especially the pups, our first JRT was not allowed out of the back yard for ages until he was a bit older and was coming when called etc... and they are not allowed into the paddocks anyway, but years ago my GSD got kicked by a horse, not badly thankfully but she did keep out of their way for the rest of her life, could have been much worse. My rough collie had his leg broken by a horse once, wasn't his fault, I was leading my tb gelding down the drive to his paddock, my boxer was jumping up at my horses nose (he had just come back from a spell), I told the boxer of, and so did the collie, unfortunately it was at that moment my horse had had enough and struck out getting the collie instead, neighbour was watching who hated boxers and called out, pity wrong dog, but apart from being pinned together for a while, he lived to a ripe old age of 17, it was the one and only time my boxer behaved like that, and I had two of them, must have been co's she thought it was a strange horse returning. I agree that boxers are good with horses, mine always were, same with my GSD once she got past the terrible twos, bestest dog ever, would love another one, maybe one day.

Just a short note to say thankyou to the lovely people on this forum, Dudley has settled well into his new home and I feel in my heart we did the right thing,(even if I did burst into tears when they told me all was good), it was never a choice between Dudley and the ferals, we have 5 domestic cats to be concerned about as well,one who was killed and two who were badly roughed up needing a vet, our 5 remaining cats get on fabulously with our other Aussie, it was never Dudleys fault, it was ours I fully take the blame. Anyway thankyou again for the suggestions of dog breeds, once we move to NZ which may be sooner than we think as we have had an offer on the property, I will be guided by some of the suggestions here as there have been breeds suggested I never even considered. As to pugs and Cav's not being suitable around horses, I would have thought so to, but my riding coach has Cav's who lie around in the arena when you are having a lesson, and one of pug breeders in our area, breeds ASH's and they all get on famously. However I understand completely where you are coming from and I do have one horse who dislikes dogs in his paddock and yes he is coming to NZ, but my dogs are not allowed in the paddocks with the horses anyway, and when I am doing anything with them, like riding etc.... the dogs are locked in the back yard. I love schnauzers, there were two mini ones where I used to agist my horse years ago, lovely lovely dogs, but the OH is not so keen. I love the look of the Border Terriers and the Cairn Terriers as well, but anyway plenty of time for that. Our remaining Aussie is actually getting quite used to being an only dog, my daughter plays with her more than she used to and she is enjoying being fussed over, she is also enjoying the attention of the cats who actually like to lie around with her inside at night watching telly and one of the cats who was roughed up badly by Dudley actually runs up to her for cuddles, so she is holding no grudges :-) The animal welfare group has been so helpful in guiding us when dealing with the ferals and the best way to eradicate them (need to eradicate the dam neighbours first who refuse to desex their cats and are now in plague proportions), the remaining 5 kittens are getting desexed next week and will go to their new homes once the stitches are all out. I know I shouldn't feel the need to justify myself but seeing as this thread which I wish I had never started has had me in tears for the week, I just wanted to let the caring people know how its all ending.

Jules I have not rehomed two dogs, the breeder of the JRT suggested she come home, I have not named the breeder, nor will I, I have the utmost respect for the breeder, she is one of the kindest people I have had the privilege of dealing with, in no way do I blame her, I have never come across such a feral cat problem before, am trying to do the best I can in the situation. What do you suggest I do Jules, still have no idea why you are being so vicious. I am glad it makes you all feel so good making me feel more miserable than I already am, I leaving this forum, thankyou to those that have been understanding, sadly I have to deal with the likes of Jules on other forums, wanna bet she alerts the JRT breeder....... hope that makes her feel she has done a good dead for the day. I am bewildered at the viciousness on this thread, I am trying really trying to do the right thing by all, I love my dogs dearly, was I sad to see the JRT go, of course I was, she was my daughters dog, am I destraught over placing Dudley in a new home, well I guess Jules thinks I can miraculously get rid of all feral cats, shouldn't ever have dogs, even though my GSD died in my arms at 14yrs, my two boxers were in their teens, my collie was 17 when he died in his sleep, my cattle dogs were in their teens, sorry one was 11, my border collie kelpie was 12, and in all that time I always had cats as well, not one lost till the JRT, who then taught the male aussie. But as I said, going now won't be back. Thankyou for the suggestions, when the time is right and my research is done, we will welcome a new addition to the family.

Just re read all of my posts and at no stage did I say that I 'had' a bitch, to set things straight, we got the two Aussies from the same breeder, brother and sister, we got the male dog first when he was 5 months old and the bitch a month later when she was 6 months old, the male aussie has been rehomed, the bitch is still with us, the male aussie never touched a cat till we got the second JRT who was from a family of cat killers un beknown to us at the time. And Jules it was a year ago that I made that post on Eques, so we have managed the situation for a year not made rash decisions and just got rid of the dog, and thankyou for breaching privacy and bringing another topic from other forums on to this one, that is something I would never do, hope you are happy with yourself, I am really disappointed that you felt the need to do this, and for everyones info, most of the people on that thread at the time did not suggest we keep the dogs and cats separate (they are anyway always have been apart from when the dogs come in at night to sit with us, and then totally supervised), but most suggestions was to to put the dog down. Re the Kittens that Jules P felt the need to bring up, we are currently trying to rehome 7 feral kittens, yes we rescued 7 feral kittens and no it was not one of these that our male Aussie killed it was one that we were unable to catch from another litter, and yes we are getting them all desexed prior to rehoming, just incase some wanted to have a go at me about that, one has been rehomed undesexed on the weekend, we have pre paid her desexing. If anyone else feels the need to have a go at me, fine hope it makes your night and that you are happily patting yourself on the back for it. As I have said (and I really don't know why I am bothering) rehoming our dog was NOT an easy decision, took over 12 months to commit to doing it, and would you have preferred that I put him down? For the last year we have been trying our best to manage the situation, and apart from one hiccup we have, but at the end of the day he is our dog and if we feel he is better of elsewhere our decision. I notice that a lot of mature dogs are advertised on this site by reputable breeders, their only crime, they are no longer wanted for breeding purposes, do I have a problem with this? no the breeders are trying to do the best for the dogs. I have always said that I offer a 'forever' home to my dogs and till this last year with the introduction of the JRT, that has been the case, I am upset and not sleeping thinking of my lovely boy in another home, this was and still is not an easy decision for us, please have some respect.

Jules we do keep the dogs and cats apart,they don't ROAM FREE AS YOU PUT IT, but the dogs cannot be locked up forever they only get let out when we feed up and for months now the male dog (who is the one we rehomed) was never allowed out unless on a leash, but my 10 year old left the gate open a couple of weeks ago and when I was feeding I came back to find the male aussie with a feral kitten dead at his feet. And if you read my previous posts the other feral was killed when it came into the back yard. And yes it was the JRT who killed my domestic, how dare you say that I didn't know, the dog was there out of the yard, with Daisy roughed up and dead, who else could it have been, the bitch never goes near the cats (sorry for the confusion with so much accusation flying around and me in tears earlier due to it, my typing may have got muddled.) And her breeder emailed me to tell me her dogs have killed 6 cats which is why she offered to take her back. The Aussies are not able to get out of the yard, the JRT well it managed to find new holes or create them. Jules why are you being so awful? what have I done to you, and no the rest of the kittens are not desexed yet as they are not old enough, the animal welfare group emailed me today about that and hopefully in a couple of weeks the vet will have a spot available. Feral cats would not be a problem if dam farmers and the likes desexed their dam cats, people are the problem not the cats.

To those that have given support and understanding I thankyou from the bottom of my heart, to the others, you are all entitled to your opinions , rehoming our dog has not been an easy decision, which is why it took us over a year of trying to manage the situation before the decision was made, twice I pulled out as I couldn't go through with it, whether its a feral or a domestic cat for me there is no difference and I don't believe for a minute a dog on the chase knows the difference, our burmese are completely house bound, no chance of them being chased and or killed. We have two remaining outside domestics, they have learnt not to run from the dogs, but still as a cat lover I am not prepared to let the ferals be killed by my dog either, my choice. One of our domestics was killed by the second JRT, another roughed up by the Aussie, though I don't feel the need to justify my families decision to rehome as it is hard to cover all reasons on a forum, I hope in the long term it is the right thing for the dog in question. Our Aussies are fantastic with our daughter, don't chase the horses, and although they bark at the snakes unlike the JRT's who feel they were put on this earth to defend all, the aussies bark and run backwards away from the snakes. As I stated earlier I have owned many breeds, and all my dogs have died from old age or pts due to old age, the youngest any of my dogs have been when we have lost them is 11, my collie was 17 when he died in his sleep. I am fairly capable of socialising my dogs and cats and until my Aussie was shown by the JRT how to chase and then kill, we lived in relative harmony, this year has been particulary bad for both ferals and snakes, nearly stood on one just on sunday, big awful brown. We do have water outside the house yard, in several spots for the barn cats. I know of several people in the area to have lost their JRT's from snakes, a neighbour lost one of hers last year and she was a 12 yr old dog, living in the country unless you do keep them locked up 24 x 7 it is almost impossible to keep them completely safe, we thought we had done enough to keep Eddie in, he dug his way out. I will continue my research into different breeds, being a big dog person normally I don't know a lot about small - med sized dogs hence why I asked the question. Thankyou for the suggestions so far, I plan on visiting some shows and talking to breeders about the various ones suggested.

I give up. I am in tears as it is at having to rehome my much loved dog, please do not try making yourself's feel better by putting me on yet another guilt trip, I am beating myself up about it as it is. I am not stupid until we know if our dog is settling in (he has only been there since Sat) I won't be rushing out to buy another dog, but our remaining dog is lonely and I thought that some research may cheer me up, well that didn't work thanks.

Gee thanks JulesP, how to make someone feel worse than they already do. To those that gave suggestions, I thankyou. Would like to see some of the city slickers living in the country coping with their animals and snakes, it is a bit hard to snake proof 82 acres and personally I don't find it all that appealing to have my dogs locked up in kennels for a large % of the time, my backyard has shade, water, and somewhere to play, you try JRT proofing a farm.

I have owned many many different breeds, from GSD, to Boxers, cattle dogs, border collies and rough collies to JRT's and the Aussies, up until now I have never had any problems with the dogs chasing the cats let a lone killing them, back ground info is probably relevant so you all don't think I am a terrible dog owner. We got the Aussies when they were a little older, ie one was about 5 months , the other a month later so she was probably 6 months old, they had been living in a kennel situation ie locked up for a large % of there day, with the rest of the litter and mum initially, we already had two aging cattle dogs and 5 cats, 2 inside burmese, 1 that was an inside/outside cat (couldn't make up its mind) and two barn cats who wouldn't have a bar of the house but who are locked up in the barn each night. The Aussie bitch was not interested in the cats, the dog was, but was well behaved and did no more than the odd chase for the first couple of years, we socialised them with the cats early on, all of our dogs though they live outside, they are free to come in and out during the day and evening if they wish. We moved 3 years ago to 82 acres with unfortunately a bad feral cat problem due to neighbours not desexing their cats, now we have a secure back yard on this acreage, but morning and night the dogs come out with us to have a run while we feed the horses, they have never chased the horses. We purchased a JRT for our daughter, who was a fantastic little dog, was mainly an inside dog but played outside with the other dogs when we were at work, we had it JRT escape proof or so we thought, with mesh etc... but unfortunately he found a hole and a snake and we found him dead under the house one day. (long winded but is important to the story), we were offered a lovely female JRT as a replacement, though she was a tad older, lovely dog, again mainly an inside dog, but like the other JRT on occasion managed to find another hole we had missed, anyway she began to chase the ferals and on one occasion one of our barn cats, found her nearly dead (we were feeding horses, heard the commotion and went to rescue said cat), after that the male Aussie became interested in the chase of the cats as well and one of the ferals got into the back yard and he killed it. I came home one day to find the JRT out in the car port standing over one of our barn cats who was sadly dead when I arrived. I spoke to the JRT's breeder who offered to take her back as she understood, her JRT's had killed 6 cats so they don't have any anymore. We hoped that with her gone, the Aussie male would settle and we have been managing the situation for nearly a year, but a few weeks ago when I was feeding the horses, I came back from the paddock to find the male with a feral kitten in front of him. I think one of the issues, is that although we socialised them both, before we got them at the kennels there were a lot of cats that used to tease them through the kennel mesh, now although most would say a few dead ferals is not a bad thing, unfortunately he cannot tell the difference, he is fine inside at night with our burmese, and he cannot escape the backyard, but he cannot be kept in their forever and with 8 horses to feed and rug morning and night, its difficult to keep him on the lead. Also I have always had very small puppies before and they are much easier I guess to socialise with cats, as I said until now never had a problem in 40 odd years of dog ownership, even my kelpie border collie cross couldn't care less about them. A lovely family close has offered him a home in a non cat environment, in a secure yard with another dog for company, he doesn't try to jump fences or anything to get to a cat, and we felt he deserved the chance, they are fully aware that he kills cats. Most suggested he get put down immediately. Now the remaining bitch as I said, doesn't care to chase cats or kill them, she is an outside dog, but again comes in nightly to socialise with the family, and the cats and she is fine when out with us feeding up. So I guess to answer your questions, yes the dog will have basic obedience training, yes it will be a family inside/outside dog, but it will be living on acreage with horses, and ofcourse cats. so I am not really looking for a lecture, I feel sick to the stomach every minute of everyday thinking that my lovely boy thinks I have abandoned him, as I said he is on trial until friday, if it doesn't work out, he comes home, what happens then? Not sure as I don't think I could go through the heartache of rehoming him again, will face that hurdle when and if we come to it, spoke to the people last night and they said he was a bit sooky but settling well, he is a sook so that is not a surprise. So I am just looking for suggestions please. Why did you delete your post poochmad? As to grooming well I owned a rough collie for 17 years and although I really don't want that much hair again, a medium length coat would not be too bad. Do you know of any dog shows coming up?? Or where do I go look. thanks

We are down to one dog an Aussie Shepherd after needing to rehome our other Aussie Shepherd due to him killing cats, we want a second dog and I would personally like a German Shepherd having had one several years ago. However this next dog will be for our 10 yr old daughter not me, and she would prefer a smaller dog, we did have a JRT who was killed by a snake so not looking for another while we still live in Australia (soon to move back to NZ in the next year or so, depending on when our house sells). We are not into fluffy types, and I actually like pugs, though the OH doesn't ,he is more into working dogs and although on 82 acres, we are moving back to 10 in NZ, we have burmese cats, and horses so something that doesn't like to chase, and doesn't need to be really small, med size would be ok. All suggestions appreciated. cheers Oh and are all the dog shows in and around Brisbane over for the year?