Braithwaites

I wonder how many of your dogs currently sit out in a back yard and are forgotten about? Especially when these so called perfect families/ owners you hand pick start a family of children and the dog takes a backward seat to the baby. FACT If you own a dog and live in an apartment, it's impossible to forget about them. I take it from your avatar you breed Staffy's. I've owned many staffies over the years and lived in apartments with them ... They are one dog happy to sit on the couch and sleep all day waiting for you to get home from work and spoil them ... Breeders are a funny mob, and I have a few close friends who breed and are registered and we always have colourful debates when we get together. Puppy factories are the number one enemy of a breeder, yet so many breeders with their closed minds and blanket 'no' answers to potential deserving owners, force these potential owners to go the pet shop BYB route to get a dog. None. They are all very much loved and are part of their respective families. I don't choose homes where the pups or adults will take a back seat the the new baby. The people who want puppies from me mostly already have their families and quite a few over the years have gone to empty nesters. Staffords are not happy to lay around on the lounge and do stuff all. The dogs that I own and breed are high drive and high energy, totally not suitable to live in an apartment. The homes are selected accordingly. Again , I can afford to be fussy about where my pups and adults go and I'd hang on to a pup/dog for as long as it takes, rather than settle for second best. I'm happy to be counted as one of the " funny mob ", it ensures that my dog and pups are homed accordingly and are not bouncing from one unsuitable home to another or dumped in a pound. See, to me at least. To say you know where all your dogs are right now, and their situations are still perfect, seems more wishful thinking than reality. A staff will live for 11 to 12 years ... That is a long time for situations to change. A well loved and trained and settled staffy will sit around all day and sleep on the family couch and wait for you to get home and then spoil them with attention and walks. No matter how high their drive is. I have showed 3 over the years and all had the same quality. I actually moved into working kelpies and borders because they have a higher drive and more energy to do the things I want.

Crazy. Based on yard size? Breeders know no more about me and my ability to raise a dog than what my butcher does.

When I'm around other breeders at shows, trials and tracking, why is it the breeders who have these strange policies/ prejudices on who they sell their pups to, also tend to be the most vocal and outspoken against BYB's and pup farms? Do they not understand its their prejudices about yard size or house size that are directly adding to the demand for BYB's and pup farms? The irony is delicious. And justify it any way you want, with whatever logic you see fit. It is nothing more than blind prejudice. Strange policies/prejudices umm well that might have something to do with the fact they know their breed, they love their dogs and they very much want the best for them. So they choose the best possible owners for their puppies in their opinion. Why on earth would you let a person have one of your pups if you didn't think they would do the very best for the pup? Why would you not turn down a person if you thought them unsuitable to give your pup the best home possible? You should let a person have a pup, even if you think they won't do right by it, just to stop them going elsewhere? How does having yard space correlate to being a good dog owner? And saying that a person simply because they breed dogs might have more knowledge and know what's better for dogs than a dog owner who has owned dogs all their life is the exact kind of elitism which drives people onto the BYB radar.

I have once. The blank stare, followed by silence is a real conversation killer. since a forum board is fairly anonymous, why not ask it here? The bottom line is many people live in tight spaces with little yards and make it work. And many people have big back yards and spaces and neglect their dog. Every individual case should be based on its own merits. A dog lives for 15 years, and the chances of dog owner's circumstances remaining stable and as they are the day they buy the dog, is pretty slim. imo.

why do so many of the overseas rescue shows rescue forgotten dogs from apartments Why? Maybe because more people in the uk and USA where these shows are filmed live in apartments compared to house and land? It's all relative.

When I'm around other breeders at shows, trials and tracking, why is it the breeders who have these strange policies/ prejudices on who they sell their pups to, also tend to be the most vocal and outspoken against BYB's and pup farms? Do they not understand its their prejudices about yard size or house size that are directly adding to the demand for BYB's and pup farms? The irony is delicious. And justify it any way you want, with whatever logic you see fit. It is nothing more than blind prejudice.

The kind of abode someone inhabits reflects little about the level of commitment to meet the dogs needs for exercise, lova and care. A backyard does bugger all to guarantee anything. I live in an apartment and researched a breed suitable for living. many different breeds came up as possibilities but a lot of it had to do with me and my temperament as much as the dog's. I went with a papillon, but would have got it even if in a house. Stories of greyhounds, danes, staffies and german shepherds living in apartments came up in my research: examples of dogs that were happy in apartment living because the owners worked it out to maintain the dog's health. Adult greyhounds in the main. I would never deny my greys, especially the youngsters, the chance to free exercise, they do so, most days, twice a day. And it is against the law in Victoria to let them off lead in public places which include dog parks. I reckon greyhounds might be an exception to most dogs. There's a good reason why they aren't high on the list of most hopeful dog owners, and that is the space they need to run. I get the feeling most of us are talking about breeders of prolific breeds like lab, borders, poodles etc who give a blanket 'no' based on yard/ house size.

I wonder how many of your dogs currently sit out in a back yard and are forgotten about? Especially when these so called perfect families/ owners you hand pick start a family of children and the dog takes a backward seat to the baby. FACT If you own a dog and live in an apartment, it's impossible to forget about them. I take it from your avatar you breed Staffy's. I've owned many staffies over the years and lived in apartments with them ... They are one dog happy to sit on the couch and sleep all day waiting for you to get home from work and spoil them ... Breeders are a funny mob, and I have a few close friends who breed and are registered and we always have colourful debates when we get together. Puppy factories are the number one enemy of a breeder, yet so many breeders with their closed minds and blanket 'no' answers to potential deserving owners, force these potential owners to go the pet shop BYB route to get a dog.

For 2 years we had a red & tan working kelpie and a border collie without a fence. Neighbour had 3 cats (now two, a tick got one) for just about all of that time and we never had a problem. The dogs were mostly inside. When the kelpie wasn't inside she was sitting on the back step waiting to get back in to resume following me everywhere. No problems, at all raising dogs in apartments provided you're committed to the dogs well being. Breeders probably need to know more about who they're selling their dogs to, rather than worrying about things like how much yard space a dog has. From my experience Borders and kelpies prefer to be by your side, than having an acre to chase butterflies in.

A friend I went to highschool with went on to become a vet. She told me after a dog has it's first shot then its booster it is 99.9% covered for the rest of its life. She has been a registered vet now for 7 or 8 years, but she said in that time she's never seen a case of parvo in a dog with an initial immunisation & booster ... Made me wonder if the shots were even necessary at all after the initial dose and follow up booster. I might be lucky - and ignorant - but I've never given my dogs a follow up jab and so far they've never been sick. They don't socialise with other dogs, but they go plenty of places where other dogs have been like the beach and parks. The breeder I got my dogs off subscribes to the same theory and so to my uncle who trains alsatians with the military. I don't like giving them chemicals at all. There is a research website in the states that listed all the chemicals given to dogs over their lifespan. Like a preventic tick collar, releases powerful carcinogenic vapours which your dog inhales for the life of the collar, equivalent to your dog chain smoking 3 packet of cigarettes per day. Believe it or not, but the preventic collar was far less damaging to the dogs than advantix which reduces the life span of your dog even further by breaking down the live, kidneys as well as about 9 types of cancers. Proban was the one with the least side effects, but the website states the research done on the principal ingredient is only in its early stages.

Sorry to ask, but can anyone give me a ballpark figure on what it would cost to insure a border collie pup?

What is a chigger?

We live in the northern river area nad battle ticks all year round. A good soaking/ swim in salt water drowns and dries out any ticks which might be attached. If you don't want chemicals a daily 15-20 minute swim in the ocean is as good as it gets.

We live in paralysis and brown tick country and have always had borders and kelpies. We went a less toxic route after alot of trial and error, with good results. We used advantix and collars, advantix was good but only lasts for 2 weeks in the middle of tick season so it ended up being really expensive on 2 or 3 adult dogs. The collars are just toxic. Our kids would have to watch where they poat the dogs, you had to take them off if the dogs want to play fight/ chase or swim with each other. A fresh food diet that is rich in garlic, potato and pumpkin has done the trick. The tick numbers we find on the dogs is about the same as the advantix and much better than the collars. The garlic and starch makes their blood/ flesh much less appealing, and the fresh diet reduces fat deposits which makes the dogs attractive to parasites. Our friend makes up an apple vinegar and citrus spray for her dogs, possibly with garlic in it too, and she has even better results than us. After a while you get use to your dogs smelling like a big salad, she says.