BlackJaq

What is a belly band?

Oh noes, not reply! Would love to see those emails, proving that he only responded to nasty emails.. yeah

Good. Alas, I believe it will probably make no difference. But still better than nothing.

Wow ok I think I get it now. One question though: What was he going to do with a ROPE when face with presumably unhandled, adult cattle, possibly in a state of upset? I mean, other than getting himself trampled I assume he takes some crack before bed time and then dreams up the adventures he will post about on fb the next day. I bet he hides in the garage when he calls his wife with these "updates", pretending to be out and about. I sincerely hope he is uninvited from that BSL thing

You'd think they would be way too tall and at a disadvantage over a more traditionally sized pit dog.. Who knows, I'm not exactly in the loop on the current underground dog fighting circles, however, I have yet to see a photo of a confirmed pit dog with cropped ears. Most people who "know what they're doing" seem to prefer them with ears for some reason. Cropped ones are mostly pets and back yard/chain ornaments I would think A bunch of other breeds have been tried as pit dogs as far as I know as well, including Rottweilers and such, that doesn't mean that they are good at it though

Wait so what was the go with the cows? Why were they being killed? Or did Mark need some steak for the next MAS bbq? I'm so confused, were the police there to stop him?

Lol oh my, Jo, your got your fingers in every pie don't you :laugh:

Why has Lola not made any statements about his spokesmanship? You'd think it would be easy enough for her to publically announce that he is no longer their spokesman, or even get the lawyers to write a public statement or some-such? If I was them I would be distancing myself from him as far as I could without physically moving to Alaska

Umm have you read that link? Methinks somebody is a little bit confused (and confusing the heck out of me with your posts, just saying)

Not sure about the bleaching, maybe try a small inconspicuous area first? I've never had issues on various types of flooring but you never know

Italy is an illustrious example in my opinion. At one point in time Italy had extensive BSL, including poodles and JRTs. Obviously they have seen the light and they must have actually experienced an improvement in bite stats after alternative measures were put in place, otherwise I'm sure they would have gone back to BSL. Obviously some breeds need a lot more commitment and management than others, I totally agree. I don't have all the answers but I think education is definitely a solution that is greatly lacking in support, especially with BSL supporters. I don't want to name any breeds in particular, but off the top of my head I can think of at least 20 different breeds that require equal management and owner responsibility as the Dogo and are capable of doing the exact same amount of damage in the wrong hands. Yet somehow, despite the fact that these breeds are in fact present in Australia, there are no reports of their misdeeds on the news (or on the internet). As I said, responsible breeders being in charge of any breed is its single greatest defence against what has happened to some other breeds. To be honest, I think licensing requirements to own any dog, like there are to drive any car, would be a good thing. It is not only people who suffer when bad owners keep dogs, the dogs themselves often have less than stellar lives, regardless of breed. Failing that, there are plenty of laws already in place that, if enforced, might actually make a difference (like micro chip laws), but simply are not enforced. Maybe that would be a good starting point, instead of inventing more and more restrictive legislation. I have kind of given up on Australia making any positive changes though, at least until other countries (probably namely the US) first abolish all BSL, since Australia is not exactly on the cutting edge of innovation and would rather copy bad laws than make a positive change on their own, happily ignoring all positive examples around the world...

Maybe you can try adding some vinegar to the carpet cleaning stuff? Personally I find vinegar great, I've also used Pine-A-Clean in the past, which seemed to work

Yes I agree. On a different note, since when are "Staffies" hunting dogs? Last time I looked, the hunting breeds were generally accepted as hunting dogs, never heard of any Staffy breed being included in that list though. When my hunting dog gets whacked whilst hanging onto prey, she will generally let go and adjust her grip to stop it happening again, not hang on tight until she is possibly dealt a fatal blow/bite, which would be stupid

I thought it was funny how many people thought they were fighting dogs. Really? They are known for hunting, sometimes in quite large packs and thus need to get along with their pack mates. Would be nice if some people did some research before condemning any breed to the "fighting dog" label. I also think it is sad that some people look at them and all they can say is "glad they are not here for dickheads to own". There are plenty of breeds here with no bad press (yet? their turn might come after we are finished with pitbulls, just like we finished with the other "vicious" breeds) who could be an absolute disaster if breeders were not taking great care in who they are selling to, so I doubt if the Dogo would make matters that much worse. I have also seen several dogs coming through pounds that had an uncanny likeness, so not sure that an import ban is really stopping any dickheads from owning them. Sourcing them from registered breeders? Definitely! Is that a good thing? Probably not..

Agree, I pretty much start menacing the dog a soon as it starts to look like trouble, if it comes within reach it's basically agreeing to me beating the sh*t out of it and I go for it. Most will turn back once you take on a stiff, angry posture and start advancing on them though. I keep my animal(s) behind me and they know the drill, that includes the dogs as well as the horse lol. If there is more than one then good luck to ya. I find others are more likely to help with multiple dogs if you tell them (in very simple terms) what to do i.e. "grab his backlegs" or whatever.

DNA testing will say different... http://sheltermedicine.vetmed.ufl.edu/library/research-studies/current-studies/dog-breeds/dna-results/ Check out how many were way off the mark when the only identifier was a visual scan... T. I fail to see how it matters? They are not of uniform size, shape, colour or anything else, apart from the fact they are all dogs. I think the DNA tests are ridiculous btw, since pure bred breedings have not been in fashion for most breeds for more than a few hundred years, of course they will have a gazillion traces of breed xyz in them. What does that prove? And what does it prove in regards to the topic?

I don't want to be a negative Nelly but it sounds like there might be more issues than just the tail splitting here. Docking will fix that but it won't make Gus any more settled or calm. I think maybe consulting with a trainer or behaviourist (K9 Pro is often mentioned here though I have no experiences myself) might be worthwhile to try and get a handle on the excitable, hyper-active behaviour and if those thing are taken care of there may or may not be an issue anymore. If you are happy with his behaviour then obviously docking will probably solve your problem for you though. I just know that personally, I would go crazy with a dog bouncing all over my house. ETA: I would also fast track the agility thing or whatever, it sounds like he really needs a job.

Well, cross breeds usually have some dominant breed or mix of breeds that you can pinpoint by looking at them. I did not mean only pure breds attack but rather that you cannot pin it on any one type, breed, or mix of dogs. Obviously pure breds from registered breeders would be the least likely to be out and about on their own as most people will look after their $1000 couch ornament better than a $50 backyard ornament and most breeders take some care in selecting suitable homes

Oh my God somebody please stop this train wreck in the making. Whose idea was it to invite him to that thing?? On a totally unrelated note, I have to say I found his facial hair really irritating during the TT thing...

I agree with this post, I posted earlier in the thread pointing out the exact same thing. If we actually figured out the number of dogs owned in Australia, the number of those who then attack etc, the percentage of attacks would be miniscule. Horrible stories like the attack on the jogger are a rare occurrence not a common one. Better to gain insight into the "Why and how" of what happened with the attack and leading up to the attack than to have a knee jerk reaction and blaming entire breeds for the shortcomings of 3 specific dogs. In much the same way that we cannot generalise all Muslims (some of the most peaceful and loving people I have ever met) for the actions of the extremists within their religion, we cannot generalise bull breeds or large breed dogs for the failings of few within their ranks. Agree in a way - but the bolded bit is again making the assumption that the fault lies with the dog - the fault in virtually all cases lies with the owner. Would like to agree there. No matter what any dog's temperament, it is always up to the owner to control and manage that dog, regardless of breed, size, religion or sexual orientation :p Even if we did all agreed that bull breeds were vicious, the ship on banning them has sailed. There are sh*tloads of them in this country and no law will make the dickheads who pop the poor tempered ones out like hotbuns change their ways. Much better to adopt a model that is proven to improve bite stats in general, rather than trying to legislate a particular breed out of being, especially when many, many breeds are involved in severe attacks every year.

Does he sleep on a bed inside his crate? Or just a bed on its own? And does he use his crate at all when it is just open and available or only when he is shut in? What is his behaviour like in general in the house? Does he follow you around everywhere and is generally up and about the whole time or will he settle down on his own at some stage? It might be an option to keep him crated inside for a while until he understands that inside = calm, as long as he still gets plenty of exercise outdoors

That is great! Unfortunately around ym area most dogs would be unregistered so there would be no way to find their address other than following them home

I would give the bed/crate thing a go before going straight for docking then. Our dogs don't get the run of the house when they are inside, they are made to stay on their beds (at one point we had three large-ish dogs inside a very small house and not enough room for three crates so we mounted rings for tethers on the wall lol). As soon as they come in they are sent to their bed and basically ignored to help them calm down. Wagging can take a while to die down but once they get the idea they will quickly get into a routine and go to sleep once they go to their bed. We had 1 Weimaraner + 2 mixed breed big-ish bullies inside and no tail injuries once everybody learnt the routine. We tried not to do much with them indoors to help them stay nice and calm, and concentrated most of our interaction on outside time. We now only have the Weimaraner inside still and the rules have relaxed a bit (she will be 3 in November, so have stuck with this routine for a long time) and she is a very calm inside dog, spending pretty much all indoor time sleeping. We did not allow any play time indoors at all and no toys or treats that would get them revved up. We kept all those things for outside. We also did all feeding outside as there just wasn't enough room inside for everybody to get enough space and one of our bullies is reactive so nobody can be near him at food times anyway. If he is too wild to crate when he first comes in I would suggest bringing him in on a lead and just holding him calmly until he calms down. It is very important for them to learn to settle and be calm otherwise their tails will definitely take a beating when in confined spaces like indoors. Hopefully that made some sense and might help you a little. Docking might still end up being the last resort but if you can get him to calm down indoors it might not come to that ETA: Also, there is no running inside our house EVER because once they start, they end up bouncing all over the furniture and off the walls lol

I would give sas's training a shot, have heard a lot of good things (see post #7)

I would maybe hold off on the other dog until you solve at least the toilet issue because house training a second dog may be difficult if the first one keeps having indoor accidents