BlackJaq

Well. That deteriorated quickly.

Not sure why more people don't opt for tubal litigation instead of castration? Seems this would resolve all issues by stopping puppy from being bred against breeder's wishes but allows normal hormones to be produced for puppy to mature naturally?

I've never heard of that. (...) I have heard owners of working gun dogs cite this reason, particularly in Germany, where many dogs still fulfil this role. They say the dogs seem to stay more playful than others of the same age and can be more prone to toying with game rather than performing fast straight-forward retrieves. Of course this is all anecdotal but many of the people I have spoken to about this seem to agree. In general, entire animals seem to be preferred over neutered ones.

I think people were questioning Tralee's attitude towards issues in the breed (which seems to be dismissive, and in support of breeding for show rather than work) rather than his dogs, since none of us have actually seen the dogs, except in photos. He was the one to bring up his own dogs and post photos to demonstrate the issues we were discussing.

Oh my!

Wow I'm speechless. I think people everywhere, not just Victoria should be giving their opinion on this. If any of this rubbish passes NSW will be next in line to try and push this crap through.... Don't feed offal.. Incredible. The whole bowl thing would be funny if it wasn't so deranged. I often feed chicken wings or even lamb's hearts right out of my hand, wonder how many people in front of their TV would scream cruelty if footage of me doing that was aired on Today Tonight or whatever that freakshow is called.... Either the general public are getting stupider.. Oh wait.. Yea I think that might explain a lot....

What is the story about?

I think a lot of people with large breed dogs with these kind of issues also may have let the puppy climb, jump, etc unhampered and never thought it was a problem until there was a problem. Not saying all of them, but environment and, as you have said, nutrition are often ignored and breeders blamed when puppy buyers were pretty careless about how they raised their puppy in the first place.

Haha! This one's name is Molly :) I love this colour, it's beautiful! You are lucky to have had one like this, I might die with cute if I saw it every day :laugh:

*nods* I'm not a breeder but this is what I was thinking as well. It also sounds a bit odd that you are apparently not looking for the cheapest price yet you seem to be quibbling over small expenses like vaccination and the trip to the airport when you are happy with everything else. A dog is not like "other nice things" where you shop around because all the products are the same.... If I was a breeder I might also get concerned that you may be unwilling to fork out for some things regarding the puppy after these kind of things were mentioned... The salary you actually earn is not necessarily an indicator of how well the puppy will be taken care of. ETA: Sorry I didn't realise there were 7 pages on this already! My bad

Thanks Esky, I will go have a read! Today, I have some agility Whippy photos to contribute! She is a beautiful little dog! I'm guessing she is a blue fawn?

Ah what kind of surface (other than snow lol) would be suitable? Like gravel/dirt roads? I guess I might need to get myself a bike. Foxy is about 27 kg, so medium to large-ish I suppose We live out of town and my property is very hilly, I predict I might have to drive myself + bike + dog to town to use whatever tracks I can find lol ETA: I have a second dog, around the 30 kg range. Is it easier with two dogs? (Once they know the commands, obviously lol)

Would a skateboard make a good sled on tar or am I asking for disaster to strike if I try that? We don't get snow over here :/

Not sure how successful you will be if you do not have the birds around daily to practice with. I would keep the dog/puppy on lead at all times as other people have said. Try and keep everyone very calm and relaxed and make sure any children that might be present do not play loudly and excite the dog unnecessarily. I have a lot of poultry and my Weimaraner has been around them since she was about 8 months old. I do not allow her to try and interact with the birds at all, she is to ignore them and basically I have fared well with this so far. She is fine loose with them but she is 2 and a half now, it took a long time before I was comfortable leaving her loose and more than 1m away from me lol I do not leave her with them unsupervised though as she will try to police them if they start mating/running around/making noise We had a few accidents when she was still learning, she retrieved my old rooster a handful of times and also plucked him a little once or twice. He survived those incidents without much harm but we recently lost him to an over night fox raid and I think she misses him a little, she seems to be looking for him sometimes, even though she wasn't technically allowed to "play" with him...

I think you are wasting your time trying to get Tralee to admit he is wrong about anything. It appears his own opinion and anecdotes are enough evidence to him to disregard anything else, even statements with scientific backing :p

No I don't mean they were playing. I mean they were not full on seriously trying to maul that guy. YET. Reading for comprehension, Nic.B, I suggest you try it one day ;)

I think a puppy buyer's guide with prominent links posted on the puppy listing page would be a great idea. I'm amazed at the number of people who have no clue, they buy a dog, pure bred or not, like you would buy a cushion for a lounge. They like the look of it so they want it! No idea about vaccinations, chipping, 8-week age limit, not to mention the fact that different breeds have different temperaments, suitabilities and requirements! Some have totally unrealistic expectations of puppies, they might never even think about toilet or lead training until well after they bring home a puppy!

Wow! Very pretty!

You're kidding..?! I know a lot of people who do use them along the bottom of fences to discourage digging and jumping up on the fence and was going to use them myself as well.... And I already use them for my horses and all our dogs have learnt what happens when you touch the white cord even though it is not intended for them... Are there any other ridiculous laws in NSW that we should know about?? Apart from not being allowed to use electric shock collars.. But electric collars for invisible fences are cool.. Which is the biggest contradiction of all, no?

Love the puppies! I have to struggle to not go all starry, I mean puppy-eyed!

This may be a little belated since you seem to have found a breed you really like, but I would also strongly advise against gun dogs. People sometimes seem to think they are ideal for any situation as they can be very adaptable and most importantly, that they will deal well with waiting and watching exciting stuff happen, because after-all, that is what they're meant to do, right? But realistically, they will really want to have a lot more time spent with them than what you seem to have available at the moment and the amount of destruction some of them can do in a short amount of time beggars belief if you have not seen it in person. As somebody else said, they will need a lot of training for impulse control and you really need to socialize them very well with small children, cats and things that move fast in general, as they may be prone to chase and bag stuff lol. My Weimaraner would most definitely not be happy with being left alone and outside for this amount of time and your neighbours and your wallet would soon know about it. I am not that familiar with the "fuzzy" gun dogs so I cannot be sure about Spaniels, Tollers and such but I would definitely advise against Pointers, Weimaraners, Viszlas and such at least

Wow! Love the mob shots hehe! So many different colours, too!

Except they were saying "somebody call the cops!" from what I can make out :p

There is a whippet in my agility group, everybody is mesmerized when she does the course, it is equally amazing and adorable to watch this tiny, tidy bundle of muscles I find!

Maybe if you did build a fence like that in your town property the bitch owned by someone else may not have escaped your yard :) Nor the ones that ended up being declared dangerous :p