BlackJaq

So is it a Staffy or a Bull Terrier? There is after-all quite a bit of difference in appearance? Is there a photo released of the dog so people can keep an eye out?

Ah I see. But how does the person doing the assessing decide whether they are restricted breeds or not? Do they use a visual inspection? Or measurements like Vic? I really feel the entire idea is ludicrous. How much is charged for such an assessment? Rescue is not cheap as it is unfortunately Also, do the dogs receive a piece of paper clearing them of being a restricted breed? Is this valid for the rest of the dog's life? How come they are not valid in Vic? :/

I'm not sure how you could possibly make them safe by assessing them? Assessing them for what? Unless they have AmStaff papers they are subject to visual identification as Pits in Vic and can be killed., Not sure exactly how the other states are handling things at the moment but there is no way of making any bully bred dog safe as far as I know? Unless you have AmStaff papers that is, so that leaves even purebred English Staffies, Bull Terriers and any other dog that looks a certain way a potential cadidate, even if they are ANKC registered so owning only papered dogs does NOT even make them safe after-all! The only thing possibly keeping them safe might be maybe keeping them out of sight :p Which is what we are doing with ours. Only take them to town for vet appointments or every now and again to a private residence with fences that stop people looking in. So it seems the only options that rescues have is to not re-home potential candidates who match the guidelines to identifying a "Pitbull". It wouldn't only be actual bully breeds that are affected, any short haired, muscular lab x, Kelpie x, gundog x or greyhound x etc might be identified as a pit, so owners who genuinely do not even own a bully breed might experience the same issues?

Oooo Icky I have chickens now. We still eat those and they lay eggs also. I'm spending today next to the incubator and brooder waiting for 30 or so eggs to hatch. Got about 5 so far... Am guessing I won't get anything else done today. Oh and Foxy my Weimaraner is watching intently as well.. I asked her if she wanted to be the new chicken Mummy since I'm out of broody/clucky hens atm but she thought I said "chickens go in the tummy" so I have aborted that idea now... :p

It was definitely myxo, since their eyes were swollen shut within the day of me noticing the swelling, lots of gunk everywhere and nobody died of their own accord within the first two or three days, just struggled to breathe through those disguising pussy noses. We ended up putting down the whole lot and never had rabbits again Also they were Calici vaccinated by their breeder :) I suppose it could have been fleas, we did have a rampant feral rabbit population though as far as I know they weren't in our yard. I semi regularly flea sprayed all cages and runs as well but I suppose you can always have new fleas move in. It was devastating anyways

Do you guys have issues with Myxo at all? I've been told eating a Myxo rabbit can make you really sick... I also contemplated raising meat rabbits but again, myxo has really turned me off that thought, you need a veritable fortress to keep the mozzies out. I had pet rabbits before and the whole lot died (I had about ten) when one got hit by a mozzie in the play pen and they all got sick within a few days. It was horrible. I never figured out where the mozzies got in either, I had a double layer of shade cloth on everything

So in your opinion anybody who buys a working dog for any reason other than "loving family companion" is an idiot? Really...? Wow, it seems there are a lot of people growing your meat right now who own sheep dogs and are complete idiots.... Not to mention people with LGDs, working gun dogs or any other kind of working dog who was not primarily acquired as a "loving family dog" So who is the one making the illogical and ignorant assumptions now?

This. Also I think somebody else has already mentioned that the Elderly often have small breeds and usually cannot take them when and if they move into a "home". I have seen a few dogs whose owners have sadly passed away and either had no other family or family couldn't/didn't want to take on the dog. I think choosing a breed for its looks would have to be one of the biggest factors for the dog being dumped, WAY ahead of "not being able to afford" or "moving" or any other reason/excuse. A large, active breed will quickly outgrow the "cute" stage and move right on into the "I eat EVERYTHING you paid lots of money for while you are away at work" stage. Or even just "howl and bark while locked in the backyard whilst you are working" stage. Many people seem to think dogs are like purses, you buy one that you like the look of and when you are busy it will just quietly sit in the corner indefinitely.... ETA: Maybe "rare" breeds are showing up more in pounds because people use the Internet to find a pretty breed they did not previously know about as well... Would be nice if some people read the descriptions more thoroughly :p

I wonder what "breeds" this guy would consider "dangerous" and how he is going to decide which crossbreds are "dangerous" and which aren't? Maybe we should just force all dogs to wear muzzles in public? Or how about we get real and start really punishing bad owners instead of dogs that look a certain way. Any dog can be reactive and any dog over a certain weight, let's say 10 kg or so, can do some real damage, bully or not so unless we are going to muzzle ALL dogs maybe we should just make sure owners are a bit more aware and careful with their dogs in general. It seems out of 10 dog owners I meet, about 9 and a half are convinced that their dog is completely unable to even contemplate the thought of hurting someone or something. In my book that is pretty close to delusional...

Yep, dogs will lean into pressure, just like horses :) I think a lot of people are unaware of this and that is how you end up seeing people being dragged along by their dog on a leash who is walking at a 45° angle because he is leaning against the person holding the leash....

I feel pretty awful for the person driving the car as well. I don't think you forget something like that easily. I once ran over a dog eating road kill outside a residence on a hilly corner and never forgot that for sure. The residents of that particular house did not claim the dog and o owner could be found but it was a well taken care of Maltese with a trimmed coat so it was definitely not a stray. Small dogs like that frequently roam the roads out the front of their houses where I live because they tend to be able to fit under or through the fence and so far I have never received a good reaction when knocking on people's doors to alert them to the fact that I nearly hit their dog outside the front of their house. Apparently only speeding cars can hit dogs....

I don't think desexing is all that big an issue if exercise and feed were adjusted accordingly. I have a desexed male outdoor cat who has dry kibble available at all times. He is two years old and was neutered fairly early and he is not fat at all. He also spends a lot of his day following me around the place and checking out what I am doing. I also have a spayed female dog who got a little chubby but with more exercise she is in good condition now. It is true that she gets a fairly small portion (I think about a cup) but she gets large bones or sticks to fill her day instead of me upping her feed. If I look at the average pet owner in my area, they barely walk their dog, if at all since dogs seem to be more of a garden ornament than anything else around here. Many dogs are fat because they never leave their backyard and they always have a bucket of kibble sitting in the shed. What is a dog to do to keep himself entertained? Especially if they are punished for eating the laundry, digging holes and barking at pedestrians... Food seems an obvious choice and most of those dogs aren't even desexed.

None because the government seems to pointedly ignore all reason and choose the approach with the least productive outcome

I think I would leave and punish the barking by ignoring him/not letting him be with you. Others might have better suggestions but I found leaving a very useful "punishment" to stop defiant behaviours.

I also can't believe that the "autopsy" of the dog was EXTERNAL ONLY. Maybe they suspected that something may have been found and decided it would not help their case to find something OTHER than the breed that might have caused the behaviour... The entire description of the APBT breed was pretty much making it clear they have never even looked at the breed standard in other countries where the breed is recognized and legal...

Wow, how disappointing. When I dared state in one of the other threads on this topic that I believed that the coroner was going to be finding exactly this in relation to the breed of dog and ignoring most other aspects of its care etc, I was shot down and claims were being made that the woman (this was pointed out to me because apparently the sex of the coroner was extremely important) coroner was going to be smart and objective enough to see past the BSL crap. I've never been sadder to be right in any case and this is disgusting. I wonder how long it will take for the law makers to realize that BSL does not in any way prevent these kind of things from happening, if ever.

My Weimaraner does it, too. To the extent where she will scoot after you if you move away. And in the car she will look for some part of you to rest her head on (I have a single cab ute so she sits on the passenger seat, strapped in with her car harness of course). And in bed she likes to spoon or be spooned but she will at least touch some part of you at any given time...

Well I can't tell them what to do, I jut don't like leaving my Wei kennelled here whenever I go to Germany to see my family every so often :p I'd love to be able to take her but 30 days quarantine and all that is just WAY too much for me to consider taking her

Is quarantine likely to go down to 2 weeks? Or is that just for the UK? What about Germany?

So what are the quarantine regulations for Australia now? If rabies vacc and titre testing are all done correctly, how long will a dog need to stay in quarantine upon arrival in Aus?

Maybe consider trying haltis on them to make it a bit easier to control them in iffy situations. It sounds like they might need some more leash training as well, I would find a pro to help you with that since they are fairly big dogs. I walk my two 30-ish kg dogs together without too much trouble. Even if I only walked one at a time they each weigh about half as much as me and could probably get away if they really wanted to.

Have you tried those denta chew thingies? My OH's dog was fed all canned food when he was younger and his teeth are pretty grotty. He is about 5 years old now and off his canned food for a few years but still gets lots of build up and they awfully stained (as in yellow, no dark bits). We had them cleaned once and OH now feeds him the pedigree denta-chews, not sure if they are making much of a difference but the dog likes them I guess. All our dogs get kibble ad lib and bones/chicken necks/frames/whatever is handy several times a week and spend lots of time reducing sticks and logs to saw dust as well. I have not had an issue with my dogs so far but they are young still ETA: Was also told by somebody that they brush their dogs' teeth with doggie tooth brushes and tooth paste (no human products).. Maybe worth a try if you can get them to let you? :p This person started when her dogs were pups so they have known it from the start

I think mine would have to be the day that I first dislocated my knee cap. I was lying on the ground, 30 k's out of town by myself, screaming bloody murder and my then fairly young Wei puppy (probably around 4-6 months) was obviously very upset by my rolling around on the ground screaming and swearing whilst trying to relocate my knee cap so I could get up. So, not knowing what else to do, she helpfully climbed on my back and howled and yodelled with me and kept trying to lick my face to make it better... Needless to say, I eventually got over it, popped my knee cap back in and gimped into the house with the aid for my small, excitable, tripping hazard of a puppy. Eventually I got to the phone and called my OH to come get me and take me to the hospital for some really good drugs.... It was extremely endearing to see how worried she was about me and seeing her try and help but thank Goodness the second time I popped that same knee cap out Foxy had had a lot more training and stayed when told instead of sitting on me as by that stage she was well over 20 kg lol

Thank You both, I will go have a read of your website Steve and also have a look at Maremma Rescue. I will probably be back with more questions later if necessary ^^

Yes, an adult dog sounds like a better choice to me as well but once I am ready to actually purchase a dog I would probably choose a breeder who knows what they are doing (hopefully) and explain the situation to them and see what they advise. I do make time to train my other animals but am unsure how much time I would actually need every day for an LGD and for how long. If training consists of supervised turn-out with the lifestock I could probably incorporate that into other chores (gardening, looking after the lifestock etc). What does the daily training programme for a young dog generally look like? How long do they generally take to be trustworthy with stock? I realize this will differ from dog t dog but surely there must be some kind of average? I am not sure how affordable a pack of adult, fully trained dogs would be, either. How long do stock tend to take to accept the dog (if they have not previously had any dog experience other than herding dogs)? Also, how do you manage the dogs when shearing time/whatever comes around and their flock needs to be rounded up and handled by people who are unknown to the dog? I imagine they would fret a lot if they were locked away whilst the stock are handled?