Blonde_Phoenix

In an ideal world I'd like to think you and the breeder can come to some mutually satisfactory agreement. As they have entrusted you with one of their pups to breed from, the relationship should be strong and open. Hopefully there is some innocent reason why the breeder has not been back in contact with you. If not I think you are just going to have to write it off as a learning experience. I can see why breeders are sometimes between a rock and a hard place though. My breeder told me a story about another breeder in our breed who had an owner contact her about her dog who was suffering HD. This breeder provided a replacement pup free of charge only to find out later there were videos on the internet of the dog with HD leaping off ledges over 1m high as a young pup under six months of age (not generally consider good practice for a large, heavy breed puppy). So I can see why a breeder might be a little hesitant when it comes to problems with genetic/environmental aspects. I think you are doing the right thing but it must be heartbreaking.

Cool, Sean and Stacey live not far from me here in Victoria. Sean and his father ran the the course for us, they were great so passionate I learnt so much. They even let one of the guys who was terrified of snakes sit in during the handling to help him overcome his fear, he never got to touching a snake though

Looks like they called it Reuben, cute name. The Age

There were real ones We started with lizards (an eastern water dragon then a lace monitor) then three non venomous pythons, then on the the venomous guys (I think we did 7 of them). The course ran over two days one day of theory followed by one day of handling. All the snakes we had to capture by tailing except the death adder which we used the hook to flick into the bag. It was run by these guys Snake Handler I loved it, I was a lizard girl growing up but have never been to close to a snake.

My boy is on Sentinel Spectrum and we have two cats. I can really see how the cats would be affected by a oral treatment, now spot ons are a different story. There is some info about Sentinel here http://www.pets.novartis.com.au/site/product_dog_sentinel.php Looking at the packet the active ingredients are milbemycin oxime, lufenuron and praziquantel. We did catch a flea on our boy about two weeks ago (his next does of Sentinel does was due about a week later), so I just grabbed a bottle of the Fidos Fleatrol Plus. You can use it directly on the dog and also on their bedding and around the house which I liked. The cats got a does of Advacate spot treatment. No fleas since.

At least the rubber snakes kind of looked like snakes. When I did a snake handling course for work we practiced using hooks on plastic snakes which the guys running the course had 'captured'. A number of them were very interesting colours including one which was florescent pink

I think the take home message for the OPer is that it's not unusual behaviour, no need to call in the doggie psychologist ;) .

Don't worry I don't consider it lecturing I'm always happy to learn more and more than happy for suggestions of things to look into.

I think we are risking sliding very from the OP, but I’m quite interested in this topic so I don’t think I can help myself. I completely agree not every pet owner is responsible, but I don’t think desexing legislation is the answer. I think more often that not legislation punishes the responsible while the irresponsible will just continue to do as they please, you can’t legislate against dumb. How would or could such a legislation be enforced? What would constitute a ‘breeder’? There is a lot more to consider than just legislate it. I lean more towards greater public education, help people understand where and how they can get there puppies and why they should not be paying insane prices for puppies of questionable background. I think this would remove the financial drive which seems to be behind a lot of the more undesirable ‘breeding’ practices. I also don’t believe from my research that there is health benefits for or against desexing (at least not significant ones).

Videos like this always rub me a little up the wrong way, they really need to be taken with a grain of salt (or at least a little objectivity). The easy conclusion when you see the sad puppy eyes is to point the finger at the nasty researchers, but there is a lot more to the story than that. As a scientist who has worked in animal research (I can only speak in regards to the situation in Australia) I can assure everyone that research involving animals is very strictly regulated in particularly in regards to animal welfare. No project involving animals can happen without a huge amount of justification and the auditing system will make most people heads spin. I am incredibly proud of what our research achieved we made a real difference to animal husbandry both here and in third world countries (if anyone is that way incline I happy to bombard them with examples and papers ;) ). Commenting directly on the video, physically the dogs appear perfectly healthy to me, in regards to their behavior one must remember that these dog have not been raised as family pets. I find it a bit disheartening that the the video implies some wrong doing by the research organisation, when to me it seems they have done the right thing by these dogs in releasing them to find home at the completion of their project . I hope all these pups find new and loving homes and live out the rest of their lives spoilt rotten.

Not if your dog is a stud or for breeding dog. Yes its about dominance, but yelling, and strongly correcting breeding animals for acting on thier sexual urges can put them off when the time comes to do the deed! If you don't believe me, we just had an incident at a mating where a male dog who would get into trouble through his younger years for humping a teddy bear, and his brother, even sometimes playfully corrected, was so confused that he refused to do the 'deed' with his owner present. He was so confused and kept looking to her for the ok, but no matter how positive she was, he had been led to believe that acting on his sexual urges is wrong. The mating happened fine without intervention from the owners, but as soon as she stepped in to assist with the tie he would dismount and try and get reassurance. But if there not breeding animals then yes, for all means correct the behaviour, or better yet, get the animal desexed as i believe all dogs who are not breeding/show animals should be. Desexing reduces the amount of testosterone/oestreogen in the animals system, thus reducing the animals sexual desires. At my house, our little girl humps our baby boy, and the boy returns the favour in equal amounts. I just laugh it off, as they both are show dogs, and we are planning to maybe breed them in the future. While I do agree that correction of a dog intended for breeding could/would result in a level of confusion and anxiety (particularly if the corrector is present), I don't agree completely that there is a need to desex a dog or bitch who not intended for breeding. From what I have observed you would need to desex very early to completely eliminate sexual urges, if you could at all, and desexing may not be in the best interests of the dogs physical development. I see no issue with a dog not intended for breeding remaining entire on the proviso the owner understands their responsibilities. In my case my boy has four brothers, three of which are shown and two are battling it out for the breeds rising star (go boys ). So it's highly unlikely he'd be called on to do the deed to benefit his breed (dispite the fact he is clearly the best of all of them ;) ). When he is closer to the age at which his breeder has recommend desexing we will have a discussion, I do not see why he should necessarily be desexed if I feel I can prevent him from producing a litter, but of course if his breeder disagrees I will gladly honour our original agreement without question. Having said that if I felt my situation has changed and I could not give that guarantee his jewels would be on the cutting block.

When I was a kid our female dog used to hump our male cat We didn't find it a huge concern the cat was pretty capable of letting her know when she'd crossed the line.

I think that is more to do with training. When I was a kid we had a desexed female who would do exactly the same thing, I believe this was because we never did anything to correct her. In fact we thought it was funny as kids and would encourage the behaviour . Or current boy has gone through a bit of an experimentation faze (with his blankie not people). I used loud irritating noises to distract him from his task, he seemed to pick up that humping was a no no pretty quickly.

That is interesting, I can see how that line of questioning could lead you to worry. I wonder if the question was asked more to determine your 'responsibility' as a dog owner. I think it's a shame that perception is out there, mostly because people seem to think desexing is a magic bullet to solve behavioural issues. We had one guy at training whose entire male would always react aggressively towards my boy (also entire). So on advice he got his boy desexed to 'fix' the problem. He was hugely disappointed when of course it didn't work, and I don't blame him after hearing the advice he had received from people who any regular person could consider an 'expert'. I think what people missed was the dog was on the fearful side (he was shy of human strangers also), to me this dog was simply reacting out of fear. My boy is larger than him (apparently he'd had issue with large dogs in the past) and also shaggy so it is difficulty for other dogs to 'read' his eyes, this dog just didn't want to wait to see what my boy wanted to do he wanted to be on the front foot. I'm neither anti or pro desexing, every pet I have had up to our current pup has been desexed and it definitely has a place preventing unwanted litters of pups.

From my experience I don’t think there is as much to worry about as people think, it seems sometimes people think undesexed males are raging with hormones ready to rip into any other male they come across. I’ve had three entire males and a female at my place for a BBQ with no issues. My feeling is it comes down more to the individual dogs than desexing status. It might be a good idea to have a chat with your cousin to get an idea of how well socialised their pup is and if he has had any issues with other dogs in the past. I would also suggest if possible aranging an introduction for the dogs beforehand to determine how they will get along. It could get pretty stressful if introductions don’t go well in the midst of all the other dramas of Christmas get togethers. Secondly I would have a backup plan i.e. is there a way to separate the dogs for the duration of the party if necessary. I have also seen taking the dogs to meet at a neural place first before returning to the resident dogs territory work quite well.

x2 I think this is really sensible advice.

So many great stories. My boy has managed to refrain from embarrassing me publicly (so far). This post reminded me of when my sister had been selected as part of dog club to be part of an obedience display in the centre ring at the EKKA. She was so chuffed we'd both always love watching the dogs doing obedience and agility as kids. To help out I volunteered to take some photos while they were doing the display. All was going well until the recall, now admittedly our dog did have a habit of over enthusiasm and overshooting the stopping point. So I'm watching snapping off photos the "come" command was given and I'm think oh no she is running way to fast, the next thing I remember is the look of horror on my sisters face as our dog races straight past her to me (I was a good distance away) gives me enthusiastic kisses before trotting back casually to take up her position siting in front of my sister like nothing happened. The crowd was in hysterics as was I, my sister less so, she did find it a lot more amusing once the display way finished. Our girl pranced off so proud of herself, she is alway one to steal the show . My sister in-law share a story which I also thought was pretty amusing. Her and her husband were at a dog event day, while her husband was elsewhere she was with her dog chatting some people from a dog training group. Her husband was on his way back to them when their boy spots him, daddy has been away for 5 minutes so of course he proceeds to leap on the table full of pens, pamphlets and forms in an effort to greet him sending everything flying . Not sure if they offered her a free class ;) .

Thank you for the clarification Huski, I agree with what you have said here. I've seen people yanking away at check chains at training achieving noting but a more hyped up and confused dog, I don't get that either. I guess I felt the need to go on the defensive with regards to the OP, I think it's highly unlikely anyone here would condone or agree with the actions of the housemate (I certainly don't), but the naming of the tread "How Can Anyone Think Its Right To Hit A Dog!" is a bit of an invite for passionate disagreement. I think most people would realise that there are still plenty of people (rightly or wrongly) who feel hitting is an appropriate method of correction. I think such a debate could be better served with practical alternatives rather than demonisation.

Both of which I think I answered Huski's orginal question asked I guess I'm having trouble understanding at exactly what point the "again" comes into effect. I would imagine most would consider the process of teaching a dog 'apropriate' behavours just that a process which, takes time and on ocassions the process stalls or goes backward, no matter the methods chosen.

I’m not sure exactly what you want my answer to be Huski? Did the behaviour cease after the first correction? No, but currently he does not mouth the cat; he will follow the cat and at times touch him with his nose. I am able now to call him away from the cat and use the command ‘leave it’ to prevent him following the cat at all. Physical correction is just one of a number of methods I have used (and by far the least common). I could ask the same question of you; does using positive reinforcement work from the first time and every time when trying to establish behaviour? Training is a work in progress no matter what techniques you choose to employ. I completely agree that what one person considers as having ‘worked’ is very subjective. My family’s dog has earned obedience and agility titles, is happy and well adjusted and behaves in a manner considered by my family to be appropriate for a family companion. I’m pretty happy to say for her and us that is working, someone else may have different expectations and that is fair enough.

I guess my intent is to stop the behaviour rather than ‘teach’ the dog anything in particular. The occasions I have used ‘hitting’ as a physical correction have been when my pup has posed a danger to my cat (actually probably more of a danger to himself ;)). My boy is still only a pup (almost 9 months) being a large breed he has been capable of putting significant areas of the cat in his mouth from a very early age. I have hit him for putting the entire cats head in his mouth and putting his mouth around the cats back. Now that I trust he has a concept of appropriate bite pressure and that the cat will correct him without causing the pup damage, I allow the cat to set the limits. Huski I would be interested in hearing alternative methods though. Dog training/correction is an interesting topic (bound to be divisive) and I doubt anyone has the perfect solution for every dog/every situation (plenty of course would be a lot closer than I am). I try to keep an open mind, my family’s dog who is almost 14 years old now was trained using far more physical correction than my current pup, why? Because that was the way my family believed you trained a dog. Was it the best training technique? No. Did it work? Yes. Was she unduly traumatised leading to fear/aggression towards people? No.

I can think of a number of reasons why someone might think it's right to hit a dog. -They believe it is an appropriate way to discipline a dog -They have found the technique has worked in the past -They are not aware of an appropriate alternative -Frustration -Personal issues The list is not exhaustive and I don't agree with all of the reasons. For the record I have 'hit' my dog and will more than likely do it again. For me it's a final resort when he is just too far out of control and unable to focus, I use it only once other techniques have failed (verbal command then a aggressive vocal warning). I only ever make contact with his rump and no harder than when I would give him affectionate 'smacks'. Once he has snapped out of 'crazy mode' we will walk away from the situation and do an easy command i.e. sit and he will receive positive reinforcement. For me that works so I don't see an issue with it, my boy certainly has no fear of me or any other person for that matter. I don't believe your housemate did the right thing but as I see it you have two options: -Have a no confrontational discussion and offer some alternatives for disciplining the dog, even demonstrate how to go about it. -Keep the dog away from the housemate.

Title: Independent Inquiry into Dog Breeding Background: The background to the Inquiry was a showing by the BBC on 19 August 2008 of a television documentary called Pedigree Dogs Exposed. It was a hard-hitting piece of journalism written and directed by Jemima Harrison. It was aimed at those breeders of pedigree dogs who had ignored the adverse effects of inbreeding and particularly those who were breeding for extreme conformations. The United Kingdom’s premiere dog club, the Kennel Club, felt that it had been unfairly treated and complained to OfCom, the regulator of the UK Communications industry. At the time of writing, this dispute has not been settled. Nevertheless, the BBC pulled out of its longstanding arrangement to televise Crufts dog show. Moreover, the public reaction was such that Dogs Trust, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals ended their support; and Pedigree Petfoods and Hills Pet Nutrition cancelled their sponsorship of the show. The Associate Parliamentary Group on Animal Welfare (APGAW) announced that it would hold hearings on the breeding of pedigree dogs. At the same time the Kennel Club combined forces with a leading dog charity, Dogs Trust, and announced an independent Inquiry into the breeding of all dogs. Comments: This is a UK inquiry but I believe it has relevance to the current Australian situation. Contains a series of thought provoking recommendations. Also contains lots of references to relevant studies. Link: Independent Inquiry into Dog Breeding

Your OP screams terrier to me :D Small terriers... I thought Fox Terrier but you wanted <5kg apparently they are about 9kgs, darn, they would be awesone and I'm sure you could give 9kgs a little boost over the big obsticals ;) .

*Disclaimer I have not yet have anything to do with these guys but.... We have friend who have used them for training and swimming and only have positive things to say. It appears they also offer boarding. The Links We are planing to take our boy swimming there in the near future.