Blackdogs

Snacks and tidbits included! There is absolutely no purpose to this topic. Participate/ignore at will.

Crating my dogs in a strange place would make for a much more stressful experience than I am willing to put them through. I still maintain that such a rigid and uneccessary protocol would be a deal breaker for many people. Both of my dogs are polite, well-mannered and under control in public and do not need to be stuffed away in a box.

How strange and ridiculous. Imagine trying to get a Mastiff in a create who wasn't crate trained? I find most people love being in public with their dogs and like the interaction surrounding their pet. Those who don't usually have no hesitation is expressing this. Forcing animals out of sight seems unprofessional. If I was asked to do this on entry I would not return.

I doubt he could build a case.

I won't use kennels at all. If I can't get a trusted family member to look after them I don't go away.

Pedigree dogs exposed?

Disgrace. I'll boycott Qantas from now on and spread the word.

What a strange and disjointed article.

Haha! Way too cute!

Next he'll be out getting a clicker to train you Haha. You have no idea. I used to say 'sneezing, good boy' whenever my dog sneezed to capture the sneeze and put it on cue. This worked pretty quickly, but then every time he did an organic sneeze he looked at me intensely until I said it then wagged his tail 'mission accomplished' and relaxed. Now whenever any of the dogs sneeze I say it without thinking and so does the entire family! He's conditioned us all!

Good poster, but I don't agree that Gumtree should be animal free. It's a great free source of advertising for breeders or people trying to find their animals a new home (sometimes rehoming cannot be avoided). I've also seen it used to advertise foster animals. I've used it myself to find stray kittens good homes.

Sorry for your loss. What Fern comes back in depends on what your mother chose. They could come back in a simple scatter tin or in a fancy urn or engraved box. The more elaborate the vessel the more they tend to cost. If you don't like what they're returned in, you could make something yourself to give it a personal touch or re-order another vessel.

My dog comes and looks at me intently, often placing his paw on my leg or foot, then if clearly I'm just not getting it, he runs to the pantry, then back to me, then back to the pantry, then back to me, then continues staring and 'targeting' different areas of my body with his foot as if I have some magic button that needs to be discovered. If I appear to be coming to the party he will stare at me and bark to reinforce my behaviour. My dog is a great trainer.

Could be early dementia. I recommend trialing a drug called Vivitonin, which increases the blood flow to the brain and reduces the symptoms of dementia.

Wow, that's so cute! I need to emply your dog to help me eat more fruit. On another note, I guess we're the only two here who are amazed by their dogs. :D

Agreed. Way too catty.

Bo is a great PR piece.

I have dogs that need to run at a million miles an hour every day to be happy. If there were nowhere to do this it would severely hamper people's ability to own active dogs. Off leash areas are compulsory in today's society, particularly in this new era of property size reduction.

I agree with most of these comments regarding the intruder in this scenario. His behaviour was not typical of an intruder's. Not only that, but the GSD that nipped his ankles and got zero response must have been thinking, "Ok, I give up, the dude has no nerve endings/is made of steel/etc". Any normal person would have responded in pain and fright to being bitten on the ankle. There's also a difference between protecting the pack and protecting the property. We've seen time and time again that untrained dogs can and will attack intruders and those threatening their family, so the illustration doesn't prove it won't happen.

My Kelpie boy amazes me with his intelligence and bidability sometimes (and yes I am biased and absolutely besotted with him). This dog is highly susceptible to reinforcement. The other day he was running laps and jumped over my outstretched legs as I was sitting on the ground. I chuckled at this once and wouldn't you know it he now makes a point of doing every time he does a lap. Any kind of positive attention begets a repeat performance. I have managed to teach an organic sneeze just through praise. It's quite funny watching him pace back and force trying to work up an actual sneeze. I can capture just about anything in one reinforcer, including shaking water off, retrieving any object through 'yes' 'no' indicators when there are several to choose from, climbing trees, scaling playground equipment and sliding down slides, picking low hanging twigs from trees and several other more mundane tricks like holding a treat on his nose in a begging position for an extended period of time prior to catching it. Anything is much more enjoyable for him if I'm watching. He loves to swim in the dam which he will do on his own, but not for long. He will run to me and do a Lassie style walk, turn, pause and stare until I follow him down to observe him swimming laps. My approval or disapproval determines whether or not he contiues with a particular behaviour, even when he's in high prey drive. He will slam to a drop on command in the middle of chasing a ball at full speed (the drop was trained but not in drive). He will nudge and object and look at me to determine whether or not he can play with it no matter how enticing the object (he did this behaviour from the day I got him at 9 weeks, which came in pretty handy). My Schipperke, on the other hand doesn't seem to have this quality. She learns at the drop of the hat if there's food involved, but cares little about praise. One thing she does do that I find fascinating is observational learning. The other day I had two dogs in a 'beg' for food. She watched them for a minute then came and joined them in an untrained beg. What things does your dog do that amazes you? Let the gushing begin!

Swimming. See if he can find a dog pool in his area.

Studies suggest yawning is a sign of empathy: http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/contagious-yawn.htm

Thanks or all the replies, everyone. These weren't the answers I was expecting. I honestly thought that any blemishes would be disqualifiers. Not sure why.

No, but it took me a while to bond with my second dog. I also never really bonded with some past dogs. That's why I'm so picky about breed, upbringing and breeder now. I don't ever want to be in that situation again. Having said that, I don't think I bond easily. It takes a while for me to get really close to a dog. I'm the same with people. Although, strangely, I bonded instantly with my first heart dog. Oh, and if that has happened to you, I don't think there's anything to feel bad about, though I do think it's unusual, and I would look at mitigating circumstances with critical interest.

I'm just wondering if dogs with obvious scarring or disfigurement can be shown. I'm talking about none-genetic causes. Say an eye was lost or part of an ear was torn of or the dog had scars from a car accident. Would judges overlook this if the dog was a good specimen?