Salukifan

Only word of caution I would add is to watch the protein levels in the grain free for older dogs. Some of the levels are very high. It may be that even gluten free would assist with ear/skin issues - that widens the foods available.

Inez: I think it pays to remind folk from time to time that not every congenital abnormality has a genetic cause. The bitch's nutrition, parasite burden, toxins, disease and even heat can all pay havoc with devleoping foetuses. In the case you mention, I'd have been looking at other factors. Any breeding needs to be carefully planned. The closer the breeding the better the planning should be and the more recessive genes need to be considered. Its the usual story.... inbreeding is a practice that done well can improve a line, and done badly can destroy one. But the practice itself is not inherently "bad".

Collie Chaos, you think posters here are inappropriately tolerant of aggression in dogs. No one said it was a good thing. But the general consensus is that aggression incidents over food are better prevented than cured, IF it can be cured. You think any aggression in a domestic animal is not to be tolerated. You clearly have never owned horses. You separate them to feed them too. We are at impasse. Good luck with your dog. Think carefully before getting a second one and you end up punishing this one for deterring rude puppy behaviour OK? The results don't tend to be good for the older dog or the pup.

It's all in the words folk, or lack of them. All over the world, thousands of novice dog owners raise dogs in apartments. Provided that they do so with care and equip themselves with knowledge, apartment living is no reason to deny a new dog owner ownership. The key issues to think through are exercise, toileting and stimulation while the owners are at work There is at least one book on raising dogs in apartments. I suggest your friends read up and select for quieter, low activity breeds. To be quite frank a French Bulldog isn't the silliest suggestion I can think of. Option B, rather than a pup, is a mature dog. And dare I say it, a rescue Greyhound might fit the bill. You don't have to be small to fit in well to apartment life.

Dodger has a dolly. He loves her.

It equals aggression when dogs are exposed to animals they consider prey.

Exhausted and in need of comfort.

Permission given. Whoopi and her dad.

I know. She just looks so relieved to be in her Dad's arms

There is a wonderful photo of Whoopi reunited with her owner on the FB page. If I get permission, I will post it here.

Waggit had a skull fracture. She is standing and eating so that is good progress. From the posts to the FB page, some dogs have been found close to the crash site and some kilometres down the road. I think the last dog still missing is close to the crash site - there have been sightings. Hopefully hunger will overcome fear and she'll come in.

There are those who think their dogs will be devastated without them. The idea that the dog will be happy in another home doesn't occur to them. I'll confess to being surprised that guide dogs aren't donated to owners on the proviso that they be returned on such occasions.

Yep, they've got Whoopi One to go. Everything crossed.

I think you'd probably find it easier to integrate a pup into a home with a mature dog of any breed.

Sighting of one of missing two on main highway at Benalla. Police are onto it but they've lost sight of her. Owners on the way too.

Dogs have sweat glands in their paw pads.

Although, ironically, obedience has its origins in training a gundog to work beside it's shooter. The dog heels on the left for a reason.

And yet you've recommended a traditional water retrieving breed and a carriage protection dog? Why wouldn't you recommend breeds that are very successful at the sports they compete in?

Hockz, if you're talking about an ideal world in which all dogs get to satisfy their inate drives by doing what they were bred to do, that's one thing (except for dogs of fighing ancestry of course). To say that you shouldn't get a dog if you can't give it access to its original function does two things: * severely restrict the number of breeds people can consider as companions * condemn highly popular breeds that can make fabulous pets to near extinction. Fact is the most of the larger agility dogs I know that excell at the sport ARE utility gundogs or larger working breeds. I'm sorry but your suggestion that these dogs somehow lead lesser lives because they don't hunt or herd just doesn't sit well with me. FYI coursing live game IS illegal in every Australian state I'm aware of. But a lot of very high prey drive dogs will not course a lure. They know it's not real so they're just no interested.

So those of us with sighthounds shouldn't have them if we don't allow them to course live prey? Is this activity legal here? If not then of course I wouldn't want anyone practicing it. Simulating hunting by lure coursing is often just fine and with other hunting dogs plenty of nose work (tracking etc.) will be better than nothing. Still, as it is very much legal to hunt and use pointers and other hunting breeds I'd leave them for those jobs. So using them as guide and assistance dogs is out too?

So those of us with sighthounds shouldn't have them if we don't allow them to course live prey?

I'd like to know how they planned to police that one. The same way they police dog registrations in dogs that frequent the parks - not at all.

I refuted your suggestion that just because a dog is a pig dog it wouldn't be HA. That's not the same as saying all pig dogs are child killers. As has been suggested, a whole range of factors contribute to what makes a fatal dog attack. But the purpose for which a dog is used is one of them. I'll quote my oft quoted spiel from Karen Delise on this:

Animal aggression can become human aggression if the dogs consider the human as prey. It can happen. It has happened. Who can forget this one: Death of Tyra Kuehne When not well socialised and used for this kind of hunting, dogs may confuse children with prey. I know that many pig hunting dogs are family dogs but the assumption that all such dogs are safe with children could be a dangerous one.

Seems to me there's a lot of misunderstanding about the test. I suggest most of the misunderstanding comes from those who have never seen the doll used beyond a very quick TV segment. I suspect at least one of mine would probably cock his leg on it.