Salukifan

Does it happen? Yep. Does it always happen? Nope. Never heard of anything as unethical as paying for a win. Could have happened. Putting up folk who put your dogs up - I'm sure it happens but not always. Most of us track who we've shown under and what we think of them. A few judges get "never again" annotations from me but not many. I'll say this: you cannot win under a judge if you never enter under them. I say give everyone a shot and form your own view. Most breed communities are small worlds. Everyone knows everyone to a greater or lesser degree. If you find out the judge had dinner with their BOB winner's connections last night, that's one thing but its rarely that obvious.

A menace? Depends on who's on the end of them. Poor quality retractables are certainly not great. They snap. Otherwise, provided those using them exercise some common sense, I think they can be great for giving dogs a bit more freedom if free running isn't an option. Certainly not for use in populated places and for those with poor observation skills or reaction times. In an offleash park or under the control of children - never IMO. However, as a very thoughtful trainer pointed out, they only work if the dog is prepared to PULL on the lead. For those who have spent time training their dogs NOT to pull they are counter productive. i have some but they get used once in a blue moon. They have tape, not cord, inside

Poodles and Whippets seem to have been spared some of the sillier comments (at least around me) but I have been gobsmaked once. A friend and I were out walking our poodles in an offlead area one day when a passer by commented "oh how lovely, I didn't know poodles could run". I think we managed to keep the WTF expressions off our faces. I do get asked A LOT if Whippets are timid. I usually answer by getting mine out of their pen. :) I must say after doing one lap of an agricultural show ground with Keshwar and Zac the IW, you have to have the patience of a saint to show a giant breed. The "where's the saddle" comment got a good work out.

SydneyWhippet results: BOB Supreme ChTaejaan Bird on a Wire RUBOB Taejaan Stepping Out DCC Supreme Ch Peperone New Sensation RCC Ch Elmaro Spare Me the Details.

Diet sounds fine to me. I'd be looking for another vet!!

Thanks sas :)

Education time: what's the crucial issue for Danes? Balanced cal: phos. Not too much protein? The food I give Whippet pups is balanced cal: phos, 30% protein, 22% fat. I gather those last two numbers are way too high for GD pups?

SAS, the document you linked me is fantastic and very informative - thank you for that. My choice of Holistic Select is indeed one of the suitable options listed on the document with appropriate calc/phos levels. May I ask why Advance is not recommended on that document? It is recommended in that document

And those of us who move in dog breeding circles hear about a hell of a lot more. I commend the OP for doing her research but a food that looks good on paper and has no proven track record for raising sound Great Dane puppies is a risk no matter how you look at it. This is probably one of the most challenging breeds to raise sound and a default position to take the advice of someone who's managed to raise healthy GD pups over any paper based research was given by me for one very obvious reason - it's worked before. Currently the breeder of this pup has done what the OP hasn't - raised sound GD pps to maturity. It certainly doesn't hurt to keep that thought paramount. Diet, exercise and pups is a very challenging area. The numbers of puppy buyers prepared to blame genes over husbandry when it all goes to hell is growing and the number of vets prepared to back them isn't small either. What was one vet comment that's stuck in my mind? "If it's a problem in a purebred dog, it's BOUND to have a genetic component". I commend the OP for doing her research but the person who is in the best position to give him/her advice over the years this pup will take to grow to maturity really IS the person who's whelped and raised him. If there are trust issues in the level of expertise this breeder has (as it seems there are) then maybe another breeder should be considered. Ah yes, Royal Canin - no idea which variety you're using if it doesn't have meat as the first ingredient (when the meat is considered as dehydrated, not raw) but yep, I've read the star reviews too. And yet, many sighthound people have successfully used it for years, and the proof that it's a good food for Whippets is not on a website but walking around in front of me. Certainly not the only food I'd recommend (and there's the rub - there is never ever only one BEST food) but it works for me. Fewer less debated topics than this one but I'll continue to default to suggestiing that puppy buyers use what's worked before. It's the pup who pays the price if the research fails to work in practice. If the OP is using a foreign made food, then I'd be checking GD forums in the country of origin before committing to the food. Let's hope the pup likes your choice too - as I said earlier, dogs don't read food reviews. Pups have a way of upsetting even the most carefully researched food plans. One is the reason I no longer feed a complete raw diet (refused point blank to eat it) and another is the reason I feed Royal Canin (only food he'll eat every time its offered).

Dogs don't read star ratings. The best food for raising a pup is always going to be one with a proven track record for growing healthy pups in that breed. Breed requirements differ - never forget it.

The only opinions you should be attaching any importance to are those with experience in raising giant breed pups on those two foods. Perhaps no one here CAN answer your question. And perhaps that's an answer in itself. Did you read the food recommendations in the Great Dane puppy raising booklet SAS linked you to? (What a great resource btw). I thought one of the two foods you want information on was recommended there.

Advance is hardly rubbish. If your pup's breeder has raised litters of healthy Danes to adulthood on it, I'd be sticking with that.

As I am pro-temperament testing, I must be an extremist. However I'm not pro ANY temperament test. :)

You can't ask to go first or last in challenge and you can't choose to change places in Group or General Specials so my view would be accept your place in the judging order and train your dog to handle dogs before and after it. This happens to me a bit in Whippets. After BP and unless you enter Open, you're in the middle. For Group classes we are always last breed in. For General Specials we are right in the middle. So you have to get your dog used to being last (and sorting out your handling so you can be set up quickly) but also having dogs of varying breeds stacked in front and behind you.

The only downside I see to that suggestion Sheridan is that pounds aren't assessing dogs for adoption by people knowledgeable with breeds. Pounds aren't necessarily releasing dogs to people with any dog knowledge at all. So they have to test with that in mind. In the circumstances you describe, it might be a better option to have a specific dog assessed and fostered by breed rescue.... if there is one. When Sue Sternberg (inventor of the much discussed "rubber hand in the food bowl" test), came to Australia a few years back, she showed video after video of dogs under going her shelter's temperament test. I have to say evidence of stress in the test dogs was minimal. Most greeted the stranger, sniffed the doll and hoed into the food, not resisting when the hand went into the bowl. However there were some videos shown that put the hairs up on the necks of the trainers in the room. Dogs that displayed predatory behaviour towards the 'strange' adult in the room, dogs that grabbed the rubber hand and used their back teeth to bite it hard and repeatedly... and so on. A video was shown of a dog that was assessed, failed but reclaimed by its owner. it went on to be privately rehomed and to kill someone in the new home. Anyone with half an ounce of dog knowledge could have read the warning signs that dog was giving out in neon flashing light. The signals that dog was radiating made my blood run cold. And yet there are still those who would claim the dog was "stressed or frightenend" and "only needed love and care to behave". God help us all if that's what people really think. Or more precisely God help adoptive families unless temperament tests are used and implemented.

I've been mulling over this thread for a while.. There's a persistent theme from the "anti-temperament test"brigade that I find quite worrying. It goes like this: "it's not fair to temperament test dogs in pounds because they're stressed or frightened". The unwritten logic to this seems to be "if dogs behave aggressively because they are stressed or frightened that's OK". Well you know what. It's NOT OK. It's cold comfort to anyone who's been on receiving end of dog aggression or has had a child on the receiving end that "the dog only did it because it was stressed or frightened". Ditto for anyone who'd had a pet maimed or killed by another dog. The bite of a frightened dog hurts every bit as much as the bite of a dominant dog and it can do just as much damage. It doesn't matter so much IMO why dogs bite. It matters that, under a small degree of pressure, they'll do it at all. Just about any dog can be triggered to bite but sensible temperament testing doesn't appear to push many dogs to the edge. If a stressed or frightened dog will bite under the circumstances created in a well thought out temperament test, the odds are it's going to be placed under similar degrees of stress in everyday life. As far as I can figure that's one aspect of what temperament testing is attempting to find out. I'd like to see a lot less excusing of dog aggression by the "every dog needs saving"brigade and a lot more thinking about the consequences of placing aggressive dogs into the community. When the likes of Pound Rounds acknowledge that theyhave a duty of care to provide safe dogs to those people who take dogs for adoption from them, maybe we'll be getting somewhere.

How do you "rehabilitate" a dog's prey drive? CBE: Nothing more than making cast iron guarantees of rehabilitating dogs' behaviour when in my opinion, hard wired behaviour may be impossible to change permanently. And all it takes is one dog to relapse and a litigous owner and you'll be needing a good solicitor to defend those guarantees.

I"ll confess to being absolutely gobsmacked at some of the comments on the article. The level of ignorance about dog behaviour displayed by some posters is really quite startling.

So was I :)

Wash in an anti-bacterial human wash and give a final rinse with a bucket of water with a good dose of white vinegar. Don't rinse the vinegar out. ETA: if you think the issue is fungal, Malaseb would be the shampoo to use.

Add some Bowen therapy and prayer to the chiro. Best of luck - I hope he is sound,

The questions I asked of Tralee about his stress levels in the ring were not motivated by anything other than seeking a cause for what his dog is doing. He did not answer. Any dog trainer worth their salt, when confronted with handler excuses relating to breed would probably note while breed does affect temperament, all dogs are dogs and would eliminate handler causes for behaviour before digging deeper. I have already stated that a dog with a strong loyalty to its owner and with guarding instincts is going to be thrown by handler stress in the presence of strangers. Personally I think it behoves all of us who exhibit show dogs to look first to our own handling before seeking to blame breed, judges, other exhibitors or any other factors for issues in the ring. Blaming breed suggests that any issues cannot be resolved and there is plenty of evidence to refute that. The challenges may differ between breeds but they are challenges that for the most part CAN be overcome.

More information from today's Canberra Times. The pup lived at the aged care home.

Tralee: Well, if for no other reason, to consolidate training and teach them to accept the handlng of a stranger in a show situation. That doesn't mean you have to drag them out every weekend but getting pups into the ring and having fun at the very time when the judges WILL cut them some slack allows them to be accustomed to the ring and judges before the pressure really comes on. It's just like any other dog sport. You can train at home or at the dog club until you are blue in the face but the dymamics of competition are different and largely that's due to the handler! Of course the dynamics of a show day, with so much happening also change it up for the dog. So you start them young so that you can build a team between you to perforrm no matter what's going on.

Temperament testing doesn't necessarily mean a high kill rate. RSPCA ACT has proved that.