DogsAndTheMob

I think that should be assessed on an individual basis. I compete in dog sports and I see many successful competitors who are in their 70s and even 80s. I’m not just talking about Obedience and Rally but also the very active sports like tracking and agility. One friend in her 80s is campaigning two dogs in the higher levels of Agility and Jumpers, which requires multiple runs in a day. My friend and others like her are inspirational.

That’s good to know, thank you. It’s not a term I’ve heard before.

The wording seems to be an amalgam of excerpts taken from other ads, which is also suggestive of a scam. https://www.horsedeals.com.au/listings/sweet-natured-gelding-3fd9c9e7-003e-428f-9acd-014223618df9 “More woah-than-go attitude, 3 good paces and relaxed on trails, arena and obstacles. Genuine all rounder.Great to C/S/F, good feet, sound horse with clean legs. ” http://valleyviewranch.net/Gypsy-Creek-Oleander.htm "Ollie" is what every Horse Lovers Dreams are made of! Ollie is a Once in a Lifetime Partner! He is ready to meet you at the gate, saddles and bridles quietly. Walk over to the fence or block, climb up, turn around and Ollie has already sidepassed up to as if to say, "Slide on, Lets go for a ride!" Ollie has been in all types of country and trail rides the very best. Ollie was used by a cowboy to day work and was duded in the mountains of Colorado and in the desert of Arizona. Ollie was broke to drive and was an essential part of a carriage business. He drives single or in a team. He’s done weddings, wagon rides in town, and private events!

My first thought on reading the ad was “scam” because of the AUD, which I’ve seen in scam ads for puppies. But I can’t see anything else that obviously indicates a scam… except that scammers often seem to advertise glamorous breeds like highland cattle, baby doll sheep and maybe gypsy vanner horses. Also, is “gypsy vanner” a name that’s used in Australia - or would it be advertised as a gypsy cob here?

Honestly, I think there is room for compromise. The well-being of the dog should be the primary consideration and all parties should take some responsibility for the interstate sale of a dog without the purchasers first seeing the dog and assessing whether it will be a good fit for their home.

https://www.npr.org/2023/04/12/1169466830/worlds-shortest-dog-pearl-chihuahua “The two-year-old measures exactly 3.59 inches tall and 5 inches long, according to her vet, Dr. Giovanni Vergel of Crystal Creek Animal Hospital in Orlando, Fla. Put another way, she's shorter than a Popsicle stick, barely the height of a credit card and about as tall as a toilet paper roll.”

Banning ear cropping has been very effective in Australia; I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dog with cropped ears. Tail docking was banned much more recently and that move was very unpopular among show breeders but most breeders have complied, perhaps because conformation show regulations changed in line with the law. I suspect many breeders would either crop/dock their puppies themselves or get it done by a “breed expert” rather than a vet, even if vets could and would perform those procedures. I think this is particularly in the case of those American Bully breeders, given their reported links with organised crime.

I’m glad that you and your vet were able to save your puppy and that he’s gone on to have a good life. With regards to runts, I have seen quite a few puppies that were born small but were catching up with their littermates by six weeks. It used to be said that this was due to their position in the uterine horns, but I don’t know what current medical thinking is on this. My puppy and another puppy with kidney failure that I know of were both normal size at birth then started falling behind at weaning. I had a GSD that, in retrospect, had many of the symptoms of a liver shunt and died under anaesthetic at 5 yo with extremely abnormal liver markers. At birth, he was the size of a newborn kitten.

This made me briefly question my decision for euthanasia but I don’t think she could have been saved, even in the short term. In the two hours between our arriving at the local vet and our arriving at the specialists she went from a bright, alert puppy that had been vomiting to an obviously unwell puppy. They took her away and when I next saw her (to hold her for euthanasia) she was shuddering and seemed barely aware of her surroundings. I thought they would have stabilised her and felt guilty that I’d taken over an hour after arriving at the specialists to make a decision.

I think there is some justification for the recent, huge increase in veterinary fees. A cow on agistment in our paddock wouldn’t stand up and its owner called out the vet. I was amazed by the variety of equipment used by the vet, including a portable ultrasound machine. Vets now need so much more equipment, which comes with a huge cost. Add in staffing costs and rental of premises, and fees must rise. On the other hand, fees are growing beyond the budget of many owners. Last year I purchased a “runt of the litter” puppy, with a great working pedigree. She seemed a little fragile then suddenly became quite ill. I took her to the local vet on a Friday morning and blood tests indicated congenital kidney failure. I drove to a specialist vet, knowing that they probably couldn’t see her until the Monday. There, I was told she would probably not be seen until the Tuesday, and I was quoted $6000 for care over the weekend and another $6000 for specialist diagnostics - with unknown costs for treatment, if treatment was possible. I accept that specialist care centres have additional costs, and I could have paid if a positive outcome was likely, but I was distressed by the difficulty I had getting information on a prognosis. I finally asked, “have you ever seen a puppy survive with this degree of kidney failure” and the answer was “no”. I was also upset that there was no specialist veterinarian available at a specialist hospital for 3 or 4 days. I know there are many specialties but I would have expected a specialist physician to be available, particularly as local vets in this area no longer offer the range of specialist and emergency care that they once did. The cost for care at the two vets plus euthanasia on that day was approximately $1250.

Thanks Anne. It was very distressing for us all, but particularly my elderly relative. The council worker expressed concern about being audited.

Sadly, that was not our experience when I bought an elderly relative a longed-for dachshund. The dachshund’s previous owner had recently moved from Victoria and found she could not manage two dachshunds. The dog’s Victorian microchip registration was transferred from the previous owner’s name into my relative’s name. After a delay for desexing, we tried to register her in NSW. We could not find information on interstate transfers into NSW, so the vet who had provided care and desexed her (and cared for my relative’s previous dog) scanned her and filled out the ID paperwork, which was submitted with the application and a statutory declaration to a rural NSW council. The council refused to accept the paperwork because the vet was not the person who had inserted the microchip. They also refused to even look at the proof that the dog’s Victorian microchip registration had been transferred into my relative’s name. After several visits to council by my husband and my elderly relative, they interrogated me at length over the phone, then demanded the previous owner’s contact details so they could interrogate her. Thankfully, I had her contact details and she was cooperative. Even after all that, they registered the dachshund reluctantly and with complaints.

It’s quite common and nothing to be concerned about. Puppies usually outgrow it by adolescence. It’s an evolutionary signal of puppyhood that reduces the risk of attack by unfamiliar adult dogs. If you scold or react negatively, you’ll reduce his confidence and make him more likely to wee when he meets people.

What a wonderful story. Well done Cassie!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/marketplace-dog-dna-test-1.6763274?f Results of submitting DNA samples from two mixed breed/no breed dogs, one purebred Great Dane and one human for canine breed DNA testing.

What a cutie!

IAt this point, the primary concern should be the wellbeing of your dog. Unfortunately, the breeder might opt for euthanasia rather than paying the potentially high costs of ongoing veterinary treatment. If you can afford to pay those costs, perhaps you should ask the breeder if they will now cede full ownership to you. There may be nothing that can be done to save your dog, but there may be treatment options and the vet probably won’t discuss those options with you unless you are the owner.

I competed in ANKC herding with a border collie about a decade ago. He came from a line of versatile border collies that competed successfully in Obedience and Tracking as well as mustering cattle on a hilly, 1000 acre farm as their “day job”. He was a wonderful dog … a natural heading dog and a wide worker, a good dog for three sheep trialling and a great first herding dog for me to train. He was very successful until I lost him from snake bite. My next dog showed great potential and a very strong eye at three months, when he broke away from me to block the goats my older dog was herding. He would have been a great dog in more experienced or more determined hands and I think he would have excelled in working a big mob of sheep but he worked very close and tended to focus on one sheep in a mob of three, sometimes even going in to grip. I decided that competing with him wouldn’t be kind to him or the sheep. He’s almost in his teens now and he spends his days inside in air conditioning but comes outside to watch the goats and cattle when they come up to the house for food. The point of this story is that herding is a great sport so long as it doesn’t cause distress to the sheep or the dog. Unfortunately, occasionally even people who are careful about the welfare of their pets can be oblivious to distress suffered by other animals, so it’s not a sport I’d promote as suitable for all herding breed dogs and their owners.

We do have “wild dogs” here (north of Newcastle). The few I’ve seen over the years look like dingos. After I lost the last of my sheep to them, I decided not to get any more sheep. It’s worth noting that they didn’t attack the sheep when they were in the same paddock as my cows. The sheep always ran in amongst the cows if there was any disturbance in the paddock. We also have kangaroos, but not in plague proportions, so maybe the dingos keep numbers under control.

Their Facebook page says that they are closing and asks that people stop contacting them about animals needing rescue. I haven’t been involved in rescue, so my comments are only based on my experience with animals in other contexts. However… The rescue premises shown in the news stories do not look large enough to safely house multiple animals of different species including dogs, cats , goats, rabbits and birds. I have a larger acreage and a smaller number of animals, and it takes money, work and careful management to keep all my animals safe and happy. Question for experienced rescuers: could rescuers avoid problems by starting with a “business plan” that sets clear limits on what they will do (I.e. species and numbers) and identifies options for referral elsewhere?

These are fascinating stories from landholders who live in harmony with dingos. They state that, by maintaining stable dingo populations, they improve the ecosystem by reducing populations of feral goats, pigs, foxes and cats, as well as kangaroos, with little predation on cattle. They do acknowledge that this would be difficult for sheep graziers. https://landholdersfordingoes.org/grazier-case-studies-dingoes-in-the-landscape/

A very disturbing story from the UK. Warning: There is a distressing photograph of ear cropping. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-64346415

It’s a nice story, but it doesn’t really make sense and there are other, more feasible explanations. Daily changes in environmental odour profiles would vary depending on temperature, humidity and air flow. Humans have an internal body clock… how often have you woken up five minutes before your alarm went off or looked up from your work and checked the clock just on 5 pm? There’s no reason to think that animals are any different. There would also be environmental cues, such as neighbours driving past on the way to collect their children from school or bring them home or dogs barking on the distance when people arrive home.

My dogs wake up thirsty in the night. They are thirstier if they’ve eaten kibble, which typically has > 1% salt, but they are thirsty even if they’ve had home-prepared raw food. I hear the older dogs drinking and just listen until they settle again, but I need to take the pup out for water and a toilet stop.

I’m not sure how common vasectomy is, although someone I knew had his German Shepherd vasectomised. Ovary sparing spay is becoming more common. My vet was planning to attend a webinar on it, the last time I spoke to her.