Redsonic

A man has died and a woman is in hospital with serious injuries to her lower limbs ABC News

Nothing conclusive yet, but several dogs have died horrible deaths: ABC News

This gentleman was refused entry to a US baseball game because he brought his "emotional support alligator" with him. I agree that we have to draw the line somewhere. ABC News

ABC News

Could someone please post a link to the video of the Rotty posturing, and the thread about it? I'm interested to see.

Great bit of positive press for a breed often maligned. He even looks relaxed with dozens of children looming over him, patting him on the head.

This is Kane Minion, the fellow who was killed. He obviously loved dogs. ABC News Article

Important to note that one of the examples linked to in the article is a Neapolitan Mastiff that needed surgery. Easy to see the vet bills (plus the dog's regular outlays) costing more than someone hard on their luck can afford. The cat owner lost her job and home, so rental difficulties (landlords biased against pets) probably was a factor there. The Mastiff owners should have considered increased costs in owning a giant breed before they acquired Charcoal, but they perhaps never thought to find themselves in such financial straights? Having said all this, I would live out of my car before giving up my dogs, but I don't have any other dependents.

Great story, but already covered here: https://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/274133-incredible-lost-dog-story/#comment-7000749

A nice follow up story to missing dog Abby: ABC News

The man had more than 100 victims, selling puppies that did not exist ABC News

I enjoyed reading this article; thanks for posting. Buried in the text is a link to a chart of inbreeding coefficients calculated for each breed using genotype (not pedigrees). Quite variable depending on individual breed, but overall far too high. The average for the breeds tested was 0.249, which is equivalent to a brother-sister mating. I have attached this chart below, taken from Dataset 1 in the article linked to above and here: The effect of inbreeding, body size and morphology on health in dog breeds The dogs tested were from Scandinavian countries, so we could expect some variation here. DogBreedInbreeding.xlsx

Phantom asked about nosework. I have not seen this DVD, but maybe it will help: Leerburg "The Foundation of Nosework DVD This DVD covers a foundation for nosework with your dog taught by trainer Andrew Ramsey. Nosework is a new dog sport where individuals can train their household pet to detect legal odors. It is 100% motivational training and has absolutely no corrections at any level of work." I have the book "Fun Nosework For Dogs" and found it to be quite good.

One of the biggest barriers to dogs being accepted in rental and high density accommodation is the perceived noise problem. To the extent that barking is genetic, it would be great to see breeders selecting against this trait. In effect, producing an "urban" dog; one who's behaviour would more closely match the requirements of a good pet.

OT, but I hardly think watching a 16 week old Peke pup run a little in Winter is proof it has no problems. The sheep, for instance, isn't puffing at all from that little run. The Peke is running by bunny hopping from hind legs to front, signs that it's back is too long for its leg length. Stenotic nares and, in particular, elongated soft palate, are definitely progressive and likely to be worse in older dogs than in pups. Show me an adult Peke working in hot weather without curling its tongue out to clear its airway, and I'll be more convinced. The Crufts winner needed ice bricks after its little step out.

This guy has not read the Commissioner's report. I am halfway through Volume 2 and so many of the guy's claims on Facebook have been dealt with in the report and found to be fairy dust. The claims in particular that the Greyhound Racing NSW board was finally implementing reforms were dealt with in a scathing matter by the commission. Firstly that there were lots of "moving towards" statements, and little actually done; secondly that the board's goals met smack up against the toxic culture of the industry members, and attempts at change faltered; thirdly that the industry was so far removed from modern animal behaviour science that it often didn't even get theneed to modernise animal training, breeding and rearing techniques. To meet some of his claims more specifically (his claims are quoted or paraphrased in quotes, and the inquiry's findings below each point): Commission showed that time and again, the GRNSW “steps” were either: Vague Unfunded Aimed at a target with nothing to do with public concerns Licence is free, involves reading a booklet and completing a very basic quiz, not certified at all. Facility requirements only cover the raising of a litter, not the actual whelping. Commission noted that the number of kennels available at the GAP centre had tripled, but rehoming was still challenged by the centralisation of this facility and went only a tiny percentage of the way to dealing with wastage in the industry. There are no competencies which have been developed with a training organisation or outside animal welfare body. public relations spin. Baird’s first quote about was answered by facebook guy with blurb about track design research and improvement. GRNSW had a clear policy not to record deaths on track and to describe injuries with euphemisms which diminished their severity. This deceived punters and animal welfare groups alike, and was only stopped when uncovered by the inquiry. Facebook guy has said nothing about this. Baird’s next quote The guy says the suggestion of the issue being widespread is without concrete evidence. The commission interviewed 4/5 people caught live baiting and all but 1 said the rate was 80-90%. The commission chose to believe the trainer that said it was 10-20%, as his evidence seemed generally most reliable. Commission also uncovered situations at training tracks where rabbit sellers moved freely amongst all trainers, and suggested that the practice was widely known about amongst trainers but not reported to GRNSW. This convinced the commissioner that cultural change was going to be hard to shift and that live baiting would continue. Commission discussed this; many greyhounds are moved to NSW from interstate so total difference is not significant (when considering the tens of thousands of greyhounds involved). Commission used GRNSW own figures re the dogs retired as pets with owners and their families. Facebook guy states that the greyhound industry in NSW could move toward 100% rehoming of retired or slow dogs. The commission found that GRNSW could not operate sustainably without great wastage of greyhounds. The number of dogs needed to fill race schedules to keep racing profitable would always lead to a surplus of uncompetitive animals. GRNSW admitted that into the future it could only re-home approx 10% of animals. There is a finite number of pet homes in NSW able/willing to take a greyhound. Facebook guy's comparison with the US is disingenuous, as only 8 states still race greyhounds yet presumably the entire country (pop 320million) is available to adopt. Facebook guy praises the new board’s efforts and sets it up as proof the industry could reform. Commission found that numerous efforts by the board to reform appeared stymied by industry participants and did not result in change. Commission considers that the fall in litters was a direct result of uncertainty following the live baiting scandal, and the adoption rates were up from a very low baseline. There was more, but I haven't finished the report, and it is clear this guy hasn't read (or understood) it

Link here: News thread re Greyhound Racing NSW

Mike Baird in the ABC News article: I have to say I am astonished the government is doing this (against undoubted industry pressure), but I am very happy they've stepped up and taken the inquiry's report seriously. I wonder what is going to happen up here in Qld?

Sorry, fixed it to add the hyperlink in the OP.

Nice story about a pet Kelpie Bailey smashing the Kelpie high jump record at 2.915m, and winning the Kelpie dash and triathlon at the Casterton Kelpie Muster. ABC News

Here's a link to the Choice article for those of you not in Facebook: Choice Magazine Article re Petplan

Yep, the tears fell here too

Thanks for the links. The first one was really interesting. People have long tried to argue that domestication occurred much earlier than the fossil evidence suggests, and DNA research will, I think, finally provide the answer. The Wall St Journal article was written by Mark Derr. I tried to read his book: How the Dog Became the Dog: From Wolves to Our Best Friends, but I couldn't finish it. He is a journalist and the book seemed to me to be about conjecture and opinion rather than science and fact. He made lots of statements about the antiquity of the dog and how humans and wolves connected without revealing any convincing sources. If read as a hypothesis, I suppose the book would be OK, and the Wall St Journal article you linked to was well worth reading.

There are some intriguing 30 000 year old footprints preserved in a cave in Europe which seem to suggest that a boy and a dog were walking together. Modern man and Neanderthal man actually separated about 180 000 years ago. Neanderthal man was adapted to European conditions (pale skin, large nose to warm cold air, stocky body to help preserve heat) but went extinct approx 30 000 years ago, about the time modern man made it to Western Europe. Like the Dingo and the Thylacine, the new arrivals probably contributed to the extinction of Neanderthal man, although there was some intermixing, and non African people today carry about 2-5% Neanderthal genes. This is very true. Wolves alive today are likely to be far, far more cautious of humans than their predecessors due to generations of persecution and inadvertent selection for wariness.

So what happened in Australia? We know Aboriginies arrived between 45,000 and 60,000 years ago (depending which group you look at eg Tasmanians have probably been here the longest). And some of them brought dogs? Or were the puppies gifted to them much later by Indonesian traders? Because we know the dogs came with the humans. But when? Tho the relationship between aboriginals and dogs is not like owner and pet. It's more like flat mates. It is thought that the Dingo arrived about 5000 years ago via traders from Asia. Never made it to Tasmania, hence the Thylacine survived there until the arrival of Europeans. The Dingo likely contributed to the extinction of Thylacines on the mainland about 2500 years ago. Most people imagine early domestic dogs were valued as hunting companions, but it is more likely to be the "flat mate" arrangement you mention. Camp dogs provide an early warning system of the arrival of hostile neighbours, they scavenge up the garbage, and would even be a source of food when resources are scarce.