zoiboy

Very few world class Maremma have been imported. I *think* some where around 25 to 30 all up and at least 2 of those made no contrubition to the gene puddle. Perhaps more will arrive in due course. I certianly hope that will be the case.

Gee it was JUST a queston. Your a bit touchy about it tho so maybe you have no permissions?

Oh look there is Caferio and his mother. do you get permission to use these photo's tralee?

That is an iteresting read :)). My pups wean themselves and they do that by finding and trying their mothers RAW meat. So far it seems that they tend to grow up reasonably well :))

CONGRATULATIONS, may Grace have a lovely easy on time whelping and a *by the book* poopie raising !! L

Before we went to the meeting about the Reviews of the companion animals act we went to see one of the pups from our litter last April. Here is Banjo doing what he was bred to do, he has not lost a bird since taking the job.

Oh boy I am glad you have profesional help. All I can say is GOOD LUCK with your problem.

What you say about Maremmas not being a companion dog is just utter tripe. They are historically a shepherdesses dog and were corralled at night with their humans. They've always had human contact. The idea that they can be abandoned on some endless sheep farm and fed with a hopper is an abuse, particular to Australia. But no surprises there. I don't know why you don't concede that you are talking through your hat. There is no disgrace is saying you don't know or conceding that you can in fact learn something from others. Here is the passage where you clearly state the case.

Um Italy is not exactly a third world country.. They are a member of the EU and reasonably civilized..... And from a traditional point of view (or map making) they are more of a Western country than the US and Australia combined...... SORY, I was not thinking.

If you trawl back through this thread, I believe Tralee posted somewhere about the Maremma's being with their people during the night (the shepherd maybe, I don't recall, or have the inclination to go through the thread myself :D ) Yes they're with their owners when they're not working but when they are working they work largely alone :) Ok if, IF the dogs are indeed shut inside at night with the sheperdess who is actually looking after the flock? From observasitions in Italy not only were all the sheperds MALE but they left the dogs OUTSIDE. Seems to my small understanding to be far more useful to have them outside. The ONE THING that struck me no matter where we went was the lovely laid back dogs. No hysterical barking at nothing much and sweet calm dogs who left you feeling like you were watched closely.

Yes, as I mentioned it was a method made popular first in the US and thanks (or no thanks) largely to the work of the Coppingers. The misinformation spread from there and the myth that the dogs 'work on their own' grew when traditionally that is not how they have work at all. Glad I found that video then Zoiboy :). I have watched it a few times before and every time enjoyed in particular the obvious relationship between the shepherd and his dog. Having been to Sirio's summer sheep camp and actually meeting a couple of his dogs it's nice to see them. Unfortunatly I did not get to meet Sirio as he had already passed on. His Daughter and her boyfriend/husband? are doing a wonderful job of keeping the traditions alive. In may ways we have a great deal to thank the Coppingers for, BUT, I think they adapted a great deal to *fit in with* the modern USA farmer.

Well they seem to have adapted well to living and working on their own. I wonder if the Italian dogs do as well as the US and Aus dogs in that regard, or if we've created a new strain. If the Western world has in fact managed to creat a new strain, then SHAME ON US !!!!!

In my limited experiance in Italy the flocks all have dogs AND sheperds, or Cow herders with them. Even when the shepherd leaves the flock it is not for days/weeks at a time. More like hours at most. This idea that the dogs will baby sit large flocks on even larger tracts of land is a very new idea. The poor dog in Australia and the US are not partners to sheperds but they are in fact the sheperds. It is nice to see some of the relo's of my dogs in that last video Espinay :)

I am wondering about the Herpie virus?

The biggest problem the breed faces is the new found popularity as a pet in built up area's. I made the mistake ONCE of selling a pup into an urban setting. NEVER again. The show ring will not be the ruin of the breed, BUT, breeders who make the choices of what dog and bitch to breed certialy do have ability to make or break. It should be every breeders aim to breed heathly, typical, SOUND dogs for the market place.

thank you, but , the win is to me at least, irrelivant really. the dog in question was a reasonable size dog and certialy fluffed up well for showing. He was never asked to guard on a broad acre set up so we wil never know if he would have been suitable for that. What he did do VERY well was guard all manner of small things and the people here from strangers. In Italy he would be concidered a small dog and his coat was not one I would want to reproduce personally. That said it was not the worst either. I bought a sweet bitch years ago who was almost a year old at the time, she was a goat dog at the time. She has sheep as well to look after. Does this really really well, also heads to shows now and then. Her first show she was BPIS under a Canadian judge. It's not difficult to do and as with the ASD and Pry, the dogs should be able to *tell the difference*. It was mentioned that the *voice over bloke* at the royal mentioned that breeders have been breeding for a *friendly* temperament. I do not think that is the case at all. I do think that more breeders are getting better info and are breeding for stronger tempered dogs that are far closer to correct

All this chatter about the bred not being shown at all as it is not suitable is poppycock. Here are 2 different photo's of the same dog. He can be cleaned up and taken to shows. Did reasonably well at that as well. Then he is given a lamb to look after and he did that brilliantly as well. I think that many people under estimate the inteligance of the dogs and then they sell them short.

I believe that there is a sujestion to have online rego detail changes that can be made by the owner. Not sure how that wil work tho. At present if i have a litter to register I TAKE all the paper work to the local pound office and stay there until it is all entered in the database, the pups i still have are actually registered and i have all the papers to say this has been done. Posting it has got me nowhere in the past. They loose it, do not bother with it past cashing the cheque or send it all back cos they did nt like some thing. If they would just enforce the rules we have now it would actually work ok.

Councils are actually following this up I work hard at making sure all my guys are registered and chipped. to that end when i got a pup from Qld, I had him chipped and paid his rego along with the pup I was keeping from a litter I had at the time. Roll on 2 years and a couple of months Sure enough they want me to pay again for said pup.I proved he was in fact all paid up and leagle, the promise to *fix* the database was made and so far 3 months on, no further word. If the government wants to tidy up then they should simply enforce the rules/laws already in place. Gee if they had funded enforcing the rules rather than this expencive and top heavy *investigation* then the problem would not excist now.

I agree with Espinay here. I could not begin to explain it as well tho :) I have had 2 AI litter's and both times we did a surgical AI when the Prog reading was 22nmol/L (ish). Worked well for us and the first litter was 8 happy healthy baby's, second was 7 happy healthy baby's. Getting to know the bitches cycle is the most important part of the whole thing and the first litter we started testing at day 4. The second litter we started testing at day 7 as we had a much better handle on how her system worked. This was all done by a specialist tho as the GP vets just do not get a chance to get a really good working knowlage on AI's

It certianly can and will be repaired when she is a little older. I am not thinking at all about breeding her as I would be concerned about the extra strain late in the pregnancy. My vet is also recomending against breeding her so I was just interested as a could of breeders I know seem to thing it will resolve on it's own and one thinks breeding would be ok and the other is voting for desexing. Oh both are also vet's in their *other lives*.

What are breeders feelings about hernia's? I have a pup from the last litter and she has a very small hernia (it's why I withdrew her from the sale) and it will not affect her acording to the vet. She is one of 10 and the only pup to have a hernia. I do not think breeding her is a great idea, but was wondering how others would feel about it?

Oh yes and then there was the pizza delivery guy who wanted to know why I had clipped my Afghan off. Sorry I don't have an Afghan............. Oh yes you do it's the big white dog right there!!! NOOOOO that is a Borzoi... No it is an Afghan he insists....

If I had a 5 cent piece for every time I had been asked that, I would have a sack about the right weight to drop on the toes of the people that make the comment.

I grew up with really lovely British Bull's and they to got the lock jaw thing often. I do wonder how this keeps going :)