Staranais

So I guess I won't be looking for a job in Adelaide...

Sounds like you've had some great experiences. Look forward to chatting with you too.

Congratulations (?) What dogsports & activities are you going to do with her, Aussielover?

I don't leave my dog at the vet by herself, but luckily I'm in a position where I don't have to do so. She's fine being kenneled and crated, and is happy being left alone, but she hates being manhandled by strangers so I'd just rather be there when she is manipulated/injected/prodded/poked/premedded so no-one (dog or vet!) gets scared or hurt. I hate leaving her for weekends/weeks, but will do so if my uni work or volunteer work demand it. I'm pretty fussy where I leave her. In the past I have left her at kennels where she came home really stressed, but I've now found a good kennels where she always comes home happy, and they sometimes even post pictures of her online so I can see she's happy. It's creature Comforts in Sanson, Manawatu - the place where they do the GAP greyhounds - I highly recommend it!

Yup, might have thought it was your dog. Perhaps it looked friendly to them & they thought it was just coming to say hi. Or perhaps their brain was somewhere else & they just didn't put two and two together and realise you might be in danger.

Haha, no, that was entirely incidental. I was just happy to get the entire dog in the shot!

There are lots of ways a dog can end up intersex. Inheriting an abnormal assortment of sex chromosomes, or anything that interferes with the differentiation of the gonads or external genitalia, can do it. I do know that intersex conditions in dogs are sometimes inherited (sometimes a simple autosomal recessive, sometimes X-linked, sometimes of unknown mode of inheritance), but I have no idea if they're always inherited, or what the ratio of inherited to de novo cases is. ETA - I agree with Fifi that if neither you nor your vet noticed it before this then it's entirely reasonable that your breeder may not have noticed it either. Also agree with Jed that I'd ask the vet why she needs more surgery - it's possible she does need it for some reason, e.g. if they think she'll have issues urinating or if the penis bone is irritating her, but IMO there's no point doing it just to make her look more "normal".

I'm pretty wary about people giving specific advice on a public forum about either corrections or aggression, there is just too much potential for things to go wrong. I think it is good and useful to talk about these things in general. But a forum is a tricky medium to give advice on - you may give the wrong advice (due the owner describing the problem incorrectly), or the owner might misinterpret what you say, or they may understand what you say but not have the skill to competently do what you advise. You're right that pulling on the leash is a minor problem compared to many, but giving a correction is a skill to learn hands-on I think, not by experimentation. Some soft dogs will crumble if you over-correct them, many dogs will get confused or upset if you correct them unfairly or at the wrong time, some owners lack the experience to tell these things are happening until too late. You sound pretty knowledgeable, though, so I look forward to you sharing your advice. Can I ask, what's your background in dog training?

Some dogs are just skinny too. I have a hard time keeping weight on my malinois girl. You can always see her last ribs at least, sometimes more. She eats truckloads, though! I'd talk to them first before calling the SPCA. Perhaps they don't know of a good food to keep weight on her (good quality foods keep weight on, lamb flaps & other fatty meat cuts are good too), perhaps she has a medical condition that's making her skinny, perhaps they just don't know how to condition score a dog.

Nah, she's a working dog not a sport dog. I'm working towards qualifying her & myself as an operational SAR team. Although if we're unsuccessful, then IPO might be another good plan to keep her occupied. Thanks for the kind words Joe! ETA - also, thanks Aussielover, that's fascinating. And thanks again Vickie. Where are my manners this morning?

Interesting, thanks Vickie. I guess everyone has different ideas how to do everything, like everything in dog training. It looks like she knows what she's doing at this height, so I will try her on higher jumps to see how she does - although not straight to the full 90cm in case she does tweak something. One thing I noticed from filming her is that she appears to always land first on her left leg - (interestingly, that's the one we operated on) - do you know if dogs typically have one leg they prefer to jump on?

Thanks Kavik & Vickie! That makes sense, Vickie. I thought I'd be better easing her into it gently since she's never really jumped before & I didn't want her to strain anything - didn't realise that having the jump set so low might be teaching her bad habits.

As far as I know, there's no evidence that any of these products prevents development of DJD, although also no studies to prove that they don't - no one has really looked at it since it would be an expensive and longterm study to do. What there is is evidence that some of these products can slow progression of DJD in dogs that already have it, by reducing joint inflammation & slowing the degradation of cartilage. I personally give my own dog glucosamine, chondroitin, fish body oil, & sometimes green lipped mussel orally, as well as Pentosan/cartrophen injections q 6 months, in the hope it will do some good.

Thanks for the suggestions but I really can't buy any more DVDs (or attend an agility club) until I graduate next year and get money (and at least a little bit of time) back! Will request the book at my library via interloan though and see what they can turn up, it sounds really interesting so hopefully they can source it for me. Did she look like she's jumping too soon to you, or is it just me?

You could just exercise her & satisfy her prey drive with training when you're at home, and then leave her to relax & hopefully sleep while you're not home? That's what I do with my high prey drive girl.

So, after my girl's shoulder surgery & looong recovery, we've finally gotten the OK to do all the normal things that normal dogs do. I've just started jumping her a little bit - largely just to help tire her out, although it's also possible we may end up doing working trials at some point which require jumping. I am wondering if there's anything I can do at this early stage to improve her jumping style & teach her a good technique? I've taken a little video footage of her, and she seems (to me) to take off quite early. But since I've never taught jumping before, I could be wrong about that, & perhaps she knows exactly what she's doing! She seems to clear the jump easily most of the time, but occasionally will knock the bar. At the moment she's jumping half height (45cm), and I'm sending her over the jump towards a target. Here's the footage in case anyone knowledgeable cares to have a look, would appreciate any analysis, tips, or suggestions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFC_8ap15BA

The behavioural signs may have been hard to see, but the way you describe it, the situation was a risky one - it sounds like it was a case of a small child attempting to take a hugely valuable resource (bitch in heat!) away from a strange (presumably entire) male dog. Similar to a small child trying to take a bone from a strange dog. Must have been horrible to see.

If you're after a competition dog I'd prioritise sociability, boldness, quickness of recovery if he is startled, & willingness to play. Plus good physical structure.

Actually, I answered both of your questions factually and politely. I will not bother to reply in the future if this makes me a "nut".

Sensationalist and biased reporting, but there's a lot more the kennel club could be doing to defend itself against these types of accusations too. If they don't defend their policies and can't prove each of their breeds is just as healthy as the average crossbreed dog, then of course they will look guilty to the public and the RSPCA will take advantage of that.

He's sexually mature and is capable of siring a litter now. But it's not "safe" to have a litter until he has been elbow & hip scored (plus undergone any other health tests recommended for your breed), since until these are done you don't know how likely it is he will sire a healthy litter with any particular bitch.

The book "Playtraining your dog" by Patricia Gail Burnham uses only greyhounds as examples, and includes lots of lovely photos of her greyhounds doing obedience up to Utility level. The methods are fairly old school (although progressive for their time), but if you're doing obedience with a grey you still may find it inspiring.

And I also suspect the risk factors depend on what type of attack you're talking about. For example, I'd imagine that statistically speaking bull breeds may be disproportionately involved in dog-on-dog attacks, compared to many other breeds, but not dog-on-human attacks. And, the kind where the dog barks and nips and jumps up on you could just be a rowdy and poorly mannered adolescent dog, very different to a serious mauling, but they're all called "attacks" in the media.

except that the stinging nettle has tiny hollow hairs and a toxin , causing pain/burning...not really an allergic response . The wandering dew leaves do NOT have such things... (afaik) I asked a dermatologist this question a few months back, since I was interested too. He said it is a hypersensitivity, but not an allergy (technically it's a type 4/cell mediated hypersensitivity, not a type 1/IgE mediated allergy). When he does intradermal allergen testing, he usually also does an additional test where he breaks a stem of wandering jew & gently scratches the dog's inner thigh with it, then takes a look 1 - 2 days later to see if the dog shows irritation at the site. Apparently many dogs react to the juice from the plant, but some don't.

I've never heard of it, but if you ever do get a flea infestation (not that I'm wishing one on you!) I'll be interested to hear how it works.