Staranais

I think it's reasonable for people to say they'd rather see a particular "genre" of trainer. I don't know if that's necessarily the same as putting down the other styles (although that does occur sometimes, I agree). I think this often results from people who have seen a bad trainer that trained with a particular style, got disillusioned at getting no results, and want to now try something completely different. I think people sometimes don't realise that the lack of results are often due to deficiencies of the trainer, rather than necessarily resulting from the methods those trainers used. I've personally wasted money on both bad positive, and bad traditional type, trainers in the past. And from my experiences, if I ever employ a professional trainer again, I would personally rather pay to see a trainer that is educated in the use of a wide range of methods and tools, not just one style. But I'd also rather be referred to a really good trainer, of any lineage, than an average trainer in my preferred style - really good trainers are in too short supply to be too fussy! And results are results.

I think sometimes the food company employees don't know what goes in themselves - they buy "frozen meat" or "grain meal" from another supplier, and don't know what these ingredients actually are! Most of the raw meat ingredients I saw being labelled as pet food were actually OK - there were some diseased things included that I wouldn't personally feed raw, but mostly it was just healthy parts of the animal that people rarely want to eat, like lungs and trachea. It was how the meat was stored that shocked me. For interest, I've seen: * Meat "stored" at room temperature for hours * Meat pieces dropped onto a dusty, dirty floor then put right back into the batch * Factories in a disgusting state of hygiene - dried blood, dust and muck all over the floor and over the workers' aprons I also, with my own eyes, saw trays of stale and slightly mouldy bread ground up and included in a premium food. These were listed on the dog food label as grains. I don't know what my point is, and I know this rant is slightly off topic, sorry. Clearly most dogs are fed commercial dog food, and most dogs do well on it (better than they'd do on a haphazard, unbalanced home made diet, anyway). I guess I'm just very skeptical about the idea of "premium" dog foods. I don't think I'd believe a food was really premium unless I saw the manufacturing process myself - including where all the ingredients came from.

Isn't that like saying, I'm sick to death of these people getting burgled, they should invest in security guards and better alarms for their homes? It's not the farmer's job to make his stock invincible. On the other hand, when someone's dogs are caught on farm land, maybe they should be made to pay for a Maremma for that property (including food and shelter and ongoing veterinary costs!), or maybe deer fencing, whichever the farmer prefers. Could get mighty pricey on a station with thousands of ewes!

I don't really understand the premium food label anyway. Clearly some commercial foods are complete crap, and some are a bit better. But what makes a food "premium"? The price tag? The fact it says "natural" or "organic" on the packet? As for myself, I've toured behind the scenes in a couple of slaughterhouses, and several pet food companies, and I've seen what kind of crap gets put into dog food, and how good they are at disguising these ingredients when they write the packet labels! Nothing that includes what I've seen has a business calling itself premium, but some still did.

I think that it is ideal to get hands-on advice from a really good trainer. However, this isn't always possible. Not every location has a local dog trainer, and not every location with a trainer has a really good trainer. I've spent any amount of money on professional trainers in the past, most of it wasted. I've done one of Steve's DLP in the past, I was a bit skeptical at first, but it's not just "talking by email" - I ended up sending so much video to Steve that he spent far more time watching my stafford than all the "real-life" trainers I've hired combined. I believe that in some ways, a DLP with a good trainer (and Steve is very good) is far superior to real-life lessons with an average trainer.

Any news on the histo? Hopefully it's good news & they've managed to take a good margin.

I'd ask her vet for a referral to a specialist in small animal or feline medicine.

Oh yes it is. My CAO bloated for nearly 24 hours and I got him to the vet just in time. His brother bloated also, for a similar time period, but unfortunately he died on arrival at the vet. Bloat without torsion kills just as efficiently because the engorging stomach compromises the heart and lungs and reduces blood flow; dog goes into shock, has heart arrhythmia and dies. Thanks Lilli, I was just about to say the same thing. Gas bloat is still very dangerous even without torsion, for the reasons you outline. We certainly treat it as an emergency at the clinic here. I also wonder if what the vet said about smaller dogs not bloating has been somewhat misreported here. I'm not suggesting anything malicious - it's pretty easy for this to happen when we're hearing the story second hand, especially when the person who originally talked to the vet was probably very stressed. It may not be the case, of course, but similar things have happened on DOL many times in the past.

Great letter, Lemma. Gives them the facts, but is still polite and respectful. It seems like they do have good intentions, after all. Hopefully they end up with a well bred pup, or a nice rescue.

I have heard of this before, and it makes me wonder, how carefully do they select these dolphins for the program, and what % of the selected dolphins end up being successfully trained? I am only pondering this as I wonder if perhaps the situation is more analogous to pet dogs that we would suppose. In both cases, perhaps a carefully selected group of animals certainly can be reliably trained to do exceptional things, in a reasonable time frame, using reward alone. But, can they all be? Slightly off topic, sorry.

Can I please ask who, specifically, are you accusing of trying to convince everyone to use correction collars? If it's the OP, I think you'll find the original thread was from someone who wanted to be allowed to use a correction collar on his own dog at a dog club. It was not about someone trying to persuade other members of the club to start using them.

She's really rather lovely. The ears give her an interesting look - much less intimidating than a prick eared mally. I guess that ccoul be an advantage, or disadvantage, depending on what your plans are with her!

There is a really good review at the Tuft's Canine and Feline Breeding and Genetics Conference from 2009, by Ray Nachreiner, I'm not sure if you can access that somehow though? It outlined the studies they've done in beagles & borzois investigating the heritability of TgAA. Apparently this was the largest one, although I haven't looked at it myself: Benjamin SA, Stephens LC, Hamilton BF, Saunders WJ, Lee AC, Angleton GM, Mallinckrodt CH. Associations between lymphocytic thyroiditis, hypothyroidism, and thyroid neoplasia in beagles. Vet Pathol. 1996;33:486-94. ETA, in case you can't get the review, the basic gist was that they've done several good studies in several breeds that show that elevated TgAA is strongly heritable, but they're not yet sure of the mode of inheritance. Also, they know that not every dog with elevated TgAA will go on to become hypothyroid - it may be a little like hip dysplasia in that you sometimes need both a genetic predisposition and certain environmental factors to display the symptoms. I don't really understand what the Soloxine is supposed to achieve, if the body is making auto-antibodies to thyroglobulin, then pumping more thyroid hormone replacer into the body isn't going to stop that process?

I often use reward-only for behaviour modification. I think it's hugely powerful tool. It's just not the only good tool out there.

What did they propose treating with, Ptolomy? I don't know anything that can stop autoimmune thyroiditis, except perhaps immunosuppressive drugs, and I don't think I'd care to go there since all have side effects (and since my understanding is that the presence of thyroglobulin auto-antibodies often, but do not always, lead to clinical hypothyroidism). It is recommend not to breed from dogs that test positive for thyroglobulin auto-antibodies, as several studies indicate that it is a highly heritable condition.

The flat collars only rule makes sense to me, Bedazzled - why didn't people like it? You can't correct in the obedience ring anyway, can you, so what's the point of wearing a correction chain in there (unless you want it to remind the dog that it could be corrected, which is surely no more fair than me being allowed to carry my tug in the ring to remind my dog she can be rewarded?)

I am pretty interested too. Did they snap off or pull out? I can do a VIN search if you like.

Because it's much easier to argue against hitting a dog than to argue against more reasonable examples of positive punishment.

Do you mean that the teeth came right out, or that they snapped off at the gumline? If the first then I would still be very suspicious of prior damage or a prior defect, I think, incisors only have one root but still should not pull out of the jaw very easily at all! If the second, possibly he is getting them caught in what you are using & snapping them that way? Also, I would wonder, does he hold the tug properly when he tugs (i.e. behind his canines, right back in his molars), as incisors are not designed to take the force of tugging.

"Positive" in the context of dog training doesn't mean nice, it just means adding something to the situation. "Punishment" in the context of dog training doesn't necessarily mean something nasty or cruel, it just means that what you did caused a decrease in the behaviour. Positive punishment, when used by animal trainers, therefore means you have added something to the situation that has caused the preceding behaviour to decrease. I used to have a good link that explained all the quadrants used by behaviourists, plus extinction, but can't find it now. Hopefully someone else will come to the rescue.

I've heard of tooth loss and other dental damage from bitework on a bite sleeve. I haven't heard of it occurring from tug before. I would wonder if your dog's teeth were already damaged before you tugged with him? I imagine that neck injuries would be possible too, if you were extremely rough, or the dog had a pre-existing injury.

It sounds like you are trying to argue for people using rewards in their training, Bull Arab. I think you'll that most of us use reward extensively.

Why would anyone yell at him for training his dog close to but outside the club grounds (which is what I think he's saying he is going to do)? If they did such a thing, they'd be the ones that were being unreasonable and aggressive. The club doesn't own all the land around the club, other dog owners are allowed to use it like any other public space.

I think you'll find it's not technically duress unless you had no other reasonable option (which you did - to refuse to sign the contract and then to take the breeder to small claims court if she refused to give you the deposit back). However, I guess your lawyer will sort that out for you. If you are interested in breeding or in buying another registered puppy, I'd be careful you don't start to get a bad name as someone who backs out of contracts.

It wasn't signed under duress though, was it? So claiming it was would be, you know, a lie.