Staranais

As well as all of the above, I think someone should own or train several dogs of a particular breed before starting to breed that breed. It always rings alarm bells for me when a person decides to breed the first and only dog of a breed that they have ever owned or trained. It makes me think, how do they really know how good the dog is if it's the only one they have owned, and how do they know they love & understand the breed as a whole (rather than just their own dog)? I'm sure it sometimes works out OK, but I would not (as a general rule) want to buy from such a novice breeder, I like to find a breeder who knows the breed inside & out. Possibly this is more of an issue for working dogs than for pets, though.

Oh yeah, thanks, I can pill her physically if necessary. But I'd just rather avoid the battle, and turn it into something I can request, to make it more pleasant for both of us. My last dog would work for his pills, but this girl is smarter.

I know, I know, most dogs eat things without any command at all. I'm talking more about things that your dog doesn't want to eat - pills and so forth. I'm sick of hiding my girl's glucosamine in things & having her find it & spit it out, so I decided to shape eating things on command this evening. I want to be able to hand her a pill (even a nasty tasting one) & get her to eat it on command. Am willing to bribe with spectacularly tasty treats, since I realise swallowing pills isn't ever fun. I think it went OK, she will now pick the pill up and roll it around inside her mouth for several seconds to earn mark/spectacular treat. Haven't managed to get a swallow out of her yet, though. Perhaps tomorrow night. Anyone tried this? Any hints?

Probably chemicals are part of the issue, I think. But I think genetics is a huge issue too. In the past, animals with severe allergies would be unlikely to be breed from and would probably have been PTS or allowed to die, so any genes making an animal susceptible to allergies would have be regularly weeded out of the population. But these days, we can & do treat the problem, which lets these dogs survive & breed. When we treat canine allergies, we're not always curing the underlying genetic predisposition - we're just masking the symptoms. This isn't a bad thing, as stopping the symptoms makes the dog concerned much more comfortable & lets it live a much happier life. But every time we treat & then breed from a canine with allergies, then any genes that contributed to the allergy are passed on. They aren't weeded out, & they increase in the population. Which equals more dogs with allergies. If vets had an automatic policy to seize & desex every animal with allergies that walked in the door, I'd be willing to bet that we could almost eliminate canine allergies within 20 years. Of course, we can't do that. All we can do is make the individual dog comfortable (by masking its symptoms), and encourage the owners to desex. Some listen, some don't.

I don't think the ANKC is a "full" member of the FCI. I believe we are an associate member only. Oh really? Interesting. I didn't know that. So does that mean that they don't need to comply with all the FCI policies? Does it also mean that there can be more than one "associate member" within a country? I know every country can only have one full member registry. Perhaps working dog breeders need to leave the ANKC, and develop their own FCI associated registry.

Sometimes the underlying issue is a genetic predisposition to allergies and immune problems. This underlying issue could possibly be cured in the long term (by not breeding these dogs), but cannot be cured in the short term (within the lifetime of these dogs). In the short term, our goal is to make these dogs more comfortable. Sometimes, this includes using cortisone. It's rather like hip dysplasia. Owners can exacerbate hip issues by keeping their pup overweight or feeding it improperly. But at the end of the day, sometimes the dog is just be predisposed to crappy hips, no matter what the owner does. All we can do is keep the affected dog as comfortable as possible & try to breed away from the problem.

Yeah our vet will do that for us, but the boarding kennel wants them to have proof that they have had a C5? Will talk to the vet about it anyway. Yeah, you can titre for all of the components of the C3, but don't think you can yet titre reliably for either parainfluenza & bordetella? Most boarding kennels make you redo these two vaccinations yearly, and I can't say for sure they're wrong either (unlike the ones that try to demand an annual C3). I always hated boarding my DA dog too, I hope you can find somewhere suitable for him.

Mmm interesting ! Well then...how can the 'ANKC' make a decision on this when the ANKC is 'a meeting' between delegates from each States controlling dog body? Each delegate makes up the ANKC.......so how can NSW not be aware ? How many other State CEO's are "not" aware???? We need to do something people.......so get writing and voice your concerns or disgust to the ANKC President and copy in all committee persons of your States controlling body. Perhaps you guys need to complain directly to the FCI, not the ANKC? My thinking is, doesn't the ANKC represent the FCI in Australia - it is the only registry in Australia that belongs to the FCI? Yet the ANKC is discrediting what the FCI stands for, and not allowing dogs to have FCI approved titles on their pedigree. So perhaps an outcry of Aussie breeders & working line owners going directly to the FCI would make an impact?

I'm against restricting any breed without very good evidence to show they are inherently dangerous. If they could show that any breed had a greatly increased chance of injuring humans, even if it was raised correctly & owned responsibly, I'd have no issue with the government restricting ownership or placing special regulations on that breed (e.g. must be muzzled in public). I don't believe in banning breeds simply because they have a bad reputation, or might be dangerous, or are often owned by morons. That's what has happened so far in Aussie & NZ. No one has shown that the APBT is any more dangerous to humans than any other dog is, if owned by responsible people.

LOL, she does sound fun. I really would make sure you are giving her enough stimulation & exercise. My malinois girl is much easier to live with in the evening when she's had some exercise & training time during the day. What have you done to train her around distractions? If you don't train around distractions, your dog won't work for you around them. I often take my clicker & my dog's dinner on walks, if something distracting comes up, we can practice our latest tricks & commands right then & there, I believe this gets her into the mindset of focusing on me on request. Start with the little distractions & work up to the big ones. I will also correct my girl physically if necessary if she ignore a known command & acts like a fruit loop at inappropriate times, some may not believe in this, but it works well for us. TOT is a good program to help with this too. I would also say, have you taught "quiet" as a behaviour, so that she can do it on command, & you can ask for it when you want it? Hopefully some other posters will come up with suggestions for you, but these are the things I will do with my high excitement girl, & they work well for us.

I get my girl's chip checked whenever we're at the vets. They shouldn't charge you for doing it, it only takes a few seconds to check. And then you know it's in the right place & that it's working, rather than finding out after it you've lost your dog.

She sounds kind of fun. Are you giving her a chance to work off her energy in an appropriate fashion during the day? If this were my dog, I'd not be doing what the dog wanted until she was behaving more appropriately. If she's acting like a fruit loop when you're going to open the front door, for example, I'd just wait her out. Stand there like you're frozen until she settles down & shuts up. When she settles, mark it & open the door. If she starts to act like a fruit loop on a walk, I'd be not going any further until she settles down. You'll need to be prepared to wait for a long time the first couple of times, so pick your moment, but when she cottons on what is required, she'll start to offer it quicker & quicker. You just need to be more stubborn than your dog.

LOL, I wondered if that was the case.

Suprelorin will have the same effect as regular desexing (no testosterone), just temporarily instead of permanently. As opposed to a vasectomy, which won't affect the hormones at all, just stops the dog getting anyone pregnant. Most vets should be able to do a vasectomy on a dog, we do them on rams routinely, and dog anatomy is pretty similar in that area. Hopefully someone here can point you towards a vet who has done it before in your area.

Depends on the clinic, I think. Your clinic & nurses sound wonderful. But I have seen practice at clinics where they lose healthy dogs reasonably commonly - one of the vet nurses where I was seeing practice last month told me "oh yes, dentals are where we seem to lose them". Not trying to scare anyone. Just saying, pick your vet with care. They tell us in school that "there are no safe anaesthetic drugs, only safe anaesthetists". Apparent the rate of losing healthy cats & dogs under routine GA is thought to be about 1/1000 on average, but I'm sure some clinics do far better, and some do far worse, than that.

Are cortisone based drugs a "definite no no"? That depends what they're being used for! It's all very well to decide that you would never use cortisone, until you have a dog that's in misery & steroids are the only thing that helps. Some dogs have skin issues even with minimal vaccination, no drugs, and a "pure" (whatever that means) diet. It's not as simple as saying that if only the owner can get it right, the dog's skin will be fixed. Some owners do a great job on diet and lifestyle, and their dogs still need drugs to help their skin. Genetics plays a huge role in allergies and immune based skin disease.

If it's canine papilloma, the lumps normally go away by themself as the dog grows.

I wondered about that too, and can't say for sure that you're wrong. But if that is the answer, then why does she not spontaneously demonstrate any of her other new tricks? She must have been taught 50 different tricks since I got her, and each were heavily reinforced while I was teaching them. But it's only ever been this one that she's decided to spontaneously rehearse & try out in new situations & make up new variations for (such as into/out of the crate). LOL Emm, yes, it's the same dog.

Well, since the only response she ever gets from me is telling her to knock it off, and she still insists on doing it, I'm pretty certain it's a game you can play by yourself. My theory is that her bark sounds louder to her & she's thinking "wow, I sound great in here! So big and tough!". Kind of like a person singing in the shower...

This is more a ramble than a topic, warning in advance. So, I taught my dog to walk backwards a little while ago. Took her a few days to cotton on to it. When she finally got it, she spent the next few weeks regularly offering the behaviour in all sorts of bizarre situations, until the novelty wore off. It was like she was taking every opportunity to try out her new skill. I'd ask her to leave the room, for example - an everyday command she knows well - and she'd leave the room by walking backwards out the door. Or I'd ask her to get into her crate, and she'd walk backwards into it. She doesn't ever offer to do any other new tricks at random times. I got the distinct impression that she did not actually known how to walk backwards before I taught her, and now that she knew how, she was rather impressed by this handy new skill & wanted to try it out at every opportunity. So I guess my question is, do you think it's possible for the dog to enjoy practicing a new skill for its own sake? Or is there is another explanation for my dog being so keen to rehearse her new trick? Does anyone else have a dog who has done this type of thing?

When she is bored, my girl will often jump on the bed, stick her head under the covers, and then happily bark away to herself for minutes at a time. I have no idea why she finds this fun, but she shows every evidence of enjoyment. Perhaps it makes her bark sound louder? Do I own the only dog that does this?

I agree with some other posters in that some breeds are lower maintenance & less challenging than others. That doesn't necessarily mean that they're always unsuitable for a first time owner, just that they're more likely to cause a problem in inexperienced hands, and more likely to turn out to be "more dog" than the owner bargained on. My girl is a malinois, I would not recommend the breed to a first time owner, especially a malinois from the working lines. She is extremely energetic, very fast learning, very sensitive, very predatory, hugely alert & reactive, and very very noisy. Most first time owners could not handle this.

I am sorry for your dog, Jacqui, and I hope he is fine. It sounds like this owner, and this dog, should not have been at that offleash park.

I do wonder what the real story is. They say the dog "attacked" but I believe that term can legally include things like jumping at people. Did the dog actually bite the kids? I've met many young staffies that were so strong & excitable that they'd be quite capable of bulldozing children to the ground when worked up & doing zoomies. IMO that is quite different to a dog that attacked/bit/mauled children. Not acceptable - bad owner - but still quite different.

How very sad. This shows how little the AnKC values working dogs & working dog breeders. These aren't just "fun" titles like doggy dancing or dock diving or whatever, these working titles are at the very heart of what makes these breeds what they are. Removing them from pedigrees makes it harder for people interested in working dogs to research what type of dogs they are buying or breeding. And makes it easier for people to claim their dogs are titled when they aren't. I wonder if fewer working line kennels will bother to register their dogs with the AnKC now?