Staranais

I've never been knocked to the ground by an electric fence and I've been zapped plenty of times. And the farm dogs that I've known learn to stay away from electric fences pretty darn quickly, just like stock do. It sounds to me more like the SPCA has decided that these are cruel simply because they sound nasty, with very little evidence to back them up - just like they did with tail docking, e-collars, & pinch collars. And I would also suspect that they are only picking on suburban dog owners because they know farmers would just laugh in their faces. The SPCA do some good work, but I wish they would stick to prosecuting genuine cruelty cases.

How bizarre. What about when you go to move your stock with your dogs. Do you have to turn the fences off, and then let the dogs in the paddock to move the stock? Sounds like townies making the laws.

That's crazy. What was the rationale behind it? Is it because your dogs weren't classed as stock, and you're only allowed to use electric tape for stock not pets? Or was it because you were in a suburban not rural zone, and you're not allowed to use electric tape in suburbia? (You know the solution to the first one, get a couple of chickens or a pet lamb & claim that the fence is for them! )

how about Breeders write reviews on puppy buyers and puppy enquiries? That's not a bad idea either, might help new breeders avoid falling for export scams, or selling to crappy owners, etc. I would support that idea.

Yes, why can't puppy purchasers write reviews on breeders? There might be a few people that write unfairly bad reviews, but for good breeders, the good reviews should outnumber the bad reviews many times over. The site could always allows breeders to comment on reviews as well, so they can explain reviews that that they don't agree with.

In my case, it was primarily because the breed I wanted as a working dog was not available in my own country. Even if there had been a breeder here, if I did not like their dogs or trust the breeder, then I may still have chosen to import. In my breed, there are lots of horror stories about dogs with poor temperaments. I would rather pay the extra & get a dog from the best breeder I can find, even if it means importing. The breeder I chose came highly recommended by several people. That was the reason behind my choice.

I'd check with vet before swimming. As far as I'm aware, the aim of the exercise restriction would be to avoid using the quads until the weakness in the growth plate had healed (these are the muscle group that pull on the tibial crest when the dog uses them & could cause it to avulse totally). I'm not sure how much exercise swimming places on a dog's quads, but wouldn't personally risk it without clearing it with your vet.

My dog was exported to me, and she has a loving home. Now you've heard a good thing! Shortstep is right that there are things you can do to check up a potential overseas buyer. A genuine overseas buyer won't mind you doing things like asking for references, or getting someone local to do a home check on them.

My girl has never (touch wood) ever touched my washing on the washing line. It flaps so appealingly, and looks rather like a bite rag. I can't believe that she has never decided to rip it up, but so far, it has remained untouched. Thanks puppy!

That is very sensible advice, IMO. I am very skeptical about particular behaviours being used to diagnose that a dog is dominant. There are many reasons that a dog could display any one of the listed behaviours. A dog could be reluctant to release his toy because he is "dominant", or it could be because you haven't taught him that it is worth his while to release it (faulty training), or because he doesn't actually understand what "give" means (faulty training), etc etc...

I didn't do puppy class. And won't do it with my next puppy, either. I did lots of work exposing her to different people, different situations, different noises, different surfaces (like the local kid's playground after dark). We did lots of watching all sorts of dogs & other animals, and we did some meeting of calm adult dogs. And practiced playing tug around different distractions. She seems to have turned out OK.

Haha, that is funny. My old dog used to greet me at the door and carefully not look me in the eyes at all when he'd done something naughty in my absence (like dig a hole, disassemble my fire wood, or on one memorable occasion, eat my sofa). Whereas my new girl tends to meet me at the door then proudly lead me round and show me the exciting improvements she's made to the garden in my absence. :D I think I must have become a less cranky dog owner over time, since my new girl is clearly much less worried about owner wrath than my old boy was.

Very, very pretty! But also very fluffy. :D

Interesting. We can target nose (her default), front paws, back feet (that took a while), all feet, and hips. Some of those are more fluent than others, e.g. we haven't named hips yet but if I touch her hip to demonstrate she can then target it for me. Have tried to teach left from right front paws, but she seems to find that very confusing. Possibly not surprising, as my lefts & rights aren't great either! :D Am currently teaching her to spin left on voice command alone, so hopefully I can introduce a different right spin cue later & get her understanding the concept of left vs right that way. It's how some farmers do it with heading dogs to teach them to cast different directions around the flock.

Yes, that is it, I think. The dog might suspect he is going to be in trouble, and is possibly feeling upset or apprehensive about that, so he looks "guilty" to you. But that's different to feeling true guilt. Guilt is a pretty complex emotion, to feel guilt you need to understand that you have done wrong, which requires an understanding of morals, and I really doubt dogs are capable of comprehending that type of thing.

BSL will be the end result if there is no self-regulation on breeding. If Kennel clubs cannot take on a regulatory role, pure breed groups need to be formed that will. Yes. If the kennel club (or pure breed groups) don't take on a regulatory role, and publically demonstrate that they are actively policing their breeders to ensure they are are all breeding healthy dogs (and are publically holding them to account if they are not), then I think the public will just want all breeders of any problem breeds banned. Edited to add, I am not saying I like this outcome. But I can see it occuring very easily.

I think that if the kennel club doesn't start to self regulate, then they are going to have regulation imposed upon them from outside. If the public doesn't see the Kennel Club holding dodgy or incompetant breeders to account, then they are going to want to do it themselves. And the public tend to regulate these things with a mallet, not with a scalpel. The Kennel Club is an easy group to target. If some registered breeders are breeding less than healthy dogs, then I suspect all registered breeders will eventually be penalised for it.

Oh I'm sorry, didn't realise this was old. :D

Rightly or wrongly, vet students are taught not to not offer a procedure due to an animal's age (if that makes sense). We are taught that it is the owner's money to spend as they choose. As long as the dog isn't suffering, and so long as the owner is given an honest assessment of the dog's likely response to treatment (i.e., it might not survive anaesthesia due to age), then we are taught that it's the owner's choice whether to humanely PTS an elderly animal, or to give it a go. It can also be pretty upsetting to say to an elderly owner that it is not worth treating their pet's health issues because the pet is old. Can apparently make an elderly owner feel pretty stink. :D As for the original post, though, I see nothing wrong with rehoming this old dog instead of PTS, if the owner is agreeable & a home can be found. I also see nothing wrong with PTS if the owner will not pay for his teeth to be cleaned, at least then he won't be in pain. The one outcome I would hate would be if he was dumped at a pound. His chances of making it out alive are slim to non-existent, and he will spend his last days stressed and upset, waiting to be PTS by strangers.

Without taking away from the great work people do at shelters and pounds, they are not nice places to be. If it is almost certain a dog will be put down I think it is kinder not to put him through 24-48 hours of fear and separation from his family before he is put down. That goes double if the dog has already been through rehomes a third or fourth time. Yes. I know vet students who are currently doing their final year rotation at the local pound, and they say that PTS day is really horrible. Lots of sweet natured dogs getting PTS, and most of them large pitbull/staffy/mastiff type breeds, simply because noone wants them. It doesn't make your day giving the needle to a dog that's wagging his tail furiously, and it does make you cranky at the owners who have passed the buck. The chances of a large, dog aggressive, male pitbull/staffy/mastiff finding a good home at the SPCA are minimal. If the owner really can't keep this type of dog long enough to find it a good home by themselves, it's often kinder to PTS. At least the dog gets PTS in the arms of its owner, rather that surrounded by complete strangers. Perhaps DancinBCs is right, and shelters need to be more upfront about the likely fate of their pet when they are talking to owners. Although I suspect some owners just don't want to hear it.

I do puppy shots (as many as recommended by manufacturer), booster one year later, then titre or vaccinate every 3 years from then on, for C3 (hep, parvo, & distemper). This is off label use for most C3 vaccines, but there is strong scientific evidence that this is acceptable, it is taught in our vet school as an acceptable vaccine protocol, & is additionally the recommendation from the World Small Animal Veterinary Association. I doubt a vet could get in much trouble for recommending this regime, as long as the owner was warned that it is off label drug use, due to the weight of scientific evidence (and the number of specialists & specialist groups) recommending it. Kennel cough needs to be done annually, if you want or need to vax against kennel cough.

I got anatolian too. I have no idea what I'd do with an anatolian! Having said that though, the breed descriptions & ratings for the breeds I know anything about were pretty spot on.

I think it depends what you're looking for. In some breeds "working titles" are mostly bitesport titles, which aren't administered through AnKC anyway.

Steve, that study isn't saying that the genes were wiped out though, just that the genes were not as actively transcribed anymore after the change in diet. Those genes are still there, still able to be passed on to the offspring. The study just shows that those genes are just only expressed under certain environmental conditions, not that certain environmental conditions erase those genes. As for HD/OCD etc, I think for a puppy purchaser, the advice of limiting exercise & watching nutrition carefully is a very sensible one, since you want your pup to grow up as sound as possible. But for a breeder, I'm not so sure. I'm not saying run or jump puppies until they break, since even the healthiest puppy joints and growth plates have a breaking point. But if you want to breed dogs with the strongest joints you can, then severely curtailing exercise when a pup is young will only mask any predisposition towards developing joint disease. The grown dog will look like it has great joints, it will x-ray well, but how do you know whether it really does have great joints and would have had them regardless of its upbringing, or if they were actually weak joints that have only matured well since you overprotected the pup when it was young? How do you breed for great joints, if you don't test whether a pup has them? Just something I think about quite a lot at the moment.

A temperament confident enough to be in the show ring is a good thing for a working dog to have. A dog too nervous to be in the showring will probably not be a good working dog. It would possibly be a crappy pet too, for that matter. It's not a sufficient test to ensure the dog mentally has what is required to do many jobs, though.