Christina

Obviously with so many dogs, if accurate, it must be a commercial business based thing as opposed to breeding & keeping as pets, because obviously you can't have that many as pets. If the dogs are kept in good conditions, & well cared for with the help of staff it is still really a puppy farm. Years ago many dogs were bred this way in large kennel facilities, at least in the UK. It was a acceptable. Times change & now we think it is wrong. I have kept between 4 & 8 dogs for years, not all breeding dogs, some got old & were pets only but that is my limit as I like them to be companions too.

Maybe its the same people that were advertising pastel coloured ones on P*****k.

The article was an interesting read but dogs in their own environment may act differently to the ones studied. Instinct/wild has almost gone in some breeds. I really doubt that stress in a family of pet dogs where there is some mild rivalry (as in not having actual fights) would cause abortion. A bad attack could but you would see some evidence of this if it had occurred when you were out. Stressed dogs do give birth to pups, badly treated dogs, puppy farm dogs, stray dogs etc. Abortion is natures way of saying these pups should not be born. I assume your vet has checked for any physical reasons & infection ? When cats do this, which seems to be more frequently than dogs, it is common for the breeder to put the cat on a course of antibiotics just before mating them & then mating when it is complete. Dogs ? My girls do get stressed when one has pups & the others are due which is why I seperate into different rooms for the birth & when they have pups. Best friends usually I had them together in a room once with pups & never again even though they were on opposite sides of the room. Now it is out of sight & sound as they want each others pups. Next time maybe put them is different rooms if you are going out & complete seperation about 10 days before birth but I would still be looking for other reasons. Good luck next time. ETA many inexperienced people think a dog won't mate its own mother. Of course it will & often does. I would not let them together & chance it, a 20 second slip mating can result in pups. So I disagree with that part of the article.

Just in case you make the decision to fly him when you move please remember that you cannot sedate animals that go on a plane. It is not recommended at all. What the zoo does is not the same. they don't put the animal on a commercial flight unattended.

Indoors for both in seperate rooms. Preferably rooms some distance apart if you are not going to be there. I did have one big dog that ate a hole in the door once but this was not to get to a bitch, however you never know. You can't crate if you are not going to be there for most of the day, too long. It can also be distressing & make them worse if they are not used to a crate. If the male howls a lot give him a big dose of Tranquil Paste, helps sometimes & won't do any harm. You sort of get used to it all & deaf.

There is a vaccine out now where the puppy has only the one vaccine at 10 weeks old & it is protected for the year. I used it last year on my toy poodle pups. Absolutely fine Otherwise I personally would not walk a puppy on the ground until fully vaccinated. Dog pram or carry.

I breed cats as well as dogs. I don't let the dogs near kittens for 5 or 6 weeks & mine like cats. Then it is only holding the kitten on my lap, or the dog. Also don't go out & leave any cats & dogs together for the first 6 months. Play can change to prey/pack instinct when not expected & so quickly. Slowly & always supervised.

Council registered & registered with a canine association is often not understood by many. The person you refer to breeding the registered dogs & then the purebreed & crosses may not be breaking any rules but it is not impressive or ethical however A person may be a registered breeder & abide by the rules & code of ethics for their canine association pertaining to their registered pedigree dogs. What other dogs they have & breed are not covered by the canine association therefore they can & do please themselves what is done with these dogs. There is no way of knowing if they are using their registered dogs to stud the cross breeds if they claim that they do not. Or where they source other puppies from. It really is buyer beware & do your homework first.

The cost of desexing a female cat at most of the vets in a 70 kilometre radius here is from $75 to $95. Male cats are cheaper by about $20. I have always been very happy & trusted that they were safe for all the kittens I have bred & desexed before they leave me & for non breeding adults that have been done. Knowing many other breeders & some rescue we do discuss this & various vets & I seldom hear of any complaints after desexing surgery. Some vets do give a registered breeders discount but others just charge the low price regardless. People may prefer to pay more because they are comfortable & familiar & trust their usual vet but that doesn't always mean cheaper elsewhere is always inferior.

I like all colour poodles but black is my favourite. I am not keen on blue or silver. Can't see anything wrong with preferring a particular colour as long as someone is not choosing a dog to match their wallpaper or something equally as stupid. If someone likes a breed & wants a particular colour that's fine. It does not mean that they are so stupid they will only take notice of the colour & disregard everything else, although there are morons everywhere I have had people visit that only wanted one colour & they have chosen another one Also that were adamant that they only had girl dogs ever & they fell in love with the little boy.

Mine is a mud bath right now, I'm trying to come up with alternatives. I looked into that fancy artifical grass and it will be just under $2,000 for my 6 x 4.3m kennel. Where on earth are you looking ? Bunnings have it from round about $20+ a metre for the short grass, which is what you would need. It is about 3 metres wide.

Always the fare of animals is a reflection of the lot of their people. That final line at the end of lilli's post really made me think. I think it is not because people cannot afford to care for them that pets get discarded I think it is their attitude towards them that makes them do it. New house, new pet, got to have what everyone else has, too hard now I realise it is not a machine & doesn't run to the book, too lazy, can't be bothered, it makes a mess, disposable mentality I need a newer model, not cute now its grown up, inability to bond, no sense of responsibility, not high on list of priorities. Not saying some people do not get into desperate situations beyond their control, some even die, but guess that is the minority reason in regard to pets being got rid of.

Pavers/bricks are best if you can get some cheap or freebies. Check Gumtree & Trading Post online daily. Many buyer remove for free but they do go quickly. Otherwise if you don't mind spending a bit what about some fake grass ? Its not that expensive for a small area, you can roll it up, take it out & hose, dogs like it, looks nice & you can take it with you when you move out.

Its not just amateur breeders. Pet shops do it too with animals that are not selling. That is the lucky ones. Others are disposed of by other methods. How do they know exactly the reason they are surrendered ? Do they ask people & this is what they say ? I bred this litter to make some money but it didn't work ? Or is this guesswork & assumption ? There have always been accidental matings & resulting pups left there long before this designer dog, mongrel, lets make some $'s fad. I wonder how dumpage & euthanasia rates compare with say 20 years ago ? Any data available ?

Be very careful. Health food shops sell sulphur tablets. As a child I used to get hives a lot & the doctor told my mother to give me sulphur tablets. That was fine, I can't remember if they worked or not but I was ok with them. When my daughter was about 7 she got a rather bad attack of hives. Not really wanting to give her anti histamine I tried sulphur tablets. Scary. She had an allergic reaction to them & her mouth/lips swelled up absolutely huge. Fortunately being used to allergic children I ascertained her breathing/throat was clear & then gave her the anti histamine, on the way to the hospital just in case. It went down but I would panic if this happened to an animal.

Crate training is for the convenience of the dogs owner. The many reasons are covered already. As stated life without crates was & is possible. I never used them for either a pet dog or my 1st 10 years of breeding. I do now, minimally. For a pet dog I wouldn't waste the space in the house. My only concern really is people leaving their dogs in there too long & I do not like toilet training using the crate method. Each has their own way, it is really not what others do but what you feel comfortable doing. If anyone recommends or suggests anything I do not feel comfortable with or think umm I don't really like the sound of that I find it is better for me not to do it.

One of the problems for checking things that may be known as hereditary or suspected as hereditary is that most breeders do not have any info about their dogs & any problems once they have left them & gone to their new homes. Some, like those that are shown or those where the pups go to friends & family may know what the dog is like when it is older but this represents a really small minority considering how many pups are bred overall. Dogs going blind or getting fading sight when they are old is common but it is so hard to track the younger ones unless every breeder checks back for about 6 years & they won't. Info can only be obtained on the data given, which is variable in accuracy & source so often.

I think your dog would fit in an old type baby pram too, if you can find one. Toddlers up to about age 2 were comfortable in them. Otherwise you may just have to get inventive if you don't want to spend much. What about one of those flat type trolley things that you can buy at garden places or Sams Warehouse variety store type places. They use them at the cat shows to push a few cages on at once. No so expensive you could make a guard rail around it with some wood or even tie a big dog crate on it securely. Here is what I did for pups for socialising before vaccines. Made of a childs pushchai & stuff around the place.

Weighing the risks of a basic C3 vaccine against just contracting parvo alone I do the vaccine for the life of the dog. Sometimes it may be a little bit late which I don't think matters much when they have been vaccinated for a few years prior. I only do a C3 as that is sufficient for their lifestyle & covers the biggest risk to them.

Buy a second hand kiddies pram or pushchair, strap her in & take her on the walk with the others. I did this for years with an old dog that had arthritis & couldn't walk far. A converted shopping trolley was her pram being small. She loved going with the others & not missing out.

Only in the first 2 weeks if I really had to. Never at 5 weeks. Too long in the crate, waiting times can be 2 hours for loading & unloading. Too much stress. What if the crate got dropped, knocked over, jolted a lot. Toilet issues, not good having to hold on when pregnant. That's just me. People fly them & there may be no ill effects. Suppose it depends on how much you worry & how bad you would feel if it did cause any mishaps.

Re the heated pet beds. I took the heat pad out of one of my older cheapie ones. Plugged it in & left it sitting on a blanket on the table. Absolutely useless. It does not do anything. Barely warmer than when switched off, if I had my eyes closed I wouldn't have known the difference. Going to place the thermometer on top of it today to test it just out of interest.

Whoops double post

Don't know but do know that for most of the dogs that are sent they are not bothered about a registered pedigree. Many are small cross breeds, they want the small size more than a pedigree & for the pedigree dogs they may accept a computer copy of pedigree. Most of these dogs are not going to be used for show/breeding like we do it here & register puppies.

When I was cuddling my puppy & thinking of names I thought how her coat was so luxurious & almost chose Luxibaby but thought it didn't quite roll off the tongue so got to plush, then lush so Lushbaby was the name. As it was the early 90's the internet was not so popular or used as much but now its used quite a lot on the porn sites. This never entered my head. It is also the prefix for my cats. Easier having the same one. I almost did cat boarding a few years ago & ran a list of cattery names past friends & family They all at Pussies on the Parade. Never realised how that one would be thought of.