ellz

Like the person who was a bit put out when their "rare" red with black tail turned out to be smut! Mind you, she also got "miffy" when somebody called her puppy a bitch. Er....hello love, that's what girl puppies are called. She was even more disgusted when I suggested she should be thankful that bitches are no longer called SLUTS!!

Well, if they were black noses, then my guess is the puppies were brown brindle. This is my boy....quite brown looking as a baby But unmistakeably a brindle as he ages...now 9 months old

What colour were noses and eye rims? Staffords DO come in liver, but like all dilutes, they have liver/brown/red noses and eye rims.

To me it depends upon context. For example, I'd die before I would bowl up to somebody and cold-canvas them to use any dog that I owned, BUT, if I were talking to somebody at a show and having conversation about breeding direction or virtues etc, then I would most certainly suggest my dog if it were a situation where he has proven to be dominant at fixing or cementing a particular trait, or if his bloodlines are compatible or even if he would make a suitable outcross. And I see no problems whatsoever in advertising my dog at stud or placing profiles etc in places where people may frequent. In a breed with the gene pool the size that mine has, it can be difficult to keep up with who has which dogs or bloodlines, so sometimes you might find a dog in the most obscure and unexpected places.

You should have seen the Dachshunds! Editing to add: And did you know that Basenjis can run around the ring with their eyes shut! NO JOKE!!!!

It is also quite possible that the dog was brindle. Some brindles have more stripes than others, ALL black Staffords are actually black brindle because genetically, Staffords don't come in plain black (as seen in other breeds). The standard also states "Any shade of brindle or any shade of brindle with white." as being acceptable. For my part, I have a young dog which many people have called "brown" but he is in fact a brindle. And it gets very hard to explain to people as well without going indepth into the ins and outs of the standard and the even deeper ins and outs of genetics!

ANKC Code of Ethics aside, no caring, reputable, responsible breeder would consider allowing a puppy to go to a new home at that age.

We dropped in to say hi....it was miserable! Bodies flying left right and centre! Mr Rajacadoo-doo-doo was called upon a couple of times to administer First Aid to the victims. It was yucky enough dropping in (although the company was good as usual) I'm just very thankful that I didn't have to stay there!!!

Unless you wanna swap a Tilly for it! :D

Thank you! Have just completed a slightly wider lead to show to another Rottweiler lady too. She saw one I made for a GSD person and asked me if I could make it wider so I did! :D

And answered you too Jess!

Have answered you now Mid!

Here's the link to my Facebook page Mid http://www.facebook.com/?tid=1420772361749...22954049?ref=ts

They're my braided things...leads, collars, martingales etc.

Roight! If you're being mean to my Tilly, she's definitely coming to Chez Ellz! :D I've still got the Brew-man's black/silver lead set. And I think (without looking) I may even have a gold/white for you to look at.

With a 90% chance of 20 - 40mm of rain forecast, good luck to everybody showing! I WAS toying with the idea of just dropping in to say hi (and steal a Basenji baby), a break from the boring domestic stuff like shopping etc, but if the weather IS bad, then I think I'll stay home instead. IF I go, I'll have a selection of Heartstrings with me for those who are interested in having a look.

Yep...although it is debatable about Woger's brain quality any time of the year!!! Here he is just discovering that water is NOT an enemy. Well, that was until a platypus scared the bejesus out of him anyway!

;) WTG Roger - you have to watch those sneaky bananas you know! :D Well Barb, we all know that Woger is...er....ummmm....spethal!

The breeder has approached the owner to breed from the dog. As far as I am concerned, that negates any right the breeder may have had to get upset that it's shown in a local ag show. Breeding from a dog with a bad bite is much more serious to me than taking it around the ring at your local. +1 Although having said that....a lot would depend upon WHY a mouth is bad. There is a big difference between a malocclusion of teeth and the jaw being out of alignment. I was fortunate to have had Dr Harry Spira give me an impromptu "lesson" on bites many years ago. It has stuck with me ever since and is one of the reasons I need to see a dogs' bite before I will make a snap judgement. And again, degrees come into play. My definition of "severe" could be completely different to somebody elses. I have in fact bred from a dog with a bad bite and was very careful to breed it to a dog with a good bite, from generations of good bites. Because I don't allow a lot of puppies to enter a gene pool from my breeding program, I felt fairly confident that I could stop the issue from "taking over" and I succeeded.

Oh good Lord, I just offered Woger some banana and he barked at it!

My foundation bitch Stafford, Dolly, was a seal in a former life we think. If you took her anywhere that had "open" room to swim, she'd just get in the water and go. We found this out the hard way, luckily we were with a friend who had a boat and they went and retrieved her. I still to this day wonder if she would have ever stopped or just swam herself to the bottom of the ocean!

Believe me, this ISN'T heated!!!!!

Personally I think it depends upon the youngster. She may have an amazing bond with her dog and be incredibly proud of it and want to show it off no matter what the response. Believe me, I really do "get" where you're coming from but I do think that sometimes the "norm" can be bent slightly and this sounds like a situation where the person concerned would get more from showing the dog they have already. Maybe if they have a positive experience at that show, then her parents may be in a position to consider a "better" dog from another breeder for the youngster to go on with. And as I said, maybe if it all goes pearshaped and despite having asked the question here and receiving a few different viewpoints, then it will be established that dog shows aren't what they wanted to do after all. As we're all too aware, dog shows do require a certain personality and the ability to look outside the square and not take the decisions of judges too personally.

We're talking about breed competition not junior handlers, different kettle of fish completely. For goodness sakes, we're talking about one local agricultural show not a Royal or a Breed National!!! If the youngster is aware of the fault and understands the ramifications, then they aren't harming anybody. If they do it and decide to take the whole thing personally, then chances are, they wouldn't have a personality which could cope with dog shows and dog show people full stop! Without the benefit of being able to see what is actually wrong with the dog, I'm afraid I personally don't necessarily count a bad bite as being a MAJOR fault. A fault is a fault is a fault. One man's meat is another man's poison. Unless a breed is one which uses the mouth for a specific purpose and therefore an incorrect bite could prevent them from doing a job OTHER than eating its dinner, then a bite fault is no more of an issue in the ring than slipping patellas, bad toplines, straight or over-angulated rears, excessive coat, excessive skin, lack of chest, long backs, short necks and a zillion other faults which I daresay most of us see in the ring on a regular basis and which would probably have a greater detrimental effect on most dogs. Maybe the daughter doesn't WANT to handle other people's dogs? Maybe the parent isn't comfortable with the idea of encouraging her daughter to approach strangers?

BUT....they only eat them if they're stolen. If I actually GIVE them a banana, they look at me as though I've gone stark raving bonkers!