Lowenhart

Seal has not been identified yet. Sheila Schmutz had a look at it when she did the dna study of Italian Greyhounds. Looks like they have to have at least one copy of K black. http://homepage.usask.ca/~schmutz/IGcolor.html

I had a 11 week old puppy have surgery to remove grass and hair. :/ Luckily my other dogs can swallow and pass - Pine needles, hair bands, fake fingernails, cling wrap, whole birds, small bits of plastic, stuffing from toys and a myriad of other things. Most I only find out about when I do a pick up, though the bird thing was witnessed. Thought the dog would get really sick and was watching like a hawk, but they were just fine.

Well there is sunscreen. And lots of it. It's why women don't wear billowy skirts, you show in all weather including extreme wind. Hats are amongst the first things to go and can hit dogs. Depending on the hat, running in one can be problematic. Some people wear hats well, some of us don't. :D On hot days I'm looking to get my dog out of the sun as much as possible, so your time out in direct sun can be limited. Plan well you can keep your pale skin and show without a hat. When I write or steward in summer I always have a hat, because if I'm stewarding I can be out in the sun for hours with very little shade.

White markings normally receed as the pup ages, however as ReadySetGo said, an obvious white spot would really go against the dog.

Aimfor We Will Remember Aimfor As the Bugle Sounds Aimfor For the Fallen Aimfor Sounds of Drums

Actually by "mapping" it, they do have an idea of where in the genome certain traits appear. That was the whole point of the mapping . The Bitsa test should be looking at non-coding DNA, the DNA that is not responsible for particular physical traits. We carry a lot of DNA that does not affect our looks, and certain sections of it are known to be quite slow in changing. These are the areas that are looked at when evalating the relatedness of different species. I guess the biggest issue with the Bitsa test is that they have had insufficent examples of breeds in which to find the significant markers. I wonder how much is based on US data, which might lead to errors based on the divergance of relatively isolated populations of breeds.

There are plenty of old people in who can't bend down. Take a longer look next time, there are plenty that teach dogs to jump up. I'm not condoning lifting dogs by leads but if it needed to be done quickly and you are all stiff and slow, it's better than having a dog fight. Your assumption is that the owners were scared of the Wolfie, perhaps you could consider the fact the owners were scared of how their dog would react to the Wolfie and pick a fight they could not finish. I have both big and little dogs, and still I have a little spitfire who puts on a show before asking questions. For the benefit of others, I remove my dog from the situation so as not to effect the other dogs. The littlie runs with big dogs regularly, but you will find me picking her up when a strange big dog approaches, not because I'm scared that the big dog will attack the little one rather to prevent any sort of incident. It's a management thing. I show in the toy ring and will have my big breeds in the area. I walk behind the gazebos and expect their to be a tonne of noise. The big dogs learn to ignore it. I don't however expect to be able to hangout in the assembly area with a big dog or to walk right up to trolleys. My dogs were normally quiet in their trolleys until another exhibitor let their dogs go up to my trolley aggressively (in body language plus growling!) everytime they walked past (which was repeatedly in a short span). I had a hard time stopping them from reacting after that. So now I have trolley reactive toy dogs. I happened to witness someone geeing up their big dog and letting it dance about right at the ring entrance of the toy ring. The bloody dog (and owner) stirred up the dogs lined up to go in, and the owner let it go right up to crates with dogs in them (of all sizes). If the toy people hadn't been on the ball there would have been an incident. The dancing dog was not aggressive but was certainly not under control.

Perfect! Thanks!

I'm looking for a recommendation of a competent vet who specialises in orthopedic issues in western Melb area or worth a hike further away. Ta

Yes my girl was progesterone tested the day after she was mated. I was told I had probably missed her! At 6 weeks she was u-sounded to confirm pregancy. Ended up carrying 9 pups. She went early due to a bloodclot cutting off the supply to one of the horns, lost 3 pups and barely got the 6 remaining to pull through. They were truly 6 days early, good in size but short on coat. We think she went early due to an injury at home.

Well that didn't help when I went out for lunch with a friend and came home to a bitch who had gone into whelp 6 days early from her first mating. Accidents happen all the time. My bitch was at home, showed no signs of whelping before I left. I don't take heavily pregnant bitches anywhere, and I don't agree in purposely whelping bitches at show weekends. However we don't have a 100% reliable exact date that they will whelp. I do however show up to 4 weeks along.

We've had a 5 year old toy bitch whelp her first litter naturally - 5 good sized pups. Not all toy breeds are the same however.

I have a stud serve agreement that lists dates of matings, payment requirements and current health status of the sire at the time of mating. That is signed by both parties and a copy goes to the bitches owner. I fill out the stud form and sign it at the time of the last mating. I hold it until payment is made. The bitch owners have confirmation, signed by me that the dog serviced the bitch so this is indisputable. They also then can not register the litter without paying stud fee. I'm glad my boys aren't used at stud often. It's a pain.

I had a male win the VWW title this year : http://www.dogzonline.com.au/breeds/profile.asp?dog=297 His grandson was the JrWW. It is weird seeing breeds split but it's a great experience. You should definately go.

The FCI's Int Ch (now CIB) is not won by titling in 4 different countries but rather by gaining a CACIB (a special CC awarded at designated "International" shows) at 4 shows in 3 countries with a minimum of 1 year 1 day between first and last CACIB. I have bred 2 International Champions, co-owning one of them. They have special rules for countries like Japan, Ireland, Iceland etc whose dogs can't travel easily. The World Show is a big deal in my books. Having been to one, the entries for the breed was huge and dogs came from all over to compete. In some ways I'd say competition was tougher than Crufts used to be before the pet passport scheme.

I have my license for Toys and have sat lectures/exams for Hounds and currently going through Non-Sporting. I found when I handled in other breeds and discussed what the breed was supposed to be like, I learnt a lot about my own breeds. So I took it one further. I find all the requirements quite challenging, especially stewarding/writing 12 times a year. As a judge in training, I find there is an expectation that I only do dog stuff and am available every weekend. Each year more requirements are added, and sometimes I think something has got to give. I try to keep my dog stuff in balance with the rest of my life but it is difficult.

I think dogs on the lower energy scale that do not need a firm hand when raised are ideal for first time owners. The breeds I tend to recommend for suburban situations include- Greyhounds and Whippets Cavaliers, Tibetan Spaniels and Papillon Havanese, Bichon Frise and Mini/Toy Poodles (oh and Lowchen ) Staffords, Rottweilers and Golden Retrievers for people with an eye to be more active and want to do a bit of training. I never recommend a working line anything to a novice owner in a small backyard who is not planning on training and working with their dog every day. Yes there are mellow, easy dogs in that bunch but they are generally the exception, not the rule. Finding one can take a tonne of luck or some good knowledge. Oh and I always laugh when a friend gets a scent hound and complains how stubborn they are. Not my first recommendation for a first timer.

In a sellers market, people can charge what they like. If I produced a stunner of a puppy in a rare/unusual colouring and someone else wanted it badly, why not charge them a fair, if slightly inflated price. I'd pay more for a quality animal of my preferred colour. But then again I charge more for show versus companion only puppies. So my pups are differently priced from the get go. That said, I still shake my head that similar breeds to mine charge twice the going rate for my breed. There is a certainly some price fixing going on in at least one of them, but buyers seem happy to pay the higher price.

Hi itchy! This perhaps isn't the best forum to be asking this question. While yours is purely a mechanics issue, this forum is dedicated to responsible (registered) breeding. My suggestion is that your friend find themselves a mentor in the registered breeder ranks. Someone who can explain the responsibilites inherent in breeding a special breed like the Basset. They should get themselves up to date with the health testing requirements of the breed and also check out the family history of the dogs they intend to breed.

At one time, Brendale Produce, used to back up smaller amounts of Bonnie (and other foods). I guess when bags would split etc it meant they could still make a little money out of the stock and not waste 20kg of food. This was quite some time ago, so I don't know if they still do it but you can ring them to see. Otherwise maybe ring around other produce stores to see if they do/did something similar. Edited to add: On this page on their website, you can see on the left side of the main image bags of brown stuff. On the bottom of the shelving looks to be a 4 kg bag of Bonnie dog food. I'd definately give them a call.

How about Hardie board? Make a solid wall on the back by nailing the hardie board to the rails. Paint it to suit your garden. No gaps, won't fall in the wind or disintergrate.

Some one loves the dirt... And my favourite

That is perhaps the most common but scariest responses. When they come to restrict something that impacts on you, don't expect anyone to be left to stand with you.

I have a feeling that the importation of rabies vaccine is controlled, so that one one or two companies can bring it in. I also suspect that it would take time to get the paperwork sorted. Are they slack? Yes! If a whole load of the vaccine was taken to Indonesia by Aus/NZ vets then they should be bringing in more. Maybe we should find who brings the vaccine in and ask why they haven't arranged for more to be imported.

100 people have died from rabies in Bali in the last 2 years, so vets from Australia and NZ are doing mass vaccinations up there to get the situation under control and possibly save some people from suffering. More info here. It's bad that there is now a shortage of the vaccine in Australia but if we weigh up the inconvenience versus the cost of human life, I know which way I fall.