sandgrubber

Hey, Jess. Sorry you've been having a hard time and good you have property so won't have to deal with the trials of renting. I'd suggest you go back and clarify you post a bit . . . cause some people on DOL go back and cross-check posts. You say you got a dog from a breeder for $1200 and the breeder took him back without refund . . . and now you have 'finelly agreed to look into breeders". Simultaneously you're posting on an American bulldog who may or may not have papers. :confused:

I take my dog's judgement with a grain of salt. A dog might possibly pick up on the body language of a violent person, but the sort of slime I've been hurt most by is the white collar type .. . . and the average cheating charmer is able to fool a dog as well as they fool a human. I find dogs pick up on cultural differences. A person who eats lots of garlic may smell strange and provoke a hostile dog reaction. Most of the crew who prune and harvest in my vineyard are Mexican. The dogs pick some workers to like and others to dislike. I'm sure it signifies something . . . but whether it's the way the people react to dogs or what they had for breakfast, or whether the person gives them choice tidbits at lunch break is beyond me. My mother once had a dog who loved my brother . . . but was terrified of him if he a) had a beard, b) wore a hat, or c) had a backpack on.

It may work out fine but ethical rescue is about carefully managing risks to ensure the best outcomes for the animals involved. Is it better for a dog to be bounced from home to home just to keep it alive? I'm not convinced that's really in the best interests of the dog or the rescue/s involved. Morality is subjective. I could argue this case either way. But I wouldn't be quick to condemn someone who didn't have the heart to see puppies pts because they were X-breeds with two known larger breeds with reputations for attacking, and strong tendency to guard. Especially when you're talking about the placement of puppies, and the adopters have kept a JRT to 15 yrs. The girl is 11, I'd say, a good age for learning skills of dog management/training if she's seriously committed to the adoption and her Mum has the ability to keep her on track and support her in going to training classes, etc. We don't know the details. I find it hypocritical that people who are against BSL are willing to accept BS euthanasia in rescue facilities. If you're going to adopt policies that, in effect, say 'kill LGD crosses first' in a shelter, I'd say it's reasonable to support restrictions on who can own and breed LGD's. I'm now in California. Pit bulls (local definition includes SBTs and AmStaffs and X-breeds) are the #1 type in shelters. It's a moral minefield. Most shelters are anti BSL and there's a plethora of organisations working to promote pit bull adoptions. The forever homes aren't showing up, and a disgustingly large number of dogs are pts. Many of the pit bull rescue folks are in favour of mandatory spey/neuter. Btw., in my book 'ethics' is when someone else tells you what is right and wrong and 'morality' is when you make your own decision based on your own values. I have deliberately avoided the word ethics here . . . because it's a situation where many ethical codes come into conflict. On this one, as the hymn says: "You gotta walk this lonesome valley by yourself."

My tenant from hell was well behind in rent when she moved out. Between her and the dogs, the repair costs were in excess of $4k.. . .with $2k+ in back rent owed. Fortunately, she was a no-show in small claims court so I won by default . . . but getting her to pay up after the settlement was painful. I'd never been in court before and found the process unpleasant-to-traumatic. This was a kennel zone property, and the person owned 12 dogs. She fell for the wrong sort of boyfriend, and changed from reasonably responsible to totally out-of-control. My other tenant from hell burned the house down. He was literally nuts, and ended up in Greylands as criminally insane. He locked his dog in when he set fire to the house and the dog was killed in the fire. The neighbour got third degree burns trying to rescue the dog. This tenant was chosen by a property manager. I have also had several wonderful tenants who have dogs. But I'd say the population of people who are willing to take on a dog without owning their house has a disproportionate number of flakes. Tenant screening is not easy, as you are not allowed to ask many questions. I think the only decent solution is to ask questions that aren't allowed and demand references on the dog(s). Most property managers won't do this, so it means you need to take on property management yourself. Which means that if things go wrong, you're going to have to deal with courts or pay lawyer fees to have someone stand in or you. For related reasons, as a breeder, I will not sell to renters unless they have landlord permission in writing and a record of stability. It's sad it's this way. People who are on the edge often benefit greatly from having a dog. But if you have $300k or so vested in a house, it's a big risk to rent to marginal people with dogs.

A badly managed pet can do much more than $260 damage . . . could come to thousands. As a landlord who has regularly leased to pet owners, I'd say, unfortunately, there are many scum bag renters with pets out there. It's sad that this comes down hard on the responsible renters.

Those of you who are critical, what is a suburban shelter to do with a cattle dog x rotti? People with the environment, skills and knowledge appropriate for such a cross are few in number, and they aren't likely to go to a shelter to get their pups. The message I take away is too many people are dumping animals over Xmas. Shelters may think it's better to place with a degree of risk than to pts. Who knows, this placement may work out fine, despite the danger signs.

As far as I am aware, the federal Dept of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry (under which AQIS comes) has a biosecurity plan to deal with rabies outbreaks, although it is probably classified. There are special provisions, for example for persons from a rabies endemic country like the USA to bring their disability assistance dogs into Australia. So much rabies vaccine is made, under well controlled manufacturing processes, worldwide that it is merely an administrative issue to get the vaccine to treat all pets in Australia. I'd hope the bureaucracy could get off its butt in a real emergency. I think the big threat is to native animals.

But the UK and France are not known for large bats that can fly long distances. And, so far as I know, there are no islands between the UK and France. Also, the French are more effective in controlling rabies than poorer areas of the world. Rabies isn't a huge concern for the dogs. Vaccinations are easy, effective, and not that expensive. But the native mammals would not fare so well.

Western Union is simple and immediate, the receiver incurs no costs. There's an active scammer community that works using Western Union. I think it was forged checks. Look at the warnings all over eBay. Mostly happens for multi-thousand dollar items, like commercial machinery.

Not necessarily. Most breeders try to do the right thing, but they aren't all saints. Many who are devoted to showing will overlook a potentially serious, but either uncertain or not obvious, health problem when they are blessed with a stunning dog with the sort of dog charisma that wins shows (eg, you hear things like, his asymmetric hip or elbow score is a result of jumping out of the car when he was puppy . . . . And I'd imagine that many, if their multiple BIS dog started having epileptic seizures in his later years would simply cover it up. It would be awful to go back to the large number of people who use a popular sire and tell them that there's a chance that the pups they bred have increased probability of being epileptic.

The US press loves wacky lawsuits. So? Very few wacky lawsuits become precedent.

I'm with you I'm not. If it becomes law that animals have rights, where do you expect the boundaries to be drawn, period? It is already law that dogs and cats have rights in most European-derived cultures. You are legally required to provide food, shelter, and a minimum standard of care for your pets. The question is what direction the push for further rights goes. This lawsuit is just one tiny skirmish on the edges of this evolving area of law. I don't see any reason to get excited. There's a good chance the woman will loose her suit, but the newspapers won't report that. There's little question that any mammal is more like a human than an inanimate object. Does that mean rats and mice have rights?

Anything secure. Large deposit. Shipment on demonstration of payment in full. For some reason I've ended up selling to the families of executives working for multinationals in Asia. These guys known how to do direct deposit in $AU without huge additional cost.

For those of us who know nothing about dog legislation in Ireland: No who haven't what?

No problem showing a speyed bitch. You just don't mention it. Who is to know if she's speyed. I only support cheating regulations when the regulation is absurd. This on is absurd. I lost a good friend of mine -- dog friend -- at nine years because I didn't spey and she got some horrid uterine cancer.

Breeding for colour has a long tradition. How do you think the golden retriever or the red setter/Irish setter ended out with their colours. I have little doubt people were paying double the normal price for pups of the 'in' colour 200 years ago.

In California people have given up separating the bull breed types and call them all pit bulls. 40% + of the dogs coming into the LA County dog shelter are classed as pit bulls. I don't think these numbers are overestimates . . . though few of the dogs are purebred. Bull breeds generally have lower adoption rates than others in shelters . . . thus if the intake person has a choice between, say, calling the dog a pit bull X or border collie X, the dog will be a BC-X.

This should not be the case with an experienced breeder . . . who should have a baseline of experience raising dogs and seeing the outcomes. There is genetic research being done on this . . . unless they have folded for lack of funding. See http://www.k9behavioralgenetics.net/updates.php One thing they found is that Border Collies are more prone to noise phobias than GSD's or Aussies.

I remember Snake Catcher saying something about dogs that go for lizards are likely to go for snakes . . . and training dogs off lizards is likely to train them off snakes. How about some aversion training with lizards as they show up? You should get anti-snake training at the same time.

We hear a lot about autosomal inheritance . . . also about popular sire syndrome. I found the following story interesting. It goes into both sex linked inheritance and sire lines into detail by example. The author traces his two dogs, and the top 30 winning border collies' pedigrees back to the time the stud books closed and speculates a little about it . . . thoughtfully . . . with a message, but without gloom, doom and judgement. http://www.astraean....sire-lines.html p.s. I found a good -- at least for me -- tutorial on sex linked chromosomes at http://www.ksu.edu/biology/pob/genetics/xlinked.htm It doesn't look like many dog genetic diseases are sex linked. Haemophilia, perhaps some vision problems. But who knows about complex genetics.

oops . . . answered without reading carefully.

Scary! I don't understand the statement: "There's no rabies in Australia other than bat rabies . . ." In the US, bats get the same rabies as all other mammals, and picking up a sick bat is one of the most common way the disease is transmitted to humans. Is 'bat rabies' just baby talk for Hendra virus? The Torres Straight is only about 150 km wide and has islands in it's middle. I'd think transmission by bat would be a real concern.

Murdoch Uni Vet School used to have a pet-oriented poison garden, with labelled plants, to teach people about things to avoid. Don't know if it's still there . . . it may have fallen to building expansion. Anyone know of similar gardens elsewhere? Seems like a good thing to suggest to some of the botanic gardens.

The puppy tooth fairy comes and takes them ;););)

I have gun dogs and I would not breed from a gun shy dog without a damn good reason.