sandgrubber

Similar scene in my younger days . . . right down to the Labrador and the Basset seeking out kids. But things have changed. It's one thing to have a free range dog when Mum stays home most of the time and you have a quarter acre block. It's a lot more tricky when both parents work, or Mum is a working single mum, and Dad lives elsewhere, school yards are fenced and not so many oldies are out gardening, and, thanks to urban infill, the 1/4 acre has become 300 or 400 sq m. KIds do a lot less wandering too, and the dogs can't get their exercise by tagging along with the kids or trying to join in the soccer game in the park. Education sounds much better than law enforcement, but how? where? what? who's going to pay for it? It's going to take more than handing out pamphlets or putting up a website. How do you find people with mita's ability to read the big dog and turn bluff aggression into wags, cuddles and slobber. How do you get them employed through a Civil Service system and pay them adequately to keep them working. It would be require a very clever programmer to create a computer game that realistically captured dog body language for major dog types / breeds and allowed people to learn to deal with them through play . . . and the market probably wouldn't accept the liability (what if the real world LGD doesn't behave like the simulated dog and someone gets attacked? Do this result in a law suit?). Sorry to be pessimistic, but I don't see things improving without much more involvement on the part of dog owners . . . and a lot more social pressure against dog ownership by people whose lifestyles don't leave time and space for a dog.

Agreed. If anyone is to blame for the deterioration of the human-canine bond, I'd say it's dog owners. When and where I grew up most dogs were free to roam. There were problems (turned over rubbish bins, a daschund who went through cat doors and raided kitty food, an epileptic dog who scared the pants of us kids . . . etc.), but not life threatening . . . because dogs were socialized, and an a-social dog wandering would have resulted in the owners being verbally attacked by their neighbours. . . or their dogs getting shot. It's not like that any more. Fewer people home during the day. People move more and don't know their neighbours, or the neighbours dogs. More poorly-socialised dogs dumped in yards with inadequate fences . . . just read the General Forum. Dog owners are forever complaining about the wandering, unsocial neighborhood dogs. It may only be a few percent of the dog population, but they sure make life miserable for everyone else. It's not fair to expect the Rangers to mop up this mess. Where I lived in WA the rangers had low wages and got stuck with most of the Council chores that required going out on the street, including policing verge plantings/obstructions, checking that people had cleared fire lines, and handling a wide range of neighbours complaints. Turnover was high. If you want quality dog services in your community, you must get involved . . . and you and your neighbours must be willing to see a small increase in their rates. It's not cheap to run a quality dog pound and hire an crew of experienced and well qualified dog catchers.

I would not trust an aggressive escape artist with a radio collar containment system for long periods of time, especially if DA. What happens if some other dog decides to come visit? Or the batteries fail? Also, I'd inquire whether the rangers will accept it.

Sad . . .and disgusting. I wonder what, if anything, is being done to crack down on the secondary culprits . . . the scumbags betting on dogfights, the locals who helped in the operation.

Sad to see a big dog die young, and away from home. We don't know much here. Did the dog die of capsicum spray, or something else? Or did the capsicum bring on something latent, like a bad heart? Did it escape due to seriously inadequate fencing or carelessness . . . or some fluke accident that was hard to prevent? Was it aggressively menacing a woman and child in their back yard? Or perhaps being playful, and slobbering abundantly, in a manner that would be frightening to the average person? Was the dog well socialised and given adequate care? How did it behave around strangers? Given that some members of the press are as irresponsible as some dog owners, I can understand why the council is being tight with information. Given the superficial similarity to the Ayen Chol situation, I can see why animal control called in the police. It does sound like the owner is pretty aggressive.

Here are the rules . . . download the 'dogs' .pdf for the full list. Sizes in sq. meters. There are further restrictions about enclosures, doorway access, etc. Sounds reasonable/generous to me . . . though I think 9 large show dogs or greyhounds on a 300 sq m property might be excessive! Companion dogs 0 to 300 1 dog up to 10 kg per dwelling unit without Logan City Council approval in a mature aged living facility or retirement village Domestic Dog(s) 0 to 300 1 dog with Logan City Council approval 301 to 499 1 dog without Logan City Council approval or 2 dogs with Logan City Council approval 500 to 599 2 dogs without Logan City Council approval 600 to 2,000 2 dogs without Logan City Council approval or up to 4 dogs with Logan City Council approval 2,001 to 80,000 3 dogs without Logan City Council approval or 4 with Logan City Council approval 80,000+ 4 dogs without Logan City Council approval or up to 9 dogs with Logan City Council approval (e.g. working dogs) Foster carers (see more information over) All properties Up to 9 dogs for a determined length of time with Logan City Council approval Recreation dogs (such as greyhounds, breeders, show dogs) All properties Up to 9 dogs with Logan City Council approval, subject to standards and membership of approved bodies

Do not use a heating pad designed for humans. They are far too hot; likely to drive mum out of the whelping box. Veterinary heat pads are designed to equilibrate at ~37 to 39C and feel almost cool to touch.

I did the friends route on the first litter. But never used newspaper thereafter. I find newspaper to be very messy, hard to clean up. If you shred it it seems like a petshop . . . and it gets all over the place. If you don't shred it it gets slick and makes it hard for the puppies to get their feet under them and crawl. If you can't afford vetbed (or equivalent), I'd go for old beach towels in preference to newspapers.

I'd guess, like most things relating to immune function, it's complicated. I don't like pigs ears cause they are expensive and my dogs gobble them down as though they were steak. I could see how that might cause some problems with choking, gagging, or worse. But if your dog has lead a fairly normal dog life, including burying bones in the garden, digging them up, and ingesting a wide variety of decomposed and stinky found treasures, it seems unlikely that salmonella from a pigs ear is going to cause a lot of problems.

Did you use a vet who knows what they are doing? I once lost three pups from a litter of 10 in C section done by a novice vet. Talking to other vets, I think it happened due to 1) application of a strong painkiller before the pups were taken out, which depressed their respiratory function; and 2) poor tying of cords . . . they all bled through their navels.

And if that doesn't work, add a little perfume . . . or ammonia . . . depending on you emotional state. I don't really hate cats, but I hate the fact that people think it's ok to let them roam.

How about asking your council if they can loan you a cat trap and sending the buggers to the pound! Cats, like dogs, should not be allowed to wander.

I've only know two bull terriers. Both were sweet as can be. But talk about thick! Are they all like that?

Sorry . . . I hadn't realised you were saying multi-breed and multi-layered BSL had merit. Regarding bites/fatalities, please provided sources. I have looked and I repeatedly find US stats say the APBT is responsible for a disproportionate number of fatal attacks. . . .most sources put the figures above 20% and come up with a majority of dog fatalities if you consider the top five or six breeds. Note, in many US statistics, 'pit bull' includes APBT, SBT, ASBT, and sometimes bulldog. Crosses generally get lumped in as well. Reports of pit bull fatalities go way back. See, eg., http://www.dogsbite....-historical.php . The undeniable pitbull problem in the US is a problem of numbers. Do look at http://www.muttshack...ws-pitbull.htm... or other pit bull advocacy sites (eg,, http://www.pitbullad...om/NotBreed.php). All are saying 'shelters are full, pit bulls are being pts'd in huge numbers, please adopt, please neuter, please don't breed'. Here's from pitbulladvocate101.com Did you know that "Pit Bulls" are currently the number one bred dog in the United States? Ironically, they are also one of the hardest breeds to find homes. It is estimated that there is a current average of 3 million "Pit Bulls" living in the United States and only 1 in 600 will successfully find a "forever" home. Sadly, for every 1 "Pit Bull" placed in a loving home there are 599 killed. Shockingly, that statistic unfortunately does not exclude puppies! I have not been able to find any breed statistics for Australian pounds and shelters. It would be interesting to know if SBTs and various bull breed crosses are a dominant feature of shelters, especially the dogs who don't get rehomed.

removed by poster . . . just realised the ad I found offensive was for eBay Classified, not the auction site. EBay Classified helps a lot of rescue groups . . . so are good guys.

Kong is making a neck wrap thing called a Cloud Collar that works as an alternative to the Elizabethan collar. They look good . . . haven't used one. http://www.jefferspet.com/kong-cloud-collar/p/0030286/ There are a couple other new alternatives that work on the same principal, eg. http://www.jefferspet.com/bite-not-collars/p/0028630/

I was told by my vet that a dog over 4 mo of age with a healthy immune system could cope with salmonella . . . without getting sick. The same vet told me that the main salmonella incident they saw was people feeding raw chicken, or ground chicken mince, to young pups.

Good on them! Some dogs need to run in the sand and play. Some dogs love to swim, or need to swim for health reasons. Many puppies get their basic socialisation at the beach. I went to Fremantle dog beach daily for a couple years . . . when I lived down that way. Yes, there were a few problems with people who were dumb enough to try to picnic on the beach and got sand in their food, people getting knocked over by games of dog tag, fishermen getting bait stolen, and half a dozen dogs got snake bites in the dunes each year. But the good it did to hundreds of dogs to have a chance to run and chase surf is not to be scoffed. What is needed is better patrolling of beaches to keep aggressive dogs / owners out. I think the Fremantle and Cockburn rangers did a pretty good job patrolling the dog beach . . . and the regulars tend to gang up on anyone whose dog is creating problems. Don't know if it's still like that. If you don't like off lead parks, don't go to them. There are millions of places you can walk your dog on lead!

If you live next door, such a dog is not lovely. Has your sister tried other solutions, such as keeping the dog inside when she's out? I would be grateful to the council for offering one solution to try rather than slapping her with a fine, that gets doubled on the second offense and ends with the dog being taken away. If she has a better solution than the bark-collar, I doubt the council or the neighbours will object. All the electronic bark collars I've seen come with a simple instruction sheet . . . basically, 'not too loose, not too tight, don't keep it on for more than 8 hrs'. No training required.

Nobody's taken on describing 'hounds'. Guess (I'm not a hound person but have known a few of 'em). It's a hard task cause the sight hounds are generally different from the scent hounds, and there are big differences within the two groups. Both groups were bred to chase. Sight hounds tend to have been bred to run down prey. Scent hounds . . . somebody else take it from there, please.

That's sad :-( Could be worse. I had a loony tenant who burned the house down because 'Jennifer Lopez told him to do it'. Unfortunately, he locked his Staffie in the house when he lit the fire. The neighbour tried to rescue the dog and didn't succeed . . . but managed to get some serious burns and glass cuts in trying. The guy was declared criminally insane and locked up for a few months . . . but he's back out there. . . as are a lot of other sick-o's

I doubt the animals minded the disorganisation. Sometimes I'm glad to see an old family run dumpy feedstore/petshop rather than the chain store mall sort of place where all the toys are imported from China and the staff have been there for less than six months. Maybe it would have been worthwhile to say something about the poor rabbit in the tiny cage and the kittens. Maybe showing them that customers care will move them toward doing better by their animals.

In California, staffies are relatively rare and APBT's (street bred, not pedigree, but generally fitting the description) are very common, especially in shelters and pounds. Californicos generally throw SBT's and APBT's together in the same generally muddled category. Some say ban. Others say ban deed not breed. No one is sure what the 'breed' is, exactly. There are differences between the bull breeds. But for an Ozzie who hasn't ever known a pit bull, I'd say you're not far off thinking of an APBT as being quite a bit like a SBT. There are good ones . . . there are bad ones. There are good owners, there are bad owners. The 'bull' + 'terrier' combination can produce some potentially dangerous dogs who become dangerous dogs in the hands of drongos, and sweet tail waggers / lick monsters in the hands of decent folks. And, yes, as with many other breeds (I'm specifically thinking of Cocker spaniels, springer spaniels and golden retrievers), there are some aggressive or rage-prone bloodlines. Take-away message: more control is required from owners . . . and breeders need to cull lines with temperament problems. There are some breed tendencies. But these are easily kept under control if owners and breeders were held to account.

The title suggested that someone who picked up the 'magic' pooh was going to win lotto. Now that would be a good laugh! Oz and China (mainland and taiwan alike) have gambling fever . . . and I guess that's as good a way as any to come to clean up on the dog pooh problem. I just wish there was a way to rub the offenders' faces in it :D.