sandgrubber

There are other reasons to worry about Bostons. I think they're the sweetest of the brachycephalicbreeds and the best suited to smaller houses and urban lifestyles. But check out the health concerns before you consider buying. An expensive pup that has likely health problems is not something to covet. Anyone serious about healthy Bostons? I'm in the US these days and thinking about returning to Oz Also thinking about shifting from my current breed (Labs) to something smaller and more suited to an old lady who thinks you should be able to lift any dog you own (I can still lift a 35 kg dog, but doubt that will continue for another decade). I'd welcome an opportunity to bring in some very healthy Bostons with me. By 'healthy' I mean free whelping, good temperament, tested or pedigree-based indication of being clear of significant genetic faults, maybe a bit longer in the snout, so as to allow for normal physiology. I'd be happy to work with someone on finding and exporting/importing a few quality dogs.

Good question without a good answer. We need more transparency and better data collection, especially for breeds like the BB with extreme conformation, high prices, and long departure from the breed's supposed 'job'. (When was the last time one of these guys was set against a bull?) Personally, I think the PDE crowd has a problem with wrinkles, and I could tolerate 'Ceasar required' conformation if the problem was made clear and didn't involve the creation of dogs that were doomed to short, painful lives, with pain in walking/running.

I don't know a lot about BB's and am willing to believe some breeders are a lot more careful about health than others. It's true for most breeds. Given the high price for BB's, seems like there may be quite a few people who will breed from any entire bitch they can get. If you accept that there is a problem with some breeders, why not expand your pedigrees to include hip/elbow scores and birth/death years for as many generations back as you can (eg, put 2001-2011 for a dog who died this year, and 2004- for a dog who was born in 2004 and was still living when the pedigree was issued? The PDE comment that US breeders claim their dogs are healthier than UK dogs, but offer no longevity data, is a valid point. True for all breeds, but especially so for breeds with major health concerns (I can't dismiss the horrid hip/elbow scores for the BB in the OFA database and the rumors of high mortality), it would be good to have better transparency about health over the dog's whole lifetime.

Depends on the kennel. The science is complicated. The C3/C4 part of the vaccine tends to be good for years, while the C5 part (KC) tends to wear off in a matter of months; the C3 diseases are life-threatening while KC usually isn't. Unless your state law makes specific requirements, different kennels will have different interpretations.

The equivalent, with Labbies, is 'blind dog'. Usually kids. I chuckle internally, but see no need to correct them. People aren't born knowing the language of the pedigree dogs. Lots of people are essentially tourists in the dogworld, and of course they make mistakes. I've murdered Spanish, French, German, Chinese and Portuguese in my travels, and I'm sure I've said some pretty stupid things while grasping for words. I'm grateful that by-in-large people listen for what you're trying to say and ignore your literal words.

Ah ok, sorry BP, I totally agree with you anyway, the bolded part was what I was getting at. The dog owning public isn't uniform. I'd guess that the problem segment is made up of people who don't have the time, means, or inclination to do right by their dogs. These folks are inclined to have X-breeds that were not bred for profit, and available for cheap. Its common for them to keep their dogs entire, and to fence them poorly, which ends out with quite a few oops litters. There are some ugly specimens with 'my dog can whip your dog' mentality, who take pride in how many litters their dog has sired via fence jumping. Apart from this lot, and the show crowd, whose lives often revolve around their dogs, my guess is you'd find X-breed owners and purebred owners aren't all that different.

+1 They're making $$$ of you, on the average. What you pay for includes expensive executive offices and high salaries. If you keep a buffer, and mind your p's and q's with respect to risks, you should come out ahead. More-so if you have several pets.

"Don't cuss the climate. It probably doesn't like you any better than you like it" - Don Marquis (1930's)

I think the OP posed some great questions. No one is forcing? What about the recent praise of DOL for excluding puppy listings from people who don't compete either in show or other trials? Sorry, if you aim to produce good healthy pets with excellent temperament, you don't respect the show ring, and you make your position clear, you're going to get dumped on by the show crowd. I wish the 'recording of pedigree' function that the CC's serve could be expanded to include more information on longevity (record DEATHS as well as births), temperament, and health. I agree that the CC's should serve limited functions and try to stay out of politics. But I'd love to see them get in bed with open registries and expand the 'pedigree' to include things other than titles. I'm in the USA now, and I don't find the AKC's promo's very convincing. They also push a bunch of commercial stuff and generally, the almighty dollar has too much sway in their ranks.

This is a great example of where purism gets you in trouble. From a Chinese perspective, English speakers almost always mispronounce these words. I spent a few years and hundreds of hours in the language lab learning 'the National Language' or, as it's commonly called in English, Mandarin. The Shih may be pronounced with or without an 'r' sound at the end, depending on regional dialects/accents. Shih (in a different tone) is the verb 'to be' . . . so it's one of the first things you learn in Chinese, and if you have various teachers, you find they pronounce it either with our without the 'r' sound. If my memory serves, the 'r' is a Beijing (ie, Peking) accent. I don't know of a Chinese dialect that pronounces the 'h' as a 't'. The 'i' should be more aspirated than it would be in English, and the air hits the middle front of the palete (sp?) in a way that approaches a dove-call whistle. It takes a bit of training to pronounce the tsu/tzu, but I'm not good at describing it. Below is the best description I could find on the web. Note, Wade-Giles is an antiquated system for converting Chinese characters into the English alphabet. Note, also, the dog is Tibetan, not Chinese, and I have no idea of what the dog is called in Tibetan. from http://www.sheppards...dog_shiitzu.htm The Shih Tzu or Shih Tsu is a breed of dog originating in Tibet. The spelling "Shih Tzu", most commonly used for the breed, is according to the Wade-Giles system of romanization. The Chinese pronunciation of this name is approximately like the "sher" of "sherbet" followed immediately by the "dds" of "adds". The meaning of the breed name was originally "lion dog" because this variety of dog was bred to resemble a miniature lion. It is now often called by a homonymic name, "xi shi quan," based on the name of Xi Shi, regarded as the most beautiful woman of ancient China. p.s. Jack Russel Terrorist is great! Amusing is good! I appreciate Xolo trying to dump 'Mexican hairless', which is ugly and inaccurate, and kills historical/cultural appreciation. And I'm glad my liguistic background is inadequate to make me dismiss 'Labbie'. Please don't tell me some gross sexual connotation. I don't want to know. 'Labbie' sounds friendly. And almost all of them are.

I'm trying to decide whether to return to Australia from California. Of all the threads I've hit, this one makes me glad not to be in Oz. All we've got here is rattlesnakes, and after 18 mo on my property I have yet to see one. They are venonmous (sp?) but nothing compared to Australian snakes. The lunatic Christian sects play with them and get bitten often, then thank God that they survive. Good thing they don't have tiger snakes and browns. And rattlers are so considerate that they provide a loud warning before they strike. Good handle for training.

For further discussion see http://pedigreedogsexposed.blogspot.com/ The Bulldog Club of America makes a controversial claim in this week's New York Times Magazine's damning cover story on Bulldogs. Distancing itself from UK data which put the Bulldog's median age of death at just over six years old, a spokesperson for the Bulldog Club of America insists that US bulldogs are healthier than those in England. Great... so what is the average of age death for the Bulldog in America, then? Er, they don't know. No one has done the work, or not recently at least - although US vet school data gathered between 1980 and 1990 found that the average age of death in Bulldogs was just 4.6 years. But perhaps there is other data to support the BCA's claim in the article that US bulldogs are healthy? Well, no, there isn't. In fact, the OFA lists the Bulldog as the breed worst affected by hip dysplasia (over 70 per cent of dogs tested are dysplastic); and a recent paper exploring causes of death in US dogs found that the Bulldog was the breed most likely (18 per cent) to die due to respiratory problems and was only beaten by the Newfoundland as the breed most likely to die from congenital problems. The New York Times' long and thoroughly-researched article, by writer Benoit Denizet-Lewis, is a real indictment of what we have done to the Bulldog and it makes for painful reading. Breeders will no doubt find reason to dismiss the piece for including quotes from the the HSUS's Wayne Pacelle, but the testimony from expert after expert on the breed's many health woes is compelling.

well my breed is important for the correct pronumciation ( obvious reasons) but mainly out of respect for the breed and the Country of Origin, its not just a dog its a journey through history and the respect of that is part of the breed and the people who own the breed!! Personally, I like the KISS approach. I breed Labs or Labbies. Who needs to full name, anyway, especially as, in the Lab case, it's based on erroneous geography. What's the Deutsche name for a GSP? The academic in me appreciates purism. The part of me who spent years trying to get students to do things properly sees it as a vain fight against natural Babel (ie verbal entropy). I'm afraid the public won't ever get past Xolo (probably pronounced Zolo) for your breed . . . just as most Norte Americanos pronounce Popocatepetl (the volcano that threatens Mexico City), Popo. Are you sure, btw, that the way you pronounce the breed isn't a Spanish bastardisation of an Aztec word? I'm reminded of a placename that translates Mountain Mountain Mountain, in Aztec, Spanish, English, in sequence.

I'm sure they'd like to. Also sure the councils wouldn't like to spend the money. I ran a boarding kennel in an adjacent shire. Rangers were run ragged and turnover was very high. Pay, not great.

Horrible! Maddington can be a rough suburb. For a little more on the story http://www.perthnow....u-1226203688861 A WOMAN council ranger has been left with horrific leg injuries after she was attacked by two Staffordshire bull terrier crosses in Maddington at the weekend. The Gosnells Council ranger was attending the home after a resident called for help to remove two "aggressive'' dogs that had entered his yard on Sunday. In her attempt to secure the dogs, the woman was attacked and left with 13 open puncture wounds to both legs and buttocks. She also sustained bruising and required several stitches to her calf, which was torn open in the attack. In a remarkable act of bravery, the owner of the home picked up the woman and pushed her over an 8-foot fence with the help of his son, while still trying to wrestle the dogs from her legs. Paul, who did not want his surname published, said he was then faced with the two dogs in the courtyard of his home, and had to punch the dog in the face to get away. "We're talking about seconds here, you don't really have time to think. I tried to put her over the fence while the dogs were still attached to her,'' the 48-year-old said. "She said if it wasn't for me, she'd be dead. You're put in a situation like that, what choices do you have - you don't really give it a second thought. "We got her into the house and everyone that was here was trying to assist her and stop the bleeding because she was going to faint.'' The reluctant hero said he also suffered injuries in the ordeal, including a twisted wrist, injuries to his hip and bites to his legs. Police and St John ambulance arrived at the scene shortly after. The dogs, which were registered to an address in the City of Stirling, have been surrendered to Gosnells Shire rangers and will be euthanised. edited to remove extraneous stuff that came with cut and paste

I'm considering a return from the US to Oz. One thing I want to avoid is paralysis tick. I came across this map . . . wonder if it is accurate? Seems to rule out most of the east coast. http://www.animaloptions.com.au/images/graphics/tick-distribution-map.gif

Sprocket, my first rescue dog (RIP) was a tennis ball fanatic, and her chewing style was rich in the slobber department. Most people weren't impressed with her accuracy when she placed the ball in their gin and tonic. She did this several times, to different people. I confess to finding it funny . . .and worth the cost of replacing a drink.

I don't see why dog names need to be pronounced as they would be in a different language. Which of you, when you pronounce Paris, puts the accent on the second syllable? We anglicise everything else, why not dog names? As for names brought from Chinese, no hope of teaching people to get the tones right, and the tones are at least as important as the consonants.

No doubt, an unemployed worker.

What about physio? I've paid $50 to $60 for a half hour of accupuncture or message therapy, done by someone who worked out of a vet practice. I don't know what the therapist took home, but I'd guess they make well over $50k working less than 40 hrs / wk. It's hard to find a good dog therapist . . . I think because the training practice isn't straightforward.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/29724171/detail.html Occupy Denver Elects Leader: Dog Named Shelby Election Comes After Denver Mayor Asked Group To Choose Leadership DENVER -- Members of Occupy Denver sent a news release to 7NEWS this week that said they have elected a leader: Shelby, a 3-year-old border collie.The vote was a response to Denver Mayor Michael Hancock's insistence that Occupy Denver choose leadership to deal with city and state officials, according to a news release from the Occupy Denver media committee."Shelby is closer to a person than any corporation: She can bleed, she can breed, and she can show emotion," Occupy Denver quotes a Shelby supporter saying at the time of her election. Occupy Denver said it reserves the right toalter its leadership status.Shelby is expected to lead this Saturday's Occupy Denver march. Occupy Denver said other "civic-minded dogs" (and their leash-holders) are invited to join the march.The Occupy Denver group is at Civic Center Park, in front of the Capitol building on Broadway between Colfax and 14th avenues.

I can't figure out, is this private? or something the shire created? It would be good to see shires following this model, as it's going to be hard for private people to acquire a few acres of land in settled areas, and most people won't want to drive 20 km to get to the dog park.

Water bottles, or other drink bottles are great, but very noisy. They usually stay in one piece, torn, with lots of bite marks (ie, easy to clean up). I've never seen one harm a dog and my puppies have gone through dozens. For added entertainment, hang them on a rope from a tree or rafter. In hot weather, hang them partially full of water. The dog will puncture them and get sprinkled. The only problem is they produce a running and twisting sort of play . . . which I think you're trying to avoid. p.s. another cheap item that doesn't get torn to shreds and works well hung on a rope is discount paint rollers.

I'm still confused about whether this was a dog attack: or an ultra boisterous dog who bounced into some people who are terrified of dogs.

Bump. Interesting question. Hope you get some useful feedback.