sandgrubber

The Labrador Retriever breed was founded, in large part, through a few large scale UK breeders who imported dogs from the Canadian east coast. The Duke of Buccleuch in particular. It would be interesting to know whether these guys made a profit or where landed gentry who didn't need to make a profit. These days we can't count on landed gentry to run big kennels, though the Queen still keeps a respectable Labrador kennel. But you still find, if you go to shows, larger breeders play an important role in achieving the scale, and the economic resources, to import quality dogs and maintain exchanges with other top kennels worldwide. I know that some of them make a decent living doing so. BFD. They work 72 hours a week. They've taken risks. They've generally put huge resources into their operations. They stay on top of testing, and vet care in general. Ok, you or I may not like the fact that their litters don't run around on the kitchen floor, and their brood bitches tend to be rehomed when they've had the allowed number of litters. Some have concentrated on showing, and don't worry that some of their stock have no drive and may even dislike water. If you're going to attack the show dog establishment, you may find some of these guys are guilty of line breeding and of pushing over-used stud dogs. But you can't deny their central position in the Pedigree dog world.

Interesting. Thanks for posting. For once, a well written news article. Guess you don't get to write for the New York Times if you don't understand spelling, punctuation, and grammar.

In good use of an e-collar, the dog can predict. You want to give the dog control, and ability to avoid the stim. Ie, dog should think "If I do X, I will get stim. If I do Y, I'm safe. I think I'll do Y." Or, "I know how to turn this damn thing off, all I have to do is come when I'm called".

I tried using one in the small dog section of a boarding kennel. I can't say that it helped.

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see http://scaashanghai....procedure.shtml The site is a rescue organisation and seems mostly to be run by, and work with, ex-pats from the US, Europe, and Australia. They sound like real animal lovers with a lot of experience . . . it might be good to have your folks talk with them. Given the way bureaucracy works in China, it may be worth working with a China-based company, especially, as described above, the dog can travel as excess baggage . . . meaning you will be on the same plane and be able to keep an eye on things. Looks like it's not especially onerous.

Disagree. My dogs regularly play bite one another around the neck . . . they do it hard . . . it would break my skin if they did it to me. Because the neck is so up front in fights and so inclined to take hits in hunting, dogs generally have tough skin and often have thick coats around the neck. I'd say thigh with chaps would be a realistic test for dogs with good neck padding, say, a husky or Labrador. Not that chaps are needed to convince most people that the horrid looking thing is actually less painful than a choker chain. I used a prong on one of my girls, who had a bad habit of pulling on the lead. No pressure required. The pulling stopped immediately, but she showed no sign of shock or pain, and was all waggy the next time walkie time came around and the prong collar was pulled out. And after a few walks with the prong collar she gave up pulling for good. I'm not saying the thing is a miracle cure for all dogs or that it won't be misused. But in some cases it's a fantastic training tool.

When I lived in WA I had a 22 yr old Scottie next door. He was fed supermarket food and scraps, and had been all his life. Still had a decent coat, wasn't deaf or blind, and still did the ~2 km walk to the shops with his owner on a regular basis. The neighbour kids -- adults by that time -- remember him as being a terror who was always out, and who sired a good many oops litters.

Or peanut butter . . . it has the advantage of keeping form many months and not needing refrigeration. Dogs love it. I generally give a little dob of P'nut butter to each my dogs at once . . . the dog getting no meds gets it first. Then dog #2 is greedy to get hers too and doesn't notice the pill.

I'm preparing to build a new house. In my days in the boarding kennel business I often wished I could hose down the floors in the house and squeegee to a, as you do in the kennel. The new house will have concrete floors with radiant heating, and drains, plus splash boards on the walls. Also a couple good places for a whelping box, and of course doggie doors. If you could build a new place, what would you add to make life with dogs easier and more pleasant? Or, what features of your present house make it good . . . or bad . . . for dogs?

+1 I think the 'choke chain' should be renamed 'garotte' . . . and anyone speaking against the prong collar should be required to try putting one around their thigh and seeing how painful it isn't. As I've said many times on these forums, the worst unkindness I see with dogs is putting a highly social, moderately intelligent beast in solitary confinement in an unstimulating back yard for the duration of its years. I'm sure if you could give dogs a choice, they'd tolerate a little pain here and there to get stimulation and company.

I live in a state / country where you can buy a prong collar in the local feed store . . . you may need to go to a larger town to buy a halti or martingale. There are no restrictions on e-collars. There are loads of pit bulls, mostly street-bred. You do see prong collars misused . . . mostly on pit bulls. Specifically, you sometimes see dogs constrained in the front yard, tied . . . with a prong collar around the neck. The population that has pittis and uses prong collars tends to be on or near minimum wages and poorly educated. Mixed feelings about all of this, but I'd rather see the dogs under control than jumping fences and attacking the other dogs in the neighborhood. The good, but ugly thing about prong collars is that dogs don't push them. If someone did a study of the necks of dogs who are cruelly kept tied with a prong collar . . . and you'll get this if you don't put constraints on the use of prong collars . . . I doubt you'd find much physical damage. As for psychological damage, I'd guess that the prong collar was a minor contribution to a much larger problem. Only in Victoria (the only place in the world, AFAIK, that has banned them). FYI There are places - actually entire contries ;) where the use of prong collars on dogs is banned.

You may say KISS, but it isn't simple, S. The problem is, if the breed had an Adam and Eve, say 100 generations ago and has been kept pure, everybody is closely related, and a 5 generation COI is worth nothing. If the founding population was 100+ dogs, with a fair amount of outcrossing (with different breeds) and backcrossing as the breed developed, as with Labs and Goldies, there's a much larger gene pool to work from. I hope, one day, we'll be able to give up on this subjective garbage and COI's and work directly from DNA indices. If you're working with a breed from a very narrow genetic base, you may be stuck. All breeding is inbreeding. If the genetic base for your breed is broad, then breeding in a close, but highly selective, manner, may be a safe, and a way to select against genetic faults. And there's lots between.

The sad thing is that, though I suspect that the dogs mean as much to him as kids would to many, he'll find the legal system doesn't give a hoot. I'm not generally a fan of colourful businessmen, but I wish this guy, and his dogs, best luck. Dognapping for ransom is not something we want to see, and I hope the legal authorities take it seriously.

Ouch! You might try a product called Musher's Secret. It's a paw wax. I don't know if it's sold in Australia. It works pretty well on cracked human feet as well. http://www.jefferspe...cret/p/0027941/ Alternatively, you can put booties on. Or both. My pup had cracked pads. I think she got them from exuberant digging in dry, extremely hard dirt. The cream seemed do work, but I think it also helped that she learned that digging hurt and cut back on her dry dirt projects.

Beautiful dog. Hope he lives past 8. . . . and an extreme case of the runt of the litter outgrowing his littermates.

Thanks everyone. Sounds like a good solution for me. My Labs will eat almost anything, so it shouldn't be hard to get it down.

Dog World ran an article on designer dogs (Eileen Geeson = author), saying most of the things that us pedigree dog people say. http://www.dogworld....r=2011&month=07 This has been taken up with much comment on the PDE blog (the comments on PDE blogs are often great). http://pedigreedogse...r-disaster.html edited to fix capitalisation in title

+1 An ankle biter is still a biter.

Ask more questions and decide based on what you find out. He'd have to have a substantial kennel (in one of the kennel zones) and several people working on dog care to do a decent job caring for that many dogs. It could be done well . . . but ya, I'd worry about puppy farming. Are you sure he wan't teasing you?

I came across the following tip on a Beagle breeder's website. Wonder what others think of the idea (she also gives dosage/lb) http://www.beaglesunlimited.com/health/canine-intestinal-worms-and-inexpensive-treatment Fenbendazole (Safe-Guard or Panacur) is one of the safest dewormers on the market. Fasting is not required and it is safe during pregnancy and lactation. This is a list of the attributes of the Benzimidazole (BZD) type dewormers such as Fenbendazole: - Actions: the antiparasitic action of Fenbendazole paste 10% is believed to be due to the inhibition of energy metabolism in the parasite - Contraindications: no known contraindications observed, even when administered to young, sick, or debilitated animals - Very wide margin of safety with regards to dose If you have a kennel of dogs, then buying the Safe-Guard 10% suspension horse/cattle dewormer will definitely save you a lot of money each year. This deworming treatment will stay effective for up to three (3) years if kept refrigerated once opened. Don't wait until you see worms in your dog's feces before treating them, but rather be proactive in deworming your dogs. You should deworm bitches before breeding, during the last week of pregnancy, and each time you deworm your pups. Treat pups with the appropriate dewormers described above at 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks of age. Also, treat all of your Beagles every other month. Also curious to know if anyone uses Ivomectin meant for livestock . . . the canine stuff is 10 to 100 x more expensive.

I'll buy 'learned behavior' but not 'dominance thing'. Sounds like he's learned it's 'cool' in some doggy sense of the word 'cool' , to lift his leg. Pretty harmless. Ignore and discourage the behaviour and it's likely to go away.

How old is Jax? I've found, in time running a boarding kennel, that many dogs are sweet until they hit the doggy equivalent of late adolescence, and then some genetic stuff kicks in and they show adult colours. I think a lot of this is genetic and somewhat related to breed. I agree with others, expert advice is helpful. But some people who call themselves 'behavioralists' don't know jackshit: they just puppet some dogma. So be selective of your behavioralist.

The LINK doesn't work for me and my internet connection is so slow I probably wouldn't follow if it did. But if this shows sharks effectively headed off by canine defense/attack, I'd say, great thing. Hope someone follows up on it and figures out a way to present sharks with a set of teeth, perhaps fake and exaggerated, that will protect swimmers and surfers and do no harm to the sharks. Sounds like the dogs know what they are doing . . . . if they're camp dogs, I'd guess the sharks are the least of their worries.

Adult and older pups, no problem. But before their immune systems are mature . . . around 4 mo my vet said . . . salmonella can be hard on pups.