sandgrubber

In my experience dogs don't generally like eating the things that aren't good for them. Eg, daffodils make humans and dogs vomit violently. They taste awful . . . I know cause my Mum once confused them with the shallots and made a nice sauce out of them . . . we all puked for hours . . . so did the dog, who cleaned up the leftovers. If it weren't for being cooked into a cream sauce, none of us would have taken more than a tiny nibble. I've had dogs around azaleas in many paces . . . with no problems. Just don't go making any nice cream sauce out of them and you should be ok. There are a few exceptions . . . like chocolate. But those are well publicised.

I had a girl who managed to pull out a stitch or two and get a lot of dirt into the wound . . . nursing all the while . . . very devoted mother. The vets had to open her up, clean the mess out, and stitch er up again . . . she was on antibiotics for a week or two afterward. No real harm done, but not nice. If the infection has gone deep they may have to treat it surgically.

Good question. My guess is he/she 'guesstimated' based on a smattering of evidence. Quality demographic data on dogs is extremely rare. The Pedigree Register only cares about births, they don't give a damn about deaths. As for non-pedigree dogs . . . the many who meet early death often do so without seeing a vet.

In my experience, a Lab whose breeding paid attention to temperament (ie almost all Labs) will gain confidence over time . . . you can muck it up by pushing too hard . . . but Labs are bred to love people and unless you select quite badly, when you buy a Lab, you should end out with a dog that is confident with people. Sounds like that's happening. I'd say be patient. Take it little by little. You'll do fine. Sounds like you're on the right path.

Repeat. My problem with the breed is in the breed standard in the country of origin calling for temperament that in my opinion is unacceptable. If dogs are already here and flying below the radar as X-breeds in the NT . . . no problem . .. until there's a problem. If they start appearing in urban situations and people/dogs get hurt, I hope the NT people are able to conceal the bloodlines of their dogs . . . or live in councils that don't give a fig. As for the filo vs fila thing. I would hope people are above calling names and making fun of people for making a mistake in a foreign language. I would bet that I speak a lot more Portuguese than 99% of the people on this forum . . . gender and noun endings are a hard thing for English speaking people in a Latin language. Filo is not pastry in Brazil (or should I spell it Brasil). DOL contributors make regular errors in English, its for it's, now for know, there for their, yadda yadda yadda. I'm happy dealing with verbal attack (if I didn't I wouldn't frequent this forum), but please, keep it to substance, not trivia.

I'm waiting for the study that shows the average emotional IQ of a dog is higher than that of a human being. I know mine have more emotional smarts than me . . . much better at being patient, much less judgmenental ... Don't knock the guys doing the study. They probably have a bunch of colleagues who consider it rubbish . . . and assert that dogs aren't cluey about human emotions. Wasn't that long ago that many 'animal behaviorists' thought that animals had no emotions. Easy for dog owners to make fun of . . . as with the famous study that showed that kids like it when Ken and Barbie have their bits, but parent would prefer neutered dolls . . . but sometimes in science you have to jump through the hoops and disprove that what many people consider obvious isn't rubbish.

Personally, I go for the biggest heart. Labs get my very prejudiced vote.

After hearing of others experiences with epilepsy -- which are very different and much sadder than my own -- I apologise for my previous comment that I'd as soon euthanise a child for epilepsy. There are, apparently, situations where death is a merciful solution. But it should not be a knee jerk reaction. In my experience, many epileptic dogs lead long, happy lives and cause no problems . . . other than worry to the owner (watching seizures can be distressing, especially a grand mal, the first time).

I brought the 'broom' problem up with a trainer I work with. She showed me how to 'claim the broom'. This consists of pushing the puppy off the broom, holding it very still (the motion gets the play drive in gear) and firmly telling the puppy no. You need to hold the still position for a minute or two, complete with fixed glaze and stiff posture, like a dog claiming its toy or bone. Much to my surprise it worked!!!! No doubt I'll have to repeat the act next time I sweep.

I wouldn't consider having a dog PTS cause it has epilepsy any more than I'd consider euthanasing a child with the same condition.

I was a utopian when I was younger. I'm more cynical now. Will the councils recruit and pay and hold on to rangers with enough power to enforce what you advocate?

I'd be surprised to find 80% accurate statistics about numbers of dogs of any breed in any country. Ok. There may be some little kingdom somewhere where they take a careful dog census. But in general, we're grasping as straws. But even at 20% accuracy level, I'll bet Labbies are more common than APBT's in the USA . . . based on having lived in the USA for >40 years. I see the current situation vis a vis APBT's in Oz as a stupid drama that causes a lot of suffering to people and the dogs they love. I would prefer not to see another breed with problem potential put into the Australian system until there is a sensible legislative framework, with enforcement capability, in place. What we have now is failing miserably in putting the onus on the owner of the dog. Unfortunately, it takes more than passing a law to bring about change.

Ok. my Portuguese isn't great and I get word endings switched. Believe me, mixing filo (which means phylum in Portuguese) with fila (which means line or file, and also refers to the dog breed) is nowhere as embarassing as confusing pico (hill) with pica (crude word for penis) . . . a mistake that has caused me to blush a few time. Filo does not mean pastry in Portuguese. Or are you among the many that think they speak Spanish in Brazil? Are you saying we should not believe or heed what is in the breed standard regarding behaviour? My point is that where, as in the case of the Fila, the breed standard in the country of origin specifies extreme guard dog, with both HA and DA and other animal aggressive characteristics, caution about importing is a good thing. Given Australian authorities track record in identifying and managing dangerous dogs, the appropriate level of caution is ban imports of the breed until an adequate temperament screening filter has been designed.

In reviewing dog attack statistics, I think the most likely GBH charge is the scenario where a dog attacks a kid from its family on premises. The ultimate cause is dog owners not understanding their dogs and not taking adequate control. Insurance is an ok way to mitigate against dogs that may roam (though I'd prefer something more personal, directed at the owners). But somehow it needs to be drummed through everyone's thick heads that dog + small child is catastrophe waiting to happen. Sometimes even 'nice' doggies aren't so nice. And sometimes children are very stupid in the way they relate to dogs.

As I scientist, I didn't like it. I agree with much of what she says. But she says things fail on the 'scientific' test without offering any evidence. Some of the 'hypotheses' posed are quite hard to test. Eg, how do you test if a prong collar 'works' by mimicing a mother dog's disciplining of a pup. As for the 'acid' test . . . load of whooie. It's just the pseudo science test plus your own prejudices. Good advice. But deceptive packaging.

I'd go with the DNA evidence. But personally, I think dogs ascended from the wolf, not descended

I've got six bitches living in my house, one desexed old girl, three mature brood bitches, and two pups. Labbies. They have never had a fight. They curl up together when it's cold. They steal one another's bones . . . I'm never sure who is dominant.

No less relevance than the made up and obvious false statement that they are the most common breed of dog in the US ;) .

I think compulsory insurance for dogs with a history of attacking is a good idea . . . regardless of breed. But the pole in question is stupid . .. for reasons mentioned above.

As a breeder I often run on pups. They live in the house with the bigger dogs and me. Mostly I get great manners and calm pups, cause they have lots of dog company and the older dogs apply minor discipline as required. They mostly respect my posessions. I can leave my shoes and socks lying around . . . no problems. But there are three areas where I have problems. 1. Brooms. I cannot sweep my floors without a puppy hanging on to the broom. I believe in positive reinforcement and avoiding corrections for young pups. But it's a big nuisance to have them attack the broom every time to sweep. Anyone have a better solution than locking them up somewhere when it's time to clean? 2. Dustpans. Both pups and older dogs seem to thing dust pans are chew toys. The obvious solution is to hang the thing up out of reach. But they're constantly in use. Does anyone else have this problem? Is there, say, something I can paint on the dustpan to make it unattractive? 3. Ballpoint pens. I think this is hopeless . . . even younger dogs seem to love chomping on them.

I'd say swallow the discomfort and talk to them. Potential conflict situations are not comfortable, but sometimes they are necessary. You might want to talk to the local Rangers or Council Officer first . . . to find out the proper channels for placing complaints about dog noise. In most places, the Rangers are happier about doing something if you have talked to the owners of the noisy dog first. In some places they will only act if multiple neighbours complain . . . in which case you should chat around and find out who else is being bothered and encourage them to complain, if they haven't already.

I don't understand why pedigree dog people are so meddlesome. This scene will sort itself out in time cause the flood of chocos brought on by inflated prices will end out depressing the price and the 'bad' breeders who are breeding for colour alone will cop in in the wallet. The people who have invested in quality chocos will still have quality dogs and will be much better placed to weather the storm. I don't worship the market mechanism. My masters thesis was a full blown attack on the assumption of consumer rationality . . .which is essential to the arguments that the market leads to ideal solutions. But in this case, I'm pretty confident that market mechanisms will check the choco fad and result in a pretty good, if not optimum, result. I prefer blacks. The great thing about Labrador colour genetics is that black is dominant, so whatever you have, you can always go back to all black in the next litter . . . all you need to do is find a quality dominant black dog.

Colour and taste are basically irrational. But ask anyone in fashion about the colour purple. Sometimes everybody wants it, sometimes no one will buy it. When it's in, you can up the price, but eventually you'll end up with overstock and have to sell at discount. so goes chocolate in Labs. Breeders in Australia have tended to discriminate against chocolate, or at least, not deliberately work on the colour. The public has taken a fancy to the colour. People looking for chocos in WA call breeder-to-breeder, driving everyone nuts cause most breeders don't have any chocos or get one or two a year. Really annoying situation. There isn't a decent choco stud dog in WA (hopefully that is about to change). As someone who has spent decades doing assessment work of various sorts, I have little respect for the show ring. Time consuming. Not transparent. Too political, too dependent on handling skills. Puts off newcomers. The most important thing, if you want to get a dog titled, is to show up at lots of show and know who will be showing in which class so as to place the dog where it will get a blue. I'd be happy to participate in a system where there is an objective scoring against a documented standard . . . so you get . . . say 85 out of 100 points for a good but not great dog . . . and you have a score to locate the faults. And all the gossip and back biting. Jeezus k'rist. Sounds like petty nobility of the 19th century trying to sort out what girl to sell off to what noble vs wealthy industrial family. Weak on substance. I'm about to aggravate the persistent puppy shortage -- most acute for chocos -- in WA by moving back to the USA, selling two brood bitches interstate and taking my old girl and two promising pups with me. . . all chocos. That will significantly reduce the number of pups available to the crowd wanting chocos in WA (when you count ads on DOL, please take the time to consider how many (ie, few) are listed in WA. You wouldn't believe how many calls I get for choco pups. . . .sometimes three or four calls a day when I have no pups advertised and none expected. It'll be great to be in a place where there's less of a premium for that colour and I can go back to black, which is which I prefer, without ending out with the occasional puppy that doesn't sell by eight weeks. The pressure from the constant stream of phone calls is enough to sway a decision when a girl comes on season. What do you do . . . look for the best boy you can find and pay for AI . . . and go choco. I am glad that several well credentialed choco boys have been imported into Oz and am happy to use them. Bottom line. Australian Lab breeders created an unbalanced situation by many decades of avoiding chocolate. No point winging about people breeding up choco's. Yes, there are some ugly chocolates coming out of the fad. But I run a boarding kennel . . . you can't tell me that there aren't some ugly yellows as well (ugly blacks seem less common, but maybe I'm prejudiced in favour of blacks). UK and North American breeders don't seem to have been as biased against chocos. The myth about chocolate-to-chocolate breedings being a problem has worsened things. (There is NO evidence to support this belief. If you breed a choco to a black with light eye colour you're very likely to get pups with light eye colour . .. nose and eye ring colour similar. A choco X choco mating where both parents have good eye/nose colour will produce good pigmentation.) I am grateful to people importing chocolates. Go ahead and carp about inflated puppy prices and complain about people avoiding the show ring. It will all come out in the wash. I'll be willing to bet that, given the boost that high prices have given chocolate lines in recent years, the number of chocolate dogs/bitches doing well in the show ring will increase over 2010 to 2020 and the price situation will normalise (ie, the colour premium will vanish). Chocos, in general, will do fine (compared to other colours) in health tests and they will be normal or better with respect to temperament. Note, a non-titled chocolate UK import took BIS in the 50th anniversary Lab specialty show in NZ last year [he may have been titled since]. You people chasing stats . . . have a go at counting the number of choco Ch's in Oz and how it has changed over the last few years. I think you'll find an interesting trend .. and it's just the beginning of an upswing.

That's typical technology. Quality doubles and size halves every year or two. You have to keep your nose to the wind.

Complicated. If your hubby is a vet, you have the Ceasar option at hand should the whelping go so bad as to put pups or bitch in danger. I've worked with a few UI bitches and have not found anything that helps -- both ended out desexed -- litters born by Ceasar. I'd say, be prepared for problem is the best advice. A Ceasar is a better option than dead pups or -- worse still -- loosing the bitch and the pups.