sandgrubber

You mean mother nature isn't always a good mother (but some of her pups are ;) ) Sorry . . . couldn't resist.

Dogsledding on ABC Channel 2 at 8:30 (at least that's when it is in WA). (Wednesday)

If it was Warton Rd in the early morning, guilty as charged. Mine all learn the lead walking in the pack, and the rules for walking in the pack are clear and don't get challenged. If you can set it up this way, you can walk a lot of dogs together without much formal training. But you have to be prepared to serve as an anchor if you accidentally come across something irresistable, like off lead dogs or a bunch of stray geese.

I think we all appreciate the comments of someone who has been there. For most of us, Asia is someplace far away and very different. I have travelled in Asia and at one time my Chinese (Mandarin) wasn't too bad, but I haven't been offered anything more disgusting than chicken/fish heads and feet/fins and boa constictor and chrysanthamum soup. Sounds like you have a much different story.

Decided To Check Nsw Dog Attacks 123» 7 Proving BSL is based on rubbish! Such is the title of this thread. I don't think the seven pages of discussion has proved that BSL is rubbish. Maybe not successful; maybe not the best way to prevent dog attacks. But it's hard to dispute that some dogs have been bred to be DA/HA, and some drongos seek out dogs that go for the neck. I think those who don't like BSL should focus on how to control the idiots who, on hearing of a vicious dog attack, decide to go out and get one of that breed cause they think vicious is cool. [My preference would be castration, but that's not PC].

I love Neocort . . . use it on myself as well. Fantastic for itchy bites that might get infected. Don't know Inflamol. But for hotspots, I'd just as soon use peroxide, chlorohexadine, or betadine . . . anything that will dry the area out and kill the bugs. I think your vet is jacking the price up. I seem to remember paying $20 for my last tube of Neocort. But prices change, so $30 may be fair. I don't think Neocort can be sold over the counter.

Pretty bloody grim. I have a sister who's a bit like that. Hard to know what to do. Condemnation doesn't help. Rescue doesn't help. Sigh.

Pigs make GREAT house pets. Sorry And they are as smart as a dog. Don't need grooming or registration either. Go pigs!! I confess, I've never had pigs, other than the human kind, in my house. Happy to retract the statement that pigs don't make good house pets.

Thanks for filling out the story. Wondering . . . if someone had offered a deep discount on the cost of getting her girl speyed, do you think it would have avoided the problem altogether? (I know that was a biased question . . . I've go an axe to grind).

You can walk six labs at once? I could walk 12 Labs at once if they were walked regularly and had learned the rules from early days. But 12 would probably have caused worse road burns than six . I might have to put on a few kilos to do it . Even a dog that is good on lead tends to forget the rules when another dog comes trotting up, at least with my relaxed training regime.

I once used a dog, tested as bBeE at stud to a girl who was bbeE. Got 10 pups, none of them bb. The odds against this are 1:1000. Managed to get another company to run colour tests on the dog. Turns out he is BBeE, and thus can't sire a bb dog of any sort. I don't think all DNA tests should be crossed off, but I think there are some wankers out there.

it happens. I recently had a couple friendly cattle dogs -- off lead -- come up to me walking six Labs -- on lead. The six lurched forward to say hello. All was friendly. Busy road nearby so I couldn't let go. I was pulled over and skinned two knees, one elbow, and a couple knuckles. Looked like a bikee who came off the bike and it bloody hurt. I don't even bother with the grr. I wish I could allow my dogs off lead, but without perfect recall, can't do it.

Please clarify oblique references. I have no knowledge of Don Chip or Tigger, or whatever. I think many others are left shrugging their shoulders.

Stupid moods are contagious, but reflect deeper feelings. I was thinking more along a Cher model. Dog shows should be about dogs, not about touch up.

Thats what the Koreans say. The Koreans were outraged in 2002 (World Cup) when the rest of the world suggested that perhaps they should enforce their own laws. They said exactly that. We don't beat our animals to death with metal bars, hang them (not to break the neck, but to suffocate), boil them alive, ect. Just goes to show their attitude. I dont think they make any real attempts at secrecy regarding those practices, but they just don't think it is relevant. Sounds like a racist proclaimation to me. 'They' is a billion plus people spread out over an area much larger than Australia, with a history that goes back well before our year 0. No question some awful things happen, and some authorities turn a blind eye. But I think you need to be careful about generalising. I don't think dog fighting is popular in either China or Korea (though it seems to have some history in Japan???) . . . it's illegal here, but from what I can see, the law doesn't do much to obliterate it. Is blood sport more humane than tenderising an animal while it is live? Yuck. Both are detestable. The 'eating' tradition, at least, doesn't seem to have a group of people getting their rocks off by watching an animal suffer . . . and thus feeding into child abuse, spouse abuse, and a bunch of other ugly things.

Defended her? I don't see anyone doing so. Such acts cannot be defended. Prevention is better than cure. It would have been much better if a person in these circumstances either didn't have a dog or had a dog that couldn't have pups. Unfortunately, a lot of people have little control of their lives, and I think this is getting worse as the generations move on. I'd rather not end out paying taxes to cover the costs of keeping the out-of-control folks in prison and pay for much cheaper remedies that make it easy for them to do the right thing.

Go for it . . . or zinc, which will make him/her look worse. But don't try for Crufts

RIP little pups. Poor everyone! Cases like this turn me in favour of subsidised spey/neuter.

I'm just a loudmouth who does a bit of reading. I have been a research professional, and think it would take a few months of wading through the evidence to present a respectable/publishable argument along the lines I roughed out in my post. Unless someone wants to pay me for it, and I presume no one does, I don't have those months to spare. That said: it's a spectacular PR feat, given the attack statistics, and the relatively low ambiguity about what dog is a Rotti, that Rottweilers aren't at the forefront of BSL. I often chat with a top-quality Rotti breeder. He does have tats on his arms and does lift weights . . . but has strong, well-defined standards regarding his chosen breed (and many other subject). He says he often gets requests from people who own 'tough' dogs to use his very impressive dogs at stud and he proudly dismisses their advances with profane disdain. Likewise, I've seen him and his extended family (all Rotti oriented) take many months to rehome a pup who was brought back . . . because so many of the people who want a Rotti want it for the wrong reasons. I have no idea how the Rotti community works. But I don't see a lot of black and tan pig dogs, or hear of Rotti X's being involved in pit fights or killing off neighborhood children. Unlike APBT's, where confusion with ASBTs and SBT varieties is hard to resolve, the Rotti X is usually an easy dog to spot. My sense is that the GSD community went through challenges many year back and managed to preserve the reputation of their breed, but I'm talking off the top of my head and would have to study the history to be sure of the 'hunch'. The proof is in the pudding. You could say the relative silence of the press on the Rotti and GSD (or for that matter the Doberman) is arbitrary and reflects some malicious trend of hating APBT's. You may be right. But before coming to conclusions about what works, I think it's worth considering the 'guarding / schutz' dogs that have largely escaped BSL and studying what their communities have done to avoid being a target. I should note, I think some fighting terrier breed fans seem to take pleasure in the fighting spirit of their dogs. That is a BIG NO-NO in PR terms. Glorification of fighting must NOT be tolerated. If the same energy that is directed to confronting the RSPCA were applied to people who are breeding for DA/HA traits, I think the bull and mastiff breeds would be doing better in this battle. 'Education' is a knee-jerk cure for everything. It often doesn't work. I think the detractors of BSL need to take a hard look at other factors . . . and I think there's a lot to learn from the 'schutz' breeds that have largely escaped BSL.

I don't think people should give advice if they're not willing to read one long/two short paragraphs.

If sentience is what determines what we should and shouldn't eat, I think 'civilised' countries should ban eating pork. Pigs don't make good house pets, but they are amazingly smart. I'm glad to see the Chinese moving in this direction . . . but I think we need to look at what we eat as well as what others eat. Even if we continue eating bacon, we should be willing to critically look at factory farming of pigs.

Now that's a dog I would be called 'game' by any standard (see discussion of 'game' under BSL). What a little battler! If the owner can't be located, I'll bet she has enough charisma to end out with a good home for her years to come. Hope so. Good on the vets for taking her in.

If you look at the history of BSL in California, you'll find that government was educated in deed not breed and resisted BSL for a long time. But after a long string of spectacular, high-profile cases, eg, children killed when accidentally wandering into a marajuana field which happened to be guarded by a vicious dog, celebs killed by their own dogs, the state government has backed down and allowed regional government to allow mandatory BSL spey-neuter laws (with a permit system that allows people to gain permits that allow breeding). Education alone is not going to be enough. So long as there's a criminal low-life population out there who use dogs as weapons and enjoy blood sport, the public good will built up by education will crumble when breed-specific events make the headlines. Unfortunately, the lowlife part of the population is highly breed-selective. If you can't reduce the extent to which such groups favour a few breeds and uses them for evil purposes, you're not going to have much success getting rid of BSL. There is a problem. It may have more to do with the people that are attracted to a breed than something intrinsic to the breed itself. But the two are connected. If people who prefer vicious dogs take a fancy to some breed and breed up the aggressive traits, the breed is made less socially acceptable in an objective way. I think the GSD and Rotti people are doing very well in avoiding inclusion in BSL. I think most of them know they have to work at it, and quality breeders won't look at puppy-buyers with disreputable (human) pedigrees. If the bull and mastiff breeds want to beat back BSL I'm afraid they're going to have to work at patrolling where their bloodlines end out, and helping authorities to stamp out dog fighting, use of dogs as weapons, and breeding for aggression.

I've been very lucky with my lines. All the girls have been great mothers . . . so broody that they get milk when another girl has pups . .. so tolerant that they let their mother/daughter/sister, or whatever nurse their pups. I can trace this back six generations. Generation seven, there's Molly. She has only had one litter. She was crabby with her own pups and is crabby with everyone else's pups as well. She didn't have much milk either. I think I'll try her once again; some people say they've had bad mothers come good on the second litter. Have other's had a line of good mums produce a girl who isn't? If Molly doesn't come around on her second litter, is it likely that her offspring will also be short on maternal instinct. She's a lovely girl, otherwise. But in some ways, a bad mum is worse than a girl that can't free whelp.

please delete, posted twice . . . don't know what happened.