sandgrubber

In WA we have no legal requirements that I know of. However, for reasons of liability and insurance coverage, I need to see that a vet has signed off on the vaccination due date. I don't feel that decisions relating to frequency of vaccination should be made by kennel owners -- that is a vet's function. With respect to KC, it's complicated. When K9 cough goes through a kennel some of the vaccinated dogs often get it while some of the unvaccinated (for KC) don't. I recommend, but stopped requiring KC in my kennels after having been told by a couple vets that they don't use it on their own dogs; not to mention having a litter of pups apparently get KC from the vaccine. Another vet I use told me that if you really want to protect your dog from KC, get it jabbed (or nasal puffed) two weeks before taking it to kennels. Last time I read the AVA recommendations they still recommend KC as an annual shot. I'm left shaking my head. But the disease is very rarely fatal, and in many cases it is so unserious that you barely notice the two or three days the dog has a mild cough. So the outcome of making a wrong decision isn't horrible.

Please, leave in season bitches at home.

There seems to be a lot of resistence to a new vaccination regime. The AVA may have changed its policy, but they sure haven't given their members a kick in the pants, as requried to break down the long-established and lucrative practice of vaccinating annually. I run a boarding kennel. I try not to be part of the problem by telling people of the change in recommended vaccination regimes and telling them I'll accept any date the vet signs off on . . . suggesting that three years would be in line with recommendations. Everyone seems happy to get the news, but as of yet I haven't seen anyone in with their vaccination cards signed with a 'next due' date of 2012 or 2013. I think vets are still sending out their annual reminders about vaccinations.

My crystal ball says pedigree dog owners are so busy bickering among themselves that they won't do anything to stop such processes . . . though an organised group could easily make the case for 'hobby breeding' permits clear. I would like to see the breeder permit and the 'hobby breeder' license combined . . . let the present generally high fees paid to register an entire dog or bitch be used to cover the registration fees for keeping a dog entire and perhaps require some sort of veterinary inspection to go along with it. Require desexing of all animals not registered as entire. Use the framework to make it possible for people with eight to twelve dogs to get 'hobby breeder' licenses -- which protect their right to keep multiple dogs in land with appropriate zoning.

All else equal, I'd rather have a low COI than a high COI .. . but all else is never equal. Most statistical models including the COI presume everything is independent (the IID assumption), when in reality 'everything is connected to everything else' may be a safer assumption. I don't think it's a bad thing to restrict close inbreeding, but I think it's WRONG to take an absolutist perspective on it.

I did once. The girl had uterine inertia anyway and had to have a ceasar. My vets (two different vets) recommend against. They say that if there are complications, possibly strong herbal remedies may complicate their handling of complications.

I can agree with all these points. And am reminded of a local story that, as the dog was being PTS for biting the kid, they noticed (too late) that the kid had put a bunch of staples in the dog's ear. Dogs should not be blamed for trying to protect themselves against torture by children. The statistics for attacks on children need careful review.

Awful. But curious. I've never met a mean Mastiff and have had many in boarding kennels. Maybe something has been lost in translation.

I have started as early as 3 weeks. One of my bitches tends to nick off with her chicken frame and deposit it in the puppy pen. The pups can't really eat it, but they sure have a good time trying . . . growling, tugging, pulling . . . and they pick it over pretty well before mum comes back and eats it. I've had no trouble feeding pups frames pulverized with a meat cleaver. I avoid the back end of the chook . . . which contains the guts . . . out of a guess that it is more likely to have bacteria, etc that might be harmful to the pups. The only negative I've seen is that many of my puppy buyers will choose to move on to a high-end biscuit. Pups that have been raised on bones don't much like the transition to biscuits. But being Labradors, they're born gutsers, and they survive the transition. I worry about whole necks as they tend to go down the hatch whole, and I worry that they may be oversized for the tummy of a young pup.

Might add that sometimes the pet transport companies go out of their way to do things right. I sent a pup on what was supposed to be a short flight from Perth to the far north of WA with one of the major pet movers. Oops. The plane couldn't land at the airport (bushfire, if I remember right) and went on to its second destination. The shippers took the puppy home and it spent the night in their house. They kept in touch about what was happening .. . the puppy apparently had a great time .. . . and the puppy buyer said the pup arrived in great shape with no sign of trauma.

I'm not at all against assistance animals for autistic children. What I don't understand is the training, and what, given that different individuals with autism have quite different needs. It's not like a guide dog . . . who helps with things that need sight and provide companionship. . . and needs a high level of specialised training. As I understand it, the assistance dog to an autistic child may help with development of basic emotional skills and be a calming influence to a child with erratic temper . . . many dogs seem to fit this role with fairly basic training and management . . . nothing like $30k worth. I have talked to people with autistic kids who say they did a lot of screening to find an appropriate rescue dog, or got a Lab . . . because they couldn't afford the specialised training . . . but the dog did great without it. I am happy to be corrected if I'm wrong here, and would be quite interested to know what sort of training they give a dog that is to be an assistance dog for an autistic child. Or perhaps the child in question had some form of autism that meant the assistance dog was needed to do the sort of things that a guide dog does.

seems pretty pricey to me . . . especially given that, so far as I'm aware, there's no accredited training program for dog trainers to teach dogs to deal with autism. Rather hard to predict outcomes.

In kennels . . . mixing dogs . . . I have a lot of trouble with other dogs not liking SBT's. I'm pretty sure it's body language. In SBT language a good body slam is 'hello'. In other breeds it seems to be an invite to fight. With my own breed . . . Labbies generally like other Labbies and seem to be fond of Ridgies and not-so-fond of shephards.

The only time that we have noticed her out is around 6.45 in the morning.. We have had reports from neighbours that she has been out thru the day and they have put her back in the yard for us... Im in WA and those regulations are pretty stock standard here, we are in a "bush" area and they want to keep the area in a certain theme. I have a 5 acre 'bush' block in a 'resource zone' . . . also a kennel area. I had a lot of escape problems until I put two strands of electric fence (no collars . . . the stuff they sell for horses and cattle). I can't say the dogs were pleased by the electric fence . . . but they respect it. Have had no problems since it went up. It can be made inconspicuous and I don't think your local authorities will give you grief. If she's jumping (mine were digging under), electric fence won't stop her . . . but you may be able to teach her it isn't safe to get near enough to the fence to jump . . . eg, put up three strands a metre inside your boundary fence.

I know the drug companies want me to worm as often as they can get me to do so. I know I have never seen ANY worms in pups on this property. So I play around with different strategies. Have developed a hatred of the liquid stuff . . . which the puppies think they like and then seem to hate. It upsets me to see them shaking their little heads madly to try and get the stuff out of their mouths. This litter I did tablets at 3 weeks. Saw no worms. But I never find worms. I think I'll go all tablets in the future, probably 3,5,8 weeks . . .and go to some other routine if I see worms.

If that's the best she can do, she'll starve as a freelancer. I agree that dogs shouldn't roam free . . . they don't often where I live . . . but it's hardly news. Would be interested to know if she keeps her two year old on a leash.

If you can get bound edges or fold the edges back under and tack them to the bottom the unreavelling should stop.

What new law proposal? I have yet to see any concrete reference to new laws. Just people saying that the RSPCA is making recommendations to councils.

Or perhaps they included attacks on rodents in the statistics

They don't call 'em gun dogs for nothing

Or if you want a cheap solution, cut a board to the size you want and tack some thick carpet down to it. Lots of tacks. That works in the boarding kennel for the bed eaters.

Same... we've had limits for a long time. I just got an exemption from my council. Disgusting that puppy farmers are given the :D and genuine breeders are going to be hindered. Yep it's here and as some of you know when I had a whinge in the WA thread, my local council won't even offer you the chance to apply for an additional dog. It's flat out 2 dogs only, tough biccies, big middle finger to us, yada yada. Grrrr!!!! :D You might want to check out the For Sale / Real Estate section of DOL.. There's a half acre place in Kelmscott for sale at a pretty reasonable price . . . owner has had permission for several dogs . . . backs on parkland. Roughly $500,000.

Can you be more specific about where the directive is coming from? And what form it takes? Is the National RSPCA doing a campaign? I am asking cause I think it's easier to fight something if you know exactly what it is. Also . . . in WA we already have a pretty strong 2 dog rule. Would be worth knowing whether they consider the WA system good enough. Most California counties allow for 'hobby breeder' permits, usually up to 8 or sometimes 12 dogs in some land use zones (generally rural and agricultural). I think this is a good system cause it keeps noisy nuisances from developing in high density areas while forcing puppy farmers, boarding kennels, dog shelters, and very large breeders to go through difficult legal channels to get permission to operate. Government tends to be friendly to shelters . . . so it's not much of an impediment to them, though they may end up some distance from downtown. I think it would be worth fighting the 2 dog rule with proposal to allow for 'hobby' classifications in some land use classes.

In New Hampshire, I lived around a mile from a farm that had a hunting pack of ~20 beagles. They weren't friendly dogs and weren't socialised . . . and you could hear them for miles around when the moon was full. So much for using dogs for the job they were bred for.

In WA it's up to the shire. If they opt not to make exceptions, there are no exceptions. In urban/suburban areas it's uncommon to get permission for more than three, even with approval of all neighbours. I'm in the process of trying to move from a kennel zone to a rural location with six dogs. I find that most shires do grant exceptions for breeders on land that's zoned Rural or Rural Residential, but NOT Special Rural, but often permission requires Council permission, sometimes also consultation with neighbours. The EPA guidelines say there should be 500 m between the 'kennel' and any neighbours house.