sandgrubber

I've always found the best way to avoid such problems is by going out when no one else is around and about. Say, just before dawn.

done

In behavioral terms, flatties are closer to Labs than goldies, or so a leading study of breed temperament shows. In particular, goldies are more timid, less playful, less curious. I haven't known any flatties well, but after studying this article, I decided they were a breed worth considering. Seem to have all the things I value in Labs, but more-so.

Tastes vary. Reverse this statement and I'd agree . . . standard poodle and Grey, fine . . . no thanks you to mini or toy poodle or whippies.

Ditto

I have three Labs in Central Florida. It gets humid and stinking hot here for months on end. My Labs have a doggie door so can seek out the air con if they want. When I go out and come home, they are invariably outdoors, lying in a shady spot. Often they are wet . . . they have an old horse trough they can jump into. They've also dug some holes, which they lie in. I agree with GrufLife, clipping a Lab is not the end of the world. It probably does help their energy balance. The coat will cool a dog ONLY if the air temperature is higher than a dog's body temperature . .. ie, above the century mark. Otherwise, the insulating layer of the coat it holds body heat in. Do you put on a jumper to stay cool in hot weather? A dog's coat functions just like a jumper. One of my Labs has a very thick undercoat. I use a Furminator on her. This is more extreme than an undercoat rake in that it does actually cut a bit, and takes out some living hair as well as the dead stuff. Not sure about Oz, but in the US the Furminator is expensive in pet stores but reasonable on Amazon.

There was discussion of a similar case a few months back. Though people may be interested that at least one vet got prosecuted . . . by the vet board . . . for this offense. http://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/Texas-Suspends-Vets-License-for-5-Years/ Texas Suspends Vet’s License for 5 Years Dr. Millard L. Tierce draws a five-year suspension for not following through on euthanasia orders and for violating other veterinary standards. BY KEN NIEDZIELA, NEWS EDITOR Published: 2014.10.22 01:03 PM Dr. Millard L. Tierce III sits in the audience during a meeting Tuesday of the Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners. KXAS-TV Texas veterinarian Millard L. Tierce III, DVM, has lost his license for five years over allegations that included failing to euthanize four patients as promised and keeping a dog alive for use as a blood donor. The Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners approved a settlement with Dr. Tierce during a meeting Tuesday in Austin. Tierce, who attended the meeting but did not testify, agreed to the license suspension Oct. 1 and waived a formal disciplinary hearing. The board found that Tierce violated seven state rules covering everything from standards of care and clinic sanitation to patient recordkeeping and the security of controlled substances. Tierce, 71, will be allowed to continue owning and managing his hospital, Camp Bowie Animal Clinic in Fort Worth, while other practitioners tend to patients. Marian Harris, who erroneously thought her dog Sid had been euthanized at Camp Bowie, pleaded with the board to revoke Tierce’s license rather than suspend it. “What is going to be the deterrent to prevent future atrocities like the ones to which he has already confessed to from happening in the future?” she asked. “A suspension still allows Dr. Tierce to daily visit his clinic under the guise of administrative duties.” See link above for full story.

Sure. A pedigree is a start. Knowing ancestry has research value. But that value would be much greater if basic health aspects were recorded as well as sire and dam.

No, but I've met a few aloof dogs, humans held no value for them. Was your puppy like this at the breeders too? Some humans hold very little value to anyone ;) But if a dog has a condition analogous to autism, it would be non-responsive to other dogs. I'm no expert, but I'm told many autistic individuals are responsive to non-human animals.

Mine do. Sadly, as you know, you're the exception that proves the rule.

Out of curiosity, why don't you like tick collars? Ten or twenty years ago they didn't work, but I find some of the modern ones work well . . . deliver a controlled low dose over a long period . . . Preventic says it's good for up to 3 mo. Amatraz, the active ingredient, isn't a nice chemical, and has been shown to cause birth defects (according to the label on the box) . . . so I wouldn't use it on a breeding dog. But almost anything is better than paralysis ticks!

Pedigrees are about history. The history of a dog's antecedents. People used to give a damn about such things and they valued their dogs enough to record ancestry. They cared enough about dogs and the roles they performed to selectively breed dogs for certain roles. Until not that long ago, that was pretty common. Pedigrees are NOT the problem. They did not cause BSL. What caused it is the fact that people are so isolated from dogs and breeding that they give no thought to the parents of the pups they buy. Many no longer see them. They don't understand dog behaviour and they don't care enough about their dogs or their community to socialise and train their dogs to make them safe. The problem doesn't lie with the dogs and the sooner you grasp that, the sooner you'll stop blaming the KCs for the problem. It's people who breed and buy irresponsiblly and who think dogs are "just a dog". That doesn't describe the pedigree dog world who neither cause nor enshrine the legislation that perpetuates the myth that dangerous dogs are born, not made. They also cannot control the behaviour of people who choose to breed or buy dogs with no regard to their inherent characteristics. Write your book but as far as I'm concerned you are barking up the wrong tree. Stop blaming dogs and pedigrees and start looking at the kind of people who have dangerous dogs and the kind of people too stupid to create legislation to deal with them. If you're interested in health or temperament, pedigrees do a crappy job of recording history. They tell you breed, birth date, colour, and immediate ancestors back three, five, or if you push it, more, generations. They tell you about which dogs are imported and record titles. THEY DO NOT TELL when the ancestral dogs died or what they died of. They do not tell you anything about the dogs' health or temperament. They do not tell you about siblings and half sibs and whether they lived to a ripe old age or were pts'd for health or temperament problems.

My google search found one vet who says, yes . . . premoxin and amatraz (Preventic) can be combined because they are unrelated chemically. http://www.justanswer.com/veterinary/60lrc-hi-can-safely-use-flea-tick-collar-when-using.html

The BB is such a healthy breed to begin with. Some breeding based on color is just what they need. Maybe they can bring the life expectancy down from 5 to 3 years! p.s. I think I read somewhere that the color loci were more subject to random mutation than many other regions of the genetic code. Blueness may be a bit like albinism . . . except that it's highly marketable.

they only considered a disease significant if there were 15 cases or more... And these were USA dogs in a uni vet clinic. So their breeding would be a little different to what's available in Australia and there was already a reduced sample based on where these dogs were seen. Would like to see a study where all vets could contribute data... If this was a human study it would not be significant enough to make a decision. But I guess it's a start. I would guess they needed 15+ cases for a disease to be statistically significant. A lot more data would be good. A random as opposed to opportunistic sample would be much preferred. But hell's bells. Most of the dog medical opinions we hear are based on anecdotal evidence: one vet's experience, one person's recollections of their dogs and the dogs owned by their friends and family. Memory data are distorted by selective memories and readily lead to conclusions based on spurious events. These guys, at least, were able to use statistical tests. In human medicine, they register cause of death, and with a large fraction of the population either insured or in care of a government run program, there are lots of institutions with a financial interest in tracking morbidity. IMO it's an enormous failing of the pedigree system that the KC's don't track, at least, date and cause of death; date of neutering would be helpful, too. It's extremely frustrating that little data are available on morbidity. Eg, I'd love to know not just hip and elbow scores, but whether or not the dog made it to old age without stiffness.

Skeptvet's main reservation about the study was not sample size, but the potential bias of using dogs presenting at a University veterinary hospital. Still, the bias should be the same for Goldies and Labs . . . so the difference between them is probably real, even if the figures are not representative of the two breeds as a whole. As for experimental studies . . . cost prohibitive. Who would sponsor keeping 60 dogs for 10 yr under controlled conditions? And from the results of this study, it looks like you might have to do 60 dogs for each breed! (As a rule of thumb, you need something like 30 for control and 30 for experimental group to see statistically meaningful results. Larger samples needed if effects are subtle, smaller if effects are dramatic.)

One of the vet-related blogs I follow posted notes on a recent comparative study looking at longer term health effects of spey/neuter in Labradors and in Goldies. Surprise! The breeds were significantly different! Here's a summary: First off, what does the study appear to show? Well, perhaps the most important finding is that there are significant differences in the pattern of possible effects of neutering between males and females, and also between the breeds. This latter point is extremely important. People tend to jump on the findings from a study in a single breed and want to generalize those findings to all dogs and make broad recommendations based on that single study. However, if the possible effects of neutering differ significantly between two breeds as closely related and similar as Golden retrievers and Labrador retrievers, likely these effects will be even more dissimilar in breeds less closely related. A study of Rottweilers or Viszlas, for example, may tell us little or nothing about what to expect in Beagles or Poodles. This is worth keeping in mind before we rush into making sweeping recommendations for all dogs. The findings in this study suggest some increase in the risk of some diseases with neutering, but the patterns were not very consistent. Neutering before 6 months of age appeared to be associated with higher risk of cruciate ligament disease and elbow dysplasia in male Labradors but not with the risk of hip dysplasia. In females, however, the pattern was the opposite, with neutering at less than 6 months being associated with greater risk of hip dysplasia but not the other two orthopedic diseases. But in Golden retrievers, neutering before 6 months of age was associated with greater risk of cruciate ligament disease in both sexes, but with greater risk of hip dysplasia only in males, not females. Source http://skeptvet.com/Blog/2014/07/potential-risks-of-neutering-and-age-at-neutering-for-godlen-retrievers-and-labrador-retrievers/ reviewing Hart BL, Hart LA, Thigpen AP, Willits NH. Long-Term Health Effects of Neutering Dogs: Comparison of Labrador Retrievers with Golden Retrievers. PLoS ONE 2014;9(7): e102241. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0102241 Sigh! Once again, science tells us: "It's complicated."

Actually, the average age of death for Frenchie, according to the Finnish Kennel Club statistics, is 5 yr 5 mo. Just over one in ten lives to old age (32/295). For those that make it to old age, average lifespan is 10 yr 10 mo. All in all a VERY unhealthy breed. If you encounter a breeder who says there are no health problems in their lines, you can be pretty sure you are talking to a fraud. Health testing should be called 'disease testing'. It does not guarantee health, only decreases the likelihood for good genetic tests decreases to zero) the probability of disease. See http://jalostus.kennelliitto.fi/frmTerveystilastot.aspx?R=101&Lang=en

This depends on the dog. There are dogs who readily progress from a growl to an attack. Such dogs may need early restraint. None of my present dogs are in that category. I often end out telling my dogs to shut up cause they make so much noise play growling that I can't hear the radio/phone/TV.

The article says it was a 14 yr old boy. I doubt he had any idea what he was doing. If there's blame, I'd lay it on the parents for lack of supervision. I'd say a few years public service working with dog rescue might be punishment enough. As someone who has done a few years of research on fire ignition and spread, I find the whole story baffling. There is almost no fuel in those kennels. I don't see how a fire could have spread. Nor can I imagine a 14 year old being systematic and calculating about putting ignition points around to make sure of good spread. With a facility that large, there should have been someone on premises at all times. How did things get so out of hand?

I don't know for sure that they are not in Australia, but I sure didn't see any when I lived there . . . that's the American hounds, various breeds . . . Treeing Walker Coon Hound, redbone, blue tic. I like this group. Often stubborn, but sociable, hearty, agile, and easy going. Would do well in the heat.

I doubt that the breeder can downgrade a pup that has been sold to someone else without that person's consent. To do so would open up a legal can of worms. If I pay for a first class ticket, the airline can't downgrade me to economy!

The 2012 contest link is also interesting. My fav. was Honorable Mention Dana Ellis, practice manager Neartown Animal Clinic Houston, Texas A 46-pound English bulldog swallowed a 9-inch screwdriver. Dog did very well after cranial laparotomy and gastrotomy. However, after he woke up, he promptly ate his intravenous injection port.

If you were in the US or Canada, you'd want this site. http://www.petinsurancereview.com/dog.asp perhaps they could be coerced to do Oz as well.

PUddleDuck posted this link in off topic. Really deserves to be In the News 2014 X-Ray Contest Winners Animals will eat just about anything. The proof is in the radiographs. BY VETERINARY PRACTICE NEWS EDITORS Published: 2014.08.27 11:55 AM Updated: September 5, 2014, 10:15 a.m. PDT Animal hospitals in Texas, Florida and Oregon won Veterinary Practice News’ ninth annual radiograph contest, “They Ate WHAT?” Pet insurer Trupanion of Seattle, Wash., sponsored the contest and will provide cash awards to support the uncompensated care these hospitals provide pets. The first-place winner, Paws & Claws Animal Hospital of Plano, Texas, received $1,500, Gulf Breeze Animal Hospital in Gulf Breeze, Fla., won the $1,000 second prize, and DoveLewis Animal Hospital in Portland, Ore., will receive the $500 third prize. The Veterinary Practice News editorial team and several advisory board members judged the entries. There follows a collection of amazing radiographs of animals, mostly dogs, who have eaten and not passed various things http://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/2014-X-Ray-Contest-Winners/