sandgrubber

Bonza's reaction to the electric fence was to ignore the chooks completely and go back to chasing squirrels, or lying at my side. When the chooks are bigger the yard and coop will be expanded . . . Why do people on this forum so often assume that the OP is an idiot who doesn't care for animals. Of course, if I can't work out a solution that's comfortable for both the dogs and the chooks, the chooks will be rehomed . . . or eaten . .. they are a dual purpose breed. Personally, I don't apply the concept of forever home to chooks. I'm sure mine will live happier lives than factory chooks.

given the elevated level of discussion in politics, it is probably more effective to point out that BSL is not cost effective, and the augmented legislation will make it even less so

Just the threat of electric fence seems to be doing the trick even without energizing the wire. Without the fence, I had to drag Bonza away. With the fence, she has lost interest . . . at the moment she's lying on the sofa next to me while I type when she could easily go outside Before After

I really didn't want to put up the electric fence, but I guess that's the route it's going. The dogs are VERY respectful of the electric fence. Setting it up so she can't see the chooks is a hard ask.

I decided to try some backyard chooks. Bought a nifty little chicken coop that will keep them protected, confined, and out of the garden. Bought four six week female chicks. Bonza, one of my Labs is absolutely obsessed with them (the other two are merely interested). Bonza has to be dragged away from the coop, and keeps her head right against the ladder the chicks use to get from their little house to the ground. I don't think she's guarding: more like she would like to eat them. Her posture is the same as when she's hunting a rabbit or gopher and waiting for it to come out of a hole. At one point I turned my back for an hour or so and the dogs roughed up the chicken coop a bit, forcing use of clamps and glue to get it reassembled. Anybody have any suggestions? Yelling does nothing. When I found them battering the coop I lost it: threw her to the ground and held her down for 20 seconds or so. Since then they haven't gone for the coop, but the eternal chicken watch continues. (I've tried to attach a picture, but my Mac cable seems to be kaput).

alternative, get a bucket. All my Labbie pups have dug in their water. I use 20 litre paint buckets; they can't get their feet in these, so I only have to deal with dribble and slobber, as opposed to the whole lot ending up on the floor.

When I lived in the Perth suburbs, the neighbor (one down) had a 22 yr old Scottie. He still walked the mile to the markets with his owner once a week. No apparent blindness, lameness, or other problems . . . just moved a bit slow. The young adults in the neighborhood all remember him as a holy terror in his younger years, always escaping, siring litters all over the neighborhood. He was just an ordinary pet . . . fed supermarket food and scraps . . . not given much special care. I've often wondered how many more years he kept going.

There aren't many of them in Oz, but ... surprise . .. rat terriers are pretty good ratters. My brother's two aren't that barky and they do a pretty good job keeping the barn rodent free. At night they prefer to be under the covers (in winter anyway).

I have a Labrador bitch (rather large head) who could be classed as a pit bull under these criteria. And I suspect quite a few Molasser types could be classed as Filas ... A real work of genius, this legislation

An ironic feature of this legislation is that extreme pit bulls (at least in the US) would pass the visual test, while many X-breeds with no pit in them would get caught in the net. See, eg,. http://www.hqbullies.com/males/

I couldn't get the above link to work. Here's the long version, which works for me. http://www.gazette.vic.gov.au/gazette/Gazettes2014/GG2014S022.pdf

I agree totally on the genetic component here, but the problem is if only more breeders would work with their buyers feedback to collectively breed better dogs. Too many crack the shits at the suggestion of perhaps they got it wrong in the breeding pairs and blame the buyers for incorrectly raising their puppy resulting in a no win situation for all concerned. I think most Labrador breeders are sensitive to temperament issues. I know one who pts'd an imported (UK) and titled dog because he attacked a puppy! But if puppy buyers don't give breeders feedback about temperament problems, how are they to know? As you emphasize, there is a strong genetic component to temperament, and breeders need to be held accountable for temperament. But they also need to get feedback . . . the inheritance isn't simple, and often they don't know when they produce a problem dog.

See http://prescription-drug-abuse.com/drug-abuse-articles/prescriptiondrugabuse/phenobarbital-poses-extreme-danger-to-teens-who-abuse-drugs/ Barbituates, including phenobarbital, can be addictive and dangerous as an overdose. I'm in the US now, but ran a kennel in WA, where I occasionally encountered dogs on epilepsy treatment. At one point someone warned me to keep the meds under careful watch. Here in the US, the pharmicist handles the Rx with triplicate forms. I'm not hip on the drug scene, but expect the abuse patterns in Oz aren't so different from those in the US. I did a little surfing on drug addict discussion forums: phenobarbital is regarded as a downer that gives a very long response (days), and a very dangerous drug to mix, particularly with other downers. It may have some use for countering withdrawl symptoms for alcohol or some painkillers or for coping with anxiety. Phenobarbital is listed in both Category 4 and Category 8 in Australia . . . so legal status is confusing.

You might also want to talk to the breeder. As someone who has actively bred Labs, and may yet have another litter or two, it makes me cringe a bit every time I hear of a Lab being DA or HA. I know it happens. I suspect it has a strong genetic component. When you breed for a robust temperament (Labs should not be shy) you sometimes end out with robustness spilling over to combativeness or prey drive. If any pup I bred ended out acting HA or DA, I would hope the puppy buyers would get back to me with information about what happened . . . if for no other reason than to make me the wiser about what dogs to breed from (or avoid). There is a chance, too, that I might be able to provide some pointers, or some help with socialization, or recommendations about who to go to for help. Sometimes, especially with a dog who doesn't meet a lot of other dogs, the problem is simply that the dog doesn't know how to act and needs some guidance, as opposed to a problem of hard wired aggressiveness.

The physics of it is simple. Heat flows down a temperature gradient. If the floor is, say 22 C (or even 27 C) and their temp is 39 C, heat will be conducted from their body to the floor . . . rather like putting an ice pack on a sore joint. The tummy to floor posture maximizes the contact area, and because the tummy is often less hairy than the back, it also makes for higher heat transfer for the area in contact. Tile is a reasonably good conductor, wood a bit less so. I can't see why the posture would be bad for hips. Evolution wouldn't favor a bone configuration that didn't tolerate a posture that is important for staying cool.

Individual dogs react differently to phenobarbital. Or maybe it's different types of seizure disorders. My old girl (~31 kg) had massive cluster seizures after a reaction to a flea medicine. Thereafter she has had occasional focal seizures. She gets 1/2 tablet (1 tab = 1 gr = 68.4 mg) once a day (the original prescription was two tabs a day, one every 12 hrs). No side effects that I can see. At two tabs a day she was groggy, but developed tolerance rapidly. Half a tab a day is sufficient to prevent seizures; she's been on that dose for more than two years. I've taken her off and the seizures return. The vets check her blood levels every year or so and say the level is very low and they are surprised it works, but it does. At low levels they assure me it's no danger to the liver. I don't think they understand seizure disorders very well, and I would encourage supervised experimentation. Who knows, you may be lucky and find that Zig is effectively treated with a very low dose. p.s. the other thing to beware of with phenobarbital is that it is a controlled substance. Around here it has a street value of around $20/tablet. If you have druggies around your area, make sure to store it in a non-obvious place.

I'm feeding ProPlan at the moment. Several people I know use and like it, including the breeder of a dog I owned long ago, and it's been relatively cheap lately. The dogs are doing well on it, but they have done well on many brands. Hoovers with no allergies. I change brands pretty often. Too many options to make sense of in the US. I feed fruits and vegetables, and occasional bones and eggs, but NOT generally at meal time, so I checked Other.

Yes, I outcross, though I may accept some overlap in four or more generations back. If you chase down the COI statistics for Labradors, you'll find that line breeding is not common in the breed. See eg., http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2390636/#!po=50.0000

Epigenetics, though it has found wide popular audience, is one of those fields where there are more questions than answers. Science has shown inheritance of genes that are switched on or off by the environment in a few cases only, mostly with rodents. There is NO evidence that dog behavioral genes can be switched on or off by environmental factors.

On the other hand, if a dairy bought a calf marketed as Jersey-Holstein and she grew up to be something other than Jersey-Holstein, I think they'd demand more than a full refund. If there was deception here -- and given the unreliability of genetic tests and the unpredictability of x-breeds, it's hard to say if there was -- the breeder deserves strong censure. Fraud is fraud.

Depends. In a breed where the gene pool is narrow, preserving genetic diversity is probably more important than show conformation. If you have a popular sire, the more people/bitches you turn away the better. Particularly important that you turn away bitches who are related to your dog. If you have a healthy, but little-used stud, it is good for the breed as a whole that you allow your dog to be used over unrelated bitches. Goes without saying that you must trust the breeder.

For yeast, my vet recommended vinegar, any sort, diluted 50% with water. The goal is to change pH and make the environment unfavorable for yeast...just as with the traditional vinegar douche bag. I don't use a dropper. I get a make-up pad soaking wet with vinegar and rub it around. Some drops go down the ear canal. The pad cleans up ear gunk. And the dogs think they are getting their ears rubbed. (They used to run and hide when they saw the epiotic come out.

A couple other stupid features: 1. If the woman was intending to breed crossbreeds, she should realize that the F2 generation doesn't breed true. Even if the dog was as advertized, the pups would be all over the place. 2. The reading I've done suggests that the DNA tests aren't very good at breed identification . .. there are lots of stories about people testing papered dogs tend to get results telling them they have some crazy mixture that doesn't include the dog's actual breed. When I saw the title, I assumed this was going to be in the US. Good to see Australia is catching up in terms of stupid litigation.

Nothing wacko about confusion between flattie and golden. Quoting Wikipedia "Golden Retrievers were first accepted for registration by The Kennel Club of England in 1903, as Flat Coats – Golden" . . . it wasn't till a couple decades later that the two breeds really got separated.

Patty (6 mo old Lab puppy) is alert to animals, sometimes barking at deer, dogs, horses. She also watches people. She especially likes face closeups, as in talking heads, or some music performances. Singing is good. Another favorite category is women with heavy eye makeup and dark lipstick, especially if they show a lot of pearly whites.