sandgrubber

Had they hit problems, this could have been just as bad as the guy who ended up eating his dog and barely surviving.

some numbers for fraction of pups with low enough antibodies for vaccines to take, using newer, live virus vaccines. 6 wks 37% 8-9 wks 79% 12 wks 95% These results were found in Rottis, a breed that seems to be relatively bad for seroconversion. see http://www.newvaccinationprotocols.com/Current%20Knowledge%20of%20Immunology%20101.htm

Thanks everyone. Having looked at that video and done a little reading, my dogs are usually trotting, not pacing. Ie, same gait as you use in the show ring. The problem is that the old girl goes into a canter well before the young girl does so. Found a good canter vs. gallop clip I'm pretty sure she canters rather than gallops. Btw. The PennHip crew have a good description of gait as related to diagnostics. http://cal.vet.upenn.edu/projects/saortho/chapter_91/91mast.htm From what they say, a dog that paces is probably doing so for a reason, and it would be better to address the problem rather than trying to change the gait. I can't seem to find anything about the whys and wherefores of the speed at which a dog shifts from trot to canter or gallop. Guess it doesn't matter that the old girl goes to a canter while the younger girl is still trotting. Maybe it has something to do with being older and a little less flexible? I'll try to get some photos.

I have some tendon problems and there are limits to how much dog walking I can do. So I bought a recumbent tricycle. Works great. The dogs can pull it at their own natural pace, which is faster than mine. I've got breaks and steering so there's no danger of them taking off when an animal (deer are worst) crosses the path and I can slow them down. I pedal on uphill parts, and a little on the flat, so they never end out pulling very hard. They love it and get excited when I get the trike out. (One of these days I'll talk someone into taking a picture for me). I want to keep the dogs in shape, but don't want to harm their joints. I know running on pavement can be hard on joints, but what about pacing or a canter? Specifically: If I let the younger girl (4, radiographically has moderate dysplasia in L hip, 0:0 elbows, has never shown any sign of stiffness or limping) set the pace, she paces and the older girl (9, healthy and arthritis free, 2:1 hips, 0:0 elbows) breaks into a canter. I generally let this happen for a few hundred meters and then slow them down so that both pace. We go something like 4 km total. Question: Would it be harmful to the old girl to let her canter more? More generally, how do the different gaits stack up for stress on the dog's legs? p.s. the surface is mostly tarmac bike path, though the dogs can shift and run on grass if they want. A bit of limestone track as well.

I have a similar problem when I have a young pup and older dogs. Usually we do a short walk altogether, then the pup gets put away and we do a longer walk . . . or bike ride. The puppy complains seriously loudly. Dogs have a strong sense of justice, and mine don't take it well when they get left out.

Huh? What does this mean in practice?

Great story. I wish more ended like this!

My dogs sleep everywhere, but come on the bed at night, especially when it's cold. Woke up this morning at 3:53 with a puppy on my head. Grrr! I like having them snuggle, but in-you-face is too much, especially when they chew on and pull hair!

I think you'll get more replies if you include a URL for their website or something. I can't figure out what they book.

Come quick, you can probably pick this one up . . . http://lakeland.craigslist.org/pet/4141562348.html Seriously . . . do try rescue. Dogos and cano corso show up periodically cause people get into a pickle with housing. Typically these are much loved dogs. CraigsList is a PITA cause they don't allow pet sales . . . so you see 'small rehoming fee applies' a lot.

p.s. The government side is reasonable, but the AKC is a pain with respect to imports. Somewhere in the fine print they tell you that if you want to breed from an imported dog, you have to register its DNA with them before they will register the pups. Then when you go to get pedigrees printed up they give only the rego numbers, not the names, for the Australian ancestors. Looks really ugly on the pedigree papers. Like everything in the AKC, you can fix this if you pay them for some service or another. Cynic that I am, I think this has to do with protecting AKC affiliated puppy farms from imports.

I had a pup that acted like it had parvo . . .went on drip and all... turned out it ate a large amount of sand. Fingers crossed it's something like that.

I'd say both the owner, and the breeder. Some idiots breed dogs without stable temperament, and some breed for DA. The dog world could live without these folks. With respect to quarantine, I imported two Labs from Perth to SFO. Apart from some health tests, getting rabies shots, and a little paperwork, it's easy. No quarantine. If you're flying from the East Coast, you may even be able to fly on the same flight as your dogs if you play your cards right and don't have breeds that the airlines don't like. If you don't do the rabies vaccine stuff properly they impose a sort of house quarantine, but it's nothing like Australian quarantine. You might want to look at LA and surrounds or Texas. I think you'll find more places with dog-sized yards . . . and plenty of boxing. I can't see Dogos liking snow.

With most meds, keep them cool and they're ok for a long time. High temperatures speed chemical reactions . . . which is what you don't want. I've kept scourban for years in the fridge . . . it seems to work fine.

No need to go that far to have a well adapted pup/dog, though I think a lot of handling early on does make pups more social (orphaned pups who end out bottle and tube fed often become great dogs). I'm suspicious of anyone who brags about using bio-sensor. Video clips are frustrating cause they talk only about 'studies have shown' rather than saying what study. See: http://www.border-wars.com/2012/02/bio-sensor-is-bad-science-the-failure-of-super-dog.html

As a minor breeder who raises pups as part of the family, in the house, I have never seen the 'fear period' . . . or any fear period. Just did a google search and found one source that claims there are four fear periods (http://www.positivedogs.com/articles/early_doesnt_mean.html ): Between seven to nine weeks of age Anywhere from four to six months Again at around 12 months At approximately 14 to 18 months and with some dogs can even be as late as 2 years I have a 14 wk pup at the moment. She IS afraid of the neighbor's goose, and of the DA pit bull down the street. But she waggles up to every human she meets, cries to visit the greyhound and wolfhound who live across the street, and comes running to investigate power tools or other loud noises. Based on a dozen or so other pups I've raised in my house, I expect this behavior to continue...though by the time she outweighs it, she will ignore the goose. I've seen pups in this age group hit an electric fence and develop no lasting fear response, other than avoiding lines that look like the electric fence. With respect to really bad experiences, such as being mauled by a bigger dog or tortured by a child...I wouldn't let that happen to a dog at any age.

You also need to consider how widespread and how strong the genes are in the breed. Given that dog fighting was outlawed in 1835 in England, the motivation to breed for fighting dogs has been reduced. Not gone, cause legislation didn't stop dog fighting entirely, and fighting remained legal much longer in some places outside England; but reduced. This leaves 170 years where fighting was not a primary focus. I'd say this is analogous to asking if the Olde English sheepdog was going to have herding instincts, despite being raised as a pet. Some of 'em will. Some of 'em won't. Some in-between, which will be influenced by training. With Labradors, we can make a retriever out of almost any pup, but with some of them you have to start early and work hard. For others it's natural. And you get some who won't look at a tennis ball, but given a bird, there's no stopping them.

I don't know if this guy was an idiot or not cause all the evidence presented is a news article that doesn't specify sources and gives very few details. I don't know what happened. I have no perspective from which to form an opinion. I don't know if the guy grew up in a culture that praised Amundsen for his disasterous trip to the South Pole. For all I know, he was PTSD and semi-suicidal when going out alone into the wilderness with his dog. I don't know if he stowed food properly and the bear went to extraordinary and unknown heights to steal his cache. I don't know if the reporter made the whole thing up. I just get sick of people getting on their high horses and judging others when they've been presented with what is at best a cartoon sketch of a situation. I read it as kicking someone who is down. To quote a few of the more sensible lines in the Bible:"Judge not and ye shall be not judged" . . ."do unto others as you would have them do unto you"..."let he who is without sin cast the first stone". Most of us have made awful mistakes in our past. Some of us get through without suffering the consequences. Some of us are not so lucky. Frankly, from the little I know, I'd consider someone who texts while driving or drives intoxicated as culpable as this guy.

I'm no expert, but have lived in places where Chi's are very common. I'd say you could get this behavior from many chi's if you encouraged it from a very young age. We tend to judge Chi's from the in-your-face ankle-biters you find walking around certain neighborhoods. But there are many Chi's who love cuddles and body warmth and will sleep when they snuggle.

p.s. when talking about bull breeds as bred for fighting, it's important to note that dog fighting was outlawed in England in 1835. The Kennel Club didn't recognize the SBT as a breed until 100 years later!

No analogy is watertight. You (as Poodlefan and as HW) have often attacked my posts. If you would read my post, rather than choose to attack it, you would find that it says there are statistically significant differences between breeds...and that it presents data from a peer reviewed paper to illustrate those differences. BSL, and breed specific reaction, is morally equivalent to racism in judging individuals according to their appearance, rather than their individual character. The analogy is valid. Sure, it falls apart if you try to stretch it to breeding practices. You did, I didn't. Body language is a different thing. If the "appearance" is ears back, teeth barred, body stiff, there is every reason to form an opinion based on appearance :)...but that holds whether the dog is a Labrador or a pit bull.

Some breeds are more dog aggressive than others. Anyone objectively studying dog aggression by breed will come to that conclusion. See eg. Breed differences in canine aggression (2008) Deborah L. Duffy a, Yuying Hsu b, James A. Serpell, which was much quoted for finding Daschunds the most aggressive breed. The important thing to remember is that serious aggression is rare even in the most-aggressive breeds, and most owners of seriously aggressive large dogs have learned that they need strong management. Here's a table showing the relative frequency of different forms of aggression in common breeds. The differences are very significant, statistically. Notice that, in this table, the English Springer Spaniel, Daschund and Yorkshire terrier are the ones to beware of. Oops! . Looking to stereotype breeds for aggression, Duffy et al found high levels of dog aggression in only 20% of pit bulls (Yorkies and JRTs were worse). And the offensive 20% are not the ones you are most likely to meet at the dog park or walking down the avenue. It is grossly unfair to generalize form the offensive few and condemn the majority for their faults (which some a##-hole owners may consider virtues). Just as it's unfair to castigate some ethnic or racial group as a whole cause its population shows high incidence of crime. corrected an error in original post

Answer, unfortunately, is we can't "make all dog owners understand when their dog has a problem and that they need to do something about it" . We don't run the circus, and our actions must be governed by reality as much as by the law. K9 utopia isn't going to show up any time soon. The best we can do is convince a few errant dog owners to seek help. And that's easier for big dog owners, who are targets for the law, than small dog owners, whose transgressions are largely ignored by the system.

Good post. Why should everyone have the same opinion? Not the point of any public forum, corporate meeting or situation in life where you are given the opportunity to speak. :) No need for people who disagree to be unpleasant but then that's what the world is coming to these days. Was I being unpleasant/rude? I thought Maeby Funky was taking judgmental self-proclaimed experts down a notch and chimed in. Staying overnight on Mt Kosciuszko National Park is so unlike a multi-month survival trek in the Canadian wilderness that I assumed MF was joking. As for a little sarcasm to arm chair experts making value judgements when they don't know the facts, what's wrong there? Everyone doesn't need to have the same opinion. But if you can't take the Mickey, DOL is a bad place to post opinionated statements based on little evidence. Why do I say 'little evidence'. The article says nothing about how he was equipped or prepared. It says he was warned, but lots of people we now celebrate as 'great' were warned off doing the things that won them their reputation in the end. We don't know who provided the information in the story, or whether it was verified. The bear part of the story, or even the dog part, could be a complete fabrication for all we know.

If Steve's response was , I feel pretty sure it was an awful place and the action was not taken in responce to AR vigilantiiism.