sandgrubber

My Labs do a ritual that might be called no-tug. Someone picks up a stick or toy and shoves it in someone else's face. If the other dog starts to pull, the initiator moves toward them keeping the tension off. They mostly do bitey face. It's cute as can be when the puppy (now 9.5 weeks) gets involved. Mum rolls over on her back and the pup jumps all over her chest and head as part of the game. Then there is a zoomie chase, generally initiated by play bowing and maybe some eye-ing and belly crawl (like a herding dog). My younger girl likes to play regular non-zoomy chase with other dogs but I often have to restrain her cause she plays hard and nips a little. I've seen dogs get hurt when running chase gets rough. They go through spells of being very loud when they play. These last months they have been mostly near-silent. The noise is a bit chorus like in that granny dog has a deep bass growl and her daughter is more in the alto range.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Lgm1a0mwmwI

Amazing video ... they make a lot of our dogs look dumb! http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7g2rxtWu_FM http://www.blameiton...tricks.html?m=1 (I haven't figured out how to get the video itself to copy...)

No, they keep them chained in the yard ... at least in the rural South. The fraction of pits that are ever seriously fought probably a few percent or less. But the number who belong to wankers who select a dog because it has fighting potential may well be over 10%. Who knows. It's not an easy census to take. I'd recommend the novel, Salvage the Bones (2011) by Jesmyn Ward if you want a picture of how dog fighting fits into life in this neck of the woods. (Ward's father kept fighting pits in rural Louisiana).

I'll agree that this is amazing and to be valued. I think calling it 'heroic' debases the word hero. It is possible that this dog had a strong response to something going very wrong. It's also possible that, had it been 20 mo old instead of 10 mo, it would have killed the kid because he smelled funny. We just don't know. Pit bulls, like most of the breeds with a history of blood sport, are a mixed bag. Some people go way out of their way to label the whole bag as angelic or demonic. Both extremes are equally destructive. And the newsmedia involved will do whatever draws readers. As for the breed question. If you cry foul when someone labels the breed as 'pit bull' in an attack case, you also need to question the breeding when the dog does something good. Sensationalism does not help understanding and proper care/management. ALL breeds are a mixed bag. True, but the mix varies between breeds. In the US you can find people actively selecting pits for fighting. It doesn't help the mix.

I'm about as happy for people to come up to me and tell me my dog is fat as I am for them to come up to me and tell me I could stand to loose a few kilos. Like, mind your own business, you jerk. My vets never get a chance to voice an opinion because I always ask them before they get a chance. Often they say my old girl is ok when I think she could stand to loose. Around here Joe Public tends to think an English type Lab is fat when it isn't because they are used to the lankier US type. Concerning the fat Lab question, what bothers me most is the tendency of some judges to reward overweight dogs in the show ring. I've known people who both show and trial. They say they take 5 kg of the show dog to turn it into a trialing dog. It is not uncommon to see flab that flops around when the dog moves in the ring. It is uncommon to see the ribcage. No wonder so many people think their Lab is a good weight when it's nice and round looking.

Another unhelpful thing here is the feeding recommendations on the back of dry food packages. If I fed my labs as much as they recommend, they would be beyond plump. I give carrots as treats and feed a couple eggs a week. But two cups a day is all it takes to keep their weight on, even with a fair amount of exercise.

I'll agree that this is amazing and to be valued. I think calling it 'heroic' debases the word hero. It is possible that this dog had a strong response to something going very wrong. It's also possible that, had it been 20 mo old instead of 10 mo, it would have killed the kid because he smelled funny. We just don't know. Pit bulls, like most of the breeds with a history of blood sport, are a mixed bag. Some people go way out of their way to label the whole bag as angelic or demonic. Both extremes are equally destructive. And the newsmedia involved will do whatever draws readers. As for the breed question. If you cry foul when someone labels the breed as 'pit bull' in an attack case, you also need to question the breeding when the dog does something good. Sensationalism does not help understanding and proper care/management.

I have a PhD in the natural sciences and am an idiot when it comes to law. I found your post quite confusing. Please define 'natural law'. Do you mean this in the legal sense (Locke) or is it supposed to have something to do with biology?

One of my catalogues has a new offering called Lickety Stik. From the picture it looks like a roll on deodorant bottle full of chicken, liver or bacon flavor. It's advertized as a food reward without the joules (1 calorie for 10 licks). Has anyone seen this stuff in action for training? Does it work as a food reward for food motivated dogs? see http://www.jefferspet.com/lickety-stik/camid/PET/cp/0040281/

I love that knuckle test! I had never heard of that before, thanks for sharing :) Great test. But does coat make a difference? I'd think a dog with a full coat and thick undercoat would feel a bit padded even when pretty scrawny. In my kennel days I was often surprised when I washed a dog that some apparently well filled out dogs became thin when wet.

I've got to 9 wk old Labbies in my house at the moment. They are getting a high quality dry puppy chow. Their poohs are nice and hard and easy to pick up and wouldn't stain anything. As for wee, you should be able to get it off with an ordinary garden hose with a decent nozzle. It's hard to predict when they'll wee. Mine tend to poop either just before getting fed, or just after. I find it easiest to consider it no drama if they make mistakes. It won't be long before they get it right.

Where does it say he was left with the grandfather? It says it happened in his home. Here's from another news report: The dog bit him on the head before the boy's grandfather intervened. The family was minding the bullmastiff, police say. ... The victim's grandfather has told the Seven Network of finding the boy and his injuries. Everyone seems to be looking for a simple solution. I don't think there is one, given the huge variety of dogs, dog owners, and dog minders. Sounds like everyone had good intentions and was trying to do the right thing, though, in hindsight, there's plenty of blame to spread around.. I don't think training kids would have helped with this one. Four year olds are too young to systematically teach dog skills (not because they couldn't begin learn some sense, but because it would be too hard to bring them to classes with qualified trainers). The dog's owner shouldn't have left the dog with friends (relatives? neighbors?) who weren't in a position to supervise properly. The family shouldn't have agreed to look after the dog ... but, realistically, how were they to know? It doesn't look like this was a food related case. Dogs are extremely variable in the extent to which they guard food resources and their bite inhibition. I believe there are some dogs who would be quite safe with a toddler playing in their food bowl. (My own dogs will allow anyone to take a highly-prized bone or toy out of their mouths). The problem is that people who have grown up with dogs with strong bite inhibition and weak resource guarding tendencies develop an expectation that all dogs are the same way.

Not to be a wet blanket, but I think the story is hokum. After 4 hours the dog would have had no bonding with the kid and the parents were totally nuts to leave dog and child alone together. If Tater Tot did save a life, it was purely by accident. "The canine alerted the woman to her son's plight after being unable to wake the child despite licking and jumping on him." That shows absolutely irresponsible parenthood. As for: " Isis Sanchez, of Blue Pearl Veterinary Clinic, said in that state the boy's body may have produced ketones, which the dog was able to detect and correctly interpret as harmful." B.S. A dog may react to a chemical compound, but 'correctly interpret as harmful' ? That takes a big stretch of the imagination. Pit bulls are part of life in many parts of the US. Where I live (North Central Florida), they are widely found chained in back yards, and clutter the pet section of the equivalent of Gumtree. Sometimes bloodlines are specified in ads; I can't read pit pedigrees, but I presume they are advertizing known good fighting lines. Sometimes it's noted that they are good with other pets and children and not from fighting stock. They are hardy, thrive in this hot climate, and tend to throw very large (10+) litters, so there are always lots of pups around for adoption or for sale cheap. Free spey neuter clinics help, but there are still pups begging for homes, and litters born and raised outside, with little care or attention. It would be as hard to ban them here as it would be to ban SBT's in much of Australia. They're just part of daily life. They come in lots of flavors, and the bad comes with the good.

What bothers me is ideology based screening. The animal rights inclined rescues in the US are so big on desexing that some of them automatically exclude any potential adopter who doesn't desex all animals. I won't qualify as a foster with my local breed rescue because I have a litter, occasionally, and I don't like crate training.

In placing pups from my recent litter, I've had a couple people come to me who were turned away by Lab rescue for such reasons as owning a dog (now deceased) that was not desexed and not endorsing crate training. In both cases they have owned Labs who lived to a ripe old age, owned their own homes, had large fenced yards, and good, stable incomes. Screening is good, but sometimes it goes too far.

I've been impressed when homing pups how many of my puppy buyers are breed loyal, sometimes going back generations. Wondering if that is the rule.

Sad but true SG. Banning any breed won't work. The macho idiots will find a different large breed to use to beef up their image. No doubt another name will be invented for them. The responsible dog owners will be punished for those as well. b.s. mastiff would be a suitable name

Banning pit bulls has the effect of making the macho dingbats who want muscle dogs look for something bigger that can't be confused with a pit bull. The public doesn't know what to call these, but 'bullmastiff' seems to sound good to those who don't know better. I expect there will be a lot more such reports . . . not because of the dog breed but because of the idiots on the other end of the leash.

What a pain in the backside! It wouldn't take much of an investment to make all this data freely available on line, without need for a lot of cleaning before it could be used with breedmate or equivalent programs.

It requires more than teaching kids some dog manners. For one thing, many of the kids who attack haven't even been to kindy yet. For another, to effectively supervise a dog, the adult needs to know something about dog body language, and a lot of the adults simply miss warning signs. I posted this blog link a few months ago, but it's worth posting again. http://www.robinkben...k/#comment-2437 Here's an extract: The bites are not a result of negligent parents leaving Fido to care for the baby while mom does household chores, oblivious to the needs of her children. In fact, I’ve consulted on hundreds of dog bite cases and 95% of the time the parent was standing within 3 feet of the child watching both child and dog when the child was bitten. Parents are supervising. The problem is not lack of supervision. The problem is no one has taught parents what they should be watching.

If you're going to a franchise vet, you are probably being ripped off. Not by the vet(s); by the practice.

Conventional wisdom says to limit exercise, but a recent experimental study (nice big sample size, studied pups for 2 yrs until hips Xrayed) suggests that exercise on soft surfaces before 3 mo is good while stairs are bad. See: Housing- and exercise-related risk factors associated with the ... www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22620698‎ I would say the jury is out on this one. It may be that good muscle development more than compensates for stress on skeletal structure.

was this a horse or a dog? what a monster

Not really relevant to the OP, but this situation can be avoided. Where I live (Florida) it is state law that pups need to be vet checked before they can be sold (includes parasite check, temp, ears, and minor physical + they get first jabs and worming). The vet check requires observation of the testes for boys. You can sell a boy with undescended testicles at 8 weeks, but it must be noted by the vet. I think that's a good policy.