sandgrubber

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.

Heartworm infections are very slow to develop. It takes 4 months from bite by an infected mosquito to full blown heartworm, and meds at any point in the cycle will prevent the infection. So there is no reason to panic. Put them on some sort of treatment in the next few months and they should be fine. If your friends want to be ultra conservative, have them tested first. see (sorry, very US oriented) http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2008/05/billion-dollar-heartworm-scam.html

The police deserve commendation. You need to remember they tend to get 'bitten' by public reaction when they shoot an animal. Although odds are good that the owner was irresponsible, and the dog was obviously a hazard, we don't know. The police pushed this into a process of law, and that's what should happen.

I'm quite happy for strangers to approach my dogs. My dogs are generally wagging their butts off when they think someone may approach, and they only jump up on guys whose body language clearly invites them to do so (thump thump with fingers of both hands on the chest, for example). Typical Labradors. They are allowed in the US equivalent of Bunnings. They go up and down the isles with me looking for pats. The dogs love it, as do the store staff.

The spokesman here doesn't seem to be a vet. He's called Mr Richards, not Dr. Richards, and described as a manager. Is this a franchise vet practice?

If it had been Oz currency this would have been much easier. Our notes aren't as tough as yours

Great for $10 If you have trouble with steering frontwards, try backwards. My mechanical sense isn't always right, but I think the front wheel is going to be a problem for steering.

I've run on pairs of pups to six months a couple times. Never was a problem. The pups do like the company . . . though they get into more stuff and dig deeper holes when there are two. Don't a lot of breeders do this?

I'm curious about what sort of weight ranges you find for pups of different breeds. And I'm not sure what is desirable. I have a litter of 9 Lab pups who turn 8 wks tomorrow and will be going off to new homes. A couple will be flying, so I've been asked to predict how much they weigh. My experience with Lab pups has been a tad under a kg / week, so I guessed 15 lbs or 7 kg. They are coming in on target, the boys at 7.25, the girls, around 7. The vet who gave them their jabs was amazed at how big they are. She said another Lab breeder in town's pups weighed about half as much at 8 weeks! Everybody always says "big, healthy pups". But is bigger really healthier? Am I feeding too much (they aren't fat)? Do some breeders end out with little pups cause they skimp on feeding?

Depending on how the wheels are set up, you may find steering a problem. I'd suggest trying to pull the thing with a rope before you go out and buy harnesses.

So awful. The buck doesn't stop with some vet nurse. I think the AVA should be revoking licenses for this. Signing a false death certificate sounds like felony-level malpractice to me, especially when the dog was being pts because it was vicious..

Most recent dog book, well, sort of, was a sci fi collection of short stories Resnick's Menagerie by Mike Resnick. Resnick, along with being a Hugo and Nebula award winning Sci Fi author, is a much titled breeder of rough collies, and, along with his wife, has run a mega-size boarding facility. He has an interesting take on animals in general.

I don't keep a separate account for the dogs, but I always keep a buffer for emergencies of any sort of $5k+. Sh#t happens. Bloat, car accident, blown engine on car . . . . there are hundreds of possible events that could put you in the hole overnight. Ongoing expenses can vary from $1/day per dog to $4/day depending on how you manage such things as flea meds, heartworm meds, vaccinations, and toys, and how expensive you go when buying dog food. If you travel and are going to need to put your dog in kennels, or you will need grooming, add this in, too. Giant breeds and high health risk breeds are going to end out on the high end.