sandgrubber

Cute I have mixed feelings about the Safari park, though http://myrtlebeachsafari.com/

Not tearing, but keeps my pups busy. I toss pups a whole carrot. They play with it for a long time, gradually eating it. My big dogs get a lot of carrots. Apples are entertaining, too.

It may also be worth referencing Dr John Armstrong's work with Standard Poodles, and the importance of the Wycliffe lines. Where a few dogs have dominated breeding, the diseases of those dogs become the diseases of the breed. And high COI's don't help the immune system. See: http://www.dogenes.com/poodle/poodle.html

I think the single most important tools to use with pups are your eyes for observation, your body for communication, and your brain for figuring out what is going on. If you're on the right wavelength, most pups will come along on the lead no matter what collar they have on. Beyond that, you choose your tools to suit the pup and the task, eg., you may want a long, light line for recall work, a prong collar, properly used, may work wonders on a pup who has already picked up the habit of pulling hard.

I think if you might get more response if you phrased this differently and asked about "learning the hard way" about accepting a dog or bitch with health problems. I have had a few breeders tell me, with no shame, that they will never again use a dog with bad elbow scores because they ended out with a litter where almost all the pups had problems.

re. the two JRT's. How big is the Rutherford RSPCA centre? Sounds like typical behavior in a rule-bound institution where the people who make decisions at the bottom of the ladder are afraid to implement decisions that deviate from standard practice...and then held responsible for doing something that isn't nice. Or perhaps everyone had had so much contact with these two dogs that they had reason to doubt the owner would come up with the cash. as so often, hard to figure out what actually happened and why. It's interesting that the newspaper saw fit to cover the story. The equivalent probably happens a hundred times a day in the US and never gets any press.

Yes good point This Plus they are not shoving it down people's throats and going into other threads like another food. I don't see anything wrong with this thread, if you don't like it then don't click on it. As someone else pointed out, I didn't click on it for 18 mo. ;-) Just happened to check in to see what has been going on for so long. I see no reason to complain, as it is easy enough to avoid. I agree, it would be good to see a forum where many feed manufacturers could participate in discussion with pet owners. Giving sponsors special rights goes against the grain for me.

A high power squirt gun is a useful device for un-training this behavior. You can put substances other than water in it (perfume, ammonia, anything your dog doesn't like that won't cause lasting harm).

Sometimes you come across an article that is so good you want to share it. Here's one on pain management. The author is a vet + additional training and shows strong compassion for animals. It is also well referenced and pretty cautious. http://www.2ndchance.info/pain.htm Here's a brief extract from a long article There are some general rules when using pain control medications in dogs and cats. The first is to give the medication early, before the pain becomes too intense. The second is to give lower doses of two or more pain control medications that have different modes of action rather than a higher dose of a single medication. Often, what we call a "second tier" medication that is weaker but has fewer side effects is added to a "first tier" medication that is more powerful (but more dangerous) in order to keep the first tier drug dose low. Doses need to always be kept to the bare minimum that gives your pet acceptable relief. Older patients generally need lower doses less frequently than younger, more robust, pets. Its also wise to check your pet's kidney and liver function before and during the use of most pain control medications.

Oh, it's on the Internet so it must be true . Also physiologically dogs and cats are NOT the same.. I would have said the same thing if my mother, in her last decade, hadn't had an arthritic dog. Her vet, who was thoughtful and recognized she was on fixed income, told her more or less the same thing, and she used buffered children's aspirin on and off for many years with no ill effects. I also worked with a country vet in Australia who basically said, sure, low dose aspirin is fine for pain relief. Of course you have to get the dose right. Also, in deciding what sources to trust, I would always prefer something with a handle, such as the Cox-1 and Cox-2 terms in the above, that permits easy search for confirmation or refutation, than something flossy like 'All Natural'. The opposite, ie, that these things are deadly, is also on the internet. But when it comes to motive, almost no one wants to poison pets, while drug companies have big incentive to get vets to prescribe, and people to use, expensive drugs like Rimdyl. I agree, cats are different from dogs. I am not a cat person and have only skimmed the following, but as I read the conclusions, short term use of a Cox-1 NSAI on a cat is not ill advised IFF dosage is correct. So the argument comes down to the dose. The vet has science behind her in the naming of a drug for short term use. We don't know how specific or emphatic she was about the dangers of over dosing. For extensive, definitive, discussion from the Feline Vet Science community see: Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery (2010) 12, 521–538 doi:10.1016/j.jfms.2010.05.004 ISFM AND AAFP CONSENSUS GUIDELINES SPECIAL ARTICLE Long-term use of NSAIDs in cats (I found this by Googling "cats nsai" ... for reasons unknown I can't copy the URL . . . but if you want to find it I'm sure you can find it with Google).

Just came across an old article endorsing the use of Ibuprofen as temporary pain relief for dogs. The claim is that it more or less the same as Rimdyl, but a damn site cheaper. http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2008/05/rimadyl-relief-for-swollen-wallet.html Here's an extract: Rimadyl is a non steroidal anti inflammatory drug (NSAID) called Carprophen. Car-prophen. Look at that name closely. It it reminds you of the name of another drug -- Ibu-profen -- that is not an accident. In fact, Ibuprofen (aka Motrin, Advil, Nuprin) is also a non steroidal anti inflammatory (NSAID), and Ibuprofen and Carprophen are chemically very similar. One is is Cox-1 drug (Ibuprofen), and the other is a Cox-2 drug (Rimadyl). What's the difference between a Cox-1 and a Cox-2 drug? In the real world, not a damn thing unless you are taking the drug daily and for a very long period of time (i.e., more than 3 weeks of daily dosing). Cox-2 drugs, such as Rimadyl, have NOT been shown to be more effective at alleviating pain than Cox-1 drugs such as Aspirin and Ibuprofen. So, to put a point on it, almost all Rimadyl sales by veterinarians for short-term use are a rip-off; you could be using buffered children's Apirin or a low-dosage of Ibuprofen for a lot less money.

I haven't read all 25 pages of this discussion and apologies for barging in like a bull in a china shop. But what is going on? I've never seen a commercial dog food producer show up as a member on a DOL Forum before. I thought commercials were forbidden from advocating their own stuff. I read lots of discussion of 'natural' but no evidence presented. Are there any experimental results to show this approach works, or just anecdotes and theory? What about recent DNA work showing that dogs, as compared to wolves, are genetically well endowed with the wherewithal to produce enzymes for starch digestion? ( http://news.sciencemag.org/plants-animals/2013/01/diet-shaped-dog-domestication ) My impression is that dogs have lived with people for thousands of years and have evolved to tolerate a wide variety of diets. There is no "Perfect Puppy Nutrition" any more than there is a perfect human diet. It's also my impression that compromised immune systems contribute greatly to allergies and food intolerance . . . and homozygosity of the DLA has compromised the immune systems of many many dogs.

I know nothing about this complex of problems. Just want to wish you and your boy the best. It sounds awful!

I turned my property in WA over to the management of someone who aspires to be a breeder. They have had three litters since moving in. In the first, two cleft palates, in the second, three, and in the third, seven. This is with two different bitches, three different dogs, and no known history of cleft palates anywhere in the pedigree. So it looks like the problem is environmental. Needless to say, they are devastated. I had a dozen litters on the same property, in the same quarters, and had one cleft palate in a total of more than 100 pups. The breeder next door has not had problems. Anyone have any ideas about what might be going on? The would-be breeder thinks the problem is a scummy pond that the dogs drink from and swim in. p.s. My reading says the known environmental causes are most often food or drug related . . . and that mycotoxins from moldy dog food are a probable cause. I'd be happy to be found wrong. But I'd hate to see these folks go to great effort to clean up or remove the pond and have it do no good.

Thanks everyone for suggestions. My intent was send the pups outside for increasing amounts of the time starting at 4 weeks, as I always did in Australia (puppy pen in the 'carport' worked great). I built them a yard and put a shade sail over it. Hasn't worked. It is simply too hot after around 9 am. 95% humidity and often 35 C. They are getting ant bites in the grass (as do I) and there are lots of other biting insects (mozzies and flies). Cement would be better with respect to insects, but hotter than grass. It's my first summer here, and I underestimated the heat. I won't have another litter -- at least not in summer -- until I have a proper concrete kennel with air conditioning. But for the meanwhile they're in the master bedroom. They have plenty of room: around a 12 sq m, all tiled. I've put down some squares of carpet so they have slip-proof surface, but they do all their sleeping and most of their playing on the tiles. They spend an hour or two in the grass in the morning. By the time the sun is fully up they start complaining and I have to let them in. The bedroom is bedlam city, with a full complement of juice bottles, old socks, tennis balls, and squeaky toys decorating the floor. . They have worked out their own way of staying clean indoors . . . their enclosure includes about half of a huge bedroom plus the full run of the ensuite bathroom. They have decided that the proper toilet area is under and around the (human) toilet and on the shower floor, which makes cleaning easy. Easier than cleaning up the mess in the grass. I keep a quality mop and bucket in the bath tub and it's no trouble mopping down. The problem isn't toileting arrangements, so much as the group enthusiasm for helping with cleaning. I go around with a spatula and some toilet paper and shovel mess into the toilet. This morning I had about six pups hanging off the arm with the spatula, and another three biting my feet. p.s. All my puppy buyers say they expect their dogs to live mostly indoors. Going in the yard is fine. But not staying there. Given a choice, my adult dogs seldom spend more than 15 minutes outside during summer heat. So I guess it's not so awful that they're not getting fully acclimatized.

I love baby puppies in almost all respects. One thing I do not love is having a troop of them mob me when I'm cleaning up poohs, getting themselves disgustingly dirty, ans spreading the mess everywhere. I try to scoot them away, swear a bit (not harsh tone of voice), growl, etc., but with the present litter of nine at six weeks, it really doesn't help much. This is not a problem of letting the poohs sit around. This litter is living in the master bedroom and ensuite -- cause it's been too hot to put them outside and I don't have a more appropriate air conditioned space. It's rare for a pooh to sit for more than 10 or 15 minutes, and often I get mobbed on cleanup when I'm on the spot for immediate pickup. It's almost like' 'picking up poohs' has become a collective game for the litter. Does everyone have this problem? Does anyone have a successful routine for keeping the little buggers out of pooh? (I considered putting this in Breeders', but decided it better to use General cause Breeders seems to be dominated by litter announcements, and because I think it right that the general population appreciate some of the not-so-fine points of the first eight weeks).

I didn't mean any suspicion or condemnation in pointing out the duplication. Just, I read a lot of blogs. It bothers me when I see the same post appearing on both of them without attribution. This seems to happen more and more. I've never seen it written down anywhere, but it seems like bad blog / forum manners to copy and paste large blocks of text without saying that's what you are doing. It's probably a carryover from marking student papers and being responsible for identifying and marking down for plagiarism . . . which has gotten a bit out of control with it being so easy to cut and paste from here and there.

I think it's premature to judge. But there are enough warning signs to suspect a problem. Not allowing puppy buyers to view premises, dogs, or pups is a bad sign. Having the neighbors say they walked by regularly and felt sorry for the dogs always being locked up (on the Facebook page) is a bad sign. Having person after person report HD and other problems is a bad sign. If the dam is routinely removed at three weeks and the pups weaned at that point, that's an awful thing. If vets are warning people off a breeder, I'd take it seriously. It is curious that the puppy refund was apparently $500. That's less than half the going price for goldies in Perth. As others have noted, the story was poorly written by someone who doesn't know much about dogs.

Previous complaints about Dancinggate . . . see http://www.goldenret...ncing-gate.html https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=249037255205114&story_fbid=398228553568963 I remember being told to steer clear of them when I lived in Perth.

This is EXACTLY the attitude that drives sincere, but naive buyers to pet shop sellers and disreputable puppy-mill sellers who don't give a shit. The puppy buyer shouldn't face an arbitrary, judgmental, unwritten set of norms...and be cast out as a prospective puppy buyer because they don't fit some unspecified profile. All sincere inquiries desreve4 at least a reply, allowing for clarification if some word raises a red flag. No wonder pedigree breeders have gotten a reputation as snobs in some circles!

I don't like the 'approved homes only' clause. I have met people, who are perfectly good dog owners by my standards (eg., last dog lived to 15 yrs, dogs live in house and are family members, good fencing, large yard) and have been dis-approved by AR-oriented shelters because they have done such sinful things as failing to desex a dog or not crate training their pups. People don't like to be judged, and the dog world is full of people who make severe judgements based on criteria I don't agree with. If someone went to buy one of my pups and, after talking with them, I found out they don't believe in letting dogs in the house, I'd simply tell them I'm sorry . . . I intend my pups to be members of a family and I don't sell pups to outside only families. (It gets very hot here and my breed is not comfortable in hot, humid weather . . . also very people oriented). This has yet to happen. People looking for quality pups in my breed seem to self-select. One of the main reasons I've continued to breed (labradors) is the high quality of buyers looking for pups like those I produce.

Pit bulls and pit crosses dominate rescue and yards of the poor, quite a few hounds (Walkers, catahoulia, beagles, blue ticks, coon hounds), some Labs, chihuahuas, smattering of GSDs, Rottis, bloodhounds, currs, daschunds. It's legal to run deer with hounds here. I live on the edge of a hunting reserve, hence lots of hunting dogs. Florida is popular for retirement, hence lots of lap dogs. In neighborhoods with livestock, you find the LGD's (or donkeys) as protection from coyotes.

I think this is where they make a lot of their profit. If you compare the prices online there is a big difference - sometimes three times the price through the vet. Or even more! I recently paid $25 for 200mls of liquid paraffin, in the supermarket it is $3.15! & $15 for an enema, at the the chemist the same one's are $15 for a box of 12! Live and learn I guess. My vet writes me prescriptions to take to the chemist if they are cheaper than he can supply.. Ditto, Staffyluv. My vet is also willing to help me with the dosages if I use livestock or human versions of drugs -- which are often MUCH cheaper than dog versions. Established vet practices that aren't paying of an expensive real estate loan and loans for a lot of equipment can afford to ignor the profit motive. I'd hate to be fresh out of vet school and trying to pay for starting up a practice from scratch, while carrying student loans.

Economists recognize a "Law of Competitive Advantage". This says that goods will tend to flow from regions where they are cheap to produce to regions where they are expensive to produce. With pups costing thousands of dollars more in Singapore--basically because both land and meat products/byproducts are expensive there--there is high market pressure for Singapore buyers to seek pups from Australia. The fact that Australia is rabies free, and thus easy from a quarantine standard, increases this pressure. I see nothing wrong with pups moving from Australia to Singapore. But with the magnitude of the price difference, there is ample opportunity to insist on regulations / quality control. Governments aren't great at this. But the result is often much better than giving the free market free reign.

The following dialog appeared in the PDE blog. Anyone want to provide some information on how MDBA is doing? (lightly edited/reformatted cause copy and past spewed out a huge amount of HTML coding) ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Anonymous: Why don't the good breeders form their own code of practice in their own professional association? Jemima Harrison: Yep. For breeders that go above and beyond what's demanded by their Kennel Clubs and breed clubs. For those that have truly embraced the science. For those that are wiling to be accountable for what they produce - and who in turn demand the best from their buyers; part of an exclusive, desirable, virtual professional association of elite, artisan dog breeders. If someone builds it, they will come. p.s. An attempt to do this in Australia, btw... Can anyone report on how its doing? http://www.mdba.net.au Jemima