sandgrubber

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.

Horrid . . . and better written than 90% of the articles you see in the newspaper. There should be a special place in jail (and hell, if it exists) for people who set their dogs on people or pets.

This. This is not unreasonable. What is unreasonable is to expect a dog to be 'fault free' like an appliance. We can't control DNA (outside of the tiny tiny part that we can do a DNA test for - in SOME breeds). We are dealing with living breathing things and just like human health and genetics, much of it is out of our control. We have as much chance of developing a 'fault free' dog as we do a 'fault free' human. Does this imply it conscionable to breed dogs with known late-onset illnesses that are likely to be inherited (eg, epilepsy, propensity to bloat)?

Yes! To report or not to report is your decision. At very least point out to the man that his dog's behaviour is not acceptable and the dog could be reported ... with drastic consequences.

I'm in a relatively inexpensive area of the US and those prices sound absurdly low to me.

Joking about this is very bad taste So is Monte Python. Huh? Humor, as a response to disgust, is a natural response. Think Dead Parrot. It's as stupid to slight people for making jokes in 'bad taste' as it is to make fun of someone for blushing. So if my friend got eaten by her dogs and someone cracked a joke about it then that would be OK? Just because people do it doesn't mean others can't be offended by it. The point is moot anyway as he said he wasn't being funny. How do you know he was joking? His dogs probably would eat him if he died and they got hungry. I was confused bu the huge grinning face and it came off as a joke. He said he wasn't so I believe that. Last thing I'm saying on the subject. :) For single persons that don't have a lot of family etc it is a very real fear that you will die and no one will notice for ages. Sometimes laughing about that is a defense mechanism. I will admit I couldn't help thinking about Bridget Jones' Diary and the 'Eaten by Alsatians' scene!! What comes to mind for me is interviews with people who suffer distress: families of suicides, people with horrible disfiguring injuries or diseases, etc., and the almost universal comment that the most awful part is people looking away, pretending nothing is wrong, and leaving them lonely in depressing silence. By in large, I think frank bad taste, so long as it isn't cruel, is healthier than polite silence.

I'm not going to take the trouble to look at the Facebook posts, etc., and the woman's looks or emotional reactions should be irrelevant to the question. My opinions would be clearer if I had evidence as to whether the guy set his dog on hers, or merely allowed it to happen. But I wonder how much press this would have gotten if she were a poor, overweight, badly-dressed middle-aged woman. Everyone deserves safety, both for themselves and their best friends, regardless of what they look like and regardless of the way they present to the media.