sandgrubber

And here's a BAD one...too far in the opposite direction http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zdN23rFqh1g&feature=related

Rates of Cesarian, by breed http://www.bakalo.com/C-Section-rates-purebreed-dogs.pdf OBJECTIVES: To describe the frequency of caesarean sections in a large sample of pedigree dogs in the UK. METHODS: Data on the numbers of litters born in the previous 10 years were available from a cross-sectional study of dogs belonging to breed club members (2004 Kennel Club/BSAVA Scientific Committee Purebred Dog Health Survey). In this survey 151 breeds were repre- sented with data for households that had reported on at least 10 litters (range 10–14,15): this represented 13,141 bitches which had whelped 22,005 litters. The frequency of caesarean sections was estimated as the percentage of litters that were reported to be born by caesarean section (caesarean rates) and are reported by breed. The dogs were cat- egorised into brachycephalic, mesocephalic and dolicocephalic breeds. RESULTS: The 10 breeds with the highest caesarean rates were the Boston terrier, bulldog, French bulldog, mastiff, Scottish terrier, miniature bull terrier, German wirehaired pointer, Clumber spaniel, Pekingese and Dandie Dinmont terrier. In the Boston terrier, bulldog and French bulldog, the rate was > 80%. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: These data provide evidence for the need to monitor caesarean rates in certain breeds of dog.

The third or forth time the pups woke me last night the noises sounded a little different and I went to look. Surprise! Jarrah has helped with every litter she's been around, so it wasn't entirely unexpected. But she's now nine, and was spayed two years ago. Seems that oestrogen production is not essential for the maternal instinct to kick in.

Congrads! You must be beyond exhaustion! Looks like they're up and feeding well, so as Ceasars go, it was a good one!

The breeder I referred to is Not in SE QLD. You can probably find brindle-marked Labs in all states.White on pads is much honored. The first dual champion Lab, Banchory Bolo, had white spots in his pads and passed the trait on. Seehttp://www.lorkenfarms.com/banchory_bolo.htm

Try googling 'pedigree pit bull' and look at the pictures. They're all over the place.

I didn't get a white fluffy...I got a young flop eared dog with an intense staring expression. Couldn't say anything about temperament from photo. Mostly rated "3".

Lovely looking pups, Tristven. I presume they squeak and purr and occasionally squeak at night. Apart from color, it's surprising how much alike little Fauves and little Labs look. Here are mine at 10 days

According to one very respectable study (500 dogs followed for 10 years), long walks on gentle terrain are good for reducing HD. http://www.usdaa.com/article.cfm?newsID=2288 Stairs are bad. It would be good to find the whole document to see if anything is said about styles of play/games.

Excellent article. Don't just look at the pictures, read the text!!! There's an excellent discussion of the history of the retriever breeds with respect to coat type. I did read it. :) Very interesting. That was very interesting. Thank you for putting that up. I still think (given the expense of importing dogs into Australia) that the odds of a breeder importing a dog unaware of its pedigree and propensity to produce dogs not to standard would be very slim. As said before, occams razor says the bitch is a crossbred and given that curly coats and flat coats are not as common as goldens the bitch is most likely to have golden in her. I once saw a couple with what I thought was a yellow lab and a small black flatcoat, turns out both dogs were littermates and lab x goldens. It happens. A well known, and well respected Lab breeder in Australia has produced brindle-looking pups. The K locus gene for solid color is dominant. About 5% of Labs carry the recessive allele, ie, they are Kk rather than KK. Unless you happen to breed two Labs carrying the recessive, you wouldnt know it was there. The genetic test for this is pretty new, and there are presumably a few hundred Labs, perhaps even a few thousand, carrying the 'non-solid' color gene. I don't think the genetics of long coat in Labs is precisely known. But if the condition is rarer than Kk, it's not going to show up often. This is not to say there aren't shonky breeders who would pass off a Goldie x Lab as a purebred.

No need to be freaked out. Yes, there are horror stories. But there are a lot of responsible kennel owners. I'd look for someplace where the owners manage the place, and the help, if any, have been with them for years. Make sure that 'exercise' doesn't mean kicking the dogs out for 20 minutes while we hose down the kennels. Get some recommendations.In the years I owned and operated a kennel, it was pleasing to realize that most of our dog customers enjoyed their stay. Owners often told us that the dog looked all excited when they got close enough to realize they were going to kennels. We occasionally had dogs that made it clear they didn't want to go home. And we often got comments like "what did you do to my dog....it slept for a week when it came home". Though different from home, a kennel can be a very stimulating and exciting place for a dog.

Excellent article. Don't just look at the pictures, read the text!!! There's an excellent discussion of the history of the retriever breeds with respect to coat type.

According to the article, they can already give a 2 yr sentence for owners of attacking dogs. Do they use it? I'm sure they don't. I'd say a 10 yr -- or life -- sentence is too high. The cost of incarceration is high, $30k to $70k / yr are the sorts of figures I've seen. Indirect costs are also high. Someone taken out of the workforce. Kids left without a parent. The incarcerated person often changed into a more hardened criminal, and left with dim employment prospects. So a social cost of half a million or so for a 10 yr sentence. Spending at that level would go a long way toward enforcement of laws and education. And judges, who understand the consequences of incarceration, will tend to duck implementation. If you want a punishment that will really scare them, I'd suggest castration and a lifetime ban on owning dogs. Not that the suggestion will fly.

I would suggest changing the title of the thread; maybe by putting a ? at the end. If it's poly genetic and no one can trace the lines, the breeder is not at fault.

It's amazing to witness those moments isn't it. Penny was a spinner and screamer and I had to watch her with chewing the cord too. On one she got so carried away I feared she's accidentally chew legs off or even a hole in his belly. I had to gently intervene. Years ago, I had a girl who didn't get it at first. She didn't spin and scream . . . she was terrified of the little whelp. Fortunately I had a good vet on call, who said, be calm and patient, put the pups on her, she'll eventually catch on. After the third pup she was fine and she was a great mother for subsequent litters.

I can't form an opinion. It would be useful to know how many people have actually been given jail time before advocating longer sentences. Lock em up and throw away the key hasn't done a great job of resolving drug abuse problems in the USA. Seems likely that the problems are in poor enforcement of existing laws, not in weak penalties.

Really now? Has someone banished poisonous snakes from Australia recently? The main reason to bring your dogs in at night, where I live, is because you like having them near you . . . or you don't want them to bark too much and annoy the neighbors.

+1 beautiful dogs, too!

To answer that you need to know the probability of a torn dew claw, and the likelihood that removal of dew claws will cause problems, such as arthritis described by Dr Zink ...or reduce the dog's functional ability by removing grip. I've never seen a torn dew claw, and my dogs dewclaws are tight to the ankle, so I don't see the probability of a torn dewclaw as high....others have different experiences and weigh the odds differently.

Dr. Christine Zink, the dog sports medicine lady, has a good veterinary article on dewclaws. http://www.caninesports.com/uploads/1/5/3/1/15319800/dewclawexplanation_rev_apr_10_2013.pdf She is specific about the anatomy of dew claw attachment...and claims that dewclaw removal can result in old age arthritis. Quoting from that source: Those muscles indicate that the dewclaws have a function. That function is to prevent torque on the leg. Eachtime the foot lands on the ground, particularly when the dog is cantering or galloping (see Figure 2), the dewclawis in touch with the ground. If the dog then needs to turn, the dewclaw digs into the ground to support the lowerleg and prevent torque. If the dog doesn't have a dewclaw, the leg twists. A lifetime of that and the result can becarpal arthritis, or perhaps injuries to other joints, such as the elbow, shoulder and toes. Remember: the dog isdoing the activity regardless, and the pressures on the leg have to go somewhere.

Sorry not to have anything helpful to say, but I sure wish mine were terrified of the stuff. They regard blood and bone (any sort) as a big sign that says 'dig here'. One year I planted a couple hundred bulbs and the dogs came along and dug every single one of them up.

I've been watching a litter of five day old pups scoot around the whelping box. Their locomotion is surprisingly similar to the retrievers working on ice in the video. They use their dew claws like mad. I wonder if anyone has ever compared neonate locomotion with and without dewclaws. Might puppy mortality, particularly through being squished by mum, be higher when dew claws are removed? Btw, in my OP, I didn't say dewclaw removal was cruel or condemned anyone for doing it. I just said it made me feel terrible. I'm not against removing dew claws, but I don't think it should be done casually, or for cosmetic reasons. Mum not blinking an eye when it's done is no test. Mums can be amazingly unreactive to puppy distress, as in when they sit on pups and squash them to death, or stand by and watch microchips inserted. MonElite, retrieving on ice is central to the original purpose of the retriever. The Newfoundland dogs imported to the UK ...progenitors to Labbies, flatties, Goldies, Chessies, etc., excelled in work in frozen water, probably both working as assistance dogs to fishermen on the Grand Bands, and as hunting dogs when the fishing wasn't so good. The rural folk at high latitudes do a lot of hunting when the days are short and there's ice on the pond. Hence high value placed on dual coat with high water repellency, and hence the high popularity of Labs in Scandinavia, Russia, and Canada. And as DakotaJ noted, the trainer is being careful...it sounds like he's prepping the dogs so they WON'T get in trouble when working in the field under frozen conditions.

Have you never looked at a celeb picture and wondered what they looked like without makeup? I see nothing bizarre about wanting to see the real side of breeding . . . as opposed to the cleaned up side. Hope to follow up with the week six to eight mega-mess when they're eating solid food and mum is getting tired of cleaning up. I think people, other than breeders, need to understand what is involved in raising a litter of puppies. Pictures taken just after cleaning up don't do the job.

One of the blogs I follow posted a great video showing dogs using their dew claws for retrieves on ice. I've always hated to remove dew claws. It feels like cutting off the dog's thumb -- much worse than docking a tail or ears. Anyway . . . an interesting and well made video. See http://vimeo.com/39124130 Ice isn't such a big issue in Oz . . . but I still see dogs use their dew claws when chewing a bone or other object.

Yep its easy to think based on what we know and live with personally but now I know why you may not give a dog a water bowl over night and I live with mongrel brown snakes I understand why someone may go that way. Whats worse having a dog thats locked up for 6 to 8 hours without water or snakes competing for their water - especially in tight areas where they couldn't get out of their way - not an easy question. Personally I think a dog which is fed a raw food diet would not suffer at all if it had to wait overnight for a drink - evidenced by the ratbag who sleeps on my couch who isn't interested in having a drink while she is inside over night even with a water bowl available all the time. problem is if the law says water has to be available all the time - no one cares why- its a breach of the law - if you have 10 dogs its 10 cruelty charges and you are guilty - no way out of it. I'm curious. Do those drinking fountain things you can put on the end of a hose work? I'd think you could plumb them in so the spills go into some sort of a drain. Or will snakes still come for the smell of water, even if there's no bowl. It's a fair bit of work to remove water dishes every night.