sandgrubber

I've not been posting here as US litters aren't so interesting if you live in Australia. But WTH. Bonza is due on 10 August. Xrays show 8 to 10 pups. Not expecting a milk shortage, she's dripping a bit already.

misplaced post....moved to Litters due in Ausust

Anyone want ammunition for the discussion of why to buy from a legit breeder. I came across three good articles in Forbes Magazine, written from the perspective of someone who started with a rescue dog and had problems, and then got a pup from a good breeder, with great results. See http://www.forbes.com/sites/allenstjohn/2012/02/17/how-much-is-that-doggie-in-the-window-the-surprising-economics-of-purchasing-a-purebred-puppy/ The first article links to two other articles, both good material.

I,ve been reading Myea Savant Harris' bok, Advanced Canine Whelping and Puppy Care. She recommends use or something called Fertile Focus as an alternative to program testing. It allows monitoring estrogen levels using saliva and a microscope http://www.amazon.co...e/dp/B000S2O1CI This is marketed for women monitoring their cycles. People reviewing it in Amazon say it also works for checking sperm motility. Has anyone used this approach? There also seems to be an option for monitoring LH based on strips in urine. Would this work for dogs? http://www.amazon.co...ef=pd_sim_hpc_2

I sense a pattern. In this case, like the 2 yr old who was killed a few years ago, and the Ayen Chol death, the owner wasn't around and dog care was left in the hands of someone else. Advice on management of large, potentially dangerous dogs doesn't usually include advice on how to care for them when you leave town. Pet sitters or leaving with a relative seems to be a dangerous option.

If those factors were 'secondary', then every big dog would 'kill' or seriously attack. The evidence is that most don't. Go look at the scientific studies. Studies looking into aggressive behaviours in dogs of all sizes & breeds & mixed breeds at the University of Cordoba found that human factors in what people did or did not do, in managing and training their dogs, was the key factor. Their conclusion was that people need to socialize & train their dogs. But they acknowledged some could have issues like neurological problems. One factor that came out as more linked with development of aggression... was small size. Yes, small size. Because owners didn't see the necessity to train them & also because they are more likely to be pampered & spoiled. Yet small size dogs can do serious harm to the statistically most vulnerable age bracket.... babies, toddlers & young children. Because the child's face is on a level with the dog & their finer skin is very easily injured. Mita, could you please provide a fuller reference for this study. I tried looking it up, but it's pretty hopeless to find a paper just knowing the University name. The closest I came was a paper based on an owner survey using an opportunistic sampling strategy. This came out putting breed very high in the list of factors correlated with aggression. See http://www.medwelljo...aa.2009.336.342 If this is the study you're citing, its methods are weak. It has been widely picked up by media, but I don't think the results have been accurately reported.

Don't know if you can buy these in Oz, but a company called Little City Dogs has started selling the generic equivalent of Capstar (and Revolution) for much lower prices than the brand name. See http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_19?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=little+city+dogs+capstar&sprefix=little+city+dogs+ca%2Caps%2C1004 < $1/capsule if you get a bottle of 100.

Most breeders would eliminate a dog or bitch with a high hip score, even with no clinical manifestation, even if the bloodlines ran good hip scores. What you describe is much worse than a radiographic only case of moderate HD.I would not breed or use such a dog. If I did so it would only be a test litter, to be carefully monitored. You can, presumably, rule out environmental factors, because you don't have other dogs with the same condition...so there's a strong possibility that the condition is genetic.

Here's the rationale (which I don't believe, but the GSD people take seriously). "The gait, which describes movement, is called the flying trot. The German shepherd is supposed to have a far front reach as well as great rear end extension. This produces a dog that glides across the ground, covering a large area in few moves, which is the right movement for a dog keeping a flock of sheep together. In fact, the whole visual picture illustrates the qualities necessary to do their intended work. Large, strong and fast might simply state the breed's physical attributes." from www.stevediller.com/articles/german_shepherd.pdf‎ Seems to me that kelpies do a great job of keeping a flock of sheep together without resorting to a strange gait that seems to be gliding.

The official standard for GSD quality comes out of Germany, where they have selected heavily for the 'flying trot', and accept the sloping back that goes with it. Loose hocks are not supposed to be part of the picture, but they often seem to be introduced when breeding to meet the show standard. See, eg., the example video clip at http://www.caninetrainingsystems.com/product/V-GSD-5/The-German-Shepherd-Dog-the-German-Way-Set Fortunately, there are many GSD breeders who aim for a squarer, more normal-looking dog. They just aren't winning in the show ring.

Good questions.I Having spent some years managing a boarding kennel and seeing dog after dog with skin problems, I wish more breeders considered skin problems in their breeding programs. Chronic skin problems can be as much discomfort and expense as HD or epilepsy! I haven't had to deal with this one as the dogs I've owned personally have had no allergies...not even flea allergy...and I've never had a report-back from a puppy buyer reporting allergy problems. In theory, the genetics of allergies are tied up in the MHC/DLA and problems are more likely if there is a lot of homozygosity in this region. Ie, inbreeding (including line breeding) is likely to result in more allergy problems. I've seen no hard evidence saying this is true.

I'd like to see evidence that they work first. Notice there were 0 reviews with the posted add. If a dog can get its elbows over, or hits with enough forward momentum and the right angle, it's over and out.

Reasonable request. Looks like you got what you asked for. For me, the bottom line is it doesn't hurt to ask.

The article says Wooltana St.6 Wooltana St sold in May for $1.25M, 11 Wooltana St. Is listed for $1.59M. It's a short street near Manning Rd, the Canning Bridge, and various parks. Most of us couldn't afford to live there.

I'll bet KAIT8 is one of those stations where every day is April Fools Day. Here's a clip from some discussion of their morning news anchor : 11 OMG, that Anchor Christina on KAIT8 just laughed when talking about Mrs Schmidt (fallen cop's wife) before the video come on. WTH! Did anyone else catch that this morning? I'm calling them today and complain about this. That was just wrong. I don't see what's so funny about a year anniv of the death of ANYONE! KAIT needs to fire that dingy blonde and get someone in there that doesn't act like alittle schoolgirl. How unprofessional is that? WOW, this makes me sick. What a slap in the face that was!

I should have put that differently. I meant to observe that aggressive escaping dogs aren't just a bogan phenomenon.As for fines, $10k is a lit easier to swallow with an annual income of $100 or $200k than it is with an annual income of under $50k.The dents in the top of the fence in the video show that the dog had been attempting the fence for some time. Leaving such a dog in someone else's care while going overseas is extremely negligent. The kid could easily have been killed. Reading subsequent stories, between hospital costs and lost time at work, the owners' irresponsibility has cost tens of thousands, perhaps over $100k, not to mention pain and suffering.

horrible! I hope both father and son recover well. Isn't that an area of million dollar plus houses? Not the usual place for a dog attack. $10,000 is an inadequate fine, and jail time should be considered. If reconstructive surgeries are required, the medical bills alone, are likely to be several thousand. The video suggests that the dog went over a high (1.8m?) colorbond fence that many of us would have thought adequate.

Yes. See http://www.havaneseforum.com/archive/index.php?t-12210.html Not sure if it has gone through drug trials for ticks, but people using it seem to find it eliminates ticks. There has been some scientific testing and the active ingredient in Comfortis has proven effective against some ticks. Here's an abstract from the journal Veterinary Parasitology. "Comparative efficacy of spinosad with conventional acaricides against hard and soft tick populations from Antalya, Turkey http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/19446398 They concluded: "Our results showed that spinosad would be a useful addition in a tick control program as an alternative for pyrethroids and organic phosphorus acaricides against both tick species."

Yes. See http://www.havaneseforum.com/archive/index.php?t-12210.html Not sure if it has gone through drug trials for ticks, but people using it seem to find it eliminates ticks. There has been some scientific testing and the active ingredient in Comfortis has proven effective against some ticks. Here's an abstract from the journal Veterinary Parasitology. "Comparative efficacy of spinosad with conventional acaricides against hard and soft tick populations from Antalya, Turkey"http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/19446398 They concluded Our results showed that spinosad would be a useful addition in a tick control program as an alternative for pyrethroids and organic phosphorus acaricides against both tick species.

Double post....oops!

Dog friendly jobs exist in Australia. I sold a pup to a message therapist who worked for a high end gym in Perth. She was allowed to take her dog to work. Dog friendly corporates are rare in the US, as they are in Oz.

Say, for example, the problem was hip dysplasia in a Labrador retriever. This problem is genetic, but the mode of inheritance is not clear. It is probably controlled by the interaction of several genes.The chance of getting HD is roughly twice as high if the sire and dam have mediocre scores than if they have excellent scores, but there is still a significant chance of ending up with a pup that suffers HD when both parents are screened according to best practices. To make things worse, the screening procedures are pretty flaky, and can be strongly affected by the skill of the radiographer and the idiosyncrasies of the person reading the X-rays.Unfortunately, there is no way to screen pups until around 7 mo., so the breeder doesn't know which, if any, pups are defective.So it is not reasonable to blame the breeder....and the way the matter is handled comes down to negotiation between the breeder and the puppy buyer. Sometimes this comes down to purchase contract, sometimes breeders will give refunds even if nothing was written into the contract.<div><br></div><div>On the other hand, if the problem were something like PRA in a Labrador, which can be unambiguously identified by genetic screening...and genetic screening is widely recognized as best practice, then the breeder is culpable. </div>

Sorry to be cynical, but it sounds very lucrative for the drug companies, and I doubt it will become an affordable therapy for dogs. They're just feel good guinea pigs. People would gladly pay tens or hundreds of thousands to be cured of late stage cancers. Meanwhile, antibiotics research is not sufficiently profitable and work to deal with drug resistant TB and infections that hang around hospitals is barely funded.

Thenpoor woman is still alive in critical condition. As for the dogs: "City of Houston animal control manager Chris Glaser told KHOU 11 News, 'Most of the time you won’t have them acting out in an aggressive manner like this.” 'It’s a pack mentality. That can happen when there’s an aggressive act by one and it continues. With that many dogs on her, she was being dragged up and down the street,' he said. Officers were able to trace the dogs to their den underneath a nearby mortuary by following their foot prints Glaser said one of the dogs, a Pit Bull mix, appears to be the leader of the pack. He believes at least ten dogs are still hiding underneath the mortuary. Animal control officers have trapped the dogs in, leaving only one exit, and are now trying to lure them into a single large kennel-type trap using food as bait. So far they have captured five of the animals from underneath the mortuary, two of which are puppies and only about four months of age, Glaser said. Officers are visiting up to five times a day to check on the trap. Glaser told KHOU 11 all of the dogs would be tested for rabies and then possibly destroyed. Oscar Reyes says family members are keeping a constant vigil at his stepmother's hospital bedside, praying that she will live. VIDEO: http://www.khou.com/news/local/Houston-woman-in-critical-condition-after-pack-of-15-dogs-attack-216692361.html"

I would be equally wary of a behaviour expert who thinks breed explains everything and one who thinks breed is insignificant. Of course there is a lot of variation in any breed. AmStaffs have some very strong inclinations. They also have extremely high rates of getting into trouble for behavioural reasons (eg, the Finnish KC database shows 10% of pedigree AmStaffs dying due to euthanasia for behavioral reasons, at an average age of around 3 years, and another 10% dying of accidents, also at a young age). It's as much of an error to assume all behaviorists are alike as it is to assume all dogs of a given breed are alike. I've watched miracles from a behaviorist. I've also watched a bunch of people getting fleeced with consults that did absolutely nothing to improve the dog's behavior or the owner's understanding of the dog's behavior. The pup in question is a pup. Worth noting that it's a good time to get behaviour on track, cause the problems at 5 mo can escalate significantly in the next couple years....and the powers that be aren't very tolerant of misbehaving AmStaffs.