sandgrubber

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.

I think some public perceptions are justified. Many breed standards have come to be interpreted in the extreme by show ring judges. Breeders who breed for healthy pets, with conformation as seen, say, in 1950, as opposed to show winners, are likely to be ostracized by 'the fancy'. If people want to breed for thick, grooming-intensive coats, extreme bracycephaly, or the flying trot (in GSD's) fine, they are welcome to do so. But they are not serving the needs of people who want a low maintenance family dog, and it would be good if certain people would stop screaming BYB at anyone who breeds but does not participate in the show ring or performance competitions. The average bloke on the street reacts to the modern sloped back GSD with a WTF reaction, and will go for a more squared up, classical conformation every time. The message that the wheezing pug is not a natural or healthy dog has sunk in to a large fraction of the population. We also need to pay attention to breed specific longevity, morbidity, and mortality. It would be nice to be able to advertize, not that we do all sorts of tests, but that we have selected our dogs from bloodlines that have lived to a ripe old age with minimal veterinary care. If we want to change perception, it behooves us to look at where public perception is coming from, admit that there may be some truth in allegations against the pedigree world, and have a word with those who act like snobs toward breeders who put health and temperament ahead of physical appearance in their breeding programs.

Given how wonderful (not) most Councils are about dog management, I would try confronting the owner as a first step. Common law gives people the right to confront their accuser, so reporting the dog doesn't give you anonymity, and it's much more likely to provoke fights and resentment than approaching the owner personally. That is, if the Council doesn't just ignore the complaint.

The differences between Labs and Goldens can only be discussed as averages, as there is a lot of variation in both breeds. Im a Lab person. I'll probably get flamed by Goldie folks for this list, but that will at least give you a few perspectives .1. Goldie's have longer coat and require more grooming. Labs offer a wider selection of colors . 2. Both breeds have working and show lines. But, especially with Labs, 'working' can mean Guide dog of sniffer dog or various other sorts of work. It always requires rock solid temperament and biddability, but may not involve water obsession. Look for lines that have the sort of disposition you want...not necessarily show lines...though many show lines produce great working dogs. Goldie's have been more affected by selection for show/looks and puppy farming than Labs, and there are lines where temperament has gone bad. Watch out for resource guarding in Goldie's and aggression in Labs (rare, but not unknown). 3. Exercise requirements are moderate; I walk my Labs for 45 min/day and they do fine. I know many owners who exercise their retrievers (either breed) a lot less than I. 4. Labs tend to be more robust and a bit less nervous/flighty than Goldie's...which is not to say Goldie's are nervous, just to say Labs are the opposite of nervous. I think that's why they do so well as assistance dogs...it's very hard to rattle them. This also makes them relatively safe around children....a kid doing something loud or stupid, or stepping on the paw of a sleeping dog is unlikely to provoke a nervous bite. 5. Both breeds are very people oriented and tend to be more sociable than some people like. Be prepared to work on training a pup not to jump up on people if you go this route. 6. Both breeds tend to get along well with other animals of all species IF they are socialized to do so. I encourage mine to kill rats, mice, rabbits, etc, and they cannot be let loose around small mammals.

I'd recommend looking at a paper on "Breed Typical Behavior" by Svartberg. You can find it by googling if this link doesn't work. homepage.psy.utexas.edu/homepage/group/.../Svartburg%202006.pdf‎ Everybody always says this or that dog or this or that breed has lovely temperament. Svartberg worked with behavioral assessments of 13,000 dogs and tried to boil the results down into four dimensions. He ended up with what he called 'playfulness, curiosity/fearlessness, sociability and aggressiveness'. Breeds end out with very different profiles when stacked up along these dimensions. (Note, his definition of aggression is a bit weird . . . it does not seem to mean proneness to attack). If I were looking for a dog for living with kids, I'd want a playful and social dog. If those dimensions are important to you, I think you might want to consider a flatcoat or retriever rather than relatively more formal and less playful breeds.

I would look at Comfortis, which is based on a toxin produced by bacteria that seems to be highly selective for insects and arachnids and non-toxic to mammals. Also, consult your vet to figure out what active ingredients to watch out for. See http://pets.webmd.co...tments-for-pets extract . . . The NRDC offers these suggestions in its Green Paws Pocket Guide: Avoid all organophosphates, including amitraz, fenoxycarb, permethrin, propoxur, tetrachlorvinphos (TCVP) Use other topical products sparingly, particularly on pets that are around pregnant women or small children. These include fipronil (Frontline), imidacloprid (Advantage), metaflumizone (ProMeris), pyrethroids (pyrethroids are found in many insect control products; they are toxic to cats and should be used on dogs only), selamectin (Revolution) Consider orally administered products, as exposure to other pets and children is minimal. These include lufenuron (Program), nitenpyram (CAPSTAR), spinosad (Comfortis, for dogs only)

and Cattle dogs are very popular now in the US. Very popular! I met quite a few whilst there and my friend has 3 of her own in Wyoming. so popular that they're beginning to push the pit bull for elbow room in rescues.