dancinbcs

I too would be wary of any buyer who did not ask questions about the puppy's health status. My breed does a lot of health testing and most buyers are aware of it and ask. Next time try asking on DOL for breeder recommendations. Many very good breeders are not members of the MDBA so don't just restrict yourself to them. If you name the breed and ask for PMs about suitable breeders you should get a good response from other breeders that personally know reputable breeders in your chosen breed. For most breeds, success in the show or trial ring is a good starting point to indicate a reputable breeder. Anyone breeding just for the sake of producing puppies is best avoided. Thenit is is matter of sorting the good from the bad among the show breeders.

Cranberry juice works just as well as tablets and the dogs love it. Cooked Barley is also great for dogs that suffer from UTI's. Since having a dog with bladder problems I always use barley as my main carbohydrate source for the dogs. They are happy to eat it and it is the grain most easily digested by dogs. Mine get a small amount each day with their veges. Other than that I feed all raw.

Does anyone know what the actual difference is between the labelled annual C3 and the 3 yearly C3? Apparently they are two different products and labelled as such. The 3 yearly one is more expensive but I have not been able to find out why, other than the fact that the manufacturer says one is for one year and the other for 3 years. The AVA recommendations do not make any mention of the two different vaccines.

One point that seems to be missed here is that the vet has stated the dogs teeth are in really bad shape. If this is the case where did the students get the idea that the dog is not in pain. Obviously they have never had a toothache. The dog would most certainly be in pain from those teeth, otherwise there is no point in removing them from a dog that old. If the teeth are not causing any problem why not just let the dog live out it's days with them? Vets are often prone to offering expensive procedures in really old animals that would be better off pts. The owner may seem hard but it is her dog and her decision to pts rather than put a very old dog that she has no real affection for through an expensive and potentially dangerous procedure. I think it is extremely unethical to to talk any owner of an old dog out of euthanasia and it is something that these students should be there to learn. Surrending a problem dog should never happen. Owners need to take resposibility for their own dogs and make the tough decision to pts when the dog is really not suitable to rehome. The owner in this case was doing the responsible thing and has been guilted into changing her mind. If the students are trainee vet nurses then they need to toughen up and learn that being sentimental and wanting to save every animal is only going to break their hearts. Making practical decisions about animal welfare involves a lot more than just being an "animal lover" and learning to deal with all sorts of owners, even those you don't like, is all part of the job. Aussielover made the same point while I was typing this.

I was working in a shelter that was desexing puppies and kitttens at 8 weeks about 15 years ago. They desexed about 20 animals, one day per week and never had any problems except that any of the animals I saw fully grown all looked rather weedy, no matter what breed they were. At the time though here in Australia it was not at all common for vets to offer the service to individual breeders. In fact most were totaly against the practice. In a rescue situation I can see the need for it but for pure breds were the breeder gets to be much more choosy about where the puppy goes then I prefer them done much later. In breeds that are popular with DD breeders though I can understand breeders being over cautious. Personally I have never sold a pet puppy where the owner didn't have them desexed at about 6 months. Getting any pet owner to leave a male dog entire in case it is needed for breeding later is just about impossible. Everyone I have dealt with has just wanted to get them desexed asap.

Sorry but I agree with these comments. There are so many young healthy dogs pts for lack of a home. This dog has had 15 years and it is up to the owner to decide if a dog with problems should be euthanised. How much longer do you really think he will have? I think it is really unfair to expect anyone to take on an old dog. I know there are some saints out there that will do it but old dogs usually need much more care and cost far more in vet bills in their last couple of years than they did in the rest of their lives. I do not begrudge spending up on oldies that have been with me for all or most of their lives but would never take on someone else's old dog. Maybe working for a shelter at one time has made me think in more practical terms, but any available homes should be for those dogs that still have lots to offer and many healthy years ahead of them. There is no point in keeping a dog alive just for the sake of keeping it alive. Quality of life is what counts and I would think that many owners would opt to euthanise rather than give a 15 year old dog a GA to have it's teeth done. Any procedure involving a GA is very risky for any dog that old.

I find they usually start to drop weight in their final 6-12 months. It is just the body ceasing to function as efficiently as it used to. Once the weight starts to drop other things often start to go wrong as well. Most BCs are usually really good up until 12 years but some at 13 and most at 14 suddenly become very old dogs. Only a few make it to 15 or 16.

Why anyone would clip off a spaniel type coat is beyond me. I wouldn't have paid. Don't let this groomer anywhere near Emmi. JS should NEVER be clipped.

I use Interceptor monthly on my Border Collies. Most of my BC owning friends use Heartguard monthly but I once had a dog become ill after using it. We are not sure if that is what caused the problem but I went back to Inceptor and have stuck with it since.

They are one of the DDs heavily promoted by a certain gardener.

The degree of nastiness seems to vary enormously with the breed. Some of the terrier breeds like SBT and Amstaff seem to have a problem, as do many of the utility breeds, especially those with a lot of imports. As a general rule though most of the working dog, gundog and non sporting exhibitors seem to get on pretty well. There will always be the odd person ready to be nasty but in any group of humans that is to be expected. It does generally seem to be the more placid the breed the more placid the owners are. I have always had working dogs and can only really think of a few really nasty exhibitors over the years but never to the degree mentioned above. What goes on between exhibitors of some other breeds leaves me gob smacked.

Yes, where in any breed standard does it mention that the dog must work well with the handler? In a Junior Handler class it matters but judges now judge breed classes as if they are JH classes. If I want my dogs judged on performance alone I will enter obedience, not conformation and comments from the judge about bad handling would be enough to make a novice give up. The judge is supposed to be there to judge how well the dog fits the standard. The result is generic "showdogs" win over much better examples of the breeds. Makes me wonder why they bother to study the standards. Joe Blogs off the street could pick the best "showdog", never having studied a breed standard. Classic quote from a well known judge for me was "one dog has movement, the other glamour, today I am going with glamour". This was to justify her decision on a class in working breed. I know that number of years does not necessarily = knowledge. Some people just don't want to learn. But there are some things you just cannot learn about a breed without observing multiple generations and that takes time. Some of the old timers with 40-50 years experience are just awsome in the knowledge they have aquired.

Very well thought out post Conztruct, especially for someone new to the dog world The restriction on numbers thing really needs to be addressed by poilticians to get all the other states in line with NSW, that no longer has number restrictions. Some states have become so anti-dog it is unbelievable. The NSW State Govt have buggered up just about everything they have done for this state over the last decade or so but the Companion Animal Act was the one thing they got right. Lifetime registration with the state government and no restriction on numbers was a huge boost to the dog owners in NSW.

Whilst I am not disagreeing with your statement, I am wondering how would this explain the number of ANKC Members being low? 1 member 1 dog; or 1 member 15 dogs still works out to be one member. It is very hard to breed a line of dogs if you are restricted to keeping just two. In my breed 15 would be unusual but most breeders used to keep about 4-6 at one time from puppies through to oldies. Three or four is about the mnimum to keep up an active involvement over more than ten years.

Good point. I know it is nice to have our own grounds and own facilities but showing in the same place with the same faces gets boring and the public never get to see the shows. I used to love living in the country and doing all the ag shows. They were a great way to show the dogs off the public. In Sydney we used to have several grounds around the city that were used for shows. The facilities at Erskine Park are better but the public are not likely to wander through there. I do have to say that Sydney Royal is now much better than it was at the old grounds where the public rarely found us. It is such a shame about Melbourne. The old rings at Melbourne were great.

You don't need 20 years to have success and enjoy it. I won my first BIS with my first dog when he was 3 years old. It is harder but not impossible, these days because of this obsession everyone seems to have with dog showing being a "sport" where performance and reputation are all important. Any mongrel with the right attitude can be taught to "show" but it does not make it a good example of any breed. If judges got back to judging the dogs on how they conform to the standard rather than how well the dog showed, there would be a lot more happy newcomers that would stick around rather than giving up. Believe me there is nothing like winning a BIS to give you some incentive to keep on showing.

That was the comment as I read it at the time, and while there may have been further clarification in the thread, there wasn't when the comment was made. Sorry but I beg to differ. Here is my complete original post from the topic about the fictional Jane becoming a breeder and you will notice that I was talking about how long it takes to be an experienced breeder and mentor to newcomers. It was in response to a post implying that after a few years Jane would have learnt all there is to learn. Nowhere did I say that anyone with less than 20 years knew nothing. "Even after 20 years of successful showing and breeding, Jane will still not know all there is to learn. Novice breeders realise they know nothing. After about 3 or 4 years they think they know everything. If they stick with breeding, a few years later they will start to realise how much they still have to learn. If you are a truly dedicated breeder you never stop learning. I consider anyone with less than 20 years experience a relative newcomer to the dog world. You need to have observed several generations for their full lifespan to really know a breed. At the first National Border Collie show in 2006 we had a photo taken of all the exhibitors with 20+ years in the breed. There were about 50 breeders in that photo, so newcomers have a long way to go to gain that sort of knowledge and experience. The best person to decide if your dog is worthy of breeding is your mentor. A mentor should have at least 15-20 years in the breed and have successfully produced numerous titled dogs in whatever field you wish to pursue ie. showing, trialling, herding, retrieving, etc. It is preferable if the your mentor has produced dogs titled in conformation as well as other activities appropriate to the breed." "

That was my comment and you have taken it completely out of context. What I said was that it takes about 20 years experience to really know a breed because you need to observe several generations over their full lifetime to do this. I was commenting on the amount of experience that mentors to new breeders / exhibitors should have. It is no use having a mentor who is only a couple of years in front of you in experience. As a newcomer you need a mentor who knows the breed in depth. I was lucky to start with such a mentor and do whatever I can to encourage and mentor newcomers to the breed. The reasons for the drop in numbers are many. When I started, most successful breeders where women who didn't work but had husbands that did. On weekends the whole family went to shows but the women had time as stay at home mums to devote to the dogs and breeding. This family situation is increasingly rare. With everyone working full time fewer people have time to breed or all weekend to devote to dog shows and activties. The introduction of the Grand Champion title did a lot to kill dog showing. Dogs used to be brought out and titled then semi retired to only come out for Royals and Specialties or a show where the owner thought they were in with a good chance of BIG or BIS. This meant that no dogs were shown at 100 shows a year and the winning was shared around a lot more. More dogs titled in a breed encouraged more people to show. Now we have exhibitors trying to get breed records for challenge points in a lifetime. 6000, 7000 how many is enough? The more a dog wins the more likely it is to win on reputation and for every extra couple of 100 points the same dog wins, another exhibitor probably gave up showing. As the old saying goes, if the same one wins all the time, no one else will turn up. We even used to pull titled dogs on the day to let someone that only needed a few points finish. That doesn't happen anymore. The increase in puppy farmers and dealers means that most breeders now sell everything on limit register. If no one can buy a main register dog they cannot become an exhibitor and breeder. Most of the successful breeders I have known never set out to become breeders. They bought a nice main register pet and either decided or were encouraged to show it. As dogs used to be judged per the standard, not on how well they showed, a novice with a nice puppy could do some winning and then they were hooked. The next thing they would breed their first litter and 10 years later would find themselves with a show team and having produced several nice litters. They in turn encouraged their puppy buyers to show and so the cycle repeated. If no one sells main register puppies to new exhibitors the numbers will continue to decline at an alarming rate. Finally, money is a big factor. Showing and breeding has become much more expensive. Show entries are higher because numbers are down, petrol and accomodation is much more expensive and sashes and trophies get worse every year so exhibitors get less for their outlay. With a handful of highly successful faces, that do 100 shows a year, taking out most awards it makes it very expensive for anyone else to stay around long enough to win anything at all. In a popular breed like mine that still has relatively big entries it can take several years to title a dog, as you continue to get constant reserves to the grand champions that are there every week. Vet costs, health testing, transport for matings have all increased the costs involved in breeding and then there is the increasing attitude that every problem is the breeder's fault and they should have to pay for it or be sued. Not a great incentive for anyone to breed. We need more breeders for numbers to increase but the attitude of many already breeding is to stop anyone else from even trying. You only have to read the rude comments on here directed at anyone that mentions becoming a breeder. Time and money are two things we cannot change but judges need to get back to awarding dogs on how they conform to the standard regardless of how well they show, how well they are handled or how well known the handler is. Every breed has a standard and none of them make mention of the fact that the dog must "show well". So long as its stands nicely and gaits correctly a well conformed dog should be able to win. Breeders need to have some faith in their ability to pick prospective show buyers and sell them some of the better quality main register puppies to get the ball rolling again. Of course many puppies are not good enough to be main registered, but every limit register puppy contributes nothing to the future of it's breed or to the future of pure bred dogs.

When I first started feeding raw I had one dog that didn't seem to tolerate chicken wings or necks at all, until I worked out it was the combination of raw with dry food that was the problem for him. When I changed him over to raw completely and got rid of the dry food he was fine. I do my own home made barf and my dogs only poo about half as much as any I fed in the past with commercial dry food. I would try taking your boy off dry altogether for a few days and feed chicken wings, lamb neck, lamb chops and some big hunks of gravy beef (no chopped or mince meats at all) and see what happens. If he is ok with that start adding barf patties to balance the diet if you don't want to do your own mix. If you read the book "Give Your Dog a Bone" you will find out that dogs digest food better if they have to do a lot of chewing before it gets to their stomach. That is why mince and chopped meat can cause tummy upsets.

Well said Stormie. It is the Vets job to decide what is needed, not the owners. Anything that is a necessary procedure should just be done and if it is not necessary it should not be offered.

I think it is great when people with no dog knowledge ask a breeder friend to help them find another breed. This is what the dog world should be about. I have done it for others and have had breeders ring me shopping around for friends. A breeder knows what questions to ask and can weed out the good breeders from the bad. If the puppy buyer calls direct they can be told all sorts of things by unscupulous breeders and not know if it is the truth or not. Once you find some decent breeders then it is time to put the puppy buyer onto them. I have no idea why anyone would object unless they had something to hide.

Spots on the legs can happen in any lines but it is disappointing if this puppy was sold by a registered breeder without papers. The parents DNA status for three different conditions should have been supplies along with hip and elbow scores. The papers are then essential to ensure proof of who the parents are. From next year the DNA testing will be mandatory in Borders and litters will not be registered unless the parents DNA status is known. To pursuade the owner to desex this girl you could point out that if she breeds her and sells a puppy that dies from one of the diseases we test for she could be sued because they are known preventable diseases.

I used them for many years when they where made by Farrells and Box 1. They used to have just wheatmeal, meatmeal, tallow and salt in them. I have stopped buying them since Best Care took over and started putting flavours and preservatives in them. No idea why they would put preservatives in because the old ones used to keep for months without them.

No idea because I have never heard of a vet doing it without the correct paper work. I imagine both would be in trouble though. The vets I know of that did several for friends were always pedantic about the paperwork being correct, even 20 years ago.

Don't know any exact dates but do know that 3-4 years ago plenty of owners were routinely having dogs debarked so long as they provided a stat dec stating that all other avenues to stop the dog barking had been tried and failed. The last person I know that enquired about getting it done about 12-18 months ago was told be several vets that they could only do it if it was ordered by council and the dog had been declared a nuisance dog. The council advised them that this can only be done if a neighbour is prepared to complain and keep a bark diary for soemthing like 6-8 weeks.