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SkySoaringMagpie

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Everything posted by SkySoaringMagpie

  1. For me it would depend a lot on how much of the semen I had and how difficult it would be to repeat the mating. If it was the last straw of a dog I could never collect again I would want to know the bitch was fertile. If I can easily get the semen again, in a breed like mine which is hard to place, I would go with the maiden rather than breed a litter just to check she was fertile.
  2. Too many variables I think. As others have pointed out, how do you know it's prey drive as it's traditionally understood (ie, going after a prey animal) or dog aggression? The only way to know would be to observe the dogs over time, something which you don't have the luxury of in most of these situations. A mini foxie once got in our yard - he scrabbled under our 6 foot chain wire fence. I found him as one of our Afghans was stalking him with intent. Both dogs were moving extremely slowly, and my take is that it was dog aggression based on dealing with an intruder, not the kind of thing you'd see with a rabbit. If it had been a rabbit it would have been lightning fast. But would someone else observing agree? Who knows but once the Afghan saw me and I told him to leave it, he left it and I grabbed the little sucker and put him in a run until his owner came to collect him. Had I not wandered out into the yard just then the result could have been different. Or perhaps not. Again, who knows. One thing to be aware of in these discussions is that there is a large section of the community who expect dogs to be mobile teddy bears. Owners of breeds who usually need management (some hounds, arctic breeds, guarding breeds, fighting heritage breeds) have a responsibility to manage so that accidents that can be reasonably prevented do not happen. Being in NSW my view that if the animal gets into my yard it is the owner's own look out and the legislation supports that. But you only have to look at the McHugh report's comments about lure coursing to realise that that may one day not be considered enough, and that society may take the view that dogs should have no instincts that require management of any kind. For that reason I think some of the armchair analysis that goes on in these discussions can be dangerous. Unless an expert in dog behaviour is observing any given situation, you cannot tell why a dog attacked another dog - or chose not to.
  3. Agree with Rebanne, I wouldn't leave it. The COE says this for DogsWest: A member shall provide to all recipients of dogs sold or otherwise disposed of by that member, written details of: 2.30.1 The breed characteristics; 2.30.2 Vaccination record and / or requirements; 2.30.3 Responsible dog ownership information; and 2.30.4 All documentation required by the member’s Member Body, including a written receipt clearly stating whether the dog was sold with or without a Certificate of Registration (Main or Limited) and any other conditions. For the purposes of this Code "with or without papers" shall mean the Certificate of Registration. 04/08 Did you get this?
  4. Likewise, plus she apologised. If you post for advice, advice is what you get. If you want affirmation, just say so and we all know what to do then.
  5. I'm actually just asking a question I thought was an interesting one. Just because no lure courser has ever mentioned it doesn't mean anything really... it must be nice to be able to idly speculate on this without having any worries about potentially losing something you have put years of effort into with ever harming an animal. These sorts of comments are dangerous right now. The baiting stuff is worse than a lie, if it had not been for the baiting scandal the vast majority of LC participants would have had no idea what baiting even was in the first place. It has been put out there by people who have no experience with LC to create a wedge that will eventually come after other dog sports, and just about any other dog that isn't a generic couch dog. Great Dane owners would want to be careful about that, because I can see size winding up as one of the idiotic criteria we end up having used against us (big dogs being unhealthy, and all that).
  6. I hope you are right, however with no exposure draft of the legislation it's a bit hard to know whether they have impacted show greyhounds, for example.
  7. No, they didn't exactly. They suggested it apply to "coursing dogs". The exact wording is: "(1) A person who: … (e) keeps or is in charge of any animal of a prescribed species at any place used for the housing or kennelling, training, trialing, training or racing of coursing dogs, is guilty of an offence." They did not define what they meant by "coursing dogs", which is problematic, as the Commission report flagged. My guess would be they didn't define a breed because they didn't want to leave an exploitable loophole whereby dubious racing activities could shift to another breed (e.g. whippets are bred for racing in other countries). Without an alternative definition, coursing dogs are sighthounds and the relevant crosses (long dogs and lurchers). There isn't any other way to slice it, especially given the historical context the report uses. If you don't have a sighthound it's easy to be relaxed about definitions, of course. Edited to add - one of the reasons for getting on the front foot with this is precisely because murkiness about definitions could end up being legislated. Then we're all in a mess. Well, without a clear definition of any kind, it's open to interpretation. That was my point. I could argue my podengo is a coursing dog (she seems to think she is), and I could argue that she is not. I could argue a whippet mix is a coursing dog, and I could argue it's not if it has never coursed a thing in its life. If I did lure coursing with my lapphund, I could argue he is a coursing dog or that he's not, and obviously he is not a sighthound. There is no distinction between dogs that do actually for real course on a regular basis (for competition?) and dogs that were bred once upon a time long ago for coursing-like activities, which is exactly what the report flags as problematic. It offers a solution that penalises people involved in lure coursing unfairly. I am not suggesting everyone relax because the definition the RSPCA suggested is ambiguous. I am suggesting the evidence is lacking to assert RSPCA Australia is targeting sighthounds precisely because they did not define what they meant by a coursing dog. The report does define it, though, so if you're going to assert someone is after sighthounds, that assertion should be directed at McHugh. But that doesn't bear up to scrutiny, either, because he's the one that pointed out the RSPCA's submission would penalise dogs and owners that had never had anything to do with coursing of any kind, and that some dogs of breeds that are not traditionally coursing breeds also engage in lure coursing. Yes I understand all that, and my issue with McHugh is his ignorance of, and failure to consult on, lure coursing - not sighthounds. You are more confident than I am about the RSPCA. I hope you are right and I am wrong.
  8. No, they didn't exactly. They suggested it apply to "coursing dogs". The exact wording is: "(1) A person who: … (e) keeps or is in charge of any animal of a prescribed species at any place used for the housing or kennelling, training, trialing, training or racing of coursing dogs, is guilty of an offence." They did not define what they meant by "coursing dogs", which is problematic, as the Commission report flagged. My guess would be they didn't define a breed because they didn't want to leave an exploitable loophole whereby dubious racing activities could shift to another breed (e.g. whippets are bred for racing in other countries). Without an alternative definition, coursing dogs are sighthounds and the relevant crosses (long dogs and lurchers). There isn't any other way to slice it, especially given the historical context the report uses. If you don't have a sighthound it's easy to be relaxed about definitions, of course. Edited to add - one of the reasons for getting on the front foot with this is precisely because murkiness about definitions could end up being legislated. Then we're all in a mess.
  9. I think this is something some people would only understand once they have been to a try out day and seen a dog who is brand new run eagerly after the zippy movement of a plastic bag. For those wondering why a dog would chase a bag, we all know that dogs respond to movement by chasing in other contexts (frisbees, sticks, balls, toys etc). There is nothing about a plastic bag that makes it intrinsically any different from a ball if you want to talk drive. And dog owners don't throw guinea pigs around to get their dogs to chase balls, it would be a nonsense to think anyone would.
  10. The whole thing only has the status of a recommendation right now. If the NSW Government has half a brain it will not adopt these Recommendations given the shaky basis on which they were made (no consultation, no understanding of the sport). But remember that the NSW RSPCA did want it to extend to all sighthounds. The Commission didn't go that far, but it is a warning shot from the RSPCA about how far it wants to intrude into people's pet owning. I note also tho' that both the QLD and Vic RSPCA run lure coursing at their public days including the MPW in Victoria. So, left hand, right hand...
  11. I agree it is not a foregone conclusion and I'm fairly confident the NSW Government will see reason, but not completely confident. Stupider things have happened and so we can't be complacent. I disagree that it is understandable to make the link. Lure coursing has NOTHING to do with racing in a practical sense and I cannot find a way to place it in the Commission's terms of reference. Given the Commission's desire to explore the history of coursing (also, IMO, not really all that relevant to racing) I can see how it ended up there but it shouldn't have. If they had bothered to talk to us at all, which they did not, they would have understood better what the various pursuits aim to do. Yes racing trainers use a variety of lures in their training, just as a number of amateur dog sport people use flirt poles and similar toys. Just because something uses a lure, it doesn't make it lure coursing. It might be trail hunting, or racing, or just training in drive. I have never heard of any racing people using a field to "lure course" their charges in as part of training to race, it would be a nonsense. Lure coursing is a very specific activity, involving pegging out a course that takes a number of turns over acres of ground and the aim is not just speed, but a variety of attributes (agility, endurance, follow, enthusiasm) The key point that any dog owner should be aware of tho' is the policy position of the NSW RSPCA on this - they advise the NSW Government. It was them who wanted the ban on keeping coursing heritage breeds with potential bait animals based on no evidence at all but just a view that we would do the wrong thing eventually. This is a really creepy turn in companion animal policy.
  12. Did you read what she wrote? And did anyone read what Diva wrote upthread? I will tell you where the companion animal phase out stuff kicks in. There are two Recommendations in that report that have nothing to do with Greyhound racing, but which, if implemented, would penalise pet dog owners that the report itself acknowledges are law abiding and NOT engaging in live baiting. It's important to understand that the original policy position of the NSW RSPCA when lobbying on these Recommendations was that any coursing heritage breed - whippets, afghans, salukis etc - should be required to be registered on a special "coursing register" even if all the dog ever did was sit on the couch. This registration would have then invoked the provisions of the POCTAA which would have meant that you could not have potential bait animals in your home even if at no time in your life you ever engaged in amateur racing or lure coursing. So the NSW RSPCA wanted people to have to pick between their pet whippet and their pet cat. If that is not BSL, and a shot across the bows of pet ownership, I don't know what is. The Commission didn't go that far, but it did not speak to any representatives of lure coursing or to DogsNSW when it formulated recommendations that would require anyone engaging in the amateur sport of lure coursing to put their dogs on an additional register and give up their pet cats and chooks. Again, the report concedes they have no proof anyone in amateur dog sport is live baiting, but they think we might. If the Commission had even come out and viewed an event it would have seen that it is impossible to stick a bait animal on our lure coursing lines given the tie down pulleys that are used. It's ignorance, and while you can say "oh well, I don't have a whippet so whatever" next time it might be you and your dog that somebody who knows zip about your dogs and your sport decides to use as a policy wedge. I can tell you that being in the firing line of this stuff tends to be a wake up call.
  13. Except breeders have been well trained to keep their campfires low and stay off the track - say too much get too obvious about who you are and what you do and you are likely to be wallopped. Those who have more than one or two dogs who have a genuine interest in seeing it stay as it is are the least likely to make waves and shout about it . We are divided -where are the dog related groups who have stood up for the greyhound people where are the dog related groups who join with us to fight crap legislation - where are we if they need us. How many dog related people and groups are going to go in and shout and donate money to help the people who compete in lure work? They are in the same place as they were when the docking ban was being fought or the BSL fight or so many other issues. The "dog world" is so fragmented and wrapped up in individual opinions that they will never support each other and soon it will be too late. Yep. Before we became potentially useful as a means to discredit the Special Commission's Report, the NGRU was throwing amateur dog sport under a bus in an attempt to prove that greyhound racing had fewer injuries than amateur dog sport. And when called on the fact they were using American agility stats, and not Australian stats, they just deleted posts from amateur dog sport people. The problem is that drowning people thrash about a lot, and they are happy to take others down with them. We know in LC that we are ultimately on our own. Which is a pity - what I would like to see more than anything else is a broad coalition like the UK's Countryside Alliance. One focussed on welfare but with a broad support base that the Government will take seriously, and a credible narrative that directly takes on the anthropomorphism and just plain bullshit of the AR movement.
  14. Sighthounds are very varied in their responses to running with other dogs, running after a lure and running after live game. There are an infinitely variable combination of attributes and approaches. I think we need to be wary of claiming anecdata about particular dogs and extrapolating that to the breed. The bottom line is that with appropriate management and training, a sighthound can make a perfectly good home companion. Just like any other dog. I was reading something overnight from a very experienced OFC and LC judge. She said that the authors of the greyhound report should spend 10 years getting their hands dirty out in the field because it would take that long to really understand. Unfortunately laws are now being made and recommended by people who don't have even a shallow understanding of the breeds and their purpose - and no inclination to challenge their assumptions either.
  15. well sadly I doubt that will be enough to give a tick to those who breed them. Im pretty sure that what they were intended for and how that impacts on their health might be part of the case they try to make against them - but apart from that when you look at a champ back when showing dogs began and you could argue the type was designed to sit on a lap etc one now Im not sure thats a good defence. Feb 2016 vets in sweden have called for them to be banned as well. We have to face this somehow. I have a land race breed that is very much about function with no health issues related to its conformation. But just look at the poo function can get you into as well - no you can't have a pet cat if you have a hunting breed in case you use your cat as live bait. The only thing that is acceptable, it seems, is a dog that has no specific characteristics of any kind, except to happily accept any lazy, self-entitled rubbish the humans in its household want to subject it to. The dog has to like all dogs, not ever want to attack another species, and cheerfully accept kids pulling on its ears and sticking their hands in its foodbowl while being quiet, not at all destructive and preferably sleeping while its humans are away at work for 12 hours a day. The only answer to this is education, but how we educate when people are so divorced from the lived experience of animal husbandry is the hard part.
  16. For various reasons lure coursing is unlikely to be where greyhound people end up, assuming they end up anywhere and don't just give it away. For a start, lure coursing is unsuitable for many track greyhounds who have been trained on oval tracks. The attributes that make a dog a good racer don't necessarily make it a good courser, and vice versa. Those who have been participating in LC for the last 12 months know this from personal experience. Plus there is the whole business of there being no money in it.
  17. Put up the evidence please. Which vets and which venues. ANKC LC is not being run in Victoria yet, so I will be interested to hear who else is running it. If you can't put up the evidence you need to edit your post and apologise.
  18. The routine here is that no dog is rugged inside including the Salukis. Our main heating source in winter is a slow combustion fire or the dogpile on the bed so there are heat sources the dogs can find. And all our dogs are inside overnight. So no-one is cold. Outside, we live in Southern NSW where the morning temps where the dogs go into the runs are often below zero, and day temps can struggle to climb into the low teens - tho' it is usually alpine weather with sunshine. The Afghans are not rugged, they are happy to sit outside on a hard frost in -5 temps. The Salukis get woollen op shop blankets on their trampoline beds and they are rugged if they will tolerate the coats. One of our younger smooth males always shreds his coats. So we don't put them on him anymore, he just has his woollen blanket. The rest are in coats. I am not a fan of leaving the thin coated sighthounds outside without options to keep themselves warm, especially overnight. You have to look at the heritage of the breed, and I think it is not fair to leave light bodied, desert origin sighthounds outside without coats in freezing temps. On the other hand, I think it is a bit nuts to rug breeds that were specifically bred for cold climate function. So the Afghans are never rugged.
  19. The work is an important point. A number of people I know wrote submissions, DogsNSW worked their butt off, and a friend and I went and visited our local member, and I know we were not the only ones.
  20. I have the DVD pack and it's a great resource as Espinay says. I also bought the exercise booklets for my puppy packs. A lot of what she says is material you already know, but it's gathered together in a scheduled, easy to use manner with practical examples on the DVD. I am a fan, but I was when she published 'When Pigs Fly".
  21. Or, I know my breed is the best, and therefore not any idiot should have one. At the Royals when the punters see our pretty dogs being well behaved I like to try and put them off by telling the male of the family that they are very much like 25 kilo cats. Like Espinay I would rather lead with the downside and filter out people for whom it's not going to be a good match.
  22. Don't stick with the blame. You now know not to trust dogs or people that you haven't already vetted yourself. So you have learned something that will prevent this happening again. The posters in the thread who say that judges won't pay it any mind are right - in any of the breeds who have jobs, including gundogs, scars are not a drama.
  23. Listen to the lecture Espinay just posted. It will tell you more about the history of your breed and the reasons for variations in styles than any forum and the lecturer is a hugely influential figure in Labs. Even if you don't have labs, but have another breed, it is an excellent listen for anyone wanting to reflect on type and function in their own breed.
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