SkySoaringMagpie

Sandra Hassett: http://www.animalmedicalcentre.com.au/team/dr-sandra-hassett-b-v-sc-m-b-a-m-i-v-c-a/ She is a veterinary chiro so will do a professional assessment of your dog's overall health before working on him or her.

So more than 75% of the general dog population is fat? They found that 24 per cent were overweight based on photos I think? I'd find it believable that more than 24 per cent of the pet population is overweight. And as someone else has mentioned some breeds have more issues than others.

I'm interested in what Florence Amherst, Vera Watkins and Brigadier General Frederick Lance thought - they saw a world that is now lost to us. What's your breed and what are your reasons for rejecting the views of the people who wrote your standard?

A difficult decision but the right one. Glad we were able to help.

Exactly. I recall a very long time ago when I was pretty green I naively posed the question on a breed list about whether performance or conformation should be prioritised. The answer thundered back from someone who years later I eventually imported two dogs from that you needed to have BOTH. This woman has a string of generations of dual champion dogs in conformation and performance, including some difficult titles to get in both. My last import of semen is from another breeder who also excels at both conformation and performance. And I mean excels, top dog in the breed in the US for 4 years running in performance plus a show champion. It's hard work, requires stubbornness as well as some resources but the whole "either/or" thing is crap - embrace the power of "and". So many of the problems that people seek to solve by breaking the rules can be better solved by just having higher standards.

Desexing is not one size fits all, as I think this thread shows. All of the rescues that leave Saluki rescue leave desexed because my view is that once a dog hits the rescue system, you need to take all available steps to lower the risk of them winding up back in that system. Desexing is one of those things that clearly lowers their attractiveness to some high risk people. I happily say that I have double standards in this area because NONE of my dogs are desexed and that choice is about health, performance and well being. In an ideal world, I would never desex a Saluki, but desexing them is recognition our world is not ideal. I have rescued more dogs of my breed than I have bred, and none of mine have been used to pump out shelter fodder but I have certainly (with help from others) rescued dogs that were being used that way and desexed them. Yes there are risks on both sides of the fence for health and well being, and some risks are breed specific. For example, in my breed hemangio is a problem and late in life desexing is associated with increased risk. That said, if one of my girls got pyo, I'd whip her into the vet for a spay right away and pyo is something I actively watch for.

As you're in Victoria I would find Deb Huon at a show and talk to her. She bought Azawakhs out and went through the recognition process.

To be honest, in an 8 week old I would be returning the pup to the breeder. Sounds like it needs an experienced hand and that it might not really be pet material. I am assuming it is a pet and not a dog you plan to use with stock?

I will confess I am letting my personal argument with a friend get in my way. I get very tired of her constantly telling me my Fauves are dumb and how much better her Border Collies are. It has led to me feeling a distinct lack of love for Border Collies. It is incredibly rude. If she is a neighbour and friend then I guess you are limited but I would be thinking about saying something like: "you talk a lot about how much better your dogs are than mine, do you realise how rude that is?"

Like any dog pursuit there are politics. Put 3 dog people in a room, get 5 opinions, and all that. Someone in show world said to me a while back that each relationship you have in dog world is your own, not someone else's. So whether they are friend or foe when it comes to each other shouldn't matter, particularly if you are careful to keep it professional. I think the politics would drop back a lot if everyone just concentrated on making what is close to their heart work in their corner of the world and stopped worrying about what others were doing.

Check with Skysoaringmagpie, she'll know if it's being run, or go ask here https://www.facebook.com/groups/1399559963621860/ Each dog runs by itself and will have 2 attempts and it's just a sprint of 100mts This association is not active in NSW/ACT as far as I know. There are basically two streams Australia wide. The ANKC recognised lure coursing stream, and number of old and new private clubs who are not ANKC recognised who run a variety of events including track racing and straight drag lure racing in addition to lure coursing. It's not just the hounds, there are a few terrier clubs for example. The ANKC recognised stream only does lure coursing. The idea is to replicate as far as possible the behaviour of traditional sighthound prey in the field so speed is not the only consideration when evaluating a hound. Other attributes like agility, follow etc come into play and those things are much more challenging for the hound when the course jigs about. There has long been debate, well before most of us got into this, about whether straight and/or track racing is good for the sighthound breeds if it becomes something you breed for. Because if you breed only for speed over comparatively short distances, you start to lose the other important characteristics of a coursing hound. That said, there is plenty of track racing in Europe and a close relative of my Bahraini girl absolutely blitzes at it. So if your dog is fast and enjoys it, why not? But it's not lure coursing and the two should not be confused. Speaking personally, my goal is to train and breed athletic, true to type Salukis. To do that you have to balance (sustainable) speed with everything else so it's lure coursing and watching what they do in the paddocks for me rather than the fun events.

I have to say, it is a rather odd position to be in to be thankful that the Christian democrats have the balance of power.

QLD ran a testing day to qualify their first intake of judges and one of the new NSW judges also went to that testing day.

There are two separate intake streams just as there have been for all the start up ANKC recognised sporting activities. The first intake is the people who, in the opinion of their state or territory board/council, are suitable to be recognised as judges to get the sport off the ground. Without judges you cannot have trials so you have to start somewhere. These people across the states/territories I am familiar with have relevant experience (again, which is ratified by the board/council of their governing body) that means they are suitable to get things started. Once trials have been run, then the judges' training scheme follows what is set out in the rules.

I think it's unpredictability that they are wary of. My dogs will go on high alert if another dog is near by where the owner has no effective control over the dog and the dog is acting out - whether on lead or off. Likewise with drunks, if they are moving unpredictably or upsetting other humans in the room the dogs will pick up on it. Sounds like this was the case here. But if they are just a snoozy drunk, the dogs are likely to not be bothered at all.

Racing on a track behind a mechanical lure is only 100 or so years old. Greyhounds were bred as hunters, that is their purpose, not racing. Racing is the outlet for their instincts. The industry has some issues that will never be cleaned up as long as the gambling revenues are relied upon by state governments IMO. I would rather see options for dogs to course and/or race that have no money attached. Yes ego by itself can be damaging for dogs, but not nearly so severe as when it involves a lot of cash. I am particularly hoping that we will see Greys at lure coursing as it gets off the ground because as Rebanne says, a lot of people don't realise that they were originally a coursing/hunting dog, not a racer.

You can still title a dog in performance events on the limit register, so unless you want to show and/or breed limit is no drama. And if you do want to show or breed then it all becomes more complicated for the reasons people have mentioned. From the breeder end of things I'm not keen on deposits. While I know I can return one, I would not like to set up an expectation that someone had put cash down and therefore had a stake in the litter. I understand they are often used to weed out timewasters tho'. Borders are not a rare breed so keep moving until you find someone you can work with.

I haven't imported but I have exported and that figure seems about right to me. Air freighting dogs to NZ is insanely expensive for some odd reason.

It's silgh, not Saluki, and silgaan for plural. As it's called in native home middle east and north Africa What's your source for that?

For Salukis the day you need to go is April 1st. There are 3 Saluki events on that day but as Bjelkier says, it is going to be seriously intense so exhibitors probably won't be able to sit and have a good chat. We have the Royal judging, a Speciality Show and an Exhibition Match all on that one day. What I would do is head over to the Easter Show on the Wednesday and sit in the stands and watch - you will get to see a UK judge, a US judge and a gentleman from the UAE judge the Salukis. Then on the following Saturday at Castle Hill Showgrounds there is another Saluki Speciality and a Sighthound Show. That will be a lot more relaxed and quiet, and there will be more opportunity to chat to breeders (including me). So I'd go to that show armed with questions. I will be there with Salukis and my partner's cream Afghan and our IW (should be easy enough to spot - LOL!)

It depends if you want fun day lure coursing or ANKC recognised lure coursing competition. For fun day lure coursing, that starts over winter and there is a Yahoo group where times are distributed a couple of weeks out from the next fun day. https://au.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/lurecoursingsydney/info If it's lure coursing trials, there is a FB group for NSW people interested in formal competition: https://www.facebook.com/groups/880871155286150/ Both are held at the DogsNSW complex in Orchard Hills.

ANKC National Registration Statistics: http://www.ankc.org.au/National-Registration-Statistics.aspx 20 Greyhounds registered in 2013 2 in 2012. 16 in 2011 So there really isn't a critical mass for show Greyhounds tho' I suppose the pet market would open up if racing were banned. Edited to say you can see the "rare and difficult" sighthound registrations like Afghans and Salukis far outpace the Greyhounds.

The best book I think is a book called "Show Me" by Caroline Coile. Unfortunately it's going out of print, but you should still be able to find it online. It's American so the stuff about the system of points etc isn't relevant but she has very good things to say about how to handle yourself and making choices about your show dogs.

One of my Salukis wasn't very impressed with a spaniel at close quarters once and I suspect it was because the spaniel's busy and friendly approach to life doesn't always sit well with a sighthound's more aloof temperament. I think the Cocker standard used to have something in it about "bustle" and sighthounds definitely don't do bustle. I agree with the others that if your dog is reacting you should leave first particularly because if your dog decided to make something of it, the spaniel would be history. Edited to say, most of the time my hounds are totally fine with spaniels. If you're going to have your dog out with others I would get this sorted.

This.