SkySoaringMagpie

No flaming here, I would be devastated if one of my dogs was shot but if they were on someone else's land harassing and killing their stock then the property owner is well within their rights. A hard lesson for the girl, but perhaps they will now take more care with any future dogs.

I was first attracted to Salukis reading about the entertaining trail of brutally expensive property destruction a friend's Saluki wrought on the household. She also found it funny, she is a free spirit independent type herself, with a taste for the finer things in life I like love them because they are reserved, independent, difficult, ancient, aristocratic, beautiful, athletic and they keep you on your toes. I am fairly sure that what a group of Saluki or Afghan owners would find hilarious or amusing a group of GSD or Border Collie owners would find completely disgraceful Thanks for the book recommend PF, I will look it up. Edit - I have also noticed "pairing" across groups. A lot of sighthound people also have terriers for example, and I'm sure there is a cross-over there in the attraction to an independent breed.

:D ;)

Get up as much of the urine (or whatever) as possible using old towels or paper towels. If it was urine and a lot of it you might want to tip the mattress up to do this - ie, turn it over onto the towels. Then pour on the soapy biozet mixture - I personally would soak it with as least as much of the liquid as you think is left in there. Otherise you're just treating the surface. Ideally you should then dry it in the sun, but unless you live in WA, that might be a bit difficult ATM! But make sure it is completely dry before using it again, otherwise you'll get mould. We now have water proof mattress protectors on the bed. Ever since we let our sedated Afghan lie on the bed and he peed, we've had them on any bed that we might invite a dog up to. Has saved us a lot of hassle on a couple of occasions, mattress cleaning is hard, and you will always get a stain.

If your dogs are vaccinated and 5 & 6 years old, this isn't a reason not to take the Kelpie to the vet. The Golden may have made a mess of the muscle under the skin and not all puncture wounds are easy to find. I would rather pony up for some prophylactic antibiotics, than go through the hassle and expense of cleaning up an abscess. As for the long term prospects, without skilled intervention from someone experienced in dealing with aggression, my guess is you'll have to run them separately.

Front dews on Afghans, Alyosha has diagnosed the issue I think, they do get very close to the ground when turning at speed. They are routinely trimmed, and they way they injure themselves is the claws being half ripped out and/or shredded. Edited for verb fail.

Yep, it's the 'ghans here too, the Salukis had theirs removed before they got here. I don't know how the Affs do it, but they do it!

I think we're up to injury # 5 by my reckoning on two dogs. Interested in other people's experiences.

I'm not sure how you'd know about the breed club unless the breeder told you - also, not all states have breed clubs for their breed. My dogs come from WA, where there is no Saluki breed club.

I tried pointing that out at post 64 and it didn't get us off the hamster wheel

In association with the Canberra Royal the Hound Club of the ACT is running a Twilight Speciality on the Saturday of the Royal weekend. Two international judges: Mrs Candy Way (USA) and Dr Tamas Jakkel (Hungary). Dr Jakkel is a Dachshund specialist and there will be BOB rosettes for all Dachshund varieties. BIS - $100 Cash donated by Mr John Bink. RUBIS - $50 Cash donated by Mr Paul Orman. Special Rosette for Best Baby Elkhound donated by Graabine Elkhounds. Weimaraner and Australian Breeds Specialities also running on the Canberra Royal weekend. Entries available on OzEntries! Schedules available from www.dogsact.org.au ROYAL ENTRIES CLOSE VERY SOON!

This I do agree with.

Which is just as bad IMO. This argument looks again like the "eh, happens all the time, what are you gonna do?" arguments in this thread. The fact that a lot of people break the rule doesn't make the rule go away. It's still cheating.

FWIW, I do mind. I don't get obsessed with it on a personal level because I don't think my competition should be taking up space in my head, but I think it brings us all down as a breed fancy. I don't want my breed to be one where tails are routinely doctored for example. We should be better than that: more patient with puppy development, better trainers and more respectful of the functional hunting heritage of our dogs. If we want more people and fresh blood in our breeds, we should not create "norms" that are unethical and that will deter good-hearted people from participating and sticking around.

I don't have a coated breed (per se, we have furnishings but not a full coat). My show bitch gets through her seasons without any coat problems. I also don't do pointscore. So the example was not a personal one, it was an example of why the rule helps keep things fair for some exhibitors. I wouldn't show a desexed dog, and I agree with Diva. If I know someone has done it, I expect that they will probably lie and cut corners on other things as well and I deal with them accordingly.

Yep, OH has a coated dog with a horrible spay coat. It's not constant across all breeds, or indeed all dogs within a breed. However, there are advantages for some. The point of my post was to show why it matters to fairness in some breeds.

OK, say you're showing an entire coated bitch and you are regularly up against an exhibitor who is showing a desexed bitch of the same breed in the entire classes. Your bitch has a season and drops coat every 8-9 months putting her out of the ring or out of strong contention for a significant portion of the year. Theirs never has a season and never drops coat, and is beating you in the breed and DOL pointscore because it's out every weekend looking gorgeous. How do you feel about it then?

Tough situation, I have been in your shoes and it sucks for everyone - you, your OH and the dogs. I guess there are a few things I would consider: - Can Demon be found a new home? - Is this due to the upheaval of the staffie's changed living circumstances, ie, once he just had your OH, how he has a whole bunch of people to deal with? If so, can that be mitigated somehow? - Would you consider a pro trainer consult? I know you're a breeder with a lot of experience with a challenging breed, but sometimes in a couples situation it takes an outsider to get a good take on the situation and make things feel a little more even for both parties. You may be too close to the situation to make good decisions about it. - To what extent is your OH prepared to acknowledge the issues? - Is living apart again an option? No need to answer those here btw - they are pretty personal - I just put them up as thinking points. Re the drugs, if it was me, I would not implement three biochemical options at once because you're hammering the dog's system with changes, which I suspect is part of the problem in the first place. I understand the desire to get it fixed yesterday, particularly with kids involved, but I would castrate first, manage with separation and watch to see if there was an improvement. Then I might consider the Clomicalm, but it's pretty expensive and a speaker phone consult with you, your OH and pro-trainer or vet behaviourist might be a better use of your money in the meantime. I have seen Clomicalm "kindof" work on some dogs and not at all on others. It's far from an ideal solution to this situation and a bit of an expensive crap shoot. Sometimes these situations don't have a win/win outcome. While I agree with Pers that you don't muck around with HA and kids, I think if you value the relationship with your OH, you will have to show some empathy for the situation he is in too - essentially, unless you get some improvement, he is going to have to make a hard choice. Sorry to be such a ray of sunshine.

Sorry - should have been more specific. It's the gum and tongue colour that will give you a hint about heart issues.

I've no idea what the answer is for a Chow but for other breeds a look in the mouth will give you a hint about a possible heart problem if it is that serious. I don't think a vet certificate would work, there are already tame vets and vets who do the teeth, tails and ear fixing for the show ring. $$$ will get you any kind of paper you want.

Two issues here I think. One is whether you think it's OK to break the rules, particularly in situations where it will give you an advantage over the competition or enable you to do what people who follow the rules can't (e.g. Gr Ch title a bitch after an emergency spay) Two is whether you think there is a place for desexed dogs in conformation showing. I think you can say no to the first and yes to the second without being in conflict given the new neuter title, so I'm not sure why this conversation is getting so heated. I'm assuming no-one is suggesting that is OK to break the rules?

Yes, that's the one I'm thinking of, we shared the shelter near the canteen at Junee and had a chat in the pouring rain and mud last year. They would have been chuffed.

That's nice for the lady and her mum, was it a red fringed dog?

Regional NSW is great fun as a general rule. I really like doing regional NSW shows, generally very easy going and people usually don't get their knickers in a twist. I show in the Southern Region of NSW, can't really speak for the North or Central. Sydney is a bit different in my experience. While I've never had anyone be rude to me personally (that I can recall anyway - perhaps they have and I didn't notice :D) I usually find Sydney more humorless and less forgiving. Sydney is 3 hours each way for us so we only go for Specialities, or rarely, for a specialist judge in our breed. Summer heat is also a problem, we are used to dry heat, and the sticky humid heat of Sydney is heavy going for us, never mind the dogs!! In short, if people with cats bum expressions were the only "problem" we'd probably go each week, but the petrol, time and weather are the other factors against frequent Sydney showing.