SkySoaringMagpie

Actually, I think she doesn't have it. The original diagnosis was over two years ago and she is still only showing a minor murmur and no clinical symptoms. Hence the ultrasound to establish either way the heart clinic vet's suspicion that she was wrongly diagnosed. Sorry to hear about your Jessie, when I was in the big research phase a few years ago I spoke to a few people whose dogs had it, and had died from it. It sounds really terrible.

Erny - you were right, I was asking for Melbourne. I edited back to the East Coast so as not to narrow inquiries too much. I think I will be going to Melbourne, I spoke to Richard Woolley's clinic today. Thank you Elfin and everyone else for your suggestions. cvs - it was Richard Lucy I saw at the Cav Club clinic yesterday and it's on his advice that I'm looking for someone to do the ultrasound. If I could take her to him to ultrasound I would, he was super sensible, but New Zealand is a bit far away.

I think where you are located in Australia makes a big difference, same as it does to heartworm/tick regimes. We use no flea treatments and have no need to. We live in a dry part of the country which I'm sure helps us a great deal - I haven't seen a flea on ours for literally years. Our dogs are also indoors when we are home, we have minimal carpet and the dogs don't have unrestricted access to the carpeted areas anyway. Their bedding is washed frequently. The show dogs are also washed in line with our show schedule but the older dogs are not overbathed and also have no problems.

As the title suggests, looking for recommendations for a good cardiac specialist vet Edited to add some context in case my asking the question on DOL sets the breed rumour mill going. I am asking because a visit to a heart clinic yesterday has confirmed that I am right to question a diagnosis of cardiomyopathy that my retired girl was given two years ago. I booked the appointment because she has shown no clinical signs over the last two years and her pulse etc has remained good and totally steady over that period of time too (it was "diagnosed" during a routine yearly checkup). The vet yesterday suggested a follow up ultrasound by an Australian specialist to confirm either way but thinks she just has a very mild non-degenerative grade 1 murmur. He also commented that sighthounds are often "over" diagnosed when it comes to heart conditions so I am looking for someone who is sighthound experienced and REALLY knows their stuff. Will travel on the east coast to see the best as it's been a very unpleasant roller coaster ride for me and the breeder and we'd like some closure. Any information people can give me about Australian cardiac specialists would be very welcome - PMs also gratefully received.

Vegetarian and vegan diets for dogs are a particularly self-indulgent form of anthropomorphism. If it's that important not to feed your pet meat then I'd be getting a rabbit or a parrot instead (as others have suggested).

In addition to what others have said above, no foul farts.

There was a dead roo just up the end of my street two nights ago.. I'm sure the dogs would have loved it. Roo offal carries hydatits though.. even cooked, I'd not eat it. :D Darn it PF, a real trainer would dominate the hydatids as well! edited 'cause I can't spell ;)

I actually find this quite offensive and hurtful huski. I'm not sure whether that is intentional or not, I may not be an expert but I am trying my best, and there are definitely more tactful ways to make your point. I remember the first time someone said this to me, and boy did it sting. They were right tho' and I needed someone to give me the impetus to examine the overall relationship. Respect and a "good relationship" are often talked about as if they were a known quantity, but I suspect that it isn't so. There are behaviours everyone will agree on - the owner that sleeps on the couch because they can't get back into the bed because of the dog has a respect and relationship problem - no argument there. What about the dog that pulls on the leash on neighborhood walks tho'? I'd say yes but some people might find that confronting. What about the dog that pulls because it knows it's about to be set free to chase a lure or it sees a rabbit? I'd say no problem but others would want more self-control from the dog. That latter group exists all over the internet but you have to set your own standards. One thing to remember about the internet dog world is that you cannot see into the poster's home or dogs. Sometimes people who assert great authority when they post are completely wrong. Pick out what you can use, and discard the rest. Wolf packs are not a learner's guide to understanding and training a domestic dog. More here: http://askdryin.com/dominance.php

Which wolf pack studies are you referring to?

A friend's BYB rottie is about to be given his wings due to acute laryngeal paralysis. Is there a test for this condition in Rottweilers? They have always had rotties, but not well bred ones from what I can tell. OH has said that if they get another we will give them a steer to a good breeder, but I am not sure what we should be suggesting they ask a registered breeder when it comes to health questions. Advice?

As Staranais has already mentioned, people will default to saying "call in a professional" on DOL because of the risk/consequence issue. If you can't afford it, you're not a bad ownerr. However. This might be something easily trained out, or there might be systemic issues in your household that mean it will escalate into something nasty. If your gut is telling you things are getting out of control then it's affordable in a way that hospital trips and a broken hearts aren't. If OTOH, you think this is just an isolated problem, try what people have suggested here. Us randoms on the internet can't know what the story is, tho' poodlefan has a memory like an elephant and is good at stringing together previous posts so she's ahead of most of us there. As you now know why everyone is saying to call in a pro, the final call is yours. Hire the wrong pro tho', and you'll make it worse. Some people representing themselves as dog trainers will use heavy confrontation and as others have mentioned, this can go badly wrong. Likewise the wrong positive trainer will be the wrong thing for this dog. Good luck, let us know how it goes.

It's possible you might have rewarded him by getting the collar and lead. Even tho' you then tied him up outside, he won't have connected that to the bed behaviour but the walking lead is usually pretty highly associated with "good stuff" for most dogs. It's been a long time since our dogs tried that with us, but in the past I have used a slip lead with success - just a nylon one, and you don't have to put your hand near the collar to get it on them. I don't use it to correct, I just put the lead on and walk the dog away from whatever it is guarding. If this were me, the dog would lose bed privileges right away and I'm a treehugger who lets her dogs on the furniture. They only are allowed to get on furniture if they get off when told to. I would also start NILIF* with him (search this forum or google for links). Your problem isn't training in the "learning" sense, it's compliance and NILIF can really improve that side of things. He's at the age where he is testing boundaries. It's not personal, he's just seeing what he can get away with. *Nothing In Life Is Free

Yep, true enough on all counts. Some of the things I see claimed on breed lists are pretty jaw dropping too.

The difficulty is that while information does make its way around a breed, some of it is malicious. I have heard the same gruesome story from different people about two breeders in my breed. Depending on how cynical you are, you could believe it of both, but it's not likely to be both. Perhaps it's not even one of them. Sometimes people can be unpleasant, but sometimes what you're getting is other unpleasant people trading on that to further their own ends. I would never repeat that story for that reason, nor would I factor it in to recommendations. The closest I will come to making a comment to a newbie is to say "if you wish to do X with your dog, make sure you discuss this with the breeder". It's essentially a pointer for the person to look closely but I don't think I've ever outright cautioned someone who was a newbie. I would rather recommend a breeder I believe in. One thing I do say is to trust more the breeder who can explain what health issues they have come across and what they have done about it, than the breeder who claims never to have had any problems. The former is not always an angel, but the latter is pretty much always a bullshit artist.

What colour is his urine?

I don't think any of us can say if you are doing the right thing without seeing you all interacting. On leash stuff like that often has a lot to do with the relationships between handlers and dogs. There are two handlers and three dogs which makes for a ton of variables. Could be all sorts of things making it happen. One guess - if your OH isn't fully competent, it could be that she has decided to take control of situations she is not happy with because he is not providing appropriate direction. You can shut her down with Cesar techniques but you won't have solved the underlying problem which is that the OH needs to lift his game. Training OHs is well outside my field of competence tho'

Like others, I would have to wonder if they sell kibble for a living. OTOH, I have heard a similar argument about exercise, ie, that one should not exercise a challenging dog hard, because a fit dog is harder to manage. I dunno, I think you're better off rehoming your dog and buying yourself a cat if you're tempted to go down that path. Why anyone would keep their dog unfit is well beyond me.

Between $500 and $1250. I'm guessing it can go higher if you're after a show dog from a well known show kennel but don't know how high they range. If you're after a companion only, you're usually looking between $500 to $1000.

Bub - "Don't Shoot the Dog" by Karen Pryor has the advantage of not containing a bunch of DOL training forum baggage It's also a classic in the literature and explains Skinner etc in a readable style.

It's not about ad hominem attacks or armchair psychologising about the "opposition" - for me it's about personal accountability. I think the word is a misleading euphemism. I have my reasons. You don't, you have your reasons. Implying that people who are critical of the word have a negative self-image as a trainer is not particularly helpful.

Well, it would make discussions pretty difficult! If we don't have labels for different types of training approach, then we either have to describe them every single time we want to talk about them, or else be resigned to people getting upset or confused when we inadvertantly call them by the "wrong" label. You're conflating two different things here tho', the identity of the person using a method, and the method itself. And that is the core of the problem. I'm a dog trainer. I use a range of methods. I think it's better if my methods can't be summed up into a shorthand that people will use to work out whether I'm an evil dog abuser or a sad middle aged woman stuffing schmackos into her dog's gob. Apart from anything else, appropriate methods vary depending on the dog. Part of my frustration with these discussions is that humans are very invested in being one of the good, clever guys, and usually that means someone has to be a bad, incompetent guy into the bargain. What should be under consideration in each training scenario is the most appropriate method for the dog in front of you. That is complex, and not the stuff of sound bites. If I'm going to let someone train my dog, I'm going to invest the time in a conversation.

My primary concern with the word is that it's a euphemism for "I am prepared to correct and punish" that gives no signal at all to that effect to your average listener. If someone described themselves as a "balanced parent" or "balanced boss" would you infer that they are prepared to spank (the parents) or punish (the boss). Most would not. Out of some people's mouths it's almost Orwellian, because their approach is anything but balanced. For those people it's part of their PR set to draw attention away from what they are doing and to legitimise it, and I find that disturbing. I believe that if we are prepared to correct and punish, we should shoulder responsibility for making sure it remains appropriate. We hold ourselves more accountable if we tell it like it is, than if we allow the dog training fraternity to talk about as if it were a Bhuddist precept. How about "I'm a dog trainer" as a way to describe ourselves?

did someone get it on film?? I know it's hard! No thank god Picture me in a paddock with a saluki streaking after a hare that came up out of nowhere. Me yelling "Lucy, come!" into the wind. I could have been saying "eeny meeny miny mo" for all she cared. Fortunately the hare was a rat bastard and found a hole in the fence that she couldn't where I could corner her. Nearly dislocated my shoulder taking her back up to the house tho'.

Scruffing is one of the main reasons I don't consider myself PP. I don't use check collars and I don't alpha roll but I occasionally scruff when the girls are in season and my boy is thinking with his (even) smaller brain. In order to stop the girls being stressed, I need to get through to him fast. In any case, I know that me being more interesting than a bitch in week 2 of her cycle is pushing it up hill with a pointy stick. Tho' recently, one of the older bitches has been doing a very decent job of discipline herself. She has amazing bite inhibition, she has an impressive air snap and snarl and manages to just snag his muzzle with her teeth but she never rips or punctures. After she does that he's all "OK, lady, I didn't mean nothin'" until about 1 minute later when his hormones take over again and he forgets that she could take his eyeball out like a cocktail onion if she wanted to

Ingrained stock or wildlife chasing. Try being more interesting than a fleeing rabbit. I tried that once, long ago. Never tried it again