Steve

Yeah me too.

Gets a bit muddy doesnt it - when the controlling body is responsible for designing and maintaining and policing the code of ethics says it's completely ethical for someone to sell puppies to an overseas pet shop or an Australian pet shop as long as they are PIAA that its O.K. to sell to agents as long as they are PIAA - and this is the criteria which was used for someone to determine whether they wanted to join or remain a member or not -that they determined that they had the same philosophies and they fitted what was being asked of them no amount of personal opinion or change in how society perceive it all the fact remains that according to the group that they belong to it is completely ethical. At the end of the day the only ones any breeder has to answer to regarding their ethics is the group they belong to - in Asal's case it was Dogs NSW .May not fit with some other people's idea of what is ethical but its not possible for everyone to see things the same way anyway as long as that clause is in the CC codes those things are considered ethical by those standards for their members - the only ones that count.

Some 20 years ago in a breed I owned a new critique of the standard was given out and it was used to train judges of the breed. The critique had been written by someone who owned and judged them - needless to say the critique was a push toward interpretation which moved everyone toward how her dogs looked and dogs which were considered to be good examples of the standard although not changing was different almost overnight.

If you sell a puppy at 8 weeks then that puppy can be exported by its new owner the next day. Which is how Transpet operated. The breeder was no longer the owner at time of export - they just had to wait for the papers to be put in after 12 weeks. If you export a pup without an export certificate no one ever knows it was exported. If you sell a pup and the new owner exports it there isn't anything stopping it flying at 8 weeks as long as the new owners isn't an ANKC member.

Yes its all part of the answer. I remember when it was at its peak many breeders were sending out hundreds to this outlet including those who were big names in the CC world and still are. Many had several multiple breeds with entire litters going out and any that didnt make the grade due to a heart murmur umbilical hernia etc were dropped off at the PIAA pet shop around Penrith on the way home. Mc Dougal did tick many of the boxes, only the healthiest puppies were accepted, they all had papers, owners were usually lined up before the puppies ever left this country , the breeder was able to be contacted ,the breeder received feedback from the new owners,puppies sold for about a hundred to two hundred less than the going price in Australia but it meant breeders didnt have to screen or be face to face with the buyers. It had the tick of approval from the CCs with big ads being run in the CC journals and the CCs made bucket loads of money from export certificates and was and still is classified ethical via the code of ethics. I was at a function over the new years period and this subject came up with a person I met there who was a CC registered "breeder" who breeds 42 different breeds. She was of the opinion that there are just as many if not more puppies being bred by CC members now as there ever have been but they are not being registered as they had to be when McDougal was the buyer and as she spoke about the loop holes and the markets available which I had never considered I probably would agree with her.

yep me too.

2011 - http://www.staradvertiser.com/business/20110617_ward_centre_restaurant_closes_after_8_months.html?id=124059049Pet's Discount files bankruptcy The parent company of the now-closed Pet's Discount Warehouse and Pet's Central has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation, as have its principals, Daniel A. McDougal and Dirk C. Budd. M&B Pets Inc., parent company of sister retailers Pet's Discount and Pet's Central, listed assets of $1.1 million and debts of $3.2 million. Its more than 100 creditors include Kamehameha Schools, which owns the leasehold interest under the building M&B owns on Malaai Street. The company had about 15 employees, all but three or four of whom were left without jobs when the store closed earlier this month. A handful of employees got jobs with a new venture, Pet Hale, opening today in Waikele Center. Pet's Discount President McDougal listed assets of $959,746 and debts of $3.1 million, while Vice President Budd listed assets of $968,571 and debts of $3.4 million. Individual filings by McDougal and Budd show each made a $167,496 loan to M&B Pets. The chain had six locations but began closing stores late last year, beginning in Market City. Others in Hawaii Kai, Kaneohe, Waikele Center and on Nimitz Highway followed. The Salt Lake location had been a store within a store. It is possible that economic issues and changing societal attitudes took their toll on the business, observed Mark Ambard, a commercial real estate broker who had done business with M&B. "Competition from big boxes and social attitudes about animals and where you get them may have had something to do with it."

This one was written in 2007 and tells of how they specialise in Aussie puppies and that there are new shops coming for 2008. http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Sep/12/bz/hawaii709120396.html

Could be right Sheridan http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/139909-be-careful-of-mr-d-a-mcdougal-america/

The Aussie dollar went right down to around .60cents - would have made the export market more attractive.

I don't think its the drought - the drought broke in late 2010 so That would affect regos in early 2011 but they were higher in 2009 when the drought was at its height.

Years ago when I was breeding Ragdoll cats .I had someone who wanted a Ragdoll as they had owned a Siamese cross and it had bitten the neighbour's kid - council told them they had to get rid of it and they had it PTS .No idea what their rights may have been if they had fought it thought as they just did as they were told. Aroud Liverpool in Sydney from memory.

Could be - no doubt that the difficulty for breeders to source good dogs anymore is an impact but Id expect that to be a consistent drop what bought my attention to these years is that it went up - in almost every breed and then dropped again.

Im so sorry this has happened - completely heart breaking. No temperature ,no runny poos, no worms , no vomiting, thin stomach tissue .Within a day or each other ? So they are 4 weeks old - have you started to wean them.If so how are you weaning them ? How much food, what type of food how often etc?

The Bickfords says 35% juice but you will need to look and see if its all raspberry juice because they usually mix apple juice in which increases the juice content but not the raspberry juice content . You cant buy the stuff here - every time I go into a supermarket I spot for it but its rare that its on the shelf . I havent seen sunrasie raspberry juice for a long time either.

Its probably too hard to try work it out as well without state by state breakdowns too - new state laws, new state CC regs, how active animal rights were in one geographical area etc whether the raise and fall came from one state or not would impact. We did a survey in 2009 asking about things which were impacting on breeders and finances barely got a mention and I dont think my financial position or fears of financial issues had any affect on anything I did around that time. Anyway its probably just trivia but it made me curious. When did they ban close matings? Or when did they say they were banning close matings - maybe everyone got a couple in before the ban?????

Could be - something I hadn't even considered.

Just looked it up - its been illegal in all states since 2003.

I think tail docking was way before that .

In every group and in almost every breed numbers of purebred dogs registered rose in 2009 and fell again after that. Was there something that happened in 2008/2009 we could see as explanation for the rise or in 2009/2010 which may have caused it to fall? Any ideas?

http://www.midwoof.com/store/reproduction/detection/alkalive-ph-test-stx/prod_34.html

As far as I know the property and why some work and others dont hasnt as yet been identified [named] Most berries contain some benzoic acid naturally so do some other foods from memory some stoned fruits and cinnamon. You would think if it was as easy as benzoic acid that they would just produce something artificially to do the job - or that anything with the stuff added would have the same effect. Dunno but i always have raspberries in the freezer just in case.

You get the same with the juice and jams and anything else even after they are cooked - they have eliminated the benzoic acid. Quote Cavanagh says there is something unique to raspberry and blackcurrant juices, which seems to be responsible.

You need to be careful that its 35% raspberry and not just 35% fruit juice as they put other juices in and combine to make up the difference in some of them

Yes they still make it but it hasnt been on a supermarket shelf for a long time.