WoofnHoof

And some from today

Just thought I'd post some pics of my gorgeous new baby for those who don't venture into the equine thread :D

Hi Jules I haven't been in the health forum for a while so missed this thread, I'm glad Amber has bounced back from her turn it's not a fun thing to go through that's for sure.

Hi Kirislin, Amber is my rescue girl not sure what breed definetly a bit of arab in there, the people at the sale thought she might be station bred, she was supposed to be a dogger horse but was run through the sale at the last minute. Age is also anyone's guess the vet thinks 25ish, there is a thread around here somewhere telling the story, she's a lovely old girl that's for sure. Lou and Min are TBs (brother and sister) and Daisy is out of Min by a WB stallion.

Thanks

Damn I only just saw this thread Would have made good chrissy presents

Took some quick pics this morning during a break in the horrid weather Amber starting to look nice with her summer coat peeking through Min looking a bit large Lou showing his distain for the oaten hay (not as nice as lucerne apparently Daisy showing her distain for - well - everything lol Definetly got her mums bum

Perhaps not but I cannot name a purebred dog whose development stopped at F1 crosses and that in which a very great deal of it's physical and temperament characteristics don't conform to a pretty narrow standard. A dog that ranges in size from small to large, can have a raft of different coat types, and a raft of different temperaments is not a "breed" and should not be advertised as such, nor acquired with the idea that you've got any real certainty about what sort of adult dog you're going to get. For those breeders aspiring to move beyond F1 crossbreeding for profit - go right ahead. But FFS change that god awful name and settle on a breed standard that's not as wide as the Nullabor. I agree, I'm just pointing out that the argument against DDs shouldn't really be about the morality of the 'purpose' as that doesn't really make a lot of sense. There are breeds which range in size (eg poodles) and breeds which range in coat types (eg chis) but your points about the breadth of the standard and the implications of the name are quite valid and hopefully will be addressed in the long run because I don't think the demand for the general 'type' is going away.

With a job in mind, not just to make money It could be argued that job = money, how many times have I heard that a good kelpie is worth more than 3 human workers? Is it not ultimately about money when it's a working breed? I don't think it's a good idea to argue that pure breeds were developed out of some higher moral purpose all breeds were developed to serve humans. The main argument against the DD trend is that in this day and age we have more tools to ensure the health and welfare of the individuals being bred and these tools are not being utilised in the development of these breeds and that is what should be changed. Some breeds were developed to sit on rich people's laps, is that noble? Is that a worthy cause? No doubt the purists of the time were outraged that their breeds were being used to create a breed with such a dubious purpose but that's what humans do.

Wonderful news!

Poor baby

Aww poor baby he's all alone Mine is very quiet but he sleeps on the bed :D

Ditto!

Thanks Weasels that's a good explanation

It's also hard to know what the implications of the hotline are until we get some feedback from someone who has rang up, I think I read that out of the 100+ calls they received they sent out 30 or 40 (?) requests for council rangers to follow up in person? So since not every call is being followed up I would like to know which aspects of the complaint are resulting in a follow up visit.

And my guess that is unless the reported dogs are bull breeds no action will be taken. That's why I thought it would be interesting to know what they actually do when someone rings the hotline, at the moment all anyone can do is guess at what *might* happen. If anyone does phone the hotline can they please let us know here? Both what they ask and whether it's followed up would both be interesting, especially in the case of dogs that don't look PB. I think it's called a dangerous dog hotline not a pitbull hotline so in theory they should take complaints seriously regardless of breed...

That's what I was thinking too, many of the calls might well be frivolous or vindictive but there will also be some genuine ones and while the underpinning breed premise is faulty there is perhaps some merit in having a dangerous dog reporting system that actually initiates a response. It would be interesting to know what the criteria are for passing on the details to council to follow up, are they passing on all dangerous dog descriptions or just ones where the dog fits the 'pitbull type' description? If anyone in Vic does know of a dangerous uncontained dog in their area (regardless of breed) I'd be ringing the hotline and just see what sort of questions they ask and whether it is followed up.

I believe there are no markers yet for the APBT Yeah I vaguely remember this came up once before in a thread about the bitsa test apparently the APBT isn't on their list of breeds so if that's the case the dog can't possibly have it listed as a possible ancestor

Yeah try not to stress too much, it's good that she's keen on her tucker my boy went from being very fussy and ordinary about his tucker to wolfing down as much of the LD as he could get! From memory he did gain a bit of weight on that too so hopefully Amber will be the same.

I don't know about staffys but when after I got my husky I discovered that it would have been cheaper to buy a papered dog from a breeder, so don't assume that pedigree is more expensive as you may be surprised.

Depends on what markers they are using and whether the dog has those markers, testing is still in it's infancy and there is so much phenotypic variability between dogs despite and extremely small geneotypic variability. I guess all you can do is get your dogs tested if they come up as something else keep the paperwork it may come in handy, if they have pit bull markers burn the test and claim you never did it :D

From memory very similar breeds are unable to be genetically distinguished as there is the same variation between breeds as there is between individual animals. That may have changed with more advanced genetic screening but from what I can tell we aren't there yet.

Yeah likely to be the sedative poor girl, did they give you lactulose to give her? That's what they gave me it's supposed to help remove the toxins apparently.

Oh I'm sorry to hear this Jules On the positive I think the fact that she is 18 months old without showing severe symptoms before now is a good sign for medical and dietary management.

That's a bugger Jules you'd hope the specialists would have a better idea. At least she's feeling good on the diet, hopefully the rash is just from the shaving Sonny got that a bit too on the softer skin down hear his flanks.