WoofnHoof

Thanks guys will give it another go when I get home. At the moment she's just wearing the weatherbeeta with the pink one over the top seems to be doing the job for the time being.

Cool :)

I think the brand is playmate I'll have to check when I get home, I went looking for it on google, note to self don't put "dog rug" into a Google image search I'll try cutting off the leg loops on the knitted one, would it ride up if I did?

I bought this cute knitted jumper for Lulu she was less than impressed, it looks a bit small for her, I was tossing up whether to take it back but I'm away for a month now so will have to deal with it when I get back. I also got this coat which fits better, she's not overly keen on the neck part seems to like it better with it turned down.

Seriously cute puppy! :)

Such a rollercoaster that Amber is putting you through! Hope she improves for you.

Oh that is not good timing for the holiday My husky had a liver shunt but the congenital ones are usually picked up pretty early, they can get acquired shunts as well but your vet should be able to tell you whether that is a possibility or if it's something else. Although in my experience even experienced vets don't always have the answers for some of these things, sometimes you need a specialist, depending on where you are as to whether you can get onto one but maybe even just give one a ring I have found them very helpful over the phone. When my boy was waiting for his shunt surgery he was on Hills L/D so that might be something to chat with the vet or the specialist about just to take the pressure off her liver at the moment. ETA it's hard to say whether the nose bleed is related but it's certainly possible but I don't know what the link could be, again I would recommend chatting to a canine internal medicine specialist if you possibly can. In the meantime avoid high protein foods if possible.

Some more doggy pics, I will have to try it on some short coated dogs, the spitz's don't really show much lol!

It is very cool :) Not so great for selfies though lol!

Yeah it's very cool :) Kirislin that is how I justified it to myself I figured it might be useful for picking up inflammation, I've got a project at work coming up where we will be seeing whether we can pick up inflammation with their big fancy (really expensive) camera :) Pers I've put horse pics in the equine thread in OT :)

Got a new toy today an infrared camera (just a little one that attaches to the phone) so had a play taking pics of the dogs :D Husky Swedish Vallhund

Happy birthday gorgeous boofa! :)

So sorry to hear you are losing your beautiful girl Hugs.

My Val girl has weatherbeetas but they don't fit her all that well she usually ends up with them hanging to one side or the other. Now she's getting a bit creaky I want to get something better so trying to find something that fits her long body and short legs is a challenge, not much range in this town so might have to look further afield.

I think it would be great to be able to take dogs more places, on lead and with poo bags of course :)

The Australian warmblood horse registries operate a "semi closed stud book", so for the registry I am in crosses are allowed for entry into a performance registry which also allows full showing rights including geldings, but they have to have known parentage for at least 4 generations, so pure breeds from other stud books such as Arabians and thoroughbreds are accepted but they don't go straight into the studbook they are in a seperate book and can only be accepted into the full studbook once they are assessed or classified as suitable for breeding. This is because the breed in this country is still in development and the type is not as strict being a largely performance centric registry. With dogs it's a bit trickier as it's difficult to have performance testing for many breeds as their original purpose has become obsolete or changed, but certainly I feel it can't hurt to pursue that option in breeds where it may be practical to do so. I have no idea how you'd assess brachycephalic traits though, perhaps a revised standard with minimum dimensions? I wouldn't rely on genetic breed testing at this point, they are at best an educated guess, too few markers for too many traits, and so many possible variants, pointless to even speculate at its usefulness in the future.

Lol yeah there are exceptions to pretty much every rule we can think of :laugh:

Opportunity - or rather lack of opportunity to breed with same species. Something like those creepy zoo people who interbreed lions with tigers (may they rot in hell). Lions and tigers are sufficiently different genetically that they produce infertile offspring so they are still closer to the generally understood definition of species than dingoes and dogs, which do produce fertile offspring. Dingoes, dogs and wolves would be classified as the same species under the basic definition because they all produce fertile offspring (not sure about dingoes x wolves but chances are they would produce fertile offspring), because the morphology (appearance) is significantly different they have been classified as seperate species, so now they are referred to as seperate species, Canis lupis (grey wolf), Canis familiaris (dog) and Canis dingo (dingo) whereas in the past they were all Canis lupis with dogs and dingoes considered a subspecies of the grey wolf. It's all mainly semantics anyway but I suppose it's useful in terms of management to understand that they do have significant differences which are measurable and consistent across the species, as the original study suggests this is important when looking at the role of the dingo in Australia as opposed to that of wild dogs as there are differences in behaviour as well as morphology and this impacts on their role as predators.

That is generally the case but as with most rules there are exceptions. This page explains it a bit better. http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/evo_41

The author of that article has drawn some overly simplistic conclusions from the study she refers to, I have pasted the abstract for the study below. Essentially taxonomy (naming species) is a bit of a moving target these days as we learn about the complex relationships between species, they want to differentiate domestic forms as a different species because they are sufficiently different apparently. So while domestic dogs and modern wolves share a great deal of genetic material they diverged many centuries ago, and so the species have gone along different tracks since they originally diverged to now be significantly different, but they still share something like 99.9% of genetic material. The same goes for dingoes which are thought to have diverged from domestic dogs a long time ago. So with time passing and continued divergence the species went their own way, they still share enough genetic characteristics so that they can produce fertile offspring but there are significant enough difference that taxonomists decided they can be considered different species. Basically they are accurate in saying that the domestic dog did not diverge from the modern wolf but the salient point is that they share enough genetic material that they had a common ancestor. It's all a bit murky hence why it gets confusing when people try to simplify it for the sake of making a statement.

Lovely coat hope it keeps your girl nice and warm this winter :) I feel incredibly ripped off having a husky there would be no point buying him a rug he is quite fine in the cold, this will be his first winter in a place that sometimes gets snow so that will be exciting! My vallhund has a couple of weatherbeetas she's a funny shape too so a bit hard to fit but again has a double coat so only has a coat on when it's freezing. When I had my chi I had a great time buying cute little coats and the little bugger hated them and would wriggle out of them first chance he got! My dogs spend most of their time inside anyway so it's only if they are out and about.

Yep

The GSDs are a beautiful looking animal, or at least they should be. There needs to be balance in showing, a panel of judges would be a good start, and a rethink of the wording of the standard as the interpretation has clearly gone awry. The animals at the best show in the world/country should be the best specimens, a nicely put together animal should look like a nicely built animal regardless of whether it's being silly or not moving at it's best, if it's truly too hard for the judge to see the dog's movement and conformation they can request they run them out or stand them up again. The focus on the GSD is because the GSD is a well loved and popular breed, and it has changed significantly in recent years. Same thing has happened to a lot of breeds, quarter horses cop the same criticism because the changes are more pronounced and obvious than has been seen in other breeds and it's a popular breed with a long history, not that it doesn't happen in other breeds but when you get a breed that originated as a working animal and the current show lines resemble beef cattle because someone took the part of the standard that says "well muscled" to it's extreme and you end up with animals that can't be ridden and can barely move. Friend of mine bought a halter bred quarter horse he's a nice horse with better feet than most other halter bred horses but due to his conformation he is an uncomfortable ride and can't canter without disuniting, yet he wins champions in led classes. The problem with showing or anything involving judges is that it's very insular, everyone knows everyone and if you put a popular animal down in the placings you won't get invited back to judge again. Makes it very hard for sports/pursuits that run largely on the blood of volunteers, most of whom compete or have a relative competing, to then be able to effectively and objectively respond to issues that do crop up. Still it needs to be done in order to survive, it is very hard to defend pure breed animals as healthy and the show ring as a good arbiter of conformation when any numpty can see that something has gone astray along the way.

I think block size is less important than good management, you can have a stimulated and engaged dog on a small block and a bored destructive dog on a big block. So much comes down to management and the personalities of the dogs themselves. And of course whether council and neighbours are ok but in the past I've had luck just writing a comprehensive letter with my management plan. As to the OP I couldn't choose these days. Tried in the past when my parents couldn't look after the vallhund anymore I took her on even though my husky doesn't always get on with her. I was going to rehome the vallhund and keep the husky because huskies are already regulars in pounds. But the vallhund has her own eccentricities which makes her a less than ideal rehome candidate. so I gave up on that idea and just manage the two as best as possible and it's been fine.

Interesting thanks for posting. Been saying the same for years in the horse world, sadly it's not improving, I have doubts it ever will, the powers that be lack the will and intestinal fortitude to enact change.