Greytmate

You would need to compare itemised invoices to see the real difference. I would actually be more worried about being charged only $350 for surgery and two days hospitalisation than I would about paying $1700. You won't get much oxygen, propofol, plasma or many other types of expensive treatment for $350. Hospitalisation is best when the dog is being constantly monitored and tested and given treatment and pain relief, not when it is just put in a cage and all the staff go home at night. It costs money to provide all that. But sadly, not all vets are set up with the latest vet hospital facilities.

If the dogs are working they are performing a task that may not lead them into direct competition or confrontation with another dog.

And the mythical 'break sticks' they use to unlock them? No idea.

Dogs with light or yellow eyes are evil. (even ANKC standards perpetuate this one. ) Dogs don't bite the hand that feeds them. (Some do accidentally, and some do it on purpose)

Some breeds may work in packs, but they are not all are kennelled in packs.

The three sized schnauzers have very different temperaments too. I will let a schnauzer person explain that more fully. In breeds where interbreeding of coat type is allowed, you would expect the same consequences if you breed exclusively for coat type as you would if breeding exclusively for colour. Good conformation and temperament may deteriorate in those lines if all other qualities are being disregarded in favour of 'rare' colour or coat.

The best thing to do is not to raise people's expectations. Let them know straight up when they contact you that you have an application process to make sure your dog goes to a home where it will fit in really well, and that you will need to ask them some questions first. Sometimes you don't need to say no. The adopter may come to their own decision during the discussion that the dog won't suit them. I remember one applicant, a single parent in a home with very low fences, no separate backyard, with 4 children under 6 and a 3 month old staffy pup. I didn't say "No". I just explained how the fencing would need to be altered to keep the dog safe, and told her it would be best if she waited until her puppy grew up before getting another dog, and gave her some good reasons why. There is usually a way to put it that doesn't insult people. And it isn't really ethical to offer people a dog so they get excited, and then tell them that they can't have it.

I am glad you have the crates and dog yards set up. I really do appreciate what you are doing, you just give a completely different impression of your yard set up in the other thread. You just can't be too careful with new foster dogs, as they are more likely to try to find a way out in the first few days. There is no need for colourbond, or anything fancy like that. The best advice I can give is to stay in contact with Dally rescue, and take their advice should you have any problems.

In their mouth.

I hope this goes well too. Voloclyde, have you put up a fence or enclosure for the new dog? Young, adult, untrained dogs may not be well-contained by 3-strand barbed wire farm fencing. You may also need to organise an area where you can keep it separate from your own dogs, just in case.

Not all groups use or are aware of proper processes. But you can choose to deal with groups that do. There are some groups in America now charging a $50 deposit before the Home Visit is done, to cover the costs of petrol and processing the application. That way if the applicant does not end up adopting, you haven't ended up out of pocket. I think the idea has merit. I remember a man telling me on the phone that his fences were 1.8 metres. When I did the Home Visit, I saw that one fence was only 1.2 metres. He explained that it wasn't his fence, it was the neighbour's fence.

Various, depending of the defect. Some might go a bit blue, some will cough a lot. We had a litter of four young adult dogs to rehome where two of the dogs had the same heart defect, but we were told by a vet that it was not a genetic condition but perhaps a result of a problem during pregnancy.

I understand your frustrations. I look at things from another viewpoint. Possums don't ask to be born (I suppose that applies to any life form) and they have to survive albeit at your loss. Imagine for one second if you were born a possum instead of a human. Then imagine being born as a hookworm. We have a huge old possum that lives here. Possums are very territorial. This one fights off other possums, and knows to keep out of the dogs' way.

This topic upsets me, because sometimes you can throw all the money in the world at the vet, and he still can't fix your dog. :rolleyes: Another option is to move the dog to a vet surgery that has lower overheads and can provide cheaper service. Good idea to have pet insurance too.

Yes. It is important that the person asking questions does so with sensitivity and adequate explanation, while protecting the applicant's privacy. I wouldn't ask about income, but I would ask personal questions about living arrangements and children. Similar to a job interview, you can and should pull out if you feel that you can't relate to the person well and understand where they are coming from. It is why I do Home Visits, rather than Home Checks. An education and induction rather than just screening. It does go both ways and I expect to be asked the hard questions sometimes too. The more questions they ask, sometimes the fewer I will have to ask in return. Many people buy a dog without ever knowing they have been screened.

I hear this a lot and wonder what it means. Does it mean that there are a lot of wonderful homes where people aren't prepared to "qualify themselves" for a pup? How do we know these homes are wonderful and that there are a lot of them out there? The breeder's business is to find good homes for the limited number of pups they have, not to provide dogs for all the wonderful homes out there. If the wonderful homes are not willing to provide evidence of their wonderfulness, it is just another unscreened potential application, that cannot be taken into account when the breeder places the pups. I wonder if those same people would expect to be offered a job without being required to answer questions or attend an interview. Like everyone should just 'know' how good they are.

They would miss out. They would then be forced to buy a dog from somebody not so careful about the dogs they sell. People that don't care about who their dogs go to are probably aiming for quantity not quality, and the dogs they produce are likely to be of lower quality. Better a good home that understands and respects how much work the breeder/rescuer has put in, than a 'wonderful' home that has no idea why the breeder or rescuer would bother to care so much. Asking people questions isn't the most funnest thing in the world either, but it is what you have to do if you care about where your dogs end up.

While I understand the need for many questions and a great deal of communication between a potential buyer and the breeder, the 'home check' part of this process has me a bit concerned. If it isn't the breeder themselves doing the check would it be acceptable for me to ask to see a police clearance or the like before letting someone into my home? Or would it just be the yard they were checking? I have had a bad experience in the past when someone came out to look at something we had for sale (furniture) and was actually 'casing' the house and came back at a later date and broke in (many years ago though). I don't normally allow people I don't know into my house, and any tradesmen have to come from recognised, reputable companies and provide a clearance or reference. Would photographs or video be acceptable if the breeder wasn't able to visit themselves? Go for your life. Check with previous buyers. Hire a PI if you like. If you are prepared to go to that length to get a dog from me, at least that shows you are serious. But no, I wouldn't sign for anyone to do a police check. It would be easy for you to check to see if I was reputable in a business sense. Little more to it than that, but again, something I wouldn't put on the internet. Thanks for your reply Greytmate. I if the breeder themselves were doing the check I wouldn't have the problem, I would be be dealing with a reputable, registered breeder who I would also be asking questions of and would be in contact with them regularly and would have to feel comfortable with them before I got pup from them anyway. It was more if the breeder couldn't do the home check, the person they would ask to do it - if in another state etc. That is a good point. I had trained Home Visitors, we would never send a random person out. There is privacy legislation that anyone doing Home Visits does need to be aware of too.

While I understand the need for many questions and a great deal of communication between a potential buyer and the breeder, the 'home check' part of this process has me a bit concerned. If it isn't the breeder themselves doing the check would it be acceptable for me to ask to see a police clearance or the like before letting someone into my home? Or would it just be the yard they were checking? I have had a bad experience in the past when someone came out to look at something we had for sale (furniture) and was actually 'casing' the house and came back at a later date and broke in (many years ago though). I don't normally allow people I don't know into my house, and any tradesmen have to come from recognised, reputable companies and provide a clearance or reference. Would photographs or video be acceptable if the breeder wasn't able to visit themselves? Go for your life. Check with previous buyers. Hire a PI if you like. If you are prepared to go to that length to get a dog from me, at least that shows you are serious. But no, I wouldn't sign for anyone to do a police check. It would be easy for you to check to see if I was reputable in a business sense. Little more to it than that, but again, something I wouldn't put on the internet.

The breeder I bought Benson from asked me exactly this question. My reply...."My last dog died two months ago, she was 14 years old and it was nowhere near long enough". I think that clinched it. The small problem with pop quizzes is that people who lurk on forums know what to answer even if it isn't the truth. If I were ever to source a dog from rescue, or some breeders, for example, I would never admit to working full time. Firstly, it's none of their business, and secondly in some cases, it's an immediate dismissal. and in some cases there is a damn good reason for it being an immediate dismissal. I would agree. I used to place some dogs in homes where people worked full time, and other dogs in homes where people were around more, because it is important the right dog is matched to the home. If somebody lied about their working hours, it might become apparent that they did not return home emails during business hours, or that they were not available for the home visit or to collect the dog during business hours, or even that they just weren't answering their home phone during the day. There are a few things that can be done to check for liars on different sections of the application, and if caught they wouldn't get a dog at all, even if we did have a more suitable one for their lifestyle. I would also spread the word as appropriate. It is pretty useless to be asking yes or no questions when screening owners, the more they talk, the more you can judge whether to proceed with the next step of the application. Everyone will say "yes" if you ask them if they have a fence. Ask them to describe the fence, gates and yard and you get a much better picture. The more info you have, the more you can verify to make sure their story is consistent. If I sell a dog to somebody in an ethical way, it is my business to ascertain as much as reasonable about the new owner so the dog suits their lifestyle. Otherwise it isn't ethical, it is no different to opening a pet shop. If there was one single screening method that I would pick as the best, it is the having people wait between enquiring and being offered a dog. There are steps that need to happen in matching them with a dog, and that takes time. There are exceptional circumstances where I wouldn't make somebody wait, but normally I would. That sorts out any impatient people, or people who just want any dog instead of the right dog for them. How the applicant deals with the wait may also indicate how they deal with other minor problems, and give an idea of how enthusiastic they are. There are various red flags that show somebody might be hiding something or being dishonest. I am not going to post about that here. At the end of the day, you wouldn't be placing many dogs in homes if you went to extreme lengths to check every home. So any hint of a problem or dishonesty, and I will pass that person in favour of an application that sounds genuine. With screening, you will never know about all the 'good' homes you miss, but all that matters is making sure that all the dogs in your care go into homes that seem right.

Thanks Indigirl, I hope it fits in well with the rest of the quilt.

There is an active Ridgeback Rescue group in QLD. They would take you and your wife's needs into account before placing an adult dog with you. A good Ridgeback breeder wouldn't sell a pup that was born with a defect like a dermoid sinus. I would not really be taking into account the opinion of your eldest child. They don't have enough life experience to understand and compare the various behaviour traits and the implications of that, and would be probably choosing the dog on looks. A weimeraner would be a good choice if your wife wanted to get really involved with dog activities, and interact lots with the dog, but at this stage that is an unknown. I think an adult ridgy, a whippet or a greyhound would suit in that they would really enjoy your wife's daytime company, but not need a high level of interaction with her, should she choose to do her own thing around the house.

Lambo, We do want more people to own dogs, but the dogs they pick have to match the expectations they have as far as shedding, destructiveness, training requirements, activity levels, affection levels and everything else. If the match is wrong, yet another dog is added to the statistics of thousands of dogs each year being put to sleep because they became really unmanageable. I have rehomed hundreds of adult dogs. I would not put any dog in your home until I was sure your wife understood and accepted that there might be minor behaviour problems like chewing, and solving them is part of owning a dog. It isn't good to take on a dog and have conditions like "only if it doesn't do whatever" when it will be up to her to make an effort to ensure that the dog doesn't do those things. If your wife cannot accept that she may lose a pair of shoes unless she supervises the puppy fully or keep the bedroom door shut, then it isn't the right home for a puppy. From the sounds of it you could provide an excellent home for a dog. We just want you to get a dog that will be really happy in your home and turn your wife into a dog lover too.

Only because you picked some of the most hard-work and emotionally intense breeds ever. If you had said "I want a greyhound, british bull dog or a sharpei", I doubt anyone would have tried to put you off as much. Also your wife's preference for separating the animal from her shoes rather than wanting to train it, rings warning bells for us all. Puppies do eat shoes unless trained not to. Somebody needs to train them though, no magic wands here. I wouldn't be taking a rescue weim, I would guess that people would tend to hold onto the good ones. Consider a whippet, or better still, because you like a larger dogs, meet some greyhounds.

I am not very good at doing cats, dogs or horses, so I made a square with a crab. I will give it a wash and iron before I send it in.