Greytmate

Could you edit the title of this thread please? Opinions from "lab mix experts" wouldn't be welcome here. Your 'lab' looks more like a lab than some I have seen sold as labs. It could be a mix, or it could just be from a long line of byb badly bred lab-type dogs. It doesn't matter at all what your dog is. Just enjoy its company. In general, dogs are most likely to have the traits of the breeds they most resemble. But not always. Threads like these are a bit of a waste of time, because we could throw guesses all day and you still have a lab cross that can't really be described as much else.

Go to Spotlight like I did, and you don't even need to talk to anyone. In the quilting section are "fat quarters" sitting there ready to take to the checkout. There is also the iron-on bonding paper that you buy by the 10cm length, and needles and pins there in that section. From the embroidery aisle there are hoops and threads and stuff.

Talking about cross-breeding allows us to educate people on why it isn't good and to examine the old myths. Cross a labrador with a poodle because you want a non-shedding coat and the stable labby intelligence, and you are just as likely to get a woolly sheddy coat, the neurotic temperament of the most badly-bred poodle, and dodgy hips. People need to be aware of this stuff.

It is illegal. Keep on at the RSPCA until you get action. Also call the greyhound racing authority in your state. Follow up in writing with an email. It is cruel and wrong and it needs urgent investigation.

The thread is about the excuses people use to get rid of the dog, not the method of disposal. Corvus has made it very clear that she excuses people in their twenties for dumping pets in an effort to further their careers. I don't.

Early this morning our beautiful boy Leo passed away. Our big strong tough boy struggled for two days to overcome terrible injuries, and he tried so hard to live, but he didn't make it. Poor Leo, he didn't deserve to die like this and I feel so bad. Goodbye sweet boy, I will miss our cuddles so much. My heart is breaking.

It's not just me, it's OH as well. I want to go into academia and he is in the film industry. I don't want to leave Oz, but nor do I want to end up consulting again because I can't get a research position in Sydney or Melbourne. It's a long way in the future, but I'd rather think about it now so I can help myself as much as possible in networking and so forth and have some kind of "worst case scenario" plan. Easier said than done when you're in your early twenties. So, your priority is your career or your husband's career. So you want your research position more than you love your dog. Good on you. You picked the right thread to show your true colours. If the dog was really part of your family then the 'worst case scenario' is that you don't alter your lifestyle to exclude your dog. There are plenty of people in their early twenties that have made life decisions and plan to stick to them, it isn't an excuse for dumping a dog. Sometimes there are terribly desperate situations where people cannot keep their dog. That is tragic. Being desperately ambitious doesn't cut it.

You don't have to move overseas to get a job. We have jobs here in Australia. The responsible thing is to decide before you get a pet whether the pet is going to be compatible with your chosen career and lifestyle for the next fifteen or so years.

Most greyhounds are satisfied with a walk 20 minute walk every day or two. They don't have the endurance for too much exercise. My greyhound Woody looks a little bit like a weim.

Yes, an ex-racing greyhound would suit well. They are a breed that tends to turn non-dog lovers into dog lovers, as they have a very gentle, placid quiet type of friendliness. Company for your husband without him having to interact. They are nowhere near as fragile as they look. They are a very clean breed that doesn't shed a lot or have the doggy smell that labs, shepherds and many other breeds tend to have. Very easy to train them not to go into bedrooms or on to furniture too. You will have to meet some before you decide.

We used to get our Min Pin to sing by playing the 80's song, More Than Words.

It isn't up to me, they are not my dogs and I don't know you at all. I just wonder who the "we" is in "do you guys think we could find some forever homes?" At this stage these dogs sound nowhere near ready to find homes for, and if and when they are they will be competing against hundreds of other nice dogs for homes. If you talk to Dally rescue they will be able to give you a much better idea of how rehomable dogs like these are, and give you specific breed advice on rehabilitation. Yes, that's right. But there is a limit to what individual people can do, and it is the dogs that suffer if people go over their limit. Plenty of people want to rush in and save animals, and they do it for the right reasons, but there is a lot that can go wrong if you try to cut corners with rescue. Not every dog can or should be saved when there are so many good dogs needing homes.

That has already been said in this thread. I said that it was important to take their advice, not give them yet another dog to rehome.

It would first depend on how the dogs went with their behavioural assessment, and then how they went with rehab. I don't know about a 'set time'. They are dogs, and it would depend on whether at that time they were suitable to be placed as pets, whether they needed more work, or whether they aren't suited at all and needed to be pts. If you had the dogs in your care, it would be up to you to arrange for them to get the rehab they need. You would need to make sure the resources are available to you before you took on the dogs. While DOL is supportive, it is not an emergency rescue organisation and you will still be on your own if things get difficult. Unless the dog's rehabilitation is taken seriously and proper ethical rescue procedures are followed, you will find that things can get distinctly unsupportive around here too. The OP has contacted Dalmatian rescue, and they are the best people to advise on this.

Humans have the same motivations as dogs. Shelter, Sustenance, Security and Status. Both dogs and people have been known to kill to achieve this if they are desperate, but dogs are more likely to not be able to think of any alternatives.

To answer your question. An Amstaff is supposed to meet this standard, and a well-bred one won't be too far off this. Amstaff Standard A pitbull isn't bred to that standard, so is less likely to look like that. It might have a red or liver skin pigment instead of a dark one, but not all are like that. Different lines of pitbulls have different looks, and there are some that are so badly bred that the 'line' produces a range of types. But they are not a recognised breed in Australia, and you cannot always identify a pitbull beyond doubt.

You explain that really well mjk05.

I don't think there is an argument about show v working here. There are show breeders, performance breeders, byb breeders, all with shonky practices keeping pounds busy. This thread isn't about that. Why I entered this thread was to point out that encouraging people to breed from their working bitches "just because" they are a good performer, isn't necessary to improve a breed. The arguments being given were false or very simplistic. My experience is with racing greyhounds, but my experience of what a good and ethical performance breeder does is the same as mjk05's for sheep dogs. The same principals apply to performance horse breeding. I look to the world-wide experts of performance breeding to learn, not to a small group of dog breeders of one breed in Australia. There are certainly many performance breeders who do follow Black Bronsons principals, but those people that breed for quantity are causing the problems for some breeds rather than being the ones to improve them. The consequences for poor breeding practices in performance animals can be a tragic excess of animals that nobody wants. As much learning as possible should be done before performance breeding, and not all pet owners want to be bothered with that.

I dunno have you had a gander at some of them.....sheesh There are plenty of breeders of performance breeds that are not so discriminating. Unfortunately they are the ones keeping pounds busy.

The difference might be in the demand for performance pups in that breed. If the demand isn't there, not as many people will be inspired to breed. It is up to breeders to inspire interest within their breed, and make breeder's terms as attractive as they need to be for that particular breed. Saying that pet owners shouldn't desex, 'just in case' the dog needs to be bred from is not taking into account the needs of those owners, and won't necessarily improve the breed.

Leave the establishment of great producers to people that understand what else needs to be looked for besides good performance. Learn what those people do, and then you might understand where I am coming from. Because I do not advocate breeding with a bitch just because she happens to work well. There is a bigger picture to be considered, and that will differ in every breed and with every owner. They certainly don't do what you advocate to produce a "good" working GSD, had any experience with them Greytmate If it is being bred on different principals that the ones I have described, they are being bred for something other than performance. What mjk05 is describing is common to people breeding all sorts of high quality performance animals, not just sheep dogs. But if there is such a shortage in your breed that many more bitches need to be bred from, you probably would just have to concentrate on quantity before you could do much to improve quality. Like I said, things may be different in different breeds. You may be able to rehome your not-quite-working quality dogs very easily, and that makes it less important to breed well I guess. But the simplistic breeding principals you describe would not be helpful in many other performance breeds, as it is not an efficient way of improving performance over generations.

Next door's keeshond is. Me and Woody listen, and sometimes we sing along for fun.

Leave the establishment of great producers to people that understand what else needs to be looked for besides good performance. Learn what those people do, and then you might understand where I am coming from. Because I do not advocate breeding with a bitch just because she happens to work well. There is a bigger picture to be considered, and that will differ in every breed and with every owner.

The same principles apply to horse breeding, and a lot of our knowledge on performance breeding principles has been based on thoroughbreds. That is where the big money is. Breeding efficiently is even more important in horses, as so much is invested in each animal. More likely than what alternative? Breeding with dogs that don't work well? Nobody here is advocating that at all. In performance breeding, you are more likely to breed good workers from proven (prepotent) producers that are also good worker themselves, than you are from breeding an equally good worker than has not yet been proven as a producer herself. Not all good working bitches are prepotent. Good breeding bitches are. They may even regularly throw ability beyond their own if the breeder is working to a long-term plan. That is beside the point of this thread. Yes it is important to choose the right male, but that has no relevance as to whether people should keep all their bitches entire. That's a given Greytmate to use a good producer , but the good producer has to have her first litter to determine her production quality in the first place. There is more sense testing the producing ablity of bitch that can work than a bitch that cannot or hasn't been evaluated. It's very relevent to keep a working bitch entire if the owner has any interests in the improvement of their breed Not all well-performed bitches necessarily should be bred from or need to be bred from for the breed to benefit and improve and for the bloodlines to remain strong. Unless you have a rare breed, but then you are breeding for survival not for performance. Yes, you could test out a bitches ability to throw pups with potential for good performance by breeding her. But there is much more to ethical breeding than just the bitch's performance to take into account. Breeding from a bitch just because she is a good performer will give you a higher failure rate than if you breed taking other things into account as well. Is it right to be breeding litters just to test every bitch's prepotency? That might be an awful lot of puppies and a high proportion that might not have inherited much ability. How easy is it to find homes for not-quite-working quality pups in your breed? Correct Jesomil, that's exactly my thoughts In the performance dog world, there are a lot of very capable and enthusiastic handlers I have seen that a really working the wrong dogs. Their (handlers) abilities could be put to a far greater use in the general scheem of proofing and titling dogs for the performance improvement of specific breeds. Some of these handlers/trainers could make a real impact in the Australian working breed improvements if they trialled the right dogs. Many start out with their faithful mutt they adore and train for pleasure which is great, but some of these handler/trainer teams have a real talent with dogs and have a lot of potential to take the right dogs in the right sporting/working discliplines to greater heights. How about the people that just want to own pets or work their dogs and may not necessarily want to be 'put to use' as breeders? Breeding dogs just isn't attractive to everyone, nor should everyone breed dogs or even keep entire dogs. If you are a breeder of performance dogs that wants to run on all your bitch pups entire, you will have to make your breeder's terms very attractive to potential owners.

Better to do a really good job of rehoming the two easiest dogs, than to take on all four dogs and not be able to deal with them properly. Good on you for helping them.