Greytmate

And sometimes people reading think harder about their own dog's behaviour, learn a little from the experiences and knowledge of others, and avoid having incidents themselves. This thread hasn't been a bitchfest. Although some have gotten a little defensive about their own dogs.

It isn't ridiculous. A lab is a huge heavy thing that can come barrelling towards you with great force. We are not talking about danger from aggression, we are talking about danger from a blunt force trauma. Describing a dog running at you and knocking into you as a friendly action is ridiculous. Since when is body slamming a stranger counted as a friendly thing to do? It isn't. Trained labs are great. Untrained young labs are painful to be around. No they may not bite you, but they can leave terrible bruises, and are heavy and strong enough to fracture bones of little dogs. They are not as big as some dogs, but they are inclined to act in a way that involves more body contact. I can appreciate people defending their breed, but there is a responsibility to manage each breed so that it doesn't harm others, and that may require taking another look at the dog's behaviour and realising others may see it differently than you do.

Nobody has the "right' to trespass. But if people enter an unlocked, unsigned front yard, to approach your front door, they are not trespassing. If your dog bites them, you will be in trouble. You cannot use your dog as a weapon to stop people coming to your door. If you do keep a dog in the front yard, you (the owner) needs to prevent it from biting people or from being let out by people. That means locks on gates, and signs telling people not to enter. Otherwise you are responsible if your dog causes harm to others.

Coconut's pretty red eyes.

It isn't the size of the dog that makes it dangerous, it is how the dog acts. There are many large breeds that tend to be cautious in their approach to other dogs and things in general, and then there are breeds like SBT and labs that tend to be less cautious about the consequences of them barging right into a situation. It isn't friendliness. A friendly dog can stand right back and communicate its intent from a friendly distance. The over enthusiasm from some dogs is challenging behaviour, and it tends to be stronger in certain breeds. Lab people may be annoyed that their breed is being 'bashed' in this thread, but undesirable behaviour needs to be recognised. Not labelled as "friendly" or dismissed as something all other large dogs naturally tend to do. Not all large dog breeds tend to be like this.

Yet people describe the over enthusiasm to get to other dogs as "friendly", and put such a high value on letting their dog "socialise" in this way.

99.9% of greyhounds don't have liver pigmentation, and so have the usual greeny eye shine.

This is Woody. His eyes shine pretty gold. I will try to get a pic of Coco tonight. Her eyes shine pure deep blood red. I would say that Woody does have the pigmented tapenum, Coconut has no pigment there.

During the day her eyes look almost the same as Woody's eyes. I am wondering if in the early days of breed development whether red eye reflection was selectively bred away from? Or whether there is something associated with that particular pigment gene that brings with it another undesirable characteristic? Do any breeds commonly have red eyes in the individuals that meet the breed standard for eye and nose colour?

Archie doesn't back off every time then. I don't know that I would describe a dog that is bounding towards a growling dog as 'friendly'. To me, friendly interaction is where both dogs are equally willing to play.

When a threatening dog approaches, try to place your body between your own dogs and the attacking dog. That will give all the dogs the signal that you are in control, and hopefully that will also encourage everyone to settle down. You could carry a big umbrella. If the dog keeps approaching, lunge forwards and press the catch and pop the umbrella in the dog's face. That will deter most dogs, and hopefully give them a bit of a fright. If a fight ensues, close the umbrella, at least you will then have a big pointy stick to use.

Poor doggy, with all these people saying NO whenever it comes near. How about "No thanks, but you are a GOOD doggy."

Coconut has a bright red reflection from her eyes. In most greyhounds the reflection is green, but she is an unusual coloured dog.

Ohh I hve seen tonnes of those in Victoria's Basement! THANK GUYS!!!! So many options! So would you guys eat it if I use the lidded containers suggested? Yes, I would probably be following the dog around.

They will if a good argument is presented properly.

This one could be good for casual BBQ. This one is very fancy. Silver service by a Golden Retriever wearing a bow tie. Strictly for formal occasions only.

Bub, I would have her carry a basket instead. That way your guests can open the basket and take out what they like, and then close it again, just in case she drools or decides to eat the canapes.

I love this photo! Thanks so much. Coconut looks so cheeky.

BSL affects everybody . What a ridiculous , ignorant thing to say, yes it may all be starting with an unregistered breed but has started to include registered breeds ( like the AST) . I have voted no. i don't think they are doomed because i believe that there is enough support even from those who don't have a BSL targeted breeds to fight against BSL . BSL inherently doesn't affect everybody. It is specific to certain breeds only. There has been BSL in this country long before the APBT became popular, and it did apply to registered breeds. However the BSL that applied to registered breeds has mostly been altered or overturned due to the work of responsible owners of those breeds over the years. The APBT community have done too little, too late. The Amstaff community needs to take steps now, but is in a much better position to be able to continue their breed in this country because their breed is officially recognised. I think that being proactive will ensure the safety of the breed, being defensive doesn't work in getting laws changed.

It was good to meet you all and so many lovely doggies. Coconut had a great time and was very tired when she got home. Can't wait to see the finished photos.

The main thing is to ignore the sooking, and only let her out of the run when she is quiet. You don't want her to think that making noise will cause you to come over and let her out. Just start with small amounts of time, and build up each day slowly to the maximum time the dog will be left alone. Some dogs react a lot worse than just sooking, so you are off to a good start if that is all she is doing. Could you drive the dog to a park to exercise with a ball in the mornings? That might be a solution if your five year old is not up for a long walk. All this is a bit of hard work, but your dog will get into a good routine if you persevere, and you will be pleased you put in the effort now.

The important thing is getting her used to spending time on her own. You don't necessarily want her to be stimulated when she is in her run, but give her things to chew on if that is what she does. Ideally she will use that time to sleep while you are out. You can get her used to it now by feeding her yummy bones in there at times she would normally rest. So she learns that going in there is worthwhile. Gradually increase the amount of time she spends in there until you can leave her in there for the amount of time you will be at work. You may find it is worth exercising her before going, so she wants to rest in her run.

Learn to use the search function. It is very simple to use, and you will avoid getting confused about what has been said. I don't expect you to appease my sensibilities, I just think it is rude to complain about what others say without really reading what they wrote. Er....complaining? I thought I was adding some more comment to the thread in rebuttal to your comments about car yards and car salesmen? Forgive me this time for having an opinion. You didn't rebut my comments. You didn't refute or oppose the idea that qualifying sales techniques could be used to help overcome time wasters. Instead you took umbrage and were "appalled" that somebody made an analogy between the sale of a dog and the sale of another highly valued item. The analogy was given to highlight the fact that businesses deal with 'time wasters' more efficiently and politely than people that place ads using words that may put off genuine buyers. They do it through what is called 'qualification'. It involves leading the conversation to where you need it to go, asking the right questions and being able to politely divert your time elsewhere when you feel it is being wasted. All without placing an ad that reminds people of a wrecked commodore in the Trading Post. I feel that you would gain some understanding (and possibly be less appalled), if you read the post again and really think about the words. If you then want to rebut what I have said, go right ahead. I really see no need to keep going off-topic Ellez. You don't like car salespeople. Fine. Can we leave it at that? No, you can search posts instead of entire threads. Use the search button at the top of the page, then click advanced search. Then you can select to search for a phrase by post instead of by topic. It is easy to do, and you will definitely get a lot more out of this forum if you learn to navigate it and read posts more fully before 'rebutting' them.

Learn to use the search function. It is very simple to use, and you will avoid getting confused about what has been said. I don't expect you to appease my sensibilities, I just think it is rude to complain about what others say without really reading what they wrote.

Selling dogs is different than selling cars, but the same sales techniques (qualifying) can be used to minimise having time wasted by people that are not serious buyers. Simply stating "No Time Wasters" is not an effective way to sell dogs (which is the whole point of advertising them, yes?). Being able to qualify customers well is an advantage to anyone selling anything of high value. (which I assume the dogs are) It is quite rude of you to complain about what I have said, when you cannot even be bothered to go back and read what was said and why. It was not to say that dog breeders should be perceived as car salesmen (which would be dumb considering the bad image car salesmen have), it was to encourage sellers to brush up on sales skills to avoid having their precious dog-breeding time wasted by people that are not going to buy a dog.