Quickasyoucan

My sister has medium/large breed puppy who she bought from a reputable breeder from parents with good hip scores. She has tried to do all the right things with the pup who has limited exercise, is lean, has a ramp to get in and out of the car etc. Yet the pup has had intermittent hind limb issues since around 5 months. She has been to 2 specialists and so far has no clear diagnosis. Her breeder has been nothing but supportive and was shocked and upset that there might be a problem. What I am trying to say echos other people's comments. You can do your best but still things can happen. I think if breeders and owners do all that they can to ensure a good outcome and still something turns out to be awry you just have to deal with the hand that fate has dealt you. A bit like when as humans we choose to have children, although we would like them to be perfect, nature does not always make things turn out that way. Seems to me also from my sister's experience and also from my own experience with orthopaedic issues, it can for some conditions be a pretty inexact science short of actually cutting the dog open and particularly when a dog is not fully matured. I was wrongly told my crossbreed dog had HD by a generalist vet only to be told by the specialist it was more likely that the dog was positioned wrongly when the xrays were taken and his hips were fine and his lameness was due to his cruciate in the other leg!!

I'm not up on criminal law but I thought the general premise was that you are only allowed to use reasonable force to defend yourself even if you are attacked by another person, ie if someone pushes you, you can't turn around and knife your assailant to death. Although that relates to humans I would have thought even if the dog was approaching the other person knifing it would not be a reasonable response. I personally hate it when people's dogs rush mine (even though he is not particularly bothered generally), and uncontrolled off leash dogs are a personal bugbear. However I don't condone the use of excessive violence in any situation and that falls under excessive violence to me. Either there is some backstory or the stabber sounds like he must have mental or other issues... that is not normal behaviour.

Pet owner and local mad dog lady (special qualifications required for the latter position) Problem with animal related employment is that generally-speaking it does not cover the cost of mortgage etc. Most of us have to sacrifice what we would love to do for something we can bear doing in order to make ends meet.. unless that lottery win is around the corner

Good vets are worth their weight in gold, unfortunately there are some plain bad ones out there and some who I think mean well but, well, just haven't the skills or the confidence to handle animals properly. I too have had a misdiagnosis and also my poor dog who previously used to pull to go into the vets because he loved being handled so much, now turned into a dog who cannot stand having the ear examining instrument near him after the same vet poked him really hard in the ear with it I changed vets after that.

I walk with two rotties, one has had a TTA (tibial tuberosity advancement) one a TPLO. Two different ops but basically similar outcome in that it alters the biomechanics of the knee and therefore obviates the need for the torn cruciate. One is 2 years post op (the TTA girl) one is 5 months (the TPLO), both are limp and more importantly pain free. My own boy (who is 19kg bull breed x) had a TPLO in October. He is back to being his usual mad self. Prior to the op it was terrible to see how much pain he was in. Pretty much from the day he had the op, the pain began to diminish. It was well worth it. ;) Actually though I dreaded the recovery the only bit I really worried about was before the stitches came out. After that my boy was confined to a small room during the day whilst I was at work and my neighbour took him for toilet breaks during the day. He basically just slept. There was a DDB scheduled for surgery the day my boy had his. Apparently he was well over 60kg and went well. I would definitely do it again (though I hope the other leg never needs it!)

I don't think Jan Cameron owns Kathmandu any more. The money she raised selling it is what she is using in her animal endeavours AFAIK. There was an Australian story on her a while back. She has pretty straightforward views on animal welfare, eg, she eats meat but believes animals should be well treated prior to being used as food.

IMO good to bring low cost veterinary treatment to lower socio-economic areas. This gives people the option to desex and means that costs are less of a bar. Also dentals etc... http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/healt...6-1226048004701 PHILANTHROPIST businesswoman Jan Cameron is funding a multi-million-dollar national network of not-for-profit veterinary centres -- or "public hospitals for animals"-- to slash the cost of de-sexing cats and dogs. It is hoped this could end the cruelty of having at least one-third of all dogs and up to two-thirds of cats put down nationally because they are unwanted. The wealthy founder of the Kathmandu outdoor goods chain said she planned to fund five fixed and two mobile clinics in NSW, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania. These community vet clinics, the first of which is running in Hobart, will offer cut-price de-sexing and other procedures for pets of people who would otherwise struggle to afford the cost. The Hobart-based Ms Cameron is calling for public donations to expand the project, with the aim of "getting to zero" the number of unwanted cats and dogs being put down. "This is a national issue that people despair about and throw their hands up at but there is a solution," Ms Cameron said. "The primary goal is to bring the population under control so these domestic pets do have homes ultimately and are not suffering out on the streets, and not causing any damage to native wildlife. The idea is to end this cycle of destruction of having to kill hundreds of thousands of animals every year that are not wanted." Modelled on the success of a clinic run by Animal Welfare League Queensland on the Gold Coast, which has slashed the number of unwanted cats and dogs being euthanased, Ms Cameron said the clinics would offer "radically lower" prices. The de-sexing of a female cat will cost $94, rather than commercial rates of $150-$200, while de-sexing of a female dog will be $194, compared with commercial rates of $250-$400. The clinics will offer flexible payment plans. "There can be garnisheeing of people's pensions -- $2 a week, something that doesn't make a difference to their lives, but they end up with a de-sexed and micro-chipped cat," Ms Cameron said. As well as the Hobart clinic, opened months ago, there are plans for fixed clinics in Northern Rivers and western Sydney in NSW, and Maryborough and Brisbane in Queensland. Two mobile clinics are planned, in Western Australia and in western Queensland. The estimated $3 million cost of the clinics would be met by Ms Cameron's Elsie Cameron Foundation, and donations would help to expand the project. Since opening in 2001, the AWL Gold Coast shelter has reduced the number of stray and surrendered animals needing to be put down to 9 per cent of dogs and 24 per cent of cats. Ms Cameron said this compared with the national RSPCA average "kill rate" for unwanted dogs of 29 per cent and 59 per cent for cats, and the NSW council pound average of 39 per cent for dogs and 68 per cent for cats. The Australian Veterinary Association has welcomed Ms Cameron's commitment, but warned subsidised clinics needed to be well-managed to avoid "bad blood" with private vets, and tightly focused to avoid abuse. "If people with a Mercedes come and get it done because it's a cheaper option, then that money generated by fundraising or subsidisation is wasted," said AVA past president Mark Lawrie. The Getting to Zero clinic, operating in the Hobart suburb of Lenah Valley for several months, said this had not been a problem. "It's definitely people from lower socioeconomic areas who haven't taken their pet to a vet before," said vet Tering Davies. "We've been booked out for two months de-sexing, de-sexing, de-sexing. We've done orthopedics, amputations, dental work, including pulling out rotten teeth that should have been done years ago," Dr Davies said.

There are other dogs that have red noses and red colouring too, vizla springs to mind. Just because it has a red nose doesn't make it a pitbull, but having said that, that is probably what this ad intended.

You shouldn't need to use two leads. So long as the back-up collar (eg. check chain; martingale; whatever) is longer than it should normally be so that it does not come into operation when applying the PPCollar, you can hook the lead rings of each the PPCollar and the Back-up collar to the lead snaphook. Erny the only thing I found was that even if the martingale was loose it tended to drag the prong downwards and away from the optimum position, hence my comment about the double ended lead. ETA to the OP, K9 Pro has a Sydney seminar coming up in July. As far as I know it is sold out atm but he may have a waiting list if you are interested. Just to mention as I have been to a few and come away with heaps of new information they are highly recommended

I had a prong come open at an inopportune time (I think the link reversed out of the clip). When I was using mine I used to use a loose martingale for backup. You can use a double ended lead if you are like me and find 2 leads too hard! I got my prong after a session with Steve at K9 Pro, my dog was an inveterate puller of 4.5 years and a skateboard obssessive. We really only needed it for a few months before we were able to transition to a martingale. Only wish I had found Steve earlier! A friend who I walk with in the evenings has highly reactive dogs (one DA, one very very over excitable). She uses variously a prong and/or a DD collar to good effect, again under Steve's supervision. Our walks have gone from nightmares for her to normal pleasurable strolls. Finding the right tool (and the right trainer) can literally change a dog owners life!

Very, very sad. Poor woman, what a horrible way to die. I hope they throw the book at the owners (I mean this figuratively btw). As PF said, doubt we will ever know the real reasons behind this attack and what triggered it. :D

My dog loves playing ball more than anything in life, why should I stop his enjoyment just because people cannnot keep their own dogs under effective control? I don't have a big yard, I don't want to break the law therefore the only place I can exercise my dog (and that includes throwing the ball) is at the off leash. I don't mind other dogs chasing my dog and more importantly nor does he (so long as they are not doing it aggressively), nor do I mind dogs taking a catch of our ball and bringing it back. My dog has no problem sharing, it's all part of the game. But I cannot stand people whose dogs steal the ball and run off to the other side of the park whilst the owner ignores it or says I can't get the ball off my dog. If you cannot get a ball off your dog and it will not come when it is called you are not under effective control and probably need to go back to your training. God help you if you need to call your dog back when there is a fight at the park or if it knocks over a small child. Added to that you are basically ruining someone else's perfectly normal enjoyment of the park. I don't agree we shouldn't take balls to the park. For a lot of dogs that is what the off leash means to them and as I said a bit of playing is fine. But out and out ball stealing and being unable to control your dog is no better than letting it jump all over people uncontrollably. Also if a dog acts aggressively and rushes my dog at the park, I will do whatever is reasonably needed to stop an attack. If that means putting my foot on your dog, I will do it. Everyone has a right to use reasonable force defend themselves. I also don't agree with children screaming wherever they go in public... but that is another topic all together.

He's cute though!! that's what matters ;) For the record i did a bitsa test on my rescue dog. He is a short coated (though not as short as a stafford) blackish bull breedy looking cross breed but with a longer more pointy nose (see pic in my avatar) and not as short or stocky as a purebred SBT and obviously the ears are much bigger as is his tail. He also has no brindling. Mine came back secondary stafford, secondary border collie ie his grandparents. I had thought stafford x kelpie, but I pretty much knew from his behaviour that he had some working dog in him. So I pretty much got what I expected, no real surprises in what came back, though I know some people have had some shockers from the BITSA.

I agree with this - it's not fair on your dog to put him in a position where he can be intimidated Find some nice friendly dogs belonging to family/friends,and organise walks/playdates or whatever , instead of unknown dogs with owners who may not be responsible. This is the default position in public dog parks. Sad really that while we all pay our rates, only some dog owners get the benefit of the parks constructed for ALL dogs. Some basic knowledge of dog behaviour and a decent level of owner control would have made them a resource for so many more. Agree with PF 100% and it is something that makes me so mad. I think I should have the right to exercise my dog without him or me being bothered by uncontrolled dogs. At law i do, but in practice I don't. I myself (forget about the dog) have had a recent verbal dust up with a woman over effective control, but ignorant owners just don't get it. They think it is their right to go to the dog park let the dog offlead, chat to their friends and let their dog do whatever, so long as it is not actually killing another dog. I saw a great sign in the UK at an off leash park saying "please note your dog must be under EFFECTIVE CONTROL. Your dog is NOT UNDER EFFECTIVE CONTROL if: and gave a list of the usual dog park gripes. Only wish that was posted at the entrance of every dog park and enforced. The problem is if we want to obey the law and we live in the city we have no choice but to use off leash parks in order to exercise our dogs

Steve at K9Pro

I think it also depends on where you live and what you do with your dogs. We had spaniels growing up in the UK. I have just been back on a visit in winter and had forgotten the dogs get muddy EVERY day. Wellies are a must for people. Wet spaniel smells... well not great inside the house. My mum commented when she first came to visit me in Australia (I have a short coated crossbreed) that my house had no doggy smell. But I also think that is to do with less rain, and the face I have hard floorboards as my nephews and nieces happily inform me that my car smells like dog!

Thanks for the feedback guys, have passed it on. Wish I was going now, bit expensive to travel all the way to the UK for it tho!

My sister is going to an Ian Dunbar Seminar in the UK at the weekend. Just wondering if anyone had ever been to one or heard him speak? It is on adolescent dogs, sounds quite interesting...

It's a bit like asking a smokers forum what they think about anti-smoking laws. Bound to get skewed data. That said, my dog is a great companion to me and I am glad to have the unconditional love. People can be so complicated....

I caught something called Blue Collar Dogs on Animal Planet which was really interesting. About dogs who work for a living. the one I saw was dogs working for the NYPD both sniifers and patrol dogs. Extraordinary Dogs is a nice show on Free to Air, really shows how fab our favourite dogs are. And gives you an insight into the science. Very interesting. I saw the designer dogs thing on dogs 101 but at least they were at pains to point out the health issues associated with the dogs. They treated them the same way as the purebreds. At least there was no mention of hybrid vigour.... Pit Boss is an entertaining show if only for the characters. The tattoed lady I saw too, she is HIV positive and used to live on the streets, but her life was turned around by a dog and now she rescues dogs and tries to help improve the lives of homeless people and their dogs. Can't remember what it was called though. didn't mind Dogtown but they did like to have a dig at purebreds and health issues at every opportunity. The animal precints shows are good depending on if you are in the mood to be both sad and uplifted.

I have never really been a small dog person but as I get older I find them becoming more attractive I have met a few shih tzu (not sure about spelling) that were great little dogs. Again they would need to be clipped or have their coats regularly maintained, but they were nice little dogs. I love CKCS though and hope to have one as a future dog (or two). Don't really care about the shedding, my short haired dog sheds like it is going out of fashion, so I am used to it. Just have to make sure the colour of the hair matches the furniture and hey presto problem solved ;) Sister of a friend of mine has just purchased a bichon pup apparently he is an absolute joy, happy, friendly with the existing dogs, worst thing he has done is shred a toilet roll! I quite like the sound of havenese too...

This quote from PF (I'm too lazy to do the quote thing) is something I think can be constructively emphasised re desexing drives (not mandatory desexing laws). "Show me a program like the ASPCA has that takes mobile surgeries out to the public and does "while you wait" free desexing and I'll support that to the hilt." I don't think people don't just not have the money to get their dogs desexed, I think they just don't get around to it as well. I was watching an episode of Miami Animal police on Foxtel last night. Poor boxer with a terrible terrible case of demodex (and as it turned out heartworm positive ). The owner's response, "I work full time I dont have time to take him to the vet". (BTW dog was surrendered and found a fab home). If you watch any of those shows where they take the facility to the people there are queues lining up at the door. People just don't get around to making an appointment and turning up for it, life gets in the way, it's not always about money its about not bothering to make the effort. But if you present them with an opportunity, they will oftent take it voluntarily. The existing dog laws we have are draconian enough (on paper at least) butTHEY don't get policied. If they were and we had a lot less dogs roaming around, no people walking their dogs off leash on streets, not containing their dogs adequately, all of which are currently against the law, there would probably be a hell of a lot less strays, a lot less attacks and possibly even a lot less, "next doors randy jack russell climbed the fence and now my bitch is pregnant"....

I do think cats are different from dogs. Undesexed cats left to roam seem to breed like, well rabbits. I think I am right in saying the average moggy is sexually mature by the time they are 4 months old. Can't be a great life for the cats or the many many kittens who never get a life at all. I don't see a need for a pet cat to be entire (not talking about cat fanciers/breeders here), leaving them open to diseases, more likely to fight, roam etc. I'd support a mass desexing drive of pet cats. Dogs are a different story in my book and I echo what others have said, it's less about overpopulation, more about lack of reponsibility on the part of owners.

Yep I saw for my own eyes (though I have to admit it was a few years back) dogs unloaded from a van from the pound in NSW and straight into kennels with other dogs at a large rescue in the Sydney area. I would hope that their practices have changed since. Although I do think you cannot go into fostering thinking you will not come across minor issues, such as housebreaking, barking, chewing, problems with your existing dog and the new dog etc, the thought that a "rescue" is putting unquarantined dogs into the homes of unuspecting fosterers is absolutely terrible.

This is a reply someone received from the Mayor, in response to an email : My understanding is that this response is as recent as today. Thanks, I hope that due process is followed.