Aidan3

Probably, and what happens next? Do you know who always gets the blame when this sort of thing happens? Are you talking blame from a moral perspective or legal? Legal. I don't care what moral perspective the attacking dog's owner has on my dog.

How can a council make a destruction order over a leashed dog versus a dog wandering at large in leash restricted area? When councils investigate a dog attack, they look at the actual attack - who attacked who, damage done and so on. Leashed or not leashed is a consideration, certainly, but not the ultimate determinant of which dog is at fault.I know coz I have asked. If your dog is involved in an attack and does damage to another dog/person/animal, regardless of who started it, you risk losing your dog. I did not know that! That's a real worry for anyone who likes dogs that might be capable of hurting another dog, even if they would never start it.

How can a council make a destruction order over a leashed dog versus a dog wandering at large in leash restricted area? You are right if that is the case, I rarely walked in leash restricted areas.

Probably, and what happens next? Do you know who always gets the blame when this sort of thing happens?

Not directed at yourself Snoopy, but all I can say to that is wow! The quality of obedience training in this country must be extraordinary in its ineptness if can take 3 years and 2 trainers to train a dog to walk to heel without pulling or lunging. Just wow! How many countries have you trained dogs in, itsadogslife? I saw Willow myself for a few classes, after she had already learned some bad habits and I've got to say, Snoopy21 has done a really good job with her. Willow is a strong dog, a Dane x Lab from memory, so she had learned how to use her size advantage. A more experienced handler wouldn't have made as many mistakes along the way, good for them, but not everyone comes experienced and not everyone has a biddable dog they can easily control. I've worked with a good variety of dogs now, and while the principles stay the same, no two dogs are the same either genetically, or in their learning history.

I live in Hobart and don't have a padlock on my gate. What is to stop someone simply cutting it off? Or snipping a hole in my rear rural fencing and taking my dog? Hopefully she is big enough to deter them from taking her. It's impossible to stop them, but at least make it hard enough for them that they'd at least find it easier to take someone else's (as horrible as that still is).

I've copped a lot of flak for using muzzles before. My own dog was never attacked while wearing a muzzle, her body language was not attenuated by the muzzle significantly and she could still hold her space. Other dogs don't understand what the muzzle is for, some are even more cautious because they don't know what it is; i.e they don't see the muzzle and decide to take advantage of the wearer. I use a muzzle when I either have no option for safety, or when the dog doesn't really need a muzzle but has a history which makes it prudent. My late GSD had an enormous amount of freedom thanks to a muzzle and drag-line. She got to enjoy just being a dog without posing a significant threat to others. I could train her to cope with things that would have carried too much risk without a muzzle, and in later years I was confident that she didn't need the muzzle thanks to that training. In the unlikely event that another dog had attacked her, I have little doubt that she would win, but then it would be my word against the other dog owner's. I was confident that I could remove an attacking dog from her with minimal harm, and would recommend that all dog owners learn how to do this.

Targeting gets them thinking about the task, rather than reacting, and it's simple so it's worth getting creative with it. One exercise I use in my reactive and aggressive dogs classes is to have two dogs target cones spaced some distance apart. We can bring them in closer over time. For safety, leash length can be set appropriately. You have to keep them busy with this, no idle time. Take them out of the car, do the exercise (however many reps you have decided the dogs will do before they get bored), then back in the car. I've also used a wire mesh fence for protected contact. Have the dogs target the fence post on opposite sides of the fence. Use only where appropriate (for e.g dog is advanced in behaviour mod, but has a bite history). Don't do the "he's really good today, so I'll push it too far" thing!

I believe there are, might be best to ask in the Retrieving and Field Training thread in Training. I know of some good lines which have recently been introduced to Japan and New Zealand, but best to wait to see how they develop.

Noone asked the op to apologise. Fair suggestions were made and two behaviourists (both who will use prong collars where they feel appropriate) were suggested.

Best to select a behaviourist on merit rather than which tools they are "ok with". A halti is used for response prevention, not correction. If you have two dogs who won't respond to check chain corrections then I'd be looking at your timing and criteria first, and far more importantly, your use of rewards, before I would think about anything else. If no one is able to recommend a behaviourist in Fnq then k9pro do a distance learning package which may suit you.

That's correct. At this stage we're regarding it as an unfortunate coincidence, having investigated the possibility of poisoning. Environmental toxins are always a concern, for example broad-leaf herbicides, but we don't use these and they break down very quickly once used. The probability of two older dogs having cancer is very high (the probability of any dog over the age of ten having cancer is somewhere around 0.5), the timing is just very unfortunate. The stress of losing Django could have triggered symptoms in Sabella. Django was 11 years old, very fit, had never really needed veterinary attention before. The most likely diagnosis (by ultrasound) is metastasised tumours in his liver, it was a very short battle (or rather, he was asymptomatic for however long those tumours were there). Sabella will be 10 next month, her tumours are in different places and so far there is no evidence that they have metastasised, or even that they are malignant for that matter. There is a growth on her left adrenal which could possibly cause high blood calcium, similar to Addison's disease but not Addison's (we did an ACTH stimulation test to rule out Addison's).

Sorry to hear this, I'm going through the same thing at the moment and the feeling of helplessness is horrible. The prednisolone has helped Sabella a lot and she has even put on a bit of weight. She will really only eat Hills A/D and roast chicken. I'm mixing a bit of oat bran and probiotic with the A/D for some fibre and to help her system out on the meds.

Thanks Jules, is Amber traveling well at the moment?

I'm cautiously optimistic... but will enjoy a nice few days with her and the family not worrying about it

Thanks again everyone. Some encouraging news today, there are a few suspicious looking lumps revealed by CT scan but it could be operable. We just need to concentrate on getting her well enough to go through an operation, and in the meantime we'll arrange for some needle aspirates. Cat food has been a winner, Chicken & Turkey to invoke a bit of festive spirit. True to form, she seems to prefer stealing it from the cat's bowls rather than her own. Roast chicken and A/D have been staples. All this protein and fat and no fibre means some eye-watering farts though I've been mixing in some probiotics to try and help her stomach, she's also taking something to protect her gut lining from the preds.

Thanks everyone, it really means a lot to us to have you thinking of us. She has really picked up a lot on the Preds, and has even gained a little weight eating small amounts of A/D frequently. Our amazing vets managed to work a miracle and find us a spot at radiology for a CT scan ahead of schedule, so we dropped everything to get her in. We'll have the specialists interpretation soon. We're kind of expecting a diagnosis of lymphoma, or myeloma. It's certainly nothing obvious, no swollen glands or anything like that. We did investigate poisoning. One of the newer rat-baits contains a Vit D analogue that would cause all the symptoms both our dogs have suffered, but apparently this is not available in Australia at this time. Apart from my two dogs illnesses, new neighbours had rehomed their labs during this period. I reported it to the police and the RSPCA just in case. Until we get the CT scans we won't really know, and even then we may not know, but we have decided not to pursue chemo and to palliate instead. So a diagnosis is really just academic. She has always been special but now she is utterly adorable. She just loves being with her family and that will be every possible minute from here on. We lost Django without this opportunity and the regret will always hurt, so we'll be more than making up for that this time.

Thanks everyone, very kind of you to think of us. The pred seems to be helping, she's eaten a little today and seems more relaxed. She barked at the M-I-L (of her own accord).

Thanks Inevitablue. It sounds very encouraging, one of the few areas where veterinary science still directly benefits from human biomedical science.

I know that stem-cell therapy for lymphomas of the bone marrow has been used in research going back a long way and that it is a procedure which is used today. Is it becoming a more viable therapy for a wider range of dogs, and with better outcomes?

Thanks Judi, I have some of the good stuff. I used to give it to her every day as part of her breakfast, if she takes some I will be very happy. Tonight the vet rang to get me back urgently after today's blood test. Sabella was going into renal failure. I had already given her some Pred, we gave her something to bind to the calcium, I have a couple more doses here and we've upped the Pred also. She is quite settled now, the drooling has stopped and she isn't jumping up to rush outside every few minutes. Without a crystal ball (or a CT scan) I guess we'll just have to take it day by day. Owning a dog can never end well, it's a testament to the love they bring that we do this to ourselves.

Thanks Jumabaar, we have decided against chemo. I doubt she'd make it to her CT scan without Pred.

Aidan are you sure you mean hypoparathyroidism? I would have thought with increased calcium that she would be hyper not hypo. We had hoped (in a sense) for primary hyperparathyroidism, because then we would have a diagnosis for something treatable. Having spoken with the vet about this today, she is not hypo, just low (0.7 pmol/L). Her thyroid and lymph nodes are all normal to touch. Yes, and we tested for Addisons (at my insistence, it wasn't really at the top of the differentials, I guess I was just hoping). She is going in for a full CT scan on the 29th, then we will have to wait for a specialists report after New Years. In the meantime we've put her on Pred to keep her alive until then. Hopefully it will stimulate her appetite.

We had a specialist ultrasonographer, several x-rays, several blood tests, and several anal examinations. Nothing has shown up except hypercalcaemia (which is getting worse with every test) and hypoparathyroidism. Confounding the situation early on was some fairly advanced osteoarthritis, and the fact that we had just lost Django (both things could cause the symptoms presented). It wasn't until the PTH tests came back yesterday that we were sure that we were searching for cancer.

I'm sorry to hear that. Will you consider chemotherapy/radiotherapy? Possibly. I don't want to keep a sick dog alive for my benefit, but as I understand it, it's a far more gentle process for dogs and cats.