lanabanana

Yea good job gut huh! That raises another query for me - how do you tell peopel you don't think they are suitable? Especially say a family who are really excited about getting a dog.

Ah see you are more patient than I am... I would rather learn how to do it properly the first time plus I really enjoy learning from someone more experienced than I am... my poor dog already has to put up with me being a total noob of a handler, the least I can do for her is try to learn as much as I can rather than testing a million and one different things before I find one that works! Why make it harder for yourself - have someone put you on the right track so then when you put the effort in, you know it will work good points...very. And we will go there if we need to. I have had a trainer before, and that particular one didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know - that was a while ago though and lots of new techniques are around now

Surely though sometimes a breeder will get a feeling for an owner (is this true?) and some other stuff may not be as important if the breeder thinks this person will supply the best home? Breeders?

In their mouth. OMG lOL duh!

Yea I never thought of aggressive dogs being walked at night - that's a good point. I know all the dogs on our street are walked during the day but I wouldn't have a clue once outside the end of the street. Will have to bear that in mind. Yep, I know about not leaving the harness on him. I would never leave it on unless we were about to go out. In fact, I don't even like collars on my dogs (they have worn them off and on over the years) and the only reason they have collars an dtags now is because a few weeks ago a rotten part of the back fence fell off and they both got out. Luckily we were home and went in the back yard about 2 minutes after it happened and we found them very very quickly. Anyway, my point was, they are both chipped but that is no use if someone doesn't bother taking them to get scanned because they want to keep them (more concerned this would happen to the midget than the puller) but for some reason it makes me feel like someone would be less likely to keep them if they have a collar and tag on LOL. Stupid I know. Fence was repaired immediately and is now checked every morning before I go to work to make sure there are no loose pales or holes anywhere Sorry - long way of saying I wouldnt leave a harness on LOL

Yes, it is reasonably common in all dogs and many do correct with age, but without very expensive specialist testing (sometimes more than the value of the puppy) and diagnosis there is no way to tell what is causing the murmur or if there is a chance it will improve. For this reason I always advise breeders to keep puppies with murmurs until they grow out of the problem before rehoming them. Some breeders can afford the diagnosis and for some conditions, the surgery to fix them, before placing a puppy. For others the cost is prohibitive and the best option is to run the puppy on and see what happens. If they are not prepared to do that then the puppy should be euthanised, not passed on to an unsuspecting buyer. Heart murmurs are pretty rare in my breed but if they have not disappeared by 12 weeks they usually indicate a serious problem. The sound of the murmur also doesn't seem to be any indication to how bad the problem is. Dogs with very mild murmurs can in fact have very bad defects. I know of one breeder with a dog that had a very mild murmur as a puppy. When the murmur hadn't gone by 12 months, they investigated and discovered a completely malformed heart. It is not any sort of genetic problem the specialist has ever seen but the heart has formed completely wrong and surgery to correct it is not possible. The prognosis is not good and it is just a case of sheer bad luck but so lucky for the breeder that they never sold this puppy. Thanks for that - very informative. Also, in regards to the person who said soemtimes they turn blue - how do you see they have gone blue under say, thick black fur?

I by no means advocate rolling a smoke while driving....nor smoking in the car...nor smoking at all I should add but that was a lesson I remember very well! His reasoning "So you don't have to ask a non smoking passenger to roll for you coz they won't be able to roll a decent one" I was 17 and a smoker so it wasn't a completely wasted lesson LOL

I guess a character reference from an employer would be a start. When I applied to be a foster carer they wanted references from my vets, employer etc. Really, an employer? I personally think a reference from an employer is a bit OTT but that's just me. Maybe a friend or family member but an employer??!!

Hmm... so - when you learnt to drive a car in the city- did you teach yourself ? You probably had someone along who was experienced in how some drivers behave- how the car responds to certain things- and how to judge distance/speed etc.? Do they still come with you? No, of course not, because once they explained it to you, and you practised it , you were skilled and confident and it became easy. using a trainer is very much the same....and it may well save you a LOT of extra work I am a self taught driver LOL! But I get what you are trying to say and point is taken and noted. In regards to driving, I was technically never taught to drive. When I was a kid, I used to sit in the middle of the back seat and lean forward so I could watch everything my mum/dad was doing in the car. By the time I got to about 11 or 12, I had decided that from observation, I had learnt enough to attempt to drive my mums car whilst she wasn't home. Drive it I did, and crash it I also did LMAO (which she still doesn't know about - damage was minimal enough to be overlooked). But I tried a few more times learning with each attempt. By the time I had my first lesson with my step dad, I was already a capable driver and he only took me on one lesson before allowing me to drive by myself. Only thing he really taught me was how to roll a smoke and drive at the same time LMFAO. Ahhh good times!

I am able to run an account at my vet. They are fantastic. We only just arrived from NZ and my dog got sick (ended up being PTS - cancer and was not best for her to treat - long story) and they let me run an account right away. I will do whatever it takes to pay my vet bill so my "kids" get the treatment we need. If that means we have to starve for a few weeks, the we celebrate the fact we are goign to lose a few kilos LOL

The pulling is excited....we generally walk him at night no so not many other dogs around to be honest so the pulling has nothing to do with other dogs... I have probably not stated some of the information very well by talking about pulling and then bringing in the fact he will go nuts when he sees another dog. But we have worked with blockign his view of the other dog while in a sit and keeping his attention on me. This has had some success and he will sit there and ignore th eother dog but I have to be real alert and get him into position BEFORE he notices the other dog, so if I miss th eother dog and he sees it first, there is no chance of getting it working. I am pretty sure he wants to play but he does get himself quite wound up at times (other times he'll bark a few times and that's the end of it) that I worry it could turn into aggression if I allow it to escalate. Anyway, we bought a front attaching harness today and I gave it a quick try by walking him out in the front yard. Normally he is great out the door and waits for me to go down the steps, which he did as usual, but once we are on the path he usually drags me to the end of the drive way. Well he went to pull and the harness "tightened" (not sure if that is an accurate description) across his chest and he went a bit askew and he immediately fell back into a heel. We did a couple of laps round the front yard and he didn't pull once whereas normally he would be at the end of the lead the whole time. I didn't take him out on the street yet so I will see how that goes. But I think he has already associated the harness with "walkies" because I picked it up to put it in his cupboard a few minutes ago and he immediately jumped up and ran over with his walking face on LOL. In regards to getting a trainer in, it has nothing to do with the money. I will spend whatever it takes but I would like to try and work it out with my boy myself first. He is the first dog I have had I have not been able to get walking nicely on lead so if I can I want to work out what works for us without having someone else show me. I can't learn and perfect better techniques if I have to get someone round to show me each time I have a dog something doesn't work for - I realise that a harness is not necessarily a better technique but at this stage, I need to be able to walk him without it being like torture. This may not be a good idea according to some of the posts here, and I accept those opinions and have noted them so will be on th elookout for any adverse affects what I am doign may be having.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I thought it was quite common for pups to have heart murmers when young which they often grew out of? We got a pup at 9 weeks who had a heart murmur and byt he time he was 5 months old it was gone.

Awesome information everyone. I do think the "informal chat" vetting seems a great idea. People DO spill more when they don't think they are being quizzed and without realising will open up a lot anyway. I personally am a very open person - no question bothers me and I often will offer information people don't want to hear LOL. I am honest too which could work against me I suppose when going for a breeder, i.e. if I was asked "has your dog ever got off the property", I would say yes because they have. That is a silly example but you know what I mean - some of my honest answers may not be ideal to someone trying to assess me LOL. I am curious about the references idea too....how would one go about getting references for their dogs? I mean, I only know people in NZ (have not managed to make any friends in Oz yet) and th evet has only known us for a year so how would I get a reference? What if I didn't have a reference? Do you look at current dogs if they already own dogs to see the relationship between owner and pet etc?

I tlike the idea of a questionnaire too. Kissindra - I am not expecting "list of questions", just a general idea of the process people use. If you have something constructive that would be excellent.

I am sorry to hear that. It is not nice to lose a much loved dog - especially one so young.

What is wrong with her?

Don't quote me, I'm not a Saint expert, but giant breeds can sometimes struggle for 10 years yea, thats what I thought I thought the general rule was the smaller the dog the bigger the lifespan - with some exceptions obviously

Yea my dog is not what I would call agreessive....well maybe he does have some lead aggression - I am not really sure. He barks when he sees other dogs sounding all high pitched and excited and if it goes on too long he gets really wound up...but off lead, he loves other dogs - goes a bit stupid round them but loves them He as had one fight in his life. He was on lead at the beach and started going nuts when this woman arrived with her 3 dogs (a rott, a saluki and what appeared to be a lab/GR mix - looked like a long haired black lab) who were al off lead and racing round our dog winding him up while she just stood there watching. She said, let him off my dogs are fine. I replied that I wasnt sure how my dog would be because of his reaction at the moment and could she please take her off lead dogs away from my on lead ones a bt more tooing and froing and she kept saying let him off. So in the end I thought stuff it, I will. Let him off and he had a sniff of the Sal and rott and was fine...then the mix and that was fine...but then the mix growled and bit him so he fought back. He was younger and bigger so immediately got the upper hand. She was right there so donked my dog on the head with some plastic thing. He immediately released and returned to me. She then went nuts. Meantime, another couple came along with their rotti and went nuts at the old lady, apparently it was not exactly uncommon for this women to let her off lead dogs wind up all the on lead dogs and then blame the other dog when he dogs started a fight. But yea, I dont knwo if he is truly aggro or just gets himself really excited and owund up as generally off lead he is fine.

Wow 16 for a St - that's a pretty good age sn't it? The border collie I grew up with died at 17 - though IMO she should have been PTS 2 years sooner

This may seem insensitive, but the "dead" dog keeps moving position....is the other dog moving it around or is this vid fake?

Post the age of your dog here and let's see if we can find the oldest dog. Also, what breed is it and is it usual/unusual for that breed to get to that age? I know the usual/unusual thing may be a silly question as all dogs are different but i know some breeds have much higher or lower life expectancies. My dogs don't qualify - they are both young

Some great questions there - I like the idea of a pop quiz...maybe some things the potential owners don't expect so they can "prepare"

Do you have any advic eon the types of questions a buyer should ask of a breeder? Be most helpful...we are goign to get a bulldog in a few years and I havespent years looking on the internwet about the breed, but apart from a few questiosn around health and car,I wouldn't knwo what else to ask the breeder.

She is so pretty!

I notice thos eharnesses also have a ring ont he back - what is that for? K9Pro: Thanks for your advice...it has been noted.