SpotTheDog

Just now this second, reading this thread, I heard the news report on the radio in the background. They described the dog as a bull mastiff. The word 'pit' wasn't mentioned. There is quite literally an enormous difference between pitbull and bull mastiff. My heart goes out to the Chol family, but I'd love to see something like 'Ayen's Law', which uses animal management strategies based on proven behaviour and owner responsibility to reduce the risk to children from dogs. Here's hoping.

On the news this evening it said he was left in the car with the windows open and a bucket of water in the passenger side footwell!

I think it's because we fluff the definition of 'education'. Education isn't simply the supply of information. It has to be about making people think. It has to be an education with a message that makes people use their own brain. If the simple supply of information were sufficient to influence behaviour, we would all recycle, turn off the lights when we leave the room, put the air con at 24 degrees or higher, not let the tap run when we brush our teeth, pick up dog crap when it happens, buy only free range poultry products, so on. In the modern world we're bombarded with more information in our lives than ever before - I heard a random stat recently that said children today are inundated with more info by age 12 than their grandparents were in their entire lives. The provision of information is useless unless it's done in a way to trigger a response - make the recipient think, and they'll change their own behaviour. You may have to keep reminding them to think because they'll lose energy and drive in keeping up the change, but they have to think for themselves or everything you say falls on deaf ears.

This video REALLY bothers me, but not for reasons you may think. Five - FIVE - police officers. UK police aren't normally armed with guns, but they may have had batons, mace or other pepper spray, or even tasers. That dog is too big to be a pitbull, but I've heard he may be a pitbull x dobermann. Either way, he looks like he may be about 30-35kgs based on his height and build. FIVE police officers, one 30-35kg dog. And basically the 'cult of personality' around the pitbull terrier has become so terrifying that instead of piling in on the dog to rescue their mate, instead of pepper spraying it or beating it with batons or even all piling in with boots in or piling physically onto the thing, they dance around it and it systematically decimates them, taking off fingers (that's what 'life-changing injuries' is in reference to') as it picks them off one by one. When I was a kid, if a dog went off, every adult in the place would pile in, fuelled by outrage that a dog would misbehave so. Often an attack that may have started didn't escalate because people intervened. (I lived in a large cul-de-sac at a time when people routinely didn't desex their dogs, and it was normal to allow them out the front door in the morning with the kids and they'd all hang around together.) I just find it hard to believe that there are so many people standing back, basically. I think I was hoping for a coordinated rush on the dog.

What a horrible situation. The idea of someone else leaving doors open etc gives me the heebies. I'm in a rental property at the moment, and it was vacant for some time before we occupied it. Subsequently it's requiring a good deal of maintenance. The number of tradies that come to the house, let themselves in, and then because they don't want to open and close the front door and screen door while going in and out to the van, they leave my front door wide open, and fix the screen door so it stands open too. Even when I've said to them 'please watch the pets with the front door', they still don't get it. I end up standing guard at the front door while they come and go. In context, I have a dog and six cats - I always contain the dog when there are tradies or whatever coming to the house. With the cats, however, it's difficult. I can't shut them in a room for the entire day just because tradies might turn up at some point in a six hour window. When they hear the front door, they run and hide, so I can't round them up. It's getting to the point where, when I answer the door, I'm going to have to give the tradies a 'before you work in my house' speech (which, however nice I try to be, may make me look like a fruitcake and rub them up the wrong way).

I have six cats and my dog. When I brought him home as a pup, five of the cats were horrified and kept a healthy distance. Sasquatch, however, took one look at the pup and full on launched himself at him. I had forgotten that my rescue cat had come from a home where his previous owner set his dogs upon his cats for entertainment. Sas was rescued from that home aged four to five weeks of age (which is why I'd forgotten it) and had lived with me as a foster carer, then owner, since that age, so I just hadn't given any thought to it whatsoever. Initially, segregate the animals. Give the pup a crate, or keep the cat out of the room. The cat will take a number of weeks to adjust to the pup. You can buy Feliway diffusers (synthetic feline happy hormones in a plug-in air freshener) and plug them in around the house. (They last a month.) You can still do things like create a positive association with good behaviour with a cat, it just doesn't work as quickly as with a dog. A good way to introduce the pup first is to put the cat up somewhere high like a table and bring the pup into the room on a leash. At ground level, a cat is far more likely to go all out for a new pup than if it's up high (but even then a territorial cat may launch itself at the pup so yes, you need to be on guard.) Let the pup approach the table, but not jump at it (and definitely not get his front paws onto the table if he's a larger dog, because that's a sure fire way to get a cat in the face). It's good if there are two people - one the cats knows and likes to reassure and stroke the cat, praising it and distracting with a treat, and one to control the pup. When the cat hisses or swipes (and it'll be pretty much when and not if), just remove the pup and distract the cat. You can do these introductions in short bursts over a period of up to two weeks, segregating the animals otherwise. Don't crate the pup in or near a room the cat considers as 'his', and definitely don't let the pup near the cat's food bowls, water bowl or litter trays. It's not uncommon for the cat to totally avoid the room where it first met the pup, or approach that room with extreme caution, fur half inflated, for the next few times it goes in there. I'd advise crating the pup in the room with something nice to keep him occupied, then letting the cat in. Utterly ignore the pup, and spoil the cat. Reassure the cat, stroke it, make soothing noises. If he hisses or launches at the dog crate, distract him, move between him and the crate or carry him away from the crate. As soon as he relaxes even a fraction, give him a treat. Cats respond well to kitty treat bags - they'll often respond to the rustle of the bag the way a dog would to a whistle. Try feeding the cat treats in the pup's presence. When he's had his treats, remove the cat from the room, praising all the while. Cats, while they can form a very strong social bond with other cats (and I would never have a single-cat household again), take a long time to accept a newcomer. They're not naturally social to new animals, and there's a normal period of hissing and swatting that takes place during this time. Cats are strongly territorial. You need to be careful, in this period, not to admonish the cat for being unfriendly to the new pup. If you give out to the cat, ostracise it, push it away and shout at or squirt it for being 'mean' to the new pup, you can end up with worse problems - an unhappy cat that's unsure of its position and starts to pee all over the house, or if it has outdoor access, a cat that simply moves in with the neighbours. The lady whose cat is attacking her has a big issue - that's a very agitated cat, whose territory has been invaded, and the aggression could soon be coupled with inappropriate peeing in the house and so on. I'd say she needs to go back to the beginning and start over. After initial introductions of a week or two, you'll have a status quo of a growing pup and a disgruntled and uncomfortable cat who's a bit jumpy and reactive. Using treats and space, create a truce between the pets. Ignore growls from the cat - and even swats. Try not to let the pup get close enough to get smacked in the first place. A full on attack is obviously a different matter, but there's really a balance to be achieved between not alienating the cat, and protecting the pup. You can also work on scent transferring by rubbing the cat with the pup's blanket (and vice versa). Another problem is the pup will quickly grow into bouncing boisterous older pup before the cat's adjusted to it as a newcomer, and then you're dealing with bad behaviour in both directions - the pup bouncing at the cat and the cat smacking up the pup. During this period, when the pup isn't crated in the house I'd keep him on-leash inside the house. Try to never have your pup indoors, out of his crate, off leash with the cat - because he'll bounce at or chase the cat and the smacking he'll get often won't teach a lesson at all because it's just part of the game and he's too excited to learn from it. You don't want the cat to have to give the pup the sort of serve that WOULD teach him a lesson. Cats also cannot read dog body language. They understand some of it, but not other parts - they find wagging confusing (because a cat wags when it's pissed off). They don't recognise bared teeth (cats don't snarl, they hiss). A bark is just offensive. They do understand submissive postures of blinking, head turning, lying down and yawning (but not particularly lip licking). They think the puppy play bounce (jump in and out again) is an all out attack and will often give chase to the pup (which the pup thinks is great, but it doesn't do much for canine-feline relations in the longer run). The good thing is your pup will probably learn how to speak cat pretty quickly. (Cats appear to never learn how to speak dog.) The cat's inability to learn dog becomes a problem if the dog is resource guarding as it gets older - a big potential issue if you have a large dog. Every last one of my cats would fail to recognise my dog standing over his food bowl with bared teeth and head low, making whale eye at them, and would stick their head in his bowl anyway. It would only take one snap from my 30kg dog to do damage, so as their owner I never feed meals together - he doesn't get to their food and they don't get to his. I also regularly do a 'circle of treats' - everyone sits around me in a circle and I hand-feed something like liver treats out of a packet. The dog learns not to compete with the cats for food because he is ALWAYS included in treats, and the cats learn to adjust to the dog because he can get up really close to them when there's food on the go because they're just focused on the food. Sasquatch spent a full year smacking Gus up. I made some mistakes - didn't heed my own advice, left the growing pup off-leash inside the house (and sure enough he chased the cats, who knew eh). I had to go away for a while when the pup was young and DH took the approach that they'd 'sort it out themselves' and left the cats and the pup out in the yard together - the one permanent scar Gus has on his body is where Sas split the tip of his ear with flailing ninja kitty paws during one of these disastrous excursions. I did learn that the key to introductions is control, and time. Control the situation, and give it time. You can't rush it. A note on continuing relationships - my dog is big enough to do the cats serious damage, so to a degree I allowed the cats to lord it over him while he was a pup. If he shoved his nose in their backsides and got a slap for it, I didn't intervene. If he crowded them and got a slap for it, I didn't intervene. As he matured (he's nearly two years old now) he learned through his own training that positive behaviour gets a reward and negative behaviour doesn't (and particularly negative behaviour may get a negative consequence like a time out). Cats don't have the same sense of justice as we do though, so occasionally the dog would get a slap from one of the cats for having done nothing wrong. (Dog dozing on his bed. Cat walks past. Dog senses cat and lifts his head up to see who's passing. Cat slaps dog for moving.) In those cases I DID intervene and chastised the cat and it quickly became evident that the dog would look to me for redress when the cat had slapped him for nothing. I may sound insane, but I can guarantee you the dog understood the cat was getting its comeuppance for bad behaviour and I believe I can see benefit in having created that association, because the dog seems to have learned that he doesn't need to take matters into his own hands (or teeth) if the cats have a go at him for no reason.

There's a survey as well as the opportunity to respond to the paper, but be sure to read the paper before answering the survey so that you properly understand the Queensland definitions of a regulated dog (an umbrella title that includes both dogs proven to have behavioural issues, and restricted breeds who are assumed to have potential behaviour issues based on appearance!) I read the survey, then read the paper, then answered the survey - and my first round answers would have been different to the ones I submitted after reading the paper (and would have oboviously revealed that I hadn't read teh paper!)

It's only derogatory in Australia. ( Australia, where 'mongrel' is derogatory and 'wog' is in everyday use... :laugh: ) Or even 'Bitsa' or some other term meaning 'crossbreed' or 'dog of unknown heritage'.

The only problem I have with the promotion of pure bred dogs is how somehow, the message that breed is a good indication of traits, size and behaviour got twisted about so people are now determined to identify any and all breeds that are in their dog. I'd like to reclaim the word 'mongrel'. When people ask me what my dog is, I say 'a mongrel'. And they press and say 'well yes of course, but what BREED is he a cross with?' And I usually say 'No idea, I don't think it matters really though. He's quite the mongrel.' If we all used 'mongrel' a lot more there might be less emphasis on breed - the pictures show the ridiculousness of identifying a dog as a staffy X. I started posting on these forums after getting my dog from a shelter in Victoria who had him listed as a staffy X. I told them I felt he was more Bull Arab (another glorified term for 'mongrel' really, but with more of a suggestion of size) and they told me 'Yes, but we always just say 'staffy X' because people don't like the word 'bull' and everybody loves staffies'. (Yes, I'm aware of the stupidity of not realising that staffy is short for staffordshire BULL terrier.) The upshot is my mongrel landed at his adult weight of 30kgs aged nearly two years. He has shoulders like a tank, a head that's pitbull type, one ear like a staffy and the other that sits upright like the Tramp from the Disney movie, and an arse like a greyhound. I have him registered as a bull arab X, (partly because the irony of registering my dog as a mongrel mongrel entertains me, but also because again I think it's a more fair indication of size). But seriously, can we have the word 'mongrel' back? Can we register our dogs more honestly like 'terrier type mongrel, 20kgs' or 'bull type mongrel, 25 kgs' or 'sighthound type mongrel, 70cms, 35 kgs' instead of making up some crossbreed rubbish?

There's one thing that makes this argument so vitriolic these days. Litigiousness. When I was a kid, if I harassed a dog and it bit me, my parents would say 'you should've left it alone' and the dog owner would drop over a box of chocs to cheer me up while I was at home crying and sulking. (I'm talking a snap here, not a sustained attack.) These days, if a kid harassed my dog and he snapped at them, I'd expect the ranger on my doorstep telling me he was taking my dog to euthanise it, and I wouldn't send the kid as much as a get-well-card for fear of it counting as admission of liability.

Mason_Gibbs, what age was your dog when his allergies started to show? My guy is almost 22 months old, so nearly two years, and has literally never had a problem like this until we moved to Townsville, and even then he's been up here since 4th November last year and the first evidence of a reaction came after his third attendance at doggy daycare, which was about two weeks ago. He went on a Thursday, was fine, went the following Tuesday, was fine, and then the second Thursday, or third day he'd been there, I picked him up and he looked ragged. I thought he was dirty and had been mouthing other dogs, so I washed him that evening but he still looked rough. I thought he may have been scratched badly or scuffed by rough play and still didn't realise that what was happening was a major hive breakout under his fur. It was actually the groomer at dog daycare who approached me and said 'about that allergic reaction...' and asked me if I'd given him a flea control spot-on, because they can cause such reactions. It was the first I'd even thought about allergies so I took him to the vet. Once he was shaved it became evident just how bad it was - which was pretty severe. I've never given him a flea spot-on, so it couldn't have been that. Now I'm wondering if it's pollen, certain grass seeds, or what the hell else it might be. I can ask the vet about allergy testing - I have pet insurance (thankfully) so I can go the extra mile on this and push them to refer me on if it's not clearing up. I don't understand much about allergies in dogs - haven't done my reading yet. I don't know if it's common or uncommon for no allergies to show through puppyhood and puberty and suddenly appear out of nowhere near adulthood. All I know is the appearance of what appears to be a hotspot on his foot last night made my eyebrows retreat up into my hairline...

The vet's feedback appeared to be 'clear it up first and then we'll come to that'. He's had a skin scraping which was negative for more sinister underlying reasons. I'm not sure how effective allergy testing in dogs is, given there is such a broad range of potential allergens (especially up here?) I've been racking my brains for changes, but seriously after moving from Victoria to Queensland, nothing's different and yet everything's different.

On this I will vaccinate my dog yearly because we travel a bit and up to date vaccs are important to travel arrangements. I used to worm him once every three months, never heartworm treat and ever flea treat and never tick treat, because we were in Victoria and he never suffered mossie bites, fleas or ticks. Then we moved to Townsville. Since getting here, he's had a massive allergic reaction to something and we don't know what. A severe breakout of hives, two hotspots on his neck, he's been given corticosteroids and he's on three weeks of antibiotics. The hives were clearing up and I was delighted, but I think he got another hotspot last night on the top of a rear foot (and I always thought hotspots happened on or around the neck for some reason). We were just coming to the end of the corticosteroid course too. The ilium neocort cream is on the back foot and he's still working through his antibiotic course so there's not much else I can do. He's been pretty much on house arrest since his flare up, so I'm now wondering what environmental thing it is that's triggering him. I had thought fleas from another dog at daycare, but since he's been inside there are no fleas on him or my cats, unless he picked one up out in the yard (clay soil, damp, wet at the moment - likelihood?) Basically as soon as his antibiotics are over, he'll be on Panoramis once a month (all-wormer with flea and tick preventention capabilities), daily antihistamines during the wet season and reactive neocort if he flares up. Not happy, Jan.

I hope it's comfy under your bridge. :) I see they've caught Melbourne's wandering goat, so you probably won't be woken up any time soon...

My six cats also have a great life, rolling around in my garden and sharpening their claws on the tree. They pester the geckos and chomp grasshoppers. They stalk the birds but are unsuccessful because there is only one tree, the birds stay in the uppermost branches and the mynah birds sound the alert every time the cats move. They have the wind in their fur and the sun on their wee faces. And because of a combination of oscillot fence-proofing plus inclined bird netting with cheap L-brackets, they will hopefully never die from being laminated across the tarmac by a car, or torn apart by someone's dog. They'll never get kicked or punched by a passing stranger, or pick up poison bait on their travels. They'll also never scratch my neighbours' cars, piss and crap in their flower beds, spray piss on their front or back doors, wind their dogs up, fight and scream in the small hours of the morning or contract FIV, FeLV, herpes, chlamydia or any of the other wandering-cat diseases. It's not a hard mindset shift to make, but I find it usually needs the death of, or injury to, a pet to give some people the kick in the ass they need to make the shift.