PetSitters

The "halo effect" is very true. I had a wonderful Golden Retriever for 15 years, he was an awesome dog in every respect and was the best pet in the world in my eyes for the entire 15 years. After his passing I bought another Golden who is 8 1/2 years old now and when we went to pick out our new puppy, the breeder let the puppies out and there was only one with dark gold ears who looked just like my old boy when he was a puppy and I immediately chose him. My husband wanted to play with the others and check them all out, but I couldn't see past this one with the dark ears which felt at the time like my old boy had come back to me in puppy form to restart our lives together. You know of course consciously my new little chap was his own person with his own life and nothing to do with my old boy, but the bonding with him was instant I think after sharing 15 wonderful years with my old boy and having the opportunity to do it all again with puppy who looked just like him gave the bonding process a meaning. My new puppy was more affectionate than my old boy who didn't like cuddles much, my new one loved cuddles and sitting on my lap which made the bonding experience with him mutually easy and was most enjoyable.

I agree with Corvus. I think that growling is a legitimate form of communication between dogs i.e. for one dog to let another know that "what you just did is not okay" - my dog growls to tell off dogs that are jumping on her (ones she knows generally) and my parents dogs growl at her to put her in her place (if she is jumping on them). There are different growls - we aren't as good at discerning the differences as we aren't as good at "hearing" as dogs are. The staffy is clearly a reactive dog that should NOT be in off-lead scenarios. I hope the husky is okay (physically and 'emotionally')! I don't disagree that growling isn't a legitimate form of communication, but I also believe in dog language there is a more threatening growl dog's can exhibit which can potetially trigger a fight especially with a dog who doesn't easily accept intimidation. To explain what I mean is like a guy in the pub bumps a guy spills his beer a bit and says "careful mate" there is generally no aggression. If the guy who gets bumped sprays the guy with a mouth full of expletives and calls him a &*%ker can often trigger a fight. There is a difference between a statement of displeasure than aggravating a situation? what I am saying is that I have seen this scenario in dogs where some dogs attract trouble more than others from displays of defensive behaviour and gesturing.

At the risk of flogging a dead horse, there's "aggressive" and then there's "dangerous". For the most part, aggressive behaviour in dogs is designed to avoid injury. Particularly in social situations where the only resource at stake is personal space. That's not what I am thinking of Corvus? My point is that I do know particluar dogs for some reason set off a more aggressive retaliation from a growling episode than others, have you not experienced that before?

:rolleyes: Again with the weak nerve. I will say this: There is nothing wrong with a dog that doesn't like to be barged. They don't automatically have weak nerve or some dominance issue. Sometimes they just don't like it, you know? For whatever reason. Maybe they don't like to be put off balance around strange dogs. Or maybe they have arthritis and it hurts. Or maybe they are just kinda small like Erik and don't like big dogs knocking them around. A staffy is pretty solid. I don't like it when they barge into me, either. It hurts. I don't like being bumped by people, but no one would say I have 'weak nerve' or a dominance issue if I was having a rotten day and someone bumped me and I growled "watch it" at them. That could have nothing to do with my temperament. And I don't think obedience even weighs in on this issue. I don't care if the dog is DA or not. I care that it injured another dog. My experience working with all different types of dogs, there is definitely a difference between a "I don't like that growl" and a threatening growl where a particular growl can set another dog off to become aggressive. I have a few dogs who will growl in this instance as the Husky did with no retaliation from the offending dog, but I have another couple that seem to instigate aggression in the offending dog with behaviour that appears the same visually. I have experienced also, a growl from one dog will trigger aggression in a particular offending dog where a growl from another dog, the same offending dog accepts it and moves on? I believe some dogs can instigate an aggressive retaliation from a growl more so than other dogs from what I have experienced.

I tried a lot of different kibble and feeding regimes to help one of my GSD's who suffered digestive problems with constant soft poos. I found Royal Canin GSD 24 for this dog was by far the best for him and he loves the kibble pieces as treats too. Once getting on to the Royal Canin regime, his poo's returned to normal, he gained weight from being on the skinny side and his coat condition an lustre improved dramatically and for him, I can't be more pleased with benefits the Royal Canin regime provided. Apart from correcting his digestive issues which were my major concern, his coat as a consolation is beautiful and shiny now and was amazing the improvement of his coat condition, I couldn't believe the difference.

Hi best4koda, I had a similar problem with my GSD never really having good poos after puppyhood with cow patties of a yellowy colour for the most part, did all the vet tests as you have done, had different medication for potential intestinal threats etc etc and reached the point we thought he may have an EPI issue. As a last resort before going down the EPI path I was given a regime by a very experienced GSD breeder to try him on 2 meals a day for breakfast, half a bowl of Royal Canin GSD 24 with a large scoop of plain yoghurt mixed in and for dinner, cooked rice mince and vegetables and no treat stuff like beefsticks etc and treat only with the Royal Canin kibble pieces. Anyway, two days later he actually did some formed poos for the first time in 12 months, I couldn't believe it and a fortnight later, he was doing nice solid brown poos and gained some some weight as he was always a bit skinny for his size. It's nearly two years since I began that feeding regime and it completely eliminated the problem. I did have a couple of minor relapses along the way re-introducing a few treat things and sometimes bones that made him a bit soft and yellowy again, but the basic regime with some plain dog biscuits for treats his poos are fantastic, he's a nice weight and seems really healthy. It was so frustrating trying to sort out this situation and keep weight on him and understand your plight very well, I don't know of course if my regime will help other's, but it fixed my boy beautifully. I feed my other two in the same regime, all have great poos with good health.

Yes, I actually take photos of this sort of thing on my phone to eliminate the she said he said scenario if I need to take these situations further and find myself quite annoyed at these occurences which happen too often for my liking. Some people do drop the ball and make an error and are genuinely sorry, but some are unbelievable and I have had them yell at me for offering some friendly advice how to better manange their dog for the dog's saftey and everyone elses. Some do need reporting I agree and a ranger's attendence may be enough to correct the errors of their ways.

I had never used a crate prior to a year ago when getting our youngest and was a bit reserved on the idea initially, but crate training I can honestly say is the best thing I have done raisng a puppy. We bought the largest crate available so it was big enough for him as he grew (GSD) and sectioned half of it off with newspaper down for him to toilet away from his bed at night which he used sometimes. We had the crate in the family room next to our bedroom and had soft toys in there and he never once cried at night ever which I expected, but he settled fine. He did come over from Victoria to Adelaide at 8 weeks by car in a small crate which may have perhaps conditioned him to it a bit???. To my surprise, he actually loves his crate or bed and often find him laying in there during the day. I taught him "bed" with treats from day one and the command "bed" he goes in and waits for his treat, there are no issues with him relaxing and I guess his crate to him is a nice place. I do put a sheet over the crate at night as my other two are have free range of the house and sleep anywhere and sometimes if they were floating around at night he wanted to get out and play with a bit of yip yap, but the sheet fixed that. As he grew and was able to hold on during the night, we take him out to toilet around 11pm, put him to bed and someone is up at 6am to let him out and never hear a peep out of him at night to this day. Crate training from a puppy is something I highly recommend every does from day one,it's excellent in my opinion.

This might be the one http://www.kbnd.com/page.php?page_id=60247&article_id=7849 I think that's from the USA by the looks.

My god how terrible if it's true? I would have imagined an act of such extreme animal cruelty would make news headlines somewhere, but I can't find anything related to it