Chris the Rebel Wolf

I see Rottie in those paws! There could be a little Border... maybe Lab? Guesses for the last two, most sure of the rottie :)

Poor pets And Pierre, what a beautiful lorikeet. Poor baby

To me, such a defensive sounding reaction isn't a good sign. As you say your friend may also have been upset, but breeders ought to take this sort of thing seriously, even if they suspect that it was environmental and not genetic. Did the litter come with a health guarantee? Hopefully some further x-rays will shed some light... but I am sorry for your friend's pup, it is a tough condition for such a highly energetic breed. Best of luck.

I would love to see random dog breeding under control but that is pie in the sky stuff at the moment. As for the bully/mastiff breeding,as has been pointed out many times in this sort of arguement, these sort of 'people' will just move onto other breeds. And considering Victoria apparently has tough laws on these 'sort of dogs' it obviously isn't working. It is a difficult problem, the answer in my opinion is to make people responsible for the actions of their dogs, no matter what breed. I tend to be of the opinion that these sorts of people choose the Bully/Mastiff types of dog for a reason. I don't think they possess any training skills to extract aggression responses out of anything otherwise they would just own anything from a Labrador to a Great Dane and get the same aggression responses and attack results?. I think with the breed styles taken away from them to produce preditory behaviour from other breeds, they would struggle to achieve it?. I still think there is some merit in the madness of legislation, take the Bully/Mastiff's off theses people and give them a nice well bred Cocker Spaniel instead, the commumunity would be a safer place :D ETA: As bull breeds are the dog of the moment when it comes to crying out about dangerous dogs the media more often than not either don't report the breed of dog if it's not a bull breed that has attacked or they say it was a bull breed in the initial report, find out later that it wasn't and just stop mentioning the breed, so no one ever hears what breed it actually was. Strongly agree. I keep a close eye on the dog news here and locally and the amount of times a bull breed is blamed, even in several cases a photo thrown up, when it turns out that the dog involved was a completely unrelated breed. Yes, a certain type of irresponsible owner can be attracted to bull breeds, and yes, they are involved in some attacks, but the attitude that if you remove one or two or three or ten 'dangerous breeds' that everyone will be safe and there will be no more dog attacks, is just as dangerous to the public. The message that needs to be spread is that ALL dog breeds can be dangerous, and that ALL dogs need to be trained responsibly.

Thats exactly it Megan, you can supervise till the cows come home but if you dont know what warning behaviours to look for there's not much you can do to prevent a disaster - and even then accidents still happen. I wholly agree with this. I don't know the circumstances of this case, and I'm not saying that accidents will never happen even to a responsible owner - but people who think they know what they are doing can be equally at risk as somebody clueless. If somebody is supervising dog and child, but it's reactive... still a recipe for disaster.

That's it exactly, if there reputation suffers and they realize that customers are not going to support a place with such a stance, it will be a whole lot more meaningful than paying an $800 fine.

I MUST remember that! Where on earth are you meeting children that ask first? And could you send some my way please? :) Point me in the direction of a thread with photos of Miffy and Bluey? :)

Omg i didnt even know they came in 4 colours!!, im only familiar with two, what are the other two? The other two (I'm thinking you've seen the browns?) are blue and isabella which is a fawn colour. The blues have terrible skin problems as a general rule, so not very popular. aaaaa the fawn ones would be awesome!! (maybe) Both fawns and blues can get colour dilution alopecia (CDA) which makes them go bald. There is a genetic test for colour now so most responsible breeders choose not to produce the dilutes... Puppy buyers *think* having a "rare" blue/fawn is awesome... Until it goes bald! There's my new fact for the day I had no idea the blue and fawn Dobes had such a reputation for skin issues! I have always found the fawns lovely and wondered in passing why they aren't bred more often. Now I know! A lady at the park once asked if Zeke (photo in sig) was 'A Doberman with a tail' which made me smile, I thought to myself 'She must never have seen an actual red Dobe before!'

With her magical canine-physic mind melding powers, no doubt?

So much wrong with that... unbelievably slack council action. So the rotty that killed the poodle x was from the same household?

Comfortis is safe form 14 weeks old so good for your guy. I am another fan of it for fleas :) It isn't likely the fleas have a resistance to it, no - products that stop working also stop selling and either have to be redone or removed :) But there could be underlying issues, spot-ons will not work well for a dog who has other skin issues such as dry skin or a lack of natural oils in the coat. Which is why Comfortis works so well on a wide range of dogs.

While I am glad to see you are aware of genetic health issues and don't plan to breed from your girl anymore, this post bothers me a little... you are saying breeders have a responsibility to be aware of potential health problems, when earlier you say that you, as a soon-to-be-breeder, know little about the issue yourself? I strongly recommend you research your breed's genetic health issues before you think about breeding them so you can be prepared in case the worst happens. I second what has been said re finding a new and more reliable vet, and getting a specialist to look at your girl. Best of luck, hope she recovers swiftly.

Here in Qld for the past two months I have been selling heaps of harnesses and seat belt clip-in leads to customers who are telling me the police have fined/warned them about unrestrained animals in their cars, but when I looked up QLD laws I could only find this: http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/~/media/55129622-af3a-4d89-bad1-ec23cd1302da/pdf_road_rules_qanda_290909.pdf

LOL love it!

Whoops! Did the owner notice? I don't think it's acceptable in a dog park, no, unless you have prior clearance with the owner. I don't get hassled while at the beach because it's not too crowded and not being an official offleash area people are usually pretty good about control. The rule when dogs visit at work is 'ask owner first' and ask for a sit first :)

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/boy-hospitalised-after-dog-attack-in-freeling/story-e6frea83-1226301612930 This is a little boy involved in the attack, but don't think it's the same story, different area?

I was under the impression that the pup had been thrown in on purpose and then the result filmed, but I do agree the adult had probably done that before yes.

Yes, how scared is she going to be next time she sees big dogs? The dog attack billboard is ad advertising companion from the council started a few weeks ago, they have billboards and a TV add out: http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/234974-responsible-dog-ownership/

http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2012/04/04/320061_news.html

We all know what can happen to roaming dogs... in this case it was one of the worst case scenarios. Nobody has done right by these dogs, from their owners who have WILLINGLY allowed roaming to continue regardless of weather the chains were breaking - solutions have already been offered in this thread and it certainly wouldn't take me six weeks to get a fence together if my pets were in danger from roaming - to the moron who's shot the poor girl point blank. I certainly don't condone the shooting, but unfortunately if the dog came onto the shooter's property and especially if it was rural and there was stock involved, I don't think legally they're going to be in the wrong. Get better soon Bridget and hopefully, there will be proper fences/enclosure up for you upon your return home to prevent these sorts of awful things happening.

He was such a good boy about it too.. escorted me to the bin as usual and watched as I tried to cram it in, sat by as I struggled to rip it up... aha, brainwave! His reward for a job well done was a trip to a very rainy beach, which, being the ultimate waterdog, he loved :p

We have a solution! Economic, eco-friendly, quick and easy :D Tadaaa!

My heart goes out to this family, what a terrible thing to have to go through. Ms Parkinson said the inquest would hear from a vet and a veterinary nurse about the killer dog's demeanor after it was captured and about the way it was confined by its owner. I wonder if this information will be made public. I'm particularly worried by the statement 'confined by its owner' - is this a statement suggesting it was allowed to fee roam, or was it constantly shut up inside and was never exposed to the world at large?

Awful incident over the weekend here, as the title says, a local had a bottle bomb thrown over their fence, and their pet dog went and picked it up, loosing an eye after it exploded in his face. I was told about this today at work by one of the dog's owners and I was just horrified. Nothing prepares you for hearing something like that, and my heart goes out to the family. http://townsvillenewsonline.com/home-made-bomb-fear-in-townsville-dog-loses-his-eye-in-horrific-explosion-p431-69.htm#.T1xfLt9rieY.facebook I have shared on Fb, if anyone who reads this knows people in Townsville please pass the story along. We can only hope those responsible are caught before they hurt anyone else - pet and people alike.

The Townsville City Council has begun an advertising campaign urging dog owners to be responsible, which is great to see the effort - even if I have a sneaking suspicion it's election related... funny how these things always pop up before elections isn't it? That's a different story though. You can see the campaign and the TV ad below: Info: http://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/resident/animals/dogs/attacks/Pages/default.aspx Ad: And I'm more than pleased to see that BSL isn't an issue and is not being paraded out as it so often is... one of the bullet points is that ANY breed is capable of injuring a person or animal. Cannot tell you how happy to see that. In a perfect world of course ads like this wouldn't be necessary but in the meantime, TCC has my thumbs up for this. Is anybody else spotting similar adds elsewhere?