Roova

I can't seem to start a new topic in the breeder section so sorry if this is the wrong place.

Although I LOVE French Bulldogs, I’m never going to be able to afford to add a second one to our family. There's nothing I'd love more but I just don't have $3000+ I have been doing some research on other breeds and contacted a local breeder. She said she had photos of her dogs and would email them to me. I asked if I could send her a checklist with questions (which I developed after reading different suggestion on DOL). She said absolutely.

I didn’t receive a reply for more than a week and half so sent an email asking if my original one was received.

Tonight I got an email basically saying she was surprised at my research questions as she isn’t in the habit of putting her personal information out for anyone to read. She said I don’t have anything to hide and I’m sure you’re a nice person but I really don’t know you. She went on to wish me success finding a companion for my dog and as a new family member. All very nice but she’s obviously not happy to sell me a puppy. I’m disappointed she didn’t choose to fill in the questions she was happy to and leave the others but too late now.

Now I’m worried my questions are too much and I would hate to turn off other breeders as this breed is relatively rare and she was local to me which would have been so lovely. I know I’m a bit over the top when I start researching something but I figure if I’m going to hand someone $1000 or more, I would like to know a little about the puppy I’ll be getting.

Following are the exact questions I asked. I’d love to shorten it but they all seem so important! I’d love feedback on which ones are over the top as I’ll chop them out!

Breeder questions:

How many ** do you own?

How many years have you had them for?

What clubs are you a member of?

What do you like about the **?

Why do you breed?

Parents of the pup questions:

What Health checks have the parent had?

What score did they get?

Is there a score or just a pass for breeding?

What is the temperament of parents?

Why did you choose that dog and that bitch to produce a litter?

Do the adults get socialisation with other animals, eg horses, cows, poultry, cats?

How do they cope meeting different dogs? Different sized dogs?

What level are the parents at showing wise?

Is their height and weight within the standard?

Have the parents had a litter together before?

How did those pups develop temperament wise?

Do you have much contact with the pups once they’ve left?

Have any of the pups been shown? What results have they achieved?

Do you know the age the parents or grandparents of the parents lived to?

Puppy questions:

How are the puppies raised (outside, inside, combination?)

Have they been exposed to household noises, eg vacuum cleaners, tv’s, pots/pans banging, people talking loudly

What age is the puppy released to its new owner?

What health checks have the pups had by this time?

What socialisation will the puppy have had?

To people? To other animals?

Is there any type of health guarantee or recourse if future health/genetic problems are found?

How much is the puppy?

Is the puppy on limited or main registration?

What documents come with the puppy? Registration, Vaccination, microchip, pedigree, diet and care sheet

Is there a deposit required? How much? At what age? Is the money refunded if the sale doesn’t go ahead?

Will there have been a vet check of the puppy before release?

Is any extra training done with the puppy whilst socialising?

If kept crated/penned was there a separate area for toileting?

What have they go to the toilet on?

Are they currently playing with kongs or chew toys?

Thanks for any and all opinions and feedback

I have to say I didn't get a result from mine either. They look quite uncomfortable with how tight they are but my girl didn't seem to mind wearing it, just no noticeable difference in anxiousness

I don't know if this helps or not but I used to breed Discus and often wanted to improve red in them. I hand made food which contained foods high in natural carotenoid pigments. You can buy artifical red enhancers but I didn't want to go that route as it was quite expensive.

Foods high in carotenoid's include fruits and vegetables with vivid colours like green leafy vegetables, broccoli, kale, carrots, tomatotoes, pumpkin, sweet potato, red capsicums and peas. Another thing especially helpful is krill which you can buy frozen as fish food so potentially you could add this to your dog food if you make your own food.

If you're desperate you may be able to buy pure astaxanthin or canthaxanthin from an aquarium if you want to go the artifical route. (Its pretty expensive though).

Good luck

He is gorgeous! What an amazing colour!! He has a real 'look at me' attitude...how old is he?

Another comment from someone who doesn't show (and from one small perspective). My chosen breed is the French Bulldog and I can see it would be close to impossible to get into the showing scene without breaking the bank.

The average, pet, desexed FB is $3000 up. Most breeders do not sell entire dogs (for good reason) so it doesn't leave many options for someone who might be interested in showing.

If you did manage to live near your breeder and built a good relationship with them there might be more chance of them trusting you with an entire puppy but I'm not sure how much they would cost if a desexed pet is $3000+. It could probably eventually make a very limited showing group I would imagine?

If you did well showing wise and wanted another for breeding/showing purposes there's another $3000+. That type of money is not available to the average person as an initial outlay, so its easier to just not go down the showing route.

These pictures are adorable. The jockey on the dog is so cute!.

I did a quick google search and came across this website selling them: http://www.buycostumes.com/Jockey-Dog-Rider-Pet-Costume/61657/ProductDetail.aspx

There's also a cowboy looking like he's on a bucking bull, a headless horseman, a monkey screaming, a mailman hanging on to his cap and other costumes. Not to expensive either.

My previous bull mastiff loved holding something in her mouth and walking back and forth in front of me with tiny little steps and her ears folded back. I think it related either to when she was a puppy and I cooed over her when she was carrying something (everything she did was so cute!), or because she was making out she'd caught something and was parading it back and forth. Either way I couldn't help but give her smooches because she looked so cute

Well Im glad to hear it's just bacteria from incorrect temperature! I was thinking some odd chemical being fed to the poor chickens. Now Im wondering if I can save some money on garden solar lights and just go with glowing chicken necks instead (good for a couple of days at least)

I couldn't work out how to get my Canon to focus in the dark and I don't particularly want to leave chicken necks out to practice on so no chance of photos I'm afraid. :D

Wow! That dog has amazing balance. It must have done that many times to build leg muscles strong enough to stand upright for so long!

This morning I was up early and it was still quite dark. I stepped in to our laundry and I could see what I thought was light shining off something on the floor. I picked it up to discover it was a chicken neck Maggie my dog must have carried in there at some point but not eaten. It was literally glowing flourecent and looked quite freaky! I tried to take a photo but couldn't work out how to do it correctly.

Does anyone have any ideas what could cause this? I was not only worried about what I was feeding my dog but what's in the chicken I'm eating!

Does anyone have any youtube links to teaching a good drop?

I came across this one the other day from Kikopup. Its called "The best and fastest way to teach stay". (It incorporates drop too).

It goes for about 18 minutes but it's very interesting to watch

Do you think there is anything that can be done to prepare a current dog for a new addition??

I recently bought 'The Focussed Puppy' which is an awesome book! One recommendation in preparing your existing dog for a new puppy is to introduce the smell of the new puppy before their arrival. If you can, ask the breeder to send you a small towel or blanket which has been rubbed over the puppy which you then put it in a common area of your house so the scent becomes familiar to your dog.

You can do the same thing to help the puppy by rubbing a cloth over you and your dog and giving it to the breeder for a scent introduction to the puppy. They also suggest rubbing a cloth or a small toy over mum and the other puppies and sending this with the puppy to you. It can offer your new puppy comfort after his move.

Good luck with your new puppy

Hi Helen, Im only new to photobucket so not really sure what I'm doing. I right clicked the photo and copied the 'direct link' which sounds like it could hopefully work. Please let me know if it doesn't.

http://i1221.photobucket.com/albums/dd465/Roova7/Pet%20Expo/liondog.jpg

cheers Rachel

We went along today and boy was it hot! Lots of dogs and activities, I think the happiest dogs of the day were the dock divers being able to jump into water. I bet most of the crowd wished they were in there too.

I went without a hat and contemplated buying a great dane hat and ignoring the fact it had two holes in the top but I didn't end up being brave enough :D

Couple of photos of the day..

Watching the turles

This dog looked like he was having a ball!

I'd love to know too. Its just gorgeous and you can never have too many pockets and zips!

Great photos!! I'm not sure whether to laugh or feel sorry for the dog in the bag with his poor little face squashed. Would have been quite warm in there on a hot day too I suspect.

We're going to the expo today so hopefully the weather holds out for us. I'll be scanning all the dog's for Frenchies!

Your poor Frenchie I hope it doesn't affect his happy nature and willingness to show friendliness to other dogs. Even though you say its your fault, I don't believe the other person should be walking a dog in public which reacts that way to signs of friendliness from other dogs.

I read this article recently which was very interesting. I've copied part of it but here is the original link-> http://leerburg.com/dogfight.htm Although it is about a dog fight you might be able to apply the same suggestion? It says:

The safest way to break up a dogfight requires 2 people. Each person grabs the back feet of one of the dogs. The dog back feet are then picked up like a wheelbarrow. With the legs up, both dogs are then pulled apart.

Once the dog fight is broken up and the dogs pulled apart it is critical that the people do not release the dogs or the dog fight will begin again. The two people need to start turning in a circle, or slowly swinging the dogs in a circle while they back away from the other dog. This stops the dog from curling and coming back and biting the person holding their legs.

By circling the dog has to sidestep with its front feet or it will fall on its chin. As long as you slowly continue to back and circle, the dog cannot do any damage to you. To insure that the fight will not begin all over again when you release the dogs, one of the dogs needs to be dragged into an enclosure (i.e. a kennel, the garage, another room) before the dog is released. If you do not do this, the dogs will often charge back and start fighting again or if you release the dog to quickly the dog will turn and attack the person who had his feet.

Dog fights are a very dangerous thing to try and break up alone. You should never rush in and try and grab the dogs to pull them apart. They are in high "fight drive" and are not thinking clearly when fighting. If someone grabs them they will bite without even thinking about who or what they are biting. This is how your loving pet can dog bite the living crap out of you in about a second and a half.

In reality it probably doesn't even know it's biting you. I compare it to a bar fight. If a person comes up behind 2 guys fighting and just reaches out and grabs the shoulder of one of the combatants most of the time the fighter is going to turn and throw a punch without even looking at who or what he is hitting. This is because his adrenaline in pumping and he is in "fight drive".

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Hopefully this never happens again for you though.