DogsAndTheMob

These are fascinating stories from landholders who live in harmony with dingos. They state that, by maintaining stable dingo populations, they improve the ecosystem by reducing populations of feral goats, pigs, foxes and cats, as well as kangaroos, with little predation on cattle. They do acknowledge that this would be difficult for sheep graziers. https://landholdersfordingoes.org/grazier-case-studies-dingoes-in-the-landscape/

A very disturbing story from the UK. Warning: There is a distressing photograph of ear cropping. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-64346415

It’s a nice story, but it doesn’t really make sense and there are other, more feasible explanations. Daily changes in environmental odour profiles would vary depending on temperature, humidity and air flow. Humans have an internal body clock… how often have you woken up five minutes before your alarm went off or looked up from your work and checked the clock just on 5 pm? There’s no reason to think that animals are any different. There would also be environmental cues, such as neighbours driving past on the way to collect their children from school or bring them home or dogs barking on the distance when people arrive home.

My dogs wake up thirsty in the night. They are thirstier if they’ve eaten kibble, which typically has > 1% salt, but they are thirsty even if they’ve had home-prepared raw food. I hear the older dogs drinking and just listen until they settle again, but I need to take the pup out for water and a toilet stop.

I’m not sure how common vasectomy is, although someone I knew had his German Shepherd vasectomised. Ovary sparing spay is becoming more common. My vet was planning to attend a webinar on it, the last time I spoke to her.

I’m not sure. She may be opposed to neutering because of the very high rate of cancer in Golden Retrievers and recent research showing that neutering substantially increases the risk of some of the more common cancers in the breed. Vasectomy might be an appropriate compromise.

I think many breeders fear that there dogs will end in the wrong hands. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10209872760852139&id=1726864442&m_entstream_source=timeline https://sheriff.utahcounty.gov/media/sheriffNewsDetails?ID=239619

I’m more perplexed as to why so many dog enthusiasts are so virulently hostile to poodle crosses. I’ve seen incredible rudeness to “oodle” owners at dog training clubs. On one memorable occasion, an instructor spotted an “oodle” in the beginners’ class across the training ground and lined up for an encounter in a manner that made me think of a reactive dog. These people don’t seen to have the same reaction to staffy crosses and mastiff crosses that are also likely to have been bred in ugly circumstances and to be unsuitable for many pet homes. I think carefully about pedigrees when I get a puppy, and I wouldn’t choose a poodle-cross for several reasons, but I wouldn’t question someone’s decision to get one, any more than I’d question their choice of an inappropriate pedigree puppy. Perhaps I’ve been fortunate, but the poodle crosses I’ve seen have generally been happy, good mannered, well-groomed dogs.

You need to resolve this problem for her safety as it may trigger another dog to attack her, but you won’t do so if you continue to exercise her in the dog park while other people are throwing balls. At 22 months, training class would provide more appropriate socialisation, teaching her to respond to you in the presence of other dogs. At home, work on her training (heeling, stays and coming when called) with a ball lying nearby. Start with very short training sessions of a few minutes and the ball some distance away. Perhaps carry a second ball and finish each training session by tossing that ball as a reward. Over a period of weeks, increase the duration of training and decrease the distance from the ball until she can walk right over it and still pay attention to you. Then start nudging the ball with your foot to make it roll, but still insisting she focus her attention on you.

Is there a recessive gene for kinked tail? If so, the gene could be present in the breed at a low level, passed down undetected for many generations and only expressed when two dogs carrying the gene are bred together. Prior to DNA testing, it was almost impossible to entirely eliminate recessive genes from a breed - hence the continued occurrence of white GSDs and fluffy Pembroke Corgis. This is an interesting research article on the frequency of recessive genes in various dog breeds. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0223995#pone.0223995.s005 Looking at the supplementary tables, it’s surprising how many breeds (e.g. bull terriers) include individuals carrying the gene for taillessness.

“Fair price” is incalculable for puppies because they don’t come off a production line. Some years ago, I knew two breeders who bred two litters each from related bitches. One breeder’s bitches had 12 or 13 puppies each. The other breeder’s bitches both required emergency caesareans. One required an emergency hysterectomy. The other bitch developed health problems perinatally and required daily medication for the rest of her life. Only one puppy survived from the two litters. The first breeder could have sold the puppies for $500 each and still covered her costs. The second breeder would not have covered her costs even if she’d sold that one puppy for $10000. And there is no fair price for her dogs’ pain and distress or her grief. Although there is no such thing as a fair price, there is what I might have to pay to get the puppy I want in 2022. That seems to be between $3000 and $5000. Would I pay that much for the right puppy?. If I can afford it and want that puppy, yes. On the other hand, I see a lot of puppies advertised for more than that which I wouldn’t accept even as a gift. Many are walking vet-bills-in-waiting or have had been bred only for profit. Price is no indication of health, temperament, quality or suitability as a pet.

The last I read was that the police believed that the puppy had been killed to get rid of the evidence. The accused woman pled guilty and was fined $1000 but didn’t have a conviction recorded.

My first Border Collie went profoundly deaf and my 10-year old Border Collie can only hear very loud noises. My little poodle rescue was blind and deaf for several years, and coped amazingly well. My dogs have all been taught the traditional Obedience signals, including “star-jump arms” as a recall signal. I’ve found they can see signals like that at a distance, if they’re looking. However, my first Border Collie became very skilled at looking away from signals he didn’t want to see. To avoid that, I suggest rewarding Stussy each time he looks back at you, so that he gets in the habit of doing so. I find it sometimes helps to think in terms of using cues rather than signals to trigger the behaviour you want because that includes environmental and situational cues, which opens up more training options. For example, if you rewarded him with a treat each time he returned inside, you might be able to turn standing outside into a cue for returning inside. You might need to set him up for success at first by walking past him then back inside so that he’ll follow you, but you want to make the cue independent of you as quickly as you can. I find barking is a habit that can easily become self-reinforcing, so I would work hard to interrupt the behaviour chain before the barking starts. It may also be useful to teach Stassy to recognise a flashing torch as a recall signal.

It may be helpful to join the WA Toy Dog Specialist Club https://www.facebook.com/groups/154958747893226/ There’s also a FaceBook group called ANKC hopefuls, mentors and support crew, which aims to help new enthusiasts find support and mentoring. Edited to add... It looks as if Albany All Breeds Dog Club is active in both conformation and Obedience. Joining and volunteering may be a way to meet people in the “dog world”.

Where did you get that statistic? Is it a current statistic for Australia? It’s over half the number for the whole of the USA. My understanding is that euthanasia rates have dropped dramatically. Tweed Shire Council, for example, reports a drop in euthanasia rates from 196 in 2010/11 to 28 in 2019/20. The RSPCA also reports a drop in both dogs coming into care and the proportion euthanased. They state that they euthanased 3466 dogs in the 2019/20 financial year. I wish the number was lower, but I doubt if it could ever humanely be zero. I’ve been looking for a dog for an elderly relative, with no success. Almost all the dogs that I’ve seen are boisterous, young large-breed dogs that are not suitable for every home.

If possible, get a dog from a breeder who is currently competing successfully in the show ring. Tell the breeder what your goals are; he/she may be willing to sell you a show-quality pup and mentor you through the process. Competing in both conformation and other disciplines (“dog sports”) is a lot of fun. I’ve competed in Obedience and Rally with the traditional breeds but I’ve actually enjoyed it more with my non-traditional breeds. I’m not aware of many Havanese competing in dog sports in Australia but I can think of no reason why they wouldn’t excel at it. Here are are links to two US-based dog sports Facebook pages for Havanese owners. https://www.facebook.com/groups/6789076422409 https://www.facebook.com/AgilityHavanese/

This is not a new story but very sad, and I saw on a Brittany page that the accused has appeared in court but refuses to say where the puppy is. Maybe someone here has seen something. https://mypolice.qld.gov.au/moreton/2021/08/30/dog-stealing-arrest-moreton/ Dog stealing arrest, Moreton Senior Constable Jo Arthur on Aug 30, 2021 @ 4:03pm On August 20 between 8am and 11am a six month old Brittany Spaniel dog by the name of Blue Bell (Blue) went missing from her residence at Wade Road, Bellmere. Blue is the assistance dog of a seven year old Bellmere boy, Xavier. She is his beloved new friend who has been working to help him to help with his anxiety. She was to start her intensive training in September. In the short few months that Blue had been in his life she had already worked out how to make him smile. Police from Caboolture executed a search warrant at a Wade Road, Bellmere address earlier today. A 62-year-old Bellmere woman has been charged with stealing. She will appear in the Caboolture Magistrates Court on September 28. Unfortunately Blue was not located at the address and is still not found. Xavier’s mum would like to offer the following to the public, “We would like to thank all the members of the public who have taken time to share the posts and pass Blue’s details around. We would ask that people continue to share her details until we learn anything of her whereabouts and well being, to bring her home in any capacity. Please help us bring Blue home to where she belongs.” Police are appealing to the public to come forward if they believe they may know the whereabouts of Blue.

I googled and found the Intensity dilution, which affects some sighthound breeds. Maybe this? https://vgl.ucdavis.edu/test/intensity-dog He’s beautiful, regardless.

Yes. Thoughtful breeders are an even more endangered “species” than well bred dogs. I think splitting dog breeding enthusiasts into more and more separate and often opposing interest groups will do greater harm than good. Also, although I don’t think the pedigree show dog fraternity has all the answers, I don’t see the benefit of creating new “breeds”. There’s a lot of propaganda about poodle crosses and I doubt if many cooperatives would have sufficient knowledge and resources to stabilise type or temperament and also avoid creating new inbred populations with their own lists of genetic susceptibility to disease.

He’s gorgeous. That combination of dark eyes against the cream and white is just so special.Genetically,what’s the difference between cream and fawn in whippets? Is cream ee and fawn Ay__? How about Brûlée for the name?

Found it! It was the transcript of a podcast. I’ve just read to the end and I don’t agree with the author’s solution, but I’m glad that people are seeing the problem and looking for solutions. https://www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com/blog/e225-jessica-hekman-phd-where-will-the-good-dogs-come-from

It’s not just a problem in Australia. I was reading a blog by a US vet on the puppy shortage over there. I wish I could find the link; I think you’d find it fascinating @moosmum - it mirrors many of the things you’ve written. One fact that astounded me... over 1,000,000 dogs are imported into the USA every year to meet demand.

I’m planning to buy a puppy next year and I feel your pain about price. But there are good reasons why prices have increased dramatically. Responsible breeders need to screen their breeding dogs for an ever-increasing array of medical conditions - hip and elbow dysplasia, heart disease, eye disease (often screened annually for life) and various breed specific conditions screened by DNA testing. I wouldn’t want to go to a breeder who didn’t do this screening. Dobermans are susceptible to a heart condition called dilated cardiomyopathy. Medication to treat this could cost $100 plus a month for life. Heart surgery could cost $10000 to $20000. Hip and elbow dysplasia may also require expensive surgery; one vet in Australia is quoting $8200 per hip for a “uncomplicated” hip replacement. From a breeder’s perspective, not only is the screening and potential treatment expensive, it also means that they may buy a puppy, spend considerable money raising it and getting its Championship and/or other titles, then find it’s unsuitable for breeding. The veterinary costs associated with a litter have also increased hugely. I was shocked to discover that some breeders now routinely schedule caesareans for their bitches to avoid the greater cost of unscheduled Caesarians. The vastly improved diagnostic and treatment options for sick puppies are wonderful, but they come at a cost. I know of a breeder in the US who was quoted US$50,000, as an upfront fee before the vet would even start treating the pups for parvovirus. In many areas, state or council regulations require breeders to install expensive kennelling, with items like temperature controlled kennelling and isolation rooms for sick dogs. Social expectations are changing. There’s an increasing expectation that breeders will be responsible for their puppies for life, and willing to take them back, pay for veterinary treatment and rehome them (or keep them if they’re not rehomeable). Anyone who breeds a litter now faces an unknown future... what will their legal responsibilities for those puppies be in 10 or 15 years. The need for two incomes to pay the mortgage means that many breeders need to take (often unpaid) time off work to supervise the bitch and puppies. I could go on but, in reality, that’s all irrelevant from my perspective as a puppy purchaser. The truth is that it’s a seller’s market; I can pay the breeder’s price, or I can go without a puppy. Those are my choices.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-58423967 “Pet abduction is to be made a criminal offence in England after a rise in reported thefts during Covid lockdowns. Theft of a pet is currently treated as a loss of an owner's property, but ministers want a new law to acknowledge the emotional distress it can cause.”

It’s often difficult to keep weight on young, energetic dogs like Brittanies, and it’s better for them to be too lean rather than too fat. However, I would expect a 15 month old Brittany to weigh more than 13.7 kg. I agree with this. Some dog foods are bulked up with fillers that seem to just “pass through”. Consider switching or supplementing foods. As meat has become more expensive, dog food manufacturers have replaced meat protein with protein from legumes such as peas, so I like to mix a few high-quality kibbles that have different protein sources, in case one product is deficient in an amino acid or other essential ingredient. Your pup should be developing muscle as well as maintaining some reserves of fat (but not too much), so look for foods that are fairly high in protein and not too low in fat. Meat offcuts and raw meaty bones are a good way to supplement commercial raw foods while maintaining the recommended ratio of 70% muscle meat/heart muscle/fat, 10% bone and 20% vegetables/fruit/seeds/organ meat. Also look at quality exercise. Young Brittanies are very active and “run the fat off” but the right sort of exercise should build muscle instead. Opportunities to swim, sprint, explore rough terrain and play with other young dogs of similar size and breed are preferable to leash walking/running and other forced exercise, although as a fellow Brittany-owner I know how difficult it is to find secure exercise areas where they won’t follow their noses into danger. Finally, make sure your dog is regularly treated with a good all-wormer. Worms can make dogs lose weight quickly.