DogsAndTheMob

This made me briefly question my decision for euthanasia but I don’t think she could have been saved, even in the short term. In the two hours between our arriving at the local vet and our arriving at the specialists she went from a bright, alert puppy that had been vomiting to an obviously unwell puppy. They took her away and when I next saw her (to hold her for euthanasia) she was shuddering and seemed barely aware of her surroundings. I thought they would have stabilised her and felt guilty that I’d taken over an hour after arriving at the specialists to make a decision.

I think there is some justification for the recent, huge increase in veterinary fees. A cow on agistment in our paddock wouldn’t stand up and its owner called out the vet. I was amazed by the variety of equipment used by the vet, including a portable ultrasound machine. Vets now need so much more equipment, which comes with a huge cost. Add in staffing costs and rental of premises, and fees must rise. On the other hand, fees are growing beyond the budget of many owners. Last year I purchased a “runt of the litter” puppy, with a great working pedigree. She seemed a little fragile then suddenly became quite ill. I took her to the local vet on a Friday morning and blood tests indicated congenital kidney failure. I drove to a specialist vet, knowing that they probably couldn’t see her until the Monday. There, I was told she would probably not be seen until the Tuesday, and I was quoted $6000 for care over the weekend and another $6000 for specialist diagnostics - with unknown costs for treatment, if treatment was possible. I accept that specialist care centres have additional costs, and I could have paid if a positive outcome was likely, but I was distressed by the difficulty I had getting information on a prognosis. I finally asked, “have you ever seen a puppy survive with this degree of kidney failure” and the answer was “no”. I was also upset that there was no specialist veterinarian available at a specialist hospital for 3 or 4 days. I know there are many specialties but I would have expected a specialist physician to be available, particularly as local vets in this area no longer offer the range of specialist and emergency care that they once did. The cost for care at the two vets plus euthanasia on that day was approximately $1250.

Thanks Anne. It was very distressing for us all, but particularly my elderly relative. The council worker expressed concern about being audited.

Sadly, that was not our experience when I bought an elderly relative a longed-for dachshund. The dachshund’s previous owner had recently moved from Victoria and found she could not manage two dachshunds. The dog’s Victorian microchip registration was transferred from the previous owner’s name into my relative’s name. After a delay for desexing, we tried to register her in NSW. We could not find information on interstate transfers into NSW, so the vet who had provided care and desexed her (and cared for my relative’s previous dog) scanned her and filled out the ID paperwork, which was submitted with the application and a statutory declaration to a rural NSW council. The council refused to accept the paperwork because the vet was not the person who had inserted the microchip. They also refused to even look at the proof that the dog’s Victorian microchip registration had been transferred into my relative’s name. After several visits to council by my husband and my elderly relative, they interrogated me at length over the phone, then demanded the previous owner’s contact details so they could interrogate her. Thankfully, I had her contact details and she was cooperative. Even after all that, they registered the dachshund reluctantly and with complaints.

It’s quite common and nothing to be concerned about. Puppies usually outgrow it by adolescence. It’s an evolutionary signal of puppyhood that reduces the risk of attack by unfamiliar adult dogs. If you scold or react negatively, you’ll reduce his confidence and make him more likely to wee when he meets people.

What a wonderful story. Well done Cassie!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/marketplace-dog-dna-test-1.6763274?f Results of submitting DNA samples from two mixed breed/no breed dogs, one purebred Great Dane and one human for canine breed DNA testing.

What a cutie!

IAt this point, the primary concern should be the wellbeing of your dog. Unfortunately, the breeder might opt for euthanasia rather than paying the potentially high costs of ongoing veterinary treatment. If you can afford to pay those costs, perhaps you should ask the breeder if they will now cede full ownership to you. There may be nothing that can be done to save your dog, but there may be treatment options and the vet probably won’t discuss those options with you unless you are the owner.

I competed in ANKC herding with a border collie about a decade ago. He came from a line of versatile border collies that competed successfully in Obedience and Tracking as well as mustering cattle on a hilly, 1000 acre farm as their “day job”. He was a wonderful dog … a natural heading dog and a wide worker, a good dog for three sheep trialling and a great first herding dog for me to train. He was very successful until I lost him from snake bite. My next dog showed great potential and a very strong eye at three months, when he broke away from me to block the goats my older dog was herding. He would have been a great dog in more experienced or more determined hands and I think he would have excelled in working a big mob of sheep but he worked very close and tended to focus on one sheep in a mob of three, sometimes even going in to grip. I decided that competing with him wouldn’t be kind to him or the sheep. He’s almost in his teens now and he spends his days inside in air conditioning but comes outside to watch the goats and cattle when they come up to the house for food. The point of this story is that herding is a great sport so long as it doesn’t cause distress to the sheep or the dog. Unfortunately, occasionally even people who are careful about the welfare of their pets can be oblivious to distress suffered by other animals, so it’s not a sport I’d promote as suitable for all herding breed dogs and their owners.

We do have “wild dogs” here (north of Newcastle). The few I’ve seen over the years look like dingos. After I lost the last of my sheep to them, I decided not to get any more sheep. It’s worth noting that they didn’t attack the sheep when they were in the same paddock as my cows. The sheep always ran in amongst the cows if there was any disturbance in the paddock. We also have kangaroos, but not in plague proportions, so maybe the dingos keep numbers under control.

Their Facebook page says that they are closing and asks that people stop contacting them about animals needing rescue. I haven’t been involved in rescue, so my comments are only based on my experience with animals in other contexts. However… The rescue premises shown in the news stories do not look large enough to safely house multiple animals of different species including dogs, cats , goats, rabbits and birds. I have a larger acreage and a smaller number of animals, and it takes money, work and careful management to keep all my animals safe and happy. Question for experienced rescuers: could rescuers avoid problems by starting with a “business plan” that sets clear limits on what they will do (I.e. species and numbers) and identifies options for referral elsewhere?

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.