Redsonic

So what happened in Australia? We know Aboriginies arrived between 45,000 and 60,000 years ago (depending which group you look at eg Tasmanians have probably been here the longest). And some of them brought dogs? Or were the puppies gifted to them much later by Indonesian traders? Because we know the dogs came with the humans. But when? Tho the relationship between aboriginals and dogs is not like owner and pet. It's more like flat mates. It is thought that the Dingo arrived about 5000 years ago via traders from Asia. Never made it to Tasmania, hence the Thylacine survived there until the arrival of Europeans. The Dingo likely contributed to the extinction of Thylacines on the mainland about 2500 years ago. Most people imagine early domestic dogs were valued as hunting companions, but it is more likely to be the "flat mate" arrangement you mention. Camp dogs provide an early warning system of the arrival of hostile neighbours, they scavenge up the garbage, and would even be a source of food when resources are scarce.

I would suggest a Border Terrier. I have heard them referred to as "a man's dog". They are rugged enough to do lots of things that bigger dogs do. Our BT goes to my partner's workshop some days, and loves to visit the mechanics next door and the coffee and kebab (hem) place.

Squirts his anal glands when I lift his tail during his daily tick check

I hate the whole "it's natural" argument. Hypocritical. Does the owner feed the dog commercial dog food instead of whole rabbits? Take it in the car? Does the owner use reading glasses/ computer/ pain killers? None of these things are natural, yet we are happy to use them. The "natural" argument is used very selectively. There are lots of bad things in nature which we do well to avoid. "Natural" does not mean right. And by the way, there is nothing natural about a cat catching a bird in Australia. Our birds have not evolved to avoid a feline predator. Rant over.

We had this situation near us with a large male Ridgeback who hangs over a fence where we are forced to pass very closely to enter a park. Fortunately, the dog is people friendly, as he could easily bite us as we pass between his fence and a barrier. Don't know what he would do to our dog though. One day, we saw the owner entering her driveway and my partner went over to have a word. He phrased it as concern for her dog's safety: "I would hate to see your lovely dog out on the road". Her initial hostile reaction softened with this, and she has now leant a door (!) there to block her dog.

"from a friend to a friend, you don't smell fresh" I have often thought it is just as well dogs can't talk!

Not if the jaw is severely overshot as the OP has described. The teeth are digging holes in the roof of his mouth. My puppy had this and had to have his puppy canines removed. The top jaw then continued to grow and the bottom jaw got worse. Once the lower canines have dug into the palate, not only is the dog in pain, but the lower jaw is never going to catch up in growth as it is anchored in place (relative to the top jaw). The first step is to remove the puppy canines to stop this happening.

An horrific experience for the owners of 2 small dogs walking past the yard of a dog that had already been declared dangerous after killing a Maltese. Broken fingers, amputated finger, and the poor little dog needed a leg amputated. This happened in Springfield, a relatively new suburb between Brisbane and Ipswich. The owners sound so reasonable. There is a quaver in their voices when they talk about their little dog Lilly and the attack, but they sound so sensible, just asking that a dog like that be well restrained I can't figure out how the attacking dog got out of its yard, but it obviously wasn't contained to dangerous dog requirements. If anything good has come out of this report, it got my partner and I talking about how to (safely) protect our terrier if something like this happens to us. 9 News Brisbane

Re the rough play with you, can I suggest that you divert her play towards interactive toys? Tug, fetch, hide and seek etc. She may mouth or scratch the wrong person one day (thin skin, immune compromised or not a dog lover), draw blood and be in trouble.

Agree with the previous posts re a crate. Once they are crate trained, it really is like a doggy den for them, and they are happy in it. All night should be no problem. Make sure he is getting plenty of exercise and mental stimulation during the day. You counter condition this behaviour (as Papillon Kisses suggests), but initially it would involve being with him at night every time he sees a possum, so probably not practical. I would definitely contact the neighbours to let them know you are working on the problem. Far better to placate them than to have a complaint to council. As annoying as his barking is to you, multiply it tenfold for the neighbours, as he is not their dog!

I investigated using the rubber for my home made seesaw, but found it was hard to get and way too expensive. I think the cheapest option was child's playground coating. I ended up covering the plank with heavy duty PVC tarpaulin (pop riveting and gluing it down), and then dribbled on polyurethane elastomer, which you buy as a 2 part liquid and mix together. The result was very grippy, even in the wet. Here is what it looks like:

Probably no surprises here, but this article on ABC News finds the reasons are multifactorial, and warns against buying a dog from backyard breeders jumping on the bandwagon of rapid popularity. The article has lots of photos I couldn't embed here.

I used to skydive, and the crows (Ravens?) during the breeding season would get very territorial towards the canopies as we came into land. I have never been swooped by a crow as a pedestrian/cyclist, but when these birds saw the parachute in the air, they used to go ballistic swooping at them. So much wasted energy gaining altitude so they could strike from above. I wonder if the Raven is mobbing the bear because it is outside the bird's experience of "safe"? In a similar vein, I investigated some mobbing noisy miners to find them swooping a poor koala. Normally it is a snake or cat, but koalas are now so rare here, that the birds saw one as an unfamiliar threat.

Steve: that link didn't work for me. I totally agree with Steve's argument that the onus is on registered breeders to ensure that they are not breeding to a standard that compromises the welfare of the dogs they produce. The fact that back yard breeders are producing rubbish and breeding to no standard at all is not something pedigree breeders can directly control. Only by breeding superior dogs and educating the public can pedigree breeders shift the demand away from BYBs and pet shops/puppy farms. By superior, I mean 1/ healthy; 2/ sound temperament; and 3/ appearance/conformation to standard. IN THAT ORDER. If the breed standard is not encouraging selection for healthy traits, then the standard needs to be changed/ clarified. I understand that heredity is not straight forward and carrier states exist, many diseases are multifactorial, and testing is not always available for heritable diseases etc etc. We are not talking about that here. Blind Freddy could hear the breathing struggles a lot of brachycephalics go through. Pin hole nostrils and nasal folds rubbing the cornea don't take a veterinary degree to detect. Public awareness of these welfare issues is rising, and pedigree breeders can't miss the boat here. I am reminded of the convulsions the production animal industry goes through when various suspect husbandry procedures are publicised. Think live cattle export, sow stalls, docking of dairy cow's tails etc. Pedigree breeders should be leading by example, not kicking and screaming "it is not us" as public pressure forces change. Edited: spelling mistake

It would be very, very rare for me to withhold a reward as I pay any try. The dog would pretty much have to piss off to not get a reward. Then how does the dog know that the latest try was further from your goal than the others he/she had offered you?

The best way to understand the terminology is to think of positive and negative as maths symbols: +,-. + you add something - you take something away Reinforcement and punishment refers to the behaviour you are trying to encourage or extinguish. Reinforcement makes a behaviour more likely to happen again, and punishment makes it less likely to happen again. Unfortunately, punishment has all sorts of bad associations, and people don't like using the term, but in the context of classical conditioning, something you do acts as punishment if it means the targeted behaviour is less likely to happen again. People who practice positive dog training are actually using negative punishment all the time. Every time they withhold an expected reward they are using negative punishment.

My favourite breed, the Burmese, which always used to be such an elegant, athletic breed is currently being ruined by the trend for short, snub faces. It's heartbreaking. Yes, cats are the next species we are going to ruin

That was my whole point. Breeders get first pick, and presumably they choose dogs with more open nostrils, nasal folds not rubbing the eyes etc. The rest of the litter goes out to pet homes and we are seeing problems with these dogs. Registered breeders are producing brachycephalics with problems, it is not all the fault of backyard breeders. The selection pressure towards healthy brachys is obviously weak or non-existent because this is a trend that is worsening, not improving. My picture of the "show quality" Dogue de Bordeaux a case in point. Edited: spelling mistake

There is a video of the "high speed pursuit" on the link below. Poor dog looks terrified. Very lucky they closed off the bridge before he was hit. Hopefully his owners will find him with all that publicity. ABC News

Fair enough to say that back yard breeders are scrambling to keep up with the popularity of Pugs, French Bulldogs, etc., and breeding from anything they can get their hands on. This has always led to problems for whichever breed is popular at the time. I think the point is that the average brachycephalic these days is on the edge of respiratory distress, even those from ethical, registered breeders. And, how many registered breeders are there who don't need routine caesarians for their Bulldogs? How many "average" brachycephalics have skin fold problems? Dental issues? Entropion/ nasal folds rubbing the eyes? On other threads in Dogzonline, there has been criticism of a trainer holding a Frenchie puppy while it struggled, with a casual statement that you just can't do that with these breeds. Surely, we should not be breeding dogs that are so compromised they can't handle gentle restraint? A colleague used to bring her Frenchie in to work and it was distressing to see the poor thing struggling to breathe in the airconditoned office. It had to sleep sitting up, leaning against the wall of its crate and was constantly woken by the need for air. It was put down when a specialist could do no more for it. My guess is that that the show quality dogs are usually OK, it is the "pet quality" pups (i.e., the majority of the pups produced) that suffer the worst. If registered breeders really are working to improve the breed, these improvements should be trickling down to the pet quality pups, and they don't seem to be doing this. Although back yard breeders have caused a lot of damage to all sorts of breeds, I think brachycephalic breeders should take some responsibility here. This photo of a Dogue de Bordeaux "good enough" to compete at Westminster i.e., "better" than the average pet quality dog.

ABC News

Purin the dog set a world record for fastest dog on a swiss ball over 10m: ABC News This is her second world record after catching a heap of balls with her front feet! Go Purin!

I was going to suggest you get references from your current neighbours in order to persuade any new neighbours to allow you to keep all your dogs. Until I saw the bolded bit... You could be lucky and end up with neighbours willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. Chloe may be the spanner in the works though.

From ABC News:

(emphasis added)This is a really good question/observation and it arises from one group of breeders following the breed standard which focuses chiefly on appearance, and another group focusing on performance, with less emphasis on appearance. Form follows function, so there will be differences in field lines depending on the type of retrieving and type of country the dogs are required to work in. Show lines will tend to differ over time depending on interpretation of breed standards of the day; i.e., what catches the judges' eye. As for why there are three types of poodles and Labradors are still a unified breed; I think (I could be wrong) that it is because the performance breeders don't really care to create a new category and aren't agitating for this. They have less focus on show ring categories.