Pepper21

I'd be rapt if there were quality ring sports accessible to me. The politicians and public who think its a yobbo sport can allow the yobbo view of dog ownership to be the norm, or allow promotion of better examples for management training understanding and breeding. I think interest would grow with promotion and expertise, but doubt it would be an easy journey. It would be a very difficult journey. Just today I showed someone a video of IPO and they were horrified that they hit the dogs with a stick. Sadly, this is the norm. I have absolutely no idea how one would go about introducing more dog sports to Aus, especially if most people think they're cruel.

That's actually why I started this thread. I'm going over to the U.S for a few months in the hopes of getting some experience with this kind of thing. Victoria is not a good state to live in if you're interested in this kind of thing is it? Hopefully that will change in the next few years.

Yes that's a problem I can foresee. I can't imagine these sports would be hugely popular here, especially because we only have a handful of working dog breeders.

Yes I know, you can't escape politics What about PSA? I forgot about that one. They use full suits too, and cater too all dog breeds including the big guys. I'm not as familiar with KNPV and PSA, but they both seem pretty intense, heres a PSA3 Ob routine - crazy! It would be a big job to introduce any of these sports. There would need to be some kind of decoy training set up too, so people don't have to go overseas as you said.

This is mostly hypothetical, but would anyone be interested in starting up French or Mondio Ring here? From what I understand, it's a much truer test of working ability, and is less political than IPO/Schutzhund. I know of at least one state (sorry Vic) that couldn't participate, but what do you DOLers think the response would be from the general public and politicians? I'm guessing they generally think that bite sports are for yobbos. Does anyone here have any experience with Ring sports? Or KNPV even?

It's one thing for people to let their dogs off leash in a park, and another thing entirely when they're doing it in a suburban area with cars, cats, other dogs and brush turkeys. It is a common thing in my area for mindless idiots to have their uncontrolled dogs wandering the sidewalk. I have had many heart stopping moments as I try to hold back my dog aggressive Mastiff and shoo away a little white and fluffy - all the while yelling at their deadhead owners. I've complained to council several times, and they've been quite good if I can provide details of the dog and owner. I'm actually in the process of doing up a little sign which has the details of off leash areas, and the cost involved in being fined by councils for having dogs off lead in an on leash area. I'm planning on laminating a few and having them on every pole on every street I walk on. Moral of the story, complain to rangers and councils. Get details of off leash dogs; Car rego numbers, dogs names (often shouted at their dog with no response), and owner description. Report it quickly. Try to educate people - they're often doing it out of ignorance. I like the gear from Friendlydogcollars.com.au, with 'No Dogs' or 'Caution'.

Primrose park in Cammeray and Tunks in Northbridge are both good. They're unfenced, but massive.

Just stick out the 10 days. If your dog got to its stitches she'll be wearing one a lot longer. My dog got to hers on a leg surgery, and she ended up with a massive infection that meant she had to wear a cone for over 5 months. Your dog will get over it.

Sometimes dogs, and especially pups, can have some tummy problems occur when they start on a new 'batch' of the same food. Lower quality food doesn't have the consistency of ingredients between batches. I tend to agree with PuddleDuck about contacting Advance about it; it may have been that they sourced the ingredients from somewhere else or even that they were contaminated. If it's the latter, they need to know about it!

It's called a Pre-GA test. It's a routine thing that all vets offer with any surgery. Most find that it's unnecessary with healthy pups but I know some vets have absolutely adamant that a blood test MUST be run prior to anesthetic. I always run it with my dog, every time (she's had 3 surgeries last year). Another thing some offer are fluids, as it helps them wake up better. If there are any problems with the functioning of organs then it will reduce the risks too. If you want the absolute gold standard, get both. If you had to choose between the two, get fluids. I think the likelihood of a blood test picking something up is like 1% or something. I tend to agree with the others who would wait at least until the neighbours dogs next cycle. ash1 there are some studies which indicate that early desexing can be detrimental to mental and physical development, as well as increasing the risk of some types of cancer. There are contradictory studies too, which makes it a bit of a confusing topic. More and more people are postponing desexing, because they don't feel that the benefits out way the risks. If you are able to manage and train an entire dog/bitch properly then I don't see the point of desexing at all.

Oh and if you're not sure how to identify any tracks you find, take a few pictures (with a scale next to it) and send it to a ranger/council. You can add it on here and I might be able to help, but it's been a long time since I did any field work. Even if it's been a few days since the incident, the animal will likely still be hanging around in the area. If you can find a trail, lay a thick layer of clean sand over a small section (1m by 1m) and you might just get a clean track.

The best way to tell that kind of thing is to look for footprints. Dog and fox footprints are similar but there's a very easy way to tell them apart. In the picture that I added (I hope I did it right), you can draw a straight line between the first and fourth digits without the line intersecting the second and third digits for a fox, but not a dog. The line intersects the second and third digits. Hope this helps. Sorry to hear about the goat, they're charismatic little things

Ditto on the microchip thing - go to your local council and pick up a form (make sure you have the right microchip numbers on hand). It takes like 2 seconds and will be in the system in a few weeks. Fleas and ticks - Advantix every 2 weeks. There have been some cases of Advantix not working for fleas, especially if it's a bad infestation. If that's the case, I recommend Comfortis too. Frontline is useless for ticks and fleas. Even the frontline spray takes a few days to kill ticks which is a long time if we're dealing with an animal with tick paralysis. As an aside, we're getting looots of complaints about flies these last few weeks. I've found that spraying some Permoxin on the dogs before a walk does wonders to see them off. I like having Permoxin on hand too in case I go bushwalking with the dogs - I give them a heavy spray and it kills all ticks from every life stage. But if you have a cat, don't use that stuff. I used to live in Nth Sydney and recommend 4 Paws vets if you're living in Chatswood... although that depends on where in the suburb you're located. If you're closer to Willoughby then it's only a short drive, as is the 24hr North Shore vets (in St. Leonards). There are a few really great dog parks a short drive away from Chatswood - Primrose Park and Tunks. They're unfenced and massive, but a few snakes have been spotted in the vicinity.

My god. Welcome to my world. My family were so inconsistent with my dog that I ended up training him in a different language so they didn't screw everything up! 'Come' has inadvertently being trained to mean 'go chase lizards'. Consistency is one of the most important things when training a dog so you really need to get onto your families non-compliance. If they won't listen to you then perhaps get your puppy trainer to drop them a hint.... a heavy hint. Sometimes when biting has become rewarding in itself, I choose to punish a pup instead of redirecting it or ending the game. I know that's a bit taboo, especially with pups, but I want any dog (especially the big guys) to understand that biting is not only non-reinforcing, but an unpleasant experience. When I adopted my Mastiff (avatar) he had a very bad play bite problem. When a dog weighs +50kg and was leaving bruises when only mildly excited during play, you know you have a problem! I chose to smack him in the nose the second her laid teeth on me. I did this twice (the first time was actually unintentional, but it stopped him) and he has never done it again. He's suffered no loss of confidence, no bite strength on the tug (not that he really had much) and will still willingly play with me at the drop of a hat. And about the socialisation thing, have you tried contacting a private dog trainer? Some have dogs that are suitable to have around puppies (if they don't, ask them if they do know someone -even a client - with nice dogs), and they'll be well trained and socialised too. Meeting up once a week for a social session with some obedience mixed in can work wonders - and if there are any red flags in your pups play style the trainer should pick up on it pretty quickly. I'm not too keen on socialising puppies with other puppies, they get into mischief and learn bad habits and manners. Just my 2 cents, good luck :)

I know Nekhbet already pretty much answered this, but remember that there is no pass or fail in this test. If a dog gets a low score, it's not going to prevent it from trialing. It would be massively frowned upon if that dog were going to be used for breeding though.

How do you know it's a test of genetics if you train the dog to do the test? I'm pretty sure my dog would bark at the white person but not bite them or run away. She's done that to men in hoodies... cos the hoodies are weird. As soon as the hoodie is off - she's all wiggly embarrassed friendly. I'm sure she would not go play tug with anyone else. And she would not willingly walk on lead away from me with someone else. Even a friend, she gets just so far, decides I'm not coming too and starts to argue - politely is sitting down and refusing to budge. Less polite is dragging the person back to me. However if she was completely untrained... she'd go on lead with anyone but eat the lead the whole way. And she'd probably bite the strange white wrap people's ankles. I'm sure training is possible to improve results. But from what I've heard, the amount of stressors in such quick succession is enough to undo any previous efforts at training.

It doesn't matter what breed you get if you just want a deterrent. If the dog is bred correctly with temperament and health in mind you'll get what you're after. It's pretty pointless reading through breed standards to get a measure of the temperament of a future pup. Most dogs nowadays are just watered down versions of their predecessors. The breeding (temperament of the parents and grandparents) is much more important than the breed. A big black dog would do the trick, as would anything large that barks.

I think Schutzhund/IPO? I could be wrong about that, but I think anything that involves biting a suit/sleeve may require this test. A lot of working dog people regularly test dogs, it's seen as economical as they don't want to be wasting time and money breeding unsound dogs. Really? But that's what a BH is for? Interesting. The BH is getting more and more watered down. Perhaps this test was designed in response to that? What the BH is missing is unpredictability; it's a tried and tested routine. While I'm no expert, I think the MH is specifically designed to cause the dog stress and see how it responds to that stress. Unlike the BH, there is no pass and fail either. It also tests the ability of parent dogs to pass on their traits. There is no (or very little) training involved for the MH, so even green dogs can participate - this means that working (not sport) dogs can be tested without the formality and time consuming training of competitive obedience routines. Again though, I'm no expert on either test or IPO, it's just a special interest :)

I think Schutzhund/IPO? I could be wrong about that, but I think anything that involves biting a suit/sleeve may require this test. A lot of working dog people regularly test dogs, it's seen as economical as they don't want to be wasting time and money breeding unsound dogs.

Oops, yes only compulsory for dog sports.

Has anyone heard of this? It's also called the MH or MUH and from what I understand it's of Swedish origin. Some links: http://www.lapphund.nu/mheng.htm http://www.doremis.se/mental_description_of_dog.htm http://www.briardworld.com/working/swedTT.html I've heard very good things about it from professionals in the field. It's basically a temp test for working dogs to test multiple aspects of their genetic behavioural make-up. The test is apparently so stressful, that any temperament faults are extremely obvious by the end. A dog's handler can opt out at any stage so as to prevent behavioural damage. The dog is supposed to show courage, be able to bounce back from several gun shots, and be curious and possibly defensive of strange 'beings' (people dressed up and moving oddly, see last video). The dog should also show strong play drive - before, during and after the test. There is no 'fail' and no 'pass', as in the Korning; the dogs score reflects how (and if) it should be bred. It's not uncommon for entire working litters to be tested at once, to test the heritability of the parents traits. Unfortunately, much of the information available is in Swedish. The stuff that's been translated is rather basic too. I'd love to find someone with a thorough knowledge of this test to talk to, but I think I might have to contact the source in Sweden. I wonder how receptive the working and pet dog community would be if this was introduced - not on a compulsory basis obviously. Sweden has made this compulsory, and the only way to sit the test is if the dog is over a certain age and has clear hips and elbows. The more I hear about this thing, the more excited I get about the prospects of introducing it here :)

Anthropomorphism at its finest

I'm not too sure if this is really applicable, but you could try for a Diploma in Canine fitness and nutrition; http://www.e-trainingfordogs.com/2011/05/fitness-and-nutrition-diploma/ - it's all distance and is $2000. I'm planning on doing this in the future, so I can't really advise if it's worth doing or not unfortunately.

that means, places as far as Chatswood would be less prone to ticks? as it is more than 10km away from the shore..... I don't think so, not anymore anyway. It might be worth calling up a few Chatswood vet clinics and asking if they're seeing any tick paralysis cases. That would be the best way to get a localised report of tick activity methinks.

There are ticks where there were none in previous seasons. Reptiles and native animals are the culprits, as is the unseasonably hot weather we had in winter. I'm a vet nurse in the Upper North Shore and we were having tick paralysis cases all through winter. Just this past month, a puppy was on a ventilator for days and ended up dying at SASH - she picked up a tick from her own backyard in Epping. Tick cases are now an almost daily occurrence. My best advice is to know where the nearest 24 hr vet is (and how to get there), shave your animals if you can, do a daily tick search and use tick preventative. Ticks can be in odd places too; we had a cat with 2 ticks attached inside its eyelid! Most will be from the front legs forward too. I used to live in North Sydney and Cammeray, and my husky picked up a tick in summer. Thankfully we caught it before she was symptomatic, and she didn't seem to be effected by it at all. I pulled a tick off a little mini foxy there too. I think, as someone else suggested, that being so close to the coast might make the lower north shore a high risk area.