Staranais

Yup, have fixed it. Thanks!

Thanks! And after telling people to read carefully too... silly me.

I'm wondering how peoples' opinions about the proposed pinch collar ban correlates to level of experience people have with this training collar - I have my suspicions, but will be really interested to see if I'm correct or not. I know there is no option for "undecided". That's deliberate since I'm more interested in people with definite opinions on the proposed ban. But if you're undecided, feel free to comment.

Probably lots of ways to deal with this. But personally, I wouldn't just buy and put on a prong, check chain, head collar, or any other correction device, in this situation. I'd personally retrain the loose leash walking behaviour (and the "leave" command) in a low distraction environment, then practice with increasing distractions, introducing correction collar if and when necessary. A professional trainer to guide you through the process would probably be a big help. But, other advice may differ.

This is untrue. A study just done by a veterinary student at Sydney University in collaboration with the engineering faculty proved that a cooked bone is actually more easily digested and easier to be broken than a raw bone. But unfortunately the conclusion of the study said more research needed to be done :p The paper was written by Chaves, Ilkin et al. Where was it published? I can't seem to find it. Published in a veterinary publication here in Australia. I'll try to find it at work on monday and get back to you. Yes please!

Very well said. I would like anyone who supports a ban of pinch collars to show evidence that a pinch collar is more likely to cause injury, or be more easily abused, than the other legal correction collars. If you can't, then you're in essence proposing to tie the hands of legitimate trainers, and your fellow dog owners, because you personally "just don't like the look of them". Seems to me pretty much the same argument as we saw with BSL. One side saying "but there's no evidence that bull breeds are dangerous when raised by responsible owners", the other side saying "we don't need to wait for evidence, anyone can see bull breeds are nasty! Ban them!" And look who won.

This is untrue. A study just done by a veterinary student at Sydney University in collaboration with the engineering faculty proved that a cooked bone is actually more easily digested and easier to be broken than a raw bone. But unfortunately the conclusion of the study said more research needed to be done :p The paper was written by Chaves, Ilkin et al. Where was it published? I can't seem to find it.

I don't know whether or how this could cause resource guarding specifically. But ear infections do really hurt, and can make the nicest dog short tempered or defensive.

Poor dog I've seen eye ulcerations (but not to the extent of losing the eye) and a lot of wounds/skin infections on the muzzle due to the rubbing etc. These are mainly due to ill-fitting head collars or the owners/trainer not using them properly: not desensitizing, using them to jerk back lunging dogs etc. Ouch. I've seen rubbed noses from head collars, but I haven't seen eye ulcers from them. Didn't even know such a thing was possible. How horrible. Hmmm, maybe we should ban headcollars? ;)

Oh poor dog! Nasty. That's also really interesting though, as it's the first case of a serious injury caused by a head collar I've ever heard of. Did someone report it to the halter manufacturers? I hope so.

Wow, could you provide some details on that? How was the collar fitted? Do you have photos? Poor dog. As for the rest, I think that this subject has nothing to do with whether anyone, personally, wants to use a pinch collar or not. IMO the only reasonable question is, is the pinch collar significantly more open to abuse or less safe than the other legal correction tools out there? Because if the pinch collar really is significantly less safe or easier to abuse than other legal correction tools, then maybe we should regulate them to a higher standard. If they aren't more dangerous, then banning them is at best going to pointlessly annoy dog trainers, and at worse is going to harm dogs (because if a pinch collar is safer than a check chain, for example, how does it help dogs if lots of the people who use a pinch collar now start to use a check chain instead?) My own personal experience is that the pinch collar is kinder and safer than a check chain, and on some dogs is less aversive than a head collar. I have never personally seen significant injuries caused by use of a pinch collar, martingale collar or a head collar, but check chains can definitely cause damage. If anyone can provide any evidence that I'm wrong, that pinch collars are significantly more likely to be abused or cause injuries than a check chain, I'll re-think my opinion. However, from what I've seen, I find that unlikely.

Yes. I've talked to several practice principles & know for a fact many clinics will underprice spays, and few if any will turn a profit on them. Desexings aren't your bread and butter way to make profit - they're your way of attracting loyal clients that will come back to you for vaccinations, operations & consultations in the future. Think of the costs involved in a "routine" spay that must be covered before the clinic owner actually starts making any profit on that procedure, off the top of my head I can think of: * Pre-med drugs * Induction drugs * Maintenance gas * Oxygen * Surgical disposables: Syringes and needles Scalpel blade Sterile swabs Sterile surgical gloves Surgical scrub solution * Suture material * Cleaning and sterilising surgical drapes, clothing & equipment between uses * Repaying, replacing and maintaining equipment: Anaethetic machine including bags and breathing circuits Endotracheal tubes Surgical instruments Autoclave Clippers Clipper blades plus possibly a heat pad, pulse ox or blood pressure monitor * Surgeon time during procedure (1/2 to 1 hr @$25 - $35 per hour) * Vet nurse time during procedure (1 hr @$16 - $18 per hour) * Indirect costs of operating a vet clinic that must be recouped from clients (rent, power, phone, internet, receptionist wages) If you price all those things out, I think you'd be surprised how much it adds up to - much closer to the $200 mark than the $90 mark, even if you are in a low rent district and use the cheapest drugs and surgical materials.

Really? I thought that papers marked not for export only meant that the dog couldn't be registered with the kennel club of another country. Not that the dog would be never allowed to leave the country at all?

If you're going to staple or suture anything shut, make sure you clean & explore the wound really, really well first. Anything that is contaminated shouldn't be closed up, or you'll cause more problems than you solve.

Cheap is not always bad, but it is a fact that a clinic doing $89 abdominal surgeries is either cutting corners or making a loss on the procedure.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10738935 I wonder if she realises that rather than the first clinic being money grubbing and "steep", the second clinic has probably made a loss doing her cat's surgery, counting on her continued loyalty to make it worth their while? There's simply no way you can do good quality, safe abdominal surgery for $89, let alone make a profit on it. It astounds me that when an OVE in a cat costs less than 2% of the cost that it would cost to do a similar surgery in a human, vets are still the baddies for charging too much for surgery. Sorry, just got my goat a little.

Do you mean a formal or informal recall? Easiest way to improve your informal recall that I know is to give your recall command out of the blue then an amazing reward, several times a day. Doesn't matter if the dog has to come a long distance towards you (or even come at all, really), it's the involuntary orienting behaviour you want. For formal recall, I agree work on fronts. Formal recall just means get into front position from wherever you are.

I also think it is the minority that are truly forced to abandon their animals. In my experience, what most people are willing spend on their animals has more to do with their subjective feelings about the animals than their actual financial situation. It's the same at the clinics I've worked in - some poor folks will sell the car to raise money to treat their sick pet, whereas some far richer folks will much rather PTS a treatable animal and replace it if that's going save them $50. (Of course, the fun starts when the wife has one opinion and the husband another!)

How old is she? All I can suggest is supervise her at all time inside the house so that if she starts to chew something inappropriate, you can immediately interrupt her & redirect her to something else for her to chew on. Plus, of course, provide lots of legitimate chew options for her in each room so it's easy for her to make the right choice. Just like toilet training, I guess. Never let her make a mistake. Mind you, who am I to talk, my current girl is not yet 100% trustworthy inside the house. She's pretty damn good, but I'd never leave her alone inside as she likes to make her own fun if she gets bored - and she has a very low threshold for boredom if I haven't completely tired her out (which is very hard to do!)

And roaming dogs? :p

Wow, you guys do have different rules to us, then. I think I like your rules about rewarding better than ours. It seems a little weird to me to not allow a reward at the end of competition tracks when in every real life application of tracking you can (and usually do) reward the dog.

Interesting, I think your kennel club tracks might be a bit different again to ours then. Do you always have a person at the end, even for the really old tracks? And are they allowed to have a reward for your dog? Here there is no person at the end, just an article, and you're not supposed to carry food or a toy out with you. I like your system better, if I'm understanding it right.

Problem is, I think, that it doesn't need to be declared on the packet.

So you both just reward at the end of the track or sometimes at articles? Interesting. Most kennel club trackers I've talked to are similar, whereas most schutzhund people I've talked to have rewards throughout the track (usually with food drops) but not at the end. I guess that contributes to the very different tracking styles you see at these venues. Whereas the other SAR tracking/trailing folk I know always have something super great at the end of the track (usually a toy and a huge play session) & sometimes toys or food along the way too. I've got half a mind to trial my girl at some point just for fun, she's doing lovely 2 hour old rural/wilderness tracks at the moment and is super with articles, but feel it's a bit of a betrayal making her track something when there will be no super reward along the way or at the end as that's the "deal" we have when she tracks for me. But then again, that's just my POV from where I'm coming from, clearly most competition trackers like the sport just the way it is, so I guess I need to make my peace with it or not trial.

How do you all motivate your dogs for tracking, typically? Are you toy people, or food people? I started my girl on food on the scentpad/track with a toy at the end, then tried just a toy at the end, but have recently removed the toy and just put food drops again along the track (or articles which she knows she can "swap" for food). I think she's much calmer and much more precise after doing this. She focuses more on the track and less on the destination! Interested in what others are doing.