Mairead

No reply box appears for me. I was wondering if the friend had heard puppies making noises and assumed it meant they had blocked noses so had a cold and that's why they weren't wanting to suckle. My other thought was the vet said the puppies were cold not had a cold. So easy to mishear or misinterpret messages when it is secondhand.

I had written a reply but the topic was gone when I went to post it. The OP is still in Breeders Community if you want to reply in case OP checks there. I am no longer a registered breeder.

No, we won't know because the dog has been put down. To me that is equivalent to destroying the wreckage of plane or car crashes (and talking about banning that model or colour) instead of looking for a cause.

Run this past your vet: The inflammatory bowel disease known to occur in French Bulldogs is histiocytic ulcerative colitis. Reference: The 5-Minute Veterinary Consult, 3rd edition, Tilley and Smith: Signs are bloody mucoid diarrhoea with increased frequency of defecation, tenesmus [straining], weight loss. Diagnosis is by appearance of the bowel by colonoscopy and special staining of a biopsy [PAS stain, not just standard H & E stain]. It is more commonly known in boxers.

Some years ago I looked into the requirements for a therapy dog (Delta?). I decided I wouldn't allow my dog to risk having the things done to it that they required the dog to be OK with. Has this changed? Doesn't seem so.

I heard on ABC radio that many vet students from overseas are going home to work once qualified. I wonder if there is a place for nurse practitioners in the industry? For decent wages obviously. I often try to remember a funny story to tell the vets and nurses, kind of 'can you believe that people don't know this?'. The neighbourhood children who put out a plate of fruit for the stray cats comes to mind.

Not getting medical treatment is neglect which is a crime. If you are able to give some more details about the situation, it may help people advise you what your next steps should be. Have you tried contacting Malemute clubs? Sledding clubs?

My kidney disease is caused by one dominant gene. No amount of crossbreeding would have helped, even if one of my parents was Neanderthal or Denisovan.

Many breeds are becoming rare, even endangered, due to perhaps the scarcity of good homes with backyards and people willing to put in time and effort. That many of these homes are used up with deliberate crossbreeds explains why some of us don't like to see such dogs promoted. To me it would be like conservation organisations breeding lion x tigers. What's the point? There are hundreds of breeds with different characteristics and global communities of knowledgeable people, whereas the oodle breeders have other motives. Put hybrid vigour in the same category as liver cleansing and homeopathy. If mating unrelated parents meant robust health, most humans wouldn't need doctors.

Might be a groomer rubbing their hands in glee, or a person who thinks marketing and monetizing are above-board and worthwhile pursuits, or a wannabe trainer, because ... same person who wrote treadmilling was suitable exercise for MegNZ's baby puppy Sophi.

You might want to have a read of your local council's website about companion animals so you are armed with some facts if ever challenged by a less than well informed council officer, neighbour or member of the public. I'm hoping here that your council is up with the current laws. If not maybe that will work in your favour in some things. (Destroy this sentence after reading!) I have had a vet nurse more au fait with the regulations and IT than the customer service officers at the council office so online may be your better option.

Me too. Just look at the colours in mass bred French Bulldogs now - lavender, Merle (also 'fluffy'). Going to be some deaf and blind ones soon if not already. I can see why there were guidelines for breeding Great Dane colours and I'm glad mantles, for example, can now be shown but there are also some colours out there (eg fawnequin) that I hope are not promoted as rare and so bred only for colour. But I also can't see why the occasional silver and tan Weimaraner is less of a Weimaraner. I told a work colleague interested in a Labrador puppy to steer clear of chocolates because they were fashionable. They did. And me? I ended up with a breed that is only ever one colour.

Another vote for separating dogs and birds, maybe for the foreseeable future. A dog that seems to have had no training and doesn't respond to his name (maybe that isn't his name - do you know any of his history?) may have had to amuse himself for eight years. The prey game would have come naturally to him and he's possibly had eight years practice. Don't expect this addiction will be easy to extinguish. With training, structure, exercise and a dog friend he may start to forget his previous hobby but don't count on it.

Gumtree has sheepadoodles. $4500 I would have thought OES endangered enough without wasting what might have been a good home. Could turn out to be the coat from hell.

DNA tests are only as good as the database they have. For dogs and for humans. A friend who is adopted had some Basque ancestry until the results were updated later and that part of his ancestry had disappeared. Another friend with Aboriginal ancestry was either asked to give another sample or part of the result was "unknown". (She has told both versions!) And the companies would have many more samples for humans than dogs. Wait and see what sort of dog she believes herself to be.

You looking at weights reminded me of the story of a man waiting patiently in a rescue organisation's waiting room with a large well behaved black and white dog. The staff member had all day taken in unwanted dogs. "Reason for surrender?" she asked. "What? No!" the man replied. "We all love him, but we thought you might want to see what a fox terrier cross looks like when it grows up". Yes he had got the dog from them.

If you are up for more reading you might want to have a look at the thread a bit below this one "I've purchase[d] a deaf puppy, what now?". The OP is thinking of getting another dog of the same sex and that can be a problem. Just preparing you.

Luvapoo, have a look at the Gumtree ads, the rescue and pound sites, and the deaf and blind dog rescue pages (people breeding all white or Merle to Merle) and see if everyone should be able to breed. They are living beings not designer handbags.

Reflects more on the breeders and judges than on the quality of the dog. Some judges are confident enough to be able to justify their decisions. Probably easier to do when written critiques are mandatory. I'm guessing most standards were written when there was more tradition and folklore than genetics and biomechanics, so some colours/markings were thought to indicate crossbreeding too recently? I met a silver and tan Weimaraner. You had to be standing in the right light to be certain of his tan points. He was destined to be 'pet only'. Why?

That was a general introduction to white markings. There are very probably breed specific variations and environmental influences. I'm thinking of Boston Terriers, Bernese Mountain Dogs, Dalmatians? and other breeds with very specific and not easily standardised markings requirements. What proportion of puppies don't measure up markings-wise? How much of a problem is this with show judges? Should the breed standards be modernised to reflect present knowledge of genetics?

Yes ask the breeder. I have no experience with Labradors but I know that usually solid-coloured dogs sometimes have small amounts of white eg Rhodesian Ridgebacks. Dogs can have not much white on the top of the toes but have white underneath around the toe pads and/or at the back of the pastern between the main foot pad and the stopper pad. I was often asked about it by trainee judges because it is not exactly specified in the breed standard. White markings can diminish as the puppy grows but I've not known them to disappear unless they were very small markings at birth. White markings are interesting (to a colour genetics nerd like me). In dogs if an otherwise solid coloured dog has some white it is more likely to be on the chest. If more white than that it follows a pattern - chest, tip of tail, front toes, face then if more white further up the legs, white collar and so on (called Irish spotting) eg Border Collie, then about equal white and colour (called piebald) until the predominantly white dog still has colour on the head especially around the ears, and base of tail eg some Fox Terriers. All-white dogs with dark pigment are coloured -and-white dogs where the colour has virtually disappeared (called extreme white piebald) eg most Samoyeds and Pyrenean Mountain Dogs. Contrast horses where a small amount of white will be commonly on the forehead and a horse usually has a lot of white in other places before any appears on the belly eg Clydesdales, some Arabians. It depends on embryonic migration of pigment cells.

Going well by the sounds of it. Remember chewing is in a dog's job description, daily duty really, and the getting into mischief is a cleverly designed test of how well you can think like a puppy and foresee opportunities for getting into mischief. If you think the games with one toy are becoming too serious about possession, try some distraction or adding another toy. I went to an Ian Dunbar seminar. When he said he didn't so much compete in obedience trials [with Malamutes] as partake of them, to have fun, I was the only person who applauded. I guess the other people were there to learn how to win?

You have taken on a mystery puppy with, I assume, no family history so you may have much work ahead of you or maybe it will all go well, here's hoping. Be aware that a mixed puppy may still have inherited diseases if the parents weren't tested for diseases known in any of the breeds in the mix. Did you and their vet meet both the parents and were they able to be handled, not aggressive, healthy? Begin as you mean to go on with standards of behaviour and boundaries etc, taking into account a puppy's short attention span. The breeders may have said she got to meet a range of people but best assume she hasn't. Tick off as many items on the socialising checklist as you can - sights, sounds, scents, surfaces, eg vehicles of all sorts, stairs, sirens, horses, people in uniform, elderly, male, female, other, in wheelchairs etc - at a distance to start with if she seems unsure. There are probably checklists on the web to prompt you. I would check with your vet whether a treadmill is suitable for a puppy of that age, even if a self activated one made for dogs. There is also the very serious question of whether you will be able to have control of her if she grows to more bullmastiff size and amstaff temperament. She will look like a dog that will attack, and in the present day with so many people having no clue how to behave around dogs you have to be very careful. Only a few days ago I stayed to guard a dog tied up outside a supermarket, because whatever happened the dog would be blamed unless I could be a dissenting voice. I explained that to the owner when he returned. Good luck and keep us posted.

Who was it who said no antibiotics needed? If an antibiotic injection was given that should have been the answer to your question. Were you charged for any antibiotic? May also depend on how many stitches or staples were used and whether she has a cone collar. Maybe you are known as an attentive owner who will know if infection develops and can be trusted to take home an animal earlier than other owners. Recently my female kitten had antibiotics and a cone collar but the males didn't have either.

Another vote for vet check up. And if there's anything that needs more explanation just ask.