sandgrubber

It's widespread. Not sure why that article focused on Hunte. Many US puppy mills sell ACK registered pups, and it's not hard to build a case that the AKC is dependent on puppy mill registration revenues.This is just the first article I pulled up on Google . . . you can find hundreds. http://www.citizensagainstpuppymills.org/pmakc.php

The lifespan data came from the UK Kennel Club 2004 health survey and the Finnish Kennel Club.

Could be there's a market for dog meat. Could be that the newspapers know they will sell more copy if they draw the attention of dog lovers and racists sorts who think all Asians love to eat dogs. Donnow. There are lots of self serving people and groups out there and sometimes it's hard to find the truth.

sounds horrifying and traumatic. Your poor dogs. What a creep! Such attacks are totally unacceptable, as is refusal to provide ID or take responsibility. THE IDIOT IS RESPONSIBLE. No one should tie a dog up outside a shop unless the dog is 100% reliable. Where are you in WA? People may be able to give you tips about specific councils. I wouldn't make a big deal about the breed. There are aggressive individuals in most breeds . . . even though Staffie crosses are especially common and tend to end out in not-so-good homes, I think it's better if the law is interpreted based on what the owner and dog do, not what breed the dog is.

I resisted replying earlier cause I wanted to hear replies from the OP. A few further variables that need to be considered in the equation - 13 mo is quite young to start showing male-male aggression. With larger breeds it's not uncommon to go through a temperament change between 1 and 3 years. Guarding responses generally get stronger in my experience, as do dog aggression problems. - The Neo is a breed with lots of health problems. Breed longevity data is absurdly bad . . . but the two data-based estimates I can find for life expectancy of a Neo are 2.2 years and 4 yr 11 mo. Labs, on the other hand, tend to be good for at least 10 yr, even in the sources that give short lifespans. Before deciding to rehome your Lab and keep your Neo, you might do well to make sure the Neo is in very good health. You can Google the breed health problems and find out what to look out for. You're going to feel horrible if you rehome your Lab and then face major, painful, and expensive health problems with the Neo. X-rays, at a minimum, to rule out OCD/HD. A breeder's website to look at http://runestone.neapolitan.us/Health.html p.s. some puppies are laid back because that's their temperament. Others don't like to move because they hurt.

I don't know the answer, and may be flamed for suggesting this, but is your girl from a breed that commonly has reproductive problems? Is she from a breed that has a small gene pool? This is the sort of reproductive failure I'd expect from dogs with a high degree of homozygosity, either due to inbreeding or due to a small founder population and/or some bottlenecks in the breed evolution. This may seem harsh and forgive me for suggesting, but personally, I don't think a girl who can't carry pups to full term should be bred from. I wish someone could tell me a reason this happens - and the trouble is that you don't know it is going to happen to you loose pups - I know my girl's mother was an excellent breeder and I must say except for the fact that she had to have the suppliments to get her to full term all was extremely good - she delivered the 8 pups without a problem - and out of the 3 other dogs I have bred it was the easiest delivery yet. She reared the pups very well and came through it all as fit as a fiddle - I would love with all my heart to keep a pup from her if I do decide to let her go again - I don't know any other breeders of my breed who have had this happen - the two dogs I put together were not close at all but you don;'t always know what has happened several generations back - its still a mystery to me but all I can say is that I am not sorry I did it - her pups were all beautiful and healthy and she is her wonderful bouncy self. I wonder how she would be with a different mate though. If mini = miniature bull terrier, there's a good theoretical reason for it to happen. This is a pretty technical article http://jhered.oxford...nt/94/1/81.full It looks at the genetic diversity of 28 breeds by looking at the amount of 'mixing' (heterozygosity) in different alleles. The bull terrier and miniature bull terrier had the worst scores of the lot. Excess sorting out of genes (homozygosity) can cause all sorts of problems, depending on where it happens. It also leads to very predictable 'type', so breeders like it. For some less technical descriptions of these problems . . . though a little militantly pro-diversity . . . see http://www.astraean....inbred-mistakes I'd read the one on lab mice first. Your girl isn't a lab mouse, and that's a much much more extreme situation . . . but the MBT is going that direction. There are people on DOL who deny that inbreeding depression happens . . . but on the far end of the spectrum (very highly inbred) it has been observed in many species and there's every reason to expect it to be found in dogs (the article on Island Wolves on the BorderWars site is pretty convincing). Yes, a different dog might help. Go for the genetically most distant dog you can find. As the gene pool for minis is very small, it's important to go back many generations, like 10 or more if you can. Or alternatively, you might want to use the testing route: http://www.petproduc...og-litters.aspx or http://www.wisdompanel.com/assets/1/7/canine_chronicle.pdf edited to fix quotes

You might also want to ask your local vet about distemper. It is almost extinct in some parts of Australia. It has been a big problem in Southern California, where Dr Dodds lives, because native fox and coyote populations can carry it. This is dynamic. The grey fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus . . .not closely related to the fox you have in Oz) suffered a horrible distemper epidemic some years back, and the disease moved into the unvaccinated dog population. The fox has bounced back . . . presumably now a much more resistant species.

If the dog is pedigree, you might want to talk with the breeder. Addisons is believed to be hereditary. Univ of California, Davis, is currently studying it in bearded collie, great dane, leonberger, standard poodle, Portuguese water dog and West Highland white terrier . . . I think most breeds can get be affected. There's a good chance that a genetic test for it will be available . . . here's a short description of UC Davis work on Addisons (they're also studying Epilepsy). http://www.vin.com/proceedings/Proceedings.plx?CID=TUFTSBG2005&PID=10627&O=Generic Complex segregation analyses confirm the genetic component and suggest that the best fit mode of inheritance is autosomal recessive with modifying genes. In other words, Addison's appears to be polygenic but with a major controlling gene. The lesser genes likely regulate the age of onset and the progression of the disorder. Of note, is that there is no sex affect in any of the breeds reflecting an equal number of males and females diagnosed with Addison's disease.

Thanks everybody for playing this game. My girls didn't bark, but jumped up from a cold sleep and did their little dance at the door saying "URGENT, let us out!" They are familiar with coyotes, racoons, and grey foxes. (Thank Dog they haven't met Mr. Skunk yet). It would be interesting to re-do this in a more serious way. I'd love to know whether the dogs that responded saw coyote as dog, or as "something like dog", or "some sort of animal out there". Hard to know whether dogs who slept through it were tired, or had gotten blase' (how do you do accent marks ?) from hearing a lot of animal recordings, or just aren't reactive to such things. Guess I should have included an option for vocalizations. If anyone knows a highschool kid who needs a science project . . . re-doing this in a more serious way would make an interesting little experiment. Could add the cat fight noises and do cats (or dogs).

I don't know the answer, and may be flamed for suggesting this, but is your girl from a breed that commonly has reproductive problems? Is she from a breed that has a small gene pool? This is the sort of reproductive failure I'd expect from dogs with a high degree of homozygosity, either due to inbreeding or due to a small founder population and/or some bottlenecks in the breed evolution. This may seem harsh and forgive me for suggesting, but personally, I don't think a girl who can't carry pups to full term should be bred from.

I did a 3-way share on import of frozen from Auckland to Perth a couple years back. If I remember right, my share came to around $180 . . . so the total cost was ~$550. Of course, surgical insemination wasn't cheap.

In my opinion, if you dump a dog on your parents and give them all the responsibility, you parents own the dog. If there's no microchip and no puppy papers, what's the vet going to say?

If you want to get your cat going they've also got cat fight sounds: http://www.soundboard.com/sb/cat_fight_catfights_clip.aspx

I found this on a 'sounds' website. Loved the comment: I finally found a legal way to get back at my neighbor and his undisciplined dogs! Thanks, this should keep me out of jail. http://www.soundboard.com/sb/Dog_Sounds_sound.aspx ie, If the rangers won't respond, record it and play it back at them!

Do dogs who have never been around coyotes recognise or respond to their calls. Play a little experiment. Go to this site, play a few selections, then vote. http://www.soundboar...ote_sounds.aspx p.s. If you play around with this site you can also find dog sounds with a lot of barks. My dogs were more impressed by the coyotes. http://www.soundboar...unds_sound.aspx

If you ever see Castor & Pollox, it's good competition for Taste of the Wild. Maybe some importer could be convinced to look at it. Mine have been thriving on it. Their ingredient list for Natural Salmon begins: Salmon, salmon meal, herring meal, menhaden fish meal, dried peas, dried potato, tapioca starch . . . It's very rich/concentrated, so small portions: 30% protein, 15% fat, 2.25% Omega 6 fatty acids, 1.75% omega 3's . . . and I feel fine about letting them a few carb-rich scraps on the side.

certainly new to me I did not suggest they are dogs, but they're in the same family as wolves, coyotes and jackals. the point I was trying to make is that I believe that dogs and foxes although primarily carnivorous, are opportunistic feeders, if they come across ripe blackberries they might eat them, if they come across windfall fruit, they might eat it and in the case of my own dogs they eat lots of leafy green plants they find on their daily walks. From Wikipedia . . . reference: Heptner, V. G.; Naumov, N. P. (1998). Mammals of the Soviet Union Vol.II Part 1a, SIRENIA AND CARNIVORA (Sea cows; Wolves and Bears). Science Publishers, Inc. USA.. "Wolves will supplement their diet with fruit and vegetable matter; they willingly eat the berries of mountain ash, lily of the valley, bilberries, blueberries and cowberry. Other fruits include nightshade, apples and pears. They readily visit melon fields during the summer months." Seems likely they would be happy munching on grapes, bananas or carrots if they were available.

For large bed destroyers whe I find a thick carpet scrap and nail it down to a pallet. Tech screws are better than nails, cause it makes it easier to replace the carpet when it gets too dirty.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120123152508.htm ScienceDaily (Jan. 23, 2012) — Members of a University of Pennsylvania research team have shown that they can prevent, or even reverse, a blinding retinal disease, X-linked Retinitis Pigmentosa, or XLRP, in dogs. The disease in humans and dogs is caused by defects in the RPGR gene and results in early, severe and progressive vision loss. It is one of the most common inherited forms of retinal degeneration in man. "Every single abnormal feature that defines the disease in the dogs was corrected following treatment," said lead author William Beltran, assistant professor of ophthalmology at Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine. "We were thrilled," said senior author Gustavo Aguirre, professor of medical genetics and ophthalmology at Penn Vet. "The treated cells were completely normal, and this effect resulted from introducing the normal version of the human gene into the diseased photoreceptor cells." The similarities between humans and dogs, in terms of both eye anatomy, physiology, disease characteristics and positive response to this gene therapy, raise hope for a clear path to human therapies. (the article continues. . . )

Lots of people do use electronic and other types of bark collars, but they're not a magic bullet. The ones I've seen say 'don't use for more than 8 hours at a stretch'. Some dogs don't respond well. And I think most people who start using them end out stopping for some reason or another. From what I've seen they keep a dog from barking, but they don't often succeed in training the dog not to bark. Are there any long term bark collar users out there? Or people for whom a bark collar has cured a barking problem?

Hate to be cynical, but sounds like a 'bums on seats' program to me, and I would look closely at job prospects and course requirements before enrolling. Within an Australian university there's a lot of competition between schools for student enrollments. Your budget depends on your enrollments. So schools offer whatever sounds 'sexy'. For example, in recent years there are many new programs in forensic this and that . . . probably taught without a single forensics professional and requiring a pile of existing classes. How many forensics jobs come available each year in Australia? Will those jobs place students with a degree in forensics, or go instead with proven physicians, computer security professionals (or hackers) . . . etc?

And some pig hunters are going the other way . . . catch, mark, and release. This guy cracks me up. He raises a wild piglet with his litters of pups . . . and takes down the pig barehanded with the help of one dog. http://hogwrangler.com/index.htm

And some pig hunters are going the other way . . . catch, mark, and release. This guy cracks me up. He raises a wild piglet with his litters of dogs . . . and takes down the pig barehanded with the help of one dog. http://hogwrangler.com/index.htm

I didn't express myself well. What I should have said is if you're worried about possible hereditary epilepsy, find an experienced vet and set up a plan of action. It's likely to help the vet if you have a video of the seizure, or at least, time the event. If the mum had epilepsy and the pup has seizures similar to the mum's . . . and there is no reason to think poisoning, nutritional problem, or brain tumor . . . it's very likely an experienced vet will say, 'watch it for awhile. Before we get into testing, let's find out if the seizures will repeat, and if so, how severe they are and how frequently they occur'. I grew up in a medical family, hearing scuttlebutt about how certain doctors manage to increase their income by ordering unnecessary tests. We used to get a drug-company financed journal called 'Medical Economics' which Dad threw out and us kids were free to read. It was big on pushing more tests and more pills. Dad often complained about doctors who 'heard hoof-beats and thought zebra." Years on DOL convinces me that such practices are not unknown in the veterinary world. Ideopathic epilepsy is diagnosed by ruling out all possible causes. That's an open invitation to do unnecessary tests. An experienced vet can tell a lot about fits/seizures by seeing the event and getting a good background history. Eg, I almost lost my old girl to seizures that followed application of a spot on flea/tick treatment. Murphy's Law . . . it happened about a half an hour before the clinic's closing hour on Friday and they aren't open weekends. The vet (on phone consult) said it didn't sound like epilepsy due to the nature of the seizure and started asking me about any possible source of poisoning. We went over the flea treatment label. He said 'run a hose over her and soap her down, then rinse well'. She had been seizing for 45 minutes and stopped immediately after a thorough wash. She might well have died without it.

I agree with going overboard, but parvo scares the sh!t out of me. It's so easy to use a mobile vet or have the vet give the shots in the car. Why take the risk? I don't think extreme caution is necessary in most cases, but when there's an active parvo outbreak in the area, I don't think you can be too cautious. btw, In the old days, like when I was a kid, parvo virus didn't exist!