sandgrubber

Maybe someone can find a reference ... I can't. I remember reading an academic study comparing Labbies and Goldies in terms of temperament, directly relating to Guide Dog work. They did some interesting behavioural tests. If I remember correctly they found the Lab was a better bet ... more focussed ... less excitable .. . ok, wombat if you like . . . but wombat whose attention can be trained on doing a useful job.

The "pit bull problem" is different in US, of course. The 'problem' is different in different regions in the US. You can find reactionary, proBSL places, and places that equate BSL to racism and fall on the side of treating each dog as an individual.

I'm about to move to Santa Cruz County, California. I like their general framework of dog management. Manditory desexing . . . not breed specific . . . people who want to keep entire dogs/bitches can get permits, but this requires an annual vet check and a clean record re dogs wandering, aggression, various complaints, etc. Various programs to support low-cost desexing. Rather weak policing (like most of California, the government is on the brink of bankruptcy) . . . but police powers likely to come on line if there are serious infringements. Petshops can't sell puppies.

I run a boarding kennel. Occasionally, we get a SBT with wonderful conformation, clearly pedigree/Main Register, who is difficult with other dogs and a bit out of control re people (mostly jumping, full body mass directed to the human centre of gravity). We get lots of 'staffy X' dogs, sometimes two from the same household, who are essentially DA, and cannot be mixed with other dogs. The last two dogs I've had to take to the vet for stitching up were Staffy X dogs from the same household who got into a barney and someone got a bit torn up. Ugly though it is, someone needs to do policing. Clubs generally put it in the 'too hard' basket. But if you see a problem arising re hereditary aspects of temperament and certain breeders, I'd say slog it out through the breed club to end out with self-patrolling. Better than ending up with a breed that becomes a restricted breed. I also sense -- sorry no stats to back it -- a tendency for SBT owners to want to keep the boys with nuts on. Breeders could do more to support desexing.

I'm not going far into your long list. I do not worshop the market mechanism but find it hard to find a better way to regulate economic transactions. In my experience, 'solve everything' solutions are . . .put it in german ... quatsch. But Jezus K-Rist. Are you saying that it's not ok to make a profit on selling pups at some minor profit if you do reasonable screening on health and temperament. Breeders are providing a product. Hopefully, healthy dogs of predictable temperament. They deserve to earn at least minimum wage for all the time spent and some bonus for absorbing the many risks you take when you breed a dog or provide guarantees on the pups sold. No wonder the DD people are running laps around the pedigree breeders.

In answer to the original question . . . there isn't a lot of hope. The breed communities are not willing to take on responsibility for breeding for good (or against aggressive) temperament. The anti-BSL community includes many individuals who happily and aggressively jump on anyone who voices an opinion (informed or naive) relating to restriction of breeds. No one seems willing to do the hard yards relating to statistics -- but many are happy to attack statistics they consider to be biased. Ugly concondrum.

Bottom line: it's complicated; genetics is a craps shoot; and many vets tred beyond their realm of competence. I don't know what an 'OCD Lesion' means and can't form an opinion. The guts of the matter is the genetics is complex and environment has a hand to play; and bad Xrays or positioning can result in misdiagnosis.. Good luck sorting out the many variables.

Education is a cop out. If anything is going wrong, politically, the quick response is 'more education' Big questions are WHO IS RESPONSIBILE FOR EDUCATING -- I'd put a big onus on the breeders (including an onus to patrol dodgy breeders). We all know that a few councils do a good job, but mostly, councils are rotten in enforcing dog regs, and the state level is no better. In terms of pedigree dog registrations, SBT's are vying with Labbies for #1 in Australia. It would help this situation if the SBT clubs would get heavy handed in promoting responsible breeding for temperement and responsible placement of pups with homes. If more responsibility is taken with respect to breeding and placement, my guess is the SBT will come out of it with no harm done. Good Staffies are a pleasure to own and be around. Bad Staffies can be a real curse. If this is managed really badly, the SBT may end out on the Restricted Breeds list in Oz . . . as it is in most of the European Union. We are never going to get incidents invovling dogs to zero, but if people followed the basic rules of on leash, effective control and keeping their dogs on their own property, there would be a reduction. Education is the only thing that is going to reduce the number of attacks that involve dogs in their own home. Owners need to choose wisely the breed that is best suited to them, provide an enriched environment for that dog, include the dog as part of the family, supervise, train and socialise it. Of course "Staffordshire Bull Terrier " is going to top the list, it includes the generic "staffy", the brindle dog that could be anything. I'd like to see no dog registered as a certain breed, unless you bring with it the ANKC papers, that correspond with the microchip. I think we'd see a big shift in the stats and "cross breeds" would be topping the list.

Looks like the original poster is not checking in and not giving thanks for advice. P' off. This is not a service for getting your homework done for you. Courtesy demands that you respond to people who take the time to respond. Grumpy

Please post this on another forum. It has nothing to do with this forum

My vet says 'monthly' heartworm can be given every two months and still interfere with the heartworm lifecycle quite efficiently. I generally avoid giving tablets in the first trimester, but don't worry much about day 45+.

Gundogs -- mostly -- were bred to assist on the hunt (where someone holds a gun), not for hunting per se. They should be highly trainable, not aggressive to man or beast and should have soft mouths. In a few cases (American Cocker) they have been heavily bred for show and coat etc. have become more important than working temperament. In other cases, eg Labradors, ability to relate to humans seems to have been strongly featured in selection (the gentleman shooter's companion???)-- hence high success as Guide Dogs. Terriers are a very mixed group, including dogs bred to go to ground (mostly, hunting vermin) and dogs bred to fight . . . and everything in between. Some terriers (eg Staffies) can run over 15 kg. Terriers are not bred for soft mouths, and many are bred to kill their prey . . . hence the fierceness. Gundog and Terrier are GROUPS, not breeds. In pedigree dog terms, the relevant categories are Breed and Group . . . strike the word category. Use your spell checker and work on grammar and punctuation. Errors are many. Try reading what you have written aloud. The following phrase is highly contorted. similarities of the two are quite different from one another for many reasons, for example . height and weight, charactoristics, personality and techniques.

Our family Lab (in the USA) used to go down the street every year on trash pickup day after Thanksgiving and gorge on leftover turkey. The farts were awwfulll but that was the worst problem. Labs have been known to bloat, and it's not a laughing matter. But lots of Labs overconsume without horrid consequences.

In my experience dogs don't generally like eating the things that aren't good for them. Eg, daffodils make humans and dogs vomit violently. They taste awful . . . I know cause my Mum once confused them with the shallots and made a nice sauce out of them . . . we all puked for hours . . . so did the dog, who cleaned up the leftovers. If it weren't for being cooked into a cream sauce, none of us would have taken more than a tiny nibble. I've had dogs around azaleas in many paces . . . with no problems. Just don't go making any nice cream sauce out of them and you should be ok. There are a few exceptions . . . like chocolate. But those are well publicised.

I had a girl who managed to pull out a stitch or two and get a lot of dirt into the wound . . . nursing all the while . . . very devoted mother. The vets had to open her up, clean the mess out, and stitch er up again . . . she was on antibiotics for a week or two afterward. No real harm done, but not nice. If the infection has gone deep they may have to treat it surgically.

Good question. My guess is he/she 'guesstimated' based on a smattering of evidence. Quality demographic data on dogs is extremely rare. The Pedigree Register only cares about births, they don't give a damn about deaths. As for non-pedigree dogs . . . the many who meet early death often do so without seeing a vet.

In my experience, a Lab whose breeding paid attention to temperament (ie almost all Labs) will gain confidence over time . . . you can muck it up by pushing too hard . . . but Labs are bred to love people and unless you select quite badly, when you buy a Lab, you should end out with a dog that is confident with people. Sounds like that's happening. I'd say be patient. Take it little by little. You'll do fine. Sounds like you're on the right path.

Repeat. My problem with the breed is in the breed standard in the country of origin calling for temperament that in my opinion is unacceptable. If dogs are already here and flying below the radar as X-breeds in the NT . . . no problem . .. until there's a problem. If they start appearing in urban situations and people/dogs get hurt, I hope the NT people are able to conceal the bloodlines of their dogs . . . or live in councils that don't give a fig. As for the filo vs fila thing. I would hope people are above calling names and making fun of people for making a mistake in a foreign language. I would bet that I speak a lot more Portuguese than 99% of the people on this forum . . . gender and noun endings are a hard thing for English speaking people in a Latin language. Filo is not pastry in Brazil (or should I spell it Brasil). DOL contributors make regular errors in English, its for it's, now for know, there for their, yadda yadda yadda. I'm happy dealing with verbal attack (if I didn't I wouldn't frequent this forum), but please, keep it to substance, not trivia.

I'm waiting for the study that shows the average emotional IQ of a dog is higher than that of a human being. I know mine have more emotional smarts than me . . . much better at being patient, much less judgmenental ... Don't knock the guys doing the study. They probably have a bunch of colleagues who consider it rubbish . . . and assert that dogs aren't cluey about human emotions. Wasn't that long ago that many 'animal behaviorists' thought that animals had no emotions. Easy for dog owners to make fun of . . . as with the famous study that showed that kids like it when Ken and Barbie have their bits, but parent would prefer neutered dolls . . . but sometimes in science you have to jump through the hoops and disprove that what many people consider obvious isn't rubbish.

Personally, I go for the biggest heart. Labs get my very prejudiced vote.

After hearing of others experiences with epilepsy -- which are very different and much sadder than my own -- I apologise for my previous comment that I'd as soon euthanise a child for epilepsy. There are, apparently, situations where death is a merciful solution. But it should not be a knee jerk reaction. In my experience, many epileptic dogs lead long, happy lives and cause no problems . . . other than worry to the owner (watching seizures can be distressing, especially a grand mal, the first time).

I brought the 'broom' problem up with a trainer I work with. She showed me how to 'claim the broom'. This consists of pushing the puppy off the broom, holding it very still (the motion gets the play drive in gear) and firmly telling the puppy no. You need to hold the still position for a minute or two, complete with fixed glaze and stiff posture, like a dog claiming its toy or bone. Much to my surprise it worked!!!! No doubt I'll have to repeat the act next time I sweep.

I wouldn't consider having a dog PTS cause it has epilepsy any more than I'd consider euthanasing a child with the same condition.

I was a utopian when I was younger. I'm more cynical now. Will the councils recruit and pay and hold on to rangers with enough power to enforce what you advocate?

I'd be surprised to find 80% accurate statistics about numbers of dogs of any breed in any country. Ok. There may be some little kingdom somewhere where they take a careful dog census. But in general, we're grasping as straws. But even at 20% accuracy level, I'll bet Labbies are more common than APBT's in the USA . . . based on having lived in the USA for >40 years. I see the current situation vis a vis APBT's in Oz as a stupid drama that causes a lot of suffering to people and the dogs they love. I would prefer not to see another breed with problem potential put into the Australian system until there is a sensible legislative framework, with enforcement capability, in place. What we have now is failing miserably in putting the onus on the owner of the dog. Unfortunately, it takes more than passing a law to bring about change.