sandgrubber

All else equal, I'd rather have a low COI than a high COI .. . but all else is never equal. Most statistical models including the COI presume everything is independent (the IID assumption), when in reality 'everything is connected to everything else' may be a safer assumption. I don't think it's a bad thing to restrict close inbreeding, but I think it's WRONG to take an absolutist perspective on it.

I did once. The girl had uterine inertia anyway and had to have a ceasar. My vets (two different vets) recommend against. They say that if there are complications, possibly strong herbal remedies may complicate their handling of complications.

I can agree with all these points. And am reminded of a local story that, as the dog was being PTS for biting the kid, they noticed (too late) that the kid had put a bunch of staples in the dog's ear. Dogs should not be blamed for trying to protect themselves against torture by children. The statistics for attacks on children need careful review.

Awful. But curious. I've never met a mean Mastiff and have had many in boarding kennels. Maybe something has been lost in translation.

I have started as early as 3 weeks. One of my bitches tends to nick off with her chicken frame and deposit it in the puppy pen. The pups can't really eat it, but they sure have a good time trying . . . growling, tugging, pulling . . . and they pick it over pretty well before mum comes back and eats it. I've had no trouble feeding pups frames pulverized with a meat cleaver. I avoid the back end of the chook . . . which contains the guts . . . out of a guess that it is more likely to have bacteria, etc that might be harmful to the pups. The only negative I've seen is that many of my puppy buyers will choose to move on to a high-end biscuit. Pups that have been raised on bones don't much like the transition to biscuits. But being Labradors, they're born gutsers, and they survive the transition. I worry about whole necks as they tend to go down the hatch whole, and I worry that they may be oversized for the tummy of a young pup.

Might add that sometimes the pet transport companies go out of their way to do things right. I sent a pup on what was supposed to be a short flight from Perth to the far north of WA with one of the major pet movers. Oops. The plane couldn't land at the airport (bushfire, if I remember right) and went on to its second destination. The shippers took the puppy home and it spent the night in their house. They kept in touch about what was happening .. . the puppy apparently had a great time .. . . and the puppy buyer said the pup arrived in great shape with no sign of trauma.

I'm not at all against assistance animals for autistic children. What I don't understand is the training, and what, given that different individuals with autism have quite different needs. It's not like a guide dog . . . who helps with things that need sight and provide companionship. . . and needs a high level of specialised training. As I understand it, the assistance dog to an autistic child may help with development of basic emotional skills and be a calming influence to a child with erratic temper . . . many dogs seem to fit this role with fairly basic training and management . . . nothing like $30k worth. I have talked to people with autistic kids who say they did a lot of screening to find an appropriate rescue dog, or got a Lab . . . because they couldn't afford the specialised training . . . but the dog did great without it. I am happy to be corrected if I'm wrong here, and would be quite interested to know what sort of training they give a dog that is to be an assistance dog for an autistic child. Or perhaps the child in question had some form of autism that meant the assistance dog was needed to do the sort of things that a guide dog does.

seems pretty pricey to me . . . especially given that, so far as I'm aware, there's no accredited training program for dog trainers to teach dogs to deal with autism. Rather hard to predict outcomes.

In kennels . . . mixing dogs . . . I have a lot of trouble with other dogs not liking SBT's. I'm pretty sure it's body language. In SBT language a good body slam is 'hello'. In other breeds it seems to be an invite to fight. With my own breed . . . Labbies generally like other Labbies and seem to be fond of Ridgies and not-so-fond of shephards.

The only time that we have noticed her out is around 6.45 in the morning.. We have had reports from neighbours that she has been out thru the day and they have put her back in the yard for us... Im in WA and those regulations are pretty stock standard here, we are in a "bush" area and they want to keep the area in a certain theme. I have a 5 acre 'bush' block in a 'resource zone' . . . also a kennel area. I had a lot of escape problems until I put two strands of electric fence (no collars . . . the stuff they sell for horses and cattle). I can't say the dogs were pleased by the electric fence . . . but they respect it. Have had no problems since it went up. It can be made inconspicuous and I don't think your local authorities will give you grief. If she's jumping (mine were digging under), electric fence won't stop her . . . but you may be able to teach her it isn't safe to get near enough to the fence to jump . . . eg, put up three strands a metre inside your boundary fence.

I know the drug companies want me to worm as often as they can get me to do so. I know I have never seen ANY worms in pups on this property. So I play around with different strategies. Have developed a hatred of the liquid stuff . . . which the puppies think they like and then seem to hate. It upsets me to see them shaking their little heads madly to try and get the stuff out of their mouths. This litter I did tablets at 3 weeks. Saw no worms. But I never find worms. I think I'll go all tablets in the future, probably 3,5,8 weeks . . .and go to some other routine if I see worms.

If that's the best she can do, she'll starve as a freelancer. I agree that dogs shouldn't roam free . . . they don't often where I live . . . but it's hardly news. Would be interested to know if she keeps her two year old on a leash.

If you can get bound edges or fold the edges back under and tack them to the bottom the unreavelling should stop.

What new law proposal? I have yet to see any concrete reference to new laws. Just people saying that the RSPCA is making recommendations to councils.

Or perhaps they included attacks on rodents in the statistics

They don't call 'em gun dogs for nothing

Or if you want a cheap solution, cut a board to the size you want and tack some thick carpet down to it. Lots of tacks. That works in the boarding kennel for the bed eaters.

Same... we've had limits for a long time. I just got an exemption from my council. Disgusting that puppy farmers are given the :D and genuine breeders are going to be hindered. Yep it's here and as some of you know when I had a whinge in the WA thread, my local council won't even offer you the chance to apply for an additional dog. It's flat out 2 dogs only, tough biccies, big middle finger to us, yada yada. Grrrr!!!! :D You might want to check out the For Sale / Real Estate section of DOL.. There's a half acre place in Kelmscott for sale at a pretty reasonable price . . . owner has had permission for several dogs . . . backs on parkland. Roughly $500,000.

Can you be more specific about where the directive is coming from? And what form it takes? Is the National RSPCA doing a campaign? I am asking cause I think it's easier to fight something if you know exactly what it is. Also . . . in WA we already have a pretty strong 2 dog rule. Would be worth knowing whether they consider the WA system good enough. Most California counties allow for 'hobby breeder' permits, usually up to 8 or sometimes 12 dogs in some land use zones (generally rural and agricultural). I think this is a good system cause it keeps noisy nuisances from developing in high density areas while forcing puppy farmers, boarding kennels, dog shelters, and very large breeders to go through difficult legal channels to get permission to operate. Government tends to be friendly to shelters . . . so it's not much of an impediment to them, though they may end up some distance from downtown. I think it would be worth fighting the 2 dog rule with proposal to allow for 'hobby' classifications in some land use classes.

In New Hampshire, I lived around a mile from a farm that had a hunting pack of ~20 beagles. They weren't friendly dogs and weren't socialised . . . and you could hear them for miles around when the moon was full. So much for using dogs for the job they were bred for.

In WA it's up to the shire. If they opt not to make exceptions, there are no exceptions. In urban/suburban areas it's uncommon to get permission for more than three, even with approval of all neighbours. I'm in the process of trying to move from a kennel zone to a rural location with six dogs. I find that most shires do grant exceptions for breeders on land that's zoned Rural or Rural Residential, but NOT Special Rural, but often permission requires Council permission, sometimes also consultation with neighbours. The EPA guidelines say there should be 500 m between the 'kennel' and any neighbours house.

Just wondering how the e-collar would help if the snake came into a dogs yard/run? If a dog has been properly aversion trained, it will avoid the snake. Snakes will rarely if ever attack and will almost always avoid a dog that is keeping its distance . . . the most likely bites come from putting head down to sniff, or, particularly with terriers, attacking the snake. You want to train out those behaviours.

Here's the previous thread . . . hard to find cause they were talking about snake repellants not snake sensors . . . but I think that's what you are talking about. http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?show...Snake+Repellant I especially enjoyed the links to the herpetology / snake forums. Eg http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/austral...ic-fence-117468 mostly snake lovers cracking jokes about what rubbish they devises are . . . someone apparently did some testing . . . copying the post. 25-Aug-09, 11:37 AM Snake Handler . . . We obtained a few of them from people who had tried them in the past, turned them on and observed what our snakes did....over about two hours the snakes moved over them, around them, past them and totally ignored them. In my opinion they are about as useful as chemical repellents! An e-collar (remote training type) would be best used to teach your dog that snakes are something it doesn't want to get near. This has the great advantage that it should work when you're out on a walk . . . or visiting Auntie Jill. If the dog associates turning its head toward a snake with getting a buzz or a shock it will make a wide circle around them. The problem is that the training requires a snake, and an e-collar.

I've come across a few Dal owners who might be willing to offer you a trade. Personally, I specialise in retrievers who don't bring things back. (Retrieving is the kelpie's job.)

I've heard of the ATO pulling litter registrations for pensioners . . . though I don't know if this resulted in anyone being prosecuted for unreported income.