sandgrubber

I brought a couple from the US to Oz in my luggage. I ended out giving them away to a dog trainer. They worked great, but it took only about three walks on the prong collar and my leash puller was cured. If you can rent or borrow rather than buying, consider doing so.

the most frustrating statement: "do you mind if I put you on hold".

Too bad they couldn't get it together to outlaw selling puppies and kittens in pet stores. Apart from not selling to people under 16, which seems fine to me, this legislation doesn't look like it will affect responsible dog breeders. I'm glad 'hygenic' isn't defined in a way that excludes house-rearing.

Each time I see this thread title, I think it's going to be something about some tossing a poison sausage to a 'dangerous' dog.

Maeby, you might want to do a little reading of past posts regarding MCT's. Not so much to learn about cancer, but to get the sort of support that comes from knowing you're not alone ...and to lessen your association of MCT's with pugs. There's an active discussion in the palleative care forum, and it refers back to some other discussions.

How old is she? I've had bitches just stop at 6 yrs.

I think there's at least one more basic factor. If the immune system is functioning well, there's a chance that mutated cells will be detected and eliminated, rather than developing into a tumor.

Is this a suggestion to casually change breeds and get a new dog cause the present dog doesn't live up to expectations? Could also be a little arthritis. I've seen dogs go from couch potato to energetic when put on NSAI's. It won't hurt to try an aspirin morning and night for a few days. If that ups her energy level you can be pretty sure it's the arthurs. (My vets have told me that aspirin at low doses for less than a week is quite safe, but check the dosage, and don't go long term).

In my kennel days we had one client who looked and sounded a lot like a rural version of this guy. His dogs were the mainstay of his limited sanity. But he refused to desex, consequently ended up with a large litter of mother x son puppies. We could never convince him to desex his dogs. He lived in a hovel, and a large fraction of his welfare payments went to dog care. It gets very sad when the mentally ill find dogs are better than medicine. It's hard to know what to do to help.

Junk statistics. I wish they'd refine a bit. How many of those kids were in for antibiotics and a tetanus shot only, how many needed stitches, how many an overnight stay? I'd be concerned if a large fraction were serious, but I'll bet these figures include many kids who got nipped playing with a puppy.

There are SO SO many things that would be managed if we kept better records. Personally, having mortality and cause of death stats with pedigree dogs would be of higher priority than dog attacks. HOWEVER, if someone IS going to create a dog attack database, it needs to be thoroughly though through. In particular, details about how the dog is managed at home (how is it socialized, what is the fencing like, does it get any exercise, who bred it, has it had any training, have there been prior complaints, etc.) need to be kept. Anyone with half a brain knows that breed is unlikely to be the primary cause for dog attacks. Ways to get at the other, usually multiple, causes are needed.

One thing you can check for is inbreeding (including line breeding). Look for low COI, no matter what breed you choose. Heterozygosity in the genetic regions controlling the immune system provides some defense against cancer. For a breed-specific review on cancer occurrence, see link below. I've copied the abstract. http://www.hindawi.c...ce/2013/941275/ Review Article Breed-Predispositions to Cancer in Pedigree Dogs Jane M. Dobson Queen's Veterinary School Hospital, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 OES, UK Received 1 October 2012; Accepted 22 October 2012 Academic Editors: F. Napolitano and R. L. Page Copyright © 2013 Jane M. Dobson. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Cancer is a common problem in dogs and although all breeds of dog and crossbred dogs may be affected, it is notable that some breeds of pedigree dogs appear to be at increased risk of certain types of cancer suggesting underlying genetic predisposition to cancer susceptibility. Although the aetiology of most cancers is likely to be multifactorial, the limited genetic diversity seen in purebred dogs facilitates genetic linkage or association studies on relatively small populations as compared to humans, and by using newly developed resources, genome-wide association studies in dog breeds are proving to be a powerful tool for unravelling complex disorders. This paper will review the literature on canine breed susceptibility to histiocytic sarcoma, osteosarcoma, haemangiosarcoma, mast cell tumours, lymphoma, melanoma, and mammary tumours including the recent advances in knowledge through molecular genetic, cytogenetic, and genome wide association studies.

I can't give you a breed-specific answer about cancer. However, if you want some reasonably numbers for cancer mortality for different breeds, you might want to try the Finnish Kennel Club's database. Finland isn't Australia, but it seems to be the only place that tries to make mortality data publically available. http://jalostus.kennelliitto.fi/frmTerveystilastot.aspx?R=206&Lang=en find a breed, then go to health statistics, then to cause of death. Pugs don't appear to be especially bad, although the number of death from unknown causes may hide the true numbers. If you're looking for a toy breed, looks like the Japanese Chin would be a good bet. I think you may do better doing pedigree research within a chosen breed, if you can find breeders who are honest and knowledgeable. I sense that in my breed (Labradors), some lines are much more prone to cancer than others.

It's a shame there are so few breeders trying to do this.

A bit of appetite surpression would be nice (Labrador).

Opaque. How does one know a pup is a genetic disaster with no information on the genetic state of sire and dam, no identification of the vet, and no second opinion. Methinks I hear someone grinding an axe in the background.. I had a purebred pup from sire and dam with excellent hip and elbow scores turn out with severe hip and elbow dysplasia, quite apparent by five months. The pup was, with much heartache, pts. Genetics plus epigenetics plus environment sometimes throw unpleasant surprises: happens with purebred, crossbred, and mutt. The decision to put $5000 into vet bills, apparently without consultation with the breeder or a second opinion is questionable.

I don't believe pits are 'so much worse'. But they do have a problem, and people getting defensive does not make the problem go away. Nor do hokey stories of supposed heroics. Every breed is a mixed bag, and the mix carries both imprints of the last century and modern uses, be they uses for a tiny fraction of the dogs in the breed. Modern sight hounds are rarely used to run down prey in developed countries, but greyhound rescue has to be careful about screening for and training away from running down animals that are not supposed to be prey. It's been a century since the barbed hook made the St. John's dog unnecessary for catching fish that escaped from lines off the Grand Banks, but you can still see the imprint of working rough cold water in a lot of Labbies and Chessies. It's probably been 10+ generations since most GSD's were used for herding, but many of them can still be trained to herd. Both Staffies and pitties have history of fighting, and are inclined to be scrappy with other dogs. Pits have a lot of strikes against them in the US. They are extremely hardy and throw large litters, thus are abundantly available as free, or nearly free, puppies and adult dogs. Unfortunately, the macho guy type who likes a muscle dog is unlikely to desex, and the more docile, friendly dogs are less likely to sire litters. Pits are associated with proud poverty and not popular with middle or upper middle class people, other than people with a certain ideology. If your kid wants a puppy and you make minimum wage ($7.79/hr in Florida), you are likely to end up with a pit or pit cross. For the most part they are friendly, wiggly, cute pups and very good with kids. But they have their problems. I walk daily in an area where most houses are trailers or mobile homes, more utes than passenger cars, lots of junked vehicles. A neighbor has a boat named White Trash in his front yard. I get rushed at the fence, or at chain's end, by three for four dogs every day. Every one of them is a pit or a pit cross. If you have four or five people living in a 60 or 70 sq m house, the dog will generally end out living outside; if you can't afford fencing, it will end out on a chain. As for the Vick dogs, a celebrity fighting bust is an anomaly. If you had a million dollars to save fifty or sixty dogs, plus the world watching, I would expect a low euth rate. Unfortunately, the rag-tag lot of pits and pit crosses that end out in our local shelter, and shelters across the US, are lucky if $50/dog is budgeted to their rehab.

My Labs do a ritual that might be called no-tug. Someone picks up a stick or toy and shoves it in someone else's face. If the other dog starts to pull, the initiator moves toward them keeping the tension off. They mostly do bitey face. It's cute as can be when the puppy (now 9.5 weeks) gets involved. Mum rolls over on her back and the pup jumps all over her chest and head as part of the game. Then there is a zoomie chase, generally initiated by play bowing and maybe some eye-ing and belly crawl (like a herding dog). My younger girl likes to play regular non-zoomy chase with other dogs but I often have to restrain her cause she plays hard and nips a little. I've seen dogs get hurt when running chase gets rough. They go through spells of being very loud when they play. These last months they have been mostly near-silent. The noise is a bit chorus like in that granny dog has a deep bass growl and her daughter is more in the alto range.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Lgm1a0mwmwI

Amazing video ... they make a lot of our dogs look dumb! http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7g2rxtWu_FM http://www.blameiton...tricks.html?m=1 (I haven't figured out how to get the video itself to copy...)

No, they keep them chained in the yard ... at least in the rural South. The fraction of pits that are ever seriously fought probably a few percent or less. But the number who belong to wankers who select a dog because it has fighting potential may well be over 10%. Who knows. It's not an easy census to take. I'd recommend the novel, Salvage the Bones (2011) by Jesmyn Ward if you want a picture of how dog fighting fits into life in this neck of the woods. (Ward's father kept fighting pits in rural Louisiana).

I'll agree that this is amazing and to be valued. I think calling it 'heroic' debases the word hero. It is possible that this dog had a strong response to something going very wrong. It's also possible that, had it been 20 mo old instead of 10 mo, it would have killed the kid because he smelled funny. We just don't know. Pit bulls, like most of the breeds with a history of blood sport, are a mixed bag. Some people go way out of their way to label the whole bag as angelic or demonic. Both extremes are equally destructive. And the newsmedia involved will do whatever draws readers. As for the breed question. If you cry foul when someone labels the breed as 'pit bull' in an attack case, you also need to question the breeding when the dog does something good. Sensationalism does not help understanding and proper care/management. ALL breeds are a mixed bag. True, but the mix varies between breeds. In the US you can find people actively selecting pits for fighting. It doesn't help the mix.

I'm about as happy for people to come up to me and tell me my dog is fat as I am for them to come up to me and tell me I could stand to loose a few kilos. Like, mind your own business, you jerk. My vets never get a chance to voice an opinion because I always ask them before they get a chance. Often they say my old girl is ok when I think she could stand to loose. Around here Joe Public tends to think an English type Lab is fat when it isn't because they are used to the lankier US type. Concerning the fat Lab question, what bothers me most is the tendency of some judges to reward overweight dogs in the show ring. I've known people who both show and trial. They say they take 5 kg of the show dog to turn it into a trialing dog. It is not uncommon to see flab that flops around when the dog moves in the ring. It is uncommon to see the ribcage. No wonder so many people think their Lab is a good weight when it's nice and round looking.

Another unhelpful thing here is the feeding recommendations on the back of dry food packages. If I fed my labs as much as they recommend, they would be beyond plump. I give carrots as treats and feed a couple eggs a week. But two cups a day is all it takes to keep their weight on, even with a fair amount of exercise.

I'll agree that this is amazing and to be valued. I think calling it 'heroic' debases the word hero. It is possible that this dog had a strong response to something going very wrong. It's also possible that, had it been 20 mo old instead of 10 mo, it would have killed the kid because he smelled funny. We just don't know. Pit bulls, like most of the breeds with a history of blood sport, are a mixed bag. Some people go way out of their way to label the whole bag as angelic or demonic. Both extremes are equally destructive. And the newsmedia involved will do whatever draws readers. As for the breed question. If you cry foul when someone labels the breed as 'pit bull' in an attack case, you also need to question the breeding when the dog does something good. Sensationalism does not help understanding and proper care/management.