mum24dog

I'm no advocate for the KC but I think that's probably unfair. AFAIK Field Trials are the only dog activity restricted to pedigree dogs. I suspect that the pressure to keep it that way is coming more from influential participants than from the top. I don't think it's unreasonable for a governing body of any sport to require a register of participants to be maintained and I can't see that there would be much, if any, profit to be made from registration fees once admin costs and overheads are taken into account in regard to the relatively small number of dogs taking part. £12 for lifetime registration on the Activities Register against whatever it costs to register a pedigree dog probably wouldn't be a significant factior in maintaining the status quo. Pam

Our agility club has a brilliant record of members adopting rescue dogs. Nearly 100 dogs in total and about half of them rescues. Between them they represent the wide range of rescues operating in this country - Major charities (DT/Rspca/Battersea etc) Small local charities Small charities operating nationwide Private rehomings and yes 3 of them are from Ireland - 2 Wiccaweys collies and my own Dasha hound cross. Country of origin was irrelevant. They were the right dogs and were here. As Jacobean says, we aren't seeing a flood of Irish dogs locally and they aren't taking up local rescue space as far as I know. (If they were we'd no doubt be seeing more in the club.) You have to look for them and travel further afield and usually only people with specific requirements will do that, often because they haven't been able to find what they want nearer home. I doubt that many people set out deliberately to adopt a dog because of it's nationality. The same applies to Welsh dogs. Of course there are unscrupulous people out to make a profit but to tar genuine rescues with the same brush is totally unjustified. How about suggesting that for every large dog like a GSD that is rehomed, 2 smaller dogs like staffies could have been saved? Makes as much sense as the rant above. Pam

Working labs do come up in rescue - often mistakenly labelled as lab crosses from some I've seen because they are so different from show/pet lines in appearance. Much healthier too. I'm sure some of them could be trained up to do an adequate job but I guess Helen wanted to stack the odds in her favour by getting a pup from known working lines. (Having said that, I know one with an excellent working pedigree that is pretty hopeless at retrieving.) As I gather this dog will be part of her work, it's a bit more important to her to get the right one than for those of us who take a chance on a rescue for our hobbies - agility in my case. Pam

Surely that can't be true? He couldn't stay away. Maybe it's a case of "The grass is greener"? Oh no, sorry, he once accused our countryside of being too green. Anyway, sensible reply from HLGS. Pam

Even then it's not foolproof. Last year I was in Toronto and there was a snowstorm that I didn't think was particularly bad. (We used to get worse in the Peak District when I was a child.) Prepared for such conditions or not, there was still chaos on the roads. Pam

That's the way I feel too - at least as a gut reaction. However, I also think it's hypocritical of me to be self-righteous about never buying a dog when many of the people who do do much, much more than I do for rescue. Helen has adopted 3 rescue dogs, and that's 3 more than a lot of people do. Furthermore, the pup that she has bought has been bred and bought to do a specific job, and that's the way it should be. She's not encouraging puppy farmers or bybs. And I don't have a problem with her new job either. It must be one with a great sense of satisfaction and connection with the land - sadly missing from much of life nowadays. Pam

Instead of knocking JS we should be asking why the producers invited him to be on the show in the first place. It was obvious that he would never be able to live up to the standard of the others but support for the hopeless has been seen before and so could have been easily predicted. It's totally unfair to blame him and say he should resign. He's been put in a very awkward position by all concerned and we should be sympathetic. If anyone is to blame it is the programme makers and the judges for their counterproductive and unpleasant attacks on him and the people who vote for him. What better way of making sure the GBP stick two fingers up at them and carry on? Pam

I had no choice - I was in the dentist's chair at 11 this morning and had to spend the 2 minutes silence with my mouth open while work on me stopped for the duration. Pam

Glad to learn I'm not the only one. Pam

They've been withdrawing from sponsorship for a while now and there were rumours of a doubtful future at Crufts last year. Good riddance anyway. Pam

That was Charlie to a T. He used to be more obsessed with other dogs when he was younger but once he'd checked them out, most of the time he'd be happy to go back to his sniffing. Just occasionally he'd meet one that would really run with him and he'd play like crazy for a while but, on the whole, he wasn't really bothered, even with our other dogs. Pam

In order to ensure that the plans are effective and reach all dogs, the Kennel Club has called on the government to give it statutory powers to make its established Accredited Breeder Scheme compulsory throughout the country. If successful, this would mean that all breeders who are not part of the scheme and who have not officially confirmed their willingness to follow the health standards set by the Kennel Club would be unable to produce or sell puppies within the law. I can't think of anything worse than the shambles of interlinked vested interests that call themselves the KC should have a stranglehold monopoly of dog breeding in this country. They've proved their incompetence pretty conclusively. Excuse me if I'm cynical but how much money would such a monopoly make them? There isn't a snowflake in hell's chance of getting what they say they want anyway. It would lead straight to the Court of Human Rights. Not that I'm in favour of unregulated breeding, but the KC is the last organisation I would trust to police any legislation. Pam

They were pumps when i was at school in Derbyshire and daps when we moved to Somerset. Pam

Another strange one here then. By far the best dog show on TV at present, if you look behind the facade. (Not much competition, admittedly.) As you say, some very good points made. Of course it's not perfect. TPT - well, what can I add? The other presenter - nonentity. Donelda Guy. Never liked her but she actually seemed quite human on this. Brendan Cole - on the whole quite sensible. Steve Mann - brilliant. Jim made me , but then I love loony lurchers. A programme that just deals with the nitty gritty of dog training is going to be pretty boring to the majority of potential viewers. You need an entertainment angle to pull in the punters so you can get the message across. Far rather this sort of entertainment than the Dog Borstal type. Pam

10 Vision obviously standing up reasonably well to the ravages of time in that department. Pam

I went to a Peter Neville seminar a few years ago where he showed video footage of several different dogs left alone which would all have generally been labelled as suffering from "separation anxiety". The videos were used to show that each dog had very different reasons for displaying problematic behaviour and that the term is meaningless as a catch all label. As for fear aggression - I don't think it's wrong to start from the standpoint that the dog is not being "bad" in our terms. It just gives the dog the initial benefit of the doubt. Just keep an open mind and recognise the fact that some dogs are just pushy bullies. Start from the first POV and no harm is likely to be done. Start from the idea that the dog is a bully and you're wrong - a lot of damage can be done. Never offer a behavioural diagnosis without seeing the dog in action is a pretty good rule. General suggestions peppered with lots of "ifs" and "buts" is about as far as anyone should go. "Dominance" as a term is simply out of favour because it has so often been over - and misused for so long. It creates a negative and confrontational frame of mind which is best avoided. The worry is that even if it is applied judiciously and sparingly it will still be misinterpreted. It's a fundamental concept more far reaching in its effect on our relationship with our dogs that either of the other terms you mention. Pam

One sure way of making sure a bank goes under is for people to panic and withdraw their money. I'm old enough to have seen wild ups and downs in the financial markets several times and this won't be the last time. Pam

CP21 or Champ, alone or half and half with CP Xtra did the trick for ours on the advice of Ceri at CSJ. Pam

I thought it was going to annoy me too from seeing the trailers but it wasn't too bad, as you say. It can't be denied that there are similarities between wolf and dog behaviour, just as there are between humans and apes, but it didn't make those similarities more important than they are. The differences were also mentioned and it was reasonably balanced on the subject. Pam

Sheep dogs can fail for being too laid back as well. Collies come in all shapes, sizes and temperaments and, believe it or not, quite a few are pretty dim. First thing - they need to find a trainer who knows what they are talking about and isn't prejudiced. Second thing - they need to chill out. The books mentioned are relevant in that they are collie specific but pretty old school in attitude towards the relationship between man and dog. If the dog is crazy, get them to have a look here - http://www.clickertraining.com/node/1721 And consider reading this book - http://www.crosskeysbooks.com/product_info...products_id=806 (Rather OTT for the average pet owner but worth a look.) Pam

Not true. Carrier + carrier carries a 25% risk of pups being affected. Affected + carrier carries a 50% risk. Affected + clear (which you say you thought you were doing) produces a litter of carriers. Every time you produce a carrier there is more chance of that dog producing affected pups either by mistake or deliberate bad breeding choices. The only responsible mating is clear + clear, with maybe clear + carrier in exceptional circumstances (50% risk of pups being carriers). I don't consider breeding from an affected dog to be good breeding practice at all and it isn't something that a good breeder would do. This is what the ISDS requires - http://www.isds.org.uk/society/dog_registr...simpleguide.htm To be sure you know what you are letting the puppies in for, both prospective parents should have the Optigen DNA test before considering mating. (Maybe the test wasn't available when you bred?)Anything else is just finger crossing. If CEA was such a minor condition, why do you think the ISDS takes its mission to eradicate it eventually so seriously? Pam

I got 12. Pam

Limited value, I should have thought. They are still a captive group and in this case littermates which would have gone their seperate ways by now in the wild. They aren't a pack with normal wild wolf pack dynamics. Pam

Agreed. When we had a plague of rats in our garden I wished my dogs would have done the same but all they did was sniff along the rat run by the fence - even my little mongrel that will usually try to kill anything cat/rabbit/squirrel sized. Same with my lurcher. Maybe rats were beneath contempt to them. Not worth the bother. We didn't have our JRT at the time. I can't see the point of broadcasting a sanitised version when the point was to show how closely some of our dogs' behaviour is to that of wolves. Dogs are predatory (some dogs more than others) - predators kill, and there is something impressive about seeing just how efficiently they do it. Pam

Is that the one who said that dogs that resembled the original working type wouldn't get anywhere in the show ring because they didn't match the breed standard? Ermm - does that make sense to anyone here? Pam