Canis erectus

Doesn't it just figure though? The one time you slacken up on the rules a bit and it come back to bite you in the @ss. I'm guessing that you haven't yet found any shoe parts coming out either end? Anyhow, good luck to you guys.

That sounds like a great idea DP, I think that might be worth looking into myself if I can find a third dog. It's alot better than what I had to suggest: Repetition, repetition, repetition...

Zoey's a grazer too, she puts goats to shame. I have a funny little story from when we first got Zoey. We'd only had her for a couple weeks when Hannah and I made a trip out to Pope Valley to visit her aunt of the weekend. At the time her aunt had an old blind horse and a nasty little black pony who were both allowed to roam during the day. After we got there and Zoey greeted everyone she started getting comfortable with her surroundings and began to wander away from my side. She eventually found her way over to the pony (can't seem to remember it's name, Shamrock maybe?), and they both stood there side by side grazing away at the fresh greens. It was quite funny to see, and I even got a pretty good photo of it. As soon as I find the photo I'll post it.

Aaaahhhhh... There's nothing in the world better than a good fart. Hannah's great aunt used to have a mini poodle that was notorious for clearing out the house, they seldom ever had company... Luckily my girls aren't big on air biscuits. They always expell their gastric fumes out the front end, usually while nose-to-nose with you. A nice burp in the face is a sign of real affection in my house.

Yeah, there's different severities and types of color blindness and as such I do believe that dogs are color blind by our standards. Instead of going through some cumbersome explaination here's a good web page that summarizes color blindness: [url]http://colorvisiontesting.com/color2.htm[/url] And here's a neat page that shows how things might look to someone who is color blind: [url]http://colorvisiontesting.com/what%20colorblind%20people%20see.htm[/url] A look at an animal's functionality is a good judge of how well it can see. Being predators, I'm certain that dogs do see color fairly well. Even though a dog's smell is it's most important sense, it is used primarily for locating prey (and social purposes), most predators need to have decent eyesight with which to home in on prey during the chase/strike. Predators such as canines who attack prey larger than themselves need to have particularly good eyesight with which to feint and dodge if said prey animal turns on it's hunter. Animals who rely primarily on vision during their day to day functions such as birds and lizards have superior vision and color sense. To these animals humans would be the ones who are colorblind, it's all relative. So I would therorize that are as colorblind to us as we would be to a bird. Also I fairly recently read a short article somewhere that a study of dog's eyes is showing that some breeds see differently than others. Dogs with a brachiocephalic skull have eyes that are geared more toward seeing detain, while those with a more elongate skull are more keyed in to seeing movement. Given that, it wouldn't surprise me that some dogs see better than others, including color, even though the differences are probably slight at best. I do know that Zoey can see things (small insects, things in the distance) that China doesn't seem to, and China tends to detect noises and smells better/sooner than Zoey can. Oh and if anyone is curious, here's a basic color test here: [url]http://www.liquidgeneration.com/sabotage/vision_sabotage.asp[/url]

It's always the squirrels... damn them all...

Someone may have already suggested this to you, but do you use the'Enough' command? Basically it differs from 'No' in that it denotes something which is OK to do but now is the time to stop doing it. The 'No' command states that a behavior is not OK to do and shouldn't ever be done. It seems to me that could be confusing for a dog whose individual nature is screaming at them to do that behavior. You can teach Pooh Bear 'Enough' on a behavior that you think he can be trained on alot more easily. Once he has learned the meaning of 'Enough' you can apply it to other behaviors, and then finally to his barking. My advice would probably be not to listen to me and take him to the trainer anyway. I'm definatley not the most demanding of dog trainers, but I did stumble across this with Zoey and it worked for me. Zoey is a night barker, when the lights go out in the house she camps out in the middle of the living room and guards us against any stray cats or vermin that might be lurking near the house at night. Her bark is quite loud and very sudden, and she would continue until I hauled myself out of bed and laid my hand on her. Nothing else would make her stop, and after I touched her she'd go back to sleep. I had taught Zoey the 'Enough' command for various different things like when to stop rough-housing in the house or when to stop pawing ruts in the lawn after pottying. Anyway, at some point I began to tell her 'Enough' while I laid my hand on her at night to 'reset the alarm'. After awhile she caught on to that and now I very seldom have to get out of bed anymore if I want her to stop barking.

I read a journal once that had a chapter about the mechanics of various lizard skulls that can be applied here (I'm a big fan of herpetology). Basically, despite the delicate appearance, the long jaws that sight hounds have are just as powerful as that of most other dogs, enabling the whippet to effectively finish the job once it's caught up with what's it's chasing. The cranial part of a sighthound skull is also rather longish, which allows for longer temporal muscles= more jaw strength, which is needed in order to compensate for having a slighter skull. And why? Of course if you want to be fast you'd rather not have the extra weight of a great massive head along with the more heavily muscled neck and shoulders with which to carry it around. Yeah I hope that made sense, I owe my brain several hours of sleep that I've cheated from myself.

How big of a spot is it? Sounds like it might be just a tick or insect bite but maybe it's the beginning of a skin ailment like mange or ringworm.

[url]http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/interdisciplinary_research/report-9792.html[/url] I came across this article and found it rather interesting. I have to assume that this guy knws what he's talking about but the reasoning seems rather backward and uneducated to me (maybe I'm the one who's uneducated). I mean he states that he doesn't want to create a dog with 'too keen' of a sense of smell. But before that he goes on how jackals have a better olfactory sense than any dog (which I find highly suspect, jackals hunt as much or more than they do scavange and they are likely moreso dependant on their sense of hearing than smell). He also says that huskies have a better sense of smell than any other dog, which I also find highly suspect for the same reasons you're thinking of right now. Will he make up his mind about what he wants? By the way, lumping the 'gundogs' (which he identifies as greyhounds, hounds, and setters), and stating that all of these dogs have weakened sniffers makes it pretty clear that his PHD is not in biology or animal husbandry. Has he never heard of Bloodhounds or Beagles? I scratch this up to one egotistical whatever-he-is looking to make a name and career for himself all the while living off of big juicy grants or whatever the equivalent funding is in the Soviet. It's a government sponsored designer dog, Yay!!!

I think that actually points out how ineffectual anti breed legislature is. Most anti-Pit Bull laws arise in the hopes to stop to dog fighting, although you get the occaisional crack pot lobbying for these laws who think Pit Bulls are born man-eaters. People will still have the dogs all the some, especially those involved in dog-fighting; same as our gun laws that don't keep the wrong people from illegally owning/carrying firearms. And if dog fighters eventually find it too difficult to keep Pit Bulls they'll just aquire and start fighting some other type of dog. I'm not totally against BSL as long as it's done responsibley, fairly, and effectively. I wonder what sort of laws the US has to regulate certain potentially dangerous dog breeds from being imported. I know the UK has such laws, aren't both the Fila Brasilerio and the Tosa Inu illegal there? Anyway, my final words about the folks who have (had) Pit Bulls there in Denver and other similar places: The more we as a society lie down and passively take every stupid, idiotic, and ignorant law and ruling that gets thrown our way, the more more stupid legislature we're gonna get.

Actually I'm far more afraid of the feral dogs that are out in the woods. The way I see it a dog that's gone feral in an urban area have a tendancy to be fearful of people, who often make them the targets of some cruel 'game'. A street saavy dog can generally scavange a decent amount of garbage and not have to too aggressive of a food drive. Some of these guys can probably be relocated into homes if they're actually caught and given the proper rehab. Rural feral dogs are just plain nasty, which is why I feel 'loose dogs' laws need to be alot more strict in a rural area. These guys have to catch their dinner alot of times and so have a more agressive prey drive. When they pack together feral dogs tend to stay away from residential areas, but if you go into their territory I think most feral packs won't have any problem attacking since they don't live in fear of someone doing them harm on a daily basis. Like I said I had them come after me once, and I have no doubts that they wanted to eat us. Sorry, I'd rather run into a stray on the streets of a city or suburb than out in the woods.

Holy crap!!! I mean, just... holy crap!!! :o I'm sorry but that seems like it stomps on our civil rights so hard that I feel violated all the way over in Michigan!

It's nice that the PD is taking the animals' biological history into consideration, but that doesn't really do anyone any good now, especially not the little girl. Also even though they're willing take breeding into consideration I seriously doubt that it can be applied to dog bite cases in the future. [b]

I was able to find out a little info on my own. I thought the blue colored dobies were something new but I guess they've been around since something like 1900. And the skin problems that I'm seeing on these guys is probably something called 'Blue Doberman Syndrome'. I can't remember the actual name for the disease but it causes hair loss and bad skin, and is most common in the blues.

I'll agree whole heartedly that the dog owner should be charged, espescially since the dogs had previously attacked another kid. The dogs should (and probably will) be destroyed. Having lived in very rural areas myself I know first-hand how brazen some dog packs get when unsupervized and allowed to 'pack up'. I once lived in a little goldrush town in N. Calif where neighborhood dogs would often pack up and get into trouble. Not only that, but there are packs of feral dogs that live down in the ravines. They've probably been living there since the mining camp days, and they live off of deer and rabbits and such. One time I was actually hunted by a pack of them, and I've known other people who have been too. Lots of times these rural 'farm dogs' will go feral and in my opinion any dog headed down that path should be destroyed. Actually, to elaborate, not every feral dog will attack people but any feral dog with aggresive tendancies should be destroyed. I think that most rural areas have their own checks and balance systems. Yes, many people tend not to contain their dogs in any way. And no, animal control is not typically any help at all, if there even is an animal control department. But dogs that roam out onto neighboring properties, especially those that start harassing other animals or people, will typically get shot eventually. Although the dog owners are generally not held accountable, it's pretty much accepted that "If'n I see's yer dog on my farm, I's is gonna shoot 'im." And although that's not the way things should be, it is the way things are. But I guess you're already aware of all that. So going back to the article, in an ideal world the dog owner should be prosecuted although he may very well not. The dogs should be euthanized and I'm surprised someone else hadn't shot them yet if they actually were problem animals. Oh, and about that Rottie picture... I'm fairly certain that I've seen that shot before... somewhere. I'm thinking movie advertisement of some sort.

Wow, that really is ugly isn't it? You know I've never seen a Parm before, nor a Schuppeke for that matter. It kinda gives you the feeling of an overstock wholesale dump. Even better is the Exotics page: " EXOTICS AVAILABLE POSTINGS" "We can get you whatever you want and fast depending on availability most mammals breed spring to early summer please do your research before getting what you think you want we are here to assist you we want you to be 100% satisfied with your decision. " What a novel idea, we can make foxes, macaws, and best of all MONKEYS available to the casual internet shopping buffoon!

I don't know if I'm using the correct terminology. A zip line (?) is what folks use as a decoy when they run their coursing dogs. Basically a plastic bag attached to a cable that's run along a bunch of pulleys. I'm somewhat mechanically inclined but I need alot of specifics. I'm going to try emailing some breed and racing clubs and see if I get a reply. I don't really mind her chasing after birds really, but I do not want her to suddenly think it would be a pretty good idea to go for Fred and see what happens. Of course Fred doesn't fly and therefore wouldn't be any fun to chase across the house so maybe I'm just being dumb.

You know I think luck has everything to do with it. Some folks will only just get near a dog for the first time in their lives and be horribly mauled for it. And then others of us will be subject to numerous animal assaults throughout their lives and come out relatively unscathed. They're just lucky like that.

Zoey's done it again this morning, a little sparrow buzzed past her and she took off after it. I'm starting to think that this isn't necassarily a predatory habit, I'm pretty sure that she could have had this one if she wanted it. Maybe it's more of just a chasing thing, and now that I think about it some more maybe Zoey thinks she playing a game with the birds. We do also have a cockatoo that she's quite fond of, maybe the yard birds are her friends. Yeah, well I think Zoey is trying to fulfill a need to chase things. She can't really chase after China, ol' porkchop is far too slow for Zoey. So does anyone know how to build a zip line? You know, the sort they use for coursing trials?

[quote=The way I see it, we're playing Mother Nature deciding how our dogs should look like and sound like. Unless its for health reasons, IMO, I wound't do it.[/quote] The whole tinkering around with Mother Nature is kind of a moot point don't you think? I mean the basis of selective dog breeding is outside of nature's design, there are only a hanfull of breeds out there that have any sort of a natural morphology. Just look at Bulldogs for a prime example, an animal that cannot regularly give birth unassisted is far far from anything natural. I'm not trying to be critical, I'm just raising the point that there are better reasons not to have unnecessary surgery performed on your pet. A better reason is to not increase exposure to anestesia risks. On a side note, back home in Calif we had a client who came to our clinic to have his dogs debarked. He bred beagles, and I don't know that you could call him a mill breeder because I think think he kept more puppies than he sold. Anyway about once or twice a year he would come in to have a handful of puppies debarked. A shame really, the dogs weren't problem barkers, the guy just wanted to save himsalf the trouble of having the possibility of loud beagles. The vet I worked for was by far the best in the area (outside UC Davis), but he could be rather unscrupulous at times.

AAPUP is right, take him to his vet to rule out the possibility of a medical issue first. If nothing's medically wrong make an appaointment with a behavioralist.

LOL, I'll have to keep that in mind if my girls ever decide to scrap again. There was only one time they got into a fight with eachother. I still don't know what it was about, but my instant reaction was to pick my boot up and bounce it off of both their craniums. That seemed to do the trick, and the funny thing is that neither of them would be caught dead in the same room as the other for a week after that. Just like a couple of adolescent girls.

Horses of any sort are criminally insane and cannot be trusted. Maya is a very smart dog for recognizing that and looking out for her mom. Good girl, Maya!!!

Gah!!! Do not feed chicken bones to your dog!!! They are easily broken up by a dog's jaws and the resulting chunks offer an icreased probability of a dog choking. Also large undugested chunks of bone sitting around in a dog's stomach can make them ill. Chicken bones that have been cooked are even worse, they can slinter into jagged pieces which can really mess up a dog's insides. I personally don't believe in raw food diets for my dogs for the same reasons that I don't eat raw commercial meats. But if you're going to give Ares bones, I'd suggest using raw beef bones. Far safer than chicken bones.