Living With Dogs (3 page)

The Petcare Information and Advisory Service (PIAS) in each state runs a free ‘Selectapet’ computer programme, which will match up your needs and lifestyle with an appropriate breed. People are given a questionnaire and asked to give answers on their present accommodation, how much exercise and grooming they are prepared to give the dog each day, the amount of time it would be required to spend on its own, the weekly budget for food, and whether it is required to guard the property. The replies are then matched with the characteristics of different breeds and the person is given a choice of four suitable breeds, together with breed cards illustrating and describing the dog.

The breed alternatives are presented with the following salutary advice:

If you make the wrong selection you will never be happy with the dog, and it’s no good abandoning the animal six months later and leaving it to the local pound or RSPCA to solve your wrong choice. Some people give away unwanted dogs, and some just dump them. They may push the dog out of the car on a deserted country road after dark, or simply leave the back gate open on purpose and then make no effort to go and find the dog. However it’s done, dumping is an offence under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, which says that a person is guilty of cruelty if he or she ‘abandons an animal of a species usually kept in a state of confinement or for a domestic purpose’. The penalty is a $14,000 fine or 12 months’ imprisonment.

It’s a crime against a dog to buy it as a puppy and then abandon it a few months later because it doesn’t suit you any more. Dogs are almost entirely dependent on humans and, when you dump them, there’s no certainty that their dependency will be met. That’s where the cruelty is involved.

The RSPCA alone has to put down about 1000 animals a week in Australia, and most of those deaths are caused by people selecting the wrong dog or failing to train their pets. If you make the wrong choice and you haven’t trained the dog, you may grow to dislike it intensely. The trigger for getting rid of it may be that it suddenly bites someone, so the owner has it destroyed or dumps it. Half of all the dogs brought in to the RSPCA will be destroyed because homes cannot be found for them.

Often when a dog bites it is displaying the inherent breed characteristics. For example, Corgis will bite because they are cattle dogs, and they nip cows. Bull Terriers were bred to fight other dogs, and it doesn’t take much for them to switch from gregarious buffoons to fighting mode. If a Bull Terrier kills a child it’s a tragedy, but, for me, part of the tragedy is that the dog’s owners failed to see the aggression inherent in the breed and take precautions to prevent it. If I owned a Rottweiler or a Pit Bull Terrier, I could never say it’s so well-bred that it will never attack another dog, or a human. How the dog fits into the wider society is the true test of its behaviour and how well socialised it is, not how it reacts to its owner.

People often complain about the yapping of terriers, but that is a characteristic of the breed. Terriers are earth dogs bred to flush out foxes and other animals from their dens. They are sharp and alert and you must expect them to dig in the garden and to bark or yap, which is their alerting mechanism.

Dogs are often selected on the basis of the owners’ views of themselves. The tizzy blonde with dripping jewellery will always have a Poodle. The small, muscular bloke wearing a blue singlet and covered with tattoos always has a Bull Terrier at the end of his arm. The moustachioed police-inspector types are heavily into Dobermanns and Rottweilers. German Shepherds are usually owned by people who want to be dominant. The longer you work in veterinary practice, the more you see that these truisms are supported by reality.

Roughly half the dogs in Australia are cross breeds, and they can be just as good companions as pure breeds. There is a genetic tendency for a cross breed to have the good points of both breeds, and you get what is called ‘hybrid vigour’, a result of mixing the narrower gene pool of each of the breeds. One result is greater longevity, and another is that you often end up with a healthier animal, because you avoid many of the genetically inherited complaints which are specific to a particular breed. For instance, poodles have breed-specific problems with their eyes, mouths, hearts and knees. If you cross a poodle with another breed, the puppy that results will probably not have these faults to such a degree. The main difference with a pure breed is that you acquire predictable looks, temperament and behaviour; the same predictability does not occur with cross breeds.

In the early 1980s Guide Dogs Victoria commenced a breeding program crossing a Labrador with a Standard Poodle hoping to produce a healthy guide dog of even temperament and low coat shedding. This hybrid cross became known as a Labradoodle and soon became a popular choice as a pet dog. Other hybrid crosses followed such as the Groodle (Golden Retriever – Standard Poodle) and smaller types Spoodle (Miniature Poodle – Spaniel), Cavoodle (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel – Miniature Poodle) and the very popular Maltese – Miniature Poodle. A survey in 2007 concluded that hybrid cross dogs were 10 per cent of the pet dog population in Australia.

Most of these hybrids are medium-sized, bright, intelligent, healthy dogs with a consistently good temperament. They are a welcome addition to the world of dogs available as pets.

When we buy a puppy we should give the decision just as much consideration as if we were buying a house or a car, but few people going to buy a puppy take along someone who knows about dogs. Make sure you look at the surroundings and how the puppy is presented; check that the dog is a minimum of eight weeks old and that it has the right certification.

Many dogs have congenital inherited defects, so when you go to buy the dog you should use your eyes, seek advice and don’t always trust what you’re told. German Shepherds, for instance, are well-known for having skeletal problems, and Dobermanns have spinal problems. Say you will buy the dog subject to a veterinary check. Victorian vets offer the ‘Vetcheck’ service, in which they will inspect a pup and give a written assessment for the normal consultation fee. Breeders are proud, competitive people, and they may not like it, but this is the age of consumerism. I’ve spent 30 years dealing with animals from shonky breeders.

Puppies show their temperament very quickly, and it’s there to be seen. They show it in the way they come up to you as a stranger. If they’re fearful, suspicious or don’t like to be handled — all signs of a poor temperament — don’t have anything to do with them. If you do, you’re buying trouble. It’s often the people who buy the dogs with poor temperaments who give up on them.

A responsible dog breeder plans each pregnancy and knows that there is enough demand for their puppies to ensure they will all go to good homes.

Ask the breeder if this pregnancy was planned, how many litters the mother has already had (six should be the maximum over her whole life), and what they will do with any unsold puppies (a good breeder will hang on to them until the right home can be found).

It’s really important that you visit the puppy in the place where it was born and meet its mum (and dad too, if he’s around).

• Check whether the place is clean and there is enough space for the puppies and adult dogs to move around and exercise and there are things for the pups to chew on and play with.
  

• Ask what the puppies are fed and how often. A good breeder will provide information on how to feed your puppy before you take it home.
  

• Ask about health checks, worming and vaccinations, and what documents will come home with your puppy. A good breeder will make sure all puppies have a full veterinary health check and are microchipped, vaccinated and treated for worms and fleas before they are sold, and will provide you with records of these treatments.
  

• Watch how the puppies and the adult dogs in the home behave — are they friendly with people and other dogs? A good breeder will make sure the puppies and breeding dogs are friendly and well-socialised.
  

If the breeder is reluctant for you to visit, or wants you to meet the puppy in another place, find another breeder. Puppy farms will often use a house as a ‘shop front’ so you don’t get to see the poor conditions they breed dogs in. Don’t buy a puppy from a pet shop or through an internet or newspaper advertisement without being able to visit its home, as you can’t check out the conditions in which the puppy was bred or know where it came from.