Youre asking for a slap with a big stick, but not a heavy one!!

Without wanting to get embroiled in an argument... I'm sure I remember seeing one of your BTs carrying a crow nearly the same size as the dog!

Surely, going by your argument, if YOU wanted it, YOU should have gone to collect it??

And yet, your dog seemed perfectly happy carrying such a large bird!

But this is theb point DAWN !!! I'm not telling you to like them, I'm not telling you to use them.

I'm arguing against your ignorance, that we all seem to MAKE our dogs do something they don't like

Actually, my dogs NEVER get excited at the lead and never have, and I've stated that before on other threads, one just recently in fact.

MY dogs DO get excited when they are ALREADY on the lead, and they see the working harness or the back pack come out, totally different scenario, when they are ALREADY OUT and already been walked !

Although no doubt you will have a theory for that too !!


Kirsty, I never said ALL large breeds, I said Large'r breeds, read my post properly.

Do you know how much a Crow weighs? A couple pounds at the maximum, probably less, and of course Border Terriers were bred to kill and DRAW quarry much heavier than themselves. Drawing is bringing the killed quarry up from underground. Added. A dog Fox will usually weigh as much as a Border bitch, if not more.

Norty Kirsty!!

Ignorance? Like mals were bred to carry??? and if I am ignorant to these backpacks, you go read every single place that sells them and come back and tell me they KNOW what they are selling, and they DONT state rubbing, and injuries can occur.

I can read it perfectly fine thanks!

Your exact words were:

Larger breeds can carry upto 30%, that is the norm, for heavy work.

At no point did you write some, therefore it is perfectly reasonable to assume you meant all 'larger' breeds

Oh yeah they're built for work! They've got some stamina that's for definite! Just that I'm aware that they were built for different work.

That said, I'd only ever put little light objects in it anyway so can't say it doing them any damage. Think I may consult a vet or dalmatian club rep first though to be sure

This thread isn't about them being misold or quoted wrongly Dawn

I never said anything about what the webistes states !

I am objecting to YOU stating that we all MAKE our dogs do something they (in YOUR opinion) don't like doing, therefore forcing them !

Kirsty, it's not perfectly reasonable to assume anything. By reading into things that are not written, it will causes problems as you well know. Just read what IS there, instead of what isn't.

Oh I agree however I don't feel that companies can give a blanket weight as it would depend entirely on the dogs construction/fitness etc. Although I know Mals are capable of carrying 30% of their bodyweight when trained & fit I would not dare to presume all dogs could. In fact I have never so much as put a backpack on my Aussie and if I did I would not ask him to carry 30% of his bodyweight as his construction is obviously different to the Mals. The Malamute club have obviously done their research into how much Mals can be expected to carry but I doubt many other breeds have, especially if they are not used to this type of work.

If a dog was bred to carry weights (ie. rottweilers) i see no problem in using these things, providing the weights are increased gradually and a suitable limit is not exceeded (but god knows what that suitable limit is!).. the thing is, there has been no research into the long-term effects of this.. or even the short term effects. in the majority of cases i'm sure using backpacks is fine, but with slight/small breeds of dog i just wouldn't risk using one. If it's a form of excercise that works for the dog, and it's done properly then i'm sure it's fine, but for my dogs, there are many other forms of excercise that they enjoy, and i'm sure would prefer, to backpacking..