well I'm stuffed then I guess

I'm not far off emigrating to Australia...

I have a friend from Oz who had several dogs when out there. Not sure which part she was from though.
Good luck in your move :)

So you mean he didn't even have the excuse that he needed to stop his dog, he inflicted pain on his dog for the purpose of a demonstration?  I didn't think it was possible for me to dislike the man more than I did already. Seems I may have been wrong.

Yes, I feel the same. And he gets a nice wad of money for what he does. 

it is very easy to make a negative asociation for a dog so if you don't get the timing bang on then that association is likely to be transfered to other things aswell.  So what if that negative association is transfered to something else that happens to be near at the time,  a bang that goes off or another dog or person/owner or just being outside.

Yes, also people and places and objects....this tends to happen more with the higher levels which is why avoidance training, if it is to be done at all, should be done very carefully and by an "expert". I think I gave a link a while ago when this was discussed to a dog (think it was a JRt) who associated the group of people nearby when it was zapped at avoidance training to agility crowds and it could then not go on and do agility, it was also not afraid of snakes sadly, if I recall it died from snake bite :(

>Speaking personally, I don't think I'd buy a dog if I lived in a place which was actually known for having many snakes (ie snakes whose venom would be very likely to kill a dog). I don't think it would be fair and it would be indulging my passion at the expense of the dogs, who would risk dying an unpleasant death just because I fancied having them

Snakes are a part of life in Australia :( They are in the city,suburbs and rural areas!Obviously more so in the last 2 areas. Snakes are in the forefront of my mind every time i take my dogs for a walk.This year alone i've seen 3(all deadly),they're unfortunately unavoidable,unless you restrict your walks along the street,and even then you cant be 100% safe :(
I'm not saying there's hundreds of them slithering around the place,you can go years without seeing one,some people never see one,but the chances are high that if you walk your dogs in parks or fields in the summertime that you will see a snake.