I'm posting this message by anon because I don't want flames coming to my
personal mail box.  If you want to flame please do so through the list so
everyone may read your comments.
 
Basically this is over nose thumping and in general discipline when it
comes to your animals.  I can understand that noses are a soft sensitive
part, I've also learned through pre-vet school that if a dog for example
is hit too hard on the nose it can knock them out.  There are forms of
discipline that are harsh and forms that my ferrets look at me and think
I'm having fun.  Scruffing is right up there with 'ya whatever'.
 
Scruffing works on the ferrets that are already trained.  The problem that
I have is the ones that come to me that are biters.  If I get biten, they
get a flick, if they open there mouth to bite and just happen to miss, they
get flicked.  As far as I know it's like a human child gets a smack on the
bum.  And if a human was to bite me I'd knock them on there nose as well.
 
When I first acquired a ferret I learned that the nose was one of the only
things that worked - I would highly reccommend not smacking there bums
because of the chance of internal injury on such a little thing.  I didn't
have access to the FML or others that had ferret info besides the books.
But discipline is discipline and sometimes smacking is needed.
 
[WS]
[Posted in FML issue 2657]