DogsAndTheMob

Some beautiful colours in dogs and other animals may be associated with illness and discomfort. I’m saddened when aesthetic appeal is given priority over the animal’s wellbeing. I occasionally see dogs which look like homozygous Merle koolies, with extreme white colouring and pink eye-rims. They usually look uncomfortable in bright sunlight. I have seen a few with micropthalmia of one eye.

https://embarkvet.com/resources/embark-introduces-merle-coat-color-testing/ These details on Merle genetics are fascinating. I’ve seen a few genetically Merle border collies that appeared to be black and white, at least at a casual glance. This explains why.

Let’s take the discussion on Merle Poms out of the lost dog discussion. It seems that the decision to add the Merle colour to the AKC breed standard for Pomeranians was controversial. https://www.thedogpress.com/ClubNews/Tail-Wags-Dog_Coats-109.asp I don’t think it was a good decision. It is feasible that the gene was present in the breed, masked by the ee phenotype and other pale colours, but that in itself is an argument against approving it. The presence of a gene that is harmful in the homozygous form but can be masked by other coat colours in the heterozygous form is a recipe for problems. In breeds like collies, there is a longtime understanding that breeding Merle to sable is a bad idea. However, sub-setting breeds into separate populations based on colour exacerbates any inbreeding and population size concerns within the breed.

Not necessarily. Merle is an allowed colour for Pomeranians under the American Kennel Club breed Standard. https://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/pomeranian/ https://images.akc.org/pdf/breeds/standards/Pomeranian.pdf But very probably, yes. Whatever breeds she is, my heart goes out to her and to her owners. I hope she has been or very quickly will be returned to her owners.

I worked in a (human) allergy testing laboratory in the 2000s. The science may have moved on but at that time gut issues were considered to be quite distinct from the allergies that caused skin and respiratory symptoms. Allergies causing skin and respiratory symptoms were thought to be triggered by proteins whereas gut sensitivities were more often triggered by an inability to digest sugars (such as lactose or fructose) or by other health problems. Skin allergy testing only looked for the triggers causing skin and respiratory symptoms.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there were links between colours and behavioural traits. Genes determine the sequence of amino acid s in proteins and proteins can have multiple functions, either directly or as precursor proteins. It is feasible that a gene could code both for a colour, colour dilution or absence of colour and for some neurological or endocrine trait that affects behaviour. After all, there are known links between colour genes and health or anatomical abnormalities, such dilute blue and alopecia, homozygous Merle and micropthalmia, and extended white and deafness. It’s a long time since I’ve read Horse Colour Explained by Jeanette Gower, but that book has a lot of interesting information on associations between colour genetics and health in horses. I can’t say that I’ve noticed a linkage between colour and behaviour in dogs, but it seems to me that long coated dogs often tend to be more mellow in temperament than short coated dogs, even within the same breed or closely related breeds. Of course, that might be because their softer appearance prompts people to treat them differently, causing different environmental conditioning.

This is what I would do in your situation… Join the Border Collie club of NSW and volunteer to help out at their events, Spend several months going to (and maybe volunteering at) Obedience trials, Agility trials and conformation shows. Look at the Border Collies there to see what you like and don’t like about the breed and individual dogs. Look at the event catalogues to find who bred the dogs you like. Talk to Border Collie owners at these events (if/when they are willing to talk with you) to find out their experiences with their dogs. Be polite and patient. Many people enjoy talking about their dogs but they will be at these events to compete, not to talk to you. Remember that their dogs were not born trained. Go to local dog training clubs and talk (politely and patiently) to owners there. This will give you an opportunity to meet dogs in training and pet owners with their border collies. When you’ve identified breeders whose dogs you like and who perform the required health testing, consider getting an adult dog. No one can adequately assess the suitability of a 8 week old puppy for a specialist role such as assistance dog work. Breeders sometimes need to rehome lovely adult dogs; they will have a much better idea whether these dogs are suitable for assistance dog training.

I think the video included in this news item shows two different dogs. The dog shown in most of the images is a short-backed dog with white toes. The dog seen in a CCV image being held by a woman after it killed her cat, Penelope, is a long-backed dog without white toes.

I hope the council is completely transparent in providing information on how many dogs were symptomatic, how many dogs were titre-tested to check their immunity and how many were euthanised for convenience, cost-saving or “just in case”. Although I accept that difficult decisions sometimes need to be made, I find it difficult to believe that none of the 21 dogs had protection from previous vaccination.

This article says that the company is also working on an anti-aging drug for dogs “of most sizes”. https://www.dvm360.com/view/a-clinical-trial-is-launched-for-a-novel-drug-that-could-extend-healthy-lifespan-in-senior-dogs

That’s a very pertinent observation! I skimmed the paper and had some concerns but didn’t consider that. Data for dogs whose vegan diets were discontinued due to health problems would have been excluded whereas the data for dogs who had a change in diet within the other very broad dietary categories would have been included. I noticed that the measure on veterinarian’s opinion is based on the dog’s “guardian’s” reports of their vet’s opinion rather than direct interviews with veterinarians. I wouldn’t consider that scientifically convincing. The data on number of veterinary visits is split into two categories - one visit vs two or more visits - for analysis. Splitting it into such broad categories is not good science because it’s often done when a more detailed analysis doesn’t produce statistical significance. Basically, the analysts can look at the various splits (1 vs more than one; 2 vs more than 2 etc) and find the split that gives the result they want.

I agree. Owners of all dogs need to take responsibility and I have no respect for anyone who lets their dog - big or little - annoy other people and dogs. However, as a lifelong owner of large dogs, I’m aware that they could easily cause severe injury, even by a friendly and overly exuberant greeting. I’d rather have a neighbour with a roaming dog that weighed 5 kg than one with a roaming dog that weighed 30kg.

As an aside, if you are thinking of getting two dogs, be aware that a lot of experienced dog people say that male dogs often make a lot of noise when fighting, but female dogs may do a lot more damage. My very limited experience of dog fights supports this.

That’s been my experience too. My mother and I raised littermates in the same home - twice. All four earned high level Obedience titles, including one Obedience Championship. I suspect that the littermate bond wouldn’t be a problem in a lot of pet homes. Busy families might be happy to have dogs that can entertain themselves by playing together.

This is from memory because I can’t find the original info…Back in the 60s and 70s, guide dog organisations sometimes placed two puppies from the same litter into the same home to be raised. When the puppies came back for evaluation and training, they found that those puppies had a higher failure rate than puppies that had been placed in homes separately from all their littermates. They hypothesised that puppies placed with littermates became so bonded to their littermates that they didn’t relate well to people.