sandgrubber

Yes that's another rock that needs to be turned over. I'm sure if someone with the right skills set into it, a show focusing on DD's and puppy mills could balance the exposure of pedigree dogs. (Not sure about X-breeds. In my experience X-breeds are all over the map. I've never met a Lab X kelpie that I didn't like, or, for that matter, one with HD. Commercial X-breeding feeding pet shops is another story.) But the problems with pedigree dogs bred and managed to win shows require exposure. And some in the show community have a snobbish sort of nastyness that invites wrath. My mum (b. 1923) was raised in Minnesota with working style cocker spaniels. She regarded the AKC American Cocker Spaniel as an abomination.. . ruined temperament and all too pretty/fussy. Also, the collie, that was, even by the 1950s, narrow skulled and no longer bright, like Lassie. I was raised to believe that show breeding was ruining various breeds. My observations tend to justify the prejudice I was raised with, and extend it. Bassets are lovely dogs. But it's so sad that they've gotten so bulky that many can't mate naturally . . . and back problems are very common; or that entropian is the norm with shar peis. Sick that people are soooo keen on winning shows that they would take a partially haired crestie and wax it. And it makes me want to cry that so many of the gentle giants live short and painful lives. I think a lot of dog lovers carry around observations/ prejudices like the ones I was brought up with . . . hence the 'Pedigree dogs exposed' has a big audience.

I get about 18 inches of a queensize bed. I don't know why the damn dogs insist on lying crosswise rather than longwise and putting their bums to my face.

It's hard to separate prejudice from 'expectations'. Here are some residual thoughts form running a boarding kennel for several years: I have positive prejudices toward all gun dogs and feel hurt when they don't justify my expectations (friendly, willing to please). I expect them (espec. Labbies and Goldies) to be awful diggers, and if not well trained, to jump up on people. GSP's are often hard to get in at night and can be noisy. I am cautious of guarding breeds when they may have something to guard, and some are hard on other dogs. I am cautious of terriers, bull breeds, and a few other types when it comes to interacting with other dogs . . . years of working in a boarding kennel tells me that some are fine and some aren't. Herding breeds are often great (apart from compulsive fetching) but tend to fence fight and may get bossy in ways that start non-lethal fights. I pretty much lost my prejudice against SWF's (little yappers) in the boarding kennel . . . most of them are great. Kelpies and staffies are the worst, when it comes to escaping. Kelpies go over. Staffies crowd doors. And of course, any 40 kg + is a problem if the dog isn't well behaved. Staffies are often lovable clowns. Staffy X = unpredictable. Greyhounds are sweeties, but not real bright. Afghans are like greyhounds, with a coat from hell.

We have this kind of dialogue in my house, regularly. MOVE!!!! . . . dog moves, reluctantly. Thank you! good girl! Scratch scratch / pat pat. I feel a little silly saying thank you to the dogs, but I can't help myself. And I think they've come to regard it as a reward, particularly for obeying commands they don't specially want to obey. Also seems good, if kids happen to be watching, to reinforce ideas of politeness. I avoid 'Please' . . . dogs understand commands but I think requests are confusing. How do others use polite words with dogs? Or am I just a little crazy?

sorry, I don't get this. I was raised in the US and spent many years in Australia. I have trouble with spelling differences between English dialects. If you use a dozen question marks, please provide an intelligible question. The point of the post was to help people direct one another to useful/interesting/fun blogs. Given the number of times I've overlooked what are blatant errors in spelling/usage in any English dialect, eg., 'there' for 'their' and 'its' for 'it's' on posts, I am inclined to take it personally when someone attacks for what is correct spelling of 'favorite' in US English . . . but I refrain from pointing my middle finger :D.

Maybe should pm but nothing to keep private. When I moved to WA, I was confused about whether WA-ers were sandgropers or sandgurbbers. They sound the same if you're from the USA, as I am. When I went to apply for a prefix, sandgroper was taken (no surprise), but sandgrubber was wide open. I see 'sandgrubber' as both descriptive of Perth area geography and a tribute to my ability to confuse words. I'm now in coastal California and TAS Fog's Edge, but for Australian purposes I'll remain sandgrubber. Believe me, if you've been exposed to Perth's economy, a lot of us are grubbing (-:

Does not belong on DOL. Full stop.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/10/1021_021021_dogswithjobs2.html Brooklyn Dog a Rising Star in New York Art Scene Sharon Guynup for National Geographic Channel October 21, 2002 Most of America's 68 million dogs are pampered pets, but a small percent still actually work for their biscuits. Among these gainfully employed canines, there's a range of occupations, from seeing-eye and guard dogs to sheep herders and hunting dogs. But artists? Tillie, a three-year-old Jack Russell terrier from Brooklyn is, according to her Web site, "the world's preeminent canine artist." She is indeed a rising star among visual artists on the New York City contemporary art scene. The 16-pound female, whose full name is Tillamook Cheddar (for the Oregon cheese she's so fond of), has seen her pictures hung in 12 exhibitions over the past three years, including six one-dog shows. She's made a dozen TV appearances—and the four-legged artist has sold about 100 pictures, with sales "in the five-figures." Tillie's abstract creations have been likened to modern masters Willem de Kooning and Cy Twombly. In her most recent show at the prestigious National Arts Club—entitled "Collarobations"—she created works with the controversial artist Tom Sachs, photographer Dirk Westphal, and 24 other humans. How Does a Dog Embark on an Art Career? Okay, so how exactly does a dog embark on an art career? It all began when Tillie was just a six-month-old pup. One day, her owner, freelance writer Bowman Hastie, was sitting on the couch writing on a legal pad. The dog jumped up and started scratching away at the pad. . . . and it goes on

I'm amazed by the quality of some of the K9 blogs out therre. Title says it all. Do you have a favorite dog blog? If so, please post,

Good pick! I think DOL needs to set up a pinned topic for good (or relevant . . . sometimes it's good to keep track of the anti-pedigree dog community) blogs.

I've tried the repellers . . . in a caravan, where they should have maximum effect. No effect on mice, whatsoever. Went back to traps. It's easy to put them in places where dogs won't put paws, like the back of a cupboard or next to the toaster.

Link to full article Interesting, start, but needs much more work to be convincing. I would have liked to see more description of Fox's studies of wolf behaviour, eg., description of where it was done under what circumstances. His work is ~ 40 years old . . . are his methods still considered valid? Do the wolves he studied reflect wolves as a whole? And more importantly, do they represent wolves as they existed before extensive environmental modification by Homo sapiens. I don't think you can characterize all French Bulldogs by observing four females interact in five one hour sessions. I find the group behaviour of Labradors varies considerably between breeders . . . don't know if this is due to genetics or environment. It's peculiar that he doesn't mention Balyaev's work with foxes which so strongly showed correlation between morphological and behavioural changes during domestication.

The Chinese Crested write up she did was laughable. Apparently I pour hot wax on my dog then rip it off... I have been told that's what I do so it must be true. I went and read the Chinese Crested article on her blog and I have to say, I find it convincing. see: http://pedigreedogsexposed.blogspot.com/2011/01/bald-truth-about-chinese-crested.html Her sources seem to come from the 'inside' . .. people talking about how to win shows . . . and I am pretty repulsed by the descriptions. You are being unfair. She does not say all Crestie people denude their dogs. She agrees that some are naturally hairless. If what she says is true, ie, the Crufts crowd includes many who do extensive hair removal before showing, I think it deserves attention. Conformation shows should be about conformation, not cosmetics, and hair removal on the scale she's talking about strikes me as cruel. While I don't buy Pedigree Dogs Exposed lock stock and barrel, there are a lot of things in the pedigree dog world as dominated by conformation showing that need examination and perhaps correction. It's routine for the journo who breaks a question open for examination in a big way is sensationalist. Over-reaction on the part of the pedigree dog world comes off as denial, and does more harm than good.

You can take the dog/wolf out of the environment but can you take the environment out of the dog/wolf? That is the balance we need to find, how much is inherently 'wolf' behaviour and how much is 'man made'. In the study I linked earlier there are very clear and quantifiable behaviours that correlate between dogs and wolves and correlate with alterations in morphology which have been influenced by artificial selection. A big ask! What if common behaviours between dog and wolf come from a common proto-wolf / proto-dog that is no longer available for behavioral study? I'm happy to buy into the notion the wolves have been more persecuted in Europe than North America. Has anyone seen comparative study of wolf behaviour, or, for that matter, morphology, on different continents? p.s. Anyone following this thread might want to read the article WoffnHoof posted in 'Studies About Dogs'.

This comes from Blog run by a guy who calls himself Retrieverman. It's an interesting take on the 'wolf behavior as model for dog behaviour' that lots of dog people subscribe to. . . . and an interesting blog. It seems to me that wolves have experienced a Belyaev [the fox domestication Russian] experiment in reverse. Persecution was a selection pressure against tameness and approachability, and the animals that survived the cull were largely those that were most nervous and emotionally reactive. It is so severe that many wolves won't cross roads. Roads and virtually anything else that appears novel are too much for them. This is one reason why it was found that many captive wolves won't eat beef. They were raised eating deer and elk, and beef is just too novel and too scary. Perhaps one of the reasons why these wolves are so nervous is that nervousness and paranoia are the result of a selection pressure that chooses wolves with shorter critical periods for socialization. Just as Belyaev selected for tameness and got longer critical periods, man could have selected for only those wolves that were paranoid and emotionally reactive– and this may be in some way correlated or associated with a shorter critical period. Maybe it goes like this: If you have a short critical period for socialization, one has only a limited opportunity to learn which things are safe, so almost everything else in the world is scary. Conversely, if you have a longer critical period, one can learn that more things aren't scary and one's brain develops very differently. Both of those courses of development would have profound influence on how one's brain would develop, and perhaps, it can explain many of the differences between dogs and wolves. . . . One part that is always missing in the wolf and dog comparison is the tendency to ignore the simple reality that wolves have continued to evolve after dogs were domesticated. The dog didn’t descend from the wolf running wild today, but both descend from a common ancestor. Both may be the same species, but that same species exists in two distinct populations. One has been selected by both nature and man to be very close to humans. The other has been selected to fear humans at all costs. The error is assuming that the latter has always been this way. from: http://retrieverman.wordpress.com/ . . .

oops . . . meant to put this on General . . . sorry

Hate to mention, but it's rare to have only one mouse.. . . where you've got one, you've probably got many. I keep traps set. I use the old fashion snap traps -- not the Chinese made ones, which I find impossible to set properly -- Victor traps made in the US are much easier to use. Peanut butter or Nutella for bait. Traps aren't kind, but the kill is almost instant, unlike poisons, where the poisoning process may take a week or more. (They do this deliberately. Rats are smart. If they see another rat eat something and keel over, the other rats avoid eating the stuff. So they make poisons that act so slowly that the rats can't associate the poison with the death). I catch one almost every night. My dogs are happy to dispose of the dead ones. Yum yum. Mouse with peanut butter!

Honestly, from the information provided, I'd say people are making a mountain out of a mole hill. Either side could have avoided the incident. If the boy just had marks on his face, I doubt he was seriously hurt. The dog owner deserves trouble for 'hit and run' behaviour. Some kids are hard to surpress . Some dogs are nippy. Many puppies jump up. Accidents will happen. I think it better to save our ire for cases where the dog attacks and shows inclination to do serious damage. Making a big fuss of it makes it more likely that the kid will be traumatised.

Whoa! Look at those dark eyes and nose! Wonderful contrast with her light colour. She's really sweet looking. I hope she's a good girl for you.

Someone posted a request for donations a few days back . . . I notice it isn't getting many viewings. Such an awful story. I know people are worn out by disaster reports, but I think this is a case where help may really do some good. The British woman braving Fukushima radiation zone to save abandoned quake dogs By Richard Jones Last updated at 12:48 AM on 29th May 2011 Comments (19) Add to My Stories Share They are the forgotten victims of the Japanese tsunami; the countless pets abandoned by their owners as they fled fallout from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant. But one British woman is braving the potentially lethal radiation levels to rescue animals left to die in the eerie ghost towns of the 12-mile evacuation zone. So far, 70-year-old Elizabeth Oliver, originally from Somerset, has saved 197 dogs and 17 cats from the area, which she enters wearing a protective suit and carrying a Geiger counter. Safe: Miss Oliver with a rescued pet in Osaka After the evacuation, residents were allowed back for two hours to collect essentials – but were told to leave pets tethered in front of houses, for authorities to collect. Yet in ten days, just 15 of an estimated 20,000 pets were picked up. Miss Oliver, who has lived in Japan for more than 40 years, said: ‘Even when animals are cut free they often refuse to leave their homes, believing their owners will return.’ One rescued dog is an English setter she named Frostbite. He was found wandering hungry in an area called Nami-cho. His owners had cut him loose so he could fend for himself, but he had become terrified and aggressive. Under Miss Oliver’s care he became gentle again. More... The Saga suicide squad: Dozens of pensioners prepare to risk their lives in Fukushima clean up Finally, the full truth about Fukushima? Japanese nuclear bosses admit meltdown of THREE reactors after tsunami She has now tracked down Frostbite’s owners – but they are still living in an evacuation centre, so their pet must remain in Miss Oliver’s Animals Rescue Kansai shelter in Osaka, more than 400 miles from the affected area. After animals arrive there, she advertises them for three months in an attempt to reunite them with their owners before putting them up for rehoming. During one visit to the evacuation zone, she encountered a particularly hellish scene: ‘I saw a farmer sitting amid the carcasses of nine horses that had starved to death. The 20 horses still alive were in appalling shape. Police had refused to let anyone back into the zone with feed.’ The farmer said he was going to kill them rather than let them starve, but Miss Oliver arranged for them to be rescued. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1391988/The-British-woman-braving-Fukushima-radiation-zone-save-abandoned-quake-dogs.html#ixzz1NwVCfB1M

Be cautious with Permoxin. It is a nerve poison, and will put some dogs into horrible seizures. I almost lost a girl after using a permoxin-based spot-on flea and tick medicine. I used it on two dogs. The one licked the other and bingo, the 'do not ingest' medicine got injested. She has had recurrent seizures thereafter and is now on phenobarbitol to prevent seizures.

I'm as bothered by people's haste to judge a vet based on little information as I am by the possibility of a vet recommending unnecessary surgery. Shame on those who cry shame. Early diagnosis and treatment is often better than letting it run and seeing if a problem develops. I agree, from what Ernie's said, it would be good to seek a second opinion . . . a wise move on most non-emergency major surgery. And I don't doubt that there are some vets who milk their clients by prescribing unnecessary surgery in the guise of prevention. But we don't know the facts here. Perhaps the pup IS symptomatic but the owners aren't skilled enough to see an altered gait that isn't a classical limp. In my experience, pups that hurt often don't limp, they simply avoid exercise. We don't know.

I was brought up to believe that fear of thunder is the same as gun shyness . . . and that it is hereditary. Can anyone confirm or contradict this? (I've got Labbies, ie, gun dogs . . . for some reason being gun shy is considered a serious fault).

Oops, double post. Sorry.

I find it interesting that Labbies are being used for rabbit hunting. I've always been amazed that my Labbies are uninterested in rabbits . . . though they love most rodents (eg, mice, and in the USA, gophers, and ground hogs). Guess that can be changed by training.