sandgrubber

There's an interesting thread going on why health testing isn't mandatory. Following from that thread, it strikes me that even before health testing, KC's should be keeping records of age of death and cause of death. In reading a pedigree, I would much rather know whether there were patterns of early death from cancer, or long lives, or much euthanasia for behavioral problems, than whether hip or elbow Xrays were good. I know the Finnish KC has begun recording mortality data, but I don't know of any other clubs that do so. Why are these records not kept?

The efficacy of tests also needs to be considered. If the incidence of cataracts that can't be detected by DNA test is, say 3% in some breed, and there is no known incidence of juvenile cataracts in some breeder's lines, I would say that breeder might be justified in skipping annual opthamology screening. If you go to offa.com, you'll see that some small breeds have high radiographic incidence of HD / OCD . . . but very low clinical manifestation of hip or elbow problems. I can understand why the relevant breed clubs seldom require hip and elbow scoring. The seriousness of the disease is also relevant. Before there was a DNA test for Exercise Induced Collapse, there were thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of Labradors who were affected, in genetic terms, but lived their entire lives without any clinical signs. As genetic tests multiply, we need to think carefully about what we require, and need to begin putting pressure on providers to bundle tests. I would not like to end up with a situation where one had to submit 20 different DNA tests for 20 different conditions, and keep records for all of them...and explain all the results to each prospective puppy buyer.

http://actavet.vfu.cz/pdf/200776030431.pdf Interesting review article: discusses some interesting studies Genetics of Canine Behavior Abstract Houpt K.A.: Genetics of Canine Behavior. Acta Vet. Brno 2007, 76: 431-444. Canine behavioral genetics is a rapidly moving area of research. In this review, breed differences in behavior are emphasized. Dog professionals’ opinions of the various breeds on many behavior traits reveal factors such as reactivity, aggression, ease of training and immaturity. Heritability of various behaviors – hunting ability, playfulness, and aggression to people and other dogs – has been calculated. The neurotransmitters believed to be involved in aggression are discussed. The gene for aggression remains elusive, but identifi cation of single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with breed-specifi c behavior traits are leading us in the right direction. The unique syndrome of aggression found in English Springer Spaniels may be a model for detecting the gene involved.

Returning to the if clause in the OP . . . I can't imagine circumstances in which I could not get a purebred dog. May that day never come.

toxicity depends on dosage. I'm sure you could poison a dog with pure tea tree oil. My guess is the amount of the relevant chemical compounds in shampoo, and the fraction of that amount that actually gets into your dog's systems, is so low that it can be ignored. I wouldn't worry about toxicity, only ab out whether it is doing what you want from a shampoo.

Alternatively, use a hot wire for a few weeks. That will be enough to teach the dogs. Then leave the wire up and remove the juice. It cannot be illegal to have a wire up if it isn't electrified. My dogs won't go near electric fence wire, hot or not. When it's installed near the ground to prevent digging it's not very conspicuous, and probably won't be reported.

Mine tend to either go for the feet, or lie with butt toward my head. I've always figured this had something to do with avoiding disturbance by arms when I toss and turn. Sometimes they start out with head close in, but then migrate out of the arm zone.

I, and many others on rural properties, have successfully stopped pups from digging under fences by setting up a single strand of electric fence about 15m mm above the ground, close enough to the fence that they cannot approach the base of the fence without getting zapped. This is probably illegal where you live, but if your fence is solid, it would be inconspicuous. After being zapped a couple times, mine don't even approach the base of the fence.

My puppy is an idiot because she will try to eat anything that falls on the kitchen floor. She got pretty far along on a Jalapeno pepper before realizing it bites back. Then she barked at it.

Kidney malfunction? If so, you need a vet, not a chiro.

Most dogs seem to have a favorite toy. The most recent in my household came from an op-shop. It was once a T-Rex, maybe 150 mm long. The dogs have been enjoying it for about five months. It's not clear to me why they like this so well, but they keep coming back to it. What charming oddities have your pooches been working on?

My dog is a dope because she goes out the doggie door at night, and then barks at the front door to get let back in. How many times do I have to walk her around to the doggie door before she gets it?

If you remove a tick from your dog, what do you do with it? I throw them in the toilet and flush. I remember reading somewhere that this was bad, but can't remember why. I have a septic tank, and I can't imagine they breed in septic tanks. The idea of putting them in a jar of alcohol or something grosses me out. Burning them seems sadistic, and it's a bother to do. How do you do with this problem?

before reacting, it would be useful to know more about the nature of the report. Does the Strait Times have a good reputation? or an axe to grind? Given the widespread popular appetite for perversion and gore, if the report is true, I'd expect that it would have received widespread international coverage in mainstream media.

Hit a non-meaty version with a hammer. If it squishes or breaks it's not hard. If it clunks, it's hard. Alt, if the white stuff is more than a couple mm thick, it's probably going to be hard.

This can backfire. If the water crazy dog likes to jump on other dogs in the water it will scare the bejezus out of him. One of my pups has turned her mother, who used to love swimming, into a very hesitant swimmer. I wish my pups were more afraid of water. Most of them dig in the water bowl, making a big mess.

Sugar gliders are widely available in Florida. They're not expensive, eg:. http://gainesville.craigslist.org/pet/4226682437.html ($100) But then, so are dozens of bird and reptile species, not to mention arachnids. The exotic animal market seems to have been hit hard by the great recession. Macaws, African greys, etc., regularly show up in our equivalent of Gumtree. So sad, given how long these birds live and how badly messed up they get in captivity. Fennec's would be a disaster in Oz . . . being native to hot desert, if they got loose they'd thrive in the interior. In the US they'd just be one more small predator.

Seems to me the possible downside to advertizing is that in the longer term it may bring on market mechanisms Advertizing generates demand. Increased demand may allow breeders to bring their prices up to the high levels commercial dog breeders charge, whereupon breeding becomes profitable, and there will be an incentive to breed more, which will, in the long term, drive prices down. The good side, hobby breeders take greater market share and puppy quality increases (hopefully): the bad side, hobby breeders get more commercial. I guess economists would call that a correction. The inferior product costing more is, in theory, an unstable situation, waiting to be corrected.

My understanding is that the diagnosis of epilepsy requires ruling out other causes . . . the blood tests help do that but do not show positive signs of epilepsy. As others have said, if your dog responds well to medications, epilepsy is easily managed with pills. The meds are cheap. The blood work to make sure the medication level is right can be fairly expensive.

Oh wow, great information. Thank you Did they say sweet potato also caused the same issues as normal potato? I didn't ask about that sorry, so no idea (we decided in that consult to substitute with pumpkin). Mind you, she was talking about dogs the clinic specializes in, with multiple allergy issues. A healthy dog can tolerate a wider range of foods no doubt. Hardly surprising. Lots of "grain free" dogfoods have been released in the last few years. Prior to that, most dogs had little contact with sweet or normal potatoes. Potato eaten with skins on is a reasonably good source of potassium; sweet potatoe is rich in several nutrients. So they do have some mild advantages over grains, in theory. But I doubt dogs are often deficient in the nutrients (vitamins, minerals, amino acids) that they supply. Mostly they're a source of starch, like grains. You manage the toxin issue by not using green potatoes . . . same as making mashed potatoes. Green potatoes are toxic to humans too. The big food processors have procedures in line to avoid green spuds.

Mildly guarded yes. Dogs love the marrow and will quickly get that out of a soup bone, especially if it's cut short (say less than 100 mm). Some get too enthusiastic and may chip a tooth. So watch what your guy does. If he's highly energetic about chewing the hard outer part and seems to be chomping down on it hard with his molars, I'd take it away.

I take two Labradors with a recumbent trike. The younger (4) pulls quite a bit of the time and sets the pace. The old girl (9) has no trouble keeping up. We only go a few km and don't go very fast.

That requires a lot of flying blind. The epigenetic switching of the agouti gene in mice (resulting in higher frequency of obese, yellow mice) seems to be triggered by one chemical used in plastics manufacture . . . not a food (see http://www.nature.co...-regulation-927). The problem , if there is one, could come in the water or the air, or in everyday objects we thought were benign, or through exposure to UV light, or from a pathogen, or from being too hot or too cold as a neonate, or who knows what else, not just food. Feeding BARF? Could be that something in the slaughterhouse that processes the chooks could be a switch. Who knows. Found a good reasonably recent review article that can be downloaded free and is fairly understandable Lucia Daxinger and Emma Whitelaw. Transgenerational epigenetic inheritence: More questions than answers Genome Res. 2010 December; 20(12): 1623–1628.

I've often heard that said, but have not been able to find references. Any idea who did the study(ies) and/or where it/they is published? Dr Jeff Craig looks at how and what turns genes on and off in humans using twin studies. Here's the reference we should probably be using . . . but would have to pay for it and it would be hard slogging. Nat Rev Genet. 2012 Jan 31;13(3):153-62. doi: 10.1038/nrg3188. Understanding transgenerational epigenetic inheritance via the gametes in mammals. Daxinger L, Whitelaw E. Author information Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Herston, Queensland 4006, Australia. Abstract It is known that information that is not contained in the DNA sequence - epigenetic information - can be inherited from the parent to the offspring. However, many questions remain unanswered regarding the extent and mechanisms of such inheritance. In this Review, we consider the evidence for transgenerational epigenetic inheritance via the gametes, including cases of environmentally induced epigenetic changes. The molecular basis of this inheritance remains unclear, but recent evidence points towards diffusible factors, in particular RNA, rather than DNA methylation or chromatin. Interestingly, many cases of epigenetic inheritance seem to involve repeat sequences.

I'm aware of the mouse studies, but seems to me that people have overgeneralized from them. It's a long leap to go from a few studies of rodents to supposing that commercial foods or vaccines are causing disease via epigenetic mechanisms. This article is critiquing use of epigenetics to explain mental illness in humans . . . but similar arguments apply (though it's pretty hard to study identical twins with dogs). To my knowledge no one has found a smoking gun linking a specific epigenetic change to a specific disease (or allergy) in dogs. http://www.wiringthebrain.com/2013/01/the-trouble-with-epigenetics-part-1.html http://www.wiringthebrain.com/2013/01/the-trouble-with-epigenetics-part-2.html