sandgrubber

I can't imagine the Swedes making it difficult for a hobby breeder who chooses to raise litters in the spare bedroom, and I don't think they regulate matters such as how many times a bitch can be bred. They do have some pretty strict regulations on 'professional breeders' (it looks like the rules for dogs are similar to those for livestock), and some rules you don't see in the US, UK or Oz, eg:" It shall be prohibited to own or breed dogs which: 1. are exceptionally aggressive; 2. are irritable and bite; 3. are difficult to restrain once they have started an attack; and 4. are inclined to direct their aggression at people or other dogs. Ordinance (see www.government.se/content/1/c6/09/03/10/f07ee736.pdf‎). I may be missing something, but I think Sweden's laws generally do help animal welfare without meddling deeply in hobby breeder's rights. Ok, there's docking of tails and ears, but that affects appearance only, not the essential parts of dog breeding.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of horses left in that stable. It's not unusual, around where inlive, to see a couple pitties chained in a yard and straining their chains to lunge at passers-by. Often there's a sign posted saying BAD DOG. (Could be other breeds too...but there are an awful lot of pit-types). I hope the owners of such dogs are getting a message. p.s. On my dog walks, I regularly run into an 85 yr old who lives next door to a pair of such dogs. He says they attacked him once, and he told the owner: " if I ever see dem runnin loose agin. I'm goin to git my shotgun". On the question of second degree murder vs manslaughter. I think manslaughter is pretty much kept for crimes of passion or stupidity. If you know your dogs can kill and you have been apprehended for dog attacks before, and you continue to willfully neglect to restrain them, then some judges will interpret it as second degree murder. Likewise, is increasingly common for drunk drivers who cause fatal accidents to be charged with murder.

There is nothing wrong with Bull breeds, what's wrong is the idiots who breed some of them for the wrong reasons. The Pitbull was a dog fighter not a protection dog, but some idiots along the way decided that they should be harmful to people so they bred duds that showed aggression in the wrong areas the way I see it evolve......so man made many Bull breeds into what they were never supposed to be, so what needs to be done IMHO is cull off these crap Bull breeds, get out the breed book and start breeding some proper ones who comply with the breed standards Pitbull's shouldn't be biting people, if they do......something isn't right in the bloodlines.......a friend of mine has 2 Pits both bullet proof with people and other dogs, but I have also seen some shockers too, maulings waiting to happen. I'm going to regret this.... I can see a one notion mind at work. Yes, genes are important.... but they are not alone in the mix which determines if an individual dog has a high risk or a low risk of aggression. What is required is attention to all the factors. MOREOVER breed does not precisely or fully predict the genes that affect behaviour. Yes, all breeds have tendencies, but all breeds also have exceptions to the norm, and many breeds have different norms depending on whether the lines are working or pet or show. You can find mean Labradors; and laid back JRT's. In many breeds there are crappy breeders who have allowed temperament to go to hell, eg, by breeding unstable or highly reactive dogs. Dogs from working lines, including guarding, herding, vermin control, and hunting (to name a few), may not be suited to the average suburban family, and at least some of the offspring are likely to become problematic without adequate investment in containment, training, and stimulation/exercise. Lines that have been bred more for pet/show purposes may be easier to keep and less prone to going nutso (often translates to' mean' if the dog's 'job' would require high drive and use of teeth) when they no longer have a 'job'. The fact that every breed includes individuals who exhibit different behaviours makes it important that breeders explicitly breed for temperament, and make it clear to puppy buyers what temperament they have bred for, and what sort of management their puppy is likely to require. It pisses me off that so many breeders simply say "wonderful temperament". Wonderful temperament for what? We need to describe temperament, not in terms of good and bad, but in descriptive terms, such as drive, biddability, etc. End of lecture. It sure is easy to get worked up about this topic.

so that argues calories restriction/being kept lean is positively associated with longevity, rather than a 'high quality' diet per se? I think that fits with what I am thinking - that not over-feeding is maybe the most important bit of diet thse days. Effects of diet restriction on life span and age-related changes in dogs Richard D. Kealy, PhD; Dennis F. Lawler, DVM; Joan M. Ballam, MS; Sandra L. Mantz; Darryl N. Biery, DVM, DACVR; Elizabeth H. Greeley, PhD; George Lust, PhD; Mariangela Segre, DSc; Gail K. Smith, DVM, PhD, DACVS; Howard D. Stowe, DVM, PhD An amazing study that followed 50+ Labs in controlled conditions over 12 years or so...the diet restricted group fared a lot better than the control groupl. p.s. I notice that the link above has gone 404. Try this one https://www.avma.org/News/Journals/Collections/Pages/AVMA-Collections-Obesity-in-dogs-summary.aspx

Good decision. I started out with one lab, then went to two, then to several, now I'm back at two. I'll never have only one again. Even if they're very people oriented, dogs like to talk dog, not to mention the little joys they get from playing mouthy games, licking ears, etc.! Sex matters a lot if you intend to breed. If you're desexing, not a big deal. Just go for good temperament and good health (find out all you can about diseases and age of death in ancestral bloodlines.

Hate to disillusion, but my Labbies have no interest in tennis balls (though they do love their tucker :)). I've known sweet tempered pit bulls. And couch potato JRTs. And aggressive Goldies. And ... Every breed has a range of temperaments, though there are breed tendencies; some of them quite strong. The existence of a range means traits can be bred up, or down. I wouldn't be surprised if the war dog mastiffs used in the settlement of the Americas to fight indigenous people and control slaves were, in some cases, bred down to be decent pets. You can this sort of thing hapening if you look at the two registries for the Fila braziliero. One registry demands extreme intolerance of strangers from early puppyhood, the other registry wants Brazil's national dog to be a breed suitable to family life. The breeds bred for guarding, fighting, and vermin hunting are prone to various attack behaviours, and too often come to bad ends due to the combination of high drive and owners who don't manage this well. Most likely result is not an attack in which someone gets hurt, but a dog that dies an accident in its early years, or is passed on to a shelter or a new owner, which may or may not result in a better situation. There are places for working guardian dogs, vermin dogs, etc. But breeders who specialize in breeds with strong drive should either be working to moderate that trait, or be careful to place pups in homes that are suited to the likely nature of the adult dog . . . or both. Unstable temperament is always bad, and should be treated like a genetic disease . . . in any breed.

I've always put wood rails in whelping boxes. I know others use broomsticks. Came across another solution on this site http://www.luggerlab...managepups.html (If you don't want to follow the link, she's used pvc pipe with elbows and drilled holes through the box to anchor the frame to the box). Looks easier to install / remove / store and easier to clean than the solutions I've used. Cheap, too.

After spending many hours looking up cause/age of death for various breeds on the Finnish KC's database, I'd say temperament and care. The dominant cause of early mortality for many breeds is accidents.

Then the breeder deserves a look over. If these are not the first 'ugly' dogs he or she has released to the public, it's time he or she faced some sort of penalty. Some breeds get a bad rap cause some breeders deliberately run bloodlines that are bound for trouble.

I can imagine that term being applied to me one of these days.

It was Dimitri Balyaev who started the experiments. Work began around 1960 and continues to this day. You can also buy a domesticated fox (very expensive, neutered). Google Russian fox domestication and you'll get hundreds of interesting articles. In selecting for friendliness to humans, they found degrees of domestication. They eventually had to add a super domesticated category above their original top category to accommodate foxes whose affectionate responses were off the original chart. So, yes, if dogs and foxes are alike in range of temperament, dogs can potentially be bred to manifest a wide range between mean/wild and spooky/friendly. I think most dog people have seen the extent of this range. It's not all genetics, but it can take a lot of management and training to overcome genetics.

you'd be crucified for doing it now, regardless of the bitch being up to it or not. Of course there's no science, it's pen pushers and animal lib drawing the lines in the sand these days, regardless of them being wrong. But hey, they have to protect the dogs from the puppy farmers some how Meanwhile, thanks to 'improved' and often very costly fertility therapies, women are having babies into their 40s and 50s. Go figure!

Not necessarily. If the straps are narrow they concentrate the force over a small area, thus increasing the likelihood of snapping bones or decapitating. Going airborne might be better if the dog ended out hitting a flat surface.

Sounds like score one for nature in the nature vs nurture debate! Hmm. High propensity to die in late adolescence due to high activity levels, impulsiveness, fearlessness, and tendency to attack. Good thing they're bantam weights. In a big dog (or a human) these features would be scary!

The Finnish Kennel Club keeps lots and lots of statistics and has recently made their databases available in English for searching. I've been browsing cause of death data by breed and was a bit shocked by data on JRT's that seem to show twice as many dying of accidents as of old age. Similar proportions show for other small terriers. See http://jalostus.kenn...x?R=345&Lang=en I know the earthdog types are prone to snake bite in Australia . . . anybody have any idea why they are so accident prone in Finnland? Or is there something strange going on here? Btw, the data are fascinating. I wish more KC's kept and published such records. You can look up other breeds by scrolling to the group and breed, then clicking on health statistics (to the right of screen), then scrolling to "Cause of Death" statistics. They have other health stats as well. Beware, you may not like what you see. Not sure why, maybe it's because the data include accidents, lost dogs, euthanasia for behavioural reasons, etc., but the numbers shown make most breeds look shorter-lived than you might expect.

"Our profession appears to have a complacent attitude towards the use of personal protection," said the study's author, Dr Navneet Dhand. "Not using appropriate protection when necessary is just like having unprotected sex with a stranger and thinking that it will be alright." It would be good to see the full study. It would be good to see data on the diseases contracted. It would be good to know if Dr Dhand is of a faith the believes animals are unclean -- or if his or her research was supported by a company that sells 'hygenic' products to vets. Frankly, I'd prefer not to add $20+ to the cost of veterinary visits to pay for a bunch of disposable attire when a good old fashioned scrub down and reasonable precaution might do just as well. Clean freaks and germ phobias contribute greatly to children's succeptibility to asthma. I'm all for evidence based measures to prevent contagion, but I think the article smacks of hysteria and fixing things that ain't broke.

Socialization is a big thing but SO IS GENETICS! Good, ethical, quality breeders are less common than one would hope. I once knew a beautiful and much used stud dog, great show record, whose unofficial call name includes the name A##hole, cause he's intractable, in a breed that, according to the standard, is biddable, and it is well known that he produces intractable pups. Some show people so title blind that they will overlook serious temperament defects through title blindness. I was amazed at the number of 'good' breeders who used such a dog knowing his defects. To me, breeding from a dog with temperament defects is worse than lack of socialization, cause it persists through generations and contaminates the gene pool. If you get an 8 week old pup who has not been well socialized, you have a good chance of fixing the problem. If the pup carries genes for bad temperament, it's a strike against generations to come.Large scale breeders are important cause they produce so many pups. Lets hope that whoever ends out buying this place, which looks like a lovely facility, has a conscience, and realizes that there's good market demand for healthy, well socialized pups.Ostracizing and condemning large scale breeders is an awful thing to do. Far betters to encourage, pressure, and cajole them in the direction of producing higher quality.

Many low density areas in the US are the same. Unless you're causing problems, you can keep a few animals. The cities get more particular, and some states are particular. Now if you want to raise pigs, it's a different matter (though where I am in Florida they are ok with miniature pig varieties as household pets in semi-rural areas).

Ick factor aside, has anyone seen evidence that the old-time vet, relaxed attitude toward hygine caused harm? It's well documented that human hospitals are accumulating an unpleasant load of antibiotic-resistant bugs, and better hygine is needed. Is there any evidence that the same is happening in veterinary practices?

Yes, Kindi is a wonderful time, your child brings every childhood disease home to share. But how many of those teachers have died from those childhood diseases? The zoonotic diseases that vets catch are generally innocuous and not a big deal- Hendra has a greater than 50% mortality rate and Q fever can have massive impacts on peoples life. A little more serious than a cold and the reason Vets lack of care for personal protection is concerning. There is a vaccination for Q fever...and from the link you provided, it looks like I'm as much at risk in my compost pile as a vet is doing a Ceasar. Hendra is localized and associated with sick horses. Vets know when they are at risk, and I'd be surprised if they didnt take appropriate precautions in areas where Hendra was known. Kindergarteners could carry scary diseases, too...but it's rare for them to do so. I knew someone who picked up measles as an adult while teaching kindergarten....and nearly died from it.

Once or twice in a lifetime isn't bad, unless the diseases are quite serious and hard to treat. Good on vets for not being paranoid. After all, the statistics on kindergarten teachers catching infectious diseases must run 50% a year. We wouldn't want them running around in masks and gowns. The only surgeries I've witnessed are Ceasars and castrations. I'd say gloves, gowns, and masks would have gotten in the way and made the procedure more expensive.

In the USA you can do your own vaccines, though in many states you can't buy rabies vaccine (required by law everywhere) and you have to have a prescription to buy Heartworm meds. The vet does a test, generally costing $50 plus a consult, before they'll give you a script. In Florida, where I'm living now, almost everyone who keeps dogs has lost one to Heartworm, so the Heartworm thing is no joke. Some breeders get around it by using horse or cow Ivomectin in large doses, but that's not safe for all dogs, and pretty complicated for the average pet owner. The thing you do see here, which I'd think would work in Oz, is public vaccination clinics. These are commonly done on a monthly basis at feed stores, or other animal friendly locations. No appointments ...just wait in line. The dog gets a brief physical exam and shots for $10 to $30, depending on what jabs you get. The vet makes a little money cause there's almost no overhead or wastage of vaccine and they can serve 10 or more patients in an hour. You get stamped vaccination cards, as required by boarding kennels, clubs, etc. unfortunately this doesn't help for Heartworm, cause the test requires a blood draw and some lab work.

DOLers might find this book interesting...both for their kids and as a possibility for fund raising for breed clubs. http://www.thedogpla...he-Dog-Show.pdf P.s. I haven't seen it yet....but it seems to speak to one of the big problems facing the dog world ... How to enlist the next generation. If anyone has seen it I'd love to hear what they think.

Tomorrow morning, May 1, in the 7:30–8 a.m. EDT half-hour timeframe, NBC's Today Show will be airing a segment by NBC reporter Jeff Rossen — @Jeffrossen#RossenReports — which we expect will be a biased, critical, and misleading portrayal of the AKC. Please watch the segment live or on the Today Show website and then go to Rossen Reports and Today.com and NBCNews.com to post your comments in support of AKC and all the responsible dog owners and breeders in this country. We will be watching the segment too, since we are curious to see if picking on animal lovers really helps their ratings! Also, watch for AKC's immediate response to the segment on akcdoglovers.com.

Are you confusing the CKC (continental, not Canadian) with the UKC? The CKC in the US is pretty bogus. No pedigree needed, just some photos and a couple people's testimony. I don't know much about the UKC, other than 1) they register some breeds not recognized by the AKC, and 2) they do require pedigrees and keep closed registries.