Martin Clunes: Life With Dogs

[skip]

I found the African dog interesting. What an amazing colour on the dogs. Its interesting what some people devote themselves to. That man puts a lot of effort into trying to save these wild dogs.

[charli73]

Shame he is now rubbishing pedigree/ purebred dogs...

Given he has them i dont think he was rubbishing them, more being honest about the fact that it is humans who bred them for our own purposes and that it has brought some problems for them.

Loved seeing the working dogs work :D

Edited September 18, 2010 by charli73

[mokhahouse]

What a shame to see him going with the popular line about inbred and unhealthy purebred dogs. *sigh*.

I quite liked both shows until then.

It's so disheartening to have been one of those scummy and ignorant breeders.

I didnt think he was breeder bashing. At the risk on being unpopular mankind has bred dogs for different uses and in the process some of the breed characteristics may be less than ideal. I know the BBC doco recently was rather full on but Martin Clunes spent 90% of the show showing the wonderful things that dogs have been bred to do and only a very small part about the negatives of a couple of breeds. I can understand his interest as his cocker spaniel had HD that needed surgery.

Edited September 18, 2010 by mokhahouse

[stormie]

I didn't think there was much negativity against purebreds at all. He just spoke the truth :D You can't deny humans have created the problems that we see in our purebreds today. I only heard him mention HD, which is no secret in many breeds, SM in Cavs - again something which has been shown to be very widespread in the breed and the mention of Bulldogs needing C-Sections atleast 50% of the time - again, isn't this common knowledge? These problems aren't going to go away whilst we deny they exist.

Great series and an absolute credit to him.

[sparkycat]

I didn't think there was much negativity against purebreds at all. He just spoke the truth :D You can't deny humans have created the problems that we see in our purebreds today. I only heard him mention HD, which is no secret in many breeds, SM in Cavs - again something which has been shown to be very widespread in the breed and the mention of Bulldogs needing C-Sections atleast 50% of the time - again, isn't this common knowledge? These problems aren't going to go away whilst we deny they exist.

Great series and an absolute credit to him.

Well said ! agree completely

[Pippa]

Very enjoyable

Edited September 18, 2010 by Pippa

[Kavik]

I enjoyed that. Was a bit worried when he went on the purebred dog disease rant but it was not a large portion of the show.

:D to the SAR dogs and to the sled dogs when he almost got left behind.

[raz]

I think I may have a bit of a crush on Martin Clunes :D

Theres something really attractive about a man who gets so gushy over dogs

I was thinking the same thing when he went all stupid with the bulldog puppies.

[Gayle.]

What a shame to see him going with the popular line about inbred and unhealthy purebred dogs. *sigh*.

I quite liked both shows until then.

It's so disheartening to have been one of those scummy and ignorant breeders.

Do you deny there are problems? Or woud you prefer that they weren't mentioned?

[Souff]

Shame he is now rubbishing pedigree/ purebred dogs...

Given he has them i dont think he was rubbishing them, more being honest about the fact that it is humans who bred them for our own purposes and that it has brought some problems for them.

Loved seeing the working dogs work :D

Same here.

One of the most well balanced shows on dogs that I have seen in a long time. Yes, bad breeding copped a deserved kick, but there was not a designer dog or crossbred mutt in sight.

Well done Martin Clunes, you showed people a lot about good dogs last night!

Souff

[Bullbreedlover]

The Bulldog puppies were absolutely gorgeous.

To be honest Martin was upfront and to the point. I was a little upset at what he said first off about pedigree dogs but he was only stating the truth.He mentioned Inbreeding of dogs which has been around for a long time but it is not necessarily a bad thing. I guess it is hard to put the pros and cons for this arguement in a documentary knowing that the joe public is not going to be interested in the fors. They only think of the bad side of this. We have genetically engineered these dogs. Allbeit over hundreds and hundreds of years. The Bulldog was bred for a specific purpose. They are a man made breed. We have to now prove that we can still breed healthy dogs and that the breeders out there are trying to preserve their breeds.

I gave both programmes on the life with dogs a big

[sas]

I enjoyed it.

I did wonder if people would mis-interpret what he said as it sounded like he was saying all Pedigrees were inbred and being inbred is what makes a Pedigree and therefore it's the inbreeding that causes all the health problems.

In the end....dogs are what we made them.

[Dobeliscious]

Loved the show, really sorry I missed last weeks and yes I agree I found Martin Clunes very appealing, love his voice, could listen to him all day,

but I would never let him leave the house wearing those clothes!

I just need to pop over there fix him up with a new wardrobe and a hair cut and then he'd be as cute as those bulldog puppies!

[SpotTheDog]

I think the sentence that made the show's presentation wobble a bit for me regarding pure breeds was the voiceover while we were looking at a chi at a show; something like 'If human brothers and sisters have sex it's illegal and they're arrested. When dog brothers and sisters breed we call it pedigree and the best ones win a prize.'

[ninahartland]

Wel I thought it was a brilliant programme...and what he said about some breeds and their health problems is so true.

[Monah]

I think I may have a bit of a crush on Martin Clunes

Theres something really attractive about a man who gets so gushy over dogs :D

I was thinking the same thing when he went all stupid with the bulldog puppies.

:D His first comments got me , he was feeding, waiting on his dogs and said that people ask him what they 'do' for him, his answer, they are just there, make me feel good, I love them etc. He is adorable, and yes, I even love his dress sense! ;) ;)

The hunting dogs were amazing and I was very impressed that the guy was going to dart the old female for her own good, but gave them all the chance to see if she could live with the others. Sometimes you do need to 'interfere' with nature. My girlchild cared for these types of animals in south africa and was fascinated with them.

I thought the program was well balanced, loved the surgery part, and the training of Arthur :D the lab. gorgeous. You forget that they have to train in halls in UK etc. loved the plastic on the floor

I love his place in Dorset, ho hum, would love to move over there, I've been looking at Pembrokeshire.......(OH says NO, so it looks like I'll be going it alone...........................) ;) ;)

[Boronia]

I think I may have a bit of a crush on Martin Clunes

Theres something really attractive about a man who gets so gushy over dogs

I was thinking the same thing when he went all stupid with the bulldog puppies.

Yes, he said they looked like slippers...and I reckon they did...lovely soft slippers

[Gayle.]

I enjoyed it.

I did wonder if people would mis-interpret what he said as it sounded like he was saying all Pedigrees were inbred and being inbred is what makes a Pedigree and therefore it's the inbreeding that causes all the health problems.

In the end....dogs are what we made them.

But all pedigree dogs ARE inbred, not necessarily by current breeders but almost certainly by the early caretakers of the breeds , and that IS what caused a lot of the health problems.

[Danois]

I enjoyed it.

I did wonder if people would mis-interpret what he said as it sounded like he was saying all Pedigrees were inbred and being inbred is what makes a Pedigree and therefore it's the inbreeding that causes all the health problems.

In the end....dogs are what we made them.

This is what my thoughts were - can't deny that the dogs are what we made them but it came across as though he was saying all pedigress have health issues and are inbred - it could have been more balanced. How about breeders who have bred out the problems?

[stormie]

I enjoyed it.

I did wonder if people would mis-interpret what he said as it sounded like he was saying all Pedigrees were inbred and being inbred is what makes a Pedigree and therefore it's the inbreeding that causes all the health problems.

In the end....dogs are what we made them.

This is what my thoughts were - can't deny that the dogs are what we made them but it came across as though he was saying all pedigress have health issues and are inbred - it could have been more balanced. How about breeders who have bred out the problems?

But I think we'd be hard pressed to find a purebreed that doesn't have problems in its breed? I think it would be close to truth to say that most purebred breeds have some sort of health problem within that breed.