My Dog My Choice

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

I don't get the fuss about ownership, guardian etc. Unless we're talking Peta trying to ban companion animals completely.

I think the correct term for the relationship between me and my dog might be "slave". I am her personal slave to do her every bidding. And in that way - she's a lot like a cat. So maybe she owns me. But I pay the expenses.

[Yonjuro]

I don't get the fuss about ownership, guardian etc. Unless we're talking Peta trying to ban companion animals completely.

I think the correct term for the relationship between me and my dog might be "slave". I am her personal slave to do her every bidding. And in that way - she's a lot like a cat. So maybe she owns me. But I pay the expenses.

Yep :laugh:

[BullBreedBoy]

One of the myths that needs to be broken down is that the temperament of a rescue puppy with unknown breed origins (father) is completely unpredictable. I hear that from breeders etc regularly and in my experience it's not really the case. I feel that as a pure bred community we feed into the skepticism with which some view rescues.

Absolutely there will always be a place and demand for ethically bred pedigree puppies; but so to should there be demand for rescue puppies. For those that aren't fixated on a particular breed of dog, adopting a rescue puppy can be a great solution. Certainly with the rescue I'm involved with adopters get a lifetime of support and community.

[Willem]

while it has - hopefully - changed now, let's not forget that in the past (at least in Europe) a lot of health issues in dog breeds were actually caused by registered breeders when their focus was more on the 'look' than on health. And also today there are breeds more healthy than others: does this mean - following high ethical breeding standards - breeders have to stop breeding those less healthy breeds?

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

One of the myths that needs to be broken down is that the temperament of a rescue puppy with unknown breed origins (father) is completely unpredictable. I hear that from breeders etc regularly and in my experience it's not really the case.

Just wondering how you do predict temperament of a puppy in front of you without meeting both parent dogs?

I had to do that with my puppy, I had a choice of two 10 week old puppies in front of me and picked the friendly one... and she's stayed mostly very friendly - except with dogs that look like ones that have been unfriendly to her - she's got a long memory for that kind of thing. Otherwise - she goes off what I do.