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The dog and puppy discussion thread


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Guest posiedon
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals founded in 1824

 

National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children founded in 1884.

 

Do the British really care more about animals than children?

Well I would suppose looking after your own, was a "given" whereas lesser? mammals needed our help, unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case today, hardly a day goes by without there being some story of abuse/murder of a child, I don't know what the answer is.

Maybe more folk should get a dog, and not procreate :?

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Oh please... cats are not smart; they have tiny, tiny brains. They have the illusion of being clever, but it can be like watching a computer AI at times. Stimulus... predictable response. Almost zero learning ability; it's all hard-wired, instinctual.

 

Having said that, so far we've trained our cat to swim, jump through hoops, wear a ruff and comes running when we call 'Here boy!' (no idea why she responds so well to that).

 

She's almost trained to dog level. Still not having much luck with getting her to fetch sticks though. :(

 

Uhm... anyway; thread about dogs... not cats that think they're dogs.

 

/slap own wrist

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Dogs remind me of hardcore religious folks: blind devotion. Ask it to jump and it will say how high.

 

Cats are awesome. Whenever I'm ill (and in Shetland) then my peerie Joey jumps up on the bed, couch, whatever and sits with me forever. Its like they know.

 

Oh and dogs smell 100 times worse.

 

But anyway. Back to dogs: Best when puppies.

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Guest Anonymous
Dogs remind me of hardcore religious folks: blind devotion. Ask it to jump and it will say how high.

 

Cats are awesome. Whenever I'm ill (and in Shetland) then my peerie Joey jumps up on the bed, couch, whatever and sits with me forever. Its like they know.

 

Oh and dogs smell 100 times worse.

 

But anyway. Back to dogs: Best when puppies.

 

Actually JAS, you've maybe just hit the nail on the head with that post.

Dogs do tend to follow blindly, and be very willing to do the bidding of their lords and masters, with little or no consideration for their own self. To serve their master is their only purpose.

Whereas cats take control of any given situation and have a natural aloof leadership capability with little or no regard for their underlings, such as humans, who are expected to give in to any and every desire or want of their feline master.

So a natural progression of this leads me to believe that there could be a genetic link between cats and the perpetrators of all the hideous crimes in the world these days... Are cats Muslim??

:wink:

 

DOGS RULE,,,, ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY HAVE CAT FOR DINNER.. :lol:

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(clears throat).........

I was the person who started this thread, and though I do love my cat immensely.... this thread was about dogs or puppies......

anybody want to start a cat and kitten thread?

 

back to the original subject.... does anyone have any experience of pedigree dogs with genetic problems?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Ooh dogs ...

 

Well, some of you will see me lovely Kia and (Blind Man's) Buff when we finally move up to Shetland (I'm learning, I didn't add an 's').

 

I've got two Shar Pei, Kia is a rescue dog and Buff has got a famous dad (14 times a champion at the last count).

 

Kia does suffer with what could be classed as a genetic problem but then many Shar Pei do. For example, their skin (and kidneys due to high protein) can really play up if you feed them dog food containing wheat and beef.

 

Re Crufts - well, from knowing a few bods in the show world through my involvement with the breed club, there are HUNDREDS of exhibitors who would not touch Pedigree Chum with a barge pole. Many consumers are becoming more aware of what actually goes into dog food, doggie showers being no exception. Over the years, there have been fewer peeps winning and being prepared to state that they feed their likkle darlings the stuff; apart from, that is, those who want the large cheque PC give them!

 

Mind you, the Kennel Club don't do themselves any favours either - look at their recent rulings on skin tacking (which literally means any bit of skin that has a needle passed through it). Okay, they may be referring to eye tacking (as in Shar Pei) for entropian, and state that dogs have been tacked cannot be shown, all in the name of the dog's health. Now whilst many breeders are trying to develop and breed dogs that do/will not suffer from entropian in the future, it won't happen overnight. Thankfully, Buff had his eyes tacked before this rule came in place, but there will be some unscrupulous owners who will not get their dogs's eyes tacked as it means they cannot be showed. Surely it would have been better to allow the dogs to be shown thus encouraging eye tacking?

 

Yes, there are breeders out there who run the equivalent to puppy farms and anyone purchasing a puppy of any breed in my opinion should do as much research about the breed as possible before going ahead with the purchase. Not only that, there are loads of dogs in rescue centres requiring homes.

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My Bernese Mountain Dog bitch had the loveliest temperament.

 

She was sold to me by a Breeder who had bought her into her stud because my bitch's mother had won her class at Crufts a few years back.

 

So, Lotte (my dog) had alot of potential. Sadly she was quite small for the breed standard and so the owner (not the breeder) decided she was no use for breeding and to sell her on at a vast price to me.

 

Lotte was beautiful. Bernese Mountain dogs have to have their markings in the right place - this is part of the Kennel Club Breed Standard - and her's were all there.

 

She had been hipscored as a puppy, and had all the other checks done with "low" scores. Sadly, from about Year 4 we could see there was something very wrong with and she was on a diet of Rimadyl or Metacam or something else on and off for the rest of her short life. She died aged 7.

 

I would never buy another Kennel Club recognised breed. I now have 2 Patterdales and a lurcher and you couldn't get a bigger mix than that. They are fairly vet-free apart from the lurcher who is old now and made of wet tissue paper. He still hunts and is active, despite a terrible accident. Mongrels have strong genes IMO. They don't have acceptable "complications" like eyes having to be pinned up. Patterdale Terriers are virtually indestructible!

 

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e302/Frances144/Capture-005067.jpg

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Sorry, I didn't mean to sound as if the necessity to have an dog's eyes tacks was 'acceptable' - obviously it would be better all round if they didn't need to have it done but like I said, it won't happen overnight without years of careful and selective breeding.

 

I personally feel that you can get problems with many dogs/animals; and not just pedigree mutts. Yes, I have owned mongrels in the past and believe that dogs are either working dogs and/or companions before showing (I don't show by the way - yet but might one day). Mongrels too can get health problems - blimey, imagine the health problems you may encounter (hyperthetically speaking) with a rottweiler crossed with a staff/shar pei! Now I love rotties, having previously had the pleasure of the company of Bella, a bolshy RSPCA rescued rottie. I don't think DirectLine liked her much - she cost £26k overall in vet bills (£18k coming from them). That said, our GSD cost nothing in vet bills (apart from vaccinations) up until the last week of his life.

 

Buff so far has cost nothing in vet fees (apart from worming/vaccination) whereas Kia has so you can't necessarily just go on the breed.

 

Kids, on the other hand (and I don't mean goats LOL) can cost you an arm and a leg!

 

Err - how you insert a pic on this thing?

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