Corgi Boxer hybrid

16 years before Pedigree Dogs Exposed, there was a cross done in Britain between a Welsh Corgi and a Boxer Dog.

The puppies grew up very cute. They had short legs, but not real short like a corgi.

Two of these puppies were females with naturally short tails like the Corgi parent. They were bred to a male Boxer dog.

One of these 3/4 Boxer, 1/4 Corgi puppies looked like a purebred Boxer (not show quality) and was named Jane.

Later, Jane was bred to another purebred Boxer dog, and her descendants have gone on to be registered as Boxer dogs with the UK’s kennel club.

The British succeeded in doing for Boxers dogs, what was tried in the US for Dalmatian dogs.

However, in the US, while the LUA Dalmatians looked just like other Dalmatians but were healthy, the club would NOT accept them.

Really, what the British did was more bold, because Dalmatian dogs and a Pointer dog look alike, while Corgi Dogs and Boxer Dogs look nothing alike.

I remember this when it came out. Spectacular! It turned out very well. Now Boxer Dogs in the UK can be born with short tails, instead of surgically amputated tails.

It was an ice breaker. And it could be hoped that more of these well planned and successful crosses would eliminate diseases in purebred dogs.

Unfortunately, the hybridizing seems to have stalled, despite this really successful start.

Takes a bit more nerve to walk cross country than to stay on the well worn trail.

You can read about this hybridization and see the photos if you click on “genetics” and then “genetics can be fun” at this link:

http://www.steynmere.com/PEDIGREE-EXPOSED.html

I have to agree with the author, breeding dogs in the era when cross breeding was allowed would have been so much more fun. Note: cross-breeding was allowed – not demanded.

I am linking to his re-action to Pedigree Dogs Exposed, which I find refreshingly mild compared to that of some other show dog breeders. I agree with what he said, some people got so use to the problems that they no longer noticed them. “inured”.

Although, I believe that many people here, knew very well what they were doing in breeding unhealthy dogs, many other people were like the boiled frog.

(A pan of water was setting on a stove, the flame under it left on simmer. Along came a frog who hopped into the pan and enjoyed the warm water. As time passed the water, ever so slowly, got warmer and warmer, but the frog did not notice because the change was so slow.

When the water was way hotter than what the frog would have jumped into, he was still happy in the now dangerously hot water. Sadly, although he could of hopped out of the water at any time, the frog was boiled and died because the change was too gradual for him to notice.)

Science Fact not Fiction?

When Reality Seems Like Science Fiction to You, Maybe You Have Let Your Mind Get Too Narrow.

We think of most living things as male or female. When a baby is born, what is the doctor expected to say? “It’s a boy” or “It’s a girl”.

One or the other, not both or neither, not 95% boy or 80% girl.

Some languages go so far as to call all nouns “he” or “she”, not because anyone thinks of them as having gender, but like there is only “he” or “she” – no “it”, and only “his” or “hers” – no “its”.

So some languages have male TVs and female beds.

We are all taught to assume certain things, but sometimes these social assumptions are simply not true.

I have heard that alligator eggs are not genetically male or female, but that the temperature the egg is kept at before it hatches, determines if it the embryo becomes male or female.

I have seen mother aquarium fish become male. I have read that in some kind of eels, they are all born female, and the ones that live to be old, turn male.

But to read about birds that have several genders? Sounds so different.

I want to ask: “how come I have never noticed this?” But then, how often would a person actually look at wild birds enough to know which were male or female, and which ‘varieties’ were really third, fourth, or fifth genders of a the same species?

This is just so odd, I wonder why it hasn’t gone around the Internet?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_gender

From: http://darlingyouaredoingitwrong.blogspot.com
permission to cross-post

Kosher Ham?

I like the line in the comments about “God will understand”.
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/16/how-shellfish-saved.html

It has been said that the best way to learn the sentence structure of your own language is to learn a second language.

Learning about other religions can shine a light on your own religion.

The secret is to approach the new religion with respect and an open mind.

——
Like “I know one way to get from here to New York, but there might be other paths that lead to New York City too. I think my route is the best, but other routes will eventially get you there too – so long as you don’t fall by the wayside and quit trying.

And maybe, from where you are at, your route is better for you. Wouldn’t make much sense for someone to bypass New York, just so they could get there on the same route that I would take.

—–
For example: I was told that the Christian old testament is the same as the Jewish bible. But then, I was told that it is not the same.

The Christian Old Testament speaks of God as “He” but the Jewish one doesn’t.

You find this idea embedded in the terminology of plants. “Perfect” flowers are both male & female, and the newer flowers, that are either male or female, are called “Imperfect”.

To be male or female is Imperfect, to be Hermaphrodite is Perfect, because God was said to be both male & female.

I claim no religious scholarship, just passing along what I heard.

Bigfoot & retrieverman

If a Bigfoot is standing in the road, and its mate walks up to it, are they Bigfoots or Bigfeet?

Or would that be the rare case where we could call them Bigfeets?

Sasquatch, sasquatchs, Sasquatches, sasquatchz?

Big hairy apes? No, that’s what you find in bars after work lets out. Like Harry and the Henderson’s, no matter how cute they are, you probably shouldn’t let them into your car, even if they are laying on the ground passed out.

I love retrieverman’s blog. It’s fun. He has dogs. He has knowledge and opinions on dogs but is still upbeat. He has fun history – not war history. He has bigfeet and cupracabras.

Most people NEED a little of the mystical in their lives. Fiction, fantasy, and bigfooters.

Wasn’t Chewbacca a Bigfoot?

See, that’s the interesting thing about speculation. We can discuss if Chewbacca was a Sasquatch or not.

We can compare heights, like: male Bigfoots are taller than what Chewbacca is, so was Chewbacca really a girl Bigfoot?

And people know the rules for such discussion, only a real wet blanket says “We can’t talk about if Chewbacca was a Bigfoot, because he was really an actor in a monkey suit.”

We know that we are talking in the abstract, about “what ifs”, and “what could be”.

And people often NEED that – they don’t just want it, they need it. People who don’t delve into the improbable and the “what ifs” of life, will sometimes mis-understand reality instead.

It is perhaps in our genes to sit and listen to the campfire stories instead of wondering the woods at night, because there were saber tooth tigers, and woolly mammoths. And in some parts of the world their still are big cats, wild canine packs, rabid animals, and monsters in the dark.

It is latent in us to feel these things, we do this with fantasy, or we risk these archetypes of the subcontious superimposing themselves onto reality.

In the books, Tarzan was not raised by gorillas or chimps, but by a tribe of Bigfoots, called the Mangani. They were described as tall bipedal apes, who spoke.

The Yeti, or Abominable Snowman, is another Ape Man.

http://retrieverman.wordpress.com/

Terrierman & the Vets

Reading terrierman daily dose, about veterinarians that rip people off:

I had a teacher who quoted:
“All professions are a conspiracy against the public.”

When people learn a skill, keep their knowledge among themselves, form unions or professional clubs, and prevent competition through licenses and laws – the public often becomes the sheep they shear.

Why would one think there would be whole professions who would be exceptions? Stereotypes?
IMO, honest professions, with ethics that the public expects them to have, are a minority.

I worked in a veterinarian office. I know what other people who worked for other vets said.

If you work for a repair shop that pads the bill, do you think that you can quit, and expect the next one to be honest – despite the fact that most of the other employees report the same type of things about the repair shop that they work for?

There is a difference between knowing the truth and telling the truth.
http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com

Pit Bull Kills Child, so ban Golden Retrievers.

I am glad that the British care about their children, and about people out for a walk, but I hope they go the right way with their laws.

Politicians and other lawmakers are not dog professionals, and again, I must point out that ‘information’ by people whose business involves dogs, is apt to be propaganda.
(either intentional lies to deceive, or innocent people parroting those lies.)

Where does one go when they don’t understand an important topic, but they must do something about it, and the professional ‘information’ is suspect for being biased?

Common sense, and plain investigation by people who wont put a bias on what they see and hear.

But lets not forget the propaganda. People whose business is dogs, often lie or spin the truth to manipulate information.

People sometimes post things that don’t jive with the facts. Like:

“Chihuahuas are more dangerous than pit bulls”.
This is so unbelievable that I don’t know where to start to de-bunk it.

Common sense should tell you that the bite from a Chihuahua, is not as bad as the bite from a pit bull. Look at their jaw structure and the muscles that work those jaws! And just the plain size of the dog. And the difference in muscle mass.

If common sense won’t do it, let me add knowledge.

Dogs have instincts – think of instincts as inherited knowledge. Pit bull are born with programming that will urge them to hang on when they bite.

This instinct, this ‘inherited knowledge’, this ‘program folder’, is called “Locking Jaws”.

Pit bull fans, have argued that pit bull’s jaws are not different from other large dog’s jaws. That’s not quite true, but more importantly, it is totally beside the point.

“Locking Jaws” is an inherited behavioral trait, it has nothing to do with anything that you can see by looking at a dog’s skull.

But the pit bull fan has changed the focus of the subject. He has relied on the lawmakers lack of knowledge about pit bulls.

He has ignored the fact that locking jaws is something a dog does – an instinct, and misdirected the lawmaker to look at skull structure, and to return to subject of the greater power of a pit bull’s head and jaws.

And then the pit bull fans conclude for you “They are are stronger dogs, but that is all”.

Sorry. That is the beginning of the argument. They are stronger dogs, and have more jaw strength. That is obvious. But that isn’t what we have moved on to discuss.

“Locking Jaws” means that the pit bull doesn’t nip, he doesn’t bite and retreat.

He bites, puncturing the skin, and he holds on. He doesn’t let go. He doesn’t open his mouth back open and release. He starts to hang on like an American bulldog. He ‘locks’ his jaws on his victim.

Most dogs do NOT lock their jaws.

Police ‘train’ German Shepherd Dogs to hang on by playing tug of war with them, this awakens the hang on instinct that is latent in the breed. (It installs the program from a previously unopened file already in the dog).

But even with canine police training, German Shepherd Dogs do NOT jump up and hang onto sacks tied to trees and swing themselves around for hours out of the day.

Pit bull, and several other very similar breeds have an urge to bite and hang.
Like border collies want to herd sheep, and beagles want to follow their nose, and field-bred bird dogs look at birds, pit bulls want to hang on when they bite.

There is a fine little line, between a bulldog that bites and hangs, and the much much much more common case, where pit bulls not only bite and hang leaving a nasty row of puncture wounds, they also have the instinct to shake their heads while they are biting.

It is NOT them grabbing you with their teeth which does most of the damage. It is the head shake which TEARS parts of your body loose.

I have seen a veterinarian, day after day, do surgery on a dog shaken by another dog.

Some days, the dog’s laboratory results would indicate the dogs kidneys were overloading.

The veterinarian would open the dog back up, and all would look healthy and pink, but he knew from the lab results that something was decomposing inside of the dog.

He’d have to cut through health tissue to find it, but there it would be.

A muscle, dead and dieing, while hidden by healthy muscle above it. The muscle, or sometimes part of a muscle, would die because the blood supply to it had been torn loose from when the dog was shaken.

The only visible mark when the dog was brought in was 4 puncture marks from the bigger dog’s fangs. But underneath muscle tissue was dieing. The surgeries, the pain the dog was in, the suffering. This should not be.

And this should not happen to people. Not to people walking to their car. Not to children. And not to visitors.

It is time to make people responsible for their dogs actions.

And because we are people, we can learn from the mistakes of others. We don’t have to let each person learn how dangerous pit bull type dogs are.

We can use collective knowledge – the experiences of other people – to figure out which lines of dogs have the instincts to bite, hang, and shake, and which lines of dogs have emotional or aggressive problems which require that they be trained to suppress their instincts.

It is far easier to raise a puppy who naturally has the instincts you want,
and who doesn’t have any of the instinct you don’t want –
than to start off with a puppy who has urges to do things that you have to train him not to follow.

People who buy a puppy as a companion, have a right to be sold a puppy who was bred to be a good companion.

One of the questions is:
Are we going to allow dogs as yard guards?

If so, under what conditions?
What type of fence? How high? What to prevent a dog from digging out?
What type of double doors to prevent a child from answering the door and the dog bolting out?

What precautions for invited visitors? (not trespassers.)

Will we have breed bans (No dangerous breeds),
Or size restrictions (like no more dogs over 16 inches or 40 pounds)?

Read:
http://dogsbite.org

Friends

I use to breed dogs. There are lots of people who use to breed dogs. They got into it, and they got out of it.

Naturally, once you breed dogs, you meet other dog breeders, especially if you go to dog shows.

This really can make for odd relationships. There are people who always did see other breeders as competitors, no matter how friendly they might seem.

Without listing all the tricks, lies, intimidations, social pressures, scams, and things which should be illegal, let me say:

“These are your competitors, and there are people who can’t turn off their urge to compete when they leave the ring.”

Breeders often gang together in clubs.

Did you ever wonder why they call it a “club” like in the oldest of war weapons? the caveman’s club.

What really is a club? What about when a club is made up of people who deal in dogs for money? Does that make it a union?

I think of them as “gangs”.

Grasshopper Hunters!

I grew up wanting a hawk. I’m not sure why. I just always wanted one. Maybe it was from flying kites? Maybe from the attention that my father gave the rare hawk that might pass by? Maybe from some long forgotten movie or story?

Whatever the reason, I wanted to have a hawk when I grew up. Of course, things aren’t so simple. Like: if you want a horse, you also want a place to ride your horse.

The law wont let you keep a horse in your backyard (I don’t know why), and horses tend to poop huge volumes of horse poop when you ride them – and in many places, you just can’t leave the droppings on the sidewalk or in the street, where flies will find it, and will breed more files in it, and where the horse poop will become a slippery or stinking mess in the rain.

Same with hawks. You can’t turn them loose where they will catch and kill cats, pet rabbits, or chickens or ducklings.

But I wanted a hawk – and a place to fly one.

Then I read Farley Mowat, and I wanted a pet owl too. Heck, while I was at it, why not grow up to have my own mews? Might as well have a stable, while I am at it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farley_Mowat

Hmmm? marry a person with a farm? Because jobs are usually in the city – but horses and hawks, and the woodlands I wanted to explore, are all in the countryside.

Dogs and cats can live in a house. Horses and hawks need a barn. I had cats and dogs, no barn, no horse, no hawk, no owl.

But I did read on falconry. Something seemed to be missing. There was not a link between stories of hawks, and the books on falconry. Then I found the link – the Harris Hawk. A more tamable type of hawk.

Like some dogs can be kept as ‘pets’ by people whose demeanor intimidates those around them, some wild animals must be handled by those who are FIRM but Kind foster Parents to their animals.

But I am with the majority of pet lovers, who want a best friends relationship with our pets, not a Lord-peasant, or even Parent-child relationship with our animals. And to do that, you need pets who don’t try to eat anything that doesn’t look like it could eat them.

To have a nice relationship with a pet, you need pets that are tame, who don’t try to dominate, and yet are not terrified of the world.

You need pets that don’t spend their time trying to manipulate and out smart you, and get around your rules. You do want pets that are cooperative with you, not competitive with you.

Once, (in Mexico or Central America – I forget which) when I stopped and stared at a hawk, it’s falconer spoke to me. He said he felt sorry for falconers in the US and Europe, as their birds of prey were cold and easily angered, while “all” of the native hawks where he was were easily tamed and could be pets that you hunt with, not wild animals that you must control and keep training.

I agree with his idea of what a good pet is, but I am not convinced that everyone feels the same way. (Some people are such control freaks that they shop for horses that resist being ridden, not truely domesticated dogs, or ‘pets’ they have to constanly watch).

For example: I have learned to ride what is called “Western” and “English”. These aren’t just different saddles, they are parts of whole different cultures, with their own trappings, history, books, and activities.

English riding is based on controlling the horse. Western riding usually has looser reins, and the horse is expected to figure out what it suppose to do – it is not micro-managed.

English riding tries to teach being “one with the horse”, or being in constant touch with the horses mouth (these are NOT the same thing).

(The conparison here is the constant micro-managing of some ‘pet’ dogs and big cats, vs the best friends type relationship possible with tamer and less over-reactive animals.)

The horses used for English riding (in America – I don’t know about in England) are horses that are more emotional (hot blooded) often with race horse genes, or from gaited show horse lines – they require more effort to control and are also rode in situations that take more control (like jumping fences in a ring).

Strangely, they often have neck lengths and neck carriages (angle of the neck) which makes them harder to control.

English riding has two main splits, often identified by the type of saddle used – hunt, or show.

While there are some people who ride on foxhunts, there is also show jumping – that is exactly how Christopher Reeves became paralyzed form the neck down – he fell off of his horse while show jumping. Quickly ending any interest I might have had in mounted fox hunting, show jumping or hunt seat.

Roy’s (of Sigmund & Roy) bite from a tiger, squelched my interest in big cats. Watching film of Roy in physical therapy was hard on me.

And the video “cat dancers” absolutely ended my interest in all dangerous pets by setting, yet another example of bad ideas in pets who can never be trusted around people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Dancers

Now I prefer dog pound (rescued) trained pet cat acts on video, like the guy with the trained white cats who do circus tricks. (deaf cats might be better street performers).

I like videos best, if it is something I might want to do, or some place I might like to go.

When I was a kid, being a lion tamer in the circus sounded fun. Now, training pet cats for youtube videos, sounds more fun.

Western riders have their splits too. There are horses for use in a ring (or arena) and trail horses.

There are competitive show event riders – barrel racing and rodeos, which are, to me, more about shows and competition, than about, nature and bonding with horses.

(If a horse owner, owns a farm, they can keep the horse there, and put it in a horse trailer, and drive it to good riding spots on the weekends).

Trail riding is what it sounds like. You stable your horse in the country near paths in the woods, and go on weekends to ride (you pay the stable to feed the horse and cares for it).

You can also not own your own horse, but get to know the various horses for rent at a riding stable. But riding horses is seasonal. And keeping horses during the winter to rent or lease out in the summer is a waste of a stable’s money.

So, traditionally, all or most of the horses (in some riding stables) were sold to slaughter houses for dog food at the end of the season. And new horses bought at the beginning of the next season, for slaughter house prices.

So if at the end of the riding season, if you didn’t want your favorite horses sold for slaughter, you had to buy them, and pay for them to be boarded during the off season.

The stable might buy them back for what you paid for them, at the start of the next riding season, but come lay off time for the horses next year – are you going to do? buy them again, and pay for their upkeep in the off season?

Or keep paying for the upkeep of more horses than what you can ride – you can only ride one horse at a time – unless, maybe you have a really really big behind????

Now that horses are not slaughtered here in the US, what happens to the hired out horses at the end of the riding season? Are they kept until the next season? Or shipped to places where they can be legally slaughtered? Sold to big cat keepers for cat food? shot?

I don’t know. But if it costs more to feed and stable a horse during the off season, than what it cost to buy new horses at the beginning of the next season, a business that has 40 or 50 for hire horses has motive to not keep the same horses.

But, of course, many stable love their horses and keep them until they are old. But, like dogs breeders, many of them do not. Shop around if you care.

People who ride Western often will not even look at English horse stuff, and English riders often pretend that Western does not exist.

Culturally, I am more of a bareback rider – but I prefer trail rides and comfy Western saddles. (Eclectic again.)

Yeah, I said two cultures, not three, or four, or five – well there are two MAIN horse cultures in the US – each with their various sub-divisions and many people specialize in just their own little sub culture – like “show Hackney ponies” or “trail riding mustangs” or “Thoroughbred race horses” or “breeding to try to get the tiniest horse possible”.

(Background note: falcons are harder to manage, hawks said to be a bit easier. But the Harris ‘Hawk’ is no more a hawk than a jackrabbit is a rabbit (they are hares). Harris ‘Hawks’ are totally different,

and appeal to people willing to trade Romantic History and daring plunges for more of a relationship with their bird. Birds of Prey, like horses, have followings even among people who do not, and sometimes never did, own one – because they are not kept in the suburbs.)

What does this have to do with grasshoppers?
Are grasshoppers giant mean beasts? – well there was a cover on World Weekly News once which showed a giant grasshopper but . . .

Are grasshoppers eaten the fields of grain? Yes, that is what they do, and are the “locust” mentioned as one of the plagues of Egypt.

But my real reason, is that I was looking at hawk blogs, found one over on terrierman, and the guy had a —— Red-Tailed hawk who tried to nail him for getting too close to it’s killed rabbit. Nasty blow.

Suddenly, hunting grasshoppers with an American kestrel, did not seem like such a bad way to learn hawking. Matter of fact, grasshopper hunting was sounding like a good sport.

Yeah, I know, they are just grasshoppers, not trophy elk, 150 pound giant wolves, or even rabbits that I could kill, clean, skin, bleed out, lug home, butcher up, and cook up.

Grasshopper hunting would just yield grasshoppers to feed the kestrel – I am not going to eat grasshoppers. So I would NOT have to kill, clean, skin, bleed out, lug home, butcher up, and cook them. That’s what grocery stores are for.

And an American kestrel sounds like a lot easier to care for than a Harris Hawk. Maybe I should dream of American kestrels?

What would PETA say about hunting grasshoppers? Would we start reading articles about the poor grasshoppers being killed by birds of prey, and the mean hunters who go out in the country on weekends to let their birds kill grasshoppers?

PS: Reason I couldn’t find the link? It wasn’t a Harris Hawk, it was on a Harris Hawk blog though. Still, my conclusion (the part that actually remembered) was correct. And, as a novice bird, I’d still go with a kestrel over a Red Tail. Puny talons over OHG nails!

The Photo of his eye:
http://hawkingharrisblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/i-forgot.html

How it happened:
http://hawkingharrisblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-most-serious-hunting-injury.html

Kestrel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kestrel

sorry about all the post-edits, i did not realise how many points could be read different ways.

And what is the big deal with a “trophy elk”? Surely something that big and slow is not that hard to shoot – wouldn’t being able to shoot running rabbits or tiny mice, be something more to brag about?

Change

It is said that the Internet allows information to be passed around. True, but . . .

It also lets propaganda get spread around.

I hope the people like terrierman (Patrick Burns), Margaret Carter, and Jemima Harrison, will keep telling the truth about what is happening to the canine gene pool, purebred dogs, and at dog shows.

I hope that a younger generation will understand not to breed dogs for dog shows or to be used in other competitive sports.

I hope the public will understand to not accept dogs bred for shows and sports, over dogs bred to be good pets.

I hope that even the show breeders will acknowledge that:

If Mary breeds dogs that are good with children, she can’t truthfully label those puppies who are not good with children as “show quality”.

If Sue breeds dogs to win dog shows, she can’t truthfully label those puppies who are not good show dogs as “pet quality”.

Mary’s puppies can be divided into 2 groups: “Good with Children” and “Not good with Children”.

Sue’s puppies can be divided into 2 groups “Potential show dogs” and “Not potential show dogs”.

It would be exactly as much false advertising for Mary to label her pet puppies that are not good with children as “Show Quality” as it would be for Sue to advertise her show dog puppies who are not going to win, as “pet quality”.

A puppy who is not good with children is NOT automatically “show quality”.

And a puppy who is not built to win in the show ring, is NOT automatically “pet quality”.

I am NOT impressed by claims that telling a lie for 40 years, makes it true.

And calling lions “house cats” for 40 years will not make them house cats – they will still be lions.

A reject from the show ring might be a good pet, just like a puppy bred to be a good pet, but who is not good with kids, MIGHT be a good show dog.

But dogs have instincts. It is easier to teach a pointer to point, than to try to teach a bloodhound to point. It is easier to teach a border collie to work sheep, than to try to train a foxhound to herd sheep.

Why do so many dogs not work out as pets? I believe that it is because they were not bred to be good pets, so it is no surprise that they fail.

You can try to baby all kinds of animals. But there is a huge difference between having a pet dog that naturally adapts to your house, loves your kids, and whose whole life is centered around trying to please his family, vs –

– a ‘pet’ dog who requires constant updates on his training, and requires that his owner project mastery over him to keep him in line, and that the kids have to learn to handle in a way to prevent the dog from becoming aggressive.

Dog Breeders

I have been looking around the web, looking for other people like me.

What I find a lot of, are followers of various doggie creeds.

People who, you don’t have to ask them their opinion to know what their opinion is, because they will parrot the club’s opinion.

Never mind the loss of genetic diversity, the amount of inbreeding and mis-breeding; they say they are improving the breed.

Never mind that they are selling most of the puppies they produce to families as pets; many breeders think that breeding to get show points and titles is more important than breeding to get puppies who are good with children.

Duh. If you are selling puppies to families with children – you need to be breeding dogs who are best with children – dogs who love to have children play with them, dogs who are tolerant of toddlers pulling their ears and trying to ride them.

Even if the family who buys the puppy, doesn’t have young children, they often have nieces, nephews, grandchildren, and friends who visit with children.

Don’t disqualify a dog because his tail is a bit too long or too short, disqualify a dog who tries to bite your children’s friends, or who growls or snaps at children.

Breed sane dogs who can live in the house without wreaking it, are naturally easy to housebreak, who don’t bark too much, who don’t want to fight or kill cats, and who are good with children.

That the dog is healthy is also important, but better a sickly dog, than one who bites children.

It is also nice if the dog has an easy to care for coat.

And if the dog is to be kept indoors, that he doesn’t shed too much.

Mostly, if you are selling puppies to families as pets, then you have to have breeding stock that run loose in your house and are safe with children, visitors, and other pets.

That pedigree with fancy sounding names on it? It is apt to go in the trash bin, along with the dog its self, if the dog bites the children.

Not part of the herd?

I tried google’s new personalize your news page – which is a good thing, if you don’t have to keep re-personalizing it.

But I can’t quite personalize myself into any one herd type.

I guess, if it were possible, I would tell the search engine:

Find me something new, something I don’t know already, some whole new topic, “Amaze me”, show me something “Wow!”

Don’t show me more of what I’ve already read about, show me new science, new concepts, something different.

I know that, no matter how much I like a subject, there are only so many new ideas.

At first, UFOs are strange, cool, stories – but after 50 such stories, unless you’ve got photos of space aliens leaving their UFO and saying “Take me to your leader”, then I have heard it before – actually, I’ve heard that story before too.

With dogs, often the story registers with me only as “Yes, another person understands!”

I’m happy, but it isn’t news, it’s collecting other people’s “How I came to understand that the dog system it not functioning” articles.

Good! but not the adventure it started out to be.

I am totally for people understanding, but I can only do so much.

How often can I say:

Please don’t breed dogs to be used in competitive sports or shows.

Please understand that dogs are NOT all the same, select only healthy dogs, who posses instincts that help them be good pets, for breeding stock – do not breed dogs that have instincts which makes them unfit for civilized living.

If you have some use for uncivilized dogs, then when you breed them – please don’t sell the extra as pets.

Please understand that quality pets are NOT just left overs from working, hunting, sports, or show litters – being a quality pet is a speciality just like breeding working dogs, or show winners.

Pet puppies should have most of the wolfish instincts bred out of them, and retain the puppy instinct to please.

How can I get that message out better? What more can I say?

More examples of dogs who need a home? Try petfingers.

More examples of dogs who really really really didn’t work out? Try dogsbite.

More examples of how there are different lines of dogs in the same breed, and that they are not equally usefully at all tasks? Try retrieverman – his understanding of the split between different types of Golden Retrievers.

More examples of how purebreds, and show dogs are NOT the best idea? Try terrierman.

Want to read of years spent around the purebred dog breeding sub-culture?
Try thepdkc and darlingyouaredoingitwrong.

Tasmanian Tiger

The thylacine is not seen anymore, but was found on the island of Tasmania, and was called the Tasmanian Wolf because it looked like a dog, and a Tasmanian Tiger because it was striped like a Tiger.

Thylacines were actually a marsupial like the kangaroo, and did, in an even earlier time, live in Australia. Today, the are found in Museums, where they are taxidermied (stuffed mounted skins).

Although some people place them in with UFOs, bigfoot, cupracabra, Nessie the Loch Ness Monster, and wild panthers in the British countryside, thylacines were real, and unlike the dinosaurs, thylacines were around running wild and in zoos until the 1930s and there are black & white photos of them.

One of my favorite books was one about jungles by Ivan T. Sanderson – Sanderson was quite the explorer and walked long distances through jungles studying the plants and animals.

Ivan T. Sanderson was a tropical backpacker before they had backpacks.

His travel adventures were at a time when travel was travel! Not like today, when you go to the other end of the Earth and they have the same type of buildings, the same brands of cars, the very same fast food restaurants.

He was also a good writer, and I loved his book. I was aghast to find that he also wrote on topics that I did NOT believe in, cryptozoology, the paranormal, alternate planes of existence (a religious belief to some), and things like that.

But since Sanderson, my hero at that time, had written them, I read them. And like many another person who eases into a new topic, I became interested.

I am still much the sceptic.

But I had enjoyed Edgar Rice Burroughs (Author of: Tarzan, Pellucidar, the Barsoom series -John Carter of Mars, and what was the one on Venus?) and I read crypotozoology the same way –

– like History as Fantasy for people who don’t like fantasy, I view crypotozoology as Fantasy For Those Who Must Call It Science – until the subject of the Thylacine comes up.

The thylacine was real, it could still be real, and therefor, could other primitive animals lurk about? An occasional sterile cross between a deer and a horse, whose gametes usually don’t unite? (unicorn).

A rare take between wild cat and rabbit, which drops out genes not common to them both, thereby producing a primitive beast?

A Lake Monster? (“Loch Ness Monster” – “Loch” is just Scottish for “Lake”, and they name their lakes like we do, Lake Erie, Lake Superior, etc. So it just means: Monster of Lake Ness.)

Could two fish that can not normally be interfertile, be under the influence of a virus, and produce an occasional throw back? (A “throw back” to an earlier point in evolution.)? Sure.

Most of our old genes are NOT deleted, which is why some mammal fetuses have gill slits. The unneeded genes are simply turned off.

A “throw back” is a lay term for an animal whose old genes fail to turn off.

So, a “monster” need not even be an interspecies cross, just where a virus slips into an egg or embryo and ‘opens a long closed genetic file’.

Thylacine:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasmanian_tiger

Cryptozoology:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_T._Sanderson

Edgar Rice Burroughs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Rice_Burroughs
At the bottom of the Burroughs entry, you will find the pot of gold – The Gutenberg Project.

tip – Disney is said to be making one of the Barsoom novels – John Carter of Mars? A Princess of Mars?

The whole Barsoom series (“Barsoom is Martian for their planet, Mars) is very good, and as a series you might want to start with the first one.

Great stuff, would make great action comics or Manga. Full of other worlds. Much like Avatar?

More

After, supposedly reading about how purebred dogs are becoming more inbred and unhealthy, one person pointed out the the dogs she had as a child lived to an old age, and so did the next one, and . . . then she did get one that died young, and then . . . (sounds like she is an older woman)

But puppies can have puppies when they are a year old. That dog she had as a child?

He could be 70 dog generations ago – as far removed from the puppy of his breed that she could buy today, as you are from your ancestors in the year 500.

Dog breeds are not carved in stone. They are like the sea, always changing, yet always the same.

The Meek and the Brassy.

I went browsing around the internet – I might not get much exercise that way, but it is sure easier than going for a walk.

I am amazed by the stupid things people say.

Among the dumber points that some people try to make, is one that goes something like this:

How can it be true that any purebred dog has health trouble, when I have owned 2 of them that didn’t?

Is that just too stupid to answer or not?
Just in case you are young, or never bred dogs:

If a breeder has a pair of dogs that are both carriers for the same inherited disease, on average, 1 of every 4 puppies in a litter will be affected.

That might be one or two puppies in the litter, on average. If you are one of the people who get one of the healthy puppies, then you have no experience with getting a puppy who will grow sick and die.

If you are one of the people who are sold an affected puppy, then you understand. If you are wealthy, or a lawyer, the breeder is less likely to put the affected puppies in the litter when you arrive.

The meek may inherit the earth, but they are also the most likely to get sold on affected puppy.

I know of one breeder, who screens who she lets buy her puppies very carefully. No lawyers, no rich people, no toughs can buy a young puppy from her, if there is much chance that that litter will throw affecteds – but she might sell these people an older puppy or young dog.

But somebody is apt to get sold the extra puppies out of the litters that could of thrown an affected.

BIS terrierman

I never thought I say this, but I’m saying it now, IMO, terrierman is not quite harsh enough to be hitting the nail on the head.

Terrierman’s review of the film “Best in Show” (“BIS” in dog show lingo), is very good, but I would add this to it: not all that is wrong in dog shows is funny.

I know that there are those in the mental field who believe that a person who does things not in their own self-interest, is neurotic.

In more exact words, there are people who believe that all altruism, is neurotic, and that all helping of other people is a form of crazy – unless you get something in return.

I disagree.

If I were pushed to choose, I prefer the neurotics of the movie “Best In Show” over the cold blooded, selfish breeders,

like the mis-named “Class A” breeders/dealers, who breed dogs specially to sell them into research, and the “Class B” bunchers who get pets and sell then to be used in experiments and product testing.

I like the somewhat nutty breeders who baby their dogs, and treat them like people, better than I like the cold mean breeders who use dogs in the ‘sport’ of dog shows and sell the losers to people who bunch for the bunchers or companies who buy masses of dogs for who knows what.

I like the neurotics that are a bit crazy over their dogs, better than I like those focused on using dogs for sport or money.

Nothing like seeing people for the nuts they are, but loving them anyway.

Of course, if one can have sanity AND kindness, that is best – but we are talking about dog shows aren’t we?

and like the variety of opinions on what is neurotic, I am not so sure, that dog show fans are any less fanatics than Star Trek fans or Football fans.

In all groups there seems to be those who go too far with their love, fandom, or obsession, and others who err by not loving enough.

Yes, laugh at “Best In Show” and groan out loud because there are nuts like that in dog shows, but don’t go away thinking that that is all there is.

While people have often said that dog shows are agriculture (animal breeding),

And some say that showing dogs is a sport (the ‘sport’ of combing dog hair? and leading the dog around a ring? – not IMO),

And I have heard people claim that dog shows should be part of the entertainment industry,

But, now, I have heard it said, that dog breeding ought to be classed as part of the medical industry, as that is where so many of the dogs end up – used in experiments.

The movie is funny, the other side of the truth is a horror story with a bad ending, not a comedy.

“Class A” breeders/ dealers, and “class B” dealers are real.

Barf Dog Food

Can you think of a less appealing name for a dog food diet than “barf”?

When I first heard about the “barf diet” for dogs, I thought it was a joke.

It sounds like anorexic girls puking up their food to try to look like a bean pole.

Actually, puppies like to eat puke, it is what wolves feed their young cubs.

But the image of feeding your kids good food and them having them puke it up for the dog – it’s just gross.

I’m not sure if wolves have some way of not puking up digestive juices too. That would not be good for the puppy’s mouths. Would they have to really wolf the chunks down quickly to not mess up more delicate tissues?

But that is not what the barf diet is about – read below, several posts earlier, where I explain my reasons why, even though the barf diet MIGHT be good for your particular dog –

I wouldn’t buy a puppy from from a breeder whose dogs needed a special diet –

And I don’t think that breeding dogs with deficient digestive systems is a good idea.

Vampire Dogs

Did you ever think of vampires as nutritionally challenged individuals living in an era without nutritional supplements?

What would a person, a count with wealth eat, if he was dieing of malnutrition?

Might a person who found that he could not digest solid food, switch to blood?

Cattle or horse blood makes more sense.

There is a tribe in Africa, said to only swallow, water, cows milk, and the blood of cattle – which they get from nicking a bull and catching the blood in a gourd, and then stemming the flow from the bull.

The bull doesn’t die – he is ‘milked’ for blood.

Many people could not live on this diet, as they loose the ability to make the enzymes to digest milk after childhood.

But what if a person lost the ability to make other enzymes?

The yuck feeling that people usually get from the idea of eating other people, might be a form of self protection – it is not safe to eat your own species, because their diseases become your diseases.

better dog foods

I once had two dogs of almost the same age. One was a purebred, the other was from the same father dog, but from a mutt mother, so the puppies were half brother and sister.

They were raised in the same environment, I kept them in the same environment.

I noticed that the purebred had looser bowel movements. The veterinarian said that some dogs are just looser than others.

I switched one of the most expensive brands of dog food. The purebred’s dropping became firm like the mixed breed dog’s always had been.

But the mix breed dog became so constipated, that I had to go out and get him a sack of regular dog food.

I like to free feed my dogs, and let them go in and out the doggie door as they please, so feeding each dog a different food would be difficult.

I tried feeding them separate, and mixing the new food in with the old food for the mixed breed dog.

The end result was that the purebred dog did great on the expensive food, she was lively to the point of being annoying, she had plenty of energy, she was vibrant and active, she seemed much more alive.

But the cute mixed breed dog, seemed depressed, less focused, less active, less happy.

I tried going back to the regular dog food. The mix breed dog perked up, became energetic, and happy.

The purebred did better on a diet high in fats. The mixed breed dog did better on a diet of high in carbs.

They needed different foods.

Dog Food

There’s a load of stuff posted on dog food. Lots of people will tell you their opinion. But what you need to know WHY a breeder feeds or recommends a certain diet.

I was talking to an older breeder of purebred dogs about the health of her chosen breed.
She mentioned a few problems, so I asked her about a fatal inherited disease that I had read was common in her breed.

She didn’t seem to want to answer at first, and asked me a few questions.
Then she said that that was an old dog book that I had read, and that the disease USE TO BE one in her breed.

I asked about the disease.
It was a disease which somehow prevented the puppy from getting the nutrition out of the food that it was eating.

So that, while all the other puppies would thrive on what they were fed, the affected puppies would slowly die of malnutrition -not because the food was bad, but because the dog’s digestion was bad.

Shades of Pottenger’s cats!

I asked her when the disease was last seen in the breed.
She said breeder’s dogs didn’t have it anymore, but sometimes a pet puppy would still die of it.

I asked if a person could look at a litter of puppies for sell, and know which were affected?
She said that regular people could not, but that the experienced breeders could, because they had watched it develop and knew what to look for.

I asked if she would be able to make sure that I didn’t buy one of these affected puppies, and she said that she wouldn’t go shopping for a puppy with me, but if I brought the puppy over to her house, she would tell me if it was affected or not.

She said, because it was a nutritional problem, the puppy slowly got sicker and sicker before dieing.

I could tell, that she didn’t want to talk about it, so I didn’t push – the conversation was spread out through several conversations. But I did understand, by what she had said, that she must have had dogs that had produced affected puppies.

I got up the nerve to ask: “What happened to the disease?”

She pretended not to understand. I reminded her that she had once said that the disease use to be common, and now was rare. (The disease was ‘cured’ before genetic testing for dogs.)

She finally said . . .

A dog food company had come out with a new brand of dry dog food. And that affected dogs, fed this food, did NOT die of malnourishment!

So, the disease was NOT cured. It was just controlled.

Although I will not mention a product name here, it is a dry dog food that you that you can buy in most stores that specialize in selling pet foods.

The dog food is NOT marketed for dogs with inherited digestive problems – if it were, could the breeder you bought your puppy from recommend it, without your knowing that she had sold you a puppy with an inherited health problem?

The breeder just says that it is a good dog food brand, and her health guarantee is void if you don’t feed this one brand.

When I heard this, I knew that this wasn’t the only breed with this problem, because I knew there had to be a reason, like some cover up, for so many breeders insisting that puppies they sell be fed certain foods.

I know that some of these show breeders do not like dogs – they would NOT be doing it out of concern for the future of the puppies that they sell. (To some dog show people, the dog show is a game they play to win, the dogs are just something they use to win the game.)

But then I talked to a dog owner, and she said, that she knew someone whose dog had died of this disease recently.

I mentioned the expensive dog food. She said the dog was fed this, and it still died.

I went back to the older breeder, who said that yes the dog food would save the puppy, but after awhile, the dog usually died of it, and they never were healthy, even on the expensive dog food.

It seems the dog food made up for some of the nutrients that the puppy was unable to extract from it’s food, but that other trace elements were not in the food in quantities enough to save the dog. The dog just died slower.

One breeder, at a show, said that affected puppies only died if pregnant – the nutritional strain killed them. (Blame the victim).

Another breeder said that male dogs died of it too. And that spaying, with the stress of surgery, and the sickly dog’s inability to recover from the operation, would often kill the female dog.

I tend to believe the last two, as the “Blame the victim” dog breeder once told me that she had little trouble selling affected puppies (with a different inherited disease) because the people who bought the puppy did not know what to look for – they interpreted the puppy’s lack of energy and pleading looks as a gentle puppy, not a sick and dying puppy.

And that veterinarians usually didn’t know what to look for (like the rare disorders that Dr. House treats – the veterinarian might only see pets with this disease once or twice in his lifetime).

She also said when their puppy’s disease got advanced enough and the puppy died, the owners usually thought the dog died from being poisoned.

And that veterinarians sometimes guessed this too, as the symptoms mimicked some kind of poisoning. (Veterinarians are not trained to do the advanced medical tests that hospitals can do for people).

I didn’t think that was very nice. But to some people, it’s great, they unload a sickly dieing puppy for good money, and then get off free. And nobody can use a dead dog for breeding, and thereby take customers away from them. Grrrrr.

If you think that is a rare case, then you have no idea just how many inherited diseases are in purebred inbred dogs.

Remember the experienced breeder might sell puppies/dogs nearly every weekend – the people buying a puppy might have never bought a puppy before, and might only buy a few dogs ever.

When a breeder recommends a special diet for a puppy, ask “Why?”.

Know that breeders may wait until you have bought the puppy, and are leaving before mentioning the special diet the puppy should have.

If you say that you have changed your mind, that with this new information, you don’t want the puppy, be prepared to hear the breeder say that she doesn’t use regular a receipt, where she can refund your money and sell the puppy to someone else;

-she uses “papers” that only arrive one per puppy, and that she can’t take the puppy back because it would take weeks to straighten out the paper work,

-and to get new papers for the puppy that you decided NOT to buy –

-and by that time the puppy would be too old to sell, and she doesn’t want to babysit the puppy for another month before selling it – just waiting on the papers.

Might be best to ask the breeder what they feed their dogs, and why? Expect smaller breeds to often be fed more expensive dog food.

Just my opinion, but I’d question large breeds who have to be fed dog food that costs more than steak, or who can not be fed dog food and still survive.

Rat stews

How are you going to eat it, if you don’t kill it first?

I don’t understand. You can hunt kangaroo, but not kill a rat?

Kangaroos are native marsupials not found elsewhere.

Rats are rats. They are almost everywhere. And they are non-native to Australia.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_rat

I didn’t watch the show. Don’t care to watch rat eating.

I am against torturing rats, but I am not against killing them – they reproduce so fast, that if their population wasn’t kept down, they’d eat all the crops – the wheat, the corn, the apples – we would have nothing left, if rats were allowed to keep multiplying.