Dog Owner Chat v4

[eleutheromania]

so. it snowed at home and i only left two days ago........ i didn't get to see my low riders first snow T.T

[oddball1234]

It snowed for the first time in 28 years in my home town!!!! I'm on the south coast and its hasn't done this since 1989. wayyyyy before I was born so I was like a little kid all day! Built a snowman with my nephew and had snowball fights. Killian also had a ball! But I never had him out at long periods at a time because he was cold xD


Part of my front lawn looking down the street.




Killian on the porch. I was throwing snowballs for him to fetch and he would catch them lol




Killian under a blanket with me as we seat on the air vent to get warm



I need to get him a new sweater. The one he has on was one I got before Thanksgiving and its too small(length wise). It also doesn't help that I bought one that that was xx small. xD

[bloodredsheep]

Of course there's no reason not to health test, but there's no huge reason to do it, either, unless maybe the dogs you're dealing with are horribly inbred or happen to be one of the breeds more plagued by health problems.

You can't health test away all your problems, we only have tests for a small portion of the illnesses dogs are afflicted by, for one, and dogs have existed for THOUSANDS of years without health testing. So, why of all a sudden is it so needed? Because we're trying to health test for the very problems we created? I don't get it - a lot of working dog breeders don't health test, either. At least not around here. This is very common for LGDs; you can buy working bred ones fairly cheaply on classifieds where I live for around $300-500 and they've been raised around stock and so on. I could be wrong, I'm not denying that. But I've been surrounded by "poorly bred" dogs all my life and not one has had any health problems except for a lhasa apso my grandmother had who ended up with testicular cancer.

I didn't know about the contracts, but considering all of my past dogs have been mutts from oops litters or, in the case of one, a puppy that somebody impulse bought and later got bored of, I thought I was doing pretty good with the breeder I chose since they actually seemed to care for their dogs. I've never owned a purebred dog, or really anything, before.

Health testing for LGDs is just as important for them as any other breed. If you depend on your livestock to make a living your going to need a healthy dog to protect them. They will be fighting and chasing off predators. I went with health tested and AKC Anatolians for this reason I wanted to make sure I knew bloodlines, an idea on health and the temperament of my dogs. I didn’t want to take a gamble.

By having the dogs around livestock is good that doesn’t equal a sound body. Having a dog that’s healthy/sound bodied and right temperament is what ranchers/farmers should be looking for. Usually when an LGD is that cheap they are mixed or bred not soundly ex. structure is usually bad or coat type is not correct ex. Easily matts or just a terrible coat for a working dog.

Also way back when dogs were treated as stock when you had a dog that had a health problem or just wouldn’t work you put it down.

(Sorry for any spelling errors lol I’m on my phone. My phones terrible!)

[Cardinal]

When we know better we do better.

60 years ago Doberman just dropped dead, it was shrugged off. Theres a boat load of pedigrees with unexplained sudden deaths; the breed is rife with them. It was shrugged off and not thought about or swept under the rug, we know now Doberman have DCM, an always fatal heart condition. Our ancestors did not view dogs the way we do. Displastic? Shoot it. Doesnt herd properly? Drown it. Galagos are still routinely stranged and hung in trees because of a poor hunt or easily treated health condition. Lets also be honest here, natural selection no longer factors in. A dog thats WASNT sound of mind and body died and didnt live long enough to reproduce; hunters (even now) have no use for a lame dog and a lame dog doesnt survive without our intervention.

If anything we need health testing now more than we ever have in the past. Many breeds are now soft and watered down and the old hound that would have fallen due to natural selection or culling has been allowed to pass on the faults in its genes. Health testing isnt end all be all, thats where extensive pedigrees and third party evaluations come into filling in the gaps.

[taurus ;]

When we know better we do better.

60 years ago Doberman just dropped dead, it was shrugged off. Theres a boat load of pedigrees with unexplained sudden deaths; the breed is rife with them. It was shrugged off and not thought about or swept under the rug, we know now Doberman have DCM, an always fatal heart condition. Our ancestors did not view dogs the way we do. Displastic? Shoot it. Doesnt herd properly? Drown it. Galagos are still routinely stranged and hung in trees because of a poor hunt or easily treated health condition. Lets also be honest here, natural selection no longer factors in. A dog thats WASNT sound of mind and body died and didnt live long enough to reproduce; hunters (even now) have no use for a lame dog and a lame dog doesnt survive without our intervention.

If anything we need health testing now more than we ever have in the past. Many breeds are now soft and watered down and the old hound that would have fallen due to natural selection or culling has been allowed to pass on the faults in its genes. Health testing isnt end all be all, thats where extensive pedigrees and third party evaluations come into filling in the gaps.

Just treatment of galagos is horrible in general.

[rose.bloom]

Just thought I'd pop in here.
I own two goldendoodles one standard and one mini, Gretta and Dazey, and my family that lives very near us have two others, Pippa and Leo (a standard and a mini). Sorry to say but from a doodle owner, you all do sound very harsh. Our dogs were all purchased at the very start of the doodle craze from a very good breeder who we visited to look at her facility. It was beautiful and set on a large ranch. All them were vaccinated and dewormed. Doodles were not originally bred for a purpose, yes, it was an accident really, but so were other breeds. Goldendoodles are now bred for companionship and their wonderful temperament, and if that's not a good enough reason I don't know what is. I would recommend doodles to every person I meet, souly because most people nowadays aren't looking for show dogs, they are looking for good-natured, child friendly, loving dogs. And hey, they are also super cute and come in a couple colors and coat varieties. The fact that you all basically classify all "designer" dogs as backyard bred mutts is almost naive in my opinion when I can list many, many reputable doodle breeders. All of my four doodles are "temperamentally sound," and this can be backed up by my dads side of the family who have been GSD breeders for over 20 years, and when met Gretta (my dog) got two golden doodles of their own, Pippa and Leo.

[gansey]

hello! we have had my dog snoopy since 2005. we rescued lucy in 2010, so she was the newbie in the house. we're considering getting another dog, but my older sister (she's moved out) recently got a puppy, oscar, and lucy seems to dislike the puppy very much. we will not get a young, young puppy like oscar, but does anyone have any suggestions that could help us out in attempting to get lucy and whatever new doggo to get along? snoopy is also a bit afraid of other dogs, but other than that he's very nice. lucy is a chihuahua so she's already kind of nippy, so i don't know if anything will work, but it won't hurt to try, right? please pm me if you have anything, i'm about to go to bed and will answer in the morning! thank you so much!

[taurus ;]

Just thought I'd pop in here.
I own two goldendoodles one standard and one mini, Gretta and Dazey, and my family that lives very near us have two others, Pippa and Leo (a standard and a mini). Sorry to say but from a doodle owner, you all do sound very harsh. Our dogs were all purchased at the very start of the doodle craze from a very good breeder who we visited to look at her facility. It was beautiful and set on a large ranch. All them were vaccinated and dewormed. Doodles were not originally bred for a purpose, yes, it was an accident really, but so were other breeds. Goldendoodles are now bred for companionship and their wonderful temperament, and if that's not a good enough reason I don't know what is. I would recommend doodles to every person I meet, souly because most people nowadays aren't looking for show dogs, they are looking for good-natured, child friendly, loving dogs. And hey, they are also super cute and come in a couple colors and coat varieties. The fact that you all basically classify all "designer" dogs as backyard bred mutts is almost naive in my opinion when I can list many, many reputable doodle breeders. All of my four doodles are "temperamentally sound," and this can be backed up by my dads side of the family who have been GSD breeders for over 20 years, and when met Gretta (my dog) got two golden doodles of their own, Pippa and Leo.

But are they physically sound/had any kind of genetic testing?
I don't like them. Why?

Because they are sold under false pretense of being hypoallergenic. Because they are predominantly bred by backyard breeders and puppy mills looking for a big buck. Because the very man who bred the first doodle regrets it.

A reputable breeder breeds dogs to better the breed. Doodles are not recognized by any reputable kennel club, have no legitimate lines and so therefore they are not a breed. And guess what else? That means no bettering the breed because they aren't one, so anyone breeding doodles are just breeding them for the heck of it, if not for money.
And lets not get on the subject of their ridiculous price tags when you could get just as good of a mutt for $60 at your local shelter.
No surprise that someone who follows a fad or a craze tries to justify their wrongful actions lol.

[Cardinal]

Im generally completely fine with purpose bred mutts. Bandogs, longdogs, lurchers, etc are a-okay as well of other hunting/lgd/sporty mixes assuming they are responsibly bred. Im also fine on a case by case skipping on health testing and skipping the show ring.. barring the dogs are purpose bred. Catch and hold hog dogs are seletively bred to be good at their job, pedigrees are kept, and theyre rarely purebred... same with sledding dogs. These arent the kind of animals that will find themselves owned by joe shmoe.

[taurus ;]

Im generally completely fine with purpose bred mutts. Bandogs, longdogs, lurchers, etc are a-okay as well of other hunting/lgd/sporty mixes assuming they are responsibly bred. Im also fine on a case by case skipping on health testing and skipping the show ring.. barring the dogs are purpose bred. Catch and hold hog dogs are seletively bred to be good at their job, pedigrees are kept, and theyre rarely purebred... same with sledding dogs. These arent the kind of animals that will find themselves owned by joe shmoe.

Exactly. I'm fine with those, they have an actual purpose and aren't just being bred because 'oh they're so cute and come in so many colors'.