Kirislin

yes, rather an abundance of cuteness isn't there. The little girl. She's my fave....I think. They're all gorgeous. :laugh: I'll probably go and see them next Tuesday again. They'll be looking back at me by then too. I've had a few people ask me if it's my litter. They're not mine, they were bred by a friend and I've been lucky enough to be involved in helping him, luckily for me I dont have to screen the potential homes for them. I can pass on any enquiries to him though.

It's not a clear cut "yes" or "no" to me but the idea that its "cruel" to remove them needs some serious testing. Sure beats the hell out of having one growing into your leg. I agree with you there but OP didn't say it was cruel. I also agree with her that it feels to me as if we're cutting off their thumbs. Having had it done to 2 3 day old litters I do know that they didn't cry much and were soon sound asleep, so I dont think they suffered. I just hated having it done anyway. I can see where it could be needed with inactive and/or neglected breeds, but I wish it wasn't the fashion for whippets.

I suppose equally there could be a thread titled Reasons for removing dew claws, and there would be many.

I'd say he had a zoom lens

Now that I do agree with.

beautiful photos Alyosha.

I was just about to put a thread here about this. :laugh: "They should at least use a husky to pretend to be a wolf," said another.

I think in whippets it's mostly cosmetic, because BYB whippets dont have them removed and if you ask most pedigree breeders they'll say it gives a cleaner line to the leg. If it was because they'd be otherwise constantly tearing them off there's as much arguement to docking a whippets tail. Quite a few break them. I have one here. I see quite a few BYB and race bred whippets at our racing club. All have their dew claws and we've so far never had one dew claw injury at our meetings. I doubt Tooradin whippet racing club has either. Again, if a dog had loose floppy dew claws then I can see the reason for removing them, but for just cosmetic reasons, I hate it, even though I did it with the 2 litters I bred.

Wow, looking at this photo I'm amazed at how similar in body the puppies are to any breed. I've just been involved with the birth of a litter of Italian greyhounds, and although your puppies heads only look a tiny bit more snub, their little bodies are almost the same. How they'll change! :laugh: I do have a very short video of a birth capturing in the owners voice all the surprise, hope and love he felt for his bitch, and in the background my voice sounding very matter of fact and composed, which I wasn't really, noting the time of birth. He was very sweet, wasn't grossed out at the mess at all and cupped his hand to catch the after birth for the bitch to eat while the vet nurses silently and I suspect queasily looked on. :laugh: that bit wasn't filmed though, he had to put his phone down to catch it. My link

I dont need to watch the video, I agree with you. "My" breed, whippets, traditonally have their dew claws removed, but my first 2 sighthounds both had dew claws and both used them in running. I know that because the dew claws were always worn down, which told me enough. One girl did pull off or break a dew claw twice over her 12 year life, and it was painful for her at the time, but neither time she was running. It was odd, I dont know how she did it. One time she was trotting towards me happily. I saw her falter slightly and next minute there was blood. I know they use them just when eating bones too. I also find it interesting that greyhound trainers dont remove racing greyhounds dew claws. If anyone was at risk of tearing them off while running wouldn't it be that breed? After my experience seeing Kiri break hers at a trot I have my doubts about exactly how they do it anyway. I asked a greyhound trainer why they dont remove them and he said they need them, and that there's all ligamemts attached to them that run up the leg, and when the dew claw is taken off they're severed too. I'd find it easier to bear if just the actual nail and not the entire thumb was removed, but in tiny breeds that would be very difficult to do at 3 days old. If I ever breed again, this is something I would struggle with. I know if the puppies were show prospects buyers would expect them to be taken off. I know myself, if I see a whippet with dew claws I immediately think to myself BYB. edit, I would agree with removing those loose flippy flappy ones that some breeds have.

fair enough to not let dogs roam the streets freely, but to expect them to be contained at night from going into their own backyards is asking too much. It's very sad that koalas are losing their habitat to us and our dogs, the same everywhere with all our native animals. My chickens have eaten most of the frogs and lizards in my garden.

Yes, it seemed very bleak to me sitting here warm in my house, but I suppose if he could get more help he'd be able to get them out and run them. He's got a full time job on his hands just keeping them going. Hopefully the doco will have generated alot more interest in them and he'll get some more help so the dogs can be worked.

there's a program you can watch on SBS online called Last Dogs of Winter, it's about the Canadian Eskimo Dog, that's the one you might have seen footage of playing with polar bears. Not sure if this link will work, but go have a look if you can. My link

These are great. Whenever I go the big cats are either sleeping or right up the back where I cannot see them. You've captured some amazing expressions. Check out the biceps on that male chimp. You wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of him, he'd tear your head off.

sounds like it's normal :)

What should the discharge look like from a bitch who whelped 10 days ago?

Funnily enough that was what Widgets name started out as, and then he changed it by just one letter.

I dont know about talent, I just point and click, but I do appreciate your comments. Their owner isn't a forum person but has asked me to pass on his thanks at the interest you've shown for Widget and her babies.

5F6A7347dpptcr by kirislin, on Flickr 5F6A7348dpptcr by kirislin, on Flickr 5F6A7349dpptcr by kirislin, on Flickr 5F6A7351dpptcr by kirislin, on Flickr 5F6A7355dpptcr by kirislin, on Flickr 5F6A7356dpptcr by kirislin, on Flickr 5F6A7361dpptcr by kirislin, on Flickr

stop it, I dont need much encouragement. I visited them today, I took Iggy Mum with me too, she loved them. todays pics. 5F6A7324dpptcr by kirislin, on Flickr Being cute is very tiring dont you know. 5F6A7325dpptcr by kirislin, on Flickr so young and he's already got wrinkles 5F6A7343dpptcr by kirislin, on Flickr 5F6A7345dpptcr by kirislin, on Flickr 5F6A7346dpptcr by kirislin, on Flickr

take your camera whoever goes to look for him.

It would be funny if you could actually see the dog on google Earth.

thanks so much everyone for your opinions. I'm sure it will be a help, especially the mention of weight and ease of handling them as she's a slight little thing and heavy ones would be hard to use I think.

yesterday I got out my Bissel carpet shampooer and did some spot cleaning of the most traffic areas and some various dog stains and smells. It's a tedious thing to clean but I've dismantled and cleaned it all now too and was just thinking how pleasant it smelled in here when I look over to see dear old Penny has just upchucked on the newly cleaned carpet. To her credit, she tried to clean most of it up herself. :laugh:

Not sure about that. I clocked up over 1000ks last week what with puppies in one direction and helping a friend pack to move house in the other. Although I love driving I'm getting a bit over it now. I wish they were just down the road, I'd be there all the time.