DogsAndTheMob

There is a lot of good information on the web. There is also a lot of misinformation. I see two major issues. Firstly, the focus on genetic testing of purebred dogs gives the false impression that crossbreed dogs are somehow exempt from the risk of genetic disease. Secondly, I have observed that many people have great difficulty understanding Mendelian genetics. ( I have even read books by senior breeders who got it wrong.) I think many people would have difficulty understanding that a puppy with one parent clear for a recessive disease and one carrier parent is a safer bet than a puppy whose parents have not been tested for that disease. A knowledgeable vet could act in the role of an "honest broker", advocating for appropriate genetic testing, and helping puppy purchasers to interpret the results.

Thanks Janba. I must admit I feel bewildered about why this thread degenerated into personal attacks. Sheridan, my relatives have been members of RASKC/NSWCC/Dogs NSW continuously since 1944 ( and I have photos of my grandparents and great-grandparents with their purebred dogs, dating back before WWi), but my passion is for dogs and their welfare, not simply for one subset of the species.

No, SkySoaringMagpie, I don't work for a vet or for any enterprise even remotely associated with the veterinary industry. I'm not a breeder, either, so I don't have a vested interest in purebred dogs. I do believe that both genetic advances and information technology offer unprecedented opportunities for breed improvement.

A model that accounted for all the variables would be fascinating, Corvus. I look forward to reading the research paper.

I think it depends on the circumstances. I travel long distance and I have briefly left a dog in a car parked in deep shade while I walked across the road to buy a coffee. I also sat in the car and drank the coffee, as I had done previously on many occasions when travelling without the dog, so I know what happened to the temperature in the car. It would have been more dangerous to the dog to keep driving and risk falling asleep at the wheel.

Thanks for that information. I'm not sure how accessible the information on genetic testing would be for the average puppy purchaser, or even the average busy vet. I think it will be difficult to make widespread improvements in the genetic health of dogs until the local veterinarian knows enough to look at the puppy that walks in the door and ask, " were the parents of your phalene tested for PRA?" or "were the parents of your Elkhound tested for Chondrodysplasia?" , even if she has never seen a phalene or an elkhound before. It will also be difficult to make improvements until the vet also looks at the crossbreed puppy and says, "hmm, he looks to be part poodle. As we don't know anything about the rest of his ancestry, his parents should have been tested for PRA and renal dysplasia and undergone screening for patella luxation." I don't think we can expect that of vets until they have the genetic screening information accessible at the click of a mouse.

I agree, WExtremeG. I think you and I are trying to make the same point.... There are no guarantees, but puppy purchasers can reduce some risks by buying a puppy with a documented pedigree and evidence of appropriate health and genetic screening of parents and related dogs.

Doctors routinely ask patients about family medical history, but no veterinarian has ever asked me about the veterinary history of a puppy's parents or their veterinary or genetic screening. In fact, local veterinarians that I have consulted have lacked knowledge about genetic diseases in dogs. It would be good if veterinarians had access to this knowledge, so that puppy purchasers could consult them about recommended health/genetic testing in their breed/ crossbreed of choice, before they acquire a puppy. I would like to see a collaboration between ANKC and veterinary and genetic specialists to build a web-accessible index of recommended health and genetic testing for breeds and popular crosses, together with an explanation of the implications of parental test status. Veterinarians would be able to factor this information into advice to clients, and into diagnostic algorithms.

How can you measure the odds on what is, in effect, a moving target? The crossbreed "demographic" in my town this year may be different from the crossbreed "demographic" in your town, and may also be different from the crossbreed "demographic" in my town next year, depending on the fashionable style of dog. This would make it difficult to generalise the results of a survey over time or distance. If, in addition, there is any difference between owners of purebred dogs and owners of crossbreed dogs in their response to possible health problems, (such as the assumption that crossbreed dogs are healthier and don't need to be seen by a vet), then that would further complicate interpretation of any statistically significant differences. I don't think that purebred dogs are intrinsically more or less healthy than crossbreed dogs... Too much depends on the parentage of the individual. All you can do is look at health records and genetic testing of the kinship group of the individual dog, and you are unlikely to obtain reliably documented evidence of health and genetic testing of the relatives of the majority of crossbreed puppies.

This is why I'll be prepared to pay the money for a purebred, registered puppy, when I get my next dog (although that is many years away.) I don't assume that a crossbreed puppy is a first generation cross with hybrid vigour (the spiel used to market "designer crossbreeds"). I assume that a crossbreed puppy is likely to be a second or subsequent generation cross, possibly from a mating of related individuals. I therefore anticipate that the puppy may be prone to any of the genetic diseases prevalent in the progenitor breeds. My views are formed by my experience with the rescue "designer crossbreed" I owned for 12 years. He had more health problems than all my purebred dogs combined. He had epilepsy from the time I rescued him. I've never owned a purebred dog with epilepsy. He went blind from cataracts. (In fact, he already had impaired vision when I rescued him.) None of my purebred dogs have gone blind. He had chronic back and neck problems from the time I rescued him, which were worse than anything I've seen in my purebred dogs, except in very old age. He had alopecia with bruising and seborrhoea, which was evident when I rescued him, and only partially improved with care and grooming. None of my purebred dogs have had these skin problems. He also had what I have since heard referred to as a typical "oodle" coat - a coat that matted within hours of grooming. His coat had to be clipped short, and that did nothing to conceal his alopecia or protect his bare skin. On the plus side, he was a delightful, devoted dog, with a notably stable temperament, contrary to the inane stereotypes about "small white fluffies". My views are also coloured by my observations of crossbreed puppies in petshops, which so often are obviously not the crosses that they are claimed to be. If their breeders are not even honest about the parent's breeds, how can anybody trust them to pay attention to the finer details of breeding healthy dogs? Problems can and do occur with purebred dogs, even when great care has been taken. But at least with purebred puppies, I can look at the pedigree and ask pertinent questions.

We have four dogs and recently had two senior dogs visiting for a few months. The old girls weren't interested in anything except food and my dogs ignored them but, even so, my dogs seem much more relaxed without the two visitors. I also think the pie is limited in terms of time and money to devote to the dogs. The more dogs, the smaller the size of each slice of the pie. This is becoming even more of a consideration as vets have more ways to help my dogs live longer with better quality of life... at a cost. In the future, I will think very carefully before having more than two dogs.

A day lying around won't do him any harm. If you make yourself sicker or have a fall because you're walking him when you're dizzy, that won't be a kindness to him. Think of it as enforced off-switch training.

Do the manufacturers modify the kennel cough vaccine mix to cover currently prevalent strains of disease, as is done with human flu vaccine?

Do the vets say the cataracts are likely to progress? My husky was diagnosed with congenital cataracts in adolescence. She lived well into her teens and remained asymptomatic throughout her life, running,jumping, chasing a ball and fetching a dumbbell. Although the first diagnosis was given by a veterinary opthalmologist, I was sceptical and took her to a second opthalmologist. He gave the same diagnosis. If there are any doubts about progression of the cataracts, what are the potential consequences of delaying?

I have an Ezi-Set hexagonal "instant dog house", in the medium size. It folds up and stows into a bag about 60cm x 10cm x10cm, and is light enough to carry in one hand along with other bags. It's surprisingly roomy for my BC ( and even my gsd can fit inside, although I would not leave her in there). It's sturdily made (canvas etc) but I don't feel that it securely fastens into the open position. I would never leave a dog in there unless she/he was crate-trained and I was nearby to supervise. The issue with stability in the "open" position might be rectified by sewing in additional tabs or ties.

I live with cats... In comparison, nothing the dogs do is annoying! One cat used to hook a claw into me to anchor himself when he snuggled up in bed. After I banned him from under the blankets, he took to tickling my face with his whiskers. As soon as I lifted my hand to rub my face, he'd scoot under the covers. The closest a dog has come to that was my mother's GSD, who burrowed her face down between bedclothes and pyjamas to plant her cold nose in the small of my back when she wanted to go out in the middle of a wintry night. Our current dogs wake my OH up if they want to go out. They know who's the soft touch!

To the OP. I have crates for my adult dogs but I only use them if I need to separate them for meals or because one dog is ill. However, my last four puppies have slept in a small enclosed crate beside the bed. The crate is large enough for comfortable sleeping, but too small for playing. The covered sides make the crate more den-like, which is also conducive to sleep rather than play. This helps with house-training, because I wake up and take the puppy out as soon as he stirs. If he whimpers after being returned to the crate, I just drop my hand over the side of the bed and press it against the crate door for a few minutes,. If he continues to whimper, I ignore him. The crate gets moved progressively further from the bedroom, because I think it is important for my puppies to learn to sleep by themselves. My latest puppy quickly outgrew his crate, so I bought a mid-sized crate. Previous puppies have graduated straight to a full-sized crate, and slept there, for their own safety, until they could be trusted not to chew electrical cords. <div>I do train my dogs to sleep outside on my large verandah, because sometimes I need to leave them outside overnight. My dogs have trampoline beds outside but no blankets outside, because these would get dragged around the yard.

Or how about a keenness of kelpies?

A vitality of vizslas. A grace of greyhounds. A prettiness of papillons. A grin of German Shepherds. (With a nod to the maremmas across the road)... A midnight madness of maremmas. For other maremmas... A magnificence of maremmas.

A bounce of Border Collies. A gambol of German Shepherds

From the New Zealand Herald.... A New Zealand manufacturer is planning to market vitamin water for dogs. It will come in 4 flavours, NZ beef, free-range chicken, fresh mint and peanut butter. http://nzh.tw/10862812

How restrictive is the ANKC affiliation with the major registries in other countries? My interpretation of other posts is that, in countries such as the US where there are multiple registries, some secondary registries recognise parti poodles. Would it be practical for the ANKC to recognise the poodles from these registries as a second poodle breed? (In the way that "Siamese" cats bred for non-standard colours are recognised as Colour-point Shorthairs.) This would give purchasers the option of buying parti poodles with authentic pedigrees (supported by appropriate health testing and certification) from reputable breeders... And hopefully force out the backyard breeders.

(I'm back from taking the dogs for a walk.) Document 2: Schedule for the annual championship show of the German Shepherd Dog League of Australia, held 25th November 1951. Interesting highlights: "Exhibitors in the Metropolitan Districts travelling by train should enquire at their local railway re Special Show Dog Ticket available on Saturdays and Sundays only. Outside the Metropolitan Area, Exhibitors should get a consignment Ticket not a Dog Ticket." "OUR CLUB is democratic and progressive and any element of discord has no place amongst us. We cordially invite all fanciers who appreciate such an atmosphere to come and join. Join our club and help us to stamp out the ridiculous antagonism against the German Shepherd Dog. We need you! Your dog needs us! See the Secretary to-day!"

I'm looking at some old documents and thought I should share... It would be great if other people could also pull out their archives. Document 1: schedule for Sydney All Breeds Dog Training Club trial of 3rd July 1960, which states, "The members of our club are proud to present the FIRST ONE-DAY TRIAL OF OBEDIENCE DOGS EVER HELD IN THIS STATE." The entry fee was six shillings per class, with child handlers at two shillings and lady handlers at four shillings. First place trophies were valued at five pounds five shillings. The club shield was valued at 35 pounds. Novice Companion Dog Test exercises were character test (examination by judge), heel on leash, run on leash, heel free, run free, come when called, sitting ( in front of handler for two minutes), lying (in front of handler for three minutes) and stand free. The Open Companion Dog Test included the above plus a retrieve, recall and down, deliver message, jump hurdle and retrieve, scent discrimination, seek back and (as a combined exercise) long down and return to place.

It sounds as if you are doing everything possible to manage an intractable problem! Take care of yourself... This must be incredibly stressful, particularly combined with your long working week. Best wishes for a good solution.