Love. Life. Dogs.

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**Warning: Post gets incredibly vivid on descriptions and may not sit well with sensitive stomachs.**

You never know how your life is going to change when you get involved in what I affectionately call “the Dog World.”  Little did I know what lay in store for me getting into showing and (quite possibly) breeding purebred dogs.  The trials and the tribulations involved in having intact animals in my home and the quandaries associated with them.  Such was the case just a little over two weeks ago when what I thought was going to be a routine vet visit for a urinary tract infection or bladder infection on my darling little pistol, Lyric, turned out to be so much more.

I took Lyric to my phenomenal vet, Hoover Road Animal Hospital, on Tuesday, March 6th.  She’d urinated in her crate three times in the span of about an hour and a half.  [Note: We crate and rotate due to compatibility issues with a couple of the dogs – makes life simpler when they’re not crabbing at one another and it was another dog’s turn.]  The first time she did it, I wasn’t incredibly concerned because she’s always been a dirty dog and not had a problem urinating in her crate but after the 2nd (and eventual 3rd that happened not even 20 minutes after changing out her blankets and cleaning out her crate one more time!) I was incredibly alarmed.  The first time, her urine smelled fine.  It smelled like normal dog pee (yes, I know…weirdo knows what their dog’s urine smells like) but the final two times before we made the end of day trip to see our vet, her urine smelled off.  Pungent and almost infection-smelling – but it wasn’t watery, it was heavily concentrated.  Quite honestly, it was gross smelling and I had a hard time handling the smell. (It quickly became one of a handful of smells I can’t stand and almost make me want to vomit.)

Doc took her temperature and it was incredibly high – like concernedly high.  He gave her a fever reducing injection and we talked about our options.  Since she’d urinated on their floor, she had no more urine left to give a sample, but he didn’t want to send us home without starting her on antibiotics simple because we couldn’t run an analysis. So, armed with a prescription for cephalexin we went home.  There was concern that it wasn’t a bladder infection or UTI but I was told to come back if there were any changes – unfortunately, those concerns became incredibly valid not even 24 hours later.

We started her immediately on the medications after picking them up from the pharmacy (Yay for $4 generic prescriptions at Kroger for dogs now!). The following afternoon when we’d come home from work, I took her out on our potty run (we couldn’t see anything that morning since we leave for work at 4am most days) and she was oozing pus out of her vulva.  We made the call to get her back in immediately and an eternity later and a bazillion worrying tests later (okay, so it wasn’t that many, but I never felt so worried in my life over this little hellhound) the determination was pyometra and the fix was an emergency spay.

My life and hers changed so quickly. Never would we have expected to have her show career cut off at the knees by Mother Nature, but I’m glad I still have my girl and she’s safe and sound and on the road to recovery.  While Mother Nature had other plans for her, forcing us to drastically change ours, it also opened up so many more opportunities that wouldn’t have existed prior to that.

It is really true that when one door closes, another opens.  I’m eternally grateful to everyone who has been so supportive of her and me during this entire ordeal.  I would never wish this on anyone in a lifetime – it has become one of the scariest things I’ve gone through since making the decision to maintain intact dogs – and since we’ve had to walk through a new door and onto a new path in life we walk with uncertainty in our plans ahead but keeping in mind that we have each other and hundreds of new things to try, train, and excel at and a gratefulness that my little demon princess was not ripped from my arms and taken across the Rainbow Bridge before she’d had time to finish her reign of terrier terror on this plane. I ultimately learned to never distrust my senses in knowing that there wasn’t something quite right with my dog and her behaviors and am blessed to have such a phenomenal bond with her and the rest of the Wolf Moon pack.

To many, many more years of learning and living together, Lyric.  I love you with all of my heart and while we may walk a new path, we will do it together into eternity.

The Fault is Mine, The Glory is Theirs

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I’ve been lagging on the blog for a bit – a lot of fun (well, not so much!) has happened, but here’s another wonderful article by my GSD-owning training partner, Jen Rainey of Vom Haus Huro.

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They know not that they have earned a title. They care not for the scores. They are unimpressed by the cheers of the crowd and they remain ignorant to the scorn of those who judge them. Yet our dogs continue to try, to strive and to achieve. Why? Titles and accomplishments are not for dogs. They are for the owners and the window shoppers. What is for the dog is the time that the owner invests, the pride shared with that much beloved dog and the joy of working together.

When my dogs fail to perform a task, follow a command or pass a trial I always look to myself, to my performance, to find the fault. Did I spend enough time working with my dog? Did I form an appropriate bond? Did I work the dog repetitively with high motivation and fun? Did I myself give a performance consistent with what I present to my dog during training? The fault never fails to be mine. If we do not pass it is because I did not teach the task; because I did not present the same picture; because I failed to bring what I needed to bring to our team. As handlers it is easy to blame the dog, the venue, the crowd, that weird tuft of grass or that sunny spot that blinded us for 5 seconds. But these are not reasons, they are excuses. Excuses because we fail to admit to ourselves and to our ever forgiving canine partner that we, the “higher being” failed to do our job when the heat was on.

One could easily assume that since I look first to myself for fault that I may also look first to myself in success. The exact opposite is true. When we have success it is because of my dog. It is because my dog did his job, as he always does, and brought his half to the team. More importantly the success is his (or hers) because he suffered my repetition in training, he made the correct decision even when I asked incorrectly and he gave me his all when the time to put up or shut up was right in front of us. Because while I worry about the judge, the crowd and the performance, he worries only about working with me and experiencing the joy of teamwork.

Your dog is the only relationship that you will be in where the other participant will put your happiness first. Each and every time. Cherish that selflessness for what it is, strive to deserve it and above all try your hardest to remain ever conscious of it. None of us will ever be good enough to deserve such devotion in our lifetime but we are lucky enough to have it anyway. That in itself is a gift beyond measure. One which we owe our dogs for all of their days.

Responsible Breeding and the American Pit Bull Terrier

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The American Pit Bull Terrier (APBT) is idolized as ‘America’s Dog,’ but yet this dog dies by the hundreds and thousands in shelters across the nation.  ‘America’s Dog’ has become ‘America’s Epidemic’ because of the mass amounts of puppies being pumped into this world by irresponsible breeders who are only looking for the next buck that they’ll make from the puppies they produce.  The end result for many of these dogs is the back room where they will be euthanized by either lethal injection or gas chamber.  If you have never sat through a mass euthanization of unwanted dogs, cats and other animals it is truly depressing.  These animals know, despite the cooing, pets and kind words that they are going to die.  If you don’t believe me and don’t want to sit on the real thing, there are many videos out there on Google on the hard work that shelter staff must go through when an animal’s time is ‘up.’

You will hear the same mantra every single day by those who spend countless hours cross posting, fostering, volunteering and saving these dogs and other animals from an uncertain fate to not “breed or buy while shelter animals die.”  These people live the day to day of cleaning up after those individuals who do not give a flying rip where the offspring of their beloved Fido that they just had to breed to make a buck.  As an appreciator of purebred dogs, I find this utterly appalling that they have to go through this.  The reality of the matter for breeders and other fanciers is that we must police our own.  We are our brother’s keeper for the fate of ‘America’s Dog’, the APBT.

The term breeder is not a favorable description in the rescue community and with what they go through, it doesn’t surprise me either.  The difference between your ordinary, run of the mill “breeder” (also known as a BYB, backyard breeder or puppy peddler) and the responsible breeder is a set of morals and ethics when they produce a litter.

  • Responsible breeders take the time to verify the parentage of their dogs through DNA-profiling.
  • Responsible breeders health test their dogs against potential genetic disorders like hip and elbow dysplasia, cardiac conditions, thyroid problems, luxating patellas or other potential genetic hazards and allow the risk of these issues to be minimized versus blindly breeding and having some unsuspected puppy buyer from suffering with hundreds and thousands of dollars in veterinary expenses.
  • Responsible breeders screen potential puppy buyers extensively.  Their questionnaires and contracts leave little to the imagination and has the intention of bringing forth a home that will maintain the dog for the 12-15 years it will live there properly.
  • Responsible breeders show their dogs in conformation and working events like weight pull, obedience, agility, rally, dock diving, etc. and encourage people who want offspring from one of their breedings to do the same through reputable registries like the UKC, AKC and ADBA.  (All of the above mentioned sports, including conformation are open to altered dogs with the United Kennel Club (UKC) for APBTs with permanent registration and all sporting events are open to rescue dogs of unknown lineage through their Limited Privilege Program.)
  • Responsible breeders encourage spaying and neutering (and often offer incentives) of dogs that are not considered breeding quality.
  • Responsible breeders microchip/tattoo their puppies and register them prior to the puppy leaving for its permanent home.
  • Responsible breeders take back a dog or puppy that does not work out in its original home and cares for it until it can find a more suitable, permanent home and realize that not every home, no matter how well-screened and hand-picked will work out.

The above mentioned points are just a few of the checks and balances that breeders impose on themselves to ensure that they are breeding to improve and not continually pump out animals that will likely end up in a shelter or on a euth list.  There are many more, but it would take many more blog posts to even begin to go into them.  For a general code of ethics for responsible breeders, I suggest going here.

While the rescue community often seeks to lynch those who breed, they lump all breeders together – those that are responsible and those that peddle.  The two groups are not interchangeable because responsible breeders work to keep the offspring they produce out of shelter system by breeding infrequently and screening heavily for proper placement and they also often help out rescue groups.  Ultimately, without purebred breeders…responsible purebred breeders, we will lose breeds and the domesticated canine population would die out in 20+ years with nothing but spayed/neutered animals around.  While it’s not the brightest outlook, it’s the reality.  We ultimately need responsible breeders for all breeds to continue to breed high quality dogs and shelters, rescues and adopters to help eliminate the overpopulation problem that is occurring now while we work to eliminate two main problems in canine society – breed specific legislation and puppy peddlers.

Veterinarian Speaks Out on PETA and Westminister

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The information contained below is written by Libbye Miller; DVM and is reprinted with permission.

“Adorable mixed breeds” get cancer, epilepsy, allergies, heart disease, and orthopedic problems just like purebreds. I see it every day in my veterinary practice but mixed breed dogs aren’t tracked like the purebreds so they have a reputation as “healthier” that is actually undeserved in many cases. “ It is so sad that a lot of folks, including young veterinarians these days, buy into the “hybrid vigor” baloney. The vet schools have been infiltrated by the Animal Rights Extremists, who are teaching them this junk science in order to push their agenda. All animals have a certain amount of genetic load, which is to say there is absolutely no animal without some genetic problem of some sort of another.

Know anyone who wears glasses?
Has allergies? Thyroid problems?
Weak knees?
Flat feet?
A skin condition?
Arthritis?
A gap between their front teeth?

These are all genetic imperfections. No human is genetically “clean.” Neither is any individual of any species on earth. So this idea that dogs should not be bred because they might have a genetic problem, and that breeders are somehow “evil” for breeding them, is ridiculous. Every single individual of every single species has at least a few genetic conditions. To use PeTA’s logic, all breeding of all kinds (including having human babies) should halt immediately. And to be honest, Ingrid Newkirk (the woman who founded PeTA) does believe exactly that. She thinks that humans should become extinct, along with dogs, cats, etc. This ridiculous scenario is precisely what she would like to see happen. So folks, if that is what you want…if you agree with Ingrid Newkirk’s whacky views, send your hard earned money to PeTA. They will help to ensure you are not able to own a dog or cat or hamster or any other pet in the future. They will see to it that you can’t eat meat or fish or eggs or any type of animal-based nutrition. They will work to shut down places like Sea World, the zoos, etc. so you cannot observe the many wonderful animals on the Earth. Eventually, once they accomplish these things, they may turn their efforts to making it illegal for humans to procreate. If you don’t agree with their extremist views, wise up and start supporting those who truly do love, care for and enjoy interaction with other species here on our little blue planet. The fanciers of the breeds, those you see exhibiting their dogs at Westminster and other dog shows, work very hard to eliminate serious genetic conditions. They screen their breeding stock with every available test. They research pedigrees before breeding into other lines, to check for similar clearances in those animals. They contribute money to research organizations to further the work being done to track down genetic problems. They contribute blood, cell samples, etc. from their own animals to help with DNA and genome studies. They have made great progress so far, and they continue to work hard at it.

Are there unethical breeders? Certainly, there are. Just as in any group of humans, you will find the good and the bad. United States VP Elect Joe Biden, for example, managed to find a not so good one when he got his new German Shepherd puppy. I don’t know who did his research for him, but they obviously didn’t do their homework if they were looking for a responsible breeder. Joe has the right to get his dog from whomever he wishes, but if he was trying to set an example of purchasing from a responsible hobby breeder he went off the track this time. That’s too bad, but it was his choice. Unfortunately, breeders like that may be a lot easier to find because of their high volume and high profile. If you are looking for a nice family pet from a breeder who will be there for you forever, you need to do due diligence. You won’t get that from a pet store. You won’t get that from the guy selling dogs out of his pickup truck in the WalMart parking lot. You won’t get that support from a high-volume breeder, either. Yes, it takes a little more time and effort to find someone who really cares and does all the work to breed the healthiest, happiest puppies possible and then stands behind those puppies. This is a living being that will be part of your family, hopefully, for many years. Isn’t it worth a bit of effort to find a breeder who will be there for you and that puppy forever? And guess what? Shows like Westminster are a very valuable resource for finding breeders who do care and who use the best possible practices, as well as for learning more about the various breeds. Bravo to USA Network for broadcasting the Westminster Kennel Club show all these years. May they enjoy continued success through the ongoing inclusion of such programs. I will be eagerly watching this year’s show!”