Finding a nice puppy should not be this hard

By Christie Keith

It came across one of my dog lists, a little rant about the breeder from whom Joe Biden got his German Shepherd puppy, and how Biden had made a bad choice.

The person who posted it meant well. Our readers have commented about this subject on Pet Connection before. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that I might have written something like it if this had taken place two or three years ago. But no more.

Joe Biden reached out to an experienced law enforcement canine handler to help him find a German Shepherd puppy. He in turn researched local breeders, looking for someone who specialized in breeding family pets rather than working dogs. It’s not like he picked up a dog from out in front of the local flea market. And yet this breeder turned out to be one most of us wouldn’t have recommended, and probably could have told fairly easily wasn’t the best choice.

If the Vice President-elect of the United States and a U.S .Senator, who is a previous German Shepherd owner to boot, with the services of a top law enforcement German Shepherd handler, cannot successfully find a good family dog from a responsible breeder … it’s too hard, folks.

We’ve let the quest for a good breeder and a good family pet become an insider’s game, where you have to be able to decipher codes, know the secret handshake, and keep Sauron from finding the freaking ring before you get a nice puppy. And even then, half the dog fancy and the entire rescue community will be ready to jump down your throat for all the ten thousand ways you could have done it better.

And that’s not good for dogs. Because there are plenty of people who could give dogs good, loving homes out there who are going to outlets that sell puppies from high volume commercial breeders. They’re buying puppies meant to live as members of their families but have never in their short lives been a part of one, because they’re being raised like livestock.

Most of those people are not doing it because they’re stupid or careless or impatient; most of them are doing it because the alternatives are invisible to them.

One reason breeders are so hard to find is pretty easy to figure out: fear. Fear of aggressive anti-breeding activists in their local animal control and shelter. Fear of mandatory spay/neuter laws. Fear of breed bans, limit laws, and even sting operations. This whole bizarre idea that we should register and license people who breed a litter or two a year or less… why? It’s no more a business than an occasional garage sale is, and all it does is create a database of people who have intact animals. In the current climate, can anyone really fail to understand why no one who breeds or shows is likely to go along with that?

But that’s not the only reason. Breeders have also allowed themselves to be made to feel ashamed of breeding dogs, of being devoted to their breeds. They’ve been convinced that they have to rationalize and explain what they do, have to point out they do rescue and donate to shelters and really care about dogs in order to… what? Justify bringing a carefully bred puppy into the world and placing him or her into a loving home?

The “don’t breed and buy while shelter dogs die” mantra was way, way too effective, but that doesn’t make it true. Its premise is that there’s a connection between the puppies of small, careful, home-based breeders and the deaths of dogs in shelters. But if we have learned anything in this post-”Redemption” era it’s that dogs die in shelters not because of “irresponsible pet owners” or “greedy breeders” but because of the shelters’ own policies and actions.

This repressive, white-lipped scorn of breeders springs from exactly the same ideology that gives us rescue groups and shelters that can barely find a home they consider good enough to adopt a pet to. Which are usually run by the exact same people who mourn and lament and rend their garments about how all the irresponsible bad pet owners are the ones making them kill all these poor dogs and cats, and swearing we cannot adopt our way out of “pet overpopulation,” and wielding shelter kill statistics like a club to punish pet owners who don’t treat their animals in exactly the way they’d like them to.

The whole thing is just a big huge heap of propaganda. Owning dogs is not a zero sum game. People often have dogs from breeders and shelters or rescue groups at the same time. Dogs are like potato chips to most of us, and once we have one, wherever we get her, we’re likely to get another. If we want to increase the number of shelter adoptions — and I know I do — we’d have a lot more luck doing that if we promoted shelter dogs instead of telling home-based breeders they’re bad and wrong for doing what dog lovers have done for thousands of years, breed their dogs.

How is it good for the future of dogs if those breeders who should be the source of the happiest, healthiest family companions are instead driven into hiding by a combination of punitive regulation and shame? All the breeders I know support and volunteer for and refer people to their breed rescue; what will happen to the good they do if they’re driven so deep underground no one can find them?

And then, what will be left except the very USDA-approved high volume commercial breeders we decry?

Maybe if the “responsible breeders” weren’t hiding, Joe Biden could have found one of them. After all, people who breed dogs are just like everyone else. Some are wonderful, some suck. Some are good to their dogs, honest and careful; some are greedy and mean. It is, amazingly, the exact same ratio of good to bad as you’ll find among shelter directors, airline pilots, and pet writers.

Finding the good ones is truly no more or less difficult than finding a good hairdresser, doctor, dentist, or person to plan your wedding. You don’t need a secret decoder ring. Gollum will not help nor betray you. You might get ripped off — it happens. But it’s not a mystery. The exact same set of skills that allow you to find a good day care center, or the lack of skills that gets you suckered at the car repair shop, will be in play when you look for a dog breeder.

If the playing field were leveled, and the propaganda, fear, and shame taken out of the picture, it would increase, not decrease, the number of good vs. bad breeders. Those small, home-based breeders we’ve condemned with the term “backyard breeder” and equated with puppy mills (talk about propaganda) would be forced to improve their practices if they had to compete with the kind of breeder we all want to get a puppy from: ethical, honest, caring, knowledgeable about genetic and temperament issues in her breed and lines, committed to improving and preserving her breed, providing a lifetime safety net for the puppy in case things don’t work out.

But those are the very ones hiding in the shadows. I think it’s time to come out.

Marley & Me

 

Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson take on the film adaptation of John Grogan’s best-selling story.

By Marni Wedin

Growing up, I was so attached to Lassie that I wanted her to come live with me. I had an extremely hard time understanding why that wasn’t possible. I truly loved Lassie so much. We were one. Every trial and tribulation she went through, I went through. Every evil-doer she caught, I caught. Every tender scene, I’d bawl waterfalls.
Okay, I was only seven, but as an adult looking back, I now know the reason I felt so emotionally connected to Lassie was because she represented the love I experienced and the adventures I went through with Ebony, my real-life canine best friend. Whether it was building snow forts, bicycling through a wheat field, or digging a hole to China, Ebony was always by my side with a tail that never stopped wagging.
Well, Lassie’s getting some new competition from the title character of John Grogan’s acclaimed novel Marley & Me. Grogan’s Marley reminds me so much of my beloved Ebony—an ordinary, free-spirited, fun-loving dog who would roll over if I said “Sit” and shake a paw if I said “Heel”—that I can’t help loving him.
An instant bestseller, Marley & Me chronicles the life of Grogan and his wife, Jenny, with their neurotic 97-pound Labrador Retriever as the dog crashes through screen doors, steals women’s undergarments, chews up couches, and aids neighbours in distress.
“On one level,” says Grogan, “my book is about a couple with a dog, but on another level, it really explores a couple trying to figure out what’s important in life and what really matters on our journey. This big crazy dog really led us to realize that the real goal is happiness and you find that at home and you find that with your family.”
It didn’t take long for Hollywood studios to get wind of the popular book and want to adapt it into a film. “We were on vacation,” Jenny recalls, “and John’s phone didn’t stop ringing with various studios all trying to cut a movie deal for the book.” The couple finally decided to give Fox 2000 the rights to make the film version.
Directed by David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada & HBO’s Sex & the City), Marley & Me boasts a star-studded cast with Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston as John and Jenny Grogan, Eric Dane as John’s best friend, Sebastian Tunney, Alan Arkin as John’s boss Arnie Klein, and Kathleen Turner as the stern dog-trainer, Ms. Kornblatt.
The film follows the Grogans from their marriage in 1989 through to the fall of 2004. You witness their struggle of balancing marriage, career, and family, but when they visit an animal rescue to adopt a dog, the heart of the story really begins. After falling in love with the one dog branded as a “clearance dog,” they take him home and name him Marley.
In between chewing up the Grogans’ garage, failing obedience school, and eating Jenny’s gold necklace, Marley provides comfort for the couple. He’s there with his unconditional support not only when Jenny miscarries her first child but also when their three children are born and the chaos of a growing family ensues.
The story has a broad appeal, according to Aniston. “You think it’s a kids’ movie or a dog movie but it’s a lot more than that. I made that assumption until I had my heart ripped out. It’s marriage. It’s children. It’s career. It’s ego. It’s success versus failure. All of these things that I think universally affect people at some point in a relationship.”
For Frankel, working with comedic talent like Wilson and Aniston was “the luck of the draw.” “You put two brilliant movie stars together and they spark in a thrilling way,” he says.
The two stars enjoyed working together on Marley & Me. “Owen is just great,” says Aniston. “He’s so good at his job, he’s so professional, he’s such a generous actor. We have so much fun playing off each other and I think this is a really good role for him, too. He has some moments that are just really special.” Wilson also had nothing but praise for his co-star. “All her instincts on how to play the character just seem like exactly the way [it was] when I read the script. The way I imagined it is the stuff that she does. And then, [she does] stuff that is better than you imagined.”
Both Wilson and Aniston are avid dog lovers and brought their own dogs, Garcia and Norman, on set every day to join in on the fun. Aniston’s dog, Norman, even made his first cameo during a beach scene in the film.
The real canine stars, though, are the 22 dogs that portray Marley from puppy to adulthood. “You know, they always say, ‘whatever you do, don’t work with babies and animals,’” laughs Aniston. “We’ve got babies. We’ve got puppies. We’ve got grown-up dogs. We’ve got old dogs.... It’s been a ball and nothing but fun.”
In total, there were eight trainers working with the eleven puppies, five young adult dogs, and three seniors who play Marley. Trainer Ray Beall explains that, unlike many dog movies, Marley & Me shows dogs behaving like normal dogs.
“In the movie, dogs get to be dogs,” he says. “They don’t have to be animals acting as humans.” Fellow trainer Mark Forbes adds: “Preparing for this movie was almost anti-training. The dogs got to not only just be a dog, but the most unruly, untrainable, out-of-control dog there ever was.”
Once shooting was wrapped, of course, there were eleven puppies who needed homes. “We had a list as long as your arm of people who wanted to adopt them,” says Forbes. Those who wanted a Marley puppy had to pass a home check. Puppies went home with several Fox executives and with the Grogans, and even Jennifer Aniston added a new Marley puppy to her family.
Marley & Me is due out in theatres this winter. Or wait until you can rent it and watch it at home snuggled up with your own Marley.

How Does Your Dog Smell?

No, I’m not blogging about canine olfactory processes. I’ll leave that to Ken over at Did a Cat Sh*t in Here.

I’d like to talk about how you recognize and judge the scent of your four-legged friend.

Back in 2000, Queens University psychologists Deborah Wells and Peter Hepper published a study in Perception titled The discrimination of dog odours by humans. The study examined the ability of humans to identify individual dogs by smell. From the abstract:

Most of the participants (88.5%) were
able to recognise the odour of their own dog. They showed no
significant bias, however, in responding which of the odours they
thought smelt the strongest or most pleasant. The results indicate that
dogs produce odours that are individually distinctive to their owners,
and highlight the fact that humans can recognise members of another
species using olfactory cues — an ability presumably acquired without
conscious effort.

Even though the importance of our sense of smell has historically
been grossly underestimated, we’ve known for some time that humans,
like other mammals, can discriminate between kin and non‐kin by
olfactory cues alone – so these findings shouldn’t be terribly
surprising. Still, after stumbling onto the abstract I was curious to
know more. Since the article is only available (at least to me) by
paid subscription, I thought it was a wonderful stroke of luck that
Scientific American published an article about it
just this week. Here’s their description of the study and an
interesting side note on the results not included in the abstract:

In this study, twenty-six dog owners
were given a blanket to place in their dog’s bed for a period of three
consecutive nights. (One rule was that the dogs couldn’t be bathed for
at least a month before the study began.) The owners then returned to
the laboratory with this blanket, were blindfolded, and asked to take a
deep whiff of two comparison blankets. One blanket was from their own
dog’s bed and the other was from the bed of a foreign dog matched for
age, sex, and (wherever possible) breed. Remarkably, 88.5% (23 of the
26 participants) correctly identified their own dog’s odor—a finding
that the authors attribute to familiarization. However, somewhat
surprisingly, the study failed to show that owners preferred this
particular smell over the other one.

So… pet owners can differentiate the scent of their dogs from those
of strange dogs (which is, by the way, not the same thing as being able
to identify our dogs by smell) - but we don’t necessarily preferour dogs’ odors. Why not? Well first, as SciAm noted:

One possible reason for this null
finding on the preference dimension may be that the study did not
control for quality of attachment between the owner and his or her dog.

They probably also didn’t control for variations in personal or
cultural attitudes toward odor or for factors affecting the general
aesthetic quality of the odor of the dog (i.e., gingivitis, skin
problems, flatulence, ear infections etc.) Pheromones may be an
important factor as well. While we may recognize and/or be attracted
to the body odors of potential mates and our offspring, it would make
evolutionary sense that we wouldn’t necessarily respond positively to
the pheromones or body odors of an animal of another species – even one
that we care deeply for.

I enjoy the smells of my dogs (for the most part at least) and I’ve
always been able to tell them apart by scent. Just for you I very
carefully and methodically smelled both my dogs about the head,
shoulders and hips so I could report what they smell like. Zip has a
very soft, light, powdery (and very undoglike) scent with hints of
lemon and ear wax. This is her scent, not her shampoo – she
hasn’t had a bath in several months (and no, I don’t use doggy
colognes). Audie has a much stronger, saltier scent with an earwax
topnote and basenotes of intact boy dog urine and raw meat.

I have to say that even though Audie is my darling mamma’s boy, I much prefer Zip’s scent to his.

Dogs in the News

First off from our That Was a Really Stupid Idea files the Waseca County News reports:

A little over a week has passed since a dog was discovered inside a Dumpster on a cold Waseca night.

While Precious, a female rat-terrier
mix, is doing well at the Animal Medical Center of Waseca, her owner
faces a misdemeanor charge relating to the incident.

The dog was discovered by a Subway
employee at the bottom of a Dumpster behind the restaurant around 10:30
p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 28.

According to Police Chief Keith Hiller, Precious was intended to be in the trash bin only temporarily.

Hiller said it appeared as though there may have been an issue of having a dog in a home where pets were prohibited.

He said that the owner told police that the dog was put into the trash temporarily as a way of hiding her from the landlord.

While the owner will make her first
court appearance later this month, a number of things can happen with
Precious down the road.

She could be returned to the owner, or
someone who knows the owner and can provide a good home for her. The
other option would be to put the dog up for adoption.

Hiller said that if a pet owner is
unable to take care of their animal, there are a number of options
available to them, but abandonment is not one of them.

Uh yeah. How bright do you have to be to understand that stashing
your dog in a restaurant dumpster, even on a temporary basis, is a bad
idea?

Newsday features the story of a Vicious Pit Bull Attack — sadly, this is the story of an innocent dog attacked and killed by its owner.

A Middle Island man was arrested after
he called police and told them he stabbed the family dog to death in
self-defense Tuesday morning, Suffolk police said.

Lamont Yarborough, 36, of Wilson Ave.,
was charged with felony animal cruelty after he used a knife to stab
the 80-pound pit bull named Buster three times at his family’s home,
police said.

Around 5:13 a.m., Yarborough called 911
and told responding officers that he killed the dog after being
attacked in a bedroom, according to Det. Sgt. James Madden at a news
conference in Selden Tuesday.

Yarborough went to the kitchen for a six-inch knife and stabbed the dog
three times — once in the head, once in the groin and a fatal wound to
the left rib cage, puncturing the dog’s left lung, Madden said.

Madden called Yarborough’s response excessive, noting that he had a “superficial” scratch on one hand.

“I believe Mr. Yarborough could have
confined his dog in a room and if he thought he was a threat, he could
have called 911,” Madden said. “The results are over the top.” A woman
at Yarborough’s house declined to comment. A neighbor described hearing
the dog screaming and howling Tuesday morning.

I’m quite sure that there’s a special place in Hell for Yarborough…

Good Intentions Gone Terribly Wrong — ZooToo reports the sad story of a woman who, unfortunately, provides a graphic illustration of why you must always make sure conditions are safe before trying to rescue a loved one, whether they’re on two legs or four.

A New Jersey woman sacrificed her life
for that of her grandson’s dog on Saturday, when she fell into a frozen
pond after trying to rescue Apollo, a German Shepherd puppy.

Though the 6-month-old dog survived the
icy incident, the woman, Janet Howard, 61, drowned in the Plainsboro
Pond, in Plainsboro, N.J.

The tragic incident generated double
acts of heroism, as a Plainsboro resident witnessed Howard’s fall, and
plunged into the frigid waters after her.

The resident, Austin Hearn, told police
he was riding his bike along a nearby trail when he saw Howard and
Apollo struggling to stay afloat.

“The woman was barely keeping her head
above water and appeared to be growing weaker by the second,” the
Plaisnboro police department said in a news release. “She was separated
from the bank by a solid sheet of ice; the dog was also floundering in
the water.”

Hearn first attempted to pull Howard from the pond with a branch, veering off about 15 feet away from the water’s edge.

“It’s impossible for me to imagine
leaving someone there and abandoning her,” Hearn told NY 4 News. “My
first priority was to get her to safety. That’s why I got the branch.”

Yet the initial rescue attempt “didn’t work out,” Hearn said, after the ice caved in under him, too.

Despite his 15 years of experience as a lifeguard, Hearn recognized that the circumstances were challenging, at best.

Note: when I searched for information on emergency scene safety to
link to this story (as a former HAZMAT responder and trainer, this is
something I’ve drilled into many people’s heads) I found that more EMS
providers are injured or killed from motor vehicle collisions and
roadside incidents than from violence each year. Violence is a very
real threat to first responders – and so are drowning, being overcome
by toxic fumes, falling — and back injuries. Dying or getting severely
injured is a bad idea under any circumstances. Don’t go there.

Last, A Bit of Heart-Warming News. Dallas News writes that:

David Hartwig’s beloved dog, Skidboot, had died, but the phone kept ringing with performance requests.

Bring your other dogs and do your routine, they told him. We love it.

But Hartwig wasn’t in the mood. His new batch of Australian blue heelers were just “average dogs of average intelligence.”

Fans kept calling, however, and Hartwig
eventually caved in. Now his trio of doggies – Tiedown, Bois’d'arc and
Little Skidboot – entertain audiences in the spirit of Skidboot, who
died in 2007.

“I had to let the public convince me it was still worthy,” he said. “They said, ‘You have something, and we want it.’ “

“If you had never seen Skidboot, you’d
think this was a real smart dog,” he said, talking about one of his new
charges. “But compared to Skidboot, this dog has a bad case of
dumbworms.”

But the new dogs are talented, and audiences can’t get enough of them.

In a time when the main message behind the top-rated movie in the U.S. is that dogs are furry, lovable members of the family especially when they’re undisciplined and obnoxious – and that it’s perfectly acceptable to raise enable them in an utterly passive way; a story celebrating trained dogs and the people who love them truly warms my heart!

The Horror of Hoarding

Animal hoarders used to be referred to as animal collectors. The typical stereotype is the crazy cat lady — probably because cats are the most common animal involved. Animal hoarding is a problem that places families and communities, not just animals, at risk.

The problem of animal hoarding is poorly understood. It has been compared to delusional disorders, early-onset dementia, and obsessive-compulsive disorders but none of these adequately explain the disorder.

Hoarding is comprised of three intertwined groups of problem behaviors; acquisition, saving and disorganization. Much like people who hoard possessions, animal hoarders often don’t recognize that they have a problem. Animal hoarders commonly have a persistent and very powerful belief that they provide proper care for their animals, despite strong evidence to the contrary.

The Tufts Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium has an excellent website with detailed information on recognizing animal hoarders and providing interventions in animal hoarding cases.

According to Tufts, animal hoarding is defined by four characteristics:

· failure to provide minimal standards of sanitation, space, nutrition, and veterinary care for the animals;
· inability to recognize the effects of this failure on the welfare of the animals, human members of the household, and the environment;
· obsessive attempts to accumulate or maintain a collection of animals in the face of progressively deteriorating conditions, and
· denial or minimization of problems and living conditions

There are three general types of animal hoarders:

The Overwhelmed Caregiver has some awareness of their problem and has typically acquired their animal passively. Their problem is typically triggered by a change in circumstances. While they are initially able to provide proper care for their animals, as more are acquired they become overwhelmed and lose the ability to provide even minimal care for the growing population. They lack problem-solving skills, see their animals as family members and usually live socially isolated lives. Their sense of self-esteem is strongly linked to their perceived role as caretakers. Being passive and cooperative, they are generally the easiest group to work with as they don’t usually have problems with authority.

The Rescue Hoarder is a person who on a mission that has turned into a compulsion. They start out planning to rescue animals so they can be adopted but end up hoarding. These individuals actively acquire animals and believe that they are the only ones who can adequately care for them. They may have an extensive network of enablers and may not live with their animals. Because they perceive of themselves as superior care-givers and believe they hold the animals for their own good, they are typically more difficult to intervene with than the overwhelmed caregiver.

An Exploiter Hoarder tends to have some sociopathic characteristics. They lack empathy for people and animals and are indifferent to the harm they cause. These individuals actively reject outsiders’ concerns, lack senses guilt and remorse, are manipulative and cunning and are often superficially charming and charismatic. They see themselves as experts who need to control the situation and resist attempts to intervene in an aggressive way. These hoarders sometimes make plans to evade the law or “beat the system”, by doing things like hiding their animals with other hoarders or friends when threatened.

Sadly recidivism in animal hoarding cases is nearly 100%.

According to Tufts:

Hoarders may struggle with self-esteem and with finding their identity and purpose in life. They attach themselves to an image. Therefore, the hoarded animals may play a central role in their lives, which makes the resulting conditions that much more problematic.

Behavioral changes are difficult for everyone but, as a group, animal hoarders are particularly resistant to change. Compounding the problem is the fact that there is no established psychotherapeutic intervention proven to be effective in these cases. Some hoarders will resume their activities even after being prosecuted and jailed. And unfortunately determined hoarders can rarely be prevented from resuming their compulsive, controlling behavior.

Pet Humiliation

No animals — or humans — were injured
during staging of these photos (we suspect they’ll wait until we’re
drunk or asleep to exact their revenge.)

Dogs and Toxins- From Antifreeze to Venom

Dogs and Toxins- From Antifreeze to Venom
Insecticides & Pesticides:


While there are simply too many of these to make an exhaustive list, insecticides and pesticides can prove fatal to your dog within minutes of ingestion. For this reason, it is absolutely imperative that you store and use these items where your dog will not be exposed to them. If for some reason your dog ingests or inhales any type of the mentioned items, you should seek immediate veterinary care. Symptoms will vary greatly according to the type of item ingested:
Excessive salivation
Vomiting/ with or without blood
Diarrhea/ with or without blood
Confusion
Ataxia
Seizures
Unconsciousness

Treatment:

Varies widely according to what was ingested. Contact a poison control center and seek immediate veterinary assistance.

Venom:

A dog can sustain a venomous snake bite much more easily than a human. Dogs have very tough skin, and venom does not affect them as significantly as it does one of us. However, a snakebite can be fatal. If you observe an actual bite occur, or suspect that your dog has been bitten, first ensure that the snake (or other venomous creature is no longer in the area.) Remove your dog to a safe location and attempt to keep them still. You might notice the following symptoms:


Puncture wounds
Severe Pain/Swelling
Necrosis of tissue at bite site
Labored breathing

Treatment:

Antibiotics sometimes help. Benadryl may be recommended by your vet if you are in the field. Anti-Venom. Do not suction wound site. Do not use tourniquets or make incisions at the bite site.

Your natural responsibility to your dog should mitigate most of these types of poisonings. However, we all know that dogs are indiscriminate eaters, and that they sometimes eat and expose themselves to toxic or even deadly items. Be observant, and be prepared, and you will greatly reduce the chance that your dog will become a casualty of toxins.

GSP Info

The German Shorthaired Pointer

The German Shorthaired Pointer comes from the old Spanish Pointer, which was brought to Germany in the early 1600’s.

However,
it is impossible to know the exact origins of the German Shorthaired
Pointer, the best candidates would be the Schweisshund, the Foxhound,
other hounds and also the Italian Pointer.

Breed Group

Sporting

Size

Male: : 23-25 inches high

Female: 21-23 inches high

Weight

Male: 55-70 lbs

Female: 45-60 lbs

Color(s)

The
German Shorthaired Pointer can come in combinations of liver and white
ticked, liver patched and white ticked or liver roan.

Coat

The
coat of the German Shorthaired Pointer is short, thick and tough. Hairs
are softer, thinner and shorter on ears and head and are longer under
the tail and on back of haunches.

Life Expectancy

About 12-15 years.

Personality

The
German Shorthaired Pointer is a loyal and protective dog that loves to
be with family members; it constantly needs to be near people and is
very cheerful and friendly. Liking children, these dogs make excellent
family pets if enough exercised.

If left alone for a
long time, they might become bored and destructive. German Shorthaired
Pointers are extremely energetic and need to have daily chances to
spend their energy. Smart and willing to please, these dogs are quite
easy to train.

Care

The
German Shorthaired Pointer is generally a healthy breed, but some can
be prone to epilepsy, hermaphrodism an lymphedema. Some other minor
concerns are gastric torsion, entropion, VWD, pannus, OCD and CHD.

Very
easy to take care of, the German Shorthaired Pointer needs to be
brushed regularly and bathe only when necessary. The ears must be
checked regularly and the coat must be dried after hunting.

Training

The German Shorthaired Pointer is quite easy to train, but tend to be stubborn, so it needs patient and firm training.

Activity

The
German Shorthaired Pointer is an extremely energetic dog that will take
as much exercise as you can give it. They need a lot of daily exercise
or they might become destructive.

Dog News: Trouble For Woman Who Adopted 27 Shelter Dogs

Sometimes there *can* be too much of a good thing. Colleen Spalioni, who hails from Spanish Springs, NV, had her heart in the right place when she headed to animal control in Delano, CA last week. She made the trip with the goal of finding a dog that reminded her of her Pointer mix, Barney, who was killed last month. When Spalioni arrived, she couldn’t resist the longing gazes of 27 (yes, 27!) dogs who were scheduled to be euthanized. With the help of animal control officers, the dogs were loaded into Spalioni’s pickup truck for the trip back to Nevada. The rescued dogs included 10 Chihuahua mixes, one purebred Chihuahua , a Jack Russell Terrier , a Poodle, two Shepherd mixes, two Miniature Pinschers and an Australian Cattle Dog mix. There was also an orphaned litter of seven 2-week-old Australian Cattle Dog-Shepherd mix pups (one died on the trip back and 2 later died at Spalioni’s home).

Photo by the Reno Gazette-Journal

Soon after the motley crew arrived, a neighbor complained about the sudden and drastic increase in noise. Local animal control officers came to investigate and informed Spalioni of a 3 dog limit in her county. After an outpouring of media attention, 20 of the dogs were adopted on Monday. Spalioni says, “I didn’t realize I was going to be in so much trouble or that so many people would be so angry at what I did. But after I lost my dog who gave me so much unconditional love, I couldn’t leave these dogs to die.” Apparently Spalioni’s husband returns from a trip today and wasn’t aware of what she had done. My question? Why would animal control workers allow a single individual (not a rescue group) adopt 27 dogs?!

Pit bull owners are drug dealers, but cat owners are demented

Who's next in the extremist war against animal owners ?

Brace yourselves, cat lovers. Your 15 minutes of fame, or infamy, is coming soon.

Living with "too many" cats threatens your mental stability, according to the Washington (D. C.) Humane Society.


After trashing the reputations of millions of loving dog owners and arranging the forced sterilizations and deaths of uncounted innocent dogs and other pets, Wayne Pacelle's HSUS and their accolytes move relentlessly forward.
Like sharks.



Whisper campaign against cat owners

Like a dead fly hidden in the rice pudding raisins, Humane Society employee
Scott Giacoppo slipped the mention of how the ammonia in cat urine
causes dementia in humans. He did it almost casually as he was interviewed by an adoring newspaper columnist.




His fellow "team mate", Best Friends rep Sherry Woodard, agreed whole-heartedly with the startling new information:

The team explained the ammonia odor released from too many cats together is harmful to cats and humans. (Giacoppo said that on a long-term basis, the ammonia can cause dementia in humans. . . .)

New Jersey Star-Ledger columnist Joan Lowell Smith swallowed it in one tidy gulp and duly reported it back to the public. No questions asked.
Smith must have a master's degree in science, too.

Feeding the internet rumor machine: humane societies just make shit up

So, let's take inventory. Junk science and myth sponsored by the Humane
Society of the United States and other "humane societies" :

1. Pit bull owners are drug dealing gang-bangers
2. Tethering causes "aggression" in dogs
3. Michael Vick's dogs needed to die because they were the hopeless products of dog-fighting.
4. Mandatory castration of pets is a good thing
5. Pet overpopulation is a fact, and is caused by greedy tax-cheat breeders6. Too many cats make you crazy

Inventing a mental illness: Humane societies expoit "animal hoarding"

Houston? We have a chicken-and-egg problem.
Are "hoarders" already mentally ill, as Giacoppo suggested?
Or are healthy cat lovers suddenly over-whelmed while changing the kitty litter and tragically slip into madness? Do "scientists" like Giacoppo and Wayne Pacelle worry about such details?

I imagine that when animal extremists present the findings of their
well-documented and peer-reviewed documentation of their new mental
disease to the American Psychiatric Association, questions like these will be cleared up.

Not.

Making mental illness a crime

In Democrat-rich New York, where busy state legislators never put down
their pencils, they are way beyond the chicken-and-egg issue.
They have moved on to discriminating against the mentally ill.

In the race to be the first on the block with an animal extremist law to
boast about, no less that three New York legislators have moved to
characterize "animal hoarding" as a mental illness, and make it
punishable under New York's cruelty to animals statutes.

The bills' sponsors, like Assemblymember Kevin Cahill (Democrat-Kingston) write that, despite the fact that the new law would be part of New York's animal cruelty
statutes, the concept is to strip owners of their animals, and punish address the medical needs of the criminal animal hoarder, before any animals are actually treated cruelly.

So Cahill envisions prosecution of a pre-crime, criminal, mental illness.

He would take cats and other animals away from their owners, and convict them of cruelty to animals, before the well-known effects of exposure to cat pee manifest themselves.

Animal extremist crocodile tears: This is for your own good

It hurts us more than it hurts you.
Its all so sad.

Liar, liar. Pants on fire.

Don't believe it for a second. The purpose of Giacoppo's remarks and bills
like the ones in New York, whether dupes like Assemblymember Kevin
Cahill and Star-Ledger columnist Joan Lowell Smith ever realize it or
not, has nothing to do with animal welfare.

The purpose is to steadily increase the power of animal extremist
organizations. Junk science, civil rights violations, discrimination
and scare-tactics are just the means to the end.

Worth a Look

From Chas Clifton over at NatureBlog this link to a story on honey laundering. Sadly, instead of a how-to piece on extracting honey from the comb it’s an expose of [sigh] yet another
scheme by Chinese businesses to sneak cheap, contaminated goods into
foreign food supplies. We suggest you read the Telegraph story at
the link — and make sure you’re buying local honey.

One of my google alerts provided this interesting report
on a possible link between canine aggression and an omega-3 fatty acid
deficiency. A word of caution; the Italian researcher team made a
point of noting that they found a correlation between omega-3 fatty acid deficiency but that they had found no evidence that the deficiency caused
increased aggression. That said, omega-3’s are a pretty innocuous
group of compounds, so if your dog’s “got issues” adding them to his
diet shouldn’t be a problem. As usual, if you’ve got concerns - talk to
your vet.

ChienDogBlog
does a bangup job bashing AKC breed standards. Apparently kids who fail
high school English now have two career choices. They can go on
to write really bad corporate memos, or get hired by AKC to invent
breed standards.

Last, but certainly not least, from GunDogDoc this excellent video on The Tailgate Exam. The
file takes a while to load, but it’s well worth the wait. Dr. Joe Spoo
demonstrates how to give your dog a field examination that will help
you detect — and prevent injuries. Folks, this isn’t just for hunting
dogs. The owner of any dog that spends time outdoors needs to know these skills. Go. Watch.

How to Care for a German Shorthaired Pointer

Step 1

Spay or neuter your German Shorthaired Pointer. Spaying females before the first heat prevents breast cancer and decreases the chance of uterine infections. Neutering male dogs before age four prevents testicular cancer, helps maintain a healthy prostate and curbs aggression.

Step 2

Take your German Shorthaired Pointer for regular medical check-ups and stay current on vaccinations, flea and heartworm preventative. You can also do a monthly home exam of the skin, eyes, ears, nose, teeth and gums.

Step 3

Have your GSP’s teeth cleaned professionally on a periodic basis. Ask your veterinarian for a recommended schedule.

Step 4

Feed your German Shorthaired Pointer a nutritious and balanced diet. Choose a premium quality dog food with meat as the first ingredient or a homemade diet consisting of the proper balance of protein, carbs, fats, fiber, vitamins and minerals.

Step 5

Exercise your GSP vigorously. Take him on brisk long walks or daily jogs. They do best living in a house with an ample sized fenced yard. They can, however, do okay in an apartment, but must have sufficient exercise.

Step 6

Brush your GSP occasionally with a rubber or soft bristle brush. They are average shedders.

Step 7

Bathe your GSP when necessary, about every few months should normally suffice. Clean the ears with a cotton ball and baby oil or an ear cleaning solution for dogs.

Step 8

Keep your German Shorthaired Pointer's nails trimmed. Every few months during bath time will work. As long as they get a lot of walking and running in, they should require minimal trimming (if any).

Tips & Warnings

• German Shorthaired Pointers are intelligent and easily trainable. They get along well with other dogs.
• GSPs enjoy playing fetch and Frisbee. They also like to swim.
• A dog park is a great place to exercise a German Shorthaired Pointer. They love to run and “mix it up” with the other dogs.
• German Shorthaired Pointers are affectionate and great with children. They tend to get rambunctious, so it’s best to supervise their play around little ones.
• GSPs were bred to hunt, therefore have a natural instinct to chase cats. They can get along with them if socialized from an early age.
• If left alone for extended periods or without enough exercise, the GSP can become destructive. They thrive on companionship and get lonely if not around their family enough.
• German Shorthaired Pointers will leap over fences, so make sure yours is high enough.
  
  
  

The German Shorthaired Pointer

By Marian Buechert
| Photographs by Deborah Samuel

A few years back, a well-know kennel ran an ad with a series of
photos showing their dogs pointing birds in the field, doing agility,
competing in the show and obedience rings, and, best of all, sitting
happily at a child’s birthday party, wearing a silly pointed hat. Their
German Shorthaired Pointers, they boasted, could do anything.



GSP owners would likely agree with this claim, although most early
fanciers were thinking less about their dogs’ ability to make small
talk at social occasions and more about practical skills like pointing,
flushing, trailing, and retrieving game.

In 1929, C.R. Thornton, wrote: “As a breed, the German all-purpose dog will do it all and do it well.” Thornton’s article in the American Kennel Gazette was titled “Meet the ‘Everyuse Dog,’” and in it he praised the breed for being willing to take on any challenge and adapt to any situation.

“I have never attempted hunting anything from a mouse to a moose, that they were not ready and willing to assist…Good disposition. Love to be caressed. Take kindly to children, and show almost human intelligence in looking after small tots. As companions and pals, they are next to man…I find them a sensible, intelligent watch dog…they are the greatest all-around dog ever produced.”
Not really surprising, since versatility was exactly the characteristic that the developers of the breed were seeking.

In the mid-1800s, there were a number of specialist hunting breeds that excelled at their own particular tasks: pointers and setters to seek out and point birds in open country; retrievers to find and bring back the downed game; hounds to track over distance; and spaniels to hunt in cover and “flush” or drive out the quarry. This specialization was fine as long as the hunter could afford to own a kennel full of different dogs. If you were an ordinary citizen with just one or two dogs, however, you needed those dogs to perform a variety of jobs out in the field and then watch over the home and be a family dog as well.

A Hanoverian prince, Albrecht Zu Solms-Bronfels, in what is now part of Germany, made the creation of such an all-around dog his passion. Exactly which breeds the prince and other early enthusiasts used to create the GSP is not known; most likely a blend of the old German Bird Dog with other sporting breeds and hounds of the time, with a final dash of English Pointer for style. By the late nineteenth century, the breed type was more or less set; paintings from this time feature GSPs virtually indistinguishable from the Westminster Kennel Club Best in Show winner in 2005, Ch. Kan-Point’s VJK Autumn Roses.

The GSP’s adaptability serves him well in modern times, when the only pointing and retrieving most dogs are required to do are pointing at the door at potty time and retrieving tennis balls at the park. While the breed is not a good choice for a couchpotato owner in a small apartment, GSPs can fit into a variety of situations as long as they are given sufficient activity for body and brain. Owners who run, hike, bike, or are involved in agility will find the GSP a perfect companion.

The Shorthair’s low-maintenance coat should be solid liver in colour or a combination of liver and white. Solid black and solid white are not permitted under American Kennel Club rules. A weekly rubdown with a hound glove should be all that is required to keep the coat in good condition.

At 21 to 25 inches, the GSP is a medium-sized dog comparable in height to the Labrador Retriever but of lighter build. In North America, the tail is usually docked to about 40 percent of the original length; in many places around the world, docking is now illegal and GSPs are wagging long, natural tails again.

The breed is generally healthy with few genetic problems and a good life expectancy of up to 15 years. As with all floppy-eared dogs, ear infections may crop up, so it is important to check ears regularly and keep them clean and dry.

The German Wirehaired, the German Longhaired, and the German Shorthaired Pointers are not varieties of one breed; although they do share part of their names and a Teutonic background, they are three distinct breeds with different personalities.

With its sleek good looks and eager-to-please personality, the GSP is making it onto more and more of the most sought-after invitation lists and is now among the top twenty most popular breeds in the U.S. At the same time, it has maintained its reputation as a top-notch working dog, with more AKC pointing dog championships awarded to Shorthairs than to any other breed.