Deformed Dog Wins Crufts Award.

Nodin wrote: »

Seen that allright years ago - presuming its the one with head size on some spaniel type. Mental stuff. I knew about a few of the things in it but it was only when you all of this stuff together that it dawned on me "this is bollocks".

failinis wrote: »

I will watch this later on.
A friend of mine has had a few boxer dogs and all have had fits and seizures, apparently its just "accepted" in the breed?
Another has a little King Charles Spaniel as far as I remember and the vet told them the skull was too small for the brain and caused a lot of problems.
Pure breed dogs are fine - if they have a wide blood pool and try to breed out the illnesses. Not encourage.

Samaris wrote: »

That's right, and it's King Charles as failinis also mentioned. Horrifying to see, the brain is squashed into the skull and it can cause seizing.



Yeah, both of those were covered too - I hate the idea of boxer dogs. They're just ..malformed. I don't like pugs either.

Actually, I've gone right off quite a lot of dog breeds. Anything that's been bred to show levels just seems to be horribly unhealthy.

jungleman wrote: »

Not altogether true. When I was growing up, we had a pure bred golden retriever. We purchased her from a really reputable breeder who went to great lengths to make sure that the dogs were healthy and genetically sound. They kept records of the family histories of every single dog they bred.

My parents didn't buy a golden retriever because she was a fashion accessory, they bought her because they're known for being great with children. She lived until she was nearly 11, which is a good age for a golden retriever, or any large dog. She was happy and healthy.

In instances like Crufts, where that German Shepard was bred to have that deformed shape, that is wrong. Plainly wrong. It's worse than wrong, it's disgusting and cruel. However, there are a lot of breeders out there who love their dogs and are horrified at this type of stuff.

People have their own reasons for buying pedigree dogs, but you can't just label them all as being for "fashion accessory" purposes.

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kylith wrote: »

Nature never intended any dog breeds to exist.

It's totally reasonable for someone to buy a specific breed of dog; you know how big it will get and how much exercise it will need and what its temperament is likely to be. Rescuing a dog is something of a crap-shoot, especially at the puppy stage.

What people need to do when buying a dog is consider its size, whether they can meet its exercise needs, and if they are prepared for the amount of grooming needed, NOT to buy a dog just because it looks cute.

Choc Chip wrote: »

Well that's just not true. Many people don't consider these dogs exercise requirements, but many people do - what about people with huskies that do canicross? I've got a friend who's a vet and recommended a staffie to us 'cos they're such friendly dogs. Not everyone buys their dog based on their looks or "dangerous" reputation.

Samaris wrote: »

While I understand what people are getting at as regards adopting an adult dog from a rescue centre, there -are- reasons why pups are generally easier to home. Some of it is what you would expect, puppies are cute. But they can also be trained up to suit the family they're with.

Some dogs from rescue centres were with decent people who trained them up and loved them. Maybe the owner died or moved abroad or something. Others were in rescue centres because they'd been badly treated and poorly trained. That can be a bit of an unknown quantity if you're rehoming them. Bad habits, maybe temperamental, might be intimidated by men (usually men for some reason), or dislike women (also seen or heard of quite a few dogs that will obey a male voice but totally disregard a female one) or could be snappy with children. I'm not saying this is a reason to never adopt an adult dog - god knows its not their fault the poor things. But it's part of the whole problem of why there are so many adult dogs that are hard to find a good owner for.

Edit: Mind you, another major issue with purebreds is that they might have all the looks in the world, but their medical bills end up astronomical down to the breeding in of awful traits. Be it hip dysplasia, fits, epilepsy, inclination to get cancer, blindness, etcetera. Always best to research the type of dog if you are getting one that looks to be mostly or entirely A Specific Breed.

Hercule Poirot wrote: »

While the bit regarding rescue animals being an unknown quantity is a fair comment I do know that in Australia an animal has to pass a behaviour test before they can be rehomed, don't know if it is done here though - the downside is the fate of the animal if it fails the test, which I'm sure you can guess. ..

Cupcake_Crisis wrote: »

Not necessarily. We specifically got Bichons because they're non shed and hypo allergenic. After months scouring rescues for one, we eventually had to go to a breeder.