Allergies in dogs and their going off food.

[Handstitched]

Heres my mad mutt  .  A Border Collie X Kelpie . She won't win any shows,  she's as mad as a cut snake , but totally awesome   I brushed her out yesterday, that was over due, a lot of under growth and she's molting, its Summer here atm,   , OMG , she was like a kid that didn't want their hair cut , and she hates the lead . If she sees me with a lead , its a game for her,  its a case of " catch me if you can  HA HA HA !!! ...." , so I have to be a bit sneaky .  She has a face only her Mother would love , lol   

HS

 

[TomE]

52 minutes ago, Handstitched said:

Heres my mad mutt  .  A Border Collie X Kelpie . 

She is a lovely dog!  We had an alleged Border Collie, Bess, who we thought might have some Kelpie blood.  She developed autoimmune polyarthritis at 3 years old and by age 6 years succumbed to long term immunosuppression with steroids to control the arthritis.  She was a wonderful farm dog while the arthritis was under control.  Now I have a 10 YO Border Collie that is completely blind and a 2 YO Border Collie that we recently adopted.  They keep me entertained while doing chores.  The blind dog knows his way around the farm, more or less, but is becoming forgetful.  Guess you know what my favorite breed is.

 

Bess doing her circus act with a weanling foal.  

[Klara]

7 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

neither one of you would have a dog of your choice if it wasn't for breeders.  you seem to love to complain

So you deny that there's responsible breeders and more, let's say, profit-oriented ones? Nobody has anything against breeders that do a good job and breed functional dogs. But I didn't buy my puppy from a breeder who told me "racing around destroys the heart, I only let my dogs play in small fenced areas so they can't develop any speed". That kennel has produced many beauty champions.

And the true tragedy is not even with profit-oriented breeders (I am writing breeders, puppy-mills are another story), but with the rules of dog shows and show titles and with judges that don't judge according to the standard but want always more extreme features. Like 95 cm high Irish Wolfhounds, when the standard says "average (! not minimum!) 85 cm for males". If all IWs would have to show at least some ability to chase prey, the problem would solve itself.

Form follows function!

 

 

 

 

[Klara]

4 hours ago, Handstitched said:

She has a face only her Mother would love , lol   

What are you saying? She's beautiful (seriously,  especially the face) and I'd take her in a heart beat, IF I had any use for a working farm dog...

[Handstitched]

47 minutes ago, Klara said:

What are you saying? She's beautiful (seriously,  especially the face) and I'd take her in a heart beat, IF I had any use for a working farm dog...

Her name is 'Abby',  local farmer had a litter of 6 , totally unexpected , apparently.  They just gave them away.  We got her shortly after our last dog a Goldy, passed away some years ago . All she wants to do all day is play,given the chance,  a stick ,rubber bone,  a  ball whatever.  It took a long time  for me to get used to her as I thought it was too soon  to get another dog after losing our Goldy , but now I couldn't go without her.  I must admit she does have quite an appeal.She can give me the cutest  ' innocent' looks.  She has her moments as well. Our old washing machine moves about in fast spin, I'm standing there holding it in place, what does she do?? Jumps up and holds it with me ,  Holy crap!! funniest thing I ever saw, had me in stitches !!  LOL . Just wish I had my camera. 

4 hours ago, TomE said:

She is a lovely dog!

Thank you   No matter whats happens to our 4 legged friends, we do the very best for them , even in ill health. Dogs like these need space to run, no good in a city environment . She even rounds up our two cats, typical sheep dog. That was the first thing she did when she arrived when she  was a pup, round the cats up ,  the looks on the cats faces was priceless , lol .

HS

 

 

[chuck123wapati]

13 hours ago, Handstitched said:

Heres my mad mutt  .  A Border Collie X Kelpie . She won't win any shows,  she's as mad as a cut snake , but totally awesome   I brushed her out yesterday, that was over due, a lot of under growth and she's molting, its Summer here atm,   , OMG , she was like a kid that didn't want their hair cut , and she hates the lead . If she sees me with a lead , its a game for her,  its a case of " catch me if you can  HA HA HA !!! ...." , so I have to be a bit sneaky .  She has a face only her Mother would love , lol   

HS

 

what a cutie she is I'll bet she is a big bunch of happy energy.

[chuck123wapati]

9 hours ago, Klara said:

So you deny that there's responsible breeders and more, let's say, profit-oriented ones? Nobody has anything against breeders that do a good job and breed functional dogs. But I didn't buy my puppy from a breeder who told me "racing around destroys the heart, I only let my dogs play in small fenced areas so they can't develop any speed". That kennel has produced many beauty champions.

And the true tragedy is not even with profit-oriented breeders (I am writing breeders, puppy-mills are another story), but with the rules of dog shows and show titles and with judges that don't judge according to the standard but want always more extreme features. Like 95 cm high Irish Wolfhounds, when the standard says "average (! not minimum!) 85 cm for males". If all IWs would have to show at least some ability to chase prey, the problem would solve itself.

Form follows function!

 

 

 

 

I didn't say that I said this. "neither one of you would have a dog of your choice if it wasn't for breeders.  you seem to love to complain"

The difference between natural adaptation and breeding is what happens to the deformities, in the wild they die. If your breeder told you he killed the bad pups in a litter because they weren't perfect how would you react? That is how they did it back then!!! Its human nature to save babies no matter how dysfunctional they are and why deformities exist in the breeding world but not in the wild. Genetics in dogs is fascinating  but still humans cant master it.

This is my boy a year or so ago,   Curgans Gentle Ben II is his real name he has a seven generation  UKC pedigree. plus he has been dna tested  we get notices when he gets a new brother , sister or cousin. 125 lbs. of pure muscle, 22" neck. Stacks pretty nice for never being trained.

[Klara]

15 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

If your breeder told you he killed the bad pups in a litter because they weren't perfect how would you react?

If "not perfect" meant that the colour was wrong, I'd be unhappy. If a pug breeder tried to breed pugs with longer noses and killed the puppies with the shortest noses, I'd accept that. If a puppy had a misshapen leg or mouth, I'd applaud the breeder for euthanizing it (and I am NOT happy when breeders have a puppy with mouth deformities operated on and bottle feed it. As you said, in the wild it would die and that's how it should be. With the difference that in the wild it would slowly starve to death whereas a breeder hopefully puts the pup down quickly.) First and foremost a dog needs to be functional, healthy and able to enjoy live.

Incidentally, I don't agree with the people who keep alive their old dogs with dementia, incontinence and unable to stand up alone - I wouldn't want to exist like this and I won't do it to my dog.

[Handstitched]

16 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

what a cutie she is I'll bet she is a big bunch of happy energy.

Man, She certainly puts me to shame , lol  . I saw her Mum & Dad when we picked her up as a pup . The owners opened up a gate, and  OMG they ran across the paddock a gazzilion miles an hour, geez they were fast.  

Some farming locals that I knew had Kelpies that worked on a sheep farm , in shearing sheds etc.( quite a common theme here)  If the farmers & shearers got a roast dinner , so did the dogs . They work just as hard as the farmers if not harder. 

Your dog looks fit and healthy  Is that your Ford in the background? And you have green grass ??  I envy that

HS

[chuck123wapati]

On 12/20/2023 at 1:28 AM, Handstitched said:

 

Your dog looks fit and healthy  Is that your Ford in the background? And you have green grass ??  I envy that

HS

he is very healthy lol, he is what you would call a deterrent, he keeps my family safe and me from possibly having to use a firearm. I live in a penitentiary town as well as having worked there so i tend to be more careful of safety of my home. My green grass is dead for the year but it will be back lol and that is my neighbors Old Ford, those old high boys are sweet aren't they? I had one years ago.