Total Dog Magazine

Tag: Hot Topics

  • Should We Muzzle ALL Dogs In Public?

    Should We Muzzle ALL Dogs In Public?

    Over the past few years we’ve heard a number of alternative ‘dangerous dog’ solutions proposed. Ways and means by which we can prevent dog attacks from occurring. Ideas and suggestions which can help us rid ourselves of the menace of dog attacks.

    One of the most common ideas put forward seems, on the face of it, to be entirely sensible: to muzzle all dogs and keep them confined to a lead at all times in public.

    Well, whilst it may seem sensible – unfortunately, it is not. In fact I speculate that:

    if we want to literally DOUBLE the number of dog attacks, especially the most serious ones, the way to do it would be to muzzle and confine all dogs to leads in public. I shall hereby try and explain the flaws in this ideology.

    Dogs operate in and have personalities which can be linked to something known as ‘drives’. Whilst it is not my intent to make this a ‘technical’ dog behaviour article I shall list the recognised drives below:

    Dog drives explained

    * The Prey drive: these dogs stalk, ‘kill’ their toys, shake objects and are highly stimulated by visual movements. They like to chase.
    * The Pack drive: these dogs are sociable animals who enjoy being touched by people, prone to separation anxiety.
    * The Fight drive: self confident or ‘dominant’ dogs who will guard themselves, their property, their family. Tends to hold strong eye contact even with ‘dominant’ people.
    * The Flight drive: unsure in strange situations, always needs to be aware of a potential route of escape, tends to be submissive and is most prone to ‘fear biting’.

    Dogs may show a tendency to ‘be a high prey drive’ dog or dogs may exhibit high drive behaviour in certain circumstances – for example, a dog which may – by normal personality – operate for most of its life in ‘pack drive’, a friendly dog that loves people for instance, upon encountering its first ever squirrel the dog may instantly switch on to a very high prey drive response.

    So it’s not a simple case of being able to label one dog or breed as a particular candidate to fit one of the drive descriptions. Yes, we can generalise (Bull breed dogs tend to score highly on pack drive, they love people, love being touched, enjoy companionship) but these generalisations are what have gotten us in to trouble in the first place!

    We simply cannot and should not attempt to define a dog’s personality by its breed type or EVEN its past history. For instance, a dog which has – for its entire life – never been nervous or aggressive about ANYTHING, when faced with a certain new situation or circumstance may exhibit high levels of ‘unplanned for’ behaviour.

    Are you scared of elephants?

    I often ask people to imagine in their mind how they feel about elephants.

    How do they feel when they see elephants on TV on a nature documentary. Most people have neutral views about elephants. We don’t live our lives in fear of them and they are not an animal that invades our daily thoughts. We have no ‘planned for’ elephant response behaviour.

    I then ask people to try and imagine how they’d feel if they walked into a room – a room they recognise and have used before, let’s say their boardroom at their place of work – and rather than being confronted by their work colleagues, much to their surprise a fully grown elephant is standing in the room.

    Now imagine how you might feel about elephants in THAT circumstance! Heart rate rised, shock, surprise, nervous tension, wonderment, planning for an escape route, sweaty palms – we have no idea how we’d respond to surprising circumstances, especially ones we’ve never planned for – yet we somehow expect our dogs to react consistently to all circumstances based on how they’ve behaved in the past. This is an error.

    But what’s this got to do with muzzling and lead confinement you ask?

    Well it’s all about the need for owners to be able to do two very, very (very) important things:

    1) Allow their dog to exhibit normal behaviour whilst under proper control
    2) Understand the risks associated with ‘unplanned’ behaviour

    Let’s tackle these two issues.

    Allowing a dog to exhibit normal behaviour means allowing a dog to exercise freely. There are some dogs – in fact most dogs – who absolutely thrive on the freedom to run and shake loose the constraints of a leash or the confinement of the four walls of their home and garden. To many dogs, this is their ‘reason to live’.

    This is their most treasured treat. It also keeps them healthy. If we are to constrain dogs and deny them the ability to exercise freely, a number of things will start to happen and start to happen quickly:

    The dogs will start to become very, very wound up at home. Too much energy, no outlet for it. Anyone who has ever had to spend time in a confined space will realise how tedious that becomes.

    A long haul flight – the ultimate “what it’s like to be a dog” simulator

    Think of a long haul flight for an example. Sitting there, waiting for someone else to provide you with ‘release’, waiting for someone else to feed you, relying on others for your stimulation. Now imagine that your entire life was spent on a long haul flight.

    I project you’ll do one of two things: You’ll either go quietly mad and spend your days asleep in a permanent bout of depression or you’ll go VERY mad and start threatening to to do ‘crazy’ things in order to get your freedom back.

    On a long distance flight someone else controls your stimulation, your environment,  even your meals. Every interaction that punctuates the boredom is treasured. This is, quite commonly, the average life of the dog. We control their environment, their food, their physical and mental stimulation.

    To confine dogs to a permanent life on a long haul flight will cause a lot of problems.

    Dogs will begin to attack more people in their homes. No doubt about it.

    A dog who is ‘wound up’ a dog who has more energy than they are ever permitted to expend will be a problem dog. If we estimate that 2, maybe 3% of all the dogs in the UK are responsible for attacks and injuries caused by dogs as things stand today – by having a blanket ‘no dogs off lead in public’ law, you can comfortably project that we’ll have maybe as high as 20% of dogs who will pose a far greater risk to people.

    Yes, we may reduce dog attacks in public but my word, we will massively increase the number of attacks in the home.

    The net result will be more attacks.

    Dogs need off lead exercise and they need the ability to socialise with other dogs.

    Dogs owners should understand that they have an obligation to keep their dogs under control (and do it! Not just understand it) and they should also recognise that dogs can have very, very different reactions to situations which are ‘unplanned for’.

    Again, think about how you’d react if you met a real life elephant face to face in a place where you were not expecting it.

    People should not assume that dogs can’t have equally extreme reactions to new things.

    The following statements are common amongst dog owners:

    “My dog would never bite someone.”

    “My dog is not a nervous dog.”

    Let’s go back to our elephant. We may be tempted to say:

    “No. I’m not scared of elephants.”

    The more accurate claim should be:

    “In general I’m not scared of elephants, but in certain circumstances I could be terrified of them.”

    Same for dogs. A blanket statement about what a dog will or won’t do, is or isn’t scared or reactive to, is dangerous and almost certainly wrong. In very simple terms, every dog is capable of biting someone. Every dog is capable of being scared. Every dog is capable of reacting in an unpredictable way in certain circumstances.

    Muzzling all dogs will lead to more dog attacks

    Similar to the freedom to run argument. If you take away a dog’s defence mechanisms: either the ability to run away or the ability to ‘fight’ you will instantly place the dog into a state of heightened tension.

    I want you to think about that elephant again folks. Let us say that you have met the elephant in the boardroom and you’ve just managed to calm your nerves, your blood pressure is lower and your starting to feel a bit more comfortable. No doubt you’ll still be very aware of the fact that there is an elephant in the room but you’ve just about managed to compose yourself.

    Firstly, you have the door behind you so if things take a turn for the unexpected you can always leg it! Only, now you can’t. Because what’s going to happen now is you are going to be tethered to the radiator and your hands are going to be tied behind your back. How you feeling now? A little less composed? A little vulnerable? Nervous? Tense?

    This is exactly what we do when we impose on our dogs a mandatory constraint. We can – in one fell swoop – make a non aggressive, non defensive dog INSTANTLY more aggressive and more defensive.

    We can increase the risk of altering the dog’s nature and outlook on life. And again, whilst it is certainly the case that we may (in fact probably would) see a reduction in dog attacks in public, the net result of such a law would be a massive, massive increase in the number of dog attacks occurring in the home.

    Why?

    Because we will be artificially increasing the drive senses in our dogs. We can’t muzzle a dog all day, we can’t tether a dog all day so for those periods of time when they are unmuzzled we will see a dog with an altered personality. Heightened defensiveness, heightened nervousness – we would make some non aggressive dogs aggressive and some aggressive dogs even more aggressive. Times where the dog is feeding would be exceptionally dangerous. The net result would be more dog attacks.

    The solution, whilst simple, is not easy. Dog owners need to better informed on how to manage their animals. They need to be better prepared for the reality that their dogs can and will behave differently in different situations, never assume. They must have better control of their dogs.

    If they can not recall their dog then they simply should not have the dog off a lead until such a time as that training objective has been achieved. Dog owners need to be aware of the fact that their dogs should not invade other people’s space.

    In short: Why muzzling all dogs will lead to more dog attacks
    Dog owners need to take control of their dogs and to improve their ownership standards. Simply applying a band-aid as a ‘solution’ and expecting dog attacks to decline is not only short-sighted, it will have the exact reverse effect. If we want to reduce dog attacks we need better educated dog owners. No dog will be unmuzzled 100% of the time.

    —-
    Well, that’s MY view – compulsory muzzling of all dogs would make the problem worse, but what do YOU think?

    Have your say using the comment form below. I look forward to reading your views!

  • Can Dogs Really Be Jealous? (Let’s Look At The Facts)

    Can Dogs Really Be Jealous? (Let’s Look At The Facts)

    Do dogs ever feel jealous?

    According to some new research by scientists, they do.

    On the face of it, a lot of people would agree. But before you spring forth with your tales of dogs ‘acting jealous’, please – hear me out.

    Personally, I don’t believe they do and I’ll explain more about that in a moment. But first let us look at the new research done in the name of science.

    The experiment consisted of taking pairs of dogs and getting them to present a paw for a reward. On giving this “handshake” the dogs received a piece of food.

    One of the dogs was then asked to shake hands, but received no food. The other dog continued to get the food when it was asked to perform the task.

    The dog without the reward quickly stopped doing the task, and showed signs of annoyance or stress when its partner was rewarded.

    To make sure that the experiment was really showing the interaction between the dogs rather than just the frustration of not being rewarded, a similar experiment was conducted where the dogs performed the task without the partner. Here they continued to present the paw for much longer.

    Dr Frederike Range from the department of neurobiology and cognition research at the University of Vienna, says this shows that it was the presence of the rewarded partner which was the greater influence on their behaviour.

    “The only difference is one gets food and the other doesn’t, they are responding to being unequally rewarded.” she said.

    The researchers say this kind of behaviour, where one animal gets frustrated with what is happening with another, has only been observed in primates before.

    Studies with various types of monkeys and chimpanzees show they react not only to seeing their partners receiving rewards when they are not, but also to the type of reward.

    The dog study also looked at whether the type of reward made a difference. Dogs were given either bread or sausage, but seemed to react equally to either. Dr Range says this may be because they have been trained.

    “It’s through the fact they have to work for the reward, this confers it with a higher value,” she said.

    Source Here

    Let’s take a look at this in smaller chunks.

    The dog without the reward quickly stopped doing the task, and showed signs of annoyance or stress when its partner was rewarded.

    Well of course. Surely we wouldn’t expect anything different here? The dog wants the food and it sees the other dog with the food and it gravitates toward the treat. This is quite logical, nothing ground breaking yet.

    To make sure that the experiment was really showing the interaction between the dogs rather than just the frustration of not being rewarded, a similar experiment was conducted where the dogs performed the task without the partner. Here they continued to present the paw for much longer.

    Yes, again this surely to be expected? Here we have a dog with no distraction, no food or other dog in the equation and it makes logical sense that most dogs will perform differently in a situation where no distraction – of any kind – is present. This, again, does not prove jealousy as we understand it.

    Dr Frederike Range from the department of neurobiology and cognition research at the University of Vienna, says this shows that it was the presence of the rewarded partner which was the greater influence on their behaviour.

    Now we’re veering in to some strange territory. Let us imagine this experiment but with some different parameters.

    We work with just one dog, no other dog in the area.

    The dog gives its paw. Then a person will come in to the room and puts some food on the floor near to where the other dog would have been positioned positioned.

    Would the dog now be less interested in giving paw and more interested in food?

    In my opinion, yes. Most likely.

    Now repeat the same scenario but don’t have anyone put food down.

    It’s my supposition that the dog would hold paw for longer.

    No other dog present, no jealousy – merely distraction causing reaction.

    The dog study also looked at whether the type of reward made a difference. Dogs were given either bread or sausage, but seemed to react equally to either. Dr Range says this may be because they have been trained.

    Dogs like different foods. And scientists didn’t know this?

    Take my own dog Mia. She loathes banana. My other dog, Chloe, on the other hand loves fruit. So if I’m eating a banana Mia will sit for a while, realise what I’ve got and then go and lie down. Chloe will stay sitting next to me, watching until I’ve finished. I’m not a scientist but I do know this – it’s……wait for it………

    ……because Chloe likes banana and Mia doesn’t!

    Given that Mia is by far the greedier of my two dogs it proves that dogs clearly have different tastes the same as we do, this is – I would guess – pretty universal. Maybe your dog loves a type of food that my dogs don’t. Maybe your dogs go mad for aniseed whereas my dogs love cheese. Just a sec, wait. Not a good comparison – aniseed and cheese are pretty much universal ‘must eats’ on the canine menu (if your dog likes neither, please let me know – in the name of science).

    So, if I set out to train Mia with bananas as my choice of reward for her, I’d achieve less impressive results – quite simply because Mia doesn’t like banana. She places a higher value on food that she likes, similarly toys and similarly different ways of being touched – Mia doesn’t like to be stroked on the head, Chloe will take a good head stroking for several hours. So we’ve still not established jealousy in canines with this research based on the report as presented on the BBC site.

    Studies with various types of monkeys and chimpanzees show they react not only to seeing their partners receiving rewards when they are not, but also to the type of reward.

    OK. Well I’m not a scientist but I do know that monkeys and chimps are NOT dogs. They can and indeed probably do have emotions much more closely aligned to the emotion we recognise in ourselves as jealousy, similarly they have different social structures and are NOT dogs. So the relevance of this is no more apt than saying: “Well humans have jealousy, why can’t dogs?”

    Why do I not believe dogs share the emotion we recognise in ourselves as jealousy?

    If we think about what jealousy is, if we are logical about what we know about this emotion it is incredibly complex and based on a whole level of social elements.

    There are humans who feel jealousy based on widely different factors – is that an innate personality trait in them or is it nurtured? – we don’t really know.

    We have humans within the autistic spectrum who simply do not and can not feel jealous and others within that same spectrum who can be wildly jealous. It’s true that even scientists themselves still haven’t universally agreed a definition for what jealously is! That’s how complex this particular emotion is. What does it take to be jealous? It takes two people very, very different reasons to be jealous, even people within the same family who share almost identical genetics. Yet put two people in a room and mimic the ‘paw test’ and we’d never get close to seeing universal results proving jealous responses in people – we’re too different and jealousy is an emotion that does not run through us all in an identical fashion. So why should it in dogs?

    I absolutely do not doubt for a single, solitary second that they display behaviour which is very easy for us to compare with the emotion of jealousy that we recognise in ourselves. It could be displayed in acts of resource guarding, it could be manifested by dogs who are particularly greedy, territorial, pack motivated, rank motivated – but jealousy it is not. It is quite possible that I want to get my bosses’ job and sit in his chair, in his office and take home his salary but I am not motivated even in the slightest by jealousy, I simply want to do better for myself. Dogs the same. So a dog going to another dog getting rewarded is absolutely not proof positive – in my view – that we’ve cracked the canine jealousy code, we haven’t even cracked ours yet – and we can SPEAK!

    Anthropomorphism is rife. Most of the time it’s harmless but sometimes it’s nothing more than us finding another way to say: “I don’t understand my dog but I’ll bracket a particular behaviour by benchmarking it against my own”. This is, plainly, crazy. And it can lead to problems.

    It will be better for dogs and better for us if we make an effort to better understand them. But always, always, always start that voyage of discovery with one overriding caveat: Dogs are no more human than we are Zebra. They are dogs. They ARE unique and we love them for it. They are masters at making us think what they want us to think. Their understanding of human body language is an art we’re not even close to mastering. Take this example:

    Person comes home. Dog has wrecked the post (again). There it is, all laid out scattered over the floor.

    Owner opens the door.

    “Huuuuhhh!!!! What have you done???”

    “Oh, look at him. Look at that face. Look how guilty he looks.”

    (wait for it)

    “He know what he’s done!”

    Sound familiar?

    Of course he doesn’t ‘know what he’s done’ and he absolutely may ‘look guilty’ but that aint’ guilt he’s showing, that’s him spotting body language and going to fear/survival mode. He’s pretty much saying: “If you want me to look guilty, if that’s the pigeon-hole you want to put me in right now, so long as it means I don’t come to any harm, I’ll do a better guilty repertoire than Laurence Olivier if it makes you happy babe!”

    And make us happy it most certainly does. We might feel guilt if we do something that causes someone else to feel bad, but that’s because we have an understanding of how our actions can have a future negative effect on the mood of our human counterparts. Our dog, however, he was just bored and he wanted something to do. Then we come home and we’re – clearly – pretty mad at him. He’s not feeling guilty, he’s feeling plain old scared.

    But it makes us happy to think he thinks like us. To quote the chairman of the Kennel Club: “I don’t need no scientists telling me….” that dogs do not, in fact, think like us. They think, surprisingly, like dogs. That’s what makes em’ great!

    So,that’s quite enough about what I think, what do YOU think?

    Can dogs really experience the emotion us humans refer to as jealousy?

    Add your thoughts using the comment form below. I look forward to reading them!

  • 5 Facts About Dog Treat Cams That You Might Not Know

    The pet technology market is booming. Here are five facts about dog treat cameras that we think you should know.

    Dog treat cameras are on Amazon’s no 1 best seller list

    According to a recent study, 9 in 10 dog owners worry about leaving their pet home alone so it’s perhaps no wonder that the Furbo dog camera is a best selling product on Amazon around the world with fans in Japan, Canada, America, Mexico, France and Britain.

    TV presenter and dog lover Ellen DeGeneres even gushed about the Furbo on her TV show as a gift idea in the lead up to Christmas.

    They can help to combat dog anxiety behaviours

    This article explains how one dog owner used her Furbo dog treat camera to help her rescue dog feel more settled when his family were out of the home.

    And the treat tossing technology has even helped dogs to find homes

    Two dogs in a London based animal rescue centre who had been struggling to find new forever homes, found new homes thanks to their pet camera.

    By using the dog treat cam to see what the dogs were doing when left alone, the treat cam helped to explain behavioural issues to the rescue’s dog trainers, which allowed them to help cure each dog’s off-putting behaviours, including pacing and barking when worried, which saw them spend more time in rescue than they deserved.


    Wylie, pictured above, was one of the dogs the dog treat camera helped / Photo Credit: Battersea Dogs & Cats Home

    Friends and family who’ve moved away can keep in touch with their favourite dog

    Okay so no one’s really going to admit who their favourite family dog is, not openly anyway, but with shareable apps, friends and family who’ve moved away can download the app and log in before calling up to check in for a ‘snack call’ with their favourite pup whenever they’re missing them.

    The two way audio, which is not a standard feature on all dog treat cams but can be found on the Furbo, allows the dog to hear your voice and vice versa before you dispense treats to remain the dog’s favourite person (until the next Furbo caller dials in).

    And if your dog has a habit of disappearing in the night, you can check on them

    A pretty good safety mechanism for the home, the dog treat cam lets you open the app and see what’s going on in the home, within reach of the pet treat cam, of course.

    For those of us whose dogs sleep nearby, when our dogs suddenly leave the room it can be confusing. Some dogs with natural guarding instincts may be more attuned to strange noises so are likely to patrol the home, others – perhaps the greedy, opportunistic ones – may choose to wander to see if any crumbs have been left.

    A select few dog treat cams have night vision cameras, so you can take photos and videos during the day and night and catch your canine version of a honey badger who are known for their nighttime bin raids, in action.

    [note note_color=”#fbfbd3″]

    The article is sponsored by Furbo Dog Camera.

    [/note]

  • How To Win Support For Your Charity Event

    Have you ever been asked to attend a charity event, or to take part in charity fundraising? Did you feel obliged to attend because it was a friend who had invited you? Did you feel as though you were being asked to donate money that you felt would not be put to the best possible use, perhaps because you favour local charities to large national charities? Did you understand fully what your money would be used for?
    (more…)

  • Natural Remedies for Arthritic Dogs: Do They Actually Work?

    Dog joint diseases are very common and so are dog joint supplements which are given to elderly dogs to help retain their mobility – but do they actually work and at what point in time do you transition from over the counter supplements to veterinary medicines?

    As dogs get older, their joints will begin to weaken and their muscles become more flaccid. To remedy the situation it is very important that you educate yourself about the different dog joint problems.

    Supplements can certainly be given to help ease their arthritis and keep them pain free, but knowing when to transition can be tricky – but throughout the process remember one important fact – you know your dog better than anyone else.

    Remember, not all dogs age at the same rate, so judge your dog based on what you know is normal for them, rather than normal for their age.

    Before giving your dog supplements you need to identify the problem and to do this, you should keep a diary of changes. Monitor everything from how they cope with their normal walks, to how they react to getting up from a lying down position, to walking up stairs, to particular times of the day when they seem to feel more uncomfortable moving around.

    If your dog is overweight, that may have a negative impact on your dog’s mobility, so it’s crucial to understand what the problem is and what could have caused it, to help you give your dog the best care.

    Sometimes preservatives and food colour could induce joint problems in dogs and so it is very important to make sure your older dog’s diet is the best it can be.

    Some supplements which have received good feedback from dog owners include a supplement which includes glucosamine and chondroitin. This component basically is a hygroscopic and attracts water to keep the cartilage more lubricated.

    Marge Chandler, a clinical nutritionist offers her top tips for dog owners concerned about joint care commenting,

    “It’s best to consult your vet for a tailored treatment programme. A mixture of a therapeutic diet with appropriate supplements, weight control, pain medication and a modified exercise plan is the best course of action.

    Weight control is key in dogs with OA but bear in mind that decreasing the number of calories in a regular diet may cause a deficiency in other nutrients, such as protein, vitamins, and minerals.  Nutritional supplements or nutraceuticals such as fish oil omega-3 fatty acids may improve the signs.”

    Essentially, natural remedies for dog arthritis which work for some dogs, may work for others, but unless you understand the root cause of arthritis and discomfort, you can’t be sure that the supplements will do the job and provide the relief you’re hoping for. There are other non-supplement measures you can take though, such as new dog bowls, either ones which sit in holders, are wall mounted or raised dog bowls which sit off the ground – this means your dog will find it easier, and less stressful on joints and their neck specifically, to stoop when eating.

    For small dogs, it can be a simple choice to make because they have less distance to stoop to eat, but if you have a large dog breed, it’s essential. If your dog isn’t yet of middle age, it’s worth installing this one change to help ease them into it.

    Consulting an expert, or taking care to choose the best care program for your dog will give you a great all-round plan of action!

    Watch our video with more top tips from Sarah:

    Article Brought To You By Canine Arthritis Awareness Month


  • Revealed: The 5 Most Dangerous Dogs In The World!

    Revealed: The 5 Most Dangerous Dogs In The World!

    Undoubtedly it’s going to be controversial. Without fear of chicken counting, it will receive a lot of traffic. And without any element of doubt, it might cause ripples but it needs to be out there, for the public to know. We’ve decided to publicly name the five MOST dangerous dogs on the planet.

    The Most Dangerous Dogs in the World

    in reverse order:

    5. Badly fed dog.

    Badly fed dog is the animal who’s been fuelled up with a diet fit for an Olympic weight lifter, but who only ever gets to expend about 20% of the calories he takes in. He’s got lots of energy and his mismatched diet can manifest in bouts of sudden energetic rampaging. Badly fed dog would ask you to consider; how you would feel spending your day in an office when every inch of your body is throbbing and twitching as you crave the opportunity to actually use up some of those excess calories. Badly fed dog would be happier and safer if his diet reflected his lifestyle.

    4. Never had any friends dog.

    Otherwise known as ‘totally under socialised dog’.

    He was a little naughty when he was a puppy, so his owner decided he’d be better off being kept away from all other forms of animal life. He now spends his days obsessing over what it would be like to chase other dogs around and, by George, one of these days he’s gonna actually do it!

    Never had any friends dog is going to present his owner with a lifetime of problems, he has no social skills and has never had a chance to learn natural interaction through the teachings of his own kind. He’ll meet new dogs and will be about as socially adept as a 45-year old virgin at a Playboy mansion party. He’s going to blow it. Big time.

    3. Shouty.

    Shouty is the dog who has spent most of his life shouting at folks or being shouted at himself. He sees people on his street, he shouts at them. In turn, his owner shouts at him. Shouty presumes being shouted at is a recognition of his excellent work. In fact, hearing his owner shouting in response to his own shouting encourages his assumption that they’re just as upset, anxious, nervous, angry as HE is about the audacity of other people/dogs/pigeons to walk past his window. Shouty is relentlessly encouraged and endorsed in his shouty behaviour and, a bit like no friends dog, shouty spends his days imaging how good it will be when he FINALLY gets his chance to get face to face with the objects of his ire.

    2. House proud.

    House proud dog is SO touchy about people coming to his digs unannounced, he’ll happily maim you for your insolence in trying to visit his abode without obtaining the correct visitation paperwork.

    House proud dog does a line in dishing out injuries to posties, meter readers and delivery people. Fortunately for house proud dog, his owners absolutely REFUSE to believe he is capable of violence, so leave him completely unattended to dish out his own brand of justice to anyone brash enough to consider entering his domain.

    1. Spoilt dog.

    “That’s mine and these are mine, those are mine, I’m entitled to that, I believe that I saw that first, I lay claim to those, I own all of these, I’m the rightful proprietor of this…”

    Welcome to the world of spoilt dog. Quite simply, he believes everything he wants, he can have. Woe betide anyone to tell him differently. His timid owners have never had the heart to let him know that in the human world, simply showing your teeth and growling doesn’t constitute a legal contract on the ownership of goods. They let him off and, worse, they let him keep his spoils, which he’ll gather up and place in his own corner of the world.

    Sadly, spoilt dog is, one day, going to meet someone who is unaware that he has previously laid claim to every possession on earth. Unfortunately, unlike spoilt dog’s owners, this person is going to have to find out the hard way just how deep spoilt dog’s sense of entitlement runs. Really hard luck if it happens to be a youngster, blissfully ignorant to the fact that the shiny ball on the floor is spoilt dog’s most prized possession (at that VERY moment). A few stitches and a spell in hospital ought to serve as a permanent reminder though.

    I hope you didn’t think this was going to be a list of  ‘dangerous dog breeds’ did you? If you did, sorry to disappoint. There’s dangerous dog owners, not dangerous dog breeds.

    End breed specific legislation now.

  • Are People Who Buy From Puppy Farms as Much to Blame as The Puppy Farmers?

    Are People Who Buy From Puppy Farms as Much to Blame as The Puppy Farmers?

    As dog lovers, we must all, surely, feel a massive twang of pity and regret when we think of those puppies who have been bred for profit by breeders who are interested only in how to produce maximum volume of ‘stock’ with scant regard for the welfare, health or temperament of the animals they churn out month by month, year by year.

    Puppy farms (or, as they are known outside of the UK – puppy mills) are alive kicking.

    But how? Buy why?

    Let’s see if we can find out…

    I believe the media has been very generous to the people who, it could easily be argued, are REALLY responsible for the growth in puppy farms.

    Puppy farmers aren’t the ONLY ones to blame for misery

    The people I speak of are those who willingly dig in to their pockets and get their wallets out, to hand over cash to the cynical puppies- for-profits breeders – aka puppy farmers – who couldn’t care less about the fundamental principles of breeding good, healthy, well balanced dogs.

    The puppy farmer only exists because people keep giving them money.

    In all the coverage given to the puppy farming debate, have we missed the most obvious of points? That if people simply stopped fuelling this trade, we might actually get somewhere?

    Don’t get me wrong, I have a huge moral and ethical objection to the people who trade in the suffering and misery of mass produced dogs. We can’t legitimately call ourselves a nation of animal lovers whilst we allow this to happen.

    But, the fact is, these puppy farms would be a thing of the past if:

    1) People refused to buy puppies from pet stores (and yes, I include the celebrities who buy from famous department stores in that – no GOOD breeder will EVER allow their stock to be ‘retailed’ in a pet store.)

    2) People educated themselves on how to acquire a new dog, responsibly, rather than rushing out to buy a puppy from the first litter they see advertised in the free classified ads newspapers or websites.

    Seriously, if those two things happened – the puppy farmer is left with no business. No trade. No customers. No money. No motivation to keep producing puppies.

    Let’s think about it for a second; if people didn’t purchase from puppy farms and from pet shops, there’d be none.

    So why do people do it?

    Some of them are misguided, misinformed. OK, I accept that. But even so, in this year, in this day in age with ALL of the wealth of information that exists about how to obtain a dog responsibly, is it REALLY a valid excuse any more? I mean, really?

    And for everyone who accidentally, unintentionally winds up putting money in to the pocket of puppy farmers, there’s certainly more folk who do it and who couldn’t really care less either way.

    Whilst it is an ongoing disgrace that puppy farms are allowed to thrive and prosper in a country where laws, legislation and enforcement of such establishments have never really been properly crafted to a point where they have been forced out of business, whilst the demand exists – the puppy farmer will thrive.

    If puppy farming is to be defeated, the first point of action needs to be in changing the attitude and behaviour of the people who are putting their money in to keep the puppy farms in business – that’s puppy buyers!

    Look at this way; if there was ZERO demand for cocaine, would the governments of the world even need to make laws and spend BILLIONS on trying to combat traffickers around the globe? Of course not!

    Zero demand for a product or service means the supplier is automatically redundant. They become extinct. It’s the laws of economics, supply and demand.

    And let’s establish one thing, for the record, puppies are NOTHING like cocaine. So our failure to combat puppy farmers is interlinked, exclusively, with our failure to convince enough people of the right and wrong ways to acquire a dog ethically and responsibly. There is no chemical ‘high’ to be gained by buying a puppy from a puppy farmer.

    How can we change this? How do we push for a culture change?

    It’s going to be hard and I feel it’s going to take something big. But I am 100% convinced that even if we were to bring in laws that would legislate against puppy farms, if there is still a 10 or 20% demand from the same sort of people who acquiring their dogs from puppy farmers today, the laws themselves won’t be enough.

    The media who carry adverts for puppy farmers, they are guilty as sin.

    There are some big name, very profitable media businesses out there profiting from the misery of dogs. Whether they knowingly take adverts from puppy farmers or not, whether the fact that puppy farming in and of itself is NOT illegal (a disgrace in itself), surely there has to be an ethical, honest way to deny puppy farmers the oxygen of publicity? If people and businesses aren’t prepared to step up, how do we ever expect the public to understand that

    1. Just because a litter of puppies is advertised in a ‘legitimate’ publication, it doesn’t mean the puppy has been bred responsibly
    2. Just because a litter of puppies is for sale in a pet shop with a licence, it doesn’t mean the puppy has been bred responsibly
    3. Just because a litter of puppies has been bred by a ‘licenced breeder’ it doesn’t mean the puppy has been bred responsibly

    If we really want to tackle the blight of puppy farming, puppies produced in dank, squalid conditions with profit as the only motive, then we – all of us honest, caring dog owners – need to speak up, speak out and repeat the following mantra:

    “If you buy from a puppy farm, you’re as guilty as the puppy farmer. If you don’t have the knowledge to avoid a puppy farmed dog, then you’re not yet ready to own a dog.”

    What more do we need to do to, once and for all, put an end to the misery of puppies bred for profits?

    Have your say below!