Start up your own puppy mill!

This sad looking dane is for sale (yippie) This is either a male or a female. The male has a 'championship' bloodline. Not surprisingly the add fails to mention any names. Likely if there is anything with a ch. In front of its name in the pedigree you need a flashlight and a shovel to find it. I take it that no matter how far you dig you won't find any ch. in the female's pedigree. As it doesn't mention papers I would hazard a guess that you would need to use your imagination to see all danes in the girls family tree. Notice how they do not give you a conformation shot of either dogs?

They are selling these two young Danes as a breeding pair. No health certificates, barely a year old. Now the owner says they are nice dogs, but does that refer to their temperament? Or that they look nice? No reason is given to why such "nice dogs
', one with championship bloodlines are being offered for sale. They are to big to ship, darn they just won't fit in a UPS box. What are people thinking when they offer to ship dogs off like things bought on ebay!!?

Now why do I say start your own puppy mill? It is only common sense to look and see what other goodies this seller is trying to part with. Why they are parting with something they claim is a female Lhasa, ok I am sure it is female as it has had a litter. And they are selling breeding pairs. They don't make any claims to what these are, just breeding pairs. These are suppliers for wannabe puppymillers. These are the sort of people that sell 'start up' material.

These people are the bane of dog lovers everywhere. It is the product of these dogs that end up in pet stores, and ultimately in shelters and rescues. These dogs are not health tested, nor are the likely to be temperament tested. DON'T SUPPORT PUPPY MILLS and don't support people like these. It is only common sense.

New Blog....Intro

I feel there is a need for a blog like this. I can't find any dogblog out there that fills this niche. There is a fantastic horse blog (Fugly) if you haven't read it.. go read it now, even if you are not a horsey person. Great fun and educational too.

So this blog is to comment on, rip apart, and hopefully compliment dog owners, trainers, and breeders. Everything from puppy mills, to stupid pet owners.. if its about common sense and dogs, you can find it here.

If you have any websites you want me to look at, stories in the media, or in general any suggestions, please feel free to email me. I love comments. Agree, disagree, rip apart my posts if you want... a good discussion is a healthy thing.

So dogs don't come in enough colours already

Dogs all ready come in a large variety of colours and patterns. Common sense would tell us to leave well enough alone, right?

I was talking to a friend today, and dyeing dogs came up as a subject. She has a client who is a professional dog groomer, at a large portion of her business is dying dogs. People get their dogs dyed green for St Paddy's day, they get dyed the fave football team for the super bowl. So while this is good for the groomers bank account is it good for the dogs?

There is still a trend, I hear about it all the time on the dog forums, for people to get a dog as an accessory. Celebrities seem to be the worst for it, but I have seen my fair share of designer doggie fashion accessories around my little town. These dogs are often bought from pet stores (puppy mill puppies anyone?) or bybs. These are not healthy well adjusted dogs to begin with, and then being saddled with the job of being a real live beanie baby and being on par with a new pair of shoes. Hey and while you can dye shoes, you can really only do it once. Look fluffy can be a new colour every season!!

There are also others who want big 'tuff' dogs for protection, to look cool, or as status symbols. But these dogs don't usually get dyed, they just have to wear chains that would hold Clydesdale back (ok I know some are strong dogs.. but they are not THAT strong)

So common sense would tell us dying dogs is dumb and superficial right? Well I am sure it can be. But I have a confession to make. That little dog in the pic..ya the really cute Jack Russell Terrier. That's my dog, Dekka. Why is she pink? It was valentines day, I had some cherry kool aid and an idea. So after I dyed my dog, I got to thinking about it. Why did I do it? alien communication? subliminal messages on my Ipod? divine inspiration? Anyone who knows me at all, will agree I am not ever to be accused of following fashion trends. If its clean and it covers me, its good. I wondered if I lived in the middle of the woods up north, and no one would see Dekka but me, would I still have turned her mohawk pink? I decided yes, yes I would.

I think this is an integral and significant difference in why good and caring dog owners will do something that seems as superficial as a Paris Hilton publicity stunt. It can be fun to dye/dress up dogs. Some people do it to boost their image. Others just want to include their dog, make sure fuffy isn't left out of the festivities. No one gets upset if they see a baby wearing elf sleepers at Xmas... Dyeing dogs could be a show of love, of our desire to include these non humans in every detail of our lives, and stem from wanting to show others how important our dogs are to us.

So what do you think?