Dogs - The Good, the Bad and the Irresponsible

Everyone is passionate about something. For some people it's something as simple as a hobby, such as baseball or music. For others, it's politics and social liberties, such as gay marriage.

For me, it's animals.

I grew up with animals. I have animals. I work with animals. Every single aspect of my life can, somehow, be traced back to animals.

I love all animals, but if you dig down to find what I'm really, truly passionate about, you'll find one answer. Dogs.

Allow me to explain a bit about myself. My family got their first dog in 1989. He was a brown miniature poodle that my older brother named Oliver. Two years later, I was born.

When I was two years old, we brought another dog into the family. This one was a white toy poodle that my brother named Kirby, after his favorite baseball player, Kirby Puckett. One of my earliest memories is picking Kirby up at the truck stop where we got him (which I'll discuss later).

Being a child that loved animals, I wanted a dog of my own, since Oliver and Kirby were technically my brother's dogs. At the age of five, my parents gave in and we got our third dog, a "miniature poodle" named Lucky. (I'll discuss this as well.)

In February of 2001, we made the difficult decision to put Oliver to sleep. It was the first death I ever experienced and was hard on me to the point that I was still crying about it a year later. After all, I had grown up with him.

In October of 2001, we adopted a big sheepdog mix that my mom named Baxter. He was meant to be a family dog but it quickly became apparent that he was my mom's dog. It was perfect. She was going through a difficult time in her life, as was he. Baxter's previous "owner" (I use that term loosely) brought him into the vet's office, slung over his shoulder - might I mention this dog is now 106 lbs and healthy - for a check up. He never came back. They helped each other recover from the hurt they had experienced.

Kirby, Lucky and Baxter are still around today. If you follow the timeline, you'll see that I have never gone a day of my life without at least one dog.

Dogs are the most loyal companions you could possibly ask for, and I believe that it is our duty to treat them with the same respect they give us. Unfortunately, your average dog owner does not know anything about 'right' and 'wrong' in the dog world. I'm not talking about the basics, like feeding the dog, giving it attention, etc. I'm referring mostly to buying and breeding.

In my opinion, there is no truly solid reason to buy a dog without the intention of showing it. The average family wants a pet, and a mixed breed from the shelter will be just as good a pet as a purebred. If you have your heart set on a particular breed, there are hundreds of breed-specific rescues all across the country.

Because there's no reason to buy a purebred without wanting to show, there is no reason to breed without the intention of producing show-quality pups. To produce show-quality pups, the parents should be 1) shown to their championship, 2) be good representatives of the breed (in both temperament and appearance) and 3) screened for health issues known in the breed, such as hip dysplasia and eye defects. These requirements are very costly, which means that a good breeder is lucky to break even. A good breeder does NOT profit from breeding.

There is no reason for the average joe to own an intact dog, male or female. Some owners, especially men, feel that it's immoral to surgically remove the dog's reproductive organs, but the dog does not know any better and spaying/neutering helps to reduce the risk of serious health problems, such as testicular/breast cancer. It helps to calm the dogs down, making them better pets, and also reduces the chance of the dog wandering off in search of a female in heat or a male to mate with.

"But why should I do all these things?" some might ask. "I don't want a puppy to show, so why should I buy from a show breeder? I want a nice pet, so I'll buy from a person who bred their pets/I'll breed my pets to make more pets."

Here's the thing. Not every puppy in a litter out of champion parents will be show quality. The purpose of showing and breeding is to create the perfect dog. All dogs are, to some degree, faulty. If you breed a bitch with fantastic eyes but overly-angled back legs to a dog with so-so eyes but a perfect frame, you could get a dog with fantastic eyes and perfect angulation, or you could get a pup with so-so eyes and a bit too much angulation in the legs. The latter, while being out of champion parents, would be sold on a pet-only contract.

On the other hand, you could buy from that nice family down the street who has a litter of lab pups out of parents who represent anything but what labs should actually be. The dog is "silver" (which is actually a dilution of chocolate, or inherited from a different breed altogether), has hip dysplasia and a lanky body. He's a bit timid, bordering on shy. The bitch is yellow with hazel eyes, is 25" tall and weighs 75 pounds. She's very friendly - perhaps overly so, because she jumps up on everyone, refuses to listen and nips when she gets excited. While they may be fine companions for the family, they have faults and genes that should simply not be passed on, and so that nice little family is contributing to the overpopulation of poorly-bred dogs. As long as the puppies are bought, however, they'll see no reason to stop doing what they're doing (after all, they're making money and providing people with cute puppies!). By buying from a backyard breeder such as this, you're only contributing the overpopulation problem.

Besides, these people are not only breeding physically inferior labs, they're breeding labs with inferior temperaments as well. Aggressive and shy behavior are severely penalized by the breed standard. Because of this, while the heritage of these dogs may technically say they're "purebred labs", they are not truly labs in the sense that they do not look like labs and do not act like labs. After that, what's left?

I feel strongly about adopting dogs, but I should also make it clear that I support responsible breeders 100%. One of the great things about dogs is the sheer variety available. Want a small dog who is lively and playful? Get a Papillion. Want a big dog that is an effective deterrant to burgulars but is placid and sweet with the family? Get a Great Dane. I could go on and on.

Without good breeders, however, we wouldn't have any breeds. Responsible breeders have painstakingly selected dogs - which have proven their physical qualifications in the show ring - that show the proper temperament for the breed. These are the dogs that will be bred to continue the correct 'type' in the breed, in both physical attributes and temperament.

People who are not breeding for these traits are doing absolutely nothing to improve the breed and are breeding dogs that are pretty much the same as mutts - no standard for appearance, questionable health and unpredictable personalities.

Don't even get me started on "designer dogs". That's a blog for another day.