dog in heat

[broken link removed]!

looks like you might be right reg bubble. Things do seem to be coming to nothing young lad not performing!!!! What to do?

Dim lights? Soft music? Oysters?

A little [broken link removed] might help?

Just want to second what Rainyday, Suileglasa and Sherman said. Kudos for lining up responsible permanent homes for all pups that may be produced. But remember that each of those homes is one less home for the 30,000 dogs that put down in Ireland each year.

IMHO a truly responsible dog-owner would not breed from their bitches and would ensure that their all their dogs are neutered/spayed.

I really question the motivation of a potential dog-owner who insists on a purebred. Why fork over buckets of money for a highly bred dog (often more prone to health problems because of its intesive breeding) when there are thousands of good, healthy dogs languishing in pounds and rescue centres all over Irelands available free to good homes? Perhaps one of the loving, reponsible homes you have lined up could have afforded a better fate to one of [broken link removed] poor unwanted fellas instead (see under Stories and Features the fate of some unwanted animals in Ireland)?

*sigh* Sorry, this is a bit of a pet subject of mine (pardon the pun!) Ok, rant over, soap box put away (for now)... Move along, move along.

kellysayers said:

looks like you might be right reg bubble. Things do seem to be coming to nothing young lad not performing!!!! What to do?

Click to expand...

Be patient, I don't think the twenty days have expired yet, have they?
It could be that the "young lad" is still too young.

he is two and a half so not to young. Must try the dim lights and soft music!!

Agree about breeding and purebred 'culture'. My 16-year-old bitch (currently having her usual post-prandial acrobatics on my bed, accompanied by her own brand of 'singing', 'play-growling' and 'hide-my-soft-toy-under-duvet' games) was picked up in a Dublin street St.Stephen's Day in Dublin aged about 7 weeks (weaned too early, we speculated 'got for the kids for Christmas' until everyone realised puppies pee and poo like its going out of fashion...........so dumped her). She is/was a beautiful black-and-tan crossbreed of predominantly Border Collie and Doberman. She is and always has been a 'knockout' loved by everyone but that Christmas week I found the Dublin pound was shut from before Christmas until well into the New Year to avoid the seasonal pressures of all the 'presents' that end up being fed by them for a week and put down if not rehomed.

Although I joked earlier about the mating a dog is "not just for Christmas; it's for life" is a serious undertaking. I love this dog, companion for 16 years (longer than any of my partners, come to think of it!!!) but a dog of any age (especially untrained puppies, and older, frail dogs such as mine now is) is a long commitment which people don't envisage at first. Friends who had an adored bitch gundog have had to re-home her with a relative (he's an army helicopter trainer and has been posted abroad for 2 years). My own circumstances were very different when I brought this little 7-week-old puppie to London from Dublin, and having her has fashioned what I could do and can't do (e.g. I can't easily come over for the AAM Christmas do tomorrow night..........something I would have done like a shot if I didn't have to arrange dog-minders).

I'm saying in a long-winded way that, somewhat like couples who would love to have children but can't and go through years and years of artificial procedures which might facilitate reproduction, if your pets don't exhibit strong sexual drives that's how things are...........and there are so many pets already needing homes one can't really get too upset about it!

Just to point out that pounds in Ireland are entitled to kill dogs surrendered to pounds within 24 hours of being surrendered. Strays picked up by wardens are given 5 days before being killed. Some pounds and their staff make great efforts to rehome the dogs that come into their care, working with rescue centres and bending the rules when they can. Others do not.

The pounds have two peak periods - Christmas (unwanted pressies) and Summer (when new dog owners don't want to go to the expense of kennelling their dog when they go on holidays). Of course the pounds are filled with new dogs every week throughout the yeat (really, it has to be seen to be believed, this endless stream of homeless dogs) Its just during these periods that its more likely that dogs will be killed sooner because of space shortages.

I know there are many reasons people have to rehome their dog, not necessarily out of callousness or irresponsibility, just as Marie has described. I remember having to comfort a distraught woman who was surrendering her mother's dog to a pound because her mother had become to frail to manage to dog. If anyone, for whatever reason, finds themselves having to rehome their dog please try to rehome the dog directly (check out http://www.irishanimals.com (www.irishanimals.com) - you may be able to post details there). Alternatively surrender the dog to a rescue centre with a no-kill policy (see above website for details) And remember to offer as generous a donation as you can afford because, unlike the pounds, these centres are voluntarily run and generally do not receive government aid. Without them you would have to surrender to the pound - knowing your dog is likely to be killed within 24 hours (depending on the pound - but that's the rule) - or turf the dog out onto the street.

There are too many dogs and too few good homes. Make sure your dog is neutered/spayed. If you know of someone willing and able to offer a responsible, loving home to a dog, point them in the direction of the thousands of homeless dogs in the pounds and shelters throughout Ireland.

Well done Marie for giving your furry friend a great life which its very unlikely she would have had had she ended up in the pound! The animals of Ireland (and England!) could do with more people like you.

(ok, ok, rant over now ... honest! )

not purchasing purebred dogs

I second coolaboola and Marie. It's also a pet subject of mine. I cannot believe how many young families in my neighbourhood have gone out and purchased purebred puppies when so many wonderful dogs are on death row. I'm often stopped by children when I'm out walking my mutt (very friendly and gentle 3 year old black lab/greyhound/? from a rescue) and these 7 years olds ask me "is she a labrador?". I say, "no, she's a mixed breed". They reply"oh, we have a real labrador" in a snobby tone. Apart from one single lady who also has rescued dog, every other dog in the neighbourhood is a purebred who was purchased from a breeder and is simply kept a family pet. Unless a dog is for show purposes, I just cannot get my head around this.
Anyway, rant over!

I have a pure bred English Springer Spaniel. I bought that type of dog because I knew that they had an exellent reputation with children and that they are a very playful and good humoured dog. I didn't at the time realise how playful or how much exercise they needed and I also now know where the expression "dog rough" comes from.

I was afraid at the time that if I took in a mutt that I wouldn't know what I was getting.


Murt

PS: I have had him fixed (Speaking of which, was anyone watching River Cottage on Channel 4 a few weeks ago when your man, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, had his little bull fixed, and what he did with the surplus parts of the bulls anatomy)

Well done for getting your hyper pooch 'fixed' Murt! (Didn't see River Cottage, am guessing it ended up as spaghetti and meatballs *ahem*? Eek!)

We've two mutts, one from the doggie dustbin aka the pound and the other from a shelter. We didn't know what we were getting at the time and one of the mutts (Spud, the one from the shelter) is totally hyper and loves to play, play, play.

A couple of years after getting Spud we were visiting a cheetah park in South Africa (not with Spud!) and the keeper was pointing out the big cats' long legs, big rib cage, rangy build all of which means they were built for running ... at which meself and himself went 'Ah ha!' 'cos that pretty much described Spud the Mad.

Penny, who arrived later, is a barrel shaped thing who's main goal in life is getting her belly rubbed. She's not half as interested in running about and chasing rubber bones.

What I'm getting at is if you take in a mutt and know what to look for (unlike us!) you can have a fair idea of what they're going to be like. That and the pound/rescue shelter should be able to tell you a bit about that particular dog's temperment as they've been looking after it for a while.

You'll also be able to figure out (usually!) some of the 'main ingredients' of the mutt e.g. is is mostly GSD, terrier, collie, etc.? And from that you should be able to make a stab at judging its capabilities and temperment (e.g. terrier = feisty, lively, GSD = loyal, intelligent, bit of a coward, collie = v. intelligent)

Of course then there's the nature versus nurture debate - a dog who is badly trained or getting the wrong signals from its 'pack' (that's you and your family) will always be a handful. And vice versa. ('The Dog Whisperer' by Jan Fennel is a good insight into this side of things). Training and how the dog is treated will have as much of an effect on a dog's behaviour as its breeding.

Anyhoo, here are my mutts:

Penny (before she was 'sprung' from the pound - she spent five days in that cage, it was one of the 'good' pounds. She should have been killed on the first day because she was a surrender. She was surrendered apparenlty because her previous owners lived in a flat where they weren't allowed pets and Penny was discovered.):

http://www.muchos.co.uk/members/spud/penny small.JPG


Spud:
[broken link removed]


Spud and Penny (after Penny was sprung from the pound):