BOYO - STILL LOOKING FOR A HOME!

                                                                                           

PLEASE CONSIDER THIS SPECIAL BOY. HE IS DESPERATE TO FIND A NEW HOME

BOYO WORKING FOR HIS TREAT

I�ve shed a tear,

For 'Im still here.

In this Dogs Home,

I feel all alone.

 I know it�s dreadful,

I feel like a nag,

But I just want a home,

So my tail can wag.

I love to run, along the beach,

But now that life, seems so far out of reach.

For no one wants me, and I�m left here.

I wish I had someone, who I could love dear.

Maybe I�m hoping, and wishing away,

Because no one has seen, how I love to play.

I hope that one day, this will change for me.

You have no idea how happy, that would make me be.

I�ll continue to wait, as I have for a while,

But surely it�s me, who can make you smile?

And brighten my day, as you would mine,

Together, I know, we�ll be just fine!

BOYO WOULD NEED TO BE THE ONLY ANIMAL IN THE HOUEHOLD

SYDNEY

Meet Sydney!

You couldn't get much more handsome than this gorgeous boy!

 He is a Crossbreed of only 2 years old and came in to us as his previous owner was unable to meet his needs!

 He has a lovely temperament and a good all round personality.

He seems to get along well with other dogs, and

especially loves playing with the girls!

 A new home would need to be an active one, as Sydney loves going on long walks and being out and about with you wherever you go!

 He could possibly live with a female dog and could live with children of upper primary school age!

 Young Syd will change your life for the better

"However perfect and beautiful the dogs might be on the outside, on the inside they are broken"

The video above is of a Dobermann called Bella. Be warned - the end of it shows her dying in the middle of a retrieve  "Bella..?" calls her owner as he sees his dog collapse and starts to run towards her. "Bella...!"

It is not a one-off. Many other beautiful Dobermanns die in exactly the same heart-breaking way because of a disease that now affects around 60% of the breed: DCM (dilated cardiomyopathy).

Dobes suffer from various forms of the disease and other heart issues too.  According to the available statistics, the average age of death for this breed is now between seven and eight years old.

Yesterday, Carol Beuchat from the Institute of Canine Biology came across the video of Bella dying and was so moved she stopped what she was doing to write this impassioned piece calling for breeders to re-focus on the root cause of the problem, not the consequence.

She writes:

Our dogs are dying of inbreeding. Decades of inbreeding in a quest for the ever more perfect dog has resulted in the loss of genes that are essential to life. However perfect and beautiful the dogs might be on the outside, on the inside they are broken.

What are we doing about this? We seem to be doing a lot. There are research studies, DNA tests, health seminars, disorder-specific Facebook groups, and so on.

But our dogs are dying of inbreeding. None of the things we are doing will cure inbreeding. Scientists can't cure inbreeding. Inbreeding must be cured by breeders.

In 2002, Dr Reinhard Haberztti wrote: �The Dobermann was created from mixtures of various breeds and half-breeds at the end of the 19th century. This genetic variety was a great health advantage. Up to approximately 1950, there were practically no hereditary health problems, worldwide.

Yes, you read that right.

Less than 70 years ago, there were almost no known hereditary health problems in Dobermanns. 

Now the breed faces extinction. 

Carol references work done by Professor Sonia Garcia to conclude that without a change in breeding practices every Dobermann will have DCM by 2039. Every Dobermann.

I have a particular interest in this breed because my boy Jake is a Dobe x GSD mix (with Dobe making up the most of his ancestry). He is 14 now and, without fail, any vet that examines him raises their eyebrows when they listen to his heart.

Because it's that strong; that steady, with none of the telltale arrhythmias that kill so many Dobermanns. Just luck, almost certainly, but outcrossing is probably the only way out now for this breed.

There are now a handful of Dobermann breeders talking about an outcross but, sadly, such a venture is very unlikely, currently, to be endorsed by the majority of breeders who have been indoctrinated into thinking that such a move would sully the purity of their breed.

Here's what Carol thinks:

Unless there is some unanticipated scientific breakthrough, the future of the Doberman is grim. Dogs will continue to be snatched from life by sudden heart failure, and owners will continue to come home from work to find their dog dead on the floor. The Doberman DCM Facebook group will continue to grow. The Rainbow Bridge will widen to accommodate the souls of the dogs that are dying too young.... 

DNA testing does not make somebody a "responsible" breeder. Caring for the heritage of your breed does not make you a "preservation" breeder. Pride and love and dedication are all terrific, but they will not prevent the heartbreak that awaits thousands of Doberman owners in the future. Breeders need to DO something about this. Breeders need to step up to the plate and acknowledge that continuing to breed dogs that are likely to die of a genetic disorder is irresponsible, unethical and inhumane. That is certainly how the average, everyday dog lover feels. This is also how I feel. 

The Doberman was not created in its present form by a dog-loving God. It is a "blender" breed, created by a man who mixed a bit of this and a bit of that until he had the dogs he wanted. The breed was "recognised", the studbook closed, and the gene pool has been getting smaller ever since. Can the breed be saved by a cross-breeding program Who knows, but certainly it is worth a try and there is little too lose. But time is running out.

Read the whole of this incredibly powerful piece by Carol here - and if you don't know her work, please take the opportunity to explore the ICB website and what it offers to everyone interested in breeding healthier dogs.

Why I'm So Proud.....

I'm very proud of everything myself and my team have achieved, and I think the following story really does emphasise the work we do.....

Thursday at around 15.30pm I receive a text about a dog on the south coast of England that is booked in to be destroyed at 18.00pm. She has got herself in trouble with people and dogs.....

A bit of juggling about with a very well trusted charity partner means we can agree to say her.....

Her transporter picks her up on Friday morning from her foster home. She shows sign of severe fear aggression.....

She arrives at ours at around 14.30pm, just under 24 hours from us first being alerted, and almost the whole length of the country travelled. By now she is showing signs of serious fear aggression. I have to use a 'rigid lead' to get her out of the car.....

Then.....

48 Hours Later.....

David is the first to do the unthinkable.....

Get her out on a normal lead!

Then just 24 hours later, and  just over 4 days since I received that first text, this happens.....

It just shows what can be achieved. It shows how special the work we do really is.....

So Here We Are In June..... 10 Years On.....

Today we move into a very special month for SHAK, a month that commemorates the 10th anniversary of me losing my best friend Shak, and the 19th marks the day my life changed forever.....

I'm sure there will be more memories shared over the next few weeks and some very emotional posts, however today I wanted to share some photographs of some of the dogs I have now that I took at the weekend..... SHAK dogs I'm very proud of......

Lennox and Star.

Lennox Surveying His Land.

Donnie Simply Loving Life.

Donnie.

Pugs: some too scared to sleep at night

"There are tons of videos of dogs awaking with a start in the middle of the night, and owners laughing about it. Stupidly enough, people get a good giggle from these videos, because they think it�s 'cute' when their pug jolts out of their sleep and looks around confusedly. What they don�t know is that their dog nearly just died from suffocation. With the soft palate blocking the entrance of the trachea, the dogs stop breathing. Their oxygen levels drop and at some point the brain will send warning signals in order for the dog to wake up, hence the panicked and confused startle. For some dogs this even gets so bad, that they refuse to sleep at night, because they�re simply scared. Yeah, it�s that horrible. 

"In case your brachycephalic dog snores: that�s the soft palate hanging down into the airway and vibrating during expiration. No, it�s not cute. It�s a fucking airway obstruction!"

Read the rest here - written by Nadia Ayu who is studying to be a vet at the University of Leipzig in Germany.

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