A repost from December 2008.
This is a terrific ad from the Netherlands, and made me recall an earlier post from this blog entitled Overbreeding: Beware of Simple Answers:
If we agree that there is still a problem ... the next question is WHAT is the problem?Link to the complete post. .
You would be surprised at how little thought has gone into that question.
You see, the problem is NOT puppies. Healthy puppies are readily sold or adopted from pounds. There is always a line of people eager for a puppy.
The problem is DOGS. While puppies are small and cute, a dog is a loud, expensive, demanding, barking, defecating, and life-restricting ball-and-chain.
It turns out that a lot of people that want a cute puppy are not so enamored with the realities of adult dog ownership. In a world of throw-away marriages, jobs, cars, communities and houses, dogs have been tossed on to the pile....
...If we are really interested in reducing the number of dogs put up for adoption, we need to spend some time on the "unselling" of dogs in general, and purebred dogs in particular.
When we talk about dogs to people that do not have dogs, we need to talk about the fact that dogs are expensive, time-consuming, and smelly.
We need to acknowledge that they will occasionally pee on a carpet or wake us up at 5 in the morning. Dogs not only bark, they howl, they scratch at doors, they eat cell phones, and they will quickly reduce the resale value of your car. Not to mention that landlords hate them.
If people want to get a dog, fine, but there should be no surprises about the numerous liabilities involved, and that those liabilities can easily last for 15 years.
5 comments:
And ironically it seems to be dog people who scream the loudest when one tries to "unsell" dogs.
I see the "throwaway" dogs at our shelter all the time. No skills, no manners with humans or other dogs. Wonder how that happened.
Case in point- big (80+ lb.)brown doofus pit/lab/? mix kinda on the bubble for bad behavior around food. Charges the kennel gate, barking very loudly. Yuk. Out of kennel? Has some training on board that he almost remembers since I got him to sit and take a treat nicely with a little work. "Talks",which was pretty funny. Could probably swallow a cell phone whole and not notice. We can see that there's a really cool dog in there somewhere. Will probably go to rescue "charm school".
I like your "rap" list about dog ownership. Perfect for discouraging shelter visitors who give off the wrong vibe.
A few years ago, I wrote a list of "Top Ten Reasons to NEVER Get a French Bulldog", which I then put on every one of my French Bulldog related websites.
Owners have since written to say "I wish I'd known some of that before I bought my Frenchie", while breeders have written to tell me I'm a 'disgrace' to the breed and should stop trash talking our poor widdle puppies.
I'd rather 90% of people said "I'm not prepared to deal with that in a dog", then 10% bought one and then gave it up when it was an adult.
BTW, here's the list:
http://frenchbulldogz.org/purchasing/topten.html
Excellent list FrogDogz!
I wish that every breed would do this for their breed and put a prominent link to it on their breed club web site, the AKC site, and copy it off in the AKC "all breed" books that so many people flip through before selecting a dog.
Another two small facts: The average Frenchie is dead after just nine years, and cancer is often the cause, with a 35% incidence rate in the breed, and a "cost of treatment" in the several thousand dollar range (if possible).
Patrick
I think the cancer rate quoted is from the UK. They have a MUCH smaller gene pool, and cancer is, at least reading, the number one killer of Frenchies there.
Here in N America, I'd venture to say it's a toss up between cancer, and illnesses related to spinal deformities. This is based on my last breed survey, of 1000+ breeders and pet owner of French Bulldogs.
It's frustrating, because every time we think we know more about the mode of inheritance of spinal degenerative disease, a new study contradicts it.
I honestly think that, at this point in time, a project similar to the Dalmatian Backcross Project is the only hope we have to try to eliminate both of these killer conditions from our lines.
Personally, I've decided to concentrate on outcross breedings only (no shared relatives within a minimum of five generations), for the forseeable future. Of course, this will become increasingly impossible after much more than three generations...
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