Back in January, I wrote a post entitled Obama Is on the Edge of a Canine Mistake:The word in the newspaper today is that Barack Obama is considering getting a Portuguese Water Dog.
A Portuguese Water Dog? Why??
Answer not said: Because Ted Kennedy has one.I'm pretty sure that's about as deep as the research went on this one.
It turns out I was right.
Ted Kennedy actually gifted a Portuguese Water Dog to Obama, which pretty much took the decision out of the the Obama family's hands.
You see, there is policy in Washington, and there is politics.
Politics always trumps policy. Barack Obama owes Ted Kennedy a lot, and Ted Kennedy hopes Obama will deliver a lot, such as universal health care.
But will that universal health care include health care for dogs?
Probably not.
Which is too bad for Portuguese Water Dog owners as this is a generally inbred animal, with 80 percent of the gene pool traced back to just six dogs.
As a consequence, this is a breed that carries a heavier-than-normal genetic load, even for an AKC dog.
As I noted in a post entitled Barack Obama, Ordinary Consumer:
In 1981 the Portuguese Water Dog was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the rarest breed of dog on earth. It was just about that time that an American vacationing in Portugal discovered the dog, brought a few back to the U.S., bred them, got them registered with the America Kennel Club, and their number skyrocketed.
What happened next is predictable: the dogs became deeply inbred, and a doubling down of recessive genes resulted in congenital defect and disease bubbling to the surface.
The first disease to rear its head was Gangliosidosis, or storage disease, which attacks the nerve cells of young puppies and causes a loss of coordination and body functions which kills the dog.
No sooner was this recessive gene discovered, than Addison's Disease reared its ugly head -- an endocrine disease in which the dog loses weight, energy and muscle mass.
As bad as these two problems are, more health care problems lie in wait for the Portuguese Water Dog as inbreeding within the American Kennel Club's closed registry system is required for a dog with so few numbers.
Will Portuguese Water Dogs end up being big puppy mills dogs?
No.
They are too large for commercial breeders and, to be honest, they are not a very attractive dog.
The bread-and-butter of puppy mill producers are small dogs like Cavalier King Charles Spaniels (Nancy Reagan), Toy Poodles and Maltese (Jacques Chirac) and small terriers (George W. Bush, Richard Nixon, John F. Kennedy, FDR).
For a visual parade of former White House dogs, see The White House Goes to the Dogs.
As for the Obama's and their new dog, "Bo," (the initials of Barack Obama, we would point out), we wish them good luck and healthy lives.
The odds are still with the dog -- most dogs, even from deeply inbred lines, do not succumb to illness.
That said, the odds are not what they could be or should be. When loading the dice, the idea is not to load them against yourself or the dog. Mother Nature prefers a mutt.
.
11 comments:
Some large dogs do regularly get puppy milled, especially Labs, Goldens, and GSD's.
Just think about how the Bulldog got into the AKC's top ten list.
It got there only because celebrities started having them on reality shows. I watch MTV on occasion, and there are a few shows in which the "stars" have bulldogs.
For a politician, Obama is a star.
The only reason why the Portuguese water dog won't get milled is because people who breed them are holding onto them tightly.
Ted Kennedy is known for giving out these dogs. Donna Shalala has or had one that came from Senator Kennedy's efforts. This is the dog that sort of exists among a certain liberal establishment. Kind of like how Scottish terriers and English springers are among the conservatives. But look on the bright side, at least he knew a responsible breeder who could get a rehomed dog for the Obamas. He's kind of like a rescue dog. If Bo didn't have such a good breeder, he would've been in the pound. And then if the Obamas got him, the AR fanatics would be praising him.
Put me in the camp of those who are disappointed with the Obama's decision.
I tend to think the Obamas really wanted a poodle. However, the reaction from people in the US, including the media, would be way out of control. Can you imagine the jokes? Full disclosure, before I had my own standard poodle, I was a bit prejudiced myself. Seems like the PWD is a poodle for those who can't stand the heat.
~Kelley, I agree. Maybe we should start calling the poodle the "German Water Spaniel"?
Between this brouhaha with the Obama dog, the Sussex spaniel winning Crufts and the Sealyham 'terrier' winning Westminster, it's no wonder we're ruining so many breeds. I can just see it in the judge's newsletter: "Let's pick some more breeds to be popular, we've had enough of the pimped-out poodle and [insert overly popular breed here]! Any ideas?"
I'm really not meaning to drip cynicism from my words...sorry, if that's what it sounds like.
What's with this fad of writing "gifted" as a regular past participle when we already have the perfectly good (and shorter) "gave"?
Inquiring minds want to know.
I say, you rolls yer dice and you takes yer chances. A PWD was never going to appear in a shelter, so that was a non-starter for the Obamas. There is no such thing as a hypo-allergenic dog as far as I know, but maybe the power of suggestion will help their daughter fend off symptoms. I'm allergic to practically everything in my chosen environment, and don't care; I'd be miserable without my horses, pets and all the rest that go with it and that make me sneeze. It's a lifestyle choice for me, and I choose it.
As for who chooses PWDs, the only people I know who have them are a couple who are young-ish and VERY conservative. They have had them for years, had one with the terrible and deadly inherited issues, yet they chose to get two more after the early demise of the first. Their money, their lives, their hearts that risk breaking.
At least Bo will be well cared for. If he runs into trouble, I expect he will get whatever help that can be offered. We all roll the dice with our choices, and if we're responsible in this life, handle whatever happens next as best we can. I wish them all the best.
Seahorse
Chas -
I understand your point, but I think there is a difference in this case. We give people a lot of things (a hard time, a piece of our mind, a slap on the back), and most of the time they are not very ceremonial or important or convey a relationship. For example, I will give people spare gloves when cold, or a sandwich when hungry.
A GIFT, however, suggests something different, and dogs and other animals have been ceremonial gifts between politicians since the beginning.
Kennedy is not simply handing over a spare dog to Obama -- it is meant to be more than that, hence the word "gifted". That said, I DO understand your point. Ten cent words beat $10 words 99 percent of the time. I am proud to say that I just turned in an article that had a 4th grade reading level. Success is simplicty.
P.
It's amazing to me how incredibly politicised the Obama's choice of a family pet has been. I suppose President Obama let himself in for it by announcing the acquisition of a puppy in his election victory night speech.
The thing that strikes me is that, whilst I'm sure that Malia and Sasha are thrilled with their six-month old puppy, I'd bet they'd have preferred to have their puppy as an eight or nine week old like most other puppy buyers do.
I think that rescue is a great thing to promote but equally it should be OK to get a suitable puppy to which one has a lifelong commitment from a responsible breeder if that is what one wishes.
Where I live in Victoria, Australia it's quite easy to find a young puppy from animal rescue provided it's a herding dog breed or cross breed (plenty of kelpies, cattle dogs and such - beautiful dogs but need the right owners who can meet their extensive exercise needs) or a Staffordshire terrier cross. Other breeds and cross breeds only make an appearance in rescue when they're a bit older.
In view of this and in light of the fact that I would like the opportunity to raise and train a dog from puppyhood, I think that I'd have to go for the breeder option with rescue a good source for a second dog later if I want to go down that path.
By the way, I agree with the earlier comments about the Obamas really wanting a Poodle. It's a shame that the Poodle breeding community don't ask themselves why so many of the general public are showing an interest in non-shedding dogs with woolly coats and yet are not considering purebred Poodles. There's the Oodles phenomenon and the growing interest in rare Poodle-like breeds like Lagottos and Portuguese Water Dogs.
I was looking at some local Poodle breeder websites and they only seem to show their dogs in pictures with weird haircuts. You never seem them pictured doing normal doggy things, having fun and looking more or less like a normal dog.
Tehnically, 6 months old is still a puppy, though it's bordering on the rotten teenager phase. There is no such thing as a dog that is "too old" to train, and it gets me whenever someone denies themselves a great dog from the shelter just because it is a month or a year older than their pre-set standards. When it comes to training, there simply IS no critical period to miss like there is in human feral children. Socialization and temperament are another matter, but learned behavior can be taught at any age.
Think: this dog has already been to a training school (even though we all know it will be up to the Obama family to make sure it sticks) and is already housebroken. Housebraking takes supervision, consistency and dedication, and that's when it's going in a good direction. There really are more important things in the world to worry about than having an adult supervise the children with the puppy. (My dog came from the pound at 7 months both house- and obedience-trained too. While we were prepared to do basic house-training, we were happy to have found one that already knew, and we just needed to review instead of start from scratch.)
Six months or 10 weeks, the family should be thankful for what they have. A dog is a privilege these days, not a right.
"A GIFT, however, suggests something different, and dogs and other animals have been ceremonial gifts between politicians since the beginning."
In that case, we have the regularly conjugated verb, "to present."
Yes that works too.
See
>> http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gifted
and
>> http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/presented?qsrc=2888
P
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