There is far too much inbreeding in this country for eceonomy and convenience. Puppy mills are horrendous, spitting out animals devoid of human contact for pet shops.

Don't buy the dog unless you meet the parents.

Are yellow dog demo's effected by this ?

Inbreeding. The same ugly practice that makes Bush a moron causes health problems for these poor dogs.

And yes, I posted that so some douchebag will cry about Bush bashing.

I would never buy a purebred dog for my family. A relative got one a few years ago and it was completely nuts, barking all the time, never warming up to people and biting hard enough to cause injuries.

And yes, I posted that so some douchebag will cry about Bush bashing.

Posted by Sully

Good one. The right will never accuse Barry's parents of that. They are as different as night and day.

"I would never buy a purebred dog for my family."

A friend of mine always gets mutts and his dogs seem to be smarter and generally more well behaved than most pure bred dogs I've seen. He's convinced me.

No sh*t sherlock.

It's no secret that purebred dogs suffer from all kinds of genetic predispositions to disease and problems.

All that inbreeding lets the recessive anomalies run rampant.

Take this website, for example...

@NUTCASE:

Don't BUY your dog, PERIOD.

Adopt.

We always had mutts on the farm. I don't think we ever had a purebred dog. Mostly because dogs did not last too long on the farm. Sooner or later something would happen to them.

We kept very careful records for the dairy. Once artificial insemination came around it became a lot easier to diversify your herd. I remember being probably 7 or 8 years old and watching my grandpa go up to his armpit inside of a cow. Pretty impressive.

Hogs were the same way. Some of the best feeders we had were when we crossed some Durocks with Yorkshires.

When my kids were growing up we had a Rottwieller, Lab mix. He was a great dog.

I remember as a little kid being told that the best dogs were mutts. Pure breeds are a mess. Not to mention the peanut butter trick.

I had a registered dalmation once. I called it a damnation. It was a good dog until it broke it's hip and we found out this defect was because of imbred genes.

Then it became obnoxious and bit people all the time. It bit a baby for no reason and we had it put down.

I'm a snob, I admit it. I've always bought Australian Sheperds, from reputable breeders, and have always known our dogs would be a sure bet. My wife and I are on our third Aussie and he's fantastic; they've all been exceptional pets.

We did adopt a mixed breed once, about 5 years ago, and he immediately started biting children. We took him back to the shelter after trying to work with him for a week, and we informed them of his bad habit. They said "we know". WTF?? And we were never told! I could have lost my fucking house in a lawsuit if he had injured a child.

Adopting is a crap shoot. But I'll admit - if you get the right dog, you're probably better off than by buying a purebred from a breeder.

sully, it only took a lib retard 3 posts. You trolls amaze me.

"Not to mention the peanut butter trick."

I'm assuming this is one instance where Youdon'tgethurt.

sounds like jimmy and billy carter to me.

Hey, Retnit, if Bush had been a puppy, they'd have drowned him in a second for cranial dysplasia.

You don't drown them, you put them in the freezer.

We had a Jack Russell Terrier--given to us.

Oh my gosh! What a cutie but it was a mexican jumping bean!

Picture a cartoon dog bouncing around--everywhere.

After three months we gave it to our neighbors sister who had rural property. Heaven for him.

"sully, it only took a lib retard 3 posts. You trolls amaze me."

LOL. I stated in my post that I was just fishing for some right wing douchebag to tell me that the Bush-bashing hurt his feelings and you took the bait anyway. Or maybe in your case it was the inbreeding comment that hurt. Say hi to aunt mom for me, will ya?.

Dogs are for people who used to hunt for food.

Hybrid health is pretty much false advertising. A dog will only be as healthy as the combined genes of both the parents will allow. If a breeder does his or her homework and takes care to breed only those healthy dogs, the puppies have a far greater chance of growing up healthy and staying that way.

Our son has a mixed breed shelter rescue that requires a special diet because she suffers from the after-effects of acute pancreatitis. Our daughter's friend has a mixed-breed shelter rescue who is plagued with recurring facial warts and the vets cannot figure out what is causing them. Our daughter has a mixed-breed shelter rescue who suffers from seizures and is now on medication for the rest of his life. Our other daughter has two mixed breed rescues who are physically healthy but one has a serious temperament problem (unprovoked aggression against other dogs and children) that makes her panic every time the dog manages to get loose.

We have three purebred dogs here who have no health or temperament issues at all. Their ages are 7, 4 and 1. All three are the same breed and all three come from conscientious, reputable and experienced breeders.

"Inbreeding. The same ugly practice that makes Bush a moron causes health problems for these poor dogs."

You posted that to take a (deserved) cheapshot at Bush.

"And yes, I posted that so some douchebag will cry about Bush bashing."

You posted THAT to try and look smarter then the first person to call you on it. That's not subtlety. Regardless of your disclaimer, you still did it. It's childish and what I expect form the other side, not the left.

Cross-breeding is a great way to get superior animals as long as the good traits that you want are dominant. When you do that you get what is called Hybrid-Vigor. I breed my purebred Angus cows to a Hereford bull and get outstanding growth and carcass quality by doing cross-breeding.

"You posted THAT to try and look smarter then the first person to call you on it. That's not subtlety. Regardless of your disclaimer, you still did it."

Is it possible to look dumber than someone is reflexively whining whenever a horrible president is criticized? I made the comment to save people the effort.

Little did I know someone like you would find another reason to whine in this little gem:

"It's childish and what I expect form the other side, not the left."

Well if it assuages your ego, I don't consider myself a member of the left or the right.

You realize you're saying here, "You can't call me on being a douchebag because I said I just put this here to see who would call me a douchebag?", right?

Or maybe I misread you, and you're saying "I like seeing my own screenname in text so much I can't restrain myself from adding nothing to as many conversations as I possibly can! You're stupid for responding to me, teehee!"

Or is it

"I'm SUBTLE, yo! Look, I posted something and then told everyone else I didn't mean it. BUT I REALLY DO!! WINK WINK NUDGE NUDGE YO! Oh shit someone saw right through me. I'll uh *looks in book of "Insults for dummies"* say he has a big EGO!"

Or is it this one:

"Is it time for apple juice yet? Teacher says if I can do 5 forum posts a day I get to sit in the front of the small bus!"

Really, Sully, I'm not as good at reading people as I thought. You'll have to help me out here.

I was given a purebred Golden puppy by my boss who had bred his male with a hunting buddy's female. I had an incredible sixteen years with that wonderful dog. After she died, in talking with other people who also had goldens I found out that most don't live too much past seven or eight so the gist of this thread is mostly correct. I just adopted a very smart and affectionate 1 yr old mutt from the Humane Society and I am very happy.

Mutts from the rescue league seem to make the best pets.

I've got a new pound puppy who'll attest to that.

GEEZER

Goldens are such wonderful dogs. My current golden rescue is laying at my feet right now. I've had him for about 6 years now. He's 100% about love and fun.

This morning when I woke up his nose was about 2" from my face. He had a tennis ball in his mouth, but was quiet until I opened my eyes. Then he started wooing and shaking his back end like crazy LOL

I'm about to take him to the lake for some swimming - his second favorite activity after ball throwing time. Well, actually I think his MOST favorite thing is eating. I can't make a snack late at night without him coming to from a dead sleep to give me that crinkled up eyebrow "Oh, God! If I only had OOOOONE bite my world would be perfect" look. I swear he practices it in the full length mirrors when no one's looking. it's just too perfect and heart wrenching LOL

We've also adopted a lot of others over the years, including a couple of wonderful mutts who seemed to know that if they plopped themselves on our side porch all would be well the rest of their lives.

I love dogs.

I have had black labs my whole life and wil not live without them.the problem is with the backyard breeders and puppy mills.My breeder is wonderful and does it for the love of the breed.All of her males and females are sent to cornel u for hip,eyes,and other tests at great expence,and if a fault is found she will not breed them.My boy tucker is so strong and heathy,people ask me if hes a lab,they are so used to seeing over-breed labs they dont know a real one when they see it.
sad

Mutt lovers might want to seek out a book by Jilly Cooper "Intelligent and Loyal" (titled for the comments of people who learned that her dogs were "mutts" "oh I hear they are very intelligent and loyal" Jilly calls them breed nazis or something like that :)) Me I have had mutts for the most part Sox was a boxer something cross, the most adorable dog on the planet, Buddy was a Spaniel something cross, just a ball chasing fiend, Dweebe was a chow/german shepard cross the sweetest dog you could ever imagine, Sal was a golden lab something cross he was short but spunky. Currently we have Lucky black lab/cocker spaniel/something else cross he just looks like a minature black lab, with short legs. He is an old boy now. And then we have Judy pooch and Cueball pooch the boxers. I am fond of boxers simply cause I was raised with them, when I was a baby I was "watched" by my Mum's red boxer Dee Dee, if I crawled off to where I was not supposed to be Dee Dee used to pick me up by the diaper and bring me back. I am not allowed to have any more boxers cause I already have a male and a female (boxer rescue will not place another sex with a home that already has a boxer of that sex). So I am set for the near future. I have to agree adopt from a shelter or if you want a specific breed go to the rescue sites, almost every breed has a rescue society that has lots of babies up for adoption. Don't line the breeders pockets, adopt.

"We've also adopted a lot of others over the years, including a couple of wonderful mutts who seemed to know that if they plopped themselves on our side porch all would be well the rest of their lives."

AU - I hear ya! It would appear to me that there is an invisible to all but animals sign outside animal lovers homes which says "sit here, look pathetic, hooman will feed you" That is why I ended up with more cats than I could handle at one point. Every cat in the neighborhood would show up for dinner, and as usual idiot me would feed them. Owners would move, relocate and leave the cats behind and I ended up responsible. Right now I am holding at 9, once the latest litter of "stray" female's kittens is adopted and said "stray" female is fixed I should be able to stick to that number seeing as every other animal in my house (including my husband) is fixed. :)

Nice post L but even though my breeder sells her dogs for 1000 she does not make a profit.she has spent a long time refining her lines,and is a responable lab lover/breeder.My heart breaks for all the dogs that have come into this world with no love or home.i spend time at a local shelter walking these dogs and its sad but i do what i can and try not to cry

LILBRIT

Neighbors across the street divorced and gave their year old Shepherd to someone. He ran away a couple weeks later and came back to their vacant house - sleeping under the porch.

My wife and I thought we saw something over there move once in awhile, so I went to check it out. Sure enough Angus had come back almost 6 miles.

We took him in for a couple of months, I trained him, and then I put of a website of some really cute pics of him with captions. He has an adorable personality.

Long story short, the first call I got was from a couple who said they'd just lost their 14 year old shepherd, who had his own backpack for their camping/horse riding trips. They came to see him, immediately fell in love with him. He rode home with back legs on the back seat, and front legs on the console - as they say he rides to this day.

They have a 100 acre farm with ponds, barns, horses, etc. I called that night to see how he was doing. Was told after they got to their farm he spotted a barn cat and took off running, but as soon as he saw the pond he ran towards it, jumped 5 feet in the air and went for a swim. He was nibbling on Mark's toes when I called LOL

Turns out my wife went to post grad college with Mark. Small world. Angus is still living the life of Riley.

We've adopted out several strays who've shown up over the years. One to our great neighbor next door. Sadly, last year we went with her as Romeo (named because he was such a kissy face) was put down at 12 after diagnosed with an inoperable cancer.

Anyway, I love all animals.

I can't guess why the Brits cannot get some pugs from America to help their genetics over there. I saw one the other day that it is a shame he is not recognized as a champion, he was so perfect, his breathing was silent, his eyes were pefectly clear, his coat and markings were beautiful, and he moved with a sureness. The owners said they hated themselves for having him neutered but they did not know he was going to turn out so good.

Grumpy - I am a brit but I live in the US. Just to clear that up. I can understand the regret at having a dog fixed on seeing the perfect form which one has. My Judy pooch is the most perfect slight boxer you have ever seen, I mean really, you see her stand and it is a perfect "show" stance, she has never been trained to stand such, she just stands that way naturally. I think if I had showed her I could have made a fortune. Still she ain't a show dog, she is a family pooch, and her genes will never be passed on cause she is fixed. However, I give you the Judy pooch, she is a joy to behold.

I have a lab/husky/coyote cross...shes pushing 18 years old this month...a good combo...but yet my chesapeake retriever...which was given to me when she was 2 is now totally blind..a beautiful dog..very good with kids...but to be blind at 8 is not right. I for one will never spend money on a so called purebred ....and now I'm stuck being a seeing-eye human for a dog .

After three months we gave it to our neighbors sister who had rural property. Heaven for him.

Posted by MURPHY at 2008-08-19 10:52 AM | Reply

"we sent him to farm upstate, where he can run to his heart's content."

You actually fell for that story?

I see that there are many pet owners here on the Retort and that is wonderful. Supporting rescue is wonderful. All purebred breed clubs in the United States - both National and local - support rescue. Breeders support rescue programs and those breeders who belong to local and/or national breed clubs go a step further in that they guarantee that should an owner ever have to give up the dog purchased from that breeder, the dog will go back to the breeder, no questions asked. No time limit.

There are two organizations in this country that are dedicated to the total extinction of domestic dog and domestic cat. Those organizations are PETA and the HSUS. Do not fall for their bull. Ingrid Newkirk, one of the "Unholy Three" who are the only MEMBERS of PETA (everyone who supports the organization are donors, not members) has publicly stated that PETAs ultimate goal is the complete extinction of dogs worldwide through their mandatory spay/neuter program of ALL DOGS. HSUS supports this 100%. Don't fall for it! Adopt from your local shelters, take in strays or get your family companion pets from breeders (NEVER FROM PET STORES!) but do NOT support PETA or the HSUS! Their goal is to make sure YOUR children and your grandchildren never know the joy of sharing their lives with dogs.