Woof A Horizon Guide to the Dog

[OverFedStanley]

Did anyone else watch this?

An actually not too bad geeky programme on dogs over the years. An excellent piece by Bradshaw at the end re dominance and training.

Also why dogs should not be confused with wolves.

Some painful images of Woodhouse training :(

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01cqrvs/woof-a-horizon-guide-to-dogs

[missbattenburg]

Excellent! I was looking for this a little while back as I remember seeing it when aired and wanted a refresher.

Massive thanks for flagging it as it means I can sit and watch it again.

If you've not read Bradshaw's In Defence of Dogs, you're missing a treat because it's a really interesting read.

[OverFedStanley]

I have read it and constantly push it on people who still go on about dominance and being the leader......

[DogInATent]

We watched that last night, very informative.

It's left me wondering what became of the woodles/poolfs.

[OverFedStanley]

I hope they stopped breeding them I can't find any info or research papers on them at all. It would be interesting to find out more on them

[DogInATent]

Just the thing, I thought, for a family wanting a hypoallergenic status dog.

[HoraceCope]

Interesting programme, although i did recommend it, before I watched it, to someone who is about to take their dog to crufts, otoh they are taking their dog as a Pet Therapy Dog so they should be pleased

[HoraceCope]

that poor space dog

[OverFedStanley]

I am at Crufts but not from a showing capacity (on which I have similar view to the vet Mark). There are some excellent sections to Crufts so Horace your friend should understand

[Muffinbutton]

I loved the section about recognising the different barks. They were all spot on!

[Wolfiefan]

Missed this. Off to try and find it.
Supposed to be showing at Crufts. What’s the problem with that?

[missbattenburg]

wolfie it's clips of older documentaries so contains some clips of pedigree dogs exposed, including criticism of the extreme form of some breeds - laying responsibility for it on dog shows.

[Wolfiefan]

Can’t disagree that some dog breeds have had bloody awful things done to them. My mum has a book of dog breeds that’s so old it’s falling apart! Some of the pics in there look nothing like what people today would recognise as certain breeds.
Dog shows generally say “In assessing dogs, judges must penalise any features or exaggerations which they consider would be detrimental to the soundness, health and well being of the dog.” But do they?
We could do with a body that isn’t the Kennel Club to regulate breeding and stamp out puppy farmers.
Rant over.

[missbattenburg]

I think what I found most shocking were clips from the 1970s complaining about the extreme and unhealthy form of some breeds - eg bulldogs with overly shortened muzzles. As extreme then as today. Ditto pugs. 40 years and no progress!

That's just so disheartening.

[Wolfiefan]

Worse now? Because of big money in certain breeds? More puppy farmers and backyard breeders.

[BorderlineExperimental]

Dog shows generally say “In assessing dogs, judges must penalise any features or exaggerations which they consider would be detrimental to the soundness, health and well being of the dog.” But do they?

In short, no they don't. You've only got to look at many of the BoB winners from last year to see that the judges aren't penalising physical features which they should be. There were BoB winners with excessive wrinkling, severe ectropion, heavy nose rolls, bulging eyes, stenotic nostrils, obvious signs of respiratory distress, etc., etc..

The very obvious physical deformities present in some breeds are also only the tip of the iceberg, there are more and more heritable health issues surfacing all the time as a direct result of the ever decreasing lack of genetic diversity in pedigree dogs. The current model of pedigree dog breeding in the UK (distinct breeds with completely separate stud books) inevitably results in ever decreasing levels of genetic diversity and the culture of "breeding only from the best" which is still pervasive in the showing community only hastens that loss.

Unfortunately there's still a great deal of resistance against both reducing exaggeration in those breeds that need it or taking steps to improve (or at the very, very least slow the loss of) genetic diversity within all breeds.

[missbattenburg]

Worse now?

I would imagine so. I guess I was just surprised to see clips from the 70s showing pugs, bulldogs etc with no snout at all. I had thought these had gotten shorter more recently but it would appear that 40 years ago there were dogs with absolutely flat faces.

Maybe they were the show standards of the time and most normal pets were not that extreme - what has gotten worse is the infiltration of this as the standard most pet owners expect of those breeds. Or the popularity of the breeds - so we see more examples of it today.

I totally agree with the extremes of what we can see is only a part of the issue. Many breeds are seeing increases in health issues also, suggesting there may be some internal changes taking place. And not good ones.

[HoraceCope]

But have we really bred the more easy going biddable dogs? which i think is what the programme was saying?