It does leave a nasty taste in the mouth when you consider that dogs are being bred with disabilities in order to satisfy human fetishisation of certain traits. However, as I understand it, working cockers don’t have a strict “breed type” to conform to, so they aren’t shown and therefore don’t suffer from the same issues. Also, I imagine that breeding working dogs to have debilitating congenital health problems is kind of self-defeating.
Eh? Why the dig FE? I think 8 weeks of emailing and calling places almost daily but getting nowhere means I gave it a fair crack of the whip. I was just saying that I didn’t have a particularly positive experience dealing with rescue centres. Other experiences and opinions are available.
Get a Main Coon - all the same benefits but you don’t need to walk then & your neighbours get to pick up their shit
I haven't had much luck with rescue centres either. I got my boxer from the RSPCA but they made me jump through hoops first.
The Dutch Kennel club announced yesterday that they are refusing to register many that fall into the "flat face" group. This include's many of the Bulldog groups but as with our press, the headline is british bulldog is banned However they also include other puppies that are now to be banned from being registered are the pug, Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Boston terrier, French bulldog, Pekingese, Japanese chin, shih tzu, griffon Bruxellois, griffon Belge, petit brabancon and affenpinscher, also known as monkey terrier. It will be interesting to see if the KC in the U.K. do the same thing.
This was announced some weeks/months ago. It's not quite as straight forward as it looks, but definitely a big step in the right direction. Don't hold your breath for the (UK) KC to follow suit though. They don't even apply their own standards at their premier show 'Crufts'. The GSD that won a couple of years ago complied with European 'type', but not UK (UK GSD 'type' is less 'deformed' at the back end than Euro). It should have been sent from the ring as 'not complying with breed standard'.
We have a Bullmastiff along with our staffie. Although we love him to bits, he’s a royal pita. I’d say if you live on a farm a Bullmastiff would be fine. But we don’t. Walking him is a pain. He’s fiercely protective of my wife and goes mental at anything he sees- people, dogs, tractors, cyclists etc.... and he’s very powerful. Oh, he hates kids too. My Mrs did all the socialising/training with him from being a pup. But it’s done nowt. He’s still fekin nuts. He’s a brilliant guard dog while I’m away working but when he goes, we won’t be getting another. Definitely a farm dog.
My next door neighbour has something similar (a rescue) that just wants to attack everything. He has to attach it to a belt round his waist when he takes it out as he would struggle to hold it otherwise. My brother has a pitbull (licensed) that has to be muzzled and on a lead at all times when out and it's soft as grease.
Ours has no recall at all now as she has gone deaf. By nature, she never strays much further than 3-4 metres away from us, but it is very rare she gets off the lead time now. This is more to protect her than anything else. Ownership comes with responsibilities, and if perhaps this was pressed home a little more we wouldn't have created misguided laws like breed specific legislation.
There's and organisation that rescues and re-homes Spanish dogs, girlie at work has one, been a fucking nightmare! Others may have better experiences. Certainly get pup if you can.
I wouldn’t have mine tied to me!! He could have me under a truck in a heartbeat!! He’s so bloody strong when he gets all 4 feet dug in.
When Iggy was out on only his second or third walk he got rushed by a huge mastiff type dog which wasn’t on a lead. Thankfully though, I managed to scoop him up and stood my ground while the beast barked at me until its owners got it back under control. Iggy was shaking and wet himself with fear, and I wonder if that experience is one of the reasons he is still very wary of other dogs now, even those which are smaller and younger than he is (running away from a miniature dachshund the other week was a particular low point). We take whatever opportunities we can while out walking him to encourage him to socialise with other dogs, but he’s just not interested.
I was out with my 11yo daughter and my two beagles (on lead) we got attacked by an off lead lurcher type dog. It ran round behind us and grabbed my dog at the hing leg badly tearing his flesh. I managed to get the fucking thing off but it the got hold of my bitches tail stripping fit and flesh. The elderly owner just flapped and fell over. I finally got hold of his dog holding down and he dropped my bitch when I was repeatedly punching the attacking dog in the head. My daughter was petrified and ran after my escaping dog. Police just didn’t want to know even though the dog had got hold of me too. They asked me to find out who the owner was within four weeks or they would close the case. The old boy still walks his dog off the lead claiming it’s ok because it’s never done it before. The last time we spoke I told him I’d cut it’s throat if it came anywhere near me or my dogs again.
