Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The importance of a good dog.


Though reams and reams have been written about the above I still do not think the gravity of it has sunken deep enough in the minds of people. In today’s world of a never ending rat race people seem to think that a dog is an inconvenience more that a necessity. Quite the contrary dogs are needed in homes today more than ever before.


Just look around the soaring crime rates. The hopelessly inadequate efforts made by the law enforcement agencies to cope. The crime rates have soared to such an extent that the Police in certain areas are asking people to bring up one or two dogs.
This is only one aspect of it. Think of the ever shrinking family. Many families have only one child or two now. More often than not the child/children are entrusted to domestics as the parent work. They are completely at their mercy. How many cases of abuse have heard of? How many houses have been robbed by these very people?

On the other hand how many disabled people do our country have that could be helped a great deal by assistance dogs. We do not have Seeing Eye dogs. No hearing assistance dogs and the list goes on.

The most basic duty that the dog has been put to is that of the guard. Then as the playmate of the child. In both these instances dogs are not getting their due place.
Why? One thing is there is an unholy fear spread about the dogs’ unreliability. Secondly about the sicknesses they can spread especially to children.

A dog unless very neurotic would not attack the family it lives with. This does not mean that just because you feed a dog you have the right to abuse it anyway you like and expect it to take it. A dog has to be treated with a certain amount of respect for what it is. It needs certain amount of freedom and it has its’ own character. Lot of people I know wants to have a dog, outside. They do not care if the animal is sick or well. As mentioned several times before a dog is a pack animal. Leaving it out alone does not do very much to inculcate the protective habits towards you. How many of these animals have been poisoned. All because of the way most of these animals are being fed. They will be given some food in a bowl/plate and it will be left there till the next meal. Sometimes the food is thrown on the floor. After all it’s only a dog. By this the dog learns to pick up food from the floor making it so much easier to poison it.
Feed it at a particular time at a particular place in a particular bowl. They’ll never be able to poison it.

Then there was the next horror story, that children can get allergies because of dogs.
Last week we published a report of a survey done in America which proves having dogs help in building resistance to allergies. Here again I must stress that the dog like us needs some basic hygiene. It has to be brushed regularly. It must have baths occasionally. It must be kept free of parasites both internal and external always.
Show me a house where these are done and you have children getting sick because of the dogs. Never! Dead hair remaining on the dog rots and is the cause of the doggy smell that many complain about. Brushing gets rid of this.

The service the dog renders to us is so great does it not warrant this little maintenance. This little bit of care.

After people started returning from abroad many who had seen pure breeds there wanted the same here. The demand for purebreds went through the roof. The first breed to be ruined by this commercilation was the Alsatian or GSD. Followed by the Japanese Spitz, The Pomeranian, and Doberman just to name a few. All breeds of dogs have been created by very discerning people to serve a very specific purpose. All breeds are not for everyone. Anyone who could pay the price could buy anything they wanted. Regardless of the fact if they could even feed it properly. Here we do not have breed wardens who check on a particular breed and its progress in terms of quality and temperament. We do not have litter inspection worth talking about. Are the so called breeders using the animals of reliable temperament to breed? Are the animals mentioned in the pedigree the real parents?

It became a bit of a status symbol to have a pedigreed dog. The Kennel Clubs reaped the full benefits of this puppy boom in terms of registrations. But what was given in return? To the average person the pedigree is a certificate of some quality and not just a family tree. He believes that the money he paid and the fact it has been registered assures him of some quality. But has that happened? Animals totally unsuited for any purpose that they have been meant for, have been bred and sold by the number. The degeneration of several breeds has been cheered on by these very clubs that are supposed to protect it. Who pays the ultimate price? The people who just want a good dog as a companion, a guard or just a pet.

The clubs boasted of the entries they received more than the other for their show. Have stopped to think how much the quality has dropped in the mean time. No! Even the effort taken by some local breeders have thwarted by the clubs. Dog shows are kept to select the best specimens suited for breeding. But happens Police and Military dogs are included in the show. This is only happens here. This is so ridiculous. The only way it could be described is that they are trying to promote the fertility of the celibates. For the local breeders to get a stud service of the winning police dog could be likened to waiting for something of the Goat which seems about to fall but never does. The end result is that the quality of the dogs here plummets. The Seiger show in Germany gives points to the dog on the quality of it’s’ progeny. Here celibates get to the top. Sadly this still goes on. Recently we had the Rottweiler’s banned from a show. When they showed with the other club they were taken back. Banned in the name of being to ferocious. Who the let it get so bad in the first place? Can we find a dog of a reliable temperament today in this country? No. We have to import to be certain.

These breeds that are meant to protect family and home have become totally unreliable due to this lax control of standards. People who have good specimen of any breed know the full value of the animals and their character. Now these breeds are treated with fear and distrust. Strict standards must be enforced where breeding is concerned. No matter who breeds the standards must apply. When certain committee members of these dogs clubs rank as among the top puppy mill breeder with the full knowledge, sanction and the blessing of the club secretary who condones even unethical show etiquette to secure a win, where do you think the standards will end?

It is very sad as I have seen Rottweilars that would not look at another dog. Dobes that children borrow and play with GSD’s that lover to romp with children. All this has been stolen from us.

All this only leads to one point and that is we have been robbed of the benefit of man’s finest of and most faithful of friends.

Love for animals and dogs go down in families. We have and enjoy dogs today as they were given to us by our parents. I trust that in the future this will improve as the loss will be felt by those of us who have children and having seen the benefit, and will not be able to pass on this precious gift to our children.

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