Recently, my husband and I attended an all-breed dog show and our ring time made it necessary for us to get a motel room the night before. Because we would not arrive until 11:00 PM and were checking out at around 6:30AM, I reserved a room at a budget hotel chain. It was only for 6 or 7 hours so why spend the extra money on a higher priced hotel room. It was here that I had growing concerns on an issue that I do not believe has even crossed people's minds: formaldehyde emissions from substandard flooring and furniture in budget motel accommodations.....
The Front End
Lately, having returned from a specialty breed show, as well as an all-breed dog show, I am now, more than ever, flummoxed with the quality of purebred dogs. I will add more conversations and thoughts on several other topics, but this post is concerning the forequarter assembly. I am speechless about the condition of front ends on dogs.
The central and important principle to understand is that a canine’s front end is responsible for supporting more than half of the dog’s weight. These bones are not useless or trivial components of the canine anatomy.
Here We Go Again, Foreign Dog Show Judges
Well, I am just back from a Specialty Breed Dog Show with another International Judge presiding over the judging competition, and all I can say is, here we go again! There are too many instances of foreign judges who are not familiar with AKC Procedures presiding over AKC dog show assignments. We are continuously running into the same problem, over and over again.
Looking Back
While researching material on my computer for a friend of mine I rediscovered this intriguing and somewhat humorous article I wrote in 2005, at the request of the Irish Wolfhound Club of England for their annual magazine. Wow, it brought me back in time. It is entertaining (in a dark way) in several parts as it describes trials & tribulations of dog show travel, but it also provides insights into our breed. Take a look back in time....
The 6 Pillars of Choosing Commercial Pet Foods
OK, so you choose not to Naturally Rear your dogs and are feeding commercial dog food. Here is a re-post of Dr. Jean Dodds "The 6 Pillars of Choosing Pet Food" that may aid you in your quest to provide the best nutrition possible for your dogs. I also included her "Food Sourcing: Six Tips When Choosing Your Pet’s Diet" that can be of value as you wade through all the different brands of pet foods...Read more!
It's All About the Money!
Our purebred dog conformation events have been transformed. The first sentence in the AKC Mission Statement is, “The American Kennel Club is dedicated to upholding the integrity of its Registry, promoting the sport of purebred dogs and breeding for type and function.” I would suggest “...and breeding for type and function” needs reconsideration and updating......
While We Are on the Subject!
Update on my Airline Travel Blog Post
Here is news worth sharing related to my Airline Travel post on March 11. Oh, the joys of airline travel! An old friend flew in from San Diego to the East Coast yesterday and on one leg of the trip another passenger was having emergency heart problems. Thankfully, there was a Doctor on board and reportedly stabilized the patient with the emergency equipment on board, but not without even more drama as the pilots warned all passengers that the flight was going to have to make an emergency landing.
Then on the second leg of this same trip, a passenger seated next to my friend was vomiting in her airsick bag nearly the whole flight! All the stewards did was to give her more airsick bags and club soda. Though, I sympathize with this ill person, it seems to me that the best course of action would have been to move them to one of the restrooms instead of leaving them to continuously wretch in front of and next to close quarter seatmates. Or, even temporarily place the ill person in the stewards flight seat outside the restroom.
How can you leave a passenger wretching like that in such cramped areas, particularly with the risk of other passengers getting sick due to the repulsive smell and sounds? Can you imagine? You are seated in a 17-inch wide airline seat and the person next to you is vomiting nearly the whole trip! I know I would not be able to stand it. Unbelievable, go ahead airlines -- make the seats even smaller.
The Disappearance of the Old-Guard
The Old Guard, canine husbandry’s authorities, are sadly leaving us. Indeed, as unfortunate as this is, it also leaves us with a very pressing issue. Many of the Old-Guard had an underlying foundation of knowledge of other species such as horses and cattle and were able to apply it efficiently and successfully to canine breeds. Their departures are especially worrisome when you consider who may be filling their ranks....
Dog Show Judges & Airline Travel
A Holistic Approach to Anesthesia for Pets
Dr. Jean Dodds, DVM, new blog post, in case you have not read it, on a holistic approach to anesthesia for Pets by Shawn Messonnier, DVM, especially for teeth cleaning...
My friend and colleague, Dr. Shawn Messonnier, was very kind to pen this article on anesthesia for pets – particularly in regards to dental cleanings. Dr. Messonnier, a 1987 graduate of Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine, opened Paws & Claws Animal Hospital in Plano, Texas, in 1991. He has written several articles for many of the top pet publications in the nation. - Jean Dodds, DVM
Most pets have periodontal disease that must be addressed. This involves cleaning the teeth, and a proper dental cleaning must be done under sedation/anesthesia in order to thoroughly treat the periodontal pockets below the gum line that accompany dental disease.
A holistic approach to anesthesia is a safe alternative to traditional anesthetics. The holistic approach allows minimal amounts of sedation/anesthesia to be used, minimizing risk to the patient, even in older dogs and cats, and ensuring a quick and complete recovery. We typically do dental cleanings and tumor removals using this approach on small and medium-sized dogs and cats 15 years of age and older without any harm to the pet! For larger and giant sized breeds, the age to be cautious with anesthesia can be 10-12years.
At my clinic in Plano, Texas, we’ve had great success using this holistic anesthetic approach, so much so that we get patients from around the area (and even from out of state) in order to minimize the risk of sedation and anesthesia. By using this approach we’ve been able to help even high risk patients have necessary surgery for cleaning the teeth and removing tumors.
The approach involves a proper pre-sedation evaluation, and choosing the right anesthetic based upon this evaluation. Tiny doses of sedatives/anesthetics are used, just enough to allow the pet to lightly sleep while the teeth are properly and thoroughly cleaned. With this approach, the pet is barely asleep, minimizing the risks so often seen with more traditional anesthesia (depressed heart and lung function, lowered body temperature, etc.) Once the procedure is finished the pet can go home fully awake (without the hangover effect so commonly seen with traditional anesthesia) and acting totally normal.
There is no reason your pet, even an older pet, shouldn’t have proper medical care just because of a fear of anesthesia. Please look into a more gentle, safe, and natural approach to anesthesia and surgery and your pet will not only survive but even thrive and awake healthier!
http://drjeandoddspethealthresource.tumblr.com/post/139796181181/holistic-anesthesia-dental-dogs
Purebred Dog Breeding Practices
A friend of mine sent me a recent article from the Albany Times Union Newspaper titled, "Regulate Breeding Practices." Presumably, this article is just one of the thousands that appear on a regular basis throughout the country damning purebred dogs. Most likely many dog fanciers dismissed it accordingly, as it is by yet another misinformed animal rights lackey bloviating about purebred dogs...
Six-Pack Abs
In my opinion, as a Judge, there is nearly nothing more satisfying than examining a dog whose muscling is hard as a rock. Truly, nowadays this is a rarity because many dog entries are poorly conditioned having soft and squishy muscling. In fact, this is not localized to a few breeds but runs the gamut of our breeds...
What Are They Looking For?
Have you recently heard this question ringside at a dog show? Perhaps even you have asked this a hundred times over. More often than not, it is posed rhetorically as a reflection or criticism of your observation. I am referencing the deliberations and decisions made by the AKC dog show judge. We all at one time or another have stood ringside and observed judges that have left us shaking our heads and muttering, “I must have missed something!” Even more frustrating is attending our breed specialties, and we are left altogether bewildered. Here, in particular, we ask, “What are they looking for?” ...
Parent Club Shared Services
Currently, Parent Club’s organize independent national specialties across the country all the while incurring excessive costs for just up to two hundred entries. We should consider consolidating some of these national specialties, holding them simultaneously resulting in shared costs. What about implementing ‘enhanced parent club shared services.’ More specifically, what I have in mind are related breed’s hosting their national specialties together while sharing services...read more!
Foreign Judges
Westminster Kennel Club Commentary
Without a doubt, the Westminster Kennel Club dog show is a premier event. From the purple floor covering throughout the two buildings, a.k.a the piers, where all of the breed judging occurs to the instant pop-up cafés with high top tables and scattered lounging chairs in Pier 92 --let us not forget to mention the complementary shuttles from the gold star hotels -- it is a big event.
But, my goodness, it is unbearably crowded. It comes as a big disappointment when the crowds surrounding several of the breed judging rings are at least 20 people deep in front of you and you cannot see anything, whatsoever. To aid spectating, thankfully they did have a few bleachers in scattered areas of Pier 92, not in Pier 94 as there was no available room to install such. In front of these bleachers they had set up complementary TV monitors to watch the live action, the downside was that they did not cordon off the area in front of the monitors so that a heavy stream of traffic walked in between the bleachers and the TV monitor, effectively blocking your vision.
In many areas, as I described to several friends via telephone, you had to wait on line to be able to walk through to get to the other side. I am not exaggerating, you had to wait online to be able to walk through funneled areas because one side of the ring is blocked off, and reasonably so because the breed ring entrances need to be kept open for the exhibitors and their dogs. However, one exhibitor commented, or rather complained last evening at group judging that they saw countless people in these restricted areas who certainly did not have the appropriate wristband on standing there observing the judging. Indeed, there were sentries positioned at the entrances to prevent people from entering these restricted areas as I myself saw many people turned away, but unfortunately in some areas I assume the security was more lax.
Should I even discuss the infuriating lines for the women's restrooms? Yes, I need to because it is exasperating not only for me that still to this day, even with the female gender dominating the percentage of exhibitors at AKC dog sporting events that there is no attention being paid to this major issue. In Pier 94, on two different locations throughout the day I had waited online with approximately 22 women in front of me. Only to discover when we finally entered the bathroom that there was an additional line feeding into the same women's bathroom stalls from the opposite side! To make matters worse, adjacent to ring three there were two restrooms that were out of order and obviously could not be used. I have to wonder if these bathrooms were closed purposefully due to their proximity to ring three as they were just steps away from the seating area. Or, maybe I am wrong and they were both unluckily indisposed for use, however that would lead me to a very reasonable question. Was there every effort made to get these bathrooms back into working condition, especially in light of the fact that a major event was going to be held there in this pier? Have they ever been in working order, and if not, then why haven't they? Again I return to the gender issue pointing out, again, that the majority of exhibitors are female. I firmly believe that we are consistently disregarded and it simply is unacceptable.
Do I sound like I am getting worked up about this? Well, yes, especially when you have to go to the ladies room and you will have to wait approximately 20 minutes online. Why are we forced to have to plan our bathroom forays throughout the day? Why are we forced to have to strategically plan our fluid intake? It doesn't make sense and it is just wrong.
Packed Westminster shuttles
Westminster Now
The crowds are in abundance for the 2016 Westminster Kennel Club dog show. Shuttle buses are packed tight as even the later shuttles are full up. Rings are very crowded, in most cases 10-15 people deep. Chilly weather with snow in the forecast for today.
Ring 5 Pier 94
Ring 5 Bloodhounds
