In Thursday night class a few weeks ago we were discussing the sad state of affairs concerning the future of dogs. Depending on where you look for statistics 74-76% of all dogs in America are spayed/neutered. The viable breeding population that is left after that 74% is not a large enough gene pool to continue to meet the demand for dogs we have currently.
With this in mind we were all asked to find 5 intact dogs and 5 intact bitches that did not include our classmates, or any of the students at Applewoods.
Since none of us have succeeded so far so I am passing it on to you.
-Find 5 intact dogs and 5 intact bitches that do not include your own dogs (stanger's dogs).
-Take a picture of the dogs, and when you have found 10 dogs post the list of dogs on your blog with their pictures
-Send me an email at biscotti702ATyahooDOTcom with the link to your post.
The first person to find 10 will recieve a prize, that I have not decided on yet. :p
The next 5 after that will recieve a smaller prize.
I will pick the prizes and post them later this week.
GOOD LUCK! Happy Hunting!
EDITED TO ADD LINKS TO STATISTICS:
"In fact, 28 percent of owned dogs and 16 percent of owned cats are not spayed or neutered, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association."
Rugby's regular readers are already aware of how I feel about H$U$....
even so, here are the statistics from the enemy-
"Seventy-five percent of owned dogs are spayed or neutered"-------------------------------------------------
Here are some Applewoods Dogs that still have their reproductive organs -
Rugby, of course!
Eppy the English Shepherd -
Brandy, the Kerry Blue Terrier and Leo the Newfie -
Sugar, the Lab -
Bliss, the Golden-
Scout, Sugar's Brother -
Caruso, the Standard Poodle (although they are scheduled to come off soon. :( )
Cabot, the Brussels Griffon-
And lastly, Lillith the Doberman whose organs are set to come out soon as well. :( 
Now if only the Applewoods Dogs could count towards the challenge! :p
I'm going to guess Eppy's actually an English Shepherd, because all of our English Setters look very, very different. She's a cutie, but the wrong body and coat type (not to mention color).
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to think. I know there's rather a lot of unaltered dogs in the area, but mostly I know they're here and unaltered because I try to keep them from peeing on the porch. Boy dogs with bad owners. :/
Do puppies count? I've got dog class Wednesday, I'm sure there's a fair number of puppies that haven't been desexed yet.
My parents own two that are currently intact- 8 month old bitch who will be spayed because she's got a few too many health issues way too early, and a 9 year old who's never/will never be bred (also for health reasons). Your 74% fixed rate, given the dogs who are intact and not bred, makes me wonder.
I guess we can expect supply, demand, and low quality breeders all to effect the future of our breeds in the next few years.
I could do it, but the majority would be Frenchies (since that's the world I live in most). However in my CD class there are 2 intact labs, a Pyrenean shepard, a sharpei, and a Turveen (all males), a female DDB, an australian shepard (also a female). Feel like I might be cheating - since these are all breeders - but at least they are putting performance titles on their dogs to show there is quality beyond just the dog's appearance!
ReplyDeleteMichelle
P.S. - thought of Rugby yesterday: put CGCs on 3 of my friend's Frenchies, and the dog the evaluator brought to be the distration/"strange" dog was a well-behaved maltese :)
Well one of my trainers dogs just had 9 puppies, does that count? Actually because I am active in conformation as well as performance probably 75% of the dogs I know are intact. Yes we all have neutered animals too. And as for family pets, honestly in my neighborhood the ones that are not neuthered should be along with the owners of said animlas.
ReplyDeleteI walk into an overflowing animal shelter and can't help but wish there were enough homes for all. I guess that's why I've always advocated for neutering pets.
ReplyDeletePat
www.critteralley.blogspot.com
In the state of Michigan, the number of dogs residing in shelters is something like less than 1 or 2% of the entire state canine population. While this feels like a terrible struggle when you're in the shelter at the local level and you get emotional about the animals there, it isn't at all an overwhelming problem, statistically speaking.
ReplyDeleteAR's would have us all believe that spaying/neutering is an answer to this "overpopulation problem." What problem? At least in my state, the problem is NOT one of overpopulation at all, but of a community-wide system to keep animals in their homes and find appropriate homes for the rest.
I believe in Winograd's perspective, which is that there ARE enough homes for the deserving dogs of the US, but there are unfortunately not enough people willing to get them there.
This is very clear to me locally, where the strict rules and regulations you must wade through on an adoption application are enough to keep hundreds of dogs in the system and out of homes. Good, responsible people are not found acceptable enough by the emotionally-bound, self-righteous shelter workers who blame everyone but themselves for their problems.
Meanwhile, their negative attitudes do nothing to move the shelter out of the tiny, ugly concrete city building where even if someone wanted to visit, they are forced to make do with a total of 5 HOURS PER WEEK to check out the dogs in need.
So please don't blame the responsible owners of intact dogs for the animals residing in shelters or foster homes. They're there most often because of behavior problems that their former owners didn't know how to solve. It had nothing to do with the organs God gave them.
Speaking of which, I have two intact dogs in my current class. They are learning how to behave despite the dreadful presence of those offending testicles. Eventually perhaps they will be removed for other reasons. But it won't be because of someone else's shelter dog problem.