Wednesday, March 31, 2010

EARLY SPAY/NEUTER SHOULD BE ILLEGAL

it's definitely immoral and unethical.

read the study found here: Long-Term Health Risks and Benefits Associated with Spay / Neuter in Dogs by Laura J. Sanborn, M S, of Rutgers University at the time of writing.

here's the summary:


SUMMARY
An objective reading of the veterinary medical literature reveals a complex situation with respect to the longterm health risks and benefits associated with spay/neuter in dogs. The evidence shows that spay/neuter correlates with both positive AND adverse health effects in dogs. It also suggests how much we really do
not yet understand about this subject.

On balance, it appears that no compelling case can be made for neutering most male dogs, especially immature male dogs, in order to prevent future health problems. The number of health problems associated with neutering may exceed the associated health benefits in most cases.

On the positive side, neutering male dogs
• eliminates the small risk (probably <1%) of dying from testicular cancer
• reduces the risk of non-cancerous prostate disorders
• reduces the risk of perianal fistulas
• may possibly reduce the risk of diabetes (data inconclusive)

On the negative side, neutering male dogs
• if done before 1 year of age, significantly increases the risk of osteosarcoma (bone cancer); this is a
common cancer in medium/large and larger breeds with a poor prognosis.
• increases the risk of cardiac hemangiosarcoma by a factor of 1.6
• triples the risk of hypothyroidism
• increases the risk of progressive geriatric cognitive impairment
• triples the risk of obesity, a common health problem in dogs with many associated health problems
• quadruples the small risk (<0.6%) of prostate cancer
• doubles the small risk (<1%) of urinary tract cancers
• increases the risk of orthopedic disorders
• increases the risk of adverse reactions to vaccinations

For female dogs, the situation is more complex. The number of health benefits associated with spaying may exceed the associated health problems in some (not all) cases. On balance, whether spaying improves the odds of overall good health or degrades them probably depends on the age of the female dog and the
relative risk of various diseases in the different breeds.

On the positive side, spaying female dogs
• if done before 2.5 years of age, greatly reduces the risk of mammary tumors, the most common
malignant tumors in female dogs
• nearly eliminates the risk of pyometra, which otherwise would affect about 23% of intact female
dogs; pyometra kills about 1% of intact female dogs
• reduces the risk of perianal fistulas
• removes the very small risk ( 0.5%) from uterine, cervical, and ovarian tumors

On the negative side, spaying female dogs
• if done before 1 year of age, significantly increases the risk of osteosarcoma (bone cancer); this is a
common cancer in larger breeds with a poor prognosis
• increases the risk of splenic hemangiosarcoma by a factor of 2.2 and cardiac hemangiosarcoma by
a factor of >5; this is a common cancer and major cause of death in some breeds
• triples the risk of hypothyroidism
• increases the risk of obesity by a factor of 1.6-2, a common health problem in dogs with many
associated health problems
• causes urinary “spay incontinence” in 4-20% of female dogs
• increases the risk of persistent or recurring urinary tract infections by a factor of 3-4
• increases the risk of recessed vulva, vaginal dermatitis, and vaginitis, especially for female dogs
spayed before puberty
• doubles the small risk (<1%) of urinary tract tumors
• increases the risk of orthopedic disorders
• increases the risk of adverse reactions to vaccinations

One thing is clear – much of the spay/neuter information that is available to the public is unbalanced and contains claims that are exaggerated or unsupported by evidence.



i find it absolutely criminal and shameful that veterinarians regard people who want just a simple vasectomy or tubal ligation as freaks who probably have a nefarious agenda. why are they too stupid to do the math: i can always get his testicles removed later if he develops a condition to warrant but if he gets a condition that could've been avoided, it's not like i can ask for them to be put back in, now is it?

next trainer... =)

so i took dandy to a local trainer - wonderful lady!

she evaluated him and said his only real problem is he's not getting enough exercise and i am not enforcing my leadership position enough. basically, i'm the landlady when i should be Goddess.

she's agreed to train him for agility but only after i've really worked on tightening control, improving his recall, and getting his energy levels down to a slow simmer on a consistent basis. keep doing what i'm doing, just do it more.

jobwise, she had reservations about my "garbage retriever" idea (training him to pick up roadside garbage and bring it to a bucket or container). she recommended i train him to pull a cart in the summer and a sled in the winter - it would allow all of us (me, him, my 3yr old daughter, and the cats) to all walk together. as it is, we can't because my daughter is SOOOOO SLOOOOOW and just as distractable as he is that it takes us 20 minutes to move fifteen feet. by then, i'm literally chewing the inside of my cheeks so as not to snap "ffs, MOVE IT!!!!!!!!!" and stifling her natural wonder at the manifest beauty of mother nature or some such crunchy hoo.

w00t!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

doggie training today

so today was the first time EVER i went to a professional one-on-one doggie training session.

from the start, i received the distinct impression that i was taking up her time. dunno if she was nervous, tense, or irritable or maybe i just bring that out in people, but i felt that i was being rushed through things. i also didn't appreciate the few things i do that actually work being criticised because they weren't *her* way of doing things - ie, when he jumps, i bring him down and make him sit. she said that's correction, we don't want to correct - just ignore him, it's a normal form of dog communication. i said i'm not down with that, as he's left claw scrapes on ppl's faces (saari and her dad) when he jumps and it may be normal for dogs but it's just not acceptable.

she was also dismissive of cesar millan - "oh, he's got *some* good ideas but i have NO idea where he's coming from half the time". to my mind, unless she has the same status, she's got no call to criticise. she wouldn't even let me put dandy in the penned field to burn off excess energy before the training session because "that's for my agility training and i don't want the ground torn up". i still can't figure how one dog running around for ten or fifteen minutes could demo a field, but whatever. i don't know if it's significant, but i've noticed that ppl who are disparaging of cesar millan absolutely do not have his zen-like calm demeanor and she's no exception.

the experience was, overall, great - i really enjoyed properly learning how to use a "clicker" - even though it totally highlighted my deficits as the owner of a dog of dandy's quality. he got the hang of the clicker training WAY faster than i did and more than once gave me *the* most exasperated look, lol.

i'll go back again (at least once), but i told her it was a lot of information to process and if she wanted to halve it per session, that's fine with me - "i'm not interested in siphoning every last drop out". i would rather spend the hour learning two skills REALLY REALLY well in a casual, chatty, relaxed atmosphere instead of just touching on a half-dozen in a rushed, "hurry hard!!!" kind of way.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

flipping mutt.

yesterday, i took dandy to rotary park in minden. it's a lovely park with beaches, climbers for the kids, swings, a gazebo, outdoor picnic tables, LOTS of old-growth-sized trees, all on a hard-shore peninsula in the gull river.



the access road was roped off, probably because the dirt parking lot is boggy as hell and a car would wreck it or get stuck in the "gumbo" (boot-clinging type mud). i parked across the road at kawartha dairy and walked dandy to the park. at the parking lot, i took his leash off and he went NUTS - tearing around like mad! it was so cute!

then i saw the canada geese and the ducks - a good flock of them in the lagoon. i said "go get 'em, dandy!" and he charged right off the top of the embankment, leaped clear over the entire sloping rock wall, and landed on the sand with a good two feet to spare. he charged madly into the water and THEN

the water hit his belly.

he stopped dead in his tracks, looked down at the water, looked at the geese, then looked at me and clearly said "yeah..... no. unh-unh, girlfriend. get your own damned dinner!"

he came right out of the water but all the geese started honking at him as they swam briskly away on the opposite shore. he ran alongside them, they switched directions. he ran the other way to get ahead of them, they switched and started swimming back again. he kept doing this again and again and i'm thinking "what a moroon!" - and then i saw the geese:

all floating quietly in a huddle in the middle of the water, lol.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

ooooh, nasty but TRUE!

new danger of breastfeeding while co-sleeping - be warned!

my daughter, just turned 3, and i co-sleep and she is still breastfeeding. the other night, she (as usual) decided to latch on so (as usual), she tried to pull up the bottom of my t-shirt. it was apparently stuck, so she pulled harder, then moved to grip another area and pull that side out from where it was evidently pinned underneath me.

the thing was: she's a "traveller" and had worked herself so her head was at my waist - it wasn't my t-shirt she was hauling on, but the bottom of my undies!

it is SO not nice to wake up to the world's worst "power wedgie"!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

it's Saari's birthday today!

she's 3 years old - although she's already started and insists she's five (largely because it's easier to hold up all fingers instead of only three!).


"look at my new jacket from aunti pam!". it is the perfect red for her - she looks fantastic in it - and it came with a matching pair of pants. auntie pam and uncle pappi (not to forget shivan, sanjiv, and priya!) also sent a ***gorgeous*** teddy bear customized with her name and a tinkerbell "treasure box" that she carried around all morning long and pitched a major fit because i said she couldn't bring it to day care!



the day care will have birthday cake and a little celebration for her at lunchtime but her official birthday party is saturday at the bowling alley.

dandy the amazing!

ganesh - visiting for the week - took us to "dog days of winter", an event put on by a trainer down by lindsay (sharon worsley - http://www.paus-n-train.com ). saari was exhausted (click images for larger size):



we entered dandy into one event, though - the toy retrieval. technically, the dog is supposed to bring the toy back to the owner but since most of the dogs weren't trained to that level (difficult for them, being as there was easily a couple dozen dogs yowling, howling, and generally partying it up), it was only required they bring it back across the line. dandy had it figured out - the second i let him off his leash, he charged over, grabbed a toy, and brought it back but i thought he was supposed to give it to me so when he ran over to ganesh with his prize, i said "no, no, dandy, here!" instantly, i could see i'd confused him - he started running around with the toy like crazy, so i pretended to throw something and said "find it!" and sure enough, he dropped the one he had and went charging around to find the one i'd "thrown".

he ended up bringing back four - tied for first with three other dogs!

so we had a run-off. in 30 seconds, he brought back two, two other dogs brought three, and one brought one. the two tied for first had another run-off and he came in third overall - not bad, considering the winner was a service dog (professionally trained) and the second has also had professional training at that facility while the one came in fourth was trained also (just not there)!

ready? set...



go!



"i'm the man!"


saari introduces herself

we went to visit the horses we pass by every day on the way to town. there's five of them, quarterhorses, one black-and-white paint, one bay, one chestnut, and one that's a colour i don't know (kind of a charcoal-grey/brown with a black mane and tail). the paint is the friendliest and i think he's the dominant one.

i said to saari "oh, look; the horse wants to say hi!"

she waved and, very softly, she said "hi horsie! i saari. this my mommy," and she patted my arm:

(click image for larger size)

Monday, March 8, 2010

one day, my dog is going to EAT that cat!

i bought a shrimp ring, having a fondness for thawed, prefrozen rubbery bits of salty pink things.

as i was eating, however, i could feel the laserlike gazes of two cats and my dogs, staring at me, WILLING me to drop one - just one!

so i tossed them each one. the dog caught his, dropped it, stared at it... picked it up again, chomped, dropped it, stared at it, then chompchompGULP - gone.

shroedinger, however, decided it wasn't dead enough yet and was flipping it up and tossing it around and having a grand old time. dandy went for it and i corrected him, made him lie down. shroedinger kept playing with it and then decided to lick it to death but as s/he licked, it got closer and closer to dandy. dandy stretched out his nose and did his sneaky licky-lick thing, trying to get the shrimp with just the tip of his tongue - i dinked him one and said "knock it off" and that's when i swear i saw shroedinger's eyes turn green!

she (he? she - no male is this mean!) resumed playing and licking, all the while moving the shrimp closer and closer to dandy until it was right under his nose and she and the dog were in a stare-down. dandy blinked and looked away, upon which she took her paw and sloooooowly pulled the shrimp back.

then she did it again - dandy was practically vibrating when she put her paw ***right underneath*** his nose and sloooowly pulled the shrimp back.

i was laughing so hard i nearly missed dandy's fur starting to stand but when i saw that, i gave him another shrimp and put him outside for a bit so he could savage it in peace.

little devil!

sitting on the toilet, i was held hostage by the Little Spawn of Satan when she grabbed the toilet paper roll and ran off, giggling like a maniac.

"hey!!!" i shouted. "bring that back, you little demon!"

she came back with... a kleenex.

gee, thanks.

especially when i discovered the hard way that it was