Discussion split from NI and Utonagan owners thread Discussions

It just shows that you get stupid people in all walks of life
Is that your best argument??

And yes you are a hypocrit as you bought your wolfie boy straight from a terrible breeder and then choose to conveniently change the facts to salve your own conscience.

Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of the United States Health & Genetics Committee.

The internet is a wonderful thing, isn't it. The world at your fingertips to do ALL the necessary research

Do you really think you are flagging up anything new to me?

America is a different country and their dogs have a different breeding to Britain, they also have more genetic defects listed than here, moot point really.

Glad you think that culling perfectly healthy puppies just because they haven't got a ridge is so acceptable. Glad your conscience is clear.

BTW, the operation for dermoid sinus is extremely expensive, as I suspected. Tough luck for 5% of owners who cannot afford medical insurance, or can't get it for the known genetic diseases of the breed, such as dermoid sinus.

O how VERY ethical.

No, of course I don't!! Which is PRECISELY why I am calling you a hypocrite. Because of course you KNOW all this stuff.

And yet ...

1) you BUY a rhodie - knowing that you stand a 5% chance of your dog suffering from a horrible condition which you pass off so lightly as being "operable on" now. Nice!

2) you try and fool yourself that the breed is somehow morally acceptable.

3) you have the cheek to pontificate to me about Eddy!! Someone you didn't even KNOW.

I gave no opinion on right or wrong, i just updated ww on what the outcome was. Please do not attempt to suggest otherwize by rolling your eyes at me.

oh dear everyone gets so touchy :-(

As i said earlier i have spoken to Lyn (the mother) she said some stories were close to the truth, most were far from it. Hope that helps.

He was assessed, rehomed and lived out the rest of his days without further incident.

Thanks for that. As I thought. Was Jaye badly bitten? Dog bites are very painful indeed, I know from bitter experience when I was very badly bitten as a child.

Yeah, but as Shakespeare said:

"If you prick us, do we not bleed?"

(Shylock in the Merchant of Venice)

Lovely name, bet he was a lovely dog too. As much as I love my wolves, I would not have one with a young child. My daughter was 8 when we got Hal, and extremely good with dogs, very sensible and very capable, but I never ever ever left her alone with him of course, until she was quite grown up.

How old was Jaye when it happened?

Nowhere near as bad as the press made out, he has no memory of the incident and no fear of dogs. I'd like to leave it their if you dont mind as far as Lyn is concerned its all a long time ago and she has no desire for it all to resurface.

Fair do's. Send her all our love from us Dogsey-ites.

This is the article I was referring to:

"More words on wolves, from the November 16 London Daily Mail - this article by June Southworth.

"Take dances, but don't take chances with wolves. Like Kevin Costner in the movie, I have danced with wolves. I have also taken a wolf walkies-or rather, it almost took me.
In neither case did I come to any harm. On the contrary, I ended up enthralled by this most maligned of creatures, depicted in myth and legend down the centuries as merciless and bloodthirsty towards mankind.
Far from being the type of animal which would eat Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother, there is not a single authenticated instance of a healthy wolf killing a human in the wild. Among themselves, they are remarkable for their gentleness. However, as the debate rages over interbreeding wolves with other dog types such as huskies, it is vital to remember that a wolf never loses its wildness. Nature has designed it as a hunter, seeking out prey in order to survive.
It is 20 years since I went for my stroll with a wolf, and I have never forgotten it. I was visiting friends in a mountain village near Athens when they suggested taking a local man's dogs for a walk.
The man clapped his hands, and a friendly labrador padded up, claimed by one friend. A second clap brought an alsatian bounding along to lick the hand of my other friend. The third time he clapped, a shaggy form loped into view.
'But it's a w...' I gasped.
'Dog' he said firmly. 'It's a dog.'
Some dog. The chain he attached to its spiked collar was forged from links an inch thick. What I had on my hands was a fullgrown Canadian timber wolf. God knows how the owner came by it. But I noted that he carried a shotgun.
The 'dog' nearly pulled my arms from their sockets. Its yellow eyes were narrowed, and during the two hours I spent trying to control it, saliva dripped alarmingly from a comer of its mouth. Occasionally, it nuzzled my hand, growling and worrying it until the skin was scraped red and raw. It was not the most relaxing walk.
My dance with wolves came at a private reserve set up by Survival film-maker Richard Kemp in Spain, after he rescued them from persecution as cubs.
Far from furtively slinking around, they bounced on their toes and shyly explored the stranger in their midst with darting little advances, eventually gently nuzzling my shoulder and licking my hand. With each other, they were loving and protective.
Spanish children were encouraged to go to see the wolves, and wrote in the visitors' book of an experience that filled them with wonder.
The next time I saw a chain similar to that which had held my wolf in Greece, it was stretched across the tundra near Churchill on the shores of Hudson Bay, Canada. From it, individual chains of similar strength were attached to a pack of huskies.
Visitors are encouraged to befriend these animals, even cuddle them. But you are warned that they are bred to be wild, and you must take the greatest care not to get trapped between two of them-or you could be torn apart in the fight.
In Kentucky, I did a double-take when I saw a beautiful husky stepping out smartly on a neighbourhood walkies. Its owner said they were becoming fashionable pets in America. After Dances With Wolves, the wolf became the chic choice for an exotic companion. But a hybrid between the wolf and husky as a family pet? No thanks.
The grey wolf (Canis lupus) was once found all over the northern hemisphere, including the mountains and forests of upland Britain. But when Man started farming animals, it became public enemy number one. The last wolf in the UK was shot in Scotland in 1680. Crackpot schemes to reintroduce wolves into the wild in Scotland along with the brown bear have so far foundered in ridicule. However rehabilitated the wolf may be in the public imagination, having a powerful carnivore on the loose where no such danger has existed for centuries is not a prospect calculated to be met with glad cries.
A pack of around ten wolves, setting off to hunt in single file, may travel over 400 square miles of territory, and can bring down prey as big as a moose. A lone wolf is usually a young male that has left its family, and may roam 20 times further than a pack in its search for a mate to start a pack of its own.
The grey wolf measures up to 5 ft. in length without the tail and can weigh up to 12 stones. It is a hybrid of this formidable hunter that is now being advertised as 'wolf-dog puppies' by breeders such as Edwina Harrison.
'I take great care to whom I sell my wolf-dog cubs,' she insists.
'I make sure they go to good homes. They are perfectly good in the house, and my own favourite, Timber, sleeps beside my bed. No, I have no pure-bred wolves at my kennels.
'Wolf owners have to apply for licenses under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act of 1976. One of my customers told the neighbours that her cross-bred dog was a wolf, and the RSPCA seized it. She is now trying to fight the case. As long as wolf-dogs have some domestic blood in them, they are exempt from the Act.'
She refers to them, nevertheless, as cubs rather than puppies. Could they not revert to wolf-like habits when grown? 'I keep alsatians and other dogs,' she said. 'and once, when I brought home a wolf-dog, the dogs' barking scared it and it ran away up the road.
'It was missing for a few days, but remained near houses and had nothing to eat, even though there was a flock of sheep nearby. You see, it had been brought up with a bottle-fed lamb, and wouldn't dream of hurting a sheep. When I went up there, the flock had scented the wolf-dog, and formed into a big protective circle.'
She keeps Jacob's sheep, dominated by a large and formidably-horned ram. One wolf-dog, Cochise, lives beneath the trailer of a farm helper, and makes itself at home inside, chewing the curtains-but not noticeably spraying in any territorial wolf-like way.
Others romp around the Harrison's farmhouse, which is full of wolf memorabilia. Buck, the founding father of seven years ago, looked like a husky. His more wolf-like pups were prized for breeding.
'We are not trying to breed the wolf nature out of dogs,' says Mrs. Harrison. 'We want our wolf-dogs to have all the good qualities of wolves and to remain superior to dogs.'
Wolf-dogs and huskies are kept in outside pens. Only the superior strength and posture of the wolf-dogs distinguishes them from the huskies. In the far North, husky bitches are often left out to mate with wolves to strengthen the breed. It is just such a potentially lethal combination that put little Jaye Coxhead in the hospital this week. Admire the wild wolf, dance with him if you can, but common sense dictates that he is not welcome at the family hearth."

You have never asked me if I think it is acceptable to cull healthy pups, again seeing what you want to see.

And yet, if you look at the other ni discussion we've got running, (these things insist on coming in pairs lol), you wil note that the dog with the highest COI so far is a ni.

I've seen some of the lookalikes have been calculated at upwards of 38%, what an absolute disgrace...so much for less inbred and healthier than kc reg pedigrees eh.

Wonder if that particular one was or wasn't one of the 'close to the truth ones.....' curious.

I really do hope that Ishtar did have a decent, full and happy life after that. Also glad to hear the child was fine and has no fear of dogs xxxxx

Thanks for the update Liz xxxx

This is one reason why I think the KC would be good for these dogs. People who know about breeding may get involved and address some of these issues!!!!

How old was Hal and when did he die?

rune