Utonagan Discussions

OT and Sorry- but I had someone inform me the other day, that their friend was purchasing (with a aim of eventually breeding) the nearest thing to a Wolf you can get...I asked her to find out what is was, and it came back as....

An Alaskan Malamoush!

ROFL!! I have an ALaskan Malamouthy!!

Sorry to interrupt - where epilepsy is concerned, in my experience, the majority of people only started to accept/admit it is a problem in the last couple of years. I don't even know if all do now accept it. Before that, they denied it was an issue, refused to believe it was genetic and in the lines and when some did consider it in recent times, they decided it was a risk worth taking if the breeding pair didn't have epilepsy themselves!!!!!

Louise - I was told it is pronounced as you say, sort of U-ton-aaah-gone. Or sort of U-tun-aaaa-gun.

its well known collies and sibes can have epilepsy :-(

Feel free to interrupt.

I think most people (breeders) have only admitted any of the issues in the last few years. I was curious to know if anyone could start to piece together when they first cropped up.

Yes - a lot of breeders in Collies do not like to hear if they produce pups who develop epilepsy I have known rather a lot of collies with the problem though
I would guess if it did come from the Collie being added it would have been there from the word go.

Thanks LS...I thought so..

Just you try not to tell people they are prounouncing their own breed name WRONG LOL..if they have the dog you would think they would know how to say it

..going on from the fact its well known collies and sibes can have epilepsy.....are utes eyetested?

Of course you can Jem xxxx

http://abnormality.purpleflowers.net/genetics/noses.htm

It is You-Ton-Ah-Gon!

The breeders I know eye test as well as hips, elbows, VWD, and others that I can't remember.

Eddie did not sell her dogs as something they were not. I PERSONALLY believe that Hal was not 75% wolf, but it is only my opinion, based on his behaviour first and looks second. However, I could be wrong, it really does not matter, he was an F4 which is a far more reliable "measurement" if that's the right word than %.

No, they were not health tested, and they should have been, but we are talking about decades ago now ... how many pedigree breeders were routinely doing eye and hip scores for example back then? You will know the answer to that far better than me, I am making no excuses here, just making observations on my own personal knowledge.

Yes, so do I.

And a wolf cross could be all and anything - including wolf. As long as wolf is present, then it can be totally accurately described as a wolf cross.

God only knows, for sure whether there really is any w**f in there or not.

Hal was 10, which I consider to be very young ... the vet commented to me he died before his time ... or rather, he was put down before his time. He was as fit as a fiddle, and healthy as a horse. We will never know what caused his kidney stones, but yes you are right, following a routine operation to remove his stones he developed septocaemia which due to his apparent good health was overlooked by the vet until it was too late. With hindsight ... a wonderful thing ... I believe the very high protein kibble we had him on from the age of about 2 until 5 (Supa Greyhound Racer, very high protein) caused the stones.

I am not the correct person to talk to about the modern-day health of Utes - I took my ball away about 4 or so years ago when I got fed up with all the bitching and back-biting and nastiness - so I am out of the current loop as it were - but I personally believe, and I emphasise the word personal, that Eddie's lines were healthy - JK herself told me that one thing you could say about Eddie was that she bred healthy dogs - she did, I can honestly say hand on heart that I cannot recall during the decade or so that I knew her that any of her dogs had health problems such as epilepsy, VWD, Addisons, high hip scores etc. etc. I think the problems started following the split - and by that, I am not blaming just one person, I think the flood gates as it were were opened and too many dodgy people started to jump on the band wagon ... or what they thought was a band wagon.

There are some very ethical breeders of Utonagans, including the originator of the name "Utonagan", but there are also too many who are not, and of course at the end of the day it is always the dogs who suffer.

supa greyhound isnt that high in protein...(some of my sibes have been on that for donkeys years)

flea is on 38% protein atm

that's as may be, it was far too high in protein for a dog with Hal's activity levels. He was walked twice a day, and was fit and healthy, but he did not require that level of protein ... it is after all what it says on the label ... for racing greyhounds.

no its their usp ;-)

It's not exclusively meant for greyhounds of course, we only fed it because it was the ONLY kibble that Hal would tolerate. We wasted hundreds of pounds on every kibble known to man, and that was the only one that didn't cause him to have the most dreadful diarrhoea, so bad that we needed special AB's from the vet to wipe out all the bacteria in his gut. For over a year we were in and out of the vet's before we eventually were told about SGR.

So Hal did have health problems then, and you still went ahead and bred from him.