Is This the Dog for Me? – Greyhound

‘Friends in Need’ Painting by Gabriele Bungardt

Check out the link on this site or your local rescue group for adopting a greyhound.

History:
Greyhounds were amongst the most highest-favored of all dogs; Pharaohs and other Egyptian, Asian and African leaders had images of their dogs engraved into their tombs dating as far back as 4000BC. However, DNA analysis done in 2004 put it close to herding dogs, implying that although greyhounds have been around for millennia, the modern breed sprang from a wider genetic base more recently. Greyhounds were first used for hunting antelopes, wolves and deer and after the decline of large game for coursing smaller animals. Later track racing took over which again proved them to be the fastest dogs on earth with speeds around 40 miles. Only the cheetah is faster in the animal world. The ‘grey’ does not refer to color but, according to some sources, comes from Old English, meaning ‘fine’. Others say it is contracted form of ‘degree hound’ as it was once allowed to be possessed only by people with degrees. And others say that it derives from Greece.

Appearance:
The greyhound has a graceful, strong muscled, deep-chested, narrow-waisted, streamlined body. While running its long tail acts as a keel and the ears can fold toward the neck. Males can measure between up to 30”, weighing up to 70 lbs.
The greyhound has his eyes well positioned at the sides of his head giving him a far wider field of view than other dogs (270 degrees versus 180 degrees.) They are sight hounds and can spot movement up to half a mile away.

Behavior:
Greyhounds are calm and social indoors and are often referred to as couch potatoes. Although greyhounds are possibly the most athletic of all domestic dogs they do not necessarily need a lot of exercise. Two 20 minute walks a day will usually suffice.  A high fenced garden is advised as they are great jumpers. Greyhounds are fairly easy to train and can learn almost all commands. However, they must never be allowed off leash in public places, as it is in their natures to chase anything that moves and may choose to totally ignore you if they have their eyes set on a prey.

They are affectionate with their families although can be aloof with strangers. They normally get on well with other dogs in the household but cat owners should exercise caution although many are said to tolerate or even take to cats or small dogs. Because of their nature as sprinters, greyhounds have relatively low endurance and their conditioning need to be slowly build up if you’d like to take him jogging.

Greyhounds rarely bark. The joke goes that greyhounds are good watchdogs: they watch thieves carry your stuff away. They are relatively small eaters and will therefore not cost a lot to feed. Grooming is very easy, a good brush once a week is enough. They don’t have much body odor but like most short haired dogs do shed a little.

Ailments:
Greyhounds will live on average for 10 to 12 years. However, some ex-racers only live to 7 possibly due to the use of steroids during their racing careers.
Because of the greyhound’s explosive physical abilities, they are prone to leg injuries. They are also known to be sensitive to drugs, especially sedatives. Adopted greyhounds will need regular dental care as their teeth are generally badly neglected. Nails must be kept short and the ears kept clean. Skin irritations of the tail and esophageal malformations are possible breed ailments.

Related Designer Mixes:
Whippet: Cross of fox terrier and greyhound

Other greyhound breeds:
Spanish greyhound (Spain)
Rampur greyhound (India)
Saluki (Arabia)
Sloughi (Africa)

‘Quite A Day’ Painting by Gabriele Bungardt

Is This the Dog for Me? Weimaraner and Labmaraner

Check out the link on this site or your local rescue group for adopting a rescued Weimaraner.

History:

The Weimaraner was bread in Germany over one thousand years ago and is kin to the German Pointer. Some claim it is discernable in a 17th century painting by Van Dyck. It was used for big game hunting until big game declined. Treasured in the 19th century by the aristocrats of Weimar, Germany, it was then and now popular for hunting small game, and, because of its soft carrying mouth for water fowl. It has Bloodhound and Pointer blood and is still used as a working dog.

Appearance:

Weimeraners are strikingly beautiful dogs with a strong boned build, light amber eyes and a sleek short coat of silver to mouse gray. They can reach heights up to 28” and weigh between 60 and 85 lb. Not in need of extensive grooming, once a week brushing keeps the coat shiny.  Shedding in minimal.

Although more rare, the longhair with a smooth or slightly wavy coat up to 5″ long needs more grooming attention.

Behavior:

Weimaraners need thorough training and regular and extensive exercise. This is not a city dog. Sufficient space, a fenced yard, and lots of human attention will make them excellent companions as they are all-round dogs who love family life. They are friendly, intelligent and energetic but, with their vigilance, make excellent guard dogs if their home or family are threatened. Because of their dominance, they are not recommended for first time dog owners.

Overbreeding has let to temperament problems such as aggression and separation anxiety in some lines. Lack of exercise will make them aggressive and difficult and can lead to destructive behavior.

Ailments:

Weimaraners are affected by the usual canine problems but with no great frequency. They are, however, prone to two more unusual problems: spinal dysraphism which is a severe though non-lethal condition, affecting the gait and giving an unusual stance which resembles a crouched position. Ear infections are easily acquired due to the drop-eared conformation.

Related Designer Mixes:

Recent designer dog mixes have produced the Labmaraner, a cross of a Labrador Retriever and a Weimaraner. This breed is an outdoorsy, fast, agile breed not meant for urbanites. They need good management which can be trying because of an underlying stubbornness. Consistent training and tough regulations are needed to keep the peace in your house.
Labmaraner can weigh from 50 to 100 lb and their coat color ranges from dark gold to pale cream, black, and chocolate.

Labmaraner (photo by Anna Kuperberg)

Hear, Hear!

‘Zipper’ of Sausalito

Nearly all dogs (and cats for that matter) love having their ears rubbed. Ears are one of a handful of nerve centers on a dog’s body that are extra sensitive to touch. It’s pretty hard to rub dogs’ ears in ways they dislike. To launch them straight to cloud nine, however, you need to hit as many of the nerves as you can. Starting at the base of the ear, hold the flap between your thumb and forefinger, Dr. Makowski suggests. Very gently pull the ear straight out from your dogs head, letting your fingers slide as you go. If you do that about four times, moving your fingers each time so they slide over a different section of the ear, you’ll hit just about every hot spot, and your dog will be very, very happy.

Source: The Secret lives of Dogs

Dog senses: Smell

In the wild, the dog’s highly developed sense of smell gives the species a great advantage when tracking down prey and identifying fellow pack members. Where we would size up a new situation with our eyes, dogs explore new environment by sniffing them. When they meet other dogs, they sniff them in what -to our eyes- are the most embarrassing places, places where odor is most concentrated.
Scent passes on an incredible amount of information to a dog. Scent –marking with urine or by leaving deposits from the sweat glands between the toes is the way dogs communicate and establish their territory. Sacs inside the dog’s rectum also produce a scent that coats feces. When you’re out walking in the park with your dog, he’s using his nose to pick up who’s been there before him-perhaps a dominant dog, a female in heat, an old dog, a sick dog, or a dog he’s already met. Dogs can smell females in heat who are miles away.
Source: It’s me or the dog by Victoria Stilwell

Garlic for Dogs

While researching dog food related issues I came across articles that warn about harm from garlic to dogs. Since I wrote a couple of posts about dogs being crazy about garlic taste, I spend some time trying to find out more about the issue. The opinions range widely from warnings about serious health damage, even death to praising health benefits and highly recommending a balanced garlic diet. Garlic is thought to be in the same category as onions because it has thiosulfate (although in much less quantities) that can cause hemolytic anemia, (where circulating red blood cells burst) in dogs if ingested in large quantities.
There are literally thousands of websites discussing the issue. However, I could not find a scientific study on benefits nor harm of garlic for dogs.

My dad who trained hunting dogs in Germany used to give our dogs small amounts of fresh garlic in their food to prevent flees and worms. He also fed them a raw egg every once in a while for a shiny coat. Both, the taste of eggs and garlic were favorites of all our dogs.

Less controversial no no’s for dogs are Avocado; Bread Dough; Coffee; Chocolate; Macadamia Nuts; and Onions in any form or shape.

Here are two opposing opinions I found on the internet about garlic for dogs:

Con: …Garlic is in the same family as onions, meaning it is poisonous to dogs (and cats). Small amounts of it won’t kill your dog, but you should avoid it anyway, as it is not good for them. It causes hemolytic anemia, meaning it destroys your dog’s red blood cells. Many people mistakenly use it to get rid of parasites. Garlic has no effect whatsoever on parasites, internal or external. If your dog has worms, take it to the vet. If your dog has fleas, use a flea product. Dogs do not sweat, therefore garlic cannot be secreted through their skin and ward off fleas. –wiki.answers.com

Pro: ….garlic is falling victim to mass hysteria spread through the internet.…..There is no doubt that onion, due to its concentration of thiosulphate, will cause Heinz factor anemia. In addition, as stated by Wendy Wallner, DVM, “Onions are only one of the substances which can cause Heinz body anemia. Other substances such as Acetaminophen (Tylenol) and benzocaine-containing topical preparations can also cause Heinz body anemia in the dog.” ……Every text that I (Dr. Newman) have researched on herbal health which mentions pet care has recommended it, especially for its incredible anti-parasitic and anti-septic properties. In my (Dr. Newman) own experience, garlic has also benefited pets with cancer, diabetes, liver, heart and kidney disease, uncontrollable staph infections and a host of other conditions…. -Dr. Newman on earthclinic.com

Painting by Gabriele Bungardt

Dog Senses: Hearing

With sounds of low pitch a dog’s ears have about the same ability as ours. At higher pitch, however, the dog is far superior to us. Our upper range when we are very young is about 30,000 cycles a second. This sinks to 20,000 by the time we are young adults and to only 12,000 by the time we reach retiring age. Dogs have an upper limit of 35,000 to 40,000 cycles per second or, according to recent Russian research, as high as 100,000.

This gives the dog the ability to hear a number of sounds that to us are ultrasonic. If a dog suddenly pricks up its ears and becomes alert, it may be that it has detected the high pitched squealing of rodents or bats, which is totally inaudible to us. The evolution of such sensitive hearing is clearly related to the hunting needs of the ancestors of our domestic dogs, enabling them to detect the presence and movements of rats, mice, and other small prey.
As a by-product of this hunting refinement, pet dogs can today react to tiny clues that make their behavior seem almost telepathic. The best-known examples concern the way in which a man’s dog can tell that he is about to arrive home from work. Long before any human in the house can hear anything unusual, the dog is up and alert, anxiously waiting at the door to greet its master. If the man is returning home on foot, the dog is capable of detecting his particular style of walking… If the man is driving home, the dog can distinguish the sound of the family car from all other cars… If these reactions seem difficult to believe, it should be pointed out that in the wild state, wolves are capable of hearing a howl from a distance of at least four miles.
Source: Dog watching by Desmond Morris

Painting by Gabriele Bungardt

Dog senses: Sight

Dogs see very differently than human beings. Our field of vision is about 100 degrees. If we want to see things to the side, we have to turn our heads; if we want to see things behind, we have to turn around. Dogs have much wider field of vision, which enables them to see to the sides and the rear. In sight hounds, such as Whippets and greyhounds, the field of vision may be as much as double our own. While the positioning of the eyes in certain breeds may have lessen that field of vision to some degree, all dogs have better peripheral vision than humans.
Contrary to popular belief, dogs aren’t colorblind, but they don’t see colors as well as we do, and find it difficult to tell the difference between certain shades such as red and green. In lower light conditions, they see much better then we do, thanks to a reflective layer at the back of their eyes called the tapetum lucidum. In the wild, this enables the dog to hunt at dawn and dusk, when their natural prey is more likely to be out and about.
What dogs are best at seeing, however, is movement. A dog can detect the slightest movement, which also has obvious advantages when it comes to tracking prey. The dog’s extreme sensitivity to movement means that hand signals and gestures are often much more useful in training than spoken commands, especially if you are working at a distance. Close up, dogs don’t see quite so well, and find it difficult to distinguish an object from its surroundings. If you put a treat on the floor right in front of your dog, he might find it hard to see -he’ll rely on his nose to sniff it out.

– Source: It’s me or the dog by Victoria Stilwell

Painting by Gabriele Bungardt

Dog Tastes

The reason that beef, chicken, and peanut butter rawhides are such big sellers is that people are convinced their dogs will like them. The dogs, however, wish that someone would ask them their opinion for a change. It’s not that dogs don’t like beef and chicken. They do. But what they really, really like, and what their owners never seem to buy, is something a little more pungent: Garlic.
The Pet Factory, a rawhide manufacturer based in Mundelein, Illinois, has tested untold numbers of taste combinations. The testers, of course, are dogs. The one chew that dogs love best is called the Field Chew, which has been basted with garlic, liver, and brewer’s yeast. This is far from the company’s top seller, however, because people are convinced their dog want something beefy. In addition, the ingredients, from a human point of view are a little off-putting… No matter how great it tastes to dog’s it just doesn’t appeal to people. This may explain why one of the company’s rawhide products has been flavored with vanilla. Vanilla is a ho-hum flavor for dogs, but people love the smell, so that’s what they take home. -The secret Lives of Dogs by Jana Murphy and the Editors of Pets

Painting by Gabriele Bungardt

Dog Trainer Victoria Stilwell on Mongrels

Mongrels, Mixed breeds, Mutts, whatever you call them, they come in many shapes and colors. Although I grew up with purebred (hunting) dogs my best luck has been with the ones of a more shady heritage. Not only did most of them live long and healthy lives, they seem to get the best of the gene pool.

Here’s what Victoria Stilwell says about them:
“Unlike acquiring a purebred dog, taking on a mongrel is necessarily more of a leap in the dark. Mongrels or crosses (dogs bred from two purebred parents) will have characteristics of different breeds in their makeup, and you may not be able to tell which characteristics will come to the fore…. On the plus side, many mongrels are good all-rounders. Many are particularly long-lived and, because they have a mixed gene pool, they are much less likely to suffer the congenial problems that result from inbreeding.”

The shy boy breed

The cute as a button breed

The ‘I’m always happy’ breed

Artificial Selection

At the new Academy of Sciences in San Francisco you can find a display of skulls of different dog breeds, from Chihuahuas to Great Danes.
This is what the Academy has to say:
Artificial Selection.
“In natural selection, species change over time as those genetic traits that allow some individuals to survive and produce more offspring are preferentially passed on to new generations. People use that same principle in artificial selection- the selective breeding of plants and animals.
Dogs (Canis familiaris) are one example. Long ago, some wolves adapted to live near humans. Over time, people bred them for traits they valued, such as the ability to hunt or guard their flocks. But there is a downside. By selecting for just a few traits, we reduce genetic variation, which can leave some breeds open to disease or deformity.”

Here are two examples. The Alaskan Malamute and the English Bulldog.

From Malamute to Bulldog