Special Report : Websites Trying To Copy What We Do
We have been informed by our visitors that another recently launched website is trying to accuse Dogs Lanka of using/copying their articles/database information. We investigated the matter and would like to post following details.
Domain Age (source : http://www.seologs.com/dns/domain-check.html)
Results for dogslanka.com :
Domain Created on: October 01 2008
Domain age (approximately): 9 Months, 5 days. (Today is 4th July, 2009)
Results for discoverdogslanka.com :
Domain Created on: February 10 2009
Domain age (approximately): 4 Months, 23 days. (Today is 4th July, 2009)
From above information you will clearly notice that we launched our website in 2008, five months before discoverdogslanka.com. In fact, they have tried to copy what we are doing and copied our articles which were posted on this site 4-5 months before their website was launched. We ‘discovered’ dogs lanka on the net before anyone else.
Below is a line I copied from this site claiming that we have copied their articles,
“It had been noticed that some websites are now copying and using articles originally issued by Discover Dogs Lanka plus using its database as a source of information to update there own database and you.”
Let us take a closer look at their articles and so-called database. If you visit their “Articles” section, the first article you will see is “Birthing Puppies” (http://www.discoverdogslanka.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=202:birthing-puppies&catid=5:articles&Itemid=17).
We manage to find out several other websites which has published the same article long before they did. Below find the links to these websites, containing the same article. Talk about original content!
1. http://www.petstyle.com/ask-the-vet/i-have-female-shih-tzu-about-6-years-old-and-about-have-puppies-it-important-get-x-ray-b
2. http://www.justanswer.com/questions/1xjar-know-dog-pregnant
3. http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=678
4. http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_giving_birth_to_puppies.html
*there are a total of 10+ exact matches.
Now, let’s have a look at other articles in their so-called database with original content.
Article name : Temperament Testing Puppies
URL : http://www.discoverdogslanka.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=201:temperament-testing-puppies&catid=5:articles&Itemid=17
This was copied from one of the following web pages
1. http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=2141
2. http://www.riospitbull.com/dog_aggression.htm
3. http://www.standardpoodlesusa.com/temperament-test.html
Let’s move on to the next article,
Article Name : Transmissible Venereal Tumor
URL : http://www.discoverdogslanka.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=200:transmissible-venereal-tumor&catid=5:articles&Itemid=17
This was copied from one of the following web pages,
1. http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=1650&S=1&SourceID=42
2. http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_transmissible_venereal_tumor.html
We found that 90% of the content they are having are duplicate content copied from various other websites on the net and from us. It will be a waste of time to list all these. The 3 examples above will clearly show you their idea of ‘original content’.
If we want to copy content, there are loads of huge dog related websites filled with articles written by professionals. We have copied certain articles from these website and published them here giving the credit to it’s original writer and always having a link to the original source of the article. We have not, or have any need of copying content from a website which was launched few months after we launched our website and trying to copy our concept.
It will be better if this website try to do something unique and productive without wasting time accusing other people of stealing their content.
We are aware that the moment they see this report, they will try to remove or modify the pages we have listed here. We have taken “screen captures” of all these pages of discoverdogslanka.com, and if they try to do this we will post them here as proof.
Furthermore, if you have visited our website 6-7 months ago and remember our old layout, you will notice that discoverdogslanka has shamelessly copied 06 image icons from our old layout. If you are interested, I have the PDF files which I used to create these icons for our old website layout and can be emailed to you as proof.
Thank you for reading this special report. We will continue to monitor their behavior.
If you need any further information on this matter, please don’t hesitate to email us on info@dogslanka.com
Puppy Mills and Backyard Breeders vs Responsible Breeders
By Kathy Diamond Davis
Article source : http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=1448
Does it really make a difference where you get puppy, provided you find the breed you want? Yes, absolutely. If you’re not planning to breed the dog to produce winning show dogs or dependable working dogs, it might seem unimportant to seek out a breeder who strives to improve the breed with each litter. Actually, it’s vitally important, and ignoring this concern can lead to sad times in your home.
What Is a Puppy Mill?
The term puppy mill is a label that every breeder denies applies to them. Every pet shop denies that their puppies come from puppy mills. So what exactly is a puppy mill?
Other names for this type of breeding operation might be puppy farm (sounds idyllic, doesn’t it?) and commercial breeder (sounds professional). Wherever dogs are produced for profit, the animals are at risk.
It’s seldom profitable to breed dogs humanely and responsibly. The profit comes when dogs live their lives in cages, rather than with human companionship. The profit comes when commercial operations provide only the minimum requirements to keep a dog alive and able to breed. Filth, loneliness, fear and pain constitute the typical life these dogs know.
Puppies produced in this situation have the wrong start in life. Experiences in the early weeks are critical to a dog’s development. Commercially bred puppies miss vital experiences they need during this time, and they are exposed to experiences that harm their emotional stability for later. One experience many of them have is to leave the mother and littermates far too early in order to be in the pet shop on display for sale at the “cutest” time.
Behavior problems you may experience with a puppy from this source include housetraining issues because the puppy has been confined too close to feces and urine. This causes damage to the pup’s natural instincts to keep the den area clean. These pups have also typically missed important conditioning to appropriate surfaces for defecation and urination. They may never have even been on grass.
A frightened mother dog can transmit her fears to her pups. Leaving the mother and littermates too early can result later in biting problems, since the pup has missed early bite inhibition that needs to happen in the litter.
Breeding dogs who have lived normal lives will have been observed around children, men, other dogs, cats, strangers, unexpected situations and other things that some dogs cannot handle. If the temperament of either parent isn’t safe around humans, a responsible breeder will not use that dog for breeding. Dogs in a commercial breeding operation do not live normal lives, so the breeders do not know whether the dogs they use for breeding have reliable temperaments for family life. Decisions about which male to use with which female are based on profitability (how many puppies they can get in how short a time), leaving genetic issues for the unsuspecting puppy buyers to worry about later.
The physical problems that result from a poor start in life as well as poor genetic selection of the parent dogs can also profoundly affect the behavior of a puppy bred by a commercial breeder. Pain and fear cause dogs to react defensively. Dogs don’t show their pain in the same ways that people do, and often a change in behavior is the first sign-sometimes the only sign-that the dog is ill or has a genetically based health issue.
Responsible breeders make their breeding choices based on producing puppies with the genetics for both good health and good temperament. Responsible breeders will be there for you later if there are problems. A responsible breeder will place each pup personally, not through a third party such as a pet shop or dog broker. The commercial breeder is not interested in any problems you have beyond the time your purchase check has been cashed.
What Does the Term Backyard Breeder Mean?
Another attempt to define various kinds of breeders results in the term backyard breeder. This term is used to describe people who breed dogs without knowing what they are doing. The motive may be profit, and occasionally someone of this sort will make a tidy profit from turning out puppies without spending the money to provide them with good care.
More typically they’ll produce one litter, find out how expensive, exhausting and heartbreaking it is to breed dogs, and have their female spayed. The American Kennel Club estimated in 1996 that about 70 percent of purebred, AKC-registered puppies were from this source.
The backyard-bred puppy may make an all right companion dog, if the parents were good companion dogs. Genetic health and temperament problems may be waiting to emerge as the pup matures, since this type of breeder isn’t likely to have done the appropriate testing of both parents to make a good genetic pairing. It’s completely a gamble as to how things will turn out with a puppy you acquire from this type of breeder.
You should expect that these pups will have missed early experiences that a responsible and knowledgeable breeder would have provided. It’s also likely some things will have been done that were not good for the future temperament of the pups, such as mishandling by children.
These puppies are probably the cheapest pups to purchase, especially the ones the breeder can’t sell at the most profitable “cute” age. Responsible breeders have homes lined up for their puppies in advance. They have acquired reputable credentials on the appropriateness of the parent dogs before breeding, in the form of testing for genetic problems common in their breeds as well as titles or other verification that the dogs are good examples of their breed. As a result, their puppies are in demand. The unprepared, uninformed person who decides to give breeding a try is surprised to find there’s no demand for carelessly bred pups, especially at high prices.
Without care for making good genetic matches between purebred dogs, it’s the nature of breeding for the healthiness of the breed to deteriorate. Only a strenuous effort to maintain good health in the breed prevents this natural effect. In the wild, survival of the fittest works to preserve a species. Unlike wild canines, dogs who live with people don’t have to be able to hunt for their food, and they can live with severe disabilities.
As a result, there is no survival of the fittest among purebred dogs unless breeders make responsible decisions to remove the less fit from the gene pool. Unlike nature wherein these dogs would die, in our homes they only need be spayed and neutered and then live out happy lives with loving people.
What’s Best for You?
If we were to discuss what’s best for the dogs, it’s certainly for them to be bred only by people who will take excellent care of parents and pups. Great suffering in dogs is alleviated when breeders refrain from reproducing genetic problems. Only breeders who put the welfare of the dogs ahead of profit make these difficult decisions. To learn how to make the right decisions, responsible breeders work with experienced mentors and do a great deal of study.
Such a discussion would also include the inhumanity of keeping a dog in a cage for a life whose sole purpose is to produce puppies for human profit. Every puppy purchased from such a source is a powerful vote. That purchase makes it profitable to breed the parent dogs again, and the cycle of suffering continues.
When you see a puppy, you don’t see that suffering. It’s easy to think that suffering that happens in commercial breeding has nothing to do with you. Sadly, chances are good that you and the puppy will become part of the sad cycle of suffering. Genetics play a huge role in dog temperament, as do the experiences of the first several weeks of life. Getting your puppy from a responsible breeder is not only a socially responsible thing to do, but also the best way to wind up with a healthy puppy who grows into a healthy and happy dog.
Mixed Breed Dogs and How to Choose One
By Kathy Diamond Davis
Article source : http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=2370&S=1&SourceID=47
Wherever there are dogs who have not been spayed or neutered, there will be mixed breeds born at least occasionally. Dogs will do the unexpected to get together when a female dog is in heat, and even top breeders sometimes have one slip past them.
Dogs from such accidents may turn out quite well, depending on their parents. The first-generation cross of two purebred dogs of different breeds is a hybrid, and may possess superior traits in terms of health and intelligence. The “hybrid vigor” as this is called applies only to the first cross of two purebreds, though. Crossing those hybrid dogs produces unpredictability in the health and temperaments of their pups.
Breeding a hybrid or mixed breed dog is not a good idea. The ideal is to spay/neuter and enjoy life with that dog without breeding. Even if the hybrid is a great dog, the hybrid’s genetic traits are not reliably reproducible. Chances are the puppies of a hybrid or a mix will inherit weaknesses from their earlier ancestors. If you want a dog as a companion or working dog, the hybrid can be a great choice. It is the one kind of mixed breed dog you may do fine adopting as a puppy. But if you want a dog to breed on, the hybrid is not a good choice, nor is any other mixed breed.
What Breeds?
It might seem there is no breed research to do before adopting a mixed breed. The truth is it requires more research to make an informed and responsible choice of a mixed breed to adopt than to choose a purebred dog. That’s because you have two or more breeds to research, not just one.
Puppies look very much alike, so guessing the breeds in a pup of unknown parentage is often impossible. Guesses can be more educated when the dog is grown. This is an important reason to avoid adopting puppies of unknown parentage. You can’t even know what responsibilities you are taking on. What size will the dog be, what grooming will be needed, how strong, how active, how inclined to bark, how aggressive in guarding territory? A puppy of unknown genetics may grow into a dog you cannot handle.
Ask yourself whether you really want a dog or just a puppy. When you adopt a mixed breed puppy and get rid of it once it’s no longer cute, you have taken from that puppy the best chance of a permanent home. One estimate is that 50% of the puppies born in the U.S. are dead by the age of two years, and casual puppy adoption is a major reason.
Those who want puppies but aren’t sure about the long-term commitment of a dog can satisfy this interest by raising a pup to become a working dog. You just need to find a good program to work with. At around a year of age, the pup will no longer be your responsibility.
If you really do want a dog and a mix is your choice, get an adult. These dogs need homes desperately, and you can tell much more about what you are taking on. Responsible shelters don’t adopt out aggressive dogs, so if there are behavior problems, they’re likely to be problems typical of untrained dogs that age.
If you need a dog with more predictable behavior or if you want to adopt your dog as a puppy, you need to deal with a responsible breeder rather than a shelter. The most likely scenario of getting an aggressive mixed breed dog from a shelter happens when you adopt that dog as a puppy. The temperament and breeds involved in a puppy are not apparent. It is guesswork when you don’t know both parents.
For those who want to raise a mixed breed from puppyhood, the people to talk to are breeders with purebred dogs. These days, puppies can be DNA checked for paternity. Either accidentally or by plan, a dog can have a litter of puppies with more than one father. DNA testing can tell which pups are which! Cool, huh?
So, if you want a mixed pup to raise, do your breed homework! Locate breeders of breeds that interest you, and let them know of your interest. Then when an accident happens with one of their dogs or, more likely, a dog belonging to someone else they know with their breed, you can be contacted. Since the breeding won’t be planned, you’ll need to research lots of breeds, to decide what will and will not fit your situation.
Crosses of breeds are sometimes predictable as to what you might expect from the offspring. Labrador retriever and German Shepherd Dog, for example, is a common cross that tends to produce large, black dogs with short hair. The ear set can do anything—and one may do one thing while the other does something else. The dogs will likely be strong, high in energy, natural retrievers, protective of property, eager to learn, and not the right match for an owner who doesn’t want to get seriously involved in dog training!
Dogs with a terrier parent are likely to fight with other dogs of the same sex. Dogs with a parent of one of the giant breeds are likely to be large. A dog with a Chihuahua parent will probably be small. If both parents of a dog have long or short coats, the dog is likely to inherit the coat length of the parents. But when one parent has a long coat and the other a short one, the coat the pup will have is unpredictable.
Some surly-tempered dogs don’t have much energy, so their “leave me alone” attitudes are manageable. When you mix that breed with an energetic breed, the outcome can be a dog who very energetically expresses aggression. This is not good!
One mistake people make in considering temperament of a mix to adopt is expecting the dog to inherit “the best” of both breeds. More often, a mix inherits the most extreme traits of both breeds. Extreme traits are there in the first place because breeders worked long and hard over many generations to set those traits into the genetics of the breed. The traits needed for many of the jobs that humans have bred dogs to do may not be at all when you need. If you don’t do your homework, you won’t know what you’re getting into with a mix.
Another mistake is to expect that if you raise a dog with love, the dog will turn out as you desire. A dog is the victim of instinct, with less higher brain function than a human. As a result, there is a great deal about a dog that you simply cannot overcome with rearing or training because the dog’s higher brain function simply is not powerful enough to overcome the impulses. Bad handling can make a temperament much worse than it would otherwise have been, but even the best handling cannot rise above the limitations of the dog’s genetics. Do that homework!
Questions to Ask
Before meeting a dog you might adopt, consider exactly what you need in a dog, what you are able to handle in a dog, and what you want in a dog. For example, if you have children, you must have a dog who will be safe around your children and other children who visit your home. Think these things through before you let yourself be swayed by the presence of an appealing dog.
Also try to find out in advance as much about the dog as you can. If the dog doesn’t meet some of your important criteria, it’s best not to go see the dog. Leave the people seeking to place that dog for free to look for a closer match, and leave yourself free to find the right dog for you. Consider these factors:
1. Size. We’re not talking about looks here. One of the worst criteria you could use to choose a dog is what the dog looks like! Once you get to know and love the dog, never fear, you’ll find that dog very attractive.
A dog’s strength compared to that of a human man is about triple, thus a 50-pound dog is about as strong as a 150-pound man. What size dog fits your situation? Certain jobs require a large dog. Tiny dogs can go more places with you and are easier for someone else to take care of when you can’t. They also do less damage if they bite.
2. Guarding Instinct. A dog who bites first and asks questions later is not only “not for everybody,” it’s for hardly anybody. Most of us need zero to moderate guarding instinct. Only a minority of people can responsibly handle a dog with strong guarding instinct.
3. Trainability. Most people need dogs we can train to eliminate in appropriate places, to behave safely on leash, and not to hurt people. What else does your dog need to learn to do? Some of the most trainable dogs MUST be trained. Some dogs who aren’t the brightest bulbs on the string of Christmas lights make charming, easy dogs to grace our homes. Do you need the genius dog who will have you seeking out experts to help you solve training problems, or the snuggle bug who will spend hours as an easy-going buddy?
4. Housetraining Ease. Dog experts can tell you about quite a few breeds with a, well, dirty secret. They just don’t get it easily at all when it comes to housetraining. Hint: they are most often small and male. For icing on the cake, fail to neuter them. Male or female, some breeds may never achieve reliability for the entire run of the house. If this is important to you (as it is to most people), investigate this trait!
5. Destructive Chewing. Quite a few breeds vie for records of most unbelievable destructive chewing. It’s only funny when it’s someone else’s dog and house—not yours! Knowledgeable dog handlers are able to safely manage and train a dog through this difficult and dangerous phase of life. Novice dog owners tend to be taken totally by surprise, and the poor dog winds up homeless. That can result in the death of the unwanted dog. Death comes even more directly when the dog chews or swallows something fatal.
6. Health Issues. Hip dysplasia is high on the list of health problems in a mix because large breeds so commonly have it that your dog can inherit it from both sides. Other breeds have their problems, too. You would be wise to have the dog medically screened. If this seems like a big expense, check out the cost of treating that problem if you were to adopt the dog and then it surfaced.
7. Coat. When it comes to skin and fur, dogs vary in odor, whether or not clipping is needed, and whether the coat is prone to tangling. Oil in a dog’s skin protects it from the weather and from water but becomes rancid and smells bad when not kept groomed. Clipping requires equipment and skills that people usually find they need to hire—it’s harder than it looks. And coats that can tangle will mat if not kept combed out. Then the skin under the mat gets pulled tight, creating sores. If the dog requires grooming, neglecting it can lead to health and temperament problems.
8. Activity Level. Some dogs keep busy around the house following you and playing with toys, a lifestyle that works well if you’re home a lot and enjoy the active company. It’s even better when the dog is agile and good at getting out of your way. Some people find “busy” dogs irritating, though, so think carefully about your personality and what you really want.
Big, clumsy dogs who like to play hard inside the house may crash into things. Other dogs may lie around indoors, not particularly interested in following you. They will need you to get them out for some regular exercise in a setting they find stimulating.
The Greyhound is called a 40-mile-an-hour couch potato due to this tendency. Some giant breeds are like this, too. Many dogs are wild in the house when young and then settle with age. That could be anytime between age two years to several years later, when advanced osteoarthritis sets in.
9. Barking and Howling. Dogs are not created equal when it comes to the ease of teaching them not to bark in a nuisance manner. Your living situation may be highly unsuited to a noisy dog, if the noise would disturb neighbors. People often find themselves facing the choice of either giving up the dog or moving. Every measure used to try to get a dog to stay quiet when left alone has drawbacks.
The best housing situation with a noisy breed is to live in a house that shares no walls with other dwellings, and then keep the dog indoors. You can usually train a dog to be quiet when you are THERE. But when you are not there, noise becomes a major problem in the average apartment, condominium, or home where a dog is housed outdoors in earshot of neighbors.
When evaluating a shelter dog, keep in mind that the dog is likely to be stressed and tired. The true temperament will show a little better after a couple of weeks or so, but it is often several months before you get a good reading on it. Knowing the propensities of the breeds involved in the mix at least gets you started on what traits to examine most closely.
Motives
Think about your reasons for getting a dog, your reasons for getting a mix, and your reasons for getting this particular mix. Because it’s easy to find and adopt a mixed breed, people sometimes get one without much thought. They are often surprised at just how difficult things get, and then give up the dog. What happens to the dog?
If you go to a responsible rescue that fosters dogs or to a breeder who takes her dogs back if they ever lose their homes, there is a home waiting to take care of that dog if you’ve made a mistake. These sources will also give you more help in making the choice in the first place. And they will give you more help with any issues that arise. You are better off, and so is the dog.
There are fewer questions you have to answer when you adopt from a shelter, and the initial money you hand over may be less. It can be so easy to adopt from a shelter that people do it without nearly enough thought. The dog’s care will cost as much or more, though: a lot more if the dog is highly stressed. Stressed-out dogs get sick.
If you decide you have made a mistake in choosing the dog from a shelter, the dog will go through extreme stress at being brought back to the shelter. And the dog’s chances of being adopted out again will be reduced. The stakes are higher all the way around, and you have less help to make the decision.
If you want to go to a shelter and adopt a dog, it is wise to get expert help in making that choice. It’s well worth paying for this help, but chances are the price will be quite reasonable, if you are making a responsible adoption. This is one of the most pleasant jobs experts get to do.
If you are looking for a dog you can enter in dog competitions, check the registration requirements before you get a dog. Many such events are not open to dogs of unknown parentage. It really is best to get the dog that fits your criteria in every possible way.
Perhaps your search for the right dog will bring you into contact with a great dog who isn’t the right choice for you. Often the best thing you can do is get on the phone and find the right person to adopt him or help him find his perfect home. There are groups who train shelter dogs to place as companions for older folks, groups who train dogs to assist people with disabilities, companies that train drug dogs to search schools and businesses, government agencies that train dogs for several different jobs, and rescue groups on the lookout for dogs that will make especially congenial companions.
The various groups that train working dogs often have dogs they have to eliminate from the work, due to traits that would have little or no effect on your life with the dog. Some of these traits might even be good for a companion dog, such as the dog being trained for search work who just doesn’t have the energy to work full time. Few of us have full-time work for our dogs to do, and in fact we would be hard pressed to keep a high-powered working dog that busy. So these are good groups to check with in your search for a dog. Dogs these groups decide need a change of career will have been evaluated by experts.
One of a Kind
Mixed breeds are not reproducible. You won’t go to a dog show and see a ring full of dogs who are part of your dog’s family. You might be surprised how much this can mean to you, if at some point you do get a purebred dog. When you have a great mixed breed—and “great” is exactly the right word for many of these dogs—you’re unlikely to ever have another dog who is very much like that one. You may find, though, as many people have, that the mixed breed who shares your life will help you learn more about the kind of dog you want to adopt next.
Most mixed breeds up for adoption are young adults whose puppy owners did not keep faith with them. They are overlooked in shelters because everyone wants the puppies. The most likely behavior problem they will have is separation anxiety—because they so much want to stay with you, and fear that you will not keep them. If your commitment is true and you are the right home for the dog, you will likely be able to help the dog come through this fear with flying colors—that is, provided you do not have to leave the dog alone too much.
Mixed breeds can make wonderful companion dogs, and more. Though they are not allowed to be entered in some competitive events, when they do train and work in jobs commonly done by purebreds, they often excel. Some training programs tend to use more purebreds because they need predictability in their training schedules. But wherever it’s workable to customize the training to the dog, you’re apt to find some mixed breeds doing well.
The American Kennel Club annually recognizes several individual dogs for achievement or distinguished service. These are always purebred dogs, because the American Kennel Club is a registry of purebreds. Mixed breeds are every bit as capable of meritorious actions, though, and many have saved human lives.
Mixed breeds are also popular for television and movie work. Purebred dogs may be chosen when the people in charge want to easily be able to round up a lot of look-alikes for the canine star. But for a dog that appeals to the most viewers, it’s the mixed breed. Working dogs are chosen carefully, and your companion dog has an important job, too. Choose carefully, so your mixed breed will live a long and happy life with you.
Two Puppies or One?
By Kathy Diamond Davis
Article source : http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&C=99&A=2043&S=0&EVetID=3001407
Are you getting a new dog and thinking of adopting two puppies at once? Would that double the pleasure? Could they be company for each other when you’re not home? Does it seem a good way to settle competition between human partners or the children in the family over who gets to play with the dog? More dogs, more to go around—does that plan work?
Not exactly. Expert breeders are careful about placing two puppies together in one home, because they know how much work it is to raise both of them properly. An improperly raised puppy can wind up homeless when the little and cute stage wears off and the defense drives begin to mature. Even dogs who don’t become aggressive can become too rowdy for the family, if they weren’t given the right training early.
Puppies are individuals and each puppy needs a good upbringing. This includes plenty of good experiences with people, places and things. It includes plenty of training and plenty of conditioning to being touched and handled by humans. Much of this work must be done with the puppy one-on-one, away from any other dogs in the household. How is this accomplished?
How to Raise Two Puppies Successfully
Skilled dog trainers and breeders often have the job of raising two puppies at once, so we know a lot about how to do this successfully. Here are some keys to success:
1. Make a careful choice. Dogs who get along as puppies will not necessarily get along at maturity. If you plan to keep your dogs together later (breeders and trainers often keep their dogs routinely separated, all or part of the time), it’s important to choose a pair with the best chance of a happy relationship as mature dogs. Most puppies get along, so that tells you nothing about how they will do later.
Getting dogs of opposite sex is usually the number one criteria for them to live safely and happily together later. In some breeds it’s especially dangerous to keep two of the same sex together, so do your homework if you’re considering that. Nature will take its course later, no matter how much you try to get them to love each other. They can love each other literally to the death, especially two females of certain breeds.
2. If you are going to keep the dogs together, plan to spay and neuter them, spaying the female before her first heat. If you want to breed dogs, they will need to live apart at least some of the time. Dogs need to be supervised during matings to prevent injuries, and females should not be bred on every cycle. Besides that, it’s quite possible your two dogs would turn out to be a poor genetic pairing. A male and female dog may be able to live freely together after maturity if both are altered. They actually have a richer social life that way than when used for breeding.
3. The pups need to be trained to rest calmly in separate crates while they are young. Putting two dogs in the same crate causes all kinds of problems, including excessive stress, fighting, and an over-dependence on each other. If there’s a mess, both are confined in it. Neither can get away from the other, and that’s just not natural for dogs. Plus, they very much need to learn while young that it is safe to be alone. And they need to bond with humans, which is hard for them to do when they spend all their time with another dog.
4. Each pup needs plenty of outings with humans without the other pup. This is an essential part of the pup developing an individual identity and the ability to function without the other one. It also gives the pup a desperately needed opportunity to bond with humans.
All dogs need to go out with you for socialization to people, places and things. The difference with two puppies is that you need to do double outings, ideally one per day for each puppy. This process is best continued at least until a year of age, longer for some dogs.
5. Each pup needs to be trained as an individual. When you have one puppy, a lot of training can happen around the house in the course of the day. Having two puppies complicates things. The outings will give you necessary opportunities to train the puppies away from each other.
Responsibility in dogs is an individual trait, not a group characteristic. A group of people is a mob and a group of dogs is a pack. A pack will do things you don’t want your dogs doing, because their instincts get over-stimulated and a different set of instincts kicks in.
Your best hope of controlling your dogs when they are together is to have an excellent foundation of training with each dog as an individual. Without that, the dogs can get hurt, other animals and people in the household can get hurt, and you can get hurt, too. You need to be able to control each dog with just your voice, not sticking your hands into a situation with teeth flashing.
Each dog needs to go to training class weekly without the other dog (many instructors wisely will not let family members train two dogs from the same family in the same class) and practice the class homework daily away from the other dog. As they become well-trained, you’ll also want to practice working them together so they also learn to obey with the pack influence.
Why It’s Hard
Because of the need to separate the dogs for training, for bonding time with humans, and to prevent them from becoming unable to function apart—it’s actually more than twice the work to raise two puppies at the same time. Things like housetraining can present huge challenges, too, since the scent of an accident from one puppy stimulates the other puppy to use the same spot.
If you get two males, housetraining problems can escalate as they mature. For best housetraining results, try to have males neutered by a year of age at the latest. Research shows it helps at any age, though, so if that time has passed, it’s still worth neutering for housetraining and for other reasons, such as prostate health in later life.
We don’t necessarily think in terms of “identity” with dogs, but it might help if we did. From human twins it has been learned that too much togetherness can make it difficult for each to develop a healthy sense of identity. Like human twins, dogs sometimes must be separated. If they have not learned to function comfortably as individuals, this can stress them at such times as illness or the death of one of the dogs. It is much kinder to the dogs to develop their separate identities right from the start.
Growing up together does not override normal dog instincts as they mature. You have probably noticed that not all human siblings can get along with each other as adults! The same is true of dogs. It’s nature’s way for those with leadership qualities to divide up and form separate packs that are small enough to live successfully on the food supplies in each pack’s home area.
In the wild when the pups grow up and two don’t find a natural pack order with each other, one leaves to join a new pack or form one. But in our homes, our dogs are not free to move out. When they grow up and these problems become apparent, some dogs are not easy to place in new homes. Too many people will only adopt puppies and won’t even consider adult dogs. It also hurts the dog’s chances of adoption to have a history of fighting and possibly scars.
It’s emotionally wrenching for us to give up one of the dogs we’ve grown to love, too. If you start with a male and a female rather than two dogs of the same sex, this probably will not happen. He can be top male and she can be top female, and they don’t have to compete head-to-head. It’s still a lot of work, but at maturity they are likely to get along. (That is, unless you have other dogs in the home—in which case, it’s going to be even harder to make it work bringing in two pups at once.)
One last concern when you get two pups together is that they will be the same age at the other end of life. It’s likely that you will lose them close together. That is extremely tough emotionally on the family. It’s much better to space your dogs’ ages out if you can.
One is Loads of Fun!
It’s actually pretty easy to work around the reasons people think it would be better to get two pups than one. The loneliness thing? Dogs sleep about 14 hours a day, often more for puppies. Most of the time you’re gone to work is sack-out time for the pup, if you carefully condition the young one to feeling calm in a safe confinement area.
Being the only puppy in there, Lucky Pup gets to have goodies it wouldn’t be safe to leave with two competitive pups together, even if you need to use a small room or portable exercise pen with Little L at first because of the length of your work day.
Dog walker, pet sitter, day boarding with your veterinarian, friend or relative to watch your pup during the early months until pup can hold it all day? Less expensive for one pup than two, and more friends and relatives willing to do it!
Puppy vaccinations and medical bills? Vaccination costs and some other bills cut in half. Medical bills from one puppy catching something and passing it on to the other puppy cut even more, and ditto for medical costs to repair puppies damaging each other in rough play.
Outings? One puppy can go along where you go much more often, because one puppy is welcome in a lot of places that couldn’t handle two puppies. Like oh, say, your relatives’ house for a family party. So instead of taking one pup along to that and then thinking up someplace else to take the other pup that day beforehand when you’re rushed or afterward when you’re tired, you get it done in one. Plus the puppy is with you, not home with no potty access.
At spay/neuter time, you can easily schedule the procedure for the ideal time for this pup, not having to compromise in order to prevent an accidental breeding. You also won’t have to worry about separating the pups while each recovers from surgery. (Try doing that for two pups at once—it’s like running a hospital ward!)
Bonding with one puppy is easy-peasy when you do the right things. It happens naturally. It’s work, yes, but it fits most people’s lifestyles much more easily than trying to do the process with two. With good handling and training, your puppy naturally becomes a member of the family.
Enough puppy to go around? For maybe two weeks the kids might compete over who gets to play with the puppy. After that, the “new has worn off,” and taking care of the puppy becomes work! The more people in the family to share the labor, the better. Make sure everyone knows exactly what their part is, so people aren’t all hoping “someone else” will do it, and the dog goes untrained and uncared for.
Raising two puppies at the same time can be done, but…are you sure that’s what you want to do? When you do a great job with one puppy, you may be surprised just how much love and enjoyment comes in that one little (but possibly very fast-growing!) package.
Re-Homing a Dog
By Kathy Diamond Davis
Article source : http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=2269&S=1&SourceID=47
Much emotion surrounds the issue of re-homing or otherwise giving up a dog. Some people do it casually, while others believe it is always wrong and that any time you get a dog you should be held to a commitment for life. Surely a reasonable way of deciding what to do in any given situation falls somewhere between these two extremes.
A dog who loses a home is placed at risk of winding up homeless and euthanized. While many people who are a dog’s second, third or fourth home will make a success of keeping the dog for the rest of a long life; the dog’s chances diminish with each change of homes.
The first step in being a responsible dog owner as well as in sparing dogs high risk is to make a careful choice before you adopt. Puppy adoption that results in giving up the puppy means that you have literally taken away the puppy’s best chance at a permanent home. One estimate is that 50% of the puppies born in the United States are dead by age two years. It starts with inappropriate adoption. What should people consider when adopting a puppy or dog?
Questions to Ask Yourself before Adoption
1. Are you going to be moving? Are you sure you will have the resources to live where you can keep the dog and provide proper care? In the next ten years or so, is it likely you’ll move due to school, military service, marriage, or career advancement? Will there be enough money to pick and choose your housing regardless of the housing prices wherever you might have to move?
2. If you are married or living with someone, does this look to be a permanent relationship? A dog will not save a shaky marriage, any more than having a baby or buying a bigger house will. If you are in a relationship and choose this time to adopt a dog, consider your resources as far as being able to care and provide for the dog without putting the animal through a drastic and upsetting lifestyle change. You should also probably make sure the ownership of the dog is in your name alone.
3. If you are a teenager or getting this dog for a teenager, are mom and/or dad prepared to give this dog a good and lifelong home when the young person leaves home? Whatever the intention, in the vast majority of cases, the dog will not wind up going along, and the job will be left to the parent(s). This is such a highly transitional time in a young human life that plans for the next ten years are not foreseeable. Most of the housing that people go to straight from their parents’ homes is difficult for dog-keeping.
Human Baby Coming
The desire to add a dog to the home can be part of what we might call a nesting instinct in people, and in fact good parenting practice. If you want a dog to be part of your family life and the healthy development of your children, getting the dog in advance is good timing.
A dog to live with children needs to be chosen, raised, managed, and trained for the lifestyle. A dog is not a baby. In fact, one human baby is not another human baby—each child has different needs. Each dog has different needs, too, and a dog has different needs from a child. One of the important lessons you can learn about parenting from successfully caring for a dog is that it’s about providing the care that individual needs. It’s not about you. The dog doesn’t cry in the crate or potty on the floor just to spite you, any more than a child cries or dirties a diaper out of spite.
When people cooperate in the care of a dog–not bickering or venting frustration at inconveniences, fatigue, expense, etc. on each other or the animal—these people demonstrate that they just might be able to do the same for a child! If you find yourself in a relationship with a person who is unkind to the dog, quick to want to get rid of the dog, or abusive to you over the dog’s needs, think carefully about having a child with this person.
If the person abuses the dog or you, this can indicate a dangerous human behavior pattern, and reason to consider getting the dog and yourself out of there. If your child abuses the dog, re-homing the dog is often best, and the child needs prompt therapeutic help.
The best way to determine if your dog is the right dog to live with children is to consult a veterinary behavior specialist in person. This is a veterinarian who is board-certified in the specialty of behavior; and the best expert to evaluate the dog’s temperament, take a complete history, and advise you of the risks and your options. Ask your regular veterinarian to help you find the nearest specialist.
If the dog has shown aggression toward anyone, especially children, an evaluation of the dog needs to be done before the child’s arrival. The same is true if the dog has shown fear of children. It’s difficult for people to handle this in a timely manner because of the emotions involved when expecting a child and after the child comes.
When expecting children, people tend to want to adopt a dog in a rather dreamy and often unrealistic way. They may decide it’s a good time to have their dog give birth—which it is not. The responsibilities of properly caring for mom and pups, and placing puppies in good homes and supporting the new owners with whatever problems arise for the lives of those puppies do not fit with all the life changes that accompany becoming parents yourselves. But the maternal and paternal emotions that come with parenthood are powerful, and dogs can get caught in the middle.
After the baby comes, the parents’ emotions shift in what can be a rather shocking manner. A dog who has been the adored baby may suddenly be viewed as an inconvenience or problem. If the dog turns out to be a risk for the baby, the emotions, time, energy and resources to carefully place the dog in the best possible home are just not what they were before the baby came.
When we are the ones experiencing these powerful emotions, it’s hard to recognize them. To make good decisions about a dog—whether at the time of becoming new parents or at any other time when emotions can get in the way—pretend it’s someone else making the decision. What would you advise someone else to do in the situation? This approach often clarifies decisions so that you can make choices you will later be satisfied were the right ones.
Seasoned Citizens
Older people who want dogs and are in a position for dogs to get proper care should have them. The benefits to health and longevity of contact with a well-kept companion animal are now proven beyond contention. A dog may not be the right animal for everyone, but some animal friend will provide benefit. Where a person can’t provide any care and there isn’t anyone else to do it, a visiting animal helps, or even a bird-feeding station visible through a window. People thrive better around other living creatures.
In a situation where the person having a dog is feasible, try to pick a dog that will be the easiest possible to care for properly. Keep the dog clean, groomed, housetrained, and otherwise well trained and managed so that it will easily fit into another good home.
If you are the one responsible for the dog’s care at a time when the person has to go to the hospital or for other reason can’t provide dog care, make sure you can get the dog into safe care quickly. This is a huge kindness to the dog and will provide tremendous comfort to the person. Taking care of her dog is one of the most loving things you can do for a dog lover.
If it turns out the dog needs a permanent new home, of course you’ll regard the person’s wishes in the matter. If there is a responsible breeder involved, the breeder may have planned all along to take care of the dog when the need arose, so be sure to contact that breeder before offering the dog to anyone else.
If keeping the dog yourself means a well-suited home for the dog and if it honors the owner’s wishes, then of course do that. But be totally honest with yourself about what is best for the dog, and get expert help if you are not sure. Different dogs can have very different needs.
Responsible Re-Homing
If you need help deciding whether or not to re-home a dog, a veterinarian, particularly a veterinary behavior specialist, can be the best expert to consult. Also consider consulting your regular veterinarian, your child’s pediatrician, your physician, a psychological counselor, an attorney, or even your pastor—depending on what the concerns are with keeping the dog and what kind of support you need to make the decision.
A dog trainer, animal welfare official, or unlicensed dog behavior specialist might be helpful, or not. You could run into someone whose knowledge doesn’t fit your needs or even someone who is not ethical and yet convinces you. The decision is yours to make, and you might not need much help, or you might need a lot. Help is available, so if you are not sure, or if the situation is such that it could cause lifelong resentment with your spouse or someone else, an objective third party can make a big difference.
People often do not realize that they signed a contract when they adopted their dogs. Even if there wasn’t a signature, there may have been an agreement made that you now need to honor. A responsible breeder takes care of the dogs he or she has produced for their whole lives if they ever need new homes. A responsible rescue group does this, too. If the dog came from either source, it is your duty to contact them when you decide to give up the dog.
Not only will this person or group take responsibility for the dog now, but keep in mind that the dog will then have this safety net for the remainder of life. If you pass the dog on without going back to this source, you deprive the dog of this protection and you prevent the breeder or rescue from providing the protection. That just isn’t right.
People are often embarrassed to go back to the breeder and say the situation hasn’t worked out and they’re giving up the dog. Do it anyway. It is your duty to the dog and to the people who care about this dog and want to provide a safe home. Your embarrassment should not cost a dog’s life, and if you pass the dog on outside this safety net, even to what seems to you to be a good home, that is likely to be what happens. Just one more person passing the dog on is all it takes.
People also lie in order to get dogs they want and to make money. Dogs wind up in horrible situations because an uninformed owner gave the dog up to the wrong person. If you need to re-home a dog, get the best help available to screen homes and find the right one. You are not likely to be able to accept the duty of taking this dog back if a new home is ever again needed, so if someone is available to take on that responsibility for the dog, that is who should make the placement. This is the only way to keep dogs from being treated as throwaways.
If you know a dog is aggressive, that must be fully disclosed when you give the dog to anyone. In the event a dog is going to need to be euthanized, take the dog to a veterinarian (or have some other trusted person do so) for it to be done in the least stressful way. Don’t put a dog through the stress of an animal shelter if it is possible to move the dog directly from your home to another home. Never just abandon a dog, because it leads to that dog’s death and often causes others to suffer, too. In most places it is also illegal.
If a dog has shown aggression to other dogs, that is usually not a reason to euthanize. For many breeds it is normal, and aggression toward another dog of the same sex in the home is common in most breeds. The dog will likely do okay in a home with no other dogs of the same sex. Similarly, a dog who kills squirrels or baby rabbits is not vicious and does not need to be put to sleep. These are normal dog behaviors that do not mean the dog will bite humans.
Dogs are very adaptable, and can usually adjust to a rather wide range of situations that meet their basic needs. We tend to be emotional about how our dogs feel and what they need. We tend to think the dog could never be happy with anyone but us. And we are usually wrong about that. If the home is a good home for that dog’s needs, the dog will probably adjust and be happy there.
Most of all, do what is best for the dog. One situation where this particularly needs thought is that of a dog who is not good with children. If you place the dog in a home where children will not be a factor BEFORE a child is bitten, you may very well be saving that dog’s life.
So what is best for the dog? If you’re not sure, get help to make that decision. Start with your veterinarian. It’s amazing how often the real problem is a sore ear, knee, hip, or other physical issue that can be medically managed for a dog who can live happily ever after, once the pain and fear are relieved.
Also make sure you have checked out the management and training needs. Know why you are re-homing a dog. Maybe it’s too late to fix the problems with this dog, but you can avoid going through the same thing again by finding out what went wrong and making better choices in the future.