“Typically” aloof breed temperament does not excuse puppy fearfulness

Tags

basenji, breeders, fear, fearful dogs, puppies, shiba inu, socialization

About five months ago, I was invited to meet a local breeder’s litter of six-week-old, tri-colored Basenji puppies. None of the puppies were for me, and I was not on the waiting list. The breeder, whom I had gotten to know on the Basenji Forums, aimed to socialize the pups with as many visitors as possible, and was willing to let me sample the Basenji puppyhood that I had missed since Bowpi came to us as an adult from unknown sources.

one with a flipped-up ear is hiding in the middle

It was all I could do to contain my girlish squeals and tears of delight when all six puppies came marching up to greet me at the baby gated foyer. Though I was eager to dive into that puppy pit, entering the home was a challenge with the black swarm underfoot. It was like tiptoeing through bouncing water balloons! Popping a puppy right at the outset would surely have made a bad first impression. I know I made at least one squeak as I gingerly waded through the living room into the open backyard.

Apparently I was forgiven because they were still willing to play with me. Or maybe I was being punished for the offense with puppy fangs. At any rate, they bit and chewed me, the toy I brought, the backyard plants, and each other without compunction. I still trail a few shredded threads from the clothes I wore that day as a souvenir.

There’s no mistaking the fact that these are mouthy puppies, and that they explore the world with their teeth!

Momma and auntie (not father) were both on the premises to correct them as necessary. I got the sense that this was a constant, exhausting task…

These puppies might have added a few extra wrinkles to her brow… and they’re not even hers!

For all my idealism about how responsible breeders should be breeding, raising, placing, and following through with their puppies, this was the first time I’d met a litter that, in my opinion, was being done “right.” We chatted for a good portion of the afternoon about puppies, the breed, and more, until the entire litter was knocked senseless by our blather.

One thing that left an impression on me was how eager every puppy was to see who was at the door. When the breeder and I talked about this, she made an astute point that the Basenji reputation for being “independent” and “aloof” applies to mature adults — not developing puppies. An aloof adult raises little concern, but puppies should be sociable, curious, and brimming with confidence to accept new experiences. They weren’t necessarily ready to climb into my lap and would sooner chew than cuddle me, but they were evidently unfazed by my presence and ready to engage.

All this resonated with me, especially since these descriptors — aloof, independent, standoffish, not cuddly, etc. — have commonly been used to describe, and excuse, Shibas for being Shibas. It made me recall how we selected Bowdu in the first place. Of all the puppies in the bin, he was the only one sitting apart and watching from a corner. He didn’t appear fearful, but he had no interest in joining the puppy games; when a Golden pup tumbled into his corner, Bowdu nonchalantly extended a paw to hold the pup out of his space.

And we laughed and were charmed and chose him.

The night we brought Bowdu home and put him on the floor of the apartment, it took a brief moment to register that his environment had completely changed from the busy night market that he had known. Then he shuffled underneath the nearest desk and started whimpering. He couldn’t be coaxed out, so after a while, I gently pulled him out… He never tried to hide from us again, and seemed to forget his initial fears, though we would continue to deal with fear-based behaviors for a long, long time.

I doubt Bowdu was well socialized by his breeder or broker, and we didn’t do enough to bombproof him as a puppy. He’s fine now. But for months, and years even, I often excused his quirks as somehow related to either breed temperament or our misanthropic personalities, as his guardians. Oh, he shies away from strangers on the street because he’s being “reserved,” and that gives me an excuse to avoid people, too. He’s cowering from the constant stream of passing scooters because Shibas are highly alert and “sensitive,” and I wouldn’t want him to get too close anyway! He’s frantic and pulling on walks because he’s “stubborn” and “independent-minded” and wants to chart his own course home, even though he has a butt full of poop that should be eliminated outdoors, not on paper.

In my ignorance of dog behavior, my interpretation of those key adjectives in no way matched the spirit by which Shibas are often described. Or Basenjis, for that matter! There were details about Bowdu’s puppy behavior that were really not okay, in retrospect, but my misapplication of supposed breed temperament allowed me to mask, and worse yet, normalize certain kinds of anti-social behavior that really don’t befit the breed.

Bottom line is that my misinterpretation of those terms did not benefit my dog as an individual, over the course of his development.

There have been so many times on my dog forums (moreso Shibas than Basenjis) where someone’s fearful, aloof, non-cuddly puppy behavior is dismissed as somehow “typical” of the breed. Sometimes it’s a new dog owner having to face the crushing disappointment that they’re really not the center of their puppy’s world, and that’s part of the reality of owning a “primitive” breed. Yet other times, behaviors like hiding, running away in fear, a general listlessness and dullness to stimuli are excused as “typical” breed traits by well-intentioned folks who are just trying to reassure the confused dog owner that they did get what they signed on for.

However, so often the conversation is about puppies that have been home for days or just weeks, who haven’t even been alive long enough to develop personal preferences, let alone show stable breed proclivities! They’re still growing into the world. New owners are still learning to observe and describe them as individuals, not against everything they’ve researched about the breed (if at all). Puppies don’t consult the breed manual. And even the stablest pup from the most temperamentally sound parents can develop a mind of her own as an adult; indeed, “independent” is so vague a term here as to be useless.

What I’m saying is that a fearful, dull puppy is not necessarily a final judgment on the breeder, nor does this alone limit the dog’s potential to live up to breed hype. But having now met an entire litter of pups that seemed so alert, resilient, emboldened by adventure, and downright youthful, I am reminded of how childhood and adulthood are fairly demarcated developmental categories. Perhaps it is our anthropomorphic tendency to conflate the two. If so, that is our folly, and the child’s loss — of any animal species.

10 dog movies to ruin your holidays

Tags

akita, animated features, antarctica, basenji, BBC, brazilian film, breeders, dog movies, german shepherds, goodbye my lady, hachiko, Italian film, japanese akita, japanese dogs, japanese film, karafuto dogs, laboratory animals, old yeller, pedigree dogs exposed, plague dogs, sakhalin huskies, seeing eye dogs, sled dogs, walt disney, will smith, working dogs

Because we know the holidays aren’t just about feelgood times in the company of family you can’t stand during the rest of the year, here are ten dog movies that will depress the hell out of everyone and totally ruin your holidays. If things are getting too jolly around the living room, load up one of these films and watch the mood plummet faster than you can say, “Hand me the flask.”

Spoiler alert: A prominent canine character dies in at least six out of ten of these titles. The descriptions below may or may not indicate which ones.

To avoid redundancy, I didn’t list anything that had appeared on my previous list of Top Dog Movies, compiled two years ago. That was my arbitrary reason to omit Journey of Natty Gann (1985), Amores Perros (2000), and Inu no Eiga (2005) which could easily have fit here. I also tried to stay away from some of the typical titles that top these lists like Marley and Me (2008) or Where the Red Fern Grows (1974 & 2003); those were probably better off remaining as only literary properties, anyway.

I will, however, begin with at least one obvious choice, primarily because I haven’t blogged it yet.

10. Old Yeller. Dir. Robert Stevenson. Perf. Tommy Kirk, Kevin Corcoran, Spike the Dog. Walt Disney Pictures: 1957.

Having recently rewatched this children’s classic after not having seen it in probably 20 years, I was struck by a few revelations. The biggest was that older brother Travis Coates, whose self-sufficiency and stiff upper lip in the face of emotional trauma seemed so crushable to me as a child, just seems petulant and downright brutish to me now. He may know how to plow and hunt and keep the household in ham, but he’s kind of a jerk — one who just happens to love a dog that even the cruelest kid in the west should be able to love. Screw you Travis, and your annoying little brother too.

The film’s primary redeeming quality is that they knew to give ample footage to Yeller, the hulk of a Lab-Mastiff cur who comes across as a superdog capable of any task you set before him. For Travis to gain a modicum of maturity at the sacrifice of Yeller’s life seems particularly unjust when one witnesses how badly he regresses in the failed sequel Savage Sam (1963). Yeah, Disney sure sent that sequel to the hogs…

9. Hachi, a Dog’s Tale. Dir. Lasse Hallström. Perf. Richard Gere, Joan Allen, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Chico, Layla, Forrest. Inferno/Stage 6: 2009.

I’m kind of allergic to most romantic leading males (e.g. Richard Gere), so I was initially resistant to this Americanized retelling of the famous story of the loyal Japanese Akita, Hachiko. One masochistic night, I decided to stream this on Netflix, and found it refreshingly sufficient for what little it aspires to be. Transplanted from Tokyo to Rhode Island, this version is relieved of the burden of nationalist authentication, allowing it to “just” be about a dog loving professor and the Akita of his affections. Because their relationship is so untainted and simple, it becomes more like a lament over the poor animal’s inability to process abstractions like death rather than praise for his unflagging loyalty, a sentiment I’ve never been comfortable taking at face value.

Could this spot have been replaced with the 1987 Japanese version (screenshot pictured above)? Well, they used actual Akita instead of Shiba puppies in that one, but it’s kind of hard to topple the downysoft duo of any Nihon ken puppy plus Richard Gere. The American version succeeds by being less moralizing, even gentler, and even more vapid than the predecessor. You don’t have to go into this expecting to think too much, just cry, dammit! Cry! The power of Hachi compels you!

And speaking of sentimental remakes of Japanese originals…

8. Nankyoku monogatari [Antarctica]. Dir. Koreyoshi Kurahara. Perf. Ken Takakura, numerous dogs. 1983.

In 1958, a Japanese expedition to Antarctica had to abandon their team of sled dogs for reasons unexpected and uncontrollable. Fifteen Sakhalin huskies (Karafuto dogs) were left tightly chained to a line with only a week’s worth of food, as the team originally had expected they would return for them. Eight dogs were able to slip or break free of their chains, but then they had to learn to survive in the severe climate and treacherous landscape. Eleven months later, members of the expedition were finally able to return, discovering that two of the original dogs had survived all that time. This film dramatizes that adventure.

With a soundtrack by Vangelis and a pseudo-documentary approach relying on an omniscient narrator to relay the dogs’ thoughts, I suspect the Japanese version strikes a more somber tone than its Disneyfied remake, Eight Below (2006). The Japanese version also presents a more eclectic canine cast than the uniformly purebred Siberian huskies of its American interpretation. With a greater emphasis on the dogs, counting down with each tragic death, there was little attempt to cover up the truth. In fact, a significant side story to the dogs’ survival plot involves one of the expedition members embarking on a grand tour of apology, visiting the families who had contributed sled dogs and personally accounting for his role in the dogs’ noble sacrifice.

At any rate, the austerity of the landscape is thankfully counterbalanced by many scenes of happy, off-leash dogs running fast, loose, and free.

7. Quill. Dir Yoichi Sai. Perf. Kaoru Kobayashi, Kippei Shina, Rafie the dog. Quill Film Partners: 2004.

Quill was raised from puppyhood to be a seeing eye dog, and to spend his life helping others. Due to no fault of his own, he never really gets to stay in a permanent home. His life is his job, such that he barely gets a chance to be a dog. Or rather, as a dog with a job, he has changed the very perception of what it means to be a modern dog. Such selflessness! Such devotion! Such an honorable, purposeful existence! Pass me another tissue, please.

6. Plague Dogs. Dir. Martin Rosen. Perf. John Hurt, Christopher Benjamin, Nigel Hawthorne. Nepenthe: 1982.

As much as we praise the functional dog who works alongside his human partners, there is also a dark side to this relationship, as in the animal testing laboratories of modern industrial societies. Rowf and Snitter are two dogs who escape from such a nightmarish world. However, their presence creates something of a government scandal, as local farmers fear they may be carrying the plague or other diseases created as experiments in bioterrorism. So the hunt is on to capture the errant pair…

Not having read the Richard Adams book on which this animated feature was based, I was completely unprepared for the soul-crushing heaviness of this story. While this is the only animated feature on this list, it is pretty exceptional as far as non-Japanese animation goes, and definitely a memorable title that fully demonstrates how evocative hand-drawn cel art can be.

5. Vidas Secas [Life is Barren]. Dir. Nelson Pereira dos Santos. Perf. Átila Iório, Orlando Macedo, Baleia the dog. Luiz Carlos Barreto Produções Cinematográficas/Sino Filmes, 1963.

Poverty and pets don’t mix. Down with the exploitation of the agricultural peasantry!!

4. Umberto D. Dir. Vittoria De Sica. Perf. Carlo Battisti, Maria-Pia Casilio, Flike the dog. 1952.

Poverty and pets don’t mix. Down with the oppression of the urban underclass!!

3. I Am Legend. Dir. Francis Lawrence. Perf. Will Smith, Abby & Kona the dogs. Village Roadshow: 2007.

A cancer cure gone wrong has turned into a disastrous virus, wiping out 90% of humanity and turning the remaining 9% into photosensitive mutants who feed on the 1% of humans possessing natural immunity. Will Smith plays a military doctor who is part of that exclusive 1%, occupying a depopulated New York City with his faithful German Shepherd, Samantha. She is the only other living thing that responds to language — except, unfortunately, his stop or recall commands when it really, really matters.

After her passing, it seems intolerable for life (or the movie, for that matter) to go on, but it has to conclude somehow. The unwatchableness of the last, dog-less third does its part to ensure some potent ill will towards the filmmakers, if not all of humanity.

2. Pedigree Dogs Exposed. Dir. Jemima Harrison. BBC One: 2008.

While we might fabricate good reasons to distrust science in the name of Hollywood fantasy, there are actually compelling reasons to heed science in our day-to-day transactions, including the breeding of our beloved pets. This British documentary is certainly not the first to have raised concerns about the ethics of purebred dog breeding, but its sensational manner created an unprecedented splash when it was first broadcast — all the better to get the public talking.

The 50-minute long documentary is not without its faults, as the director has no time to spare in airing the happily-ever-after pet stories that we take for normal. She has been targeted by some rather vitriolic breeders and critics, as her blog frequently reveals. Perhaps what’s most depressing is not what this documentary reveals about the health of some breeds as a whole, but rather what it exposes about the mindset of some people at top echelons who have completely warped visions of what it means to be breed stewards.

If the YouTube movie embedded above does not work, just search for another version. It’s readily available online, last I checked. The sequel, Pedigree Dogs Exposed: Three Years On (2011) continues the investigation with some extra footage to be found on the DVDs, available for purchase here.

1. Good-bye, My Lady. Dir. William Wellman. Perf. Walter Brennan, Brandon deWilde, Sidney Poitier, My Lady of the Congo. Batjac: 1956.

So here’s another iteration of boy-gets-superdog, boy-loses-superdog-and-gains-maturation theme. Though I didn’t rank this list in any particular order, I would put this one far higher than the title that began this roundup because the dog is a Basenji, and the Basenji doesn’t die.

TAKE NOTE, future screenwriters and directors! Contrary to convention, the dog doesn’t have to die for the characters to arrive at enlightenment. Leave the dog alone. If somebody’s gotta go, try killing off the boy or mom and dad or a few hundred mutants or half the town’s population first. Audiences and critics will hate you less.

WeKnowMemes.com

More dog films, including happier ones, can be found by checking out posts filed under FILMS, or accessing the index of dog movies reviewed and screencapped on this blog.

DNA test for Fanconi Syndrome

Tags

basenji, basenji health endowment, breeders, fanconi, health tests, orthopedic foundation for animals

Basenjis are vulnerable to a hereditary, incurable kidney disease called Fanconi Syndrome. However, there is a DNA test that is publicly available through the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals that can let you know if your dog is clear, a carrier, or affected by this simple recessive genetic disease. It is very easy to find out the Fanconi status of any dog, whether they are a breeding stud, dam, or a spayed or neutered pet.

We tested Bowpi back in March 2010 when only the linked marker test was available. Her results came back as probably clear. This was a great relief.

In August 2011, the specific DNA mutation for Fanconi was found and a direct test was made available, replacing the previous linked marker test. Since the Basenji Health Endowment was partially subsidizing dogs that had been previously tested, I submitted a request for a retest kit.

24 December 2011

For $65 USD (minus $15 for subsidized tests), you get a kit mailed directly to your home, containing:

• Your order form with pre-printed mailing labels
• Detailed instructions
• Test sample card in a little manila envelope
• Sterile applicator

29 December 2011

Dog not included. You provide your own.

The instructions are very clear. Just make sure that it’s been a couple hours since your dog has eaten. When ready, unwrap the sterile applicator…

Swab the inside of your dog’s mouth for several seconds to collect saliva and DNA.

Then press the moistened tip to the area indicated on the test card.

Reminds me of those Paint with Water kids’ activity books.

Then let the card air dry for about an hour, making sure that nothing else touches it while this happens.

When dry, the white areas will show where DNA was successfully transferred.

Then all you have to do is put the card in the little manila pocket provided, put that in another envelope (I re-wrapped the manila envelope in the weatherproof Tyvek sleeve that the OFA originally sent everything in), affix one of the pre-printed address labels and a stamp, and drop it in the mailbox!

You are e-mailed a personal link to track the status of your order. When results are processed (could take several weeks), they’ll automatically be posted at a unique public entry for each dog on the OFA website. For example, here is Bowpi’s direct link:

http://www.offa.org/display.html?appnum=1414418#animal

We have no AKC registration for her, no records of her sire or dam, and her birthdate isn’t even correct (I think I just selected one of the dates on her previous veterinary records, but even those didn’t match). You don’t need any of this information to request a test. However, Bowpi is still searchable in the database by her name and/or her breed alone.

She is spayed and just a pet, but I wanted to have the test done so that I could know what to anticipate in regards to her health. As you can see, it is a simple, inexpensive (relative to the peace of mind offered), non-invasive procedure.

This test is not provided by the vet. It is done at home. Any breeder that claims their dogs have been “vet-checked” for Fanconi is suspect. Any breeder who is in a position to say that they’ve never had a problem with Fanconi in their lines can surely afford the $65 per dog to demonstrate that this is true.

All Fanconi results are made available to the public. Owners do not have the option of keeping test results to themselves, even if they do not come out as desired. Therefore, if a breeder’s dogs are not in the database, and the breeder cannot or will not provide you the public link so you can verify testing for yourself, it is fair to assume that this Fanconi DNA test has not been done.

I can think of no good reason why any Basenji breeder would not be testing their breeding stock.

[EDIT 27 January 2012: We got Bowpi’s OFA certificate in the mail this week. She’s Fanconi clear!]

[EDIT 4 February 2012: OFA website currently states: “It has come to our attention that there are technical problems with the new Fanconi Syndrome test for Basenjis. The reasons for these problems are under investigation. We are temporarily suspending testing until these problems are solved.” Test kits cannot be ordered at this time.]

[EDIT from e-mail received 12 February 2012: “Fanconi testing has been resumed. The problem has been identified and a change in the sequencing process implemented. Fewer than 25 dogs, all originally read as affected, will require retesting.”]

A hypothetical puppy search in seven steps: internet tools to evaluate a breeder

Tags

AKC, aphis, basenji, breeders, commercial breeders, fanconi, Google, nextdaypets, orthopedic foundation for animals, puppies, puppy mills, puppyfind, shiba inu, usda

Well, it finally happened that a reader contacted The House of Two Bows to ask where they can get a Shiba puppy. So after waiting in the wings for weeks, it’s about time I drag out this follow-up to my puppy mill post.

I struggled with redundancy. What advice could I offer that hasn’t already been said a million times by others, and much more succinctly? Numerous versions of “The List” are already in circulation, even breed-specific ones (here is a Shiba-specific one that I can get behind; here is a descriptive list for Basenjis). Domestic puppy mills thrive while the USDA wages spurious battles against an imagined flood of foreign imports. This continues every day, so I may as well toss my tiny little wrench into this perpetual motion machine…

What follows is going to be tl;dr for most folks. You can skip my detailed commentary and jump to the bottom for a summary of useful links provided in this entry, if you prefer.

So say you have your heart set on a Shiba Inu or a Basenji puppy (my example breeds here for obvious personal reasons, though you can generalize). However, you’re starting from zero. What do you do?

29 April 2005. Puppies are irresistibly cute, even when they don’t fit breed standards or come from unethical kennels.

Let’s assume that most of us (or anyone who might be reading this) would take the first step by Googling the obvious — “shiba inu puppies for sale,” or “shiba puppy + [your state or region of residence]”, or “O’ Great Google Moogle, where can I buy a shiba inu puppy?” (since it seems common to address the search engine with a full sentence query as if it were a cognizant oracle).

Babam. Over a million results in less than a second. Three cheers for modern technology that delivers the whole world to your fingertips, in the comfort of your own home! But how do you process all this information?

Let’s pretend for the sake of this hypothetical search that you have no idea of any breeder’s reputation or practices and you have to work with what you find.

We’ll take one of the first sites to pop up and go from there. The steps below detail some ways that anyone can use the internet to help determine if you’re dealing with a decent breeder. There is no set order, nor will every step apply to every situation. But I hope that this demonstration will be specific and instructive enough to show that potential puppy buyers have many resources at their disposal. It would be a pity for you to ignore them, especially if you want to claim that you’ve done your research.

Step one: locate a puppy for sale.

Aha! Looky here! [Note: every screenshot below can be biggified with a click]

This breeder has a 10-week-old Shiba female named “Gorgeous” listed for sale. Sadly, there is no picture, nor is there any information about the puppy’s parents, the seller’s location, the puppy’s personality, or anything. Seems like this is the least she could offer if she’s asking $2000 for a pup. But maybe you’re lured by something like a promise of a beautiful and well-tempered puppy, or a proud declaration that this breeder has been in business for sooo many years, or an offer of pedigree papers or health guarantee or some other lucrative selling point. Perhaps you want to find out more.

Puppyfind and similar broker sites don’t have the puppies on hand, but they connect you to those who do. They give you full access to the breeder’s information if you register (and sometimes you have to pay). However, you realize you can easily bypass the fees if you contact the kennel directly. So you proceed to…

Step two: Identify and learn more about the puppy’s kennel.

Hey, look, the breeder you located on Puppyfind has their own website! Much more convenient! But how are you to scale this wall of text?

This breeder has a large number of links about the legitimacy of the AKC, a lengthy adoption purchase agreement (which is filled with some interesting contradictions that could make up an annotated reading on its own), tips on finding a good breeder, rescue, and so, so much more. Given this bounty of information, you feel like you’re dealing with a breeder who really knows her stuff, cares about her puppies, and loves dogs like you do.

However, it is not always the quantity of information offered that counts, but what is being said and how it maps onto the breeder’s practices. Don’t forget, the webpage is there to advertise the kennel — and they are, naturally, looking out for their own interests (and profits, where applicable). So as a smart consumer, what’s your next move?

Step three: Research the breeder.

This might be a relatively “new” step with altered stakes, enabled by the power of internet archives, but it remains a basic task of the puppy buyer. Researching the breeder is just as important as researching the breed itself. There are a few kennels where a brilliant, usually self-appraised reputation or flashy website masks long trails of bad business practices and heartbreak that would be easily uncovered if everyone would just GTFB.

So Google the kennel name. Google the breeder’s name. Google her e-mail address and phone number. In the cases of puppy brokers, e-mails and phone numbers have often been traced to long trails of online ads that infest across multiple breeds.

This useful post about how to use Google to your advantage will explain further.

Step four: Verify health tests on the public Orthopedic Foundation for Animals database.

One informational link provided by this breeder is a detailed breakdown of “Just why do purebred puppies from a reputable breeder cost so much?” As she charges $2000 for a pet quality Shiba, this is how she justifies her costs. She reminds us,

Health and temperament tests are done to determine if my dogs are even worthy of being bred. Tests are very expensive, but well worth the price of increasing the chances for the puppies to live a longer healthy active life. We do provide a written health guarantee for our puppies, so it is very important that we are breeding healthy dogs to get healthy puppies. We do tests like having hips, elbows, eyes and hearts checked which run about $200.00 per dog. If any of my dogs are questionable as to my findings or my vets findings, we would then have to send the reports and films into OFA or the GDC for clarity and that adds another $50.00 or more per dog.

Remember, if anyone had ‘failed’ any of these tests, they would have been spayed or neutered, and just lived their life as a beloved pet. Also, if that had happened, I would still be out my initial above spent money. A breeder is always gambling with any money spent.

– from our hypothetical breeder’s website (emphasis and links added)
If you are not familiar with the mentioned acronyms, I encourage you to click on the links embedded above. Briefly, the Institute for Genetic Disease Control (GDC) and the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) are legitimate, non-profit institutions that have worked with responsible breeders and researchers to test and track canine (and feline) genetic diseases in their open, publicly accessible registries. These health tests are not the same thing as “vet checks” because your average vet does not have the equipment or specialization to conduct, interpret, and register these tests; rather, specimens usually need to be sent off-site to specifically approved labs.

I agree with this argument that genetic testing is essential to minimize the risk of producing unhealthy pets. But I do want to verify that she walks her own talk. This a very simple step that anybody can take through the searchable OFA database at http://offa.org.

First, we need the names of the puppy’s parents.

Oh, wait. Their registered names are not provided. No names are given at all, just a personality-less label of “dam” and “sire.”

No matter! You can search the OFA database by partial name, and narrow your results by breed if necessary. If you search by kennel name, this might bring up a LOT of results that you’ll then need to wade through, but sometimes also reveals just how seriously a kennel takes health testing. For example, is every breeding adult thoroughly tested before breeding, or only sporadically when something arises? Sometimes searching by kennel name will also show where a kennel has been as far as breed history, though you’ll want to be careful that you’re not conflating multiple, separate breeders especially if the kennel name consists of fairly common terms like “rock” or “ice” or something.

Back to our hypothetical search, our results for this kennel are as follows…

Though she doesn’t mention it on her Shiba website, we find that she’s into Basenjis and Poodles as well. While it is not a bad thing in and of itself for your breeder to have a history with multiple breeds (particularly if they are not simultaneous ventures), what is somewhat incriminating about this result is that there is only a single entry for our hypothetical breed of interest, the Shiba Inu.

One Shiba was tested for one set of hips, when the dog was about 5 years old in 2005. So unless this now 11-year-old dog is the sire (and the pictures of her shiba studs allow us to determine that he’s not), this breeder appears to be charging premium rates for a puppy that has no record of health testing. Though she has a whole page arguing that the high price of a pet quality puppy is due to her “personal experience” with “very expensive” tests, why does she offer no evidence that she has completed the most basic tests to demonstrate the genetic integrity of her breeding dogs? What gives?

Something doesn’t quite add up…

Now, there are a couple of reasons that health tests may not be found in the OFA. With most of the tests, breeders elect to submit their results, and they also have the option of not publishing aberrant results. So it is possible that the breeder still took the trouble to test, but decided to keep their results out of the public database for some reason.

As a puppy buyer, it is in your best interest to regard an absence of public records as if the testing was never done, which is the most likely reason that the results are not found. If you don’t want to jump to conclusions, ask the breeder for the direct link that provides positive proof of testing, as it’s also possible that the dogs are listed under something other than their registered names or there’s some compelling reason that the results haven’t been submitted (although I would also wonder why they have chosen to withhold information that would help form a more complete picture of the overall health of the breed).

However, some tests MUST be published, even if they reveal less than desirable results. DNA tests for Fanconi Syndrome, a hereditary, recessive kidney disease that is most relevant to the Basenji breed, are always published, so if the results are not there, the testing was never done. This is an incurable disease that can potentially be eradicated with selective breeding, but can also be fatal if dogs are bred with the right combination of ignorance and misfortune, so the results are too important to hide.

Thus, with these results, we can also see that this breeder had a Basenji bitch that is a probable carrier of Fanconi, who was bred to another carrier to produce a Fanconi affected pup in January 2009, which was well after the DNA linkage test for Fanconi was made available. Note that the Fanconi affected pup is unnamed in the database, so she won’t appear if you search the OFA database for this breeder’s kennel name. Had all her breeding dogs been tested before breeding, and had she been more careful about holding off on litters until the results were in, this tragedy — which is not an isolated incidence — could have been prevented.

What was all that talk about how these onerous, expensive health tests help justify her outrageous prices for a puppy? If this was what you found after you did your research, would you walk away? or do you continue to give the seller the benefit of the doubt and do some more research?

Step five: Cross-reference the breeder’s name, kennel name, and address with USDA registration databases

For a number of reasons that I and plenty of other people have tried to pound home, USDA licensed dog breeders are bad news. The more that this connection is made public, the less eager these breeders will be to advertise their certification as if it was a badge of honor, as this breeder does. So the more it will be necessary for puppy buyers to take this extra check and verify for themselves that they’re not dealing with Class A/B professional puppy peddlers.

For the record, state licensing does not mean the same thing as USDA licensing. As kennel licensing requirements vary from state to state, and not all of them indicate wholesale dog brokering, I am not able to speak on that level. But I can tell you that the lives of these dogs mean very little in the eyes of federal law. Given that, here are two lists of USDA licensed breeders and brokers from the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) site:

Class A breeders
Class B breeders and brokers

On her website, this breeder claims that she is not required to be USDA licensed, she just prefers it since she feels that “any facility holding animals for any purpose should be USDA (federal) licensed, with no exceptions,” though she doesn’t really explain her rationale. As of my latest search, you can find her name on the USDA list of Class B breeders. You are required to have a B license if you are brokering animals that you did not breed yourself, an option which opens the pathway for acquiring dogs — many, many dogs — from questionable sources.

Since she also runs an “Adoption Center” for which she claims she has not chosen to file 501(C)(3) status so she can willfully continue paying taxes like the responsible state citizen she portrays herself to be, one can see where such USDA licensing may actually be required. I also don’t know of any “adoption center” that contractually obligates its adoptees to be on NuVet supplements for their whole life, but that’s yet another diversion…

Anyway, just how many dogs are we talking about here? This is when it’s handy to know the online, public, searchable database for APHIS inspection reports, accessible here at http://acissearch.aphis.usda.gov/LPASearch/faces/CustomerSearch.jspx

Huh. Well, that’s interesting. Her license is currently… cancelled. Note that the USDA database does not distinguish between a license that they cancelled or a license that was not renewed. At this point, I would click on the tab for Inspection Information:

And click the DETAILS on a recent report to unfold the results within the search window:

The database has a useful feature that shows how many animals were on the property at the time of inspection. In this case, the above screenshot reveals that there were 129 adult dogs, 14 puppies, and 2 bears (!) on the property at the time of the last inspection in 2009. Inspection reports are also downloadable as .pdf files, like this. So you can also peruse the details of the non-compliant conditions in which these dogs were unfortunate enough to be found living in, and marvel at the flat tone of reproach that the USDA takes in documenting these violations.

For example, on the date of this inspection, spilled, damp, molding food was found in the main food storage area, a problem which affected 68 animals (dogs). The USDA inspector cited this and entered the comment, “This does not protect the health and well being of the animals.”

I know this is standard boilerplate that all inspectors include in their reports, which are meant to be bureaucratic documentation and not impassioned works of literary merit. But every time I read this mechanical, generic line, I want to scream, No shit, Sherlock.

My point here is that just because this operation is legal, it doesn’t necessarily clear my test of conscience. Certainly, there is no magical dog-to-person ratio that marks the threshold between a “responsible” breeder and a “puppy mill.” Yet I know the amount of energy that my partner and I have to put into giving our two dogs a quality of life that I consider acceptable — and these are two, non-breeding, fully mature dogs. After a point, feats of lunacy would be required to justify the quality of life afforded to dogs at some of these commercial breeding facilities.

Step Six: Consult with other breed enthusiasts.

Ideally, this step would be the first you take. However, I’m slotting it further down in our hypothetical search in full awareness that we don’t all find our puppies under “ideal” circumstances. Perhaps you get to a point where you’ve done all the preliminary research on your own, you’ve gone through all the steps above, and you’re not finding anything that makes you swing hard either in favor of or against a specific breeder. What if you can’t seem to uncover any info, either positive or negative, on a breeder that you’re considering?

Again, Google is your friend. Use this tool to help you locate the parent club for your breed (like the National Shiba Club of America or Basenji Club of America), and/or a local breed-specific club (like the Basenji Club of Northern California or Shiba Fanciers of Northern California). See if they have contact information for breeder referrals or an education and outreach liaison. The best parent club websites are open and generous with their riches (like breed-specific health information), and that knowledge is there for anyone interested in the breed, not just for show dogs or club members.

27 September 2011

Find a breed-specific forum for what you’re interested in. I happen to have benefited immensely from two very active message forums for my favored breeds, the Shiba Inu Forum and Basenji Forum. You don’t need to wait until you have your puppy in order to join; many have joined even during the research and shopping phases. If you ask forum members to rate a breeder on either of these sites, you will usually get feedback that is precise, honest, and reasoned. Heed the advice of others who have seen more than you, and keep an open mind, especially if it comes to criticism of a kennel that you’ve all but married.

I have sometimes seen individuals take criticism of “their” breeder way too personally. But the object of scrutiny really isn’t the puppy buyer — that’s the breeder’s job. Where you got your puppy has nothing to do with your potential as a good dog owner, unless you make an ass of yourself by ignoring the cold, hard, documented facts and stomping all over the bigger picture of a breed you claim to love. I start by presuming innocence on the part of the consumer, but also on the part of the puppies, who were willed into existence by a breeder with an agenda.

Whether that agenda supports individual conceit, delusions, and financial self-preservation, or accounts for the long-term and overall welfare of the breed makes a huge difference.

Returning to our hypothetical search, and reviewing what I’ve laid out here, I am comfortable concluding that this is not a breeder whose operation I would choose to support. Yes, I’ve reached a judgment sitting at my computer without bothering to call or e-mail or visit the breeder. Is that fair? From the perspective of a consumer who’s trying to make the most of my own time and resources, I think so. Why should I be the one to bend over backwards to make excuses for a breeder who doesn’t pass muster, just because they happen to have a single “gorgeous” puppy? Any rational buyer would have stopped this search and moved on long ago. But for the sake of finishing out this hypothetical search, I’ll move onto my final step.

Step Seven: Map out directions to the breeder’s kennel, and GO THERE.

Ultimately, even though there are a number of valuable tools to be found online, the amount of research you can do from the comfort of your own home will always be limited when you’re talking about living creatures who can’t be converted into bytes and pixels. Buying a puppy online and having him shipped directly to your nearest airport is certainly convenient, but I cannot think of any situation where this is preferable to an in-person visit.

I’m pretty far from this kennel in our hypothetical search, but Google Maps puts the distance into perspective. It would take about 32 hours to get from here to there. Realistically, no sane person would attempt that in one continuous drive. You’d have to make a road trip of it and there would be more planning involved, but honestly, what does this trip of 5 or 6 days matter when you’re talking about 5000 days or more in the lifetime of a well bred, genetically sound, happily raised pet?

So go out there and see the facility for yourself — with an appointment, of course, which your breeder should be more than happy to schedule. Meet the people behind the operation, family and “staff” included. Meet the parents of your puppy (if both are on the premises, which may not always be the case usually for the sire — and that’s fine). Meet all the other dogs that the breeder keeps to get an idea of their quality of life and the standard of care your breeder strives to achieve. See where they sleep and defecate (hopefully it’s not the same pen). Ask your breeder to physically demonstrate how she handles things like grooming, nail clipping, feeding, monitoring rough puppy play and other social interactions, etc.

And try to determine for yourself, with your best people judgment, if this is a breeder whom you’re comfortable communicating with for the rest of your pup’s natural life. Shiba and basenji puppies are hard, and you’ll need all the allies you can get! If you can start off on the right foot even before your puppy is born, you’ll have that much more energy to devote to the love of your dog.

8 June 2010. Bowdu and Bowpi thank you for reading this very long entry.

—

Here’s a summary of websites and links for those who didn’t feel like reading everything, with a couple others thrown in for good measure:

Useless sites:
These sites are either far too commercial or generalized in nature, and therefore cannot provide the best guidance or information. While I don’t believe that all breeders who advertise online are automatically “bad,” space and formatting constraints imposed on some sites means that every single one is worthy of further investigation — the very reason I felt compelled to write this entry in the first place.

• Puppyfind.com
  ~ charges fees for buyers and sellers to contact each other, poor breed-specific guidance
• K9stud.com, Nextdaypets.com, Terrificpets.com, Animaroo.com, PurebredBreeders.com, etc.
  ~ ditto above
• eBay Classifieds / Kijiji
  ~ very disappointing to me that eBay, which once enforced a policy against animal sales on its main auction site, decided to foster another venue for this to continue unabated; after all, even Craigslist has some checks in place to monitor against the most flagrant animal sales!
• Yahoo Answers
  ~ the quality of questions and advice given on this forum frequently makes me despair… please seek your expert advice elsewhere

Public Databases and links of general use:

• Orthopedic Foundation for Animals: http://www.offa.org
  ~ a publicly searchable database that SHOULD include information for your puppy’s dam and sire!
• AKC reports: http://www.akc.org/store/reports/index.cfm
  ~ reports must be purchased for an exorbitant fee that impedes true research, but some limited information is available for free
• PupQuest: http://pupquest.org/index.php
  ~ educational portal aimed at teaching the public to be “puppy-source savvy”
• USDA Class A Certification holders: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_welfare/efoia/downloads/reports/A_cert_holders.txt
• USDA Class B Certification holders: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_welfare/efoia/downloads/reports/B_cert_holders.txt
• APHIS database of USDA licensed kennel inspection reports: http://acissearch.aphis.usda.gov/LPASearch/faces/CustomerSearch.jspx
• Top Ten Questions Prospective Purebred Pet Owners Should Ask Breeders Before Buying: http://www.petmd.com/blogs/fullyvetted/2011/may/top_ten_questions_for_purebred_breeders
• Buying a Puppy? Google is Your Friend: http://desertwindhounds.blogspot.com/2011/02/buying-puppy-google-is-your-friend.html

Breed specific resources:

Shiba Inu:

• The Shiba Inu Forum: http://www.shibainuforum.org
  ~ free registration required to view some protected threads
• Dogster Shiba Inu Forum: http://www.dogster.com/forums/shiba_inu
  ~ free and open to all
• Shiba Inu Puppycam Forum: http://puppycam.yuku.com
  ~ free registration required to participate
• National Shiba Club of America: http://www.shibas.org
• Shiba Fanciers of Northern California: http://www.sfnc.org
  ~ an example of a regional breed club — look for one in your area
• The Misanthropic Shiba: http://shibainus.ca/chapter-00-the-misanthropic-shiba/
  ~ before purchasing, pay close attention to the chapter on Shiba Inu Breeders

Basenji:

• The Basenji Forum: http://www.basenjiforums.com
  ~ registration is free
• The Basenji Companions: http://basenjicompanions.org/board.html
  ~ requires annual membership to participate in active E-mail list
• Basenji Rescue and Transport (BRAT) Chat List: http://www.basenjirescue.org/
  ~ general discussion list open to the wide network of basenji rescue volunteers – complete a volunteer application for an invitation to join
• Basenji Club of America: http://www.basenji.org
• Basenji Club of Northern California: http://www.norcalbasenjis.org/
  ~ example of a regional breed club — look for one in your area
• Basenji Pedigree Search: http://www.pedigrees.zandebasenjis.com/
  ~ public database of Basenji pedigrees provided by Sally Wallis and Zande Basenjis, which includes limited health information
• Buying a Basenji: http://kineticbasenjis.tripod.com/Information/Buying_a_Basenji.html

One final suggestion: please consider rescue, even if you’re looking specifically for a puppy. Within this past month, litters of both Shiba and Basenji puppies (less than 4 months old) became available through rescue — and this is to say nothing of adorable mixes that are available every single day. The House of Two Bows keeps a list of breed-specific and all-breed rescues on our blogroll. Consult the sidebar to further expand your options.

The puppy mills that don’t look like puppy mills

Tags

animal cruelty, animal welfare, breeders, commercial breeders, english bulldogs, iowa, iowa voters for companion animals, madonna of the mills, pet stores, puppies, puppy mills, shiba inu, usda

Now that HBO has premiered Madonna of the Mills, we’re a step closer to leading everyone (or at least a segment of the TV-viewing population) to understand that pet store puppies come from horrid, festering, disgusting, putrid kennels. But what about the breeders that pet owners have so carefully “researched” online to make sure that they’re not dealing with the worst of the worst? What about the puppies that come from family farms located in the peaceful cornfields of the American Midwest? Surely nothing that horrendous could come from such idyllic locales. After all, these breeders send digital pictures and videos to “prove” that their puppies have been socialized with children, come from a clean home, and most important of all, are cute. Besides, why would the USDA be willing to license and inspect so many breeders if they were all puppy mills? Aren’t laws helpful, and doesn’t regulation and control ensure quality standards?

When we divert the “puppy mill problem” to the Amish or the Mennonites or pet stores or a few notorious states or poo-mixes, it’s easy to delude ourselves into thinking that the problem doesn’t concern us. But this corrupt, ineffective, and broken system continues because we’re still not paying close enough attention and we’re excusing our rash purchases with our love — our love for the one puppy we couldn’t resist, our personal claims on a breed, our unwillingness to admit the frailties of our own, precious egos.

Meanwhile, some breeds should urge us to a heightened degree of sensitivity. While virtually no breed is invulnerable to puppy mills of the past and present, I’m writing today’s doozy of an entry from a personal perspective of concern for what I’ve observed with the Shiba Inu. Despite their devilish reputation, Shibas are just too cute for their own good. As relatively recent AKC-approved breed that is steadily increasing in popularity, Shibas have fallen victim to commercial breeders at a rapid slide. They’re compact in size and easy to market, which makes them coveted “stock” with puppy mills. And there’s no way to even begin cleaning things up unless we can somehow peel back and demystify the layers of the problem.

A Shiba Inu removed from a Class A breeder in Iowa following a raid on March 15, 2010. This was one of 125 adults and 13 puppies on the premises. Though federal inspectors drew up a 10-page inspection report listing 21 violations, it was deemed that the dogs were being properly cared for and they were returned to the breeder. (Photo credit: The Gazette, KCRG News, http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/87735032.html)

Those of us who live in our happy hoo-hah urban centers or certain regions of the United States/the world may never have seen a puppy mill except on television or in images that tend to tout the worst. I also grant that USDA licensing means different things in different areas. My current state of residence, for example, is not a known puppy mill state. As befits our "high tech" reputation, however, California does seem to specialize in breeding facilities for non-human primates that are sold for laboratory research use. Florida, as another point of comparison, is prime breeding ground for exotics such as sugar gliders, reptiles, pet marmosets, and others. USDA licenses are even granted to a few legitimate conservatories for rare and wild species.

When we're talking about the American heartland, USDA licensed breeders are more often dealing in puppies. Lots of them at a time.

Since I had some time to kill on my multi-day drive across the country, since I had the freedom to choose a meandering route, and since I was curious and wanted to understand how an environment could give rise to and foster something that I find so deeply problematic, I took several hours out of my way to embark on a Midwest Puppy Mill [de]tour. Armed simply with directions from Google Maps, published lists of Class A and Class B certification holders, and my own accumulated knowledge of where Shibas are coming from, I embarked on a mission to see, smell, hear, and to witness for myself what counts as a USDA certified facility.

Sounds like a delightful way to spend one’s vacation, huh?

This whole thing was thrown together at the last minute, with little planning, so I didn’t get very in-depth. But with a long enough drive, even a superficial experience will unravel into several thousand words.

Distribution of puppy mills by county in Iowa (image source: Iowa Voters for Companion Animals, http://www.iavotersforcompanionanimals.org/puppyMills_map.html)

I got this idea when I first hit Iowa, a state I associate with a fairly active group of lobbyists and advocates to counter the high volume of puppy mills. There are quite a few Shiba Inu breeders in the state. Several are registered with the USDA. I selected one address in Lee County that I know deals in Shibas, and drove south off I-80.

A little over an hour later, I found myself on a state highway at my target destination. Drive just a smidge faster than the posted speed limits, and you’ll blow through the town within minutes. With an official population of 130, 100% white, suffice to say that I stood out as an obvious outsider. It was also easy to find the USDA Class A breeder that I was looking for, as Damming Farms* is conveniently located right across from the sign announcing the town limits.

It looks like a beautiful home, located in the midst of flourishing corn and soy crops. The building that the Damming’s website describes as “the puppy house” is located in a separate, stand-alone structure. Curiously, and not mentioned on their website, there was another identically-designed structure right behind that, leading me to wonder if there was not just one puppy house, but two, indicating the volume at which this breeder produces puppies.

However, this was not at all the image of a “puppy mill” that I had in mind. And furthermore, it was eerily silent, for what I thought it was. Perhaps this was owing to the time of day, as the outdoors temperature was somewhere in the drowsy 80’s. At any rate, aside from the goosebumps of being gawked at when I stopped at the town gas station for a cup of coffee, it was turning out to be a pretty dull adventure so far, so I decided to find someplace to contemplate my next move.

I drove to a nearby baseball field, where I parked my car and pulled out my lunch. I savored the quiet, and tried to imagine the advantages of growing up in this landscape. At some point during my contemplation, someone returned to the Damming farm, raising up a significant frenzy of yapping dogs — most of them quite small, from the sounds of it. There were too many for me to distinguish just how many were barking at once, and since I was situated at a distance, the sounds were not as clear as they could have been. But that piercing, shrilling, almost frantic pack of unseen dogs left an impression on me, an audio confirmation of what I knew was in those buildings.

The least I can say is that the dogs don’t bark continuously. Their neighbors would not stand for it, I think. Their neighbors also surely consider them fine folks, because the Dammings are a prominent local family, probably with deep investments and long roots in this tiny community. They have a damn street in town named after them, after all. Protected by this veneer of being upstanding, down-home citizens, they’ll never be called out for what they do. Nobody in their community would ever think to condemn what they do as exploitative. They’ve just been handsomely successful at making a living and providing for their families.

On the backs of a couple dozen dogs.

Welcome to the Midwest.

I’d seen and heard enough. I got in my car and continued driving West, quietly digesting what I had just seen.

It wasn’t until I got home that I finally looked up how many dogs they had. My guess of a couple dozen dogs and puppies was low, by manifold. There were actually 90 adult dogs and 40 puppies there, according to a USDA inspection report dated October 4, 2010. Apparently, you can cram a lot of dogs into a relatively limited area if the dogs are small to begin with, and if they’re not given any excess space.

Now, had I traveled the other way down the highway, I would have run into a neighboring town that is the site of a USDA Class B breeder whom I’ll call Lithopolis.* Earlier this year, Lithopolis housed more dogs than the population of the entire town. I kid you not. 1200 adult dogs and puppies according to a May 2011 inspection report, whereas the town’s listed population doesn’t even crack four digits.

But something happened between May and July, when another inspection was conducted. Within two months time, Lithopolis had gotten rid of nearly a thousand dogs, “downsizing” to a “mere” 228 adult dogs on his premises. When a puppy miller moves that many dogs at once, I get nervous… especially when I fear that they may be considering a strategic departure from the bully breeds they were familiar with, and creeping towards a growing interest in our beloved Shiba Inu.

By coincidence or by design, a Damming Farm co-breeder lives in the same town as Lithopolis. She doesn’t have a separate USDA registration on file, since she handles only the Shiba Inu for the family business. Given that her two females are pregnant for the second time this year, I wonder if she ever manages her “extra” puppies by passing them along to her neighboring USDA Class B breeder, since he professes an interest in the breed and, unlike Class A breeders, is licensed to broker sales of puppies that he didn’t produce himself.

Lithopolis' online gallery would lead you to believe they have just two handfuls of adult dogs. I guess they don't have time to post profiles for the 219 others on the premises, since they're too busy feeding and playing with and loving them all.

Since I did not see Lithopolis for myself, I can only imagine what the facilities were like. But further down West on the highway, I found another kennel that hinted at the degree of sanitary horrors I might have witnessed.

This is a Google Street View image of what I later confirmed as Randolph Farms.* I was able to match the name against the USDA lists, because they spell out the family name in stones on their front lawn. As this is an old shot from several years ago, some changes to the landscape are not represented. For one thing, the double-tiered kennel on the right exhibits some weathering. The saplings planted in front of the kennel had also grown just a little bigger to provide minimal shade and heat protection, though they do nothing to obscure the building from roadside traffic.

Like Lithopolis, Randolph Farms specializes in English Bulldogs. They also have a litter of Siberian huskies posted on Nextdaypets.com at the moment. Neither are breeds that seemed particularly well suited to life in this manner.

These kennels with a sheltered interior and a portal leading to an exposed cage are quaintly referred to in the industry as “Sundowner” type buildings (named after the original manufacturers), as if the dogs could strut onto an outdoor balcony and admire a view of golden sunset dripping over their vast, prairie home. The wire flooring is known as “Tenderfoot” flooring, as if the dogs are dancing ballerinas taking a graceful shit over heat-baked metal mesh. What these euphemistic terms mask, and what the pictures don’t divulge is how badly these kennels reek, even when someone is just casually driving by with the car windows rolled down.

Now, I don’t necessarily know how to distinguish all my farm scents, but I doubt the olfactory assault came from any nearby, invisible cows or horses or pigs. I have done some time mopping up a building that housed a large number of dogs, and while this odor didn’t exactly match, it was much closer to that memory than any manure. If just one of these Sundowners smells this bad, I can’t imagine how polluted the air would be with a dozen or more on the property.

Inspection reports suggest that my senses probably were not mistaken. They had been recently cited for “excessive accumulation of feces” and penning their dogs in cages that were smaller than required — which is saying quite a bit, since the USDA only requires 6 inches of additional space above the top of the animal’s head.

What struck me about this farm’s layout was its shamelessness, their willingness to put their “wares” out on roadside display, so to speak. The Randolphs don’t see what they’re doing as wrong. They’re proud to call this farm their own, stinky Sundowner and all. This mentality is what I was striving to understand as I continued through more back roads on into Nebraska. Must I have known nothing other than small town agricultural life in order to understand? Do I need a brood of human children to provide for before I can grasp the simple economics, let alone psychology, of this choice to breed and broker dogs for a living? A farmer’s gotta steel himself for the slaughter if he wants bacon for breakfast, but what kind of mental numbing must you force upon yourself to deny a species whose natural inclination is to be with humans?

From "Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Animal Care Program Inspection of Problematic Dealers," an APHIS self-audit report from May 2010, p. 52. These and even more graphic images appeal to us emotionally, as well they should. But this entry isn't meant to be a shock piece.

Numerous USDA breeder websites insist on the “joy” and the “pleasure” of having pets as their business. They drip with honeyed, vague testimonies about how well their “furbabies” are taken care of. But USDA regulations don’t promote ethical breeding practices, let alone responsible pet care; they basically provide for the minimum biological functions for penned livestock, and that’s it. There’s little incentive and not enough resources for puppy farmers to do more than the required minimum when they’re dealing with dozens, if not hundreds of breeding dogs at once.

The numbers alone signify such a completely different world, an entirely foreign mentality than what I know, though this mindset pervades all across the country. I know it’s not just an Iowa problem, or a Missouri problem, or a Lancaster County problem, or [insert place]. You could put a farm like this in the next county over and I’d still be aghast that the farmer and I are both human. Yet sometimes, because of where I live, it’s easy to bask in the self-assured conviction that we don’t have that kind of ugliness around here, knowing my community would quickly mobilize to purge anything like a puppy mill if it were right in our midst. But the truth is, those who’ve seeded the continued existence of puppy mills move amongst us all the time. Take this excerpt from Hearts and Sparkles* Kennels:

We started raising puppies over 15 years ago, with the help of our 3 children. Now, that our children are grown and on their own, they have started raising puppies, as well.

At first we sold our puppies to pet stores (mainly on the east & west coasts) and privately to people in our area. Lately, however, we have received many inquires from people who have purchased our puppies from those pet stores, wondering if they and their friends could buy puppies directly from us. The answer is obviously “YES!” and so here we are on the World Wide Web.

In these fifteen years, the internet has drastically changed the rules of engagement. Had the puppies stayed within these quiet little agricultural communities, perhaps my outrage, as an outsider, would be misplaced. But because the coasts and the Midwest are bridged by this traffic in puppies, and because they are just as complicit as we are (enthusiastically so!), I can’t say I feel any remorse about letting my city slicker coastal values hitchhike along with the dollars.

Or rather, my values tell me that I do not want my dollars to go to puppy producers whose standards fall so, so far short of my own. It’s just not worth it.

On one hand, the internet makes it easier to publicize the evils behind pet store pups and for dog lovers to network and confront the more public, commercial faces of the problem. On the other hand, the internet has also empowered individuals with the satisfaction of claiming ourselves as authorities, patting ourselves on the back for all the online “research” we’ve done on our chosen breed. You can’t boycott an individual, much less monitor the private desires of those who have invested months or years of their own precious time into making their dreams a living, wriggling, purchasable reality.

But you can attempt to reach out, and educate. Teach each other how to do some honest research, and also how research is an ongoing process. The one phrase that most often flusters me is “But I’ve done my research,” especially when it’s lobbied as a defense of one’s poor decisions (these are also my cranky graduate student instructor horns sprouting). Research is never “done” or completed. Now, I don’t even have the luxury of allowing myself that excuse when it came to how we acquired Bowdu, and I often feel like I’ll need to spend a lifetime atoning for my and others’ ignorance.

Yet, the beautiful thing is that once you know, you can’t really turn back. It takes a lot of effort or trauma to unknow something.

I’d rather take my knowledge along in search of more hopeful horizons.

This was a more personal account of a topic that I’ll write more about later. In the next part, I’ll provide a better organized list of resources on how one can use the internet to research a breeder they’re considering (some resources are already embedded above, though there are definitely a few others).

Meanwhile, if you have HBO (which we don’t at the House of Two Bows, let alone a television), you can catch Madonna of the Mills again this Sunday, and several times afterward. Please check the official website for the schedule.

* Names changed not to protect the innocent, but because I can’t stand to give advertising to the puppy mills that I would rather see go out of business. The diligent or curious should have no trouble looking up any of my references. Or you can just ask.

LINKS: Breeder sites on hypothyroidism

Tags

basenji, breeders, canine hypothyroidism, health tests, orthopedic foundation for animals, rhodesian ridgebacks, shetland sheepdogs, thyroids

Photo taken 1 March 2011

I first heard about canine hypothyroidism from Basenji people. With a current rank of #29 on the the list of breeds at risk for thyroid disease according to statistics compiled by the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals, and #35 according to Michigan State University, Basenji breeders had reason to be concerned. No, they don’t top the list, nor is that an enviable position to be in (that honor goes to the English Setter). But if even one out of every 10 dogs was showing abnormalities in a condition that could be screened, seems like it’s worth the test to me.

So it looks like responsible breeders were and have long been testing thyroids. And breeder websites have been where I have found some of the most informative, publicly-accessible information on hypothyroidism and canine thyroid health. Here are some of the links that I have found to be helpful.

Apu’s Basenjis: Basenji Health
– Karen Christensen, who provided the article on Apu’s page, also wrote up an article for the New York-based Rip Van Wrinkle Basenji club magazine, The Wrinkler. A .pdf is available here.

sinbajé basenjis: Thyroid Problems of the Basenji Dog.
– As far as breeder sites go, this is one of the most well done that I’ve seen, hitting a perfect mix of personal and professional, providing a ton of great information without cluttered design.

Revodana Ridgebacks: Talking About Thyroid: Everything you didn’t know you needed to know
– via a breeder of Rhodesian Ridgebacks. The article is directed primarily at breeders, but also useful in differentiating all the different available tests.

Moonstruck Meadows: Canine Health Testing: OFA Thyroid Tests
– via a breeder of Shetland Sheepdogs, what to look for in proof that a breeder has done proper testing on a dog.

I’m sure there are more out there, but this is enough for now.

Shiba Inu & breed-specific profiles for aggression

Tags

aggression, akita, breeders, canine genetics, canine hypothyroidism, ethology, health tests, hemopet, shiba inu, thyroids, veterinary endocrinology, yukari takeuchi

I hope that breeders and those with any interest in behavioral issues in Nihon Ken are following and taking notice of Dr. Yukari Takeuchi’s work (武内　ゆかり, DVM, PhD). Takeuchi is at the University of Tokyo’s Laboratory of Ethology, and has done extensive research on genetic linkages and manifestations of aggression by breeds, with special attention to native Japanese breeds like the Akita and Shiba Inu.

In a 2006 report surveying a broad range of breeds, “A Comparison of the Behavioral Profiles of Purebred Dogs in Japan to Profiles of those in the United States and the United Kingdom,” Shiba were found to be ranked higher than average in aggressive behavior towards other dogs, watchdog barking, territorial defense, and snapping at children. They were clustered in a group known to have “high aggression, high reactivity, and medium trainability” along with the likes of Pomeranians, American Cocker Spaniels, Yorkshire Terriers, Irish Setters, Maltese, Pugs, Mini Schnauzers, Mini Dachshund, and others. The tag “medium trainability” says to me that Shibas may potentially have these unfavorable behaviors trained out of them, bringing home the point that socialization is key.

In another article from 2009, “Association analysis between canine behavioural traits in the Shiba Inu and genetic polymorphisms,” (Takeuchi Y, Kaneko F, Hashizume C, Masuda K, Ogata N, Maki T, Inoue-Murayama M, Hart BL, Mori Y, Animal Genetics 40: 616-622), what I understood was that there are tentative causal links between certain genes and Shiba aggression. However, because there are many social factors that contribute to aggression, as well as many ways to define aggression, more research needs to be done.

It was also noted that the Shibas surveyed were all from Japan, where many are still kept as watchdogs, particularly in rural areas. In such cases, certain types of “aggression” as noted in the 2006 study are favorably linked to their function.

In the meantime:

The reasons and motivations for having dogs vary from owner to owner; some want a watchdog for security while others desire a companion for family members. If veterinarians working at clinics know the behavioral profiles of purebred dogs and the tendencies in gender differences shown in this [2006] study, they can more appropriately advise prospective owners. This can facilitate a better quality of human-animal bond and perhaps prevent behavioral problems due to a mismatch between dogs and owners. In addition, veterinarians should inform potential owners of the importance of understanding the pedigree line within a breed, the behavior of the dam, sire, and siblings from previous litters, and the early environment during the socialization period, as has been repeatedly emphasized in previous studies (p. 7 of the 2006 study).

Takeuchi seems to consider veterinarian expertise the first line of defense against uninformed dog owners acquiring a potentially volatile breed. This statement stems from his methodology, wherein he asked veterinarians to answer based on their familiarity with the breeds surveyed, instead of breeders and purebred dog owners. In practice, I doubt most owners consult with a veterinarian before bringing home their dog; you usually get the dog first, then bring him to the vet. But his very efforts to find a genetic basis for aggression is intriguing nevertheless. If such a clear, direct genetic factor could be located, this would put a lot more weight on the selective breeding of purebred dogs, as well as throw open a whole set of related cultural issues on why breeders select for the temperaments and the individual dogs that they do.

I also find it interesting that a number of breeds considered to be “highly aggressive” also rank relatively highly on the Michigan State University’s charts for breeds at risk for thyroid disorders. Specifically, I’m looking at Maltese (#9, 16.5% autoimmune thyroiditis), Beagles (#10, 16.5%), Dalmatians (#11, 16.3%), Cocker Spaniels (#13, 15.7%), Irish Setters (#25, 12.6%), all grouped in the same cluster as Shiba Inu. In another cluster of dogs with “high aggression, low reactivity, high trainability,” there are breeds like the Boxer (#6, 18%.0), Great Dane (#36, 10.1%), Akita (#46, 8.6%), and Doberman Pinscher (#50, 8.4%). A lot of the smaller breeds rank pretty far down the list, like Yorkies and Pomeranians, which matches what I understand about hypothyroidism usually affecting medium to large-sized dogs.

But the notable overlaps make me wonder if a statistical correlation between breeds documented to be “aggressive” and thyroid disorders could be made even clearer by someone else with more rigorous analytical methods. While there is a lot of online and anecdotal information about hypothyroidism as an underlying factor contributing to aggression and behavioral changes in dogs (I’m thinking in particular about the work of Dr. Jean Dodds who presented her findings at the 1996 International Symposium on Canine Hypothyroidism), American DVMs seem to downplay the link between hypothyroidism and aggression, and there hasn’t been much published information in peer-reviewed journals echoing Jean Dodd’s findings.

Considering that 1996 wasn’t that long ago, in my mind, and that was the first (and only!) large-scale conference on canine hypothyroidism to have appeared in my searches, I bet more work can still be done. I just hope the specialists are talking to each other, and not content to let endocrinologists do their own thing, while ethologists do their own thing, and dermatologists and neurologists and hematologists and so forth are not limiting themselves to the information immediately at hand.

Hypothyroidism and thyroid testing

Tags

aggression, basenji, breeders, canine hypothyroidism, health registration, lick granulomas, michigan state university, orthopedic foundation for animals, shiba inu, temaril-p, thyroids

Aside from more antibiotics for Bowdu’s feet, I’m asking my vet to test his thyroid levels based on the following observations:

Photo taken 14 July 2010

— Bowdu’s been more lethargic for some time now. This could be the side effect of Temaril-P, but his energy levels have obviously not been the same. He tires quickly on long walks, and will take advantage of a pause to lie down and rest, if I wait too long.

Photo from 17 August 2010

— Weight gain. He’s at 33 pounds now, up from 29 pounds last fall, about 28 pounds the year before. It’s not a super dramatic jump in weight, but he is definitely chubby though he only gets 9 nuggets of Primal Raw a day plus minimal treats.

— Skin infections. He’s been treated for infections due to broken paw pads twice now, and this upcoming visit will probably be the third, as his paw gets really swollen and pink when he does manage to lick it — believe me, we’re trying to make sure he doesn’t!

Photo taken 7 August 2010

— Hair loss. His tail is still quite bushy, no “rat’s tail”, but there’s been significant hair loss around his neck/collar area, though he hasn’t been scratching himself there excessively. This could be due to the plastic cone or seasonal coat changes. The main thing is that his skin itself doesn’t appear to be marked, but his hair has been falling right out as if the follicles no longer hold.

— Musky, distinctive “dog” odor. He’s a shiba! He usually NEVER smells like this!

Photo taken 13 July 2010

— Discoloration of the skin, especially inside of his thighs and armpits. I’m not sure what color the skin turns on dogs with thyroid problems. His is currently very pink and even dark gray/black in some spots. Obviously, the primary reason for his black, calloused skin is due to him licking himself, like his front left paw above (the photo was taken when it was at his worst). But I wonder if his skin would’ve gotten as dark as it did if there wasn’t something else going on? I don’t know.

Photo taken 4 April 2010

— Dry, brittle hair. This is more evident by touch than by photos, because he still looks so fluffy most of the time. His back and chest are fine, but the fur on his back legs/thigh is pretty rough. I was thinking that his fur is often like this in the summer, so again, it may be more associated with seasonal coat changes and not necessarily hypothyroidism. However, I dug up a picture from earlier in the year that gives a good visual indication of the dryness of his fur, shown above. Bowpi had been with us for less than two weeks, he had just started on Temaril-P and his paws were not yet calloused though if I recall, the black spots had just started to appear on his digits.

— Erratic behavior. Granted, Bowdu’s generally pretty “cranky,” to the point where we joke about him being a “Grumpy Old Man” or a “Hothead.” But looking at the scar on my wrist from a bite that’s still healing, I’m wondering if there could be a medical explanation for his bouts of violence.

I haven’t written much about this, because it’s complex and a touchy subject and one of the most difficult things to discuss about our shiba. The short version is that he has been known to bite. What leads up to the bite is usually quite easy to explain. In this particular instance, I was trying to dissuade him from licking his foot and I came up on him far too quickly and physically startled him — it was very poor judgment on my part. But he has not always been so quick to retaliate with his teeth. On the other hand, his relationship with Bowpi has only improved over time, so I’m not sure how to explain his behavioral changes. One commentator, Marie, over at Inu Baka (a wonderful multi-dog shiba blog, whose author has been pondering hypothyroidism as well) noted that “Thyroid issues are a very common problem in akitas. So common that for any aggressive akita the first thing we recommend in rescue is to do a thyroid test.” Which leads me to my last bullet point.

— Breed prevalence of hypothyroidism? It is prevalent enough in Akitas that it is noted. The National Shiba Club of America describes hypothyroidism as “not uncommon” in Shibas. But it is disappointing that Shiba breeders as a group don’t consider it notable enough to test or register thyroid health, as they don’t even crack the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals list for breeds having at least 50 evaluations between January 1974 through December 2009. To be fair, Shiba Inu were not recognized by the AKC until 1992, but that still leaves a lot of time for them to have accumulated 50 thyroid evaluations from US breeders, especially if the national breed club association has noted it to be a health issue of possible concern. The Akita is on the list, with 77.6% out of 415 testing normal for thyroids. So are Basenji, with 82.9% normal out of 251.

In fact, I first heard about thyroids being linked to behavioral as well as skin problems from Basenji folks. Kudos to Basenji breeders for being proactive about registering thyroid (as well as Fanconi!) information with the OFA, and making that an integral part of responsible breeding practices. As I hear more and more about Shibas with thyroid problems, I’m hoping that Shiba breeders will do the same, if only to help formulate a more complete breed profile.

EDIT 19 August 2010: I just found the .pdf file from the Diagnostic Center for Population and Animal Health at Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI) breaking down thyroid statistics by breed. This file was not appearing on the OFA website when I checked.

It’s located here:
http://www.animalhealth.msu.edu/Sections/Endocrinology/

Scroll down to the file “Canine Thyroid Registry Information.”

The stats are up through 2005. Of 305 Shiba tested, 2.3% tested for autoimmune thyroiditis and 3.0% were equivocal. That puts them at rank 127 of 140 breeds.

Akita, by contrast, at rank #46:
2673 Akita tested, 8.6% autoimmune thyroiditis, 8.2% equivocal.

Basenji are ranked at #35:
741 Basenji tested, 10.8% autoimmune thyroiditis, 5.5% equivocal.

Some breeds from the MSU list show significant discrepancies as compared to the OFA testings.