This is one pitbull that was very appropriately named, ‘Angel’, especially to some abandoned kittens!

Nevada Humane Society shelter volunteers, Frank Gomez and 9-year-old stepson Joel Fontes, were out walking one of the shelter dogs, Angel, a 2 year old female pitbull/boxer, when her attention was drawn toward something in the bushes. She could not be distracted.

Finally Gomez decided to investigate to see what Angel was so obsessed with and he found a box of tiny three week old scared, hungry kittens that someone had callously dumped. The temps were in the 90s and if Angel hadn’t found the babies, it’s doubtful they would had survived.

One of the tiny kittens tried to scamper away from its would be rescuers before a shelter worker could be summoned to take the kittens to safety. Angel wasn’t having any of it! She tracked down the the tiny runaway kitten and brought it safely back where she gave it to Gomez.

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Dogs, any breed, are loyal to the end and so many have shown us that. It is fair for people to decide, because of irresponsible idiots and thugs, wanna-be toughs and gang members, that any breed is not worthy of life??

They stand by us, whether we’re rich or poor… fancy or plain… black, white, red, yellow… young or old… male or female. They do not discriminate. They are our friends and companions.

Can we do and be any less for them??

I’ll Stand By You

Denver banned pitbulls in 1989 and not too much has been heard about the ban since it’s legality was upheld in 2004, except of course for those who still fight against this prejudice. Now Denver and it’s breed ban is back in the spotlight over a dog that sits on death row awaiting his fate.

Forrest, a dog deemed a pitbull breed based on his appearance only, was found wandering the streets of Denver, for the second time in three months. Since then he has been incarcerated in the Denver Municipal Animal Shelter.

First a little background on the Forrest’s ‘escapes’;

First offense: Forrest was stolen and eventually picked up by Denver Animal Control after Chris McGahey had moved out of Denver and relocated in nearby Adams County. Chris got off with a warning when he was finally able to prove he and Forrest were not living in Denver.

Second offense: And then one day, the worst happened. Chris was preparing to move to Fort Collins (a 1.5 hour drive away from Denver) when Forrest somehow got out of his yard.

As you can see, Chris McGahey is not what you would call your typical irresponsible owner just letting his dog run at large. Chris has been faithfully visiting Forrest at the shelter every day, bringing him stew to eat and comforting and caring for him.

“I’m Forrest McGahey’s father,” McGahey said. “That’s my son. I’m going to do everything I can to save him.”

Forrest is not a vicious, mean or dangerous dog. Even Doug Kelley, the city’s director of the shelter, say that Forrest is a sweet and docile dog. But a docile demeanor doesn’t really matter under the city’s law, which calls for euthanization after a second offense except in extreme cases.

Initially McGahey was going to use DNA in hopes to prove that Forrest was not really a pitbull after three experts testified that he exhibited pitbull characteristics. That plan was scrapped because Denver doesn’t really care if a dog is really a pitbull or not, all they care is if a dog ‘looks’ like a pitbull according to their experts. It’s based on physical characteristics only, not genetic makeup.

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Ok, don’t get me wrong here, there’s nothing wrong with mutts or mixed breed dogs. They’re great! As wonderful as any pure-bred dog. My point is that you’re seeing this influx of so called ‘designer’ dogs that are nothing more then mixed breed dogs and people are selling these mutts for outrageous prices and even worse, people are paying those outrageous prices!

I read a great article this morning about just this topic and it hit the nail on the head so well. I remember when people used to just give these ‘accidents’ away or maybe sell them for $25. Then I started seeing them get ‘names’ like Peek-a-poo, Pekinese and poodle and now there’s a whole new breed of breeder out there intentionally combining breeds and giving them cute names and making a bundle. Absolutley ludicrous!

Snoodles and puggles and labradoodles… Yorkie-poos, cock-a-poos, Lhasa-poos, Peke-A-poos, Pom-a-poos, doxie-poos… bassatoodle, cockanoodle… You name it, if someone sees money it is, they’ll breed it. And people are selling these mutts for $500…. $700… and more!

And now there are a ton of registries out there that will register just about anything so these breeders can actually claim they are selling you a registered dog with papers to help to validate the outrageous price.

Sure they’re cute and sure they can make great pets, but so can just about any dog or puppy you adopt from a shelter or rescue and then you get the added satisfaction of knowing that you saved a life… as well as the satisfaction of knowing of knowing that someone’s greed didn’t put a hole in your wallet.

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Pitbulls, the most abused and maligned ‘breed’ I think there ever has been. When you take the time to look beyond the breed, beyond the hype, beyond the BS, you cannot help but be amazed.

Vicious… dangerous… You think so? Take a look….

You Can’t Bring Me Down

Last week I did an article on the most aggressive dogs breeds based on a study as the University of PA. It was an interesting study with some surprising conclusion. It found as the top three most aggressive dog breeds; the dachshund, the chihuahua and the Jack Russell terrier, respectively.

Most people do seem to agree with the findings to a degree although, obviously, there is some disagreement from owners of the breeds. I do have to admit though, even in breed and dog forums that I’ve visited, most doxie and chi owners posting seemed not to find the results too surprising.

Now, when to comes to ‘breed profiling’, which I would call this, there are many contributing factors to any dog’s temperament that I do think are over and above just breed traits.

Anyway, someone sent me an interesting twist on the ‘Top 10 Most Dangerous Breeds’ and I thought I would share it with you. Kind of interesting, amusing and again, true to a point, but this is more true than not. What do you think?

Top 10 Most Dangerous Breeds

10. Criminal Dog Owners
They vary in size, shape, color and creed. Whether urban or rural, they thrive in environments where crime does pay.

This breed may deliberately train dogs to be human aggressive. This breed has been known to shoot dogs for fun it. They fight dogs and use sweet tempered dogs as bait. Here in the New York area - they’ve been known to feed dogs ground up glass and gun power to toughen them up - you know-In case the police kick the front door - they’re out the back - and the dogs are in between.

9. Irresponsible and Ignorant Dog Owners
Characterized by a complete lack of common sense and or manners, these dog owners come in three distinct varieties - Dumb, Dumber and Plain Stupid.

However they do share the same breed traits, like complete disregard for local leash or pooper scooper laws
Stubborn, self-centered rudeness, the inability to see the potential consequences for their behavior.

So here are the three varieties:

• Dumb- When Snowball whines to go out, they throw open the front door and let her out to wander the neighborhood. Snowball is free to poop and pee wherever she likes. And if Snowball should wander into my yard and my dog defends its territory, like many dogs …….we’ve got a problem.

• Dumber - Easy to recognize, this genius nonchalantly walks their dog off leash in the neighborhood, like it’s no big deal. Well in my book - it is a big deal. How would you like it if I let my dog run up to your children off leash. Or run up to any person who may be afraid of dogs. (and BTW - I support off leash space - just not on the block). And it’s not OK if your dog takes a dump in my flowerbed, got that?

• Plain Stupid- Way short on common sense - they let their children play unattended with dogs, or let them run up to pet a stranger’s dog or get in a strange dog’s face.

8. Negligent or Abusive Dog Owners
Like sociopaths who lack basic the human trait of compassion - this all-too-common breed is well known for a lack of care or concern. They are, however, gifted and talented in the areas of neglect or cruelty.

These Gifted & Talenteds routinely fail to give their animals even the basics of food, water or shelter or fail to provide vet care. One employee of Child Services in New York has been accused of leaving his dying Akita out in the cold for weeks.

Even beating the dog is OK for these people, “it’s only a dog.” Even if it’s not their dog! Kick it if it gets in your way, wants food or attention. OK - so cruel and unusual punishment is against law, so giving them the same treatment is out. Too bad.

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Seems the smallest dogs ranked the highest when it came to human aggression, the top three being the Dachshund, then the Chihuahua and third, the Jack Russell Terrier.

The is the findings recently published by the journal of Applied Animal Behavior Science from a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania.

Dachshunds, originally bred to hunt badgers, do not have a fearsome reputation due to their size, but research found that one in five dachshunds have bitten or tried to bite strangers, and a similar number have attacked other dogs; one in 12 have snapped at their owners. This put them on top of the list of 33 breeds which were rated for their aggression, after academics analyzed the behavior of thousands of dogs.

Following closely on the heels of the Dachshund is the Chihuahua, a dog noted as the smallest breed of dog. Then the feisty Jack Russell.

Dr James Serpell, one of the researchers, said smaller breeds might be more genetically predisposed towards aggressive behaviour than larger dogs.

“Reported levels of aggression in some cases are concerning, with rates of bites or bite attempts rising as high as 20 per cent toward strangers and 30 per cent toward unfamiliar dogs,” he added.

Until now, research into canine aggression has almost exclusively involved analysis of dog bite statistics. But the researchers said these were potentially misleading as most bites were not reported. Big dogs might have acquired a reputation for being aggressive because their bites were more likely to require medical attention. (Telegraph)

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Dogs; from a pound or two to 200 pound or more, white to brown to black and all shade between, never has there been more diversity in the way any animal looks. You have meek and mild, outgoing and friendly, hunters and pointers and retrievers, herders and laps dogs and again, everything in between.

What makes dogs so different? Up until now the incredible difference and diversity has only led to question with no answers. Now, a recent study is giving us some answers to the questions.

Scientists have developed a method to identify the genetic basis for this diversity that may have far-reaching benefits for dogs and their owners.

In the cover story of tomorrow’s edition of the science journal Genetics, research reveals locations in a dog’s DNA that contain genes that scientists believe contribute to differences in body and skull shape, weight, fur color and length — and possibly even behavior, trainability and longevity.

“This exciting breakthrough, made possible by working with leaders in canine genetics, is helping us piece together the canine genome puzzle which will ultimately translate into potential benefit for dogs and their owners,” said study co-author Paul G. Jones, PhD, a Mars Veterinary™ genetics researcher at the Waltham® Centre for Pet Nutrition — part of Mars® Incorporated, a world leader in pet care that has been studying canine genetic science for the past eight years. “By applying this research approach, we may be able to decipher how genes contribute to physical or behavioral traits that affect many breeds.”

Dogs originally derived from the wolf more than 15,000 years ago — a blink of the eye in evolutionary terms. Selective breeding produced dogs with physical and behavioral traits that were well suited to the needs or desires of their human owners, such as herding or hunting ability, coat color and body and skull shape and size. This resulted in the massive variance seen among the more than 350 distinct breeds that make up today’s dog population. Until now, the genetic drivers of this diversity have intrigued scientists who have been trying to explain how and why the difference in physical and behavioral traits in dogs changed so rapidly from its wolf origins.

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Yup, I admit it, I’m one of those horrible people who love the breed! I acknowledge that they can be scary, horrible and vicious dogs… but then so can any breed that is mis-trained, poorly bred and not socialized.

Pit bulls have gotten a bad rap and horrible reputation because of people who think having ‘mean’ dogs is ‘cool’ and ‘macho’ so they train these dogs, who can be the sweetest and most loving of any, to be mean and vicious. They take out their aggression on people and other animals.

I’m not going to go into all the statistics, I just wanted to take the time to show you what too many people never see regarding the pit bull breed. The media plays up the ‘bad’ because it make for great ratings and circulation. I’d love to see them play up images like this!

In case you still don’t see it and get it….

(make sure you have your sound turned on and you can hear this)

Yup, Uno, a 15″ beagle, top dog in the hound class also took top dog in show!! Although beagles have consistently ranked in the top 10 of the most popular dog breeds since 1915, this is the first time the spunky breed has taken top honors at Westminster in the 132 year history.

Uno beat out six highly ranked pooches to take the win, a standard and toy poodle, a Sealyham terrier, an akita, a weimaraner and an Australian shepherd.

“Everything he does is correct,” said J. Donald Jones, the 75-year-old judge who bestowed the top prize for purebreds on the beagle. “This is a great dog.”

“He’s what a beagle is supposed to be,” his 29-year-old handler, Aaron Wilkerson, told reporters as Uno bayed and barked. HA merry little hound.”

Here are the AKC’s top 10 dog breeds for 2007

1. Labrador Retriever - topped the list for the 17th straight year

2. Yorkshire Terrier - held steady in 2nd place, after making news last year by displacing the Golden Retriever and German Shepherd

3. German Shepherd Dog

4. Golden Retriever

5. Beagle - the only breed consistently on the Top 10 chart since 1915

6. Boxer

7. Dachshund

8. Poodle - enjoyed a long reign as the most popular dog for 23 years (1960–1982), the longest any breed has held that position consecutively.

9. Shih Tzu

10. Bulldog - first time the Bulldog has made it onto the top ten list since 1935, first recognized by the AKC in 1886, most popular in 1915 when it peaked in fifth place, hit a low of 41st place in 1973