Pros and Cons of Inbreeding

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Pat McLain wrote:

Tess knows 'come here', 'sit', 'no', 'out' (she will either go to the door or look at the door, depending how urgent her need is), 'water?' (if you ask if she wants water, she will go into the kitchen), 'treat?' (this one makes her eager!) she also knows what 'stop it' means, 'bed' (she will go to her pillow behind the couch), and while at the vet clinic, she learned 'kennel' (meant she had to return to her kennel) and 'up'. I am having trouble with 'down' and 'stay', which I presume is age related...she will sometimes heed down when she is jumping up! but I think I messed up here, since she is connecting it with -get down you- off people or off the furniture, but I have no idea now how to teach her to lie down on command and stay put!

One thing I've noticed is that once you impress on her that 'no!' don't touch the cat food, or the trash or whatever, that now I only have to say 'no!' once and she will leave it alone...pretty neat, huh? even if it is something she wants badly..she won't touch it..first dog I've had that isn't sneaky about taking things you don't want them to have behind your back...... PatinMO Shepherd's Glen Farm

"When you are right no one remembers; when you are wrong no one forgets." Irish Proverb

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I put my article up on themestream, come have a look! http://www.themestream.com/articles/293534.html?pid=002401000001

I would love to hear of similar experiences with inbreeding.

Elaine

-- elaine reynolds (horses@newmex.com), January 18, 2001

Answers

The same results can be done with good breeding and training . You must remember you also double up on the bad points of the parents .

-- Patty (fodfarms@slic.com), January 18, 2001.

I thought this post was going to be about humans! LOL

-- Jason (AJAMA5@netscape.net), January 18, 2001.

Jason, I think this title relates to an old saying -- You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink.

-- JLS in NW AZ (stalkingbull007@AOL.com), January 18, 2001.

Elaine, I loved the article. If more people would read articles like it, they'd understand that inbreeding isn't always a bad thing. Sure, indiscriminate inbreeding can give bad results, but so can indiscriminate outcrossing. What I don't understand is why people seem to thnk that all recessive genes are bad, when the term refers only to the mode of inheritance and not to desirability. Dominant genes are just as likely to be 'bad', the only difference is that you don't notice the recessive genes unless they become homozygous, as they would with inbreeding. I breed goats not dogs, but am becoming more and more convinced of the advantages of careful inbreeding, preferably with records kept to be able to keep track of which traits are dominant and recessive.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), January 18, 2001.

I thought you were talking about my neighbors.

-- Nick (wildheart@ekyol.com), January 18, 2001.


Any discussion on inbreeding needs to include S. IN (my neighbors) and Ky (Nicks). Only by seeing results can it really be appreciated. John

-- John in S. IN (jsmengel@hotmail.com), January 18, 2001.

Pit bulls are one of the most inbred dogs in the world. Alot of them sometimes have the same ancestors as their father, grandpa, great- grandpa, and so forth..I even saw the same dog mentioned 8 times! That's why the fighting gene is so hard to remove. Hog hunters have been trying to develop a pit bull that is dog friendly and people friendly for years. Alot of pit bulls who are properly socialized are people friendly due to their ancestory..they had to be removed from the pits by their owner's wife, kids, so if they bit them they were immediately put down and so were their pups. Sadly enough not enough people do that today so that's why we have problem dogs..people don't take time to train and socialize their dogs and DISCLPINE them!

As for the down command, it should've been taught after the dog already knows the sit command...what you do is say down (preferably along with a hand signal in case the dog becomes deaf with age or is deaf) then you (the dog will try to sit thinking it's what you want) gently let the dog follow the treat and if the dog doesn't go down then you put your hands on the front legs and gently pull it out so that the dog is down (with some dogs you will have to put your hands gently on the shoulders and push down at the same time) then give the dog treat after the dog is down. Do the training 5 mins...three times a day until the dog understands the command..some dogs are smarter than others but I usually start to alternate commands after the first week to teach the dog to PAY attention. After that I teach the "shake hands" signal which is fun and easy!

Ted

-- Ted Hart (tedhart71@hotmail.com), January 19, 2001.


I took a second to re-check my posting and it sort of sounded like I was supportive of dog fighting which I'm NOT! I just felt it was revelant that people need to know about the history of the breed since it's been so malignated..never could remember the spelling! :)

Ted

-- Ted Hart (tedhart71@hotmail.com), January 19, 2001.


I,ve had a pitbull in our family for the last 20 years, and I never had one of them attack another dog, cat or person.

You really need to check out what they do to these breeds to make them fighters, like placing gun powder in their food to destroy their brain cells, beat them, starve them. It's not the dogs fault it's the stupid human in charge of the dog. Just like guns! Pete on the little rascals was my favorite pit bull.

I wouldn.t stand for a mean dog! That's what they made guns for.

-- hillbilly (internethillbilly@hotmail.com), January 23, 2001.


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