Stray Doodles

I don't do breeder recs because literally every time I do them- or even get this question- I get a frankly stupid amount of ridiculous drama and I'm very done with it at this point.

What I will recommend is doing your own research and making sure to buy from a breeder who is doing the following:

Fully health testing their breeding dogs. Embark! Is not! Enough! The dogs need to have their hips and elbows (shoulders preferred not required), eyes, kidneys livers and thyroids, and also most importantly have their hearts holtored and echo'd, as well as genetic tests for DINGS, vWD, and the DCM markers. ALL of these should be done, but the most important is truly the heart testing. If the heart testing is missing, I would 100% pass on that breeder. Over 50% of the breed dies from cardio problems with the majority of those deaths being DCM-related. There is no cure and no preventative or predictive method for ridding the breed of DCM, but it also causes sudden death, so doberman breeders NEED to be doing the best they can to make sure they are keeping on top of their dogs' heart health.

Some sort of breed-specific temperament testing. In dobermans there are several- the WAE, the ATT, the breed survey, some form of bitesport, some form of police/military/border patrol testing, etc. Remember that the doberman was created to be and always has been a breed for biting. "They are therapy dogs" is not breed-specific temperament testing. "They are good companions" is not breed-specific temperament testing. The breed is intended to bite. If you want a doberman, you want a dog that bites.

This requires a little pedigree knowledge, but personally I think it behooves everyone to look for breeders who are prioritizing pedigrees with higher -than-average lifespans (10+; average in the breed is 7.5 years) and who are prioritizing pairings that produce less than 30% COI. I also think you should see for yourself what the reported COD is for the dogs who have passed- any that seem very odd should be thought of as a DCM death (you wouldn't believe how many dogs in Russia are supposedly hit by lightning right at 5 years old...). Breeders that do necropsies on any dogs that die suddenly with no other explination (because otherwise it needs to count as a DCM death as that's DCM's calling card). And breeders that participate in projects related to genetic diversity and heart health.

I don't do breeder recs because literally every time I do them- or even get this question- I get a frankly stupid amount of ridiculous drama and I'm very done with it at this point.

What I will recommend is doing your own research and making sure to buy from a breeder who is doing the following:

Fully health testing their breeding dogs. Embark! Is not! Enough! The dogs need to have their hips and elbows (shoulders preferred not required), eyes, kidneys livers and thyroids, and also most importantly have their hearts holtored and echo'd, as well as genetic tests for DINGS, vWD, and the DCM markers. ALL of these should be done, but the most important is truly the heart testing. If the heart testing is missing, I would 100% pass on that breeder. Over 50% of the breed dies from cardio problems with the majority of those deaths being DCM-related. There is no cure and no preventative or predictive method for ridding the breed of DCM, but it also causes sudden death, so doberman breeders NEED to be doing the best they can to make sure they are keeping on top of their dogs' heart health.

Some sort of breed-specific temperament testing. In dobermans there are several- the WAE, the ATT, the breed survey, some form of bitesport, some form of police/military/border patrol testing, etc. Remember that the doberman was created to be and always has been a breed for biting. "They are therapy dogs" is not breed-specific temperament testing. "They are good companions" is not breed-specific temperament testing. The breed is intended to bite. If you want a doberman, you want a dog that bites.

This requires a little pedigree knowledge, but personally I think it behooves everyone to look for breeders who are prioritizing pedigrees with higher -than-average lifespans (10+; average in the breed is 7.5 years) and who are prioritizing pairings that produce less than 30% COI. I also think you should see for yourself what the reported COD is for the dogs who have passed- any that seem very odd should be thought of as a DCM death (you wouldn't believe how many dogs in Russia are supposedly hit by lightning right at 5 years old...). Breeders that do necropsies on any dogs that die suddenly with no other explination (because otherwise it needs to count as a DCM death as that's DCM's calling card). And breeders that participate in projects related to genetic diversity and heart health.

Don’t. 

That’s it. 

You shouldn’t pet strangers’ dogs without asking either.

In Boston while waiting for the T, there was a woman with her service dog in full gear also waiting. Two young women went right up to the dog and the moment one of the women reached out to pet the dog, the older woman slapped her hand away and said “My dog is working, do NOT pet.” And I smiled because those young women were in the wrong.

One of my dog’s jobs is detecting seizures.  He gives me a few minutes warning.  If he can’t warn me because he’s distracted, I could fall and hit my head. 

I could die of a head injury because I wouldn’t have time to find a place to sit and sit down.

But, hey, a stranger gets to pet my dog. 

Here’s an article on what happened when someone pet a service dog and it DID distract the dog resulting in the owner suffering a seizure and injuries. 

For anyone who doesn’t feel like reading, here is the key points:

Hailey has multiple illnesses including Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and epilepsy. Her service pup in-training, Flynn, has the important task of alerting her roughly 10 minutes before she has a seizure. This gives her time to find a safe place so that she does not injure herself while seizing.

So long before jesus was born someone was like

For those of you who don’t know, the Electoral College has the final say in December. It’s only happened once or twice, but sometimes they vote against a candidate who’s already “won”. Candidates can win the popular election and still lose the electoral college’s election. THIS IS OUR LAST SLIVER OF A CHANCE TO KEEP BUTT TRUMPET OUT OF OFFICE!

There’s been multitudes of posts going around, talking about fighting back, never giving up, doing what’s right.

ITS TIME TO WALK THE WALK:

I try not to get political on my art blog, but I am gonna share this sentiment from my twitter.

It’s nice to hear “Fuck Trump” but piling all hate on him is misguided, Trump is not the only person who should be factored into protests, impeachment and human rights lawsuits: his team DEFENDED him and ENABLED him. There are a lot of people who either played down, ignored or supported his conduct

Fact is, if Trumps impeached, all the people who helped his campaign will flip and agree and chastise him, cuz it’ll make them look noble, which they would LOVE, they get to sweep house and senate, have Pence be president, and pretend they’re on our side. “We hate Trump too, friends! We agree, he’s a bad man, let us fix his mess for you.”  Think about it, anyone on his team right now looks really good by comparison to him. People who’re just as bigoted and heartless.

Do not forget that Vice President Pence is poised and ready to help anti-women and anti-LGBT legislation roll out and take away 50~ years of human rights progress. [source] And he just sat back and watched Trump be Trump, cuz all he cares about is getting his foot in the door – and we all just held it open for him and welcomed him inside. Slam it on his stupid foot, friends. Fact is, Pence is a hateful bigot, but he looks really good superficially next to Trump.

If we’re gonna support lawsuits for human rights violations, impeachments, etc, we can’t fixate on Trump alone. A lot of people made Trump happen via complacency and lies, with smiles on their faces.

Not My President… Not My Vice President.