ohmidog!

It’s not as if they’re on the verge of extinction, but old English sheepdogs are drastically dropping in numbers, at least according to kennel club statistics.

At the height of the high-maintenance breed’s popularity, in 1975, nearly 16,000 old English sheepdog puppies were registered by the American Kennel Club. In 2009, there were just over 1,000 registrations, according to figures supplied by the AKC to the Associated Press

Breeders blame the decline on the increasing popularity of smaller dogs, and the amount of care and grooming that sheepdogs require.

“People have more to do and less time to do it, and they have lost interest in old English sheepdogs,” Doug Johnson of Colorado Springs, president of the Old English Sheepdog Club of America, told the Associated Press.

Breeders in England are also concerned about the decreasing registrations. London’s Kennel Club registered just 401 sheepdog puppies in 2011, and has put the breed on the club’s watch list, a representative said.

The decline in numbers has been steady in the years since 1975, when an old English sheepdog won best in show at Westminster. But breeders and others don’t really expect the breed to disappear.

“There are too many of us old die-hards that will go ahead and keep this breed alive,” said Johnson, who operates Bugaboo kennel and has 22 sheepdogs.

The breed is believed to have originated in Sussex, England, where they drove sheep and cattle to market.

Pittsburgh industrialist William Wade introduced the dog in the United States in the late 1880s. The Old English Sheepdog Club of America says that by 1900 five of the country’s 10 wealthiest American families — Morgans, Vanderbilts, Goulds, Harrisons and Guggenheims — owned sheepdogs, and also bred and showed them.

As Johnson pointed out, caring for a sheepdog — whose hair can grow as long as 10 inches — is easy when you can hire someone to do it for you.

Sheepdog numbers grew in the 1960s, when they became a common sight in movies and on TV. They were featured in the 1959 movie “The Shaggy Dog,” and starred in two 1960′s era TV shows – ”My Three Sons” and “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies.”

With donations coming in from people in 18 different countries, enough money has been raised to bring Kabang, the Philippine dog who lost her snout to save two children, to the United States for surgery.

Kabang departed for the U.S. Monday.

Veterinarian Anton Mari Lim accompanied her during the trip, GMA News reported.

Kabang, whose owners make about $3.50 a day, will receive the $20,000 surgery at the University of California, Davis.

A mixed breed street dog from Zamboanga City, Kabang suffered extensive injuries to her nose, face and upper jaw after being hit by a motorcycle last winter, leaving her with only half a snout.

Kabang reportedly “threw herself” in the path of the motorcycle, keeping it from hitting two girls, 11 an 3, who were crossing the street. Neither the girls nor the driver of the motorcycle were seriously injured.

Kabang’s snout got stuck in the motorcycle’s front wheel and the top of it was ripped off.

The wound, veterinarians say, will requires maxilla facial specialty surgery to restore function and properly close the wounds

Veterinarians, who have been giving Kabang antibiotics to slow down the infection from her wounds and vitamins to boost her immune system, says she’s in good enough shape now to undergo the surgery.

One vet in the Philipppines compared Kabang’s situation to an air conditioner without a filter.

“When you take out the whole snout you’re taking out the filter. So whatever dust, whatever germs is in the environment it goes straight into the lungs.”

 
So, with only three days left to Valentine’s Day, your honey still hasn’t firmed up the plans?

Could be he, or she, is planning to spend it with the pooch.

Rather than spending Valentine’s Day with their human partner, a fifth of adults would prefer to be with their pet, Reuters reports, based on a global poll conducted in conjunction with the market research company, Ipsos.

The survey of 24,000 people in 23 countries found, globally, 21 percent of adults would rather spend February 14 with their pet than their spouse or partner.

Interestingly, Turkish people were most inclined to want to spend the day with the dog (49 percent), while the French were least likely (10 percent).

The survey found that age and income were even bigger factors than country of residence, with younger, less affluent people more likely to choose their pet as their Valentine’s Day companion. About  25 percent of people aged under 35 opted for their pet over their partner, compared to 18 percent of those aged 35-54 and 14 percent of people aged 55 and over. Men and women were evenly split over the question.

About 1,000 individuals per country took part in the poll, with Turkey showing the largest numbers by far of owners who preferred their pet’s company on Valentine’s Day.  Next came India with 41 percent, Japan with 30 percent, China with 29 percent, the United States with 27 percent and Australia with 25 percent.

The nations where residents were the least likely to want to spend the day with a pet over their spouse or partner were France at 10 percent, Mexico at 11 percent, the Netherlands at 12 percent and Hungary at 12 percent.

Dogs from New York City and around the world are being sent to help in the search and recovery effort in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

The U.S. government is sending two, 72-man search and rescue teams with dogs to help dig out survivors, said Rajiv Shah, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Business Week reports.

French teams with “sniffer dogs” were seen boarding vans yesterday, headed to the airport on their way to Haiti. China dispatched a chartered plane containing multiple sniffer dogs and 10 tons of tents, food and medical equipment. A team from the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations left Moscow, also bound for Haiti, Discovery News reports.

Elsewhere, dogs were departing from Peru, Taiwan, Mexico and Britain, where a 64-member team, including dogs and handlers was en route.

The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation has sent at least six dog-and-handler teams have been sent to Haiti.

“Our hearts go out to our neighbors in Haiti, and we’re honored to be able to help find survivors of this terrible tragedy,” NDSDF executive director Debra Tosch said. “This is the day that our teams have trained for; when the unthinkable happens, SDF Teams stand ready to respond, bringing hope and comfort to victims and their loved ones.”

“Pedigree Dogs Exposed, ” the controversial BBC documentary that shed some much needed light on purebred breeding practices and the horrors they have produced, will get its first airing in the U.S. tonight (Dec. 10).

Probably the single most important piece of dog reporting in the past decade, the documentary led to the BBC dropping its coverage of Crufts, the UK’s equivalent of the Westminster Dog Show.

The documentary looks at how many breeds have had their physical appearance so exaggerated they’re unrecognizable from a century ago, and it examines some of the breed-specific health problems that have resulted from breeders emphasizing looks over health when breeding dogs for shows.

The show, which led to some changes in Kennel Club and breeder policies and practices,  airs at 8 p.m. tonight on BBC America.

The documentary revealed that dogs suffering from genetic illness are not prevented from competing in dog shows and have gone on to win “best in breed”, despite their poor health. It says physical traits required by the Kennel Club’s breed standards in the U.K., such as short faces, wrinkling, screw-tails and dwarfism, have led to inherent health problems.

This excerpt from the program shows a prize-winning cavalier King Charles spaniel suffering from syringomyelia, a condition which occurs when a dog’s skull is too small for its brain.

The documentary looks at other problems that have resulted from mating dogs who are close relatives, all for the purposes of accentuating certain physical features deemed desirable by the dog show crowd — boxers suffering from epilepsy, pugs with breathing problems and bulldogs who are unable to mate or give birth unassisted because their heads are so big.

While picked up here and there by the U.S. media, the story of shaping purebred dogs to fit arbitrary human standards of beauty — despite the health ramifications – remains best told by the BBC documentary. By all means, watch it.

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick spoke from behind the pulpit of a Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. yesterday — the latest in a series of talks aimed at helping to stop dogfighting and earning himself redemption.

With a line of police standing against the back wall, Michael Vick clutched the sides of a pulpit and told the crowd at the Covenant Baptist Church the story of how as a young child he watched dogfights in his Newport News, Va., neighborhood and eventually fell into a dogfighting operation, leading to his arrest, a 23-month prison term and more than two-year suspension from professional football.

You can read the Washington Post story here.

Vick was in D.C. as part of an arrangement he has made with Wayne Pacelle, the president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), to make two public appearances a month to speak out against dogfighting.

The agreement played a role in NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s decision to end Vick’s suspension last week, allowing him to play in the Eagles’ game last Sunday.

Vick has spoken at events held at schools in Chicago, Philadelphia and Atlanta.

Animal welfare officials shut down a Pennsylvania breeding kennel yesterday, suspending the operator’s license and removing 216 dogs.

Under the authority of a new state law, agents of the state Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement and the Humane Society of the United States shut down the Almost Heaven Kennel in Emmaus, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The dogs seized from the Lehigh County kennel, which state officials said had a history of abuse, were taken to the Farm Show complex in Harrisburg, where they are to be evaluated before being put up for adoption.

The seizure came after the Commonwealth Court rejected kennel owner Derbe Eckhart’s emergency appeal of his license revocation.

Twenty-five dogs will remain at the kennel because no license is needed for less than 26 animals.

A raid last year by the Pennsylvania SPCA exposed horrendous conditions at the kennel, which housed as many as 800 animals in filthy, crowded cages and kennels.

(Photo:  Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture)

Nine of the 32 dogs removed last week from the Wizard of Claws — a Pembroke Pines, Florida, store that was notorious for selling puppy-mill-born designer dogs — were put up for adoption over the weekend, and they all found homes.

Dozens of people lined up outside the Broward County Humane Society to adopt, many returning home empty-handed after learning that most of the dogs taken from the store aren’t ready for adoption yet.

The dogs were removed from The Wizard of Claws on Thursday after an anonymous donor purchased the entire stock of the store, which had declared bankruptcy and closed its doors Monday. The shop was the subject of a class action lawsuit claiming it had sold sick and dying pups.

When The Humane Society of the United States learned the bankruptcy trustee intended to auction off the remaining puppies housed at the store, an anonymous donor stepped in to sponsor the dogs, and The HSUS brokered a deal to have all 32 dogs placed for adoption.

The dogs include Yorkies, Chihuahuas, Maltese, Pomeranians, dachshunds and Shih-tzus. Read more »