Just About Jacks

Archive for September 4th, 2009

The German Shepherd Dog also known as an Alsatian comes literally from the German Deutscher Schäferhund.  The German Shepherd is a relatively new breed of large-sized dog originating in the late 19th century. They are part of the Herding group that was originally developed as a working dog for herding sheep.

The Alsatians strength, intelligence and obedience they are often employed in police and military roles. The German Shepherd is also one of the most popular breeds around the world.
The breed originates from a dog named Hektor Linksrhein. He so impressed Von Stephanitz that he bought it and changed the dogs name to Horand von Grafrath and founded the Society for the Alsatian Dogs.
Horand von Grafrath became the hub of the society’s breeding programs and was mated with many other society member dogs.
The German Shepherds popularity has grown rapidly through the 20th Century, though it had some problems in popularity in the early days due to health problems from poor breeding and after the world wars with anti German feelings. This caused the UK Kennel Club to rename it to “Alsatian Wolf Dog”, eventually the wolf dog addition was removed and in 1977, the Alsatian Dog was back as the official name, though it is still often known as the Alsatian. The German Shepherd popularity was fuelled by animal actors such as Rin Tin Tin and Strongheart. Now days it is globally the third most popular dog breed.

They are a large dog of between 55 and 65 centimetres ( 22 and 26 inches) at the top of the back and weigh between 22 and 40 kilograms ( 49 and 88 lb).

The Alsatian’s face has a long square cut muzzle, a doomed forehead, a long neck, powerful jaws, large erect ears (that are often pulled back when on the move), black nose and brown, medium-sized eyes. With a bushy tail.
 
Alsatians come in a variety of colours, the most common being the tan/black and red/black versions with black saddles and masks. Less common types include the sable, all-black, all-white, liver and blue varieties, which may not fit country breed standards. German Shepherds have a double coat. A thick close dense outer coat, which is shed continually and a thick undercoat. There is also the rare long-hair variant.
The German Shepherd, like many working dogs is very intelligent,  and are considered to be the third most intelligent breed of dog (Border Collies is deemed to be number one by Stanley Coren in his book The Intelligence of Dogs). This intelligence combined with their strength makes the breed sought after as guard, police, search and rescue dogs, being able to quickly learn various tasks and interpret instructions better than other large breeds.
Alsatians are known for aggression and have been restricted in areas as a result. Statistically, in the United States, the Alsatian is responsible for more random bites than any other breed, and have a reputation to attack smaller dog breeds.

Additionally studies have shown that Alsatians are the third most likely dog breed to attack a person and in a different study, German Shepherds accounted for nearly fifty percent of the dog bites that mandated medical attention, compared to a more normal twenty of bites needing medical attention, not a surprise with their powerful jaws and sharp canine teeth.
 
The problem is not with the dog, but the owners. As with any intelligent energetic dog (or child), if they are not regularly exercised and kept busy, they can become difficult. The German Shepherd must have puppy socialisation and good training from an early stage. The German Shepherd is different from the collie, where a lot of its aggressiveness has been breed out from show strains, the Alsatian has not lost this streak.

The German Shepherd are great with the family they know, but can be over protective of their home and family – why they are a great guard dog. This can give them an aloof personality.

Alsatians learn well and are very obedient and not easily sidetracked, but due to their tough character,  you need to be very firm with them.
The German Shepherd must have two good walks a day. They are not a dog for a busy family who cannot give them the time and attention.  For this reason, busy families regularly ask dog walkers to help out by walking them for a few hours a day.
Poor breeding has led to common genetic health issues, elbow and hip joint problems (dysplasia) which is painful for the dog and often causes arthritis. The Alsatian also suffers from monorchidism (one testicle), weakness of temperament, and missing teeth, as well as folded or bent ears which never fully turn up when reaching adulthood. Due to the large and open nature of their ears, Shepherds also are prone to ear infections.

Alsatians, like many deep chested dogs are sensitive to bloat, this is often fatal, so if you think this may be a problem, go straight to the vet. Bloat is a gas build up in the stomach, caused for varying reasons. The symptoms of distress for no apparent reason, a firm distension of the abdomen, general weakness, depression, problems breathing, hypersalivation, and retching without vomiting. A large percentage of dogs with bloat have cardiac arrhythmias ( forty percent in one study), loss of appetite, vomiting and weight loss.

The German Shepherd often suffers from Degenerative Myelopathy, or DM is a neurological disease and are predisposed to Von Willebrand Disease, a common inherited bleeding disorder, which shows in differing degrees of bleeding tendency, usually in the form of easy bruising, nosebleeds and bleeding gums. .

In spite of these problems, the German Shepherd is robust with simple dog care and the average lifespan of a German Shepherd is around nine years, which is typical for a dog of this size.

The Alsatian has great olfactory sensitivity so is one of the often used in a many roles requiring this ability, including search and rescue, cadaver searching, narcotics detection, explosives detection, accelerant detection, and mine detection dog, amongst others.

So the German Shepherd is a wonderful intelligent dog that will love you, if you have the time and dedication for him. Not advised for busy working families.

America’s sweetheart dogs for many years now have been the yorkies and bichons. But what if these two number one choices of pets be mixed together and bring out an yorkie bichon mix?.
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However this sort of a yorkie bichon mix will have its own drawbacks just as any other mix would. It is unpredictable to figure out the outcome of a yorkie bichon mix. If the ancestors do not have a good history of cross breeding, there’s a fair bit of chance for all to go hilariously wrong. This could lead to a poorer outcome.
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With the history of yorkie bichon mix the outcome is believed to have a better chance of being the cutest thing you have ever seen. The chances for a huge failure are almost zero, but there have been cases of such failure. Even the experts on the field will not be able to predict the offspring of a yorkie father and a bichon mother, or for that matter the vice versa.
In many yorkie bichon mixes the crop is more than likely to have 50-50 ingredients from both the breeds, provided that both the yorkie and the bichon are from an original breed.
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The behavioral and the characteristics of the outcome regardless of the looks of such yorkie bichon mix would be fairly heartening. Even though the mannerisms are more on to the yorkies side the mix will mostly have a faithful and a loyal heart.

Yorkie Bichon mix is supposedly more fashionable than their father or mother. The thick and smoothly layered hair is their remarkable aspect. The size is more likely to be as same as their parents where they’d weigh up to around 10-15 pounds.
They are as playful as any yorkie or and bichon would be, and they are even more active. But this does not mean that they need any excessive exercising like. Their lower built will make sure that only a little amount of activities will provide them with the daily stretching they need. They are easy to carry with whenever there’s a family trip and they are easy to handle at home.

Search online to find the nearest place where you could get the most adorable yorkie bichon puppy and let them cheer you up for the whole day at home. Dogs could be more than a man’s best friend when they are as cute as yorkie bichon’s.

Don’t get too excited with Fido as soon as you get home from the pet store it’s best to save the neat dog tricks until after you complete a little basic dog obedience training.Starting to teach the dog to obey with basic commands such as ‘sit’, ‘stay’ and ‘heel’ is akin to how one expects a child to learn words before phrases and sentences.  Keeping it simple in the beginning allows your dog to grasp basic communication with you and establish a bond with you early on.If only the basics are taught first, the dog will be an able pupil and will have an instinct to follow your commands.

A puppy does not have the ability to be a Masters Degree student at obeying commands, so don’t crush your puppy with too many commands.Attempt to gain the puppy’s trust as a good master, not as a professor who could care less about his student’s sufferings.  Use lots of love and rewards when your dog completes some basic dog training.If you only use fear to teach your dog, he will be frightened to perform and may perform his tricks worse due to “stage-fright”. 

The reward method is widely used as well as the leash and collar training methods.A dog may learn faster when given treats and food, but in the long run this may not be the most effective method to train a dog.Giving food treats to dogs after tricks may have the very negative impact of the dog expecting a chewy bone after the simplest of tricks, such as a simple ‘roll over’ or ‘sit’ command.

Some feel the military means is more effective than the gentle method of offering a treat for a reward.  While the food reward method may work for some, the leash method seeks to teach the animal whose boss and better adapts to the final goal of dog obedience training, laying the foundation for new and exciting tricks for your dog to perform

However, don’t let the leash do all the work.  Your dog must adapt and obey your commands with or without the leash.  This lays the relationship you have with your dog out on the table clearly and concisely, resulting in a much better behaved dog to be around.

No matter which method you choose, dog obedience training should insure that in the end the dog is subordinate to you and obeys your commands, rather than running wild.  So providing some basic dog obedience training not only results in a better-behaved dog, but gives you a best friend you love to be around, not to mention a good performer at your next party.

Are you in need of a pet for your children? Are you thinking of buying one from a pet shop or searching for a free pet? Times have changed and you are very unlikely to end up with a free pet. Buying a pet from a pet shop could be expensive too. But this wouldn’t obviously stop you from buying a pet if you are an animal lover.
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There are some pet breeders who sell even the smallest cat or dog they have for a high price. Dogs such as Golden Retrievers come in prices ranging from $500 to around $800. Maine Coon cats can come with price tags of $800 or even more. If you are in need of a rare type of exotic pet, be sure of being asked for much higher prices.
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Did you wonder why some pets are expensive and the others not? There are some pet breeders who make it their daily job of making sure they breed only one kind of pet and not more than that. These pets are quite rare and thus expensive.
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A pet shop would be the best place to visit if you want to get a pet. But before buying one, it would be beneficial to search for more information regarding the pet. Questions such as where the pet came from, its lineage, and illnesses it may have or could have, etc could be asked from the pet breeders.

It is very important that you know where the pet you like came from. You wouldn’t obviously want it to have come from a pet mill. Animals that live in pet mills are rarely cared for and are physically ill treated. Pets coming from such type of pet breeders wouldn’t be as healthy as a pet coming from a different breeder. This is why it’s essential that you check upon the pet breeders and ask the relevant questions to be sure that the pet breeder isn’t someone who wants to make money but really cares about animals.

Most pet breeders give their best care and attention to the pets and provide them with healthy living conditions. If you think that buying a pet directly from the pet breeders itself is feasible, you could do that instead of wasting time at a pet store.

Having a pet at home can be both a mental and physical exhilarating exercise. If it’s a Puggle you are interested in, it is better to understand a few things before going and purchasing one. Puggle’s may look sweet, but as a future owner of a pet, you ought to find out more about puggle breeders before deciding to buy one.
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Selling pets is a thriving business for some people. When it comes to puggle breeders, there are some who do it just for the money. Did your puggle come from a puppy mill or a dog farm?  The puggle breeders will have the answer for that question. Your dog’s first few years is very important for its development. Knowing that it came from a puppy mill is not going to do you or the dog any good.
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Puggle breeders who carry out dog farms and puppy mills treat their puppies in a different way from puggle breeders who do it at home. Most puppies that are born and brought up in dog farms live in cages and stay away from human companionship for quite a long time. Love and kindness are feelings not familiar with them. Since these puggle breeders breed their pets in farms, etc, the puggle’s lack emotional communication with humans. In addition to all these, they are likely to end up with different behavioral problems.
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If you decide to buy a puggle from a dog farm or a mill, you’d be contributing for its suffering. The puggle breeders who would be thrilled with their latest sale would try to breed more puggles in the same farm.

Luckily not everyone is the same. There are enough of puggle breeders who are more responsible and are not solely relying on a profit. Such puggle breeders have the intention of bringing in a new member to a family; in this case it will be a new puggle. Buying a puggle from responsible puggle breeders will ensure the healthiness of the dog as well as help them in identifying its lineage.