When People Breed Dogs...and Do it Poorly

Okay this is out of left field but I care about the topic and just get irked at some people who breed dogs.  I bred labs -- two whole litters -- and believe me spent more money on the care and feeding of the litters than I made from them even though they were high priced pups.  They were healthy, well adjusted pups and the parents were heavily scrutinized and certified before any union took place. Did not breed mama past her 6th birthday.  I want to do it again and I still get calls for pups from someone who knows someone who has one of my dogs.

Now there is the "silver" lab, the "red fox" and the "white". Just as in horses -- when someone breeds for COLOR they are breeding for phenotype -- (looks) rather than breeding for the genotype (what the dog is really made of).  The red fox and the white labs are color variations of the yellow lab -- just shades of that genotype but they are YELLOW labs.  They are not a different dog, there is no classification for "cream", "white", "red fox" or anything of the sort -- they are still 100% acceptable to the lab world.  I personally don't breed for that specific of a shade of color but if done responsibly it can work out just fine.  With the "whites" when you begin to lose skin pigmentation you are going down the wrong road and you must stop.

The "rare silver" is something that has begun to worry me -- it is outside blood, a strange double recessive expression or a combination of both.  I have a family looking for a pup right now and I am looking for them and doing a bit of the homework for them based on what they are looking for.  The local lab community is tight that way and we promote each other's dogs when we know they are good, well bred animals.  The silver is not "rare" and when I see them advertised they cost twice as much!  Don't do it!  The AKC won't recognize the dog anyway.  Getting outside blood into a gene pool is not a bad thing necessarily -- it helps stave off double recessive genes becoming prevalent. It seems as though the "silver" color might actually be a double recessive expression and since we don't know what other traits it affects it should be avoided. The Labrador gene pool is plenty large to keep the breed alive, well and healthy without tossing another breed in JUST to get a color.  When that is done -- it simply promotes a breeding program now more heavily focused on breeding for THAT color variation thus making that particular gene pool very small.

There are many reasons why silver Labradors should not be produced and the main one is that they are a disqualification and adhering to a standard while breeding is what keeps a breed a breed. The Labrador looks and acts like Labrador and not a German Shepherd because of the dedicated breeders preserving the breed. A standard is a blueprint and varying that blueprint because it looks nice will undoubtedly cause the structure to fail. Also silver breeders do not typically run health clearances on their breeding stock (OFA/CERF) nor do they participate in any competitions to prove their dogs are breeding quality. This leads me to believe that they are breeding simply to make money and do not care about a superior individual nor do they care about the breed in general.

Silver breeders also blatantly lie. They have information on their websites that talk about DNA testing done by the AKC and a researcher at UC Berkley. Both are not true. AKC never did any genetic mapping of silver Labradors nor do they have any plans to do so since they are a registering body only and the Labrador Club of America writes the standard for the breed. Also Dr. Neff at UC Berkley was never looking into whether or not silver Labs were purebred or not which is also a moot point since DNA testing can only prove parentage at this point and is not specific enough to search for breed markers.

So if you are looking for a Christmas puppy for the family a Labrador is a great choice -- pick a yellow (in all its variations) a Chocolate or a Black -- steer clear of that Silver -- it ain't a Lab you want....

I miss Early Thanksgiving

Our family had an odd but wonderful tradition.  We did not celebrate Thanksgiving on the day the calendar dictated.  In 2000 my parents and I traveled to Thailand and then on to Nepal. We were gone nearly a month and that moth spanned Thanksgiving.  Unwilling to give up our most treasured family day, we decided to celebrate with family earlier in the month.  I spent the “calendar Thanksgiving” in a Tea House in Chommrung in the Annapurna Sanctuary.  At any rate we realized that having Thanksgiving on our own day worked out fabulously.  It allowed coupled siblings to spend one day with each family.  It allowed those of us who had to travel to do so on a weekend that was not clogged with other holiday travelers.  It allowed us to find a day that worked for almost everyone, every year. In short, it was ideal.  We dubbed our day “Early Thanksgiving” and so it went.

It is difficult when you realize that your parents were the glue of the family.  This will be my third Thanksgiving without my father and my fourth without my mom. It was their love and passion that held everyone together.  It is also hard when you understand that it was they who made you really want to “go home”. It was the ingredient that they added to the mix that made the “kids” also want to be around one another.  Blood is thicker though.  With a blended family of thirty years one would think that step siblings become relatives. But they don’t.  When the glue is gone, the camps separate and become other families – the ones who can, return to their family of origin connections and ostensibly their “roots”, the ones who have little family of origin remaining are left to find new roots, new “families” or are and pining for what was.  I am all of the latter. 

I am blessed to have a Colorado “family”, a group of really good people. They have welcomed me. I am grateful for that and over time – my connection to them will create memories and spawn traditions.  Right now though there are no old traditions in my world that I have any connection to.  There is no “remember that time when?”

I live 900 miles away from what I used to call “home”, so even when my father and step mom (who I consider my mother) were alive it was an effort to get home – but one I made eagerly. The last time I went it was to dedicate a memorial bench to my parents – it was still them that drew me there. I have one full sibling. She has been connected with the family in a on again, off again way for many years.  While I love her dearly, she is not a family rock for me. I have another half sister with a family who I adore and wish lived nearer. In my survey of relatives I would consider her the one I am most drawn to connect and stay connected with.  Out of 11 half and step siblings, that is a pretty low number of connections.

As a childless adult I have no traditions to create for anyone, dogs don’t care as long as there is food and love (thank God for dogs).  When your parents are gone and there is no “next generation” it leaves one with a feeling of disconnection.  There is no continuum.  When I look around me at the memorabilia I have and the family treasures I think to myself – to who shall these go? What is their purpose? What is mine?

So, I miss our family Thanksgiving, deeply, to my core.  I miss the people, all of them, who were involved and yet realize that without my parents we seem to have little interest or energy to rekindle or maintain that family tradition because THAT tradition as it was is gone forever. I suppose we realize that it was all hinged on and made by the presence of our parents. I too am guilty of “letting go”.  It makes me sad and it makes this time of year difficult.

I am looking forward to my new family Thanksgiving.  We are hosting the day at our house.  I will accept the new traditions and hopefully have the opportunity to honor some of what is deeply important to me on that day. I will find a way to honor what was without neglecting what is. It will take some deliberation but it is worth it and it is vital. For me it is the most sacred of holidays – one that has not largely been commercialized and harnessed by the economic engine of America.  The stores go directly from Halloween to Christmas. It is one that is simple and elegant and all about being thankful.  I have so much to be thankful for – this Thanksgiving I will focus on what is hear and now and be thankful for what was.

Should Pit Bulls Be Banned?

I am not a proponent of “responsibility legislation” we should all be personally responsible for the things we own, the actions we take, the children we bear and the animals we possess.  When considering the recent pit bull attacks in both Aurora and now New Mexico we need to think...  What are these dogs bred to do?  The answer is…they were bred to fight.  A border collie, or a Australian cattle dog will “heel” even if they never see a sheep or cow.  A Labrador Retriever will retriever even if he never sees a duck.  A pointer will point.  These dogs are our own creation.  The are specifically bred to do certain things.  We have played “God” in this regard.  Anyone who thinks a “dog is a dog” doesn’t know a thing about dogs. They are breed specific.

While I have known a lot of great and sweet pit bulls, (and an American Staffordshire Terrier is the same thing – one is recognized by the AKC and the other the UKC) they are still powerful machines.  In the wrong hands they are deadly.  Just as a muzzleloading rifle is far less dangerous that a fully automatic weapon – all dogs are not the same.  I truly feel for the responsible pit bull owners.  Sadly, the bad apples have ruined the bunch – and I am talking about the people not the dogs.  But when we see attacks by these dogs we can’t ignore them.  They are potentially lethal. It is common knowledge that the pit bull breed was developed for blood sports: Bull baiting, bear baiting, and later, dog fighting. I don’t think pit bulls should be banned altogether though.  I do think that penalties for ANY attack or aggression should be swift and severe – for both dog and owner.  All dogs are not equal nor is the damage they can do equal.  If you choose to own a pit bull you should be under heavier scrutiny and face more severe action if your dog gets out of line.  Because again, all dogs are not equal – therefore ownership of them isn’t either.  An owner of a toy poodle doesn’t face the same potential as a pit bull owner – not equal but a fact of life. If a crime is committed with a deadly weapon the punishment is more severe than if the weapon is a verbal threat or a water pistol.  If a pit bull gets out of line the same should be true.  If the punishment is severe then only responsible pit bull owners will have pit bulls.  Most never have any problems – but the ones that do have problems should lose their dogs and their freedom as though they used a deadly weapon – even if “accidentally”. People need to under stand the specifics of the breed and not own them unless they do.

If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns – the last thing we need is a bunch of outlaws with pit bulls!  Penalties?  Yes.  Serious ones. Maybe even licensing and background checks.  But an all together ban will only make the law-abiding people lose their dogs. The outlaws, meth lab junkies and others like them will still have their deadly guardians.

On Cooking and Dogs...

I love to cook.  My dogs love to eat. One of their favorite treats is potato peels!  Yep, potato peels.  However, they eat raw broccoli, carrots, lettuce and pretty much anything I would put in my own mouth – and lots of stuff I would not.  There are two labs who are simply walking stomachs and the other two are mutts who have learned to eat like labs FROM the labs.  It pretty much makes my garbage disposal obsolete which is of course good for my septic tank.  It also keeps my dogs trim and happy.  I don’t have to feed them fat-filled doggy treats to make them feel pampered.  A large Milk Bone biscuit is akin to a doggy Snicker’s bar. I won’t even go into the fat content of a pig’s ear.

So we were a happy bunch.  But this four-legged half of the Brady Bunch melded with the “here’s a story of a MAN named Jon” and is own four legged buddy Scupper.  Scupper is a culinary snob.  He turns his nose up at anything that is not MEAT, although he has an affinity for Cool Whip…don’t try to figure that one out.  Scupper would more often than not refuse to eat his own dog food.  Jon plied it with all the commercial “get your dog to eat anything” products – gravies, meat bits, canned tuna, you name it.  But Scupper ate on his own schedule and what he ate yesterday might not be on his list of “will eat” today.

Before I moved in with Jon and Scupper, I came and stayed and when I stayed I cooked.  Jon is an adventuresome and gratitude-filled eater.  He loved the idea of my cooking and it was something that I was pleased to be able to offer.  I can whip up just about anything from what’s in the cupboard…even a bachelor’s cupboard.  So I came; I stayed and I cooked.  At the time we had not introduced our brood.

What I never realized when I was cooking at home is that I never had to worry if I dropped bits of food on the floor.  In my house it was gone the moment it touched the floor.  My dogs have never heard of the three-second rule – nothing ever lasted that long anyway.  Although dog tracks and fuzz balls were a part of my life – food on the floor never was.  With Scupper as my new cooking attendant all that had changed.  He would sniff at tid-bits on the floor….maybe. I realized that now cooking was a lot more work!  I actually had to be careful and I had to clean up after myself, the travesty!

Fortunately, it was not long before love truly blossomed and we realized that introductions must be made and hierarchies established and accepted.  We all live together in a relatively harmonies balance. For the most part it all went well.  I am now back to my old style of cooking.  The kitchen floor has the dog prints, the hair and the scuff marks…but by God there is no food on it!  And even Scupper has decided he might even like broccoli!

A letter to a Congressman - How do we address Islam's Sharia Law

Dear Congressman Coffman -

I do appreciate your response and in reflection look at my initial outrage to the "Ground Zero" Mosque and have to admit I was feeling overly passionate!  I suppose my frustration (bordering on anger) is this.  It seems that "we" (meaning the current administration and its followers) have become so ultra sensitive to Islam and the faith that we allow all sorts of behaviors, practices and statements to made by and for Muslims -- and hear their cry of "freedom of religion" but when a Christian thought or idea even enters the public arena it is shut down and called oppressive!  The dominant and violent oppression from Christians is in the past -- the imposing of Sharia Law is very much in the present.

In school Christmas is now "winter festival" and yet all sorts of other cultures coupled with the religion that accompanies it are acceptable -- not only are they acceptable but they are studied and explored!  God simply IS a part of this country's founding -- those that founded it believed in God.  It does not at all mean anyone now has to (although it might be a good idea).  But the history is the history. As in the Koran burning incident, why is burning a book in the US by a few radicals a call for DEATH TO AMERICANS abroad -- yet we are supposed to accept that a handful of Islamic Radicals who killed nearly 3000 people are merely a fringe of that religion and we are told not to judge Islam for the acts of a few? See the double standard here?

We look at Islam as an "equal" and "reasonable" alternative religion. However, it is not.  It is a very different "beast".  It is not the same as comparing Judaism to Christianity, Buddhism to Taoist and Hindus to Native American religions.  It has some grave and fundamental differences.  How do we "allow religious freedom" for a faith/ideology that wants to eliminate us?  

From a statement made by Nonie Darwish (An American woman born muslim in Egypt warns the West of the dangers of Radical Islam and Sharia law).

"Very few people in the West know what is going on inside the Muslim world and what it portends for them. The fact is that through the dominant media, such as CNN, Americans are subjected to much of the same misinformation with regard to Islam that I grew up with inside the Muslim world. The result is that Americans are in the dark attempting to formulate their strategy of how to defend themselves against the threat of terror, domestic jihad and Sharia. While Americans get ridiculed for being “Islamophobes,” the Muslim world itself is undergoing a huge and painful awakening.

“There are daily news reports of heart-broken Muslims who say they cannot believe what is written in Muslim scriptures and say that Muslims have been living under the greatest lie in human history."

"...the penalty for leaving Islam is death in all schools of Sharia, both Sunni and Shiite. Those who wrote Sharia centuries ago knew that keeping Muslims in total submission would be very difficult to maintain, and thus they established barbaric laws condemning Muslims to death for exercising their basic human rights to choose their own religion. Sharia never entrusted its enforcement only to the formal legal system. Islam promises heavenly rewards to individual Muslims who take the law into their own hands. Sharia also states that the killers of apostates and adulterers are not murderers and therefore are not to be punished. That is why, for Islam to achieve 100% compliance to Sharia enforcement, Muslim individuals are encouraged to take matters into their own hands."

(READ HER BOOK - .Cruel And Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Sharia Law). 

Congressman Coffman, we are accepting Islam as though it was something we understood.

As Americans we have got to figure out a way to address Islam/Sharia Law and to get our heads out of the sand. How does a country such as ours whose FOUNDATION is rooted in the freedom to worship in whatever way we wish deal with this?  This is a real and genuine threat and the "moderate Muslim" is not what we are having to address.  A moderate Muslim is not Muslim at all by Shariah Law. When one looks at the definition of the "Good Game" (Prince Machiavelli) it must be a game that is "good" for the players yes, but also cannot do harm to those who choose not to play...  How do we address this growing issue in America?  When is it going to once again be "politically correct" to defend our country without being called bigots and racists and oppressionists?

We have got to do something.  What honestly are your thoughts on this?

Kyle Fenner

Acceptance -- Easy to Say, Harder to Do

So what IS acceptance?  I spent the last 24 hours in a lather.  I have been sending out resume after resume after resume and rarely even receiving acknowledgment that it was even received.  I am responding to posted job openings that I am qualified for.  I was frustrated. I was angry.  I was wondering why the hell I struggled through college as an adult to obtain a degree that, in that moment was feeling worthless.  I was feeling worthless.

I tried to pray.  I tried to breath. I tried to “let go and let God”.  But what does that mean? Let go and let God?  Well it means, in its very essence is Acceptance.  It means that if I do believe there IS a God. And I believe that God is all powerful and all knowing then I must accept what comes to me.  I must accept that whatever is going on is SUPPOSED to be going on.  It does not mean that I should stop sending out the resumes.  It doesn’t mean that the dream job will come knocking.  What it does mean is that all I have any power over is the footwork.  It means that once the “send” button is hit or the phone call is made and I have done all that I can do – I let go… The results are up to God. 

Whether it is in a relationship, a learning experience or a job search I can only do what a human being can do, a fallible, imperfect, human being.  God is God.  When I try to do God’s job the ONLY result I will get will be utter failure and profound frustration.  I just know he is up there chuckling at me.  I almost said he would be wondering when I was ever going to learn – but he already knows.  Maybe I will never learn – never fully.  I hope for that one day, but for today it takes that lather sometimes to get me to at last surrender.

So today was different.  Fundamentally, nothing has changed.  I still have no job.  I am still wondering when I will have a job but it was still different.  For today, I let go of what I could not do and did a few things I could do.  I started a blog. I met and talked with some like-minded friends.  I cooked pork, spare ribs. I combed out a dog in dire need of it (much to her displeasure).  I fed my horses and gave them some treats.  That for today is what I could do.  I did that and I turned the rest over to God.

Dogs Lie

And We Thought Man’s Best Friend Was Honest

Dogs lie like the rugs they fill with their hair.  Now don’t get me wrong, I am a dog lover, more than lover, I have 275 pounds of dog flesh in my house.  When I think about what they could do to me if they decided I was the bad guy is awesome.  But they are large, laid back and loving.  My soul is intricately linked to “dog”.  I will introduce you to by brood.

First there is Lily.  A highly neurotic yet focused yellow lab.  She fixates on light bulbs, “floaties” in the air and bubbles.  One has to forcibly restrain her from joining you in the shower.  She is lovable and slightly off.  Then there is Truman, a stately, black lab, hound cross who has dodged more bullets in his life than most Vietnam vets.  He has survived a mountain lion attack, an encounter with a rabid bat – which he thought was a new toy – and a mysterious ailment that nearly killed him.  We never did solve that one, he simply bounced back.  Then meet Sadie.  A medium sized, yellow, pom-pom, mutt.  She was dodging cars one night just outside of Cripple Creek, Colorado and I had to rescue her from a grizzly fate.  I intended to find her a home…and I guess succeeded in that endeavor. She is an angel and seems simply grateful for everything in the world from daisies to truck rides.  She has a ball playing in the horse trough and rolls onto her back for my Gelding Cash to sniff her belly.  It has been three years since that night I picked her up and she is part of the family.  Finally, meet Fargo.  Fargo is Lily’s spawn and it the antithesis of his mother.  He is large, gentle and sensitive.  A hairy-eyeball from me sends him into deep remorse.

Of all of these dogs Fargo is the most unlikely candidate as a guard dog, although all would fail miserably in this career. Lily is too fixated on “things” to give a darn about people. Truman has a deep, hound-like bawl but that is the extent of his bravado.  Sadie will invite you in and show you where we hide cash and the silver and Fargo, one would assume would hide under the bed.  Don’t let his tender demeanor fool you.

I came home one day to find a large, burly man in a work truck waiting patiently outside my dog yard.  He was from the electric company and was attempting to access my meter in order to install an updated, digital version.  I greeted him and asked what he was waiting for.  He said to me, “I ain’t going in there!”  I thought that amusing because the little lady who reads the meter each month just goes on in, wearing her huge, palm, sun hat that dwarfs her five-foot-nothing, figure; she greets everyone and they welcome her in.  I queried the burly man why exactly he wouldn’t enter the yard (although I blame no one for not wanting to).  He said, “that yellow one won’t let me!”  I pointed to Lily and said, “Her?  What did she do?”  He shook his head and pointed, “No THAT one”.  He pointed to my timid, shy, Fargo.  He said, “That dog is Cujo!”  I had to say to myself “Right on!”

I caged the beasts and he was in and out in a flash.  It made me ponder, dogs lie.  They tell you one thing and when you are not around they say something else.  There are myriad theories on dogs and dog behavior.  That small dogs are yippy, that a wagging tail means “all is okay” and that a bark means I might bite. More often than not it means “I am scared of you. Please stay away because I wouldn’t know what to do it you kept coming”. But I have learned what you THINK you know about your dog may be very different when you are not around.  It makes me feel lucky I don’t have teenage kids!  If dogs tell you what you want to hear what would a kid tell you?  Well we all know what WE told our parents, I know what I told my parents! So with no kids in my future I will have dogs, many dogs, loving dogs and dogs that lie!  God love them all!