Archive for October, 2009

Stolen Dogs and Scared Breeders

by frogdogz on October 26, 2009 in Daily Life, French Bulldog Stuff with 7 Comments

Another Ontario breeder has had dogs stolen by vistors who pretended to be potential puppy buyers. This isn’t the first time this has happened – years back, a Bulldog breeder in California lost almost every dog in their house to people who had come to ‘meet the dogs’ a few days before, and the infamous home invading Yorkie thieves gained access to the house by posing as potential purchasers. An American Eskimo breeder in Northern Ontario had a litter of puppies stolen from right out of her kitchen, and we ourselves had a puppy stolen from inside of our house – while I was at home alone with my children.

This rise in dogs stolen from right inside our homes has left a lot of breeders feeling paranoid – and a lot of puppy buyers feeling confused.

For years, we’ve told potential buyers that visiting the home of the breeder they are considering purchasing a puppy from is a great way to choose a quality breeder – and it is.  Unfortunately,  it’s also less and less common to find breeders willing to let possible buyers drop over for just a ‘meet the dogs’ visit.

Can you blame us? After all, we don’t know you – and we don’t know if your intent is to sincerely meet us and our dogs, or if you have something more nefarious in mind. Are you ‘casing’ us, trying to find out where the dogs live and what access points there might be? Are you checking to see if our doors are secure, and if there’s a gun safe sitting in our family room? As breeders, we just don’t know – and we’re all of us more and more paranoid about the possibility that your innocuous visit can turn into a house emptied of its pets.

As puppy buyers, however, it’s not unusual to want to meet the possible parents of your future puppy, in advance of picking that puppy up. As breeders, it’s also common for us to want to meet you, as well. An initial impression can go a long way to convincing us that you are the right family for one of our precious kids.

What kind of compromise can we all make, to create an atmosphere where both sets of parties get what they need?

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Missing French Bulldog, Washington PA Area

by frogdogz on October 25, 2009 in French Bulldog Stuff with 2 Comments

Update: This story has a happy ending.

A plea for help from another French Bulldog breeder –

As of October 24th one on my retired dogs is lost in Washington Pa. PetSmart parking lot.
She is a chubby 5 yr. old spayed Black mask fawn French Buldog bitch. Her name is Star and she is a shy dog. She had on a new bright red collar with a gray “G” imprint – she has no tags, but she is micro-chipped.
PLEASE…anyone in the area of Washington Pa. keep your eyes and ears open for Star…she is a super sweet girl and I want ( and need) her HOME…
Call anytime day or night – 740-452-3303

Please forward to all other doggie chat lists – thank you so much for your help.

Shirley@Shur-paws – frenchieave@sbcglobal.net

Long Live the Queen

by frogdogz on October 19, 2009 in Daily Life, French Bulldog Stuff with 5 Comments

Tessa, Matriarch French Bulldog of Bullmarket

As hard as it is for me to believe, Tessa will be fifteen years old next month. Those years have flown by, in so many ways.

Tessa, for me,  is still the relcalcitrant, surly little hooligan I tried to haul to work with me at six weeks, with her bucking and flailing at the end of the lead, as I slipped and slid on an icy Yorkville sidewalk, cursing her stubborn little bulldog brain.

She’s also still the doting mother who never once willingly weaned a litter (she still allowed Sailor to nurse on her, for comfort if not food, when Sailor was almost six months old).

She’s the smart, sassy little dog who taught me that French Bulldogs are NOT like other dogs when it comes to training, and that what might work with a Mastiff will barely make a dent on a Frenchie’s conciousness.

Tessa is doing remarkably fine for a dog of her advanced years. Other than a few episodes of ‘idiopathic neuropathy’, breath that could melt paint, faded vision, limited hearing,  a wobbly rear, and a reappearing growth on the side of her neck, she’s still mobile and happy to be here with us.  She enjoys warm fireplaces, polar fleece dog beds, short drives in the car, and  shorter walks up the wooded path behind our house.

She also still engages in the occasional battle for dominance with her daughter, granddaughters, great grandkids and great great grandkids.  A few days ago, she launched herself at Penelope, apparently because Penelope was ‘looking at her funny’. Nell responding by rolling Tessa off the couch, and Tessa sulked her way over to her crate, where she sat grumbling about the lack of respect in today’s kids.

Tessa is a daily reminder to me that no matter how much I love our puppies, there will always be a special place in my heart for our senior dogs, and an irreplaceable spot for my Grand French Bulldog Matriarch.

Long may she reign.

Rare pneumonia kills 2 Ottawa dogs

by frogdogz on October 15, 2009 in Daily Life with No comments

Scary news out of the Ottawa area, where a rare and virulent form of hemorrhagic pneumonia has killed two dogs at the Ottawa Humane Society.

From CBC News -

Humane society veterinarians said they have never seen this type of disease before. The dogs initially suffer from a cough, lethargy and fever, but the symptoms rapidly progress, with the animals coughing up blood and dying within a day.

The first humane society dog developed symptoms in mid-summer, while the second got sick in early September. Since then, staff have treated every dog with antibiotics, disinfected every pen, and briefly placed a moratorium on adoptions — which was lifted a week ago.

The disease is apparently bacterial, caused by Streptococcus equi. This disease (usually called ‘Strangles’) is more commonly seen in horses. It is apparently very uncommon for Strangles to affect anything other than equine species, as most of the websites I could find on the topic stressed -

Caused by bacteria—Streptococcus equi—that only causes disease in equine species (horses, donkeys and mules). Normally not a danger to humans or other domestic species.

In the case of the Ottawa shelter dogs, the disease was severe and swift. There is no vaccination against it, and veterinarians still don’t know where it came from, or how it was spread.

“It’s frightening for sure,” Hutchings said. “We don’t really know what the incubation period is. There’s a lot we don’t understand about transmission or which dogs it will affect.”

It is suspected that cramped shelter conditions, and the stress they cause in dogs housed in these conditions, can exacerbate the disease.

Bruce Roney, Ottawa Humane Society executive director, said the infections highlight the need for the new shelter, which is slated to open in 2011.

“We don’t have proper isolation space in this building,” he said. “It makes [diseases] so difficult to control.”

Full story here.

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