Psst, dog people! (especially those who show!)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Tomorrow, my 2 year old aussie gets spayed. I’ve had many bitches come through my house - especially with the service dog programs - and I’ve been through many “spays” (not my own, thankfully…) but this time, I’m just more nervous than usual. I’m so attached to this bundle of fur, it’s not funny.

Her breeder had me keep her intact to show her - her dam has passed away recently, and part of our goal with this one litter of Rumor’s was to put Rumor in the breed club “hall of fame” as a dam (with one litter!). This involves putting 8 advanced performance titles on her progeny, and/or conformation titles. With Rumor’s tragic passing, our drive to do it has been rekindled a thousandfold!

Out of the litter of 10, 3 pups show actively in conformation, and 5 are active in performance sports. :smiley:

And now, ASCA (the Australian Shepherd Club of America, which runs its own conformation, obedience, tracking, agility and herding programs!) decided to try out a program for what they called “Altered Conformation”. This allowed us to show spayed bitches and neutered dogs to a Conformation Championship - the goal being not only to support the showing of animals which are going to be bred (regular conformation) but also to show consistancy in breeding by allowing people who don’t WANT the hassle of heats and such to show the breeder’s dogs! Woot woot! Wonderful idea! Especially when you have lots of show quality dogs but don’t want to keep them ALL intact or can’t find show homes for them!

This means, for me, that my obligation to put a CH on the pup is now 100% easier. I can have her spayed and still get her CH! This means I won’t have to pull her out of obedience competitions, of agility or tracking OR herding trials because she’s in heat… WOOT!

Happy day! I’m 100% in favor of such programs - sure, the purpose of conformation shows usually is to pit breeding stock against each other and such, but there IS something to be said about being able to show a dog which will NOT be bred but who is still of show quality to help a breeder establish a “reputation” or prove to himself or herself the consistancy in his or her lines… especially for breeders like Zap’s, who have a litter every 3 or 4 years, and who don’t breed unless THEY want something for their breeding program. They produce less dogs, therefore less remain intact, therefore less in their kennel have CHs…

Of course, I still fret about the spay. That’s because I’m a paranoid dog-owner who is overly attached to a furball who will be JUST FINE.

Fret :frowning:

2

Preach! I am so with you.

3

This is Zap, right? Think the procedure will soften her attitude towards her crate?

4

We can only hope for the sake of everyone who comes to visit, and her big brothers, that this calms her the hell down.

She’s a pretty idiot, though. :slight_smile:

5

I doubt it will knock out her… crazy personality, though I’ve found she has actually mellowed somewhat in the last 6 months. Her dam, who was spayed at the same age after her one and only litter, was still pretty high energy.

The ONE thing it WILL fix, though, will be the hormonal ups and downs and the Puppy PMS that comes before a heat. That’ll be really nice not to have to think about anymore.

I expect it will also help increase her focus.

She will, however, still remain an aussie and by definition an whirlwind of a puppy. :slight_smile:

6

World peace and a pony, Gingy. World peace and a pony.

:wink:

She’s actually far more mellow than the last time you saw her, but she’s still an Aussie. It’s part of the breed programming, I swear. It does, however, make her one HELL of a working dog since she’s able to remain focused and alert for such long periods of time… :slight_smile:

7

It’ll be a piece of cake Elly. With a good sized, healthy dog (like, say, an Aussie Shep’) it should take all of five minutes. Then she’ll just be the Best Dog Ever! (Second best, and a bitch anyway.)

And you should give her ice cream for her sore throat. I think that’s what vets recommend now, ice cream after the spay for the sore throat. (For those of you who don’t know, for a spay they have to intubate the dog (tube down the windpipe) and this gives them a sore throat. Unless you have a REALLY bad vet. Then they do the whole spay through the mouth.)

Letting the “fixed” dogs show for conformation is pretty danged cool. Right up there with letting the mixed breeds compete for points in Agility.

8

When I got Tigger spayed, I dropped her off in the morning and picked her up that evening. I took her to my inlaws house, (it was on the way home) and she barrells into the front door, jumps on everyone, runs to the back door, and LAUNCHES herself off the 3 feet high deck! I’m surprised she didn’t pop her stiches! It didn’t slow her down at all!

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See, I’m hoping she will actually be quiet for a day.

:smiley:

10

Hi Elly!

Best of luck to Zap and hugs to you! I know how stressful it is–you convinced me to get Daisy spayed and both of us are much happier now. What sucked was the vet asked me if I’d be willing to breed her one time with his yellow lab before I got her spayed. That was so tempting, but I thought about not being able to guarantee every one of her pups getting a perfect home, so no go. How cool now that they’re allowing altered dogs to show in their own class.

Also, congrats on your recent marriage!

11

Go YOU, BBG! And Daisy, too!

Sometimes, I just wanna strangle some vets :wink:

I’m looking forward to not having to worry about heats and Zap losing her brain. She totally goes brain dead around her heat. It was awful! 3 weeks of “duuuh?” from a service pup is just NOT A GOOD THING!

But it’s great that I can continue to show her with ASCA and get her Championship anyway (just with ASCA, of course) and concentrate on what we really love: performance sports and service work!

YAY!

:slight_smile: