Some dogs lead the blind, others sniff out drugs or explosives. Wicket's specialty is poop: grizzly, black bear, cougar and wolf. A specially trained scat-detection dog, Wicket is conducting science in a whole new way. She and a growing team of dogs like her are making significant contributions to conservation efforts in the West and around the globe.
The picture is Wicket surrounded by bags of bear scat scientists will use to help track bear populations in Montana's Blackfoot Valley.
With the DNA extracted from the scat Wicket finds, scientists can identify species and sex, and potentially determine population size, home range, paternity and kinship. The analysis of endocrine extracted from scat can even determine the reproductive status of the animals
"Pet Airways is the first airline exclusively dedicated to pets - no humans please - and we take the job of providing a comfortable experience for pets very seriously."
A new technique for fighting the crippling effects of severe hip dysplasia is catching the attention of many large breed dog owners. It's stem cell based and is offered by a California company called Vet-Stem.
No big secret that I believe most breeders to be little more then greeders with very little regard for dogs themselves. Some are well meaning but never the less ignorant. A few do grasp the importance of genetics, socialization and other mandatory bits of knowledge required to breed a good dog. A good breeder would not involve themselves in producing the dog you see to the left. Cute yes, in fact I've never met a pug I didn't like but look past the cute to see how horribly mutilated the dog's skull is and how that might impair normal living.
One (of many) of the victims of irresponsible breeding are the Brachycephalic dogs. These are the breeds that have purposefully been deformed through selective breeding. The normal snout found on other breeds is gone or nearly gone resulting in dire health consequences. Susceptibility to over heating, breathing difficulty, dental problems to name a few.
When left to evolution animals bodies become tailored to suit survival in their environment. In this case breeders (greeders) have chosen through selective breeding to satisfy some inexplicable desire to produce dogs that can't breath, exercise or eat normally. If one were to take a healthy dog and purposefully impare its ability to do those things there would be charges of cruelty.
How bad is it? Pretty bad when they actually have to design a food around a canine deformity:
Newsletter
Some dogs lead the blind, others sniff out drugs or explosives. Wicket's specialty is poop: grizzly, black bear, cougar and wolf. A specially trained scat-detection dog, Wicket is conducting science in a whole new way. She and a growing team of dogs like her are making significant contributions to conservation efforts in the West and around the globe.
No big secret that I believe most breeders to be little more then greeders with very little regard for dogs themselves. Some are well meaning but never the less ignorant. A few do grasp the importance of genetics, socialization and other mandatory bits of knowledge required to breed a good dog. A good breeder would not involve themselves in producing the dog you see to the left. Cute yes, in fact I've never met a pug I didn't like but look past the cute to see how horribly mutilated the dog's skull is and how that might impair normal living. 