Tag archives: canine inherited diseases

Despite their characterization in popular culture as a gorgeous, yet delicate dog breed with more beauty than brawn, the ancestors of today’s poodles (especially standard poodles) were revered for their ability to work. Still well known for their exceptional intelligence, the standard poodle (the oldest poodle variety), was commonly used as a gun dog and water retriever to assist European hunters. Portrayed in drawings and paintings from as early as the 15^th century, the standard poodle was eventually bred to smaller breeds in order to create poodles of smaller size. The resulting smaller dogs, which reportedly disliked water, were used for truffle hunting and formed the ancestry of today’s toy and miniature poodle breeds. Though no longer commonly thought of as gun dogs, interest in using standard poodles as hunting dogs has reemerged with some standard poodles experiencing success in AKC and CKC hunting trials since the mid to late 1990’s. Toy and miniature poodles are most commonly recognized today as family-friendly companion dogs. During their path of development, like other purebred dogs, all three commonly recognized varieties of poodles have developed some inherited diseases that can make life challenging. One particular disease of poodles known as progressive retinal ...

The art of medicine today is nearly unrecognizable from its state in 1776 when the original thirteen colonies of the United States declared their independence from Great Britain. Without knowledge of bacteria or viruses, physicians and veterinarians of the day had few worries about sterility or the fact that they could play a role in the spread of deadly diseases between their patients. Bolstered by anecdotal evidence, dangerous treatments to purge various ailments from the body such as bloodletting and enemas (then called clysters) were commonly practiced in both people and animals in opposition to our modern understanding of their risks and lack of efficacy.

The Birth of Modern Genetics

The 19^th century saw great advances in science including progression of the scientific method by which scientists could more objectively test their observations and develop an explanation for them. These methods also allowed for the modification of previous theories as new information was uncovered through experimentation. It was also the 19th century in which the foundation for the modern era of genetics was laid by an Augustinian friar named Gregor Mendel. Far ahead of his time, Mendel’s study of trait inheritance in the common pea plant went relatively unnoticed ...

We train our dogs to do certain things, like sit, stay, lay down, retrieve or even run through an agility course. Training a dog takes patience and persistence. It means providing consistent clues that your dog will eventually come to understand if done in the same manner. But I’ve recently come to wonder, have I trained my dog, or has she trained me?

Every time we sit down to eat dinner, our dog Daisy runs to the front door, whips around and stares at us. Invariably, one of us says, “Daisy needs to go out” and my daughter groans, gets up and lets her out.   Most of the time, Daisy does her business, but sometimes, she runs out to the middle of the yard, expecting my daughter to follow her and hopefully play.  This has led us to believe that Daisy’s behavior of running to the door and then staring us down, has trained us to respond in a particular way, and has us wondering if she brags to the other dogs that she has trained her human to stand up and open the door on command.

Likewise, Trixie the Wiener Dog has my husband trained to take ...