Would You Put Your Dog Through Surgery

[liza]

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I wouldn't put my dogs through surgery for cosmetic reasons - hell, I wouldn't put me through surgery for cosmetic reasons!!! Not even to correct my fat bum!

I heard, not just gossips, in my other breed, siberian huskies about cosmetic surgeries - correcting curling tail, making fake testicles... in whippets, I know some dogs who had their ears tied down for a good earset - although it is not a surgery, my problem is the same with them:

the dog will maybe look well, can win on shows (although is it not fair), but they will never ever inherit these qualities to their puppies!! They will have the same standing ears, curled tail or cryptorchism no matter if they fixed it at their parents. So what's the point? Does anyone need a dog who can produce only puppies with faults?

Or its just me who feels this way; for me the quality of a dog can be measured in his results in breeding, not shows.

no you wouldnt do any cosmetic sugery to your dogs just to win a prize

i have heard of vets offering to do false testicles what can that achive as he can never be bred from so why put the dogs through it

the dogs heath should always come before a prize

 

[beaker]

hmmm can i get botox on Owens flying ears? ....kidding

Otis had his dewclaws removed as they were forever ripping and bleeding, though it did cross my mind after i had them done that he did look better without them, it didn't have any factor in the decision to do go ahead and get them removed,

at times when any of mine have required suturing, like wound repair and in Rosa's case the removal of a dodgy looking mole, i have asked for as neat a job as possible to prevent usightly scarring, i suppose that this could be seen as a cosmetic interest, is that very wrong?

i did draw the line though when Rosa snapped her 2 front teeth in half and the vet actually offered to cap them so they would appear as normal as before, i'm afraid i declined his kind and rather expensive offer and had them pulled instead :lol:

 

[chelynnah]

I honestly can't see how any surgery would correct a gay tail, though I know of some people who have trained it to stay down (in many breeds). I'm not so sure you can surgically do anything for ears either, though they can be taped or glued - but that's not surgery.

So really, the only thing would be the 'neuticals' (yup that's what they're called - look them up LOL). I wouldn't have a false one implanted - if it's not there it's not there.

As already said spay/neuter is now allowed as long as you inform the KC - you don't need permission you just need to inform. (and I agree Allison that the dogs do suffer a disadvantage - though I don't think they should in the Veteran class).

So I honestly can't think of anything else that could be done surgically to improve chances in the ring.

Teya had a dew claw partially regrow - I was prepared to leave it, and just keep it trimmed, however the angle the nail was growing was making it impossible to trim or file, and it was actually heading back into the foot, so unfortunately we had to elect to do surgery to remove it. This was for health reasons (so the nail wouldn't grow back into the foot) and not cosmetic, and certainly not for the ring. If it hadn't caused a problem we wouldn't have had it done. Or if she had to go under at some other point for something we 'may' have elected to get it done at the same time.

Wendy

 

[masta]

i have heard that there are some judges that are partial to a bit of "Gay tail" :-

 

[bertha]

i have heard that there are some judges that are partial to a bit of "Gay tail" :-

Naughty naughty

 

[Happy Humber]

I know of terriers that have had there ears fixed but the vet does not do. It seems to be a very minor procedure.

 

[kirislin]

In the good old US of A your dog can have artificial testicles to make it "feel" normal. But then the yanks will do anything wierd, I think the worst is having cats claws removed so they don't scratch the furniture!

I was told a funny story about a certain kennel who had a dog with an undescended testicle. They got a falsie put in and showed the dog. After a while the real one decided to come down and the surprised judge found three!

 

[GotWhippet?]

I was told a funny story about a certain kennel who had a dog with an undescended testicle. They got a falsie put in and showed the dog. After a while the real one decided to come down and the surprised judge found three!

That "story" crops up every few years with different dogs, different kennels and different breeds.

But no I wouldn't put a dog through surgery to increase the chances of winning in the show ring.

 

[shenace]

I was told a funny story about a certain kennel who had a dog with an undescended testicle. They got a falsie put in and showed the dog. After a while the real one decided to come down and the surprised judge found three!

That "story" crops up every few years with different dogs, different kennels and different breeds.

But no I wouldn't put a dog through surgery to increase the chances of winning in the show ring.

That is incredible... 3 testicles, how old are these poor puppies that they are getting fake ones put in??? And how old are the dogs when a real one 'pops down'??? Interested to know, coz from my experience, if one aint there at 12 weeks - it doesn't ever appear!

NO! Would never do surgery to win in the ring, you are only an obsessed fool unto yourself if you lower yourself to such strategies :angry:

I too have heard of some of the procedures that the 'old terrier folk' have/do carry out.... nothing short of cruel & sickening in my book

 

[Avalonia]

Every time someone in other breeds where cropped tails or ears are popular -- as they are over here and still allowed, a dog is submitted to surgery. Fortunately most countries in Europe have stopped allowing this, but I do know of people on the continent who have deliberately taken a bitch to a country where docking or cropping is allowed and had the litter whelped thee by a friend, or purchased a dog from a country where docking is allowed, because the docked animal can be imported under those circumstances. Over here it would still be bretty hard to see a boxer with a long tail or a great dane with regular ears and expect it to win big as there are still too many judges hooked on the dogs of the past and the docked /cropped look.

Worse, so far as I am concerned are the people over here who have a whippet with a gay tail who have the tendon severed so the tail will no longer go gay, or who have ears fixed by some judicious cutting so they don't go straight up but stay in a nice fold. I well remember going through the caravan parking area of a major American show and seeing a small lineup of people chatting amiably amongst themselves waiting for a well known professional handler with some reputed surgical skills who was 'fixing' little problems on a a number of dogs, including a whippet, along with mature dogs with cropped ears that weren't perfect etc.. What was more worriesome to me was that the dogs that had these surgeries were not put under, but were just injected with a local anaesthetic for pain at the time. I consider this sort of behaviour animal cruelty, but he sure had a happy enthusiastic customer clientele.

What the exhibitor/breeder does not seem to rationalize is the fact that when bred, that characteristic that required 'correction' could well be passed on by the dog in question to its get, so the rationale for having the show dog fixed is pretty short sighted as you cannot pretend the dog's tail is perfect and then expect that 'perfect' tail to necessarily replicate itself in the next generation. I hope people who do that get what they deserve -- and those dogs carry the trait forward.

Lanny Morry

 

[Seraphina]

I have heard the "3 testicle" story some 50 years ago :lol:

Probably no true, but there is no doubt that tails and ears can be fixed, and over the years I have talked to people who freely admitted they will have their dog's tail or ears "fixed". I believe that too droopy eye lids in some breeds are being done.

To answer the OP question; of-course, I would not put dog through unnecessary GA for cosmetic surgery, just to win. But then I breed with the view for future generations.

 

[seaspot_run]

Ok, I'm confused (not difficult lol) ... exactly what surgical alterations are the rumours about?? Only thing I can think of Anne that would make a difference is an umm 'making up the difference' on a monorchid dog.
Annie

In the good old US of A your dog can have artificial testicles to make it "feel" normal. But then the yanks will do anything wierd, I think the worst is having cats claws removed so they don't scratch the furniture!

That's strictly a pet owner thing...I assure you that fake testicles are disallowed in our rings. And very few pet people at that. It's the kind of thing that generates a lot of press but is hardly ever done.

Signed,

A Yank

 

[Hula]

Ok, I'm confused (not difficult lol) ... exactly what surgical alterations are the rumours about?? Only thing I can think of Anne that would make a difference is an umm 'making up the difference' on a monorchid dog.
Annie

In the good old US of A your dog can have artificial testicles to make it "feel" normal. But then the yanks will do anything wierd, I think the worst is having cats claws removed so they don't scratch the furniture!

When I was In Canada I visited a house where they had about 25 show dogs . Most of them had been debarked so their barking would not disturb the neighbours

 

[~Annie~]

Carving into ears, severing tail tendons ... I must be truly naive because it simply hadn't occurred to me that supposedly caring show dog owners would do such barbaric and short sighted things to their dogs. I suppose it might be argued that this is no different to altering tails and ears in breeds where it is or was considered desirable ... but I thought we'd moved on from the unnecessary mutilation of the show dog ... how sad that we maybe haven't.

Annie

 

[bertha]

Ok, I'm confused (not difficult lol) ... exactly what surgical alterations are the rumours about?? Only thing I can think of Anne that would make a difference is an umm 'making up the difference' on a monorchid dog.
Annie

In the good old US of A your dog can have artificial testicles to make it "feel" normal. But then the yanks will do anything wierd, I think the worst is having cats claws removed so they don't scratch the furniture!

That's strictly a pet owner thing...I assure you that fake testicles are disallowed in our rings. And very few pet people at that. It's the kind of thing that generates a lot of press but is hardly ever done.

Signed,

A Yank

I know it is a pet thing!!!!!!! People in the states do the strangest things with their pets, dogs and cats, more so than over here for some reason.

One of the worst is neutering at 4 months old. For convenience.

 

[stonegrace]

One of the worst is neutering at 4 months old. For convenience

Why is this one of the "worst" and strangest things to do to a dog? Many puppies are desexed before they leave the breeder, meaning they are desexed at 3 months of age. Not strange at all, widely accepted and im sure this is not one of the worst surgical interventions a dog must endure.

 

[Noise]

share the same opinions - would never do it, and what's the point fixing a dog if it never will be passed on to its offspring. and also - surely it must be done before the dog makes its debut in the ring - I can't imagine other exhibitors and judges not noticing that a dog with say gay tail or uppety ears all of a sudden at 3 years of age don't have that fault anymore?!

but this all makes me wonder who and what are these people who will do anything to win, scary to think they are among us, those victories must be so gratifying

 

[Noise]

One of the worst is neutering at 4 months old. For convenience

Why is this one of the "worst" and strangest things to do to a dog? Many puppies are desexed before they leave the breeder, meaning they are desexed at 3 months of age. Not strange at all, widely accepted and im sure this is not one of the worst surgical interventions a dog must endure.

who are these breeders?

of course there's nothing wrong with de sexing a dog/bitch that has reached maturity but not a pup that still has to develop - the hormones are not just there for their libido.

why would any breeder feel the need to neauter a pup before giving it away to their new owner? surely, if being worried that the new owners will use the dog as a breeding machine they should not sell the pup full stop and look further.

 

[bertha]

One of the worst is neutering at 4 months old. For convenience

Why is this one of the "worst" and strangest things to do to a dog? Many puppies are desexed before they leave the breeder, meaning they are desexed at 3 months of age. Not strange at all, widely accepted and im sure this is not one of the worst surgical interventions a dog must endure.

How can you say that? No dog should be neutered until it is fully mature, it's cruel. No vet I know would do that just for convenience. For a bitch it is major surgery.

 

[affieluver]

One of the worst is neutering at 4 months old. For convenience

Why is this one of the "worst" and strangest things to do to a dog? Many puppies are desexed before they leave the breeder, meaning they are desexed at 3 months of age. Not strange at all, widely accepted and im sure this is not one of the worst surgical interventions a dog must endure.

How can you say that? No dog should be neutered until it is fully mature, it's cruel. No vet I know would do that just for convenience. For a bitch it is major surgery.

i agree ann thats shocking