promoting longevity by restricting motion - Page 1

Lets face it the gsd is not a robust breed. would you reduce wear and tear by limiting your dog's physical activities?

Not talking pups here but hyper kamakazee dogs that are compulsive movers.

one theory is start them on an aspirin a day when they start to break down and let them burn away and die of liver/kidney failure, with no joint pain in the process. otoh people take the dog out of the dog and make it live in a straight jacket. by that i mean the whole crate thing, walk around the block twice a day and few times a week at training, hike vigorous game of fetch etc. can't decide which option is the most cruel. atm my gsd runs with the others and overall it is very physical.

I read a study somewhere that dogs allowed free movement had less wear and tear on the joints. The problem lies in not warming your dogs up properly, straight from car to field back to car. Nope, would never bubble wrap a dog just to get another year or 2. I'd rather have a happy dog.

Melissa

Dogs are meant to move like the rest of us.  About the only thing I wouldn't do is long forced runs on a dog with and existing symptomatic problem.  Otherwise my dogs are free to get up and move and basically do what they want.

To say the German Shepherd is not a robust breed is, to say the least, not knowing true German Shepherds!

I have found in my 20 years with the breed, dogs that are, healthy, hearty and certainly 'robust'.

   To limit their mivement is ridicules. We ain't raising veal!

First of all I disagree with your statement that the GSD is not a robust breed.  It is and as a herding breed should be. The vast majority of my dogs have lived to be a healthy 13 or 14 w/o any major interventions or "preventative"(god what a horrible concept) lifestyle interventions. My youngest dog who is 6.5 literally had no vet record until recently when an accidental injury brought her in. She has been an extremely healthy hardy thrifty dog. The last dog of my own breeding lived and herded until age 14. Oh and btw his hips were in different zip codes. But you know dogs don't read x-rays. When I first found out of course the impulse was to cut down the activity but that impulse is dead wrong. The best thing you can do in that situation is to maintain the muscle mass plus for a dog like Mike herding was his life blood and to take that away would have killed him faster than anything. Many if not most of the dogs that I have known that were diagnosed w/ orthopedic problems based on a screening x-ray only (as opposed to presenting w/ a problem) never had a problem and needed no meds no surgery etc. As I said dogs don't read x-rays.

The most beautiful sight in the world is several GSDs running free in a large green field. It is also good for them stimulating the immune system, stretching and using each and every muscle group. If you want to give your dogs a few extra years find a way to give them some free run time rather than cooping them up. That's part of the reason we do end up w/ problems because we are feeding them totally unnatural diets (they also don't grow and harvest corn either and it should not be a major food group), keeping them in post stamp size yards where they cannot exercise, stifling their natural drive and desire to work - address these issues and I think you will find you have a more robust dog!

One of my horse friends only has access to paddocks right now for her horses - no large pasture area, so what she does once a day for each of them is brings them into the largest paddock w/ only a halter on and stands in the middle and uses a gallon milk jug w/ stones as a shaker can to get them to exercise at a gallop because of her knowledge of how important natural unconstrained movement is to the immune system. If you do not have access to safe locations to let your dog run free find a sport which will provide a similar ramp up to the immune system for example herding or schutzhund   Running 6 blinds and a very long bark and hold certainly aerates the lungs and again you are also feeding the drives we have honed in these dogs. So true kindness is finding a way for them to move and use their brain and their drives - that will promote longevity!

vk, how 'robust' do dogs have to be ?

I ask because I own one dog who has so far reached the age 

of  11, having survived both an attack of Bloat [GD&V], and

being hit square-on by a car travelling at nearly 30 mph.

 

Seems pretty robust to me.

Robust? Most of my dogs were, but the breed as a whole....
In our breed are several problems within the skeletal system ( HD, ED, Spondilosis, and some more ) - to negate these problems doesn´t help.

I´m with TIG about this matter - dogs don´t know about x-rays - the better the muscles are developed the better the dog will live.
Depending on the medical outcome maybe no jumps or hard stop and go`s, but as much exercise as possible.

I prefer a happy dog, not an old, but sad dog.

Susie, of course we should pay attention to breed-wide skeletal

and other problems;  but the presence of these does not automatically

make the whole breed less 'robust'.  For one thing, many deficits get

undue attention simply because veterinarians habitually see, & record,

a disproportionate amount of sick dogs - how many vets make a point

of recording their shiningly healthy 'patients' ?   The common reaction

by the medical profession is that "GSDs get every disease under the sun"

which they parrot from animal college onwards,...  and then look for anything

in the individual dog to prove it !

Also, if one familiarises oneself with the intricacies of many other breeds,

we find exactly the same being said about those.  When 'lists' are published

of all the possible conditions to which any breeds are prone,  GSDs are not

the only breed with a very long list !   And as these lists often share the same

fault, that of mentioning every problem that has ever existed in that breed with

no distinction between percentage of actual cases, they usually need to be

taken with a large pinch of salt.

BTW, in re your last sentence, I am pleased to report that Taz, despite his years

and the things that he has had happen to him along the way, is a very 'happy' and

lively dog.

Hund, I don't think susie was making reference to your dog, I think she meant in general, people think that because the breed is prone to this, that and the other thing, they should be restricted for the, what if's.
I think there are far to many vets that take advantage of far to many people, and the dogs are who pay the biggest price at the end of the day.

Hund, this was not about any dog in special, but about our breed of choice.

I don´t care about other breeds, and if they have problems, too, but I know about the high percentage of skeletal problems in OUR breed, I know about the high percentage of skin problems, and I know about the high percentage of bloat.

The only way to minimize these problems is to acknowledge them, to be honest about your dogs health, and to breed carefully.