Why aren't these dogs living longer - Page 2

Well, like I said: In humans, the single biggest factor in longevity is heredity. If your parents lived to a ripe old age, you most likely will, too. If we want our dogs to live longer lives, we need to SELECT FOR IT! When my husband was alive, we owned a sixplex apartment building. We had a new tenant come in, who was 96 years old, but still very fit and active. He supervised the garbage for us, making sure it made it to the curb on garbage day, raked the leaves, mowed the grass, and was a tremendous help to us. One day, my husband asked him if his father had also lived a long life. "No, he died of a heart attack when he was sixty." "What about your uncles?" Roger asked. "They all lived to be in their 90's" "On your father's or mother's side?" "Both sides!" Mr. Harris replied. He was approaching his hundreth birthday when his daugther decided he should come and live with her in Montreal. Before he left, he told us he already had a project picked out. There was a hillside at the end of the strieet, by the police academy, that was a jungle of weeds and litter. The powers that be at the Police Acadamey had already given him permission to look after the hillside for them, and keep the weeds and litter under control. A similar thing with dogs: I have heard of too many dogs dying when they lost the person who meant the most to them for it to be co-incidence. A friend of mine went off to the Gulf War. Within a month or two of him leaving, his elderly dog was gone. Someone else on this board reported their GSD, who was the guard dog for their husband's business, died within about a week of her husband. My GSD, Tasha, who was extremely bonded to my husband, although I had owned her before our marriage, began to decline quite rapidly within a few months of his death, and crossed the Rainbow Bridge in her sleep 9 months later.

I found some pictures, to give you an idea how fast this dog faded: August of 2004, 13 yrs., 3 months: Come on, PLAY with me! The young lady is the Fillipino caregiver I had to hire after my husband had a stroke in January of 2004, then was diagnosed with cancer shortly afterwards. I tried to look after him on my own for awhile, but came home from an evening church service to find him lying in a snowdrift at the side of the house.... January 2005, less than 2 months after Roger's death. She was having bouts of diarrhea, and shedding like crazy. Some would say she had 'old dog coat'. All that hair is off just one side of her body! She wasn't crazy about being groomed, so I left the other side for another day. Why would a dog shed so much in the middle of winter, in the frozen north? Gee, I wonder... She died exactly 2 weeks after I brought another GSD home in August of 2005. As someone said, "She hung in there until the change of shift arrived!

I truely believe genetics and heredity play a major role in longevity. Dogs and humans both. Another thing I strongly believe is environmental cancers are on the rise in animals as well as humans. I've been lucky with my dogs and have never lost one younger than 10. I only wish I was as healthy, I doubt I make it to 65. Quality of life and low stress goes a long way in all animals. Sunsilver, I'm sorry about all your loss's. May we all live a little better, man and beast.

I suspect it is mostly genetics. Vaccines may be a factor but probably are over-ridden by certain genetics for robustness. Someone who may be able to provide interesting answers to this question of GSD longevity is Gayle Kirkland of Kirchenwald kennel. She owns the very correct and true to the standard, VA Gorbi Kirchenwald who had a spectacular outing at the 2007 NASS at St. Louis. If I remember correctly, her bitch line has a history of longevity and she has a 13 year main bitch which still does great bitework and is as sound as they come. It would be interesting to find out what the genetics are of her bitch line, are they closely linebvred or a lot of outcrossing. I have always believed that too much close linebreeding tends to decrease overall resistance to disease and decreases overall health and longevity. This is just based on what farmers have told me about their breeding knowledge and what is true for laboratory mice breeding lines.

Preston, I agree with you with regards to vaccines but have decided to do titer testing just to be on the safe side.

Do some research on diet, I've been reading a number of books on raw diets versus processed diets and it's really fascinating stuff regarding cancer, pancreatic disorders, allergies, you name it. I don't know if it's all scientific fact but its makes for very thought provoking reading.

I'm not sure raw feeding has been around long enough to draw too many conclusions. It takes several generations of dogs from the same litters, some eating raw, some eating commercial food to really get a handle on its effect on longevity (or not).

I'm not going to be convinced that raw food has anything to do with longevity, when I have elderly purebred dogs coming in and out of here on a regular basis - many well into their teens, more than a few over 14 - one 17 year old Dachshund, another 16 year old Husky, whom are on Kibbles and Bits and canned food their entire life. My own GSD X Lab mix lived until he was 16 and was always perfectly healthy, always ate grocery-store kibble food (and whatever garbage and week-old carcass he could find in the woods). molly

That's pretty much exactly what I just said in the 'Raw Diet' thread, Molly! And Blitzen, I agree 100% about the need for research into diets. Unfortunately, it's usually the petfood co's that do this sort of research, which is like the tobacco companies doing research on lung cancer!

I have a friend who is a veterinary oncologist. She is the one who treated my last two GSDs when they developed cancer. She now recommends RAW to her clients and has switched all her own animals over.