PETA's filed a complaint against Westminster KC

[courtnek]

here;s another thing I found...while this article mentions sweat, there are other people who believe its a pheomone, and not sweat..it's never been proven concretely hower...

I do believ it though...

How dogs sense fear
Question
February 20, 2003

I heard that dogs can hear the heartbeat of someone when they are in fear. Iis this true? If not, how is it that dogs can sense fear?

Hugo

Answer
Although a person's heartbeat is somewhat louder when in fear, it is also louder when exercising. I have never seen anything about dogs being able to hear the heartbeat. That is not to say they can't, but I would think other noises would drown out that sound.

When people are in a state of fear, they give off odors in their sweat. Dogs have extremely sensitive smelling ability and can probably pick up that odor.

Also, dogs can see the body language of a person in fear. Fooling a dog by moving like you are afraid can cause some dogs to attack you.

[Guest Anonymous]

Thank's Court... I will see if I can find anything else on it...

[drjeffrock]

Let's not get me started on PETA :roll:
The pheremone thing is absolutely true. What's even more remarkable is the distance that dogs can smell these odors from.
Example: Kira (akita) was at Christine's parents house one day. As Christine's mom is doing the dishes, out of nowhere Kira's hair goes up on her back, and she starts barking and snarling. (Kira never barks, ever.) She couldnt get to the front door cause a door was closed. Christine's mom was freaking out as she was just doing dishes and out of nowhere Kira starts to go crazy. Her mom thought that she had turned rabid, hehe. To make a long story short, Kira is going crazy trying to get to the front door. She ran out to the back of the house, and jumped over a 5 foot fence that lead to another fence to the front of the house. Christine's mom looked through the eye-hole and saw a gas/utility truck speeding off. She called the gas company, and it ended up that someone had stolen a company truck. The cops came, and they said it is quite normal for dogs to pick up on these things from a distance. Whats amazing is that the kitchen is a good 35 or so feet from the front door (sorry for you metric folks, lol ;)

[Guest Mutts4Me]

I agree with the whole cropping = fear thing. I've had people say they were scared of pit bulls because they "look mean." And I'll question them about their ears... Often (when the person actually knows what they're talking about), it turns out the ears are cropped. And I can show them a picture of pit bull with half-prick ears, and they say "aww..."

And personally, I really do not like APBTs and AmStaffs with cropped ears. I don't mean that I dislike the dogs, lol. But watching the dog shows recently, the AmStaff had cropped ears, and I didn't even get excited over it. It also depends on the cut, because I think RnP's pit Drey is beautiful, but his ears are actually cropped too short. To me, I just don't like the tall triangles, because they look like devil horns :-?

On the other hand, I love the look of a cropped Doberman, because that's what I think of when I think of dobes. I also love the natural look and wouldn't have a pup's ears done myself.

[drjeffrock]

:cry:
When we adopted Dex his ears were already cropped. He is very, very sensitive about his ears. He does not like people touching them. My vet thinks that by the amount of scar tissue, etc. it was a basement job. Recently, he has begun to let Kira clean his ears out.
I think well-cropped ears look impressive, but I would not bring my dogs in to get it done.

[Guest Anonymous]

*Deleted*

[Beach]

First time I saw a Boxer with floppy ears I thought - weird, funny. Now I am used to it and I like it. Europe does not even allow it anymore and people are fine with it now (not everybody but it is getting there). We think a dog needs to look a certain way because that is how we see it all the time. But I always say - if you don't like it don't get it. I still don't think that PETA should waste their money and time on this. They should concentrate on people that abuse and torture animals. And I sure don't think that ear cropping and tail docking falls into that category.

[imported_Kat]

No excuse for cropped ears.. Aesthetic reasons are not a reason to butcher a dog.

[zheelah]

[quote name='"SexxieRacerChik"']
Combined with appearnce looks having your dobes ear cropped also functions in a health manor. They have long floppy ears that cover the ear canal completely when left uncropped. It is true you have the option and most people do it out of a looks standard created for the breed. But not having it done also increases your dog's risk of developing ear infections..somewhat equivalent to that of cocker spaniels.[quote]

I do not agree in any way that an uncropped dobermann is more prone to bad ear infection, Rottweilers and Labrador have very simillar ears to an uncropped dobie. I have a natural ear dobie and he has never had any problems with ear infection, and almost all dobermanns here are uncropped and there is no higher incident of ear infection, not in the boxers either.

Iwould not want my dog to be cropped, since today there is no reason for it other than for apearance, he looks a lot less scary and a lot more friendly with his ears tha way they are.