Rolling in something smelly

No, I'm not referring to the recent MCA election results.

My white, gentle female lab-mix who is usually very obedient, clean and docile came home yesterday after a jaunt out smelling like s*&@! I thought I had stepped on some poop or perhaps some animal had died on my car porch. But I could not find the source of the offending smell until my maid yelled that Bonnie (the dog) was a walking smelly-bin!

Yucks! She smelled like poop and a dead animal combined. Really, really disgusting. It reminded me of a dog I had when I was a child. I caught it nosing and pawing at something excitedly. Upon checking, I found that it was a dead rodent of some sort. Before I could do anything, my dog madly and joyfully leapt onto the carcass and rolled vigorously onto it. Then my dog regained her senses and started bounding towards me for a pat. I, of course, ran away from my dog, screaming!

So back to my Bonnie in the present time. The only explanation for her bad smell is that she must have found a carcass outside the house and rolled in it. This is such a weird behaviour of dogs. The general thinking out there is that dogs roll around in a carcass to mask its own scent in order to hunt effectively - in other words, it's instinctive so there's no point punishing your dog for it. The joy of having pets .......

Dangerous dogs

I don't know if there are any American pit bull terriers in Malaysia, but if there are, I sure hope the owners know what kind of dog it is. The following is an excerpt of a report by The Age newspaper (Australia), and I have highlighted certain pertinent sentences.

Death-jab dog 'on killing rampage'
Paul Millar, Mex Cooper

A Melbourne man has told how he feared for his life as he wrestled with an American pit bull terrier that had torn his dog apart.

Eric, from Reservoir, said that the dog locked onto his wrist and arm after he went to try and free his tiny dog from the jaws of the terrier.

The American pit bull - which had to be lethally injected after refusing to let go of Eric's hand - is believed to have been on a killing rampage, mauling four pets and biting a 10-year-old girl in Reservoir, in Melbourne’s north.

The dog latched on to Eric’s hand for more than 20 minutes. Paramedics were forced to inject the animal with an overdose of drugs after it savaged Eric's two small pet dogs, killing one, as he walked them along Arundel Avenue in Reservoir about 7.20pm. Eric said the police told him to hang onto the pit bull as they feared it could have gone for his throat.

Eric said that the dog obviously had a taste for blood as less than an hour earlier it had killed a cat and bit a young girl. ‘‘It had torn my little dog to shreds. I did not want to let go, I did not want to let go of him,’’ he said. He said his ordeal lasted for about 15 minutes.

He said there had to be tighter restrictions on those types of dogs and asked why anybody would want to own one.

Earlier, Reservoir resident Janette said she believed the same pit bull had killed her cat and attacked her pet dog, which was being walked by her 10-year-old daughter.
Janette said the dog had bitten her daughter on the finger and left her dog, which remains at a veterinary practice, badly wounded. ‘‘It could have been worse ... it was out to kill... I tried to attack it in the driveway and I had no hope, it was horrendous’’ she said.

A Victoria Ambulance spokesman said the killing had been an "absolute last resort" at the request of police who could not shoot the dog because it was too close to the man.
Intensive care paramedic Robert Voss, who was forced to use medical supplies to put down the American pit bull, arrived at Arundel Avenue as two policemen were trying to restrain the dog and free the injured man’s hand.

"As a last resort, we euthanased the dog for them. We used some sedation and then some paralysing agents." Even then, everyone was still "scared and frightened", he said.

Police last night spoke to the pit bull’s distressed owner, a 25-year-old Reservoir man, and investigations are continuing.

Pure-bred American pit bull terriers are a restricted breed in Victoria and must be desexed in a bid to eventually wipe out the breed.

The attack has renewed calls from the RSPCA for the breed to be banned in Australia. The Victorian RSPCA’s president, Dr Hugh Wirth, says the dogs are a menace and are not suitable as pets for anyone.

"They are time bombs waiting for the right circumstances,’’ Dr Wirth said.
‘‘The American pit bull terrier is lethal because it was a breed that was developed purely for dog fighting, in other words killing the opposition.

"They should never have been allowed into the country. They are an absolute menace.

Dr Wirth said local councils were not doing enough to enforce strict laws on pit bull terriers. Restrictions for owners include confining the dogs to their property, ensuring the property is escape-proof, while a signpost warning of the dog’s existence must be displayed outside the property.

‘‘Local government has got to spend some money going around identifying these dogs and forcing the issue," he said.

The latest attack comes after a toddler was scarred for life when she was attacked by a pit bull in Melbourne’s west earlier this year.

Dogs and chicken bones

It's such a big debate over the issue of feeding chicken bones to dogs.

Let me state my stand - I don't believe it's a problem, and I have fed cooked chicken bones (and other cooked bones) to my dogs for years, and none of them have ever had any problems, none of them died, none of them choked on the bones.

My inlaws are scared to death of feeding chicken bones to their dogs and always give me the "it's dangerous" spin when they learn that I do. Perhaps tiny toy dogs and those oh so cute but impractical poodles/ chihuahuas (no offence to poodle/ chihuahua owners, whatsoever) should not be given bones, but large breed dogs surely can handle them. And lest we forget, wild dogs have been eating fowl and all manner of prey (including their bones) for hundreds of years.

When I was a child in a rural town in Perak, it was not only unfashionable to feed dogs manufactured dog kibbles, it was practically impossible to get them! So, what did we do? We cooked our doggie meals. We boiled rice together with bones, cheaper cuts of meats and liver. All my dogs were fine - all 9 of them.

Actually, I wonder if those people against feeding bones to dogs have ever watched a dog eating bones. A dog would grab the bone in its jaws, give it several mighty crunches and swallow. Immense enjoyment. You should see it.

I did some net searches, and of course there are people arguing on both sides of the spectrum. Examples:

from http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/archive/index.php/t-134865.html - I gave some to my dogs, under supervision, the other night, testing this theory that bones are bad, and they both crunched them twice and they were gone. Lips-a-licking they'd have happily demolished a few more! (I'd say, well done for at least testing out the theory and see, your dogs didn't die!)

from http://dogs.thefuntimesguide.com/2006/05/dog_ate_chicken_bones.php -Fortunately, the bones that Jersey ingested on this day passed just fine -- but it took a couple of days. I was completely on edge for that part of the vacation. Thankfully, he didn't seem to suffer at all from this little (I'd say that's one panicky owner)

from http://dogs.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Dog_And_Chicken_Bones - Common wisdom has long told us that a dog and chicken bones go together about as well as elephants and bicycles. We've been taught that feeding our dogs chicken bones is dangerous for them, likely to cause intestinal injury.
Where does a lot of this information come from? Mainly from manufacturers of commercial dog foods who would rather you purchase their products so they can make a tidy profit. Pet owners who naturally want to protect their canine companions tend to believe this information and pass it along to other dog owners, thus perpetuating the notion that chicken bones are harmful to dogs under any circumstance. However, a dog and chicken bones can be compatible under the right conditions (I'd say this is the most balanced, calm and sensible opinion I've read)

Nowadays, I feed my dogs manufactured dog kibbles 5 days out of a week for the convenience, and the other 2 days I cook them some "real" food. Imagine the poor doggies eating the same boring, dry biscuits that have no texture or variation in taste or feel whatsoever day in day out for their whole lives. Not my dogs.