Veterinary Related Peeves

I thought I'd start this one with a little humor (well, at least I think it's funny...).

These are the Top 10 Peeves Dogs have with Humans as read on Petplace.com

1. Blaming your farts on me..... not funny... not funny at all !!!

2. Yelling at me for barking. I'M A FRIGGIN' DOG

3. Taking me for a walk, then not letting me check stuff out. Exactly whose walk is this anyway?

4. Any trick that involves balancing food on my nose. Stop it!

5. Any haircut that involves bows or ribbons. Now you know why we chew your stuff up when you're not home.

6. The sleight of hand, fake fetch throw. You fooled a dog! Whoooo oooooooo what a proud moment for the top of the food chain.

7. Taking me to the vet for "the big snip", then acting surprised when I freak out every time we go back!

8. Getting upset when I sniff the crotches of your guests. Sorry, but I haven't quite mastered that handshake thing yet.

9. Dog sweaters. Hello ??? Haven't you noticed the fur?

10. How you act disgusted when I lick myself. Look, we both know the truth. You're just jealous.

OK, now this veterinarian's top peeve of those same owners that care for their "animal companions" (in quotations because I am still not sure how I feel about the term pet being derogatory and offensive towards animals. I mean really? You can call a dog Dumb Ass in a high pitched happy voice and it will come running to you with it's tail wagging. I'm just sayin'.): hobby breeders.

You are not going to make any money breeding purebred dogs. The costs associated with appropriate care of mama and puppies is (should be) too high to break even or make a profit on the sale of the puppies. Did you know that American Bulldogs are prone to hip dysplasia? A responsible person that wants to breed American Bulldogs should know this. They should also know that it would be the responsible thing to have mama and papa OFA certified indicating good or excellent hips before breeding that pair to try and decrease the number of dogs affected by hip dysplasia and the pain associated with that particular orthopedic disease, especially since this dog was originally purchased from a pet store with no information regarding the hip health of her parents. They should then also know that the OFA will not certify a dog's hips until it is two years old. It is ideal for that same person who waited until the appropriate time frame to have radiographs taken to also completely understand the labor and delivery process of their dog so that this veterinarian does not have to perform a caesarean section on your dog to remove a dead fetus because she went into stage 1 labor three days prior to calling the me "because I've been through this before with my dad's dogs and I am completely comfortable with everything" and "because I really wanted to avoid going to the emergency clinic." I guess on the plus side, they didn't wait until mama was two years old, so they saved $205 on sedated radiographs + $30 for OFA hip certification which was then put towards the $700 bill for caesarean section (well, sort of. This same person didn't have the money to cover the cost of potential complications associated with labor and delivery, so she had to borrow from a friend.) Unfortunately, they declined ovariohysterectomy (spaying) at the time of her caesarean...

There are already hundreds of dogs and cats that need homes in humane societies and rescues all over the country. Lets focus on saving those animals and find a new hobby other than breeding.

I will now step off my soap box.