Nature or Nurture

[Pearlsasinger]

I'm so sorry to hear this. So sad. Would love to see pics of the new pups and their rottie sister.

I'm sorry to have hi-jacked your thread, OP.

I am sure that there will be puppy pics before, too long. Atm we are introducing them to the Rotter carefully she is a fabulous girl but has never had much to do with any puppies, so is rather wary of them. They have lived with other adult dogs, as well as mum, in a very lively family home, so are wary of nothing. They have been here just over 24 hours and things are progressing nicely but she is big and heavy and could accidentally do them a lot of damage, so we are taking things slowly.

 

[CorvusCorax]

So sorry to hear about your Rottie PAS. I hope you have lots of fun with the labs, and like others, can’t wait to see pics.

I have mentioned before, how the first time I let Luna off the lead at the horses. It was winter time, and they came to the gates waiting for their hay. She jumped up, and put her paws on the electric fence. She obviously got a shock, and as he was the closest, I do believe she thought Mac did it. She has given the horses a wide berth ever since. I lost Mac last November, and although she is braver with the other two, she still scoots away if they get too close.

Pavlovian...the dog made a connection between two prevuously unrelated stimuli.

 

[CorvusCorax]

Brandy, our old bitch, went grey very young. She is a black lab but now, at 11, is grey all over bar the middle of her back. Her mum did the same. Her mum was a FTW, so trained in a traditional manner (that sounds awful, but I mean not fluffy), Brandy has always been a worried type so was never trained negatively as it would not have worked for her. So in this instance I don't agree with your theory, I think grey in dogs as in people is genetic.
Albeit that she does worry anyway, no matter how she is trained, so she may be bringing it on herself!

Will have to agree to disagree on that one. Stress can absolutely bring on grey hair. My dad went grey overnight after giving me one driving lesson 😂😂😂

 

[Stiff Knees]

I'm sorry to have hi-jacked your thread, OP.

I am sure that there will be puppy pics before, too long. Atm we are introducing them to the Rotter carefully she is a fabulous girl but has never had much to do with any puppies, so is rather wary of them. They have lived with other adult dogs, as well as mum, in a very lively family home, so are wary of nothing. They have been here just over 24 hours and things are progressing nicely but she is big and heavy and could accidentally do them a lot of damage, so we are taking things slowly.

No need to apologise - there's room for puppy news in any thread! Especially when they are Labradors. 😍

 

[Cinnamontoast]

6 years ago we got 2 Rottweiler litter sisters, we have just had to have one pts because of cancer of the spleen which was found to have spread, when the vets operated to remove the spleen. The other, although she has had a few minor ailments, appears to be hale and hearty. They have always had very different characters.

To cheer the remaining rotter (and ourselves) up we have collected litter sister Labs, one black, one yellow, this weekend. Even at 8 weeks they have very different characters.

I'm so sorry for your loss, PAS. 6 is far too young 😪

Not isolated to your own experience but it only has to be one day when the dog is in pain and he is bothered by another dog...dogs typically link things in about five seconds. The link can last a lifetime.

Indeed, it only takes one incident and we are pretty sure it was the dog attack incident which changed him. He has come across another bearded collie since and he was determined to start a fight, from a distance, whereas with other breeds, he'll ignore unless they get in his face.

 

[Aru]

Genetics has a massive amount to do with longlivity.
Certain breeds are literally coming to a point of extinction due to lack of gene diversity(dobermans being the prime example) and we have essentially bred and proliferated certain cancers within some breeds to the point that they become an automatic differential diagnosis for a vet when the see middle aged dogs of that breed. It's depressing.

Exercise,a complete/balanced and well varied diet, a suitable conformation and normal body condition score etc all do help...weight being one that does seem to really help live longer with larger breed dogs..
but in some cases we have essentially set up the dog breeds to be unlikely to make old bones...no amount of nuture will save certain breeds from the risk within the genes..the Doberman from heart disease, a rottweiler from being getting osteosarcomaor hamangiosarcoma or a Bernese mountain dog from their specific type of cancer unfortunately.... Perhaps as we isolate genes down more and more in humans it may help dogs...but given how few breeders even test for the already testable gene conditions it's hard to know.

 

[Aru]

Personally also I think if the dogs on complete/appropriately balanced diet....then supplements, unless they are for a specific condition or the dogs deficient in some way that needs correcting, I find hard to see them as anything other then a bit of a marketing scam.... But there's an entire industry out there around them so perhaps I'm just a bit cynical.

 

[Stiff Knees]

Personally also I think if the dogs on complete/appropriately balanced diet....then supplements, unless they are for a specific condition or the dogs deficient in some way that needs correcting, I find hard to see them as anything other then a bit of a marketing scam.... But there's an entire industry out there around them so perhaps I'm just a bit cynical.

Yup, and Ive been well and truly sucked in! 🙄

 

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Personally also I think if the dogs on complete/appropriately balanced diet....then supplements, unless they are for a specific condition or the dogs deficient in some way that needs correcting, I find hard to see them as anything other then a bit of a marketing scam.... But there's an entire industry out there around them so perhaps I'm just a bit cynical.

Just realistic IMO 😊😊